Date Changes

I'm changing our closing date for Christmas break.

I originally was going to close up shop on the 15th but now the last day I am taking new orders will be on Dec. 12th.  

At this wonderful time of the year, I have a sister getting married next weekend (yeah!) and a list of a zillion presents I get to make (or buy) for Christmas.

Also, my new bedtime has become 8:00, since I fall asleep on the couch at that time every night. And now my few precious hours of work time while the kids are alseep are gone.

 So, rather than over-stress myself, which is easy to do when I'm prego, I decided to close up early.

I am planning on opening the Cantaloupe Corner Etsy shop again the beginning of February. 

I will still be available for occasional custom orders via email.

I hope everyone has their Christmas shopping almost wrapped up (bad pun, I know).  And for those of you that still need something for those cute little toddlers and preschoolers on your list, stop by our shop today through Monday and use code THANKU10 for 10% off your order!!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

Preggers Christmas Wishes

Sing it with me! 
"It's the most wonderful time of the year!"

That was lovely!

I feel like a lucky duck being pregnant at this most festive time. I get to indulge in all of the yummy treats and goodies I want because if the baby wants it, who am I to stand in the way? Right?

I also found some other non-edible goodies that I have added to this years preggers wish list. 


#1:

 An adorable tee from KSS Maternity

And BTW this is only one of my favorites. They have a mother-load of funny and sweet maternity tees and funny daddy-to-be tees too!

#2:

This sweet birds nest necklace by one of my favorite Etsy sellers: Jacaranda Designs

It says "I'm a mom" in a sophisticated way, without screaming it.

 And I love that there are three "eggs" since this will be my third child.

#3:

Growing Belly Rub by Wild Root Botanicals

'nuff said.

#4:

Cute Cardigan to keep me and baby warm during these chilly months. This one is by Old Navy.

#5:

Holiday OPI nail polish to spiff up my tired tooties. A little bit of glitter can lift a girls spirits.

#6: 

 Hair Cut!

This is me.

ok, this is what I feel like. I have unruly curly hair that could use some taming.  Thinning shears please?!

#7:

And the last thing on my prego Christmas list is FOOD, and LOTS of it!

This weeks cravings include:  lemons, limes, Chili Lime Ramen noodles, hot chocolate, Marshmallow Mateys, green grapes, and hawaiian pizza.  mmmm.

(most of these I ONLY eat when prego. I mean, Ramon noodles? ewww! On a normal day that would make me gag. but today. . . .mmmm.)

If you brought me any of the above listed items today, you would be my best friend. seriously.  

Open Sesame!!!!!

Yippee Skippee!

Our Etsy Shop's up and running again!

From now until Dec 15th we will be open! So HURRY over and snatch up some Christmas gifts for those adorable little people on your list.

We have navy blue long sleeves available too, since the weathers gettin' chilly. Just add this upgrade to your cart along with your t-shirt order. 

And if you want it to be extra special, add his or her name to the back of the shirt. Just add this customization upgrade to your cart.

I'm working on getting the "I Love Trains" and "I Love Trucks" shirts into the shop. In the mean time, if you want me to start working on yours, send me a message though Etsy here.  Or email me here.

Tshirt colors available : orange, red, navy, black, or kelly green. 

Sizes: 12m, 18m, 2y, 4y, 6y

I'm so stinkin' excited to start printing shirts again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

   HAPPY SHOPPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK I'll cool it with the exclamation points now. Just a little bit ecstatic.

 

~ What boys love ~

My boys are such. . .  boys.

We have an endless supply of matchbox cars and trains (lots and lots of trains) that are always scattered about our house. If I ever have to make a trip outside of my bedroom at night I walk very slowly and cautiously just to make sure that my feet locate the boobie-traps-on-wheels before I become their victim.

I can't say I was surprised at my 4 year old's answer when I aked him "If you could have anything at all on a t-shirt, what would it be?"

"I want a shirt that says 'I love trains!!" 

How silly of me to even ask.   

My 2 year old isn't quite as paticular about what kind of rolling toy it is, as long as it has wheels. He does have a love for fire engines, which he lovingly calls "wee-ooo-wee-oos".
 He wanted his shirt to say "I love wee-oo-wee-oos".  I'm probably the only one who would understand it, so I compromised, since I know how much he loves big trucks and tractors too. He got his own "I love trucks" shirt!

 My sweet little boys have brought me flowers from our yard every day this week. Simon didn't want his picture taken so he hid from the camera, but still gave me my pretty flower.
 How I adore these boys.

