5.24.2013

Sunshine Ink Studio, My Small Business

I'm linking up today with Kelly's Korner to talk business.  Last year I knew that I wouldn't return to teaching but I needed to do something to provide extra income to my family.  Sunshine Ink Studio (formerly Sunshine Ink Digitals) was my creation to fill that need yet also keep my creative juices flowing.  I create party printables, artwork, logos and marketing, and pretty much anything graphic design related.  My shop opened in September of 2012 and has really taken off.  I feel so blessed to be able to stay home with my daughter, have a creative outlet, and help support my family.  It's truly the best of both worlds!



Find me here!



Here are some new designs that I've put in the shop!  Please feel free to message me if you have any questions.  I'm always happy to take custom work also.  

Choose your two color combination, initials, and background pattern.  A great gift idea! 





This is an insanely popular party theme right now!  Perfect for budding artists.




Love these!  Frame them in an 8x10 frame and pair together.  So cute and available in other colors.




This is by far my most popular design.  I've even spotted it on several blogs, which was very exciting.  I offer so many different party items in this pattern.  Everyone seems to love it! 



And how about a giveaway?


Leave a comment on this post and be entered to win this full Patriotic Nautical Party that will launch in my store today!  Extra entries for Facebook fans!  I will email the winner on Memorial Day. 

Thanks for stopping by and browsing!  


5.22.2013

Avery Funnies

Eighteen months in fun.  It's fun, but it's busy.  As if my sweet child didn't already have enough personality, we could say that she is really forming her own unique way, albeit sometimes frustrating but always entertaining.  I'm enjoying her more and more.  Here are just some funny things she does recently that I don't ever want to forget.

I taught her to breathe a deep sigh and say 'ahhhhh' when we take her shoes off.  She has taken it to the dramatic extreme and really lets out some air.  After a week or two of that she thought it would be funny to breathe a sigh when we put her shoes on.  Lots of drama with the shoes. 

Shes loves Elmo and can spot him from just about anywhere.  Except she calls Mr. Potato Head's eyes (and eyes only) Elmo, and also the big red chicken on Dora.  They are also Elmo.

Whenever we visit my parents, which is a lot, there are some kids in their cul de sac that love to come over and say hi to Avery.  When we left to go home one day recently I said "bye bye guys" to them and it stuck. Now every time we go to Nonni's, or leave Nonni's, we have to say "bye bye guys." 

She calls her crib a jumperoo.  I'll even show her flash cards or a photo in a book of a crib and she says jumperoo.  Apparently the crib is not known for sleeping or napping, but jumping.

We call my sister Sass as a nickname and therefore this has become her aunt name.  Except Avery leaves the S off of the beginning.  So, you can come up with what she calls her.  She also drops the pea in peacock. Hilarity ensures, behinds turned faces of course.

Instead of calling Noah from the ark by his name, she says Nogah.  Not sure where the G came from!

Although she knows to recognize all six main primary colors, she'll sometimes get lazy and call everything red.  After much redirection we come to know that bananas are yellow again.

When she wants to say "there it is" or something to that extent, she simply says "ish".  And she is ishing all the time.

She loves her Uncle Matt and she'll whimper and cry whenever he leaves her.  She'll sadly walk around with her lip pouting out, saying "Uncle, Uncle, go?"

Cats and tigers are called "me-me's".  She will not call a cat a cat or a dog or dog, instead she'll just say a lot of me-me's and woof-woof's when she sees one.  Tell me how a child who can say and recognize an octagon refuses to say cat.  Strange! 

Avery is obsessed with trains.  Avery only poops when she's in a super happy place.  Therefore, whenever Avery plays with the train table at Barnes and Noble she poops.  This has happened three times already! 

I'm also really grateful that she says poo-poo every time she goes.  No matter where we are.

We love Dora in this house (mama, too) and I giggle when I hear her try to imitate Dora speaking Spanish. I need to record it because oh boy it is funny.

