Monday cupcake Find......NOT!

This weekend of holiday threw me off a little and I forgot today was Monday and I should have posted my cupcake find, or rather yours cupcake finds since you all have been so helpful in submitting your fave cupcakes.

But like I said I forgot to do it, so I will take a break from it just for this week and take the time to remind you about the giveaway sponsored by a fab shop that I bumped into lately:Shop Sakura!

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Shop Sakura giveaway (Click here to go to the contest page)

• Prize; Prize Value: Cupcake mold, $5


• How Many Winners: 1


• End Date: 05/31


• Can Be Won: Worldwide


• Prize From: Shop Sakura

The sponsor's description of the giveaway rules: Many entries available, see blog for details.

Plus a special deal from Shop Sakura: 15% off your purchase (excluding shipping) valid from now to 2 MONTHS!! Yup, 2 months, this offer will end July 17th, just tell her you find her shop from Crocheted Little Things' blog or name my blog during check out.

Click Here to go to the contest page!

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Today is the last day to enter and tomorrow we'll have our winner, so please take you time to enter to have a chance to win.

The Monday cupcake Find will resume next Monday back in schedule XO

A lot to say!

A lot is being going on this week and I wasn't constant in updating my blog, so I'm left with a lots to day and many many people to thank.

Let's start shall we? With a little bit of personal life.....

♥ Early this week I went to my daughter school for the last field trip before school ends (way too SOON) and we had lots of fun playing outside in the water, coloring a paper fish and she looked adorable in the crab shirt that the teachers let her make.
More picture of that day are on facebook.

♥ Yesterday we celebrate the Memorial day going to the Pow Wow in Chipley and as you can see my kids had fun in an Indian dance. I never been at an Indian Pow Wow before and I'm not sure what to think of it since the weather was kinda of crazy and didn't really have the chance to look around. But it was nice to reconnect with family and I was able to meet with my hubby's aunt that is grieving: I was pleased to see that she's coping really well and find some peace.
I took few more picture and if you'd like to see a real Indian, you can find them on facebook.

♥ I passed my last 2 tests for the Child Care Training. This week I'm going to take few more questions trying to earn CEU (just in case) and I will have to get my finger prints taken (yet again) and let the police to a background check on me and I'm in game.....who's hiring???

Regarding business: is not going so well for me. I cannot hide it, May was my worst month in 2 years and I'm very disappointed....Was it me? Did the surgery threw me off so bad? Did people stop shopping? I don't know. I'm trying to do the best I can with what I have and doesn't look so encouraging. But I do have awesome friend out there in the web, always ready to pick me up when I'm down, so I'm here to thank them:

♥ Thank you to Five Little Gems for including my cupcake washcloths in her treasury.

♥ Thanks to Julie from Creations With Heart for including my cupcake pincushion in her Top 10 Handmade creations

♥ Thank you Lori from the Risky beads (BTW she's running a FREE SHIPPING promotion) for featuring my cupcake key chain on the Handmade Highway blog.

♥ Last ,but not least, I want to thank Anne from Made for me by Oaklie for offering me a free ad spot on The Gift Shop for the month of June as a thank you for featuring other people. I found it incredibly sweet!!!

I hope you'll are having a wonderful Memorial day Weekend: let's not forget the soldiers that die for us every day and the ones that did so in the past.

Friday Giveaways Love

My latest you tube video about gluten-free products.

I had a very good response for this, so I think I'm going to do some more about the subject :)

Now just link your giveaway and enter mine :D

Crocheted Little Things Newsletter #9

Happy Fathers day!!

Hi there to all, this is Lu. Here it is newsletter #9.

Thank you for all the well wishes and concerns about my surgery, all went well and my little wound in my mouth will be completely healed in few weeks.

I'm starting with greeting you with an little giveaway sponsored by a fab shop that I bumped into lately:Shop Sakura!

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Shop Sakura giveaway (Click here to go to the contest page)

• Prize; Prize Value: Cupcake mold, $5


• How Many Winners: 1


• End Date: 05/31


• Can Be Won: Worldwide


• Prize From: Shop Sakura

The sponsor's description of the giveaway rules: Many entries available, see blog for details.



