Painted Butterfly - My Etsy shop is open!

Just a quick note to say that I have the studio up and running again and have listed just a few best-sellers in my Etsy Shop.


My best selling personalized tee

I have a few one-of-a-kind pieces to kick start fall, including Autumn Owls sets and a few Halloween items.


Halloween dress with tie straps

My favorite peasant blouse is back! I love adding these fun details like the criss-crossed ribbons.


Top & twirl set

I will be listing more Autumn items in the next few weeks and then (yikes!) Christmas items! If there is something you are looking for specifically in a particular size, let me know. These are all one-of-a-kind but if you would like to see pants sets in a size 3T or more twirl dresses in a size 8, just let me know. I am flying by the seat of my pants and very willing to make these in any size you request!


Old School jumper dress

Our neighbor, a sweet 9 year old girl was over playing with the kids this week and saw this pants set on the mannequin and was gushing about how cute it was. I agree, it's my favorite too!


Autumn Owls pants set

But if you are still looking for summer items, I still have a few ready-to-ship dresses that are perfect for a warm weather Disney vacation. Please stop in the shop and have a look!

Bambi upcycled tee dress

Five for Friday - Fall Festival

It's been a while but I'm ready to kick start Autumn by reviving an old Friday friend...the Etsy spotlight FIVE FOR FRIDAY!

I'm in a fall-mood today. It's raining outside, I'm wearing a sweater! After a summer with many 100+ degree days, it's just nice to be bundled up. Not that it isn't expected to be back in the 90s again next week, but a gal can enjoy the autumn moment while it lasts!

Pinterest makes the Five for Friday easier now as I'm always finding and pinning my Etsy favs. So I'm sharing a few with you today, my fun Fall Festival finds!

I live in a small space and don't have the room for much holiday decor. This darling little dish from elmstudiosonline adds just a bit of fall to any small corner (and at 4.5", still big enough to hold plenty of candy corn!).

Source: etsy.com via Julie on Pinterest

This felt wreath by rockstarwreaths would look so pretty hanging on a front door or perched above a mantle or buffet. These colors are so striking for autumn. Each wreath is made to order in great fall textures of yarn, burlap & felt.

Source: etsy.com via Julie on Pinterest

A precious sitting space for little guys or a perfect resting spot for tired feet. The Remakerie upcycles FairIsle sweaters into these toasty-looking floor cushions.

Source: etsy.com via Julie on Pinterest

I wore a RachelleD necklace on my wedding day, styled so creatively with a large flower on one side and jewels on the other. Isn't this color popping look for fall so eye-catching with the adorable owl?

Source: etsy.com via Julie on Pinterest

Janejoss has a beautiful collection of flowers and leaves that will decorate your home year round without ever fading! Crafted in linen and damask fabrics, this set in burnt orange is natural but elegant. I like the styling too; just stick them in a vase full of dry beans and voila... Instant bouquet!

Source: etsy.com via Julie on Pinterest

Apple Pie, Honey and Love for Sale

The weekend before last we headed up to Julian, a sweet little town up in the mountains. They are known for their apples, so of course we had to get a pie at Mom's, our favorite pie shop.


Their Christmas tree was decorated with apple ornaments, of course!

Since the weather was crisp, we were expecting to see some snow on the drive up but other than just a few small patches in the shade, the ground was dry. Generally on a snowy day, all of the native San Diegans would be inspired to play in the novelty snow for the day (because more than likely the next day it would be melted) and Julian would be a busy mess. Since their was no snow that day, Julian was pleasantly uncrowded and we were actually able to walk right up to the counter at Mom's without waiting in any lines and get a seat inside, something that has never happened before!



It was very cold (for all us native San Diegans) and sitting inside the warm pie shop, eating apple crumb slices with cinnamon ice cream was a real treat.





We shopped in our favorite corner store and sampled our way through the dry goods, including spicy Wasabi peas which I never thought I'd like, but did! We picked up our usual bear-full-of-honey and a jug of Boysenberry Apple Cider.Danny bought the kids honey straws which the happily sucked on as we wandered the streets.





