Horses

Samantha's taking horseback riding lessons at a gorgeous farm here in Wisconsin.

Check out "Willy and Wonka":



This bugger is frisky!



There's something so glorious about a stable.



And how can leads be so cool lookin?



Makes me want to move to the country. I spent most of my childhood in the country with horses and the whole lot.... I miss it. I miss the quiet.



xoxo

Massachusetts

This might sound corny, but the best thing to me about creating our stuff and sending it all over the world is to actually be able to SEE it in pics in someone's home.  Some very sweet customers send me those pics on occasion and every single time I open them I get goosebumps!  Such goodness.

We love to make our state hook pieces.  It teaches me something every time.  Mostly I learn that I wasn't paying much attention in my high school geography class.  Sigh.  But hey, it's never too late to learn!

I had a really nice customer ask me to make a Massachusetts piece for her.  Now, for those of you who were daydreaming like I was in your high school geography class, Massachusetts is a little dickens of a state.  As far as it's shape, that is. I'm sure the folks that live there are quite lovely.

So I googled Massachusetts and learned that there's two little chunks that aren't connected to the mainland.  I believe these are called "islands", LOL.  These two little islands are Dukes and Nantucket.  I knew we had to cut those out separately and the customer would have to affix them to their wall with mounting tape.  But Barnstable was also a concern for me.  It's so skinny and juts out a lot, so I worried it would break.  We decided to cut it out separately and try to fit it nicely to the mainland.  Well that did NOT look right.  So I told Julie that we were gonna start over and she was patient and said NO RUSH.  See, I told ya she was sweet.

So we did it over.  And it turned out to be one of the coolest states ever.

Here is the fantastic pics Julie sent me... I was in awe.  I also promptly went to the paint store and got some nice white paint swatches cuz I'm going WHITE WALLS again!  Doesn't her place inspire that in you???  Not to mention her sweet dog looks perfect.  Especially in that apartment!  Black dogs make everything look great.

To check out Julie's new apartment, and to be inspired as I was, go here.

Or her blog here.

Liz xoxo

front page on etsy

We've been fortunate enough to make it onto the front page of etsy quite a bit lately! This is such a blessing, as many of you know Rick lost his job a bit over a year ago. We are thrilled with the success of our home decor shop on etsy! This enables us to support our family and hopefully continue to grow our business!  We love it!

Here's a pic of one of the front pages... I love this collection of gorgeous things!

Hope you all are having a great spring!!!

Liz

View an Etsy Front Page Treasury List - The Vault on Craft Cult

View an Etsy Front Page Treasury List - The Vault on Craft Cult

Always so exciting to make the front page! And my beloved Wisconsin to boot!

Liz

Finally made a color chart for oldnewagain!

Top row:  Dark Turquoise - Coral - Forest Moss - Buttermilk

Second row:  Aqua - Rust - Spring Green / Metallic Silver (shown on hearts) - Sweet Lilac

Third row:  Classic White - Earth Yellow - Corona Red - Slate Gray

Fourth row:  Lamp Black - Metallic Taupe - Sage Green - Jamaican Sea
 

yellow

I have to admit, I was never a huge fan of yellow.  But gosh I think I'm changing.... it really is a great color, huh?

You all gotta check this awesome blog out:

our house rules

Samantha brought an assignment she had done at school home last week. Evidently some of the rules of our household needed to be clarified in her mind. I thought these were sorta understood, but I guess not.  Samantha is quite literal in her thinking, as you can see.

translation:  no swearing, no killing people, no drinking beer.

zzzzzzzzz

I was up til 2:00 am last night.  Reading blogs on my htc hero in bed.  

For whatever reason I couldn't STOP.  I hate that!  

I wish the world was later.  What is the appeal of getting up so early, really?  I don't get it.  I wish I did.

So this is what I wanna do right now:

But I can't, too much work to do.  So I will probably do too much of this:

and do a lot of this to my little doggie, cuz I'm just in the mood:

Then at the end of the day I will feel like this:

So that's that.

