Break From Blog-Land

I have taken a break from blog-land. First of all, blogger has been freaking out on me lately and it has gotten really annoying, and second, I have been crafting my butt off!

I have received so many custom requests from my Southern Girl Weddings site! I am very excited about my new venture and I love working with all 0f these lovely brides to be! In fact one of the brides that I worked with received her bridal hair piece in the mail and then blogged about it. She included pictures of her wearing the hair piece and everything! I have to be honest, it made me tear up a bit to see those pictures. No one has ever sent me pictures of them wearing one of my designs before and it really touched me. You can check out her post here.

I have also been adding more inventory to my shop. Here are some of my favorite bouquets:

Purple Peacock

Eat Drink and Be Married

Meant to Be

I hope that I will be able to balance my shop, my life and my blog, but if I am absent again for a while, you will know why!

Free Business Cards

Overnight Prints is offering 500 Business Cards for FREE. Yeah, that's right I said free! You only have to pay the shipping price which came out to be $9.86 for me.

They are one-sided business cards and you can even upload your own image. Here's what mine look like:

I am super excited and I can't wait to get them!

Featured on Etsy's "The Storque"

Southern Girl Weddings was featured on Etsy's Blog "The Storque". I am so excited!

Here is the bouquet that was featured:

It is truly one of my favorites. I love the magnolias and how realistic they look and feel.

This morning I noticed that I was getting an unusual amount of views and hearts, so I looked for a reason why and saw that sure enough I was featured. You can read the article here. It is a lovely article about weddings and even though I am already married, I just love looking at wedding pictures and finding inspiration for some of my bouquets!

Eclair Cake Recipe

I wanted to share a recipe that I made the other day. I found this Eclair Cake recipe on FoodNetwork.com. It is so delicious and easy to make!

Photo from FoodNetwork.com

Ingredients:

• 1 (1-pound) box graham crackers
• 2 (3 1/4-ounce) boxes instant French vanilla pudding
• 3 1/2 cups milk
• 1 (8-ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• Frosting
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

Butter the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan. Line with whole graham crackers. In bowl of an electric mixer, mix pudding with milk; beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Fold in whipped topping. Pour half the pudding mixture over graham crackers. Place another layer of whole graham crackers on top of pudding layer. Pour over remaining half of pudding mixture and cover with another layer of graham crackers.

For frosting, blend together sugar and cocoa. Add butter and milk, mixing well. Add corn syrup and vanilla. Stir until creamy. Cover cake with frosting and refrigerate for 24 hours.

i ♥ faces Giveaway

Okay, I definitely have a blog crush on i ♥ faces! The photography on there is amazing. There are some really talented photographers and I can spend all day looking at pictures! They are having a giveaway and wait for it, wait for it...

They are giving away Tamron 18-270mm VC zoom lens. This lens totally blows all of my lenses out of the water. It is crazy sweet and I would LOVE to win!

You all can enter the giveaway here.

Taking it for Granted

You take water for granted until you don't have it - or at least I did! Due to the drought that has plagued this part of the country (Texas), the land has dried so much that it is contracting. Our soil here is mostly clay so anyone familiar with that knows that it causes the houses to shift which can be very damaging. Our house has moved so much this year that there is a gap that spans a couple of inches between our door jam and the top of the door! We were just talking about putting a soaker hose around the house to run at night to prevent the house from shifting too much and breaking any pipes. We are under a water restriction and any watering has to be done at night to conserve.

My husband wakes up this morning and goes to take his shower. He comes back into the bedroom and wakes me up asking if I had any water pressure when I showered last night. I tell him that it was normal. He said that he had absolutely no pressure and was worried that our nightmare had become a reality. When it was light enough to see outside, he went to check our meter to see if it was running indicating that we had a leak somewhere - thankfully it was not. One of our neighbors (who happens to be a fireman) saw him checking the meter and asked if we were having problems with our water pressure. Apparently they were too. He thought there might have been a fire in the neighborhood last night and they had to use the water so the levels were low.

I get up a couple hours later and have absolutely no water at all! I guess I had always taken it for granted that there would be running water whenever I needed it. Luckily we had bottled water which I used to wash my hands and brush my teeth with. I leave the house to go to work and the city has the road that I usually take to work blocked off. It turns out one of the water mains had broke because of the ground shifting. Thankfully they had it repaired by the time we got home from work. We desperately need rain.

Vote for Me!

