Hey Stranger

In life, you learn there are things you're good at and things you aren't good at. Turns out, for me, blogging is something that I'm not good at. It's now July of 2017 and I haven't posted a blog post in over a year. Can you believe that? I'm sure you can. LULZ It's really not that hard to believe.

I'm really not sure why I stopped writing posts. Perhaps I had nothing to say, perhaps I got lazy, perhaps I just had too much going on, perhaps I thought there were bigger issues going on in the world and my nonsense ramblings about recipes, home projects, or haircuts were silly to even think of. Over the past year (and a month) I have started writing posts and there were a few drafts hanging out there, but I just never went back to finish them.

That brings us to today. Here I am! Still trucking along. You may have noticed (or maybe not) that I haven't really posted anything new in the shop or been very active on my (shop) social media pages. I also didn't meet my last yearly goal of 500 sales - most likely a direct result of not creating anything new or putting myself out there. You know what? I'm okay with that. As an artist / person sometimes the well runs dry and you just are not inspired. Life is a constant balancing act and sometimes things are put on the back burner, even if you care a great deal about them.

You know what though? Eventually things work themselves out and you get back on track, at least if you put in the effort. I'm not sure what happened, but I was suddenly just hit by a wave of inspiration. You'd think I was off doing something like.. visiting a museum or... reconnecting with an old friend or.... finishing a really great, important book.... but actually what I was doing was looking at recipes on Pinterest. In case you are wondering, both of these look bomb and I'm trying to decide which one I'm going to make this weekend:

Fiesta Ranch Chicken Bowl

Cuban Chicken & Black Bean Rice Bowl
(yes the comment inquiring about the mango salsa and fried plantain recipe is from me. Girlfran is dedicated.)

(A lot has changed since we last spoke. A big thing now is to make "bowls." Basically you just take a meal where everything used to be mixed together and now you separate it into each item and photograph it and then Instagram it - last step is very important and yes I'm guilty of doing it. As Sam says, "bowls are the IKEA of food dishes. You just give them the pieces and they have to assemble it.")

OH. And also Sam and I just went on a week long trip to Colorado. It was magical. We went to Boulder, the Rocky Mountain National Park (it was breathtaking - literally), the Stanley Hotel (spooky stuff), Fort Collins (drank many craft beers), Denver (cool, but I'm not much of a city person), Red Rocks (bucket list item was to see a concert here - CHECK!), and finished the trip in Manitou Springs (Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods). It was a wonderful trip and could also be the cause of my inspiration - no, you're right it's definitely the chicken bowls. However! I'm very very excited to have (almost) no plans for the rest of the summer. Running around all the time is cool and fun and makes you feel important, but it's exhausting and expensive. I'm looking forward to having more down time at home and banging out some new designs (I actually have some ideas, guys and gals! It's a beautiful thing.)

So, stay tuned. I'm going to try to get back into blogging because, hey - it's fun talking at ya!

Talk soon. <3

-- Alison --

Drumroll....

So...I disappeared again. Dangit! I was being so good about sticking to my promise of posting every week and also creating at least one new listing a month...until I wasn't. Sorry to have let you down, yet again!

Where were we, anyway? It's been so long I can't even remember. I know that I had you all on the edge of your seat waiting to see the reveal of that one room we were working on repainting....oh! and you probably want to know how our yard is coming along, right? Well, good news! Both of those projects have been tackled!!!! Wanna see?

Okay! Let's start with our den, or extra bedroom, or whatever you want to call this room. We (I) debated over a long time over what color to paint it because we wanted it to feel cozy and also coordinate with the rest of the colors in the house. We finally settled on a lovely blue color.

Here is before..

And after!

Voila! There it is! It's such a cozy, quirky little room and I just love how it came out. How about all of that natural light pouring in? And those shelves and glass door knobs? How charming are they?? :) We ended up painting all of the shelves, all the trim, and both sides of each door. My plan is to continue on into the hallway and freshen up all the trim and doors with a new coat of paint.....but! For now, let's just admire how pretty this room is.

Oh, and you know what?

