The 4th of July definitely ranks pretty high on my list of favorite holidays. For me I feel like it marks the official start of summer. I know technically Memorial Day is but I am also a huge fan of fireworks, so maybe it is the presence of fireworks that seems to make it more of a kickoff to summer!
My holiday weekend didn't start off so great as I clumsily injured my pinky toe while working in my yard. Thankfully, it is starting to feel better. This injury reminded me of a few other 4th of July injuries that required trips to the ER, I am glad this did not warrant that. But in case you were wondering, your pinky toe may be small, but when injured it HURTS!
Today my plan was to stay off of my foot and do lots of craft show prep since I have two back to back shows coming up starting next weekend, as well as a 100 custom embroidered keychain order. Just as I was about to settle in and star the sewing madness, my 6 year old reminded me that I promised her a trip to the movies. After carefully weighing some other times this weekend to go I decided to just let the sewing wait another way and spend some time with my little one! We went to see Toy Story 3. It was so completely adorable and like everyone else I cried at the end. I saw it in 3D and found nothing 3D about it, so if you go save a few bucks and see it on the normal screen. At the end of the movie, Bella gave me a hug and said, thanks mom for taking me to see this today. Ok, well that made it all worth it!
We happened to catch a 7pm movie so we were home around 9pm. We kept hearing the sounds of fireworks, I was feverishly online trying to find out where they were coming from when I made a spontaneous decision to just get in the car and find them. Mind you while I am in my pajamas, we dash out of the house and just start driving. We stumbled upon a location where we could view the fireworks that were actually in the next town over. To my surprise there were other cars in this spot too, I wondered if they were on the same mission as us. Bella was loving it and I of course loved watching the fireworks. It was a clear night so the stars were out, I overheard her wishing on a star and my heart melted. The apple doesn't fall to far with this one!
My Little Fireworks Hunter (bad camera phone pic)
Since we were already out and about I decided we might as well finish off the night with some ice cream from our favorite local place. I didn't tell Bella where we were going I just started driving. She was very excited to discover we were getting ice cream. I broke my major rule of being out in public in my pajamas to get us our ice cream but some things are worth breaking rules for!
My Ice Cream of Choice: Chocolate and Vanilla Twist Custard with Chocolate Jimmies!
In the car on the way home Bella told me that this was "The Best Day Ever" and I would have to agree. I think sometimes I get so wrapped up in my to do list that I forget that sometimes I just have to put the list down and enjoy some simple and spontaneous times with my kid. The reward of doing that always seems to outweigh that of crossing things off the to do list. Take some time to enjoy the rest of this holiday weekend too! Have a safe and happy 4th of July everyone!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
A New Kind of Bridal Fabric Flower
One of things that I love about having this business is the chance to do custom orders. Some are definitely more challenging than others, but something positive always comes out of it. Be it a new accessory to add to the shop, a chance to learn a new technique, or an opportunity to think outside of the box even more.
Back in February I received an email about my white satin bride hair flowers. A customer wanted me to make something similar to accent her daughters wedding gown. It seems that they did not order the dress with the flowers on it but ordered some extra fabric in the hopes of finding someone who could make the flowers for them. Wow! They sent me a picture of the gown and I made two sample flowers in the hopes that one of them would work. This is a picture I took with my phone (which explains the poor quality), it shows the flowers on the dress I was trying to duplicate.
The other flower was adapted slightly from my other hair flowers, see the Purplelicious Bride Hair Flower Blog to check out the flowers. The one I created based on some of my original designs is the one they ended up going with.
I have to say it is a complete honor to be asked to make anything for a bride. To know that your creation is going to be a part of her day is an amazing feeling. I was a little bit nervous about actually making these flowers for a gown! For some reason that seemed like a bigger deal than make a hair flower. It was also really fun working with the fabric that was used to make the dress, I could just feel the quality of it. Below is a picture of the finished flowers. The bride's mom found rhinestone centers to use that matched the bride's earrings, so they got sent as is.
But I thought it might be fun to see what this flower would look like with one of my rhinestone buttons, don't be surprised if you see this show up in a certain Etsy shop sometime soon!
I have been having a lot of fun making fabric flowers and have a bunch of ideas for some new designs. But like usual, I've got plenty of ideas but not enough time to make them all happen. With a big craft show coming up I might find the time and will be sure to share whatever I come up with!
Back in February I received an email about my white satin bride hair flowers. A customer wanted me to make something similar to accent her daughters wedding gown. It seems that they did not order the dress with the flowers on it but ordered some extra fabric in the hopes of finding someone who could make the flowers for them. Wow! They sent me a picture of the gown and I made two sample flowers in the hopes that one of them would work. This is a picture I took with my phone (which explains the poor quality), it shows the flowers on the dress I was trying to duplicate.
The other flower was adapted slightly from my other hair flowers, see the Purplelicious Bride Hair Flower Blog to check out the flowers. The one I created based on some of my original designs is the one they ended up going with.
