Why I closed my Etsy Shop ~ AKA the March Newsletter
|
|
||||||||
Posts Tagged ‘Miami’
My Pretty New & Improved Office Makeover
Remember back a little over a year ago when I gave you a tour of my office? Well I have to say it really hasn’t been working for me. The chair I loved the look of was so painful for me to sit in for even just an hour. I’m short my feet couldn’t quite touch and the mechanism to raise & lower it broke somewhere along the move I think. I did upgrade most of the salves & balms to a taller set of plastic drawers that I crammed in between where the french doors I loved so much and the herb closet doors were meaning neither worked really the way I dreamed. It also made keeping track of inventory really hard because each size were contained together but not each type of salve it was just not ideal but I didn’t really want to spend the money and plus soap storage is weird. In the past year I have transitioned from doing shows all the time and needing to keep things semi portable to not doing any for a while our life and schedule is just too tricky right now to apply and commit to shows when I don’t know if my husband will be out to sea or not when the time comes. Ok I’ll stop talking now and just let you see everything.
The view from the door way
BEFORE
AFTER
I really tried to utilize the space better including putting up a tension rod across the window where tissue paper is hanging the box next to the printer houses packing peanuts and those giant bubble things that come in packages that I take and stick in my box to use later. Its full now because well I was closed for almost 2 months. I even hung my show apron on the side of the elfa unit. That ikea epedit unit moved to were the desk used to be and there is now a different cabinet next to it because that old white dresser is being used in the guest room now. The desk is along the wall where the white dresser and plastic drawers used to be. I’ve also been busy hanging odds & ends pics of the kids on the mirror wall you know so I don’t scare myself.
The Left wall from the door
BEFORE
AFTER
Ok so the Elfa was a little more than the Ikea dressers I was looking at but the Container Store is also like an hour closer (being right down the street) AND I actually have more room now for not only finished product but curing soap as well. Though to be honest there is still some curing the old fashioned way in cardboard boxes because I didn’t think it was the best use of my time to move it to the curing drawers until i wrap it this week then move it again into its actually ready for sale place. The larger two units on the left hold all the soap, except the top drawer in the middle thats all lip balms and I need to find something to keep them separate which will mean another trip to the container store and after my credit card nearly melted the last time I’ve been avoiding it. The right unit is salves each TYPE has its own drawer so I can now see at a glance when I need to make more of something. In addition to the salves the upper deep drawer has a jumble of deodorants that Finn was so proud to put away for me I haven’t had the heart to go straighten them out so go BUY some deodorant so I have less to organize, please. The bottom deep drawer has face washes, cleansing grains & body butters.
On top of the elfa
I call this my staging area for lack of ay creativity left in my head. I have all of my packing mailers, bubble mailers, some paperwork I still need to get to, my post cards, red sharpies for writing on packages, paper clips and enough space to stand and write out the thank you cards. Note the mask moved from paperwork over to the desk area. I took this picture a couple days ago and then didn’t finish the pictures because my desk was still a mess and kids wanted me to cook dinner. I also really love that since the younger boys got kindle fires I scored myself a 20 generation ago ipod touch which lives permanently on my speaker thing with pandora I think the kids are getting sick of my Pogues station though but I had a TON of work to do in here.
I really love how much space I have up here to work.
The window/back wall
BEFORE
AFTER
One of my big pet peeves with the old layout besides the soap drawers being so low were they were all the way across the room so I started thinking more kitchen work triangle this time around. Initially I was going to assemble the orders along the top of the elfa, the problem is usually the kids help me pull the orders so they wouldn’t be able to easily see up there without a stool and that would be a pain with those drawers, so I’ll keep them on the lower ikea expedit so I can still get some help. In those bins now only teas. One tea per bin all in order. AHHH so simple.
The right wall
BEFORE
AFTER
I’ve also decided where most people have a dream board I’m going to have dream walls all over my office. Starting with those mirrors, on the right side is pictures of my kids, on the left mirror are things I desire in my someday home. The important stuff though is the stuff in the middle, lots of motivating pictures and phrases to help me on my fitness/weightloss journey. Ok and there are a couple possible haircut ideas and a picture of my next tattoo want. Look I even have some halloween decorations on my desk.
I’ve been skirting around this though now in glimpses in bunches of pictures. My NEW chair. I saw it a couple weeks ago before any of the other stuff even happened and told lexi I really liked it but didn’t really want to spend the money on it. I waited I pondered and the other day I pounced and splurged. I figured I spent all the other bazillion credit card melting dollars to make me want to work in my office to be in here and as long as I had a chair that I physically couldn’t sit in for more that 20 minutes it would me negatively impacting both my Lana Bella work and my physical transformation work. I love, LOVE, love it. Its probably my favorite part about this whole office makeover. SHHHH don’t tell my husband though he thinks those spendy elfa shelves are my favorite and maybe they are a tie after all.
So what have you been doing or thinking of doing to make YOUR life easier?
P.S. if you use code MAKEOVER in my shop or on Etsy take a fun 20% off your order.
Slowing Down and Smallering for a New ME!
