Curly Gurly giveaway!

More things I love from Etsy. Curly Gurly couture first caught my eye by the beautiful people and pictures modeling their jewelry. Later I found out the owner is a photographer who has opened this business on the side; makes perfect sense! The main products they make are rosette type flowers that go on necklaces and headbands. They offer many different types of rosettes that target all age groups.

For my review I was sent was this vintage fabric flower appliqué.

If you can’t tell from the pictures it’s a silky white, a knit black, and tweed black and white flowers with silver and tweed buttons. My favorite part of their jewelry is that the set of flowers can be interchanged between headbands and necklaces by Velcro!

You simple pull the flowers off the headband Velcro and stick them on the necklace Velcro! This opens up the possibility of what they could be placed on;

A basic drop down necklace

A necklace swung to the side

Here is it attached to the headband

Place velcrow on any jacket or shirt for a broach!

And lastly, on a purse!

I first wore the flowers as a necklace with a grey sweater to work and got lots of complements. It’s playful but not too loud for the office. Then for the weekend I wore it as the headband to a teenage girl’s party. The girls LOVED how fun it was and wanted one of their own! Curly Gurly has some of their products on Etsy as well as IkandiPhotography’s website and for their full line of products check out their Facebook page.
The giveaway: Curyly Gurly has offered to give one of Busyland’s readers the same set she let me review! Valued at $26! All you have to do is check out of their sites mentioned above (I would look at Facebook to see all of them) and tell me which is your most favorite product. I’m really curious to see what everyone’s taste is so look hard and give an honest answer!


The giveaway will end Friday (12/17) and I will announce the winner on Monday (12/20)

Thanks Curly Gurly and good luck! The winner needs to email me within 48 hours of winning or I'll pick someone else!

note: This item was given to me to review and the opinions above are my own. The winner will receive a new product, not the one I have already used!

Burp.

It makes me happy to see a mom with three or more young children and still has a smile on her face. I know kids can be challenging but it’s nice to see a mom can relax enough to enjoy the chaos of a full house.


God always provides, always. Sometimes it takes turning off the cable, a few cry fests, and a prayer but He always does.

Davy asked me the other day is we were going to “do” Santa. Growing up never believing in Santa (thanks my sis) I don’t know what it’s like to “believe” and what it’s like to find out he’s not real. We stood there and look at each other for a moment before I spoke. “I guess” was my answer. I’m not going to lead him down this huge fabricated lie that Santa is watching his behavior and yadda yadda but I think the thrill of Santa coming Christmas Eve night might be fun. We will leave out cookies, write Santa’s name on a few presents and do that mess until he’s old enough to understand. Good solution, right?

Driving in the car the other on the way to school Moses happily ate his banana. When he finished he said “Mommy, banana?”
“You ate it all”
“All gone?”
“Yes Mo, it’s in your tummy”. Moses looked down at his tummy and started to pat it; he smiled but still didn’t understand.
“Tummy, Mommy?”
“Yes Mo, it goes in your tummy and then out your hiney”. He paused for a moment then slid his hand down to the crouch of his pants and exclaimed, “Ouchy, hiney!”
(I love this age)


It was finals week and I was too busy studying, freaking out, and taking tests to write real posts. Next week I’ll either be writing the “I’m done with college” post or the “Wah Wah life sucks I’m retaking one class” post.

Oh and I have a really cute giveaway post for next week too!

The one where I get serious about life.

To make a dream come true you have to want it, a lot. If making something out of nothing was that easy then everyone would have something and no one would have nothing. I recently read how Gussy from Gussy Sews came to be and it was so inspirational; losing their jobs, getting new jobs, burying her head in library books and you tube videos to teach herself how to sew, saving a nest egg of money to be able to quit her job and follow her dream, and now living her passion. It’s so inspirational because she didn’t have a millionaire husband or special privileges to get where she is, she just did it. She had the drive, like so many people do, and eventually live their passion.
Right now things in our life our changing; one minor and one a little more major. The first being we have officially cut our cable off. It was an extra expense that we no longer felt the need to be paying. With owning your own business that fluctuates with the economy there are downsides to that and we are currently in one. With so many up and down weeks these past few months we need to take matters into our own hands and make things happen. With no cable bill that will put extra money in our account to pay off loans, debts and eventually start saving a nest egg.

