Paper Pretty Designs

I have really been working hard on a little something new lately. Research, practice and designing has kept me up until 1 or 2 in the morning nearly every night lately. I started to put together my new etsy shop and start to stock my store nearly a month ago. You can imagine my surprise when I hadn't pushed my shop, advertised or even told a single person that I was doing it but yet I started having sales over the past week or two to complete strangers. There is still so much more that I want to offer and am working on for the shop but I will post about those as they happen:)

My new shop is Paper Pretty Designs or www.paperprettydesigns.etsy.com. As of right now it is strictly digital. I offer designs of all different types of invitations (and soon to add Christmas cards) for you to print and mail! All of these invitations and cards can be customized any way you want! I don't have even half of what I am working on listed in the shop yet but I couldn't hold it in any longer. Some other things that I am working on adding to my shop are some awesome graduation announcements, whole digital party kits that you print at home, and MORE. But those things are taking me a little more time to get together with the kids needing their Mommy so much during the summer...how dare they!!

Here are just a few samples of birthday invites. To view them in the full size just head over to my ETSY SHOP. You can also like my new PAGE on facebook by clicking HERE! There are so many more posted in there for you to view including baby shower invites, wedding shower invites, etc...





I'm very excited about this new adventure. While I love to sew, I love to do it as a hobby. I have made a pretty good income the past four years off of my sewing but I have also not enjoyed it like I use to so even though I will still fill orders for friends and family, I may be putting that whole show on the back burner for a while.
There are several changes going on right now in my life as I have also been offered another amazing opportunity that is in the works, I am about to start BOTH of my kids in ALL DAY school (a first for my little man), we are finally moving forward with Teg's eye stuff and several other things.

Teenagers Today

I don't know about you but I have huge fears about raising teenagers. I dread it and look forward to it all at the same time. I only look forward to it b/c I always want to see what my children will do next but I dread it b/c who in the world likes to deal with a teenager. Now I'm not saying all teenagers are bad...my little teenage babysitter does not fall in to your usual drama filled know it all smart mouth you can't tell me nothing category(a.k.a sheenaisawesome). I just pray that Ry has a touch of that in her b/c I'm not sure that we will both come out the other side alive:) I am friends with lots of teenagers on facebook and let me tell you, I sometimes want to jump through my computer screen. So much so that I have had to unfriend a lot of them. The first thing that annoys me is how they post pictures constantly with their tongues out. Seriously...do you think you look cute with your nasty long tongue sticking out in every single picture? Another thing that gets me is ALL THE END OF THE WORLD DRAMA!!!! I know that those very same things once seemed important to me but my goodness STOP POSTING THAT YOU SWITCH BOYFRIENDS LIKE PANTIES!!!!! I don't believe in a teenager having a "relationship status" unless it has been at least a year! Your getting on my nerves with your "in a relationship", "it's complicated" and "single again" crap every three hours!
Facebook has changed stuff with teenagers. People that would never see you in a bikini, now can just as soon as you post that half naked picture on the Internet! Also, there doesn't have to be all the face to face bullying. Just plaster it all over facebook and you have knocked some poor insecure girl to her knees. I'm all about protecting my kids and rest assure that the first time my daughter comes home crying b/c some I think I'm better than you girl says something ugly to her, that I won't want to take her out but really she must learn to fight her own battles and me getting involved isn't going to help matters unless something gets extreme....then I will take her out:)
The other thing is how they dress. If I were young again and had to find a boyfriend these days, I would be single. We were at the mall on Saturday and there was several boys with leggings on. One boys leggings had one hot pink leg and one zebra print leg. I'm almost certain that he had jeans on over those when he left his poor unsuspecting parents and then he ripped off the jeans as soon as he was out of their sight. I am most certain that I will always check under my kids clothes before they leave my house. Paul was convinced that they must have lost a bet but he looked pretty confident in his clothing choices. Then there are boys that are wearing skinny leg jeans or hip hugging low rise jeans. Boys, you don't look cute.
Whatever happened to being normal. I mean, I'm scared!!! So I think the lesson that we have learned for today is please keep your tongue in your mouth and a simple pair of regular old jeans and a tshirt will do the trick!

