In Honor of Design - Valentine Paperie Giveaway!

Looking for a little eye candy and a chance to win some delicious handmade paper goods? In Honor of Design is hosting a Valentine-themed giveaway featuring Retrocrafted Paper Goods and several other Etsy paper artisans. Many thanks to Anna for the opportunity to participate. You can enter here. And be sure to take a few minutes to look around. Fellow Etsy shop owners just may find themselves particularly inspired by these pretty packaging ideas. Enjoy!

It's an Honor Just to Be Nominated...

Know what's cool? What's really, really cool?

This blog - yes, the humble little blog you are reading at this very moment - has been nominated for a Poppy Award via one of my all-time favorite sites, Poppytalk!


While it's certainly an honor to be nominated (it really is - I'm in amazing company), it would be awesome to end the week with more than the 0.0 votes I currently have.

So, if I happened to have struck a chord with you at some point and you might be so inclined, would you be so kind as to cast your vote in my general direction? Or at least check out the list of nominees - you're sure to discover some artisan blogs you may not have found before.

As always, thanks for reading.

Check Us Out at The Creative JAR!

Many thanks to The Creative Jar for including our Thank You mini cards in today's Thanksgiving post. Happy Thanksgiving, all!

http://www.thecreativejar.com/2009/11/full-of-thanks.html

A Feature and a Shout-out

A big giant thank you to Heather of Maternal Spark for featuring me as today's Creative Mom. It was a super fun interview - all about my creative inspirations, making time to be creative, and the creativity I can already see in my daughter. Check it out here.

My blog has taken a backseat to my freelance projects this week, but I wanted to give a quick shout-out to this week's featured Creative Blogger, Heather of Heather's Ramblings and Heather Designs. Heather is hot glass artist, jewelry designer, and oil painter.


For a limited time, Heather's offering 15% off in her Artfire shop.

Are you a creative blogger? The Creative Bloggers Blog Ring is all about paying it forward - supporting other creative people through blogging. You can get involved here.

Wordless Wednesday -- Sheer Auditory Perfection c. 1967

Handbag Tag!

This is fun for a Friday, right? I was so excited to be tagged for this game by Andrea Baker, as I consider myself an absolute EXPERT at getting great handbags for ridiculous bargains. The opportunity to show off my skills in this area was just too much to resist.

“What kind of purse do YOU carry?”

Here’s how this works:

1. Post a picture of whatever bag you are carrying as of late. No, you cannot go into your closet and pull out that cute little purse you used back when, you know, you “had a life”. We want to know what you’re carrying NOW.

2. We want to know how much you paid for it. This is not to judge - sheerly for entertainment purposes only. So spill it! And if there happens to be a story to go along with how you obtained your purse (a.k.a. “luggage”), we’d love to hear about it!

3. Tag some gals and link back to this post so people know why on earth you’re yammering about your bag!

And so, without further ado, here is the bag I've been carrying for the last year or so, the Georgia II Shopper by Elliott Lucca:



I love it because not only is it gorgeous, super soft, and incredibly comfortable to carry, it's big enough to hold a large diaper tote (when I babysit), a sack lunch for the girlie, my own wallet and "essentials" pouch, my racquetball glasses and ball, and a 32 oz. bottle of water. No lie!

As for price.... I wasn't able to find a current price for the Georgia II Shopper, but I did find similar Elliott Lucca at Nordstrom.com, which retails for $398. Naturally, that's a little too spendy for me, so here's how I got mine.

First, I found the bag at Amazon, which is a surprisingly great source for handbag bargains. They were doing a promotion and were offering three of the bags at $99.99. I grabbed one, then applied a $30 gift certificate I'd been sitting on for a year, bringing the total to $69.99. I qualified for free "super saver" shipping - it's not like I was in a hurry. Also, and this is the kicker, I signed up for an Amazon Visa, and got $30 back since the bag was my very first purchase. Which brings the grand total for my fabulous bag to $39.99!

You may now envy me. And I'm off to do some tagging! Have a great Friday, all.