I have to honestly say the past 3 years business wise, personal wise & family wise have been such a whirlwind. From in 2010 my business grew to SIX TIMES what it had been in 2009 and 2009 had already DOUBLED 2008. I was in awe. I was and have been struggling to keep up ever since. I have felt constantly behind always wanting to do more, make more, be more, create more new products trying to fill everyone’s needs. The person’s needs I was ignoring most of the time were my own. In the past 3 years I have gained an additional 50 lbs on my already overweight 5′ 1″ body . I can’t even begin to tell you how many times in the past few years at shows someone would come to my booth and tell me they had been following my blog or heard from a friend about my products but just didn’t expect me to be so fat. I’ve mostly laughed it off saying things like “yeah 3 term pregnancies in 5 years will do that to you” or “I have no me time with 3 kids I’m homeschooling and an infant/toddler” when what I really wanted was to cry. Every single time I thought about a missed sale or connection because I was fat. It was time for a change. In the 20+ shows I did from 2009-2011 this is the ONLY picture I have of me with my booth, and the only reason is I was being photographed with the winners of the scavenger hunt for my herbal tea.
Image from http://fentonstreetmarket.com from 2010
What does this mean for Lana Bella? Well I recently started project me aka Jenni loses 100+ lbs by my birthday next year. To accomplish this for my self-esteem, for my health (please lets not discuss how there are plenty of bigger people in better health than some skinny people because I know for ME being 100+ lbs overweight is not healthy for my mind. body or spirit), for my spirit, for my family, I’ll be pulling back a little. I’ll be saying No a little more. I’ll let things run out of stock once in a while. It’s honestly a lot of work keeping 50+ soaps in stock never mind the other products. I’ll be keeping more accurate inventory. So when you order a 3, 4, or 6 pack of soap and you want x of something please don’t be angry if you get an email back and I say I’m sorry I only have b left would you like a substitution? I’ll be setting aside only two days a month for making what I get done will have to be enough. I will add a third day in and get prepped better for holiday. I will warn you though there will only be 45 bars total of the holiday soaps I won’t be making more that gives you from Nov 1 (I’ll have them ready a little earlier this year) until they sell out to get them. If you know now that you want 12 of something for teachers gift or stockings please contact me soon so I can get in into my schedule. Also know that because of the multiple shops and the single inventory I am human so there may be time when an order comes in that I haven’t adjusted inventory elsewhere I’m sorry in advance, and hey you might luck out and get an upgrade in size because of it 
.
I find it a bit ironic that when I started my business back in 2004 I had found an article on another diaper makers website about smallering. It made so much sense then and I tried to follow the ideals. Then in 2010 doing shows was a total new whirlwind for me. I am ever grateful for all those shows financially they really helped us to do so much with our family, that never would have happened otherwise. For now to move forward though I need to slow down. Somehow I have a 3.5 year old and nearly two teenagers, life is moving too fast and I don’t want to miss any more of their childhoods.
You might find me blogging more though there will be a lot of transformations happening. I’ve also started a second blog. I was on the fence about this for a very long time. I only wanted the responsibilities of maintaining one blog, however I wasn’t sure how much I was ready to share about my weight loss journey. In the past week its funny it has 9 days I’ve decided I’m pretty comfortable with sharing it all but I’ll spare you that journey and instead refer you to the other blog so you can follow my weightless transformation over there. If you have been struggling with it yourself please contact me I’d love to discuss with no obligations what I am doing and how excited I am. I’ve hated clothes shopping for a really long time however I’m really excited about buying exercise clothing go figure! I’m really excited about the changes and I hope we can all still work together.
This also means I am more than ever open to wholesale. I’d honestly rather spend those 2 making days a month making a really big order and put it to bed and have that much less responsibility.
Thank you for all of your support over the years and I hope in the future! Lets bring it!
We went to the zoo… day two
Rory and Finn had so much fun at the zoo it was all they talked about. Steve was coming up for the weekend from Key West and I mentioned that maybe the following day we could all go to the zoo. The kids LOVED that idea. I also decided to bring my telephoto lens instead of my standard lens on the second day. I’ll spare you the eleventy billion animal pictures (except a few I can’t resist) that I took.
I thought a picture with the peacock would be a nice tradition. Then we rented one of those pedal car things they have here. It really was a nice change from the day before when the boys & I walked the whole zoo.
We also went backwards from the way we went the day before so the giraffes happened very early on. I just loved the interaction between the mama giraffe and her baby. The kids fed them too but I wasn’t up on the platform this time because there was also a classroom up there.
The Okapi was trotting in circles too which Finn loved.
Another new tradition with the post lunch kids in front of the pot o’ gold.
I was so excited when this butterfly landed right in front of where I was standing.
I was really admiring the lions when that butterfly had happened past. This guy saw me and gave up quite a few poses for me. Thank you sir.
Of course we made sure to be over near the chimps and the gorillas for feeding time. The boys had even more questions today and even answered a few of their own. This is JJ and his daughter Alice getting ready to have some snacks.
We ended the day once again with some dippin dots and home we went. I being tired forgot to get a dippin dots picture today sorry. I was too busy capturing images of the flamingos/
So what is your favorite thing to do at the zoo?
