Great Wolf Lodge

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we are taking the boys to Great Wolf Lodge. I think we all could use a vacation, especially mom! The boys are super excited and I think they will have a blast in the waterpark as well as playing mini golf. I keep having to tell them that we don't need to a take our own balls, golf clubs, or anything else that they insist on "not forgetting". We hit the dollar store today and got a couple new coloring books and each to them picked out a toy so hopefully they stay busy and occupied for the 2 hours 45 min drive up there. I will be sure to post pics when we get back.

Monogrammed Hand Towels : A Great Gift

My husband is real estate agent (and my biggest repeat customer!) I make a set of monogrammed towels for all of his clients that close on a home. Here are a couple of towels I did just last week for him. The "D" towel is for a couple who are getting married so I found their wedding registry and got towels off of there so they would match the rest of their towels. I think that these are a perfect closing gift, something that the client will use for years to come.

Here are some of the things that I am working on for the Bauer CRC Shopping Extravaganza in a couple weeks. I am also doing some beach towels, burp clothes, and kitchen towels. It has been a lot of work to make these as well as filling all of my orders. Well have a wonderful weekend!!! (even though it is half over already!)

FabulousFunFinds Giveaway!

Layla Grace is an online boutique offering just about everything you need to stylize your home, children and yourself! From bedding to candles to baby gear to pajamas, you're sure to find something that dazzles your eye. Fabulous Fun Finds is hosting a GIVEAWAY. The winner may choose the Chenille Pink Parfait, Brocade Baroque or Moon Over Macau ($145 to $175 value). These bags are so super cute, I really really hope I win one!!

Google Analytics: What a Giveaway did for my shop!

I have said it a million times, I love Google Analytics. It is great to see where you traffic is coming from and if you even have traffic. If I list new items in my shop, traffic always goes up. It definitly keeps me motivated to continue working on my etsy shop. Last week mytwobabes sponsored my giveaway and I was really excited to see what my hits would do. Well, here you go, record number of hits the first day of the giveaway. I will keep you posted since I have another giveaway coming up as well as a children's showcase slot (and a craft show, and a vacation and showings on the house) I feel as if I may never be "finished" whatever that means!

My Sweet Boys

My two little boys, Matthew & Michael, picked me daffodils yesterday....ALL of the daffodils. I can't really get mad, they were only picking flowers for mom. I can't complain, the kitchen smells beautiful this morning.

Yesterday I finished a ton of towels for my craft show in a couple weeks, check out pics soon on flickr.

How I turned $2.22 into a $45 sale!

I few weeks ago I was asked if I had any mermaid fabric. Although I did not, I offered to look for some. After no reply, I soon forgot, UNTIL.... I was at the store, looking through ribbon and fabric when I came across MERMAIDS. I thought, whats the hurt, I will get some and see if she still wants it. I took a picture and sent it over with a message saying no obligation but I found some mermaids. The buyer ended up Loving It! and went on to purchase two mermaid towels and also a trains and boats towel. A little bit of extra effort really paid off. Congrats to Leah, the buyer, who is being induced today with her second child. Enjoy!

New Product : Hand Towels

I have been wanting to do these for a while and finally got around to it. I embellished hand towels the same way as the beach towels. Mom and Dad can have monogrammed towels and kids can have their very own towels for washup time or brushing teeth. I am working on getting listings for monogrammed towels, there are just so many options that it is hard to narrow it down. In my etsy shop, you have just as many options for the hand towels as with the big towels, you could get a set to match, what a great gift!

Custom Recipts for my Craft Show

I came across these recipt pads while browsing etsy and decided that they will work perfect for the craft show that I am doing in a couple weeks. These are made by Purple Hug and turned out beautifully! Thanks so much.

Busy Saturday!

Woke up this morning to Tressa babe sick! It finally is warm and out of the blue she gets the flu! Tonight we have a Progressive Dinner with the Young Adults Society so I had to make food for that. Fruit salsa with cinnamon chips, bacon cresent roll-ups, and Italian cheese bread. I can't wait to eat! Also finished some towels today but still have three more to go, not counting the 11 I have to do for my husbands closing gifts. Busy week ahead, plus another showing on the house on Monday, so there goes that day. Giveaway ends Monday!!!

