Pampered Chef Adoption Fundraiser

I am hostessing a Pampered Chef party next week as a fundraiser for our adoption of Sophia. In lieu of hostess benefits, a percentage of all purchases will go towards our adoption fund. If you would like to order something (it can be shipped to you!) please visit my consultant's website, and click on my show! The deadline to order is Friday, March 26. Thanks!

Grand Opening: Hatch Studio and Gallery, Take 2!

I had a wonderful time at my friend Beth's studio opening on Saturday evening! She has posted all about it here, including some great photos (except the one of me...not that Beth didn't take a great photo, but I don't look so great in it...it had been a long day!). I couldn't walk away without purchasing one of the lovely things there, so I am now the proud owner of a new beaded bracelet from an artist in Thailand! There are so many lovely things in her shop...if you ever come to Lancaster for a visit, make sure to stop in! Congratulations, Beth!

Grand Opening: Hatch Studio and Gallery

Please join me in congratulating my friend, Bethany Hissong, on the Grand Opening of her dream, Hatch Studio and Gallery! I am so excited for her! If you live in the Lancaster, PA, area, you might want to come on out on Saturday, May 2, between 5 and 10 p.m. to check it out for yourself! All of the Grand Opening information is on her website, as well as information about the first adult photography class and the summer children's classes--of which my sons will be a part for sure! Beth is a fantastic artist in her own right, as well as an Art teacher. She is displaying and selling creative works from her friends around the world, including some adoption fundraising cards made by me and my mom. Please join me in congratulating her by visiting her blog, Red Yarn, and leaving a comment! Hope to see you on Saturday!

Adoption Fundraiser Opportunity

We have been blessed with so many donations to our upcoming garage and bake sale...continue to pray for good weather and lots of buyers! In this process, a couple of ladies from our church have also offered to help us do a "fundraiser within a fundraiser" through their home businesses. One such opportunity is through Avon. If you are interested in purchasing some items from Avon to help us with our adoption expenses, please leave a comment with your e-mail address, and I will send you a listing of what is available. Special combos of items have been created for this fundraiser in all the categories we know and love from Avon...perfume/cologne, makeup, lotions, etc. We will receive up to 40% of the retail price of anything ordered during the fundraiser, and all of it will go towards our international adoption expenses. Items can be sent anywhere as long as you are willing to pay the postage! Thanks in advance for your support and for helping us bring Sophia home from Taiwan!

A Favorite Etsy Shop

On of my favorite Etsy shops is Vintage Hot Cakes. Dawn, the owner, makes various items out of vintage tea towels, among other things. She loves to do commissioned work, and I have gone to her several times with tea towels commemorating anniversaries and birthdays for my family and friends. She has made beautiful pillows and tote bags for me and the recipients have been really tickled when they see the year on the towel.

This year, my husband and I celebrated 13 years of marriage. We really didn't do anything special to commemorate the event, so I told him that I wanted a pillow made for us with our anniversary year. I went on an internet hunt for the perfect 1995 towel, and found it via Ebay in England, of all places. I had Dawn preview it before I bought it to make sure she thought it was doable, and then I waited for it to arrive from across the ocean. I sent it to Dawn who sent pictures back to me for approval with several fabric options. The finished product can be seen below...the photos don't do it justice...and once again I am just so impressed with the quality of the workmanship and presentation. Since the towel's design was a bit different, she cut out our anniversary month and put it on the back, as seen in the second photo, and made an oven mitt (not pictured) out of the rest of the months, just for fun! So, if you are looking for something unique and different to commemorate a special event, check out Vintage Hot Cakes on Etsy! You won't be disappointed!

(Note: I am not getting anything for promoting Dawn and her store...she doesn't even know I'm doing it...I just love her work!)

A Favorite Blog

One of the blogs I love to check on a regular basis is Second Sister Suaviloquy. I found this blog through the Etsy shop Second Sister Jewelry, when I was searching for jewelry related to adoption. As it turns out, this family is waiting to adopt a daughter from China, too! Second Sister Suaviloquy is hosting a ten-day giveaway that you might want to check out. The fun starts on December 5...and check out the Etsy shop, too, for great jewelry at reasonable prices!

