Business State of Mind

I've been trying for years to start up my own business. Well at least talking about it. I've been wanting my jewelry to take off but it really hasnt and I have nobody to blame but myself. My networking is a little on the weak side. I need to get out there and really advertise. I've been wanting to create a website to display my jewelry, not just a blog. I have no idea how to creat websites to be honest. I mentioned it on facebook and one of my friends refered me to a site where she created her website for free. I joined and it was super easy. Very basic to work with, but professional results...and all for Free!! Yay! Thanks Jess! The site is almost done now. Just a few tweeks here and there and it should be good to go. The shopping cart is linked to paypal and everything. Finally, a website!

In a couple of weeks I'll be attending a Cancer charity event. I volunteered to donate a few of my jewelry pieces for a raffle. I'll attach a business card (if even I could decide on a design so I could actually get them printed). Hopefully this will bring some business in. Who knows. Here's my new website for those who are interested. Remember, it's not 100% done. http://www.delicatedesigns.ca/ , or check out my jewelry blog (which honestly is pretty boring (lol) http://www.delicatedesigns-nina.blogspot.com/ .

My mom and I have also been talking about expanding my jewelry business to bridal accessories. I know you might be thinking...expanding? It's hardly a business to start out with. Well all I have to say about that is....*stick tongue out*. My mom used to work at a wedding store for many years. She also used to make wedding cushions and garter belts for the store. They were always a hit. So we may be getting into that as well. I dont know how we are going to get ourselves out there...but this is all a work in progress. We'll see.

I've also been playing with another business idea. Again it will be something crafty. I'm not going to reveal what it is just yet. Call me supersticious, but I dont want to jinx it. The best part of this brilliant idea that I had (so I think it's brilliant), is that I may have somewhere to sell. One of my good friends started a business that sells one mommy or baby product at week at a good deal. The website is http://www.sweetbabydealz.com/ . Check it out and sign up! It has really cute and affordable things. The best part is, they strive for locally made, or eco friendly products. Awesome. Anyways! All this to say, I asked my friend if she would be interested in selling (insert secret item here), and she said she would love to. The only thing is, to sell on her website, I would need to get the product tested for saftey. Seeing as these are baby products. So, soon, after creating enough of the product, I will be sending them to the CSA (Canadian Safety Associations) for certification. If it gets approval, then I'm good to go (and very excited). So thats been whats up lately. Creating my jewelry site, crafting these secret products and of course, all this during Baby's nap time! *out of breathe*. So hopefully this all works out.

I've been dying to start something on my own. I know it's a lot of work, but I'm sure it's so satisfying. Kinda like babies! Heheh lots of work but really worth it! If this fails, I'm sure i'll try something else. So, fingers crossed! News to come!

Ni-xox-

I Heart You!

This year since Valentine's day was on a Tuesday and I didn't think anyone really had plans, I invited my family over for a special Valentine's supper. I figured, why not spend the day of love with more than just one person you love right? So here's who came, My parents, my grandma, my brother, my sister in law, my nephew and niece, and of course me, hubby and Baby! It was a full house. So naturally I went with a red themed meal. Cliche? Ah who cares, it all tasted good and one of the easiest things to make to entertain a big crowd is pasta and sauce. That's what was on the menu. A meat sauce over cheese and spinach ravioli. YUM! I have to admit, my sauce turned out fabulous. It was so flavorful and best of all, there were many hidden nutrients in the mix. Sneaky me! Sauce is the best way to get your kids to eat their veggies without them even knowing.



Yum!

 So after we stuffed our faces on Ravioli and wine, I set out a big bowl of strawberries. They were so sweet and delicious.

  

My little man feeding all the ladies some strawberries. Oh they start so young! Hehe!

After the strawberries, it was time for coffee and dessert. I found a recipe online for red velvet whoopie pies with cream cheese frosting in the shape of hearts. So cute and they looked so tempting. So I decided to make them. I made the heart cookies and then realized I had forgotten to buy cream cheese. And you can't have cream cheese frosting with cream cheese now can you. So I really didn't feel like breaking my head over trying to find something else to make the sandwich part of the whoopie pies, so they turned out to be whoopie pies sans cream! They were really good even without the filling. Here is a picture! They came out so moist.

That pretty much concludes the meal part of our evening. After cleaning the kitchen and doing all the dishes, we played with the kids, watched a movie and relaxed. It was a really nice way to spend Valentine's day! Good food and my family....what more could a girl ask for! :o)



My three little Valentine's eating lollipops and watching the Care Bear Movie!

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's day filled with love and laughter!

Ni-xox-

New Ideas

Lately I've been really wanting to get back into my jewelry making. It's been awhile since I've gotten into it seriously. I've been inspired with new ideas and new media. I was browsing around on http://www.artbeads.com/ and I found this cute pendant made from a bottle cap (as seen above). The bottle cap idea is really cute, but what got me interested is the media inside the bottle cap. Turns out its resin. I love this idea of having an image with this clear covering over it. And not to mention something cute floating on top like the metal heart on the above piece. Very nice idea.

My latest collection that I have been creating is called Flora. Each piece of jewelry revolves around some kind of fabric flower. I really like this idea too. There are so many nice fabric patterns out there, that you can be very creative with this. Works well this fabric sample that you may have lying around the house.

Ok, so, I have a slight obsession with all things Alice in Wonderland. I own pretty much every movie made. This got me thinking about making an Alice in Wonderland jewelry collection. Fun right?? The resin idea gave me the idea to create beautiful pendants using Alice imagery vintage and modern. I'm getting excited just thinking about it!! So stay tuned for my new Alice collection. Hopefully I can figure out how to use this resin stuff and not make too much of a mess. But first, I need to order it! *baby steps*.

