It's virtual party time y'all

It's time for the third release of Serendipity! New pieces will on the website on April 1st, but there's a sneak peek of 4 new items at the bottom of this e-mail! (And if you're hearing about Matilda Jane for the first time on this post, it ain't just for lil' girlies, oh NO. Tons of fabulous duds for adults as well. In fact, I snagged an Easter dress for myself as well as my 2 little gals when new pieces came out last month. Can't wait to share pics of E & MM in their duds, and for anyone wondering, I'll post pics from the website of which dresses they'll be sportin' at the bottom of this post.)

I'm having another trunk show, but this time it's Virtual. As in, shop from your home in your pjs, or on your phone while you're out and about, or at work...

ahem.

Sorry.

I would never promote online shopping at the workplace.

Oh look, I had my fingers crossed. Tehehee...

Placing an order is SO simple! Here's all you need to do:

1. View the newest Spring 2012 line, "Serendipity", along with previous

collections on the Matilda Jane website: http://www.matildajaneclothing.com/. (*new pieces will be on the website on April 1st*)

 

Have questions about sizing or need outfit pairing suggestions?

 

Contact my Trunk Keeper, Lana, and have ALL your questions answered!

April 1st is a crazy day! She will answer you more quickly by text or email!

 

Lana Pickrell

lanap@matildajaneclothing.com

205-367-7873

 

2. Create your wish list and email it to my Trunk Keeper before my show closes on April 2. (Be sure to note "For Mary Kathryn's Show" in your message)

 

***In addition to your wish list, Lana will need the following to process your order.***

 

Full Name

Mailing Address

City, State, Zip

Email Address

Phone #

Credit Card # and Exp Date

Billing Address (if different than your mailing address)

*We accept Visa, MC and Discover, sorry we do NOT accept Am Ex*

 3. Get excited and start counting the days for the box of cuteness to arrive!!

**And- if you're interested in hosting your own party, just check out the perks-

Let me know if you'd like to book your own show! I'd NEVER done a trunk show of any kind before I was introduced to Matilda Jane and boy HOWDY am I glad I took the plunge. It's easy-peasy to do an in-home show OR a virtual show, like this one. Need more details? Feel free to ask me or you can talk to my trunk keeper, Lana, yourself. And, since I can't help but share pics of the cuteness that's already available on the site, here's what my girlies and I will be wearing for Easter-

 I hope you all have a lovely weekend, and

Happy Friday!

Pic Monkey to the rescue

I'm sure that by now, all of you that have ever used the photo editing site Picnik, know that the site will be shutting down as of April 19th. I first wrote about my love for Picnik HERE, and gushed about how easy it was to navigate through its special features and how glad I was to have found something that tech-challenged people, like myself, could use that yielded results like Photoshop.

But was NOT Photoshop.

Just saying the word Photoshop can send shivers up my spine.

 No joke.

I have it on my computer and have had about as much luck using it as I'd have if I were trying to do calculus. Do you read me?  I don't even have a clue what calculus is and looking at a page full of it is not unlike looking at the screen when Photoshop is open.

It goes something like this...

Whaaaa....??

I don't......

What in the.........??

And then I burst into tears.
Just like I did in my high school math classes.
And college math classes.

(You get the picture)

Several guys and gals in the blogoshpere tried to come up with lists of comparable alternatives, (here's a link to Kate's post) many of which I tried, but none came close to the ease of Picnik.

Until Pic Monkey.

That's right- a monkey.

Not quite sure why a monkey was chosen, but who cares. It's awesomesauce, and one of the reasons why could have something to do with the fact that several of Picnik's ex-employees designed Pic Monkey. Thank you ex-employees of Picnik, from the bottom of my heart. And so, now we have site that will once again allow us to add silly stickers and text and boost colors and crop and edit to our heart's content. I will now demonstrate the awesomeness of Pic Monkey by shamelessly showing you pics of my 3 offspring.

here's the shot, straight from the camera:

and here it is, softened a bit:

and sepia-ish:

and lomo-ish:

and then I went a bit crazy and threw a little of all of it in the pot, stirred it up, and hit 'save':

I mean, how cool is it to be able to play with your photos like this?

I'm working on a special home decor project right now and really wanted something bright. Lots of color pops, ya know?

and since I've already posted that many photos of my babes, I figured I'd do a few more...

LOVE MM's face in that one...

totally made me snort.

Out loud.

And now...

some Zoolander poses:

2 things to note:

that's a new headband that I'll be listing in my shop soon,

and

we're waiting on a phone call from Ford's any day now...

Happy Thursday Friends!



my first taste of toddlers and tiaras

there was a curling iron involved.

And makeup.

Not much, but a wee bit.

And I put it on my daughter's face.

On purpose.

It was,

*Pause for dramatic effect*

Dance picture day.

I've never before uttered the words,

"Eliza, be STILL or you'll mess up your hair!",

but on Sunday, I may have said it at least 37 times.
Or 427.
I lost count.

And then I didn't care.

