nap mats, nap mats, nap mats

I have had no free time to work on my new photoshop elements projects. And that is OK, because I have been super busy making nap mats! I have all new nap mat pricing on my website, so if you are in need, hop on over to www.sahmiamdesigns.com and check them out. I have new fabrics available, too, which I unfortunately don't have up yet, so email me if you want to check them out and I will send you a swatch sheet.

Enjoy your Thursday!

PhotoShop Elements

I recently purchased photoshop elements 7. Instead of doing the right thing and reading my manual and watching tutorials, I am playing around with it. I still don't know what I am doing, as you can see by my practice banner. It is way too small, but I am too tired to mess with it anymore tonight. I am sure before I know it I will be in love with this latest toy. Of course, I will probably want to upgrade to regular photoshop.

I look forward to posting all of my trial and errors. Feel free comment on my trials and errors. I am sure there will be many.

Wishing you all a peaceful night...

My New Booth...So Far

As I mentioned in my last post, I now have a teeny-tiny little booth in Serendipity Market in Edmond. I think the booth looks much better now that it is full of colorful products! If you stop by and don't see exactly what you need, just drop me a line at customerservice@sahmiamdesigns.com and I will let you know if I have the item you need in stock. If not, custom orders are always welcome!

Coming Soon...

You are probably thinking "Why did she even bother with this awful photo?" Well, this is my new, albeit teeny-tiny, booth space at Serendipity Market in Edmond! It doesn't look like much of anything now, but soon it will be overflowing with sahm-i-am designs products!

Serendipity is located at 917 E. Danforth Road in Edmond, Oklahoma.

Crazy

I don't even remember the last time I posted. Things are crazy here, but that is a good thing. I am working to build a light box (thanks Jen!!) so I can catalog all of my merchandise and have much better pics on my website. Oh yeah, that website that I have not updated in FOREVER!!

I have decided to open a temporary booth at the Dallas Market for their June Super Gift and Accessories Market. There is so much to be done, and so little time to accomplish everything. Hopefully I will soon be able to post some pictures of all the things I have been creating. And I might just add a light box tutorial. I think this will turn out to be the neatest thing since sliced bread!!

Sale Postponed

The Tee for the Soul Warehouse Sale is postponed until next weekend due to inclement weather. The sale will be held Saturday, April 4, 2009. Same time, same place!

Tee for the Soul Warehouse Trunk Show

I am going to be a vendor at the Tee for the Soul warehouse trunk show this month! I love doing this sale. There are always so many great booths to peruse, and I always meet such great people.

I will have many new items in my booth. I have lots of new fabrics, and I have been busy sewing! I will be offering some discounts on some of my most popular items as well! Mention that you read my blog and get 25% off an item of your choice!

The sale will be held Saturday, March 28 from 10 am to 4 pm at the Tee for the Soul store, 101 West First Street, Edmond OK. (One and a half blocks west of Broadway on First Street, west side of railroad tracks)

I hope to see you there!

Don't they look nice?

OK, so as I posted previously, I finally did it. I sorted through all of the kids toys and got rid of what they absolutely do not play with. Again. I then organized them into categorical labeled see-through bins and stored them in my new cabinets in the sun/play room.

This is what is behind door number one:

Door number two:

And door number three:

The upper cabinets are still empty. I managed to fit the majority of their toys in the lower cabinets where the kids can easily reach them. They still have a few things in their rooms, but now everything is so much neater!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Today would have been Dr. Seuss's 105th Birthday. He is my favorite children's author, and that is saying quite a lot. I love that he never talked down to kids, that he wasn't afraid to put a message in his stories, and he knew kids would get it. Mostly, I love that he knew the importance of fun.

Today we read Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, The Lorax (written nearly 40 years ago and he is still speaking for the trees!) and Sneetches and Other Stories. I hope you had an opportunity to celebrate this masterful writer's birthday and read a little Seuss today. "If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good."

Don't Panic.

It seems we were on the go most of the day. We finished our errands around dinnertime, coincidentally near a Pei Wei restaurant. The kids love the Chicken Lo Mein (the adult kind, not the kid version that comes sans veggies) so we decided to pop in for a little dinner.

After dinner we headed over to choose our fortune cookies. This is always a lot of fun. Brandon's said "Your co-workers will enjoy your creativity." Very fitting, considering he is a writer. Emma's read "A good laugh and a good cry both cleanse the mind." Okay, pretty typical. Aidan's read "Hope is the most precious treasure to a person." I opened mine last. Mine simply stated:

I am fairly certain that I could win a "Weirdest Fortune Cookie Fortune" contest hands down with this one.

So Sweet

I am a sucker for silhouettes. I ran across this sweet little personalized print on Warm Biscuit's website, and I must have it for the new sun room. After all, it will primarily function as Emma and Aidan's play room, so I feel it is very fitting.

You can personalize your silhouettes. They have several to choose from. And at just $30 it is a steal! You can grab yours here.

I can't believe it is March!

