Vinyl Lettering Cont......

In response to some comments-
My sister's business is called Vinyl Impressions. She started it up just a couple of months ago. It is hitting HUGE out in the west supposedly- which is why I'd like to start it up here eventually. She is currently getting her own website built- but won't be done for a little while. In the mean time, she's decided to get a blog up and running to showcase her fonts, prices, and details. She is emailing me all the info tonight and I"ll be putting her blog together hopefully within the next day or so. I will post an entry on here once her blog is running so you can see all the goodies! Glad people are interested! makes me excited!

Vinyl Lettering.... Anyone Interested?

My sister just started her own business doing Vinyl Lettering. I've never seen it before until she sent me a sample. It is so freakin' adorable!!!! So... I'm here to show you what it is. take a look at these pics- I've been debating whether to start up consulting for her. Would you be interested? Very easy to ship, immediate turn around times, and not expensive. Plus- you can attatch them to your walls, and when you want to remove them, you can- and it doesn't leave any residue! They can be attatched to wood plaques, tiles, glass blocks, mirrors, just about anything! self adhesive...... you can do it yourself- or purchase already done. They areally are beautiful. The Grandparents mirror is what we did for my parents for Christmas. great for gifts, home decor, military,churches, etc. Let me know if you'd be interested!

Balderdash and Bronchitis

Wow...... what a Christmas! It never ceases to amaze me how fast it comes and goes. It's always such a hype and magical experience building up to Christmas. Then it comes and never lasts long enough. The day after Christmas is usually a depressing day for me. I take all my Christmas decor down and "get back to life". No more magic.
But the point to this entry....... Rick and I got the game Balderdash for Christmas.... i must say- I HIGHLY reccommend it. It's the most hilarious game you will ever play in your life! Seriously- if you are g ame player... go get the game!
The second thing would be the bronchitis. My first daughter got it on the 23rd. went to the Dr- got the meds... loaded her up and she's getting over it. Thing is... with 3 kids, when one gets sick... they ALL get sick. So now i have 3 kids hacking and coughing up a storm. Haven't had a decent nights sleep in over a week. Feel like I've given birth to triplets and have to wake up to feed them every couple hours! It's insane! We did enjoy our Christmas though. I got fuzzy green slippers and a new purse. Seems simple things like that will keep me going through the day.
NOTE:
anyone who decides the school schedule for the year- needs to narrow the Christmas break to a week TOPS- not more.... anyone with kids in school agree? ugh.... :) I'll post pics later.

Mary Christmas?

Ok- found this cute link ( www.blessthischick.com )on another blog- had to make my own..... I think their names say it all! Merry Christmas Eve!

It's a miracle!

I finally finally was able to scrapbook! I actaully started this page a week or so ago and haven't been able to finish it until today. But just thought I'd show you what I came up with. I love these pics- they are so typical of Kayleb. Had to show off that I was actually accomplishing something in the realm of what I love!

The things children NEED

Yah.... need.... what a word. Notice how that word never ceases to "escape" out the mouths of our children almost every second of the day? every time there is a commercial on TV or anytime a friend has a cool thing... it's always "I want that." Hailey's latest comment.... "I want that... is it under the tree?" figures.Which leads me to the point of this entry. Hailey is a "good listener" at school and gets rewarded for it. We wanted to extend that into our home life since "good listening" seems to be something that was done in 1742. Enter.... sticker book. everytime we ask Hailey to do something and she does it right away- she chooses a sticker and gets to put it in a special book. She loves it. So I made this cute little Ariel book for Hailey... since she is in that phase right now. BUt what happens when you have twins.... or close to twins? everything has to be fair. Kayleb decided he NEEDED one too. OF COURSE!!!! WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!?! Like I could get away with making one for her and not him. sheesh!! SO I went and made one for Kayleb. Yah, so the question would be.... is it really working? Well- I'll let you know in the year 3467. Here they are for your enjoyment- nothing special... just something to show. (at least I'm not completely stopping my creative-ness right?!)

Lucky Ducky Teachers

I was so excited for Hailey to start school this year. Not because she was going to be gone all day, everyday- not because she was going to be learning- not because she was finally going to socialize with kids her age; not because I'd be back down to 2 kids- but beacuse I was going to be able to make her teacher a gift at Christmas and at the end of the year! I know.. pathetic. BUT- in my defense.... I am a huge advocate of showing our teachers how much they are appreciated. They do so much to help our children and mold their lives.... they need some praise and acknowledgment every now and again to let them know that we care. So let's just say that my childrens future teachers have no idea how lucky they are. They will be getting handmade gifts from me every year! This year- This is what Hailey's teacher got for Christmas. Cam complete with handmade bag and card too! (and don't let me fool you... the card and bag have been made for quite a while.. just pulled them out and dusted them off)

Just filled the tin with a bunch of candy- think she'll like it?

Now show your teacher you care!!!! (everybody grab hands and say "We care, We care") hahahaha-

Christmas PARTAY

Can I just say I have the BEST job in the world?! There is seriously no where that I will ever find such wonderful and stinkin' hilarious friends. We had our store christmas party last week where we just had to participate in the traditional white elephant gift giving. WHy is it called White Elephant gifts anyway? Well- never fear- I've done the research and now you can know how it came to be...... ready for this?

Meaning
Something that is more trouble than it is worth.
Origin
White (albino) elephants were regarded as holy in ancient times in Thailand and other Asian countries. To keep a white elephant was a very expensive task, since you had to provide the elephant with special food, and provide access for people who wanted to come and worship it. If a Thai King became dissatisfied with a subordinate, he would give him a white elephant. The gift would, in most cases, ruin the recipient.

so there ya go..... so amidst the process of trying to "ruin" one another... we had a blast doing it. So did the White elephant game of unwrapping and stealing, stealing, and stealing. Lynn was the first to open her gift. She chose mine. I found this at a local craft store and thought it was so funny- well.... i guess you can tell that everyone else thought it was funny too! It was a foam monkey cap with a plastic banana. WHo do you think liked it better?

Then we moved onto the Foxy ROxy. She chose Jamie's gift. Supposedly Jamie doesn't know what to get. She owns her own scrapbook store and she couldn't be creative enough to figure out her own gift.....so she stole an idea from one of her customers. She went all around town to find gift cards in the amounts of $.85, $1.24, $.23, etc. Too funny! Here's Roxy opening the gift.

Then we moved onto Jamie, note: by the time we got through just these 2 gifts- about and hour has gone by..... ;)

who opened Suzannes gift. We all came to the conclusion that Suzy Q has a funny belief in what a White Elephant gift should be.... and where it should come from. (what religion does she belong to anyway?!) Anywho- Jamie opens this somewhat heavy box, and out she pulls the crab trap. Literally. A crab trap. Then she pulled out a can of canned crab. The most disturbing, and yet funny thing about this... is that Suzy Q's "belief" of white elephant gifts should come from her house and have absolutely no cost to them at all. What was she doing with a crab trap at her house?!?!?!?! Oh yah.... and let's not forget the nice *little* bonus gift she happened to get along with it. I'll let you use your imaginaion to figure out what it was. My thoughts..... I think Suz pulled that thing out of her hubby's belly button just for this occasion..... HAHAHA!

Wow- as I say..... that was pretty special. So then Kristine got to go. She chose Roxy's gift. According to the almighty Rox- "I've always wanted this gift, just have never gotten it". And the reason this is so funny- or especially funny- is that Jamie and Kristine ALWAYS talk about their poop and/or lack thereof. So this is what Kristine ended up getting. And if you can't tell what it is- it's a plastic reindeer that "poops" brown jelly beans. It's called the "Super Duper Reindeer Pooper"...... totally appropriate.