Our Press

3/12/2008 ~ Wickedly Chic
Wickedly Chic Daily Ditties - Vintage Schoolgirl Notecards

4/21/2008 ~ WFAA TV Style Insider
Saying Thanks in Style

4/26/2008 ~ Keepsake Couture
Take 5 - Macaroni and Glue

10/13/2008 ~ This Mom's Life
EtsyFAME checkout Macaroni and Glue

10/20/2008 ~ Etsy Featured Artist
Macaroni and Glue

12/27/2008 ~ Mom Fuse
Etsy: Meet the Maker of Macaroni & Glue

01/01/2009 ~ The Bride and Bloom
Spring 2009 Issue - Gina and Sadler

04/09/09 ~ Maternal Spark
Featured Creative Mom - Kelly of Macaroni & Glue

06/06/2009 ~ Cafe Handmade
Mommaprenuer: Kelly Drill, Macaroni & Glue Handmade

10/15/2009 ~ The Bad Cat
Mmmmm.... Pasta and Paste

11/26/2009 ~ The Creative JAR
Full of Thanks

Waterslides and Friday Feature

Don't start on me about Dear Kid Saturday - it's coming! In the meantime, did you check in on Cutest Kid Ever? This week, rather than recapping our past few days, I'm working on a 2008 retrospective. I'll try not to make it a novel, but you know how long-winded I can be...




We spent this weekend at Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine and it was CRAZY fun. That's not us in the pics, by the way, but I wanted to give you a sense of the experience. We spent a total of 10ish hours at the water park over the course of two days, and spent the rest of our time going nuts in the arcade, stuffing ourselves at the awesome restaurants, and winding down at Story Time. Needless to say, we're tired and behind on everything, but I wanted to drop in and say thanks to Tess of Six Feet Under blog for featuring Macaroni and Glue as this week's "Friday Favorite". You can read the feature here.

Join me here tomorrow (I hope!) for this week's Dear Kid letter. And don't forget tomorrow night's Artiste Congo stocking on HyenaCart. I've got a Valentines Day preview coming, some new mini cards, and some awesome deals - all available starting at 9 PM EST tomorrow.

Macaroni and Glue on MomFuse

Macaroni and Glue is today's "Meet the Maker" feature on MomFuse! Thanks to fellow Mompreneur, Nicole of Dusty Designs for the "in." Read the whole article here.

Stuff I Love -- Mommies Edition

This week those Fabulous Artistic Moms of the FAM Etsy team have been at it again with the FAM-Made for the Holidays promo. Check out the "12 Days of FAM-Made" gift guide on the FAM Blog and take advantage of one more day of great handmade gift ideas and special promotions in participating FAM shops.

In honor of the promotion, I thought I'd share some of my current fave FAM creations. All handcrafted with love by a fellow work-at-home mom, which makes them even sweeter to bring home.

Gorgeous silver leaf hoops by sarawestermark:


Adorable red dress by laurieaa:


Propolis and honey handmade soap by aromaticbodyoils:


Vintage typewriter key ring by luv4sams:


Retro pillow cover by lindylou2:



Check out the FAM blog for more info on today's promotion and then head over to Etsy to get your Friday shopping fix! Search tags for "fam team" to find all of our great handmade goodies.

Happy Friday!

EtsyBloggers Black Friday Sale!

Skip the mall this Friday and go handmade! The EtsyBloggers team is having a Black Friday sale with over 50 participating Etsy shops. From (ahem) holiday cards to unique and special handmade gifts, you'll find everything you need from the comfort of your own living room, and at amazing prices!

Macaroni and Glue is thrilled to be participating in this supersized event. Between 11/28 and 12/1, take $2 off any boxed holiday card set, and get free shipping when you add any blank note set to your holiday card order. Please include "Black Friday" in Notes to Seller at checkout. See my shop announcement for more details.

Happy Thanksgiving and happy post-Thanksgiving shopping!

And The Winner Is...

Thanks to everyone who came by the blog to enter this week's giveaway! The winner, chosen by the random number generator at Mrs. Glosser's Math Goodies (yes, I'm a nerd) is...

Jenny of The Bloggess

Congratulations! To those "also rans" among you, don't forget to check in at the EtsyGreetings blog to see if you won one of the other great team giveaways.

Macaroni and Glue Giveaway at The Gift Closet

A big giant thank you to Heather at The Gift Closet for featuring Macaroni and Glue as this week's "Win-It-Wednesday" vendor! Be sure to check it out and enter to win a set of my super fun and vintage-y "Call Me" notecards.


You have until Tuesday the 18th to enter. Don't forget to tell Heather I sent ya!

Oh Boy Oh Boy! Somebody Thinks I'm Kreativ!

Ok, I'll admit it - I was pretty psyched when my good old "Macaroni and Glue" Google Alert returned this post by Carole at Hippos Toes. As blogger awards go, the Kreativ Blogger award surely is cute. I've seen these buttons floating around on all the "cool" WAHMs' blogs and am so honored to be tagged for my very own.

