Five Favorites: vol. 10

Linking up with Hallie for Five Favorites this week!  I have made good progress on the Knit For Victory pullover front, but will do yarn along next week, God-willing.

--1--

I've mentioned my love for the Outlander book series before, no?  And the fact that Starz is making a television series out of the books?  (Squee!!)  They just released the first trailer, and I.am.so.excited!  I even inquired about paying for a streaming subscription to Starz just for that (since we don't have a television), but sadly, they don't offer it unless you also have a cable subscription, so I'm just going to have to wait until Netflix or Amazon.com picks it up.  Boo.

--2--

I got a Kindle paperwhite for Christmas from my parents (thanks, Mom and Dad!), and I am really liking it for light reading.  I am a serious bibliophile, and we are just running out of room for our books.  I buy a lot of books that I only read once, and the Kindle is perfect for those sorts of purchases. And since we have Prime with amazon, I'm eligible to borrow some books for free!  I also like it for times when I want reading material but don't have the room to carry a bookstop.  I'm considering purchasing the Outlander series in e-book format just so I have it wherever I go.  You know, just in case.  Because it is hard to tote along 800 page books when you have small children.

--3--

I bought these Oreo Mint Fudge Cremes for our Twelve Days, and while they are different than what I was anticipating, they are so good!  Just like Thin Mints.  

--4--

We did a Jesse Tree this year during Advent, and because I decided to do it a little bit too late to get any really neat ornaments, we just used paper symbols I found online.  I grew up with a Jesse Tree tradition, complete with unique ornaments, and wanted something like that for our family.  I found these ornaments a little too late to order for this year, but went ahead and bought them for next year!  They even have an Orthodox version so we can do it all 40 days of the Fast next year.  I'm so pleased.  The quality is great, the pictures are lovely, and the kids were really into it this year, so I think next year will be neat.  My only complaint is that they don't come pre-strung (there are strings included, however).

Piglet was asking me about doing something similar during Lent, so I might get their Holy Week one too. 

--5--

I've had some unfortunate falls in the last month (I fell down the stairs just before Western Christmas and bruised my left foot rather badly--I still can't get all my shoes on--and slipped on the ice last Friday and sprained my right ankle and twisted my knee), so I'm very grateful for a light support Ace brace that is keeping me mobile and upright.  Since Birdie has figured out all the gates in the house in the last two weeks, I'm spending most of my days trying to run herd on her because she is up and down the stairs all.day.long.  It is driving me nuts--my whole routine has been thrown off by this little development.  I think I would be completely bonkers if I was also completely immobilized.

Go see Hallie for more Faves!

7QT: Expeditionary Edition

--1--

Dad, me, and my sister Kari, circa 1984.

My dad had his hips replaced on Tuesday and is going home today!  Woot-woot!  The surgery went very well, (his hips were VERY bad), and he was already up and doing physical therapy by early evening.  Because you know what?  My dad is da bomb.  

--2--

Due to a small miscommunication with Piglet's school/summer camp, we found out last Friday that he was going to be home all this week.  I confess I was filled with dread at the thought of trying to keep the peace with four children, a small house, the summer heat, and all of it for more than a week.  We are making a transition with our childcare, so I knew it was going to be up to me to git 'er done.  And you know what?  I am a rock star.  This week has been good!  I even think if Piglet didn't have camp the rest of the summer (he does), I'd be doing fine.  We made plans for three significant outings this week, and I bought a splash pool for the back patio, so I'm feeling much better about keeping them occupied and not-fighting all day long this summer. 

--3--

So what made such a big difference, you ask?  (Well, maybe you didn't ask, but I'll tell you anyway).  The biggest thing was giving myself permission to take the car out every day.  We've really tried to live in the city and be good pedestrian/public transit users, but with four kids the age of our kids, getting anywhere on foot or by bus is just painful unless it is a quick trip or relatively close by.  Almost everything that is kid-friendly is not super close.  But loading the fearsome foursome up in the Mazda5 and getting somewhere was relatively easy, and reparking wasn't too bad in the early afternoon when we tended to return.  It also helped that all of the outings were with other mom friends with kids the same age as mine, so I connected with other adults while my kids were having some fun.  Win-win. 

