CAKE TREASURY!

Maisey's Daisey's was sweet enough to feature Girl Land's Buttercream Love earrings in her cake treasury (I want some right now) and even sweeter let me know about it! This plus a very sweet email from a satisfied customer made my day a bit brighter. Especially after having a sick kid (at least we just found out she doesn't have mono...phew) and having my car break down and get towed today. This weekend can only get better, right?????!!!!

P.S. I want that Let Them Eat Cake necklace like stat...

Happy Belated Birthday to Me!

You all may remember how much I Luhuvvvvvv my birthday. This year I seemed to skip over it entirely in the Blogoverse! What the what??!!

I spent the day with my parents and Ryan and the girls at the Michigan State Children's Garden. I love it there. We walked around then we plunked a big blanket down in the grass by the gardens. The girls played bubbles while I opened up my gifts then we went to Dusty's Cellar for lunch. Absolutely perfect day.





I have to share with you some of the loot I received because it was all too perfect and Girl Land-esque.

From my hubby from my new favorite store in Royal Oak (that I've still never visited), Scout:
A lovely new Pare umbrella from mes parents:

A super duper cute book illustrated by my fave, Marc Boutavant (yes, I love receiving children's books as gifts and have a stash that is OFF LIMITS to the girls-- but this one I share):

More Scout loveliness. This time Shinzi Katoh!!! Sigh. I love how the translations area always a bit off:

I'd never read this book before. If you knew my Q, you would know why my mama chose it for me. I love this book so much!!!

Look how creepy cute!!!! GACK!!!!

Wrapping paper from hubby courtesy of Scout. How perfect is this? Wait, the perfection gets even better...


THE CARD.
...and it was.

Look, Ma! I'm in an Etsy Treasury

Don't you love these colors? I do! There are my birthday tiaras. :)

Behold the Kitsch

My eyes! My eyes! This is extreme kitsch overload...even for me! Just finished putting this together. The wreath, Merry Christmas plaque and the pom poms are new, the deer and Santa are vintage. The larger Xmas plaques are hard to find, but I did find them on Etsy. Jennifer of Lulu's Cupcake Boutique was awesome in getting them to me tout de suite. Thanks, Jennifer!

Sorry for the massive overuse of Picnik effects as of late. My camera is crap. I can't take a good picture after sunset to save my life, and the Lomo effect especially really helps. I need to invest in a new camera, but after snooping on Flickr to see what some of my other peeps are using, it's looking like I am going to have to spend some major dough to get something good. Which I may or may not be willing to do. To be continued...

Kawaii? Because Girl Land Loves You!

So I got a little kawaii with the packaging for my stuff for Crafternoon next weekend.



Still need to come up with something for my strawberry earrings. I love how GL Bunny is popping her head up. Silently and creepily lurking in the background. Kinda reminds me of the King (I love that ad campaign something fierce-- I am not sure if I'm the only one...).

Also decided to make some appliques, but I couldn't decide if I should put them on a tote, shirt or what, SOOOOO I came up with G.L.I.Y. or Girl Land It Yourself! More cute packaging and peeking GL Bunny in a festive snow cap courtesy of one of my fave time-wasters ever, Picnik!


Hope you had a fabulous weekend. Mine in a nutshell: crafting, Xmas cards, ballet, birthday dinner, lotsa wine, late-night buzzed Xmas shopping, crock pot chili, Jungle Java (bleh), baby book filling-out, photo printing, crafty packaging, annnnnnd scene.

Have a great week! xo

Holiday Crafternoon

Come see Girl Land at the December Crafternoon for some last minute Xmas shoppin' action!

400 Posts??? I Mean...400 Posts!!!

Contest time! Lazy contest time actually! I'm too lazy to figure out a prize, so we'll do Girl Land bucks for $20 dolla. Wanna win Girl Land bucks??? Enter! Lots of fun stuff to choose from in ye olde shop. If you total less than $20, I will throw in some lil' surprises to make up the difference.

To enter, all you gots to do is comment below. Tell me how you would be lazy if you had a whole 24 hours to yourself annnnnd unlimited moolah. I got to experience this last weekend (well, besides the unlimited moolah), and I got a massage, took a 3 hour nap, shopped, watched massive amounts of TV and ate ice cream (this was after the 2.2 lb gain-- I was in a downward shame spiral).

And link to me from your blog, and you'll get 2 extra chances to win (3 total, yay!). Just be sure to let me know you blogged 'bout me. I'll pick a number old school style (out of a hat) on Monday, June 22. Tell your friends!

