Featured Reader: Let me introduce you to....

Happy Monday to everyone! Monday's at La Dolce Vita mean a new Featured Reader. I just love getting to know my readers. I am very excited to introduce you to Sammi of Little Ladybugs. Sammi is a amazing Airforce wife with two kiddos. While hubby is away serving our country on a year long tour she is holding down the fort, I don't know how she does it! My hubby just came back from just a 1 week business trip and I was exhausted and Sammi has to do it all for an entire year. Please grab a cup of coffee and get to know Sammi.

Name: Hello my name is Sammi, my blog is Little Ladybugs

Your family: My husband Keith is in the Air Force, currently doing a year long tour in Korea. I have a 3 year old diva named Mia and a 10 month old boy named Mason.

How did you start blogging? I started right before my husband left for Korea. I felt it was a good way to keep my mind busy and keep people updated about my life.

If you are a parent do you have a parenting philosophy? Don't sweat the small stuff. So your daughter wants to wear purple socks with her green Mary Janes? No biggie!

You will never find me without......lip gloss!

Day job: SAHM and Avon Representative. Visit my Avon Site

Favorite Stuff:
Music: Anything! If I get a chance to listen to something other than the Fisher Price Little People CD I'm happy.
Food: Pizza. Hands down. Any kind, any topping, anywhere.
Tv/ Movies: Reality shows. The trashier the better
Reading: I'm a history nerd. I love history books. But some good chick lit isn't bad either.

If you had to wear a T-shirt with your favorite saying on it what would it be? You can't fix stupid!

Favorite stores to shop at: Target, Old Navy, does Starbucks count?

A very special thank you to Sammi for letting us get to know her better.

If you would like to be a Featured Reader please email me at klacustomcreations@comcast.net Please be sure to return tomorrow to see who the winner is of one of my custom pieces out of my shop Kristen's Custom Creations

Feel Good Sunday: I Melt For You

It has turned bitter cold in Michigan so I thought it was only fitting to post the "I Melt For You" hand stamped necklace. I also wanted to share a fun poem.

The Snowman

I made a snowman round and fat

And on his head I put a hat,

He sat out in the sun all day

And slowly melted all away.

But I can tell just where he sat,

Because he didn't take his hat. unknown source

The "I Melt For You" necklace is available in very limited quantites, if you are interested please visit my shop to purchase Kristen's Custom Creations.

Do you like the cold weather?

Product Junkie Approved: Banish Oil

I am a gal who has combination skin and I get very oily in my T-Zone and have found a solution for combating shine, The Laura Gellar Matte Maker Invisible Oil Blotting Powder available at QVC . What I love about this product is that it comes with a brush and lasts forever. It is magical, as it really does diminish the shine. I use it a few times a day and if I need to freshen up my make up I use this first and then just reapply some of my make up. This sure beats having to use blotting papers.

This product is Product Junkie Approved!

Do you have a favorite product you want to share?

Fashion Friday: The New Black

The New Black Gray by klacustomcreations

Do you find yourself in a color rut? Never knowing which hue is best for you, so you end up going with your old faithful and just buy another pair of black shoes or another black handbag? I find when I am in doubt I also go for my old faithful, but lately I find myself reaching for shades of gray. Gray has become the new black.

What is fabulous about the color gray is that it is neutral and goes with just about anything. It also pulls less color from your skin, which makes it a perfect hue for fall and will take you well into winter.

You use to only find gray items mostly in womens suits and wool overcoats, but now gray has spilled into accessories, handbags, shoes and you can even find leather that has been dyed gray.

Break out of your color rut and update your wardrobe with a shade of gray, it is a neutral that will surely make you shine.

Product details for your inspiration:

Anne Klein Short Puffer Coat

Ficcare Wide Metal Headband

Kashmere Fringe Wrap

Kenneth Cole Reaction Arc Tote

DKNYC Fallon Sneakers

Ethereal Henley

Shopping tip: When buying classic wardrobe items opt for high quality and look at these items as investments. The trendier items you should look for a bargain as the trend may fade fast.

Be sure to look for Linda Seller's upcoming article on all things that are blue.

Article written by Kristen of Kristen's Custom Creations originally published at Beautiful Fabulous.

Have you visited La Dolce Vita and Friends lately?

Thousand Words Thursday

Gee I guess Will gets tired of getting his picture taken. I know I am like the Mommy Paparazzi, it must just feel terrible getting your picture taken every time you do something or go somewhere.

Would you like to join in? Please join in the fun by clicking on the button below.

Wordless Wednesday

When in the shower and it is quiet you just might come out to this!!!!

Just a few fun pieces.....

I wanted to share just a few fun custom hand stamped pieces I have created for customers. I always love working with a customer to create a custom piece, just to their specifications. I love that there is special meaning behind their piece. If you would like a custom piece created feel free to contact me at klacustomcreations@comcast.net To view my entire collection please visit Kristen's Custom Creations.

Can you believe the holidays are just around the corner!!!

Featured Reader: Let me introduce you to....

Happy Monday to everyone! Monday's at La Dolce Vita mean a new featured reader of the week. I am excited to introduce you to Carole of Hippostoes. Carole and I met on one of our many social networks. Carole is a busy WAHM who owns a fabulous E-Boutique called Hippostoes. Carole's Boutique offers fair trade children's clothing for boys and girls. Take a peek at Carole's blog and shop and you will feel right at home. Carole is a very warm and friendly mama who is very generous and supportive of others so be sure to check out her fab items.

Name: Carole of Hippostoes blog and my website for my children's clothing is Hippostoes

Family: I am married with a 20 month old son

How did you start blogging? I started blogging to provide a personal touch to my website. I wanted people to look at it like an actual boutique where you might drop by just to visit because you have become friends with the boutique owner. I wanted to have more of a personal connection with potential customers. I also love to meet new people and socialize, and a blog provides a great avenue for the personal touch.

If you are a parent do you have a parenting philosophy? My parenting philosophy is love your little ones as much as you can because they grow so quickly. Soak it up like a sponge because pretty soon they will want to be more independent and you should enjoy every second that you can with them.

You will never find me without...... my blackberry and my son's ugly guy :)

Day job: I am an e-boutique owner of Hippos Toes. I feature fair trade children's fashions from South Africa. The women that make the clothing are from very disadvantaged areas in South Africa and they have very limited income opportunities. They are mom's like a lot of our readers that are doing their best to provide for their families. The clothing is adorable and very well made, in addition to being fair trade. The clothing lines change every season, so you can expect new designs every spring and fall. Typically the designs feature nature themes to provide an awareness of our natural surroundings.

Favorite Stuff:

Music: Arcade Fire, Coldplay, U2, The Killers

Food: Thai and Mexican

Tv/ Movies: Project Runway, Top Chef, The Apartment, Gone with the Wind

Reading: Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates

If you had to wear a T-shirt with your favorite saying on it what would it be? Don't mess with mommy :)

Favorite stores to shop : I love shopping at small boutiques.

A special thank you to Carole for participating as a featured reader. If you would like to be a featured reader please email me at klacustomcreations@comcast.net

Be sure to check our my sister site La Dolce Vita and Friends for some great holiday items. Can you believe the holidays are just around the corner!!!!

Feel Good Sunday: Kristen's Custom Creations Gives Back

Many of my readers already know that each month I select a charity or foundation that I create a necklace for and donate a portion of proceeds to the group for each sale. The donations do not stop at the end of the month but continue through out the year. The main reason I do this is to raise awareness and also raise funds for these groups.

