100th Post

Here's a Sneak Peek at my Petite Inspiration Box Swap box.

This time it had a Paris Theme. Yeah!! My favorite.

I know I haven't been around much lately but I had big plans to change that. Yes, I said had. I've got lots of things to show you, the contents of these fun little swap boxes, some pictures of my first ever press kit, the super neat inspiration boxes I received, some new items I'm working on, etc.........

Well, of course, my camera battery went dead as I took a picture of the contents of these little boxes. I thought I got the picture though, so I packed them up and shipped them out. Lo and behold, (who says that? I guess I do!!) I didn't get the picture. Ugh.

Now, I can't even find the charger! I've got family in town and obligations to them so........ I am going to search the house the first chance I get, snap a bunch of cool pictures, and share them with all of you soon. Promise!!!!

I hope you are all having a wonderful relaxing summer so far.

xoxo

cari

My Latest Obsession!

I am obsessed!!! I'm sure most of you can relate to one artsy obsession after another. (right???) Well, this is mine right now!! I am having so much fun soldering these little charms.

I made them for my sons teachers as end of the year gifts. I put their initials on one side and the word "inspire" on the other because that's what teachers do.

I made one for the room mom with her initial and the word "believe" on the back, she's going through a little bit right now and I thought that might help. I made a few with mermaids on them for a project I'm working on and then I got inspired. I combined my obsession with soldering and my love, love, love, of vintage floral wallpaper and made these little beauties. Yeah!! I think I'm going to make a few with vintage maps, sheet music, french text....

Oh my!!! I might need rehab. LOL

I'm sorry that I've been MIA lately. I'm super close to the finish line. Homework is done for my boys, the girls have a few more finals this week, Thursday is their last day of school so we've got school parties, and award ceremonies. Friday, my oldest is in a fashion show and we have a little league playoff game, then Saturday my oldest has SAT2's, the boys have league closing ceremonies, my youngest daughter has 2 birthday parties to go to, and finally, Sunday is our team party. That's it!!! Then I'm done for the summer. Then the kiddos and I can spend relaxing fun time blowing bubbles, flying kites, going to the pool and the beach, drawing with sidewalk chalk and playing handball (lots and lots of handball). Oh yeah, I'll get to blog again. Yeah!!!

Update on our "little visitor": Here are her babies, they've been in there for awhile but were too small for us to see. They are so big now the momma doesn't fit in the nest. We are watching closely hoping that we'll get to see them learn to fly. If we do, I'll get some pictures.

Have a wonderful relaxing week.

xoxo

Cari

Finally, The Fancy Farm Girl!!

Hi everyone,

I know I promised pretty pictures but boy has this week been crazy.I'm sure many of you can relate. 4 kids and the end of the school year (little league, and drill team) = crazy!!!!

So......

Hopefully next week I'll be back to posting more. I do miss you all so.

In the meantime, check out Tiffany Kirchner-Dixon's new blog thefancyfarmgirl.

It's fabulous and been coming for awhile now.

She's having a great giveaway too and you can even grab her fabulous button to add to your site.

Our Little Visitor Part II

Well, our little visitor had her babies.

After my last post about our hummingbird nest I asked around my neighborhood and was warned that the mama might abandon the nest. Well..... not my mama bird, she's still here and we discovered yesterday that her babies are here too.

Unfortunately, there is absolutely no way for me to get a picture. She has (smartly) placed her nest on top of that tiny bulb (scroll down to see) and it is about 3 inches from the top of my patio cover. My patio cover has a net covering over it so I can't even climb out there and snatch a picture from above. (boo hoo).

We have another nest filled with baby birds in the front yard.

I'll try and sneak a picture of them if I get a chance.

I'll be back later this week with some pretty pictures.

xoxo

Cari

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