See that sliding glass door? Want to see what it looks out onto? Not a concrete track anymore because guess what...IT'S GONE! :D

Isn't that amazing? I swear, sometimes I wish the clone stamp was something I could use outside of Photoshop because it really would've saved us a lot of work here..like weeks and weeks of work and wheelbarrows and wheelbarrows full of dirt. But really - LOOK at that grass!! :D

And so the grass isn't lonely... the past several weeks, I've been going a little plant crazy...like I can't stop buying flowers and plants because they are just so lovely. Also, just being in a giant plant nursery and walking around is so relaxing. Strolling through aisles and aisles of flowers and greenery, being surrounded by bright, vibrant colors and discovering new fun plants, and smelling their pretty fresh, floral smells and seeing other people walk around enjoying themselves...it's really hard to be upset about anything in that setting (and also makes it hard to care about spending a bunch of money).

So..as a result..I've planted some hydrangeas (originally on the right hand side of the dirt track, but it was too sunny there, so moved them outback more), some blueberry bushes, hung lots of flower baskets, planted some lilies, daisies, and some other perennials and! we even planted our first little veggie garden. Tinkering around in our yard has become my new absolute favorite thing. (Okay, not really - the cats are still my most favorite thing). It's so peaceful and we just love it! <3 So...this is why I have stepped away from the screen lately. We get so little sunshine and nice weather in CNY, I've been trying to make the most of it. I hope you have been, too!

Okay, that's enough for today. I hope it was worth the wait! :D

-- Alison --

TIO's 2nd Birthday!

Happy April 29th, which is not only one day closer to when I can start planting things in my garden.....it's also my 2nd Etsyversary!!! How time flies, amirite?

My goal for this year was to reach 300 orders. As of today, the total is 317! I can't even believe that. Remember when I was hoping to get to 20? Seems like it was just yesterday...not two YEARS ago!

Now that this goal has been reached...it's time to set a new one. I think I've already mentioned this in a previous post, but I'm going really big for the next goal - 550! Eep. That's a big number and I really don't know how realistic it is, but I feel confident that maybe we can at least get close? .......... Maybe?

The past several weeks have been really crazy over here. I've had the opportunity to work on some really awesome custom orders because my customers are the most creative, fun people out there and they all have AMAZING ideas! One of my favorite projects lately was designing an invitation for my BFF's bridal shower next month. I just mailed them out yesterday, so will wait until next week to post the design so that the surprise isn't ruined. Here's a sneak peak of Moose helping me put them together...

He's such a good little helper, isn't he? Charles was also lending a paw, but it's really hard to get them both in a photo...they're quick little guys.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me along the way, to my customers who have kept me busy and allow me to keep the shop running, to my friends and family who I annoy with talking about invitations all the time, and to Sam - for not only making me a special Etsyversary breakfast this morning, but to always giving me advice on new designs, promoting the shop, and mostly for giving me reassurance when I'm constantly second guessing myself, and also - you're pretty handsome and are always there when I need help opening a jar.

So - YAY!!!!! Today is a good day! Enjoy your day, friends!

-- Alison --

Musicians for Shriners

Over the past couple of years, I've come to learn that during April and May, the shop really picks up. I've been super busy with orders lately, including some really awesome custom orders that I can't wait to share with you! 

We've also been working on the house some more....or well, trying to. We started painting that one room, all of the walls are done, but we haven't done the trim yet...oops. In the process of painting this room I've learned a few things: #1 painting paneling SUCKS, #2 anything that involves putting down or peeling up painter's tape also SUCKS, and #3 money trees can't withstand cold temperatures... yup I killed my new awesome plant by putting it out on our sunroom while we painted and then we got a second winter. What's funny is the weekend we bought that plant, we won money on the superbowl and then the weekend we killed it we had to pay a bunch for taxes...coincidence? I was able to find another one though... but still haven't received a large sum of cash. What's up with that, money tree?

In addition to painting that room.... we've started working on the two big projects for the backyard. #1 remove / get rid of / replace fence and #2 demo concrete / get rid of / plant grass seed where there was an in-ground pool filled in. We are...sort of...or well, totally in over our heads with these projects. Turns out, breaking up concrete is REALLY hard. What's even more difficult is trying to figure out how to get rid of it. Look at this mess we've made:

Fortunately, we have a friend coming over this weekend to try and help us come up with a game plan for this. We're determined to get rid of it! I'm hoping to have a nice green backyard and also plant a little tree out there this spring / summer so we can watch it grow as we live there. I know, I'm so cute.

One last thing for today. My dad is in a band, isn't that fun? He's going to be one of several bands playing at a benefit for the Shriners Hospitals for Children this summer and asked me to make a poster to promote the event. Here's what I came up with:



So if you happen to be in the area, you should come check it out! A great event for a great cause!