My Fitness Pal

UPDATE: For whatever reason the link I posted won't work. I keep trying and double checking but it won't so just go to www.myfitnesspal.com .

So recently I have felt blah about myself. Now when I say this to most people I hear "You don't need to lose weight" but my scales beg to differ. I am not huge. I am not even considered overweight but I have been slowly gaining a pound here and there that I'm not to happy about. I also don't usually exercise. Well for about the past month my husband, my kids and myself have been walking anywhere from three to five nights a week. We go to our church parking lot b/c it is pretty big and walk a mile to a mile and a half each time. Tegan takes a bike to play on or goes to the church playground. Rylee actually exercises with us...usually she runs. My husband runs and walks. So far I just walk. Running makes my heart hurt but I'm going to start with little short very brief moments of jogging. I can't tell you how much better I have felt just since I started this little amount of exercise. I have so much more energy and just feel tons better.
Even though I have went from zero exercise to a regular routine, I just lost my very first pound that seems to be staying off this week...at least so far. I don't really have a huge love for food. Ask anyone who knows me, I don't sit down and eat a whole lot at one time at any meal. I don't walk away from a restaurant saying that was the best food of my life. I just eat to sustain life:) But what I do love is two things: 1.) My diet or regular coke. I can not live without carbonated beverages. Recently when we were out to eat I tried to get water as a money saving thing and it really ruined my dinner. 2.) The other thing I love is snacks. I can literally just live off of snack food. All day long I snack. Now this would be great if it was light and healthy snacks or fruit or something but it isn't. I snack on chips (my weakness right now is kettle cooked jalapeno chips), crackers, cheese, fudge rounds, ice cream, pretty much any bad for you snack. It is so hard to break the snack and coke habit. I have done it for 31 years!!! I have ZERO self control or will power when it comes to snack food and coke.
I also have no idea how to count calories or any of the other stuff you are suppose to count. So I just joined a free website that is super easy to join, My Fitness Pal. It takes my height, weight, age, and other factors to tell me what my daily calorie intake should be on a daily basis so that I can lose one pound a week for 5 weeks. You can tell it how many pounds you want to lose and how many you want to lose a week and it will factor all that in and tell you what your calorie intake should be. But the VERY BEST FEATURE EVER is the food diary. You go on there for each meal and snacks and type in what you had for lunch. It will tell you how many calories, fat grams, carbs & proteins that you used for that meal or for the day so far and how many more you can use before hitting your goal of intake for the day. You can even enter meals from restaurants (including fast food) so that you can really keep up with everything. You also enter in your exercise to know how many calories you are burning.
It breaks it down and is keeping me in line! I have so far lost my one pound for the week and just started using it this week. Anyone wanting to make a change, this is a great place to get started!
There is a tool on there to add friends to have support and motivation while doing it together but you don't have to tell your weight to your friends. So if any of you decide to join up...let me know and we can connect through there!

Same Old thing

Every week we eat the same meals....week after week after week! Tonight I actually stood in the kitchen and cooked for 45 minutes and didn't even sit down to eat what I cooked. I am so tired of the same old thing. This is what we have every single week: spaghetti or lasagna, lemon pepper or fried chicken tenders & potatoes, tacos (which I hate), frozen pizza, tenderloin with corn and box mac n' cheese. If we don't eat out on the weekends we just eat a sandwich. I am honestly getting to the point where I would just rather eat a sandwich every night. Less cooking and cleaning and I would enjoy it just as much as these same old meals plus it would be cheaper. Is anyone Else's grocery bill doubling these days??
The thing is, I'm not a lover of cooking. I mean, I can make stuff taste OK but I don't really have a love affair with food nor do I with cooking and cleaning up from it. We also aren't eating healthy like we would like to. I have searched high and low for good healthy (or even semi healthy) meals that are quick and easy to make but still eatable. If I am going to have to stand in the kitchen and cook for more than 30 minutes, I lose my appetite. I guess that could be my new diet plan:) I like things like casseroles but I also need other ideas.
So this is where you guys come in. I know I have at least two loyal followers out there reading this. I want you guys to list some of your favorite dishes and recipes in my comments section. That way not only I get some good ideas but also each of you can see the ideas and try them out too. Come on....PLEASE! I'm not to proud to beg, I'm just hungry!!!!