I've been super-busy, gearing up to restock my Etsy shop. It's been all hearts and flowers around here for the last few weeks!

Please check out my Etsy shop, which I've just restocked with Valentine's Day themed outfits for toddler girls, some accessories and home decor. More to come!


Painted Butterfly Studio

FIVE FOR FRIDAY - Get Organized!

It's only been a month and a half since we've been in the new house and I was very careful to organize things as I went along, putting things where I wanted them to go as I brought the boxes of stuff over from my parent's house. Fortunately my parents have allowed me to keep most of my stuff at the old house and move things over as I need them, want them or have a place to put them. I know that quite a few of the things I have at the old house won't ever make it to the new house and will end up donated, and that's just fine with me. It's important that I not be overwhelmed with "stuff".

I still have a far way to go. The dresser in the kid's room is not being utilized to its full potential & takes up too much space. They also don't have a bedside table yet so the lamp is on an overturned storage basket (not only unsafe, but also I need that basket back it place to hold toys!). The bathroom cabinets are neat & tidy, thanks to some plastic drawer organizers I bought at Target. The closet also looks pretty decent, though Danny needs to figure out a better arrangement for his work clothes than just stacking them on the upper shelves. The dresser top is a disaster. This weekend, I need to sort through what all is on there and find a home for the lost socks, jewelry, papers and junk that have been piling up.

The sewing room is a complete and total mess. Other than me going to Ikea and buying some storage boxes, putting away some scrapbook paper in the closet and color coordinating my sewing thread on a rack, nothing has been done in here and it's very frustrating. I'm trying to get some things up on Etsy in the next few weeks and cutting out & sewing in here has been more of an annoyance than anything else. I don't have an ironing board or spare table so the floor is subbing in and that just doesn't work at all (and my back is aching from it!). I promise that by the end of the month this area will be on its way to organization and I'll have some Etsy items in my store again to show for it!

Let's start off the year in an organized manner...Check out the FIVE FOR FRIDAY this week.




olliegraphic

I am so buying one of each of these chore charts for The Boy and Girl! You can personalize & customize them with the look of the child you want and they are so cute to display the weekly chores. Print them up as you need them. You just have to look around the rest of the shop too for the personalized & customized plates and Valentine's cards.




pearl25

Even if you aren't a seasoned seamstress, everyone needs the proper tools to sew on a loose button, patch a hole or snip stray threads. And especially if you aren't a regular with a needle and thread, you probably don't have these things easily accessable. For me, I keep most of my regular tools in plain view on my sewing table, but for those who only occassionally pull out their sewing projects, this little organizer is perfect. Slide in your own tools and you can keep this set in a handy place (or even in an office desk drawer or in the car glove box for real wardrobe emergencies).





shabbyvintagemom

If ever my husband will let me nail a hole in the wall, I'd love to put up one of these whimsical cork boards. Bright and fun and just on the smallish size to hold important notes, recent photos, the week's dinner menu, whatever.





ladesigns2

One of my most favorite Etsy/Ebay gals, LeeAnne makes the yummiest baskets around! Not just for Halloween or Easter, pick up a few baskets to hold your towels in the bathroom, your knitting project in the bedroom, remote controls in the living room...you get the idea. These are just so beautiful & well made!





lolamonkey

I admit, since we have a little girl in the house now, I've gotten a little wild with the hair accessories. I've kept them in a rather smallish box for a while but I think it's time to admit that the box isn't cutting it. I have been sorting through the bows each Sunday and taking out the ones that she'll wear for the week and separating them into another box. It would just take too long on school mornings to sift through everything and find what we need for each day. Isn't this a sweet and expressive way to organize the bows? Little girls love personalization (judging by how many of the appliqued name shirts I've sold!). And it's wall art, too!

FIVE FOR FRIDAY - Breast Cancer Awareness

It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month...you might have seen a commercial or two about that, perhaps saw something mentioned on Facebook?

