Happy Friday!  

If you're a fan of rustic, romantic and shabby chic decor, check out PB&J Stories Blog for a fabulous giveaway.  Follow the link on her blog to her Facebook page and you have the chance for three entries for a free sign.  We drool over the items in her Etsy Shop and know you will too!  We also enjoy following Pamela, via her blog and Facebook.  Not only is she really sweet, she's also super talented and willing to share tons of tutorials and even a comical fail or two.  Go enter, and say hi from us!

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend, hoping it's filled with friends, family and fun...and at least three days off work!


PS - Don't forget our coupon code Backtoschool15, for 15% off any purchase in our Etsy Shop

What We're Up to Wednesday

Well hello there, Wednesday.  It's arrival means we're one day closer to a 3 day weekend and one day closer to Saturday, my son's 10th birthday (how the heck did THAT happen)!

This week, Embellished Living got to meet with the proprietors of a new shop opening up on the Square here in Murfreesboro called Simply Southern Marketplace.  You can find their Facebook Page here, to keep up with shop news and keep tabs on their opening date.  Simply Southern Marketplace will be a fantastic addition to the downtown area, and we can't wait to see the other great, local vendors that will be featured inside this new store.

We're also planning and gearing up for our Fall Shows. Be sure to bookmark our Upcoming Events page so you can easily find out when and where you can get your hands on great gifts and home decor items from Embellished Living this Fall. 

At Embellished Living we love making custom orders because we know you are getting something handmade especially for you or your gift recipient.  This week, I got to make a few of our Monogram Wreaths with a bit of a different twist.  The W has silver ribbon instead of black and the S has grey and white cardstock rosettes rather than our traditional book page rosettes.  Be sure to check out last Friday's blog post for a 15% coupon code to use in our Etsy shop!


Have a great remainder of the week, and let us know what you're up to!

Miscellaneous Monday

Today I am reeling from the amount of work that I have to accomplish. I'm trying to figure out how to get all of my work done, and run to the store, and deal with homework and the many after school activities of my kiddos.  So, what am I doing instead actually working?  I'm letting the stress win and am consumed with fixing my time management skills, or lack there of, and my organized/unorganized chaos.  Going back to school and work after the 75 days of summer vacation with my girls has sent my entire house into a tailspin.  We have all gotten too accustomed to our lazy days by the pool and playing with friends.  Now it is back to reality for all of us.  I don't know if it is just that the lazy-ness lingers or if we really just need an intervention.  Seeing that my desk currently looks like this, I just know I need to get on top of it pronto!

So where is the best place to go for help?  Why Pinterest of course!  I LOVE perusing the fabulous pins and could be on there forever. Maybe this could be part of the time management thing?  Nah, that is important ;)  I have found some fabulous printables and wonderful blogs that take you step by step through making an organized family binder!

This is my favorite printable that I found.  It is perfect and super cute!   She also sells this as a notepad on her Etsy Shop!

http://www.lifes-a-journal.com/2011/07/20/daily-pages/

I found that the site Design  Finch has already scoured the web and found a ton of functional and cute printables to make an awesome binder!  I will definitely be taking her advice and printing some of her fabulous finds!

AmyBayliss.com is pretty fab as well.  She has a 7 part series on making an amazing home binder!  Wow!  Not only that but she has printables that you can customize for your family.  I am impressed!

Lastly, but certainly not least, I found A bowl full of lemons.  She has a step by step tutorial on how she made her family binder.  She has an entire blog label just for organization! She doesn't offer free printables for her binder,but the Etsy shop she orders hers from is pretty great.  Clean Mama Printables has come up with ever printable imaginable to help you get organized!

Hope these ladies have helped inspire you all as much as they have me to get this school year started off right and get organized!  I mean if nothing else, how fun will it be to print these and put them in a trendy patterned binder and just look at it on our counters? 

While I sat typing this post we had a few new Etsy order come in, which allowed us to hit the 600 Etsy sales mark!  So exciting!
I guess this means I better stop procrastinating and get to work!  

**Don't forget about our coupon code Backtoschool15  to save 15% off your next Embellished Living Etsy order!

FANtastic Friday!

