Oh Merci, Merci, Merci!

Good evening! I hope you had a wonderful day. If you didn't just remember, tomorrow is Friday! Yeah! Friday has always been my favorite day of the week. On Friday you know the full weekend is still stretched out before you. All that potential. Potential for relaxing, sleeping, flea marketing! Yeah, yeah, housework and all that yuck that I put off during the week too but let's not focus on that. I'm very excited because the Elephant's Trunk Flea Market out in New Milford, CT opens this Sunday. I'm going to get there bright and early. I can't wait to see what everyone has stocked up over the winter. Among other things, I'm going to be in search of some special treats for my swap partner Jenn. I'm participating in the Sweet Goodness S-P-R-I-N-G Fling Swap. This is my first swap so wish me luck!

Today the mailman brought me more goodies. First up is a beautiful - I mean absolutely stunning - wreath from Mary over at Oh Merci. This gal is super talented! I have to get a better scene photo but my camera is not the greatest. Mary also sent these super cute chicks. I plead innocence on the photo - I really do need to upgrade the camera (oh wait, did I mention that already?). These little guys are so cute and have found a home in my dining room corner cabinet where they are very cozy and warm. Don't worry Mary, I'll take good care of the little guys!

I also received some great ephemera and miscelleneous other goodies from Heather at the Speckled Egg. Can't wait to start creating with these.

I hope everyone enjoys their Friday - remember all that weekend goodness is still in store...

A Brand New Day

Hello Everyone! I am very excited to be debuting my new look courtesy of Larissa over at Mommy's Web Solutions. She was wonderful to work with and very patient. I did hit a snag with my favorites list. It seems to have disappeared. I tried to recreate it as best as I could. If you notice that you are missing - please let me know!

As most of you know, I have an online dog treat boutique. I want to introduce you to the inspiration behind Yuppy Puppy Pawtisserie, my mini schnauzer Margot. She is just over a year and a half and she is also my very first dog. My parents were never very animal friendly and so my sister and I were never able to have a dog. Luckily, Jeff, my hubby is a dog lover and finally caved in when I begged and begged for a dog. Margot is very sweet and my only "child" for now. She can be a handful but all in all a great joy. If you look at my favorite sites section, you will find a link to her very own website!

Hippity hoppity Easter's on its way...

I'm so very excited for Easter. To me Easter really heralds the start of spring. I love having the family over and cooking a big meal. I'm planning out this year's menu. Last year I started experimenting with turkey brining and boy was I happy with the way it turned out! I think I'm going to stick with that for this year as well as some other wonderful side dishes and desserts. I'll post the menu once I finalize it!

My mother brought me the cutest little plastic Easter basket from the local dollar store. It looked so lonely, so I decided to create some Easter eggs to go into it. Above is a photo of the results. I'm really pleased! All the materials came from D. Blumchen & Company.

I'm also working on some fabulous Swarovski crystal bracelets. I'll post some photos soon.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the week!

Oh my everything is so pretty!

I am just loving adding some new things to my home. Hubby Jeff and I have lived in our house going on three years but I'm still very much trying to get it to where I want it (as I know most people are!) but we are certainly moving in the right direction. We bought our home a year before we got married so most of our money went to the wedding and not to furnishing/decorating. We still have some holdovers from hubby's bachelor days. My goal is for all of these items to be gone by the end of the year (or at least placed in our to be redone basement family room) and for our home to be a wonderful reflection of the both of us. Along those lines I received a wonderful towel from one of my favorite ebay seller's Shabby Cats and Roses. This little beauty is going in my lavender powder room. I have to get a bit better with staging and placing these photos but I'm working on it!

Today I also received my Sugar Bear Designs sign from Heidi over at Everyday Cookies at Sweet Woodruff Acres. Another beautiful item! The quality is amazing. Heidi really does quality work and she is such a sweet person as well. Make sure to check out her blog if you haven't already! She also sent along the sweetest handmade tag. I placed in on the handle of my buffet for all to enjoy.

I am just loving all of the talent that my new blog friends have! I'm going to go broke buying items! I'm also working on a few fun projects that I'll be posting photos of soon. In other breaking news, I'm working with a web designer to create a custom banner and background. I'm really excited and hope to have more of a custom look to Sugar Bear Designs in the very near future!

A Most Inspiring Lady

I've been reading on a few other blogs about posting inspirational items. I would be remiss if I did not post about a beautiful soul that has truly inspired me and has only recently come into my life. Mari Robeson is an absolutely wonderful human being. She is a designer, artist, mom, business owner, and all around wonderful person. I saw Mari on HGTV's That's Clever and began corresponding with her shortly after that. She has a wonderful site called Mari Robeson Home and a equally fabulous blog called Mari Robeson Style where she gives some fabulous finds and advice. The photo above is of one of her beautiful sachets. This is the one she did on That's Clever. I loved it so much that I ordered if for myself. It says "Dream Sweet Baby Girl" and is actually for a baby - but I was a baby once!