--4--

I can say that even though Ponchik has developed a nice little case of colic this week (that tends to hit around 10:30 p.m. and lasts until about 1:30 a.m.) and so I'm a bit more tired than usual.  Gripe water does help, and she just started taking Zantac after a sort of scary reflux episode last week (she is fine), and I'm not sure how much that is doing, but I feel better that she has it as an option.  

--5--

Did I mention we have a new chariot for the kids?  I. love. it.  I want to write an ode in iambic pentameter about this stroller.  It is the Kolcraft Contours double stroller.  The Maclaren Twin Triumph wasn't working well for me any longer for a variety of reasons, and I've been frustrated by my inability to get anywhere with the kids.  We bought it used from another family in the neighborhood, and it is in perfect shape.  We can use it for the two middles, or the two girls, and I love all the seating options (including a car seat adapter!)  It is a bit of a beast, but we are going to lock it up outside and cover it with a heavy duty motorcycle cover to keep out the rain.  My husband bike-commutes, and does the same with his bike, and so far so good. 

--6--

In other news, I discovered my new summer vintage hair-do, courtesy of Tasha's blog.  I mentioned before her most-excellent scarf-backroll tutorial (see take #6 for pics), and I do like that one for summer too, but this style gets all the hair off my neck, and it is fab.  I took a few pics, so hopefully you get the general idea.  Basically, roll the bangs, flat victory rolls on the side, and then twist up the back and roll the ends forward.  Add flowers, finished!  Tasha used some big flowers on her hair, but I'm not quite that brave, so I stuck with some pretty flat ones.  

--7--

I've also been working on Ponchik's baby book and birth announcements.  I have a good friend from college who lives about two hours from here and is a professional photographer, and a few weeks ago I drove up to see her and have her do a newborn photoshoot for Ponchik.  

I used MDS to design the announcement, and with the great print sale that was going on last week, I got a good deal on the finished announcements too!  

 I love, love, love this photo--Emily is so talented!  I made Ponchik's one-month baby book page with it, even though she was a bit under a month when it was taken.  (Click it to see bigger)  It was a Christmas scrapbook page template that I adapted for her baby book.  I just changed the color of the paper flowers and the dsp papers behind the photo to make it babyish rather than Christmas-y.  I love that about MDS!  All the templates are so adaptable.  

I should say that my creative pursuits this summer are likely to be limited to My Digital studio baby scrapbook pages, but I hope the baby love will make up for the monotony of project type. :)

Ok, go see Jen and Co. for more Quick Takes!

7 Quick Takes: Sickness, Pumpkin Bars, and Sewing debaucles

--1--

My husband has been felled by the mighty respiratory virus still making the rounds of our house. Piglet seems to be gearing up for another go and has been coughing a lot at night, and Boo is generally cranky when awake. Birdie is still wheezy (she sounds like a purring cat most of the day), but seems to be on the mend. I was starting to feel better, but then all the junk in my head dropped to my chest and I started coughing. So here we go again. This doesn't bode well for winter, it being mid-November and all.

--2--

My husband was gone for two days this week. We survived. Barely. That's about all I can say about it.

--3--

But wait, I made pumpkin bars! With cream cheese frosting. That kinda made up for it. (I used the Better Homes and Gardens recipe, for anyone who cares).