We went to the Zoo
Yes this is another post that happened back in April. It was so much fun. Lexi, Aidan & Jack went with Tia Diana with her to work at the Discovery Channel. So left with just Rory & Finn we headed to the Zoo! My Mom had gotten us an annual pass as part of our family holiday gift and we had yet to use it. Had I realized before hand just how big the zoo here in Miami is things may have been different but we had an amazing day. 
The boys wanted me to take their picture before we even went in the gate with the peacock. The really loved all the little animal statues through the park and made it a point to pose with every single one and because I think they are totally adorable I took pictures. To be kind I’ll just post a gallery at the bottom and add just my favorite experience from the day.
After we had lunch I couldn’t resist taking a picture of Rory & Finn in front of the pot o’ gold.
We wandered around a while and happened upon the chimpanzee feeding time. He answered all sorts of questions from the boys and made a friend for life in Rory when they went in one of the caves and I didn’t have time to warn Rory it would be loud and he just reached out his hand and let Rory hold it. This is Rory’s hair and Finn’s hand next to JJ the gorilla’s foot through the glass.
The LOVE LOVE LOVED watching the gorillas get fed. Even more Rory really loved JJ and learning about him. Both of the boys even asked questions and I love that the zookeeper spoke to them and answered their questions without speaking down or dumbing down the answers. 
Finn was so excited to see the Okapi. I did have to stop him from trying to climb the fence he wanted to touch one so badly. I love that Rory was just as excited for Finn.
Then we fed some Giraffes, ok the boys fed the giraffes. Then Finn got licked by a giraffe which if you are 3 was the most hysterical thing that could ever happen.
We ended the day with some dippin dots for the boys and a cold water for me. It was pretty awesome it was the first time they had ever had them and it totally won me mom of the year in their eyes!
Stay tuned for our next adventure.
Lexi’s Hunger Games Inspired Birthday Party
It was a busy week around here baking, baking and more baking for Lexi’s Hunger Games inspired party. I have never seen my girlie this excited about anything. I really loved being able to surprise her with this. I think one of the biggest surprises for her was our dear friend Diana also dressed up as Effie Trinket as Lexi dressed like Katniss on reaping day. Don’t they look wonderful?
If you have read the books you know that foods especially breads are discussed so much and play such an important part of the story so that is what I tried to recreate. With the help of pinterest and Fictional Food I found so much food inspiration.
Peeta’s Burnt Fruit & Nut Bread (left) and of course District 11′s crescent rolls.
Goat Cheese and Apple Tarts. Which were probably my personal favorite food.
I also made (and forgot to take a picture of) the Lamb and Dried Plum Stew. I did just use beed but it was pretty awesome.
The first gifts Lexi opened were wonderfully planned because we can’t eat those wonderful Capitol foods and it still be reaping day.
A dress for the transformation into the girl on fire.
A dress for the transformation into the girl on fire purchased on Etsy.
Some makeup to complete the transformation.
The coal inspired necklace were from the ever lovely Lauren. you may notice there is no makeup on in this picture, well thats because I didn’t get a single standing picture of this dress during the party so I made asked her put it on the following day for this post of course.
We served food after this and with five kids I put down the camera which means there are no pictured of the orange juice with their cute paper straws and bottles or of the stew.
Then she opened the rest of her gifts.
Diana even brilliantly disguised her gift as as a tribute gift.
A Katniss inspired charm bracelet.
With extra charms inspired by her favorite characters & events also found on Etsy. You also get a glimpse of her new girl on fire inspired glitter ring also from Lauren of Jersey Girl Design.
I attempted to make Cupcakes on Fire from THIS tutorial. As you can see the fact that my kitchen was 84,000 degrees the odds were not ever in my favor for this one. They were still super yummy though and Lexi loved the idea.
She blew out the candles and made her wish. I hope it comes true for her.
At the end of the day we wished our friends well with some little treats to munch on the train their way home.
She is growing up
I can hardly believe as I sit here and type this that my little girl is now a teenager. It seems like it was just yesterday that she was scurrying off in the store to hid under clothing racks, or climbing into my bed during the night. For a few weeks I’ve been planning a Hunger Games inspired surprise party for her, no easy task to do when she is my helper and home 24/7 but it was slowly happening. Unfortunately some plans fell through and she wasn’t going to have a sleepover where I could transform everything so I had to rethink my plan. That is when I had a brilliant idea. So this morning when my late sleeper girlie was awake before I was I sat her down at the table and gave her some very simply wrapped gifts. If you are a fan of the movies at all the twine used on the package was a mix of black, red & orange.
The first of the three gifts to be opened was the invitation that was sent to everyone else already. I had seen a few invitations on both pinterest and etsy however I only needed 1 to be printed and I was on a budget for this party so I designed my own.
Now my girl is in love with all things Hunger Games. I have never seen her this excited about something before she reads and rereads the books has seen the movie twice so far and references people and things in the book as much as she can work them into conversation. Add to that her love of vintage clothing and light blue being her signature color as she told me proudly when she was three and I knew I had to find her a “reaping day” dress. I lucked out on etsy of course.
Last but not least was the gift I’ve been teasing her about. She has been asking for weeks about her birthday and her gifts asking what she was getting if she was getting a mocking jay. I’ve been smiling and saying yes and that it was a real live mocking jay and hidden in my desk drawer.