New Job

Yesterday I completed my second weekend of work at my new part-time job at The Children's Place Outlet Store in Hershey, PA. When Dave was moved back to first shift, I prayed about the possibility of working part-time to help offset some of the boys' schooling expenses and our adoption expenses, and the Lord led me to The Children's Place through a church friend who also works there. I'm finding it to be harder than it looks, especially physically, since I'm on my feet for 4-8 hours at a time, depending on the shift; however, it is fun, and I'm meeting lots of interesting people. So far I have been working less than 15 hours a week, mostly on the weekends, but some weeknights. Of course I'm awfully tempted to use my paycheck at the store, since I love their clothes and get a 30% discount, but so far I've been good. I really watch for bargains (like the pair of jeans I scored for Sabastian for 69 cents!) but that's it. If I knew how big our little Sophia was going to be, I'd really be having fun...the girl's clothes are so cute and reasonably priced on our sales racks! If you ever find yourself in Hershey at the outlets, look me up!

Want $10.00?

Awhile back, I wrote about a website I found called Ebates where you can get a percentage of your online purchases back as cash when you start your online transaction for hundreds of retailers on the Ebates website. Usually, when you sign up, you get a $5.00 bonus, but right now, they are giving away $10.00 when you sign up. It's really a very easy way to earn some cash back for online purchases you are going to make anyway. I always check Ebates to see if the retailer I am purchasing from is on their website, and if it is, I just continue my transaction through Ebates to get my cash back--easy as pie! If you shop online, you really owe it to yourself to check it out! Who couldn't use a few extra bucks? Click here to find out more!

Last Week in a (Sorta Big!) Nutshell

Last week was a very busy, but fruitful and fun, week! While our oldest son went to a week-long camp last Sunday, the other three boys and I piled into the family van and drove a couple of hours southeast to my parents' home in Delaware for the week. The reason for the trip was to participate in the Daily Vacation Bible School my parents' church was having all week long. I was asked to teach the 2's and 3's which is a class for children of that age whose parents are working at the DVBS. I had six little ones, including my son Benjamin, and on two days, when there was no nursery, I had my son Nathaniel and another little girl. Fortunately, I had a great helper, too, so I wasn't by myself. The theme of this DVBS was "Digging for the Truth of God's Word" and the Bible stories were basically Creation and Noah's Flood. So, we did a lot with dinosaurs and animals which was really fun for me and the kids. Here are some photos to show you some of the fun things my little group did...

...we put on dinosaur masks and played "Dino Tag"...

...we stenciled dinosaurs onto t-shirts with sparkly fabric paint--too cool!...

...and we made dinosaur hats!...

Of course there are many hilarious stories to be told after working with this age group, but I won't get into all of that! Suffice it to say that it was very fun, yet extremely exhausting, and I was more glad than sad when the week was over!

Another happening last week was that our youngest son, Nathaniel, now 10 months old, finally figured out how to pull himself to standing pretty consistently. In fact, the toy box in our classroom served as a great stability object to do just that. Here he goes...

You can see he's pretty tickled with himself! I guess the toys were a big motivator for him, and he figured that since he was with the "big kids", he ought to start acting like one! (Now if I could only have Benjamin use that logic when it comes to going on the big boy potty!)


After the busy week of DVBS, I deposited the children with my hubby, and my mom and I went to Valley Forge on Saturday to attend the Creating Keepsakes Convention there. We had a blast shopping all the vendors and taking a few classes. When I totally complete the projects, I'll make sure and post photos...they are pretty neat if I do say so myself!



As icing on the cake, I received some pretty nifty stuff in the mail this past week. What a nice treat to come home to! Remember my post about Postcrossing, the site where you can send postcards to people around the world? Well I received two postcards this week, one from Indiana here in the US and one from Finland. I am really enjoying being a part of this site. Here are the postcards I received:






And last, but certainly not least, in today's mail I received a huge surprise treat from my good friend Beth at Red Yarn...Benjamin Bear (and other goodies!) made by my new friend Kathy at Lizzie Jane!

What sneaky gals, I must say! Ever since I saw Benjamin posted on Kathy's blog, I was enamored with him...and now he's residing at my house! Thanks, Beth, for being such a thoughtful and wonderful friend, and thanks, Kathy, for making such delightful creations!

Wow...I wonder what this week will hold! Whatever it holds for you, have a happy one!

My First Blog Award!