--4--

Boo is a bit accident prone at the moment, being the Frankenstein walker that he is. He showed up at the dinner table two nights ago with quite a shiner. It looks like he swiped purple eye shadow across one lid. I tried to get a photo, but it doesn't show very well, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

--5--

I hauled my Bernina out of the basement this week to attempt the man's shirt-to-skirt upcycle. And spent about four hours trying to fix what I messed up in the first 15 minutes. I finished it, but it wasn't wearable for a number of reasons, so I cut it down into a dress for Birdie. Unfortunately, I forgot about a little thing called seam allowances, so the dress is too snug. I sausaged her into it for a photo, but she won't be wearing it. Oh well. I learned a lot in the process, and then spent a bunch of time browsing sewing blogs. There are so many more talented sewers out there than me. (Including my uber-crafty mother who made my wedding dress, among other things).

--6--

****

--7--

My cousin had twins a few weeks ago (they were at 35 weeks gestation, but seem to be doing pretty well), and for a baby gift, I made her some baby thank you cards using My Digital Studio. I think I'm getting pretty good with the digital punch art! It took a while to make the card, but the professional print job turned out beautifully.

Go see Jen for more Quick Takes!

7 Quick Takes

  

--- 1 ---
So it turns out that three kids is really the tipping point for everything--groceries, laundry, family finances, general chaos and disorder, the whole works.  Before Birdie was born, I did laundry once a week, a dark and light load, with an occasional extra load for towels or sheets.  Now I am doing laundry about every other day!  
And I now believe in the Sock Monster.  I didn't believe in him before now, but he most certainly exists in my basement, I'm sure of it.  I never understood why people had such trouble keeping track of socks--how hard can it be to take laundry from the basket to the washer, and back up again to fold and put away?  Turns out, it is plenty hard!  I suddenly have two little boys who take off their socks where ever they happen to get hot feet and leave them there, my husband aims for the laundry basket with his socks and frequently misses, so socks end up under the bin, well, you get the idea.  My socks tend to stay together.  Every several days, I have 4 AWOL socks from Piglet's sock bin.  They usually turn up in the next load or two, but right now I've got a green-and-gray-striped sock that has been AWOL for a few weeks.  
Come home, sock!  We need you!
--- 2 ---
I met the reason why parking in the city is such a pain.  I pulled into a spot at the end of a block, but was hanging over the line just a bit.  The car in front of me had also just pulled in, so I poked my head out to ask the gentleman if he could move his car up about 6 inches or so. (He had at least half a car's length in front of his car).  He told me that if he did that, he wouldn't be able to get out, and I should just park my car right up against his.  I barely fit doing that.  But I have to say, if you need half a spot to get out of a parallel parking place, YOU SHOULDN'T BE DRIVING IN THE CITY!
--- 3 ---
 Have you seen Once Upon a Time?  So.Good.  I watched it on abc.com on Monday afternoon, and I think this may be my new go-to show!  I've gotten sick of all the other shows I used to keep up with on the internet, so I'm due for a new one.  I'm curious to see how the show is going to arc, because it seems to me that it doesn't have enough fuel in the story for a typical series.  Has more of a mini series feel, because you know the whole thing has to resolve itself at some point given the source material.  But.  An intriguing start, nonetheless.
--- 4 ---
I'm still struggling to keep my head above water with the chaos of three.  I read several mommy blogs, and in one of the comments this week, someone wrote that the day can be considered a success if you don't see BLOOD or FLAMES.  Ha!
--- 5 ---
Postpartum fashion drama continues.  I carried very differently this pregnancy, so the weight is sitting differently on me postpartum, and I'm having trouble adjusting to my new shape.  I keep thinking that I'm going to find the perfect garment that will make me feel like a million bucks, and I can wear it every day, but alas, I've only found a few accessories here and there that are great, but get puked on regularly, so the whole price-per-wear thing is really not that great for me.  Although I did recently purchase this great top from Kohl's, and with a navy cardigan and this great navy floral scarf I got at Target, I do feel pretty put together.  I paired it with the grey cargo skirt I wrote about several weeks ago.  It really is the Best. Cargo. Skirt. Ever.