What are you all doing today???

oink oink

Check out our new pig hook piece:

 I love her!  If you've known me for a while, this pig is a silouette of an aceo I did (in my ebay days!) which I called "Pig Rides - 10 cents".  Just a little trivia for ya.  ;o)

Post-edit:  Here's the aceo!

tee winner

Check out how cool my tee looks on Jane, the winner of my hand-screened tee! 

To see Jane's blog and to check out her very cool dogs, go here.

words

One of the very best things about seeing your kids grow up is watching them learn how to write.  Of course reading is wonderful, but there's just something about writing that makes me so happy.

I love finding little notes in Samantha's room (it's not snooping when I'm cleaning it).  Little worn out papers of random thoughts or little stories, or even finding out what she's worried about or scared of.

I found this note the other day:

And then I snapped this as she was reading her little dog book:

This has nothing to do with words, well unless you count the word "police" on the side of the car, but I caught Samantha snooping on the cop that was sitting across the street from our house!  Yes, she's looking through binoculars!  :D

hehe... a girl after my own heart!  NOSEY like her mom!  ;o)

And I gotta get some food in this post!  RIGHT??!!  So here ya go... our living room filled with Girl Scout cookies:

xoxo Liz

bring it on

So now I know it's all about the food.  I even changed my kickin' banner to reflect this.  I am this serious.

I got 7 comments outta you folks from my pretzel post (alright a couple were my own, but I'm still counting them... 7 is 7 after all).  And since no one judged me on the massive amount of pretzels we consume, I'm gonna share my other naughty problem:  chocolate.

Oh dear me...  

chocolate. 

How can you be so powerful, so all-consuming, so wonderful???  Why do I want you first thing in the morning and last thing before slumber?  Why do you do this to me, you sinful little vermin.  You should be ashamed of yourself.  Don't you know I am already eating way too many pretzels?

My last binge on chocolate happened about a week or two ago.  I'm pretty sure it was because I was feeling sorry for myself and my carpal tunnel problems. I like to think of scenarios where I can eat what I want with less guilt.  Pity works well, especially self pity.

My crapal tunnel (no that's not a typo, that's what I call it) has been so bad and it's put me into a bit of a depression.  When I get depressed I kinda let my mind go sometimes.

So, I got a little panicky when I thought of having to stop creating because my hands would not allow me to.

I had a vision of myself painting with my feet.   

This is how far I let my mind go.  I told myself that I would indeed learn how to create stuff with my feet if I had to.  I was off in my little world, painting while reclining with my feet up in the air, a nice big sable brush between my big toe and that second one that I don't know the name of, I like to call it "the toe next to the big toe"....

When one of my kids hollered MOM!!! and I snapped out of it and realized what an idiot I was. 

So after my vision was rudely interrupted by Molly proclaiming she had KILLED (not sure how and I didn't ask) yet ANOTHER pet fish and it was her favorite fish ever (although I kindly reminded her she only had "Olive" for 48 hours), I started reading cjane's blog and all those comments from her "feminist" post that caused such a stir.  This kept me busy for quite some time, and with the carpal tunnel issues, the dead fish saga, the feminist arguments, and a lack of nutrients on my part (did I mention I had the LONGEST period EVER on the face of the earth???  4 WEEKS!!!  huh???), I decided I needed chocolate.  ASAP.

So I had to try nie nie's favorite homemade oreos.

Ready to be baked... I used my handy melon-baller cuz I was having a perfectionist style night, since I had to do something perfectly as there was that freaky little possibility that I was soon to become a "toe painter".

And don't they look delish???  For some very strange reason that I hate to even mention, neither one of my girls liked them (what the???).  One said they were too sweet (hello???) and the other wanted her's without the frosting. She said the frosting was making her "cough". Rick doesn't like this sort of thing, so it didn't surprise me when he didn't want any (this is probably why the poor sap weighs the same as he did in high school and can still fit in his high school levi's, size 33 waist... good grief, what a friggin nutcase!).

So the fact that no one else was going to eat these made me so upset, as I then had to eat most of the batch by myself!!  WAHHHHHH!!  It was an absolute nightmare!  It took me several days, at least.  I put them in the freezer and within 3 or 4 days they were gone.  I was soooooooooooo glad when it was over!  The things we have to do nowadays, us women of the world!!  Such troopers we all are!

