Notes from A Cottage Industry

Oh, happy day!

I've added a new e-banner kit to my etsy shop. It's designed with dark grey letters and the sweetest little birds on big key rings for the ends (or printed alone as a solo piece of art.) It's an e-kit, which means you simply download it after purchasing, and then you can print it out as often as you like, and create a different look each time, depending on your paper choice!(Click here to see the kit on etsy.)

Here, I printed the banner on some darling yellow chevron stripe scrapbook paper...

....and it also came out great when I printed it a third time, on old book pages.

Oh, the possibilities are endless!

Weekly words to live by.

Stop holding yourself back.

A tale of two cities.

I know.

You thought I told you that I lived in Camas, Washington.

Well, you are right. In the most literal sense, I do.

But, there's another place I live a fairly good portion of the time. It's a fabulous place, where I feel euphorically happy 24/7 and life is always good.

It's a little slice of heaven called Traceyville.

Let me tell you how I get there:

Whenever I get a really great new idea, it is nearly always followed by a brain-flood of other ideas that come blasting into my mind, like a domino effect, and I find myself in Traceyville lick-etty-split, where I can visualize just how they can look if when I get to them all. (In Traceyville, I always get to them all...because there are an extra four hours in every day there, and I invariably seem to stay on task!) I can imagine 500 crafty or entertaining ideas in five minutes, and see them all...completed perfectly in record time (and without ever leaving a mess!)...in Traceyville.

Likewise, when I am having a bad day in Washington, I might end up catching the train to Traceyville, where I only find close parking spaces, never run out of Pepsi Maxx, and the biggest serious life issue at hand is figuring out which cute pair of shoes to wear. In Traceyville, there are no pity parties.

Ever.

You see, in Traceyville, everyday is a good hair day. People from all over America live solely to see what the next incredible tablescape I come up with looks like, and I can eat homemade coconut ice cream non-stop without ever thinking about it finding a home on my hips.

Or my patootie.

Or my where-ever.

In Traceyville, I am constantly a stunning example of cutting edge fashion, whether I am mowing the yard, or going to work. Folks cannot believe I am old enough to have six grandchildren. I never, ever find a stray eyebrow on my chin.

Ralph absolutely hangs on my every word in the sweet town of  Traceyville, and he is gob-smacked at my never-ending ability to make cuter-than-the-last-time place cards for our little dinner table. My lip gloss never needs refreshing.

I have a fabulous supply of overstock custom banners and papercrafts neatly tucked away, waiting to go on the shelves in my case at Camas Antiques, and Michelle Obama's secretary just emailed me about possibly doing invitations for one of the girl's birthday parties.

Oh yes.

Traceyville.

Do you have a place like Traceyville that you go to on occasion? If so, what do you do (or not do!) there?

Hmmm?

Cutie-patootie french fry holders.

 

Oh yeah, we love us some homemade french fries at our house.

Mmmm hmmm. Our barbecue sports a deep fryer on one end of it (A killer deal on craigslist a couple of summers ago!) and when we make burgers, we make fries...of course.

Well, I came up with a vintage-y fun way to serve up our fries, and I wanted to share it with you all today!

They're simple vintage mattress springs. I found mine here. (Gotta love etsy!) They arrived within days of my purchase, and I couldn't wait to break them in!

I used simple parchment paper, sold in rolls at the grocery store o(next to the aluminum foil) cut in a triangle (tear off a square and then cut it diagonally to form two triangles)and then shaped into a cone, and placed in the center of each spring.

I placed the freshly cooked french fries in the cones, and placed the cones by everyone's place settings.

Ridiculous cute.

And functional, holding a good sized serving of fries for each of us.

Do you love it?

Coconut limeade smoothies.

We've been enjoying some pretty fabulous weather here in the PAcific Northwest, and warm weather makes me think of ice cream. Ice cream makes me think of coconut, and when I spotted a recipe for coconut limeade smoothies the other day on Pinterest, I knew we had to make up a batch.

Oh. My.

So yummy.

All coconuty smoothness with a hint of citrus-y lime.

Ice-cream-headache-worthy goodness.

These babies are filling, so one smoothie is pretty much all I could imagine drinking, but...oh! Such a treat.

Weekly words to live by...

Weekly words to live by.

Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.

Celebrating the Graduate!

A couple of weekends ago we all gathered in the biggest little city for a very special occasion - my daughter-in-law's graduation from college!

So proud of her, managing a family and going to school.

We gathered all the babies up (the six grands from our side of the family and the three from my daughter-in-law's side of the family..) and Carter, Coen and Keaton's Mama made up shirts for all the kids. She had the little guys help out with a surprise at the celebration party.

It was a bit like herding kittens....

 

 

 

...but we finally managed to get them all rounded up, and in order...

 

 

...with only one minor casualty....

 

 

(Little Letter "D" tipped over, but was no worse for the wear)

 

,,,,,And Miss Letter "A" decided that she had more important things she wanted to do...

 

...it was a priceless photo-op, and we all had a fantastic day.

Memorial Day, twenty Thirteen.

The words from one of my personal all time favorite patriot songs is most approriate today:

 

And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me. -Lee Greenwood

Weekly words to live by...

Weekly words to live by...