--- 6 ---

I saw this on Facebook and had to laugh. Because it is so true.

--- 7 ---

Birdie turned 2 months this week, and I've been working on her baby book with My Digital Studio (since I can do that while nursing).  



For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Four Weeks Old!

Birdie is four weeks old now, and I'm chipping away at her baby book on My Digital Studio. I think I'm caught up for the moment. I really like the software for these kinds of projects--I always do a baby scrapbook for our children's first year of life, but I try to keep the number of pages manageable. After the first month (when one naturally takes an obscene amount of photos), I try to stick to 1-2 pages per month after that. This way I have a nice record of each child's first year, and I have a good shot of keeping up with it for each child!

I did decide I'm going to make a hybrid digital scrapbook for Birdie. It is too hard to find the time to do all the physical scrapping right now. I also know that if I let the pictures get out of control now, I'll never finish her book, so I'm doing all the pages in MDS, and then adding some physical embellishments, such as the hospital bracelets after I get them professionally printed. I still have the big scrapbook project that I'm working on for my client and I need to keep working on that.

Is it September yet?

Oh man, it is humid and hot today. The kind of weather that makes you wonder why you bothered with a shower in the first place. I realized with some dismay this week that I'm as big right now as I was when I delivered Boo; as I have 9 or 10 weeks to go yet, I'm a little frightened by how much bigger I might get. (And how much summer we still have to endure).

My sitter was with the boys this morning, so I had a good block of time to work in my nicely air-conditioned office (the only room in the house with AC), and so I holed up in there for most of the day. Unfortunately, I had to turn the AC off this afternoon because when it is running, I can't hear the doorbell, and we often receive packages from UPS and FedEx in the afternoons.

I've been working the last few days on the ongoing scrapbook project, and I'm so pleased with how the last few layouts have turned out that I wanted to share a few with you. For those just tuning in, a college friend who lives a few hours away asked me to scrap her 2010 photos for her. We agreed on a price and she gave me a year's worth of photos (did I mention she is a professional photographer??), and I started work in January. I can't do a ton of scrapbooking all at one go or my layouts start to look all the same, but my goal each month is to complete one month's worth of photos. I'm hoping to get ahead this summer so that I'm not caught out when the new baby arrives. Right now I'm in the middle of her summer photos.

My apologies for the quality of the photos--I don't have a very good set up to photograph 12x12 pages (my light box is very small) and had to photograph the pages in the protectors while the book was sitting on my desk. But you get the idea anyway. The photos on the pages are stunning in real life! You can check out my friend's photography site at emilybwilson.com if you want to see more of her amazing work.

How do you like my bubbles? I came up with that idea all by myself! The photos were of blowing bubbles, and after I laid out the photos, I thought the page still needed something, thought of my vellum cardstock and circle punches and got to work! I mostly just stuck the "bubbles" down where they fell when they came out of the punch, which worked great!

The other little gem I happened across in the last day is Jen Peel's blog, which has tons of great scrapbooking layouts. I usually find preset layouts overwhelming and hard to adapt to the photos I'm using, but for some reason, I found her layouts very easy to work with. She has several mini books for Kindle that have even more layouts. You can download the Kindle program for your PC from Amazon.com and look at the book that way.

I also had the brilliant idea to start creating my own embellishments using MDS! I'm really getting into this program (ask me more if you want to purchase your own copy!)--there are so many different uses for it! The brilliant thing about using MDS for embellishments is that you can size the stamp for the area you need it on the page--many of the stamps would be too small for the space in real life (or are long retired), but it is easy to size them up or down on the computer, print it out, and then punch or cut with a circle cutter for additional interest. I think I may need to get some of our bigger scallop circle dies for more versatility with matting.

Invitations everywhere...

