Scrapping. photos. life. by Jessica

Grandma

2011-11-11T14:46:00.000-05:00

My grandma passed away last week. Thursday, November 3, 2011.

We just got back yesterday evening from driving up to Michigan for the funeral. It was the first time our entire family was together in years. While I can't stop thinking about how much Grandma would have loved to be there with us all together, and how much I wanted to go there and just have her be there and be able to do the fun things we did with her, and to tell her I love her so much, and to get one of her warm squishy hugs. The shock of her really being gone is so unfathomable to me. I miss her dearly. The past couple of weeks have been so emotionally hard for me and the rest of the family. While we all knew Grandma was old and didn't know how much longer she had, we just weren't ready for her to go (how can you ever be?). To realize that a person that has been a constant through out your entire life is gone and it is so hard to deal with that fact. You feel like your grandparents are always going to be there, like they can't die, you want them to live forever. But what's reality can be heart breaking. Everything has seemed like a whirlwind these past 14 days.

All I can say is, I have a hole in my heart, a part of me is gone, someone that brought so much laughter and joy to my life is gone. She was such a fun and witty little grandma. The many times she'd take us to Frankenmuth when we were little, and the times she'd joke around with us, I will cherish these memories, for it's all I have to hold on to. I can't stop thinking how I just wish I would have called her more, and would have called her just a few days before it all happened when I thought to. Wished I would have held her more each visit we had with her, and told her how much I love her. The only thing that can help me through this is God's comfort and peace. He's the only reason we can get through these times.

Grandma I love and miss you beyond words!

In memory of Letha Luella Furnish

I threw this layout together quickly to have on display at her funeral.

You are a blessing

2011-09-18T14:50:00.002-04:00

Hello there! I feel so out of date on my blog these days. I've wanted to get back on track, but my life doesn't seem to always go how I want to. And scrapping seems so distant to me, I've wanted to get back in the swing of that as well. I've imagined for so long scrapping little girl pages of my daughter. But it seems even a little harder to find the time to, now taking care of three children. I love my life as a mom and having three wonderful children, but it can be challenging at times. Feeling like I'm being pulled 3 directions at one time! Ha! Yup! But that isn't always the culprit, I think it's just plain, I am lazy sometimes and don't want to do anything or feel motivated or creative. Yup, I have let things go in my house more then I ever thought I would, and I feel even more lazy now. I think I need to snap out of it and get back before I let that take over! Yikes!

I had been trying to think of a different way to document and scrap for Luella. But for now I'm just doing pages . I have some ideas of what I want to do, but it seems when I want to do things a certain way it doesn't always happen. So we'll see. This is a page I actually created maybe a month or so ago??

Elements used are all from Greener Grass Designs.

Our baby girl!

2011-07-29T23:51:00.002-04:00

Hello there!! Okay, so I had meant to post pictures ALOT sooner. But things have been busy with 3 kids now. It's funny that my last post was on June 9th, and I had my baby girl the next day!

I had a wonderful birth experience a very fast labor (for me), and my first water birth!

Our baby girl arrived on June 10th at 2:40 pm.

weighing 7lbs 3oz

18 3/4 inches long.

She came out with her eyes wide open looking at mommy, her color was great, pink and beautiful, my midwife explained her as being "lovely" on her vital sheet. When we found out she was a girl I squealed with joy! I got to find out first by looking! My midwives were amazing. Everything was perfect! I still can't believe I finally have my baby girl!! We are just overjoyed and thrilled to have her in our life, she's such a blessing!! We are so in love with her! Her big brothers love her so much and ask to hold her all the time!! We praise God for her!

2 pages

2011-06-09T20:23:00.001-04:00

Hi! I did these two pages earlier in the week. It's felt good to get some scrapping done. And while I'm waiting for this baby to come, I figured I'd go ahead and get my pages done for June. I am 39 weeks today!! ONE more week until DUE day!!! So crazy! Maybe if I get more opportunities I'll get some more scrapping in! I'm really trying to keep the swelling down in my feet (they look horrible) so sitting here at the computer isn't the greatest thing for me. Even if I prop my feet up on the computer tower and speaker thing it's not elevating them high enough to do much, and very uncomfortable for me. So maybe next time I post there will be news of a baby!!! :) We're so excited to meet baby Keller!

[Credits]

38 weeks!

2011-06-04T16:00:00.001-04:00

Hey there! I figured I'd show some pictures of my HUGE belly!

It's funny to hear the different opinions of people on what they think I'm having. Like strangers that matter of factly think I'm having a boy or girl! One week I could be in a store and have 2 or 3 different people say that they totally think I'm having a boy and then the next week I could have 2-3 people say that they really think it's a girl! Haha! People are funny!

We'll find out soon enough! In the meantime I'm a lady in waiting, ha!

Another page

2011-05-30T00:22:00.001-04:00

Hey! I guess I'm on a creative streak! Glad I'm actually getting some scrapping in... I know I need to get caught up, since I've been behind on scrapping for the Greener Grass Designs creative team. I figured I'd better do it now, and get some pages behind me before the baby comes.

So I'm excited that I've gotten two pages done in two days! Yay!

What did you do/doing this Memorial weekend?? We haven't really been doing anything, other then just staying home. I cleaned our pool out today from it just being filled last week, because we had a bunch of storms come through that blew a TON of stuff into the pool and it was getting slimy! Eeew! It's been so hot, like SUMMER hot! I can't stand it already, so I wanted to soak in the pool, but I didn't get it filled till towards this evening, so when I finally did get in with my son, the water was FREEZING! It will warm up some in no time though with this hot weather!

[Credits]

Buddies

2011-05-29T00:46:00.001-04:00

Hello there,

It seems forever since I've scrapped anything. I think I've been grieving the loss of many, many photos and digital elements that I just couldn't bring myself to scrap... that and I am limited to how much I can scrap b/c of low memory on our computer. Anyway, I was really excited to use Christina's new kit "Over the River" because I thought it was so cute. Unfortunately the pictures I wanted to use for this kit I do not have now, because our external hard drive being damaged. So I thought I'd see what pictures I did have to use and make do. So I thought using these pictures of Isaac and his friend would work well.

[Credits]

I'm down to only 2 1/2 weeks until my due date for the baby. I'm both excited and nervous. I always get nervous about approaching the labor and delivery stage. I know the Lord will see me through it, and I need to lean on him for strength. I can't believe how fast these past couple of months have went. So crazy! Soon, we'll meet our little one!

birth and beyond

2011-05-05T00:18:00.000-04:00

Hi there, I've been wanting to share some links on homebirth/natural births and such. Mostly just because I've been watching so many women's birth videos and reading different stories, just because I find if interesting and like to find out anything new or to give me more insight on things. And because I am nearing my due date in just 6 weeks! I find it fun to look up these things to help me to prepare again (mentally) for sometimes what is the "unknown" when you have a child. All births are different and sometimes it's hard to know what to expect. If any of you are uncomfortable with seeing/reading about women giving birth and showing some nudity, I do not suggest you click on these links or watch them. Some of this is touching to me and almost every time I watch another ones birth or read about it I cry. Almost every time when the baby is born and the mom is holding it in complete joy and triumph, like angels are singing Hallelujah! Gets me every time. Ha! I think every woman's birth story is amazing no matter where or how you gave birth. Some I know are tragic and my heart goes out to those that have struggled. I in no way force any opinions or beliefs I have, but rather I like to be educated and informed.

These videos I think are so beautiful-

http://vimeo.com/10342724
http://vimeo.com/22516404
http://vimeo.com/21618813

Here is an interesting article written by a midwife-

http://erinmidwife.com/2011/03/31/if-i-were-at-home-i-would-have-died/

Ultrasound

2011-04-22T23:57:00.000-04:00

Hey there! Here is a page I created awhile back, I think the end of March??

There were some things that needed tweaking on it, so I added a few things and changed some stuff. So now I think I have it done. It's so amazing to me to think that I am due in 8 weeks and will be holding this little one soon!! I'm so excited!

Quilt project

2011-04-14T01:08:00.001-04:00

Remember the quilting fabric I showed you awhile back? Well, Here is the rest of the fabric I ended up purchasing to go with the quilt. I got my fabric from Here & Here. This is Michael Miller fabric, by Sandi Henderson designs in Meadow Sweet. I love these prints!

So I began on the rest of the quilt today. I needed to cut all these 1/2 yards into 2 1/2 inch strips.

I decided to make my quilt with 10 different prints instead of the 12 that the lady suggests where I'm following the pattern from.

This strawberry & polka dot patterns I am leaving out and thinking of making something else with it! I really love these two together!

So here's all my strips cut.

My next steps were to pair 5 different strips together to sew and then cut into blocks.

I was a little concerned that things wouldn't look right because of the many different prints and variations in the fabric. I didn't want it to look tacky and overwhelming. And maybe to some it does.

But once I started getting all the strips paired, I could see how it would look fine. (Maybe I'm not a good judge of that though). Ha!

Here's my pile of strips waiting to be sewn together!

Here is my first set of five sewn. I only got four more of these done today. And once I'm done with the pairing and sewing the strips, they will then be cut into 10x10 blocks.

I really liked all the prints and I almost didn't want to cut them in such skinny strips because I felt like it took away too much of the image of the whole thing. But it was actually relaxing and fun cutting and seeing it come together! I'm excited to get further on it and see it all put together into one thing!

Projects + Progress

2011-04-14T00:39:00.001-04:00

Hey there!!

I finally have some pictures of something to share! Ha!

I'm trying to get these posted before I fall asleep! I am dead tired! Anyway, I have several little projects going right now and others that I'd like to begin.

I purchased some yarn from here a while back. So here's what I'm doing with it!

This yarn above is some I just bought thinking of possibly making baby hats or booties or something out of. We'll see if I can master any of those! as I'm a beginner with knitting!

With this yarn, I'm doing a baby blanket! The colors are white and sweet potato! I love orange right now! And thought this would work fine for either boy or girl! This is the yarn I'm using.

First several rows knitted! I love working with this yarn! It's SO soft! I'm making this knowing that there will be little mistakes along the way. But with this being my first major knitted project, I'm okay with that! And since this is such an easy stitch to do and nothing complicated, it's just the same knit throughout the whole blanket, I wasn't too scared to dive into it! The pattern for it is Here. I love that blog for inspiration! And since I've joined Ravelry, I've really been inspired and love all the free patterns and helpful tips I can find on there!

I have discovered that one thing that's really slowing me down with this project are that my hands and arms have been going numb and get very painful. I loose feeling and it starts to tingle and ache so bad!! Which really bums me out! Cause I really could get this done much faster if it weren't for that! So I've been praying through this project!

3 pages

2011-03-25T17:46:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday! What are your plans for the weekend? I've been trying to get my house in order to no avail. I get one thing done and turn around and there's just more messes made right behind me! I am moving slower these days I think, I get exhausted alot faster and just get so tired. Not too much longer to go before we meet our sweet little one! I am officially in my 3rd trimester now!! Whoohoo!

[Supplies used]

Grandma's Daffodils

2011-03-16T00:21:00.000-04:00

Hello there! I know it's been forever since I've posted. I guess I haven't had a whole ton of time to scrap these days... or maybe just haven't taken the time. Anyway. Here's a page I thought would be bright and cheery and springy! And since the daffodils are starting to bloom here already, I was inspired!

A little bit of love pages...

2011-02-11T11:30:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday!! Hope you all are well!! Me and my family got sick earlier in the week, so we've been hanging at home all week. I had a really good day where I was feeling pretty good, so I took the opportunity to scrap! Now, we just have lingering coughs and congestion.. yuck! Ha!

So here are two pages I did.

[Credits]

2 pages

2011-02-02T18:58:00.000-05:00

Hello there! Here's a couple pages I made a few days ago.

[Credits]

Sewing projects

2011-01-25T18:14:00.000-05:00

Hello! I'm sharing a few projects here that I had mentioned in a before post. I tackled and completed one today and began the other one.

This fabric below is what I used for....

This boppy pillow! I found a pretty easy pattern to follow that I purchased here, and had this sewn up in no time! This fabric pretty much has all the colors I love in it.

The underside is a lighter green to coordinate with the shades of green in the printed fabric.

It didn't totally turn out as perfect as I wanted to. But because the pattern is like a "sham cover" it's something you slip onto the pillow (no zippers or velcro) so it got pretty wrinkled looking by the time I got it on the pillow.

Here's the fabric I showed the other day.

Of which I am making a quilt out of! Which I found an awesome step-by-step tutorial on this blog... That I think I may actually be able to make!!! (I am not a quilter or a very good one by any means).

Here are six of the colors cut in strips. I'm not totally decided on whether or not I'm going to use the other two that I decided to hold off on cutting. When I purchased the fabric they were out of stock on several of the prints I really wanted. So I threw in the last two, but I wasn't totally fond of them. So I'm thinking I may wait until the fabric I really want to go with this is in stock or if I can find it elsewhere.

I'll show more on this as the project progresses! Have a wonderful evening!

Christmas tree 2009

2011-01-22T19:36:00.000-05:00

My previous page I did with these photos really just wasn't me or something about it didn't strike me, so I redid them and turned it into a two pager since I had more photos I wanted to use.

[Credits]

Fabric

2011-01-22T12:40:00.000-05:00

I ordered some material for a project I'm wanting to do. I have another one I'm going to be working on soon as well... I'll show some on that later.

Our little family

2011-01-22T01:11:00.001-05:00

Hello there! I'm finally getting some scrapping done! YAY! (into the late hours, eek!!). I am so thankful I had these pictures on an abandoned layout that I never really did anything with, they were just thrown on the blank paper document to be scrapped. And if it wasn't for that, I would not have these pictures. These were among the ones that we lost. So I am so happy to scrap them!! I had already messed with the sizing and editing of the photos way back when, so I couldn't do much to them far as that. So they were a little amateur on that part. Haha! But anyway, all the same.. here they are!

[Credits]

First day of school

2011-01-12T18:31:00.000-05:00

Here is a page I created a few months ago. I had scrapped it several different ways and then got frustrated with it and left it. So I just recently got it up again and realized I kind of liked it! Ha! So with a few "tweaks" I finished it. Maybe I need to do that more, leave a page that's not going well or I don't like and then come back to it later and maybe I'll like it better!

