Shopping addiction? Let's feed that shall we.

we.are.HERE

the long awaited swag swap week is going on right now :) I am so excited to be apart of it!!


{Cliff Note: All shops participating in the swap get to trade their swag with swag in other shops too}

Not participating in the swap? No Worries! Our shop owners have graciously offered you fine folks COUPON CODES so you too can go all "click, add to cart" crazy on these awesome handmade shops!

Now what are you waiting for? Browse our shops, use their coupon codes, and check back later in the week at YellowHeartArt.blogspot.com for group giveaways from some participating shops happening this Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday AND Friday!

Have fun with all these fun new shops!! <3

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COUPON CODE: homegirl is giving 15% off ALL items in her shop with the code "CELEBRATE", works worldwide too! Go on our friends in Europe and Canada, get shopping!

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COUPON CODE: enter SWAPLOVE at checkout for 15% off!

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COUPON CODE: enter SWAGER at checkout for 20% off!

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COUPON CODE: score yourselves 20% off EVERYTHING in the shop with SWAG20 at check out

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COUPON CODE: Enter SWAG20 to get 20% off all these hair lovelies! GO GO GO!

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COUPON CODE: Enter SWAGSWAP20 to nab yourself 20% off! (WOOT!)

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COUPON CODE: If you enter SWAGSWAP12 at checkout you get 15% off on ANYTHING in the shop! ((US & Canada only please)) ((good till end of swap Jan 21st, 2012))

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COUPON CODE: Enter SWAG10 at checkout for 10% off! ((US only please)) 

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COUPON CODE: Enter SWAPWEEK for 30% off (WOWZAS!)

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COUPON CODE: Enter SWAPWEEK and get 10% off anything your heart desires <3

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COUPON CODE: Enter SWAGSWAP at checkout for 10% off ANYTHING! (holla)

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COUPON CODE: Enter SWAGSWAP10 and get 10% off any and all items in the shop!

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PROMOTION: Free Shipping on all prints until December 20th. No coupon code necessary- all print shipping is already discounted. Free shipping available on U.S. print orders only with discounted shipping rates internationally.
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COUPON CODE: Enter "SWAGSHOP" at check out for FREE domestic shipping!

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COUPON CODE: Enter SWAGWEEK for 20% off anything in the shop! (she also has items for big people too! Fun iPad sleeves and purses)

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***IMPORTANT NOTICE*** Kristina had to put her shop in vacation mode during this week, please visit her "sold" section to see what items she has. She will be available for contact. She apologizes for any inconveniences!

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COUPON CODE: Enter SWAG15 for 15% off these ADORABLE purses! (I should know I own 4)

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COUPON CODE: Enter "SAVE10" at checkout for 10% off anything you want!

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COUPON CODE: Enter "SWAPIT" for 15% off these hand stamped lovelies

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COUPON CODE: Enter "SWAPWEEKLOVE" for 20% off ANYTHING in her shop! (aww yeah!)

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COUPON CODE: Enter SWAGSWAP20 for 20% off these lovely rosies!

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Swag Swap Week is going on from January 16th 2012 - January 21st 2012. Coupon codes will expire once the week is over.

Where {a lot of} my time goes.

So, I spend most of my day with my lovely boys.

seriously. I am one lucky mama.

But then, when naptime rolls around & bedtime comes... it's back to work I go. 

Oh what do I do? 

If you're new here or you have just forgot since I am an awful blogger & you probably dont come around much.... 

I am the owner over at The Sunshine Stitch. :)

This past Friday marked the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of my business being open! Whew what a year its been! 

I have been so blessed to have had almost 700 sales in the first year! 

{You customers are AMAZING} 

As a celebration, Im having a HUGE giveaway over on my facebook page. 

You should totally check it out!

And just for fun, I thought I would show you all what The Sunshine Stitch looks like at home. :) A little tour of where I get all my work done. :) 

So do you live in a tiny apartment like me? 

Or just have NO extra space for your crafting that you so adore? 

Well, here is proof that you can indeed run a business with barely any space used. 

{Why yes, The Sunshine Stitch business is run from my kitchen/dining room} 

Gotta love it! <3 

I do! :)

On Loving the Little Years.

I dont read very many books. 

With two children at home {2 1/2 & 10 months} ... 

SIDENOTE: 10 months!?!?! How is he almost one already? eek.

 I feel like I can barely fit in 20 minutes to sit down and spend some time in the Word with the Lord. 

Soo. When a dear friend recommended to me to read "Loving the Little Years" by Janet Jankovic, I didnt. 

Actually I forgot all about it. Mommy brain much?

But Christmas came around, I was writing my list for the hubs & secret santa and for some reason it popped into my head. The Lord's work? Yea, probably. 

So, i got it for Christmas and by the end of day one, I had read 60 pages. 

I laughed. 

I cried. 

My jaw dropped. 

This lady SERIOUSLY had to be talking about ME! She wrote this book for me! And those were MY children she was talking about.

This is in no way a promotion of this book, I am not being paid, blah blah blah. 

I just want to share this book with you, you mamas... you mamas "in the trenches" of the little years. If you've ever felt like you're "going under," drowning under the flood of laundry, discipline, training, exhaustion, diapers, food, mess, and all the other stuff that comes with small kids, this little book is a lifesaver. I've read a handful of parenting books by moms of 1 or 2 kids, moms whose kids are long out of the house, and other moms who have good advice, but lack credibility to me because they've not been "in the trenches" lately and they really wish their big kids were small again. Rachel LIVES in the trenches, just like I do. She knows. The chapters are really short, easy and engaging to read, but so full of perspective and truth, you can re-read the same chapter 5 times in a row and still learn from it.

