Busy but Keeping My Peace of Mind . . .

I've been busy adding lots of photos to my Etsy shop.  As you know by my Sunday Sayings, I have a huge love of quotes.  One of my friends suggested I add some of my favorites to some of my photos.  I thought this was a fantastic idea!!

I took this photo of a fallen angel in our local cemetery a couple of days after Hurricane Sandy hit our area.  A lot of trees fell during the storm and I wanted to make sure none of my family members headstones were damaged.  I saw this little angel laying on the ground.  She was displaced but not broken.  That's how so many New Yorkers felt during that hurricane.  When I read the MLK quote the other day, I knew it was meant for this photo. 

This is so profound to me.  Really makes me think. 

Love this.

Peace of mind is what I've been consciously trying to achieve.  As I navigate thru my day, I've been asking myself if what I'm doing at that moment or what I'm thinking at that moment is giving me peace of mind.  It really centers and helps me.  We have some big things going on right now and I'm really keeping my cool about them.  It's all good stuff!!  : )


Happy Thursday and Many Blessings ~ Wendy

My Word . . .

The last couple of years, I've picked a word to use as a focal point for the upcoming new year.  I happened to choose the same word  for the last two years.  That word was " Release."  It usually comes to me in an intuitive manner.  Many of my thoughts come to me this way, actually, if I'm able to clear my mind enough to receive the messages. That's not always easy with four kids, three cats and two dogs!!  : )

This year's word is  . . .    SOAR  ~   To rise or fly into the air.  To increase or improve suddenly above the normal or usual level.

On January 12th, I will be 48 years old.  To type that number is surreal to me.  I don't have a problem with this number.  In fact, it's just the opposite.  I feel so blessed that I am here to celebrate it.  So many people never get to see this number.  What has been going on in my mind is this whole aging process.  The idea of being in the middle years of my life.  Feeling like a kid still yet looking in the mirror and seeing the aging process happening right before my eyes.  I think this middle age thing is a part of our journey that teaches us the lesson of acceptance that there are things that we can change and there are things that we just have to accept.  I'm in a transitional period of doing both. 

In my 20's, 30's and early 40's I never really felt the sense of urgency that middle age is now giving me.  I think about things that I've always wanted to do but have never either taken the time to do or have never been afforded the opportunity to.

Last week, I sold my first photograph in my new Etsy shop. Someone liked my photo enough to pay for it.  I'm smiling as I type this.  Actually, the first time the word "soar" came into my mind was when I was celebrating this.

The photograph that I sold last week.  : )

I stopped making resolutions years ago because I've never been good at holding myself accountable to them.  It's not something that I'm happy with myself for but it's who I am and, for the most part, I truly love who I am.  So why set myself  up for failure??  LOL!!!  Instead, I'm focusing on making choices that give me "peace" of mind.

Yes, Wendy, it's time to SOAR!!!  : )


Happy Tuesday to you all!!!!

Starting to Get Back in the Saddle Again . . .

Having a baby this past year really threw me for a loop. I have next to zero time management skills to begin with so trying to juggle taking care of a nursing infant, a household with three other kids and two dogs and three cats and every twist and turn that life had to throw at me left me with very little time for my two Etsy shops or for blogging.



Now that the baby is a little older and not as "attached" to me as often as she was the first six months of her life, I'm carving out more time for me. YAY ME !!!! ; )





I've started listing some pretty Valentine goodies in my shop.





Sweet vintage images for scrapping or handmade cards.












A mechanical vintage Valentine with eyes that move from side to side.












February 14th will be here before you know it !!








It really feels good to be back!!

Many blessings ~ Wendy

My Etsy Shops are Screaming My Name . . .

This last week, I've really neglected my Etsy shops. I have lots of goodies that I'll be adding in the next couple of days so I thought I'd give a preview of things to come.




These gorgeous vintage beads are going in this shop. I've been holding on to these for a while but I think it's time to pass them on to someone else.



I also have some absolutely adorable Cotton Scraps that are perfect for scrapping. These are a big seller.


Lots of vintage baby images.






Lots of vintage Halloween images for your tags and altered art projects.

Aren't these wonderful?!!?

These angel wings are so sweet. Also perfect for altered art projects.

