Drawstring Studio

Sometimes It’s Just an Illusion

Drawstring Studio — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:35:43 +0000

I love that we have a window in our stairway, but I don’t know what it is about windows and stairs-the windows always look too short. So I decided to take the old phrase “fake it till you make it” and put it to use-well maybe just the fake it part….but I really like the end result.

Motivation

Drawstring Studio — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 04:35:57 +0000

To put it simply:

The reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.
The general desire or willingness of someone to do something.

What exactly motivates you or keeps you motivated? For me it tends to vary-which I’ve found really works for me(probably part of my self-diagnosed ADD and inability to focus on one thing too long).

Here are a couple of things that have/are motivating me to stay focused:

-Setting and exceeding sales goals

-Realizing that if I work at night while the kids are sleeping-I will have more time to spend with them

-Realizing that we may be able to pay off some bills soon

-Being inspired by people around me and their goals/excitement

-Brainstorming with other creative people

Whatever motivates you-hold on to it-use it to get yourself through those days that aren’t sunshine and roses and hold on to your dream-or adapt when your dream changes. I have and so far it’s been working out pretty well.

Bad Hair Day

Drawstring Studio — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:46:09 +0000

You ever have one of those days where no matter what you do or what you put in it to try to “pretty it up”….you’re just having a bad hair day. Well my blog and lackluster website were having a REALLY BAD HAIR DAY! And sadly I wasn’t doing much about it-kinda ignoring it actually which isn’t good for business at all. But then along came my fairy godmother in the form of Nicole from The Lovely Poppy and Poppy Pixel Designs. Seriously I can’t say enough good things about her and her work. For some reason I really suck at graphics and website ideas-I don’t know why-I ‘m a very visual person but I can’t seem to put together what I want. Nicole listened to what I thought I wanted, gave me a few options, and then endlessly tweaked it for me and now I am so so happy with it. She also created a new button, banner, and signature-yes I am smitten with them. I actually enjoy looking at my website now and hope that it comes across the same way to my clients, customers, and friends.

But here’s the good news for you! Nicole is having a Introductory Giveaway and Special. There is still time to enter the giveaway and look at these great introductory offers-I shopped around before finding Nicole and you cannot beat her prices especially considering the amazing product she delivers.

From the Poppy Pixel Designs……

Due to the overwhelming response to my facebook post, the free blog designs will be done giveaway style. To enter: simply comment on the post HERE (maybe share your favorite color combo or something you ate for breakfast). I will pick THREE winners on Monday, February 20th and begin designing shortly after.

For those of you that don’t wait to wait- I’m offering an AMAZING introductory price to the first ten people who email me.

Complete Design Package: The Complete Blogger Design Package includes a custom header, navigation links, background, button with share code, about me graphic, and favicon. This package includes three design proposals and revisions. Also, this package includes installation and a basic video tutorial, which is customized to your blog.
~~$75~~ $25

Complete Design Package: The Complete WordPress Design Package includes a custom theme using Genesis framework, header, navigation links, background, button with share code, sidebar customizations, and favicon. This package includes three design proposals and revisions. Also, this package includes installation and a basic video tutorial, which is customized to your blog. Additional widgets are available in the a la carte section. Poppy Pixel Designs recommends using StudioPress for WordPress Customizations
~~$125~~ $50

Quick Change Wednesday

Drawstring Studio — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:55:01 +0000

So instead of doing WIWW, I’m going to switch it up and show you a mid-week DIY I did today.

Does anyone else start projects without having a plan? Yeah that’s basically what I always do. So last night I got an idea that I wanted to switch things around a bit when Justin was at work-it’s usually when I do it so he can’t yell at me It all started with wanting to make more room in our bedroom and ended up with me changing the cabinet in the downstairs bath….long story but basically the item I moved from our bedroom didn’t fit in the bathroom and I had to put back up the cabinet-but it had these gross doors on it-

so I decided to whip out my spray adhesive and this large houndstooth scrap and this is what I came up with- LOVE IT! Of course I still have to put a lot of practical items back on the shelfs, but I have a bin that “should” fit nicely up there and then I’ll store everything else in a heap under the sink(just being honest). I’m happy with it-now I just have to explain the crazy mess in the kitchen was some furniture dismantled thanks to me and E.

Anyone want to win something?