Thanks for being my bloggy friends!!! Here's to 400 more posts!!! Ugh, that sounds exhausting! xo

Pink & Yellow

My friend just bought this little custom set to give to some friends who just had a baby. I'm so into the bright and sunny pink & yellow color combo (reminds me of lemonade)! So my friend decided to go with a lil' book tote and custom bookplates, and she'll add some books to the mix.

Hope Baby Katie and her mommies love it as much as I do!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. I'm just coming off my Martha high! xo

Lunch Lady Land

I was inspired to compile this list by my School Lunch Menu Magic book that I finally brought myself to sell on Etsy. There are some fun things out there! I suddenly have the urge to eat fruit cocktail and sloppy joes...

1st Row (l-r):
Tater Tot Stitch Markers by Scary Merry
Light Pink Short Sleeve 60s Dress by Ruby Gayle Vintage Chicken Nugget & Tater Tot Play Food by MomsPeace

2nd Row (l-r):
Hair Net by Dayclean Design
School Lunch Menu Magic by Girl Land
Business Card Holder/Wallet by Sweetheartsinner Creations

3rd Row (l-r):
Cafeteria Tray Notebook by Mrs Loaf
Vintage Trays by Vintage Tea
Mama’s Feedsack Smock Apron by Sewing Geek

Happy weekending all! We have swim lessons, painting, 1st year photos and movie-watching planned for the lovely weekend. xo

Giveaway Gifties...

...have been given or are on their way. Thanks for playing, everyone!

Become A Girl Land Fan + Spring Giveaway Bonanza!

I need some morrrrrre Facebook Fans. If you become a Girl Land fan between now and next Friday, April 17 (or are already a fan), I will FB message you with a discount code for 20% off your total purchase (before s&h) AND you will be entered into a Spring-licious Giveaway! Think button candies, magnets, and some kawaii goodness with spring flair. You can either click the link along my left sidebar, or go to my FB Girl Land page here.

Don’t have a Crackbook account? Is it a bit too “big brother” for you? Don’t fret. I’ll still give you a 10% discount for being my bloggy friend.


Just enter the above code in the “message to seller” and wait to pay—I will send you a revised invoice.

In addition, it has been entirely way too long since I’ve done a giveaway on this blog. So if you comment on this post with something you’re looking forward to this Spring (be it flowers in your garden, a trip, a Springy craft project, upcoming movie, etc.), I will enter you in a second giveaway. And, as always, if you link to this post on your blog, let me know about it, and you will get THREE entries! One person is eligible to win both contests.

Phew! I’m spent. xo

Me Likey

♥The invitations for Viv's bday party (and packages of 8 soon to be in my shop! Just waiting on the envelopes).



♥Iowans


♥Zac Efron dropped out of Footloose. Maybe they'll scrap it altogether. I can only hope. I say this only because I have the utmost respect for the original and I couldn't bear to see them do the same thing they did to Hairspray (sorry, guys, I know some of you loved it).


♥My kid. She was "writing notes".


This one said, "Dear God, please bring me a new toy". She amuses me immensely.




♥A Saturday with NOTHING TO DO (hurrah!).


♥Still being on track with my Skinny Girl Land mission even though I only lost .6 lbs this week and having the strength to tell myself now that I am NOT going to eat ANY Easter candy this year. I've had Cadbury Eggs before. I know what they taste like. And I'm NOT going to slide down that slippery slope *punches luscious cream-filled confection square in its nose*.


♥My hub being home from California. Wrangling the girls alone wasn't as hard as I had expected. I just missed him.


♥Our soon-to-be houseguest in the form of our 15 year old babysitter. She is staying with us for a few days while her mom is out of town. I'm looking forward to Wii'ing with her and dishing on Rob Pattinson. :) The girl is wise beyond her years.


Happy weekending all! xo

WIP

I feel like my shop is schizo-- kind of all over the board in terms of products. Well, it's going to get even more so. I decided I wanted to design V's birthday invitations myself. Here is a little preview:

I only need like 5 invitations (we're just having family), and I'm going to have them professionally printed, so the rest will go in my shop with coordinating envelopes. To be continued...

Share the Love Part I

I feel so at peace today. Like a weight lifted from my shoulders. I cried and smiled until my face hurt last night. Then today I read posts from Alli and Elizabeth and countless others, and I knew I wasn’t alone. I’m so proud.

Today, it’s all about the love. I want everyone to be happy. I know that’s not possible, but I wish EVERYONE could feel what I’m feeling now. It upsets me to know that people are unhappy with the outcome. I think maybe some of my friends at work expected me to come in and rub it in their faces, but I didn’t. I didn’t even bring it up. It’s just not in me today because I’m so at peace.

So on to the next big thing. Come see me here in just over 2 weeks!!!