Avery thought it was really funny to draw on the wall and sofa in crayon.  She will be closely supervised next time.  You live and you learn.

I've tried to teach Avery to say Baby Jack for the past few months in anticipation of her new cousin.  She tried to mimic me but never got great at saying it, so I kind of dropped asking her to repeat it.  Today, out of the blue, she clearly said Baby Jack about five times in the car without any prompting.

Her word for star is sky.  Every time she sees a star she says sky, sky, sky.  Again, all the while saying octagon.

She will tell me that blueberries are red and that oranges are red too.  I can't say I didn't give her any clues.

She's pointed to kids in public, that appear to be school aged, and called them a baby.  

Last but not least, sometimes she will randomly see a male stranger and call him da-da.  It's not embarassing at all.  She even has a da-da fondness for this man in a book we have.  I tell her every time that he is not da-da and she doesn't believe me. 


5.03.2013

Teacher Appreciation Treat Bag Printables


I've taken a bit of a blogging hiatus due to how busy I've been with Etsy, and being a mama of course.  I've created some Teacher Appreciation printables for the upcoming week.  They are only $5 each and can be printed as many times as you'd like.  Fill a Ziploc bag up with goodies (or even gift cards) and give to your kids favorite teacher.  Great for co-workers too.  Find them in my Etsy shop HERE!  Thanks for browsing!

4.23.2013

So We Started Juicing...




We watched the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.

We got inspired to juice!

I've been juicing for the past few nights in lieu of dinner and I feel great.

And it doesn't taste too bad either.


This is a great documentary to watch, no matter how much you weigh.

It's all about nutrients, and a lot of diets out there have you lose weight, but not be healthy inside.

I really recommend watching (Netflix, Hulu).  

Will update soon!

Follow me on Instagram @elizabethlassiter to see more!



4.18.2013

Thursday Ramblings

It's Thursday and it's random.  

Has anybody out there been suffering as badly as I have from allergies?  Only took my body 30 years to succumb to them but all of a sudden, BAM!  It has hit me like a ton of bricks.  My doc prescribed me four meds and the combo is sending my system out of whack.  Pollen is not my friend right now.

We got Netflix and I'm using nap time to re-watch the whole series of Lost.  I have priorities, I know.

So, ChickFila is getting rid of all of their salads at the end of April and they're replacing them with three new ones.  That means my favorite, the Southwest chicken salad, is going to be gone forever.  I left them a disgruntled comment on their FB page.  

Avery has started to throw some dramatic little fits lately.  Usually I just turn my head and giggle a bit.  The other day she was upset that she couldn't reach something she she fussed and threw her head back in a super drama kind of way and then two seconds later she loudly says, happy, happy, happy!  It was priceless. 

My iPhone broke back in October and I'm just getting around to going to Apple tomorrow to fix it.  The phone microphone broke so I've literally been talking on speaker for six months.  I was terrified to move around my 4,000 pics into a hard drive and I've finally done it and organized them.  Now I'm hoping that they can actually fix my phone. 

I still don't get Instagram although I use it.  For the longest time I didn't realize it was social media, just thought it was a photo app.  I'm conflicted on whose photos to view.  Sometimes social media is just too much for me to handle.  

Along with that I'd love to just delete my FB account but there are so many friends + family members that I keep in touch with now that I think it's impossible to do.  I'll admit the "hide" feature gets used a lot. 

Avery still isn't doing well in our church nursery, and I have finally completed our kids training to be able to work in the kids area.  We're going to move her up to the toddlers and hope that she will be okay as long as my mom or I are in there with her.  If she'd just realize the fun to be had in there!  

I want to paint all of the trim in our house white.  We've been here for years with no plan on moving anytime soon, and I'm dying to paint it.  The kitchen and Avery's room are the only rooms we've done. Justin is going to read this and give me a resounding no, but I'd love to tackle a project like this. 