Happy Monday! I spent this morning grocery shopping, going to the post office and working on a project for a client. I am hoping to get caught up this week after last week's inefficiency. Luckily my to-do list isn't too bad, and I don't have much going on this week (at least not yet!). I directed our church choir this weekend (Saturday night and Sunday morning), which meant a long time on my feet, so I'm a bit tired and swollen today, but at least it isn't so hot as it was. Last night, we celebrated Father's Day with M's godparents at Zahav, our favorite restaurant in Philly. They are very good about accommodating all my allergies, so it is nice to go there for special occasions.

My project this morning was to make birthday party invitations using the (retiring, sniff) Choo-Choo set. I think this is one set I'm going to hang on to--it is so handy for little boy cards and projects. Unfortunately, it was difficult to photograph this project--the Pacific Point looks way darker than in real life and all the colors seemed dark. I did my best editing the photo, but there you have it. You get the idea anyway. The invites turned out very well, I must say. They are postcard style and have spaces on the back for the time, place, etc. I made a version of this invite a LONG time ago, and perhaps posted it on the blog, so if it seems familiar, it probably is. I made a few tweaks to this version and like it much better than the original.

I probably should have spent the afternoon working on projects with deadlines, but sometimes you have to play to be creative. I actually spent this afternoon playing around with My Digital Studio. I've been wanting to recreate my Sesame Street Punch Pals invitations using MDS, but the last time I tried, I got frustrated and gave up. Since then, I've learned a few tricks about layering with punches and wanted to try them out. I think it is a reasonably good copy of the original! And a lot less time consuming to create. Like them? I'm putting them in my etsy store, along with the Choo Choo Train invitations.



Supplies for Train Invite:

Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise cs
Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Real Red inks
Choo Choo stamp set (plus Hugs and Wishes digital brush set for MDS), All aboard standard wheel
White 3/8" taffeta ribbon
glue dots

MDS Birth Announcements

Boy, you'd think I have babies on the brain or something! I've spent some time in the last few weeks designing some birth announcement samples for my etsy store, and wanted to share a few with you. You can check out the listings by following the link to my store. There are four girl announcements and three boy announcements. This boy announcement is my favorite, I think. I love the modern feel of it. I got the color scheme from another birth announcement I saw on the web somewhere, and it kind of grew from there.


Did you know that when you purchase certain downloads for My Digital Studio (click to purchase), they come with a scrapbook page template? Pretty nifty! The Friends Never Fade stamp brush set (click to purchase and download) comes with a 12x12 scrapbook page template. I had also downloaded the matching Greenhouse Gala paper(click to purchase and download) so I could play around with the elements individually. I liked the layout a lot, but don't do 12x12 scrapping, so I started to modify it into a smaller scrapbook page, and then suddenly thought it would make a nice layout for a card, and then thought of another birth announcement sample. (So now you know how my creative stream of consciousness works...) So anyway, here is the announcement I came up with:

By the way, if you are PhotoShop savvy, or have another image manipulation program that you like (such as MS Publisher) you can purchase downloads for My Digital Studio without purchasing the MDS software. After you check out and go to download, there is a non-MDS download option. I will say, however, that the MDS software is a great buy, easy to use, and lots of fun to work with! I'm learning all kinds of new tricks (I just learned how to ruche my ribbon digitally, for example) and am starting to understand how to manipulate certain aspects of the program beyond the beginner stage. This could be addictive!

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

One thing I decided when I started having babies was to make a scrapbook of each child's first year. I don't care for traditional baby books, but I do like having a record of each month in pictures, plus other mementos. I figured I could keep up with a project like that for each child if it was only a year and each month only had a page or two. I finished Piglet's book easily, and have had a bit more trouble keeping up with Boo's (in part because of my own inertia, not so much because of time). I decided this next baby is going to get a hybrid scrapbook--part MDS, part traditional scrapbook. I was going to do all MDS, but realized that there are always a few 3D items from the hospital that I like to put in the book, so I'll have individual pages printed from MDS, plus some pages I physically scrap myself. A good solution if I do say so.

