Wednesday, April 30, 2008

minneapolis trip : part 1


all ready for our 5+ hour trip to minnesota. (or "minneso-a") as the little dude like to call it. comfy clothes....check. cup....check. snacks....check. rusty (trusted travel companion)....check. books, magnadoodle, activity books, leap pad....check.


and then hours later....boredom.


this shot was taken on the way home. i cannot tell you how much this kid loves his ipod and headphones. best $50 we ever spent!

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

first flowers


the morning we left for our trip to minneapolis, the flowers in our yard started to emerge from their winter sleep. i got out of the car with the little dude and we stopped to smell them and snap a few quick shots. above is my favorite flower in our garden. i don't even know the name of it. i bought it a few year back and it's just so fuzzy and cute. i want to eat it up! if anyone knows the name of it, please let me know!


and here's a shot of our forsythia. i just love this little bush and can't wait until it's a huge display of yellow flowers years down the road.

first public performance

phew....it's been quite a week around here. we took a trip last week to minneapolis (our old stomping ground) to visit some old friends, so i'm way behind on my blogging! i'm hoping to catch up in the next week. i'll start with the oldest first and finish up with our trip! so here we go....


the little dude had his first public performance with his pre-school the weekend before last. it was during their morning church service. his class went up to the front and sang a song together and then had a little "learning" session with their teacher about making good decisions in life. it was so cute to see those little guys up there singing their little hearts out! (sorry for the horrible photo quality, the lighting was really bad in there)


and the little dude during the decision making lesson. he has a thing with his lips lately. makes getting a good photo a real challenge!

Monday, April 21, 2008

the winners are....

it turns out a lot of you visit for stationery posts! i was a bit surprised to hear that seeing as i seem to post less and less about my business and more and more about my kiddos. i guess i'll just have to make a point to write more about my biz and what i'm up to.

on a separate note: i also found out a lot of my friends are lame! several friends wrote me e-mails instead of commenting because they didn't want to sign up for a blogger account. (you know who you are and that's cheating!!) for future reference, you don't have to sign up for an account, you can just post under anonymous and then sign your name if you so please. ;)

and now what you've all been waiting for......

i decided to choose two winners just because i'm feeling generous today. i used the number randomizer found here.

so post # 2 & #7 are the winner!

that would be: puglyfeet & katrina

if you two would like to contact me at lori at marzipaninc dot com and we'll discuss your prize as well as how to get it to you.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

changing of the guards


i nursed both of my boys. i nursed the little dude until he was about 8 months old, at which time i had no choice but to stop. it was not my decision. i had an emergency appendectomy at about 6 months, after which my milk supply decided to vaporize. i tried hanging in there, taking herbs etc. but nothing helped. i was able to continue nursing him about once per day until about 8 months and at that point it was pretty minimal. i was pretty upset about it being "taken" away from me before i was ready. we then moved over to formula without any issues. he took the bottles we had (which he had been using all along for outings etc. in which i would still use breast milk.) it was easy peasy.

baby rowan on the other hand is not so fond of the bottle. last weekend the boys stayed at my parents so we could get some work done on our bathroom that we've been remodeling for the past year. (but that's for another post) during the 2 days he was there, my mom said he took a total of about 5 oz of formula. he's not so fond of the bottle, which might be a slight understatement.

this wouldn't be a huge problem in and of itself, however, i'm going on a trip next month to the nss (that's the national stationery show for my non-paper readers). the baby will be with my mom and my hubby while i'm gone, which means he'll obviously need to be ok with the bottle by then. after a week of trying to bottle feed him, i gave in and took a trip to target to find a different bottle hoping it would be the answer.

i found the most wonderful bottles on the face of the planet! after 1 day of bottle feedings with the new bottle, he is now taking it like a pro! thank you gerber for these wonderful bottles which saved my life! (i think the secret is the wide neck which, in turn, increases the surface area of the nipple making it feel more like the real thing.)

Friday, April 18, 2008

happy baby

the baby was super happy yesterday after an extra long morning nap, so we had a little photo shoot. it's so nice that he's finally getting to the age where he can sit and play with a toy for awhile and be happy for more than two minutes!


happy boy!


here he is trying to "find me" behind the camera. it was so funny. he kept peeking around as if i was really "hiding", and then giggling when he "found me".

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

hello? is this thing on? (giveaway time!)

ok, so who's out there? is anyone still reading this thing?

as i've said before, i write this blog mostly for myself. i'm hoping that it's something i can look back on many years from now and remember great old stories that i had forgotten.

with that said, it's always nice to know who's out there reading. so, in order to entice you lurkers out to say "hi", i'm having a little giveaway!

leave me a comment on this post. tell me why you come. what you like to read about. what you want more of. tell me to shut-it. really, just tell me something! you have until sunday the 20th at midnight.

here's what you can win:

in honor of spring, a set of our nostalgic flat notes. if jacks aren't your thing, you can pick another design.

and a set of our gift tags in a cute reusable tin. again, if this isn't your favorite style, you can pick another design.


depending on how many comments i get, i may be so inclined to pick more than one winner! comment away!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

tax day sale!



