5 Reasons I May Loose My Mind Today and 5 Reasons I Probably Won't

 Five Reasons I May Loose My Mind Today
1. I feel way behind since my surgery...both in work life and home life. Now that I'm back up and around, I see how much I let go while I wasn't feeling well before my surgery (which was for quite awhile). I'm trying to get back in the routine and back on track with so may projects, it's ridiculous. I need to slow down and take it a few projects at a time.

2. Taxes. Math and I do not play well together. True, I have my taxes done by an accountant but I still prepare and log all of my purchase, expenses, sales, etc for her. Because I leave way to much of it go until the last minute, the past few days have been been filled with too many numbers and spreadsheets. I'd rather be making something then working in excel.

3. The girls are on a Peter Pan kick. All of their tv time (which is a bit more then usual right now because of the weather) is Peter Pan. If it isn't the original Peter Pan movie, it is Peter Pan Returns. If it isn't Peter Pan returns, it is Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Yay, something different. Oh wait, no, it is the Jake and the Neverland Pirates Peter Pan Special. Darn.

                   

An Instagramed photo courtesy of my four year old daughter.  She took it with my iphone while watching Peter Pan Returns, processed it, and uploaded it herself.  What was I doing at four years old?  Oh yeah, probably eating paper or listening to my mom's cool 8-track stereo.

          

4. After the three floods we had last year, I'm really nervous about this spring and summer. I want to get my shop prepared in csae we have a bad fluke year this year like 2011. Ideally, I would like to be able to be uber-orangzied so that if we do have to move the contents of my shop again it isn't such a big chore. That means a lot of dead weight has to be purged. That goes along with the decluttering I've been trying to do in all aspects of my life. I've really been drawn to the minimalist way of life and have been slowly working towards it...or at least towards a semi minimalistic life. I'm a realist. With two four year olds and a husband who still can't part with most of his boyhood treasures, I know the best I can do is hope for a semi-minimal life.

5. The girls will be going to preschool this fall. School. It is starting. I'm loosing my babies. We attended an education fair last weekend to get some information on different preschools and the various private and charter grade schools in the area. It made it real. I think we've chosen our preschool. That feels good. I'm just going round in circles as to what the best option is for the girls when it comes to kindergarten and grade school.

 Five Reasons I Probably Won't Loose My Mind Today
1. The sun is coming. I've been looking forward to turning the clocks ahead ever since we turned them back. This makes me so happy, I think I'll bake a cake for the occasion.

2. I've been making our summer vacation travel and trip plans. It is exciting to have something to look forward to. We will be going to our usual vacation beach spot this summer again. I do a lot of fancy talking about trying new places but it does feel good to have a usual vacation spot. It is like a second home.  We know the best places to eat, where to get the best ice cream, the best grocery store to shop at, the best bakery for overpriced cupcakes.....wait, why do all my fond vacation memories revolve around food?  I think the girls are old enough now for a mountain/hiking/lake vacation this year so I'm looking into some various cabins and state parks that are close enough for some short getaways.

3. I'm just about fully back to my self since the surgery. That means I don't need to watch how I move anymore. I'm free! I still can't lift the girls all the way up to hold them at my hip, butI can lift them enough to move them if I need to...like if I need to physically remove them from each other.

 4. I should be able to finish my taxes today! Then, all I have to do is get my husband motivated to prepare his and no more numbers for a whole year!  Well, not quite, but a girl can dream.

5. There are buds on the Bradford Pear in front of my living room window. This makes me think of shaggy green grass, falling white petals, chirping birds, puffy white cloud filled skies, and the scent of spring flowers on the breeze. I love spring with an absolute passion.

2nd Day of Joy

Giving

Today giving made me joyful. Simple and sweet, I'm joyful that we can give.

This post is part of 12 Days of Joy where I am celebrating the holiday season by sharing simple little joys in my life.  To keep things simple for me, all photos for this series were taken with my iphone and processed with Instagram.  See also: 

12th Day of Joy - Cinnamon 

11th Day of Joy - A Handwritten Letter 

10th Day of Joy - Old Christmas Music 

9th Day of Joy - A Winter Walk 

8th Day of Joy - Gingerbread Houses

7th Day of Joy - Joy

6th Day of Joy - Wylde Ivy
5th Day of Joy - Warm Gingersnaps
4th Day of Joy - Sparkle 
3rd Day of Joy - Twinkle Lights

3rd Day of Joy

Twinkle Lights

Tonight after a long day of last minute holiday errands, a Christmas party, lots of shopping, and a dinner out, we stumbled in the door intend on collapsing onto the couch and watching a movie. A funny thing happened though, quite the opposite. Almost instantly, we decided to head right back out. After a quick change of shoes we walked out into the gorgeous and unseasonably warm night to take a walking tour of the light displays in the center of our town. Two little girls donning Santa hats, my husband, myself, and our dog walked and chatted, pointing out our favorite twinkling lights, festive greens, and shimmering (sparkle!) decorations. We should have been exhausted from pace of the day we had, but a simple, quite, stroll with no destination in mind was more relaxing then any movie could have been.

