Karen Smallbone

A while back my husband sent me a link to a post about some super cute vintage flasks on What Junebug Loves. I checked out the Anne Taintor site and fell in love with the vintage inspired items that were available.

If I were a bridesmaid I would be ecstatic to receive any one of these cool items.

The sayings on the items are so funny. For Christmas my husband and kids gave me the “I Love Not Camping” air freshener. I love it! I guess I wasn’t hiding my distaste of camping as well as I had thought.

Like I said in my last post, I have big plans for my blog for 2009. I’m going to try my very best to post something interesting, and inspiring everyday. To encourage myself to keep up with posting, I’ve decided to have a different fun topic for each day of the week. So here is my plan…

Monday is Yummy Stuff Day  – Anything that tastes or looks delicious.

Tuesday is Neat Stuff Day – Anything that I think is cool or neat.

Wednesday is ETSY Day – I’ll feature some great stuff I find on Etsy.

Thursday is Fashion Day – This will include anything you can wear

Friday is Fun Friday! – It will be a day for anything fun! (Thanks to Aidan who came up with the category title for Friday!)

Please feel free to send me links to things that you think might fit into any of my categories. If you have a business that sells or even better makes something wonderful, please let me know. I would love to feature you and your products!

Are you looking for a perfect gift for your Bridesmaids that will be something they will love and actually use? I’ve put together a small list of pink tech items your girls will love. I know that I would love any of these items! (Much much more than jewellery!)

Skullcandy headphones in pink with a cool little bird. Too cute! Notice the bird’s eye is a skull?

Pink iPod nano who wouldn’t love to receive one of these along with an itunes card.

Agent18 iPod case- Pretty flowered case, available in pink and brown and blue. Love it!

Pretty and Practicle, this pink leather wallet will protect your iPod when you throw it in your purse or laptop bag.

Perfect for the girl who loves to play games, Nintendo DS Lite in Coral Pink

Recently my oldest son has been a bit obsessed with shoes. (I honestly have no idea where he gets that from.) He was interested in a pair of old school Converse shoes which have come back in style again. I had a pair of pink low tops in high school. I was looking around on the Converse site and found out that you can design your own shoes! How cool is that? Of course I made mine so that they were pink and brown. Not only can you pick the colours or patterns you like, you can personalize them either on the back or the side.

If you want a really cool look for the groomsmen at your wedding, co-ordinating Converse would be awesome! I want to get married again just so that I can do that!

Check it out here and give it a try. Unfortunately, they will only ship the custom design shoes in the U.S. (boooo) but if you have a friend who lives there you could always ship them there and have them ship them to you. Prices started at about $60.00 US for the custom shoes.

My little baby turned 5 today. Again I am reminded of how fast my boys are growing up. It seems like just yesterday we brought him home from the hospital, but now he is a big kid.
We celebrated Ronan’s big day with a family birthday party.

Here is Ronan enjoying his volcano cake. (maybe not one of my most creative cake designs but who doesn’t love chocolate rocks, cherry lava and Oreo dirt?)
Happy Birthday Ronan!

Maybe you’ve noticed the birthday hat that I force my kids to wear every year. In a moment of pure brilliance when my first son was approaching his first birthday, I decided to make a hat that they would wear at every birthday. Now when I look back at pictures I can tell how old they were by the number on the hat. I plan on making them wear it until they are at least 20.

Happy Birthday to my little baby. I guess he isn’t a baby anymore. Somehow he’s grown into a really cool 8 year old without us even realizing it.

Hope you have a great day Aidan! We love you lots.

This is a recent picture of Aidan. I can’t believe how much he has changed in just a year.

Here is Aidan on his birthday last year. I hope you are ready to wear the hat again. I know how much you love it!

You might remember Julia & Joey from a previous post- “Julie’s Perfect Pink Shower”. Julie was kind enough to send me some of the professional pictures from her wedding. All of these gorgeous photos were taken by Mimmo+Naz.

Julie & Joey had their reception at The Eglington Grand , a beautiful art deco style movie theatre that has been revamped into a gorgeous venue for weddings and other special occasions.

In keeping with the movie theatre theme, Julia and Joey gave fun old fashioned popcorn boxes filled with popcorn as a favour to their guests. The favours also served as placecards. Instead of using numbers, each table was named after one of the couples favourite movies. A label with the guests names, and table was used to close the bag of popcorn. We created the labels to go with the design from the invitation.

I’m sure you will agree that Julie & Joey make a stunning couple!
Congratulations to Julie & Joey! May your lives be filled with much love and happiness! It was a pleasure working with you.

I was pleasantly surprised and flattered when I found out that I had been featured in the new wedding section on Alltop.

If you are looking for inspiration for your wedding, Alltop is the place to check out. The Wedding section lists tons of great blogs dedicated to everything about weddings.

A big thank you to Alltop for including us in their list!

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Christine from Wishpot.com. She asked me to become one of the wedding experts on the fabulous Wishpot and of course I said yes!

Wishpot is a site where you can create lists of things that you would like to buy (or have someone buy for you). It is perfect for organizing a wedding or baby shower registry or even just a list of stuff you love and wish you could have. It’s easy to use – you install a button on your bookmark bar and when you are browsing the web for fab finds you just click the button and it will add your item to your Wishpot list.

I’ve started a few lists of things I would love. It’s great! It’s like shopping without spending any money (husbands and future husbands appreciate that!)

Check it out. It’s lots of fun.

While surfing the web recently I came across a great site www.finestationery.com that specializes in stationery. They carry the usual stationery items but what caught my eye was the cool stuff that you can get personalized.

Who wouldn’t love a set of plates with their name on it. I love the one that reminds the kids to “put the napkin on their lap”.
These plates would make a great gift for the couple who has everything.

Another one of my favorites is this giftwrap featuring a photo of your little one. How cute is that? It would make a nice keepsake in addition to whatever the gift was you wrapped it in.

If you are looking for a unique and personal gift to give for any occasion, check out these pretty paperweights. They would make a great gift for your bridesmaids. There are tons of cute designs to choose from.