I'm so excited to share with you that The Vintage Butterfly Boutique was included in an article on Real Simple's Simply Stated blog, along with 24 other vintage shops featured on Etsy, written by Holly Becker of decor8.
Take a look and enjoy the vintage goodness of 25 amazing vintage housewares shops!
I'm currently following 111 of my favorite blogs! How do I have the time, what with a full time job, kids, grandkids, hobbies, classes, etc.?
Google Reader, my current favorite online tool. You simply need to have a Google account, and if you're already a Blogspot blogger, you already have a Google account. It's your sign-in id name for Blogger.
Then, whenever you come across a blog you'd like to keep updated on, you simply open up your Google Reader, hit the "add subscription" button and as long as that blog allows its' feeds to be broadcast (which all bloggers should!), your Reader will "subscribe" to that blog's all new posts.
So, all your blog links will be in one place and have all current updates. No more link lists or individually entering URLs to visit your fave blogs. You simply go to your Reader page and can quickly catch up on any new posts your favorites have added.
You'd be suprised how quickly and easily you can keep up-to-date with a number of blogs this way! And, as I did today, you can add the widget that I did on the right --> that provides links for all your favorite blog subscriptions without having to input them one by one!
* I forgot an important point! Google Reader will also begin to recommend blogs to subscribe to based on your current subscriptions, so you can discover new ones, yay!
Thanks to Gail of Shabby Cottage Studio, I have a new blog banner and new shop banner!
I would highly recommend working with Gail. She makes the process painless!
My blog was accepted and added to the Delightful Blogs directory today. Yay!
You can help me out by going to the directory and rating my blog here. I'd appreciate it!
Sometimes you need to realize when it makes more sense to hire someone to create from your vision than to take the time needed for you to create what you see in your mind's eye...and then not be able to do it as well as you envision or enjoy the process. It's just good business sense, according to The Donald and Martha!
So, I am letting go of my banner-making attempts for the moment and will be enlisting the services of the awesome artist and designer, Gail Schmidt! Yay!
I've only recently met Gail and love her already. She's uber-talented and was published in March's issue of Somerset Digital Studio! She has an awesome store called Shabby Cottage Studio and there you will find some of her work, a more comprehensive bio, links to her blog and etsy store and tons and tons of tempting goodies for your altered art and mixed media collage needs.
She's a member of the mixed media/altered art group we have going over at Etsy Cottage Style and is just an all-around great resource and plain nice person!
Thanks, Gail!
Okay, so I'm no graphic designer genius, but it's not too bad for my first effort, right? Actually I'm no graphic designer at all, just a new Paint Shop Pro user and elements from Bannerwoman Design's - Keep It Real kit.
You can find this kit and many more at her website, Bannerwoman.com
I'm also using this design at my,
shop, but it could still be resized a bit...I'm just wiped out, I've been working on this all day.
So...yeah, yeah, happy dance, happy dance.
Okay, I'm off to bed!
Jerusalem of my little life was randomly chosen as Vintage Indie's winner!
Congratulations!
Thank you to all who participated and thank you to Gabreial of Vintage Indie for providing The Vintage Butterfly Boutique this opportunity to be one of the sponsors in the giveaway!
Hurry on over to
Vintage Indie for your chance to be a winner of the Spring Swanky Swag Contest!
I'm proud to be a sponsor of this wonderful contest and provided the pair of vintage candle sconces you see above, which are absolutely adorable if I do say so myself! The winner will receive the candle sconces and all the other items shown that were provided by an assortment of vintage and handmade shops on Etsy.
The winner will be randomly drawn on Monday, March 31st, so you must have your entry in by Sunday, March 30th, 11:59 EST.
You will find all the instructions for entry over at Vintage Indie.
Good luck!
Thanks to Bethany over at
Etsy Vintage for providing me with some really thought-provoking interview questions!
Two online shop and blog friends have tagged me in recent days so I thought I would combine the two together in one post to catch up! My first set of taggers are fellow Etsy Cottage Style members and the sisters behind the etsy shopRicRacSally, selling "vintage and retro style trappings". Check 'em out!
I'm to list 6 items of random trivia about myself and then pass it on to 6 more people.