These are just a few samples of what I'll be listing in the next couple of days. So much to do!! So little time!!


Many blessings ~ Wendy

Creating and Destashing on a Beautiful Morning . . .

It is an absolutely beeeutiful morning here in New York. This last week of the dreaded three H's (hazy, hot and humid) were really getting to me. I even took a nap one afternoon. I'm not a napper. Even when I was pregnant and had newborns I wasn't a napper. The three H's turn me into one. I don't care how cool your house is (our central air has been on since April!!), it creeps in under your doors and thru your windows. But today is different. It looks like we are going to get some rain this weekend. My hubby has been keeping an eye on the storm churning off the coast someplace. There's a possibility that we can be impacted by Hurricane Danny which I don't think is technically a hurricane yet but is supposed to become one as it churns over open waters. Son #1 is leaving for football camp tomorrow morning thru Tuesday. His coach has mentioned possible bad weather to the team but doesn't seem concerned. He has a wonderful bunch of coaches and I know that they will all be in good hands so I'm not too worried. They're actually going to camp in Massachusettes which my husband says will put them closer to the storm if it comes in. Enough about that. We'll know more as each day progresses.

Son #1 has been telling me he "needs" stuff for camp. He "has to have" specific stuff to bring with him to camp. Silly me thought it was football related. Last nite, when he got home from his third practice session of the day, he was too tired to even pick up a pen. "Mom, I'm too tired to hold a pen. Can you type my list of things I need on the computer?" I obliged as I was on the computer already. Here's his list . . .

Parmesan Basil Wheat Thins

Cheese Doodles

Spicy Blue Diamond Almonds

Blow-Up Beach Ball (apparently an inside joke that he wouldn't disclose)

This is what he so desperately needs for football camp. You gotta love him!!

# 3 son (after he got his face painted on the boardwalk) looking up to his Big Brother (aka #1 son). I love this picture!!

So I woke up feeling energetic and creative and wanting to clean up my studio a little bit. This is what I've listed so far in my Etsy shop this morning.

Some vintage seam binding and lace that I've wrapped around a coffee-stained tag and embellished with a little extra bling.







Don't these colors just scream "Autumn!!" The flower at the bottom of the tag is actually a wooden button. A couple of years ago I found a pillow covered with lots of wooden buttons and embellishments on a clearance shelf in The Christmas Tree Shop. It wasn't in the best condition and I think I paid all of $1.00 for it. I pulled all of the buttons off of it and am now going to use them for other projects. I thought it looked so pretty with the colors of the tag.

I've taken lots of pictures of other goodies to list but I'll get to those later.

Here's a sneak peek.

A vintage hanky, vintage lace, aqua pearls and a bunch of forget-me-nots. So pretty!!

I found this very nice sized vintage shaker and have filled it with lots of surprises!! Let's just say they include vintage pretties, some glitter and lots of pink!! I'll be listing these later on today.

So now I'm off to my local Target to pick up son #1's items on his list. He did forget to mention the long black socks that he's been telling me he needs because short socks give him blisters with the cleats and pads. Apparently, Cheese Doodles and Beach Balls are more important.

That's my boy!! : )

Many blessings ~ Wendy

UGGHHHH . . .

I'm still very new to this wonderful world of blogging. I've had a blog for a couple of years now but never did anything fancy with it like adding pictures (other than ones at the top of the page that I found on google images) or any fancy templates. I follow many blogs on a regular basis and have always admired how pretty they all look. So I decided to step out of my box, which usually takes some time for me, and figure out for myself just how they all got that way.

