Yay for Friday! Oh Wait. It's Thursday.

I found these vintage fabrics while thrifting a couple weeks ago. The tiny white flowers on that soft yellow print are actually fuzzy. I never know what I'm going to make with the fabric I find. I just see it & snatch it up if I like it. But an idea popped into my head yesterday that the blue fabric needs to be made into another 'Owl Pillow Friend'. I'll find some coordinating fabric to go with it & stitch it up!

I've decided to make some goals for myself. Just little ones. (I've been inspired by hearing my blog friend Laura write about goals & other stuff lately.) I want to accomplish something. And I think it'll be fun to create a small goal, find success in completing it & then brag that "I did it! I did it!". That would be fun! So, next month, I want to learn how to sew a zipper pouch. Yep! That's my goal. I told you it was a little one. I've wanted to learn to make them for a long time.

I'm sure it sounds silly to make THIS a goal. But, I'm not used to setting goals for myself. You see, there will always be the "To-Do's": the "Must-Do's", the "Have-To-Do's", the "Need-To-Do's", the "Gotsta-Do's"......but what about the "Want-To-Do's"?? A lot of times my "want-to-do's" get dumped into the "I'll get around to it someday" bucket. And, if that's the case, then my life will be zipper pouch-less because I never WILL get around to it. I'm a goal-driven gal now. Oooh, this is gonna be fun!

This Morning...

I haven't had one of these mornings in a long time. Let me just tell you about it...
It started out with ME waking up butt early to watch the news to see if the school's were closed or delayed or whatever due to the snow. I found out they were a-go. So, I proceed to heat some water on the stove (yes, those are lips on my teapot) for some tea. I then go upstairs to find my youngest has a wet bed. (Potty training at night is not going so swell.) The girls begin to get dressed for school. My 3 year old is having trouble getting her shirt over her head. SO, I help her. And, in the process of tugging her larger head through the tiny opening, she gets a TERRIBLE kink in her neck. She is in so much pain & begins to cry. Who the heck has ever heard of a 3 year old with a kink in her neck? So, she cries all morning & I feel awful for her but we have to get movin' to get out the door to drop my oldest off at school....I then go into the kitchen to find the teapot----- STUCK to the burner. I SWEAR there was water in it, but it had pretty much melted to the stove. As you can see, it's burnt all over & nasty inside & very ruined. And my teacup sits so lonely next to its dead friend. That was at 8:30 this morning. It's now 1:45 & I have still not had my cup of tea. There really is no point to this story. But, I'm going to heat up a saucepan of water for my tea now.

Two Vintage Mannequin Heads Sittin' in a Tree...

...K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage. (Remember that little ditty?)

Miss Roxie Valentine has found true love in Mr. Harold. I call this picture "Mannequin Love" & you can purchase a notecard or a photo in my shop later today! A little wacky, I know. But perfect for a little light-hearted Valentine fun! It makes me laugh. Especially when my 5 year old sees me during the photo shoot & asks, "Are they getting married mommy?" Does it remind you of playing with your Barbies as a kid & making Ken & Barbie smooch?
***UPDATE: The notecard is in the shop! Click HERE to check it out!

All of a sudden I realized there is a lot on my plate this week & I need to get my crafty tushy moving. I'm all about lists so I'll publicly declare my "to-do's". It makes me feel better to talk about it, ya know?

1. My soon to be 3-yr old niece is having a "strawberry" themed birthday party. I need to come up with a gift to make. The party is this Saturday. Ugh!

2. My sis-in-law asked me to make a some decorations for the birthday cakes at my niece's party.

3. My dad's birthday is Monday Feb. 4th. Oh dad, why are you so hard to shop for? I need a gift for pops.

4. Order dad's birthday cake. I am ordering my dad a really cool surprise of a cake. I'll reveal more as it gets closer to his birthday. I hope it gets here on time. I've never ordered anything online that I HAD to have by a certain date. Hmmm.

5. Come up with a back-up dessert plan in case dad's cake is a no-show.

6. Get more prints made of my cupcake watercolor paintings. (I'm getting ready for my Etsy gallery opening. haha! Doesn't that sound all artistic & official? Hey, that gives me an idea! Maybe a blog gallery party or something to celebrate??)

7. Start AND finish a custom order for 'B.Dazzled!' by Sunday. My customer ordered 2 mini tag banners with her shop name on 'em in browns & pinks. Yummy color combo!