With weekly jobs staying sparse Davy decided to take on a second job. We calculated the way business is he could work daily at a second job while still having time for his main job. Thankfully he still has good relationships with his old part time job and was able to get rehired. Nothing is set in stone yet but most likely he will have to be at work at 4:45am meaning his day will start around 4am. This will be a huge adjustment for our family; not only is Davy a night person but he is defiantly not a morning person. I am so very thankful for the sacrifices he is willing to make for our family and I’ll need to step up even more in making sure he is taken care of. I have a feeling our bedtime we no longer linger in the 11 o’ clock hour and I’ll need to be up by 6:30am to get Moses and I ready for the day.

We have goals and dreams for our family and we’re tired of settling. I’m sick of carelessly spending and then becoming stressed with our finances. We are taking control of our budget, our spending, and our general outtake on life. Living with the basics is going to build lots of character and hopefully we put us on the right track.

(This is a hard topic to talk about and not very fun to read; but its life)

How old will you be when I stop checking on you before I go bed? To make sure you're stiil breathing, that your covers our on tight. To gather extra passies for you to reach in the middle of the night, to rub your cheeck and tell you goodnight. How old will you be when I stop thinking of you as my baby?

Baby, it's cold outside.

The day after Thanksgiving I didn’t waste any time to start focusing on Christmas. I love the Holidays, especially Christmas, and wanted to enjoy the season for as long as I could. Last weekend I managed to decorate the entire house and purchase our Christmas tree. Earlier in the week we put lights on it and hopefully by this weekend it will be decorated. I’ve burned my two Yankee holiday candles all week and love walking into the house and just feel Christmas.


Wednesday night we all bundled up and headed outside to put the lights up. Davy did all the hard work while Moses and I cheered him on.

This is what it's like to try to take pictures of a toddler- they never, ever want to smile!

Ok I got a smile quickly followed by a loud squeel!

Our newest addition to the front yard this year is wire, light filled trees. They are a pain to open up and “fluff” but I love the way they light up the yard. Thankfully we had the right amount of extension cords, outlets, and supplies that it didn’t take long to transform the yard to a Winter Wonderland. Okay maybe not Wonderland but considering we are the only people on our street that hang outdoor lights I’d say it’s pretty festive!

Candyland.

This has nothing to do with being a wife or a working mom or having a child. This is pure passion from the depths of my heart. This isn’t a hobby but a desire. I desire to bake the most wonderful things. To stand in my kitchen draped with a beautiful apron adorned with flour and work steadily on my creations. I dream of a standing mixer that I can carelessly loss in a pinch of this and a dash of that while everything comes together to form dough. I dream of wafer textured rubbery mats to lie whatever’s hot out of the over on. I dream of 100 funky utensils bursting out of a jar on the kitchen counter to grab whenever I’m in need of a specific tool. I dream of fresh baked breads and cookies and soufflés and mousse and cakes.


The other night I was standing in on a conversation with my mother and another seamstress when I listened to them passionately talk about their gifts. Midway through the conversation the women looked at me and said it must be so nice to inherit your mother’s talent. My mother and I joked that I had taken advantage of her skills all my life and actually never learned to sew. My mom mentioned that my gifts are in other areas and I create differently. She’s right. I can’t go into a store and know what three fabrics go together perfectly to make a pillow. I thrive off order and that’s why I love baking so much. All the measurements and instructions are something I enjoy; it just makes sense in my head. As I continue to bake more I start to experiment with different ingredients and measurements. I like analyzing “if this equals X then what if I mix this and this together, will they also give me X?” It’s a way for me to create but still maintain order.


I say this is only a dream because I’m also a realist. I work a forty hour job, I’m in school, and I have a baby and a husband and a house to maintain. Even if all those things were on hold one evening a week I still need the money to buy all the ingredients. And if the ingredients were to magically appear I would need a very thick piece of duct tape over my mouth to stop me from consuming everything I bake! I love to bake and that will never stop; it’s just sometimes my dreams take me away to a land of sugar and sweets!

Wordless Wednesday