This post is part of 12 Days of Joy where I am celebrating the holiday season by sharing simple little joys in my life.  To keep things simple for me, all photos for this series were taken with my iphone and processed with Instagram.  See also: 

12th Day of Joy - Cinnamon 

11th Day of Joy - A Handwritten Letter 

10th Day of Joy - Old Christmas Music 

9th Day of Joy - A Winter Walk 

8th Day of Joy - Gingerbread Houses

7th Day of Joy - Joy

6th Day of Joy - Wylde Ivy
5th Day of Joy - Warm Gingersnaps
4th Day of Joy - Sparkle

4th Day of Joy

Sparkle
 

Glitter makes me happy.  Yes even that rougue glitter that gets on your hands and face and clothes from handling something sparkly.  Perhaps it came with becoming a mother of two girls because I really can't recall a sparkle obsession in my pre child days. 

I love how everything shines this time of year.  Every time some shiny catches my eye, I am just a little more joyful.

This post is part of 12 Days of Joy where I am celebrating the holiday season by sharing simple little joys in my life.  To keep things simple for me, all photos for this series were taken with my iphone and processed with Instagram.  See also: 

12th Day of Joy - Cinnamon 

11th Day of Joy - A Handwritten Letter 

10th Day of Joy - Old Christmas Music 

9th Day of Joy - A Winter Walk 

8th Day of Joy - Gingerbread Houses

7th Day of Joy - Joy

6th Day of Joy - Wylde Ivy
5th Day of Joy - Warm Gingersnaps

5th Day of Joy

Warm Gingersnaps

In all honesty, we've been eating these all month long!  A fresh batch was cooling on my counter and the sweet warm smelling of ginger and sugar filled the air.

Gingersnaps

2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
4 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
additional sugar for dusting

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar and oil.  Beat in eggs and molassis.
- In a seperate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and salt.  Gradually add this mixture to the creamed mixture and strill well.
- Shape into 3/4 inch balls and roll in sugar.  Place about two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until the centers spring back when touched gently.  Cool on wire racks (though these are best when slightly warm!)


This post is part of 12 Days of Joy where I am celebrating the holiday season by sharing simple little joys in my life.  To keep things simple for me, all photos for this series were taken with my iphone and processed with Instagram.  See also: 
12th Day of Joy - Cinnamon 
11th Day of Joy - A Handwritten Letter 
10th Day of Joy - Old Christmas Music 
9th Day of Joy - A Winter Walk 
8th Day of Joy - Gingerbread Houses 
7th Day of Joy - Joy 
6th Day of Joy - Wylde Ivy

6th Day of Joy

Wylde Ivy

As I carried the last load of Wylde Ivy orders into my house to await pickup tomorrow morning, I realized again for the one millionth time how much I love my job. I spend most of my waking hours running and multi-tasking. It's the way I'm built. I love that pace, but far too often in all the bustle I let my mind be over run with to do lists and worries and deadlines. When life slows down and I think about my business, a deluge of gratitude falls over me for all the wonderful people from all over the world I have met because of Wylde Ivy. As if that wasn't enough, I've grown so much as a person, learned so many new skills, and got braver in taking chances. Every single day I find joy in an email or a note from a customer. Sometimes I'm lucky enough for someone to share a story about how one of my products has touched their day. Funny, joyful, serious, or inspiring, these I cherish every one of these shared stories. 

So, on this cold, clear December night and way past my bedtime, I am joyful for my little perfume shop on the web.

This post is part of 12 Days of Joy where I am celebrating the holiday season by sharing simple little joys in my life.  To keep things simple for me, all photos for this series were taken with my iphone and processed with Instagram.  See also: 
12th Day of Joy - Cinnamon 
11th Day of Joy - A Handwritten Letter 
10th Day of Joy - Old Christmas Music 
9th Day of Joy - A Winter Walk 
8th Day of Joy - Gingerbread Houses
7th Day of Joy - Joy

8th Day of Joy

Gingerbread Houses...

with coconut snow made by tiny hands.

This post is part of 12 Days of Joy where I am celebrating the holiday season by sharing simple little joys in my life.  To keep things simple for me, all photos for this series were taken with my iphone and processed with Instagram.  See also: 
12th Day of Joy - Cinnamon 
11th Day of Joy - A Handwritten Letter 
10th Day of Joy - Old Christmas Music 
9th Day of Joy - A Winter Walk

9th Day of Joy

A Winter Walk

Today I'm joyful for the chance to take a little break from the chaos that comes with December. We bundled up and took a quite winter walk.  We were surrounded in utter slience.  Even the wind did not rustle a leaf.  The only sound that pierced the frozen December afternoon was the cry of a gliding hawk....oh yeah, and my three year old twins rumbling and shrieking down the trail.