8. Brave the snow & take Zoey to the dentist today. (Yuck people! It's freezing outside, there's snow on the ground EVERYWHERE & I'm supposed to trek all across town for teeth???!!) The only reason I mentioned this on my list is because it'll take me half the day fretting about driving in the snow & the other half getting there & back as I drive the pace of a snail.

9. And last but not least, I'll do my usual crafty thing while ignoring the fact that the house is a mess.

Ok, gotta go get ready for my date with the dentist...

It's Snowing in 'WhiMSy love' World!!!

Holy snowstorm Crafty Girl! Well, it's not a snowstorm, but LOOK at all the snow! YAY! My girls love it. Me, not so much. I love to look at it, but I'm not really into the cold/wet thing. I love the yummy hot drinks that usually accompany fun snowy days though!


Awwww, look at the sweet winter lovebirds.....


Here's #1 (of 2) trying to get in a snowball fight with the photographer (that would be me.) By evening there will be about 7-9inches of snow & MORE predicted through Thursday!


But let me back up for a second & let you know how my morning began. Mr. WhiMSy love decided it would be funny to have a little pyrotechnic display of sorts. Lysol & a flaming match produced this spectacle for the girls. Seconds after this picture was taken, the smoke alarm (located 2 feet away from the flame) started screeching at an ear-deafening pitch & 2 little girls were frantically screaming. Fun times.


So anyway, after our day of fire & ice, I baked these cookies. These are the BEST invention evers! Just seperate & bake! Sorry to all you cookie purists for my enthusiasm.

And I had the MOST fantastically fun time last night painting! I cranked out a few more super cute cupcake characters. They are: Miss Diva Cupake, Clown Cupcake, Cupcake Boy (he's a superhero), The Baby Cupcake Triplets (I might name them later), Girly Girl Cupcake (I have to come up with a sweet girly name for her), & "Jealous Muffin".





Oh! And I actually got the courage up to order the button machine today!! Yahoo!

Mr. Owl & Other Stuff

Look who flew the coop! I was very excited to give Mr. Owl a new home today. A first-time Etsy buyer scooped him up & he'll land on a brown leather sofa, so I'm told. Can't you just picture him, so yummy, on on that sofa? I really will miss the little guy. It only inspires me to create more of his kind.


This photo is really fuzzy, but I had to show you what the girls had for dinner tonight. A Mickey Mouse pizza! Isn't that cute? No, I didn't make it. It's frozen.

I've been working on some more watercolor cupcake paintings today. Nothing to show, but my plastic protective sleeves & stay-flat envelope mailers should be here next week & then I'll be in business!

And guess what I'm getting? A button machine! You know, those cute little round pins that you can put just about anywhere? I'm so nervous to buy it because it's my first really big purchase. But, I figure it will be an investment 'cause eventually I'll be selling cute buttons in the shop! I was contemplating getting a machine big enough to make those pocket mirrors OR one that makes those small 1" buttons. The machine I want doesn't have an option for interchangeable sizes & I CANNOT fork over the dough for TWO machines. That's just craziness. So, I decided on the one that makes small buttons. Now if I could just click the "PAY NOW" button.....

Mr. Nikki

OK. This next post might be a little odd. But sometimes I just get random spats of quirkiness--especially at that odd moment of morning between 12am & 2am. I truly love this time of day. Now, I'm not awake at 2am EVERY morning. There ARE a few occasions when I've gotten my BEST ideas then though. And....some of my worst. Not many people (if ANY?) have gotten to be a part of these wee morning occasions with me. But I invite you now. I should be sleeping. But instead.....




Now, this next part might get awkward & personal. During my little hairy mustache photo shoot, I realized that I had a picture I'd forgotten about. So, I dug it out. It's the only picture I have of my birth father, taken in 1975. I've never met him, but maybe someday ya know?.......***crickets awkwardly chirping in the background***.......Anyway, I came to a deep realization after all this......I would make a REALLY ugly man.

Monsieur Cupcake & his friends...

Hi blog peeps! I've not been on here in a few days as I'm trying to get my watercolor paintings printed & ready to put in the shop. The process has been so confusing & I've not been finding a lot of help. It's frustrating to walk around, stumbling, in the dark. I really have no clue if I'm going about this in the correct way. I really hate tripping around like this. Hm.

I think the prints look great & the paper I am using is a nice 110 lb that has a soft shine to it. I'm super happy with how the color of the original translated to the print. This picture is the "Ballerina Princess Cupcake" The one on the left is the original. I had them printed onto 8 1/2" x 11" paper. Is that weird? If people wanted to insert it into an 8" x 10" frame they'd have to trim the print. (That's what seems weird to me.) The 8 1/2" x 11" size makes sense if they wanted to frame it larger though. What do you think?