On The Back Burner

If you haven't already guessed, the blog has been on the back burner lately along with myself and this really messy house. Try as I might, I just can't seem to do it all these days. My husband says I am getting old and the gray hair that not even hair color in a box could cover for long, would totally agree with him:( The kids are bored and seem to need constant refereeing attention. I have been trying my best to keep them busy while keeping my sanity.
School is upon us though and now we are busy gathering up all the thousands of things that are required to start back to school. Since I love to shop but money doesn't usually allow it, I love this time of year. Even though none of the new stuff is for me, I love to watch the kids get excited about new stuff. Tegan got a new pair of sketchers at Academy Sports this past weekend and you would have thought we bought him a puppy. He continues to say to everyone and every item in our house "See my brand new sketchers". There was a fight in Academy. I wanted the toned down new balance shoes but he wanted the brown and orange sketchers that look a little like they have monster teeth on them. I gave up....he won! He was the cutest thing ever walking through the store with his new back pack on his back, carrying his new metal Spider Man lunch box and proud of his new shoes.
Rylee is much more complicated. Her dad said no to a new back pack b/c she has several from years past but since he didn't back me up on the toned down new balance shoes for Teg....I bought her a new back pack. Don't get me wrong, it is a cheap $9 back pack with hearts and peace signs on it. I won't dare tell my husband that I actually hate the back pack:) All of her school supplies have been gathered while my husband grumbled about having to buy things like wipes, Kleenex and baggies but I just kept saying HUSH! Now is the hard part....we didn't ever really buy Rylee any great summer clothes. I just cut off a lot of her to short pants and made them in to capris or shorts. She is in a strange size b/c most clothes are made 7/8 or 10/12. Well my 8 1/2 year old can't wear what she could wear at age 7 and she sure can't wear what she will be wearing at 12. So this leaves me feeling like I am looking for a needle in a haystack....size 9's or just plain old size 10's. I dread it b/c I am very plain and basic and she is very out there in her style. We fight over what she can and cannot wear. I'm sure that will begin this upcoming weekend.
So many other things have been going on that distract me from the blog but since I am pretty sure no one is still reading this post after my rant about school shopping, I will save that list of things for another day!

Randomness

This summer seems to be flying by and I feel like I am missing some hours in my day. I have been very busy working on a few little ideas that I have in my head and also trying to entertain my two little ones. We have had lots of fun in the sun and swimming this summer. We have had more adventures already this summer than we have probably had the last four summers combined. I have to admit, it has been fun to actually have my kids out and about. Tegan isn't always the easiest child to handle but this year it seems to actually be doable to have both kids by myself. I know some of you think that is crazy but with the age difference in my kids, Rylee doesn't always want to do the same things that her baby brother wants. But now they are both getting older and easier. As sad as it is to say that, I do like this new life chapter of self sufficiency. To be honest it is easier to have them out of the house and busy than to stay in the house with them fighting all day:)

I have really been praying and thinking about what my future holds career wise. I am somewhat of an odd one as I am a people person that would also be totally satisfied with being a recluse (is that the right word....by that I mean a total homebody). Anyways, the more I pray the more I know that the right thing has happened in my life with school but that leaves me with figuring out what is next. I would like to continue to do something that doesn't take me away from my children ALL the time but yet have something that give me satisfaction. My wheels have been turning and I am feeling good about some of my ideas.

I sold my bigger embroidery machine on the cheap today. I love the idea of embroidery but I don't think I really like doing it a lot. I have a smaller limited embroidery machine that is built in to my everyday sewing machine. With that machine I can embroider the bibs and burp cloths and that is enough for me.

It is almost midnight around here so I guess I will drag my tired, sunburned self to bed with pure excitement that for the first day all week I have no plans tomorrow and plan to sleep as late as the little people that I live with will allow!