Happy Kathy

Here it is, a brand new year! I'm excited for 2012 for a number of reasons. The first being that my wonderful, and extremely lovely sister is taking me with her to Italy at the end of January! In a mere 19 days! I am so flipping excited! Last time I went to Italy was in college, in 1998. So a very, very long time ago. We are going for nine nights, three in each of the following cities, Rome, Florence and Venice. When I did my study abroad in Rome all those years ago, I never managed to make it to Venice. The reasons are pretty stupid, but at the time I was very concerned about over spending and was on a very strict budget. And a trip to Venice was a lot of of extra dough that I didn't have to spend. But now in retrospect of course I see how ridiculous that was of me. Oh to go back in time with a smarter brain! But alas, that's what being young is all about. Now at least I feel like I will get a lot more out of a trip to Italy then I did back then. I certainly will not be ...

I really am terrible about updating my blog. I suppose it's partly because I feel like what happens in my life isn't all that exciting. I work a lot! And when I'm not working I am taking care of my kids. So there isn't much in there that makes for a super interesting read. But the Thanksgiving holiday was nice, so I thought I'd blog a little about that. Yesterday my sister flew in from Florida for a quick visit. We had a lovely meal at my aunt's house, and my husband made delicious pumpkin chiffon pies, which were promptly devoured! I made two loaves of Challah, which turned out nice. I added more honey this time, because I saw some of the recipe reviewers said this was a good idea. I think I'll put the recipe amount next time. I didn't like the too honey taste. Today we are all hanging out an enjoying having family around. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

I have to say that my favorite part of having my own business is getting to choose all of the fabrics! I have so much fun going through the fabric choices at online fabric stores and picking my favorites. I only wish I had more money to buy even more fabric. But I have to sell what I have first before I can buy more. Here are a few examples of the new fabrics.

I am starting something a little different over here at Happy Kathy HQ, I am putting anorak snaps on my wallets as an extra option. Now if there are customers who would rather not have a magnetic snap they can choose the other snap option. I am thinking of converting over to anorak snaps entirely as I bought a very cool snap press. It's pretty heavy and industrial looking, funny for my small time operation to have this thing! Here's a photo of it. It is very easy to use and makes applying snaps so much easier! So we will see how these snap closure wallets do on the site and if they sell I will convert most if not all of the wallets over to this style of closure. Newest wallets up

One of my fellow Etsy artists, Cindy, designsbylucinda, lost her 11 Year-old son, her home, pets, possessions, everything. The wonderful community of Etsy sellers has put together a shop of donated items. Please go and donate by purchasing something! One of my wallets is there. If you want to donate by buying a different wallet, let me know. Helping Hearts Please click on the link Helping Hearts and take a look!

My favorite thing to do in my spare time is to browse through all the lovely things there are to find on Etsy. Yesterday I did a little bit too much browsing and found a few great things I wanted to share with you all. First is from a great shop called Simply Aprons Where I found this cute number. And then another great shop Vegan Kitty Where I got these for the kids And finally these great address label stickers from I love Die Line Studio And these are what I found

Today when we went to Goodwill we came across these great old coloring/drawing toys, the kind you use a crayon it's side and trace the image onto paper. I remember having one of these as a child. This was such a find! It came with all the fashion plate girl looks, complete with cowboy boots and tight jeans, or short shorts with rollerskates! Love! Also an additional card making tracing kit. Hannah had a blast and I did too! :)