[Credits]

Sweet Maggie

2010-12-31T01:02:00.000-05:00

Hello there! I know it's been a while since I've posted. It's been a little on the crazy side lately. I trust everyone had a most joyous Christmas. I feel bad I didn't change my banner to anything Christmasy or post any Christmas pages really. I really didn't scrap all month. Bad me. So I am SO behind and I need to get my tush in gear and scrap!! This month has seemed to fly. I'm already in the swing of my second trimester in my pregnancy, so things are progressing! :) Did I mention before on here that I'm expecting?? I don't remember! Yup, due in June!!!!

Here's a page of my niece and I in November when they came for Thanksgiving.

Credits

May you all have a very blessed New Year 2011!!!

2 layouts

2010-12-01T01:28:00.000-05:00

Ahh, I'm so late at getting these out. Thanksgiving week I didn't do any layouts... too busy and too much going on. I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday!!

This page I seriously tried scrapping these photos on about six different layouts... I was NOT coming up with anything I liked... I find it challenging lately for me to scrap a lot of pictures. I have more from this day too. but I am still not settled on this page. I pretty much spent the entire day trying to scrap these! I think I have scrappers block!! I hate that! When I feel like no matter how hard I try, nothing seems to look good.

~Credits~

This page I put together really fast. I saw a super cute page over at Creative Inspiration blog, and I really wanted to do something like it, but instead mine is pretty much totally different. I may have to try it with just one photo. And now it's SOOO late, I need to get to bed!!

~Credits~

3 pages

2010-11-23T14:32:00.000-05:00

Here are 3 pages I did last week.

[Credits]

Sweet Talk by Makita Studio

2010-11-19T13:44:00.000-05:00

Hello, today I am sharing a sneak peek of a kit by Makita Studio (Dahlia Co), her kit will be released this Tuesday 11/23. This kit is super cute. I loved that it has so many things I can use for keeping up with the things my boys have been saying or have said. And what's better is, she's having a giveaway!! You can go on over to her blog for the details to be entered and get a chance at winning this adorable kit! She'll be selecting 2 winners, and you can enter to win through the 22nd. So go enter yourself to win this cute kit and good luck!!!

Little Dreamer Creative Team!!!

2010-11-18T16:27:00.001-05:00

Hi there!!! I figured I'd better share my latest news... though a little late on announcing this, but last week I found out that I was selected to be on the Little Dreamer Designs Creative Team!!! I'm soo thrilled and feel blessed to be on it. But I don't think it's totally hit me yet that I'm a part of it!! I'm just starting out but it's been fun so far! I've done a page and am working on another, unfortunately I can't show what I've been doing yet.... but will show next week! :)

So hope you all are having a fabulous day!!! Blessings to you all!!!

Snowscape snowflakes

2010-11-06T13:30:00.000-04:00

Happy Saturday and Happy Digital Scrapbooking day! Here is a page I created using Christina's Snowscape Snowflakes that just came available in the Little Dreamer Designs Shoppe.

Hope you're all having a wonderful day!

Another page

2010-10-27T17:44:00.002-04:00

Man, we've had some crazy weather these past few days, right now it is POURING rain, seriously POURING! The temp has be unusually warm out and we've had rain, wind, thunder lightning and so forth!!! Crazy, but I love it!

So here's another page I created quite awhile back and never bothered to post.

Kits used:
Circle your date (tab used for the date)
Forest Explorer
Love hearts kit (Blue scallop)
Beach Bliss (clouds)
Raindrops & Butterflies kit (raindrops)
Floss Stitches
Travel Along templates
Travel along kit (orange paper)
Summertime Kit (Brown craft paper, background).

Late, but here they are...

2010-10-27T17:13:00.000-04:00

I created these pages earlier in the month and I guess I just kept putting off posting them. Not really in the mood these days. I first created the two pages to somewhat go together. But then the second page seemed like it was lacking something. So I messed with it some and then couldn't decide on what I wanted to keep.

I love how this first page turn out!

Kits used for this page: Happy Fall & Forest Explorer

But this second one just bugged me...

Kits used for this page: Happy Fall & Forest Explorer

So I made some adjustments and came up with this. I know that this one doesn't really go with the first one now, because I shrunk down the image sizes and added the stitching. While I like this look better for this page, I didn't want to do it with the first page. So I'm stumped, and I know that if I leave it like this and have it next to the other page, it will look a little odd.

Kits used for this page: Happy Fall & Forest Explorer

Other products used: Stitched by Anna White No. 2

Samuel's birthday invite

2010-09-27T23:49:00.000-04:00

This is the invitation I created for my son's 2nd birthday coming up. He looks so grown up to me now.... It's amazing what a hair cut can do! Can't believe my baby is already almost 2!!!

Friendship is a beautiful thing

2010-09-19T14:45:00.000-04:00

Hi there & happy Sunday to you! Today I had a little free time to do a page. I've actually tried scrapping these pictures about 5-6 times in so many different layouts... I've tried templates, in color and so forth. As much as I wanted to keep these pictures in color, it wasn't working for me. So sepia tone is the way to go! Ha! Seriously, once I changed them to that, the page pretty much just fell together. I wasn't limited to what colors I could use and I could just be free! That's how it felt! Like the colored photos were crippling me! Ha! And I really, really, liked the colored ones too! But none the less, here they are!

Again making use of the Forest Explorer kit. Hope you're having a fabulous Sunday!!

Me and my brother page

2010-09-15T00:42:00.000-04:00

Here is a page I did using Christina's new kit Forest Explorer. Not exactly the kind of pictures I planned on using for the kit, but I saw these and thought it'd be cute. The pictures were dark and not the greatest, so I used an action to give them that old seventies look.

Two pages

2010-08-27T22:38:00.000-04:00

It's been fun being a part of Christina's creative team. These two pages feature her newest kit, Subtle Memories. It's a really pretty kit!

When scrapping, I love it when things go together smoothly and fast. Like an idea will pop in my head and then I can create it and it turns out great! Well, lately things haven't been going like that for me. It's been more of, scrapping, unscrapping, rescrapping, and then repeat. I do not like it when things go like that. Because even when I do come up with my final page, it still feels like it's missing something.

This page went together pretty smoothly. But there were several changes made.

This one, I think I tried 3 or 4 different ways, and then pretty much went back to my original and just tweaked it some. Ha!

Parade & Fireworks

2010-08-26T01:55:00.000-04:00

I created this page a while ago. I think I really was struggling with liking it because the quality of the pictures are so bad. So it's not my favorite page, but I figured I better leave it alone after messing with it so many times.
Yikes!! It's soooo late, I haven't stayed up this late in a while, I better get to bed!!

{Credits}

Indecisive= two pages

2010-08-09T23:55:00.000-04:00

I figured after 5 + years I better get our wedding photos all scrapped. So I am on a quest to accomplish that feat.

I first created the page below... Because I was struggling with whether I liked it or not, I got a second opinion. My husband's (which sometimes can be a mistake) and he didn't like it so well. And I wasn't sure I totally liked it.

So along came page #2. (shown below). I got this one created and then had the two side by side and asked him which one he liked better. He said "hmm, I don't know, maybe I like the original one better now, I really don't know". And, I wasn't completely certain either. I like them both in different ways. I even asked my 4 year old son which one was his favorite, he at first said he liked the first one. And then he said he liked them both. So I asked him again to make a final decision and he said the first!! Ha! I don't always ask opinions on my pages, cause if I really like it and am settled, then I leave it, but if I'm uncertain, I guess I like another's opinion!

I like how this one shows more of the pictures whereas the top page cuts some of the images off. I tweaked and messed with them on the first page to try and show as much of the photos I could. So I am still undecided. I like the simplicity of this last one, but then I like the "funess" (if that's even a word!) of the first one!!! AHHH!!! I spent way too much time on these I think. I hate when I get stuck in a rut when scrapbooking. I have worked off and on on these for a few days now and I think I just need to leave them both alone, and come back to them some time from now... and we'll see which one I actually end up printing!!! :) Maybe I'll change them altogether! That's the fun of digital, you can change anything!! But not always good for me because I have such a hard time making a decision at times!! And really the two pages aren't too different from each other. Ones just sideways and the other horizontal with a little more simplicity.

I guess because these pictures are of our wedding, I am really picky at how I want them to be. So that's part of my problem.

For both of these pages I used:

Love Hearts Kit

Love Hearts Quotes

And for the top page I also used:

Love Hearts Templates

Family

2010-08-06T20:35:00.000-04:00

Here I am with another layout! Using most everything from different kits from Greener Grass Designs and some fun stitching I got free today from Little Dreamer Designs.

I had a hard time with this page. I was afraid I was loosing my steam for creating already. But after a few "facelifts" later, I finally came up with this. I guess I like it, but I'm not totally sold on it. Sometimes I just have pages like that. Where something about it bothers me, but I'm just not sure what!? Anyway I like the fun bright colors and the lazy summer feel it has.

Batter Up!

2010-07-26T01:09:00.000-04:00

Here's a layout I created of Isaac from last year when he learned how to hit a ball with a bat.

Sometimes, my pictures don't turn out good, or I have my camera set on the wrong setting when I want to snap something real quick to capture the moment. So sometimes, all I have to show for certain moments is a blurry or less than perfect picture. And if that's all I have, I will use it to scrap! I've learnt (the hard way), to cherish (not that I didn't) each and every single picture I do have to show for my children's life. After loosing thousands upon thousands of photos, each picture I do have of them, mean SO SO much to me.

Beach Bliss kit

2010-07-25T01:42:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone!

Here I am with a couple fun layouts I just created yesterday! From our recent trip up to Michigan we had a couple wonderful opportunities to head up to Lake Huron while there. So needless to say, I have lots of pictures to scrap! I had the thought that I would really like some new fun beach themed digital elements to compliment the beach pictures! So I asked my sister-in-law, Christina if she wouldn't mind coming up with something! And she got to work right away! And came up with this cool new kit called, Beach Bliss!

It's been lots of fun to play with! Thank-you, Christina!

I'm now on Christina's Creative Team. I am to create two layouts a month featuring her kits as they come out! Here are a couple pages I've done with the Beach Bliss kit.

Samuel

2010-07-17T00:23:00.000-04:00

Here is a page I created this evening. It was a lot of fun to create! Sometimes if I have an idea fresh in my mind I have to scrap it right away, otherwise I forget my thoughts on what I wanted to do and express in the layout.

I love this picture of Samuel. This is one of SEVERAL consecutive pictures I took of him on this lounging chair, I want to scrap the others... I'll have to figure what I'm going to do with those to have them go along with this page. Using the different words to describe his character was a lot of fun! I could have added more, but didn't want to overdo it. I really wanted to use the word "exuberant" instead of "energetic", but it didn't look as good as "energetic" looks in that place. So, unless I think of some other way to put it on there or maybe on another page, I'll just leave it as is for now.

Water Sand Sunshine

2010-07-11T13:00:00.000-04:00

Over at the Creative Inspiration blog they posted a challenge. It was suppose to be for Saturday, but I uploaded my image anyway today on Sunday. I've never done it before, so I guess that was ok. You're suppose to base your layout from this one (which is totally cute!), and put it in their Saturday Scraplift gallery.

So this is what I came up with!

Silly sisters

2010-07-11T01:01:00.000-04:00

Hey ya'll! Here's another page I created! I know, I can't believe I've been on a role with creating! Well, maybe not on a role, but at least my creative juices are flowing! :)

And when that happens I have to take advantage of it, before it goes away! Otherwise, I just can't create anything I like.

These were just some goofy pictures of my sister, Jackie, sister-in-law, Carrie and I back in April. It's fun doing something random. I used more of Christina's digi sets. Lots of fun to work with! :)

Beautiful Friendship

2010-07-02T16:57:00.000-04:00

GASP!!!! It's me!! And YES, I created a page!!!! First one in MONTHS!!! Wow, it feels good! I wanted to use some new stuff I recently got. So I thought these pictures of my friend, Bekah and I, would be fun to do. These pictures are from our recent trip to Michigan.

It had been so long since I created anything, it kind of felt foreign to me at first. But it didn't take long for me to get the swing of things again. I used some fun digi stuff from Christina's Greener Grass Designs kits.

Scrappers block and links...

2010-05-12T00:41:00.003-04:00

Wow, yeah, it's true, I seriously think that's what I've had... It's been a LONG time since I've posted anything. So much as gone on in my life these days. I guess I sometimes I feel guilty if I spend too much time on the computer trying to scrap instead of taking my role as a mother. So I try and put off the things that are "me time" during the day so that I can spend the time with my children or take care of things around the house.... However, when I have gone to scrap or take time, nothing has looked right to me, I am just not satisfied with anything I've scrapped lately. So I have come to the conclusion that I have scrappers block, and I sure hope it doesn't last any longer, cause I don't like it!

I know I don't have any pages to share with you, but I do have some links to some videos I think you might enjoy (especially you moms out there! ;).

This first one is taken from the "Love Story" song by Taylor Swift. So if you haven't seen her music video, you'll want to watch that first to get the full effect of where this take on it is coming from. I think it's just great and so funny, and true!! Haha!

(A More Real) Love Story

And this one is just, well, plain HILARIOUS!! Haha!!

SWAGGER WAGON

Trust me, you'll have this tune in your head after watching this!! :)

So I hope those give you a little laugh for the day!

I do hope to get back in the swing of things after I can bite this scrappers block off!! I just need to push myself. I've been looking at different peoples blogs for inspiration and I've had some ideas, I just need to put them into action!

Hope to be back with a post of something creative SOON!!

You are my life

2010-03-12T00:21:00.000-05:00

Hello there! How has your week gone? With the exception of celebrating my husband's birthday on Monday, my week was pretty uneventful... Mostly getting over the nasty thing that me and my oldest son had, and then my youngest son ended up getting it. So I've been having to clean up puke and diarrhea, my poor baby! I absolutely hate when my boys get sick. I am just praising God for healing them!

We did have GEORGEOUS weather this week, in the 60's & 70's! I loved it and the boys loved it!! They got to play outside quite a bit! I opened windows one day, and I even did some raking in our yard yesterday! (we have a lot of yard work ahead of us I've realized!). But I'm wondering if I got into some kind of poison oak or ivy or something, b/c I've been itching like crazy today! Hmmm.

So now it's rainy, chilly and nasty out... But that's signs of Spring, right??? I can't wait for thunderstorms!!

Plans for a garden have been dancing around in my head lately.... I need to do some research and figure out what all I need to do to have a successful garden, I don't want to have it all die on me!