Happy Thirteenth Birthday Girlie! May all your wishes come true!
Lexi being the amazing kid she is said I should use her birthday and have a sale. So use code CATNIP for 13% off and every order places until her birthday will receive FREE either a Pretty in Pink lip balm (originally created as party favors for her 10th birthday) or a small bag of Pretty in Pink Tea (made with my girl in the same year). Please let me know which you would prefer or it will be Lexi’s choice!
April Recap
If I thought for a minute that March was busy April was even more of a whirlwind. Most of the pictures I have for you today are food based. Apparently I really take that food = showing people how you much you love them to a new level.
We had some AMAZING white “lasagna” I will call it that even though I really used wavy noodles because that’s all that was in the pantry that day OOPS. It was so YUMMY!
Easter was a quite affair. We invited our great friends Julie & Steve over for dinner. I love that she really loves my kids and they love her.
Julie made the Cuban style pork she made for Christmas Eve again and some banana bread pudding. I made a ham Sweet potatoes two ways (just salt & butter and Cardamom, brown sugar & butter), green beans, cheddar rolls, and cookies. 
See how yummy it all looks. Don’t you just want a bite?
The following weekend was Steve’s CCTI (Chief’s Call To Indoctrination) weekend down in Key West. Julie her Steve were staying at the house with the kids. It also meant that I would completely out of my comfort zone in a dress, heels, makeup and done up hair. Oh and I’d have to eat at a semi formal military event with 100 people I don’t know and do it with style and grace and braces. I lucked out and found an adorable dress. I left around noon and it was my first time driving down the keys. I wanted to pull the truck over 84,000 times to take pictures it was so beautiful, unfortunately for me I was on a deadline to get there in time to finish getting ready before the dinner. I am however really good at driving and just hitting the picture button on my iPhone and totally kicked out with a ton of in focus pictures that look great once the frame of the car window and/or the barriers cropped out.
So I got there and got myself ready. I wish we would have thought to get a picture of us towards the beginning of the night it was so hot that by the end of the night I didn’t feel quite so pretty anymore. Hair was courtesy of some old school pin curls. Those shoes that’s me in FOUR inch heels, MUCH different from my usual footwear.
This is steve and his sponsor Keith (his wife however was on the ball with the pictures thanks so much Brittany), don’t they look great in their uniforms?
Here we are at the very end of the night. Steve looks so happy I’m trying to smile so I don’t look weird or show my braces. I fail.
The next day was our only full day together. An alone day no kids no worries no time table. We walked and walked around Key West. We stopped at the “southernmost point” but I did not want to wait in the over 2 block line to get my picture takes with the faux bouy so I was content with this picture instead.
It was HOT. We rented one of those little electric cars to see some other areas, ironically minutes after we got in our little electric car it started to rain and boy did it get windy. We headed down to Smather’s beach this little palm tree on the beach was just adorable and you can see how windy it was.
Being stubborn I was determined wind and rain or not to get my toes in the ocean.
As we were heading back to return our little vehicle these kids in the RV ahead of us were cracking me up. Once they saw me pull out the camera they really started hamming it up. I figured if they put that much into their performance the least I could do was share it with the world.
We headed back to our room and discussed dinner options. On our way back we stumbled across this family of lovely little wild Key West Chickens because I LOVE chickens and have literally been dreaming of owning my own for 7+ years now.
I really wanted a steak because the dinner the night before left me a little dissatisfied I also didn’t want to walk very far because I’m the girl who tripped while walking earlier in the day and my hip was really sore. We ended up at the Prime Steakhouse. I have to say it was FABULOUS! I had really wanted a steak so I got the bone in rib eye with the smoked gouda & black truffle mac & cheese OMG! That mac and cheese will be had again someday! I also got the Desperate Housewives Martini. Seriously I really want to go back there for our anniversary.
It was bittersweet the next morning having to head back home. I had to leave my husband behind in Key West, but I was really anxious to get home and see the kids!
I snapped this picture of the old seven mile bridge on the way home using the same technique as I had on the way down. The only downside to this technique is the bazillions of unusable pictures in-between the few good ones.
Somehow after the dinner Steve and I really got talking about tattoos I’ve been on an ink hiatus since our marriage really being pregnant and breastfeeding for most of it. I really got the itch though and couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted so I combined 3 designs made an appointment. You have no idea how shocked I was when Steve made one too. Off we went one Friday evening to Colorfast Tattoos to see David to get some ink.
There was a little bit more awesome woven into our lives in April but I’ll share that with you in a post of its own.
Rory’s Rainbow Spectacular
The planning for this party seemed to start forever ago! I asked Rory what kind of birthday he wanted this year and he excitedly told me a rainbow and unicorn party. I think easy enough and plan on a few decorations and to make the same strawberry cupcakes (note: I alter the recipe to have 1c pamela’s gf pancake & baking flour & 1/2c pamela’s gf bread flour) I made him last year because they were delicious. Then one day I start thinking about the decorations I saw on Facebook a while back of OhMeaghan’s Rainbow + Rollerskate party and dropped her an email which led to her rainbow pinterest board and me following the links that really excited me and repining and adding to to make my own rainbow party pinterest board.