If you have some time, I would appreciate it if you would go vote for my photo in the Cat's Corner photography contest. Here is the link: http://amazoncat.blogspot.com/2009/08/competition-entries-time-to-vote.html.

My photo is #1.

Thank you!

Southern Girl Weddings

I have been absent from the blog world for a while, and it is because I have been working on starting up a second Etsy shop! I am so excited.

Introducing:

Southern Girl Weddings

http://www.SouthernGirlWeddings.etsy.com

I already have five bouquets listed and I am hoping to get some boutonnieres, corsages and hair pieces done.

If you know of anyone getting married and in need of wedding flowers, direct them my way!

Autumn Wreaths on Etsy

I have been working hard on getting my autumn wreaths listed in my Etsy shop.

The Gathering Season Wreath

Pumpkin Spice Wreath

Autumn Sunset Wreath

There are a lot of steps involved in listing an item.

• The whole process starts when I shop for the materials for my wreath. Sometimes I go into the store with an idea already in my head and other times I pick up a flower and the idea for a wreath is there! I usually spend about an hour in the store perfecting my purchase, and I usually only buy the materials that I need for that particular wreath without buying any extra flowers.

• Then I make the wreaths, which can take at least a couple of hours arranging, perfecting, gluing and making sure it looks exactly how I want it to look. This is when I put a girly movie on and get to work!

• Then come the product photos - my house is way too dark to take the pictures inside, so I go outside. I have to take the pictures in the morning because I get the best light during that time. It also helps that I have a super-duper awesome camera at my disposal.

• I perfect my product photos in Photoshop - cropping, enhancing and tweaking the colors a bit.

• I also write out each description and add up the cost of the wreath.

• Finally I can list it on Etsy and hope that it finds a good home.

It can be a long drawn out process which is why I am shocked that I have been able to get all of these autumn wreaths listed in this amount of time!

Poco Bueno 2009

It has been a very busy weekend for us. This past weekend was the Poco Bueno Fishing Tournament that is held every year in Port O'Connor, Texas - my husband's home town. This is the biggest fishing tournament on the Texas coast, and boats come from literally all over the country, by invitation, to participate. My husband has been working the weigh station for many years now - he told me how many, but I forgot, I'll have to ask him again! His Dad worked the weigh station before him and he was even the weigh master.

This was my second year to attend Poco. I travelled down to Port O'Connor on Saturday afternoon with my brother and his fiance. We got to see the inshore fish being brought in from 3:00-5:00, and then from 5:00-8:00 we got to see the offshore fish which include dolphin(AKA Dorado, not bottle-nose dolphin like Flipper), tuna, wahoo and blue marlin.

Since my husband works the weigh station, I get special privileges and get to sit about five feet away from the action, and get the best possible view (while everyone else has to stay behind the roped off area). I feel like a VIP!!! We got to see some big fish, ate some good barbecue and had a lot of fun. I will post some pictures later.

Peachy Keen

Here's the latest addition to my Etsy shop.

The roses are from Hobby Lobby's new "Fresh Picked" silk flower line. The flowers in this line look so realistic that they really do look freshly picked. They are a little more on the pricey side, but I think they are well worth it! I am so in love with this line, check back often to see more arrangements and wreaths featuring "Fresh Picked" flowers.

Hidden

I am entering in another Photo Contest at Cat's Corner. This time the theme is "Hidden". When I was browsing through my photos on my computer I came across this one and thought that it fit the theme perfectly!

This picture was taken October of last year at the Rocky Creek Corn Maze. There hadn't been much rain for the corn to grow, but it was still tall enough to where you couldn't really see over the top. This is my sister a few rows across from me, jumping up for the shot!

So head on over to Cat's Corner to enter your photo too! Submissions will close at midnight (GMT) Sunday July 19th; she will then open a poll to choose a winner.

Random Updates

I have been so busy lately that I have totally neglected my blog! I have a lot of good news though.

First of all, we had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend. My Mom's side of the family came down for the weekend and we got to visit, eat awesome food, play some sports and shoot fireworks! I was able to take a lot of great pictures, but I'll save those for another post.

I have three custom orders for wreaths and arrangements on my Etsy site! I am so very excited! I love custom orders. I went to Hobby Lobby today to pick up some of the flowers and vases. I will definitely post pictures of the finished designs for you to see.

There is a contest at Martha Stewart Weddings. They are asking people to share a photo of their handmade wedding decor. The winner will have their design featured on "The Martha Stewart Show". I have submitted my "Sweet Magnolia Bridal Hair Comb" already and I hope to make some wedding arrangements to submit as well. I would really appreciate it if you could rate and comment on my item HERE.