This post is part of 12 Days of Joy where I am celebrating the holiday season by sharing simple little joys in my life.  To keep things simple for me, all photos for this series were taken with my iphone and processed with Instagram.  See also: 
12th Day of Joy - Cinnamon 
11th Day of Joy - A Handwritten Letter 
10th Day of Joy - Old Christmas Music

11th Day of Joy

A Handwritten Letter

I correspond with people all day long and close to seven days a week. I spend countless hours typing away. Emails, text messages, convos, status updates, tweets, tags, instant messages....the history of my adult life neatly organized into to short typed blurbs.

Real mail, the paper kind that gets delivered to the house has turned into nothing more then a mundane daily task of weeding out the bills from the junk. Aside from packages arriving with handmade goodies that I always look forward to, nothing special is ever delivered by the way of paper mail.

This time of year, our postal carrier's sack is extra loaded. More junk mail and credit offers, store flyers, and of coarse the annual avalanche of holiday cards arrived at our door everyday.  I always look forward to that avalanche. I love Christmas cards...the colors, the glitter, and the photos.

Yesterday however, I get an extra special treat. Something arrived at my door so rare in these times that I actually cannot remember the last time I received one. What is this elusive little piece of joy? It was something so simple....a handwritten letter. In a time of being connected with the world, but hardly connected at all, what a beautiful little treasure.

Consider brightening the day of someone you know with some simple written words.  

A special thanks to Grace of Grace's Garden Walk for the little piece of joy brought to my day. 

This post is part of 12 Days of Joy where I am celebrating the holiday season by sharing simple little joys in my life.  See also: 
12th Day of Joy - Cinnamon

12th Day of Joy

It's that time of year when people are celebrating many different holidays and traditions.  My family and I celebrate Christmas.  We do the tree and Santa, cook a ton of food and consume too many cookies.  Over the years, Christmas has become so much more for me.  It is a time of reflection, graditutes, family, giving, charity, finding joy, and for slowing down and living life.  It all comes easliy for me, especially this time of year except the last one.  I'm hardwired to multitask.  I have an insane desire to do it all...myself.  

Since Thanksgiving I've been making a point to slow down and enjoy my family and the magic of this time of year.  I've even been enjoying the overcrowded stores this year (I can only say that because almost all of the gifts I'm giving this year were either handmade or purchased online).  

The girls are nearly four years old now and everything is so much fun to experience with them.    For the past few weeks, we've been honoring some old family traditions and starting new ones. 

For the next twelve days, I'll pop in and share some things that are bringing me joy this year. 

Making cinnamon applesauce ornaments.  Cinnamon has to be one of my favorite "home" smells.  I cook with it every morning and in the winter, I overload my home with the warm aroma.  I place the drying cookie sheets on top of my radiator and for two days the house smells incredible. 

This post is part of 12 Days of Joy where I am celebrating the holiday season by sharing simple little joys in my life.  See also: 
11th Day of Joy - A Handwritten Letter

The Pier

Because summer is now officially over...


Farewell to the sea, farewell to summer. Until next year my old friends.

Forget me not....

I was working on taking pictures of perfumes and soaps for new listings in my Etsy shop. I found myself outside of my shop (I blame my short attention span) watching my fish. The Forget Me Nots have almost completely filled the small stream leading into my pond. There are hundreds of tiny blue flowers. It is so beautiful.

On My Windowsill

The Sea

I'm spending a little time today editing photos from our beach trip earlier this month.

New Scents and New Products!

I just finished updating my site with all the new scents and new products! Wow, it was a lot of work. It took me two days to get it all finished. There was a ton to add to the site!

First of all there are now 18 new scents. Yep, you read that right, 18. At the last minute, I included Black Raspberry Crush scent in the Summer lineup. After I posted the preview of the soaps I got quite a few emails asking for this scent in bath and body and perfume products. I don't know why I didn't think of that myself! It is such a fresh, fantastic scent. You can view all of the new scents and their descriptions on my Scents page.

In addition to the new Black Raspberry Crush soap, I restocked 10 others. You can check my What's New page to see a complete list.

There is an all new product just for summer, Silken Body Mists! I love body sprays in the summer, they are so refreshing and cooling. My new Silken Body Mist is a smooth and light burst of fragrance perfect for that quick pick me up or for layering on top of your favorite soaps, lotions, body oils, or perfumes.

The Silken Body Oils are now available in a cute little 2 ounce size in addition to the 4oz! They are great for travel, tossing in your beach bag, or for collecting all of your favorite Wylde Ivy scents!