The rules for acceptance of this distinguished award are that I must first tell you six things that make me happy (good thing I'm not feeling particularly snarky this morning or this part could get dicey), and then pass the love on to six Kreativ blogging friends. So here's what makes me happy:

1. My sweet girl (when she's sweet, of course)

2. My hilarious and perfectly imperfect husband/best friend

3. "WTF" moments (and also, just "WTF" in general - socially acceptable cursing is awesome)

4. Misnomers, malapropisms, and really good metaphors

5. Finally being mature enough to admit and embrace my flaws

6. Ummmmm.... (drumming fingers on keyboard)... roller coasters

There ya have it! And now, my nominees for the Kreativ Blogger award:

1. Jen of Cheaper Than Therapy

2. Felecia of Fluffy Flowers

3. Marisa of Elegant Bloggery

4. Andrea of This Mom's Life

5. Lilly of Lilly's Life

6. Corina of Down-to-Earth Mama

Thanks, Carole, and congrats to all my deserving nominees. Now, hopefully, I'll remember to tell them...

Interview Posted on Etsy Featured Artist Blog

A huge Macaroni and Glue thank you to new friend, fellow Twitterer and jewelry artist extraordinaire, Debbie Gootter, for featuring us on the Etsy Featured Artist blog today. I've become a big fan of Debbie's blog and was so honored to be asked for an interview. Please take a moment to check out the blog and leave a little comment love. And while you're at it, Debbie's Etsy shop is just filled with beautiful silver treasures like this Sophie Multi-Circle Necklace just waiting to be snapped up for you or your BFF. Christmas will be here before you know it!

EtsyFAME Feature On This Mom's Life

I'm a little behind on this one, but I wanted to send a shout-out to Andrea Baker of This Mom's Life and Andrea Baker Designs on Etsy, and fellow EtsyFAME member, for featuring Macaroni and Glue earlier this week.

Let me introduce you to Macaroni and Glue. She’s super awesome and so easy to work with. Actually when I placed my custom order with her, she was thinking along the same lines as I was and that made for a super team. I ordered some pink and white thank you cards for my Mary Kay business. She customized them with the word thank you on the outside. My customers love them...

You can read the rest of the article here. Andrea actually made me the cutest little keyring/business card cozy which has now become the single most important thing in my (giant) purse.


I not only use it for my cards, but also as a mini-wallet which can take the place of said purse on short jaunts to the store or walks to the park. I'm such a nerd that I've even attached it to a caribiner, so when all available hands are occupied with kids and/or shopping carts, I can clip it to something. I'm sure I look really cool with my keys clipped to my beltloop and my iPhone in its little armband-thingie, but whatever. I'm all about hands-free!

Thanks again, Andrea, for the feature!

More Birthday Love

Now THIS is a nice birthday gift!

Happy Birthday to Me!

That's right, the mama behind Macaroni and Glue is turning (drumroll please...) 35 this weekend! And just lookie lookie what's on its way to my house, courtesy of my faaaaaaaaabulous husband.


Yes! A real light cube! Finally, I can send that cardboard/tissue paper monstrosity I created several months ago to the recycle bin where it belongs. I could not be more excited. After lots of looking around and reading reviews, I decided to go with the 20" EZCube from Table Top Studios. Did I mention how great my husband is? 'Cause, for a pop-up meshy thing, light cubes are NOT cheap. And this is the very same husband who, not more than a month ago, purchased (and even paid for expedited shipping) a brand new Canon Powershot A650 IS for me when my beloved camera met a tragic end on our tile kitchen floor during a product shoot. I can't imagine what my face must have looked like at that moment... I can only assume it was bad since I swear I've never seen him make an electronics purchase so quickly.

Guess what else? I just tracked my light cube package and it's coming TODAY! Woohoo! Have a great weekend, everybody. You know I will. Now, which is the darkest room in the house...

Treasury Friday - Sweet!

My very first stop in the treasuries this morning landed me an unexpected Treasury West spot. Woohoo! Feast your eyes on a few of my favorite Fabulous Artistic Mom jewelry bits.

Monday, Monday -- So Good To Me

Sweet! This was surely a nice way to cure my nasty little case of the Mondays...


Thanks to one of FAM's treasury queens, Winklepots, for creating such a gorgeous collection! In other news, there's yet another great giveaway today over at the EtsyGreetings blog, this time featuring Carlin Card Creations. Check it out!