I have to say it is a complete honor to be asked to make anything for a bride. To know that your creation is going to be a part of her day is an amazing feeling. I was a little bit nervous about actually making these flowers for a gown! For some reason that seemed like a bigger deal than make a hair flower. It was also really fun working with the fabric that was used to make the dress, I could just feel the quality of it. Below is a picture of the finished flowers. The bride's mom found rhinestone centers to use that matched the bride's earrings, so they got sent as is.
But I thought it might be fun to see what this flower would look like with one of my rhinestone buttons, don't be surprised if you see this show up in a certain Etsy shop sometime soon!
I have been having a lot of fun making fabric flowers and have a bunch of ideas for some new designs. But like usual, I've got plenty of ideas but not enough time to make them all happen. With a big craft show coming up I might find the time and will be sure to share whatever I come up with!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
"The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog" Cupcakes
It is just terrible that I have not posted a blog since January. I would promise to try to get better at it but I don't want to let you down. I do have some cool projects I am working on that I want to share with you so there may be hope for me yet!
A couple of weeks ago, I picked my daughter up from school and she was beaming with excitement. It was finally her turn to be student of the week. She was actually the last one in her class to have a turn but I was told later by the teachers that being the last kid is a good thing. It means they are patient enough to wait for their turn.
The first project was Bella's all about me page. For this I took out all of my scrapbooking supplies. This is where I am grateful for my craft supply hoarding tendencies. You never know when you are going to need fun paper and letter stickers! We also used some crayons and Bella really enjoyed making a rainbow design for all of the borders. My favorite part about this is when asked if she had one wish what she would wish for, she put Sun and Hugs. That's my girl!
For the rest of the week we needed to send in various things that are Bella's favorites. The "main event" of the week was when I got to go into her class and read them a story. This also entails bringing some sort of snack for the class too. All along Bella knew she wanted me to make cupcakes but we were a little undecided about what book I was going to read. Being the last kid, a lot of her books were already read to the class with the exception of the Pigeon books, by Mo Willems. Those books are pretty much our favorites around here. I like the pigeon because he has so much attitude and it is really fun to bring that out when you are reading them. You can read more about them here: http://www.pigeonpresents.com/
So being the overachiever that I am I decided to make cupcakes that matched the books. Being the last student of the week I felt it was a go big or go home situation. After a consultation with my fellow baker brain stormer, my sister, she sent me a picture of a hot dog made out of candy. It was decided. I would read the 4 pigeon books to the kids, finish with "The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog" and give out the cupcakes!
Here is how I made the "hot dogs". Again I will add that I did not come up with this idea, it was based on a picture I found on flickr. Basically you need circus peanuts, tootsie rolls, icing tinted yellow, and green sour patch kids. It is a pretty easy process. Cut the circus peanut in half, but not all of the way and then work the tootsie roll in. Pipe a little yellow icing to look like mustard, then add cut up green sour patch kids for the "relish". Here is a picture of the "hot dogs" all lined up and ready to be cupcake toppers.
For the cupcakes I made a batch of vanilla and a batch of chocolate. With 26 kids in the class, there is no way around making 48 cupcakes! I just swirled some homemade vanilla butter cream on them and topped each cupcake with a "hot dog". Here is the final product.
I had such a blast reading to the kids. I was a little nervous at first, I am not sure why. But I could tell for Bella it was so amazing to have her mom come in and sit in her teacher's chair and read to her class, even though I embarrassed her when I really got into acting out the pigeon! Here are some photos of us reading to the class. They were scanned so I apologize for the quality. The kids got a kick out of the cupcakes and so did the teachers. Even though right after this I had to rush into work and had 30 minutes to prepare for an impromptu meeting, it was completely worth taking the time out of the day to be there for Bella and also a great excuse to make another creative cupcake!
A couple of weeks ago, I picked my daughter up from school and she was beaming with excitement. It was finally her turn to be student of the week. She was actually the last one in her class to have a turn but I was told later by the teachers that being the last kid is a good thing. It means they are patient enough to wait for their turn.
The first project was Bella's all about me page. For this I took out all of my scrapbooking supplies. This is where I am grateful for my craft supply hoarding tendencies. You never know when you are going to need fun paper and letter stickers! We also used some crayons and Bella really enjoyed making a rainbow design for all of the borders. My favorite part about this is when asked if she had one wish what she would wish for, she put Sun and Hugs. That's my girl!
For the rest of the week we needed to send in various things that are Bella's favorites. The "main event" of the week was when I got to go into her class and read them a story. This also entails bringing some sort of snack for the class too. All along Bella knew she wanted me to make cupcakes but we were a little undecided about what book I was going to read. Being the last kid, a lot of her books were already read to the class with the exception of the Pigeon books, by Mo Willems. Those books are pretty much our favorites around here. I like the pigeon because he has so much attitude and it is really fun to bring that out when you are reading them. You can read more about them here: http://www.pigeonpresents.com/
So being the overachiever that I am I decided to make cupcakes that matched the books. Being the last student of the week I felt it was a go big or go home situation. After a consultation with my fellow baker brain stormer, my sister, she sent me a picture of a hot dog made out of candy. It was decided. I would read the 4 pigeon books to the kids, finish with "The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog" and give out the cupcakes!