Hello!  It's Friday and here at Embellished Living Friday's are FAN-tastic!  Friday's are for celebrating our fans or showing support for shops/local businesses/bloggers/etc. that we're fans of.  We enjoyed our "Share the Love" posts on Facebook leading up to Valentine's Day so much, that we want to continue the tradition year round.  To kick that off, we want to support and celebrate YOU!  Thank you to all of you who have followed us via Facebook, Twitter, Etsy, or this blog.  Thanks for the repeat orders, referrals, fan photos and positive comments.  You have no idea the thrill we get from a new follower or a sweet comment.  In honor of our awesome fans, we think a celebration is in order.  And by celebration, I mean coupon code!  Use Backtoschool15 to get 15% off your entire order on Etsy between now and September 15, 2012.

Now that the fun stuff has been taken care off, I guess it's time to introduce you to the last previously nameless and faceless member of Embellished Living.  My name is Chandra, pronounced shaundra, and generally mispronounced by anyone who doesn't know me.  I've been married to my high school sweetheart for nineteen years and we have three kids ages 11, 5 and 3.  I'm a Colorado native, who relocated to middle Tennessee 10 years ago for my husband's job.  Once we got past the culture shock we realized what a beautiful and friendly area of the country we'd chosen.  While we don't have any biological family in Tennessee we have chosen family here and it's definitely become home.  I have a degree in psychology and find myself constantly using it with three kids, especially since I've been home with them since the oldest was born.  For one brief semester between Thing One and Thing Two, I went back to school and took classes in Interior Design.  I LOVED every minute of every class.  Seriously.  Finishing that second degree remains on my bucket list and probably will until all my kids have graduated with a degree of their own.  I've been crafting in one form or another since I can remember and love the act of creating something beautiful and/or meaningful.  Knowing that many of the things we make can be found at weddings, in new homes and decorating nurseries is so fulfilling.   Babies and weddings are two of the most important times in people's lives and in a tiny way we are being invited to share in those moments.  I love that.

Following Jacy and Stacie's lead, here's my Match.com profile....if I wasn't already happily married...

I Like:
*spending time with family and friends
*the sound of my kids laughter
*my Kindle app
*grilled cheese and tomato soup
*all the playlists on my iPod
*fresh paint on a wall
*cake, preferably homemade
*coffee and wine, equally
*driving with the windows down and the radio up on a sunny spring day
*cooking for people I love
*the smell of a new box of crayons
*Pinterest.  I might be addicted.  An intervention may be necessary.
*the feeling of accomplishment after a work out
*Design/DIY magazines, blogs, books
*a clean house


I do NOT like:
*the actual act of working out, when inside
*the mess that follows my daughter, aka the human tornado.
*bad hair days (which I have a lot of thanks to my naturally curly hair and humid environment)
*living half way across the country from our biological family
*glue gun burns
*rainy days when I have to hit the grocery store
*cleaning my house
*rollercoasters
*bugs
*walking through spider webs (this happens a lot here...ewww!)


That's about it for me.  Don't forget that coupon code, Backtoschool15, and see you next week!

What I'm up to Wednesday

My name is Stacie, and my family and I have lived in the Boro for the last 7 years.  We, my husband Dan, and our sons JD (10 years old) and DB (7 years old), love living in the mid-south!  We moved here from Massachusetts, so not only was it a bit of a culture shock, it was a bit of a climate shock as well.  Our lives, especially in the fall, are consumed with LOTS of soccer practices and games, but we wouldn't change it for the world. 

I have been a crafter for as long as I can remember.  From hand sewing clothing for Barbies as a little girl to now knitting garments for myself and others, there are few crafts that I haven't tried.  When Chandra and Jacy approached me with this endeavor, I was thrilled to have an outlet for my craftiness (and a reason to buy a miter saw).

While verbose in person, I am terrible at the written word.  Hopefully, my Wednesday posts will be filled with photos of what we're up to in the crafting community and within our own community here in Tennessee.

Following Jacy, below is what my Match.com profile would look like if I weren't happily married ;)

I like:
* to bake cookies
* to travel
* try new foods
* shorts and flip flops
* knit and spin (on a spinning wheel, as opposed to the bike variety)
* snuggle up with my family for family movie nights
* and of course, girls' night out!

