Need a laugh?

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humor

  Find more at my Pinterest Humor Board.

Don’t forget to snag a shirt before the campaign ends!! Click here!

Hurry! Limited handlettered Tshirt campaign!

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Art, crafts, Featured, featured shops, Graphic design, sale, tshirts

These shirts. Are. Grand.

Maybe I’m biased ‘cuz I know the guy who designed these. But I think these shirts are fantastic.

Kyle designed it with a pencil and paper. They’re handlettered. The shirts are purple. They give a vital message. What’s not to like?

It’s plenty early for you to stock up on these for Father’s day, birthdays, Christmas, or just-because gifts. Am I shamelessly trying to get you to buy one or two or twelve? Yes. Maybe if we can get enough of these sold, we can convince Kyle to get a line up for us gals! What say you?

Help spread the word for Kingdom Apparel Co.!

If you’re a husband, then by default, you’re teaching the world about the relationship of Christ and His bride, the Church . . . by the way you treat your own wife.

You’re either teaching the world a lie, or you’re teaching the Gospel.

—————
The purple represents the royalty of Christ, while the white represents His spotless bride, the Church. Hand-lettering by Kyle Shepherd.

I can’t get over how swell these shirts are. I’m going to go rob my bank account and see if I can afford one for my father– shhhh, don’t say nothin’ about it, mmkay? (if you want to help me afford one or two or three, you are always welcome to buy a few sets of my buttons…..*knowing wink*)

Here’s how you can help!

• Go to the page on Teespring.com and buy one
• “Like” it on Facebook
• “Plus” it on Google Plus
• Spread the word!

Support small businesses– support Kingdom Apparel Co.!

The following quote is from Sons of the Remnant:

This is, quite simply, the manliest T-shirt ever. Married man or young and single man, it doesn’t matter. Ephesians 5:25 is what manhood is about.

And it can be yours, for only $15. Hey, it’s for the cause of chivalry. Don’t sweat it.

So get it HERE: http://teespring.com/loveyourwives

TeeSpring is sort of like KickStarter for T-shirts: http://teespring.com/about. My good friend Kyle Shepherd did the hand-lettering for this design. He needs to reach thirty orders in order for this shirt to be printed, but there’s no risk involved for you, because if he doesn’t reach that goal no money changes hands. These t-shirts will only be available for order until the 28th of May, so put in your order ASAP!! 

I had to put the picture on here twice. Can you blame me? I love it!

Who said we can’t have banana bread? –Gluten free, dairy free, sugar free recipe

Tags

Bread, Gluten free, Healthy, Healthy recipes, Sugar free, ui

When I went sugar free nearly four years ago, one of the things I had to give up was our homemade banana bread, which called for about two cups of sugar (choke, gag, cough). But my wonderful mother created this recipe, and it’s splendid. No sugar, and it’s much quicker to prepare than my ‘normal’ recipe!

Banana Nut Bread ~ Gluten Free & Sugar Free

• 2-3 mashed bananas (I generally blend this with a hand mixer until it’s pretty smooth)
• 1/2 Virgin Organic Coconut Oil (Or butter if dairy isn’t a problem– sometimes I use 1/4th cup Coconut oil and 1/4th cup butter), room temperature
• 1/2 tsp salt (Don’t forget this….please don’t forget it…believe me, I know!)
• 2 cups gluten free flour (I have used rice flour, buckwheat flour, and sorghum flour or a mix of the three)
• stevia to taste (I never measure stevia, but I use NuNaturals “NuStevia”, which is a powdered stevia extract, and just tap it into the batter until it tastes right– it takes very little, indeed!)

After blending these ingredients well, mix in

• 2-3 eggs

Blend the eggs in well, then add:

• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2-1 cup nuts if desired (I use walnuts)

Pour into greased bread pan and bake at 350f for about 60 minutes (watch it carefully). Test with a toothpick, and when the pick comes out clean, take out your bread, cool for a few minutes, and enjoy! It will mould after a few days, but it rarely lasts that long. It also freezes very well– just wrap it in plastic wrap and tinfoil and throw it in your freezer!

The 3 minute manicure– washi tape tutorial

Tags

fashion, nail polish, tutorials

Let’s admit it. Most of us have busy lives, and we can’t spend an hour (or more!) doing fancy designs on our nails like…..well, like these. They’re cute, yes– but not at all practical to create (let alone maintain– imagine trying to wash dishes and chop vegetables for dinner with your nails all fancy!).

I’m not into fancy nails anyway. I rarely paint mine– shucks, I’m happy if they stay looking decent (not always easy)! But a few months ago I won a giveaway, in which there was quite a number of rolls of washi tape. Really cute, but I hadn’t the slightest idea of what to do with it. And when you have something crafty that you don’t know what to do with? You look it up on Pinterest, of course! So, being the sensible gal that I am {cough cough}, that’s what I did. And I came on a cute little picture of somebody’s toes with washi tape on ‘em. That gave me an idea. If you can put it on your toes, then why not your fingers? It’s brilliant! BRILLIANT! So…….that’s what I did. Turned out real cute, too.