Remember that cute baby doll that I put in Avery's Easter basket?   If you check out my Instagram feed in my sidebar, you have got to see the pic of the doll.  She hates it. Won't touch it and screams if I hold it up to her.  Told you, pure drama.  

Has anybody ever done a juice cleanse?  We've got a juicer and I'd like to detox for a few days.

My friend Rachel at Silver Lining Decor is almost to her due date.  Her shower was this weekend and I snapped some photos for her.  How precious is this photo of her mom and sister feeling the baby move?






4.17.2013

Fun at Ikea


Several days ago my mom, Avery, and I piled in the car at 8 a.m, with Starbucks in hand, to drive north on I95 to Ikea in Northern Virginia in the rain.  After several warnings of heavy traffic, we ventured on and happily did not encounter much traffic at all.  Avery napped most of the way thankfully.

If you know me you know that I love a trip to Ikea.  Seriously I could just go there for the french fries or Swedish food market.  It's just too much fun.

The main reason we went was to get inspiration for the playroom, a table and chairs for Avery to sit at, and some bedding my mom had been wanting for her guest room.  I've been eyeing the Poang chair in this fun woodsy floral print as inspiration for our playing in the making.  I'd like to make it gender neutral in case we have a boy one day, so I think this is the perfect piece to use as inspiration.


I ended up picking up the Kritter table and chairs for Avery to use in our living room.  I'll eventually move it into the playroom once it's finished but for now she loves to sit at it and play with puzzles and other fun toys. The kids section at Ikea is great so we grabbed some other fun things, mainly a felted veggie basket and a $10 train set.  Girlfriend loves some trains. The prices are too great if you need some inexpensive wooden toys or stuffed animals.  



It took about 30 minutes to put the table and a chair together the next morning.  I'm saving the other chair for later because I don't feel like she needs the temptation of two chairs.  She takes the one and drags it around the room.  Two would be overkill.  I recommend the table and veggies, she loves them!  


4.10.2013

Connecting With Mom Friends

Having friends takes work.

As a mom I feel that most of my friendships are naturally with other mamas.  We have one huge thing in common:  motherhood!  We mutually understand what it's like to be up half the night with a sick child, know to sympathetically smile at another mom whose child is wearing her down in public, and we can pack a toddler's diaper/snack bag in two seconds flat.  We are awesome!

Being a mama is a hard job.  Focusing on anything besides your children sometimes seems impossible.  But we don't have to do it alone. We moms need each other to lean on, because sometimes it's just nice to give or get support from someone else beside's your husband (who is also awesome, by the way).  

I feel very fortunate to have a lot of mom friends, from friends I had before children who are now also mamas, to lots of new friends I've connected with since having Avery, and even blogging friends who are new moms.  Avery and I try to stay busy connecting with other moms, especially with babies or toddlers around Avery's age. 

Recently I read a blog post by Natalie (find it here) and she said connecting takes effort, but it's so worth it. And that is so true.  We can quietly sit and watch while our kids play or choose to make an effort to reach out to another mama (who may be your next great friend!).  Last week Avery and I were at the Children's Museum in Richmond.  I recognized another mom, Courtney, from blogging (small world, huh?) and we got to officially meet and now want to plan a get together with our kiddos.  Make a conscience effort to connect with someone else today!  Here are some great tips for connecting with other mamas.

1.  It may be hard but friendships are totally worth it.  We already have something major in common, kids! Write someone a note, an email, a text.  Let them know you're thinking about them.  Set up a Starbucks date or an afternoon trip to the park.  Put yourself out there, and make sure to bring lots of snacks for the kiddos.

2. We all come from different points of view and that's okay.  We may not have all breastfed our kids, diapered the same way, eaten organically, or have the same thinking about how to raise kids.  Those aren't deal breakers.  Make moms feel great about the choices they've made for their family, even if they weren't your choices. 

