Sugar Shop

Butterfly Release, Big ($75 Fabric Gift Cert!!!) Giveaway, Blogversary!

Jumpy kid loves bugs. Not just finding and watching them but he loves to learn about them. We have books and watch the discovery channel and he is enthralled and will then tell everyone what he knows. The last couple of years we have raised silk worms in a shoe box in his bedroom. It's amazing and so simple!

This year we decided to do butterflies and ladybugs. We ordered everything we needed from Here . The catterpillars come in a jar and once they form their chrysalis then you move them to the butterfly treehouse (the thing that jumpy kid has on the lawn). Then once the butterflies emerge from their cocoons you feed them fresh flowers and sugar water for a few days and then it's time to release!

Ready...

Set...

Giggle....Set....

Go!

Goodbye butterflies, take care of our flowers...we love you! Good lord this child can pull my heart strings.

We also raised lady bugs which I have to say was a way more interesting. Only because we all know the cycle of the caterpillar to the butterfly but do you know the cycle of the lady bug? Who knew these beloved little creatures have an amazing life-cycle too. Please go google it or better yet order your larva and habitat from the link above. As soon as Steve and I saw the larva we both said "Oh my god, I didn't know those turn in to lady bugs. We have seen the little alligator like bugs through out the years and never knew that those little suckers were baby lady bugs. Huh! I'm still shocked and feel the urge to contact every kindergarten teacher on the planet and beg them to teach the little ones about their favorite little beetles.

Lady Bug Larvae (or as we like to say baby lady bug)

OK, so on to some seriously fun business! It's my one year blogversary! And I want to say how much I appreciate every single one of you who leave comments or just stop by to read, or ask about my bags. And thank you so much for your patience in my shop opening.

So to show my appreciation I am giving away a $50 $75 gift certificate from one of my favorite on-line fabric stores Over The Rainbow. I have been ordering fabric there for the last few years. You must sign up for her newsletter. It's like a blog post. She links to all the fabric lines as they come in her store. She does lots of pre-orders so if there is a line that you know you want just pre-order from her and then forget about it. When it comes in she'll charge your card and send it to you. You also get lots of fun updates about her farm life and family. I think (correct me if I'm wrong Laura) she used to be a fashion designer and now runs her fabric store from her beautiful farm. Oh and...her prices are always the lowest per yard!

Edit: Ok, I just checked my email and Laura the owner of Over the Rainbow emailed me to say that she has kicked in an extra $25.00. How awesome is that?? That's why this is one of my very fave shops. Thanks Laura!! So now one of you lucky ducks will win a $75.00 gift cert

Ok, so here is what you have to do to enter:

Just leave a comment telling me what you would like to see more of on this site. Or ask me anything you want to know. Do you want to see more bags and sewing stuff, craft projects, recipes (ok they will be Tara's recipes because I get them all from her...but they are good... really good) Do you want to see more photography or know more about photography equipment (I get asked often about that). Do you wanna know how I met Big Daddy? Anything, there are no wrong requests. Feel free to ask goofy stuff, I'm all about goofy.

Let's spread this awesome give-away around (thanks again Laura, I can't stop thanking her, that was just such a random act of coolness to kick in $25!!!). If you mention this giveaway on your blog with a link to me blog (email me to let me know you have done so or mention it in your comment) and I will enter your name in the drawing twice!

The drawing will end at 8 p.m. pacific time this Thursday July 3rd. I will randomly pick a winner and announce the winner on Friday.

Only one entry per person please.

Oh and the cool thing is that Laura has already given me the code. So all I have to do is email the winner and you are ready to shop baby! You know its a good thing I discovered the whole blog thing a year ago...because before I was the only one I knew that got so excited about fabric, I started to think I was like those weird hoarder people only instead of odd junk it was pretty piles of neatly folded fabric that I collected. Now thanks to blog land I know I'm not alone. You're all crazy just like me. Thanks Man!

Dena out....
sorry, I just can't stop with the bad Ryan Seacreast impersonations lately

I know, I know what your thinking...she needs help! ... Please don't remove me from your blogroll, please.

