Cyber Monday Sale

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday weekend. Despite an impacted wisdom tooth, I enjoyed my Thanksgiving and of course Black Friday shopping. :)

Today is the big shopping day - online at least! Lots of stores are offering free shipping or good discounts on this Cyber Monday. I am joining in on the fun with my shop The Framed Frog. Today you can purchase anything in the shop for 25% off! This includes custom and personalized items, which make unique Christmas gifts. Here's just a preview of what's on sale:

Custom name trains are fantastic gifts for children and make great keepsakes for years to come. I just had a customer take advantage of this sale and purchase two $40 trains for $60 total! I have never discounted my trains this much. :)

Lots of unique art pieces are available and ready to ship. This "I Love Portland" art piece is only $30 with the sale and doubles as a memo board. I can do a similar piece to represent any city you like.

Don't settle for a generic Welcome sign or wall plaque. You can get unique signs customized to your family's interests and color schemes. This is a custom sock monkey portrait sign in which I paint each family member as a sock monkey while showcasing each personality with their interests - only $15 with the discount!

Wall letters are fantastic for nurseries and kids rooms, but they can also be perfect in a living room or dining space when painted in elegant damask or stripe patterns. Shown are my wooden wall letters, but I also offer paper mache letters as a durable, lightweight alternative. Wood letters are just $7.50 each with the discount; and paper mache letters are $6.75 with the discount.

It couldn't be The Framed Frog without photo frames! I have done dozens of custom frames to match nurseries, kids rooms, living rooms, etc., and also offer some ready-to-ship frames in my shop. At just $11.25, these make great gifts for teachers, bosses, grandparents, etc.

When you purchase a custom memo board from The Framed Frog, you get to choose the fabric, ribbons, and fasteners so that it will perfectly match your living space. A 16x20 board is just $18 with the sale today!

Horatio the owl has gone to decorate a little girl's room, and many other custom art options are available in the shop. When custom nursery art is ordered, I do sketches for the customer until they are satisfied, and then paint the art piece or set of art pieces. A 12x12 custom painting is just $15.

Hurry and order today! Not only will you be taking advantage of a great sale, but you will be able to get these custom items well in time for Christmas!

Froggy Feature Friday #2

It's time again for a little show and tell from the creative lily pad! My art desk in the corner of the living room is covered with custom projects in progress for the Christmas season. Last week, I posted some pictures of vintage ring bearer and flower girl frames for wedding attendant gifts. This week has to do with a wedding also.

The wedding is going to be a simple nature theme - the ring bearer will be carrying a pillow made of moss, the invitations show the bride and groom's initials "carved into a tree", etc. The groom-to-be loves trains; so she wanted to showcase that with a custom name train painted to match the wedding's theme. I have never done a train for a wedding before; it was a challenge to make it simple and sophisticated at the same time.

I decided to go with patterns from nature for each train piece - the veins of a leaf, wood grain, ferns, pine cones, moss, river rocks, and a dandelion blowing in the breeze.

The edges of each train piece were painted in a creamy vanilla with scattered green leaves, and the wheels were painted to look like cut tree stumps.

Overall, I love the way it turned out. The bride-to-be hopes that someday they will have a little boy to play with the train. :)

Custom name trains make perfect Christmas gifts, and there is still time to order yours to receive it in time for the holidays. Check out all the themes and colors available at The Framed Frog.

(and don't forget, savvy shoppers, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are coming! There will be a fantastic sale at The Framed Frog - buy any item and get a second item of equal or lesser value 50% off! Also, select items will have free shipping!)

Happy Friday everyone!

Wordless Wednesday

Daddy's little helper

Here's to Your Health

This morning, as I was preparing whole wheat English muffins with peanut butter for breakfast, an unusually alert Drama Queen (not a morning person) came bouncing into the kitchen.
"Whatcha makin', Mom?" she asked.

"English muffins, sweetie," I told her.

"Oh, good, I hope they are whole grain ones!" she replied. "Those are the kind that are healthiest, right?"

"Well, sweetheart, they certainly are good for you," I agreed.

"And we need the peanut butter because it's protein, right?" she pressed on.

"Yes, honey, it's always a good idea to start off your day with some protein."

Since September 1st, conversations like these have become much more frequent. It was in September that we decided as a family to become much healthier both in exercise and in eating habits. The transition has been smoother than I thought, especially with such young ones. It has not always been easy, as I have definitely been tempted to turn to the boxed mac'n'cheese or hot dogs when a quick meal is needed. And a few trips to McDonalds have been made in moments of weakness, but they have been rare. We have been making serious efforts in eating veggies and fruits at every meal and making substitutions in recipes whenever we can to make them healthier. Boxed dinners and packaged meals have disappeared from the pantry shelves. The kids, especially the Drama Queen, have started to pick up on the importance of each thing we eat or decide not to eat.