Until next time,

-- Alison --

"Movin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches"

So all this talk of spring has jinxed us. You know that lovely flower in my last post? Well... it no longer exists. It snowed again. Like... a foot. It has since melted, but it was just enough heavy snow to squish all the daffodils that had popped up. Sad face.

I'm so over this gray, dreary, cold weather...come on warm weather, you can do it! You know what one of the best parts of the spring / summer is?..... PEACHES! It's rare to find a really, really good peach, but when you find one...oh man. I can't even.......... They are just so good.

Speaking of peaches, there is a new invitation in the shop! You can find it here.

Since we've been trapped inside and unable to do any work outside it has forced me to shift my focus back to painting that darn room. So, good news! It's been primed and we bought the paint..finally! Going to paint this week. I'm super excited to get that room back together and hang up the last box of pictures we haven't unpacked yet.....we are slackers.

Not only has priming that room kept us busy, I've been busy working on several orders and projects outside of the shop. I'll show you a cool poster I designed for a fundraiser my dad is involved with in my next post! :)

-- Alison --

Okay, NOW Spring has Sprung!

It is now officially spring according to both, the calendar and THIS!!

That's a photo of the very first flower in our yard! :D Isn't it adorable? I can't wait to see what else pops up over the next several weeks!

If that's not enough to be excited about........here's something else

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Have I made you wait long enough? Is the suspense killing you?

OKAY here it is - I have officially hit 300 orders!!!! Actually, as of today it's 301! WOOHOOO!

In the spirit of setting huge goals for myself this year, with doing things like registering to run a half marathon when I've never really ran more than 6, maybe 6.5 miles, why not go big for my next Etsyversary. How does 550 orders by my next Etsyversary (April 29th 2017) sound? Overambitious and scary? Yup, I thought so too....but that's what I'm setting it at. Go big or go home!....?

That's really all I have for you now. I'll check in again later this week, as I'm going to be posting a new design to the shop! Stay tuned!

Do you have any flowers popping up in your yard? Tell me about them below in the comments!

-- Alison --

Spring has Sprung!

Well, we did it! It's officially spring! Woohooo!

I'm hoping you'll be so happy that it's now officially spring and forget the fact that I totally didn't write a post last week? How about I do two this week to make up for it?

So, I mentioned in my last post that we were going to start painting that one room. Welp. Guess what...we didn't. We did buy primer and paint supplies, but I just don't know about the color. I'm undecided if I want it to be a sunny, bright room or a cozy, darker room. Decisions, decisions...

Instead of painting we spent several hours Saturday and Sunday doing yard work. You know those brown paper leaf bags at Lowe's? Well, we filled up 21 of those bad boys with leaves and sticks and also a large garbage can. I'm happy to report that the town took every single leaf and stick and finally took our Christmas tree that's been on the curb since New Year's Day! In their defense...our tree was pretty pathetic this year, they may have confused it with an overgrown weed or something.

Now that it's getting nicer out, I have much less interest in doing anything on the inside of the house and have started a long list of things for the outside. At our apartment, we had a tiny yard that wasn't very private so didn't spend a lot of time out there. We're super pumped about our new yard and all the things we can do with it. My over ambitious list includes larger projects such as fixing up the sunroom, putting up a new fence, and jack hammering out a concrete sidewalk leftover from a pool being filled in - to smaller projects like putting down grass seed, filling in random holes in the yard, planting flowers, and attempting our first veggie garden. All of this is exciting, but what's more exciting is that I might even get a tan while doing all of this!

You know what else happened this weekend? I started reading a blog called RunSelfieRepeat and was so inspired that I registered to run a half-marathon.....Yup. One time I thought I ran 9 miles, but after mapping it out in my car, it ended up only being 6.5. That was my farthest run ever. Not sure how I'm going to pull off 13.1 miles. Why do I do these things?

The run is in October and my new running role model has a training plan on her blog that I plan on using to get ready for this. You should really read her blog (runselfierepeat.com), she's awesome, but you've been warned...you might end up signing up for a half, or even a full, marathon as a result.

If that's not putting my 'get fit' resolution to the test, I don't know what is.

Remember when I said I'll do two posts this week? Well I should stop writing now so I have some thoughts left for that...but first.... let me leave you with this:

My goal is 300 orders by April 29th - My second Etsyversary.

I'm at 299!!!!!!

Hopefully we'll be celebrating 300 in my next post!

-- Alison --