February was a busy month. It seems the four of us were sick for most of it, which is a shame. But it was not all bad. Some pretty exciting things happened. Aidan turned three. Emma lost TWO teeth. I finally got the kids' toys organized into labeled bins. (More on this astonishing development later.)

I have decided that my kitchen needs a little makeover. Nothing extreme, I actually love my cabinets. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE new counter tops, but that project will have to wait. For now, I am going to do a little painting and add some new fabrics. Primarily, Anna Maria Horner's delicious Sketchbook from her Drawing Room collection:

If this doesn't brighten things up, I don't know what will! I know it is not super clear in this picture, but there is a gorgeous teal color splashed throughout the fabric. I am going to match paint to it and use it to paint the wall under the chair railing. I am not exactly sure when I will commence this project, but I hope to get started in the next few weeks. Once I begin I will make sure to post plenty of before and after pictures.

I picked up three wonderful chairs at an estate sale a few months ago, and sadly they are still sitting in my garage begging to be updated. Now that I have picked my primary fabric, I can finally recover the chair seats. Unfortunately they need new webbing, too, which if I remember correctly is a bit of a pain, but I know I can do it because my mom is a super hero who can do just about anything. And I know she will help me. (Mom, you ROCK!) Anyway, I think I will use a coordinating fabric on the chairs, maybe the pressed flowers. There are so many pretty coordinates, how is a girl to choose?

Hot Pink Skulls

This is one of the latest blankets I made for an order. I just love it! I know it is funky, but I think the hot pink swirl minky and hot pink satin, both of which are so girly, really pop against the graphic skull print. This was a ton of fun to make and I hope I get to make a lot more.

Three

Today Aidan turned three. I don't know where the time goes, but one minute I was in the OR looking at my new, perfect baby boy, and the next I was lighting a "3" candle on top of a birthday cake.

The family party was great. Aidan chose a menu of white salmon (Halibut), broccoli and baked potatoes. Brandon picked up a special treat at the fish market -- homemade hush puppies. They were yummy!

My mom made a fantastic cake (as always) which was, at Aidan's request, decorated with his favorite bad guy Zurg (from Toy Story). On her way to my house, someone swerved into her lane of traffic and slammed on his brakes, forcing her to slam on hers. The cake went flying. I am not sure I can properly convey how upset she was that Aidan did not have his Zurg cake, but we were all just happy she was OK. Brandon ran to the bakery and picked up a chocolate cake, and all was well.

Aidan was not not upset at all. He was just happy to have everyone over to celebrate his birthday. He was so excited to open all of his cool presents. Unfortunately, no matter how quickly I tried to move around, most of those photos ended up looking like this:

Or they were a complete blur. He moves fast!

All in all it was a fantastic day. And we have his kid party to look forward to this Saturday. He will have a Zurg cake for that party, and maybe by then my mom will stop feeling so bad about the first one.

I don't know how I ended up so lucky, but I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Complete!

Our sun room is complete! Well, actually they still have to install the window sills, which will be done on Monday, but otherwise it is done! Here are a few pictures. Again, I do apologize that they are not better pics. One day I will get around to taking that photography class. You know, in my spare time.

And here we have storage. Ahhh...so wonderful. My kids cannot wait to cram the cupboards full of toys and games. In fact, Hulk, Spiderman, a giraffe and that clown from Gymboree are already residing in the cabinets.

There is still much to do. We are going to do a major sort of all toys and keep only the ones we really play with. Hmm...seems I did this just a couple of months ago. Anyway, toys will all be re-sorted and labeled into clear containers with lids and stashed neatly away in the new cabinets. We will be so organized! I am not saying that I will never again step on another Bristle block in the middle of the night, but I think my chances of doing so will be greatly decreased.

The paint color is not too evident in these pictures, but we went with a nice calming light green. It looks good with the dark wood. Emma was v. disappointed we did not go with her choice of pink paint, so I have promised her a pink room. Finally. I must start on that project next week. Poor Emmie has wanted pink walls for 4 years now. It is about time I honored her wishes. Aidan said he would like orange walls, but thankfully he is super easy-going and is just happy to have a new room to hang out in.

Now for the fun stuff -- I get to choose some fabrics and furnishings! We have not even begun our search. Brandon and Emma have been sick, and I got sick this week as well. Hopefully I will feel much better next week so I can do a little shopping. We want to keep everything kid friendly which roughly translates to WASHABLE. So far that is the only thing I am not willing to compromise.

So this is the room. We couldn't be happier with the way it turned out!

Loose

Emma, wearing her new very favorite princess nightgown, wiggles her first loose tooth.

We just discovered that Emma has two loose teeth. Our dental hygienist pointed this out to us at her last appointment in October, but they were barely wiggling. I don't quite know how I have managed to miss this, because I still insist on helping her brush her teeth every night. Honestly, she does a really fantastic job by herself, but I have a thing about dental care. I know, I should step away and quit with the helicopter parenting.

So one tooth is really rather loose. The other is loose, but in no danger of falling out over the next week. I am in a panic to have her pictures made before the tooth falls out -- they will be the last pictures of her with all of her baby teeth. It goes so fast.

