There goes the time

Whoosh and it is gone! I have watched my granddaughter and it has been two years since she had entered this world and there is another one on the way. She will be here in the middle of Jan. In time for my birthday! I have watched my son and his girlfriend struggle with the issues of childcare and wished my hubby would win the lotto so I could stay home and care for her. I sent them to a childcare I felt was safe for my grandchild and low and behold even those who you trust can not be when it comes to children. She has been told she is bad, has been grabbed by the chin and told to stop it, and her mother only gets reports of all the "terrible things she has done during the day" She is only 2. My heart goes out to you moms who have to struggle with this issue. To top it off they are getting a subsidy from the state for care and their choices right now is this daycare. AHHHHHHHH. My sons girlfriend is on top of it and has let the center know she is not going to take this. If Baylor says she has been touched or scolded at school she will take it up with the director and the licensor. I am also going to stopping by unannounced. A good idea for anyone who has children in childcare.

Here she is in her pirate/ riding helmet/disguise from The red Ripe Strawberry. How she loves to dress up.

Christmas Tags

Christmas Tags
Originally uploaded by sweetpeacardsgifts

The holidays are closing in on us so don't be late and order these beautiful gift tags before they are gone!
Check them out at
sweetpeacardsgifts.etsy.com

Trick or Treat!

I partcapated in the etsyrain street team show at St Edwards Park. My grandaughter came to visit and took home this lovely princess hat. She wears it where ever we go, though sometimes she is princess buzz light year. It was a wonderful show, great park and good company to keep.

Hat designed by Cyndesigns Model is Baylor Raye.

More !

A bunch of carrots! Count them, cook them, plant them Ohhhh endless pretend play!

More Pictures !

Chants, ideas, carrot cake recipe( no sugar added )

New work

I have been dabbling in writing and producing language and literacy boxes for parents and teachers. These are materials that I use in my classroom to teach a variety of concepts from pre reading skills, math and science. this is the first one with chants and poems written by me. I am kind of excited as I do this without thinking on a daily basis but writing it down has proven to be challenging. This is my first attempt. I have not listed it yet on etys. I am still trying to decide what kind of packaging I am going to do. I am leaning towards a blank box so the child can decorate it, I might even add some loose art materials. let me know what you think. It will listed here soon.

Hey Mom!

With the start of school around the corner I thought I would answer the question “Is my child ready for kindergarten? This really isn’t an easy questions but I will try to give you some guidelines and some activities to strengthen your child’s skills

Socially: Your child should be able to cooperate with their peers, compromising in groups, come up with ideas so that the group can all play together. They should be able to control their impulses. When they do no like what a peer or teacher says they should be able to use their words to say how they feel. Respect and relate to non-family authority figures.

Children need to time to play with peers and to work out their disagreements without adults interfering. That is not to say an adult should not be there to model and help with choosing words to use and to remind the child to listen and say how they feel. We do not always see the whole picture and this allows children to have their words heard and their point of view being honored. Parks are a great place to learn these skills.

Motor skills: Your child should be able to throw a ball, walk on a straight line, draw a person with details and be able to cut on a line.

Having an art area in your home is a wonderful way for your child to gain these skills. I know it is scary having scissors around. You know the OMG she/he cut her hair. I do recommend that you are there when scissors are being used. When your child finishes an art project have them write their name just like an artist would. Have the alphabet magnets on your refrigerator, play I spy the alphabet when you are driving in the car or walking. Have your child draw a picture and then have them tell you a story and write down their words and read it back to them.

Cognitive and intellectual skills: Your child does not need as many as these skills as we all think. Kindergarten is the place where your child will learn the rest of the alphabet they do not know, letter sounds and how to read. For most children reading will start to happen around Dec and into the spring. Your child should know their shapes, colors and the letters in his name. They should be able to put together simple puzzles, understand the concepts of what the same is and what is different. Like an apple and orange are fruit and they are different because they are not the same color. Your child should also understand opposites. There are many board games that make learning these concepts fun.


Curious and eager to learn This is far the most important. We should be igniting the joy and wonders of learning. We should be supporting our children and their interest in the world and how it works, how things work and why things are.

I encourage parents to not answer the questions your child brings to you but ask them how we can find out the answer. Letting the child think of how they could go about finding the answer lets them do the thinking.. Then let them try it out what they came up with. Their suggestions may not always work and that is okay. That is how we foster curiosity. If it does not work the questions then is what can we do now, why do think it did not work or what can we do differently. Show your child the world, stop and take a moment to really look close at what ever it is your child is wondering about.
And the most important thing you can do for your child is read – read – read – read: Read to them, have them read to you ( using the pictures to tell the story) and your child needs to see you reading.

New line of scents for etsy store

Just listed these new soy Yummy skin scents in my shop! My favorite is Happy is it close to the scent that I wear that costs me 45.00 for a small bottle. Ya who! I am having a introduction offer 2 for $6.00 until 8-11-08 when they will be one for $6.00. Skin scents have vitamin e in them to help make your skin soft as well.

What is that smell? Lemon? coffee? Rain?

