Hi, Hello, How are ya?

Hi! Hello! How are ya?

Gretchen and I got back from our trip to Arkansas Saturday night, and we are finally getting back into the routine of our everyday life. We had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends, but we missed DJ!

Let me start off by saying, how relieved I was that the weather was warm enough to pull out the sandals and short sleeves! There were a few days that we needed a light jacket, but that's better than sweaters, boots, and heavy coats! Plus, it snowed in Indiana while we were away and I'm so relieved that I missed that!

DJ, Gretchen, and myself left Friday night, and drove to our halfway point. Gretchen did great in the car and we stopped to eat at Cheeseburger in Paradise, and I ordered my old-time favorite: sweet potato chips! After that, we put Gretchen in her pj's hoping she'd fall asleep watching Finding Nemo, or "Emo" as she calls it, but she stayed awake through the entire movie! When we got to our hotel, she refused to sleep in the rented (and thankfully, clean) crib, so she ended up in the king size bed with us. Thankfully, DJ slept well, but I on the other hand had better nights!

She did well in the car on Saturday, and we made it to Jonesboro to drop off his mom's dining table, that we had "borrowed" for the last 3 years! We were there early enough in the afternoon to eat at one of our favorite restraunts, test drive a few new cars, and for Gretchen to play with her cousins! Gretchen had tons of fun with Katie opening and closing Nana's screen door! The girls are only 2 weeks apart, and played very well together!

My mother-in-law had us all over in her very own apartment for dinner Saturday night! It was fun to spend time with my in-laws and neices and nephew. The grown ups all went out for cocktails while Nana babysat all 4 kiddos! I do want to add here, that after three years in the "north" I had forgotten how big the hair was in the south and how dark the eyeshadow is! It really made me miss my southern roots!

The granddaughters helped Nana make delicious pancakes on Sunday morning! Afterwards, my parents met us and we all ate lunch at Dixie Cafe, which is one of my most favorite southern restraunts! I love to dip their rolls in honey and their croutons are to die for! DJ left after lunch to head back home, since football practice started last week, and my parents took Gretchen and I to spend the week with them.

We stopped and ate dinner with my grandmother, brother, sister-in-law, and Gretchen's cousin.

Later that week, we took Gretchen to the Daffodil field near my parents house to take a few pictures.

Notice, the tank top! I was thrilled to be able to pull that out of the closet although, it was a bit windy!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Gretchen!

After Gretchen's "nap" we spent the afternoon outside. She "rode" the four-wheeler with Paw. Don't worry- DJ already scolded me for letting her ride without a helmet, but they were not going fast -at all- and Gretchen was screaming "help" the entire time!

My sister, neice, and nephew came over that afternoon. They brought Gretchen the cutest baby doll and cookie baking set! The afternoon was lovely, so we sat outside and soaked up the sun!

The next day, Gretchen and I ate at Tropical Smoothie, another favorite restraunt, and went to visit my grandmother.

That afternoon, Gretchen and Gee had a tea party.

On Thursday, my sister-in-law and I went and had pedicures! We took Gretchen shopping and picked up these Minnie Mouse jammies! Let me throw in, that I'm eating my words here. I was one who said that my child would never wear character clothing, but as she was throwing a huge fit in TJ Max, she found these pj's so I bought them, for only a few moments of quiet sanity.

We spent Friday searching for fabric for Gretchen's big girl room, and we had lunch at my cousins house. We also hit one of the newer shopping centers, where the above picture was taken.

We flew back on Saturday, and Gretchen did fairly well on the plane rides.

It's nice to be back into our routine, but I'm counting down the weeks until school is out and summer will begin! And, when we get to go back to Arkansas this summer!

Bunny Clip Winner!

Congratulations Kady! You are the winner of the Easter bunny clip set!

Your bunny will be light pink and will arrive just in time for Easter!!!

I'm sending you an email now, so please check your inbox!

Congrats!

Thanks to everyone who entered and y'all have a great week!

Tired....

I'm just plain tired today, anyone else?

Since launching my new products, I've been super busy- which is a good thing. But, I've also been busy at work. I'm a speech language pathologist for our local school system, and work in one of our new elementary schools (which I love!). If you know anything about special education, you've heard of IEP's, and I've had 30 of them to write and conference on in the last two weeks! Thankfully, I have 6 left, but only 1 day to finish them in!

On top of that, we've had 2 sets of visitors over the last 3 weeks. I love having visitors, and since we're far from family and friends, we don't have them too often.

We are leaving for a trip to visit family in Arkansas this weekend! Yup, one more thing added to my plate. Gretchen and I weren't leaving until Monday, but now we are leaving this weekend and driving down to see DJ's fam before we go see mine. Then, Gretchen and I are flying back! I'm so looking forward to this visit. I need warm weather, and frankly, I just need to see my family again. Nothing says comfort, like your mother taking care of you. Yes, even a 27 year old, still needs her mommy!

We'll spend the week taking Gretchen to the daffodil field, searching for fabric for Gretchen's room, shopping, and hopefully pedicures!

I won't be around the blogosphere next week, and I know I'll come back feeling a bit disconnected. But, I think, that at times, that's a good thing!

As far as business is concerned, HPA will not be taking orders over the next week. I will only be able to finish local last-minute Easter bow orders.

But, on a brighter note, I might finally have my items in a local boutique! My husband did some great marketing skills for me while he was waiting at Verizon for 2 hours yesterday! I'm so looking forward to it and really hoping that everything will work out!!!