It started with a trip to the fabric store to get some fabric to make a little bunting. On the way home we stopped at michael’s craft just to peek and came home with the amazing rainbow ribbon and the flowers I later used as a center piece on one of the tables. On the way home from this trip we were talking about food for the party and he said “I hope you have enough cake stands for this.” cake stands really?!?!? who is this child so a discussion about the type of cake stands he wanted happened.
We continued to collect items and narrowed down the menu and ideas. This is when things get really interesting if you know me and know about all of my food “rules”. There have been no, none , zero zilch food dyes allowed in our home to the best of my abilities since 2003. We eat very naturally, organic as often as possible, few preservatives, even fewer “processed” foods, very little soy, at times gluten & dairy free and for three ish years now corn free after realizing many of Rory’s behavior and sensory problems were from him detoxing off high fructose corn syrup. I’ve been known to call it nightmarish because for me it is. I’ve been limiting, over bearing and controlling of what food comes in our home and more preachy than sharing and partnering with my children, This was blatantly pointed out to me not very long ago by Sandra Dodd I had mixed feelings about it but I listened, and thought why not?
The Invitations were ordered. Actually I fell in love with the whole set from the TomKat Studio that I ordered the entire rainbow party pack!
Preparing for the big day involved a ton of butter and baking and excitement by me for rocking a red velvet cupcake.
The day before the big party was Rory’s actual birthday. He started the say off with a mini birthday cake breakfast out on the patio. Rode his bike like Pee Wee Herman in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure his current favorite movie. We finished off the afternoon painting a a rainbow sign for the big day.
Then I put the kids to bed and the frosting started. Who knew frosting a 6 layer cake would be as both easy and difficult as it was. Each layer brought new excitement and fear. In the end it was slightly crooked but I am not a professional baker or cake decorator just a mom of a 6 year old rainbow and unicorn loving boy so this was good enough for me. By the time I finished frosting the cake and the 3 dozen cupcakes Steve was finished making the sandwich skewers so it was off to bed with us as well.
The big day was upon us. I put Rory’s rainbow sign by the front door and hung the Welcome sign and some rainbows from my TomKat Studio Rainbow printables.
I hung one of the buntings and the TomKat birthday banner on the wall behind where I set up the food table. I loved seeing the excitement on Rory’s face when I pulled out the rainbow unicorn table cover which was actually a little too narrow for my 8 foot table.
I had standard fruit and veggie platters only I arranged them in rainbows as I had seen on pinterest.
I made a quickie tortellini chicken pasta salad and the sandwich sticks I fell in love with.
There were the red velvet cupcakes and strawberry cupcakes both gluten free.
This rainbow cake was all about me being outside my comfort zone first it was SIX layers, called for a TON of food coloring something I haven’t cooked with before this week since 2003 when I eliminated them from our diets at least from home, and I used fondant for the very first time that included corn syrup and yet even more dye for the decorations. I pulled out my x-acto knife and freehand cut out the letters for Rory’s name ever thankful while doing so that he has a short name.
COOKIES! We had some kid decorated lemon sugar cookies (I used lots of lemon zest instead of orange), cinnamon sugar butter cookies, and RAINBOW shortbread style cookies!
To drink I made our family standard fruit punch (equal parts cranberry pomegranate juice and sierra mist you know because its corn syrup free and a splash of pineapple juice) and pink lemonade I don’t know why the color was so dark on mine but it tasted AMAZING! I supplied ice with a scoop in a rainbowish striped bucket and my favorite thing was the colorful striped paper straws. I put out mason jars in both pints and half pints to drink out of and its a good thing I have a lot of both.
The rainbow bunting and the pom pom & yarn garland were both hung on the back fence for a splash of rainbow color.
The balloons tied to rainbow yarn were brought out with extra pink for my pink loving boy!
With the arrival of our first guests (thank you Julie, Diana & Frances) we were able to get a picture of our rainbow dressed family I even got to have our unicorn leader sit on my lap! I really wish Finn wasn’t holding that balloon and you could really see his green shirt though.
We ate some food & opened some gifts.
Then it was time to sing happy birthday and blow out the candles. If you look closely or even not too closely you will see how butter creme, fondant and hot Miami weather may not be the best of friends as the polka dots were sliding a little bit. I also didn’t realize until about now that I forgot to put the little mini felt cake bunting on the skewers that were more structural than decorative.
I cut the cake and sadly realized the cake slices were too big for the adorable rainbow unicorn plates I had purchased for the party so we just used some boring non matching paper plates I had.
These amazing brilliant colors were totally worth the insane amount of food coloring needed to get them to see the smiles on not only my rainbow boy’s face but the faces of every other person child and adult alike.
At the end of the day the party goers were able to grab a gift bag filled with temporary tattoos & a stained glass mini coloring book (either unicorn or dragon themed), a unicorn swirled lollipop, a pack of crayons, a rainbow crayon & colored pencil and a sandwich size ziploc bag to fill with candy from the candy bar. I had filled jars with skittles, m&m’s, sunkist fruit chews, and little mike & ikes.
