I have often been told and I will be the first to admit, that I am very hard to shop for. As my husband says, "what do I buy for the girl who goes out and buys what ever she needs for herself all year long?"

I'm not weird, high maintenance, or a princess of some sort. I'm just a part of a special breed of women who like to be difficult to shop for. Not for the sake of being difficult, but because we like to challenge our husbands and help them reach their full potential as the ultimate gift givers! (I'll just keep telling myself that). I know there are many more of you out there just like me (admit it) and it makes our lives more adventurous! Don't you just love a surprise? I do! Besides that, don't our little competitive husbands love a challenge? Mine does, he just hasn't realized that finding me the perfect gift is the ultimate sport! I am actually still working that idea into his brain so to make things a little easier this year I thought I would post some ideas to help all the husbands, including mine, who are struggling to find the perfect gift.

Now those of you who know me personally, know that I stay up late and I sometimes watch those late night info-mercials. They have the coolest stuff popping up at 3am and I often times get sucked into trying things for free for 3o days. In my late night shopping adventures I have found some pretty sweet stuff! So all month long I'll be giving my feedback on some of these awesome items along with other things I have tried and purchased for myself over the last year. Things that aren't typical for a Christmas gift, but I think you would enjoy receiving it just as much as I enjoyed buying it for myself!

My first FAVORITE product of the year is:

Reverse by Rodan and Fields.

I literally cannot live without this stuff. Many of you know that I had a bad case of Melasma after I had my baby 4 years ago. The Doctor kept telling me it would fade, but it never did and anytime I go out in the sun it get's worse. Sometimes it turns so dark that I won't leave the house for days. So I pretty much look like a vampire all year long because the sun has become my enemy. It's kind of sad, but thanks to TWILIGHT the pasty white look is in right now.

Up until about 6 months ago I had tried everything possible to get rid of my mask. Expensive creams from Nordstroms, cheap creams from target, perscription creams, chemical peels, lightening facials, and all kinds of 30 day trials that claimed it would get rid of it. For the last 4 years I have tried it all and have found nothing! Then a few months ago we got some lovely new neighbors who told me to give this a try. They told me it would help with my melasma, lighten sun spots, age spots, and clear up my skin.

After about 2 weeks, I started to notice a change. My mask was fading, my skin was tight and glowing! For the first time in almost 5 years I got a compliment that I have so missed. Last week a women told me that I had beautiful skin. That was the best Christmas present EVER.

So if your skin is looking gloomy or you have some dark spots to remove, you have to try this stuff!

And try this too:

It removes your eye makeup and gets rid of wrinkles!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Nate and Courtney. You have literally saved my face :)

I am thankful for pumpkin rolls. The last two that I have made have been hideous, but they tasted divine. I'm going to try again tomorrow and I'll post the results if it turns out good. I'm thankful for other stuff too, but I'll leave it up to the clip below to tell you about that because I "diddo" everything they say. Click on the words below:

...Be THANKFUL...

P.S. I'm having a Black Friday Sale in my ETSY shop.

Time For Cake...

I have so many yummy recipes shoved into a bottom drawer in my kitchen that I never have time to make! It's really quite sad. However, I always find time to make this Delicious Lemon Cake. It is my most favorite thing in the whole world. I even requested it for my birthday!

So here is a little treat for you and your family. I hope your Thanksgiving is filled with love and a million things to be thankful for.

(Oh, and yes there is a slice missing in the back. I had to have a hot piece fresh out of the oven...Sorry!)

Scrumptious, Lick your Lips, Lemon Yogurt Cake:

• 2 Cups of All Purpose Unbleached White Flour (DO NOT eat flour with bleach in it! YUCK)
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup of butter softened
• 2 cups of sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 large lemon - grate for the lemon zest
• 1 cup of plain vanilla yogurt
• LEMON GLAZE:
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• 2 cups of powdered sugar
• (you want the glaze to be kind of runny so if it's too thick add some more lemon juice)
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Generously butter a 10" bundt pan
• Into a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside
• In a mixing bowl cream 1 cup of butter and the sugar.
• Beat on high speed until it is light and fluffy about 5 minutes.
• add eggs one a time while you continue to beat the mixture. Blend in lemon zest.
• Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternating with the yogurt.
• Pour batter into cake pan and bake for 55 to 65 minutes.
• Cool for 10 minutes.
• Drizzle with lemon glaze.
• Serves 12

Don't forget about the pattern of the month contest. It ends on December 9th!

