when life gives you lemons...

make lemonade. But when it keeps giving you lemons, make lemon tarts, and lemon meringue pie, and lemon chiffon cake, lemon chicken, and..... life kept giving us lemons.

I have to confess I am happy to see the end of Dec. It was the type of month where if it could go wrong it did, again and again.

Though Christmas is always joyful, the beauty of Christmas Mass, the excitement of the kids, the time to sit and really enjoy family, this year I was just plain exhausted!




During my busiest month working and creating,
lemon one... both of the assistants I trained to help me through the rush, called off sick or had other things come up and couldn't work, at all, so for all of Dec I worked till between 3-5am slept 2 hours and then got up with the kids (Tracy your 2am e-mails of encouragement were all that kept me working some nights! mwah!)

lemon two... All six of the kids played two rounds of pass the tummy bug, and if you have a few kids, you know it almost never hits them all the same day. So with 6 it was something like 12 non stop days of someone throwing up. It's these times that I am so thankful that we are fortunate enough to have a washing machine in our home. Many families do not, we really are blessed.

lemon three... 5 days before my shipping deadline my immune system caved and I caught the tummy bug too. Thank goodness for my Mother in law who came and took the kids while I was sick because I couldn't move for 24 hours.

lemon four... we had the heaviest rain fall in who knows how long which lead to mud slides and flooding in my town and a leaking roof in 4 rooms of our house. I haven't found the silver lining here yet... I suppose we have a warm home with a full fridge and more than we need, so a leaky roof isn't that big of a deal.

lemon five... the van broke down and needed repairs this month, and I got a flat tire driving over a submerged pot hole on my way to mail my very last Christmas orders, in the pouring rain.

I really could go on and on because it felt like at every turn something new came up, broke down or got sick, but to keep going on just feels like I'm whining.

I just want to let you lovely ladies know I had to put the 12 days of giveaway on hold with good reason.



Now that you have all listened to me complain (sorry) The 12 days of Christmas will resume tomorrow with my brand new "Word of the Year Bracelet"

Over the past couple of years people have been choosing a word rather than a New Years resolution. Let's be honest, how often do we keep our resolution?
But the word is like a theme for the year. Something simple to apply to daily life.

Also I have been receiving several e-mails through my Bigcartel shop wanting to know when I will reopen. I decided to go ahead and reopen my Big Cartel shop today so some of my designs are available for purchase. My Etsy Shoppe will remain closed until Jan 10th as I need to make some changes to my shop, my pricing, and my policies.

Peace and blessings in the New Year!!
Canela