Accidental Artful Thursday

Well, saying that I'm not the most organized person on earth, doesn't really do it justice.

I'll admit, sometimes library books don't get turned in on time and teacher appreciation week

gifts are a wee bit late.

O.K, so I've always wanted to participated in Julie Collings (theadventuresofbluegirlxo)"Artful Thursdays" Her Thursday posts are definitely one of the highlights of my week. I've just never gotten around to it. Well.... this week is "teacher appreciation week" at my child's school. On Monday it's supposed to be a flower, on Tuesday a little note or bookmark, well, as I said, on Thursday at 6am I got around to making these sweet little bookmarks with my boys.

They are super easy, I cut a piece of pretty two sided paper, had the boys write a sweet note, used packing tape to "laminate" them and then punched a hole and strung pretty seam binding ribbon. Voila!!! "Accidental Artful Thursday"

Oh yeah, these are the adorable little bouquets we made (also Thursday morning) that were supposed to be given to the teachers on Monday. Hey, better late than never... Right???

Have a lovely weekend

xoxo

cari

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!

O.K, here goes..........

The winner is the lovely Corrine Clark from 100 Pretty Things.

Congratulations!! I'll get your goodies out to you right away.

Thank you for helping me celebrate.

On another note, the Fabulous Maija is having a wonderful giveaway too.

Hopefully it's not to late, hope on over to her fabulous blog and become a follower. You wont be sorry!!!

Sorry I don't have more today, still trying to recover from my crazy weekend.

I'll be back soon.

xoxo

Cari

Smells of Spring

Don't forget to enter my "Anniversary Giveaway!!" Just scroll down two posts and leave a comment. Giveaway ends at midnight tonight. Don't miss your chance to score some goodies.

I love the Smells of Spring

I wish I had "smell-o vision" so you could smell it too.

The first "smell" of spring for me is the Orange blossoms. We have 4 citrus trees in the backyard that smell fabulous. Everyone who walks up to our front door is greeted with that super sweet aroma. (I forgot to get a picture of the citrus in bloom). My second "smell" of spring is this fabulous rose bush.It started out in our backyard with the intent to grow up and over a trellis. It never grew. Ugh!! We decided to replace it with something more aggressive but were hesitant to rip it out. We knew we would move it but were afraid it would go into shock. We moved it to a little tiny planter on the corner of our front yard driveway. Boy did it like it's new home. It blooms all year long. But, the best thing by far is the smell.
My husband was in his car leaving the other day and I was talking to him through his sunroof. I tried to grab a rose so that he could smell it and the petals all fell off in my hand. So.... I grabbed at a bunch of fading roses and then showered my love with the highly fragrant petals through his sunroof. He thought it was funny. Luckily for me, he hasn't asked me to clean them out of his car. (yet!!)

Have a lovely Spring weekend.

xoxo

Cari

Little Visitor

There is still time to enter my shop Anniversary Giveaway. Just scroll down one post and leave a comment.

We have a little visitor!!

and boy do I mean little! This is a hummingbird. She (I keep calling it a "He" for some reason) has decided to make her nest underneath out patio cover on top of one of the little lights that we have strung. I'm surprised that she did this, you see.... last year we accidentally destroyed a hummingbird nest in the same spot. It is so small, we just thought debris had piled up on top of the light. We felt terrible! So, yesterday my oldest son comes running into my room telling me to come see the hummingbird in it's nest. I thought he meant that a hummingbird was buzzing around the (empty ugh!!) hummingbird feeder. "NO" he said, "it's in it's nest" Sure enough, there it was. Getting this picture was tricky because I had to open the door and didn't want to scare it. Well, I didn't scare it when I took the picture but I scared it when I closed the door, it flew off...... We were all worried. I mean how many times can you mess with baby hummingbird eggs and not get some bad karma???? Thankfully, it came back. It was super cool, it had a bit of fuzz in it's beak and we got to see how it added it to it's nest. This morning it's still sitting in it's little nest dutifully.

Interesting fact about hummingbirds: Did you know that a hummingbird is the only bird that can fly upside down??? Cool right!!

Well, needless to say, we feel very lucky. Most of the time you can't catch one sitting still for more than a second or two. It'll be interesting to watch the nest, I'll take photos when and if we get baby hummingbirds in our little nest.

Have a lovely day and don't forget to scroll down and enter my giveaway.

xoxo

Cari

Giveaway and Shop Sale

May 1st is the 1 year anniversary of my goods shop!!

So....... I'm going to have a giveaway to celebrate.

I decided to giveaway some of my new items. These are featured on the home page of the lollishops site today.This is a fabulous pack of vintage children's book pages. Each pack has a beautiful original 1953 Dick and Jane page in it. The fonts and illustrations on these pages are wonderful. 3 Yards of this old (probably vintage but I have no way to verify) peachy-pink lace trim.