Here is how I made the "hot dogs". Again I will add that I did not come up with this idea, it was based on a picture I found on flickr. Basically you need circus peanuts, tootsie rolls, icing tinted yellow, and green sour patch kids. It is a pretty easy process. Cut the circus peanut in half, but not all of the way and then work the tootsie roll in. Pipe a little yellow icing to look like mustard, then add cut up green sour patch kids for the "relish". Here is a picture of the "hot dogs" all lined up and ready to be cupcake toppers.
For the cupcakes I made a batch of vanilla and a batch of chocolate. With 26 kids in the class, there is no way around making 48 cupcakes! I just swirled some homemade vanilla butter cream on them and topped each cupcake with a "hot dog". Here is the final product.
I had such a blast reading to the kids. I was a little nervous at first, I am not sure why. But I could tell for Bella it was so amazing to have her mom come in and sit in her teacher's chair and read to her class, even though I embarrassed her when I really got into acting out the pigeon! Here are some photos of us reading to the class. They were scanned so I apologize for the quality. The kids got a kick out of the cupcakes and so did the teachers. Even though right after this I had to rush into work and had 30 minutes to prepare for an impromptu meeting, it was completely worth taking the time out of the day to be there for Bella and also a great excuse to make another creative cupcake!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Happy New Decade!
The fact that we were about to start a new decade did not even dawn on me until I was on my return trip from Orlando after Christmas and I was reading a People Magazine. I know, you are probably thinking, "What does she live under a rock?". Well I actually do. If by rock you mean a full time job, combined with single parenthood, combined with running a small business. It was Christmas, I was busy. December was pretty crazy for Purplelicious, it marked the most successful holiday sales season to date! Awesome!
In addition to making fabulous holiday gifts for everyone I got to work on some new stuff too! For starters I got to work on my first sorority keychain order! I hope these Alpha Sigma Alpha ladies love their sorority wristlet keychains! I personally love the fabric and thread color combination!
I also designed a new fabric flower pin. I made this one using Christmas Fabrics but have a few non holiday ones cut out. I am excited that I have found another thing I can do with my fabric scraps! FUN!
I spent Christmas in Florida with my family. While I was there I embarked on a new creative journey I like to call Lego Building. I don't think I even remember the last time I put a Lego kit together or even built with Legos. But on Christmas morning when my nephew/godson asked me to help him, I could not resist him or the challenge. And challenge it was, I honestly did not move from the kitchen table all day. I now have a love/hate relationship with Legos but managed to put 5 pieces together for him. I am resting up so I am ready to tackle more kits for him when I visit them again! Thankfully my little one has not taken a liking to them, I think I will try and keep it that way!
I guess I am supposed to set some goals for the new year/new decade but I am procrastinating like usual. I do know that I have a lot of new accessory ideas and am trying to think a little more outside of the box. I know that to keep a business growing innovation is key. Wow, look at that, I am already goal setting! Before I get out of hand and end up with an "impossible to achieve" list I will quit while I am ahead and wish everyone a Happy New Year (a couple weeks late!) I look forward to sharing more Purplelicious stories with you through this blog and making many fabulous accessories for you in 2010!
In addition to making fabulous holiday gifts for everyone I got to work on some new stuff too! For starters I got to work on my first sorority keychain order! I hope these Alpha Sigma Alpha ladies love their sorority wristlet keychains! I personally love the fabric and thread color combination!
I also designed a new fabric flower pin. I made this one using Christmas Fabrics but have a few non holiday ones cut out. I am excited that I have found another thing I can do with my fabric scraps! FUN!
I spent Christmas in Florida with my family. While I was there I embarked on a new creative journey I like to call Lego Building. I don't think I even remember the last time I put a Lego kit together or even built with Legos. But on Christmas morning when my nephew/godson asked me to help him, I could not resist him or the challenge. And challenge it was, I honestly did not move from the kitchen table all day. I now have a love/hate relationship with Legos but managed to put 5 pieces together for him. I am resting up so I am ready to tackle more kits for him when I visit them again! Thankfully my little one has not taken a liking to them, I think I will try and keep it that way!
I guess I am supposed to set some goals for the new year/new decade but I am procrastinating like usual. I do know that I have a lot of new accessory ideas and am trying to think a little more outside of the box. I know that to keep a business growing innovation is key. Wow, look at that, I am already goal setting! Before I get out of hand and end up with an "impossible to achieve" list I will quit while I am ahead and wish everyone a Happy New Year (a couple weeks late!) I look forward to sharing more Purplelicious stories with you through this blog and making many fabulous accessories for you in 2010!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)