It’s our One Year Etsy Anniversary!!!

It’s our One Year Etsy Anniversary and we are celebrating by offering free standard shipping the entire month of April! http://www.mairzydozy.etsy.com

Handmade: Original Silk Bridal Bouquets, Handcrafted Hair Forks, Hair Accessories, and more…
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I want cake!!!

A lovely bride-to-be visited our shop over the winter holidays. She selected my Autumn Splendor silk bridal bouquet, and then we worked together to build a coordinating package for her wedding party. She lives in the UK and her wedding is going to be an indoor event but the venue has a lovely old english cottage style to it, with Oak paneling on the walls and ceilings and red carpets plus beautiful gardens surrounding it. I can’t wait to see her wedding pictures, but I will have to be patient because her wedding is in August of this year. Here are some pictures of her flowers.

Here are some pictures of the prep work done for all of the corsages and boutonnieres. I love it when everything is laid out all neat and pretty just waiting for me to assemble!

Oooh…It is so pretty!  Marie just designed our spring banner for our Etsy shop.  It is magical. I love it!

I had a lot of fun with some embellishments I found last week!  The flowers are sold as scrap-booking supplies (but, shh… I really think they were meant for hair accessory supplies)

I am working to get an account with the distributor so that I can work on some more designs.  Testing out a wrist corsage right now.  I got through most of the day at work wearing it.  I will have to take it out on the town one evening soon.  See if it survives a little party-party.

My co-worker Jessie who is an environmental scientist, really got into the topic of sending e-cards for Valentine’s Day. She wrote this article for our blog at work and said I could share it here.

Like two ships that passed in the night…He forewent ink use. She saved paper. He conserved petrol. She shrunk her carbon footprint. Thinking globally, acting locally…green passion in their hearts.

These modern lovers both chose a red-hot (it definitely was) and environmentally friendly (love my planet too) e-card for Valentine’s Day. And that green sentiment sweetly sent through cyberspace just perfectly ignited that spark and fire for the relationship (or so they thought). But, that particular spark set off that specific fire that then ignited that unwanted red rage (otherwise known as: e-love hurts [listen to this several times for best effect!]). Can an e-card communicate deep sentiments of love? Yikes, did a photo of a box of chocolates accompany that electronic love too?

Those of us that recall the rotary phone may have this sense that meaningful exchange involves deliberate (went-out-of-the-way to stop at that paper place that sells handmade cards)and handwritten effort. Heart-felt meaning used to be expressed in texture (glued-on felt hearts, confetti-filled, “sealed with a kiss”), inked sentiments in a well-known scrawl, paid in cash ($6.99 for that pulp made-by-hand sweet wonder), or expended effort (spent an hour sifting through two aisles of cards). For those more worthy, it involved a laborious process of shopping all over town for the right supplies then gluing each heart and doily to make that special Valentine.

Yet, is that so? Is that really more meaningful?

Do those with gold medals in thumb-gymnastics (texting, tweeting, typing) have lackluster Valentine’s days? Do those that have no history whatsoever of waiting anxiously at their mailbox for that one special Valentine(—see photo if you’ve never seen a non-cyber mailbox), for over a week for a return letter, have a gaping void in their relationship but can’t put their finger (not the thumb) on why?

Or,

Can we tweet our love, save the planet, and yet keep it red-hot? This gal needs to know (in time for the next holiday, so post your thoughts now).

Throughout history, and around the world, pearls have been renowned for their beauty and rarity. To many they represent perfection and completeness. They have been said to inspire fertility. Used as a symbol for binding engagements and love relationships, they echo the whispers of love, money, luck, and protection.

In ancient Greece, pearls were believed to bring love and were adorned by not only the bride, but the guests as well.

Here is a collection of lovely pearls that would compliment any winter wedding.

For more detailed myths and history of the pearl check out orientalpearls.blogspot.com

And a great article on Caring for Pearls at costellos.com

Wedding experts predict bright and bold colors for 2010. Red will be a popular choice for brides this year. I chose an informal hand-made wedding collection in shades of red, ivory, and brown from Etsy.com. A darling theme that would work all year long, but reminded me of Valentine’s Day.

At long last, here is a helpful guide in choosing your MairzyDozy hair fork sizes.

Please, click the image to the right to be taken to the chart.

It’s almost that time again! Time to sweat away over a hot oven creating a delicious masterpiece that will fill us close to explosion. Okay, I think that my family and I all agree that this year we would like to spend less time cooking, more time playing and spend more calories laughing than we are consuming, but we also want to sink our teeth into a delicious masterpiece. This year we are trying something a little different that will hopefully save us both time and waist lines. Instead of the traditional Thanksgiving meal, we are planning ‘Thanksgiving in a Bowl’.

I recently made a Chicken and Wild Rice Stew that I adapted from a Chicken Pot Pie recipe over at Simplyrecipes.com. It turned out AMAZING! I could not help but think of how good it would be using turkey in place of the chicken. I plan to spoon it over a bed of creamy mashed potatoes and top with some homemade cranberry sauce. Okay, so maybe it wont help my waist line, but it will cut down on prep and cooking time allowing us more time for the laughing and playing parts. I am so excited!

Last year we had a more traditional Thanksgiving meal. Here is a copy of last years menu followed by some links to the recipes we used.

This recipe from Foodwishes.com for how to cook a Turkey was amazing. It was my first time baking a turkey myself and it turned out incredible. After the turkey was done, dad sliced it up and kept it warm in a crockpot that was filled with some of the juices left over from baking. Totally the way to go to keep the turkey warm and moist.

Chef John followed up that recipe with instructions on how to make Gravy that was also amazing.

Elise from Simplyrecipes.com provided us with these awesome recipes for side dishes and desert:

Butternut Squash with Browned Butter and Thyme

Holiday Spiced Sweet Potatoes

Spicy Cranberry Sauce with Pinot Noir

Pear Ginger Maple Pie

And finally, my favorite desert recipe for Apple Ginger Pie Bars came from The Kithcn.