What surprised and saddened me the most at the end of the day was the little girl who didn’t fill her bag with candy but filled it with the leftover fruit from the fruit platter. I don’t know if it was dietary or if fruit was that big of a treat to her and I didn’t ask mostly because I didn’t want to embarrass her either way but I will now make sure when she is over to bring out some fruit.
It was a busy day because in addition to my own 5 kids there were about 15 added kids from the neighborhood at any given time (they just all started dropping in and at one point I panicked that we wouldn’t have enough food) in addition to 8 or so adults. I just love that I am STILL hearing from my own kids and party attendees how awesome the party was. Totally makes all the broken food rules totally worth it and not such a big deal at all in the grand scheme of things. When asked what he liked the most about his party he said everything he only wished that Brenna was there for it too because he really misses her.
I’ll update later on with links for all the recipes and inspiration posts and suppliers but for now I’m going to have a cup of tea and watch my kids play in the pool because this post took much longer to write than I had anticipated.
February Recap
Woo Hoo this is the last monthly recap post tomorrow I’ll have just a regular concise post for you aren’t you excited? 
Early in the month I decided to restock our freezer with pancakes. What started as a couple batches of pancakes turned into making 125 pancakes 3 at a time in a pan on the stove I know crazy right? I started with plain, then was asked if I’d make apple, then banana nut, then I went crazy and also made cranberry orange, lemon blueberry and a savory tomato, basil & mozzarella that we had for dinner.
Jack received this new friend also named Jack from the amazing danamarie you can check out her work in both her greenstarstudio and mightMIGHT shops.
We went on a shopping trip to get some new clothes and Rory said he needed these sunglasses.
We played in the rain and painted.
Lexi got a guitar after so many months waiting. Remember this?
After the insanity of making all those pancakes on a pan I splurged and bought a griddle and waffle iron so we tested them out with strawberries and fresh whipped cream and dinner outside under the moon on the patio.
We had some great family time all together again with the kids really enjoying the pool.
Rory and Finn helped me plant a teeny garden late in the season for Miami but hey better late than never right?
Rory and I went shopping and started gathering supplies for his Rainbow Spectacular Birthday party.
We also got an Xbox and I have really enjoyed watching the kids play Just Dance! By the smiles on their faces I think they like it too!
January Recap
I didn’t take a ton of pictures in January so you are saved from a post with eleventh billion pictures in it again. 
Lexi got a kindle and this was how we found her (and often still do) for hours on end.
Then I spent a bazillion hours on the couch watching the 1st season of Game of Thrones and part of Homeland and talking with my Dad who was still visiting while I knit Jack up this new friend from this pattern.
Then even though it seemed like we had just gotten healthy again we were all sick again. BOOOO.
We became obsessed with brussel sprouts. Our favorite way to prepare them a little butter & oil some sautéed garlic and bacon bits. We are currently going though about 6-10 lbs of sprouts per week because we love them so much.
Then I cut fabric for quilts for the boys! I was so excited Finn’s is so fun! Jack’s is so orange. Rory picked out most of the fabrics for his by himself I was so proud. Aidan’s is blue blue blue. Its actually quite hard to find blue quilters cottons not in florals who knew?
I brought the kids to the dentist. It was Finn’s 1st time he did really great! Rory and Aidan were paired and Rory was able to ask the hygienist 84,000 questions during Aidan’s cleaning before it was his turn. I’m pretty proud I brought all five kids to the dentist and we walked out with ZERO kids with cavities! I also walked out with appointments for Lexi and I to see the in house orthodontist the following month.
To wrap up the month our mugs arrived from the wonderful Brenna (a different one) each kid got their own mug so they would leave mine alone! Rory also added this beautiful tea pot to his collection he named her Cassie.
December Recap
For as busy as November was December was even busier! I hope you enjoy pictures! 
December started with a revamp of all the body butter packaging.
Then came my last show of the year with the West Elm + Etsy event. I had a blast stepping outside my box display wise and using props from the store.
Then because Rory had gotten his cast off he was ready to start riding his bike. Finn couldn’t be out done so was happy to play on Jack’s scooter.
Then I had the kids paint some wood cut out birds as decorations for our tree as I didn’t think glass ornaments and hard tile floors would get along well. The kids decorated the tree and we were lucky to have Steve home to hang some lights on the outside. Even if the weather was 70+ it was beginning to feel a bit festive.
Lexi with all her culinary skills made us some fab chicken stir fry one night for dinner.
After the ornament painting the boys were on a painting kick.
As a special request I made some just plain scented bath salts.
My poor mail carrier this is what she saw on a pretty regular basis through November and December.
We decorated some gingerbread houses.
Jack turned 8! Can you believe it EIGHT!!! Pirate themed and an ice-cream cake!! All he wanted for weeks before was a cat so we searched for days on craigslist and scored this sweet little girl he aptly named Mason.
Then it was the first night of Chanukah and Steve said the blessings for us over the phone and we had amazing sweet potato latkes which I forgot to get a picture of.
Then I decided to take on the insane task of making everyone in the family stockings. Not just any stockings stockings that would match their quilts to come in the future. So now just a week before Christmas while still packing and filling orders I had to nail down color schemes and actual quilt patterns for at least 5 people. Lexi’s actually used leftover pieces and an embroidery square from her quilt. Jack’s was actually easy I knew he wanted an orange zig zag. Rory would want pink, Aidan blue, and Finn green, but to find patterns to match their personalities was hard. In the end I think they came to great.
