Hey y’all! I wanted to let you know that I will be MIA this week and next week, because I am blasting through Christmas designs…Holla!

So, meet me back here on Tuesday, September 14th, K? See you then!

Hello lovelies! I am having a great day. How about you?

Today I am focusing on what I need to start doing to get Purple Lemon Designs ready for the holiday rush…I know, I know it is only August, why I am I starting to think of it so early? This is the time to fit in getting all of your materials ready, so you can get those items shipped to your lovely customers during the craziness we know as the holiday season.

So, what are those things that are essential to packaging and shipping your items to your customers? Extra bags, ribbon, business cards, item cards, thank you cards, tags, etc, etc…The list goes on and on. So, make that list now!

One item that is on my list that takes loads of time is stamping my shipping envelopes. I stamp each envelope with my address stamp as well as a thank you for your order stamp, so doing that over 500 times can be quite time consuming.

I just placed an order for extra bags for my stamps, extra info cards I slip into each stamp package, extra ribbons to pretty the packages up, extra business cards, extra thank you cards…really think through each step and each piece that goes into making your products special.

A big time consumer for me is to stamp the tags I use to brand my packages. I stick two stickers on each metal tag, one on the front and one on the back. Lots of work, but definitely worth it.

This is also a great time to work on your photographs and listings in your shop.

So what are you doing to get your shop ready for the holiday rush?

Good morning lovely lemonheads! I hope you are doing well. Do you have a garden or have you had a garden in the past? If so, you are probably faced with the opportunity I was faced with…What to do with an overabundance of veggies.

credit: Nota on stock.xchng

As a worker in a soup kitchen, I can tell you a great way to give back to your community is to give the extra produce to this organization. My church was blessed with many boxes of corn, watermelons, and other goodies from a local organic farm in my town. Everyone loved these fresh additions to our meals!

Unfortunately, I had more tomatoes than I could eat, but not enough to give to a soup kitchen. So, what’s a girl to do? Make oven dried tomatoes!

Oven Dried Goodness!

What? Basically oven dried tomatoes are like sun dried tomatoes that you make at home. It is so super easy to do. I use cherry tomatoes to do this, but I am sure regular sized tomatoes cut into chunks would work fabulously.

First I cut my tomatoes in half (or chunks) and let them drain on a paper towel for 30 minutes to an hour. This helps wick some of the juice from the tomatoes, so you don’t have to cook them in the oven for so long. Then, I put my tomatoes on a cookie sheet. I make sure they don’t touch, and I put them skin side down, so they don’t stick. Then I put them in an oven on the lowest temperature (mine is 170 degrees F) for 3 – 6 hours. I start with 3 hours and then if they aren’t completely dry, I just leave them in for longer, checking them once an hour. When your tomatoes are completely dry (but not so dry they are disintegrating in your hand), I either freeze them in a plastic freezer bag or I reconstitute them and pack them in oil.

I love to reconstitute some of the tomatoes and then pack them in oil with herbs and garlic. After a few days, this mixture makes a lovely oil to make dressing for salad or to dip bread in…Yummm!

To reconstitute your tomatoes when you are ready to use them, all you have to do is boil a little water, pour it over the tomatoes you want to use, and let it soak for 10 minutes. Then drain the water off the tomatoes and use them in a salad, on a pizza, in pasta, or anything else you might use a tomato for.

Oven dried tomatoes have such a wonderfully dense tomato flavor…They are soo rich and delicious! And they last much longer than a regular tomato left to its own devices.

So, what do you do with your garden leftovers?

Hi lemonheads! I hope you are all doing well. I am just motoring along, through my second trimester; feeling pretty good :)

I have some dear friends that asked me to design some note cards for them that express them as well as their faith. So, after getting some information about their fav colors, Bible verses and pieces of their personalities that they wanted incorporated into their cards, I went to work!

This is what I came up with…

and this…

and this…

I really like how classic the top two cards look and how fun the bottom look is…I also like how the verses show part of Patrick and Terri’s personalities that is so very personal to them.

Happy Weekend, lemonheads!

I hope you are all doing well you lovelies. I am really excited to reveal a new feature of my website. I am really excited to announce that you can now suggest a stamp or a stationery design through my site! Eek!

I have been so fortunate to have wonderful people contact me through Facebook, twitter and email, so I decided to give them all one place to suggest some great ideas through my website. If you suggest and idea and it is a good fit for the Purple Lemon Designs shop, you will get that item customized just for you, once it is created and listed in the PLD shop…How cool is that?

So please, let’s hear your ideas! Visit the Suggestion page now!

So, I mentioned a little while ago, that I had some big news that was keeping me away from my regular blogging. I think it is time that I share that big news…My husband and I are expecting our first child!

We are very excited to be embarking on this new, scary and thrilling adventure. I am 15 weeks into my pregnancy and everything is going well so far. Little baby Rinehart should be making his or her way into the world sometime towards the end of January.

Me at 15 weeks

I am so sorry I have been a absent from the blog for a few months, but I have been dealing with the exhaustion of the first trimester. Unfortunately my “real job” of being the Corinth, MS Main Street Director can’t be put on hold and is in full swing. I just put on my biggest festival of the year, the Slugburger Festival, and I can tell you it has been kicking my butt! It is hard for me {a very over-scheduled and active person} to realize that I have to take it a little slower. It has been all I can do to keep up with Main Street, my PLD shop and my housewife duties, so unfortunately, my little bloggity has suffered as a result.

Now that I have entered the second trimester, my energy is slowly coming back. Because the busiest part of my job with Main Street will be coming up with three big events back to back throughout October, November and December, I have already started planning what I want my little one’s nursery to look like. I will be sharing lots of decorating projects over the next few months. Once we find out in a few weeks if we are having a little boy or girl, I will be in full speed ahead planning mode!

You will be seeing more of me on a regular basis, I promise…I will be posting weekly now that I have gotten back on track.

I am so glad to be back with all of you!

Hi all you lovely lemonheads…Thank you all so much for being so lovely and sharing all of your fun summertime activities. I enjoyed reading each and everyone of your comments. So, without further ado, our winner is….Charlene! She said, ” With 6 kids we try to find cheap or free things to do. Letterboxing has always been a family favorite :)”

Congrats! I will be contacting you soon.

American flags by andrewatla

Now I want to wish you all a very happy fourth of July/Independence Day. I hope it is filled with family and friends and a load of thankfulness for the people that fought for our freedoms so many years ago.

Have a great holiday!