Southern Legacy Alpaca Farm

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Have you searched "Sale" on etsy lately? It is a fun way to spend an evening Christmas shopping. So many fabulous deals on such amazing products! Check out these finds:

This fabulous pillow by floradora for only $10:

This gorgeous purse from ReFabulous on sale for $32:

And this stunning necklace by acornbeach, a steal at $20:

I hope you take a little holiday shopping time to browse etsy. The treasures are bountiful and well worth the extra effort to dig up.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Warning! Potential Cuteness Overload

Hey, I warned you, LOL. These are just the most adorable little faces!!! So much fun searching baby knit on etsy.

Links for images starting top, left corner:

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Yowza! It is COLD!!!

So, it has gotten downright chilly here in Virginia. So I fished out my fingerless gloves I bought from lazytcrochet last year. She custom made these for me and they fit... well... like a glove, LOL. These are fabulous for wearing at work where it is always chilly (or maybe that is just me) and because my fingers are free, I can still type. Also great when you are a mom, cause all moms know how hard it is to zip zippers, wipe noses and buckle carseats when you have your fingers covered with slippery, bulky material. I love these gloves and have decided I definitely need some more.
Etsy is a fabulous place to purchase knitted and crocheted goodies! So much to choose from! I have bought a purse (also from lazytcrochet) and also washcloths. Check out MFcrafts for more goodies made from yarn. I adore my washcloths/dishcloths and am planning to never purchase a manufactured wash cloth or dish cloth again.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Have you tried Ebates?

I am a member of a web site called ebates and it is totally been awesome! I have been a member for a little over a year now and have earned $146.35 in cash back since joining. The hard part is I always get self concious when trying to convince folks to sign up, because there is a referral bonus so I have a feeling a lot of people push it to try to make money that way. But I have only referred a handful of people. But my experience with ebates has been such a positive one, that I decided to at least share it once on my blog to give others the opportunity to at least check it out.

If you shop on-line, then ebates will work for you. You just link to stores via ebates, the stores are willing participants, then ebates tracks your purchase at the store and you get a designated cash back amount. Also, it has tons of store coupons and deals available. I shop kohls on line all the time so I get cash back from that purchase. I have also gotten cash back from stores like target, officemax, J Crew, Old Navy, etc.

I really can't say anything bad about the site. It is so easy, I haven't gotten any spam, just the requested emails, and getting cash sent directly to my paypal account every three months just for shopping online is awesome. And, like I said before, you just shop as usual at the store, except you click through ebates, no forms to fill out, not records to keep.

And, once you sign up, you can refer friends and earn cash back that way too. If you have a lot of friends to tell, it is a great way to make some extra spending money.

Thanks for checking it out.

I hope everybody who shops on line checks it out because the cash back is there waiting to be taken.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Happy Birthday to My Little Man

Nov 2004

Nov 2005

Nov 2006

Nov 2007

Nov 2008

My little guy turns 6 today. I can't believe how quickly time has flown by. He is such a small little guy and so sesitive and talkative. I am so proud of how he is doing in Kindegarten. He is so laid back and totally takes things as they come, no worries. He has had a fun birthday today with dinner at church and ice cream sandwich sundaes when we got home. Tomorrow we head to the mountains, to Massanutten for the weekend which is a fall tradition for us. The kids are so excited.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

So Sweet

So Sweet
Originally uploaded by BackwoodSophisticate

The little ones had a blast this Halloween. As usual, our street was absolutely swamped with trick-or-treaters. I love it! It was like one gigantic neighborhood Halloween party. All the kids were super sweet and we had so much fun handing out candy. One year we are going to have to count the trick-or-treaters o find out how many we actually have, but I know it is definitely over 100.

She does scary good

She does scary good
Originally uploaded by BackwoodSophisticate

Megan loves to dress scary. This year she was queen of the dead and I think it turned out awesome. She loves to be dressed up, but she is kind of funny about things feeling strange. Getting her to hold still for the makeup is always a chore. And it took a lot of convincing to get her to wear the necklace I made but she was very happy with the final result.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Shame on Leapfrog!!

I am at a place in my life where my main focus is on simplifying and going back to the basics. So, maybe that is what has made me a tad overly sensitive to this commercial. Cause let me tell you, it really gets my blood to boilin'! For real... this company that is supposedly all about education is bashing a book on TV? See, as a kid, I would have thought that giant encyclopedia of amphibians was awesome. And here is this idiot, dressed as a frog, all happy that these kids would prefer to have a book read to them, a book that is Spong Bob Square Pants that reads to them.... No Parent Needed, No Imagination Needed, heck.... basically No Brain Activity Needed.... AAARRRRRRRGGGHHH!!! OK, I have let myself get wrung up again.

See, I see it on Wednesday nights at church. I work with the kids, grades 3 through 7. I asked these kids to play charades. The influence of video games and the lack of cooperative problem solving was almost painful to watch. They can not think of things on simple terms. Everything was like video and TV today, ultra complicated and blown way out of normal perspective.

Anyway... I could go on. But I think you get my gist.

PS I do not think this is a bad thing for kids to have as long as it is part of a varied experience with books. I just think bashing a "plain ol' book" was the wrong approach for leapfrog to take and it got me a little tiffed.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Fabulous 2009 Calendars

As December apporaches, now is the time to start calendar shopping for 2009. Calendars make great gifts and calendars from etsy are an awesome way to dress your space up with some gorgeous art. Just with a quick search, I found some amazing calendars. Check out some of my favorites:

Calendar 2009, 11x8.5 by Olga Cuttell: