The inconvenient truth is that 11 men are presumably dead, 3 seriously injured, tons of oil is spilling into the Gulf of Mexico right off of the Louisiana coast and it took the media 9 days to actually cover this disaster?  As soon as this deep water well sunk to the bottom of the ocean, my first comment was...what are they doing to contain the spill.....anyone.....anyone.....seriously.....anyone.  Now days later....oh gosh the oil is creeping all over the coastline, really what did they think would happen?  I am so disgusted I could spit.  Don't get me wrong, I am not an environmental activist by any means, just a hippie at heart, and maybe I watched Avatar one to many times lately, but what is it going to take to get America to WAKE UP.  Exxon Valdez happened 21 YEARS AGO and our oil cleaning up and containment methods don't seem to have improved, pathetic...do you hear me PATHETIC!  It also doesn't help that this is pretty much in my backyard, scary that our local news stations are regularly broadcasting phone numbers to report oil covered animals, contaminated water supplies, and unsafe air conditions, lovely, just lovely.  I don't have the answers, I'm sorry, but I know that something needs to change.  Everyone wants to talk about their lovely carbon footprints...well this footprint is kicking our ass.  Let us all say a prayer that they have this cleaned up before hurricane season, or the gulf states can expect a fine coating of oil that will reach much further than just the coastline.  A prayer goes out to those families grieving over the loss of their loved ones, and a prayer goes out to all of the families who will be losing their livelihoods.  This should be a cry to make some real change America!

The picture above is what I mentally see when I think about the Exxon Valdez, I was nine years old when that disaster happened and it sickens me that my son will grow up with a similar image in his brain, a.k.a. the photo below.

Notice anything new?  I now have labels and tags for my handbags!  Now, if you know me, I am a control freak (to a fault) and instead of allowing someone else to print my labels or tags, I figured, why not make them myself?  Well I did, and after lots of tests and failures, ended up with two options shown to the left and below that I was really pleased with the end results.  One day I will do a tutorial on how I created them both, but I will save that for another time.  The tag shown on the left photo is larger and now featured on my Mary Rose Clutches and Handbags.  The labels shown in the photos below are for the interior of my smaller bags, like my Georgette and soon to be listed new pouches and pouchettes.  What do you think?  I think they turned out quite nice, and the best part is, since I created them, I have a lot of color and style options!

As a family, we took a trip this weekend to Lake Charles, LA (about an hour west of Lafayette) to one of Louisiana's great state parks, Sam Houston.  It is a real beauty, quiet, peaceful, fun and relaxing!  This park features tons of walking trails, campsites, cabins for rent, boating and much more.  We spent the day with my mom and step-dad and some of their friends (and grandchildren) and truly had a great time.  Our son loves other children, so he had a blast on the playground equipment (this park has three separate playgrounds) and getting completely dirty and full of sand.  His shoes were literally FULL of sand!  We enjoyed seeing the sites, great food, peaceful surroundings and time with family.  The day wrapped up with lovely sitings of ducks, geese, plenty of squirrels and quite a few deer.  The photos that I took of the deer were truly that close, literally 3 feet away from our running car, talk about some tame deer!  Our son loved seeing the animals and watching Grammie feed them!  If you are ever in the neighborhood, you should truly check this great state park out, it is definitely worth the trip!

Wait a second, is that what I think it is...yes, yes it is, my son in our new ginormous mailbox.  This mailbox is the latest addition to the family, and is a big help to me and my sanity, you see this huge mailbox is saving me trips to the post office, and that is a big deal.  Before when I would sell something in my store, it almost always required a trip to the post office, then I discovered you could print your postage online...oh yes, but I still had the issue of my packages being jammed into a tiny mailbox, thus I was still occasionally having to go to the post office.  If you children, you know what a huge pain in the rear end the post office can be, especially when our local one always has a line a mile long!  So anyways, my husband was shopping in Lowe's discovered this huge baby and purchased it for me...how sweet.  Most women get flowers, candy, no not me, I got a huge mailbox, and was just as happy!

Does it get any better than this...nope.  Simply delicious ice cream bar, Dad letting me pig out, oh so good!  Loving the spring weather, enjoying the weekend, having a blast!  Off for more adventures!!

Simply put, this is part of our yard, full of "blow blows," and our ole' bear loves it!  Frolicking, running, picking, blowing and all the fun stuff involved with the yearly ritual of "blow blows!"  Oh...to be that carefree and innocent again!

Come on, you know you want it...a $20 Gift Certificate to be used in my Etsy shop!  It can be used for anything in my shop and even better, no expiration date!  Do you want to win this baby?  If so head on over to a great new blog - Shades of Laughter - four wonderful ladies blogging about any and everything, all in a great, humorous, entertaining way!  I think one of the best things about their blog is that they are constantly blogging, it seems like every time I check them out, they have a new post...so great!  Ready to win?  It is super easy to enter, and you have three ways in which you can qualify!  Hurry, the giveaway ends April 21st.

My son has been infatuated with the movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," and if you have seen the movie you are aware that there is a "Jello" scene.  Well, after the millionth viewing of the movie, my husband and I realize that our son has never had Jello, so now we know what we have to do...make Jello!  So, one evening my husband makes a batch of Jello, it hardens overnight, and the next day we decide to introduce Jello to my son's repertoire of foods.  Have a peek at the photos and you can guess how this went.  At first he was interested in this squiggly substance and even decided to get some on the spoon and have a bite, but after his first bite he wasn't impressed at all.  He poked and prodded it a lot, but wouldn't eat it at all.  I mean really, look at that face, totally not impressed.  So guess who ended up eating it...that's right Mom and Dad.  Oh well, maybe next time...

I have been fortunate enough to be asked to create some custom orders lately, (which I love doing, by the way) and this beautiful array of clutches is one of them!  Now I can't take all of the credit, yes, I made them, but I didn't choose the fabric, the bride did, and boy did she pick out some wonderful prints.  This order was such a joy to work on, and I was really pleased at how nice they turned out, each one is completely unique (just like the bridesmaids, I am sure!)  This custom order was purchased before the clutches were made, so I don't have any photos of them on my Etsy site, so I felt this was the perfect forum for them.  Would you like to have something special and custom made just for you?  Even if I don't have the fabric, I am more than happy to get my hands on whatever your little heart would desire.  Just drop me a line and I am more than happy to create a custom order just for you!  Now...off to more sewing and creating...

Thought I would share a few photos taken at my mother's house in the past few weeks.  She certainly has a beautiful array of flowers!  My personal favorite is the Iris, what is yours?  Happy Spring!