Skating Mania

Photo by Cooper Mountain Photography

My skaters are headed to Nationals, and while it hasn't quite shut down our business as they prepare with extra practice and coaching sessions, it has certainly added a lot more busyness to our schedules. Which has meant that I haven't been blogging as often as I've wanted and intended! Sorry about that!

The photo above is Ellie during a figures event at the Regionals competition last month. In her hair, is a flower clip I made to match her dress. I don't have parental permission (yet!) to run the photo, but I was delighted that another skater also wore one of my flowers, including a custom center featuring Swarovski rhinestones that matched the girl's dress. And Ellie's precision team's 14 skaters will all wear my matching hand-wrapped headbands with flowers when they skate at Nationals next week.

Meanwhile, last weekend, I delivered three small flower clips that will be worn around a bun. Who knows, if I sell enough flower clips to local skaters, who wear them at competitions regionally and nationally, maybe I'll carve out a little market niche for myself! :)


 

Happy Birthday, America! And Scott Too!

 Photo taken by Scott on 7-4-2012 at Cook Park in Tigard, Oregon

The Fourth of July is a great day to have a birthday (at least in the U.S.) because, hey, what other day of the year are you guaranteed fireworks? :)

And most people get the day off, maybe even as a paid holiday. Life is good when you're born on the Fourth of July!

Happy birthday to Scott, the best husband, dad, business partner and all-around good guy I've ever known.

Oh, and happy birthday to the USA too! :)

Hope you all have a spectacular (but safe!) day!

Merry Christmas!

I saw this quote on Facebook that was attributed to Neil Gaiman, one of my favorite science fiction writers, and had to share the sentiment:

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful. And don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."


Beautiful, isn't it?

Wishing all of you all the best, today and always!

There's Always Something Going On

I keep waiting for things to slow down so I have time to blog, but that just doesn't seem to happen around here.

It's not particularly crafty news to share but here's what we've been up to:

First, Scott & Ellie both competed in dance and figures at the six-state Northwest Regional roller skating competition. Scott did well enough that he will be traveling to Lincoln, Nebraska, to compete at Nationals!

Other things going on include:

• Scott's birthday!

Very handy that we had a 5 and a 1 from Ellie's birthdays! Otherwise I'm not that organized. That's a Black Forest cake (ran out of red cherries so it's garnished with Rainiers) that Scott & Ellie made together. Yum!

• Finally buying and putting together patio furniture!

Getting started ...

Oops! I guess I never got a photo of the completed patio set! Suffice to say, it's complete now. :)

•  Celebrating the Fourth of July!

Scott got this amazing photo with our new camera! I'm considering making prints and/or notecards available for sale in our Etsy shop from some of his photos.

How's your summer going?