P.S.  I liked 'em best right out of the freezer.  Don't judge me.

Liz

we love these

Well my last POWERHOUSE post that summoned up THREE comments (YES!  THREE!  This blog is in the big leagues now people!) was about ........

food.

So you must all love food like I do.  And did any of you make that killer roast I was braggin about??

Anyway, you want food huh??? Well, HERE'S some food!

We are now at the very pathetic level of buying our soft pretzels in BULK!  I'm out of the closet here folks! 

We buy a box of these suckers about every 4 weeks.  Which means we eat 60 pretzels in 4 weeks, which, for those of you who aren't math whizzes, FIFTEEN pretzels a week!  OH MY... that is really pathetic!  And they are not whole grain or organic or any of those fancy words.  They are just good ole' white flour gooey yummy pretzels!  Processed to the hilt, no doubt.  Whatever!

Okay, I seriously am going to go make one right now.  With melted butter :::gasp::: and kosher salt.  YUMMMMY.

Another shameless attempt at enticing you

photo courtesy of the fabulous venus

Really folks, I had no intention of making this blog into a GET-THIS-FREE-AND-THAT-FREE-THANG, but it's just sorta happening, ya know?  Goin' with the flow here.... movin along.... I love to give! ... and well, you gotta put up with it! 

Of course the exposure helps, and I won't deny that's what started it, but now I'm addicted to it!  It is a TOTAL BLAST packing up a goody that we made and sending it off to someone who WON it... I know the feeling of WINNING something (although it's only happened to me a couple times, I'm not a winner, LOL).  It's a thrilling feeling!  Even winning something little, like one time years ago I won a Cousin's sub ... that sub tasted better than any other sub I had ever eaten there!!!  I don't know what that is.  But it's cool.

So Krissy of "etsy interviews" interviewed me and wow!!! ... they do a bang-up job over there!  So, if you missed out on the last give-away (and even if you didn't), go and leave a comment and put your name in the hat!

etsy interviews

Off to cut out another "live", LOL!

Liz 

The Dingo Ate Your Baby!

Remember this episode of Seinfeld?!?!  One of my favorites! 

dingo

Well, guess what???  My BABY ate the DINGO!!!  Yes, Teddy scarfed a dingo bone too quickly...

and it got STUCK in her esophagus!!!  So, after two emergency vet clinics, 100 miles driving, and $630 later, at 1:30 am, here she is, resting from being put to sleep, in my car on the way home:

That pink bandage is covering her little leg that had the anesthesia needle in it.  And through it all, choking and gasping for air, the vet people told me she still wagged her tail and was so sweet when they worked on her.  I'm tellin ya folks, this dog is truly special.  I've had dogs all my life, but she is on a whole new level.  She is amazing.  Are you sick of hearing about her??? 

But how can you be?  

LOOK at her!!!

and her back legs KILL me!

i'm dying here!

Are you getting tired of reading about my dog? Please, please tell me NO... please...and if you are, please for the love of all things fluffy, just ignore me right now... I think I'm going through a funny girl phase...

xoxo Liz

purple

Seems purple is popular right now, or is it just me?  I especially like it with green.

Check out the pretty purple treasury (that's our shelf in there) that the lovely glass etc
came up with.

food

I was delighted to find The Pioneer Woman's blog and had to make her pot roast. My big-chunk-of-meat cooking skills are so-so (normally I blame it on the meat if it's not tender enough). But, The Pioneer Woman assured me that I needed to give it another shot. And I did. And my family couldn't stop OOOOing and AAAAHing. And I couldn't stop smiling. I couldn't stop being so proud of the aromatic rosemary sprigs, the tender carrots, the buttery mashed potatoes.  After this very profound experience (and I'm not kidding), I realized how fulfilling it is to make a good meal for your family.  I'm sort of a gotta-cook-so-we-can-eat cook.  But that day I put my heart into it and I got so much more than food out of it! 

You gotta try this roast!

Wish I had a plate right now.

Go here for the recipe. And if you make it, I wanna hear what you think!

wooden letter giveaway!

wooden letter giveaway!