I think you have to be signed in to rate and comment on the items.

I have also submitted one of my wreaths in another contest on MarthaStewart.com. It is for the summer crafts contest. You can rate it and comment on it HERE.

And since I hate posts that don't have any pictures at all, here's a shot of a recent storm that brought rain that we desperately needed, and what happens to a yellow dog when she plays in the mud!

Awesome Feedback

I love getting feedback from my customers! I guess everyone does. It always gives me "the warm and fuzzies" to hear how happy they are when they receive their orders - I always save those emails that I get! I love to hear about how they opened the box and gasped because they loved the wreath so much, or to hear that the wreath matches the colors in their home so well! I just received a very sweet email from my latest customer and I just wanted to share my excitement with you!

I hope that you all have a wonderful and safe Independence Day!

I know that I will be taking lots of pictures to share with you!

Brand New Awesomeness

I have a brand new wreath in my shop and I can't get over how cute it is!

Maybe it's just me, but I love the colors in this one - it seems like they just pop! "Floral Circus" is another mini wreath which will fit nicely in a smaller space where some of my larger wreaths would not. The wreath measures 17 inches tall, 17 inches wide and 6 inches deep, so it is not really "mini", I just like the way that sounds!

It has the perfect summer time colors and can actually be displayed through fall since it features mostly oranges!

Got Milk?

In order for us to keep our ag exemption on our thirty acres we ended up putting cows out there! I have wanted to take pictures of them for a while, but they are never near the fence whenever we got out there. And if you think I am going to trek out into the tall grass after my near fatal snake incident (okay so it wasn't near fatal - but it was really scary!), you are sadly mistaken! Luckily, the other day we went out to the land and they were hanging out right at the fence, so I was able to get some good shots! My niece, who turns five this year, named one of them "Princess" - how funny is that!

And yes, I know that these are not milking cows, but come on you have to admit that is a cute title! I just couldn't resist!

I've Been Featured

I've been featured on Lilly Eve Designs!

Thank you so much Lilly Eve!

She has a lovely blog and she designs beautiful jewelry! Check her out!

Vote for Me!

Please head over to Cat's Corner to vote for my photograph in the photography challenge! All of the entries are truly beautiful; it is going to be a tough challenge!

Mine is Photo #4.

Here's the link: http://amazoncat.blogspot.com/2009/06/let-voting-begin.html

Thank you!

Another Giveaway

Head over to Darling Domestic to enter my latest giveaway!

Want to see what you could win?

Here it is...

Isn't it adorable!

Such a sweet pink daisy, yellow buds and green leaves all attached to a metal hair snap clip.

The giveaway ends on Thursday!

Chocolate Bread Pudding Recipe Step-By-Step

I had never eaten bread pudding before, but I have always wanted to try it. Whenever I buy a loaf of french bread to go with dinner, we can never finish the whole loaf and it ends up getting thrown away, which bothers me to no end!

I had a loaf of french bread that I bought to go with our chicken tetrazzini, and I decided that I would search for a tasty chocolate bread pudding recipe to try. Here's where I got the recipe from: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Bread-Pudding-107889. It turned out to be really good! And guess what...I took pictures of the process!

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups whipping cream
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 4 ounces French bread with crust, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 4 cups)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Bring cream, 1/2 cup sugar, and milk to simmer in heavy medium saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat.

Add 1 cup chocolate chips and whisk until melted and smooth. Whisk egg and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in hot chocolate mixture. Cool chocolate custard 10 minutes, stirring often.

Add bread cubes and remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips to custard and toss to coat.

Transfer to 1 1/2-quart-capacity shallow oval baking dish. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons sugar over mixture. Bake until custard thickens and center is just set, about 50 minutes. Serve warm.

Land of the Free Wreath

Check out the newest addition to my Etsy shop! Introducing "Land of the Free Wreath"...

The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays! I love that it is in the summertime so that includes barbecues, beaches and fireworks - is there anything better! I also absolutely love the decorations! The red, white and blue splashed everywhere, the flags flying, and remembering why we are free, and those that sacrificed for our freedom makes me proud to live in this country!

I can't wait for Fourth of July!

