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Author: Elizabeth Smillie

Hello there! I'm Elizabeth. Welcome to my website and blog space. All the products in my little shop are hand crafted and stem from my desire to provide creative and high quality products that make people feel lovely. I believe the little moments of life matter, every day should be celebrated, and that the beauty all around us is a gift from the Creator to be enjoyed. I'm married to a wonderful guy who happens to be my greatest cheerleader and best friend, mama to three little ones and currently reside in the heartland of America.
little boy’s party, part 1 – party prep

little boy’s party, part 1 – party prep

so, back in June our little guy turned 2 and we celebrated with a cowboy party (and it totally fit his interests right now!).
Here is belated re-cap of the decor and party, so you can enjoy the fun too!

Ian is really excited about cowboys right now (Roy Rogers, guns and anything that he thinks can be turned into a gun, horses, cowboy hats, “bad guys” … you name it!), so we decided to throw a cowboy themed party.You can see a bunch of the things I pinned as inspiration on his party Pinterest board (who’d have thought when he was born 2 years ago that we’d say such things?!).

A few days before the party John brought home some large sheets of carboard that we (John) cut into 4 large circles and several cactus shapes. The circles got wagon wheels drawn on them and on the day of the party got fastened to the sides of a folding table to make a “chuck wagon” serving table.

The birthday boy loved “helping” – actually, he loved directing what we should do and then dancing on the cardboard cut-outs!

John took the cactus outside and spray painted them dark green, and I got busy making some paper stars … and I’ll post about the actual party later!

giveaway, anyone?

giveaway, anyone?

I don’t know about you, but I’m always interested in a giveaway. I mean, what’s not to love? Free stuff? Sure!
So when eleGala.com contacted me a while ago asking if I’d be interested in sponsoring one on their site, my thoughts jumped back in time to when I was wedding planning and how much I would have loved to win something from my shop (which at the time I had no idea would come into being 1 1/2 years later … but that’s a different story!), and almost without thinking I said, “yes, of course!”

So, all that to say, if you’d like to win a $50 gift certificate to thePathLessTraveled.etsy.com, head over to eleGala’s blog and enter!  Who knows? You just might win! (and wouldn’t that be lovely?)

Grandparent’s Day is coming!

Grandparent’s Day is coming!

In the U.S. it is on September 9  – just around the corner! For my readers in other countries I am curious, do you have a Grandparent’s Day where you live?

Some of the most popular gift items in the shop are the 5 x7 and 8 x10 silhouettes. Mommies and aunties ordered them in droves last fall in preparation for Christmas!

This year though, we are expecting our Little One to arrive in early November, so I have decided to temporarily discontinue the silhouettes during November (so that I can focus on Baby!) and possibly December as well.
What’s this mean for you? If you want one (or a few), order early! And what better time to order than as a gift for Grandparent’s Day, hmm? : )

Here is a link that will easily get you to the silhouette section in my shop: silhouettes and if you have any questions or ideas, feel free to email me through Etsy, leave a comment here or email me at path.less.traveled.market@gmail.com.

And have a lovely day!

recipes as art

recipes as art

My dad’s mom died in March, and she was an excellent cook as well as a wonderful hostess. She left oodles of handwritten recipes, some that she hadn’t made in years, and some that were family classics. As I was looking through them I was inspired by this pin to frame some of them to decorate our kitchen.

I picked up these frames for $0.33 each from a thrift store, and once I had decided which recipes to use I painted the frames white. The can of paint cost $0.98 at Walmart. Amazing!

Once the frames were dry – after several coats to cover the black and gold finish – I used some natural colored photo corners to mount the recipes onto white cardstock (so that I can switch them out if I want without damaging them). I really love how they turned out! Although after living with them for a while I think I want to go back and add ribbons like the originals. : )

and this last photo shows how they fit in with the decor of most of our downstairs (really the only thing left out is the kitchen, which is behind me!) quite a bit of which is still in progress. Imagine the red turned to a creamy white or very light yellow, for example.

There is something so sentimental about being able to see the handwriting of someone you love, handwriting that will never write you another card, spelling out the recipes from your childhood every day. So, yes, I am very happy with how they turned out!

because we need to remember

because we need to remember

 Memorial Day weekend has arrived! Which means school is letting out for the summer – and summer is here!