The featured group for November is The Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation. The reason why I selected Run, Bike, Swim is because this group hosts Marathons and Triathlons to raise money and awareness. If you are interested in participating in a race please visit Team In Training

Product details:

The "Run,Bike,Swim" necklace has three 5/8 inch 925 Sterling Silver Discs that are NICKEL FREE. The charms hang on a 18 inch sterling silver bead ball chain. (If you would prefer a 16 inch chain please just leave a note in the note to seller section)

Artist Note: The letters on this necklace have been hand stamped one at a time, I do not use machines. The letters will not line up perfectly and this should not be considered a flaw but part of the charm. The letters have been blackened/antiqued and slightly brushed to make the letters stand out. This piece has an aged appearance and will appear slightly tarnished but rest assured it has been given a good polish and all by hand.

To view the entire hand stamped collection please visit Kristen's Custom Creations.

If you have a group or are aware of a group that benefits children please leave me a comment. I am looking for a special group for December.

Mr Bones.....

We finally found a costume Will would wear. Here are a few pictures of Mr. Bones as Will referred to himself. Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween.

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween! Have fun Trick or Treating!!! What is your favorite Halloween candy? I have a few favorites: TWIX and 100 Grand Bars.

Fashion Friday: It's a wrap

It's a Wrap by klacustomcreations

The cool, crisp days of fall call for some extra warmth. I think one of my favorite things about Fall is being able to pull out some of my favorite sweaters. What could make these cooler days even more perfect is a cozy wrap sweater. Wrap sweaters offer you the ability to layer and dress with a bit of ease. Throw a wrap sweater over a T Shirt, put on your favorite jeans and you are ready for just about anything.

Today's wrap sweaters are no longer just for casual wear, they can also be worn in the office, worn on business casual days, perfect for a day at the pumpkin patch with the family or perfect for some time outside curling up with your favorite book. Wrap sweaters offer the comfort of your favorite sweatshirt but the versatility to take you from day to night wear, if you chose the right one.

Just take your pick of the selected items and one of these sweaters will be sure to wrap you up with a bit of style.

Shopping tip: If you shop at the same mall often get to know your sales staff. The sales staff where I shop know I like high quality items for the best value. I often ask the sales clerks if there are any coupons that may have been sent in the mail. I find if you ask sometimes they will offer up a coupon, which means extra savings for you. You never know what you may get if you just ask.

Marled Wrap Cardigan

Hooded Wrap Sweater

Long Belted Cardigan

Waist Sweater Tie Coat

Tie Waist Sweater Coat

Article written by Kristen of Kristen's Custom Creations and originally printed at Beautiful Fabulous.

Hand Stamped Hammered Mommy Necklace... Just listed

Can you believe the holidays are just around the corner. I wanted to share a new piece I just created. This piece was so fun to create! The disc has been hand stamped and hammered to give it a really unique look. It is available in my shop Kristen's Custom Creations

What would I do without you Mr Tivo?

I don't know what I would do with out my Tivo. Tivo allows me to watch my shows when I want to and the best part commercial free! I wanted to share my Tivo picks. I have been so busy some are going to be removed from the list. The crazy thing about my list is that I added up the hours and it came out to almost 20 hours so something had to go. When the shows just sit in Tivo for weeks they have to be deleted.

My Fall Tivo Line-up (for now)

Desperate Housewives (A favorite, even though a while back an anonymous person left me a nasty gram about how terrible this show is, sorry I like it)

Brothers and Sisters (A favorite, please stop making me cry)

Gossip Girl (My guilty pleasure, trashy teen shows)

Samantha Who? (Gosh do I love Kristina Applegate and I want her hair)

One Tree Hill (I really like this show it is a keeper)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Action, love it)

Prison Break (Another good action show)

The Mentalist (Good show if you like solving murders)

90210 (so far a keeper, another teen show on the list)

Privileged (this show is so sweet and Megan the main character has some quirky charm, I would hang out w/ her)

Lipstick Jungle (watch it just for the cool fashion)

Private Practice (so much better than Grey's Anatomy, the writing is really good)

Ghost Whisper (I heard Jim is going to be killed off, sorry if this is a spoiler but it was in TV Guide) Even though I don't watch every episode I still really like it.