This was my Grandma's favorite holiday as well. I remember when we were little, we would always spend the Fourth of July weekend at her house. My uncle would barbecue, and Grandma didn't mess around when it came to decorating. There would be huge tents set up behind her house with plenty of tables and chairs for the whole family and then some. She would decorate the tables with patriotic tablecloths complete with matching citronella candles (to keep the mosquitoes away), the dishes and tableware matched as well. And there were always too many flags to count! One of the adults would take us to the fireworks stand where the boys would go crazy and buy all kinds of fireworks. Once we got back to Grandma's house, they couldn't wait to set them off - and they would usually get yelled at for trying to fire at the dog or getting to close to the house! After dark, we would head over to the beach and watch our uncles set off the "special" fireworks. I have so many great memories of the Fourth of July that is probably why it is one of my favorites!

This year we have plans to go to my parents house where my Mom's side of the family will be joining us! I am very excited and I am sure there will be plenty of pictures taken to share with you!

Photography Challenge

I have always been amazed by photography. I love when you can capture a spectacular image with one shot! We got our Canon Rebel XSI last October and I absolutely love it! I have been trying to learn all of the camera lingo and still much of it confuses me, but I guess I will will learn with time. AmazonCat over at Cat's Corner is having her very own photography challenge! I have never entered a photography challenge before, but I thought it might be fun - and I still consider myself a novice! Her theme is "On the Other Hand". Here is the photo that I am entering in the challenge.

This was taken at my husband's cousin's wedding in May 2009. This little boy whom I don't know came up to me and showed me a June-bug and wanted me to take a picture of it. He would not back up far enough for me to get his face in the picture and this is the shot I got. Then he ran off and I never got another picture of him - he was so cute!

** I only used "Auto Level" in Photoshop to get the colors right, but I did not alter this picture in any other way.

Our Houston Trip

This past weekend my husband, his sister (M), her husband (D) and I went to Houston to see Glenn Beck's live comedy tour! I like to be informed about our government and what is going on in the world, but I do not watch news religiously (like my husband does) it is just too depressing for me. So I had an idea, but really didn't know what to expect from this comedy tour. Let me tell you it was hilarious! I was laughing the entire time, some parts almost to the point of tears!

Downtown Houston

We left for Houston Friday afternoon, and made it there just in time for work traffic, which I was expecting to be much worse than it actually was. The trip up there was filled with laughter thanks to my husband - the stand up comic (according to his sister). We made it to the hotel with a couple of hours to spare before the event so we decided to eat, change clothes and meet M&D down in the lobby. Oh yeah, our room was on the 20th floor - how cool!

M&D

Me and Hubby

The Verizon Wireless Theater, where the event was being held, was only about four blocks from the hotel. We weren't sure if they would let us have cameras in the theater, so we left them in the car - stupid! Everyone else had cameras and we didn't feel like walking all the way back to the car, so we didn't get any pictures!

We ended up getting back to the hotel around 10:45 that night and ordered some yummy room service right before they closed!

The pool on the roof of the hotel

That next morning we woke up and took part in the complimentary continental breakfast and then played a game of pool in the billiards room. It was too bad we didn't know about that room the night before, it would have made for a fun place to hang out! After breakfast, we went up to the roof level where the hotel swimming pool was. That was the only time we took pictures on the trip! We didn't end up swimming because we only had about an hour before check-out time, but we stuck our feet in the cool water!

Me pretending to shower

The water was cold at first - he didn't know I took this picture!

It ended up being a nice mini-getaway which I think we desperately needed! Thanks again M&D for inviting us!

Blog Giveaway at blueberryshoes

Check out the lovely giveaway over at blueberryshoes: http://mermaidscloset.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-first-blog-giveaway.html.

I just stumbled upon her blog and not only is it adorable, but she is having her first ever blog giveaway! The winner will receive a beautiful brooch handmade by her. Head over to her blog for more details on how to enter the giveaway.

Top Chef Masters

I am so excited that Top Chef Masters premieres tonight!

I always enjoy watching the Top Chef Episodes on Bravo, and now that there are world renowned chefs battling for their own charities and for the title, it makes it even more intriguing! The challenges and some of the ingredients they use are creative to say the least and I always find myself hungry after watching each episode. My husband even likes watching Top Chef with me - and there are very few shows that we watch together. Anyways, 30 more minutes before it comes on, and I am giddy like a schoolgirl!

Last Chance for the Giveaway

Last day to enter the hair accessory giveaway at http://mustardseedbycarollai.blogspot.com/!! Hurry in for your chance to win a hair accessory of your choice from my shop.

Here's a little eye candy to inspire you to enter the giveaway:

The giveaway ends tonight!