Back To School!

I apologize for my bloggy absence. It's not like me to leave things unattended for such a long period of time, but this week I have had very little spare time and so some things had to be put on the back burner.

For the most part, we've been preparing for the BIG DAY... back to school! So, I wanted to share some pictures with you.

Tuesday night (Aug. 19th) was our "meet & greet" session in which all students had to bring in their supplies and meet their new teacher and future BFFs. Sydney's was first. I made her an appliqued pillow to bring to school for naptime. She loved it. It made me feel good.



Here she is pointing at her name taped on the table. She is so excited to be going to "big girl school"... and mama is excited to have a few hours each day for herself. ;)



Next, we headed over to Sophie's "meet & greet." Sophie is in 1st grade now, which means no more naps so she didn't get a mama-made pillow. I will make her one for her bedroom anyway because I had so much fun creating Sydney's.



And, of course, we had to get a similar picture of her pointing at her name taped on the table. I know, I'm such a dork!



But today was the BIG DAY! The girls got up earlier than usual and were dressed and ready to go with plenty of time (no, I won't get used to that because I know it's only a matter of days before I'm back to my usual routine of yelling at the top of my lungs every morning for them to m o v e i t). But today, it was nice to actually have a relaxed morning and have time for the token mailbox picture.





Sydney wore one of her favorite MODKIDs and while walking from the car to the classroom I got asked 3 times where I bought her outfit at. That felt good too! :)



So, now I am hoping my life will return to a less chaotic state. I will have 3 hours each morning of peace & quiet, so I hope to be able to accomplish a lot. I usually can accomplish a lot even with screaming children all over me, so just imagine!

As for the fabric restrikes... they pretty much came & went. I didn't share pics, as I had promised, because there was not much to share. I thought I was actually getting some fabric to fondle, but I only received tiny little swatches that I had to approve and send back to the mill right away for final production. I should receive yardage here in about 3 - 4 weeks and then the angels will sing.

This Friday we leave for a 3-day weekend in St. Louis, for the other BIG DAY... my sister's wedding! WOOOHOOO! Last time I checked, my bridesmaid dress still fit, so I hope that's still the case (I guess I should stop snacking on those dark cocoa covered almonds, eh? so much for my sugar-free diet!)

See you all next week!

Cook It. Blog It! for the health nuts

I haven't forgotten you guys! I promise. I still peruse your blogs from time to time in search of yummy recipes to tantalize my palate. My family thanks you too! :) So, since it's been a while since I featured you guys on here, I decided to do a healthy installment of Cook It. Blog It! I took a look around today for any low-fat, or low-carb or low-sugar recipes I could find out there, so there should be something on this list to appeal to anyone out there who is trying to lead a healthy lifestyle, no matter what diet plan you follow. ;) Very fitting right now, considering my own diet challenge. My sis' wedding is less than 2 weeks away so I need these more than ever!!!

BTW, did you know we have 52 members right now?! WHOA! Way to go, you guys!

OK, let's see what I found...

If you enjoy a vegetarian lifestyle, Patricia at OneBoyOneGirl Boutique has been cooking up some amazing Black Bean Burgers! She serves them with a side farfalle pasta and zucchini. YUM!

If a refreshing salad is your idea of the perfect warm weather meal, check out this delicious Summer Spinach Salad posted by Laura at Real Mom Kitchen. It has all of my favorite ingredients, so I think I might have to give this one a try. :)

And of course, I can't leave out this Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil salad I found on From Mommy's Kitchen. This is one of my all-time favorite salads and one I make A LOT at home since the whole family will eat it. When I make it at home I always add Balsamic Vinegar on top... it is the perfect combination of flavors, IMO. Will's Kitchen has another twist on this delicious salad, using feta cheese instead of mozzarella... LOVE IT!

If you need to add a bit of protein (and flavor) into your diet, try this Chicken Thighs Braised in White Wine recipe I found over on the Home & Cooking blog. I think what won me over was that picture with all the lemon slices on top of that savory chicken. Have I ever mentioned how much I *heart* lemon?!?! mmmm...



Of course, no matter what diet plan you are following, you can always find something that will fit your needs at The Gourmet Momma blog. Nikki gives you the full nutritional information for every meal she features, including the Weight Watcher points. How great is that? I especially salivated at the Greek Mahi-Mahi recipe she posted a few days ago. The "light & heatly" title got my attention immediately and once I read the ingredients I was SOLD! Of course... it's got both lemon juice AND lemon wedges. DUH! LOL! Check it out here.