I decided to start on the new baby's scrapbook tonight. I needed a project to work on, but was too lazy to pull out my crafting supplies, so off to MDS I went! I made these two pages of the ultrasound pictures I've had so far (I have to have a lot of early ultrasounds because I tend to have challenging first trimesters). I like how they turned out. I may change up the color scheme, depending on whether it is a girl or a boy, and depending on what the overall theme of the book ends up being, but I may leave it too. Both Piglet and Boo's books are a wild modge podge of colors and styles.

More baby gifts

Good morning! It is supposed to be 75 degrees today, but it is still in the upper 50s at 10:30 a.m. and I'm a little doubtful about that particular prediction. The weather forecasters haven't really been on target much lately.


Today's post features the other baby gift set I made for my friend and upline Claire, who had her second baby boy on Monday! I brought her a meal on Friday, along with the gifts, and got to meet the baby. Ezra is such a cutie with his dark hair and eyes. I'm curious to see who he will look like as he gets older.


I made this set before the other one, so I only had a 3 month short sleeve onesie on hand, but I figured it would do for the early summer months. I started with the onesie and the project kind of grew from there. I printed the frog from MDS, then decided on the thank you card design, and finally, on the baby card design.


The thank you cards I kept very simple, to reflect Claire's style. I made 10 of these. The color is a little off in the photo, but the base is Old Olive and it was a nice rich contrast to that pop of Pumpkin Pie.

I printed an panel of dsp from the MDS set Hoppy Memories and then started futzing with the layout. You know how sometimes you have an idea in your head and it just doesn't quite come out that way in the final product? This card was like that. I still like the final result, though. The basic problem was that I made the frog too small for the layout I wanted, so I kept adding layers to the medallion to make it bigger, but then it didn't quite look right against the dp, so I added the scallop square, and so on. You get the idea. Still cute, and it matches everything!

I've decided I'm going to sell a few sets like this in my etsy store, so if you are looking for a unique baby gift, be sure to check out The Paper Chef at etsy.com I have a lot of different images to work with, so if you want something specific, just let me know! I'll post them in the shop sometime early next week. If you need something sooner, contact me through the shop or leave a comment on this post with a valid e-mail address and your people can talk to my people and we'll do lunch. ;)

Three posts in one week

I know, you are dying of heart failure! Truth is, I've been a busy bee this week, making baby gifts, getting caught up on the big scrapbook project for a client, and generally digging out. I do find myself getting tired pretty quickly because I think I'm still getting over this bug, but as long as I manage my time and energy appropriately, I'm okay.

Two of my friends had babies this week, one on Sunday and one on Monday, and I wanted to do something special for each of them. I generally make baby thank you cards as my baby gift, but I remembered an idea on Mary Jo Price's blog from a long time ago, and wanted to give it a whirl, now that I have MDS! She had taken some MDS images, printed them on transfer paper and made custom onesies that were so stinkin' cute! I had some onesies, some transfer paper and away I went! I think the onesies plus the thank you cards are going to become my go-to baby gift. They are unique, customizable and so cute! I still need to come up with cute packaging, but a basic gift bag will do for now, I think.

This set is for my friend who had a baby girl on Sunday. It is their first baby, and I'm so happy for them! I made the thank you cards first. I remembered a great scrapbook page make-n-take from our Spring Fling three weeks ago, and adapted the layout and colors to the card. Thanks, Melissa, for the great idea! I made about 10 of these, I think.

I wanted the whole set to coordinate, so I downloaded the Baby Steps stamp brush set for My Digital Studio, created a jpg with the mama elephant in Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzazz and Daffodil Delight, and printed them on the transfer paper. I ironed them onto 6 month long sleeve cotton onesies, because in my experience, most people get tons of 3 month size clothing and then have nothing in the bigger sizes. And long sleeve onesies are always a plus, in my book. They are great as undershirts, or as shirts by themselves with a sweater over top, or whatever. Babies need layers in cooler weather and long sleeve onesies are the perfect solution!