Look What I just Got...

Can you hear the beautiful choir music in the background? Probably not, but to me they have been singing all night. Leading up to the purchase of my new Mac was a series of computer disasters that started about a year ago. Little did you know that my patterns took me a painstakingly huge amount of time to complete because my old computer was dying a slow death. The thing was ancient! The memory was full of something and it would take an eternity for me to even rotate a picture or pull up a new font. It was so frustrating! Finally a few weeks ago it died.

Previous to that purchase I bought an HP laptop as my back up from Best Buy. BIG MISTAKE!!! In the 2 months I have had it, it has been back in the shop 3 times. On the third time they finally decided to send it out and said I could have it back in 3 weeks. Hmmm, let me think if that works for me...NO! I have to work people, but they don't care. Those geeks at the geek squad have been useless! Last night I reached my limit. Hartman came home from school, I grabbed my purse and we were off the the Mac store. After learning from Katie (who was talking waaaaay over my head) about all the cool stuff Macs can do, we grabbed a cinnabun and a smoothie, and made our purchase!

I feel like I just had a million dollar make over.

Point of my story, buy a Mac.

November 2009 Contest

CONTEST....PRIZE....CUTE SKIRT....HAPPY CHILD....PICTURES FOR ME....EVERYBODY WINS....

I really need some more pictures for my customer gallery and I also thought this would be fun, so I've decided to hold a monthly contest that features one of my patterns.

Rules: Make the FEATURED pattern out of your favorite designer fabrics, take a picture on a model (either a child or a mannequin) send me the picture to put in my customer gallery. I will pick one of the submissions to win a prize. The winner will also be featured on my blog with a link to your blog, website, or shop address and will also receive a $50 gift certificate to Pink Fig Patterns or Vintage Chic Boutique. This can be redeemed directly through me or in my ETSY shop.

My first pick is one of my ALL time favorites...The Mish Mash skirt!

I Loooooove this skirt and if you don't love it already, you will after you make it. It is SO cute in the pictures, but about 10 times cuter in real life! Don't believe me? I guess you'll just have to make it find out. Here is my version of it:

This contest runs from November 9 to December 9.

Sew away my pretties and send me your pictures! My email is vcbdesign@gmail.com

If you don't have the pattern you can get it HERE in my ETSY shop or you can click HERE to find a list of on-line shops or a local shop near you that might have it and have awesome fabric selections as well.

UPDATE: After having this posted for a total of 8 hours I already have submissions! You guys ROCK!

Aren't these the cutest??? I came across them at QM and bought a bunch. I actually had one from my last trip to Utah when I visited my friend Kara's salon SOJO (I'm wearing it in my QM post below, the very last picture). So when I saw these, I just couldn't resist. They clip onto to any chain and come in any image you can think of including fabric, a picture of your mom or grandma, your kids names, whatever you want!

Here is her blog so you check it out! I'm going to Utah in a couple of weeks for a quick visit and I'll be picking up some more since I am obsessed.

Another Embellished Book!

I was going to do it, then I wasn't, was, wasn't, now I am. What is it? An Embellished Book for the Holidays!

Westminsterfibers has this cool paper/fabric die cut machine called Big Shot by Sizzix and they asked me to come up with some stuff to use with it. So I'm going to do a book for the Holiday's, similar to my first book "Embellished" only better. It will be filled with outfits for my favorite holidays and seasons with templates and patterns for t-shirts, jeans, and skirts! We're still working out the details for the big shot, but I believe you will be able to purchase die cuts that go with the book separately. This machine is great for quilt shops to make kits with or the average home based quilter and sewer. Rather that having to meticulously cut out each embellishment, you can just swipe it through the big shot and be done in a second! It really is the coolest thing. I've got a lot of ideas brewing and I'll definitely be posting more on it in the future, so stay tuned.

My previous post was a little peek at my first 2 sets done for Halloween. Here are a few more pics:















It will include outfits for Fall, Christmas, Valentines,and Birthdays!
Like I said, all my favorites :) This book will also show fun and funky hair do's using Heather Bailey's trash ties, and the cutest shoes ever by Puddle Jumper Shoes!

Debut's at Spring Market in May.