Another Good Day

Happy Friday Folks!

Today was another good day. Emma seems to be feeling a bit better, although she gets dizzy when she turns her head. I am thrilled the pain seems to be nearly gone, as well as the fever.

Emma and Aidan got to spend a couple of hours with CiCi again today. They always have such a great time with my mom. Today they went to a toy store and got Lincoln Logs, which I remember playing with for hours as a child. Then they went to the grocery store and bought ingredients for Emma's snack mix. I wish I could share a picture of the finished product, but the kids polished it off! I am so proud of my girl. She is so confident and creative when it comes to cooking. I am especially pleased that there were left over apricots. So yummy!

Our sunroom now sports a tiled floor. It looks as though the project will be complete next week. I am still amazed it has moved along so quickly. Despite losing nearly an entire week due to inclement weather, it very well may come in ahead of schedule.

Have you seen the new Provo Craft toy, the Yudu? Amazing. Jen and I keep saying we need to try to screen print, and here Provo Craft has designed a machine to make it easy for us to do just that! I think accessories might be a little expensive, but it might just be worth it.

Oh, another thing I fell in love with today is Anna Maria Horner's new "Good Folks" line. Delicious. It makes me want to start sewing right away!

Speaking of sewing and creating: this just in! Read etsy's breaking news report about the CPSC's one year stay of certification and testing of certain products! Yea!

Here's to a good weekend!

A Good Day

Today was a good day. I feel like things are getting back to normal. We left our house today and even Brandon was ecstatic to get out. We kept it simple since Emma is still not feeling well. We took the kids out to lunch and then went to the pediatrician. As I suspected, Emma does have an ear infection.

The kids got to enjoy a couple of hours of play at my mom's house today. Low key, but the change in venue was priceless. I think this change of pace did wonders for everyone's state of mind.

Exciting things are happening in the sunroom. This was the scene last night:

And this is what it looks like tonight:

Granted there is not a great deal of perceptible change, but the walls and ceiling are now completely taped, mudded and textured. And the tile has been delivered. The tile guys will be here bright and early in the morning to lay the floor. And someone else is coming to shoot more insulation in the attic above the new room. We are getting so excited!

I can't wait to decide on a paint color. I don't have much time to decide. I may try to post some swatches and get some third party opinions. I want to keep it light, but I want a little color, too. Decision, decisions. If only I had a fabric in mind this would all be so much easier.

The trim carpenter is coming Monday. I can't wait for him to build our cabinets. They will provide us with so much storage space. The best part is that I can simply close the doors and not have to stare at the stuff.

Hope you all have a fabulous Friday!

My Week Thus Far

What a week. We got hit with an ice/sleet/freezing rain/small-sprinkling-of-snow storm Monday. We have not left the house since Sunday. As a girl who likes to be on the go, I am climbing the walls with cabin fever. Brandon has taken it all in stride. He likes to stay at the bat cave. He is also recovering from strep, so the downtime has been a welcome gift. Emma is sick. We are taking her to the pediatrician in the morning. I am sure it is something viral, but I want to make sure she has not developed an ear infection. Thankfully this just came on and we did not have to drive her to the doctor in the ice. Aidan, who is much more of a home-body than I am, is just as ready to get out of here as I am!

I thought I would get so much done this week. After all, I could not escape the mounds of laundry with easily justifiable errands. I did make a dent in some of the household chores, but I did not accomplish half of what I wanted to get done. I did finish Aidan's birthday party invitations. They are pictured here:

I think they turned out pretty cute, and most importantly Aidan LOVES them! They are all addressed and ready to mail as soon as I leave the house tomorrow and buy stamps.

We started construction on our new sunroom two weeks ago. It is coming along at record speed. A guy was here to tape and mud the sheet rock today and he is coming back tomorrow to texture the walls. The tile guy is coming tomorrow as well. After that we just have the cabinet installation, heat & air installation, paint and wood staining, and light fixture installation. I can't believe it has come together so quickly! The kids are excited to have a new playroom. I am excited to have a place to organize the kid clutter. I'll post a couple of pictures tomorrow.

One last thing: you may have read today's earlier post. I have since written my congressperson and senators, urging immediate reform of the CPSIA. If you are interested in reading about this further, I recommend checking out www.handmadetoyalliance.org, Sarah Jane's blog, this etsy blog, or Design Mom's blog. The topic has also made it onto Change.org's website. I just can't imagine not being able to make, sell and buy handmade things anymore. It is just too sad. Thanks for your help in saving handmade!

Save Small Businesses! Save Handmade!

OK, so I plan on blogging about other things later in the day (after the little ones are tucked away for the evening) but I feel an overwhelming need to mention this immediately.

This is the link to Sarah Jane's blog. She has written an eloquent and informative blog about the ridiculous new CPSIA legislation. I won't regurgitate everything she has written, but I will urge you all to take action, whether you are a small business owner or not.

Thanks!