The Friendly Book & Focus

The Friendly Book was one of my favorite books when I was a kid . Basically it's just a nice little rhyming story about someone who likes pretty much everything. Here's a snippet:

I LIKE DOGS
Big dogs
Little dogs
Fat dogs
Doggy dogs
Old dogs
Puppy dogs
I like dogs
A dog that is barking over the hill
A dog this is dreaming very still
A dog that is running wherever he will
I like dogs.

So the book just goes on and on like this about different things the narrator likes.

I've come to the conclusion that this book may be to blame for all of my adult woes! This narrator and I seem to share some sort of strange disorder. We like pretty much everything and can't seem focus on anything in paticular. If I were feeling a bit more sharp witted tonight I'd write some clever rhyme… I LIKE CRAFTS, every kind of craft, needle crafts, kitchen crafts, crafts on a raft… oh brother!

My focus lately has been on baking and vintage kitchen things. I'm having so much fun sharing this over at Sugar and Meringue. I sort of feel like that might be my "thing". But I still love to craft and decorate. The ideas for projects just keep piling up in my head and I've had absolutely no time to get to them. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever craft again!

Oh well, it's silly to complain about all the things that I like doing. I may not write as many posts here, as I spend more of my time at Sugar and Meringue and focusing on the 3 things I like most…

Flying Time…

You know those extra vacation days I talked about last time? Well, they're over! I had a five day weekend and I have no idea where all the time went. Today, at work, everyone asked how my long weekend was and my response was that it wasn't long at all. I had so many things I wanted to accomplish that I didn't get to!

Really when I think about it, I did do a lot:

A trip to the copy shop, 2 trips to the post office, 2 trips to Hobby Lobby, a trip to Target for a last minute kid's birthday party present, a trip to the Holiday Inn for the birthday party, several trips to the school for district music contest, a trip to the grocery store to buy breakfast for the three girls my daughter invited over after contest, another trip to the grocery store for all the stuff I forgot to get the first time, supper out with my mom and… a trip to the gas station. OUCH!

I baked and decorated, photographed, packaged and blogged (at Sugar and Meringue) 3 dozen cookies. Made about 80 cupcake toppers. Read the whole third Spiderwick book to my son. Listed a couple new things at my Sugar and Meringue Etsy Shop. Started gutting Regi (our '64 Avion Camper). Swept the dead mice out of Regi. GROSSSS! Washed some clothes, mopped the floor, vacuumed, emptied the dishwasher several times, took out the trash, made some appointments, checked some favorite blogs, looked at pretty pictures on flickr, drank way too much coffee…

I know everyone is busy these days, so thanks for taking the time to stop by and read about all my silliness. I really appreciate it!

My Happy Day!

My Happy Day!, originally uploaded by Flying Time Designs.

Actually it's been my happy week!
-Mom picked up a really fun '50s end table and some cute old children's books at the junk store (including this one) for me.
-It was my employment anniversary and I found out I had 3 unused vacation days! I thought I was out. I have 2 weeks to use them or lose them so, I'm taking tomorrow, Friday and next Friday off! Yeah!!!!!!!!
-Some friends and I made plans to go to the Walnut Antique Show together in June. It will be such a fun girls' weekend. I can't wait!
-My daughter played her flute solo perfectly at her performance last night.
-The weather has been nice.
-I found $10 in my pocket this morning!

Life is good, for now…

Trying to get organized

Trying to get organized, originally uploaded by Flying Time Designs.

Organization is an issue for me. Getting organized is one of those things I dread doing but once I start the organization process, I actually kind of enjoy it. It feels so good to be organized. You would think I could get organized and then stay that way, but time gets away from me, I get a little lazy and things end up in chaos all over again. Ugh! One thing I have learned is that I'm more willing to work on organizing if I can find a way to make it more fun and pretty. This binder and dividers I found at Target did the trick this time. Love them! I have sections with:

• contact sheets with photos of everything I have listed, need to list, or sold at Sugar and Meringue.
•master copies and CDs for my recipe cards and cupcake toppers.
•labels for packaging
•a catalog of my vintage illustration scans that I can refer to as I design new recipe cards and cupcake toppers.
•Invoices and print-outs of e-mails that I need to refer to.
•receipts
•a SPREADSHEET! I'm so not the spreadsheet type so this is really good for me. It lists all of my income and expenses for each item I have listed at etsy. Now I just have to keep it up-to-date. We'll see how that goes.

I'm still posting lots of new things at Sugar and Meringue. I made some May Basket cupcakes and I'm just about to post them. So, if you're bored with the whole organizing thing come visit me over there. That's where the fun stuff is at the moment!

And the winner is…

Well I flipped a coin and…Sarah (from Vintage Lily) is the winner of the "Baby Dwight" contest!
But, I have to say, I really liked Catherine's (from She's Sew Slye) tragic comment!

I also want to thank Absolutely Delish for featuring my vintage fabric covered buttons on her site. I'm very flattered!!

By the way, if you missed this giveaway, I have another giveaway going at Sugar and Meringue right now, so go check that one out!

Thanks!
Emily

May Baskets

may basket, originally uploaded by Flying Time Designs.

I've been working on some ideas for May baskets. My plan was to make a bunch of different ones and write a post about them early in April in so that if anyone wanted to use any of my ideas, they would have plenty of time to get them ready. Well…so far this is the only one I've made. It is a cake mix box that has been cut in half and covered with a copy of a vintage illustration.

I bought this basket (as part of a set) on clearance at Target a while back. It's just a Pixie cup covered with gathered crepe paper so it would be fun and easy to make.


And here is the May Basket Pattern I posted last year which came from a 1940s Activities for Children magazine. If you click on the image it should take you to flickr where you can get it in a larger size (click "all sizes" then large).

Do people exchange May Baskets where you live? A flickr friend said they don't very much where she lives. Not everyone hands them out here but quite a few people do. Last year, my teenage daughter even made some to put in her friends' lockers and a friend of mine at work left a beautiful May Basket made from a vintage fruit crate in my cubicle.

I'm working on some May Basket cupcakes and will be posting those to Sugar & Meringue soon.

Oh yeah, don't forget to leave a comment on the previous post so you can take part in the give-away! So far, it's between Catherine and Sarah! Please read the comments. They're funny!

A Mystery and a Give-away!

Long, long ago in the land of cubicles, I was listening to a podcast interview with Alison Houtte, owner of Hootie Couture, a vintage clothing shop in Brooklyn. It's been so long since I listened to this podcast that I hope I've got my story straight, but I remember them talking about how they make up a little story about the each items' history and put it on the tag. Like a leather jacket that said, "I tried heroine. It wasn't worth it." (something like that) I LOVE that idea. Whenever, I aquire some vintage item, I always wonder what its history might be.

So, I'd like to borrow the "story" idea for my very first blog give-away. I found this baby card in my collection of ephemera announcing the birth of baby Dwight. Leave me a comment with a couple lines about what you think happened to Dwight. For example:

Dwight grew up to be a lawyer, and sued Flying Time Designs for slander.

In one week, I'll put the names in a hat and draw a winner! The winner will get Dwight's vintage birth announcement along with the other fun little baby things shown in the photo. Good luck and have fun!

Disclaimer: All comments regarding Dwight are fictional. Any resemblance to the real Dwight are purely coincidental. I do not know this Dwight.