So what if she wants to run around dancing before pics are taken?

No biggie.

And so what if MM wants to pretend she's in ballet class too?

so.stinkin'.cute.

And just a few moments before this pic, here's the scene from our house, courtesy of Oliver and his mad video skillz.

My apologies if this makes you dizzy...

Once we were home, E slipped into her Super Girl duds and -just for fun-we rolled her hair again.

Because, why not?

Linda Carter's tresses were curled too, yes?

And I know she was Wonder WOMAN, but we're in the same ballpark.

And sheesh has E got.some.serious.hair.

I'm jeaous.

So that's the story.

Makeup and ceramic heating tools used on my 2-year old, all for the sake of ballet pictures. Yes, I felt a bit having done NEITHER of those things before, but I figure it's just the first time of many.

Probably.

Most assuredly.

Yes?

Happy Tuesday, friends!

big things a' happenin'

First of all, I'd like to wish each of you a happy Hunger Games.

The day is finally here, y'all.

I'll be at the midnight show and I'm praying I don't fall asleep.

Not that I won't be loving every second of it,

but because I'm not as young as I used to be.

psst- to watch the official movie trailer, go HERE.

Also making headlines, the demolition of our church began this week. Oliver had a follow-up visit on Monday with the surgeon who put in his stitches (all is well, by the way) and on our way home, we pulled into the church parking lot to see this:

which, odd as it may seem in light of a beloved building being torn down, was thrilling. It's the beginning of a new day for our church. Rebuilding is just around the corner, and that, my friends, is good good news.

And then, today, on our way home from school, we passed this:

Still thrilling,

still exciting,

but somehow seeing the sanctuary gone, it got to me.

And I was sad, just for a moment.

And then I was glad again.

Beauty from ashes, right?

Beauty from ashes.

As the one-year anniversary approaches, it is wonderful to have at least started the process of rebuilding, and what comes down will eventually be built again better and brighter and more suited to our church family's needs.

God is good, all the time.

(For pics of our church before and immediately after the storm, go HERE)

***

The kiddos and I ended our Spring Break with lots of outside playtime, some green-St.-Patty's-day-themed-cake-baking immediately followed by some green-St.-Patty's-day-cake-eating, an awesome photo shoot that I'll be sharing with you soon, as well as making some major changes to the girls' room.  More on that note soon as well.

 Until then,

may the odds be EVER in your favor.

(sorry, I had to do it...) 



Spring Break induced laziness

Good GRIEF, the loss of an hour followed by a week off has done a number on our schedule. Spring Break usually equals sleeping super-late at our house, but losing an entire hour last weekend has equaled "I need to at least wake the kids by noon..."

sheesh

I honestly don't remember 'Springing forward' being this bad last year, and don't get me wrong- I love late mornings with no school and no where to be and as much time as I'd like to lay in bed and play angry birds without interruption,

but,

getting back to an early-morning school schedule next week is scaring the tee outta me right now.

Moving on.

As much as I wanted to take it easy and be lazy and have a productivity level of zero this week, I still managed to do 6 loads of laundry, sell a ton of the kids 'much too small' clothing, and make my bed.

Once.

I also spent 20 minutes scrubbing grits off of a 1-year old who refuses help at the table now...

went to see the Southeastern premiere of The Color Purple at the Bama Theatre.

It was amazeballs.



cooked grits AND eggs for what I'm sure was pretty much the first time ever.

Grits all the time, but never with eggs.

Any other Southern folks out there? Holla!

went thrifting and bought this amazingness for 1.98-

but did not buy this amazingness for 6.98.

However tempted I may have been...



I also had an awesome girl's night out on Tuesday, took some photos for a friend on Wednesday, bought and then returned a piece of furniture after realizing it was much too gargantuan for the space I had, and enjoyed some of this gawgeous sunshine we've been having with the kiddos.

As for the furniture,

I have a project in mind that is going to be awesomesauce if I can just find the right piece. I'll post more details when I come across something that will work, but I've designed the piece in my head and now I just need to find it. Anyone else do that? Draw exactly what you want in your mind and then head out in search of your fantasy furniture? Please say yes so I'll feel less wierd about it...

Happy Friday!



he's here

Hubs and I were texting back and forth yesterday afternoon as he waited with my brother-in-law at the hospital, just moments before he would meet his son face to face for the first time. I wanted to be there so badly to meet my nephew and to support Kent and MK at this most awesome time in their lives, but, I'd just taken a day off on Tuesday for the Lorax field trip with Oliver.

And so I waited.

I taught classes and I waited.

And then I got the text that the doctors would soon be wheeling my SIL back for a c-section.

And I taught a few more songs.

And then my classroom door swung open.

It was a 1st grade teacher at my school, so I kept singing w/ the kindergartners who were in my classroom at the time as I slowly inched toward the door to see what she needed. Only as I looked at her face, it told me that maybe she didn't have a question about music. Her face registered something else, like...

something ain't right here.

And then I saw him, with his teacher.

Face covered in blood.