3.  Do not be exclusive.  Invite a new friend to your mom's play group or invite another mama over to talk with you and your other friends at the park.  Don't make people feel bad by being left out.  Mix up your group of friends and introduce everyone.  Being exclusive is not cool.  I also think reaching out helps your kids learn to reach out to other's too. 

4.  Be nice.  You don't have to necessarily be best friends with everyone but there's no excuse not to be nice. Recently one of my best friends and I took our kids to a local kids coffee house.  Another mom there acted really ugly and kept repeating the same action of opening a door when our kids would just run out each time she did so.  We ended up having to close it every time she did that.  She would look at us and roll her eyes.  How un-nice is that?  Words were shared and it just got laughably out of hand.  Talk to others nicely and communicate, communicate, communicate! 

5..  Set a goal for yourself to connect with a new mom friend.  Want to meet one new friend each month? Get out there!  Visit parks now that it's warm, among many other locations you could go, and strike up a conversation.  You never know who your next shopping partner in crime may be. 

6.  Have a "mom" card readily available to hand out to a new friend.  The first time I handed out one of my mom cards I felt so lame.  Like a super nerd.  But it really helps to have your information readily available rather than shuffle for a pen and a receipt at the bottom of your purse to jot down the other person's info. Make sure it includes your name, phone, and email.  I also include my blog info too.  That way they may find that I'm halfway normal!  Minted has really great options or I could design one for you in my shop.  Just saying (wink).  


4.09.2013

Need a Party Idea?


Art parties, nautical parties, rainbow parties, oh my! 

I've got so many fun things in my Etsy shop, Sunshine Ink, right now and even more fun ideas in my head! There are so many bridal showers, baby showers, and spring birthdays coming up and I would be honored if you'd peek around in my shop and see if anything might be perfect for your party.  Everything is printable and customized just for you!  I also take custom orders for just about anything, so please contact me.    


Here is where you can find me!


4.08.2013

Avery's 17 Month Update


I feel like I blinked and my newborn turned into this spunky little girl toddler.  The early weeks of infancy are so hard and you feel like you'll never get through them, and then this happens.  My husband and I can't believe how big and bright she is.  We just love her so. 

To be quick, since this is really just for my memory keeping, here's what she's up to.  

Avery is talking up a storm and mimicking a lot of words we say.  Her most impressive words are blueberry, flower, and the letter W.  She knows about 24 letters of the alphabet and has a large vocabulary of basic words.  

She can spot Elmo and Mickey from a mile away. 

She still puts a lot of things in her mouth.  I'm hoping that stage is done soon.  She has all teeth except for her two year molars.  

She sleeps 12 hours a night (usually about 7am-7pm) and usually naps once a day for 2.5 hours. 

Unfortunately she loves watching TV (not much to do in our tiny living room) but I'll let her watch Dora, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sesame Street, and then sometimes other random shows like Super Why or Little Einsteins.

We are working on teaching Spanish to go with the English words.  We're still in the beginning stages of this and I'd like to discuss it further sometime soon, but it's something I'm really adamant about.  

We said goodbye to size 4 diapers and hello to size 5.  I took a picture of her tush to document. 

New favorite foods to add to our rotation are blueberries, edamame, watermelon, banana oatmeal, and plain greek yogurt.  She still loves her basics; strawberries, cheese, toast, mac and cheese, bananas, veggie pouches, yogurt, and applesauce.  For snacks she loves goldfish, mini teddy grahams, and veggie straws.

Her clothing size is 18-24 months or 24 months/2T depending on the brand.  We mostly shop at Gymboree when there is a sale.  I also like Kohl's Jumping Beans brand and Carter's for play.  Now that it's warmer I like for her to wear pretty (smocked) dresses on Sundays.  

Avery is on the go nonstop.  She doesn't sit down much when shes plays and is constantly on her feet.  She'd rather walk/run around wherever we go rather than sit and play.  She loves puzzles (especially ones with latches), cars and tractors, stuffed animals, ABC anything, bubbles, animals, flash cards, and shapes.  