Hooded Polkadot Beach Towels

I added hoods to these polkadot beach towels on request of the buyer. They turned out really cute. I found plain beach towels with a coordinating edge that matched the polkadot towels perfectly. Personalized of course!

Don't forget Giveaway at mytwobabesdesigns ends soon!

My Giveaway is Featured!

Gobs of Giveaways is featuring my giveaway today. COOL!

Cuff Bracelet from ThreadedKey

I just recieved this cuff bracelet from ThreadedKey. I asked her to custom make it with neutral colors since I like to wear my jewelry pieces with everything. She was excellent to work with and did this custom work in a very timely manner. I have never seen such a cool design, with the woven beads. I love it, thanks ThreadedKey. She has just opened a shop so make sure you check it out!

Custom Embroidered Hooded Towel Giveaway at mytwobabes !!!

My First Feature!

I just learned that one of my towels is being featured on the front page of my Handmade Registry! I am super excited, this being the first time and all.

Today is the day! Mytwobabes is having my giveaway on her blog. It is for your very own custom hooded towel. Check out her blog and register to win.

One of a Kind Labels

I try to blog about all of my etsy purchases, which have been too many lately ! I browse random searches of treasuries and always find something that I love. Well, in this case, that isn't true. These mytwobabes labels are made by a friend of mine and I have gotten the baby labels for all of my kids. Just recently Kristin started with the kitchen labels, and becuase I bring lots of food to people, I like to have my name on the dishes. These labels are dishwasher safe so they are not coming off in water (yes, I have tested and proved this many times over!)

Stay tuned, Mytwobabes blog is hosting another giveaway this week!

My Messy Baby

My messy Baby
Originally uploaded by spiritofgiving

I try to do something fun on my Saturday Post. I was looking through my recent pictures and came across this one of my little daughter after eating oreos! Expiremented with Picnik and it turned out precious. Also, don't you love my new blog background? I found the perfect one on thecutestblogontheblock.com. Have a wonderful weekend!

LoveLaurie Sewing Supplies

I found the LoveLaurie etsy shop and fell in love with the seam ripper and the pin cushions. I asked Laurie if she could do a custom set that matched my shop logos. She made this beautiful set for me and I have already used it! She has done a lot of research regarding what kind of material to put inside the tomato as well as the attached berry. Great quality and it comes with a cute saying. I picked "If I stitch fast enough, does it count as exercise?" I thought it was perfect, I would rather sew all day then exercise for 30 minutes!

Towels for Addie and Will

Last week I recieved an order for two hooded towels. As always, I took pictures to use them as samples as well as for ideas for other customers. I shipped out the towels and a few days later was going to upload the pictures onto my computer. I was in a hurry and after it didn't do exactly what I wanted I pulled the card out too quickly and lost all the pictures! I asked her if when she recieved the towels she could send me pictures, graciously she did. I love these towels so much, once again, great ideas especially with the orange stripe on the teal. I have never had an identical order, everyone always has a wonderful idea, so keep your ideas coming!

Great Grandkids Photo Book

It was my Opa's (dutch for Grandpa, yes, they are straight off the boat) Birthday on Apirl 1. I, together with help from cousins and aunts, made this photo book of all the GreatGrandkids for him. I did it on Snapfish and then sent the order to the Meijer photo center. Not only did I save almost $20 by doing so (the book cost less and I didn't have to pay shippin), it also was ready in about 12 hours! I did two page spreads on each greatgrandkid and also one page spreads on each family. I had a couple pages left over so I did a spread on Opa and Oma holding the kids, and also an "I Love You" Page. Opa loved the book, he said that this was the kind of present he likes to get. I think that if you want to give a gift that shows thought, time, effort, and heart, give a custom personalized gift.

More Hairbow Day!

