*blossoms*babies*beads*baking*

I am taking a quick paper break...the awful paper I have not been looking forward to, but trying to view in a positive light! Once I am done with this paper I am another step closer to finalizing my Minnesota Teaching Certificate...woo-hoo! It is a little discouraging because right now it MN there are no teaching jobs, well not in Elementary! I do know however, that God is faithful and He has a wonderful plan! This made me think of all of my little "plans" I always come up with, and it made me laugh! I always come up with these ideas or plans (most of you reading this are probably laughing with me because you are familiar with Amanda plans) I for some reason always want to start my own business...crazy I know, but I do! My first idea was blossoms...yes I really was excited and believed I was going to open up a flower shop one day. While I do love flowers and enjoy creating arrangements, I wasn't sure exactly how to go about buying flowers and the business side became more apparent to me than the fun, creative side to it all. So then the next idea was babies...no not having babies (well yes I do want to have babies, that just wasn't the idea for the business plan) the idea was to sell homemade baby clothes! I always think of ideas for baby clothes that are funky, fun, cute, and unique...I think it is the artist in me! Adding fabric, buttons, sequins, and other embellishments to onsies or pants just gets me excited thinking about it, and then reality hits me...I don't know how to sew! I took apparel in High School and our project was pajama pants...I stapled my together and the teacher gave me an A...she had seen me on the sewing machine apparently! So again, another one of my ideas/plans gone bad. I will have you know I made some onsies for one of my good friends Brittany's baby (who is the MOST BEAUTIFUL baby EVER... not even kidding!) just recently, and I thought they turned out pretty cute! I sewed three buttons on one of them...they were just for decoration, not to actually be able to button...wow I wouldn't even know how to begin doing that! The other one was more Amanda style because I busted out the hot glue gun instead of a needle and thread! I found this gorgeous fabric and cut a heart out of it, and glued around the edges of the heart so it would stick to the onsie. Then I used pink puff paint and outlined the heart to make sure it was really going to stick! Maybe not selling at a store worthy, but I bet Anna Grace will look just stunning in it :) Okay onto the next idea...beads (and also spoons, but I wanted the title to have all B's for some reason, and spoons would have messed that up!) I wanted to make jewelry, and my first thought was beads. I quickly learned I don't love working with beads, it takes a lot of concentration and patience. So I moved onto spoons...here is the one I really was serious about! I called my mom the day I had this thought and started brainstorming store names and thought about ordering these cute tanks for all of my employees to wear when we went to craft stores to sell my spoon jewelry! Well I found out some spoons break really easily when you try to bend them, and some you couldn't get to bend even if you tried hammering! I am pretty sure there are tools out there I would need, and one day I think I will get really serious about this idea! :) For now, onto my next and newest GREAT idea...I dreamed about it all last night...it was fabulous! BAKING...I want to make cookies, cupcakes, cakes, brownies, and all things sweet! I love the cookies and cupcakes that are fun and decorated and almost look too pretty to eat (I usually get over that, and dig in!) Again I think it is the artist in me that draws me to those things! Now I know most of you are thinking...oh no Amanda and sweets, bad idea! Don't worry I did the math and found that my absolute love for sweets + my lack of self-control = 424 pounds... and since I want to live to see my grandkids, baking is now out of the picture! Okay well maybe not out of the picture because I am super excited for what I am making tomorrow (chocolate chip cookie dough brownies with chocolate ganache) and I do just love to bake, but I guess the baking business plan is out! Who knows maybe one day I will remember all of my crazy ideas and plans and decide to put them all together in one store and call it All Things B, or something more creative...hmmm...this could be the new plan :)

I guess until then...back to the paper!