This is a page I created last evening. When I was going through my digital supply stash for what I wanted to use on this page, I realized something.... I had purchased a kit quite a while back from Little Dreamer, and hadn't really used it yet. When I was looking through the folder I have with the digital papers in it, I realized that I didn't have all of the papers that it showed in the set, I then realized I hadn't downloaded the whole set since I purchased it! So all this time I only had part of it! I'm kind of a dork! I felt like an idiot! I was like "duhh, Jessica that's why I didn't have all the stuff that came with it". I know every time I went to that folder and wanted to use the stuff out of it, it seemed it was lacking, and maybe another reason why I was just not getting any good ideas for using what I had of it! So after that moment of stupidity, I downloaded the rest of the set and got to work on this page!! There is a lot of stitching on this page, and I like that!! I am just really into stitching lately! If you haven't noticed?! Ha!

Anyway... I FINALLY got my March/April issue of CK today (since when have they combined the months??? are they going to do that from now on so there isn't as many issues???) I don't think I'm that crazy about that idea. Anyway, so much has seem to change with that magazine, and I can't say I'm extremely impressed with all I've seen recently... Hoping maybe they'll improve down the road. I do still love to get the magazine though. I have always been excited to get it and look through it for inspiration.

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Blissful Love + crazy life------Warning.... LONG POST!

2010-03-04T19:56:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything. But I want to thank those of you that are still faithful to leave me comments and visit my blog, old and new visitors! Thank you!

A lot has been happening here. It's been a roller coaster of emotions. It has taken me a while to even bring myself to scrap or do much with my pictures. I've had something pretty devastating happen to me. I haven't even wanted to blog, or talk about it much. Let's just say that something precious, irreplaceable, priceless, all memories I had to show for mid 2007 through to mid 2009 are gone.

A while back my husband took the pictures off our computer and put them on an external hard drive. Because our computer was getting low on memory and was running really slow. He didn't back them up on dvd's or anything else like I had asked him to do. I went to use the external hard drive one day to get some pictures off for scrapping. And to my dismay, my 16 1/2 month old son picked it up, and threw it on the floor.

I picked it up and heard something rattle in it. I didn't think a whole lot about it at first, I guess I just thought it would be okay, or I was just too scared to find out for sure if it was going to work. But when my husband went to hook it up to the computer, it would not recognize it. It made a funny noise. He worked on it for awhile to try and get it to work. But nothing.

I was devastated.

I was in shock.

I started thinking of all the pictures we had on there, and what ones we still had on our computer. I realized ALL pictures from when my son Samuel was born were on that, all of his baby pictures, his first Christmas, every month of his life leading up to July of 2009 was gone. Other special events and moments flashed through my mind. My son, Isaac's 2nd and 3rd birthday, gone.

I cried.

I got fearful.

I felt like I lost someone very dear to me.

And what was more worse, most of those pictures I hadn't hardly even begun to touch to scrapbook.

I had just recently decided to really get myself into scrapping and going back to those ones and get them scrapped.

Now I can't.

My husband called a guy the next day, a local guy that specializes in recovering hard drive data. He sounded slightly hopeful.

We had another little hard drive we knew had some pictures from 2007 on it, and that hard drive wasn't broken, it just needed a special adapter that we no longer had to hook up to our computer to retrieve what we had on it.

He came the next day and picked up both hard drives.

Thankfully he had a cord he loaned us to use on the little hard drive, so we can get the pictures that were on that. But with the other one, he said it was beyond his capability.

he said there is a 95% chance that if we send it into a data recovery place they can get our pictures off it for us. But it's very expensive. Hundreds to possibly thousands of dollars to get fixed.

One more thing he tried, was to try and and retrieve the deleted pictures off our hard drive on our actual computer. But since so much time had gone by since the pictures had been deleted off our computer, it wasn't likely to get a whole ton of them. Because the longer you use your computer after you've deleted stuff off it the more likelihood of them being overwritten. And of course it writes over the biggest files first. Which would be our pictures and any videos.

Most of what he retrieved were small pictures, too small to do anything with. But there was a handful that were from the lost ones that I was happy he retrieved.

But just a small handful, compared to the THOUSANDS, and THOUSANDS of pictures we had on that hard drive.

I am praying.

I am hoping.

I am asking God.

Thanking him.

Praising him.

For the recovery of these precious pictures.

I don't know when we'll be able to send the hard drive in and what we'll find out, but I'm just praying that it will be good news and that I will one day have those pictures in my possession again.

Through it I thought of what it would be like to have your house burn down, and you loose everything. I think I felt somewhat like that. I mean, one day they'll all be gone and burn up anyway. But while I'm still alive on this earth and my children and children's children, I want to have those pictures. To remember, to reflect. Because that's all I have to show for that part of our lives, is just pictures. And sometimes we don't remember things unless we have a picture that shows for that moment.

I created this page today. They are pictures from Valentine's day. I've had some new digital supplies sitting in my folders for a while now, but haven't touched them until today. Like I said it took me a while to bring myself to scrap. It's just been hard. But I've realized how I really need to work harder on my bad habits. Like procrastination. Because if I wasn't like that, and was on top of things all the time. Then I could have already had those lost pictures scrapped. But I am not like that, and I didn't have them scrapped. So there's nothing I can do about it now. Other than just try to be better at it now. To not keep putting it off.

So on top of all that going on. We've been through some other crazy things lately.

We were without heat in our house for over a week. (long story). Our oil tank leaked. We lost all of our oil for heating. We had just had it filled a week before it happened. Thankfully, we were able to get a used tank from someone for 50 bucks. But we were still out the oil we lost. AND top of ALL of that, my son, Isaac & I got sick earlier this week . Some kind of stomach virus thing. It was not fun. Praise the Lord we are much better today!

I just thank the Lord for his faithfulness and seeing us through these trying and stressful times. Knowing that he's always there for us and can help us through these times is a wonderful feeling.

So if you got through this super long wordy post, Thank you for taking the time to read it!

"The Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." Psalm 18:2

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident." Psalm 27:1-3

"Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord."

Psalm 27:14

Have a wonderful rest of your week and weekend!

Being me

2010-02-10T00:09:00.000-05:00

Here's a layout that I did a while ago. I have hesitated to post it because I wasn't sure I really wanted to.

I have changed it many times, and I'm not sure if this is going to remain this way, so we'll see if I change it yet again. Ha! It's hard for me because I don't normally scrap pictures of just myself, especially when I don't like the way I look... but after all that's kind of the whole point of this page is, breaking through that apprehension of scrapping about myself, no matter how unhappy I am with how I look.

5 years ago today!

2010-02-05T21:27:00.000-05:00

Today my husband and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! I wanted to get this post out sooner or have it scheduled, but I didn't get a chance to. Anyway thought I would share some pictures from our wedding day! We've been so blessed over the years and God has seen us through so much! We are so thankful for all he has given us and done for us!

It's so funny to think that on our wedding day it was about 70 degrees and beautiful out! And today on the same day five years later it's crazy snowy white, icy/rainy and very nasty out! We've had so much snow this year!

Thanks for stopping by to share in our 5th anniversary! Blessings to you all! :)

Attention Jane Austen fans!

2010-02-03T13:37:00.002-05:00

For those of you who like Jane Austen, I thought I would share a link with you! They have redone Emma, and have made it into a longer version. It's aired on TV through PBS (I think) each Sunday evening. You can also watch the full length shows of it online through Masterpiece Theater (for those of us who don't watch tv or have cable or satellite). My sister and I have watched the first episode together, and it was 2 hours long!! You can now watch the second episode online now as well. I plan to soon. I just have to say that I really like this one! I have always liked Emma, and I am so happy they've made a longer version of it! I really like the characters in this one. Except, I have to admit, no one plays Mr. Knightley as good as Jeremy Northam. So although the Mr. Knightley in this new version isn't quite as good as the 1996 version, he still does a good job and I do like him quite well. I won't give too many details, but I would highly recommend you watch this!! I just love Jane Austen's stories and period films!! So pop yourself some popcorn, get cozy and enjoy!

blogiversary + Birthday

2010-02-01T12:33:00.000-05:00

A year ago today I started my blog! I really don't have anything special to do in celebration of it. But I do have two pages I did from my birthday. As you may notice the first page is a redo of my original I did a week or so ago. I really didn't like my original one I designed, I just felt like it wasn't me. So it was bugging me too much, I just had to redo it! There are a few others I've done recently that I'm in the process of redesigning because I just don't like them. I feel like because I was kind of forcing myself to get them scrapped, that I wasn't designing what I truly like and what my style is. And lately, I'm not totally sure what my style is, but I have noticed I really am liking more simple designs, nothing too complicated and stressful on the eyes. I like things to look CLEAN and well balanced I guess. White background, a few flourishes, stitching (maybe you're getting sick of seeing me use so much stitching?? I'm just really into it right now!).
And I really like adding color- making my layouts bright and cheerful!
For this page I was inspired by this layout.

And because I'm not use to using a lot of pink on my pages (since I mostly do pages of the boys) I really wanted the page with me to look girly! I don't get that many opportunities for that and to use PINK! And I have so badly wanted to use it! And these papers from Crystal were just that! Bright and cheerful, and pink! They're really simple and clean looking, I guess that's what attracted me to them, oh, and the hearts and poka dots! I've been getting most of my inspiration from HERE & HERE lately. Crystal has been featuring digi kits that were designed by her little sister on her blog for a special price for one week (info here). I think that's so sweet that she's helped her sister out by doing that and also for helping her in design! I think that's awesome when people are so selfless and are so willing to give of themselves and teach others. Just a good example of how God wants us to freely give to others. I'm really trying to have a positive outlook on different circumstances in my life, and trying to always think the best of others. Sometimes it can be difficult, but with the Lord's help, he can see me through these changes! :)

So anyway, thanks for taking the time to stop by and visit me today! And to celebrate my one year blogiversary!! Maybe I'll eat a piece of chocolate cake in celebration of it! And you can go ahead and eat some too! :-)
Speaking of anniversaries, my husband and I will be married 5 years this coming Friday, the 5th! I'm really looking forward to it! It will be the first time in a LONG time that we'll get to go out alone together, just the two of us, no kids.

Pure joy & side by side

2010-01-27T00:41:00.000-05:00

Hello, well here is my other page I did with the rest of the pictures I had of Samuel from the layout I did of him before. So this is the second page. There were just too many stinkin cute pictures of him, I had to use most of them! so this was how I decided to do it.

And here are the two pages side-by-side.

I wonder if maybe I don't have an updated version of Picasa, b/c I can't for the life of me figure out how to post two pictures at the same time??? There were NO options ANYWHERE, it would only let me do one at a time. So I just used regular blogger for posting these.

26 years of life

2010-01-26T00:41:00.000-05:00

Okay, honestly, I'm not sure if I like this page. I really am not too crazy about the last few pages I've done lately. But one thing I know is, that at least I'm scrapping them and getting them done! But I do want to like my pages and have a purpose for why I'm scrapping them. But I figure even if I get the things scrapped now and get them done with, I can always come back to them another time and redo them if I have a better idea for them.

This was from my birthday in December. I have more from that day, but I think I will scrap those on another page, or two. One thing I love about digital scrapping is it's soooo versatile and you can pretty much do whatever you what!! Redo it, and not have a torn up mess. You can change the colors of anything to have it match your layout, resizing anything you want whatever size you want, and if you have pictures from a certain day or event you can make multiple pages, (not that you can't do that with traditional), but it's just so much fun and easy! And who says you only have to have one page from that day?? Oh, the possibilities are endless!
P.S. this is my first time blogging from Picasa... Yeah, seriously, the FIRST. I've wanted to use Picasa so bad in the past but I could NEVER get it to work for me when I wanted to blog from it. So I just haven't tried in a really, really long time. So it's working now! Yay! But I don't notice as many options I normally have when going through regular blogger... Am I not noticing everything?
Dreamland is calling my name! Goodnight!

Picnic

2010-01-25T07:22:00.003-05:00

Here is a page I created last night of the boys and I, having our last picnic outside at our old house.

This page was a little challenging. It turned out differently than I first planned. Sometimes I find it difficult to use so many pictures on a layout. So I mostly just wanted the pictures to be the focal point of this layout. I kept it pretty simple. I tried adding other things (elements and such), but it just didn't look right.
Designer Digitals has this new kit out that I think I fell in love with! I really like it! It's a collaborative kit that several different designers contributed to, and Ali Edwards and Katie Pertiet are two of them, along with many others, I really like their work! All the proceeds go to the victims of the Haiti earthquake. While it's a little more than what I normally spend on a kit, I just might have to get it! But I can't this week. So I will have to wait. I have my eye on some other digital goodness I've seen lately as well!

Tupperware Mess + 2010 word

2010-01-24T01:26:00.000-05:00

Hello!! Here I am with another page!! Yup! I am really trying to force myself to get into a scrapping routine so that I can get some of my scrapping underway here. I just have way too many pictures and I feel SO FAR behind. And I am tired of procrastinating. So instead of really having an order of what I'm scrapping right now, I just go through my pictures and find ones I would like to scrap and go from there.

So this is a page of my sweet little baby back in the summer, I can't believe how young and little he was here and how FAST time has gone! It almost makes me want to cry! So this page went together rather fast. I kind of had an idea in mind. And these frames I purchased from Designer Digitals a few weeks back are nice for doing a quick page. I'm not totally sure if I'm sold on this page, I don't know, maybe it has to grow on me.

So ever since December I had been pondering on what my word for 2010 was going to be. I prayed about it and thought about it a lot. And nothing would come to me. So many things came to mind that I wanted to work on and change in my life. Last year my word was "grow", and in many ways I felt I didn't achieve that goal as much as I had hoped. But when I sat down and thought about it, I think the Lord showed me that I did grow, but not necessarily in the areas I expected to, but in the areas that the Lord needed me to! So it's amazing the things he shows us and ways he humbles us.

And while there are a lot of things I still carry from last year, things I want to change and work on in my life, as I'm sure there will always be some. It's not like everything magically disappears over night right when the clock turns midnight and the new year begins! Of course to God it's just another new day to serve him and follow him. And really, we should treat everyday like a new year, a day to start fresh, to be forgiven (if need be) and learn to forgive yourself (again, if need be), (A friend really encouraged me in this! You know who you are! ;) and move on throughout the day. Allow God to be our strength and might throughout the day.