Mytwobabes is having another giveaway! This week is a $5.00 gift certificate to All things ribbon. These bow are so cute and she even has dresses that match the bows. This one is my favorite. It will match everything. I will be registering for this one, I can't resist! Another favorite, her blog has instructions on how to make your own bows. So visit mytwobabes for instructions on how register to win!

Hairbow Day!

Last night I finally got around to using my hairbow making supplies from GirlyBowtique. I wanted to make some to match Tressa's Easter Dress as well as another spring dress that she is going to be wearing to church. I thing they are cute, not bad for a first attempt. My husband John went away last night to watch basketball so I had time on my hands since the kids went to be before 8:00.

Here are the supplies from Girly Bowtique. The non slip things you put on the clips work amazing!

I also made a hairbow holder. I seen a picture on another site and thought that it would be easy enought. I found the butterfly and flower already prepainted and just hotglued them to a nice piece of ribbon.

New Baby!

Welcom Jace C. another new baby at Grandville PRC. Like I usually do, I made a hooded towel and a couple of burp clothes. I had these done a while ago but couldn't post them until I gave them to Liz or it wouldn't be a suprise! Don't want anyone seeing them on Faceboook and spilling the beans. I got to hold him on Sunday for a few minutes, he is so tiny it hardly feels like you are holding anything. Congrats to Ben and Liz, I hope everything is going well with the baby.

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

This is my favorite cookie recipe! The "Chocolate Chip Cookies" Recipe is found in the Heritage Christian School "Favorite Family Recipes" Cookbook and was submitted by Beth DeBoer. I attended HCS and Sarah (my maid of honor) is Beth's daughter, but don't let that deter you from trying these, I would love them no matter where they came from. The page that they are listed on is really dirty from using it over and over!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 eggs

2 c. sugar

1 c. brown sugar

2 c. Crisco

2 tsp. vanilla

4 c. Flour

2 tsp. soda

2 tsp. salt

1 (12 oz) pkg chocolate chips

1 c. oatmeal

Beat the eggs and add the sugars, crisco and vanilla. Then add dry ingredients. chips and oatmeal. Bake 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

This makes quite a large batch and I usually cook them for the whole 12 minutes becuase my husband likes them a little crispy.

Don't mind me, just trying to figure our how to make a widget for my blog!

Beach Towel For Tressa

So I absolutely could not wait to use the new fabric I got yesterday. I threw it into my tote of sewing supplies and it landed right next to this purple towel and an idea sprung to life. The embroidery took forever! I don't think I will be doing this font for a while, quite complex and time consuming. I made and baked a whole batch of cookies while this was going. This is one of my favorite things I have ever made, making it extra special becuase it is for my extra special baby girl! Visit my blog tomorrow and get the BEST chocolate chip cookies recipe ever!

Beach Day!

I received a custom request for a personalized beach towel from a grandma at church. Her only granddaughter is in California and I bet she misses her a lot! She probably gets to use the beach towel much more over there than we do here in Michigan. This is the second personalized beach towel I have done and I will probably add names to my kids' beach towels that they already have. The neighbor also wants her kids' towels personalized after she finds ones that match their suits! It is a pretty nice day today and it makes me long for spring and warm weather and camping. Oh, and garage sales! I hit my very first one of the year this morning and found new fabric yardage and remnants which will go into my stash and wait for just the right use. There is some flowered fabric that I am very tempted to sew onto some burpclothes I have. I know they would be cute!

P.S. Don't forget to register for mytwobabes giveaway, ends friday!

Quite a while ago, I seen these towels at the store while I was browsing around the towel section looking for new colors for my hooded towels. I instantly was drawn to the bright, springtime color. I can't remember if it was before or after I bought the towels, that I was looking in the remnant bin at Field's Fabrics (like I compulsively do) and came across these flowered fabrics. About a week ago I all of a sudden realized that these go together perfectly. Well, yesterday I had a slower day and finally got around to sewing them up. They turned out beautifully and I just listed them in my etsy shop. If they don't sell, I would definitly find something to do with them, I never have a problem with that!