You kind of have to be living under a rock to NOT have seen or heard something about that! And I think it's great to take the stigma away, make people aware, and raise some money with charity events, bring it on!

Interestingly enough, in Breast Cancer Awareness Month, my mom had her lumpectomy yesterday. Breast cancer doesn't run in our family, so my mom is the first but the doctor's believe they have caught it quite early. She had a golfball-sized amount of lump and surrounding tissue removed from her left breast. Since they didn't have to put her completely under for the procedure (and chose to do a "twilight sleep" instead) she was awake within minutes of them finishing and was able to leave the hospital an hour later. She did have a bit of discomfort last night with some bruising but a painkiller and an ice pack helped. And this morning she told me she felt great and wasn't in any pain at all!

I want to thank every one of our family and friends who have been praying and thinking of my mom during these last few weeks. We'll find out next week (after the biopsy) if she will require radiation treatments, but in the meantime I'm so happy that she's been pain-free in her surgery recovery.

So in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I bring you the FIVE FOR FRIDAY today. Some of these shops are even donating a portion of their proceeds to research, so get shopping!



APRONQUEEN

The style of this apron is cute enough, but check out that fantastic Pink Ribbon print fabric, the bold stripe and the amazing pink bow front and center. Too sweet to get messy...better just hand over the cooking duties to someone else, right?




ONEFINEDAISY

Simple and elegant and gets right to the heart of the message. Lots of very sophisticated pieces in the shop (I love the soaring bird!)





DELIVERANCE05

I am so impressed by those who can fold and manipulate paper into these teensie-tiny little shapes that just look so detailed and whimsical. I've tried origami and it was a mess of folds and refolds, torn paper and it looked nothing like what it was supposed to when I was done! Sprinkle these bitty paper stars all over like confetti to remind you to keep HOPE alive.




STACEYANNCREATIONS

I'm generally all for subtle but this tee is oohhh, so sparkly! With all the Swarovski crystals used here, everyone will notice the fantastic message which is especially great if you are participating in a fundraising walk. I love how the Pink Ribbon is used as the letter L, so clever!




TSCookies

Mmm...cookies! Pink ribbon cookies, even better! Celebrate and share with your friends (or eat them all yourself, your choice!). You have to see the rest of the decorated cookies in this shop, they are so incredibly detailed. I made decorated sugar cookies last week for the first time and hope (someday!) to be able to make them this great.

FIVE FOR FRIDAY - Woodland Creatures

When my stepson (who is now 12) was little, he had quite a bit of difficulty waking up in the morning. I would come in at 5am to get him up for school and what are you kidding, of course he was crabby!

Out of desperation to get him moving one morning, I grabbed a finger puppet that was next to his bed and had the puppet wake him. It was a Queen finger puppet that I'd made from a kit. She wore a red dress with gold braid trim, red yarn hair and had the biggest, goofiest head you've ever seen. Ridiculously large, I'd obviously stuffed her head about three sizes too big. In fact, if you didn't hold onto the finger puppet with your thumb, the top-heavy Queen would fall right off your finger.

"Gooooood Morrrniingg!!!", I called out in a heavy British accent. Of course, my crabby kid had to unbury his head from under his pillow to see who was talking. When he saw that Queen on my finger, he sat up and giggled. And so I went on...

"Gooood Morrrninggg, I said!", to which he replied, giggling more.

"It's TIME to get UP!" And I took the Queen's big head and gently bopped him on the nose.

Well, as you can imagine, the Queen was in charge of waking him from that time on. When the novelty wore off, I introduced a few new characters to the morning wake up call, including the Knight and Brownie, the horse.

In addition to being part of his morning, I would also use the puppets when he was upset. It was much easier for him to talk to the puppets than to me. It sounds silly (because obviously he knew that the puppets were attached to me and that it was really MY voice) but it sort of broke the ice somehow and it really did work.