Finally, I wanted to make a welcome baby card to match everything else. I had in mind to use the Baby Steps stamp again, but those paper daisies were just calling to me, and I saw this week's Stampin' 411 sketch and couldn't resist. Besides, it is meant to coordinate, not match exactly, right? I'm not totally thrilled with this card, because I fiddled with it for so long (you know how that goes sometimes), but I think it is cute and goes well with the rest of it.


Supplies:
Whisper White, Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight cs, Pear Pizzazz, Pumpkin pie dp
Baby Steps stamp/digi
Poppy Parade ink
Paper daisies
Pumpkin pie cord buttons
Button sizzlit
dimensionals
pearls
daffodil delight satin ribbon

MDS Announcement

I think it is safe to say that this cat is out of the bag now. I'm happy to announce that we are expecting another baby in late August/early September! My official due date is September 7, but my babies seem to want to come about a week early, so I'm sort of expecting the baby to make an appearance in late August or around the first of September. My dad is rooting for September 2, which is his birthday, so we'll have to see what happens!

I had an early ultrasound yesterday and the baby's heartbeat was fast and strong and everything appears to be developing on schedule; we are very grateful for the good news.


The card above is how we told our families the big news. I designed it using My Digital Studio, had it professionally printed as a 5x7 postcard, and then mailed it off! Luckily, the cards came with envelopes, because I'm not sure what the postmen would have thought about delivering such a card. I got the Save the Date idea from somewhere on the web; the suggestion was to make birthday party invitations, but I realized when I was in the middle of designing them that some people might take it literally and show up at the hospital. Not ideal, in my opinion. So I tweaked it to be a Save the Date card, which I think works even better! And I love this color combination--nicely gender neutral. We like to wait until the baby is born to find out the gender and while I have my suspicions about the gender based on our dates, we'll be happy with whoever God sends us.

Snow Day

I know, I'm talking about the weather again, but seriously, when you get 10 inches overnight and the city doesn't believe in snow plows, what else is there to talk about? The long and short of it is that we were snowed in today. No buses were running, very very shops were open, no museums open,...you get the idea. Somehow my husband got to work by subway (at least they were running), but everything else seems at a standstill. (As a side note, I read a blog post of someone who got stuck in the storm yesterday and it took her 7, count 'em SEVEN hours to get home; her commute is normally under an hour).

I was hoping to return some clothes to a store in town, but given the bus situation and the fact that no one was answering the phone makes me think it wasn't open for business. Oh well. Perhaps we'll be dug out tomorrow.


Today's card is an MDS hybrid; you probably recognize it from a few weeks ago when I posted the all-MDS version. A friend of mine liked the digital card so much that she requested a real one, so I printed off the playdate dp and the stamped panel (since I don't yet own the Funky Four set), matted everything, and put the whole thing together. I added two buttons and some Old Olive ribbon and voila, a pretty cute card!

Sledding on a winter's night

Today we are living in a city-size ice skating rink and everyone from the city to the ordinary joe on the street has found it completely unncessary to salt the sidewalks or roads. (On genuine snow days, however, the salt is ankle high). What is up with that? Ice is way more treacherous than snow! I would have just stayed in, but I had an early morning doctor's appointment and I couldn't reschedule it so late. My husband told me to take a cab there, which I did, but I couldn't get one on the way home, so I took my soaking wet self to the bus stop and got home that way. At least I didn't fall on my duff! And I enjoyed some delicious coffee from Dunkin Donuts, so the trip wasn't entirely wasted. :)

I've spent the last week or so completely unmotivated to create; I've been working on a few projects for clients, but nothing original. I kept looking at my craft closet and thinking "meh", which I know is a good time to just close the door and wait for the feeling to pass. I also know that the best way to get back into the swing of things once I do feel like creating again is to CASE, CASE, CASE! (Copy and Share Everything). So when I got home this morning and had a few more card requests to work on, I combed through my idea files and started CASEing. It felt very good to be crafting again, and I think I'll be ready for original work in a few days. I made some baby thank you cards for a cousin who is due to give birth any day now, as well as some birthday cards requested by Boo's godmother. I'll share those another day (once I've edited the photos), but for today, I have a card I made last week for another cousin's birthday.