My crafting actually inspired Aidan to get his craft on too!
On Christmas Eve we were invited over to a friends home to celebrate Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) the food was AMAZING!!! There was mojito pork, rice, beans, fried plantains, Tres Leches Cake and great friends! We had so much fun and like we belonged! THANK YOU Frances, Julie & Families!!
Then we hurried home to unwrap our traditional Christmas pajamas and climb into bed! If you look closely Aidan & Steve have matching pants.
Then we woke up and opened up some fun presents. That apron Lexi is holding up and the bedside organizer Steve is holding up those were made by Aidan back when he got his craft on. That tshirt I got Steve was really an joke because at EVERY show I do I get asked at least once if when I make soap if it is like the scene in Fight Club.
Then one day I finally followed my kids out with my camera to catch some shots of them all riding their new bikes they got earlier in the month for St Nicholas Day.
We wound up both the month & year with a visit from my Dad and a little New Year’s Eve swimming.
Recap of November
Remember when I was posting how thankful I was for my kids at the beginning of November because I got really sick. Yeah well STAYED really sick for about 3 weeks. During that time some of my children got sick thankfully not as bad off as I did. I got really behind on orders in Novemember too and I’m very sorry for that, things that should have gone out in a couple days were taking upwards of a week because I just couldn’t be upright that long and I grossly underestimated the time it would take.
We were also really excited to welcome my husband home for a while.
Ok so thats where I left off with this post I started you know 4 months ago. So here is how we will play this now a picture tour. Be prepared this will be very picture heavy!
We Start with a little haircut by Rory notice how you can actually see scalp in places. Oh boys!
I was starting to feel better (or so I thought) just in time for the craft carnival so off I went. I am soooooooo grateful to Brenna & Lexi who held down the fort and brought all unsold items safely home when I had to leave early because I didn’t feel good. I really couldn’t have made it through without you guys LOVE YOU!!!!
I left my iPad with the girls to use the square if they needed to a while later I found this little gem of a picture Brenna left me with (thanks kiddo).
In between much napping and trying to get orders packed I also started working on this little knitted Okapi for Finn’s 3rd birthday.
One night Lexi made us some AMAZING rice & beans and we got Aidan to try an olive.
We also Made some Charleston She-Crab Soup! YUM!!!
The Holiday Limited Edition Soaps came out in their Fancy new packaging!
After what seemed like forever to Rory his cast FINALLY came off.
Finn turned 3! Can you believe it THREE! We started with a birthday boy breakfast made by Aidan & Lexi. Later in the day we had some crafts and presents and cupcakes! Three SERIOUSLY!?!?!
Then I made some make your own Elderberry Syrup (I promise I will get better pictures and actually get them in the shops soon) kits.
I took the picture for our holiday card which I might never have actually gotten printed OOPS.
Finn made his 1st pecan pie for Thanksgiving.
Rory moved on to pumpkin pie this year.
Jack moved on to apple pie.
Rory welcomed Lucy the cat into all of our lives.
November also saw us saying farewell to Brenna who moved back to CT. We miss you kid.
Hey Remember Me?
Hi I’m Jenni remember me? I know just as I got into a good routine of blogging I all up and disappeared. I’ve been here I’ve just been extremely busy with the kids and life and making stuff and crafting. I’m going to do my best this week now that I have a moment in time to breathe to catch you up on all sorts of awesome but in the meantime I just wanted to drop in to give you a heads up that I’m still here.
A little glimpse of what I’ll be sharing this week
November saw birthdays,
new friends,
more new labels,
and lots of baking.
December brought us another birthday,
holiday presents,
so many packages (thank you),
and lots of crafting.
January brought some fabric selections,
a soap making class,
and lots of cutting and planning for my second quilt.
February was all about making my second quilt and planning for March!
March brought Rory’s Rainbow Spectacular!
And all along a little of this has been happening.
So you see we have a ton of stuff to cover and I have yet to decide the order in which we go! I’m really really excited to share the birthday party with you but there are things that happened back in November that lead up to the birthday just know that somehow though multiple posts and an insane amount of pictures we will discuss all of the above and even more over at least the next week?
Have you ever gotten off track of something and wanted to get back on the horse? How did you go about it? What have you been up to all these months?
Geography
WOW so I was looking though all my old sales today while having a coughing fit and drinking a cup of tea curious to see how many states & countries I’ve shipped products to over the past few years and I was pleasantly surprised! 45 of 50 states have been covered and lets try to make it 50 by the end of the year I’m looking at you Idaho, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North & South Dakota! I’ve also shipped to all but 3 Canadian provinces and 21 other countries! This really excited me! Thank you so very much for your support.
I know shipping the past few months has been a little slower than any of us like and I apologize we have had a lot to get accustomed to here at home and with my husband gone 95% of the time if I get sick or my 5yo breaks his arm and we have to spend one day in the ER and then 3 other days at various drs appointments for it there is no one to help me pick up the slack and I still have to do all the other “mom” stuff and my kids whine a lot if I don’t feed them and they don’t have clean clothes to wear.