Plus a special deal from Shop Sakura: 15% off your purchase (excluding shipping) valid from now to 2 MONTHS!! Yup, 2 months, this offer will end July 17th, just tell her you find her shop from Crocheted Little Things' blog or name my blog during check out.

Click Here to go to the contest page!

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What happened?

Crocheted Little Things is now on you tube with my own channel. Check out my first video and let me now what do you thing about it :) Hope to see you all there!


I will upload more videos and tutorial soon, so check back often!



Also, cute little samples are now available on my Artfire studio!



What's coming up?

Summer is getting hotter and hotter here in Florida and new fresh items are here to refresh you, like my new ice cream pincushion. Hope you like it!

And don't forget: I'm raising money for the "Locks of Love". If you want to shop for a cause this is a good time, since 10% of my profit will go to the children in need.



Have a wonderful Memorial week end :)



Until next time....

Share the love on Tuesday: Stitch n Studio

This weeks featured artisan is Stitch n Studio!

Beautiful and unique accessories to add to your wardrobe! "Accessories Beyond the Basic Bling!" Visit Stitch n Studio to see all her creations!

Etsy Shop

http://www.etsy.com/shop/StitchnStudio

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#!/pages/StitchnStudio/181176934168?ref=ts

Twitter
http://twitter.com/stitchnstudio

Blog
http://stitchnstudio.blogspot.com/

Monday cupcake Find

This Monday I'm going to introduce CreativeButterflyXOX and her cupcake jewelry!

Chocolate Cupcake Earrings Vanilla Icing 3D Cherry on Top Handmade Polymer Clay Dessert Sundae Sweets Cake, $8.95 by CreativeButterflyXOX


Chocolate cupcake earrings with vanilla icing and a cherry on top, handmade with polymer clay.

Lead free earring back.

Cupcake measures approx just under 3/4"
Whole earring measures approx just under 1 1/2" length

Cupcake kawaii cuteness looks good enough to eat!!


These make me thinks when my husband tells me: "I want to eat your ears!" LOL

Know any other cupcake find? Let me know :)

Randomness Saturdays

Here we are for another randomness Saturday!

♥ Today I went to take my last 2 tests needed for my child care training. I'll have the results by Monday, but I think I did ok. I treated myself with a Starbucks coffee (3 years since I had my last one) and....some NAIL POLISH. Sounds silly, but it's been ages since I put some on! The only aching note is that I woke up with a stiff neck and back pain.....arghhhh!

♥ I want to thank you my first subscriber to my youtube channel: THANK YOU Mandie from Taking Time for Mommy: I was starting to get lonely on youtube land, but you came to my rescue!!

♥ And with the first subscriber, along came the second one and a blog feature on Andrea Wagner blog! Thank you so much Andrea for picking me up after a lousy month!

♥ I was handpicked in an awesome treasury: Cafe Light by Deborah from Moonlightphotography

Isn't that beautiful?? Thanks Deborah!

♥ Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a sweet cupcake mold from Shop Sakura! I got mine and I LOVE IT!

♥ We had a death in hubby's family: one of his cousins died after 19 years of pain. Your prayers are needed for this Mother and the half brother (Hubby's aunt and his other cousin), thanks!

♥ All in all I feel grateful for this past week and that's why I choose the song: Thank you from Dido (I love her!). Enjoy!

Friday Giveaways Love

On the run, since I'm studying for my tests tomorrow.
Just link your giveaway and enter mine :D

Crocheted Little Things on youtube!

Trying this one out right now, making little videos that I hope will help you get to know me better.

I'm writing, what I'm saying below.

Hi, this is Lu. I'm going to start a series of videos on youtube to help me promote my business because times are tough right now, money is tight and I really need a boost to help arrive at the end of the month.

I hope you can understand my accent: I came from Italy and English is my second language and I'm really not used to talk in English in public. So, If you have any difficulties understanding me, I will make a close captioning on my blog and post the link in the details of this video for you to click on and read what I'm saying if your cannot understand it.
I want to talk a little bit about my business. I opened a little shop called "Crocheted Little Things" and in the very beginnings I really didn't know what I wanted to do with it, just wanted to crochet and sell something, but then I started crocheting cupcake and I had lots of fun making them. Everyone likes them and I'm trying to expand my line, including more food-related stuff and I hope you're going to like it too, so I'm going to show you something that I made.
Those are good examples of what I make:

This is a red velvet cake, with a turquoise blue top frosting and this

is one of the cupcakes that I made for Easter. I think the light is really bad and I don't think you can really see the colors, but the yarn is really rainbow looking with sparkles of white, pink, green, blue and yellow and I think was really cute for Easter.
I make those with a little weight on the bottom, so they can stand on a table and they can be used as pincushions from seamstresses, so they can have all their pins in place.