Alright, y'all have a great night, a great weekend, and a great week! I promise I'll come back with lots of stories and pictures!

Oh, and Happy Spring!!!!!

Go Green- St. Patrick's Day!

Have you spotted a little leprachaun today? Legend has it, that if you catch one he'll give you his pot of gold? I haven't had any luck though, although there are tons of children dressed in green today at school!

Gretchen is wearing her shamrock shirt today with a matching bow, so hopefully she won't be pinched at daycare! I wish I would've gotten a picture of her this morning, but we were late running out of the door- as usual!

We did a little "early" celebrating last evening.

She played with "green" play-doh while I made dinner.

Green beans and green yogurt were on the menu! You could also serve green milk or green applesauce. Last year, I "dyed" her eggs and biscuits green for breakfast!

And, we finished the evening off with a "green" bath, thanks to the Color Wonder Tablets!

Easter Bows

I've had a few orders for Easter bows, and I was finally able to finish them last night.

Easter Egg pigtail set.

Purple with blue combination.

Pink w/ green combination

The above kufi hat and bow were ordered from a friend that needed a birthday gift.

Just the bow- pink, orange, with a yellow loop that features pink and orange flowers.

And, my last Easter bow. This is the only bow that I actually have for "sell". If you're interested it's only $6.00!!!

M2M Easter Hair Bow

Heather, has this adorable little girl, Hailey. I met Heather online while we were both pregnant with our firsts. Although, Hailey is her second child. She contacted me to make a hair bow to match Hailey's Easter dress.

She told me that she wanted a larger bow, one like I had made for Gretchen to wear to football games. I asked her to send me a picture of the Easter dress, and I would do my best! Although, I wasn't sure how it the bow would look elegant, compared to the dress.

I decided to layer an organza over the grosgrain, because organza does not hold it's shape. I added light pink and light gree surround a loops, with white grosgrain spray. That was the extent of the bow, but I pulled up the dress again, and realized I had a light pink flower that matched the flower on the waistband, so I added it to the top.

Here's how it turned out!

And, here's the dress!

I can't wait to see a picture of Miss Hailey on Easter in her dress and bow! She's going to look simply fabulous!!!!

Mmmm.... onion rings!

We took Gretchen to Red Robin Saturday evening, after we spent the entire afternoon furniture shopping. The little honey was such a trooper!

DJ's truck ended up getting us lost- yes, his truck got us lost- he has the hi-tech blue tooth (?) that gives directions. So, she didn't get dinner until 7:30, which is her usual bedtime.

When we finally got to the restraunt, she chowed down! I asked the waitress to go ahead and bring her food before ours, because she was starving- and had already eaten a cup of kashi cereal, orange slices, and fruit snacks.

She immediatly dug into her mac-n-cheese, and devoured the entire dish! But, the funny part, was when she reached to get my onion ring and I gently reminded her that she didn't like them. Which, didn't stop my 2 year old. She took a bite, and the onion slid out. (Tilt your head slightly so you can see the picture right side up) You think that would have stopped her...... Nope, she slurpped it right up- all of it.

See.... all gone!

Weekend Update

I feel completly disconnected with the blogging world! I have had an unbelievably crazy week and a half, well, month!

My in-laws came in a tiled our kitchen last weekend. I posted about that last week. DJ was on his spring break, so he was home with Gretchen last week, and I worked :( I ended up taking the morning off on Friday. Not so I could spend time with them, but I was sick, and I think I just needed to catch up on sleep to make me feel better. And, besides the snotty nose crud, I do.

I convinced DJ that we needed to start looking for furniture for Gretchen's big-girl room. He agreed that we could go and LOOK on Saturday. But, our friends called, and wanted to come and visit. We couldn't refuse their visit, and they agreed to tag along as we checked out furniture stores.

So, we go in looking for this: Which, by the way, is the only bed that I liked, and I'm not in love with. And we ended up with.....

this. Yup, a new dining table! I think we are the only people who could go looking for one thing, determined not to make a purchase, and end up purchasing something completly different and not on our list.

But, I LOVE it! We've used DJ's parents old table, and to be honest, I hated it. I loved the sentimental value of it, but it wasn't my style at all. And, since we've added to the kitchen, we might as well go all out, and get a new table!

One of the Ashley's furniture store in our area was closing. We ended up getting a great deal on the table, and we couldn't pass it up!

As, I catch up in the blogging world- keep your head up- i'll probably have multiple posts in one day.

And, don't forget to enter the Easter giveaway! I only have 6 pathetic entries, and seriously- this bunny clip is too cute!

Easter Garland

As I was browsing blogs today, I came across adorable Easter garland, and decided to try my own. I purchased two different types of scrapbook paper. Hobby Lobby has theirs 3 sheets for $1.00 this week. You'll also need shapes to trace. In this case, I used 3 different spring/Easter cookie cutters.

Trace the shapes onto the back of the paper.

Cut out the shapes.

Arrange the shapes into a pattern. I did bunny, egg, flower.

Next, find a coordinating ribbon and grab a hole punch.

Punch holes into each side of the shapes, and cut the ribbon.

Tie the pieces together with ribbon.

Hang.

The project took all of 15 minutes. I should have made it longer, but I'm out of off-white ribbon. To prevent the ribbon from fraying, you can heat seal with a lighter.

Just Darling!

One of my product testers, sent me this picture of her little honey in her purple/yellow Easter bunny applique shirt and bow! Isn't she just darling!