christmas recap

we're slowly recouperating from christmas here. what a whirlwind! here's a photo recap of some great moments.


the little dude "helping" daddy vacuum for christmas.


the little dude in his christmas best!


the little dude listening to his new ipod shuffle.


traveling in style!


the morning after christmas. discovering the train that mommy and daddy had set up overnight. (the new thomas the train that is suposed to "steam". a gift from his aunt and uncle. it's not as great as the commercials show. is it ever?)

christmas cookies & houses

on sunday we "made" cookies with the little dude. since both the hubby and i are working on our waistlines, we didn't want to make a ton of real cookies, so we just bought the little kit at the store that has 12 cookies so he would have the experience. they included "stickers" that you put on after frosting, which were perfect since the little dude is obsessed with stickers right now. here's a photo of the finished product after the little dude "stickered" them. he was so excited about them.


next we made graham cracker houses (as seen on martha). this was so super easy and fun. so quick since you don't have to bake anything, but instead use graham crackers for the house. the little dude had a lot of fun making these too. above is a picture of one of the houses.


and here's the mess that accompanied the food crafting!

all work, no play

i feel like my blog has been all work and no play lately. boring, boring, boring.

i was recently tagged over at punkin' pie productions to list 6 weird things about myself that you may not know. i've been thinking, and thinking. i can't come up with anything good. i think i'm pretty normal and boring, so i decided to just do 6 things about myself that you may not know. (maybe you'll think their weird) in no particular order....

1. i am a complete control freak. really, really bad control freak. i can't trust anyone to do anything at anytime, so i end up doing everything myself....often times leading to major work overload.

2. i hate, i mean despise, green peppers. i like jalapenos and other types of peppers, but bell peppers disgust me.

3. i don't drink coffee. i think i'm one of the only people left on the face of the planet that doesn't drink coffee. in fact, the smell of it makes me sick.

4. i was a major tomboy growing up. (still kinda am) we grew up in the country, so we only really had 1 neighbor, and he was a boy. so i had my brother and one boy neighbor....and they weren't playing barbies.

5. although i don't generally like tomatoes, i love cubes of them piled high on bruschetta.

6. i was married outside at an art gallery, in a garden, by a judge. (much to the dismay of my catholic family)

there you have it. 6 things about me that you hopefully didn't already know.

new designs. big deals!

we are super excited to introduce our new birthday and special occasion designs!
for a limited time, buy any 2 cards marked as "new" and get 1 card of your choice FREE! just enter code: FREECARD at checkout. hurry, offer ends 01-31-07!

check out our new birthday designs here
check out our new special occasion designs here


people have been asking us for YEARS to introduce flat enclosure cards with our current illustrations. well, we couldn't put it off any longer. when we started, we figured if we were going to do it, we better do it right, so we're introducing 24 designs at once! we hope you love them as much as we loved putting them together!
because you're a newsletter subscriber, we're offering a special deal....only to you! buy 3 new enclosure designs and get 1 of your choice free! just enter the free card of your choice in the comment secion of your order.

check out our new flat gift enclosure designs here


with all the new products moving in, it's time for us to clean house!
we're discontinuing 37 of our designs and they've been majorly discounted on our website. right now, you can get cards valued at $5.00 each for only $2.00! yup, that's right....60% off our regular prices! we're eager to move them out and make room for all the new! get them while you can, because, when they're gone....they're gone. we have anywhere from 8 - 50 cards of each style available...depends on the style. so hurry up and check them out.

check out our discounted designs here

tis the season

for features! check out all the recent features & mentions of marzipan inc./shades of violet

+ december 9 2006 + read the article in the seattle times newspaper which mentions our gift tags


+ december 4 2006 + see our gift tag mention on paper crave


+ november 30 2006 + see our mention on the mobs (mother's of boys) lounge


+ november 27 2006 + see our awesome feature on the mixed plate blog


+ november 27 2006 + see our spotlight on modish


+ november 27 2006 + see our holiday card feature on the indie fixx blog

b.i.k.e.

for weeks before "the birthday", the hubby and i must have spelled that word out 50 times in front of the little dude. we had been "test driving" bikes every time we went to our local chain stores, and every time it was torture tearing the little dude away from them.

so, for his birthday, he got his wish. a b.i.k.e.

behold....THE bike.


note the special monkey outfit picked out specifically for the curious george party. and of course, the small stuffed george that must, must, must be in the bike's basket in order to ride it.

happy birthday sweet boy

it's so hard to believe that two years have already come and gone. not a day goes by where we are not amazed at the things you do or say. we love your cute shy ways and the silly things you do when nobody is watching. watching you clap and head-bang to the music in the car today was such a great moment. you certainly are quite the character. i love the way you say your favorite words and how we have to work to decipher them. here are some of my recent favorites:
alpadet = alphabet
go-ga = go dog go
pancake = pocket
blah blee = blanket
nose = snow

just remember, even though you are no longer considered a baby, you will always be mine. i love you forever.