Z. Daisy Blog

Need a quick, easy and budget friendly craft? Teacher gifts? Stocking suffers? Birthday gifts? Look no further!!

Okay - today my 7 year old daughter and I had a great time creating beautiful magnets! It was so easy and we have decided to make sets for her friends for Christmas as well as her teachers. You can watch her demonstration video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moY4Pj56ERU.

Here are the steps:

1. From the craft store get: 1/2" hole punch, bag(s) of clear stones (found in the floral section), glue gun, Mod Podge decoupage glue, magnets, paint brush and magazines. If you use the 40% off coupon from Michael's...it makes a cheap project even cheaper...which we love!

2. Look through magazines, catalogs and newspapers for fun little pictures, words or letters to cut out to put under the clear stones. Remember that the images will be magnified so little is okay.

3. Cut out or punch out the pictures and then Mod Podge (clear glue) them to the flat part of the stone so that the image is seen THROUGH the stone. 

4. After they dry, use a glue gun to glue the magnet to the picture. They will dry in a matter of minutes and you have a wonderful gift!

   

Abby and I are going to try and look for a metal tin to put a set of 6 in and decorate the top with cute paper. These are great because you can make them really personal. We cut out American Girl Doll heads and put them on a set and it is so cute and my daughter's friends will love them. We also cut out Hannah Montana, Lightening McQueen, Disney Princesses, footballs, Sponge Bob, letters, hearts...and some cute paper designs for the moms that are not into "themes". :) For her teacher we purchased some paper that has "school" things on it and they are so cute.

I hope this will be a fun craft for you and your crafty child and maybe will help with a tight budget this winter when you need a lot of gifts!

Send us pictures if you do this project so we can see how they turn out!

New Packaging!

We are loving our new packaging for the Binkie Bungees! Check it out!

New Fabrics!

There have been lots changes this past month that we look forward to sharing with you over the next few weeks.  The first being new fabrics!  Brooke and I have been waiting.... and waiting.... and waiting for this fabric to arrive and we could not be more excited.  Many hours and rounds of color strike-offs occurred before we got these right.  So, without further waiting, we'd like to introduce you to our Ross Blue Stripe, Monica Pink Stripe, and Rachel Green Stripe EXCLUSIVE to Z. Daisy!  You can check out our full line of products here.

Boy Stuff

There are so many great things about boys and so often they get neglected in my blogging.  It is so easy to get excited about all the girly things and sometimes the cool boy stuff gets overlooked.  So, I thought I'd post a few fun things that my boys have been up to this week.  First off is Samson's obsession with bugs.  He loves all things that he can catch with a net and put in a jar.  He spends hours in the park by our house digging around for stuff.  He came home with this "beauty" the other day and he was quite proud.  He loved the way the wings looked when he opened them up.  I guess it is pretty cool.... for a dead bug. =) 
Next up is my sweet Zach.  He's almost 10 and I must say the years have flown by.  His closest friend had a birthday party today and he was keen on getting him Cubs baseball cards.  Anyway, we found this picture in the newspaper this morning of his friend's favorite player and ended up making some great wrapping paper out of it.  He was sooo proud and excited to give this little box of baseball cards to his friend.  Oh the simple things in life when you're only 9 years old. 

Best Piece of Advise About Starting Your Own Business

I am always asked "what is your best piece of advise about starting my own business?". A lot of people do not agree with me when I actually tell them my "piece of advise"...but I believe it 100% and am going to back it up today...right now.

HAVE A PARTNER - but choose wisely!

Here are my top reasons for why I believe it is better to have a partner when you are starting a business:

1. We are all gifted people...but not in all areas. Choose someone who is stronger in an area that you are not. (finance, creativity, connections, computer knowledge, etc.)

2. Two minds are ALWAYS better than one. No one other than a person who has a vested interest in your company will tell you the truth and you WILL need someone to tell you the truth sometimes.

3. Sanity is a good thing. No one really gets the funny things, the crazy things and the frustrating things unless they are right there in the throws of your business and it is great to have someone to talk to about everything.

4. Life - you should still have one! If you have a partner, you can go on vacation and not feel like the bottom is going to fall out of your company while you are gone. Sometimes there is so much work that literally there are not enough hours in the day to keep up and that is when I am VERY thankful for having a partner.

5. Computers are not perfect. It is great to know that BOTH of your computers can't crash at the exact same time...so you are probably safe with at least getting back some of your data.

6. If I only had a brain. My brain, since having children, has lost a little bit of the "memory chip" section and therefore it is key to have a parter who will remind me of things that might have been lost in that deep dark zone of my brain.

7. Storage - You can't imagine all of the things that you "have to have" when you run a business out of your home. When there are 2 of you...you can share the load.

8. Connections are what keeps the ship afloat. One person might have a lot of connections...but with 2 people's connections...you can find someone to help you with anything!