And, my dear bloggy friends, bring this coupon with you to my table at DUCF for a small gifty gift (Come early! I’m making limited quantities). Consider it a token for being such loyal visitors to this little corner of my world. xo

A Brand New You

There’s a bit of a new look on ye old blog. Although, I just noticed Midwestern has two s’s and isn’t capitalized—oops. Inspired by Jenna’s and Amy’s new looks, I was up until too late last night messing around with this.

I added a third column, new banner, and some Crackbook gadgets. It’s a tad busy, but much better than before. Ahhhhh. My friend who is Sign Inspector for the city where I work said the banner was not readable. I really liked the woodgrain though. It was difficult to choose a good color for the text. I like the glowy lettering though (more Photoshop playing), but maybe I will have to do some tweaking. What do you think?

“A Brand New You” comes from a great movie, Married to the Mob. Kinda dated and cheesy now, but Michelle Pfeiffer is adorable in it. Rent it sometime! Be on the lookout for a cameo by Chris Isaak as a clown hit man!

ONE MORE DAY TILL HALLOWEEN, SILVERRRRR SHAMROCK!!!!!!

**Edit: I changed the font on the banner. Is ok? I'm liking this html stuff. Wheeeeeee!

Sorry and Contest #1!

Hi all! Sorry I've been gone. Finally got my camera back today. I've been a wreck without it, but my new iphone camera works amazingly well (for a phone camera), so I've gotten a few shots of stuff.

I went to a work conference last Thursday at a farm about 1/2 hour away. It made such an impression that we are going to take Q and V tomorrow. They have pony rides, a magician, and other fun stuff all autumn long. Plus you are THISCLOSE to all the animals-- and they have now week-old piglets that Q can't wait to get her hands on! Here are some pics from the conference day:

Yes, a goat in the rafters! Just before he goat dropped a turd on the opening speaker, in fact:



A brief scenic stop on our hayride around the farm just before a little talk on environmental stewardship:





The tiny piggies (Babe!):

Some more good stuff this week:

+The Paci Fairy made a visit to an almost-3-year-old last night. We decorated this bag for her, put all the pacis inside, and lo and behold, Q woke up to find a new digital camera (you know, the cheapy kid's ones) inside! Q tracked exactly how she got in too-- she found a fairy dust trail at the windowsill leading to the bag. Damn, that fairy dust is messy!

+These uber-cute matching Halloween shirts for the girls! Jennifer did a great job. I was going to applique or iron-on some shirts, but I loved the personalization, and I couldn't have done them myself for that cheap.

+And..................this is my 300th post! As I said before, let's have THREE contests. And the rules are as they were before-- leave me a comment on this post (and/or the next two), you get one entry for each. Link to my posts, and you get an extra TWO chances for EACH contest you link to. Plus, winning one of the three does not make you ineligible for the other two, so enter them all!

Today's contest will be for some Girl Land merchandise-- $20 worth of anything in my shop, vintage or handmade. I spent HOURS making this little Girl Land Bucks gift certy on Photoshop. I am a moron. Heather, look! I followed your tutorial! I really need lessons on this damn thing.

Anywho, stay tuned...Contests #2 & 3 will be over the course of this week-- and a big vintage stash will be the finale. For the Girl Land Bucks, please leave your comment between now and next Friday, October 3.

Thank you, all, for indulging me and reading what I have to say and for checking up on me now and again as well. I never imagined when I started doing this that I'd find such a wonderful, kind and inspirational blogosphere out there! Sigh. Love you. xoxoxo

Contest Winner!

It was a close race, but Tracy is our winner! In fact, it was a tie at 10am when I was to check for the winner, and then I received the tiebreaker at 10:56. Thanks to those who participated. T'was fun!

I'm still having nightmares over this one...

Shop Update!

I still have to list my paperboard suitcases and Polaroid emulsions, but for the most part everything is up in my Etsy shop! The MICE show was a bit disappointing as far as traffic and sales (to say the least), but SO MUCH FUN. I always look forward to seeing Taryn, Carol, and Jason. They definitely made it worthwhile. Xoxo, you guys! Plus, I got to finally/officially meet Amanda who's so sweet. The beer and pizza were flowing, and I wish I could have partaken in the former. :)



Hope everyone had a fab weekend!

Schizo Girl is Happy Again

Look at my new stamp!!! Tee hee! I need a new inkpad, but I kinda like that they aren't perfect. If you need a custom stamp, Farrah is the girl! She was so easy to work with, and I had the made-to-order stamp in hand EIGHT DAYS after I placed the order. I may not sell anything Saturday (I had a dream that I only made $3.00), but at least I will have cute bags. Yay!