Too many a time I find myself these days really getting down on myself for failing in the areas I really want to change in. Areas that I don't like about myself. If I make it a point to not give into these things throughout the day, and then fail to do so, I really, REALLY beat myself up about it. I have a little battle in my mind with myself. And I know I don't want to keep doing this over and over again. And I know the enemy wants to bring me down and get me depressed. But it's my choice to be depressed and let him get me down. And that's something I DO NOT want to give into. I know I will always be growing and changing and moving forward. But sometimes it's really frustrating when you feel like you're going through the same things everyday and feel like you're never going to learn. Like HOW MANY TIMES IS IT GOING TO TAKE ME BEFORE I GET IT THROUGH MY HEAD!?!

But really, it all comes down to overcoming. God wants us to be over comers of our bad habits, areas that aren't necessarily sin, but that could eventually become sin if we continue to hold onto it. And only by the Holy Spirit and God's strength can we overcome these habits in our lives.

And lately, there are just a lot of things I believe the Lord has shown me that I need to work on and change about myself.

There's' so many things that I want to work on.

I'm just tired of being a slacker and procrastinator and not being organized and punctual or have any kind of normal functioning routine... waiting until the last minute to do things, putting things off and waiting for that "perfect" time (in my mind) to come, which if I do that I will never finish all the things I want to.

I'm tired of getting upset with my boys and giving into anger and frustration.

I'm tired of being lazy, not giving myself a routine to go by each day. Sitting around doing nothing because I feel overwhelmed.

Feeling like a bad wife and mother. God wants me to love myself and be happy with who I am (not in a haughty and prideful way). But because I am a child of him and his creation, it is his will that we love ourselves and we love others and love him.
I want to give all I can and be all I can for HIM, to grow stronger and deeper in HIM and his truth. To be all he wants me to be. No more or no less. And this will be a continual thing throughout my entire life as I walk with HIM.
So during this past week, my word came to me. It was really cool too! I had been studying the word "STRENGTH" throughout this past week. I would look up different verses on it and then write them down. It was very encouraging. A VERY great word to study. If you ever want to study that word I highly encourage you too, or any word for that matter. It's just so encouraging to have a word to look up in the bible, read all the many verses on that word and write them down, it really helps for it to sink in. There were so many verses that really spoke to me and stuck out to me.

And while it was actually when I was reading a little daily inspirational book I have by Joyce Meyer when my word came to me. And I hadn't read this book in a long time, but thought I would open it and read some. So I read one page, and what was the word that stuck out???

CHANGE.

Yup.

simply.

CHANGE.

And that pretty much covers it all! Ha!

God wants me to change the areas of my life that I have allowed to become bad habits and that could become something even worse if I don't do something about it. And I want to change because I am unhappy with my bad habits and things I have given into.

And I realize this is a pretty big feat for me. And in some ways it kind of scares me. Because I know that this will take A LOT of discipline. And probably a lot of trial and error.

This verse was my last verse I wrote down for the week. And it really just spoke to me. So I want to share what I got from it.

Colossians 1:10-12 "That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;"

That I walk worthy of the Lord in ALL pleasing!

I sure don't feel like I do much.

To be fruitful in every good work and increasing in knowledge of God..

I sure want to be more like this!

strengthened with all might, according to God's GLORIOUS power, unto all patience and longsuffering with JOYFULNESS.

That's what I want to be, to be strengthened and to allow God's strength to strengthen me through his glorious power, and with patience I can get through these times and changes one at a time, instead of trying to change all at once..

While having the longsuffering of working through it all, and while going through it to have joyfulness and even more joyfulness coming out of it!

Whew!! Okay, so now I really wrote a book here. And I really don't know how many of you out there still visit me and my little blog, but for those of you few that do, THANK YOU! Thank you for taking the time to read all of this and what I have to say! I pray that God is showing you things and encouraging you in areas of your life that you would like to change or even make better! Because you CAN do ALL things through Christ which strengthens YOU!

I will end here.

Living life

2010-01-16T07:00:00.003-05:00

Hello there! Happy Saturday to you! I know I have been MIA a lot these days. So sorry about that!

I've just been trying to get my priorities right and be a good wife and mommy. However, I really have been wanting to scrap and I've felt like I've been in a rut for a really long time. I purchased some new stuff a few nights ago and really wanted to use it. I really haven't had a whole lot of chances to scrap, especially during the day, because I know if I do I will have my face stuck to the computer for TOO LONG and it will take away from my time with my boys and getting things done around the house. So I scrap at night, when I can get myself to stay up, but not always good, because I pay for it later! Anyway. I hope you all haven't forsaken me totally. I wanted to share this page I created last night of my son, Samuel.

He's always so full of life and energy and happiness! I just love this little man! I have more pictures I wanted to add to this and I wanted to add journaling. But I may just make another page that matches it so that I will have them side by side in an album, not necessarily a two-page spread attached but just two separate pages that go together or coordinate. I love all the bright cheerful colors in this layout! I think I am happy with how it turned out! I will decide later when I''m creating the other page if I want to change it any. So thanks for taking the time to visit me! And I hope you all forgive me for my absences... I know I had mentioned in some earlier posts that I wouldn't be posting quite as much, so hopefully you all understand!! Hope you have a terrific weekend!! God bless!

Here is a list of the elements I used for this page:
Bring on the Grunge Vol 2 - Lines
A Lovely Afternoon {Kit}
With Love
Stitched by Anna White No. 02
CurvyCorners Stitched Borders No. 01 12 X 12
Photo Clusters No. 16

Home remodeling- Part 3

2010-01-04T19:43:00.000-05:00

I think my posts are out of order, but all well. Anyway..

We painted the boys room shortly after we moved in. Here are a few before pictures. They're really dark and bad looking, but none the less here they are..

The lighter blue "splotch" was the blue we first bought, but didn't like it. So we went with the darker color.

This is the view of their room from their doorway standing in the hallway.

Once in, to the left is the dormer window which is painted with a really light pretty pastel blue.

Then to the right is the other end of the room with closet.

A few more views of the dormer window...

A view standing in the room looking to the wall with their door into the hallway. There will eventually be a regular size bed put where the crib is. We're thinking of a bunk bed with a full size bottom bed. We also need to change out the light switches, outlets and plates to white. We will be buying furniture and other things like a rug for their room in a few months.

Home remodeling- Part 2

2010-01-04T19:26:00.000-05:00

Here are some more views of the room.

This one is kind of dark, sorry.

My cutie looking out the window!

Matthew repainted our fan light. This is what it looked like before. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the whole thing up close before he took it down. But you get the idea of what it looked like.

It was an interesting color.

And here it is after!!

I think it looks much better black! It's amazing what $3 can do!! And it looks like we bought a new fan!

A view of the room with the "new" black fan light.

Home remodeling- Part 1

2010-01-04T19:08:00.002-05:00

Hello there and Happy 2010!!!! Wow, it's crazy to think we're already to '10! I hope you all did something fun to ring in the new year! We had a little party here at our house with family and a couple friends, lots of yummy snacks and fun games! I feel like I'm still living in last year and I need reality to hit! I feel so behind and have so many things I want to do! I really want to get back into scrapping and making cards again too!! Yes, I said "making cards!!" I have had a craving to make them again! I knew it would come back some time! I know I still have my "Merry Christmas" banner up, I guess I should do something about that. I think I am having a hard time letting go of the fact that Christmas has come and gone already. I feel like we go through so much fuss and stress to have things "just so", and perfect and pretty looking. Only to have it gone in what seems just minutes! Time goes far too fast these days! Does that mean I'm getting older??? My birthday was on December 13th, I guess I didn't mention that before. Yeah, I turned 26. I know I am still so young! And I don't want to feel old or say that I feel old. I should be thankful for my youth! But sometimes I don't feel very young. So anyway, enough rambling on... I think a new year makes me feel like I want everything nice and fresh and new and to start things over or at least start new goals! I have so many goals I want to reach this year! And for now, I thought a newly painted room was a good start! Soo, We've been doing a little "remodeling" in our home. Over the weekend Matthew and I decided to paint our livingroom. So here are the before pictures...

Our whole house is painted the same color, cream walls with white trim. It makes the house look more open and spacious, but I like to personalize it to my liking and make it look more like "us". My favorite thing about this house is all the wonderful white trim we have! It looks great when you had a color up to it!

So this is the other end of the room before painting.

And here are the beginning stages of the painting. Matthew cutting in..

Me trying to cut in.. I am really awful at it! So I leave it to my husband! We both dislike cutting in but he's better at it then I am! I prefer rolling!

First wall finished!

The color is called "Milk Chocolate!". It really does remind me of a milk chocolate shake from McDonald's! Does it make you want chocolate now?

Working our way to the rest of the room...

Finished room in the daylight! We stayed up until 4:00 am finishing it!

This is just the beginning stages of our remodeling the room. We will eventually get a new couch, and some other furniture, a rug and new curtains. We'll also be repainting our trim to freshen it up, it's stained a little yellow, I did wipe it all down, which made it look a lot better, so it's fine for now. But the fireplace bricks and hearth we'll be painting white soon. Those are really stained yellow.

I'm having Mr. Keller redo the built in shelves for me. Mostly just that decorative thingy will be torn out and he'll make something more my style, and the little cupboard doors will be redone, they're really poorly done.

Last 6 calendar pages

2009-12-28T09:57:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone! I trust you had a most blessed and joyous Christmas and holiday weekend!! We had a really great one! Christmas day we stayed home and watched our boys have lots of fun unwrapping their gifts and then playing with them! Later in the day we had my sister, her husband and their kids come over for games. And we ordered Chinese for dinner! Ha! So it was fun eating Chinese and playing games!

And we stayed home all weekend. It was nice relaxing family time. We played with the boys, and played some games and watched some new movies we got. Maybe I'll share a few pictures from our holiday sometime.

But for now, I thought I would share with you the last six pages of the calendar I made for my MIL.

July through December-

Snow 12-19-09

2009-12-22T00:22:00.001-05:00

Gasp!!! Two posts in one night! Am I back??? Maybe, no promises. Not that I was gone, but you know, just so busy. I'm sure after the holidays things will settle down for me. But then, I will be working on doing things in my house, like painting, decorating, buying furniture and so forth! It will be fun!! I have some plans for my bathrooms. I'll most likely post pictures of before and after shots of my work on them!

Soo anyway....

On Friday the 18th a big snow storm came through. leaving us a land of white! It was beautiful!

The next day we went out and had some fun in it! There was anywhere from 6-12 inches. We heard they got about 2 feet where we use to live!

Building our snowman.

So the next things on my list of things to get are: Snow boots, snow pants and a sled. Poor Isaac just had shoes and they kept getting stuck in the snow and coming off! We still have all of the snow, it's all frozen and not so bright and fresh looking anymore, you know how snow looks after it's been around for a few days. Maybe we'll get a fresh coat for Christmas to make it look all pretty again! I'm loving it! It's making it feel like Christmas, and makes it warm and cozy feeling in the house!

Calendar-first 6 pages

2009-12-22T00:10:00.000-05:00

Have you been saying "Jessica, come out come out wherever you are???". Okay, so maybe I haven't been missed that much. Sometimes I don't think anyone notices my absences that much.
Anyway, I have been busy with Christmas cookie baking and preparing packages to send out to family. Plus taking care of my boys. They've had a bad cough for over a week now. The kind where they cough so much, that they choke and turn blue!! Scares me half to death! I've been praying over them a lot.

So can you believe it's almost Christmas?? I am almost ready, but not. Still have some last minute shopping to do. I think we will do that tomorrow. My Christmas cards I designed and ordered came today. So I can finally send my cards out! Better late than never, huh?? I am really pushing it on time this year! And as much as I said I wasn't going to do that and let it happen, it did! Arrrggg! Anyway, life goes on. I got a few sent out today. But the bulk of them will go out tomorrow. So some will get there late. So anyway... Since I've been in hiding, and haven't created much, or anything that I can share right now. I thought I would share the first 6 pages of the calendar I designed and ordered for my mom-in-law. She got it the other day and loved it! So now I can show it!

Here is January-June

My hubby^ when he was a cute little boy!

Peek

2009-12-04T07:00:00.002-05:00

I posted this page a few posts back saying it was for a gift I was doing. I am making a calendar for my mom-in-law. I will have it printed through a company called photoworks. It has been quite a challenge for me to get back in my groove, but I think I finally found it again!! YAY!! I go through these times where I can't create anything that looks decent. Finally I am coming up with some stuff I'm starting to kind of like. Anyway, that first page I had showed, well, I redid it. And since I don't want to show the whole gift before it's given I thought I would just show a few "peeks" of some of the pages. (My sis-in-law is doing one as well, and I was inspired to share some sneaky peeks of my project, b/c I wasn't going to).

My new "baby"

2009-12-04T00:07:00.000-05:00

Okay, not really... But I can be a little excited can't I?? Well, because my hubby and I got our Christmas (and my birthday) present today!!! Yes, it's the newest Canon rebel, the T1i!

Because we were having issues with our other rebel, and we've been wanting to upgrade for a year or so now. So yes, we splurged. Isn't that screen HUGE?!?! Our old one had a teeny tiny 1 1/2" screen.

Isn't it beautiful?!?! Can I say my camera is beautiful? I think so! What's great is that, this shoots HD video! So we thought instead of investing hundreds of dollars into a decent video camera, we'd just go with this for now and have the best of both worlds (if that's even the right term!). Our video camera hasn't been working properly for a while now, and we only had a little point and shoot sony that we used for taking videos. And it really doesn't take good ones at all, especially in poor lighting. Anyway we played with the camera some tonight!! We really like it!!! I want to educate myself more on basic photography and try and get decent pictures of my boys and people and such. Our old camera is still a great camera, but we were just ready to move on and upgrade, and decided to get the new one instead of investing the money to fix the one we have. So we're most likely going to sell our other one.

And these are my REAL babies...

Who I live for and love with a passion.

{Picture was taken with our old canon rebel XT}

Thankful-Thanksgiving day!

2009-11-26T07:00:00.003-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you are spending your day somewhere special and meaningful to you!

Well, today here is what else I am thankful for-
For each new day God gives us to serve him and spread his truth to others.