And speaking of fish, I couldn't resist posting this amazing recipe for Roasted Salmon With Lemon Relish (don't let the title of the post deceive you) I found on Amii Rob's blog, Ramblings. You guys and your lemon! I am drooling all over my keyboard here!!

To satisfy that sweet tooth, I would recommend a refreshing -- and healthy! -- Strawberry Smoothie like this one I found on Huenu's Blog. Of course, I am a sucker for good photography so Huenu's blog always satisfies that craving for me. :)

And if you are trying to wean your kids (or yourself) off sugars, check out my friend Geeta's newly redesigned Pintuck blog (not like her old one needed any redesigning, IMO). She has shared her sugar-free pancakes tip with us. YUM!

I hope you guys have enjoyed these few features. Thanks to all of you for keeping the Cook It. Blog It! club going even though I've totally slacked off on it lately. I promise to share some recipes of my own soon. I just discovered a new favorite store in my hometown, World Gourmet Foods. I spent nearly an hour today in there and walked away with some amazing new things to play with at home. I'll share soon! :)

Non-Etsy Orders ... and other things

First, I wanted to thank you all again for the overflowing support on my ModGreetings venture. It was just a test at first to see if there was interest, but I am so glad to see it has been so well received. And thanks to some much-appreciated press courtesy of Daria at Boutique Cafe and Bowie at Print & Pattern, I have gotten a much wider exposure than I had ever imagined and it has opened new possibilities for related projects in the near future. (I feel so "connected," heeehehe)

But what brings me to this posting tonight is that several people have contacted me wondering if they can purchase the greeting cards directly through me because they do not have an Etsy account. So, I wanted to come here and mention this as an option to any of you who do not want to bother with opening an Etsy account. If you are interested in purchasing some cards (or anything else for that matter) "off-Etsy" just shoot me an email with your complete order at sales@modkidboutique.com. I will email you a invoice through Paypal and ship your package immediately after payment receipt. Since the transaction is done through Paypal we have buyer/seller protection, plus since all packages are sent with delivery confirmation, we are able to track their whereabouts at all times. Cool eh? The only thing that is different is that you cannot leave feedback for me, but that is OK... just email me. I'd love to hear from ya! ;)

Same thing goes for wholesale inquiries.

Soon, you guys should be able to order directly through the website. That has been in the works for a long, long time. But these things take time (or so Jon keeps telling me). I hope to have everything ready by October, before Quilt Market. And there should be a lot more fun goodies over there to choose from. :)

And while I'm here, I wanted to update you on the I don't wanna be a naked bridesmaid challenge. I slacked off a bit on the diet/work-out last week and when I stepped on the scale this morning I was shocked to find out that I had only shed 1 pound. I got my game face on immediately! Grabbed the kids, put on some work-out clothes and headed out to tour the top 3 health clubs in our town. I found one I really liked, signed up, dropped the kids off at their play area and proceeded to do a full work-out routine. I am on a mission right now. I had a light dinner consisting of a salad with a sprinkling of crab meat on top and I feel good... achy & sweaty, but good. I sweated a lot more than I was comfortable with, but what is it that they say... no sweat no gain? or is it no pain no gain? Well, regardless, I will fit into that dress!

P.S. The Favor Box Tutorial will be posted tomorrow. Stay tuned!

best surprise ever!!

I was just about to jump off the computer and make dinner tonight as I had heard Jon come through the door, when an email popped up from the beautiful, talented and always fabulous Daria of Boutique Cafe and it was titled, SURPRISE Patty!! XOXO. Well, how could I not open and email like that?! Especially when it comes with hugs AND kisses right on the subject line. To my utter surprise and amazement, Daria had featured my ModGreetings website on her weekly podcast today! WOOOHOOO! How sweet is that?! I love you, Daria!

Pop on over to Boutique Cafe when you get a chance and listen to the podcast and leave a comment in the show notes to be entered to win a Variety 10-Pack from my store.