As a little thank you for putting up with my insanity over the past few months I’m extending my FREE SHIPPING coupon code FREESHIPPING10 in my etsy shop through well how about 11-11-11 you know because that makes sense right?
Packaging Revamp…Soap Bars
Well last we spoke I had a few ideas I was pondering. I bit the bullet and headed over to Etsy to hire someone to do the job after I realized it was beyond my skill to get it the way I wanted. After a couple hours of looking and getting sidetracked the way I often do when looking at Etsy I decided upon Meredith of Jack & Molly. I couldn’t be happier. She dealt with my non technical thing-a-ma-bob speech and walked me through how I needed to explain what I was trying to explain. I’m pretty sure she face palmed a few times at my sketches and wacky ideas. In the end though I’m so excited to unveil my new soap packaging!!! I’ve even taken her advice and started putting a clear coat on ALL my labels to help protect them.
So they have a piece of fabric, some decorative tissue tape (which may be changed later for a ribbon or eliminated when print fabric is used) and the new fancy label with a decorative swirl that will be changed depending on the bar of soap being wrapped!
While I was out there taking the pictures of the new labels this cuteness occurred that I thought I would also share with you as a special treat!
Finn posing after yelling “take picture me” .
Rory riding his bike not to be outdone on the cuteness factor.
So what do you think of the new packaging?
Packaging Revamp … 1st stage
It’s a double edges sword for me. While I LOVE , I mean really love cute packaging I also know that my soap packaging probably ends up in the trash, and thus I have trouble designing it. In a perfect world cost wouldn’t matter. I would have some fancy schmancy packaging that didn’t matter how much it cost but until that day I’d prefer to pass on to you a larger bar of soap with minimal and as eco responsible packaging as possible.
Here is the current packaging minus the simple upgrade to the label at the bottom to include the website & new location.
The front of brainstorm number one. I was using cheap printer paper while brainstorming instead of the heavy weight card stock so you have to IMAGINE the white is really a nice ivory. The bar of soap is wrapped in corrugated cardboard then has a layer of card stock (printer paper for my brainstorming session) around it, on top of that a decorative tissue tape piece and a label with just my brand, the scent & the website.
The back has in a much larger font than currently used the ingredients of the bar and other important information.
Brainstorm number two used the corrugated cardboard, the rice paper that is part of our current packaging around it, the tissue tape from the previous brainstorm and the label currently being use on the bars of soap.
Brainstorm number three. Unbleached muslin wrapping the bar, bar flipped the other direction, tissue tape to add a decorative flair, card stock label with name & fragrance on the front. I’m not entirely happy with how the Lana Bella & the Almost Naked are spaced this is where my lacking graphic design skills irritate me.
Brainstorm number three continued, now you can see the front and the back. Still not entirely happy with the wording and spacing. Throwing my hands in the air and thinking about it for a few more days.
Its now been a week until this post I’ve been mostly ignoring it but need to really start thinking more about what I want those labels to be otherwise I think I like brainstorm 3′s basic packaging the best I could swap out different fabrics for different bars or make them fun.
What do you think? What project have you been working on that you may be struggling with?
The new house. Dining and the learning/play room.
Ok I’ve taken a gazillion pictures of the new house. We are still unpacking and working things out but this is were we are at so far. I’ll go room by room over the next few days showing you all we have done.
We were pretty lucky in this adventure to have the use of the giant garage to store our boxes and so much of our stuff so the rooms were really empty while we painted. The rooms are in no way done they still need curtains but I’m taking my time and pondering what I want for them, and deciding on the decorative touches to complete things. We also started with REALLY blank canvases like all white ceiling to trim.
This is a really big room for us. Its about the size of our entire first floor in our baltimore house, maybe not quite as long but about 1.5 times as wide and the natural light is AMAZING!
This is a picture of the play/learning area of the room though it was all white when we got here.
I know small picture, and yes that is an entire wall of mirrors.
Are you ready for the after. I am stunned on the change a little paint can’t make honestly. I’ve painted before but it was already after things were moved in or fairly settled before not as the main part of the transformation process.
The kids “genius bar”, the train table and toy storage. A small glimpse of the new craft table in the far left.
The other side of the room showing the train table, toy storage and the now unused coat rack. You can also see the front door & Finn’s car seat waiting to be installed in the suburban. There is that craft table again this time to the right.
BOOKS! To utilize space and cover up some of those mirrors we put the book shelves there. Yes you do actually see there of the 4×4 ikea expedit shelves there, and yes they are mostly full. Our dining table to the left and the craft table to the right.
The other angle you see the dining table to the right and on the opposite wall you see the 3 hanging wires for artwork, cards, pictures anything the kids hang really. You also see the two places that now need to be sanded and repainted because Rory & Finn tried to use one of the wires as a zipline. You also get a teeny glimpse into the kitchen & family room from here.
For the sake of having one picture from the same place as the original here you have it. You can see the craft table and Rory’s nest (papasan chair) from here. For perspective I was backed up to the train table taking this picture. There will be enough room for all the kids to sit at both craft and computer tables. They are currently short one bench because ikea has been out of stock.
I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into our living spaces. Oh the paint! I almost forgot the color is Chartreuse by sherwin williams custom tinted at 50%.