For the few friends God has blessed me with in my life. I am thankful for all of our families near and far (miss all those who are so far away and haven't seen in so long). for my family who all loves and serves the Lord with their whole hearts. For my Dad & Mom, who have done such a wonderful job on raising all 9 of us children. For them raising us in a Godly home and setting that foundation on God. For setting that strong Godly example before us, for all they've sacrificed and have given for us. I love you Mom & Dad! I am so very thankful for all my brothers and sisters, my nieces and nephews. For my Grandparents, who I miss so very much and so wish I could visit them now. For my husband (I know I already said I was thankful for him, but that was mostly related to his job and working), for him being there for me and helping me out when I need him, for us being a good team and working well together through different situations, for all he's done to be a good father and husband, for his love and passion to write worship songs to God and his love for music, for the funny things he says and makes me laugh or smile- even when I may not want to. For being my support and my love!

And I am thankful for my sons, the unexplainable joy that they bring to my life, I cannot imagine my life without them! For the silly and funny things they do to make me laugh and brighten my day. Hearing "Mommy" over and over again throughout the day, I love being a mommy and being there for my children. And even the times that are hard and stressful, the days where they are moody and I am moody, even for those days, I am thankful. Because God doesn't put anything on us that we are not able to bear. I am thankful that I can hold and love my children and just give them endless kisses. For all the sweet precious smiles, laughter and kisses that come from my boys. To hear "mommy, I love you". Watching them play and bond together as brothers, when they run around the house and chase each other and make each other laugh. I am so very thankful for them! I could go on and on. I know there is so much more I could say that I am thankful for, but I will end here. Happy Thanksgiving day! Hope you have a blessed one!!!

To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever. Psalm 30:12

IT IS A GOOD THING TO GIVE THANKS UNTO THE LORD, AND TO SING PRAISES UNTO THY NAME, O MOST HIGH: Psalm 92:1

Thankful-day 3

2009-11-25T08:00:00.002-05:00

Today, (day 3) I am thankful for-

God's word, his mercy and forgiveness, for his unfailing faithfulness, for ALWAYS answering our prayers, For sending His son, Jesus to die on the cross for us so that we can live a life free of sin and eternal life in heaven. for loving us so much to give soo much to us even when there are times we feel we don't deserve the blessings he blesses us with. For freedom to worship and serve my God, and for peace and a sound mind. For God taking away all fears. For His promises of health and wholeness to his children. I am also thankful for my husband's job. For the fact that we moved in faith without knowing where my husband would work once we got moved in. But just exercising our faith, and being a little patient, God provided the job! I am thankful for and so very grateful to my husband who works each and every day to provide for our family, for his sacrifice in doing that, I can't express how much I so respect and appreciate that he does this for us and our sons! Even though he comes home wiped out and so tired and pretty much falls asleep on the couch right after dinner. Thank you Hun for ALL you do for us! I love you!

Thankful-day 2

2009-11-25T00:19:00.001-05:00

Sorry I'm getting these out so late, but I don't take much time out during the day to do this. So here is what I'm thankful for today (Tuesday).

I am thankful for- plumbing and running water, for clothes to wear, food, electricity (because some people in the world are without all of those things), bills paid (because when they're paid means God has provided our needs. I was reminded of this by a dear friend! :). For soap, my washing machine (that is no longer on the back porch! YAY! :). And for laughter, and joy, because I don't think we could get by without it!

Thankful

2009-11-24T02:07:00.001-05:00

So much seems different to me these days, mostly how I feel about things. It's like my passion for creating is not there, my creativity is just not there. My life seems more full of just everyday normal things, mostly taking care of my children and keeping house. It's like, how do I even find time to create? I'm not saying any of this in a bad way. It's like I've realized what's more important in life and the fullness of it, not that I didn't know before, but just needed to get my priorities in order. And far as I'm concerned I still have a lot of learning to do in this area! Something changed in me, and it wasn't just recently, it was over a month ago. I think I went on a big marathon of creating a bunch cards a few weeks before we moved. I was excited and I was all pumped about card making and blogging. Then something changed. I don't know whether it was just because I knew we had to move and I didn't want to take time out from packing and all of that to make things or create, but it was more like that desire just wasn't there anymore. I know I go through fazes and then they come back. But for some reason this one has not come back. It's funny too, because when I originally started my blog I pretty much created it with the intent that it would mostly be of my digital scrapping, that's what I was/am mostly into. I never really did traditional (never had the extra money to get into it), so I used what I had and realized I already had all the means to get into digital scrapping, so that's what I did! And then to my surprise, I started my blog out with posts of cards I started making! Ha!! I think it was b/c I had all my stuff given to me and it was new and exciting, so that's what inspired me to get into it again.

Anyway, I'm sure you're all wondering what I'm getting to here.. Ha! I think I am just going through a change in my life or a "reorganization" of my life. Setting goals and priorities that are meaningful and fruitful in my life, things that will last and speak forth throughout the rest of my life. Focusing on raising my children, growing in the Lord and seeking him more, setting a better example for my children, being more thankful for my life and people and things I have in my life, learning to love myself and be happy with who I am, not get so down and upset with myself, love and respect my husband more, be a better help-meet for him and being the Godly wife, mother, and woman God wants me to be. Those are my goals and my priorities right now.

Not to worry about if I make it in time for a challenge going on, or some new fad in the scrapbook world, and not be afraid I might miss out on what the latest happenings are right now, or seeing if someone is online to chat or comment on my blog. Not to consume myself with the things that don't bring forth any Godly fruit. I'm not saying that blogging and creating is a bad ungodly thing ( I have met so many wonderful ladies through having a blog and have been blessed with a few friends through it as well, and I am so thankful for that!). But just what I allowed it to become for me, how many hours in a day I would consume my day with just blogging and sitting on the computer, doing nothing really. Feeling pressure to stay with the latest fads and challenges, contests, etc. Worrying about what other people think or say. I put too much pressure on myself, and too much valuable time into that. When I could have been using that time to spend with my children, or seek the Lord and read his word more.

I'm only speaking about myself here, I don't want any of you to think that I am accusing anyone or judging anyone. This is totally my feelings and what I'm going through right now.

I have not been happy with myself. I think I let myself get so consumed with all this blogging and such that I became someone I am not happy with. I realize it's time to do something about it and not give into laziness.

I want to grow stronger in the Lord and my relationship with him, to allow him to be #1 in my life like he should be! To allow him to change and mold me into who he wants me to be. I need to be the one that's willing and giving it over to him. Otherwise if I try and take the reins he can't drive and I have taken his ability to lead me, away.

So with that said. I just want you all to know that I am sorry for all the silence, and sorry I don't have fun things to share with you. And it's not to say that I will never make cards or scrap again. But that I will do it when I feel I want to or have an opportunity to. And there may be times where I will do it a lot too, but for now I'm just relaxing, not stressing. I do want to make things and create some gifts for people, so that will be things I will try and do. I may just not share everything on here. I did actually make a couple cards for the first time since we've lived here the other night. And it was strange, I had fun, but I still just didn't feel the vibes like I use to, ha!

So I may be putting card creating on the back burner for now. I may pop up with a few here and there- Who knows!! My one goal in the creative world that I am going to try and keep up with is scrapping my boys. Even in that, I am so terribly behind that I feel overwhelmed so I don't know where to start, because I have THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of photos of them to scrap. So I need to just take it one day at a time. So I may post a few digi pages here and there. Again, who knows what I will end up doing!

So I hope this doesn't upset any of you and I hope you will still visit me! I still enjoy seeing what others create and I love to hear your kind comments on here!

Anyway, I was on the computer thinking about being thankful and how this week is Thanksgiving week and an idea popped in my mind. I thought of posting about something I am thankful for each day leading up to Thanksgiving day. I know that Monday is all over with but this will count for my first day, Monday and what I'm thankful for. And I will probably make it multiple things each day because there is SO much to be thankful for! Gosh it's SOOO late!!! I don't pull many late-nighters these days, I did so tonight because my hubby wanted some of his clothes washed for work tomorrow. I seriously just did a ton of loads! But now that he has a new job he doesn't have to wear anything too nice, so he doesn't have a whole lot of outfits for work, so they have to be washed more often. Anyway, Sorry for this EX-TREMELY long post, and I soo appreciate that you actually took time to read through all of this!! I know I got all wordy on you all again! I'm still me and I'm here and alive and well! Just some changes going on- and for the better! PRAISE THE LORD FOR THAT!!

So for my first day I am thankful to God for his providing us with our new home-a roof over our heads, and heat to heat our home!

{Yes, this is my new house!}

Feel free to post what you're thankful for each day on your blog! Leave me a link so I can see! God bless! And hope you have a fantastic holiday week!

Ecrandal sale

2009-11-17T13:27:00.001-05:00

Hello Dear friends! How is your week going? I hope wonderful! We had a few days here that were absolutely gorgeous out, in the upper 70's! And now it's overcast and much cooler. Today I wanted to post something in promotion of my Brother-in-law and sister's cookie cutter business. They're having a fabulous deal going on right now. They're having a 20% off holiday sale (some exclusions apply). And in addition to that, if you become a fan on their facebook page (ecrandal originals- ecrandal handmade copper cookie cutters) they're having special offers where you can be entered to win a free cookie cutter! And with Christmas just around the corner, these would make for perfect gifts! Or if you would like them for yourself for your holiday cookie baking or even ornaments!! I have talked about their cutters on here before and have shown some different things I've done with their cutters, you can see here, here and here. Seriously, their cutters are the best quality I have ever seen. They are hand crafted and designed personally by my brother-in-law, Eric. He makes every single cutter by himself by hand! And let me tell you, it's hard work! I would love to see their business flourish and for them to be greatly blessed through it, especially at this time of year for them. You will not be disappointed with their quality and customer service. They are a home based business, just he and my sister run it (along with their 6 children). So these cutters are truly designed and made with tender loving care with so much thought and emphasis put into them.

Here below are just a few of the amazingly beautiful cookies they've made from their own cutters! Eric decorated these cookies!!

Snowman

Cornucopia

curly toed elf stocking

And these are a few of the cutters from their 12 days of Christmas set! I just love them!

Partridge in a pear tree.

Turtle dove.

French hen.

Swan a swimmin.

Lord a leapin.

Drummer drummin.

To see the rest in their set become a fan on their facebook page!! And to take advantage of their great deals and promotions going on right now!

Thank you all so much for taking the time to read about this and if you order from them, I know that you will be very happy with their cutters and it would be a great blessing to their business! Thank you so much! Please spread the news of them on your blog and to your friends! I would greatly appreciate it! God bless your day/week!!

Project

2009-11-17T00:14:00.000-05:00

This is the first page in a project/gift I am making. I was inspired by the EBTKS sketch challenge and layout my sister-in-law did. I was struggling with coming up with an idea that would work good for this project and once I saw this I wanted to try it out! I think I like how it turned out. Lately I feel a little retarded when it comes to creating anything. I haven't done any creating in so long I feel a little rusty. So hopefully as I go I will get more creative juices flowing. Hope your week is going great! My husband started his new job today. Now instead of being 45-50 minutes to work it's only 6-7 minutes!! Woohoo!! I praise the Lord for that!

I'm BAAAAAAAACK!!!!!

2009-11-12T16:25:00.003-05:00

Hello my dear friends!! Well, here we all are in our new home!! We just today finally got internet access!! Let me just say, we had quite an ordeal with getting our modem sent out to us.. So finally today our little black box was delivered! Our move went smoothly and safe! We're just praising the Lord for his abundant blessings and seeing us through each and every step of the way!! So much has gone on, I will have to share more over the course of time. But for now I wanted to share these photos. And let you all know I've missed you all! But even though I have been without internet for almost 2 weeks, it has been so nice and I have had a lot of time to think about things and not allow the computer to be a distraction. It's helped me to set my priorities into perspective and realize what's important. So although I may not be on here all the time posting. I still will enjoy seeing every one's comments and such!! I still have a lot of unpacking to do. We have already painted one room in our home, which is the boys room. I'll share pictures another day. There's so many other things I want to do in the home, I know it will all come in time, and I'll just have to do things as I can. And make do for now. But we're very blessed and just praising God for his provisions!!

Our first morning and breakfast in our new home..

Isaac makes some of the most hilarious faces!!!

Closing day 10.29.09

2009-11-12T16:15:00.001-05:00

Here we are on the day we closed on our house.

Matthew signing a paper.

Here I am signing the same paper.

Happy home owners!!

Us with our very sweet and very helpful realtor, Beth.

Samuel unpacking

2009-11-12T16:11:00.000-05:00

Samuel unpacking the tupperware box at the new house..

Trying to put the sipper cover on the cup.

Now trying to drink out of it!

Isaac packing a box up at the old house

2009-11-12T16:07:00.001-05:00

Isaac wanted to pack a box. So I let him pack all of their books up. He did a really great job! He was pretty proud of himself!!

Hi there!!!!!

2009-10-30T00:59:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone!!
Sorry I've kept some of you hanging and maybe even worrying. But I just wanted to pop in to let you all know that I am alive and well. I know I have not posted in WEEKS!!! Gasp!!! But things have been crazy here. We've been in the process of buying our new home and moving!! So my hubby and I have been packing and cleaning like crazy! I am up this late cleaning and packing. We closed on our house today!! We're officially home owners now!! Well, owners with a mortgage payment! Ha! We're moving in tomorrow Friday the 30th (well, actually today at this point). I wanted to post a picture to go with this post but our camera is out in the car and I don't want to go out in the dark to get it! So I am sorry for my absence. And I know I haven't commented on any one's blogs lately, I have checked different ones here and there quickly off and on. But I haven't taken the time to leave any comments. My mind is kind of cloudy and tired right now. So I am going to cut this short. I just wanted to get this out before our phone and internet will be shut off sometime tomorrow. We won't have internet access at our new home until Monday. Our house is all packed up and we're picking up the u-haul in the morning. A guy my husband works with is going to come and help us load everything up in the morning. Then he and another guy will help Matthew unload at the new house. I'm sitting on the floor while typing this. Our desk is all disassembled. My boys came down with colds so they were not feeling so great earlier today. So just be praying for them and us for smooth sailing tomorrow!! Thanks so much!! Hopefully I'll have some stuff to share sometime next week!! God bless you!!