Check out my other collections on my Jewelry Blog http://www.delicatedesigns-nina.blogspot.com/ or my Delicate Designs facebook page! And remember, everything is for sale! Thanks for your support!

Ni-xox-

Motherhood

Ni-xox-

Delicious Apple for a Delicious Baby

Yummy in the tummy!

Ni-xox

Old Made New Again

Has anyone been to a toy store lately? Well, I have and let me tell you, there are so many cool toys out there nowadays. Sure we had some nice toys when we were kids. I wonder if it's just because we're not kids anymore that we think the toys of today are so much cooler. Well, as you know, we always make lists at Christmas. This means some online research and some on site searching. This is were I fell upon these new Sesame Street toys. Sooooo cute!! There is the whole family. Elmo, Cookie monster, Bert, Ernie, Big Bird, Snuffy, Oscar, and Grover. They even have the street. That's right, the street. It's the front of Mr.Hooper's store and the famous stairs near Oscar's garbage can. All in all, very awesome. So I added all of the above to Baby's Christmas list. I also added Oscar's Garage Truck and Grover's Firetruck. Well, Baby got everything. I'm guessing I was more excited about it than he was. It brought me back to my childhood. I mean, who didn't love Sesame Street when they were a kid? Really. So, was it selfish of me to put something on Baby's list that I really wanted?

Here are two reasons why I don't think so. First of all, he's too little to even know what he wants. I mean he just turned one. Its not like I was going to put him on the Internet and tell him to make a list of things he wanted! Second of all, he LOVES LOVES LOVES his new Sesame Street toys. I mean, he plays all day with them. He's learned all their names. It wasn't a total selfish choice I made. I know Baby loves playing with little action figures (for lack of a better word), like the Little People collection. So I figured, why not little Sesame Street characters? And I was right. Mommy knows best right? Hehe! I'm happy that he likes his toys and I'm glad that I get to enjoy them too. It's fun to feel young. Play with your kids and have fun! That's what life's all about.



Ni-xox-

Co-Sleeping- Part Deux

Here's a little illustration I found about Co-sleeping. Just to revisit yesterday's post. The first one is very popular in our bed. I could say that we havent experienced the last one yet. Although sometimes I do end up sleeping with my head at the foot of the bed. More shoulder room down there! Enjoy!

Ni -xox-

Co-Sleeping Family

Lately we've gone backwards in terms of Baby sleeping in his crib. I don't know what happened. Is it because he's scared of the dark (night light in room and all)? Is he afraid of being alone? Or does he just like sleeping squished in between us? Maybe he secretly enjoys kicking, punching and headbutting us at night. Who knows. All I know is that as of the last couple of weeks, we are officially a co-sleeping family. I've tried putting Baby into his bed after he falls asleep. Sometimes he'll stay for a little while before waking up. However, most of the time as soon as he feels his crib mattress, it's cryingville! For awhile before this, we had tried the crying it out method. Which I didn't really like, but I was kinda desperate. For the first couple of days it was crying for 30 minutes to an hour. Poor baby. I was in bed convulsing with my broken heart. But I stuck to it and after a few days, the crying was less and less until it was no more than 30 seconds to a minute. Victory!! So I thought. Like I said before, we have gone backwards totally. And now when I try the crying method, he just cries and cries. The worst part now is that he calls for me "MOMMY". I cannot handle that. As soon as I hear that "mommy", I break and go get him. (Shame on me...no will power). It's come to a point now that I'd say 4 out of 7 days I don't even try to put him in his bed. Bad on my part, but not having slept properly for...well 16 months, doesn't exactly make me have the best judgement sometimes.

Some people actually opt for the co-sleeping arrangement. Why you may ask? Honestly, I have no clue! Lol! Ok sure, at first when they're teeny tiny and don't move, it's nice having that little bundle to cuddle up to. However, we seem to forget that babies DO grow. Eventually they're taking over half of your side of the bed and half of your hubbie's side (And that's if you're lucky). Pretty much at this point both you and hubby are sleeping (or sorta) with one leg hanging off the bed, one arm resting on the night table along with your head and whatever you could salvage of your pillow. Am I right?? By now it's 3am and your arm is asleep, your leg is freezing and you're silently praying for morning to come. Meanwhile, your little one is sleeping with his butt in your face or his knees in your spine and snoring away! I'm sure most of you who sleep with baby have experienced one or more of these events. Not to mention when Baby decides that its a good idea to sleep on top of you all together and not to wake him up, you don't scooch back into place on the bed that now isn't being occupied. So now you're hanging off the bed AND you have the little bundle on top of you. (Swear.....it's ok sometimes! hehe)

Solutions?
1- I thought about putting his crib in our room. Which would require some removal of furniture or else it won't fit. Maybe when he wakes up and sees that we're there he'll feel safe enough to stay in his crib.
2- Put a mattress in his room and sleep on it for a while (me, not him) until he gets used to his crib and room and doesn't wake up. (I'm sure that wont work...he'll just want to sleep on the mattress with me)
3- Last but not least, I will buy an actual double mattress and put it on the floor and sleep there with him. And slowly sneak out when he falls asleep. At least this way he'll get used to sleeping in his room. Could it work? Who knows!

So that's it! If anyone had the same problem as me and fixed it....PLEASE help! Any suggestions would be great. And one word of advice to all you new mothers or mothers to be. Yes it's cute to have your baby in bed with you when they're born....DON'T DO IT! Let me tell you....next baby I have, straight to his\her room. (That's what I say now....) Remind me to read this post if ever I don't follow my own advice!

So with a headbutt and a good elbow in the eye, I say Goodnight!! *eye roll*

Ni- xox-