Mari has been the inspiration behind me finally getting Yuppy Puppy Pawtisserie off the ground and she has also inspired me (as have many of you!) to go back to the artist in me and let her come out! Mari is clear across the country from me but I do hope to some day visit her in California and go to her brand new showroom located in Arroyo Grande and also called Mari Robeson Home.

Stop by and check her out! I know she would love to meet everyone.

I also want to take a moment and say THANK YOU to ArtsyMama for the fabulous tea party as well as to everyone that left comments for me. As a true newbie to blogging I am honored that you all visited my blog. I had many people ask how I became an event planner, well I pretty much fell into it. I always enjoyed (and still do) planning family events and did some small scale business events while in college. Once I graduated I took a job that was not the right fit and found that there was an event planning opening at my alma mater, so I took a chance and here I am 7 years later! Event planning is enjoyable but certainly has it's challenges. Things do not always go as you want and people are not always as nice as you would hope they would be but it is still great to see an event come to fruition. Since I'm on the academic end I do a lot of lectures, ceremonies, and dinners. If anyone is interested in learning more e-mail me or leave a comment. I am happy to help anyone looking to break into the industry.

Join us in a spot of tea

Today is the worldwide tea party hosted by ArtsyMama. Let's head on over and join the fun! Before we go, above is a photo of some tea related items from around my home. In addition to having fun crafting and creating and making dog treats, I'm an event planner and certified etiquette and protocol consultant at a university. Tapping into my tea etiquette knowledge I offer this tea lesson for your pleasure.

How to Hold a Tea Cup and Saucer

Place saucer in the palm of your left hand and allow it to rest on your four fingers (excluding thumb). Keep your fingers slightly spread apart for balance. Rest your thumb on the rim of the saucer and use it to steady the saucer. If you are left handed, just reverse.

Raising the pinky dates back to the eleventh century and is a sign of elitism (not a message we want to convey!) The proper way to hold a handled cup is with your index finger through the handle and thumb above. Your other fingers just follow the line of your other fingers.

The most important thing is to enjoy yourself and not get too caught up in the "proper" procedure. Just let things happen naturally.

I would take pictures of this but I'm at work right now! A wonderful source for all things tea and etiquette related is Tea and Etiquette Taking Tea for Business and Pleasure by Dorothea Johnson (a wonderful woman who I learned many, many things from).

Pretty Things

I have been blessed to receive some beautiful items the past few days - okay so I bought them for myself but I digress... The first photo is of some really funky glasses - they are regular ol' drinking glasses but they have these great graphics of vintage glasses printed on them. They were featured in the latest issue of O at Home and even though I already have more glasses then I will ever need (I think the entire National Guard can indulge in lemonade at my house!) as soon as I saw them, I knew I had to have them. The second photo is of a milk glass that used to belong to my grandmother. I have always loved these glasses since the time I was a little girl. When I moved into my current house, she gave me four of them and kept two for herself. I am thrilled to have them and enjoy them everyday!

The third and fourth photos are of a beautiful lavender sachet I found on ebay. Click here to see the sellers page. I wish I had taken photos of the wrapping - but that was just before I decided to start my blog. Anyway, it came wrapped in tissue and a beautiful ribbon with a hand written note and hand written tag as well as a little pouch containing a tea bag and some hard candy - she really knows how to do things right! I have this pretty little number hanging from the closet door handle in my powder room. It brings a smile to my face everytime I see it. The detail is just amazing. It has a vintage hankie at the top and a vintage doille at the bottom and the back has just as much detail with the words love and hope - two of my favorites.

I'm gearing up for Wednesday's tea party. I hope to see everyone there! Have a wonderful evening.

Tea Time!

Well if this isn't one fabulous idea - ArtsyMama is hosting a virtual tea party on Wednesday, March 21. All you have to do is post a tea related message on your blog or send her your post if you don't have a blog. Sounds like there are going to be some great images and ideas coming out of this! See ArtsyMama for more information. No, sadly, I did not make the cupcakes pictured - the image came from Flickr.

Memories

Here is a sampling of one of my memory boxes. I made this one for my beautiful mom. Her bedroom has a French Country feel with yellows and reds. I included a photo from her childhood - a day she was playing dress-up. I wanted it to remind her to always have fun!

Greetings and Salutations

I am very excited to be writing my very first post. I am new to this whole blogging thing so bear with me (no pun intended!). I have been so inspired by some of the wonderful blogs out there and some of the very talented people that are behind them. A little about me - I am a wanna be artist. I have my hands in numerous things such as decoupage, beading, chainmaking, mixed media collage, glass painting - just to name a few. I also just opened a new online dog treat boutique with my friend Robyne. It is called Yuppy Puppy Pawtisserie, http://www.yuppypuppypaw.com. I am always looking for new ways to express myself as well. I've always been an artistic person but I never really truly realized that it is what makes me most happy (other then my husband, family, friends, and dog) until the last several years. I also love old school glamour - Grace Kelly (pre-marriage though I'm a royal fan as well), Frank Sinatra (I'm a bit of an obsessive fan), anything from the 1940s and 50s. I am a definite old soul though I'm only in my late 20s. I am hoping to use this blog to post some of my work and things that inspire me including works by others and fabulous finds that I come across so check back often and welcome to my little world!