Swanky Fun for All!!!

Do you want to win a prize basket valued at over $150??? Then come join the fun of the first ever Designing Swanky Moms Treasure Hunt!!! Here are the rules and complete information:

1. You must have an Etsy account, or sign up for one http://etsy.com it's free! :)

2. Search the participating shops listed on the Designing Swanky Moms Blog for 5 pieces of the puzzle. The whole puzzle is in our Avatars.

3. When you've found all of the items, send a convo to Beth (http://tadadesigns.etsy.com) with all your answers.

4. The winner will be the FIRST person to correctly find ALL 5 pieces of the puzzle, they will get the MAIN prize, valued well over $150. Second Place will get a smaller gift basket valued over $50. All other correct finds will get a Free Shipping Coupon for all participating shops!

5. The contest will run for 7 days from December 2 through December 9th . The winner will be notified via convo on December 10th, and will be published on the blog (http://swankymoms.blogspot.com) and on the Etsy forums.

It's a scavenger hunt!

The DSMs are having a scavenger hunt! There are some great prizes being donated, and all the details are listed here.

I've been busy!

"Hello, my name is Sara, and I'm a handbag addict."

These adorable keychains will proudly show the world your addiction!

These keychains are made to resemble a handbag with glass beads to accent. They come with a split ring to attach them to your keys.

They can also make great zipper pulls or attach to your backpack or handbag!

At $4 plus shipping, they make wonderful stocking stuffers!

Approximate dimensions: 3 1/2 inches (at it's widest) by 1 1/2 inches tall. They are a thin 1/8" in depth, so they're not too bulky.

Check out my shop for more details!
Crafty Bags, etc.

Changing Things Up

I know I haven't posted much lately, I'm trying to get my Etsy promoted as much as possible. And of course, the holidays are time consuming!

I added a new MySpace to separate out my personal life and my business life, so I'm thinking I may do the same here. I'll have to do some serious cleaning house though and that scares me, big time! It'll probably stay the way it is for a while, and let's face it, I don't post that much anyway!

New Items!

This fall colored clutch is just the right size for holding necessities for an evening out or all those holiday parties you have filling your schedule.

The outside is a quilted-look bronze satin that appears deep chocolate from the side, but shines bronze from the front. Hand-beaded accents compliment the diamond stitching. The delicate hand-beaded tassel adds extra sparkle. The inside is lined in a hand-dyed poinsettia print dyed with homemade organic coffee dye.

A magnetic snap will keep everything where it belongs.

Approximate finished dimensions are 8 inches by 4 1/2 inches.

Happy Veteran's Day!

I survived! Our church had a special veteran's service and of course, I'm involved somehow.

I'm in charge of the church bulliten board in the lobby, so I collected pictures of all the veterans in our congregation and put photos of them up with what branch they were in and how many years they served. We also had two family members still serving (both are currently in the middle east), so they were added also. Side note- one is my brother, yay Bubba! We love you and miss you!

I also am currently in charge of the banquet/brunch decorations in the multipurpose building (really it's a gym with a/c ;), so I printed out lists again of who served in what branch and a short paragraph of each branch (some were the creeds, some were songs, etc) and a image of an eagle holding a US flag, and put them onto a three sided centerpiece. Each table had a different branch. We had 24 tables (seating 8 people each), so they were all repeated several times. I made sure that there was enough for each veteran to take one that had his name on it home with him.

I had a table with blank Christmas cards for everyone to fill out and I will be slowly mailing those out (160 cards are a lot to lick and address!) to the troops overseas. There were also activity sheets and crayons for the little ones.

I also had one more table with an empty place setting on it sitting next to a flag that the other family member serving in the middle east had sent us. The empty place setting served as a memorial to the soldiers who had lost their lives serving our country. The woman who organized the whole church service (there was tons of special music, reading, slide presentations, recognitions, etc) wanted me to get up and explain about the Christmas cards and the empty table. Well, I started fine. I was talking really fast trying to get through my mini speech about the empty table before I started crying, and I was doing fine until I saw one of our veterans (and a dear sweet family friend) start to tear up. Oh I had to stop and take deep breaths, and by the time I reached the end I couldn't even see my eyes were so full of tears.

It was a very moving day, and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the veterans, soldiers and their families that may read this. Without what you have sacrificed our country would not be possible and I hope that everyday you feel the love and encouragement that you deserve.


-Of course I forgot my camera! I'll have to bum some pictures off of someone else and post them as soon as I get them.

Squeezing a week into one post.

Wow, has it been a whole week already?
I've had quite a busy week, so it really isn't that surprising.
First, I've been trying to get together a bulliten board for the Veteran's Day service we're doing at church. I'm in charge of the bulliten board (every month I change it up) so I thought a Veteran's Day thing would be nice. I'm collecting pictures and years of service for all the veterans in our church. I also get to decorate tables for the potluck on Veteran's Day.
Second, we had the fall festival on Saturday. I did the face painting with a man from CEF. We painted 100 kids' faces while telling them the wordless book story. Overall, there were about 630 people there. AND, Sissy fell off the slide on the playground and broke her arm. She was only about 2-3 feet from the ground, but she landed with her left hand down and got a buckle fracture in her wrist.
Third, we didn't really think it was broken, so we waited until today to take her to the doctor. I sat for 2 hours waiting for the doctor, and the x-ray for them to tell me it's broken and to see the orthopedist tomorrow. Ugh!
I'll doll up her cast like last time (she broke her leg over a year ago), and I'll post pictures of that. She looks so sad with the soft cast on, and I might cry when they put the hard cast on her. They might not have to, but since she's so little and active they probably will.