Edit: TIME'S UP!!! Wow this has been so amazingly fun!! Thank you everyone for the wonderful comments and suggestions and requests. The winner will be announced tomorrow! Woohoo.

Mother of The Year Award

You might remember Petey from this post. A couple weeks ago Petey the sock dog broke his neck. I told Jumpy Kid that I would fix him and went into the sewing room and set poor Petey next to my sewing machine. A few days went by and Petey was pretty much forgotten and I was working on my new bag. Let me just stop here and say that I always keep one pin cushion on the cutting table and one next to the sewing machine. I recently gave away the one next to my sewing machine. You see where this is going....

The other morning Jumpy kid follows daddy into the sewing room (where daddy irons his clothes for work) and suddenly I hear PPPPPeeeeeeeeetey!!!! ....Yep, I used him as a pin cushion and apparently it's pretty traumatic to see your beloved buddy stabbed a million times no matter how prettily colored the sharp objects are. Yep, Mother of the year that's me. Don't worry I've already started his therapy fund.

Man Up your Blog! Thunderhill Raceway

Those were the exact words of my husband... "baby, I think you need to man up your blog a little with some track pictures". It's true my little blog is pretty girly. I don't think I have any male readers... or Do I? Well if I do this post is for you... and if there are please man, leave a comment. I really should know after all if I should Man Up the blog once in a while.

See that up there? That's my husband looking like some dark super hero. He would totally hate me saying that, FYI. Can I just tell you that watching him go up to 160 miles per hour was super sexy and super freaky at the same time. Especially after shooting this guy doing this...

He was fine by the way. He got up and walked away. Crazy!

This here is our friend Dave. You may remember Dave and Michelle from The Photo Shoot
Dave is the tattoo leg guy and his wife is Michelle (the one with her arms in the air). We went with Dave and Michelle and their kids up to Willows, Ca to Thunderhill Raceway so that the boys could play on the track.

That's Big Daddy on the right with the Seahawks Sweatshirt.

This here is D & M's boy riding one of the bikes they leave lying around for people to just use at the track. Cool, huh?

We were cracking up, at the end of the day when the track was closed...without saying anything all of sudden we see cool kid here, riding the track on the bike. Hil-ar-ious!! This track is huge and everyone was cheering him on.

Jumpy kid here. He got a new Razor Scooter and it was the best 39 bucks we ever spent. It was his first one and he rode it ALL day. He worked on it a lot too. Very serious business and a bit annoying when your mom keeps calling your name so she can take a picture.

Scooter mechanics take some serious concentration.

This beauty is D & M's girly. This bridge goes over the race track. I went up there to get a good view of the track and couldn't resist this shot of her.

Should I officially change this to a photography site? lol. A new bag has been made. I'll show that soon, maybe next! Stop lurking and leave me a note to say hi! I promise to stop over and see you too! Plus 156 blogs on my bloglines is just not enough, I need some new sites and my favorite way to find new ones is through comments from my super cool readers here on this crazy little blog.

xo
Dena

This is why Jumpy Kid has never been....

...on a field trip with out me.

Today all four kindergarten classes at our school went on a field trip to the zoo. All 80 kids road on one bus while the parents that were chaperoning carpooled together in cars. On the way back that big yellow Mac truck in the photo swerved to miss something on the freeway and side swiped the bus with our babies. I'm really glad he missed that piece of tire tread in the road, whew. Hmmm tire tread or bus full of kids?

Everyone was fine, it just scraped the paint along side the bus and completely broke the big mirror on the truck. What was even worse was that it was 100 degress here in Northern Cali and there was no AC on the bus and the bus couldn't leave until the CHP got there to make a report which took them I think about 25 min to half an hour. You would think that with a bus full of 80 kindergartners they would have been there immediately.

Then our babies had to sit on the bus on the busy freeway and let me just say that the parents were getting upset that the wouldn't let them get these kids to safely off the highway. Finally the sergeant came and had the bus get back on the highway, take the next exit and pull in to the mall parking lot where they had to get each of the 80 kids names and birth-dates. I was so thankful that they drove them to a safer spot to do the report and I have to say the teachers , who were they only adults on the bus were amazing. They sang and played games with the kids to keep them from going crazy. It could have been UGLY! 80 5 and 6 year olds that are already worn out from a day at the zoo in a 100 degrees on a bus with no AC, having to sit down and not get up. They were troopers and the teachers were angels.

