The Gift of Pampering

I don’t know of too many women who wouldn’t agree that every once in a while, a little pampering goes a long way! Whether it is a pleasant scent, a relaxing bath, a quick pedicure or something similar, we could use a quick “pick-me-up” on occasion. As a woman, I can assure you that after a long, stressful day of work, I would love to come home to an unexpected surprise meant to pamper me.

With that in mind, Busy Lil’ Bees Designs is now carrying a Spa Cake line of products. What better way to tell your mom, sister, wife, or friend how much she means to you? These are perfect for Mother’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries, or just any time you want to show your appreciation for all the hard work the woman in your life does.

From luxurious bath towels to scented candles, bath fizzies to scented lotions, and everything in between, our Spa Cakes are chockfull of wonderful little surprises meant to pamper your loved one. So if you are looking for a unique and thoughtful gift, click here to purchase one of our new Spa Cake designs. We also carry a line of Kitchen Towel Cakes that are perfect for housewarming or wedding shower gifts.

If you are looking for something more personalized, we love custom orders. Send me an email and let me know what colors (or theme) and what items you would like to see in your Spa Cake. Would you like to include a gift certificate to a local nail salon or masseuse—maybe a gift certificate to a candle, cosmetic or similar store? Let us know and we will take care of picking up the gift certificate and including it in your custom creation.

Don’t forget the expectant mothers in your life. They could certainly use a little pampering during their pregnancy too! Super soft, comfortable slippers, cocoa butter lotions, Preggie Pops™, crackers, Ginger Ale, and massage oils can all be packaged in a lovely basket that they can reuse in the baby’s nursery or even a footbath to soak their swollen feet in and relax.

We can even include relaxing herbal teas, chocolates, or other delicious surprises!

Personalized Diaper Cakes

The afternoon/evening has been spent working on a catalog for Busy Lil’ Bees Designs’ diaper gifts line. As mentioned in the previous blog entry, our diaper gifts are being featured at a Lakeside shop called Kids Grow! I’m scheduled to drop off more product tomorrow morning, so I have been feverishly working on completing the catalog that is to be displayed with our goods.

We always love receiving custom orders from our clients. Now we are going to be adding Personalized Diaper Cakes to our line. We can cut the expectant mom’s (or child’s) name out of color-coordinated scrapbook paper that is mounted on cardstock. As an alternative, we can even personalize the custom diaper cake with the baby’s initial(s). We use a wooden initial, measuring approximately 5” tall, decorated to match the cake’s color scheme. Either the name or initial(s) can be re-used as a nursery decoration.

So if you know someone who is expecting a new bundle of joy soon, don’t forget to check us out at Kids Grow! or check out our website.

Kids Grow! To Feature Busy Lil' Bees Designs

Another week has gone by and I have found it nearly impossible to find the time to get my blog entries done. Phew! It has been a busy week but a productive one none-the-less.

I’m excited to announce that Kids Grow! will now be featuring our diaper gifts. Kids Grow! is Richmond’s friendly place for gently loved children’s clothes, toys and crafts. Bring the kids while you shop, there’s lots for them to play with, while staying cool in the AC.

Kids Grow! is located just off Lakeside Avenue next to Domino’s Pizza—half mile from Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. They can be reached at (804) 402-1627. Don’t forget to check them out on Facebook too! Store hours are Tuesday – Friday 9 – 6 and Saturday 10 – 5.

New Paper Piecing Files

Wow! This week seems to have flown by so quickly. I still have a lot more on my “To Do” List so today’s blog entry will be quite short. However, it contains freebies, so that should more than make up for it!

I’ve been working on some new paper piecing files with my MTC software. I have decided to offer these designs as free downloads. The only thing that I ask is that you make sure to give credit where credit is due. See my TERMS OF USE for more information.

To download any of these files, please click on the link below to be redirected to our website. I hope you enjoy and don’t forget to give me some feedback. If you use one of my designs in your creation, send me a photo and I will include it in one of my upcoming blogs. Have fun!

You can download these freebies here.

Finding Inspiration

Some days I am hopelessly clueless when it comes to thinking up new designs. I get into a rut of sorts. I feel like I need to step outside the box and do something new or funky—something completely different. But I keep running head first into the brick wall in my mind—unable to come up with anything!
Other days, I have so many ideas swirling around inside my head that I feel a little manic! The frustration tends to escalate on those days because I never seem to come up with those really cool ideas on the days where I actually have plenty of time to sit down and put them to use. Ahh…the life of a crafter!