Busy busy pouring and keeping my inventory up!

My challenge has been staying organized and keeping enough inventories in stock. I am getting there. I have set up a system to keep track of how many I need in stock, what I have sold and how many I will need to pour to keep my inventory up. It has worked so far. I spend way less time trying to figure out what I need to do.
I so hate the picture part of my listings. I keep trying though with different lighting and different angles. I keep hoping I will hit the magic flash!

I have started experimenting with mixing my own scents and it has been fun. I just mixed Sunday brunch, light earl grey with a hint of cinnamon and cardamom. It is quite yummy! I also have verbena, lime and coconut. This is my husband’s favorite. I am experimenting with tarragon and lemon, using fresh herbs from my garden. I will tell you how it works out. I have also introduced a line of skin scents. I have two scents at this time, Happy and Lavender Fields. Happy is a light flower and grapefruit scent and the other is light lavender with a sweet scent. The heat of your skin releases the scent. They come packaged in a wind up tube or a scent pot. These will make great aroma therapy for on the go. Check out my etsy shop

Hey Mom!

I have had many a conversation with my daughter that starts out " mom I have a question". My daughter is an adult, a mom and a wife of a military man. He is stationed in Iraq and will be on his way home this month. Back to the question, and then she usually says "my friend" who is usually a young military wife, and then the question has to do with child development, what is normal and what should the child be doing. I do not mind answering as my training and profession has been in early childhood development. It brings to light that there is really no parenting support for our young mothers. Especially ones that are separated from their families. Parenting today is difficult. There are many books written and each has their own opinion. It can be confusing. As simple a thing as potty training has become a complicated process. You would think learning how to pee would be so easy. Not! Take a stroll down the book aisle and you will find books galore just on how to do this. I say children are not that complicated and given a moment with them they are very capable of telling you when they are ready. I was taken aback when reading that if you let your child run around free( no diaper or underwear) you can catch them before they go. Goodness it sounds like potty training a dog.

Other concerns are around what I call keeping up with the Jones. Young parents are very concerned that their child will not be ready for school and what is it children need before they get to kindergarten. Oh my! the pressure we put on our children and ourselves.

Though I do not have all the answers I thought it would be great if I posted some of the concerns that come up in our conversations, share some songs and art ideas and children's books I come across in a Hey Mom! column. If you have healthy recipes, art, books any ideas related to children please leave a comment.

The swat team and my neighborhood

Nothing happens in my neighborhood. I mean nothing. You can not get much closer to the Cleavers. When I returned home from work today the entire Edmond's police force had surrounded my street.( okay maybe not all of them but most at least) There were police dogs and a ambulance. Way too much excitement for our quiet little homestead. I guess a kid tried to break in to a home by smashing the window someone heard it and called 911. The kid ran and they tracked him down with the dog. He had taken some computer stuff and a few other goodies. Some drugs were involved. The police were here for 3 hours. Wow! Better than watching TV. I am just glad they found him and all is well. We will have the police come through our neighborhood pretty regularly now for at least a couple of weeks. You know so we all feel safer.:)

Happy belated Mothers day!

I had a great belated mothers day planned by my youngest son(19). It was wonderful! I have found so many joys and celebrations with my children growing older. One is that I no longer have to plan my own mother day events. He planned our day starting with attending the show Avenue Q. What a funny show. We laughed and gafawed and revisited the moments we thought were the funniest even when it was long over. Enjoying live theater is what all my children and I share in common. A form of entertainment I inspired from when they were very young. I am happy to see it has continued in their adult life. After the show we shared a meal at the Cheese Cake Factory. I started out my day on Lake Union celebrating my granddaughters 2nd birthday! The weather was the best and the day was amazing!

What New?

Here it is summer again and like any good resolution we will see what happens. With summer here and my work schedule a lot less than the winter months I have vowed once again to really dedicate myself to my etsy store( two now) and blogging and building my business. With fingers cross and a work schedule in writing I am setting out on not so new a journey.
My husband and I are selling our home and it is ready to go and on the market. Yea! Now I have the time to address my etsy stores. I decided to open a new shop for my candles and book thongs( markers) I will keep my sweetpea shop for my cards and all the other stuff I do to keep my hands busy. I have been experimenting with my photos and I think I am getting better. At least I hope so. I will keep you posted.
My new store: wicks and wire