I have watched one to many of those highway crash shows and was not liking those babies sitting on the edge of that busy highway! Ugh. But my sweet Jumpy kid is now snuggled safely in to his bed and I will be for sure going on every field trips for the rest of his life. Would it be wrong for me to chaperone his honey moon? Ok just kidding about that last part... I think.

Senior Portraits

Funny, I never intended this site to be about photography, but since it's my busy season and I have had no time for sewing lately, it's all I have to show you. But the sewing and new bag designs and shop opening are coming I promise you.

This is my neighbor. His mom asked if I would do his senior portraits and of course I said sure. We headed out to the ranch to get the shots. I was kinda surprised when the shirt came off. I have never shot shirtless senior portraits before but hey, his mom was there and he wants to model I think so I had fun with it.

Thanks for hang'in with me while I seem to post about everything other than sewing or bags!

I'd like to set up some polls on here for people to vote on. Does anyone know how to do that? I know there has got to be a widget out there somewhere but I can't seem to find one. I'd appreciate any help, you guys are the best!

Oh and this week I'll be getting to all my emails!! Sorry if it's been a while and I haven't gotten back to you, I will get to each and everyone I promise. Every single request or question means soooo much to me.

Well, I'm off to enjoy Mothers Day! My boys are out cleaning the pool, getting it ready. This week is supposed to get to 98 degrees here in the bay (Northern California). So we'll be needing it.
Happy Mothers Day to all of you!

Prom Season

Do you see that beautiful strawberry-blonde on the right? That's my niece. I have 3 nephews and her...so I get to say she's my favorite niece. Somehow I can't help but think that even if I had more than one she would still be my favorite. Her name is Andrea but we call her Andy which has also evoled to Andy-Pandy or Pandy-Pie or just Pandy. Anyway it was her Junior Prom last week and I ran over to my sisters house take a few pix before the kids were whisked away in Limos.

I feel like every time I post I'm apologizing for not posting sooner or not opening my shop. So here is my last sorry, you see this is also Prom Season for me at work. We have several contracts with High schools in the bay area and it's prom and little league season for us which means I work ALOT more than normal. So I am pushing the store opening to the beginning of summer. I need the breathing room to do it right. I have so many designs I want to make and just no time at the moment. So, If you have been waiting on a bag from me I want to thank you for being so patient and hopefully you'll still want me when I'm ready!

I can't believe she's seventeen. I was just nineteen when she was born, and I loved her instantly. In a family full of dark haired Irish she's like a bright star with her beautiful strawberry hair.

And the dress! Prom has come a long way from the late eighties when every dress I had was some shade of
metallic Lame (pronounced La May all though lame totally fits)

I had the prom night from hell once. It wasn't my prom but my friend really wanted to go to the prom with a Junior (we were sophomores) and I agreed to go with her guys friend but I made it VERY clear that this was a very platonic friends only kinda date. I knew him from school and although he was very tall and geeky, what little I knew he seemed nice enough and as long as he understood, there would be no hand holding or kissing or anything remotely close we would be fine. So off I went with my friends to pick out dresses. I loved my dress. It was all white satin, strapless and the skirt had a layer of shimmer tulle over the top. It was actually my least "eighties" dress to look back on.

The night started of badly when I was picked up in my dates (Tommy) parents carpeted van which stunk like cigarettes. There were four couples riding in the van to our dinner destination of Beni Hana's, the Japanese restaurant were you sit around the grill and the chef chops and tosses food in the air. We parked at the restaurant I sat in my seat waiting for Tommy to come around and open my door. Instead I watched as he just stood in front of the van lighting a cigarette while all the other guys helped their dates out of the van. Ewww, he smokes?... I got out on my own and we walked through the parking lot.I had to keep telling him not to walk so close to me because the way he kept swing his cigarette I was going to be set on fire. I was starting to realize my fate, this was going to be a long night. Tommy was not the sweet shy geek that I thought. Just because he didn't say much at school apparently doesn't mean he wasn't a jerk.

