New Year, New Toys

Happy New Year! I know, I'm a little behind. Seems I never catch up these days. Already our year has been so busy. Andrew competed in a gym meet in St. Louis, Christina moved back into the dorm :( and our last semester of homeschool is underway. I am also planning a baby shower for my friend's daughter this weekend. All this has left me little time to play with the new Stampin' toys I got for Christmas. Today I did manage to play a little. Here's a card I made using stamps that are in the new Occasions Mini catalog.

This card uses the cute little gnome set along with the phrase from the "Gnomenclature" set. My kids really like gnomes, so I knew I wanted this set when I saw it. Ended up getting it FREE! How cool is that?!

Of course I have to have a card for the shower gift this weekend. I don't make a lot of baby cards, and have enjoyed all the "baby crafts" I have done this week for the shower. Fortunately I love pink, so I didn't tire of looking at it all week. :)

On Monday, Jan. 16 I will have my next card class. We'll be playing with some more of my new toys from the Occasions Mini Catalog, including the new framelits heart dies for the Big Shot. Contact me if you have questions or need more information about this class.

Last year in February I attempted to complete a Blessing A Day challenge and blog about it. I am looking for others who want to join me in that challenge this year. Basically you look for ways to be intentional about sharing love with others each day. Some of mine were crafts last year, others were acts of service...the possibilities are endless. It was a fun way to focus on others and I am excited about getting started on that soon. Let me know if you want to join me.

This year I am also hoping to do a better job of keeping my blog updated and posting new projects each week. Perhaps you can help hold me accountable for that. :)

Hope each of you has a blessed weekend!

Move In Day 2011

This week we moved Christina into her dorm to begin her 3rd year of college. Doesn't seem possible. This year she is getting to room with one of her bestest friends from homeschool. She and Laura have been planning this since Christina graduated 2 years ago. I didn't get any pictures of them together on move in day (fail!), but Andrew took some of me and Christina.

This first one is just us being silly with a pillow that Laura's sister, Shannon, made. It is a huge moustache :)

We had quite a time trying to figure out how to arrange all their furniture so they would still have some floor space to do P90X. What you can't see in the picture are 2 dressers and their sink. They did end up with a tiny bit of space to work out.

Wish I had a good pic of their matching bedding. It is so cute! After I bought it Stampin' Up announced their new In Colors for the year and I realized that most of them are on their bedding...which of course led to some crafting for their dorm room, but I think I already posted that project. Oh well, here it is again...

Missing her already, but now we get to have her home for a long weekend! Andrew and I re-started his senior year of high school because we changed curriculum at the last minute. Now all of his work is on the computer and scheduled for the whole year! Very excited about that, but of course we would discover this at the end of our homeschool career.

Stampin' Up's Holiday Mini Catalog became active on Sept 1. I have already recieved several of the cute Christmas stamp sets that are in that catalog. Will try to play with them and post pictures soon.

Hope you have a blessed day today!

So Long Summer...

A friend reminded me earlier this month that I was behind on my blog posting. (Sorry Janet!) We have had a great time this summer. In July we traveled to New York for vacation and had a BLAST! Andrew had the opportunity to participate in the Lamplighter Guild for Creative Disciplines and got to spend his week at an incredible resort in the Catskill Mountains. The rest of us explored New York (city and state) and visited the surrounding states also. Here are pictures from highlights of our trip.

Lunch with my brother, Dennis, in Pennsylvania on our way to NYC...

Seeing Spiderman on Broadway...

Mohonk Mountain House, where Andrew got to spend the week...

Niagra Falls at night...

Dinner with my family in Indiana on our way back to Arkansas...

I have so many more pics, but you'll have to wait and look at the scrapbook to see them all.



Yesterday my baby boy turned 18! Yikes! Today we begin our final year of homeschool. I am so blessed to be able to spend so much of my day with him, he's an amazing young man. He had been "driving" my dad's old '87 Ford pick up, but it wasn't real dependable and we decided to go shopping for another vehicle for him. This is what we found...



It's not much of a truck (which is what we had in mind), but he loves it and it is a lot of fun to drive...when he lets us :) We surprised him at gym last week with a little early bday party and a new car---he was speechless. You can't see him in this pic, because he's inside the car.
As for crafting, I have done my share this summer and if you dared enter my craft room you could tell it by the mess I have made! My sister was here for a weekend and we played around with making some melted fabric flowers. Here's a pic of Christina modeling it on her shirt...



I made a cute card for my mom's bday, but put it in the mail without taking a picture---ugh! I played with a new stampin toy that just arrived at my house this week. You can come to my card class this Friday and I will let you play with it too ;) Today I am anxiously anticipating delivery of my goodies that were preordered from the upcoming Holiday Mini Catalog. There are so many fun things in that box I can't wait to open it! If it comes in time for me to play with it before church, I will post pics of what I come up with.