My Cantaloupe Corner Etsy shop will be re-opening for a limited time as soon as I get my t-shirt shipment in!

*happy dance*

I would love to add the "I love trains" and "I love trucks" to our Cantaloupe Corner designs. 

Whaddya think? 

i heart specials

Thanks goodness for modern medicine. I am finally feeling almost back to myself again. I have been enjoying the goreous weather that graces our state this time of year, and  I have been finishing up some special orders.

I just had to show this one. It's a set I made for a customer's wedding. Her bridal hairpiece and hair clips for her bridesmaid and daughter.
Her wedding dress is a gorgeous antique style ivory colored dress with layers and layers of lace. To match, I used ivory satin and ivory lace flowers.

~ and I have discovered that I have a secret love for feathers. ~


In my rush to get orders out the door I usually forget to take pics of the custom orders. Some of them take a lot of  time too,*sigh*.
 I really enjoy pouring myself into the custom orders. Here are some that I actually snapped shots of before they jumped into the mailbox.

 This was for a cute little girls Halloween Costume. I printed it in fuchsia ink to match her fuchsia skirt. Have I ever mentioned how fun it is to print with ink. I actually heard myself say "wow!" when I pulled up the screen and saw this shirt for the first time.

This was for an owl-lovin' 2 year old in Canada. I love this one so much I'm thinking about adopting it.
 i heart owls.

I'm working on another fab special order this week for a friend and for my kids too!  I'm suffering from a major case of mommy brain these days so I will do my best to remember to take pictures. no promises.

Feeling green?

If you feel a little green, or it happens to be your favorite color, why not dress the part?
I wasn't planning on attempting to sew costumes this year but when my son told me he wanted to be a green crayon I couldn't pass up the oppurtunity. 

He was so happy with his costume I had to practically wrestle him out of it. He wanted to wear it to play in the sandbox, to dinner, to bed.
I love my kids!

The little guy? He was a lion! He wasn't so happy with his costume.

Let's just say the lion's hair suffered some major damage and the little lion went mane-less. 

I hope everyone had a fun candy-filled Halloween!

We are. . .adding on!

So. . .
I just put our Etsy shop on vacation for a while. Maybe a little while, maybe longer.


"Why," you ask?

We are. . .  well. . . expanding!

And by expanding I mean I will be expanding. Not Cantaloupe Corner.

Yep, you guessed it.  Baby #3 will be making an appearance sometime next summer!

But,
Me and pregnancy just don't get along.

I get sick. I mean really really, all day long, laying on the couch, puking up everything I eat,  type of  sick.

Managing a business, taking care of 2 little boys (and my father-in-law),  and trying to keep up with other motherly and wifely duties has become way more than this one little girl can handle. 


So, for now, I'm putting Cantaloupe Corner on hold so I can take care of myself and our soon-to-be new addition.  And because I am having a hard time prying myself off the couch. ugh.



After having 2 little dirt-loving, wrestling, bug-chasing boys, it sure would be nice to have some sugar and spice in our house. And think of all the adorable girly crafts, dresses, hair bows. . . *sigh*

So I'll secretly wish for a girl.

But boys are nice too. 

My boys.

 You know how it is. The cobbler's kids have no shoes. They roofer's house leaks.  The screenprinter's kids wear clothes from where ever they are on sale for cheap (or the screenprinted mess ups).

But, I found some extra minutes and put together some shirts for my own little munchkins.

Little guy's "i fight bad guys" shirt was designed after this adorable tee at I am Momma Hear Me Roar (One of my new favorite blogs.) She does tons of cool boy crafts. And all of you who have boys know that boy crafts are HARD to find. 

My oldest boy's shirt is inspired my my hubby's new  baby. A 1960 something VW Bug! It is his project car that is in a million pieces in our garage right now and this kid loves "helping" his dad fix the bug.

The slogan came from an old silly song that we used to listed to on my grandma's record player.  "Hug hug hug hug a bug bug bug" (sang to the Duke of Earl tune).

You won't be seeing these in my shop but I am so excited to show them off. My kids have some personalized hip shirts just for them. I think I deserve some mommy brownie points.  yes?

Snacktime: "Oreo" Dinos

These scrumptious cookies are so good that no matter how many you make they never make it to the neighbors house.

This is arguably my new favorite roll-out cookie recipe.

 Impossibly simple and undeniably delicious! 

These were a special treat for my son's preschool class. They were having a lesson on dinosaurs. I think I'll make more of these for Halloween! Bat cookies!

This is my own spin on the classic "cakie" (cake mix cookie) recipe.  I prefer to use devil's food cake mix because I'm a chocoholic, but you can use any kind of cake mix you love.