Al Mar Orchards

2009-10-11T21:42:00.004-04:00

Happy Sunday! I trust you all had a wonderful weekend. My hubby, the boys and I came up to my parents place last evening. Matthew actually worked today. So I was here with the boys all day. I was itching to do some digi scrapping and being that I am away from home where I have all my digi stuff, it makes it a little difficult. However, my mom has Photoshop Elements on her computer. And I had purchased some stuff recently from a couple different places. So I was able to download that stuff to play with! I really wanted to play more with the fun fall set I got from Little Dreamer Designs last week. So I found these pictures of my two little sisters from back in 2007 when they were up in Michigan visiting our family's favorite apple orchard! We all love going there every time we visit in the fall. So I thought it would be fun to scrap their pics to make note of our favorite apple orchard. I think I may have some pictures at home of us there as well... Hmmm, now I'll have to check when I get home, so I can scrap those! :) So without furthar ado, here is the page I came up with.

It was a little different for me to adjust to using PS Elements. But after a while I figured things out and it was pretty easy. Some things were a little anoying b/c I'm so used to regular PS. But it was fun being limited to just having a couple different digital sets to work with and using a slightly different program, it was a fun challenge! Thanks for stopping by and "seeing" me today! God bless the rest of your Sunday evening and have a blessed week!

Everything but the kitchen sink challenge

2009-10-09T18:40:00.003-04:00

Hey there! This is going to be a real quick post. We're heading out right after Mr. Keller gets home from work. Anyway, I really wanted to be able to make in time for this challenge, so I hurried and made these cards today. Super quick. Nothing too special. I haven't gotten any mail in the last two days, yeah crazy! And I was waiting to get something exciting. But I figured I would just go ahead and use some newspaper I got in the mail earlier in the week. So I made THREE cards today!! Ha! I just wanted to try some different things. for the first one I did another Dahlia flower, this time using newspaper, it was fun!

And again for this second one I used newspaper to create kind of a laced ribbon effect. I also used bubble wrap as a stamp for the white stamped background. I'm not sure where I got it from, but at some point it probably came in the mail a while back.

And this last one I ended up finding a Snapfish magazine I got in the mail a week or so ago, I was flipping through it to see if there was anything that would work good for the challenge, and I realized it had these really neat brush flowers on each page. So that is where the brown strip with the flower on it came from. SUPER simple card, nothing too special, but I was in such a hurry I threw it together. (NOTE: the brown smudge on the bottom of the flower isn't suppose to be there! I think I must have had some brown ink on my hand and touched it, oops!) I am happy I am able to be a part of this challenge! I was excited about it when I first read about it on Courtney's blog!

I know I haven't been listing my supplies I've been using lately, mostly because I don't have time... or just too lazy. Ha! I may try to list supplies again eventually but for now I do not have time. So hope you enjoyed, have a wonderful weekend!!

Samuel William- 1 year old

2009-10-07T19:34:00.003-04:00

One more post for today! I know, I've had a lot. But I wanted to share this... So here is my sweet little son on his first birthday yesterday. He was having lots of fun picking up sticks and "tasting" them. He even picked up a dead caterpillar and tasted that too! I quickly got that from him and told him that was really yucky! He then had tiny little hairs on his mouth from the caterpillar! Ha! I still cannot believe a whole year has gone by since I went through that gruesome labor of having him! But he's sure worth it a million times over! (ok, so I probably would be dead after that! Since I thought I was going to die from just having him the one time!Ha!). He brings so much joy and delight to our lives, I can't imagine it without him. Happy birthday my sweet baby!

Here is the card I QUICKLY put together for him. Of course he can't read or really realize what the card is for, but I like to keep them for keepsakes. And he does enjoy getting cards, and then destroying his cards he gets. He just holds on to them and then kindly tears pieces off it!! Haha! This picture was taken after it had already been mangled by him and then rescued and salvaged the best we could. Haha! He had a great day though! EVER SO CUTE watching him blow his candle out! I think he's a pro now, since he got to do it twice in one week! He loves to blow on everything!! Including the sidewalk chalk and then taste it of course!

I also wanted to talk about the star paper I used on this card. It is actually paper that came from a book that my son Isaac has. Well his little brother (Samuel) tore it out one day. And as I was throwing it in the waste basket I realized I could reuse it! It's really pretty blue paper with stars all over!! So I quickly grabbed it back out and have saved it for using on cards!

Moxie Fab- Gradient is radient challenge

2009-10-07T19:08:00.002-04:00

Hello again! Here is my card I created last week for the latest Moxie Fab challenge, which is using a gradient effect. My pinks don't exactly fall together far as the right shades, but I had to use all the different pinks I had to make enough for the dahlia flower. So I used all the pink I could find that looked remotely good together. Anyway thanks for checking this out and visiting me again today! Your comments mean a lot to me!

Falling Leaves...

2009-10-07T08:00:00.002-04:00

Hello there! My son had a great birthday yesterday! And despite that I wasn't able to use my nice camera for the indoor shots, I did take the boys outside for awhile and was able to get some good photos with the canon I think. Otherwise all other photos had to be taken with our old crappy Sony camera.... so it was rather sad having to go back to something with not so good quality when you're use to using a nicer camera. Anyway, I had to just let things go and relax. Thanks so much for all your prayers and encouragement, you all are so sweet!

So anyway thought I'd share this digital page with you that I created last week. I wanted to add some leaves that kind of looked like they were falling to go with my "falling leaves" quote/sticker. I was at Little Dreamer Designs last night and found a new set that was 20% off. I thought it was cute. So I added the leaves and this is the end result.. I'm not sure if I'm sold on this layout, but I do know I love all the color in it and I mostly just wanted it to display the pictures and what I wanted to say. So I didn't put a whole lot of detail on it. I got some free digital papers that Crystal has on her blog, so that is where I got the orange paper and the die cut shape from. Maybe I will list my supplies I use on my layouts another time. Sometimes I'm just too lazy to look everything up. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Missed it...

2009-10-06T00:46:00.000-04:00

Hello! Well, it happened to me again.. I missed the deadline for Dawn's color challenge. I didn't take a picture of my card earlier today like I should have. I knew I should have when I thought of it, but just got caught up with other things throughout the day. So I quickly took this picture this evening in the house. I thought I still had an half hour before the challenge ended. I was thinking we are 2 hours ahead of her in her time zone, but I must have been wrong, because when I went to check, it was already closed. Boohoo. This was just one of the many things that went wrong for me today. I had a pretty rough day. A lot of tears going on. AND to top it all off, shortly after I took this picture this evening, I went to take a picture of our boys being ever so cute, and our flash on the camera quit working!! I thought maybe I had it set on something wrong. Matthew looked it over and tried some different things and then went online to try and get some help. It sounds like we will have to send the camera in to Canon and spend close to $200 to have it fixed AND it would be gone for at least 2 weeks!! AND, not only that, but my baby boy's FIRST birthday is tomorrow (today), the 6th!!!! I have just been in tears tonight. I need to have a working camera, and especially for inside I need to have the flash. We were going to wait to give him his gifts and do the cake (torte) after Matthew got home.. and by then the lighting will be even darker in the house!! I need some prayer right now. I've had a stressful and emotional day. Along with trying to start my first day of the week in my life project, which I might have to post pone now, I don't know. We'll see. I got through most of the day with a working camera, but it just wasn't a happy day for me. Got upset with myself, my son, my hubby... just feel like a horrible mommy and wife sometimes. Ok, I best get going. I need to get some rest. Thanks for listening to my sobby, self pity story. No, I know I just need to relax and give things over to the Lord and pray alot. He can give me perfect peace that passes all understanding.

Sorry...

2009-10-04T01:34:00.000-04:00

Hey there! I just wanted to pop in and say Hi! And also say sorry for such a "quiet" week far as no posts. I know I had a lot last week, and I knew it wasn't going to be as busy this week just because things going on here. October is a VERY busy birthday month in our family and just a lot of other things going on as well. I do have a couple cards I've wanted to share that I was able to make a few evenings ago. But the weather had been bad and it wasn't the greatest for taking pictures. Today was BEAUTIFUL! It was a such a pretty fall day. The colors ares starting to come out more, the air was crisp, blustery with a bit of a chill, and sunny! So perfect! I LOVE fall!! I love the smells, the cozy feelings you get when you can just enjoy the beautiful weather but also cuddle up in side and drink some tea, hot cocoa, or even spiced hot cider (which I have not had yet this year, we did get some apples and cider from the cider mill last week, but it's all gone now!). Anyway, today would have been perfect for my pictures, but my hubby ran off with the camera when I thought of doing it... had I known sooner, I would have grabbed it earlier on in the day and snapped some pictures of my cards. But besides all of that... My sweet baby boy is going to be ONE year old this Tuesday (the 6th), so we are having some of my family over tomorrow to celebrate. So I've been getting things ready for that. It's going to be sort of a double birthday celebration because my Dad's birthday is on Monday, the day before my son, Samuel's (he was actually due on Grandpa's birthday, but just missed it by a few hours). So we're doing a dinner with just my parents and some of my siblings, the older ones with their families are not able to make it. So we'll be doing chicken, mashed potatoes, a salad, and not decided for sure, but maybe some acorn squash, I think I will most likely make it. We love it, and so does my family. And there will be cake and ice cream of course! I made two pumpkin pies tonight for my Dad, that's what he requested, he loves pumpkin pie. I like getting what I can made ahead of time. And if you know me, I'm a late night-er, it's just easier for me to get things done after the boys are all in bed and I can have free time to get things made and ready.

My hubby did wash all the dishes for me tonight though, that was SO sweet of him!! And he did it all on his own, I didn't even have to ask!! How sweet is that?!?! The house smells wonderful with that pumpkin pie aroma in the air! Another thing I love about this time of year! :)

And with today (yesterday, now!! It's after 1:00 am here, eeekers!!) being World Card Making Day, I really wanted to have at least a post up of one of my cards, but I didn't get to it. And I knew with me being busy with birthday planning and such, that I most likely would not get to create today. So anyway, hope you all had a wonderful day and have a very blessed day tomorrow!!

One more thing I wanted to mention...

Starting Monday, I will be starting a documentation of a week in my life. This is a fun thing to do just to document one week in your life. Taking photos each day, jotting down things you did that day or anything that you would like to make note of. Take pictures of things you wouldn't normally take pictures of, like washing dishes, laundry, cleaning your bathroom, a pile of folded clothes, mail, or if you go out take your camera with you and take pictures of where you went, ie- grocery shopping, post office, just running errands etc. There are no particular rules for this, it's just a fun thing to do to document a whole week in your life and then you can make an album featuring all your pictures and documentation. It will make for a really neat thing to look back on and remember just an ordinary week in your life! I will be starting this on Monday and ending it on next Sunday (the 11th). But really you can make it as long as you want and you can start it whenever you want. I found out about this last year through Ali Edward's blog. She started doing this a few years back and she explains all about how she does it and really has some great tips and suggestions on how to go about doing it. And encourages us to just be ourselves and make a point to document even the silly things that may even seem pointless to us, or something we don't normally see as being worthy of making note of or taking a picture of. I didn't participate in it last year because I was big huge and pregnant and ready to pop at any time! Ha! And I think I was pretty miserable feeling, so I guess I wasn't up to it. But now I sure wish I would have done it!! I think it would be so neat to look back at how I was feeling those last few days leading up to the birth of my son. Sometimes I too often don't do things and then later regret not doing them. So I encourage you to join me this week and document this week of your life, no matter what you do, even if you think your life is boring or nothing special going on. It doesn't matter. Even if you just take pictures or just journal. Later in life you will be thankful you did this! So will you join me?? I hope so!! Be sure and check out all Ali has on this and all the insight and info she shares on it!! I think it will encourage you more!! :)

So get your cameras ready!!! I will most likely be posting my pictures that I've taken through out the week! So stay tuned!! :)

Blessings to you all!!

Saturday- Friend

2009-09-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

Hello Saturday!! Are you having a fun-filled or wonderfully relaxing weekend?? I sure hope so! Here is another one of those cards I made a while back (when I mentioned I took pictures of cards but then realized the memory card was not in the camera when I went to download them!!). This time I REMEMBERED it!! Hehe!! Have any of you seen the latest Moxie Fab challenge?? It sure looks like a challenge! I hope to be able to participate in it this time. Will you be submitting anything for it? I would love to see your creations! Lately I have a lot of ideas floating through my mind of how I want to do things and what I want to do. But then I feel overwhelmed, and then I remind myself I need to take one thing one day at a time. I think with the reality of us moving soon into our OWN home, is getting my creative juices flowing for decorating ideas and just getting pumped on crafting and such!! So as we embark on this new adventure in our lives, it's a little frightening but is also an answer to our prayers and it's exciting!! We're just thankful to the Lord for his peace, and guidance!

Thank you for all your prayers and support for me!! You all are just so sweet! I have a lot I want to say but there will be other times for that! I'm going to keep this post shorter this time. So have a wonderful day and rest of your weekend! God Bless!

Friend:

Stamps: SU- Friend (not sure what set it's from, sorry, again!!). I guess I have a lot of loose stamps I've borrowed from my mom and took them out of the sets they belong in, so I don't remember what set it's from.
Cardstock/Paper: SU- Very vanilla, the purple/eggplant color is SU as well, not sure the correct name. The pattern paper is Basic Grey's lemonade collection.
Ink: Eggplant envy-SU
Tools & Accessories: EK Success corner rounder, Kaiser rhinestones, Kiwi kiss grosgrain striped ribbon-SU, cream button from SU's earth elements & neutrals buttons, sewing thread, dimensional adhesive.

My son making cards 9.10.09

2009-09-25T16:58:00.003-04:00

This is a video I've been meaning to post for some time now. I think on several attempts the computer either got turned off by my littlest son who LOVES teasing mommy and laughs when he turns it off! It also took forever for this to upload, so I canceled it another time I think. Anyway, Thought I would share this. Isaac really likes making cards. He loves using the glue pen and adding little bits of glitter to his cards (must get it from Mommy! :) Ha! So I hope you enjoy this little clip!