Sooo, here's my 6:
Part Deux:
I've also been tagged by Shana over at Crossroads Cottage. I originally discovered her while browsing through Blog Catalog and found that she and I have a lot in common when it comes to decorating tastes. She also has a really cute website, Cordially Invited by Crossroads Cottage, selling cottage-inspired party and home decor.
She has a list of 13 questions to answer. You may be finding out more about me than you ever wanted to in one day. :D
1. Name your two favorite scrapbooking topics. It has been so long since I have scrapped anything. Lately I've been using my paper stash and scrapbooking supplies for other craft projects, such as the basic tags I attach to my shop packages. Speaking of my tags...I need to take a new photo, I've "tweaked" them a bit and they've gotten cuter, if I do say so myself, LOL. Still keeping with the "simple" aesthetic though.
2. What are two of the best places you have been to? I love the ocean so my favorite place has been a resort called Marina Dunes that my husband and I stayed at a couple of years ago for our anniversary. Sooo beautiful! It's in Marina, CA, right before Monterey. My second place? Hmmm...I'm a bit of a homebody, to tell the truth. Oh, another little vacation with my husband and another couple, we rented a gorgeous cabin in Lake Tahoe, CA and the best moments of the trip were hanging out in the outdoor hot tub surrounded by a backyard of snow and pine trees while it gently snowed. That hot tub in that setting, with a nice cocktail in my hand, was one of the best places I'd ever been.
3. Name two things you do every day. Make coffee and get on my computer.
4. Name two things that pretty much everyone knows about you. I know a little bit about a lot of things and I'm an avid reader. Actually, these things go hand-in-hand.
5. Name two places you wish to visit. Paris and Hawaii.
6. Two things you may not know about me are: I was voted "Best Hair" in eighth grade and I skipped third grade. :D It's all I could think of...boring!
7. Name two nick-names you have had sometime in your life. Baby, Kel.
8. Name two interesting jobs (good or bad) that you have had. My medical assistant externship at a county hospital in my early 20s was really interesting! I floated around working in the various outpatient clinics and saw many, many interesting things. One highlight was assisting two doctors with a patient who had horrible abcesses due to iv drug abuse...incredibly gross procedure to lance them, but also incredibly fascinating.
My current "real" job with the Postal Service can be labeled "interesting" being that it's the traditionally male position of custodian. I'm the general "fix it, clean it" person for a local post office. It's my second position in the 12 years I've worked for the Postal Service and a big change that I was not initially thrilled about, but it works for my family and I'm enjoying the freedom I have to determine my day's work.
9. What are your top two fun things to do after work? After work I'm pretty wiped out, so my favorite things to do are veg. out on my computer and watch TV.
10. Name two things you would like to learn. I'm currently in the process of one thing, website design/HTML coding. Another is learning to speak French fluently. I took a semester way back when in high school and loved it, but never went any further.
11. What were the last two songs that you downloaded or CDs that you bought? The last two CDs were by Paramore and Silversun Pickups.
12. What were the last two books that you read? Martha Stewart's The Martha Rules: 10 Essential For Achieving Success and Antique Trader Antiques and Collectibles 2008 Price Guide.
13. What two TV shows or movies from your childhood do you still enjoy watching after all of these years? I don't tend to watch much older stuff on my own(I'm always watching HGTV) but my husband LOVES watching old sitcoms whenever he's not watching sports, so I get sucked into watching The Jeffersons, Good Times and Three's Company.
Now, who am I going to tag? I'm out of time this morning, so I'll leave that as a cliffhanger and get back to you. :D
Just a little "shout out" to this blog, Old Picture Of the Day, where I got the old Postman image.
Take a look, there are a lot of neat photos over there.
A new favorite on etsy is this gorgeous collage kit from Jenny's Bake Shop
So cute and so spring! I'm in love with
anything that has a bird motif lately, whether it be nests, eggs, birds, whatever...so this is right up my alley. You get a nice piece of Jenny's Bake Shop art and a chance to add your own creativity into the mix.
Love!
I found a beautifully inspiring blog yesterday called "The Feathered Nest". She clearly shares my love for toile! Go take a look, her home is beautiful!
The Feathered Nest