For a special treat for the rest of June, you can get a free Silken Body Mist with your order over $50! In addition to that, get two more full size products of your choice with orders over $100! Don't forget about the special $5.00 flat rate shipping as well! Be sure to stop by my News and Specials page to see all the details of the special.

The free gifts offer is good for my Etsy shop as well! Just let me know in the comments section which scent you'd like for your Body Mist or, if you qualify for the two additional free products, in the comments section when you check out. No coupon code is needed, you don't even have to worry about adding extra product to your shopping cart. Just leave me a note and I'll take care of you!

A little bit of pretty...

I thought I'd share a little bit of pretty with you today. My daughter Maya loves flowers. She has to pick them everywhere we go.

Traveling in Paris Treasury

I just found out that Fairy Wings perfume has been featured in a gorgeous treasury on Etsy called Traveling in Paris by Digicute. I'm loving the pink, blue, and white color scheme!

A Little Bit of Spring

Spring has definitely sprung here in my little part of the world. Our weekend was absolutely beautiful. It even smells like spring outside. The girls were really excited to see our neighbors purple crocus so I thought it might be fun to take them to some of the local nurseries and get our own flowers. The girls love flowers. They love touching them and making the leaves and petals bounce around. I'm so happy that I may actually end up with some little gardening buddies to trek around and stare at plants and pretty colored flowers for hours and hours. As it turned out there wasn't much of a selection yet but we managed to find some nice pansies. Lily chose a flat of deep purple and yellow...or prupel as she puts it. Maya chose a flat that had some mixed colors but she liked the yewlow and bluuu (or yellow and blue in non toddler speak).

So we get them home and I get everything set up to plant them. All of my flowers have to be planted in containers or they run the very real risk of being trampled to death by my dogs. I gave each of the girls a scoop and put the bag of dirt between them. Dirt + giant scoops + two, two year olds = one big happy mess. Who knew toddlers would like handling the dirt more then planting the flowers. Ok, ok...I did but I severely underestimated their passion for filling the pots with it. When the big pots were filled and it was time to put the flowers in, the girls were not happy with me at all. Many a pansy went sailing out into the yard when they would return with their giant scoop of dirt to discover that I had stealthily plopped the flowers into their pots. When I finally managed to get the scoops away from the girls, the flowers into the pots, and the pots away from the eye of the hissy fit storm, most of the poor pansies looked like they had been through a war. Well, I guess really they had been. Perhaps they would have fared better with my dogs.

So the flowers are resting comfortably on my deck, for now...until I forget to water them.

It's a Three Birthday Weekend!

I'll be out of the office for a long weekend this weekend (February 19-22). We have three birthdays to celebrate here. My twin daughters' and my husband's. I'll be back in the office on a normal schedule on Tuesday (February 23rd).

I can't believe my little girls are two already!

Happy Birthday Maya!


Happy Birthday Lily!



....and Happy Birthday Jeremy (who told me that I better not post a picture of him wearing the purple heart sunglasses...which I do have in my possession by the way!)

New Spring Soaps!

Introducing some new spring soaps!

Green Jasmine

I'll admit it, I was hording this fragrance all for myself. In the spirit of my New Year's resolution to embrace my inner minimalist however, I've decided to let it go. This is a limited scent. I had just enough to make one batch of soap and I'm sharing it! Of coarse I kept a few bars for myself. This is a beautiful Jasmine fragrance. It is thick and rich, just the Jasmine should be. This Jasmine carries a little secret. Underneath the heavy Jasmine fragrance there is a quick hint of lime peel that gives the scent just enough lift and pop to keep if fresh and modern.

Sparkling Clementine

A fresh, juicy, mouthwatering citrus. Put a little wake up burst into your morning shower. This is a bright clementine with just a touch of a champagne twist.

Bamboo Leaves

A gorgeous green blend of bamboo, white tea, and watercress with underlying hints of orchid petals and cedar. This fragrance is so fresh and beautiful, you will feel exhilarated with it is surrounding you!

Aerial

Aerial literally means, “existing or living in the air”. This white musk and floral fragrance is so sheer, so airy and light it will whisk you away for a walk in the clouds. In fact, if clouds had a fragrance, this is what they would smell like. Top notes of fresh and sexy White Musk blend into the flawless beauty of delicate white petals and end with an ever so soft blend white tea leaves.

Mondern Zen

An inspiring, fresh, and modern blend of cedar and dewy bamboo with hints of citrus peel, ginger, and ozone.

Island Beauty

You asked and I made, Island Beauty Soap is here. There is just one problem. It didn't turn out quite how I pictured it! Whoops! Get it now at a special price! A graceful, soft blend of island florals,

The scent:
creamy coconut milk, and sweet sugar cane. This is a light and beautiful scent, for when you are looking for a sheer fragrance. Fresh petals and soft musks blend into a creamy milky coconut finish.