I totally CASEd this card from Kerin Sylvester--check out her blog! She has great ideas. The only thing I did different was to use MDS for the sledding children image. I don't actually own that set (although I love it!), but I do have the digital version, so I just printed the panel with that image in the corner and then started stamping and sponging. MDS hybrids work very well with solid image stamps, I'm finding. Plus this card was easy-peasy and done in about 10 minutes. Love it!

Supplies:
Whisper White, Night of Navy cs
Lovely as a Tree stamp set, Welcome Christmas digital brush set
Night of navy, basic gray ink, staz-on
1 3/8" circle punch (for mask)

What do you do with a General?

When he stops being a general? Okay, I admit, I'm kind of a sucker for musicals. Especially ones that involve Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney. White Christmas (the Broadway show) actually came to Philly this year, and I wanted to go see it on the big stage, but the tickets were absolutely outrageous, and my friend and I decided that we could save all that money and just watch it on DVD at home and get good chocolate instead. Ha!


I got this little digi from the Operation Write Home blog a while back, and saw two very funny cards made with it that I wanted to give a whirl. I loved the sentiments paired with the image, and thought I'd have some fun with My Digital Studio (MDS) tonight. I saw the Stampin' 411 sketch for this week and decided it would be perfect for the first one, and then just messed around until I made the second one. I hope these make you smile! I know I did. I think the first one is my favorite.

Digging out

Greetings, friends! I know my blogging has been sporadic this fall; I've decided that I'm not going to stress about it any more. Life gets in the way sometimes, and I'm finding that while I have time to create, I don't always have time to get the photos taken, edited and posted in a timely manner. So I'll post when I can. I know these years of little ones are fleeting and I'll have more time for blogging when my children are a bit older, so for now, I'll just keep on truckin'.

I'm sure most of you know that the Northeast received an incredible amount of snow last weekend; we were in Connecticut with my in-laws for the weekend, where we got 20" in about 12 hours--craziness!! (Let me tell you, 20" of snow+totally unchildproofed house+two small children, one of whom has more energy than sense=marginally controlled chaos). We did get home on Monday as planned, but our trip took a bit longer than it would normally because of the high winds and snow conditions on the highways. But we were safe and warm and we returned home to find our neighbor had kindly shoveled our sidewalk for us, and we even found a parking spot within half a block of the house that required only minimal shoveling! Yay for that!

But the snow has been melting steadily ever since. And now we are on to planning our own Christmas celebration on January 7--Russian Christmas. I put up the Christmas decorations for the first time in two years this week; it was so fun to pull out all my ornaments and put them up. I got rid of our tree this year because I can't see my three-year-old leaving a tree alone for 3 weeks, and instead, hung artificial garland from our bookcases and stairs, and hung the ornaments on that instead. It worked great! It is high enough to be out of reach, but really dresses up the living room.

I know it is December 31, but being the boring parents that we are, we have nothing planned, and will probably go to bed early! Best wishes for the New Year--I'm sure there will be a lot of exciting things in store!

I have two cards to share today. The first is one my favorite Christmas cards from this year's batch. I got this set late in the season, and made these cards sort of last minute, but I love them!The second card I mentioned a while back--these are the MDS baby thank you cards I made for a friend who had a baby boy at the beginning of December. I'm quite pleased with how they came out, and given that my hands are a chapped and cracked mess, My Digital Studio has been very helpful lately!

The inside--it is so easy to decorate the insides with MDS!