Memorial Day Thanks

As we prepare to celebrate Memorial Day in honor of America's warriors (and their families) who have sacrificed so much to keep the rest of us safe, please remember...each member of the U.S. military, active or retired, living or dead, deserves our thanks and honor every single day, but particularly on Memorial Day.

The "Memorial" in Memorial Day has been ignored by too many of us who are beneficiaries of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. Often we do not observe the day as it should be, a day where we actively remember our ancestors, our family members, our loved ones, our neighbors, and our friends who have given the ultimate sacrifice:


by visiting cemeteries and placing flags or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes.

by visiting memorials.

by flying the U.S. Flag at half-staff until noon.

by flying the 'POW/MIA Flag' as well (Section 1082 of the 1998 Defense Authorization Act).

by participating in a "National Moment of Remembrance": at 3 p.m. to pause and think upon the true meaning of the day, and for Taps to be played.

by renewing a pledge to aid the widows, widowers, and orphans of our falled dead, and to aid the disabled veterans.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all!

Enjoy these Fun Mom Facts


Surprising Numbers:
82.5 million of moms in the U.S. - 2 Billion moms throughout the world.

4.3 Babies born each second!

82% of women aged 40-44 years old who are mothers. In 1976, 90% of women in that age group were mothers.

25 is the average age of new moms. In 1970 it was 21.

40% of all births are the mother's first.

4.0 Million is the number of women who have babies each year. Of this number, about 425,000 are teens aged 15-19, and more than 100,000 are age 40 or over.

35,000 births are attended by physicians, midwives or others that do not occur in hospitals.

2 is the average number of children that women today can expect to have in their lifetime.

3 is the average number of children that women in Utah and Alaska can expect to have in their lifetime.

Only about 10% of women have four or more children today. In 1976, 36% of women had four or more children.

1 in 5 preschoolers are cared for in a day-care center while their mother works.

August is the most popular Birth Month.

Tuesday is the most popular day of the week in which to have a baby.

The odds of a woman delivering twins is 1-in-32.

10 Million is the number of single mothers living with children under 18 years old. This number is up from 3 million in 1970.

105 Boys are born for every 100 Girls.


Mommy Chore Facts:

Women average 2.2 hrs / day on chores, vs. 1.3 hrs / day for men.

88% of Laundry is done by moms, totaling 330 loads of laundry and 5,300 articles of clothing each year.

The least favorite chore for moms is vacuuming the stairs.

A baby has 7,300 diaper changes by it's 2nd birthday.

Moms take 2 minutes, 5 seconds to change a diaper vs. 1 minute, 36 seconds for dads. For moms, this adds up to 3, 40-hour work weeks each year - just changing diapers!

Preschoolers require mom's attention once every 4 minutes or 210 times a day.

A preschooler's mom spends 2.7 hrs / day on primary childcare, vs 1.2 hours for dad.


Mommy Records:
Mrs. Vassilyev of Russia gave birth to 69 children between 1725 and 1766.

Rosanna Dalla Corte gave birth to a baby boy when she was 63 years old in Italy in 1994.

Signora Carmelina Fedele gave birth to a 22 lb 8 ox boy in Italy in 1955.



Mother's Day Facts:
Mother's Day is the third largest card sending occasion.

Moher's Day was made a National Holiday in 1914 by President Wilson. It was started in 1908.


68% of people plan to call Mom on Mother's Day, totaling 122.5 million phone calls making it the busiest phone day of the year.


50% of households give Mother's Day cards which equals 152 million cards.


Mother's Day will generate $5 Billion dollars in revenue from greeting-card publishers.

Waxing Philosophical

Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence. Each day is a special gift from God, and while life may not always be fair, you must never allow the pains, hurdles, and handicaps of the moment to poison your attitude and plans for yourself and your future. You can never win when you wear the ugly cloak of self-pity, and the sour sound of whining will certainly frighten away any opportunity for success.

Live this day as if it will be your last.
Remember that you will only find tomorrow on the calendars of fools.
Forget yesterday's defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow. This is it. Doomsday. All you have. Make it the best day of your year.
The saddest words you can ever utter are, If I had my life to live over again.
Beginning today, treat everyone you meet, friend or foe, loved one or stranger, as if they were going to be dead at midnight.
Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward.
Your life will never be the same again.

A Spring Show

Yesterday I traveled to my parent's house in Cazenovia, NY for a Spring show & sale. It was a gorgeous day and everything looked so pretty I wanted to share my photos with you.

Spring Cleaning!

Spring is definitely in the air and with that said I have decided to do some MAJOR spring cleaning. I am going to have the shoppe down for a couple of weeks (look for it to reopen in mid-May). We are moving and I feel like this would be the ideal time to revamp my product lines. Once I get settled in I will be back! Check the blog for updates!
Blessings,
Melissa

Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung and what better way to celebrate than a trip to Gramma and Grampa's house? Here are a few shots of the little sweeties:

In addition to moving to a new home in 2 weeks and packing like mad, I am also preparing for a semi-annual craft show at my parent's house in Cazenovia, NY. Anyone want to join us, email me for directions! Here is a preview of some of the beautiful goodies to be sold:

I have been working on a TON of new repurposed jewelry ideas, some are soon to be listed in the shop. Here's a preview:

Vintage Scrabble tiles with images of Mackenzie-Childs goodies...