hurry on over to our retail site today to get some HUGE deals! 30% off everything for today only! yup, that's right.....everything.....30% off......today only! go! go! go!

use code: TAXDAY at checkout

Monday, April 14, 2008

conversation with a 3 year old

a friend of mine is pregnant. i offered to share some of my maternity clothes with her. i packed them up in a rubbermaid container to drop off after i picked up the little dude from school on friday. on our way there we discussed what was in the rubbermaid and why i was letting her borrow my clothes. here's a short excerpt of the conversation.

trying to explain gender and babies with a 3 year old

little dude: what's in the box?

mommy: clothes

ld: why?

m: because becky needs more clothes and mommy's going to share some of hers. is that ok?

ld: uh huh. why becky need clothes?

m: well, because she's going to have a baby and she has a big tummy so her clothes don't fit anymore. remember when mommy had a big belly and then we went to the hospital and they got your baby brother out for us?

ld: uh huh. (looking down at his tummy) i don't have a big belly.

m: no, honey, you don't.

ld: maybe i can have a big belly and a baby.

m: well, only mommy's can have big bellies with babies in them. maybe when you get older, you can get married like mommy and daddy and then your wife can get a big belly and have a baby! it will still be your baby too, but you won't have a big belly. does that sound good?

ld: but i want a big belly.

(this went round and round and round, so i'll spare you a few rounds and head to the end of the conversation)

m: honey that's just not the way it works. only girls can be mommies. your a boy, so you can be a daddy. just like i'm a girl and i'm your mommy and daddy's a boy and he's a daddy. ok?

ld: ok. (long pause) maybe i'll have a big belly tomorrow.

m: ok honey, maybe tomorrow.

Friday, April 11, 2008

ninth project.....finished

i just realized that i had completely forgotten to post about another project i finished for st. jude quite a while ago! oops! it's a pack of 3 notepads featuring artwork from the patients at the hospital. here are some quick images. (click for bigness!) you can find them on their site to purchase here.


this is an image of the packaging they came in. they were packed in a cellophane bag and then topped with a header card and accented with a matching ribbon.


these are the three notepads inside.

also in st. jude news, my spring magnets are selling like hotcakes and they've already ordered more! they're actually featured on the first page of the shopping section!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

7 months






7 months | happy | joyful | funny | cuddly | enamored with his big brother | loves hearing his voice screech | drummer | eater of everything put in front of him | curious | loves eating his own toes | love muffin | love of my life

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

wedding project

i don't usually do wedding invites as it's not my thing. i prefer to design what i like and not have to worry about working with other people telling me what they want. not to mention bridezillas! not for me.

with that said, my office assistant is getting married in june. as her wedding gift, i designed and made all of her wedding invites for her. knowing her well, i knew she wouldn't be difficult to work with. she pretty much left everything up to me. the only requirement.....pink. she's, shall we say, a little obsessed. she has pink everything. so with those guidelines, i designed what you see below. it's a really simple invite that suits her and her event. she's really a no-frills kind of gal and doesn't need layers of paper, bows, embellishments etc. easy-peasy!

so here are a few shots. sorry for the horrible quality, we have had some really gloomy weather around here which leads to some not-so-great photographing conditions. you should be able to click on them to see a larger version.




Friday, April 04, 2008

silver leaf shelf project


my weekend project.

we've had the same boring lack shelves from ikea forever now. i think they've been in at least 3 houses with us at this point. (and have had at least that many coats of paint) since being in our current house, i've had a hard time deciding what to do with them. i painted the living room about a year ago and love the wall color, but was never happy with the shelves. so here's what i did last weekend to spruce them up a little!


i didn't take a picture of the first couple steps, so i'll explain where we're at here. the top and bottoms of the shelves are painted in the same color as the walls. the sides are painted in red.

after the coat of red paint, the little dude helped me silver leaf the sides. he had fun burnishing them with the rag. i made sure to not do a perfect job of covering everything as i thought it would be fun to have some red show through in cracks and edges.

after i silver leafed them, i antiqued them with a watered down coat of black india ink, that i then rubbed away until the desired depth was achieved!


here's a detail of one shelf. you can start to see where there's a little red peaking through in spots.


and here's a close up of the corner/edge where you can get the full effect of the finish.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

a small obsession

i've had a small obsession with etsy since i opened my own shop a little while back. i had made a few purchases here and there before (mostly art prints for the house) but lately, i'm bookmarking everything in hopes of going back later to purchase it! the little bit of spending cash that i had been saving is quickly been eaten up by this new obsession.

here are a few of my most favorite recent purchases.


beautiful, beautiful earrings from a sweet, sweet girl! you must check out her shop of amazing jewelry. these days everything is so cookie-cutter. her designs are definitely not! there was so much to love that i had to buy 2 pairs. (see next image! both images snagged from shysiren)


again, just beautiful work.


i got this driving cap for the hubby. he has an old tattered one he's been wearing forever and was in need of a replacement. very well made. (image snagged from sookie)


and a cutie hat for me! i love, love, love this hat. i'm hoping to go back and get another for spring/summer wear! (image snagged from BKMHattitude)


and lastly a ring that i got the hubby for v-day. it's wood inlay and beautiful in person. (image snagged from robandlean)
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