Okay peeps... here's the deal:

We need more ideas for our wooden words.  We already have eat, run, be, nap, live, cook and bake.  Of course there's hope, joy, peace, change, love, etc... and those are all fine and lovely, but come on, we need UNIQUE words!  

I was telling my mom how I thought run would be cool for a runner's house, and she said "hmm... how about SLEEP?"  bruhahahahahaha..........


Anyway, I want some ideas from you!!!  Whoever comes up with the best word (according to Rick, Molly and me) will win a wooden letter of their choice!  And you even get to pick the COLOR!!!

Words must be four letters or less.  Let's say two words per entry.  So think hard before you leave your words in the comments section of this post. Please.

So come on, get our your DICTIONARIES!  Ask your friends!  Ask your kids (and tell them we're not doing fart or booger).

And look, I can spell!!! 

AND WE HAVE ANOTHER WINNER!!!

The winner of the super spectacular (and I mean it!) headbands from the lovely Cheryl of Old School Trading is....

number 4!!!  which is Annette Q!!!

I asked Molly to pick a number between 1 and 11 and she said 4, because no one ever picks 4.  She's sweet like that.

Annette, please contact me with your address and I will tell Cheryl to send your goodies to you!

THANK YOU Cheryl for your generosity!  You are amazing.  And your headbands are the same...

On a lighter note, I went grocery shopping the other day and noticed Samantha had added a couple items on the list. 

xoxo Liz

And the winner of the TEE is.........

NUMBER 10! maxandmollydesigns!

I could not get that funky little random generator thingy to show up, so you're just gonna have to take my word for it.  ;o)


So ironic that the winner is the gal who actually *taught* me how to screenprint in this way!  Sweet.

Stay tuned for the headband drawing soon...

On another note... check out our new "eat" sign.

We're trying to come up with some clever words.  Ya know, UNIQUE ones.  Nothing against "love" and such, but we want to come up with something different.  So far we've done "eat", "live" and "be".  Our next one is going to be "nap"... wouldn't that be sweet for a baby's room?

Any ideas anyone?  We're trying to keep them at four letters or less.  So supercalafragelisticexpialadoscious is out.

Liz

unexpected love

I've been a very bad mama.

It started innocently enough at 2:30 on Sunday afternoon at our local Best Buy. Since that seemingly normal day as I was kickin' it with Molly, I've been doing a lot of "armchair parenting". You see, I have a new love. This new love is my hero. And I mean that quite literally.

So..........


Here he is..........


my hero.........

HTC Hero from Sprint

He looks innocent enough, doesn't he?  Oh but don't let his slick demeaner fool you. He is causing me both joy and pain.  But, I love him.  I neeeeeeeed him.  I even bought him a little cozy black jacket.  And I'm downloading all kinds of fun games we can play together.  And I'm touching him a lot. And he responds in just the right way. Sigh.... Ah... but this blog is rated G so I won't go any further.

As you can see, I am spending way too much time with him.  So much that I'm having to wear these a lot:

Which sucks.

So tonight I am going to try to put him in his little bed and hook him up to his feeding tube and make some of these.  Cuz you can't go wrong with anything Nie likes.

P.S. Before the week's over, I'm going to do the drawing for the t-shirt and with Cheryl's approval, for the rockin' headbands as well. STAY TUNED and please send your friends over to enter!

xoxo Liz

A few of my favorite things...

I love really arty design blogs that show us cool stuff.  So that's what I'm gonna do today.  Show you stuff I love, and hopefully you think it's cool, too.

 Way cool, right off the bat.  Don't ya think?  Available here.

Clevergirl... need I say more?

Oh dear.  I'm so glad I never have to go through this again.  Find this funny first date print here. 

My carpal tunnel is killing me.  More on that another day.  

Don't forget to post in the two GIVE-AWAY blogs a few posts before this one!!!  Still time!

Liz

Growing up

Molly is going to be 16 next month.  The last 16 years... they just flew by. 

It's bittersweet, this person I see...

the one that leaves in the morning IN A CAR driven by her best friend. 

the one who goes to work bussing tables at a local diner every Sunday morning. 

the one who works so hard in school. 

the one who has the most awesome friends.

the one who sticks up for those who need it, who isn't afraid to do what's right, who loves life.

the one who's kept herself pure... no drinking, no drugs...  in this world, that is quite the accomplishment! 