They are really cute & I can't wait to frame one to use as an example in the shop. I'm ordering plastic sleeves & flat mailers today & as soon as they arrive the prints will be in the shop!

I printed some postcards but the white border is not equal on every side. Grr. I don't think I can sell them that way, but they'll be cool as freebies in the shop. I'm also thinking stickers & iron-ons & magnets &.......I know, I know, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Look what I got in the mail yesterday! I haven't even opened it from it's protective cello sleeve. It's from Tina . I was hopping around all the blogs that left comments during Letter Writing Week & found her site. She creates beautiful things & on occasion sends mail art. I commented on her blog about how lucky someone would be to receive mail from HER. I mean, it's totally amazing! So, she mailed me something! How cool huh!? (I promise I wasn't trying to sweet talk for some sweet mail.)


I'm off to paint more cupcakes!

Sunday Stuff

Yesterday for my Saturday "Nikki Time" I painted, with the odor of oil & grease & antifreeze in the air. I hung out with my sis while she did some work at my family's auto mechanic shop. I spread my watercolors & paper & thingies on the shop counter & I got so much done. I'm finding when I leave the home-front to find creative time each Saturday, I get so much more done. I just stuff my crafty tote with all my supplies & hit the road.

I was able to complete 3 paintings on the new 9" x 12" paper I recently purchased. And, it is very different painting something on super small paper & then painting it a bit larger.

I'll be selling 8" x 10" prints in the shop, but first I need to find out what the heck kind of paper to print them on, get protective sleeves in the correct size & heavy flat mailers. I've been researching to find the best deal. How exhausting & un-fun. So far, it seems http://centralpack.com has a great deal on flat mailers. And as far as the clear protective sleeves--polypropylene or polyethylene? Who knows. I'm really excited to reveal them in my Etsy shop! It may take a couple weeks....

Today I'm working on a couple more cupcake character designs. I just have this little fluttery excited feeling inside about these paintings. I love making them & I think they are whimsical & happy & fun!

Look at this little paint set I found in my crafty drawer. My granny always give me cool stuff she finds at thrift stores or garage sales. This set is only about 6 inches long & on the back it says "W-Germany". It looks like half of the colors have been used by the previous owner. I think I won't use them. They are kinda neat.

These are a collection of vintage button rings in my shop at the moment. I thought it'd be fun to get them all together for a reunion.

I'm in a Band!!

Not really. But I found this super fun "time wasting" thingie to do over at MarmaDaisy's blog.

Instructions: You are about to have your own band's CD cover. Follow these directions to make your album cover. It's fun and requires no thought at all.

Go to......

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together.

I know you're all gonna want to do it. Leave a link here so we can all see your album cover---you rock star!!

**The image is called "Lifeline..." & can be seen HERE.

HI!

This is my latest HUGE purchase. These glasses are gi-normous! And they are pink! I give you permission to laugh though.


I just finished a custom order for 2 mini tag banners. This is the Happy Birthday banner. I LOVE the yellow & turquoise-y blue color theme!

And look! Here's an action shot of me ready to mail some orders to the post office!

I have been SO super excited to share my new watercolors with you! I came up with an idea to create different cupcake characters. So, I have painted--so far--Miss Diva Cupcake, Monsieur Cupcake & The Cupcake Triplets. (Miss Diva needs some eyelashes, so I'll help her out later.) I just purchased 9 x 12 sheets of watercolor paper so that I can create prints to sell in the near future!

And speaking of DIVA, I have a really good friend, Charelle, who I have not been able to visit as much as I'd like. Busy schedules, kids, errands, this & that, etc. Today we got to hang out & we laughed so hard. We both needed some good giggles. We had a photo shoot & I think we took almost 50 self portraits. HAHA! Sometimes you need to take a break & grab a friend for some giggles.

'WhiMSy love' Does Watercolors!

I was up late last night & this image popped into my head. It's a concept in progress. Cup PLUS Cake EQUALS Cupcake. I thought it was cute & fun. I'll work on it though. Because I've already shown it to a couple people & they didn't get it. I love the look of it in watercolors. My favorite part is the moustache on the cup! I've had my paints buried in a crafty drawer & thought I'd resurrect them. I'm still learning, but am having so much fun!
And this is the first time I'm using photos from flickr. I guess "flickr law" says if you use your photo from their site it has to link back to your photos. Not sure how I like that, but we'll see.


I'm inspired by my love of cupcakes, I'm inspired by my friend Laura & her paintings, I'm inspired by my girls & their carefree creative attitudes, I'm inspired by a passion to try new things.