I started altering unusual objects, and (dont ask) but came up with a 'wish' penny and then of course HAD to make it into a necklace. Here are the pennies (LUCKY and WISH):

and the necklace:

This one by far is a sentimental favorite. The day I began making these, I got word that a friend of mine had tragically lost her husband unexpectedly and I felt so humbled to hear her tell me she felt very 'lucky' to have been blessed by his love in her life for as long as she had it. I was so inspired by her words, I created a LUCKY penny necklace for her:


I hope you enjoy it, too.

Happy Spring!

Get Happy

I love this song - what a great reminder to be happy every day.

Encourage One Another

Note how good you feel after you have encouraged someone else. No other argument is necessary to suggest that one should never miss the opportunity to give encouragement.

Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken a word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and our thoughts, as well as our success.

UP & Coming

I am working on some new and exciting projects that I will soon be adding to my product line. No hints yet...

Anyone working on anything for Mother's Day that you're particularly excited about? SHARE!

I'm Back!

I must apologize for the length of time between blog posts. Busy doesnt even BEGIN to describe it. Both of my kids had the flu for 9 (yes 9) days. During that time my 5 year old son had an anaphylactic reaction to motrin and so we gave him benadryl...he is also apparently allergic to the red dye in Benadryl, thus making the reaction life threatening. We spent the several hours at the hospital after being rushed there in an ambulance. I think 3 hours passed before I knew what had happened. We spent the next 2 days with the pediatric allergist determining what he needs to avoid and have determined he is unable to have motrin, aspirin, advil, red dye 40 or yellow dye 5. Needless to say this has sort of put a kink in my grocery shopping. (No more M&M's ?!?!?!)
My husband is a vice cop and has been working 10-12 hour days 6 days a week...oh- and we are moving. Dare I say...I THINK things may be settling down now. I did find time to make some pins while the kids were doing their projects. I hope you will like them. You can find them here.

Here are a few of them....

I also added some new earrings just in time for mother's day...

You can find them (and others!) here.

Thanks so much for hanging in there with me.

Songs I Can't Live Without

SO I was on facebook earlier today and my lovely friend Cathy from Avalon Rose Design had this cool list of her top songs... These are songs that for whatever reason, serious or frivolous, impacted you in some way. Ifv you want to see mroe about all your favorite bloggers...join us on facebook by clicking here:

Here are my songs in no particular order:

1. Born To Run- The Boss
2. I'm Yours- Jason Mraz
3. Fields of Gold- Eva Cassidy
4. Baby's Got Sauce- G Love and Special Sauce
5. The Entire 'Achtung Baby' CD- U2
6. Criminal- Fiona Apple
7. Glycerine- Bush
8. Who Knew-P!nk
9. If I Had a Million Dollars-Barenaked Ladies
10. Silent All These Years-Tori Amos
11. Chasing Cars-Snow Patrol
12. Killing in the Name Of-Rage Against the Machine
13. Corduroy- Pearl Jam
14. I Will Not Be Moved-Natalie Grant
15. Harder to Breathe- Maroon 5
16. Tomorrow, Wendy - Concrete Blonde
17. Falling More in Love- Lifehouse
18. Troy- Sinead O'Connor
19. 10,000 Manacs-Our Time in Eden CD
20. November Rain- Guns & Roses
21. Hey Jealousy- Gin Blossoms
22. Be Wise Be Strong Be You - CeeCee Michaela
23. Daughtry's Entire 1st CD
24. Joey-Concrete Blonde
25. Entire Aqualung CD-Jethro Tull

Apologies, Please!

I have been so busy lately I have completely neglected my blog for the better part of three weeks. Right now I am sitting in Florida enjoying the sun (without hubby or kids) and will be home tomorrow afternoon. I am visiting an old friend in Jupiter- its absolutely beautiful here. This is what we wake up to each morning...

If you ever get to Jupiter you absolutely must visit Jetty's...a little restaurant right on the Jupiter Inlet. Here is the view from our table last night at dinner...

I will post more photos from my latest adventures when I get back. In the meantime, here is a photo of my friend (who I am visiting) and her 'catch of the day' a 30 pound bull dolphin.

We are in the process of trying to sell our home in this lovely economy - I need to diminish my supply asap so... That said, I plan to do a little 'house cleaning' and will be putting many goodies on sale. You know me and my sales- 50% or bust....so be on the lookout for some half off treasures in the next few days.
Thanks for stopping by to check in with me- I promise not to be so far in between posts again if I can help it!

Birthday Wishes & A Sale...

Happy Birthday Wishes to my baby boy, James. He turns 5 today.
Where does the time go....?

Just for fun I have listed ALL vintage lace collections at 50% off...

See them:

here.

So pretty...

BE MY FRIEND

I just created a NEW facebook profile for my website. Come add yourself as a friend!

Click the box to go right to my profile:

Buried Under Paper

I am almost literally buried under antique paper. I have just listed some new antique and vintage paper parcels and have decided to make all vintage paper parcels HALF OFF until I diminish some of my extensive stock. You can find them here. Aren't they pretty?

What do you do with vintage papers? I have added some of my favorite ideas from other artists below as inspiration...

A Digital Collage

A Palette for your Illustrations

Pendants

An Altered Collage

A Pretty Necklace

Feel free to send me any of your projects made with antique and vintage papers and I will gladly post them here! Have fun!