OK- then it comes to me. I'm totally excited. I love gifts.... even if they are pointless. Well- I guess our poor little Lynn doesn't know what a White Elephant gift is. (Lynn- there's an explanation at the top of this entry just for you!) So she went to Target and bought the first thing she saw. M ypicture is absolutely retarded- but this is what I got. I went digging in the bag to see if there was anything else.... nope. it was a cute bag though- kept that too. Funny enough- I ended up using it! It's now my candy dish. THe thing is full- anyone want some?

Poor little poopsy Suzy Q went last. SHe chose Kristine's gift. Well- I think the picture explains it all. A calendar from Chik-Fil-A. too funny. There are actually usable coupons in there! Aw.... so not fair!!!!

So there our saga ended. The night wasn't too long- but it was oh so fun. These girls are just the best- can you ask for better people to work with? It's party central ALL the time. Moral of the story- go work for a scrapbook store.... you'll literally scrap till' you crap.... amongst other things...... :)

Holiday Baking

I finally did it. I'm still good cause' Christmas isn't here yet. And for those lucky people who got to partake in my treats...... lets' just ask them how lucky they feel!!! Now, my whole childhood is based on the tradition of making and decorating sugar cookies for holidays. This year- I wanted to change it up a bit. I decided to make hard candy, divinity, and fudge. I've never made ANY of this before in my whole life. So I hunkered down, (complete with helmet, oven mit, and spoon in hand), and attempted to make these treats. I was so leary- because to be quite honest- I've alwasys heard that all 3 recipes are always hit and miss. After 3 hours of sweating over the stove (and no..... my beads of sweat did not fall into anything) I completed them all and they all turned out! I added a little pinch of almond extract- and they are sooo good! and then I added the Andes chocolate pieces to my fudge recipe and OH MY WORD!!!!! the best fudge I've ever had in my life! I'll put the recipes on here a little later for you all to partake. SO here are the pictures of my first ever candies.... aren't you just so proud?!

It's Christmas time!

Can you believe it's only a week and a half away?! crazy!! I know i've gotten all of my shopping done- just have to wrap it all... which happens to be my LEAST favorite part.

I was in the process of making my Christmas cards, and after about 2 hours of painful nonsatisfaction- I decided to give up. Then I was reminded that Rick said he wanted to do the Christmas cards this year. Being an artist and all- I thought it was a wondeful idea. So he did! He sat down and made our Christmas card this year and this is how it turned out!

I inked the edges, added alittle glitter, stamped the inside, and it's done! Now for those of you lucky enough to get a card from us... I'll put a little warning in right now- we've stayed up the past 3 nights constructing a "story" family letter. It is down right hilarious. I will post the letter after I send them all out within the next week for you all to read. My abs are so sore from laughing so much. And I'll also admit that Rick was the one that came up with most of the funny ideas in that thing!

And.... this is somewhat HUGE- but I managed to actually scrapbook this week! I made one page, and sorry I can't show it- it's for the Adornit ad going in Feb issue of Scrapbook Etc. So you can see it then and then I'll post it on here. Made me feel good to finally do something for myself though. And believe it or not- I'm actually pulling all my product out to yet another page today! I'm practicing my style for the Hall of Fame contest. For those of you who don't know what that contest is, it's the biggest scrapbook contest ever. You have to submit pages according to theri guidlines and you have to submit a total of 12 pages. It's a difficult one- and chances are slim because thousands of entries are submitted. But I like the challenge and if you win- you get a huge amount of money and scrapbook products to last you the next 10 years of your life! So I wanna win pretty badly.

Here's is a page I did a while ago- but never had the time to show it off. I used all Adornit supplies. I like it.. simple- but it's cute! let me know what you think!

Sad News

My very good friend, Jen Gallacher, contacted me yesterday. Her son has had some health problems and just got diagnosed with cancer. He is 12 years old. He is in Primary Childrens Hospital right now recovering from surgery where they discovered the cancer. This is such sad sad news. I ask that anyone who prays, to PLEASE keep her and her son and family in your prayers. It's hitting especially hard because of the time of year obviosuly. Her blog is at right- you can go there and leave a message for her too if you like. Thanks for your wonderful thoughts- I know she'll be greatful for all the thoughts and prayers on her sons behalf.