Another example, and this is really new and I'm really proud of it, is my birthday cake that I made with a candle on it

I think it's really cute for when you want to give a little gift for a birthday but maybe you don't have a real cake handy or time to bake one or don't wanna make a really big cake for a "2 people" celebration, you can still blow on the candle and make a wish: maybe it will come true! I thought they are really cute and I made them in several colors and this is the only one I have in stock right now, but I'm going to work on it and make more of them in more colors. So far I made a lots of pink one, I think I'm going to make some blue and green for boys.

And another one that I have in stock right now, it's really small and I called them the mini cupcakes.

They have a little stretch cord on the top, and I sold a lot of those like Christmas ornaments. This is the only one that I have in stock right now because Christmas is not here yet, but I'm definitely going to stock on these because during Christmas time they fly off my shelves.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my cupcakes. I'm going to make more videos eventually, showing you more products and I think I'm going to show you some other handmade goodies that I've got from my friends, because there are really really a lots of talents out there (sorry for the beep of my dryer LOL) and I think people don't even know. So, I hope with this videos to give a chance to someone to get noticed and known.

I hope you enjoyed and you can understand my accent.
That's all for now, I see ya later, bye!!!

I didn't have a speech prepared and I was kinda of stiff, again I apologize for my accent and grammar. Hopefully with time I'll be able to take better videos and I've few idea for tutorials that you all can enjoy!

Share the love on Tuesday: pamannie ink

This Weeks Featured Shop is pamannie ink- beautiful cards for all occassions!

Say it with Love.. say it with Handmade!

Stop by and see all of her wonderful creations! You can find pamannie at:

Etsy Shop
http://pamannie.etsy.com

Blog URL
http://pamannie.blogspot.com

Face Book Page

http://facebook.com/pamannieink

Twitter Page

http://twitter.com/pamannieink

Monday cupcake Find and giveaway {CLOSED}

This Monday I'm going to introduce Shop Sakura and her cupcake mold!

Cupcake Flexible Mold/Mould (11mm) For Miniature Food, Sweet, Dessert, Craft, and Jewelery (Resin, Paper, Scupley III, Fimo and Premo Clay)(M6), $5 by Shop Sakura


This mold is great for miniature craft and jewelry making.

The mold can be put in the oven (as long as under 395 F) so you can accommodate on all your crafting needs!

Use your minis mold on your clay items for decorating cellphone, scrapbooking, button, jewelry, and many many more projects. There is no limit on how you use the mold and let your imagination fly. Have fun crafting and enjoy! :)

This mold is FLEXIBLE and you can just pop your clay out without the need of oil or mold releasing agent.


Fiona, the owner of Shop Sakura, was a Etsy newbie, until few days ago when I stumble across her little shop and became her first customer. She didn't stop selling ever since :D
Obviously, I had to get the beauty above and Fiona was so nice, to send me an extra one and accepting to do a giveaway for you all!!

Prizes Details:
One lucky winner will receive the sweet cupcake mold in the picture above, valued $5

How to enter:
Please leave a separate comment for every entry for increase your chance of winning!!

1) You must go through Shop Sakura shop and comment back here with a link for your favorite item with your name and contact information.
2) Blog about this giveaway and receive ONE extra entry! Just come back here and leave a separate comment with your blog link.
3) Twit about this giveaway and earn ONE extra entry. Be sure to put @piccoladonna before your twit, so I will know you did it :)
4) Earn TEN (10) extra entries by purchasing something from Shop Sakura shop. Just come back here and tell us what you purchased along with your contact info to claim your extra entries!
This giveaway will last for 2 weeks and will end May, 31th.
Winner will be announced on June, 1st, at which time I will contact the winner to get shipping information for delivery.
If the winner does not contact me within three days, I will appoint another winner through another random number drawing.