I find inspiration lurking around every corner. Whether it is something I’ve seen on the internet or in my daily travels, there’s usually something out there that peaks my interest and gets my creative juices flowing so to speak. The problem is putting those ideas to work. Am I the only one who has a perfect image in their head of how I want something to look (or act) but have simply no idea how to make that image a reality?

Some of my best ideas come to me in the shower. Perhaps it is because it is the only place where I’m not interrupted by ringing phones, emails, Facebook, work or other activities. The time spent in the shower is “my” time—a time I don’t have to share or interact with anyone else. Some days I wish I could just live in there!

So while taking a shower recently, I came up with the ribbon storage idea (see “Time Well Spent”) as well as a new idea to organize my leftover scraps of scrapbooking paper. I cleaned out a file cabinet and now I plan to label hanging file folders by color (in alphabetical order to satisfy my OCD). I will then store my scraps in these folders, arranged by color. This should certainly make it much easier to locate what I need a lot quicker. This, in turn, should make me more productive. Now if I can only find the time to put my plan in to action! I have set a goal…it will be done by the end of the week. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

In the meantime, while thumbing through my box of hundreds of pieces of “scraps,” I found myself getting lost in creative thought—thinking about all the different projects I could use these scraps on. So instead of working on getting my filing cabinet set up, I couldn’t help but jump on my Cricut and whip up a few card projects:

Oh well, there’s always tomorrow, right?

Time Well Spent

I didn’t really get an opportunity to keep up with my blog this week. So much going on! Between work and home life and a host of health challenges currently, I have barely found time to sleep—let alone anything else! It’s a new week; however, and I am getting into the full swing of things—feeling a bit refreshed and renewed.

I spent some time organizing my craft space. If you are like me, it is awfully hard to get the creative juices flowing when you can’t find anything or don’t have a single 12x12” space available to even work on a project! I decided to tackle my overflowing spools of ribbon, enlisting the help of my husband, to create a more functional storage solution.

I purchased café rod brackets with a 2” clearance and 3/8” wooden dowels from the local super center. My husband cut the dowels to fit the space and mounted the brackets. Total cost for this storage solution: $22.11 (including tax). I will still need to add on a few more rows to accommodate all of my ribbon stock, but it is certainly a lot cheaper that some of the pre-made storage solutions I found online. If you are looking for a more portable solution or simply don’t have the wall space, check out my friend’s ribbon organizer:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/41832926/unique-gift-for-crafty-friend-mom-mother

Any Day Can Be A Holiday!

Okay, so you are all now well acquainted with my Cricut addiction. Ever since finding MTC software that allows me to create my own designs and cut them on Cricut, my mind has gone on overload! I am constantly thinking about new designs! I look for any reason to sit in front of my computer and design a new card to be cut on my Cricut and pieced together. I find myself wanting to create a new card to send out just about every day. Why wait for someone to have a birthday, welcome a new bundle of joy, retire from their job or celebrate an anniversary? I even made a card to give to our dog groomer!

This got me to thinking…what other obscure holidays are there that I could create cards for? To the internet I went! Here’s a list of just some of the ones I could find for the month of July:

National Blueberry Month
National Anti-Boredom Month
Unlucky Month for Weddings
National Cell Phone Courtesy Month
National Hot Dog Month
National Ice Cream Month
July 1st: International Joke Day
July 2nd: World UFO Day
July 3rd: Compliment Your Mirror Day
July 4th: Independence Day (duh!)
July 5th: Work-a-holics Day
July 6th: National Fried Chicken Day
July 7th: Chocolate Day
July 8th: Video Games Day
July 9th: National Sugar Cookie Day
July 10th: Teddy Bear Picnic Day

The list goes on and on! Check out the complete list at: http://holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/index.htm

You know what this means, don’t you? Now I can find a holiday to celebrate with a handmade greeting card nearly every day of the year! I guess it’s time to head to the post office and stock up on those “forever” stamps. I also need to stop procrastinating and get my address book updated. Looks like I’ll have a lot of creating to do…