Change in international shipping times.

Due to unexpected issues with my vehicle I will not be able to ship international orders on Wednesdays. At this time international orders will only be able to ship on Saturdays. My sincere apologies for any inconvenience this might cause.

-Kim

New Tags, New Shop.

Peas and Carrots Tags

Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

I’ve recently opened up a new shop under the name Pumpkin Tree Lane on Etsy.

I’ve just started stocking it, but over the next few weeks you will find an assortment of gift tags/cards using my hand carved stamp designs as well as magnets and other items made from polymer clay.

-Kim

Catching up.

Well, my attempt at posting once a week so far has not panned out. Life has been a bit hectic these last few weeks.

When I last posted I was off to Puerto Rico for my first ever trip with Mike. My parents took on the huge task of taking care of our three girls and while the weather wasn’t ideal, and I managed to be sick for large portions of the trip, we had a lovely time.

Came back in time to spend several weekends devoted to selling Girl Scout Cookies. With two girls in scouts we find most of our weekends involve trips with the troop. Now that Cookie season is over things are starting to slow down on that end.

Add in an attempt at Spring Cleaning, Spring Break, a fender bender, a trip to the Vet for our poor Zoe girl and an illness I hope I am finally seeing the end off very soon and it has been a very hectic time. I leave this update with a picture of the middle girl at her Kindergarten performance last night. They put on the short musical ‘EIEI-Opps’ to the great enjoyment of family and friends. It was one of the most adorable performances we’ve been too so far for the girls. She was a ‘cute’ baby chick!

-Kim

Store going offline this week……..

Just a heads up that I’ll be putting my Etsy shops in vacation mode starting Wednesday night, March 3rd, around 11pm or so. Getting a rare chance to get away this coming weekend, but will be back up and running no later then the evening of March 9th!

-Kim

Sick Day Diaroma

Sick Day Diaroma

Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

A couple weeks ago our oldest was home sick with a bad cold. I admit I’m pretty lax in what they can do when they are home sick. (Well, as long as the reason they are home is true illness and not of the ‘I have a tummy ache’ variety which we have not had so far in our school career.) So she could have spent the day vegging with cartoons. Instead she spent quite some time gathering materials together to make this diaroma.

(The blue is a frozen lake, the brown is an inuit with sled team. The pink is an igloo made out of polymer clay with a penguin on one side and a polar bear on the other. The background is a old sweater box from Christmas.)

Dusted off and ready to use again.

Dusted off and ready to use again.

Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

I took a break from reorganizing my workroom this week to pull out my old sewing machine to see if I could finally figure out what happened to it to make it not work properly.

Over a year ago I put it away in frustration as I could just not figure out what was wrong. I had been using it with great success, and then one day I plugged it in and the stitches were just a mess. I read the manual over and over, looked online for advice and had rethreaded the machine, gone over the tension, checked the bobbin a dozen or more times til I was ready to pull my hair out. I finally just took the needle out for safe keeping, put the thread away and tucked it into a corner of my room in defeat. I didn’t at that time have the money to pay someone to look at it and since I generally only sew for a hobby and not for profit I figured I’ll just do everything by hand which is my preferred method.

Unfortunately, hand sewing takes quite a bit of time. Time that is in very short supply and after a year of promising my oldest a new quilt to replace her well worn and too small quilt I decided to pull it out for one last try.

So I dusted her off, replaced the needle, rethreaded and made sure the bobbin was in position. First try, stitches off, adjusted the tension a smidge higher and perfect. Huh? You telling me after sitting for a year, after hours of beating my head against a table trying to figure out why the machine wouldn’t work, it works flawlessly now.

Let’s hope our new found relationship continues to be one of cooperation. I have plans for her that involve more then the pretty purple fabric squares my oldest is impatiently waiting to become her quilt.

Another New Year and another set of goals.

Another school year is well under way, holidays were celebrated and my girls are another year older.

Time once again to think of what I’d like to work towards and things I’d like to accomplish this year.

Some are for family. Things like being more patient with my girls, appreciating the little things like hugs from the youngest who isn’t so little anymore. Late night cuddles with my middle girl even if it is at 2am in the morning. She won’t always do that and even if I miss the sleep now I’ll miss the little girl who wants her mommy more. To try and make sure that my oldest is getting my attention as much as her other sisters. For all Anna’s complaints that she gets the least attention, I know that Katy is the one who really loses out most days as she is the big girl who doesn’t need my help as much. I think this may be a good year for her to start learning how to help in the kitchen.

I need to be more organized this year. To keep a more set schedule so I’m not sneaking it in here and there and feeling like I am always saying, ‘Not now, Mommy needs to work.’I hope to have less nights where at the end of the day I feel like I was going from sun up to sun down but somehow not much seems to have been accomplished.

I want to try and work on something creative everyday and to list new creations at least once a week.

I want to blog at least once a week, I’d like to say once a day, but that is not within the realm of reality and why set myself up with something that I would not be able to sustain.

As for Mike, I just want to continue to spend time together when we can and appreciate the man who puts up with me and all my idiosyncrasies.

So here’s to the New Year and all that comes our way!

-Kim

Birthday Bead Sale!

In honor of my getting another year older, a little bit grayer and having a few more brain cells tromped on by the kids I am having a Bead Sale in my Etsy and Artfire shops!

Everything in both stores is 30% off. At Blue Lady Beads on Etsy discount will be given in the form of a refund in Paypal prior to shipping. The prices in my Blue Lady Studios shop on Artfire have already been discounted.

Sale ends the evening of 9/7!

-Kim

A wonderful way to end a busy week.

Tara’s Third Birthday!

Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

My littlest baby girl turned three yesterday. She had an amazing day that started with banana and chocolate chip pancakes and ended with pizza, ice cream and egg-less cake.

It’s hard to say which present was the bigger hit, the rocket ship or the art easel. She spent the evening bouncing back between the two with both sisters wanting a turn too.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Time to get back to work……

My older girls started back to school yesterday which means its time for me to reclaim my house and get back to work. My youngest seems to be adapting quite easily to her sister’s being gone for most of the day. In fact she appears to be greatly enjoying the freedom to play with whatever she wants without her sister’s telling her what she is going to play/do.

As for me, I’ll be taking the next couple weeks to reorganize between working on new projects. I have several sets of new items nearly complete and will be placing a new supply order for the bead shop soon.  I’ll update here when those items are up and available.

-Kim