Thanks to my dear friend Beth, at Red Yarn, I have been nominated for my first blog award, and fittingly, it is in Spanish! Here are the rules for this award:


1. The winner can put the logo on their blog.
2. Link to the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs you've nominated.
6. Write an acceptance speech in the style of the Academy Awards, thanking everybody's mother, father, sister, brother, aunties and uncles and kitchen staff at your favorite restaurant!



So, here is my Academy Awards style award acceptance speech (you'll have to imagine the tears of happiness and gorgeous gown!)...

A year or so ago, I barely knew what a blog was, but thanks to my youngest sister, Steph, and my dear friend, Beth, I was quickly bit by the blogging bug and began to read various blogs quite faithfully. It wasn't until this past January that I decided to write a blog as a personal journaling venue--and now I'm hooked! I wish to thank my dear husband, Dave, for working second shift so that I have nothing better to do late at night than read and write blogs...just kidding (well, sort of!)...and for supporting me on this endeavor. I would thank my kids, but I don't think they have a clue about this blog...maybe I should thank them for that! And I wish to thank my faithful blog readers, many of whom are now new friends via cyberspace because of this blog and the blogs of others. You encourage me and inspire me in so many ways--thank you for being there--wherever there is!

And now for my nominations for the Brillante Weblog Award...may I have the envelope please?
(I'm afraid I won't have seven, though...I don't know that many other bloggers who haven't already been nominated!)


My sister, Stephanie, at Garcias2Chile...for a glimpse of life with three small children in a foreign country, check out her blog! She's also adopting two babies from Haiti...you can see that blog here.

My long time friend, Ricardo, at Sudaca Americano...we go way back to my high school days in Chile, and he is just starting his blog after some encouragement as a way to keep in touch with family and friends in the US and Chile. I hope my nomination encourages him to keep going with his blog!

A friend and homeschooling mother of (almost!) eight, Lisa, at A Second Generation of Homeschooling...her ability to juggle teacher, mom, and wife amazes me!

Another homeschooling mom of seven, Laura, at Laura Williams' Musings...she has great money saving tips, links to contests, and just glimpses into her family's life that are neat to read!

A fellow adoptive mom and blogger, Angie, at The Downtown Boutique...her blog has information on all kinds of goodies, but I especially like how she highlights various Etsy shops and also has giveaways each week for homemade items!

And now the orchestra is playing and I'm supposed to stop talking...have a great week everyone!

Retail Me Not

I found a new website tonight that will save you time and money by giving you coupon codes for free shipping and percentage discounts for hundreds of online retailers. It is easy to navigate, and fun to use, so check it out the next time you are purchasing online by clicking on the link below. Let me know how you like it!

Visit Retail Me Not

Ebates

I have found a great way to pay myself for doing what I do best...shopping! By logging on to Ebates first, and then linking to my favorite on-line retailer through the Ebates site, I can get money back for purchases that I'm going to make anyway. And when you join Ebates, which is free, you earn your first $5.00...how easy is that! I have found that most of the retailers I enjoy are on Ebates. Most of them offer cash back on your purchases, which accumulates in your Ebates account, and then can be sent to you via check, or deposited in your Paypal account. Some retailers offer special coupons through Ebates instead, but it's still a good deal. The hardest part is remembering to log on to Ebates first, because you must link to the retailer from the Ebates site in order to receive the cash back. On my sidebar, underneath my profile, is a link to Ebates. If you join via that link, you and I will both earn $5.00--so if you care to earn money for your shopping habit, check it out!

What a Beautiful Day!

Today was a beautiful, sunny day here in PA--it hit 70 degrees and there was a nice breeze...just perfect! Additionally, I was able to spend a good portion of the day with my dear friend, Beth, strolling around downtown Lancaster taking in the little shops and such. She introduced me to a new craft--jewelry making! We went to a bead store where we both made bracelets and necklaces, and now I'm hooked! It's such an economical way to enhance your jewelry wardrobe, and so much fun! Thanks, Beth, for a great day!

Imagine That!

Yesterday I spent a good part of the morning cleaning out and reorganizing my pantry in anticipation of my new, old, tupperware arriving later this week. I have not really done that since we originally move into this house almost two years ago, so I found many interesting things! Of extreme satisfaction to Sabastian was the location of a long lost Game Boy game and shark tooth; I was impressed with the spare coinage I found...it was enough to allow the boys to purchase lunch this week! I also threw out a bunch of stuff, and put some of my Longaberger baskets to good use...now I'm just awaiting my tupperware so that I can put my dry goods away properly. When it's all done, I'll have to post pictures...I know, not the most interesting thing in the world, but important to me! Speaking of waiting, I'm still waiting for my first Etsy purchase to arrive from Chile. The tracking website says it's still enroute to Miami, but that was almost a week ago! I check the mail with anticipation every day...when it gets here, I'll let you know!