9. IT IS JUST WAY MORE FUN HAVING A PARTNER and even though you might say "but you only make 50% of the $$"...having a parter is well worth that 50% pay cut.

If you have a piece of advise about starting your own business...please let us know!

Summer is over...

Sorry we have not blogged in a while. We have both had a very busy summer and are in the process of announcing our entire new line of products. We will be telling you about them all next week...so keep watching! Here is a little re-cap of my summer (Brooke).  I hope you all had a good summer too.

Here are some things I learned this summer:

1. If you hold a popsickle (in the wrapper) by the stick and just push it up through the top of the bag...it opens!!

2. www.goodsearch.com is a great search engine that give back to the charity of your choice every time you do a "search".

3. Saddleback Civil Forum was a great way to get to know the Presidential candidates. They are also replaying it on TV and the radio a lot. Seriously...listen to it. http://www.mbn.org/GenMoody/default.asp?SectionID=808FAA5A967A4CFA82AD968471FB6FE7

4. One Month To Live, 30 Days to a Live of No Regrets by Kerry Shook is a book that will change your life. I did it with a group of ladies this summer and it was awesome. www.onemonthtolive.org

5. The power of prayer still exists and it is a good thing.

6. Kids grow up too fast. I know this is a "duh" but it really hit me this summer with my 5 and 7 year olds.

7. There are a lot of BBQ places on the road from Chicago to San Antonio...

8. Summer is awesome...but Fall is fantastic. :)

   

Handful of Flowers, Handful of Love

WOW!  Has it been a whole month since I last posted?  Time is flying by this summer.  Time is also very limited with all the kids at home.  We've been having lots of fun though, so please forgive our absence.  Here are all the treasures the girls brought me while on our walk today.  These are the prettiest little weed flowers I've ever seen.  I must say, they picked me a lovely handful of flowers and love. 
We've also been pretty busy with some exciting new things for Z. Daisy.  We have some big announcements coming up!  Check back soon!

-Lorri

Promise Kept

A few months ago I made a pool bag for my oldest daughter.  After I made hers, my younger daughter decided she wanted one too, of course.  I promised I would make her one, but wasn't sure when time would permit.  She certainly didn't forget my promise and reminded every chance she got.  I started working on it a few months ago and finally finished it up today.  Phew!  The warm summer days and trips to the pool have certainly been good motivation.   Here's a list of her requests:

1) Lots of pink.  CHECK.
2) Cupcake.  CHECK.
3) Butterly.  (Reverse side.) CHECK.
4) Ruffles.  CHECK.

I took a very deep breathe after this little project was done.  No mother enjoys having an unkept promise hanging over head.  I love making things for her though because she is the best appreciator.  She is always so proud and goes on and on about how much she loves it.  That's always good motivation too. =) 

I do have a little cupcake applique pattern to post.  I'll try to do that in the next few days.  Who knows, maybe you have a little one who's requested a cupcake with a cherry on top too!  Oh to be 6 again and only dream of pink, cupcakes, butterflies and ruffles.  Very sweet.

Organic Binkie Bungee Packaging!!

Yeah!  It finally arrived and we are loving it!  Very soon we will be launching our Organic Binkie Bungee and have been working hard to figure some fun and unique packaging.  Brooke found these great recycled cereal boxes to use for the hang tags and they are so cool!  The "inside" of the box will be on the front with all our wording and details, then the back will be the "outside" of the box.  They turned out great and we are so excited about doing our part to recycle and reuse.  We'll let you know when they're in the store, but couldn't resist giving a little sneak peak today!

Doodling

Do you ever start little projects without an end goal in mind?  I feel like I've been doing that a lot lately - just doing something on the whim without any big picture in mind.  (This is very unlike me!) Maybe eventually all the little pieces will come together to make something great.  We'll just have to see where all the mini inspirations lead.  This weekend I spent some time doodling - I am no artist, but it's fun to draw simple flowing things like flowers and branches.  If I had to add human life, it would definitely be a stick person. For some reason, I decided to hand embroider one of my doodles and this is what I ended up with.  There wasn't enough time to do the whole thing, so maybe I'll be adding to it later - depending on my whim that day. =) 

A lot of my motivation has been my oldest daughter, she's 8.  She has a strong interest in designing, sewing, and all things creative.  So maybe subconsciously I'm doing this for her to show her another outlet for the things she enjoys.  I'm constantly finding her in my sewing/laundry room going through my pile of scap fabrics putting little things together.  She'll lay it all out (without sewing it together) and then draw little pictures of her design in her sketchbook.  It's the cutest thing.  She's dying to use my sewing maching, but we're sticking to sewing by hand for now.  She'll thank me later, right. ;) Off to enjoy another beautiful summer day - wishing you lots of fun on your next creative whim.

Lorri