Sneak Attack!

Yesterday started out a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I was sick...am sick...and still went to work to watch the little rugrats. The little rugrats who all decided to be in their terrible 2 stage at the same time. Going to work I thought, 'won't be so bad, we'll watch movies and snuggle all day'. Oh...I'm so naive.
So around 3:45 as I'm walking to the bus stop with two of the rugrats to pick up another, Matt calls. "Hey honey! How are you feeling?" My response..."Terrible." Matt then responded by telling me, "I have some great medicine for you!" (I don't believe in medicine right now because Tylonal, Suddafed, and Aleve all got together yesterday and decided to not work for me)...I said, "nothings going to work, honey..." But then...
"You sold something! You were 'sneak attacked' and featured on a blog!"
What great medicine! It worked, my spirits were immediately lifted! That phone call was followed by 2 others just like it and one call where I sold 4 items! All together, in just one night last night...I sold 8 items on Jack & Norah! It was fabulous and so exciting!

Check out the sneak attack here. Thank you so much to Stockannette for choosing me : )

What a great end to that yucky day! And now, it's Friday and I'm at home getting better...and doing a lot of shipping ; )

Oh Christmas Tree

I haven't blogged in a while. I finally have time while I'm finishing laundry using our tremendously slow and small dryer that requires me to dry each load twice...frustrating. This creates laundry piles all throughout our 500 sq ft studio apartment which is quite a pain. We have our apartment all decked out for Christmas now and are very proud of the way it's turned out... ta da! It's our first "real" tree together and I love it so much. Last year while we were living in Florida I went to Target while Matt was working and surprised him by buying a 2 ft. tall tree for $10. We had about 10 mini ornaments as well as our regular sized Disney tree skirt...it was fabulous, but this year is unlike anything I've ever imagined our tree being. I can't stop admiring our work : ) It is such a symbol of how far we've come in just one year. Baby steps...but lots of them. Very exciting...

First Sale

Kind of a big deal... Sold our first item today! I say "our" because as much as I have been working and...working, Matt has been amazingly supportive. I'm talking muting the tv during college football so that I can keep my creativity going (it gets majorly ruined by the sound of football games) and that's incredible. I feel so blessed and lucky to have him and so happy to have made a sale today. Let's hope they start rollin' in now. Looks like I need to make more baby blankets : )

for our BIG day...

Last night while browsing on Etsy, I came upon these amazing hangers by Anna from http://lilafrances.etsy.com/ . I bought this hanger to hang my dress on, on our wedding day! Although our wedding is not for another 574 days, I couldn't resist. My hanger will say Mrs. Lanese. It will make my dress photos that much more special on our big day. I think this was such a clever idea. Anna will customize your hanger or you can choose from a variety of wedding sayings such as, "at last" (which I was also considering). We will be buying another from her for Matt as well so that we can hang them above our closet after our wedding. Mr. Lanese & Mrs. Lanese... Perfect! I will not be posting any photos of mine until after our big day ; )

These photos are beautiful and were taken by megan of meganwblog.com

It's Saturday!

I am in love with the new fabric I bought for more burp cloths! Make sure you check them out.

And I have finally come to a design that I am absolutely in love with for these heabands!

And, time to start getting into the holiday spirit. I bought that ribbon last week and was so excited to start using it. Now I'm in love and plan on buying a lot more! ENJOY

Matt.

Matt is incredible; the best fiance ever. I have moved 2,000 miles away from my family with him and am still happy. (Okay, so I occasionally get extremely homesick...like I did tonight) BUT he always makes me feel at home. Wherever he is, is home. I have to always remember that. He is perfect for me and gets me. He is always supportive of whatever new adventure I want to go on and he always makes me feel like I can do whatever I set my mind to. He's constantly telling me to not give up. I love him so much and am so glad I have him in my life. 575 days until we get married...iy yi yi. I can't wait. Just knowing that we'll always be together is the best feeling in the entire world...he's the best!

lifts my spirit.

Starbucks makes my spirit bright everytime I walk in and buy my Grande Chai. I probably have at least 3 or 4 a week, which I should probably cut back on for the time being, but they're just so good...can't resist them! Starbucks Chai just tastes like fall. (working in Seattle is not helping me to resist at all...) One of my nanny moms is also obsessed with Starbucks Chai and likes hers no fat, no water, no foam. I like mine just how it is...yum! Guess where I'm going now...*sigh*

Real Life Mary Poppins.

Booger noses and all, I am absolutely in love with my nanny kids. All of them have such unique personalities that make my day so incredibly interesting {and never easy}. Every single day we have our challenges and battles, but every single day I leave loving them more and more. Sure I have days where I think to myself [Chelsea, you are insane..seriously, 4 kids? Why are you doing this to yourself] but then all I have to do is remember how Maclin {20 mo.} runs to me every single morning yelling "Chessy Chessy!" or how Charlie {3} has random moments where she stops what she's doing to say, "I love you, Chelsea." God, they're adorable! I have grown so close with them. Today was Veteran's Day so no school and all four kids for me and it turned out to be a fabulous day...

New Products Launched!

I am so very excited about the products I made and launched yesterday. I had one very successful day and am seeing results through my Etsy views. No sales...{yet}; still hopeful. Very hopeful. Today I'm going to continue sewing my tush off. Thank goodness I finally bought a rotary cutter because it has already helped me out tremendously. If you sew and don't have a rotary cutter, I definitely recommend getting one {life is now much easier}.

So...anyways...back to my original thoughts {I need to work on getting off on tangents}for my mom & baby products I've used fabrics by Heather Bailey, Michael Miller and Amy Butler. I absolutely love their designs and can't wait to buy more! I've been going a little overboard lately on buying fabric, felt and more...thank goodness that Matt is so supportive. He never says anything about it, but while we are at the fabric store and my cart is heaping full all he has to do is give me his, "really Chelsea...?" look and I know, time to put {at least} half of it back. It is very helpful...he makes for a great CFO ; ).

Here are the photos of so of my newly launched products...like? http://jackandnorah.etsy.com/

Welcome!

I had an amazing epiphany tonight as I was working away on new products for {Jack & Norah}... I should blog. Like, I should blog a lot...it should be what I do. I have always had a journal. From junior high up until now, I fill a journal then buy a new one. I can't stand not having something to write in. I have had other blogs, but this time its serious. This is the real deal. I am now a blogger. I will be writing about all of my hopes, dreams and ambitions along with ridiculous passions I have for things that are far from my reach at this point {eh hem...Anthropologie clothes}. I'm at an exciting time in my life. I've just opened my Etsy shop http://jackandnorah.etsy.com and feel like I will go places there. I am a 21 year old 'artist' (in my own way), creator of many random artsy craftsy things, super nanny...seriously, fiance to the most amazing guy I could have ever found (I'm rediculously lucky), and a writer...a seriously passionate writer. I hope that while reading my blog you'll have moments to laugh with me, cry with me and have those times where you say to yourself, "really Chelsea?..." (because I get that a lot). I have crazy wild dreams and goals...crazy wild dreams and goals that change daily because there are so many things I want to do. Now it is blogging. So...Welcome & enjoy!