Ebay-ing

Well, I have won and lost on Ebay the last few days. I'm currently waiting on a couple of more auctions to end this evening before I go to bed. The competition has been fierce on these tupperware containers (believe it or not!) but I'm close to having what I need to store my dry goods and my fresh home baked bread. Dave says he never would have thought that I would be baking and cooking like I am...I always knew there was an ulterior motive for keeping me at home...it wasn't just for the kids! The funny thing is, we are working on losing weight so I'm cooking more, but eating less--go figure! When my new, old (vintage sounds so much better!) tupperware arrives, I'll post a picture! Gotta run and check my auction standings........

I'm Vintage!

I have been having fun lately looking at vintage items on Etsy and Ebay. I'm looking for some large tupperware containers in which to store my flour and sugar, etc., and am really wishing my mom kept all her old stuff...that's what's vintage and collectible now! I just have to laugh when I see pictures of the things I grew up with labeled "vintage"...I just don't feel that old yet! I'll let you know if I win any of my current high bids!

Etsy-ing

My new favorite pastime at night is to browse Etsy for unique and different handcrafted items. If you have not visited this site yet, you really must do so. I am just amazed at the creativeness of so many people, and their willingness to share it (for a fee!) with the world. I have found that the prices are usually very reasonable for the time and effort that was put into creating the items. My favorites list grows nightly as I peruse the stores and their merchandise. So far I have only purchased twice...my first purchase was from a Chilean woman in the northern city of Antofagasta (where my youngest sister and her family are going to be missionaries) who creates handstamped items and had just opened her store the day I found it--I figured "what's the likelihood of that happening" and decided to be her first customer! I'm still waiting for my cards to arrive from Chile, but when they do, I will post a picture of them. My second purchase was of two vintage black and white postcards with photos of little girls on them...they were just too cute to pass up. I want to frame them and hang them in my workspace downstairs for inspiration. While they are not uniquely homemade items, I have found many vintage things on Etsy that people use in altered, creative ways. So when you have some extra time on your hands and you want to be inspired, check out Etsy and all it has to offer...and if you find any favorite stores, pass along the information! (BTW, I'm not being paid for this commercial!)

Check Out Frugal Fridays!

The author of one of my favorite websites, MoneySavingMom, also has a website entitled, Biblical Womanhood. Every Friday, she hosts a post called Frugal Friday where she gives one of her frugal tips and asks her readers to do the same. Today I found a tip for creating homemade stuffed crust pizza...yummy! Check it out...you might learn something, too!

Not Much To Say

It's late...if I don't hurry up with this post, it will be tomorrow already. I just got finished cutting out and organizing a myriad of new coupons (thanks, Mom!) and watching the evening news. The boys have mixed feelings about the snow that is starting to fall...if they miss school tomorrow, they just have to make it up later, so what's the fun in that? The last two days I have visited three bargain grocery stores in our area, thanks to some new friends at my new church. It's been fun, and hopefully will help me save even more money this new year. And last but not least, I baked my first loaf of homemade wheat bread today! We ate it all before I took a picture, so you know it was good! I did the dough mixing with the bread machine, and then let it rise in a loaf pan before baking it in the oven. My hubby got home just as it was coming out of the oven...he was so impressed! It's a very easy recipe and can be found here. Check it out!

Benjamin's Birthday Blues

One of my favorite Benjamin pix from Florida

This evening we ventured out to Toys 'R Us with the entire family to look at what Benjamin said he wanted for his upcoming third birthday...a play kitchen. We found the aisle easily enough and took a look at what was available. He was very excited and pointed out what he wanted and I thought we were set to go. But, alas, it wasn't meant to be. For you see, down the next aisle were the automated ride-on vehicles. You know...the ones they put beneath the bike racks with the signage saying to stay off of them (yeah, right!). Well, once he saw those, and much to his Daddy's secret delight, I'm sure, the kitchen was history. So, instead of coming home with a kitchen tonight, we came home with a jeep. I'm bummed. I really wanted the kitchen.