"Manly" cards

2009-09-25T08:00:00.007-04:00

Hello there and Happy Friday to you all!! Ok, so today I am sharing with you some "manly" cards I made last week. And when I say "manly", I'm not so sure if this first one classifies as being very manly other than maybe the colors. You think a guy would think the glitter, ribbon and scallop edge is a little too feminine? Maybe. And as I've mentioned before, manly cards are NOT my strong point. As you can see, this first one is kind of... Well, "different", I'm not too crazy about it, but I left it be, and it will have to do. I always show my husband my cards after I've made them. And I usually can tell by the way he looks at them whether he likes them or not. And although sometimes he's a little too honest and makes me cry or hurt my feelings, sometimes I know he's right. But then it never hurts to get other's opinions as well. And what may be not so attractive to one person, may be something another person LOVES. So it's all a matter of taste and preference. It's hard for me sometimes because I am ALWAYS worried about what other people will think about my work. If they'll like it, if they think it's ugly, if they're just saying they like it to be nice.. stuff like that. But lately I've had to just be true to myself and even if I create "flops every now and then (ok, maybe more often than not), I need to be brave and share what I have created with others. and just be confident in myself, and not worry about what others think or do things to try and please them. I know as I go I will (I hope) improve. But I guess we all go through these times of insecurity. But know that we're always changing and growing in our likes and dislikes- our styles.

So the next card here, my husband gave the "this one is my favorite" And for the first one I got a, "I don't know, it's kind of weird". Haha! Even though at the time I was pretty sure he wouldn't like it, because I wasn't even settled on whether I liked it. It still made me a little hurt and upset. I hate it when he doesn't like things I create, especially with my scrapbook pages, I'm really bad with those. I go long periods with out making them because I am so afraid of what others will think of it and I am always wanting them to look perfect and turn out just right. So I am trying to push myself more and thanks to all the encouragement I get from YOU (my blog readers) it helps me to be more brave. :) I am trying to be better at making more guy cards. I have a vast supply of girl/feminine cards on hand, but no guy ones. So I need to work hard on that. I just need to find my style in that area- and invest in some good stamps that will work for guys. And being that there a LOT of birthdays in our family, especially this time of year and most of which are guys/boys, I need to get a handle on it! Here it is fall and now the warm weather decides to grace us as if it decided summer wanted to stay- considering I feel like we hardly had one!! It's quite a refresher from having the weeks of gloomy rainy weather though. But I can't wait to rake the leaves with the boys (some are already falling), and jump in the big piles with them! :) while there is a little chill in the air. I loved that when I was a kid. My sister & I would spend hours and hours outside playing, we just loved every season. We always had so much fun! And I would like for my kids to have that kind of fun too! Well, I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and a blessed weekend!! This scheduled posting is kind of nice- I may have a post or two during the weekend as well. So keep an eye out! ;) Thanks for stopping by!

Happy birthday-blue/black:

Cardstock: The khaki color, black and teal are SU, the other aqua is from that Basic Grey paper that was given to me.
Stamps: Polka dots and paisley-SU, Happy birthday- Imaginisce, from their little Snag'em sets.
Ink: Craft white-SU
Tools & accessories: EK Success corner rounder, colored glitter-SU, rhinestones-SU, aqua satin ribbon-walmart, & dimensional adhesive.

Happy birthday-trees:

Stamps: SU- tree set (I used at my mom's sorry, again don't remember the name of the set), the little circle & the "Happy" is from Occasions collection-SU, & the "Birthday"-Imaginisce, from their little Snag'em sets.
Cardstock: All SU- Close to cocoa, chocolate chip, & certainly celery (?).
Ink: SU- Close to cocoa, certainly celery (?), & Color box chalk ink-dark brown.
Tools & accessories: Brown satin ribbon, fiskars mini scallop scissors (?), & dimensional adhesive.

Happy birthday

2009-09-24T08:00:00.003-04:00

Here is a card I made quite a while back. Remember the post I did about taking pictures of my cards and then realizing later on that I didn't have my memory card in my camera? Well this is one of those cards. So thought I would share this one with you today. I'm still trying to figure out this new blogger posting, it's a little tricky. Things not laying out as nicely as I'd like them to. And when my husband has time to, I'm going to ask him to help me with it so that I can customize things a little more on here. I tried some different things with taking pictures of my cards lately, so I am showing a few different pictures I took of this card. I know the coloring may differ from this first one I have up.

I love the cheerful colors in this. I'm thinking I may send this to my step-mother-in-law for her birthday. Unless I come up with something else for her. I have some ideas.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you all are having a wonderful Thursday and all is going well for you. The weekend is almost here, any plans?? Mr. Keller has to work this weekend, so nothing too special going on here. We're in the process of buying a house (have I mentioned that before??), so we'll be waiting to hear back on results of inspections and such that will be taking place. So I've been doing a lot of praying and asking the Lord to open or close doors. And for him to lead us and guide us to where we're suppose to be.

Thank you for all the sweet comments you have left me lately on my postings. It sure means a lot to me! God bless your day!!

Happy Birthday:

Stamps: "happy birthday"- Imaginisce, Butterfly- basic grey's mini clear stamps.
Cardstock-paper: Pixie pink-SU, Yellow (not sure the name)-SU, & the flower print paper- Basic Grey's lemonade paper collection.
Ink: I can't remember whether I used SU- Old Olive or Mellow moss.
Accessories & tools: Corner rounderPTI's lemon tart satin ribbon (I think), glitter, dimensional pop-up adhesive, kaiser kraft rhinestones, & sewing thread.

Embellish polka dot paradise color challenge

2009-09-23T14:40:00.014-04:00

When I saw that Ashley Newell started Embellish, I thought it was so cool and what a neat idea for all us stamper/crafters out there!! I am excited about this magazine and what she's doing!! I really wanted to be able to participate in this challenge. I'm not crazy about my card I did. But I am posting it anyway. I may make another one for it too. We'll see.

I noticed my burgundy color is more brown looking. It's not brown, it is in fact burgundy. And with the "light orange", I think mine is a little on the yellow side, but it's what I had. I created this card while I was at my parent's house this past weekend. I got my sisters and my mom to stamp with me this time! Yay! :)

Happy Thanksgiving:

Stamps: The pumpkin was one my Mom had, I'm not sure what set it was from, but it's SU, and the "happy Thanksgiving is SU too, the name of the set escapes me, sorry I am not too informative on my listing of supplies. The Polka dot background is from my Polka dots and paisleys-SU set.
Cardstock: All SU- Very vanilla, bravo burgundy, and I think the orange/yellow is maybe so saffron???
Ink: Bravo burgundy & Apricot appeal (?)
Accessories & tools: Glitter, corner rounder, & orange satin ribbon (walmart).

Musings and a card

2009-09-23T02:39:00.003-04:00

Good morning and Happy fall! (a day late). Does it feel like fall where you're at yet?? It sure has here! Rain and chilliness for almost 2 weeks straight- BUT just yesterday (the first day of fall) the sun came out and it was beautiful and warm out! But the more I realize fall is here, the more I am starting to get excited about it. (I love the change of each season as it comes, I don't think I could live somewhere where the seasons never change much). And it makes me long to go visit my home state, Michigan. I love, LOVE being there in the fall, going to the cider mill getting apples, cider, and doughnuts, YUM!! Raking the crisp leaves while there's a chill in the air. I soo miss that! I mean, we have most all of that here, but mostly just because of my childhood growing up there, I guess the nostalgia hits me. And it's just not quite the same here. Granted we DO have BEAUTIFUL fall colors that grace us on these beautiful mountains, so that makes up for it some. Anyway, I need to stop with my rambling on. I'm trying out this new updated posting blogger now has. I'm trying something different.

So you'll have to let me know what you think. I wasn't going to post this card, because I didn't like it. I created it for the moxie fab "around the house challenge". I never posted it so I missed the deadline. But with a little encouragement from my dear friend, Maile, (I know I need a "push" every now and then! Thank you for that Maile!), I decided to go ahead and just post it anyway. So here it is. I didn't really have any stamps that had items that were for "around the house". But I don't know about you, but I would love to have that cake around my house right now (in chocolate, pleaseee!). Hehe!!

So, I didn't get around to getting the posts I intended to yesterday. I just got caught up in other things. And it seemed every time I went to go do it, something else came up. Along with my baby boy cutting the skin that connects from his top lip to his gum. It completely cut it apart and is disconnected now. It hurt me soooo bad just seeing it happen. I was soo worried, I just prayed and prayed, as it bled a LOT. He cried for quite a while. The bleeding finally stopped, and he was off playing away with his brother shortly afterward! So I just praise God for his protection and healing over him! Our God is an awesome God! Praise the Lord! So that was a heart wrenching moment for me. I absolutely hate when my babies get hurt. So as I intended to get a lot more done, it didn't happen. And the day came and gone, and I felt like I didn't accomplish much of anything. I'm really praying and trying to work better on being more organized and discipline myself to be on a better schedule and balance things out more. I need to spend more time with my baby boys while they're still young and not let this time pass me boy. Thanks for always listening (or rather, reading) to what I have to say. I know sometimes I just go on and on, but I guess I just like to express how I feel or what I'm thinking about things in my life. So I hope it doesn't annoy any of you (too much anyway :). I really do appreciate the time you all take to visit me here in my little blog world! Ha! Hope you have a terrifically splendid day!!

Once upon a time:

Stamps: Since I am too lazy to look up what the name of the set is, it is a cute wedding set from SU (if you really want to know, just ask me and I will look it up and let you know)- Update: the set is called "Fairy-Tale Wedding".
Cardstock: Very vanilla-SU & Chocolate chip-SU
Inks: More mustard, close to cocoa, pixie pink, and mellow moss (?)-SU.
Accessories & Tools: Corner rounder, pop up dimensional adhesive, SU ribbon (not totally sure if the yellow is SU or PTI, since it was given to me) & button, SU glitter, & sewing thread.

More prints...

2009-09-21T16:39:00.003-04:00

Helloooooo there!! Happy MONDAY!!! Sorry, I'm trying to make this gloomy weather we've been having (for ever now) more cheerful! It's made me real tired, yucky feeling and just poopy and slow too, I am NOT THAT OLD!! But seriously, the weather has been affecting me and how I feel these days. What's up with that?? Hmmm. I don't mind rain, but when it lasts and lasts and lasts and just leaves that chilly, damp, gloomy feel, it gets very old and I want SUNSHINE! I hate it when everything in the house feels all full of moisture, like the cereal boxes on the fridge when you get them down, they feel all damp (yuck), and my card stock and card supplies feels damp, I don't like that. I took some pictures today (of cards I've made over the week/end), cause I was tired of waiting for a nice day to take them. Well, It's just so gloomy and dark out for pictures, so I didn't get very good ones. So I will show those later, or I may just schedule posts throughout the week, since there are quite a few of them. But for now I thought I would share some more digital scrapbook pages I had printed through that company I mentioned a while back. Did I mention how much I love getting my pages in the mail?? It's so neat to see them in real life printed on a big sheet of photo paper!

This particular page I wasn't as impressed with (sorry for the bad glare from the flash). For some reason the pictures of my son turned out really dark looking. The pictures were a little on the dark side to start with, but I did edit them some. I also noticed that when I went to place this second order, it looked like the company changed some things, like their 12x12 prints look like they're $1.99 all the time now, but that's unedited, (which is fine with me because when you're doing digital usually I edit the coloring myself to get the colors how I like), but sometimes I guess I am not so good at it (still learning and working on this), so it may be partially my fault. They also offer professional color edited prints and it lists the various different prices and options. I still think it's a fab deal ($1.99 for a 12x12 page, most places are around $3.00+). So just make sure your colors are just how you want them if you're ordering the unedited prints through them, their quality is still great and the colors on all the elements and such that I put on the pages are real bright and great looking. And I'm not sure, it may have been the same way before when I placed my first order, and I may have just not noticed there were options. I just noticed that they made some changes on their site and their shipping I think changed a little this second time. But I still highly recommend this company.

I had another 2-pager printed, It turned out great! This is my busy fourth of July "flag" page! Ha!

I need to scoot, I have to go pick up Mr. Keller from work and then we need to pick up a few grocery items. I'll be back later on, I want to post something that was inspired by something Ali Edwards posted today.. she's always doing such encouraging and inspiring posts on documentation of her life.

Super dumb moment... red with embarrassment

2009-09-12T00:38:00.004-04:00

Ok, So I made a couple cards last evening and finished up some on 9/11. Even my son Isaac had some fun and made his own little mini cards (which are very cute). I took pictures of all of them to share with you all today...
The sunlight was coming in the living room beautifully, and I wanted to take advantage of the nice lighting. (I normally take my cards outside to get photos, but I've been trying different things in the house).
So I set my cards up.
Took pictures.
Lots of pictures.
Had to keep baby hands away. (Which were being so cute and wanting to grab everything).
Snap. snap. snap.
Done with photos.
Went about the rest of my day.
Hubs came home.
I started making pizza. (I had to have him bring home most of the ingredients before I could start it).
We ate, watched the rest of The Devil Wears Prada.
Got boys ready for bed.
Went outside to get dried sheets and bedding out of the dryer (yeah, my washer and dryer are outside).
Ran inside fast because I was scared of a noise that we've had on our roof for the last couple evenings (we have a tin roof, so you can hear anything on it).
Normally when we hear the tin, it's from the wind blowing really hard and whipping against it.
Well, there hasn't been any wind.
So what is on our ROOF?????
Yeah, scary!! I keep freaking out thinking if I look out the window they'll be little beady eyes starring at me. (ok, I'm really scaring myself now!!).
So all boys in including hubby are sound asleep.
I go into my "late night, blog hopping, wasting time, thinking of creating, wishing I had more things to create with, wanting to order so much stuff, can't afford it though, getting ideas, wasting more time, late night zombie owl mode. (even though I REALLY need to be in bed).
So then I remind myself "oh yeah, I took pictures of my cards today, I should put those on the blog".
Look at the camera, and then look up on the top of the desk, and realize...
are you ready for this???
The memory stick was lying up there.
All that time I was taking pictures with an empty camera!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!
Can I have a BIG "Jessica is a dork" cheer!?!
So, thought I'd share that bit of info with you, just in case you ever wonder just how much of a nerd I am!!
Now, I want to make some cards. And there is a dog barking outside. Still thinking about that scary critter that could be living on our roof.
Thinking maybe I should just go to bed.
12:51 am
Ok, I am leaving blog world now.
How many of you think I'm a really weird person now?? LOL!! Seriously, I am laughing at myself.
Maybe this is what over tiredness does to a person, or just to me??? :/

2 digi pages

2009-09-10T17:07:00.004-04:00

Happy Thursday! I hope you all are doing wonderful!

I created this digital page today.

And this one I actually designed a few weeks back.

Thank you so much for visiting me today, your comments mean a lot to me! I hope you enjoyed looking over everything I've been posting. Now, I need to try and do some things around my house. I have spent wayyyy too much time on the computer today.