Drawstring Studio — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:55:32 +0000

Then head on over to Nicole at The Lovely Poppy’s blog and enter her 3000 Fan Giveaway! There are some fabulous items and services you can win-one of them being a pretty cool chevron throw pillow cover(wink, wink)

Happy Valentine’s Day

Drawstring Studio — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:21:00 +0000

I saw these on Pinterest the other day and was convinced I would make them for breakfast today-well I made them-they turned out pretty good(had to sub raspberries because I couldn’t find organic strawberries. They were actually pretty easy to make too and E was excited because he thought he was eating a cookie for breakfast. P on the other hand, freaked out because somehow she sat on it(does this happen to anyone else-I don’t understand how kids in highchairs always end up sitting on everything) and started screaming bloody murderbecause the warm jam was seeping through her pjs

We keep it pretty low key for V Day-nothing special planned-the kiddos are at Miss Sarahs, Justin’s at work and I am working too. My treat to myself to be more productive is to only check my email now, when I take P to the Dentist, and then tonight. I love/hate having email on my phone because A. I can answer customer questions right when I get them usually(love) B. I am always checking my phone to see if I have emails and it stops the rhythm I have going sewing (hate). We’ll see how it goes!

Plus I’ve now decided that I need to make this fabric into curtains…but I have no time-so I’m thinking of having someone else make them-ha it’s funny but true.

Crock Potting It

Drawstring Studio — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:35:15 +0000

Not even sure if that’s a phrase-think I just made it up, but it pretty much sums up what we were doing for dinners this past week. If you know me, you know that pre-planning is not my strong suit…hence making crock pot meals alittle difficult since I tend to forget to get things ready in the am-but I love that most of the recipes have cook on low for blah blah blah or high for basically half the time(I think they do that for people like me).

Anyways, I wanted to share one of the best recipes from the week….Crockpot Salsa Chicken-seriously it was so so good-the pics make it look not so yummy, but hey if both my kids eat it-it has to be good. I found it over on Smashed Peas and Carrots-so feel free to go check it out.

Basically you just take chicken breast and yes they can be frozen-another good thing since we forgot to thaw ours, a can of black beans, undrained, can of corn(we used frozen vegetable medley to get a few more veggies in there that the kids tend not to eat, a jar of salsa, and cream cheese. Throw the chicken in the bottom, add the beans, corn and salsa, not the cream cheese, and cook for HIGH 3-4 hours, love 6-8 hours, 15 minutes before it’s done add the cream cheese on top, let it melt a bit and stir it in. So simple! We had ours on tortillas and I added some spinach too. We also made some brown rice just in case…

Cleaning Up and Clearing Out

Drawstring Studio — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:00:44 +0000

I have a sick little guy home with me today so after placing my fabric orders and answering this mornings emails, I was twiddling my thumbs on what to do while he relaxed on the couch. Sewing was out of the question since he would freak out if I was not within seeing/hearing distance and I am avoiding my box of receipts from last year like the plague-although I have to get them ready by Sunday. So I decided it was finally time to get my home office in order. I moved my house to our house back in December-but I can honestly say it just became a place where I threw everything and didn’t even have a chair in there…well I’m happy to say I’m sitting here in my office on a chair writing this-big improvement! Here’s a sneak peak into my office. Most of my fabric is still at the old studio-which I have until April so I’m sure once I bring that back again-I’ll have to reconfigure. Plus as you can see it’s still not completely organized, but atleast it’s useable and makes me smile!

It’s February

Drawstring Studio — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:00:12 +0000

And I feel a bit guilty that I just took down our Christmas decorations today-well the trees been down for awhile, but everything else was still up. To make up for it I decided to make a Valentine’s decoration-I really never do valentine’s day decorations-don’t know why it’s just not something I’ve done.

Anyways here it is a decoration I was able to create in about 5 minutes before the kiddos destroyed the house(they only managed to get a package of wipes out and give themselves wipe down baths)

I took some woolfelt I had, took some pinking shears because hey let’s admit it, pinking shears make things fancier-I cut some hearts out-the old school 1st grade kinda way. I then noticed the kids were up to something to I didn’t have time to hot glue them down so I took some brown thread I had and wrapped them around the wreath I had. I actually really like how it turned out that way and it’s a bit more practical for our family because now I can change it for the seasons/holidays.

WIWW-Seriously thought I took more pics-oh well

Drawstring Studio — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:33:39 +0000

So I really thought I took more pics this week, but I guess not-or I just forgot-which could be the case.

Dress: Target Boots: Aldo

Dress: Target Boots: Boston Store