Cheap Therapy

Have you ever considered that we could all use therapy for some reason or another...or another? We always joke with Diddi that sewing is cheap therapy as it is something she absolutely loves and it gives her a sense of calm. Robin and I cannot thread a needle (our machine does this for us...love technology), but we have our own sense of calm...to each his own.

Often I take it upon myself to research and find things we need to do or places we need to go. I take great care to locate the right item or great bargain we just have to have. This weekend, we had a "girls weekend". As the term implies...no husbands to shift our focus or bring with them their nagging. We had an awesome weekend and were provided the greatest therapy ever offered because it is free...laughter and tons of it.

I will say this laughter was at my expense and it wasn't really free, although the laughter was. See, I made a major snafu a mistake if you will and assumed I knew everything about this particular event and well...I was wrong. However, you never know where life will present the greatest laughter moments and "cheap therapy"

Blessed

I was corrected, well over many years ago, by a relative of a relative that I was not lucky...I was blessed. I think the conversation went something like this, "I am lucky that I did not get caught speeding on my way home to beat curfew". She informed me that I was very blessed to have made it home safely before curfew (especially if I had been speeding).

Since that moment...many years ago, I have vigorously fought the urge to use the commonplace term, "lucky". Recognizing that you are blessed is very enlightening and it can be in everyday events like the sunrise or monumental moments where your blessings are compounded by the fear, hurt and/or illness of others.

I counted my blessings when I saw so many very ill patients at a hospital on a recent visit. I also hoped that each person I passed would be blessed with an awesome day and take stock of their own blessings....count them one by one.

Wear them, Wear them Everywhere

Perfectly paired with little boy toddler onsies or a girl's chocolate tutu for dance.

Precious posies for dance or everyday.

Awesome for the older boys with graphic tee and jeans!

I have the perfect black ensemble for these...I tend to have black in every outfit.

These and so many other patterns are perfect for the following:

Toddlers paired with onsies or other outfits for an easy day/night out.

Dance, gym, playground, school....

Tweens paired with tights, leggings, skirts practically anything

Sports and/or cheer and dance squads (perfect to slip on when it gets cool out or just to be cool)

Adults...Moms share the chic factor and slip these on your arms (moms can be just as cool)

Many other uses can be found and potty training for little ones...these are the ticket!

80's But Much Better

It is early to mid 80s and big hair, fish net stockings and visions of "Flashdance" were every girls passion. I can vividly remember wanting to be that girl on the movie with the tiny figure and perhaps the magical leg warmers that helped her move so well. Who knew leg warmers would make a come back as such a fashion frenzy sensation.

Well, they are back and are more precious than I can remember. They are even cute for boys...flames under t-shirts with jeans is so awesome! Big tip for adults...even you can experience the leg warmer look as they are perfect to slip on your arms in a cold building. A big fashion perk...everyone will either think you are nuts or think you are the coolest. Either way, you will turn heads and that alone is a reason to say "I want those".

Views from Paradise

The beautiful bride we traveled to see...she is absolutely gorgeous inside and out!







No, this is not a postcard...this is the real deal and it was awesome.








An amazing view and it was from our balcony...fabulous!








It really was this gorgeous.







This was our greeting when we arrived at the airport. After that long of a flight I am sure everyone who travels this way appreciates the welcome (we did for sure).

Fresh Ideas

I love suggestions of fresh new ideas from people who read our blog. When visiting with a friend about the recent post, purposeful and pretty (luggage tags), she suggested these would be perfect for backpacks.

As a former teacher, I remember the importance of not putting a child's full name on their backpacks or lunch bags. This encourages those who would not normally know a child to call out their name and appear to the child as friendly. So, the suggestion about the luggage tags for those items was perfect!

These tags stand out and can be personlized with an initial making it easy for the child to recognize...awesome!

Fabulous Fabrics

We have finally uploaded all of the fabric selections for the glorious gifts, such as luggage tags, that we offer. Seriously...no products yet, but you can choose the fabric you wish to have (this boggles my A-type mind). The products are coming as this fabric upload was a major victory for me!

Above are a few samples and there are many selections for babies, children, adults, holidays and yes...even males (this is only 5 out of 34...check out the website for others).

Purposeful and Pretty

(This is an example of the luggage tags we carry)

On my recent trip, I special ordered, from the personlized gift line we carry, luggage tags with our initial on them. I ordered 3 exactly the same (the large red polka dot pattern) and tagged our bags with style!

Let me just set the scene...I was responsible for retrieving our baggage and my sweet spouse was in charge of our child. As I was chatting away with a sweet older lady getting the scoop on her visit...sweet turned sour spouse was giving some major murderous glares my way as if to say "if you do not stop visiting and watch for our bags I am going to hurt someone and you are on the top of my list".

Knowing him as I do...I continued to chat and I immediately spotted our luggage, not because of the bulging sides and strained zipper...no I noticed the blaring red polka dot luggage tags that could only be ours. Note: spouse did not like the "girly" tags until I grabbed the bags and made a quick get-away. He knows not to doubt my intuition and I knew these tags would do the trick...and as usual I was right!

Next trip you take...get the tags as they are well worth it (we do offer colors not offensive to males)!

Benefits

Yes, marriage has benefits (as it also has faults and negatives, but I shall not spoil my mood and story) and mine has geographic location of birth as a major plus! My husband is Hawaiian (half, but they still count that as a local) and we had to do the family thing there for a wedding...poor us. Yes, marriage has benefits and for the past four days I loved and valued every second of this particular bonus.

Besides the gorgeous sights and amazing local flavor we were able to savor...I got to see that Wild Rose Tattoo shirts are even popular across an entire ocean! I found the shirts we carry at a boutique located in the resort where we were staying. I was so shocked to see them and let me say, these shirts are a hot item there too.

While I was soaking up the sun, Robin was a spectator at a team roping event, the finals, as we all know them. Our husbands and many of our very best and dearest friends team rope. This sport has provided us all an opportunity to enjoy the absolute best of times. Memories have been made at these events, so much so I long ago started taking notes just to remember. Trust me...these things cannot be made up even from the most creative minds.

New Arrival

No sweet newborn to announce...but we did get our new pettiskirts in yesterday evening! These skirts are incredibly precious with enough fluff to engage any young princess.

I was enlightened by one of our new fabric suppliers that even if a little girl had never seen a dance move, she would immeditely know what to do when dressed in a tutu or pettiskirt for the first time...twist and turn and of course admire herself.

Hope to have pictures soon!

Discipline

First we think of a response to a negative behavior, usually used by parent to child or in a school setting. I never imagined discipline as having a positive vibe...it just sounds harsh. Sunday, I was enlightened that discpline of our children is not supposed to be simply a punishment to fit a crime (time out for not sharing comes to mind). Discipline is what parents are supposed to demonstrate through their actions; more an example.

We should be disciplined in our response to slow drivers in the morning rush...I often say silly things like "you idiot". We should be disciplined in our reaction to something someone has said or done that makes our blood boil (I can think of too many examples). I must say we were blessed to have parents that have set an example, through discipline, and I am just now seeing this. As I sat in the Sunday morning service with our sweet tempered, mild mannered children I suppose the message was meant for me. As they each asked for another book and whined when the other wouldn't share...I simply smiled and showed with the greatest amount of discipline I could collect from the tips of my toes...sit quietly and hope everyone else is too involved in the message to notice.

Love your children and show great discipline (I am trying to keep my road rage to a minimum)!