Still Sitting In Tivo: Close to being deleted.

Dirty Sexy Money(close to being deleted)

Ugly Betty (close to being deleted, boring and same old story line)

Deleted:

Fringe (too hard to follow, I tried)

Grey' Anatomy (off the list, deleted, is it me or is it just so boring I think all of the good writing is being put into Private Practice

All CSI'S (deleted, will get caught up over the summer when the re-runs are on, still like you but just don't have the time right now)

Pushing Daisies (sorry just not into you this season)


I am having a really hard time keeping up with my shows, some other shows will just have to go also.



And the Award goes to.......Me!!!!



Whenever I receive an award I feel like it is an Academy award, it means someone actually gets some enjoyment out of my blog, which is my goal. I received the "My Favorite Blog" from a new bloggy friend Suzana of the Firefly-Shop I always have such a hard time selecting winners of awards so I am going to share it with all of my readers. Please grab this beauty for your award page and check out Susana's site it is amazing!


I know that is a huge list and I am barely keeping up. Please leave me some comments about your favorite shows, I love to talk TV!

Wordless Wednesday

The Halloween Update

With less than a week until Halloween we still do not have a costume that Will is willing to wear. He told us for about a month that he wanted to be a Cow and sure enough it came time to get dressed for a local Halloween event and he refused to wear his costume. Below is a pic of a last minute 50's kid costume I threw together. I know it is pathetic and no one thought he was wearing a costume. I will say I think hubby and my brother (Jack Sparrow) deserve an award for Halloween spirit, both of their costumes were a hit.

Any suggestions for a last minute costume for Will, one that any kid would wear???? Please help otherwise he will have to wear the pathetic 50's boy costume.

Featured Reader: Let me introduce you to.....

Happy Monday to everyone! Last week I promised a picture of the piece that I custom created for Jennifer from The Dirty Shirty. Jennifer was the winner of one of my custom pieces. I had a lot of fun with this piece and decided to add it to my collection in my SHOP. If you would like a custom piece created please just send me a email to discuss klacustomcreations@comcast.net Just a reminder that by participating in my weekly Featured Reader you could have a chance to win one of my custom pieces. Now on to our featured reader of the week!

Every week I have so much fun getting to know my readers a little bit better. I met Angela on Twitter and also one of my many Social Networks. Angela is a very busy Mom and a real tech savvy kind of gal. If you visit one of her blogs you can read some of her tips on keeping up with blogging, crafting and learn how to live a more positive life. I don't know how she does what she does and with a smile!

Name: Angela Moore. I have four main blogs that I work on all the time. Unexpected Art: A Positive Blog, Link Development by the Link Princess, A Craft Life, and A Month of Stuff.

Your family: I have been married since 2003 to a wonderful former army man. We have two children: Veronica, 4 and Isaac, 3.

How did you start blogging? I wanted to have an online journal, so I started investigating programs online in January 2007. I knew about blogging in a general sense. But I started Unexpected Art, which evolved into a platform to be more positive. Craft Life satisfied my need to talk about my crafting hobbies and Link Princess is a blog about what I do for a living. A Month of Stuff evolved out of a single post that I had on Unexpected Art in an effort to highlight other great blogs online.

If you are a parent do you have a parenting philosophy? If not a parent what is your blogging philosophy?Our parenting styles change almost monthly. While the core thoughts never change (teach good manners, be respectful, cultivate a healthy self-image) we are always trying ways to reach our kids. The biggest thing we believe in is that both of our kids are very different from each other and they need different things in life. We try and give them what they need to grow into healthy adults.

You will never find me without......My cell phone. I now have a BlackBerry for my job, but my personal cell phone is my connection to my good friends. I feel lost without it. You'll also hardly ever see me without my laptop close by.

Day job: I work for a company called Intrapromote, an SEO firm. I am the Director of Link Development for them. As part of SEO, links from other sites are incredibly important when trying to get Google to rank a site highly for specific keywords. At a very basic level, I get other sites to link to my clients' web sites.