It was Oliver, and he'd had a fall on the playground and had gone head-first into a metal bench. A tooth had gone all the way from the inside of his mouth to the outside.

Poor guy.

As his teacher hurried him to our school nurse, I helped my precious still-singing kindergartners collect their lunch boxes and as they marched single-file to their classroom, I called our school secretary and told her I'd need to cancel my classes for the rest of the afternoon.

Well God, you were right. I wanted to leave school and go to the hospital, but next time I'll be more specific about HOW.

Don't you love how HE sometimes answers prayers? Like when I prayed a few days before my wedding to lose a few more pounds and, just like that,

I had the stomach virus.

I mean, you just have to chuckle at it, right?

Anyway, after a trip to the nearest MedCenter, followed by a trip to the dentist, followed by a trip to the oral surgeon, my brave boy came home with 3 stitches on the inside of his mouth and a prescribed diet of soft foods for the next few weeks. Sounds like TCBY and Yogurt Mountain are in our future. A lot.

And baby Owen?

Well he made his appearance yesterday as we were leaving MedCenter.

5 lbs, 5 oz

Sweet baby boy

Baby boy is doing just fine, but MK's blood pressure was high yesterday, so could you send up a prayer for her? After Oliver was stitched up, I took him to my parents house and Eliza and I went to the hospital to see the baby. We actually got to see the nurse give him his first bath-he's so teeeny tiny. Pure preciousness. We were only able to pop our head into MK's room to say hello- her blood pressure was rising simply from talking too much. Really hope it's back to normal today. I also hope to have more pics to share of this precious little one soon.

Until then, have a fabulous Friday friends! 



crazy busy

Happy Wednesday to you friends!

I've been a little MIA as of late simply because my crazy busy schedule of teaching, running a small etsy shop, hosting 3 parties at my home in the past 4 weeks, and being a momma to 3 and wife to one AND rarely getting more than 5 hours of sleep per night have caught up with me.

As in, the massive amounts of coffee I drank yesterday morning had no effect whatsoever and at 12:00 pm, I found myself unable to keep my eyes open.

No joke.

Good thing yesterday was a field trip day for Oliver, and a half-day field trip at that. We ate at IHOP yesterday morning and then saw the new Lorax movie before the kids loaded the buses and headed back to school in time for lunch. Since I had a sub, I headed home for some lunch + playtime with the girls and hubs and then thankfully, was able to grab a short nap while the girls slept and hubs went to school to get O.

Still feeling a bit groggy at the moment, but wanted to post a few pics from the trunk show/open house and to thank those of you who came! I had such a great time and enjoyed seeing all of you so much! I'm still working on a few custom orders from the party and bought more supplies today to make pieces that specifically coordinate with the Matilda Jane clothing and anything already hanging in your closet as well. Since I rarely remember to take pictures during parties, here are a few taken before the whole shebang even started-

Aren't those clothes yummy?

Since Spring Break is next week for us, I plan to carve out some time to photograph the new pieces in my shop so that I can add them online. In the meantime, I'm hoping to start catching up on some much needed rest, which for me would require going to bed before 1:00 am.

Hope you have a fabulous day!

 

Due to the severe weather threat...

the trunk show and etsy open house has been moved to Sunday afternoon, March 4, from 2-4. My city, as well as hundreds of others, is in the red today so we'll be keeping an eye on the radar and praying that everyone stays safe. If YOU'RE in the red as well, please stay alert. I highly recommend the weather radio app that ABC/3340 weather man, James Spann, speaks so highly of. I can tell you from personal experience that the alarm is loud enough to wake you and having access to his live broadcast during a power outage is pretty amazing, and potentially life-saving.

In the meantime, I'm taking my little 'thing 1' to school for a Dr. Seuss birthday celebration this morning. Have a wonderful Friday everyone-

and please stay safe!

new shop goods & new MJ collection pieces

Happy Thursday friends!

Popping in to show you a few things I've been working on and to share a few more Matilda Jane goodies.

*Reminder- trunk show tomorrow at my hizzy from 4-6*

This week, the story has been pillow covers-

everything from bright patterns/pops of color...

to darker, more subdued hues.

I've also been working on a few new designs of notecards-

and yes, my toes totally made it into the shot above

Love these subtle 'Love' cards.

Also love the *new* craft notecards.

And of course, there will be tons of pins/clips/headbands in stock-

AND...

Since it's the 1st of the month, the second release of the Serendipity collection is now available for purchase and pics are up on the Matilda Jane website.

FYI- I've made knock-off star headbands like this one to sell tomorrow. MM has already been sporting one of them and she's a huge fan.

Good gravy these clothes are fab.

Go HERE to get a look at the newest pieces, and remember-

they'll be at my house tomorrow if you'd like to see them in person. For anyone who's not local and interested in placing an order, it's as easy as pie. Shoot me an e-mail at Funnygirl33180(at)aol(dot)com and I can hook you up with the fabulous Lana who is the trunk keeper in my area.

I'm off to teach a little music-

hope you're having a fabulous day!