At the beginning of the summer, when I participated in the Etsy Greetings Team 10/10/10 Challenge, I learned how to upload pictures and put them where I want to on my blog. I can't tell you how liberating that felt to me!! It opened up a whole new blogging world for me!! I still have a problem with text moving around when I add pictures and having to go back and fix all the spaces between everything but I'm working on that. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any pointers for me!!!!!!! :)

The other day I was perusing some of my favorite blogs and I was checking out some of my favorite blogs' favorite blogs and I stumbled across a wonderful blog called The Background Fairy which can be found

here. If you get a chance to check it out I promise you won't be sorry you did. This wonderful lady has all sorts of gorgeous templates that you can add to your blog for FREE!! WOOHOO!! If it's free it's for me, Honey!!! I picked out a gorgeous new template and my blog looked so pretty. Then, I even added a counter that I found here that was free. That can be a little dangerous for me, truth be told, because I tend to get a little bit obsessive/compulsive, wanting to check the counter every twenty minutes or so to see if anyone has visited me. I'm sure some of you know exactly where I'm coming from with that one. : )

So yesterday, again, I was perusing blogs and blogs on those blogs and I came across this blog. I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I am to see that there is going to be a new magazine to help fill the very large void that was made when we lost so many of our favorites this last year. Who among us didn't salivate this time of the year when the autumn issue of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion hit the newsstands? Eye candy at its finest!! So when I read about the new Flea Market Style coming I wanted to add the button on their blog to mine so I could share the good news. Well that's where all the trouble began. Thus the title of this entry.

I thought I'd try to venture where I had never ventured before and, because of this, not only was I not able to add the button to the proper place but I also deleted my beautiful template and my stats counter. When I went to the layout section of my blog I found that I had also deleted the "Edit" button for my HTML. I have looked everywhere on Google for help pages to get this back. To no avail. I was finally able to get my counter back due to a very wonderful person named Andy at the Site Meter site. I offered him the sun, moon and stars if he could help me with my other problems but, again, to no avail. For now, I guess I'll just have to be grateful that I can once again check my stats counter every twenty minutes. Thank you, Andy. You're the best!!

Here are some of the new items that I've recently listed in this Etsy shop .

I found these pretty little wire loop baskets right after Easter last year and fell in love with them. These would be wonderful for altering.

Don't you just love bees wax candles?!!? Here are two of them that I've wrapped with some vintage peach colored lace.

These gift tags are so much prettier in person!! There are twelve different images of Victorian Ladies frolicking on the beach. Some of them are quite risquee!! These would make great journaling tags, too.

I also had some time to list some new things in this Etsy shop, too.

I love retro and have been meaning to list these for so long.

I'm going to sign off for now. My #3 son and his friend were running around barefoot in the back yard and went a little too close to the hydrangea bushes and both got stung on their big toe. What are the odds of that?!!?

I hope everyone is having a very happy Monday!!

Many blessings ~ Wendy

P.S. I just realized that this blog entry comes in an array of colors!! I tried to fix it but wasn't able to and, at this point, I have to throw in the towel and learn from my mistakes for tomorrow!! Thanks for being patient with me!! XOXO

Currently in My Etsy Shop . . .

Ever since taking part in the 10/10/10 Etsy Greetings Team Challenge I've been trying to list a new card in my shop every day. I've been pretty consistant with it. If I'm unable to find the time to work on anything new I have cards whose listings have expired so I'm able to renew them. That's taking the easy way out, I know, but sometimes it's the only way I can keep up the pace. Once the kids are back in school I'll have more time to dedicate to both of my shops. I have so many wonderful things to list but just don't have the time to do it right now. I listed some adorable vintage cupcake picks in my other Etsy shop two days ago and they sold right away. I've learned that you have to be a couple of months ahead of each holiday to start listing for it in order to have a good chance of selling your item. I had some great items in my shops for July 4th. The ones that I listed early on sold and the ones that I procrastinated on didn't. You live, you learn.

These were really cute and some little boy or girl is going to have a classroom full of happy students at his/her Halloween party!!

The last couple of days I've listed several cards. I found some great papers and embellishments and couldn't wait to work with them. They're a little smaller than I'm used to making but I'm really happy with how they came out.

I bought these absolutely adorable pink and blue daisy cabs here a few months ago and I just adore them!! I'm a daisy fanatic!!

Tomorrow is a very big day around here. Son #1 has his road test. He also starts triple session football practices tomorrow. He's been really busy this summer, between work and football practice since July. Another milestone for him. I know his dad will be in the back seat with him for luck. I know he's with the three boys whenever they reach any special milestone. You can read my earlier blogs if you want to know more about their dad. He passed away almost five years ago and lets me know on a regular basis that he's still here with us. Amazing Grace.

Many blessings ~ Wendy