See all these cuties above. They had fun on their prom night.

So... just before we reached the door to the restaurant I smelled something funny. OMG! Tommy had hit my dress with his cigarette. Have you seen what happens when flame meets tulle? It melts and spreads like wild fire. I had a hole with a black ring in the top layer of my dress. Thank god this wasn't my prom and I prayed the night would get better.

We sat down for dinner enjoying the banging of spatulas and flipping of food until a miscalculated flip sent a greasy shrimp flying in the air only to land on my lap. Have you seen what happens when a buttery shrimp meets tulle? A greasy shrimp print which by the way perfectly accented the cigarette burn just nicely thank you very much.

We made it through dinner and got to the high school parking lot. We all wanted to get inside but Tommy pulled from the back of the van the beer he had stashed. Now I won't pretend I didn't drink in high school because, well, that would be silly. But...my dad was not yet retired and was always the photographer at my school dances so I couldn't drink until after the dance and I had no desire to drink with Tommy. As we started to walk to the gym in began to rain. I'm not kidding, pouring. Not that I had to worry about my dress at this point and actually it was a bit safer since Tommy had lit another cigarette in the parking lot. Just as we were about to round the corner to enter the gym Tommy literally yanks my arm to spin me around and plants a big sloppy smelly drunk-ass kiss on me. Did I mention he had a mullet and acne?

Well after an hour of being inside the dance and realizing all my attemps to avoid and ignore Tommy were failing miserably I made my way to where the pictures were being taken and told my dad I was going to go call a friend to come pick me up and take me home.

I made my way to the front of the school to use the pay phone to call my friend Scott. Scott came and picked me up in his VW bug with stinger pipes that were so loud you could here him coming 2 minutes before he arrived. Thank god I was about to be home. We were going along in the pouring rain when suddenly the VW went quiet...and we were coasting...and we were Out Of Gas.So I sat on the side of the road in a VW Bug, in the rain for about an hour while Scott walked to get and bring back some gas.

Finally I reached home. Scott dropped me off and I just couldn't wait to take of my soaked, burned and greased dress when I stood there at the door realizing I didn't have my key. I was locked out at 11pm at night in the rain in my prom dress. So I headed into the backyard praying that there was just one window open that I could get through. Now even though we had lived in this house my entire seventeen years the side yard was yet un-lanscaped. Just dirt, actually mud. But there was a window open and I crawled through catching the big hole in my tulle on the lock of the window tearing it to shreds as I fell in the house. And I sat there on the floor beneath the window with half my skirt still stuck to the window and laughed my ass off.

The End.

Hey do you have a good prom story? Tell me, I must know. Make me feel better. Either tell it here or leave a comment with a link to your site telling your story. C'mon it's Prom Season!

Sock Monkey

I have occasionally seen it posted about ones email being lost and while I have total faith in those writing about this tragic event I sometimes wonder if this is a "the dog ate my paper" situation. In other words a lame excuse for dumping ones In Box. Guess what happens to jackasses that think like that. They trash their In Box and have to plead with anyone that was kind enough to send me a lovely email to please send me another email if you haven't heard from me. So sorry but being a jackass is sadly sometimes just who I am. I will spare you the details about how it happened. Let me just say if you are new to Entourage (apples version of Outlook, a client email program) BE CAREFUL with the "send and receive" button. Let's leave it at that and move on. Shew!

By the way I love to get emails from you, they really make my day. Even if you just want to know where I got something, I'll help if I can. In fact I get obsessed if I don't know the answer. I had an email requesting the 411 on where I purchased the Mary Jane's I am wearing in my banner and when they were no longer carried in the store I originally purchased them from I spent a good 25 minutes searching the web for the exact pair so I could give her an answer.

ummm...
I just realized I probably should never post after I just drank a
VentiCoffeeFrappucinoLiteWithAnExtraShotBlended...
Sorry this is likely to be wordy...
is wordy a word?
What was I talking about?
Oh yah, Sock Monkey's

Me, Steve and Jumpy kid watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium and in it there is a seen where a crabby accountant is standing with his back to a bunch of shelves filled with stuffed animals and a sock monkey reaches out to grab his arm but he doesn't notice. With the saddest of faces the sock monkey slumps back in place. Jumpy kid is BROKEN HEARTED... to the point of silent tears rolling down his face. He said that the sock monkey needed him to love it and make it feel better. If you look real fast there is a bit of this scene where he is trying to grab the accountants arm.