Cards for Kate

2009-09-10T03:00:00.002-04:00

This has been posted around A LOT lately. Jennifer McGuire is the initiator of it. This is a card drive for this sweet little girl, Kate, who is battling brain cancer. I just want to burst out in tears every time I look at her picture or read about her. I think it's so wonderful how SOO many people are sending her cards. It's really touching. And while I knew I wanted to make her one, I knew I wanted it to be very bright in colors and cheerful looking. And just yesterday I made this and I envisioned this layout in my mind, so I put it all together, and it turned out great I think! I put the "k" for Kate. I thought about and prayed for her as I made this card. I have been praying a lot for her and her family as well. God's hand is NOT too short that he cannot heal this child. So this is what I came up with for her..

I love the "X" stitching my sewing machine has! It was a little tricky getting it just right, and I did make a few small mistakes, but not too bad. Sorry, I am not listing the items I used for this card. I am too lazy I guess. I am thinking of maybe making cards for the rest of her family members as well.

Digital pages- printed

2009-09-10T02:33:00.002-04:00

I had some of my digital pages printed from a company I heard about through Ali Edward's blog. It's called Scrapbookpictures.com. They've been having an awesome summer sale on their prints. $1.99 for a 12x12 print, FANTASTIC price!! So I really wanted to order some and to see how well I like their quality. And they DID NOT disappoint!! Their quality is GREAT!! My pages look so rich and deep in color, they really look like just how I designed them!! I have used this company in the past for printing my pages. While they have real good quality too, I have noticed slight color differences on some of my pages from when I design them and then have them printed from there. So I am more happy with Scrapbookpictures.com's quality! There's always something rewarding about designing your own pages and then receiving them printed in the mail. It's an exciting feeling to see them in real life and to have them be tangible rather then on your computer screen! So yeah, I am really impressed with this company, and I SO wish I would have ordered more pages. I see that their 'sizzling summer sale' ends this Friday (bummer). I may be able to get in another small order, we'll see about that.

As you may recognize this page from a color challenge I did over at Dawn's blog. This was my first color challenge creation picked for in the spotlight! I LOVE this page, and even more so after I've gotten it printed! That chocolate background looks delicious printed, all the colors really turned out soo great and luscious!

Another page- glossy

2009-09-10T02:27:00.001-04:00

I wanted to see the quality of their glossy finish, so I ordered this page in glossy. As with the matte finish, the colors look bright and really rich, just with a glossy finish. I really like it! I am actually thinking of just framing this one and maybe giving it to my mom as a gift. We'll see.

Two-pager

2009-09-10T02:14:00.002-04:00

You may recognize this layout I did a while back of my son, Isaac. I thought I would show how having a two-page 12x12 layout looks when printed out! This was my first time getting a two-pager printed! I was a little nervous about whether I did it right for the pages to line up good. I got it SLIGHTLY off, but they'll be separated at least by a couple inches in the album (when I get one), so you really won't be able to tell. I actually made a few changes to this layout from my original before I had this printed. I am very happy with the results! Again, this printing companies quality is awesome!

Close-up of the tongue sticking out! Love it!! He cracks me up so much!

Portraits printed

2009-09-10T01:57:00.003-04:00

These are some pictures we had taken of our boys back in April. Our photographer (website designed by my hubby! :-) put them all on CD for us so that I could get them printed myself. They turned out GREAT!!

This one I must have accidentally selected "metallic" finish, because it's a glossy finish with like a silvery glow to it. Even though I ordered this finish by accident, I think it looks cool. I know you probably can't tell what it looks like by my bad picture I took of it, but it does look great in person!

Moxie Fab Challenge: Fun & Cute

2009-09-07T15:56:00.004-04:00

Here is my card for the fun & cute challenge. I used different colors. I didn't expect to use these colors together. But they turned out ok. So nothing too special about this card, I tried to make it have that "cute & fun" appeal.

On another note, my baby boy turned 11 months old yesterday!!!! One. month. away. from. one. year. old. I CANNOT BELIEVE my baby is no longer my tiny little baby anymore! It's so hard to believe that I have one month to plan for his 1st birthday, and I haven't a clue what we're going to do! He has been walking sooo much lately, he's always so happy and smiley. He just does the CUTEST things ever! I am incredibly in love with this little man...

Thanks for stopping over today, hope you enjoyed my card/s. And for taking the time to share in my bittersweet joy of my youngest son growing up!

Very Merry ingredients:

Cardstock: all SU (not sure the names of all them), & the white is from walmart.
Stamps: All SU- Little pieces, short & sweet, snow angels, & polka dots & paisley
Ink: SU- Close to cocoa, white- craft, & versa mark
Tools & Accessories: Corner rounder, green check ribbon-walmart

Moxie Fab Stamping Challenge

2009-09-07T14:46:00.004-04:00

Hello there ladies & gentlemen (haha, sorry, I'm kind of a dork today). Just dropping in to post a couple cards. I put these cards together really quick early this afternoon, I wanted to make sure and have these made before the challenges end this evening. This pink & cream one is for the stamping challenge over at Moxie Fab. I think my stamping groove has been gone for a while now. I don't like what I make anymore. :(

I took soo many different views of this card because I wanted to make sure my stamped snowflakes in the background show up. So if you can't tell you may have to click on the card to enlarge it to see all the detail. I stamped them with versamark so they're basically like a watermark on the card. It's more noticeable in person.

I really love these colors together, it's super plain and simple. Lately I find if I try and make cards that are too intricate and involved they end up looking like something that someone created with a blindfold on, haha! Sorry, I'm being too hard on myself I guess. Anyway, hope you enjoyed my card. And leave me some blog love (as some people call it, maybe I'm just being too nerdy today). Hope you're all having a terrific Labor day, my hubby is working so it just feels like any other week day to me. We looked at houses over the weekend, and lets just say, new things will be happening soon for us!! I am just praising God for that!!!

Joy ingredients:

Card stock: Very vanilla-SU
Stamps: All SU- Barouqe motifs, snowflakes, & small script
Ink: Pixie pink-SU & versamark
Accessories: Polka dot raspberry fizz PTI ribbon (I think), & glitter.

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #16

2009-09-03T23:26:00.004-04:00

Ok, I have one more card to share. Aside from the Moxie Fab challenges, I first created this card last night for Dawn's Challenge. Isn't it crazy that the holiday's are just around the corner? Making cards this early for Christmas and Thanksgiving is surely unusual for me, but I like it, and I think it's getting me excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas! Now the wheels in my head are turning on what to make for my Christmas card this year. With all these challenges and inspiration, and "practice" I've been getting in, maybe I will be able to come up with something and get it done early this year. Instead of being rushed and getting my cards out last minute as I always seem to do.

Aren't these colors so "fally" looking? Dawn sure knows how to pick them! She's so inspiring!

What do you think of my little birdie card? Oh, I found a stamp that I've had for YEARS, and decided to ink it up and get some use out of it! I thought I had lost it, but just recently came across it. It's the little floral background print. I'm not sure where it came from, but I think I got it as a gift for one of my birthdays one year, probably when I was a young teenager??

I don't normally make a bunch of Thanksgiving cards, since I am usually pretty stressed around the holidays just to make my Christmas cards on time. I sometimes just send a couple Thanksgiving ones out to a few people, but not always. And with this color scheme, I thought it made for a great Thanksgiving card. Oh, did I mention I now have some cream card stock now?? Yeah, I got a little "goodie" package in the mail! Thanks to my sis-in-law!

So here's the list of things I used:

Stamps: Little birdie by Inkadinkado, random floral clear stamp, polka dots & paisley-SU, & Occasions collection-SU
Cardstock: All SU- Chocolate chip, Very vanilla, More mustard(?), & kraft.
Ink: More mustard-SU & Dark brown-color box fluid chalk ink.
Tools & accessories: EK success corner rounder, chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon-su (I think), & cream colored sewing thread.

Stretch Your Holiday Style: A Classy & Elegant Challenge

2009-09-03T22:52:00.003-04:00

This is the last card I made today. I think I really went out of my comfort zone with these challenges. This one is for the Classy & Elegant Challenge at Moxie Fab. I pictured using these colors together, I think the purple gives it a rich look, along with the yellow & gold. I really had a hard time figuring out a good layout for this card that would make it look good. I am still not sure if I like it that well. I do LOVE how beautiful and sparkly the snowflakes look with all that glitter on them! If that's not elegant, then I don't know what is!! haha! Can you tell I love glitter?? Haha!

I took a lot of pictures of this one as you can see! I wanted to make sure and show all that luscious glitter and my unique ruffled ribbon trim. It's different, I think I like it. I was trying to go for that ruffled ball gown sheer look, along with the gold satin ribbon! My pictures turned out a little dark, I tried to get it to show better with editing them, so I hope you can see the ruffle. Like I said, the card is different, and I'll have to think on whether I like it well enough or not. I am loving the color combo though!

So what'cha think?? Is it Classy & Elegant? Maybe it's too much, hmm. So yeah, out of my comfort zone. But it's fun doing that and trying new and different things. I think these challenges are really fun. And like they say "stretch your style challenge", I am sure stretching my style! :)

So here's what I used:

Stamps: All SU sets- Snowflakes, Small script, & polka dots & paisley
Inks: SU- Eggplant envy, more mustard, & versa mark
Cardstock: SU- Very vanilla, not sure the names of the two different purples used.
Accessories & tools: SU-glitter, random ribbon I've had for a while, not sure where I got it from, I think the gold bow came on a gift I got, EK success corner rounder (yes, I use it on almost EVERY card I make! Haha! Maybe I will eventually tire of it. Probably after I am able to purchase some cool edge punches I will set aside the corner rounder for while). :)

Stretch Your Holiday Style: A Vintage & Shabby Chic Challenge

2009-09-03T22:20:00.004-04:00

Here is what I made for the Vintage & Shabby chic challenge for the Stretch your holiday style challenge at Moxie Fab world. I thought this neat carolers set my mom had would work good for this challenge. I knew I wanted to make an ornament for one or several of these challenges, so I did for this one! Living on a Christmas tree farm works good for props for stuff like this!! Hehe!

I stamped the image on very vanilla card stock, then I added some pretty glitter to give it that frosted look. And the lantern post light looks so pretty with the glitter, it doesn't look as good in the photo as it does in person- that would be due to the lack of my photography skills. I didn't have any lace, and I really wanted to use some, but instead I found this fabric I've had forever that I started a quilt with that I never finished. I distressed the edges of the main image. I sewed the fabric by hand to get that bunched up look, then I attached it with some glue dots and then sewed a straight stitch to complete it. Then added a red scalloped strip behind the fabric. So I tried my best to get that vintage shabby chic look! What do you think?

Here is the back of the ornament. This is the sentiment that came with the carolers set. I like it!

I added some glitter to the "C", you may have to click the image to see it better.

What I used-

Stamps: Christmas Carolers set-SU
Cardstock: Chocolate chip, very vanilla, real red-SU
Ink: Close to cocoa, more mustard
Accessories & Tools: Glitter-SU, sewing thread, EK success corner rounder, Fiskars 1/16 hole punch.

Stretch Your Holiday Style: A Clean & Graphic Challenge

2009-09-03T21:12:00.002-04:00

Hello there my friends! I hope you all are doing well. Today I have several cards to share. I have been itching to play along with the Stretch your holiday style challenge over at Moxie Fab World for a while now, and was just able to get a few made for it today! Whoohoo! Despite that my baby hasn't been feeling well, I was able to have some fun making this stuff, (but I would have to say that I let my house go!). This card is for the Clean & Graphic challenge. It is actually a little too "clean and plain" for me, I really think I was a little afraid to do too much to it! Hee! So what do you think, do you think it's clean and graphic?

I don't know what all the names are for the stuff I used, but I will try to list it. I borrowed a bunch of Christmas SU sets from my mom. Some of the stamps I don't think were in the sets they came with, so I'm not sure what sets they're from. Most of the sets are older sets.

So here is what I used-

Stamps: Holiday greetings & the holly branch are SU
Ink: Basic black marker, real red, & garden green-SU
Cardstock: Real red, Hunter green(?)-SU, white cardstock-Walmart
Accessories & tools: Basic black grosgrain ribbon-SU, EK Success corner rounder, Fiskars rectangle punch

Another challenge

2009-08-25T23:49:00.005-04:00

Since I had all my stuff out and had already made quite a big mess, AND was still feeling pretty happy and thankful about conquering my sewing machine dilemma, I decided I would go ahead and make a card for Christina's first challenge she just started. The colors for it are- chocolate chip, cocoa, color of your choice, white/cream, and the technique for it was using crystal effects or clear embossing. I didn't have any crystal effects, nor have I ever used it. Not sure how!? And the only embossing powder I have is some super old stuff that has glitter in it. There's hardly any of it left in the bottle. I never emboss because I don't have a gun, and well not much embossing powder either. And I hate having to use the toaster or the oven for doing it! Eeek! But I managed with it this time. For some reason it never turns out right when I do it. The embossing powder like melts and dries on too much and then doesn't leave it looking too glossy at all. Could be that the oven is too hot, or because the embossing powder is so old?? I really hope to be able to invest in getting an embossing gun one of these days.
So if you can tell, which you may not be able to, the flourish in the background was embossed with my really old clear glittery embossing powder! Haha! I tried!
What I used for this card-

Card stock: Close to cocoa (base of the card)-SU, chocolate chip (scallop edge)-SU, some aqua paper I purchased from a scrapbook store a long time ago (I have a lot of older stuff, huh!?! Ha!), and some random white card stock, maybe from walmart??? Not sure.
Stamps: Baroque motifs (background flourish)-SU, Song birds (the birdie)-SU, and the "From the heart" sentiment is from an SU stamp set too, I borrowed just the stamp from my mom and I don't remember what set it's from.
Aqua colored satin ribbon from Walmart
Rhinestone (for the birdies eye)
Sewing thread
Embossing powder
Ek Success corner rounder (I use that on almost all of my cards!! So versatile!!).
Ink: Versa Mark, Color box fluid chalk inkpad-dark brown

Okay, that's it for now! Hope you liked this one, I kept it pretty simple. I notice these days I like keeping my cards more that way. Who knows, maybe I'll change, but for now, less is more!! Haha!

It is LATE here, Nighty night ladies!! Guys too! ;)

Blessings

~Jessica