An Excerpt: 

"This is not a tender reminiscence from someone who had children so long ago that she only remembers the sweet parts. I do not have a foggy, precious perspective on mothering little ones. My children do not sit on monogrammed picnic blankets in coordinated outfits while I bring them nutritious snacks on a silver tray. You are more likely to find me putting an end to them pulling each other around at breakneck speeds on a tablecloth tied to a jump rope, or seriously counseling someone who has part of a toilet paper tube taped to their nose. At the time of writing this, I have three children in diapers, and I can recognize the sound of hundreds of toothpicks being dumped out in the hall. Sure, I am looking back in retrospect on nursing the twins in the park with a blanket between my teeth, but it wasn’t so long ago that I have forgotten about the overheated kind of specialness of it. 

I didn’t write this book because mothering little ones is easy for me. I wrote it because it isn’t. I know that this is a hard job, because I am right here in the middle of t. I know you need encouragement every day, because I do too." 

 

Seriously. You need encouragement? Need a little Godly wisdom on training your children in an applicable way? Or just need a laugh from a mom who really knows what you're going through? 

Get this book. I love it. I'm sure you will too.


{Wow, look at that. I blogged. Crazy. Time must be standing still.}

Making Memories.

We've been making some memories lately. 

You know, those kinds that fill up your photo albums. 

The kind of memories where you can just look at a picture & it take you back to that exact moment in time. 

You can smell the air, you can remember the butterflies of excitement in your tummy & you can picture just how amazing time was in that exact moment. 

This was that kind of memory. 

Big Bear Lake, California. One of my favorite places ever. 

Snow. So much snow I just wanted to live there. The smell of the air, the view, oh my the view. 

Gods creation is amazing. 

And the best part, I got to share it with the ones I love. Seeing a kids face the first time he sees snow? Mesmerizing. I will never forget the look on his face when he first saw it... and when he first touched it? I wanted to cry. 

So. Much. Joy. 

For those of you that have snow often, dont take it for granted. Its amazing. I seriously take our beautiful sunshine for granted far too often myself. 

This beautiful town is where my husband and I spent our honeymoon just 4 short years ago. I still cant believe its been almost 4 years since I've been here. 

Its just 2 hours away to this beautiful place & I dream of living here someday. <3 

This was truly a weekend I will never forget. I never want to forget it. I cant wait to come back & I cant wait to open the photo album someday so it can take me back to that moment, that air, that view & that amazing feeling.

Advent Activities

 In preparation for making my first advent calendar, I needed some ideas of fun things to do with my kiddos for each day. A few friends of mine have already done advent calendars year after year so as you read these ideas, know that they arent all mine. Combing lists of activities always makes for better ideas.:) 

And of course. There are only 25 activities needed so feel free to pick & choose. 

AND yes, its already December 9th. I have been a bad bad blogger. But hey, its Christmas season & I am swamped! Good excuse right? 

Here we go! 

Advent Activities: 

1.  Cut down & Decorate tree

2. Make toilet paper snowflakes and decorate kids' room/windows

3. Make Christmas cookies {Deliver cookies to neighbors}

4. Have a Christmas party/ open house

5. Make gifts for family members

6. Disneyland at Christmas {Or another fun park you live by}

7. Wrap gifts for family

8. Paint nails red and green {For the girls of course}

9. Christmas movie and popcorn (I usually do this a few times) (Christmas Vacation, Elf, Grinch, It’s a wonderful Life, The Christmas Story, Home alone, Disney Christmas cartoons)

10. Go see Christmas lights

11. Buy gifts for brothers & sisters

12. Preschool/elementary Christmas programs {If your kids are in school}

13. Wrap gifts together.

14. Camp-out in front of Christmas tree

15. Santa train ride. {We have this in our town}

16. Color/paint Christmas craft.

17. Build a gingerbread house.

18. Write a letter to Santa

19. Go to a Christmas movie at the theater

20. Christmas Eve/day service

21. Snow at the mall {Or real snow if you have it.}

22. Make homemade wrapping paper for gifts

23. Deliver cookies and/or gifts to friends/neighbors

24. Go to the snow {This would be a big ordeal for us haha}

25. Check out Christmas books at library

26. Read a Christmas story

27. Polar Express Train in Fillmore (Google it. SO awesome}

28. Make a Christmas ornament.

29. Get hot chocolate at Starbucks

30. Make Gingerbread houses

31. Give a toy for tots

32. Hot Coco all the fixings by the fire & read stories

33. Open special ornament and put on the tree.

34. Buy a new book to unwrap

35. Wear new jammies to bed

36. Choose Special Treat

37. Invite friend and cousins over for cookies and a movie

38. Go to Christmas tree lot and look at trees and reindeer

39. Write a Christmas story. Everyone adds a line

40. Go ice skating

41. Make popcorn garland

42. Host a Christmas Sweater Party

43. Wear a fancy dress or outfit for dinner time

44. Go See Santa!!

45. Learn a new Christmas song, sing around the piano

46. Drink a glass of Sparkling Cider

47. Play a game with a Christmas theme

48. Find a Family to do the 12 days of Christmas gifts.

49. Read The Night Before Christmas

50. Bake a Birthday Cake for baby Jesus

51. Special Breakfast

52. Keep a holiday journal- Take a picture of your child and have them write or you write down what they remember about the picture in the child’s words.

 

So many ideas!! Feel free to add your own.  

 

And in case you were wondering...

ad·vent/ˈadˌvent/

Noun:	The arrival of a notable person, thing, or event. The first season of the church year, leading up to Christmas and including the four preceding Sundays.
Synonyms:	coming - arrival - appearance So in essence, while we do these daily "Advent Activities" with our children. Remember why we do them. WHO we do them for. Read them Luke 1 in preparation for the birth of Jesus. Tell them the story of their savior.  Jesus really is the reason for the season.