 There’s something special about Memorial Day that I really love – it doesn’t hurt that tons of retailers celebrate it with sales! – and that sets it apart from most of our other holidays.
 So many of our other holidays and celebrations center on gifts, “me”, and so on, but Memorial Day is about remembering other peoples’ sacrifice, celebrating and honoring it and them.
 We gather together, barbeque, eat watermelon, maybe light a few fireworks, watch for the first fireflies, and we remember. 
 They say “freedom is not free”, and it is so very true. Pretty much anywhere you look in our nation today, you  see the result of someone’s sacrifice, whether it’s their blood on a battlefield securing our freedom or their sweat and tears to maintain it. And it’s what makes America amazing.

 Kind of sobering when you really think about it, isn’t it? And so, we celebrate! Celebrate the people and the miracle that America is.

   (and, in keeping with the spirit of holiday sales, you can use the code “CELEBRATE” for 20% off in the shop until Monday night – enjoy!)

I made the above wreath a few years ago and thought I’d share it again (and maybe make it again for our front door?). It’s the simplest thing, really, but still has quite a bit of impact. I took a heart shaped berry wreath and stuck American flag picks in it, letting them “wave” in the breeze, and then hung it on our door. So simple! 

*I’m linking this at Making Monday Marvelous and a few of these fun blogs – check ’em out!

shop (and family!) news

shop (and family!) news

drum-roll …. thank you.

You can now use your own credit card to purchase items from the shop! Yippee! This means that you no longer have to use Paypal if you don’t want to.

and now for the family news ….

 yep. (If you’ve been following me on Pinterest, you might have guessed.)
We are expecting # 3 to arrive the second week of November! We were a bit surprised, but are totally thrilled! Although it can be a little difficult to be excited about it when I’m worn out with exhaustion before the kids are even ready for their naps. : ) So far I’m feeling pretty well most of the time, which is such a blessing!
There are so many projects for this baby that I’d love to do and we are trying to decide if we’ll find out if it’s a boy or a girl. If we don’t, I think I might do a bunch of knitting and sewing for him/her in gray. And white!

And I have to decide what I’ll be doing about a maternity leave from the shop. It’s still far away (well, 28 (+) weeks away), but it’s coming up! I certainly don’t want to leave you wonderful friends and customers in the lurch through Christmas, but know I’d hate every moment I was away from the new bundle of sweetness. So, lots of thoughts! I’ll let you know once plans for it are solidified. : )

Love to you all!
{spring} is here

{spring} is here

the bulbs are blooming, the grass is greening, the birds are chirping and it is good.

(all this freshness makes me so happy! how about you? has Spring come to you yet?)

new blog feature

new blog feature

Guess what? You can now subscribe to get this blog emailed to you! Yay (right?)!
I don’t know about you, but I love reading blogs. I love hearing (er, reading) what other people are doing, what is important to them, the new things that they are doing.
But I don’t read them that often because I just can’t the hang of google reader and I don’t get onto my blogger account very often. (not very good excuses, I know, but still – that’s what I have!)
Anyway, because of that, I am always grateful when I find that a blog I enjoy has a way for me to get the updates emailed to me. And now I’ve found a way for you to get this blog emailed to you!

Now, on the left side of the blog under the links to my Etsy shop, you can see a little window that say “Follow by email” over it. Just enter your email address and voila – updates will start showing up in your inbox!

<3

"I LOVE YOU"

"I LOVE YOU"

I’ve been loving Pinterest. Just loving it. I’ve been pinning just about everything and have a board for just about everything. Including Valentine’s Day.

One of the things I pinned was this sweet “I LOVE YOU” banner.

As I started writing this post I realized that the woman who made the original banner has a very nice post about how she made it – I of course didn’t even think to click through to her blog to see if there were instructions or not. I just muddled though and made my own. : )

I used the font Arial Black in 400 point to write out “I LOVE YOU” and printed it onto white cardstock in very light gray.
Emma Grace chose the color of the glitter – pink, of course. : )

After trying a light layer of glue, I realized that, to get the nice thick and full look, I needed to put a heavy layer of glue on. A very heavy layer!

Once they were dry I cut slits in in the sides of the letters and threaded a creamy ribbon through.

It turned out quite well, but the sweetest part of the process was my helpers! They were so proud to be able to “help” with things like glue and glitter that are normally off limits to them.
And – even though there were a few moments where I was quite nervous about them smearing glue where it shouldn’t be – their joy was more than worth it.

If you haven’t joined Pinterest yet and would like an invitation, let me know – I’ve got several left. : )

(I’m linking this at a few of these crafty blogs)