Our Homemade Christmas

Posted on | December 20, 2009 | 5 Comments

Five more days until Christmas!!!! Tomorrow I’ll be sending out my Christmas cards + my sister’s package. About time, huh? But ya know, I think it’s not just us. So far we’ve only gotten two cards this year. It must be a crazy year for many!

Today, while M and dad’s away, I managed to do this:

I made the tag myself in Illustrator and saved it as always to use in my KNK but I don’t know what happened my KNK couldn’t recognize the SVG file and when I imported the image into my software the file got all crazy and didn’t cut right. I got this tag but I had to trim a part that wasn’t suppose to be cut but it did. So I can’t share the tag file until I figure this out. The rest of the tag was done using some My Mind’s Eyes die-cuts. Really easy!

Check out that wrapping paper. Isn’t it pretty? I got it at the dollar store! I love looking for wrapping paper there because the last few years I’ve been finding huge rolls of pretty paper AND they’re made in the U.S.A.!!!

Before I go I want to share this…

Jovie Sitting

I was able to craft while Jovie’s awake because she’s been sitting on her own. Still a tad wobbly but she’s doing well. She didn’t fall one bit while I made the tag!

Then a few of our ornaments… once upon a time the Christmas tree used to be mine. I decorated, I purchased whatever’s on it, etc. Every year, after Christmas, I’d buy a new ornament and it’s usually from World Market. Now it’s not mine anymore and I couldn’t be happier and every year we add on to the tree and they’ve been handmade.

Jovie Ornament

M's Ornament

The below starts with hubby’s ornament. Back home he’s called Andy. Then M’s and then Jovie’s little hand print.

Family Ornament

I hope your holiday preparation is wonderful!

Blog Candy

Posted on | December 18, 2009 | 19 Comments

Literally! Has any of you had Chuao chocolates before? If you love chocolates and you haven’t tasted any you’re missing out. I found these at our local WalMart have buying 3-4 of them at a time… in case they run out ya know… ha! Today I’m giving some away but there’s a catch… only those living in north America/Europe can play. I don’t want the chocolates to melt in the mail.

I did some Googling because I was wondering why the price is so high (although very worth it) and found that Chuao is #8 in the Forbes list for most expensive chocolate. It’s expensive for many reasons, and one is that it’s made in the US, but totally worth it.

So, here’s my blog-o candy and whoever wins will get 3 bars mailed to you. Deadline: Dec. 21 by 11:59 p.m. CST and all you have to do is post a comment and tell me what you made for this coming holiday… baking, cooking, sewing, craft, etc.

Our news… We’ve just been swamped with moving and house selling. We had a very interested buyer stop by yesterday and even though there’s no contract they are still interested. We’re just waiting for a few things to fit into place. Prayers and fingers crossing, please {::SMILE}. The great news is that today’s my last day at work. I’ll have two weeks off!!! So excited! We’ll still be going through stuff and house work but I am hoping for a little bit of craft time for me too. The change of off days (the original last day of work is suppose to be next Wednesday), by our university president (last minute news) threw my gift giving schedule off a bit. The bad news is that I have nothing to give my co-workers as of today. The good news is that I’ll have more time over the break to finish making what I want to make for a few of them. Another bad thing… as of today I’ve only sent one Christmas card out. YIKES! Yeah, people’s going to get New Year’s cards from us this year. Oh well. Moving comes first this time around. It’s a once in a lifetime deal, right?

Have a great one!!

Let the Torture Begin…

Posted on | December 15, 2009 | 17 Comments

This weekend… I’m going to start doing the p90x workout (if you’re interested check out E-Bay first. Just a bit cheaper). The lean track. If you’ve never heard of it, here’s a video:

My friend went through this program, she’s on day 60 and looks fabulous. I think I only need to do a p30x to get to my goal {::SMILE}.

I’m not going to do everything they ask me to do. I am still nursing and so I don’t want to go to extreme. I just want to start slimming down a bit. I’m going to watch my diet but I’m not going to go strict on it. I’ll adjust as I see fit. I’m not going to keep track of how many I did for each routine either. I am going to do as much as I can and see what happens. I started working out as soon as I was able and I lost 3lbs in a week but my milk supply also decreased. I don’t want that since Jovie’s only 6.5 months and does not like formula. My goal now is to loose five more pounds and acquire a tiny bit of muscles.

My doc said my idea weight is between 108-120lbs (I like this site too for a weight estimate, pretty close to my doc’s numbers). Before I was pregnant I was 105lbs. I liked it but at the same time I thought a bit more would be ok. So I think if I go mid-way and try for 110lbs with more muscles than fat I’d be set.

K, nuff of my weight…

Here’s a card that I did for Laura’s sketch at 2Sketches4You. It’s pretty simple for many reasons… The sketch is simple and lately I’ve been swamped with moving stuff. But, I still wanted a bit of me time and last night I got a bit. The stamp is SU’s.

Hope you have a great one!!!

In Search of a Tent

Posted on | December 14, 2009 | 6 Comments

Are you done Christmas shopping? I thought I was but Miss M wants one more thing from Santa besides boots… a tent! I didn’t think tents would be so eye catching but they are! After looking at a lot of them, does anybody know where I can find something like this IKEA canopy ($19). The IKEA tent isn’t available to purchase online.

I have something in mind that I’d love to make for M and I need a white blank canopy. I’m not that good of a seamstress and I know I’d butcher the fabric, even though it seems simple, if I try.

If you want to see some tent cuteness, here are some that I found:

The Treepee. Now this is one I’d like to get for myself! I’ll have to add “huge tree” on my house letting (renting term in the UK) list of must have, ha!

Another none-swinging tee pee tent:

From Etsy:

Haba tents (this company makes some really fun — pricey too – tents). I think this is a Germany company:

Mushroom tent:

Land of Nod aka the kid store of Crate and Barrel:

Now, if you have the above, there’s a recall on it. LofN still sells this, looks a bit different than the above photo.

I might also attempt this one day after we’re all settled in England and I am a stay-at-home mum: teepee tent with tutorial. It looks pretty simple, no?

Precious Moments

Posted on | December 12, 2009 | 5 Comments

We’ve been doing housework today which included cleaning my craft room/office/playroom. I wanted to make something for my R&R time but didn’t want to pull out all my paper stuff. Last summer I bought a bunch of digital kits at Shabby Pickle but never got to looking at them until today. Here’s a tip… when you download a digital kit extract it right away. This way you know if you downloaded the item correctly. Don’t be like me who’s finding out that a few of the kits didn’t get downloaded all the way.

Speaking of digital kits I received an email last week asking if one can only use Photoshop to create a digital page. No you don’t. There are many software and Photoshop is just one of them.

Free software:

Purchased software:

My recommendation is to download and install Gimp first. See what you think of it. It’s free and quite a powerful little thing. If you have extra cash go ahead and buy Photoshop Elements and if you got a decent tax return and your spouse and kid(s) let you go ahead and splurge on Photoshop CS4 or a used copy of CS3/CS2. Any will do what you need well!

Here’s my little page. I used all sorts of elements from New Life Designs: 5 steps to Heaven and the butterfly and bird was from Catherine Designs: Noel Chic.

If you think my top flower is a bit off on placement, it’s on purpose. I print my digital pages at whcc.com and they don’t do 100% prints. They crop at about 1/8-1/4″ from the edge. Yes I can go with a different company who does 12×12 without cropping but I just love the quality of whcc’s prints and if the company hasn’t done me wrong I’m usually a pretty loyal customer.

Alright, time for night night… got lots to do tomorrow!