The pictures here are four days after application, so it’s starting to look a little crummy around the edges, but it’s actually holding up real well for all that! Aren’t they cute, though? With practice I’ll be able to get the corners cut cleaner upon application, too. But this is so much quicker and easier than doing it by hand.

As washi tape isn’t particularly sticky, I decided to put a few coats of protective nail gloss over it to make it stayed (even more brilliant!). Here’s the tutorial:

What You’ll Need:

• washi tape of choice
• protective top coat nail polish/gloss
• pencil (a nice sharp one is preferable)
• scissors
• 

 

First, I cut off a piece of washi tape a little bigger than my fingernail (since I’d already done my whole left hand, I was covering my right pointer finger here in the picture).

Next, I laid it over my fingernail, positioning the pattern how I liked it:

Next, I took the pencil and ‘traced’ the fingernail edges, like so:

Then I took the tape off my finger and cut around the pencil lines. Remember, it’s better to have the tape too big than too small– you can always trim it again.

After positioning the tape, press it down with something hard (like the end of a pen or something) to make sure it’s firmly cemented on the surfaces and in the crevices on either side of your fingernail. Once it’s to your liking, put a coat of protective nail polish on top– I probably put two or three coats the first day, and have added a few more coats since then (the tape tends to come off at the tip and bottom of the nail). But still, my fingers look grand after three or four days, and that includes scrubbing with a fingernail brush!

EDIT: you may need to put fingernail polish under the tape. I have had to do that on a couple of the nails. But that can be done after doing everything else– as a ‘fixer’ if the tape starts to flip up.

See? It takes so much less time than it takes to tell about it. So cute! I have the notion to do my feet sometime soon, too….

Have fun with your cheat-easy manicure! There are so many washi tape patterns out there, so there’s no end of designs you can use!

And I said goodbye…….

………to Etsy.

It’s been long in coming, and I finally done did it.  Etsy fees have just gone higher and higher over the past several years, and since my little shop was not doing well at all, I was losing more money than I was making by a long shot, not even touching the fact that the intensive time and labor I was expending was not being justified in the profits of my business endeavors.  In English, it wasn’t worth it.

The final blow, so to speak, that made me once and for all decide to leave Etsy was talking with a friend of mine, Hinda from CutieHandmade. She has been struggling the same way I have, and she’s leaving Etsy too.  Tons of fees and no payback: not going to work for low (or non) income gals.

So I decided to try my hand at Storenvy, which is free. It was relatively easy to set up, though I’m having trouble with payment and shipping. Hinda has been having problems with the latter, I know, so we’ll see what comes of it. She’s got shops on a lot of sites…..

So, that’s the ‘big announcement’. I’ll be slowly filling up my Storenvy shop, so stop  by and then drop me a line lettin’ me know what you think of it!

My Etsy shop was easy to remember: DollyMadison.etsy.com. Storenvy is equally easy: DollyMadison.storenvy.com.

There’s a giveaway a-goin’ on….

Tags

1940s, Giveaway, handmade, vintage

For those of you who don’t know, I’m crazy about the 1940s.  The fashions, the hairstyles, the music, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I learned of this giveaway:

Custom Snood Giveaway at Haute Rockabilly Fashionista

The winner gets a snood like this in any color they want! It’s a perfectly adorable snood from a 1942 pattern. Doesn’t get much better, does it?

*looks rapturous*

You can win whatever color you wish! All you’ve got to do is follow the blog, leave a comment, and post on your own blog about the giveaway. While I’m not a huge fan of posting giveaways that I’m not hosting to my blog, I have no qualms about this one! I love these snoods, don’t you?

What I got in the mail

Tags

Art, Etsy shops, featured shops, handmade

A while ago I got something in the mail. A package, fairly large in comparison to what I usually find in the mailbox. I didn’t recognize the return address, so I wasn’t sure what it was. When I opened it up……….. Boy! It was like a treasure chest! I had forgotten: I’d won a giveaway from the lovely little shop Chicky Doddle. And as I unpacked it all, it just kept coming…………………….and coming……..and coming! There was so much! Decorative tape, stationary, adorable little stickers, envelopes….. I was just tickled!

Here’s some of the items currently available in the Chicky Doddle shop. I can attest that these are beautiful, high quality items sold in this cute shop!

Shabby chic rose washi tape

Flowery fabric tape

numeral and alphabetical wood and rubber stamping set

Red and White bakers twine

………..and these are just a couple of the perfectly adorable items found in the Chicky Doddle shop! She’s got a sale going until Jan. 15, so run over and see if you can’t find something real cute to add to your writing desk!

Handmade Roundup, no. 5

I don’t really have a favorite color…I have several. Do you relate? Honest, how can you pick just *one* from all the glorious hues? Right now I’m loving yellow, peach, and aqua/sky blue (think tropical ocean blue). Together, those three are ADORABLE!