And last but not least a set of my absolutely favorite 1920's Vintage French Dictionary pages. One lucky winner will recieve all of the items pictured above. Yeah!!! I am also having a Sale in both of my shops in an attempt to try and reach 500 sales in my goods shop. So, I am offering 15% off any order of $20.00 or more until mid. pst 5/1. You can order from both shops and the totals will count together. I will refund you the difference after through paypal or I can lower the price in advance if you convo me before payment. I thought that there was a way to offer a discount code but I haven't been able to figure it out.

Also, if I reach 500 sales by May 1st. in my goods shop then I will add a nice gift card to the giveaway prize.

So, how to enter. Leaving a comment between now and midnight PST on Sat April 30th will count as 1 entry. Posting a blog about the giveaway and then letting me know will count as a second entry, any purchasing from either shop will count as an entry as well. There you have it, 3 ways to enter. Good luck.

Thank you all for being such a huge part of my shops success.

xoxo

Cari

I Love Swaps (Part 2)

I Love Swaps

part 2

This is the last of the swaps that I signed up for this season. This one is ArtsyMamas May Basket Swap. My partner was the lovely Ellen from Ellasedge. The picture above is a detail shot of the front of my basket. WOW!

These are (some) of the amazing goodies packed lovingly inside. Look at the little handmade pouch Ellen made me. (It's on the right hand side). She is going to start selling them soon on etsy. When she does, I'll post about it. I know you are all going to want to grab them up.

This is how it looks all together. Yummy!!!

Thanks for such a lovely swap Ellen and thank you Kari for hosting. Wonderful as usual.

xoxo

Cari

Petite Inspiration Nesting Box Swap Revealed

I Love Swaps!!!And, the Petite Inspiration Boxes are probably my favorite swaps. I love getting creative little goodies. I think it's a fun challenge to use things that are different from the ones you would normally purchase. Kind of broadening your artistic horizons... The box above is the one I sent out to my three wonderful partners. Here is what I filled them with. The theme was "feathering the nest" I couldn't help throwing in those adorable little umbrella.
This is the first box I received. We must have been on a blue and brown wavelength. LOL!! Isn't it absolutely stunning. The wonderful Maggie filled my little box with so many inspirational little items. It's all so sweet!!! The super creative partner Number 2 Lonnie must have been on the same wavelength too. The funny thing is that I almost put a nest on top of mine too. Love, love, love the flowers and especially the little birdie pin. Thank you!! Gwen must have been on a different wavelength, an equally fabulous wavelength though!!! Her box is so different but so absolutely amazing as well. I think that Peach is going to be the color this Summer. Well, at least for me.

So, that's It. Thanks for playing ladies, I hope you liked your goodies as much as i loved mine.

xoxo

Cari

P.S.

New items will be coming to my goods shop soon!!

Just Peachy!

Hello everyone!!

I've been MIA for awhile.

I've been super busy with the kids on Spring Break. But, I did manage to squeeze in some time to "thrift shop". Look at some of the yummy goodies I found. I bought the necklaces above to re purpose but they look so nice on the sweet tray I am torn.....I think my absolute favorite find was this wonderful OLD French dictionary. I think it's a dictionary, I don't read french, I think it might be a type of encyclopedia. It's got lots of definitions and maps and pictures and such. Yummy!!!! It's so sweet, there are even pressed Pansies inside.

I've got another swap to post about soon.

xoxo

Cari

Mrs. Rhea's Easter Basket Swap Reveal

Happy Easter!!I'm posting this early because I'll be super busy tomorrow but I still wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter. This morning my family and I walked up to our community park and the kids participated in a gigantic Easter Egg Hunt. It was loads of fun, the boys probably got 50 eggs!! There was food and games and the Easter Bunny made an appearance.

Just one of the reasons we love our little community. This year I participated in Mrs. Rhea's Easter Basket swap. We were each given 2 partners and we used recycled yogurt cups as the base for our little baskets. Click on the picture to get the links to all of the lovely participants and see what wonderful creations were made.
My first partner was the lovely Jayme from Flamingbiscuitsonthefarm.
Look at the lovely fabric covered basket and all of the adorable goodies she filled it with. Second, I was partnered with Chery from cheryl-comfort. Such wonderful handmade goodies and a beautiful tin. I really lucked out with my partners. Here's one of the baskets I made. I covered it with Pink Chenille fabric and pleated crepe paper. This one is covered the same but more of a monochromatic theme. I filled them with a vintage bow pin, a mercury glass pink egg, a vintage theme Easter postcard, a vintage Bunny playing card, some fabric and ribbons too.

What a wonderful swap. Thank you ladies. I hope you enjoy your goodies.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday weekend.

xoxo

Cari