Favorite Stuff:

Music: Techno, alternative
Food: Sweets (total downfall), soups, Italian
Tv/ Movies: LOST, Heroes; An American President, Glory, Rudy
Reading: I read everything from business books to nonfiction, fiction to spiritual. I tend to read 2 - 3 books at a time.

If you had to wear a T-shirt with your favorite saying on it what would it be?"I checked - smiling is not against the rules."

Favorite stores to shop at? I love antique stores and random knick-knack shops. I'm also a Target kind of girl.

Extra Stuff: I love to craft, read, play with my kids, go to concerts and plays, write, and in general enjoy life. I am also an avid Notre Dame fan and a Civil War history buff (I just like to learn about it all; I'm definitely not an expert).

A special thank you to Angela for her interview. If you would like to be a featured reader please send me a email at klacustomcreations@comcast.net

P.S. If you would like to see my new burberry inspired headband please visit La Dolce Vita and Friends and while you are there check out some of the amazing hand made items available from my fellow artists.

Feel Good Sunday: Tweet Tweet

Birds

Author Unknown

Blue birds,

Yellow birds,

White birds,

Black birds,

Any kind of bird.I

like birds.
Cute birds.

Ugly birds.

Poor birds,

Hungry birds,

Born birds,

Sleeping birds.

I like birds!
A bird in a tree

A bird in a birdhouse

A bird in a cage

A bird in a house

I like birds!

The "Tweet, Tweet" hand stamped necklace is available at Kristen's Custom Creations.

Product Junkie Approved and Let's talk about hair....I am hair obsessed

I love Frizz-Ease! I have pretty thin hair but a lot of it and find that Frizz-Ease really does prevent frizz and gives me a great blow out. There are many different formulas but I love the original formula. I put just a drop in my hair when I get out of the shower and find it helps de-tangle my hair. You can grab yourself some at Drugstore.com

Why is it that we always want what we don't have? I have poker straight hair and I have always dreamed of having hair like SJP or Sarah Jessica Parker. I know when I say this to gals that have curly hair they tell me they dream of straight hair. I am dead serious I would just love to have naturally curly hair. I would wear it like SJP and embrace the curl every single day. I would never put a straight iron to it. I even asked my stylist about a perm (yes I did) and she said that it just wouldn't be the same and that it wouldn't work well with my highlights. So in my next life please God give me Curly hair.

Do you have straight or curly hair? Which Celebrity has your dream hair? Do you have a favorite hair product to share?

Why can't we just be happy with what we have?

Fashion Friday: Mad About Plaid

Are you mad about plaid? I have always been a fan of plaid since I was a little girl and love that it can be found everywhere this season. I don't know what it is about plaid, maybe it is the collegiate feel it gives you, maybe it screams fall has arrived or maybe it is just that it is classic and timeless. I say it is a trend but plaid is always in style and is a timeless item you can incorporate into your wardrobe. What is even better about plaid is that it will still be in style next year and many years to come. I never mind buying items that I get a lot of bang for my buck.

These select items allow you to incorporate some plaid into your fall wardrobe. You can add a bit of plaid or a lot of plaid to make a bold statement for your love of plaid. You may even be able to go shopping in your closet and pull out some plaid.

Are you mad about plaid also or is this just not for you?

Shopping tip: Being a fashionista doesn't have to cost a lot and it really shouldn't. The next time you make a online purchase be sure to do a quick search for coupon codes and visit sites like www.ableshopper.com for coupon codes. I always check for a coupon code and very often find free shipping and discount codes.

For a closer look just click below:

3/4 Sleeve Ruffle Front Blouse

Kensie Patent-Trim Babydoll Coat

Plaid Stretch Headband

Tommy Hilfiger Women's Plaid Strap Watch

BP Edie Ballet Flat

Kamik Rain Boot

This Article was originally published at Beautiful Fabulous

Kristen of Kristen's Custom Creations