I was looking at some of my picks for this week’s Roundup, and discovered that I’ve got an awful lot of peach here. And I was quite happy about it.

This is darling. I don’t mind saying so, ’cause it is. It’s made by A Pocket of Posies: a perfectly adorable shop with everything that a girlish heart could desire in the way of jewelry.  I think hair combs have such a historical appeal to them, and this one takes the cake. 

For years I’ve had this lurking in the back of my mind: I want to make an honest-to-goodness rag rug, I do, I do!

How’s this for an adorable rag rug? The one I have in mind to make someday would be in warm colors– it never occured to me to make it in light, springy, sherbet-ish hues. But by George, A Marigold Life did it. And the result is adorable.

And, going back to roses, wouldn’t this be the perfect accent for your outfit if you wore aforementioned comb with this cute bracelet from Katheyl Jewelery?

These spoons are adorable. In fact, the whole shop, The Loose Goose, is adorable. Don’t you agree? I love stamped metal. 

And, just for whimsy’s sake, this cute vase. I would love to have one of these on hand….it would go so well with all sorts of flowers! A formal arrangement like the one pictured here, a bouquet of pretty wildflowers, or even a bunch of ferns from the woods. Lots of possibilities, I think. This is made by Airth & Olson (I love that name, sounds like an old fashioned general store), and their shop is chock full of cute things! 

The shop of the week is Jacaranda Designs: awfully cute and bright floral jewelry!

That’s all for now, folks!

The Handmade Roundup is a weekly post featuring the handiwork and vintage items of Etsy shop owners. Leave a comment with your shop or blog link to be considered for a future feature!

Handmade Roundup, no. 4

Fall! Oh boy, isn’t it beautiful? We get the most gorgeous falls up here in the Northwest. If you don’t mind the cold (ahem, well…..), then you’ll love it up here.

This week I’m trying to stay warm, and found some adorable things in the process. Oooh, the colors of fall!

Right off there’s a precious little watercolor that I think is adorable! Oh, what a cute little fox, no?

Painted by the very talented Amber Alexander:

OOooh, and take a lookee here! I don’t know you, but I love handmade soap. It’s so sweet to pick up a nice, smooth bar of soap, scrub your hands with a sweetly scented foam, and then have soft, clean fingers. To boot, you know that there aren’t any of those harmful chemicals that lurk in commercial cleansers!
These darling soaps are made by an equally darling young woman. She’s the sweetest thing, and she has some of the most lovely works of art in her shop: Enter Graceful Design Cards!

I think these linen bread bags are so cute! I just love linen! From Linen Gifts:

These booties were made by a lady who’s local to me (‘local’ around here means ‘same state’); she was at a ladies’ tea we attended Saturday, and I picked up her business card, Happy In Dole Valley.  Aren’t these adorable? They look like little…well, I don’t know, Irish green pea pods or something.

This adorable necklace from Steam Trunk Studio has been catching my eye for some time now. Isn’t it lovely?

The Shop of the Week is Nesting Pretty, which is just that. Such adorable little whimsies!

And it just so happens that Nesting Pretty is giving away a shop credit of $25.00 on the Blog of the Week Giveaways of Blessing!

That’s all for now, folks!

The Handmade Roundup is a weekly post featuring the handiwork and vintage items of Etsy shop owners. Leave a comment with your shop or blog link to be considered for a future feature!

Handmade Roundup no. 3

Tags

Art, Etsy shops, Featured, Giveaway, victorian

Oh boy! I’ve got some super cute things to show you this week! It took me a while to find them, though. Trying to find cheap, practical handmade products that are well photographed isn’t easy. So if you’ve got a shop that fits said description (you can omit the practical if you want!), do drop me a comment, for I’d love to put you on the lineup list.

Now, I’m in love with Mason jars as I’m sure so many of you are. They’re just so pretty and practical and versatile! I’ve long been admiring these vintage jars that Post Road Vintage sells in several forms, mostly as soap dispensers…[cue 'awwww's here].

From Pieceocake comes this precious cream pitcher…I’m seriously drooling over this.

Let’s see. Now we’ve got another use for the Mason Jar. A dear friend of mine, Elizabeth from Country Handmaiden, sells these adorable jar closures. I think it’s so cute with the cloth lid!

I’ve always wanted a locket. But there are so many to choose from on Etsy that it took me the better part of thirty minutes to find just the right one to feature here! The one I chose is by Brooke Elisa, and what a lovely locket it is.

This week’s featured shop is Anna Pavlovna. Oh my! These girls make the cutest, and I mean the cutest little stuffed animals that look as if they came straight from an old-fashioned storybook!

Blog of the Week is the lovely ‘French Chic’ style Timewashed. So very pretty. In fact, the basket here is up for grabs in a current giveaway, so run along over there and enter!

That’s all for now, folks!

The Handmade Roundup is a weekly post featuring the handiwork of Etsy shop owners. Leave a comment with your shop or blog link to be considered for a future feature!