The changes are definitely showing! I have lost 25 pounds following a special diet which I hope to talk more about later this week, and the Nerd has lost over thirty pounds. We are both at the gym almost every day, and I am daily amazed at how much more I seem to be accomplishing with the extra energy I have.

So, I am off to make some healthy pumpkin muffins (recipe here) that I promised the kids could have tomorrow.

Have a happy and healthy Tuesday everyone!

Relax

 



So I have a million things to work on today and a million errands to run. Life doesn't slow down for the weekends, that's for sure!

But maybe for some of you - this is a day to relax, kick back, and never get out of those pajamas. I salute you and wish to inspire you with this incredible image of myself doing exactly that. (for a costume party anyway).

Happy Lazy Saturday!

Froggy Feature Friday #1

As most of you know, I own an etsy shop called The Framed Frog in which I sell my customized nursery artwork, photo frames, memo boards, custom name trains, wall art, and signs. I realized that although my blog is mainly about my family and the crazy mishaps we find ourselves in on a regular basis, I need to include more about my other passion - my art.

So every Friday, I am going to feature something that either I made for a customer or something new for the shop. Every artist likes to show off a little, right? :)

So here's a set of custom frames I did for a bride to give as gifts to her ring bearers and flower girls. These have actually been quite popular this fall - I guess brides are attracted to the vintage children silhouettes and the custom wedding color matching.

This bride's evening wedding is featuring bold red, black, and white as the color scheme. With two ring bearers and two flower girls, she wanted to make sure that each child had a unique frame.

This was the first time I have done frames for flower girls; so I came up with the silhouettes of a dancing little girl, a toy tea set, a girl chasing balloons, and a rocking horse for the frames.

On the other hand, I have done many ring bearer frames, and the drummer boy, sailboat, tricycle, and boy chasing a ball are pretty popular.

It's nice to think that each child now has a special keepsake from the wedding that will last for a long time.

According to the Drama Queen

My daughter has some wonderful insight on life. She very frequently will bring up a theological topic, and it is so interesting to hear a young, innocent little girl's view on God and His care and love for us.

The other day, I had just picked her up from school and was driving her and the crew to go see Grandma.

"Momma, " she said, "are we really going to see Grandma?"

"Yes, sweetheart, " I replied. "I promised we would, and she's going to have lunch with us."

"Oh, good," she said. Then looking thoughtful, she stated: "Grandma is sure an old woman, huh?"

"Um, honey, I'm not sure that's exactly what I would say," I faltered.

"Well, yeah, she is, but it's okay to say it. 'Old' is a kind word, but 'fat' is not."

"It's probably better not to say 'old' or 'fat' at all, honey."

"Oh." She sat silent for a minute. "Hey, Momma, you know about that Devil guy?"

"Yes, have you been talking about him in school, honey?"

"Yep. Did you know that the Devil does four things?" she inquired.

Hmmm. This sounded interesting. "What four things are you talking about?"

"Well, he does bad things, he calls people fat, he calls people stupid, and he tells people to shut up. Those are such bad bad things, Momma."

I agreed with her and then pondered her answer for a moment. How sweet and innocent she was - to her, the most horrible and gravest sins in life were calling people names and saying "shut up." I wish I could keep that part of her oblivious to the darker sides of life forever.

Oh, and then not five minutes later she told her brother to shut up. Soft, warm, fuzzy moment was officially over!

Who's Got Spirit?

Last week, the Drama Queen's school held a School Spirit Week. The students dressed up according to different themes each day, and I had great fun helping the Drama Queen with her outfits.

Here she is on Crazy Hat/Socks/Slipper Day. She borrowed the slippers from the Beast. They fit her better anyway.

Awww, she makes one cute little old lady, doesn't she? She really seemed to enjoy Old Person Day.

And of course, her favorite - Miss Match Day! She was not exactly thrilled with the Cindy Loo Who hairstyle, but she took great delight in the fact that she wore two different shoes all day!

Who's got spirit? We do!

Wordless Wednesday - Goodbye October

Can't resist showing off some pictures of my little cuties before their sugar high:

Our little kitty cat sat very patiently while I painted her face.

The kitty also requested a "really really twirly skirt" so I obliged by making one using this tutorial. The Beast was found flexing his Spidey muscles often while wearing his costume. He refused to wear the mask to Fall Festival, but since then has worn it every day. Silly guy!

The Spud made a very charming and adorable Thomas the Tank Engine!

We all had a wonderful time and brought home way too much candy. Farewell, October! We will miss your sugary goodness and happy happy pumpkins!