On another note, thank you all for all the encouraging comments and weight loss suggestions. It's so funny to see how everyone's got a different method that works for them. Many of you suggested Atkins or South Beach, but I gotta tell you right now that it ain't gonna happen. Anyone or anything that makes me not eat bread for longer than a few hours is not a friend of Patty. I am Hispanic... bread is in my blood. I know it's not the best for me but I just cannot cut something like that out of my diet. I would be be a major "crabby patty." ;)

I am happy to report though that I've taken up walking on the treadmill and I don't totally hate it. I walked for 30 minutes last night while watching Project Runway on my DVR. I burned 162 calories and felt great afterwards. I plan to increase my time & speed on the treadmill every day until I can do 1 hr. without dying. I've also been forcing myself to drink more water. You may remember the i hate water post from a few weeks back. Well, lots of lemon & lime slices (and occasionally cucumbers too) are making water drinkable for me right now -- still not up to the 8-glasses-a-day level... that would be a Patty Record for sure, but I'm probably guzzling down about 3 or 4. Baby steps, right?

Also, I did not forget about the favor boxes template/tutorial. I am working on it. I took a ton of pictures of the step-by-step process so I need to cut them down to a manageable amount and edit them and put together the whole tutorial thingy. It'll be up in a couple of days. Thanks to all who commented on it. :)

Now, go, go, go listen to that podcast.

baby got back

My sister gets married in less than 4 weeks (August 23rd) and I am the maid of honor. I tried on the bridesmaid dress at David's Bridal and ordered it way back before I went to Quilt Market (sometime in May) and it fit perfectly (well, it was a little tight but I figured if I lost a couple of pounds before the wedding, it would look HOT!) The dress came in the day before we went to on our FL vay-cay. I just picked it up in a huge hurry, didn't try it on and just stuck it in the closet.

Well, you probably know where this is going... Two nights ago, when my mom & sister were here, I put on the dress... or should I say, tried to put on the dress... for my mom to see how cute (NOT!) I looked in it. I couldn't even zip it up!!! (sob). I looked at the tag to see if they had mistakenly given me the wrong size but nope, it was the size I ordered. So I pulled out the scale (I haven't stepped on this thing in weeks!) and I was a good 8-10 lbs. heavier than when I went to Market. (SOB!) What do I do??? I needed to lose 2 lbs. but instead I gained about 10! It is waaaay to late to get the thing exchanged (since they were special-order) and there is no way to alter it (I could take it in but there's no way to let it out!) WAAAAAAA!

On another note, I totally missed my 200th post. It was 2 posts ago, but I guess I was a bit pre-occupied. Oh well! Today is the first day of "back to normalcy" here in the MODKID household. The girls returned from FL last week and my mom stayed with us until yesterday, and in between then & now we've had a flurry of activities, including (but not limited to) a birthday party, a weekend trip to St. Louis, a bridal shower and a visit to the local water park. Oh, and of course, the modgreetings launch, which by the way, thanks so much for all the wonderful comments and your purchases. I have a couple of wholesale inquiries already, plus one more local store that wants to carry them, so that's great news! :)

My mom, my sister and my niece all left yesterday and now it's just the 4 of us... for the first time since, well, June! WOW! Sophie actually asked me last night "So, is it just gonna be us from now on?" heeeheee... KIDS! Gotta love them! :)

So, speaking of the bridal shower, I made these super cute personalized favor boxes for the attendees using one of my Andalucia designs, "Jester" in the Aqua colorway (which just happens to be her wedding color!)



I searched & searched the internet for a good favor box template (and I did download a couple) but they were all too small or just not shaped right, and I wanted to fill these to the brim with chocolates. So I made up my own template. It worked out perfectly. I even made a little sleeve for the Hershey mini's (hmmmm... in hindsight, I probably should have stayed off the Hershey minis and maybe I could still fit into my bridesmaid dress... sigh!)



So, anyway, I will be putting together a sweet little tutorial (with plenty of step-by-step pictures, of course) on how to make these. It will include a PDF download template for the box with or without the Jester pattern. Hope you guys are into that kind of stuff... we had the best time assembling these last week!

So, I will leave you now. If anyone has a great crash diet tip, please leave a comment. Hey, all you Cook It. Blog It! members... please send me links to any low-fat recipes you may have, or some sort of lose-12-pounds-in-4-weeks diet plan or something. I am allergic to exercise but I guess I can make an exception and maybe take some Claritin for this occasion. ;) I promised my sis I would run on the treadmill 1 hr. every night but I already broke my promise once. :(

HELP! I don't wanna be a naked bridesmaid!