Checkin' In

Happy May! Loving the mix of sun and rain that we've had lately. It smells delicious outside! I thought I'd pop in and share a few things:

• My bracelet arrived! It's beautiful and the packaging was delightful and it came so much quicker than I expected. Hooray! Check out Etsy shop Three Little Pixies if you're looking for a great custom jewelry piece and great customer service.

• I've been craving fresh flowers for my house. Is that a real craving? Anyway, my husband so graciously let me indulge in a spring bouquet yesterday. I pulled it a part to make three separate arrangements for different places in my house. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't throw out a single flower. Often when purchasing a generic bouquet I don't like something in it and don't re-use it, but this time it all worked and they were all in great shape. I love having fresh flowers in the house!

• Abigail has been displaying her creativity lately. Here's her outdoor decoration. Each flower was very carefully placed, sometimes the whole row would need to separate or shift to make room for a certain flower and then lined up again meticulously. I loved watching her at work. Abigail was so proud of her decorating.

• Oh, on a final note, a few of these pictures were edited on PicMonkey. Have you checked it out yet? It's a great free online editing program.

A Birthday Check In

Well, once again I've been blown away by the generosity and love shown to me over my birthday. My goodness! I am a blessed woman! It started with early birthday gifts that I got to choose and order online. David bought me these great prescription sunglasses from Zenni Optical. They took a total of 4 days from the day I ordered them to delivery at our door... from CHINA! Crazy. I really like have sunglasses again.

(added grey sunglass tint)

Then I ordered two custom pieces of jewelry. Thanks to generous cash gifts from both sets of parents. First the next ring in my family ring stack. It happens to be David's birthstone (a 4mm square citrine) on the narrow twig band from Olive Bungalow. I love this website and I am so glad to be getting my next ring. I hope to order the mini stack ring with the three little's birthstones on one ring this fall. I don't expect to see the ring for another few weeks as last time it took about a month to get. I think it sits at the US/CANADA border for quite some time for whatever reason. It gives me something to look forward to.

(looks similar to the second ring from the top in this stack only the stone is a bit larger)

Next I ordered a custom bracelet with my children's names stamped on it from Etsy shop Three Little Pixies. Since we know we're having another boy and have chosen his name, I didn't mind ordering this one before Micah's arrival. The ring obviously needed to wait because I don't know which month he will be born in yet. I love supporting handcrafters and I love jewelry, so this was a win win. Again, I don't expect to see it for some time, but another thing to look forward to.

(obviously Abigail, Malachi and Micah are the names that will be on my bracelet)

David really wanted to throw me a party and we were excited to find out that the movie the Artist was supposed to be released on DVD the day before my birthday. We're kinda known for our movie themed parties and David had some great ideas to go with the movie. Well, they changed the release date until June (I think) and spoiled David's plans. He was so disapointed. I told him that I didn't really want to plan anything (March had been crazy) and why don't we just go out on a nice date. David called from work telling me that he arranged for friends of ours to babysit our littles so we could go out to dinner on my birthday. I got to choose where we were going, but we'd need to be home by 7:30, because our friends had an 8:00 appointment. Dinner sounded (and was) wonderful! We went to Mongo's. I chose that restaurant, because it's not a place I would bring my littles until they're older. I liked the idea of having a sitter and not needing to worry about a child friendly restaurant. David got off work early. Our friends came and sat down to eat their supper that they brought while my littles ate their KD. Off we went. It was great. I really enjoyed myself. We went window shopping for a little while and a small drive with some Tim Hortons.

We got home right at 7:30 (didn't want to make our friends late) and found a house full of my friends surprising me for my birthday. David managed to arrange a great surprise party for me. He did a great job!

(I didn't actually take any pictures, but a friend emailed this one to me. This isn't a whole group shot, just those who happened to be in the kitchen at the time)

David called up my friend Donna and wanted to order custom baking for my party. He wanted to hire her, but she insisted on making it my present... and a lovely talented gift it truly was. You can read all about the details on her blog Peek-A-Boo Window. I did "steal" her pics to show you here, though.

So many people in on the surprise! So many lovely gifts (it would take a week to "show" you them all), so many people showing me their love and support! It was lovely. I even had a few gifts and wishes given to me on the following Sunday from those who regretfully couldn't make it to my party. Part of the fun has just begun as I have some gift cards to spend, too. SPOILED! Yup, I sure am.

Not that this has anything to do with my birthday, but I did manage to sneak in some sewing last week (my Dorcus is back from her "spa" treatment). Here's a custom Mei Tai. I used a combination of this tutorial from Jan Andrea on the Web and an old pattern that is no longer online. It turned out pretty nice and is already in use by this cutie:

David's Birthday Present

I want to show you the cool necklace I bought David for his birthday. We were talking about family jewelry one day and I was showing David what I wanted for myself. I will show you that after I get it... I'm so excited! Anyway, David was asking why there aren't any father's jewelry like there are mother's jewelry. Well, I figured there probably was such a thing and visited Etsy. I found some great ideas. The original papa tags, Dad tags and the mens silver washer necklace were just a few. The one that stood out to me and the one I purchased was the sterling bar necklace for him by under her charm. I liked that it was one piece and wouldn't be bashing around on David's neck. I loved that it was four sided and would fit all our names on it. I figure if/when we have more children, we could either buy him a new necklace or add a mini name charm like these. Lisa offered great service. We were having problems with David's clasp and when I wrote to her, she sent me a new clasp to replace it. I do find that ordering from the states usually means sloooooow shipping. This took nearly a month to get here, and not because Lisa took forever to make it. No, it was the whole customs thing (I think). Anyway, David's been wearing this since he got it and I'm so impressed that a) he likes it and wears it and b) that there is some great family jewelry for men.

(Abigail's name is on the underside)

Introducing...

It's Patty Jean's birthday today and she opened her first Etsy store. She's selling vintage goods in there - modeled by her cuties! Check it out! Happy Birthday, darlin'.

Etsy's Handmade Moment Contest

More Etsy love - these are my favourite semi finalists! Check out other entries here.

Handmade Portraits: Mimi Kirchner

Okay, loving Etsy more and more. Check out this video about an Etsy seller/artist. Very cool!