But it's not over yet!!!!!
I was so amazed by the generosity of Fiona because she offered to all of my readers (YOU) a special deal: 15% off your purchase (excluding shipping) valid from now to 2 MONTHS!! Yup, 2 months, this offer will end July 17th, just tell her you find her shop from Crocheted Little Things' blog or name my blog during check out.

Wanna see what I did today??

Me on Honey with hubby helping!

We went to visit my parents-in-laws this afternoon at their farm and the kids and me got the chance to ride a horse!!
I never done it in my entire life, but I was always curious to try and we were lucky that my in laws have this beautiful, sweet horse form when my husband was just a child.

Gabriel on the horse

Her name is Honey and she loves people, especially kids, and apples and quietly and happily took all three of us for a ride.

Michelle on the horse petting a little cat

We also had the chance to pet a little kitten, she was so sweet and the kids where wonderful with her, specially Gabriel: he kept saying that the little cat was his sweet baby!!

We had a great time and I'm glad I finally got to ride a horse! Now if only I can bring my sister here, riding a horse it's her dream since she was 5 years old! Maybe one day.....

Randomness Saturdays

We're all in health (or almost) so I'm here tonight to post few random facts :D

♥ Here's what I got for Mother's day from my kids, on the left is Gabriel's work (a little plant, the red paper flower, the round pink flower and the paper butterfly), on the right is Michelle works (the pink paper flower, a mug, a sprinkler with her picture in it)

Since they both were sick last week end, those gift came during this week, but still they are much cherished and appreciated!

♥ My half doily earrings where featured on Artfire main page as the "Item of The Hour" early the past week

They didn't sell, but still was a great honor being up there!

♥ I found the cutest little shop on etsy: ShopSakura. She accepted to sponsor a giveaway for all of you readers, so be on the look out for the next days :)

♥ I think (actually I'm pretty sure!) that I'm going to start a series of you tube videos to promote my shop and my friends.....would you watch me? Please don't let me feel like I'm talking to myself LOL

♥ Pretty soon I'm going to cut my hair and I'm going to donate the to "Locks of love". In the package with my braid, I'd like to send a little check.....would you help me raise the money? 10% of the profit from my Artfire studio will go to this cause. Don't let those children (and me!) down!

♥ I don't have any music or movie recommendation for this week (SORRY!!) since I've been studying for the last 2 tests that I will take next Saturday for the Child Care Training.

Friday Giveaways Love

First I'd like to share a treasury that Sweet Irie made today in the new Treasury East on Etsy: Strawberry Pickin'

And now link Away!

A shop I love: Grace Hester Designs

Four Jungle Safari Animal Prints - Monkey, Giraffe, Lion, Elephant, $15 by Grace Hester Designs.

I came across Grace Hester Designs one day while posting giveaway on Etsy Giveaways and I realized that I had to blog about it, so here I'm.
Grace' shop is well stocked with Personalized Stationery, Animal Prints, Animal Prints ABCs 123s, Animal Prints (Collection), Family Keepsake Prints, Typography Based Prints, Silhouette Papercuts, Birth/Adoption/Baptism, Wedding/Anniversary Art, Giftcards/Frames.

Personalized or Custom Monogram (Single or Initials) Notecards and Envelopes Set of 12 in Choice of Colors, $20 by Grace Hester Designs.

Let's know more about Grace's world by herself:
"Welcome to Grace Hester Designs on Etsy. Originally from Singapore, now living in the US. I enjoy designing and creating products for the busy moms who appreciate modern and personalized products. Most of my designs are silhouette- or typography-based as I gravitate towards simple and fuss-free aesthetics.

I have 2 young daughters, a two-year-old, and a five-year-old who are often “featured” in my banners. They are the inspiration for all of the items in the store – and also the distraction most of the time as I prepare them by hand or on the computer. (But that’s the life I love)

My prints are printed on high-gloss and resin-coated photographic paper that allows the colors in my prints to show beautifully. The prints are smudge- and water-resistant and of archival-quality so they are perfect for keepsake prints meant to be treasured through the years. For all other artwork, I try as much as possible to use archival-quality materials and will note if I was not able to do so in the listing."

Personalized Silhouette Papercut of Child at Desk 8 X 10 (Not a Print), $35 by Grace Hester Designs.