The cons?  She is very strong willed and will scream when she doesn't get her way, especially when I try to clean her hands and face off after meals.  She strongly dislikes having her hair rinsed in the tub.  She will throw food on the floor from her high chair on purpose and laugh like she knows she's done something naughty.  When I scold her she won't even look up at me.  She knows!  She is a piece of work but I am determined to stay strong and learn to discipline in a way that will work best for her.  

We love our girl so much! 



4.06.2013

Easter Egg Hunt


My awesome in-laws had an Easter egg hunt for Avery and all of her sweet baby friends last week.  It was a morning of fun!  The weather was beautiful, we really could not have asked for a better day.  I planned Avery's outfit a while back (Gymboree), but the chickadee tee shirt and yellow tutu had me melting.  She was adorable!  

Can I just say she hated the tiny ruffle around the sleeves.  Did not like it at all!  

Avery was not very into hunting the eggs this year.  She did walk around at first and open up eggs and throw the candy onto the ground, but when it was official go-time she could have cared less!  Maybe next year.


We tried getting a group picture of all 10 kiddos, which as any of you moms know isn't the easiest task.  Avery makes it harder (times 500) and is always the one kicking and screaming in the photo.  Always. 

I ended up getting a few shots of the group after I tried sitting Avery down with her friends.  You can see how thrilled she was afterwards with my mom.  

All of the kids were so cute and fun and I think they had a great time.  We hunted for Easter eggs, ate a yummy lunch and desserts, decorated Easter cookies, and played around the yard.  I'm hoping next year that we can have a small petting zoo come.  They'll all be a year older and I think they would just love petting sheep and bunnies for Easter.  

Here are a few things that I made for dessert and want to share the recipes.  Easter is not for another year but these are really yummy ideas for the future!


I saw this idea swirling around Pinterest, so I simply took one package of white almond bark, melted it, and poured it randomly on a cookie sheet lined in parchment.  Then I took yellow dyed white chocolate and pink dyed chocolate and swirled them all around.  About 10 minutes later I dropped sprinkles and M&M's all around the top and refrigerated it for a few hours.  Afterwards I took it out and broke it up.  Easy peasy. 



I'll admit these are semi-homemade but they taste like they're straight from a bakery.  I used a plain vanilla cake mix box and baked them according to the box directions (it made about 50 minis).  The secret is in the frosting!  I used the Wilton Buttercream icing recipe and it turns ordinary cupcakes into pure heaven.  I put it into a giant frosting bag and make them look professional.  Pin it and use it later! 



3.29.2013

Good Friday


Did you know that the God of the universe, the creator of planet Jupiter, the circulatory system, metamorphic rocks, UV rays (I could go on), took on human flesh in the body of Jesus Christ to come to this earth and DIE for yours and my sins.  Had anybody died for you lately?  

He could have gotten down off of the cross if he had wanted to, but it was God's will that he suffer and die.  John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him, will have eternal life.  And I believe that promise.  

His death was no ordinary death.  As he hung dying, the curtain of the temple was literally torn in two, from top to bottom and the earth shook and rocks were split.  (Matthew 27: 51-52)  The sky went totally dark.  I believe here that all of creation was groaning over his death.

But that's not the end of the story.  

We celebrate Easter because he didn't just die.  He came back to life.  For you, for me.  And one day he's coming back.  And that my friends, is a God worth knowing.  He died for us, so we should try with all our might to live for him.  


3.28.2013

Easter Eggs and an ER Trip


One of my new interests is finding fun and simple play activities for Avery that I can pull out of a drawer or closet on a whim.  No expensive toys necessary here my friends.  I've spent hours researching fun things, in a Montessori style, for us to do on Pinterest and ran across some great resources and blogs.

One of my favorites is Plain Vanilla Mom (see her egg play post here), Growing a Jeweled Rose, Modern Parents, Messy Kids, and Play, Create, Explore.  I'm also getting great ideas for older toddler girl play at The Busy Budgeting Mama.  