I don't like:
* eating the cookies I bake (this works out extremely well for my husband)
* birds
* worms (really, I can't even discuss it)
* clowns
* being too hot
* exercising (see above)
* putting the dishes away

Long Time, No Blog

Hello!!!
It has been forever since we have been bloggers!  Our summer has flown by so quickly, and was so full and fabulous for all three of us here at Embellished Living!  With 7 kids between us we were left with little absolutely no time for blogging.  Not to mention that the three of us were barely in the same state (or country) for more than 2 weeks all of summer break.  The kids are back in school with the last kiddo of the bunch starting back to preschool this Thursday, our excuses are gone and we are back to some serious work- including blogging.  
Admittedly we have all had personal blogs and have loved them, however, none of us have touched them for over a year! Yikes!  We have a plan, which is good cause we are all crazy planners and list makers.  From now on you will get a little taste of each of us every single week.  We are committed to blogging and getting to know you- our readers, customers and fellow bloggers, as well as letting you all get to know us- the nameless, faceless ladies of Embellished Living.  

Here is how it is going to work~
*Every Monday you will have musings and ramblings from me, Jacy, in our "Miscellaneous Monday" post.
*Wednesday's, Stacie will catch you up and tell you all about what Embellished Living is up to in "What We're up to Wednesday"
* On Friday, Chandra will feature one of the many fabulous folks, products, blogs or shops we are super fans of, or one of you- our fans- in "FANtastic Friday"

Hopefully this will let you all get to know us a little more, and will get us back to loving having a blog :)

This week we are each going to start with an introduction of ourselves. Today is my day so I will kick it off with my intro.


My name is Jacy.  I happily reside in the lovely city of Murfreesboro, TN with Travis, my husband of 13 years.  I have been a stay at home mom for the past 12 years to our 2 girls.  Mykenzie is a sweet and sassy, smartie pants 12 year old and Kaylee is a super loving but double sassy, sporty 8 year old.  I am sure you can imagine there is never a dull moment or shortage of drama in my estrogen filled home. When they were both in school full time, I tried my hand at going back to school to be a nurse and quickly realized it was not the right decision for myself or my family.  

I am a wanna be DIYer and have all of my own power tools {Anna White is my hero}. I have tried my hand both successfully and not so successfully at many DIY projects .  I come from a crazy talented, crafty, DIY family, and discovered that I had a tiny bit of that craftiness running through my blood as well. Because, crafting brought me a lot more joy and less frustration than Anatomy and Physiology, along with Chandra and Stacie, I decided to put it to the test and see where it could go.  It has been more than I ever dreamed it could be, and I am so happy to be where we are today and cannot wait to see where it takes us in the future!  I am looking forward to getting to know all of you a little better through this blog.  I want to apologize in advance for things you are bound to notice. 1- I am a rambler.  I ramble when I talk, write, dream, etc.  it drives my husband crazy, luckily he loves me in spite of it, hopefully you will as well.  2-  I am not a writer.  I suck at grammar, spelling, keeping with the same tense, etc.  Sorry.  I know it drives some people crazy, but I do have good news, I do know the proper usage of the words to, too, two, there, their and they're.  I hope knowing that puts you all at ease and you can overlook my many misplaced commas!  3- Last thing, well for now, I am an excessive exclamation point user and I use emoticons.  I have looked for a support group, but it looks like we will all have to just live with it.  

Since this is our first date and you need to know me a little better, I will end with what would be my match.com profile if I weren't already so happily married
I like:
*cookies (especially chocolatey ones)
*the sound of the ocean
*cool fall days
*watching my girls eyes light up with joy
*date nights with my hubby
*using all of my power tools
*jeans
*the kindle app on my iPad
*the smell of a glue gun
*planning my next project
*sales
*girls night out with my friends


I do NOT like:
*sitting in carpool line
*frogs
*paper work
*laundry
*fake people
*being cold
*not enough hours in the day
*scary movies
*that my kids are growing up so fast
*hot glue burns
*saw dust in my hair
*my super sized feet
*working out

That's it in a nutshell.  It is great to finally "meet" you all!  See ya next week!!