Page of the Day......or week... or month.....

So I decided that since I'm a die hard scrapper- I haven't been posting much of my work. For good reason... I might add- but still! So I will post one of my pages a day- or week- or month....like the title claims... hahahah! I'll try to do it more often. I'd like to get feedback on my stuff. For some reason- I submit like crazy and can NEVER get my pages published. I've had cards published a few times, but I want a page published more than anything. Isn't that the greatest boost to your scrappers ego than to have one of YOUR pages published for all the world to see? I guess I can't complain a whole lot. I did have a page "published" on the packaging of my Mia Flower stickers.(which I'm not fond of anymore) And... I just got asked to do a page using my open shelf lines, (which have now been named the Amber and Shari lines), for an ad in the Feb issue of Scrapbooks Etc. magazine! So I guess that will technically be "published"..... but it won't be because of my "creative genius" that came out and did an INCREDIBLE job- but because it's my line of product and no one can use it but me right now! hahahahahahah! oh well- something to add to my list and to make me smile... what could be worse than that right?

All the good pages I like are in my portfolio at right- you can check those out anytime. But I will choose a certain one and give the story behind it. Which I think is the most important part of scrapbooking.

the one i chose for today is "Little Prayers"

I did this page because I wanted to remember what my son said every single night in his prayers. This is the hidden journaling at top- "Kayleb’s Prayer “mommy, daddy, hayee, kayub, bee yeeya, gwamma, gwampa,nana, bobo, tyty, mecky, jif, daddy, hayee, mommy, kayub, bee yeeya, mecky, jif, daddy, gwamma, gwampa, hayee, mommy, kayub, nana, bobo, tyty, Heh fadder, monteers, monteers, Heh Fadder, Amem. Oh the faith of a child. It brings my heart such joy, my son, to see you kneel down at the close of each day and say the sweetest little prayer to someone you’ve never seen or hardly know anything about. Yet you talk as if you are talking to someone who listens and loves you just as much as your father and I do. Your prayers right now show to me how important family is to you. There are so many things you can be thankful for and the ones you mention every night are that of your family members. It’s so cute and funny to see you praying about monsters, but yet amazing to me that you know your Heavenly Father will help keep you safe. I wish that you will always keep the simple faith that your prayers will be answered. I can’t imagine my life without your prayers to help keep my faith going and growing. Thank you, sweet son of mine, for that daily reminder! August 2006"

He said this every night for quite a while. Like most things- he has outgrown this "phase". I'm so glad I wrote it down and got these adorable pics to remember this by. I wouldn't have remembered otherwise. THAT"S WHY I SCRAPBOOK!!!!!- we need to remember the reason behind the pages we do. It's not about who can do the coolest design or who can use the newest products. It's about your self expression and giving the story behind the pictures.

ok- off my soapbox now..... enjoy!!!!

IT"S DONE!!!!

OH my word! I cannot tell you how good it feels to be completely done! I am reffering to my designing I've been doing for Carolees. I have completed all designs and they are currently in their hands being sent to the printers at the end of the week! I am so excited to see how they all come out. It was no small feat. I spent about 30-40 hours over a 3 day period doing, re-doing, sizing, formatting, saving, etc. I was given a wonderful opportunity to design as much as I wanted and man..... did I ever! I have 1 album kit, consisting of an album, 24 papers, 12 x 12 sticker sheet, and 2
12 x 12 die cut sheets. Then I have 2 "open shelf" lines consisting of 4 papers each. Then there's the matching foam stickers, acrylic stamps, chipboard set, ribbon set, alterable boxes, and chipboard mini album. It was a lot of work, but it was so worth it. Now I just have to bide my time until I get to go to CALIFORNIA baby! I will still be doing updates on details of these products on Georgana's blog every Tuesday until CHA at the end of Jan. (her blog is at the right)
Just thought I'd share the good news of completion!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!