I was looking around on Etsy the other day and saw these PRECIOUS finger puppets and was reminded of how well they worked for us. Try them with your youngster, I'd say any kid 5 and under will still appreciate them and any kid 5 and up would love to play with them on their own. You just really have to go for the gusto; don't be embarrassed to make a complete fool out of yourself. Pull out that wacky accent, dance around, try to use multiple characters at once (keep the accents straight!)...seriously, the kids LOVE it!

And with that here is my FIVE FOR FRIDAY...I was inspired by the sweet woodlands finger puppet sets to make a list of woodlands creatures Etsy items this week.



STAYAWAKE

The detail on these finger puppets is amazing, you have to look at the site and see the other sets (mermaids, princesses, robots, dinosaurs, etc)...they are all beautifully made! I'm already plotting my first purchase.




TRAFALGARSSQUARE

Every print in this shop is lovelier than the next, I'm having a hard time finding my favorite! I've had this site bookmarked for a good long while and I know that when I finally do move into my own place, I'll be sure to choose at least one of these prints to grace my wall. With the soft colors, I think they would make a particularly thoughtful new baby gift.




AFORESTFROLIC

Such a sweet handstamped & glittered blank journal, wouldn't this make a great stocking stuffer? Yes...already I'm thinking ahead to gift giving! Make it a sketch book, a journal, a note pad...a combination of all three?




HIPCHICKCROCHET

Ack, babies in animal costumes, not much cuter in life than this!! These hats are just heavenly. They are being sold custom made or you can buy the pattern and do it up yourself if you are so inclined.




TANYABOND

My grandmother would have called this little guy "schnissy", her way of saying, "isn't this so CUTE!!" The artists has some clever and unique designs from her original paintings on everything from prints, postcards, tees & necklaces like this one.

FIVE FOR FRIDAY - Back to School week

Okay, so a lot of kids have already been a school for like a month or something, I know, but my Boy just started this past Tuesday. He was so over-the-moon about being a first grader this year and I have to say that he was much more at ease this year. We haven't had any of the anxiety that came with starting school last year...hope it stays that way!

Here is my guy in a side-by-side comparison this year versus last year. He's wearing the exact same clothes because they still fit around the waist but you can clearly see in the kneecaps that he's grown a few inches in the year (3" to be exact).




This week's FIVE FOR FRIDAY brings us Back to School with some great Etsy items to bring more organization, more creativity and simply more fun to the school year!




EVGIE
How COOL is this hand-embroidered felt alphabet?! I know these would be so much fun with a toddler, teaching colors & letters and then later with a preschooler, practicing spelling words. I like the colorful travel tic-tac-toe game in the shop, too.





LILYREED
Sturdy, unbendable plastic tags that are personalized so you can easily label lunch sacks, backpacks, sports bags, luggage...whatever! The shop also has an allergy alert tag that can be specifically designed to alert caregivers to your child's allergy.





GETSASSED
We've all seen crayon carrying cases but this one is special because it not only holds the crayons (or pencils) but also holds a sketch book and is a fantastic price as well! I have the Mini-Shopper tagged as a Favorite for myself, such a great idea, I can't wait to buy one...just trying to decide which fabric to choose, there are so many!





CALISCHARM
Even if you couldn't afford a whole new back-to-school wardrobe this year, just a few little accessories can really make an older outfit look fun & new again! Pair a sweetly detailed set of pig-tails bows like these with a simple tee and jeans for a snazzy new look.





PAINTEDBUTTERFLY
Lastly, I have this Crayon set ready to mail. Please take a look in my READY TO SHIP section, where everything has been reduced 15% for a limited time (or until they sell out). Shop ahead, there is a handpainted Christmas tote as well as a Halloween outfit.

FIVE FOR FRIDAY - Birthday Celebration begins!

Soooooo....

It's my birthday early next week. It falls on Labor Day this year, which is nice because that means I get the day off!

I'm in a celebrating mood. I LIKE my birthday (though not necessarily the whole "getting older" part). I like that my family gets together even though I've told them this year they are not allowed to go the easy route and just order pizza! I always like to go all-out and plan parties but seems that others don't quite enjoy the process as I do and my birthday (since it falls around a holiday weekend each year) is usually lumped in with a bbq that just happens to include store-bought cake *wink*

So, I have no idea what they will be planning for me this year. I just know that I won't be eating pizza (right everyone? RIGHT?)