Ingredients:
1 box cake mix
1/2 cup shortening
3 eggs
cream cheese frosting

1. Pour cake mix into a large mixing bowl and cut in shortening and eggs using a pastry blender.
2. Use your hands to push dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 min.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
4. Roll dough onto a floured surface and cut with your favorite cookie cutters. (don't forget to make 2 of each shape so you can make it into a sandwich.)
5. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 10-12 minutes.
6. Cool 5 minutes on pans before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.

7. Frost cookie with cream cheese frosting and add another matching cookie of top for a cute and delectable sandwich. 
8. Enjoy! Make sure you save some for your hubby and kids.

These cookies will stay soft for days. So you can make a double batch and have some tomorrow too!

These kids are Way Tutu Cute!

These cute little models are some of the winners of the WayTutuCute.com model contest. Merideth Rowlen Photography worked with these little cuties. If you are in Alabama and need a photographer look her up! I promise you won't regret it.

 I can't get over how adorable these little faces are. Oh. My. Goodness.

I am in love with the color orange. That orange couch is to dye for!

 I can't get over how stinkin' cute his freckles are.

Thank you to WayTutuCute.com and Meredith Rowlen Photography for giving us cute pictures to stare at!

All of our toddler and baby items are available at WayTutuCute.com. And just as the name says, everything on their site is waaaay too cute!

~ dem bones, dem bones ~

Things are getting SPOOKY around here.

Don't let those faces fool you! They are little monsters.

With Halloween just over a month away we though it would be the perfect time to introduce our re-vamped Argyle Skulls t-shirt.

This design has come a long way from the first hand cut stencil I made almost 2 years ago. Me and my x-acto knife did not enjoy the 2 hours it took to cut out the stencil. But now I have improved the design and stuck in on a silkscreen!!

(I can't express how happy I am that I will never have to hand cut another skull stencil. Woo Hoo!)
But seriously, 2 hours of cutting and blisters were worth it.


Now you can get your own spooky Argyle Skulls tee for your toddler! He'll be the coolest kid in pre-school.



Boy's Argyle Skulls toddler tee - Black





Boy's Argyle Skulls toddler tee - Orange



And you can personalize this shirt! Add your son's name to the back.  Just add the distressed name upgrade to your cart when you check out.

Savvy? 

Make your own Laundry Detergent

How much do you spend on laundry detergent in a month?
How about a year?


The last bottle of detergent I bought was $13. It lasted me about a month.
1 bottle a month = $156 a year.  Yikes!

When I was a little girl my best friend's amazing mom always made her own laundry detergent.  I thought she was a magician because I far as I knew that stuff only came from the grocery store, and the grocery store got it from some factory far far away.

She would break out the lye, the rubber gloves, the whole sha-bang! She was a genuine domestic diva!


I'm not so good with making the soap from scratch. . . so I'll give you a recipe for laundry detergent that most of you can make right now.

And it is a lot easier than "make your own laundry soap" sounds. 


Baking Soda Laundry Detergent recipe:

1/2 bar of mild bar soap (I use Ivory. Fels Naptha also works Great!)
1 gallon hot water
1 cup baking soda  (not washing soda)
1/2 cup borax

(Please forgive the terrible pictures. These are from 2 years ago.  In digital years that's like 50 years old.)

1. Finely grate your 1/2 bar of soap.

 2. Put your soap and a little bit of water in a small sauce pan and melt over low/medium heat while stirring.

 3. Heat your gallon of water. Boiling water is optimal because it will dissolve the soap quicker. I use a canning pot. You can also heat the water and pour it into a bucket to mix.

 4. Add your melted soap. Stir well. Then add the baking soda and borax.  This is the fun part! Watch it foam as you stir.

I feel like a mad scientist. Or a witch.

Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble

 5. Let it cool.  Stir occasionally as it is cooling down.

6.  Pour your concotion into a jug. Make sure there is some room left at the top. You are going to need that space for shaking.

This is what it looks like after it has sat for a day. The soap seperates from the water.

 7. Shake Well before each use. 
1/2 Cup per load. (1 Cup for heavily soiled or extra large loads)


It doesn't look like the stuff you buy in the stores but you know exactly what is in it. There are no dyes, perfumes, or chemicals added.  


How does it compare?  I have noticed that the homemade detergent performs just as good, and in some cases better than the $13 bottle I used to use. 
Your cost =  from .60 to 2.00 depending on your soap.

I have used it off and on for the past 3 years and I LOVE it!