It is a beautiful day and here I am sitting writing. Hmmmm what am I thinking! I have been busy with many a crafty endeavor. The first and foremost is the planning of the first etsyrain Puget Sound Indie Arts show to be held in Edmonds. It has been a journey for me in so many ways. There have been many personal challenges along the way. I believe we all have a story and I think they are pretty interesting but we usually share only the surface. To start I am planning an Art show which has turned into a learning experinece on many levels.
I am a quiet, opinionated, introvert. My definition of introvert is someone who needs to process or think before they talk. I like to do things in my own time and do not tell me it can not be done. That is a dare if I ever heard one. I am a leader. I like to have fun and find if it is not fun I do not have much use for it. If it remotely sounds like fun I will pounce on it in a moment. That is kind of what happened with the art show. It was talked about at a dinner we had with our etsyrain meet up group. Lots of talk but no one seemed to know how to start. I really wasn’t looking but with the support of my husband, we said if we find a place we could organize it. I had enough experience in planning (my wedding of 80 guests and all the PTA events along with managing a business) he had the tape measure and the ability to keep me sane. J
My husband and I had been to a few art events at artworks in Edmonds and so I googled it to see if they had any events going on. What I found was they rented the space out to art events. The space would be perfect for our show. We took the plunge and rented it for our first show! The ideas started to pop into my head and off we went.
The show was posted while I was on a trip over the mountains I was gone for 6 hours and on my return not only had the event been posted but it was full and closed. OHHHHH my goodness. 24 vendors had signed up. The board was busy with everyone talking about the show! Ideas were flying. At times it was hard to keep up with what was being said and who was doing what. To honest this was the time I had to stop reading for a while, it was quite overwhelming. I kept telling myself think of this as a think tank, brainstorming session. Most of what is being said are ideas. It helped and sure enough most were just ideas people were throwing around. Out of those ideas came some solid parts of our show. As we were just getting the show off the ground my father committed suicide. My world came to a halt and time stopped. He had been in great horrific pain for over two months coming and going to the doctors with no relief in sight. He was waiting for an appointment with a nerve specialist and I guess he felt he could not longer bare the thought of his wife caring for him and the pain. He was 76. My fathers decision in that moment has for ever impacted my life, it has caused an imbalance in my family, it has forever changed me. His death has brought up questions about who my dad really was, who I am and reevaluating many of my values. There are days when I am strong enough to pick up the pieces and then there are days that I let the pieces stay in a pile because it is too hard to look at them. At the end of a job interview the woman summarized who I was by saying; so you enjoy the outdoors and are more comfortable at home. It gave me pause for thought. I have hunkered down at home. I never been thought of as a home person but that is what has happened. Interesting how we have the tools to care for ourselves but do not even know it. I am thankful for this as I am a caregiver and find myself worrying how everyone else is doing and not caring for me. There are many thoughts that have come to me that make me smile and I have an odd understanding of maybe why some of the grieving rituals had come into being and sad that we do not follow them now. Like why the widow and family members wear black ( I would not pick that color) and are veiled. I cried a lot at first and now I cry less but without warning. It would be nice not to walk around in public with a red face and swollen eyes. With a black veil at least people would know that I am grieving and not been drinking J People say the most interesting things and do the funniest things when you have lost someone. I am thankful for that as it makes me laugh and it lets me know they care. A friend of my step moms brought her a puppy a week after my dad’s death, thinking that would fill the hole she had in her heart. It didn’t and my step mom declined. She hates dogs! It did make us smile.
In all of the sadness and grieving my life has had to go on. I have gone back to work, I have continued with my crafting, and I have continued with the planning of our art show.
I have made myself get out of the house and continue to do what it is I enjoy. I will find the fun in life again it just seems I have to work a little harder for now. I am thankful I decided to plan the art show, it has given me the challenge I needed to keep me going. As we plan the last details and meet the last deadlines all is falling into place. I am excited to see it fully set up and I cross my fingers that it will be well attended. I have this grand vision of what it will look like in my head, I hope when all is done that is what I see. I encourage anyone to step out, find the things that make you laugh, smile and brings you joy. It is a great way to live!

Valentines Day!

I have created a new line of candles and cards for Valentines Day. The line includes peppermint and orange scents. Both scents are body relaxing and soothing. They are a variety of containers they come in. China tea cups, votive with ribbon and hand beaded hearts. Some are one of a kind. I can make any of the candles in any color and unscented. I love soy. It is soft and gentle to touch and allows the fragrance to have a gentleness when burning. Stop by and see what is new.

A friend of mine from our Seattle artist group etsyrain,seattlebeadcreations also has a new line of jewelry. Her first piece is posted, it is fun and certainly will create some conversation. Stop by and meet Lady Bella, She sounds like a hoot to hang out with.

I took a plunge

I have decided, with the help of my husband, to organize and throw a craft and artist show. My husband assures me that it is no different than throwing a party and far less work that planning and organizing my wedding. So I am going to think of it as a party and I am the hostess. I am going to try to blog my party planning and the main event. I am going to try to remember to take pictures as well. I am excited and a little scared, of what, not quite sure. I am to naive to know. I have never done this kind of event before. So far it has been a piece of cake. We drove to the place the event is going to take place and I shook the mans hand and my husband measured the place. The man was very nice and had answers to most of our questions. We then left. No sweat! then we got home. Now we need to hammer out the details and this is where the work begins. My husband and I do not agree on a few details and so we will compromise and I will win. He will give his opinion and I will win. I do not think he likes working with me. Okay maybe I do not have to win all the time. Well make to the drawing boards. Details to work out and plans to be made!
Check in and see how it is going. If nothing is written then just assume the sailing is rough and I am way too busy to write sassy and funny stuff. (not that I write that way when I am not too busy)