Weekend Recap!

Hi blog peeps! I had a really nice weekend road trip to Lewiston, Idaho with the fam! The girls were on their best behavior, so that was a MAJOR bonus!

I got away on Saturday with my friend Tara & we went to a few antique-ish/thrifty spots. I got some fun vintage stuff I plan to put in the shop this week.

I even saw a beautiful rainbow!

Look! Here's another boring scenic photo!

Do any of you have a flickr account? I do. But, it's been pretty stale & unused for a long time. I just recently had the urge to get it going again. I've had a problem with my computer being OVERLOADED with pictures, so I think I'll take advantage of flickr's "pro" account & save my computer's memory--(a HUUUUGE pet peeve of Mr. WHiMSy love's!) There is so much inspiration on flickr anyway, so it'll be another fun resource! YAY for organization!

I have sent a message to those that won the bottlecaps in the drawing last Friday. But, I have no way of contacting two of the winners: Stabitha & Bethany D. Please contact me with your addresses so I can mail your super duper prize!

**UPDATE: All the winners bottlecaps (except the above mentioned) will be mailed out Tuesday the 15th!

And The Winners Are.....

With the help of my lovely assistants, we have drawn a bottlecap & then drawn a name to match seven names to be declared the winners of the seven bottlecaps. Here goes...

1. Newcreationart--red/white/blue popsicle

2. Monica Yvette--cake slice

3. Stabitha--fudgesicle

4. Laura Kelley--chocolate chip cookie
5. Kara--lollipop
6. Bejeweled--pink popsicle
7. Bethany D.--cupcakes

CONGRATULATIONS! I will try & contact each winner for their address, or you can email it to me at whimsy-girl@hotmail.com Thanks everyone for playing! It's fun to see new faces stop by & say hello!!!!

I will be gone the whole weekend! Ugh. I'm missing you already. I'm taking my handy totes filled (rather spilling over) with crafty doo-dads & bits & I'm ready for some road trip creations. The fam will be going to Lewiston,Idaho/Clarkston, Washington (a 2 hour trip I think?) to visit some friends. I've never been, so it should be interesting. Mr. WhiMSy love has already prepared the way for me to have some hunting & scouting time around town to possibly find some nifty thrift spots or creative joints to find some treasures. Hope I come back with SOMETHING!! That would be rad.

This heart pincushion was a treat I found yesterday while antiquing with my mom & niece. It's 9" tall. Rather large for a pincushion, but it is adorable. It would make a cute pillow!
I'll see you all Monday!

Hello Thursday!

Here is the cutest little stuffie owl that Pazely ordered yesterday from Etsy. Yep, I said Pazely. She's my 3 year old. I was looking at pictures of all my "favorites" on Etsy & putting together a treasury of pink owls & Pazely was sitting in my lap & spotted this little guy from craftpaca. (And this next part might sound cruel, but I'm tired of dishing out money & my girls earn their own cash anyway. In the form of small coins.) Pazely REALLY wanted the owl, especially after she heard it was little-sized. I asked her, "Do you have 3 dollars? If you have 3 dollars, I'll pay for the 2 dollar shipping cost." She ran to her room & brought back her giant yellow coloring crayon bank that is taller than she is & dumped it out! She grabbed 3 crumpled 1-dollar bills & said, "Three dollars!" So, we sat down & ordered it. I explained to her that a package will be arriving soon JUST for her! She was so excited!

Bear with me. I have another cute kid story. This must be mushy-kid-story-telling day....

My girls (Zoey is 5, Pazely is 3) were in the bath the other night, each with a Barbie toy. Well, I overheard their dolls talking & Zoey asked Pazely's boy doll, "Are you trying to make me fall in love with you?" And Pazely quietly answered, "Yes." And then I heard kissing & smooching noises. (Gross!) All of a sudden, Zoey stops the kissing & asks, "Are you a waiter?" And Pazely quietly answers, "Yes." And Zoey yells, "A WAITER?!?!?! EEeeeeewwwww---spaghetti lips!" HAHAHA!

I am SUPER excited because I ordered these 2 prints from witty workshop. Remember how I told you she's having a "Buy One Get One Free" sale on her prints through Jan. 27th?? I'm wild about her artwork. And I'm so anxious to get them & have them framed & hang them in their rightful cupcake-y spots!

I am so glad that the rush & busy-ness of the holidays are gone! Aren't you? I feel like I've missed visiting my blog friends very much & it has been very refreshing to sit back down recently & hop around to say hello!