Welcome SUMMER!!!

The month of May got away from me!  I have been busy with all sorts of things, and getting to my computer to blog has fallen to the bottom of the list!!  We decided to take baby steps and keep my office at home, but that means that I have had to make some pretty significant modifications to my studio space in order to fit a business in as well as my overflowing supplies.  :-)

First thing we did was to add a counter-height work station for me, with easy access to my Cricut Expression and Imagine and the tools I use every day.  We made it open on both sides and put a chair on either side, so I can have someone else in there working with me!!  

We added a separate table for trimming and cutting:

Here is one of my favorite additions to my craft space.  To build the counter-height bench, we used two open shelving units to support the top.  That gave me under-counter awesome space.  The baskets on top were $1 aisle finds at Target years ago that I added some felt flowers to (House of Three, Daily Junque).  The wire shelves were made using a kit for wire cubes and some zip ties.  Thanks to Susan Tomaino for the idea!!

The cardboard boxes are not a permanent fixture, but I wanted to mention them because they are housing my newest, most favorite things!!!  Simon Says Stamp has a new Card Kit of the Month, and I am in LOVE!!!  I will post some of the many cards I have made from the May kit-- haven't even started on the June kit, that's how fun the May one was!!  Thank you to Kristina for doing such an awesome job putting them together!

Okay, I have lots of projects to post, but I have to get offline and finish up birthday party invitations for my son's birthday!  Hope you had a great weekend!!

Etsy Store is Open!

I can hardly believe that I officially have an Etsy store!  It is taking a little longer to list things than I had expected, but I am starting to get the hang of it, so you can expect to see more things go up in the next few days.  The store is at:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/kkharing?ref=seller_info

If anyone has advice about how to best run my Etsy store, please send me your thoughts!!  I am a newbie!  :-)

I started making a set of teacher appreciation cards, but I stopped putting Thank You on them when I realized that it might be nice to use as a graduation card (for little ones) or a congrats for finishing the year with good grades.  My eldest is "graduating" from kindergarten next month, so I may have to keep some for him and his teachers!!

The paper is DCWV and the embellishments are from 3Birds (pencil, books & 3D apple & chipboard book stack) or from DCWV paper that I cut apart (A+, You're a Star, I Love My Teacher).  There is also some scrap cardstock in there and a little bit of stamping with a Close To My Heart stamp!

Have a great night and thanks for checking in!!

Happy Easter!!

Hello, friends!

We are just finishing with a wonderful Easter celebration in our home.  As is always the case in my family, holidays are all about the food!!  We started our day with a turkey sausage and egg breakfast casserole,  cinnamon rolls,  fresh-squeezed OJ and espresso.  Our church's Easter service was joyous and uplifting and reminded me of all of my amazing blessings... After an egg hunt, we returned home and had a leisurely Easter supper of ham, German potato salad (yum-- thanks to my mother-in-law), roasted asparagus, locally-grown tomato and feta salad, and, of course, deviled eggs.  We finished off with what I have to say might have been the best carrot cake I've ever made!!  Let me know if you want the recipe-- happy to pass it along to any carrot cake lovers.

So last night, after the family went to bed and I finished baking the cake and making the deviled eggs, I treated myself to a little card making.  :-)

Many of the supplies (patterned paper, cardstock) are Anna Griffin.  The brad is from Fancy Pants, the twine from My Minds Eye, the tag cut out with my Cricut and stamped with Colorbox ink and a Close To My Heart stamp. 

And to my dear friends who have asked, I am definitely in the process of getting my finished cards up for sale on etsy.com.  I will put a link on here as soon as I have the store opened, so stay tuned!!

Happy Easter to those who are celebrating, Happy Passover to my many friends who are celebrating that this week, and to those not celebrating, I hope you are enjoying a relaxing Sunday afternoon!