Here is my Five for Friday today, featuring Etsy items in a BIRTHDAY theme!



WEHEARTPAPER

Sign the card...
I adore letterpress and this birthday card takes the cake. The range of colors is so pretty (I'm a sucker for the lime green!).




PAINTEDBUTTERFLY
Get dressed up...
If you are a little girlie, my cupcake appliqued tee and coordinating twirly skirt is just what you need to bring some fun to the party!


MINIKINSHOP
And if you are a big girlie, wouldn't these charming cupcake earrings put you right into the party mood?






GETTHEPARTYSTARTED

Decorate....
String up a sweet handcrafted customized birthday banner & it's an instant PARTY! Lots of different designs to choose from here, the monkey ones are great too!





VESSELSANDWARES

Set out the cupcakes...
The birthday girl could have her cupcake served on a specially themed ceramic stand! Wowwy, I love everything in this shop, in particular the azure cake stand, the lacy detailing around the edge is incredible. Any of my family listening? :)





SUGARROBOT

Blow out the candles...
No way, edible butterfly cupcake toppers?! Just beautiful, simply beautiful. Lots of other designs including some personalized fall leaves.

Thanks Mom, for spending her Labor Day so many years ago laboring to bring me into the world!

FIVE FOR FRIDAY - Under the Sea

A few weeks ago, my fiance took my son & I down to the jetty at the beach. He had his surf rod & was hoping to catch a fish for dinner that night. I'd not brought any beach-wear for my son but when he saw the water, he was ready to jump in! I was disgusted with myself that we have lived 30 minutes from the beach all six years of his life, and I'd never taken him to swim in the ocean! He stripped down to his underpants and happily jumped in the waves, it was great to see him enjoying the water.

As much as I dislike the sand that seems to get everywhere, the crowded parking lots and tourists, and all that nasty seaweed that tangles around my legs, there really is just something about the beach. The fresh saltwater smell in the air, the feel of the wet sand under your toes and the rush of getting hit by a wave. I think mostly I love the colors, those lovely blues and taupes, and the sparkle when the sun reflects against the water.

Here is another Etsy collection for Friday. I'm going to do a special feature on Fridays and highlight five Etsy designers in a particular theme, this week it's the sea. If you're not close enough to physically be near the ocean, hope this brings you a little of that beachy-feel.



ELEMENTCLAYSTUDIO

Each one of these amazing pieces brings the beach a little closer. These nesting bowls are simply beautiful, isn't the color inside so lovely against the bright white? She has a large collection including some intriguing wall tiles that I bet would look fantastic against a dark painted wall.




YELLENA

I think one of the coolest things about these prints is that you can imagine them to be pretty much whatever you think of. A jellyfish? Sure! Scientific experiments under a microscope? Okay! A brightly colored flower garden? Alright! Each print is harmonious and so joyful to look at, I love so many of them.





XXX5CXXX

Okay, so I think koi fish aren't really from the sea, are they? Seems more like a small lagoon or pond fish. But I couldn't resist including this pillowcover. The design is gorgeous and I love the contrast of light print against the dark fabric.





SWEETTEASHOPPE

*SIGH* Isn't this piece so dreamy? There is that lovely soft blue again (there is also a coordinating pair of earrings in her shoppe) and I adore the hammered edge bar that is personalized with your choice of initial. And of course the pewter starfish just takes you straight to the ocean. Lots of gorgeous pieces here, many available for personalization.





PAPERMOTH

I've always love watching the seahorse, such a strangely fascinating creature. I recall going to the aquarium where they had a tank of seahorses. Occasionally a wave would be created inside the tank and you could watch the seahorse grab ahold of the seaweed with their tail and ride the wave up and down, it was great! This print is so lovely with the soft blues and whites and then the unexpected swirls of bright pink.