"I also have a store that provides design and marketing services to Etsy sellers. Focus on promoting and developing new products and let me worry about creating banners, avatars, ads, and editing your photos for you at Grace Hester Services.
You are welcome to join me on my busy journey as a full-time working mom trying to find time to design, craft and create on my blog, Grace Hester, on Twitter, becoming a Fan on Facebook or signing up for my mailing list for monthly promotions and mailing-list-exclusive specials."


Birth Date (Birthdate) or Adoption Keepsake Print Poster - 11 X 14 Typography - Island Colors, $30 by Grace Hester Designs

I hope All of you enjoyed reading and getting to know Grace as my as I do and pay her a visit ;)

Share the love on Tuesday: Shabby Bags

This Weeks Featured Shop is Shabby Bags - Jan creates wonderful purses and totes. The highest quality of work and every creation is done with love! Visit Shabby Bags to see all her beautiful Creations!

You can find Shabby Bags at:

Website

http://shabbybags.com

MadeitMyself Shop

http://www.madeitmyself.com/user/shabbybags.aspx

Artfire Shop

http://shabbybags.artfire.com

Etsy Shop

http://shabbybags.etsy.com

Blog URL

http://shabbybagsshop.blogspot.com

Face Book Page

http://facebook.com/shabbybags

Twitter Page

http://twitter.com/shabbybags

Monday cupcake Find

This Monday I'm going to introduce Braggin' Rights Bath and her cupcake soaps!

Bath Bombs- 3 Mini Cupcakes in Hello Sugar type, $5 by Braggin' Rights Bath


The sweet sugary scent of "Hello Sweet Thang" is raw turbinado sugar, lemon zest, merengue, whipped cream, & Madagascar vanilla. It makes up for one yummy combination!

As these sweet, little mini “cupcakes” dissolve, they will fizz- while waves of fragrant bliss fill your senses, and luxurious moisture softens your body.

I have enriched these baby cupcakes with moisturizing raw shea butter- talk about a treat for your body! Your skin should feel as soft- if not softer than that of a baby‘s! Seriously!

Please use caution while getting in and out of the bath tub.

To Use:
Toss these fragrant mini bath cupcakes in the tub with you, sit back and relax- just let the day slip away….

The cupcakes are not a soap. Rubbing them directly on skin may cause irritation.

Will not stain your tub.
Mini scented bath cupcakes.

I need a bunch of those babies pronto!!

Happy Mother's day!

Very sorry to miss our appointment with Random Saturdays yesterday: my daughter Michelle had ear ache again and I'm at lost of what to do this time, since the antibiotic didn't work last time. Tonight she seems to be a little bit better, so hopefully she will no need any meds.

But I wanted to be here tonight to say Happy Mother's day to all my reader, to all the moms, grandmas, pet mommies and soon-to-be mom out there.
How did you celebrate? Did you get anything? Something you wanted?

We stayed put since my daughter was sick and I'm not really a person to ask for gifts.
But hubby gave me a sweet surprise, which is odd since he usually forgets this kind of things.
I'm not sure I already wrote about this, but me and hubby are dating again. No, nothing is wrong in our marriage and we never separated, but when you have children constantly around, sometimes the "adult" relationship suffer a little.
So, now that the kids are both in school (for another month anyway) we cut one day a week where we go to lunch-dates in places where usually we don't go with the kids, you know some nice restaurants where they don't serve only chicken nuggets and french fries and we don't have to color the menu until the food is on the table LOL
And I think those dates are bringing us closer and that's why he remembered that today was Mother's day and he brought me a fantastic red rose!
And was it sweeter is that he gave it to Gabriel so the little man "gift it" to me!!!! Too sweet!
And now I leave you all with a sweet treasury where I had the honor to be featured:
Sugar Mamas by drumchick99

Friday Giveaways Love

First I'd like to share a treasury that I made today in the new Treasury East on Etsy: Mom Love

Happy Mother's day!!
And now link Away!

The winner!!!

Another giveaway ended and we now have a winner!!!!

#19 Atypical Girl
+ 5 I purchased the crocheted earrings I liked in the previous post!


Thanks for the giveaway!

Amy

All right Amy, thank you for being a sweet customer and congratulations for winning my giveaway.
Can't wait to hear from you! You have 72 hours to get back to me to claim your prize other wise another winner will be appointed!