 
We're so proud of you, Molly!

Love,
Mom and Dad

the best headgear AND interview AND GIVE-AWAY!!!

(see bottom of this post for give-away details!  WOOT!)

Samantha is super sensitive and HATES her hair brushed or messed with. Anything I manage to get in her hair (ponytail or whatever) she manages to take out within an hour or two. It's so frustrating! She's the kid that has all that HAIR hanging in her face, you know, the one that looks like a wild child! tsk tsk!  I can hear you all!  WELL NO MORE!

Meet Cheryl of Old School Trading!  She makes the most comfy and super cute headbands!!!  I ordered one for Samantha, then had to order a bunch more!  Our mornings are much nicer now and Samantha loves them!  Molly snagged one, too, and they fit them both wonderfully. I don't know how Cheryl did it, but they fit both my kids and me, too!  And the craftsmanship is perfect! 

I got these (plus a plain black one not shown):

Here she is in her favorite cheetah print:

Cheryl was gracious enough to let me "interview" her:


When and why did you start making these cool headbands?

1. When living in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri...I designed children's clothing and sold them on Ebay about 8 years ago. I designed fun vintage inspired clothing re-using jeans, chenille,vintage tablecloths, hankies, sweaters...you name it...I used it! It was so much fun! When I decided to start making clothing again on Etsy...I decided to make headbands to match my outfits. My oldest daughter, Ashley, was so excited about my business and helped me cut my first 100 headbands that I made....So I decided to call them "Ashleybands". The Headbands became a big hit since they fit so well on both Adults and children and because I offered so many fabric choices! I CAN'T STOP BUYING THESE BEAUTIFUL FABRICS!! I started getting wholesale orders from all over the country...including Australia and Singapore of all places!! So....at the moment...I'm whipping out Ashleybands on a daily basis!! Life comes around and goes around! Right out of college I was an assistant buyer/product developer of hair accessories for Claire's!! Now...I'm back doing it again for Old School Trading!

What is your typical daily routine?  

2. Typically...I wake up and get my kids ready for school. I check my emails while I eat breakfast. Hopefully, I don't spill orange juice on my keyboard!! I usually then start working on my orders and get everything lined up to start sewing when my youngest, Alyssa, goes to afternoon preschool. I sew all afternoon...but check my emails...and occasionally shop supplies on etsy as I come up with other ideas that are floating in my head while I sew! I also try to work on marketing stuff (just completed a new trifold with all my fabric selections)...and trying to get a new website launched very soon which takes me forever because I'm Computer Illiterate!! When I go pick up the Kids from school...I run to the post office and try not to do "business" until late at night. But....it depends on how busy I am. When my husband comes home....I hope he doesn't ask "Did you do laundry today?"

Tell us about yourself using just 5 words:  

It's hard to talk about myself!
I guess I'd say 1. Humble 2. Honest 3. Faithful 4. Creative 5. Spontaneous

Name 5 of your favorite blogs:

I can honestly say that I just got into the "Blog World" since the New year. So, I'm hoping to have time to "Add" this to my daily schedule!! I have enjoyed following:

1. http://mylilyeden.blogspot.com (very inspiring)
2. http://dandginagives.blogspot.com (awesome giveaways)
3. http://feeds.feedburner.com/trueup (great place for sourcing)
4. http://robbiegphotography.com/blog (beautiful photography)
5. And of course: http://primoriginals.blogspot.com (well...I guess you know why Liz is a favorite!!)

Name 5 of your favorite etsy shops: 

It's hard to pick only 5!! I LOVE FABRICS so I would have to say 1. MaterialGal 2. Luckykaerufabic 3. Sweetdreamsandco 4. LemonTreeStudio 5. And of course Primoriginals!!

(Me again):  Cheryl has graciously offered to do a give-away of her awesome bands!  Simply comment on this post and you are automatically entered to win a 3 pack of *Ashleybands* in any fabric of your choice in Cheryl's shop!   THANKS CHERYL!!!

Hey ya'all, don't forget to comment on my blog post below for another primoriginals give-away, too!

Liz