I took a plastic bin from the Target Dollar Spot (I have several that I used in my classroom last year) and loaded up some Easter eggs for Avery, while letting her play with an ice cream scoop, regular scoop, and spatula (more on the spatula later).  I love this kind of play because I think it encourages the growth of imagination. 

First we stirred them and poured them out, then put them back in.  She loved it, especially when she gets to stir them and they make noise.  That was fun for a little while but we know 16 monthers have very short attention spans.  

Next I went and got my stash of animal crackers and filled up half of the eggs with her snack.  She loved shaking them and figuring out which ones had crackers.  Girlfriend sat in the floor and plain cracked herself up.  She opened the eggs and found her prize.  We also hid them and when we would find one we'd shout out loud, hoooooooray!  We're having an Easter egg hunt on Saturday for Avery's itty bitty friends and I think it's helped her to get sort of excited about finding an egg.  


Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is a super distraction these days.



See that spatula that Avery is chewing on in the background?

If I hadn't given her that to play with, we wouldn't have an emergency room co-pay.  I felt so terrible!

Two days ago she was playing with her "loads of Easter fun" basket when she grazed her eye with the wooden end of the spatula.  She screamed and it looked okay and then she napped for over an hour.  But when she woke up, she was screaming in pain and wouldn't open her eyes for me.  I knew something was wrong and instinctively I just knew we had to go to the ER.  

Wanting a pediatric ER for Avery, we drove down to MCV hospital in Richmond and there was no triage or waiting.  They took us right back.  After giving my story to three different doctors, we concluded something was definitely wrong with her eye.  It took four grown adults, plus me, to hold her down, even after they swaddled her up to get her to stop wriggling around so much.  It was awful.

They dyed her eye and shone a bright light in it and the scratch on her cornea was very evident.  

Luckily the doctor said that corneal abrasions heal pretty quickly and she'd be good as new in a day or so.  After a popsicle and the all clear to go home, Avery was a much happier camper and fell asleep around seven and slept all night long.  

I'm just glad I had the instinct to take her, they told me it was the right thing to do.  

Lesson learned?  No more spatulas or wooden spoons for a long while for this girl.  


3.25.2013

Easter Basket Ideas


Filling Avery's Easter basket over the past few weeks has brought me so much joy.  I'd rather buy things for my sweet girl than for myself any day.  I get a weird mama shopper's high just going to Target and planning out fun things for her.  I've been very careful and slowly planned the items for the basket so I wouldn't (a) splurge on unnecessary things and (b) plan things that she'll actually like and use.


My favorite thing for her to get is the sweet doll with the pink gingham dress.  She has one little baby with a rattle inside, but it's so babyish that I don't think she gets excited about it.  I think she will just loved this doll! It is so soft and has the prettiest yarn ponytails with hair color and eye color close to Avery's.  Would you believe I found her at Cracker Barrel!

Avery also is really into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so I needed to put a little Minnie doll in there, as well as a flap book (her favorite), easy grip triangular crayons, bunny sidewalk chalk, yogurt melts, mini M & M's (mostly to shake) and flashcards.  But some of my favorite things are her surprise eggs!


I found these Easter Little People figures on Ebay (brand new in package) and thought they'd be too cute in some of Avery's Easter eggs.  She seems to really enjoy the Little People figure toys.  I've also got some itsy bitsy bows hidden too.  She actually really likes her bows so she'll enjoy these.

The girly things are just too fun!  Here's a list of where I found the goods.

Easter Basket - Pottery Barn Kids
Baby Doll - Cracker Barrel
Minnie Mouse - Target
Easy Grip Crayons - Target
Easter Baby Book - Target
Sesame Street Flashcards - Dollar Tree
Bunny Sidewalk Chalk - Unknown
Easter Little People - Ebay
Itty Bitty Bows - Geneva Diva on Etsy


 

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