Anyway what does any crafty mom do in this situation, especially one who loves vintage toys...which is most of you reading this, I know. Well if you're me, you immediately geek-out on the internet until you find out where to get The Original Sock Monkey Sox so you can make your jumpy kid a sock monkey to love. Luckily for us the local surplus store carried them and at 10 am the next morning the three of us went to the surplus store. Steve's heart was total mush over seeing his son so emotional. These two are not normally so sappy. They are loud and they are all boy running in the house and making fart noises and talking about dirtbikes...yes I'm talking about my son and my husband.

Seeing this guy turn to mush over our sons melted heart makes me seriously weak.

then because I made "Lucky" the sock monkey in just a couple of hours I went and pulled out this book
that I ordered a long time ago but never made anything from.

From this book "Petey" the dog was born. Jumpy kid sleeps with both of them every night.

Coming up next post (which I promise won't be so long): an update on my shop opening.

Now I'm going to go sew before this serious caffeine buzz wears off and I crash!

Happy Easter

Krispy Treats

Tomorrow is opening day for little league and this is the Jumpy Kids first year of T-ball. Tonight I will be making lots of Krispy Treats for the cake walk and also a team banner. I don't think little league starts this early in other parts of the country but here in California the weather has been pretty darn close to 70 degrees and the birds are chirping.

The Jumpy Kid calls these Krispy Pops. Perfect name because they look like big lollipops.I made them last year for the Jumpy Kids birthday at preschool and again this year for his B-day in his Kindergarten class. They are a big hit. I wanted to make something that wasn't as messy as cupcakes and frosting for the little ones.

I decided to make Krispy treats a few years ago for easter and because I can never leave well enough alone I added sprinkles. Let me just say that once you add sprinkles to KT's you will never make them plain again. Sprinkles just make everything better. Then when I realized you can make these suckers in minutes they became my favorite thing to bring when asked to bring treats. The combos are endless. You can use all kinds of cereals, I have added chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, smashed oreo cookies. My 19 year old nephews favorites are plain ones frosted with Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip frosting. I could go on and on with all the variations that I've made.

FYI: Is your kid tired of getting their pictures taken? Bribe with a Krispy Pop. Jumpy kid would have rolled in mud, stood on his head... pretty much let me take a picture of him anywhere for a Krispy Pop! The hard part is making him pose with it and then shouting about 500 times "DON'T take a bite yet!" Ahhh the torture... poor kid. Don't worry I've already started his therapy fund.

For the Pops I just bought some cookie pop pans and inserted lollipop sticks. Then put them each in a cellophane bag and tied with a ribbon and voila serious kid fun!

I need your help , I'm running out of Krispy ideas. Have you made them? What do you do with them, any secrets??

Ginger Blossom

I'm a lucky girl, my favorite quiltshop In Between Stitches
ordered the entire line of Sandi Henderson's fabric line Ginger Blossom.

The owners Melissa and Leslie are so wonderful! The Jumpy Kid and I have been going there since he was a baby in a carrier. As he's grown up they have been soooo sweet to him. They call him by name, let him help fold fabric and patiently answer all his questions. When I tell him we have to go to the fabric store he says "Oh, the place where the ladies love me mom?" Talk about good customer service! Melissa had my cell number and had a note to call me as soon as Ginger blossom came in so I could come running. I know it's going to sell fast. She called me as they were unpacking. Yay!

This fabric is so yummy I seriously want to take a picture of each fabric and post it. I almost could too. There are 19 pieces and I have 17 (I must have missed getting 1 and the other hadn't come it yet). But then again you can see them on them all here at the Michael Miller Site See the bigger stacks on the bottom...I bought a lot of those. If you haven't ordered yours yet, go get some! Thanks Sandi for creating such a bright and cheery line!