Tis the Season...

for bonks on the head. Yesterday was challenging. The boy didn't nap, and when I let him get up, he was in a mood to be naughty. So naughty, in fact, that he decided it would be a good idea to throw a wooden train from the second floor to the first floor, which happened to hit the baby on the head on the way down. Needless to say, I was Not Happy. So the baby starts screaming his head off, the boy looks at me like "what did I do?" and I'm a little freaked because it hit the baby's head and he is now sporting a Rather Large Goose Egg. I called our pediatrician to see what, if anything, I should do, and called my husband in near hysterics. He calmed me down while I was waiting for the doctor to call back, during which time the baby calmed down too. The doctor said not to worry and told us what to watch for if there was a problem, but the baby seemed fine by the time she called me back and she thought he would be fine. It's a miracle siblings live to their second birthday, is all I can say.

My husband and I were supposed to go to an Anonymous 4 concert in the evening, and I was tempted to call the whole thing off, but the boys seemed fine by 6:00, and Boo's godparents were coming to stay with them for the evening, and I knew they would be in good hands. Plus I knew that the mental break would be good for me. Unfortunately, just as we were about to leave, Piglet hit his head on the floor while roughhousing with Boo's godfather. So more tears. I got him settled down and then we left before anything else could happen! I'm very glad we went. It was a lovely concert of medieval Christmas carols, with a great venue at one of the local historic churches.

This morning my husband took the boy to the zoo and this afternoon we have to divide and conquer as we were invited to two different events at the same time. So hubby is taking the baby and I'm taking the boy. Tomorrow we are going to hear Messiah, which I love, love, love. So today's card will be a quick one! I made this baby card a while back without having a specific recipient in mind, but was glad to have it on hand this week when one of our friends had a baby boy! My hands are terribly chapped right now and I'm having trouble working my paper cutter, so instead of making baby thank you cards by hand, I made a bunch in MDS. I'll post them when the physical cards arrive, okay?

Hey diddle, diddle...

the cow jumped over the moon. Okay, a weird start, I know. Sometimes posts come to me, sometimes, not so much. It has gotten COLD here! I love it. I'm such a winter person. I lived in Moscow for a year and I really enjoy Moscow in Janaury. Give me forty below over 90 degrees any day. My husband thinks I'm weird (for more reasons than one!), especially since I'm a person that is perpetually cold, but my response is always that I love cold weather, but I don't particularly enjoy being cold. Although given a choice, I'll take being cold over being hot because you can always add more layers. You can only get so naked. :)

I spent this afternoon working on Valentines for my From Our Hearts box (due December 26!). I think I am nearly done. I made 25 to add to growing pile, so even if I don't have a full box this time, at least it is a respectable showing.


I have two cards to share today. The first is a birthday card I made for my brother-in-law back in October. I actually made two of these and will use the second one for my father-in-law's birthday at the end of the month. It's a nice masculine layout that I got from Julie Davison. I used a color combo from the Color Coach (Cajun Craze, So Saffron and Always Artichoke) and the Lovely as a Tree stamp set, which is always good for masculine cards. The second card is another MDS card that I made while playing around last night. I like how it turned out--I've been wanting to try a button card like that. I want to make a "real" card just like it when I get my Funky Four set next quarter. I sent in some projects to be professionally printed by SU!--I'm curious to see how well they turn out in person. I'll let you know, k?

MDS

Quick post today--I'm barreling through some smaller projects today using My Digital Studio! I confess, I wasn't too excited about it when it was first released; I wasn't really looking for a digital crafting software. I've seen some nifty things made with it, and in recent months had begun to ponder putting it on my list because I've had several projects that required graphic design and thought it might prove useful in the future.

I've been meaning to try this color scheme for weeks!

In the end, I couldn't resist the great Thanksgiving sale price (half off!) and bought it a few weeks ago. I finally got around to installing it over the weekend and getting all the upgrades installed. I made a couple of projects just to play around with the software and wanted to share with you today. The card is a simple card that could be hybridized with additional real embellishments  There is a lot of potential for this software and I'm looking forward to seeing what else I can come up with! I decided earlier this year that my next baby books and family photo albums are going to be all digital, so this software provides a great tool to create wonderful books for our family. I'm pretty happy I bought it.

Food, food, food

I've been writing this post in my head for several days, so I hope it comes out alright. I should start by saying that this post has nothing to do with cards and I don't have anything to share today, not because I haven't been creating but because I haven't had time to edit the photos yet. So if you are here for the card share, stay tuned for another day. Just don't make too much noise exiting the blog, so I still think someone is reading. :)

Carbs, carbs, carbs.

Anyone still there? The first thing is that I love to eat. The second thing is that I've struggled with my weight all my life. These things go hand-in-hand, I know, but when one goes on a diet for the first time at the tender age of 11 (because I had started puberty in earnest and no longer had the girlish leaness of my childhood but had developed the generous curves of adulthood), it sets up a certain expectation about one's relationship with food.

Beef stew, mmm.

I, for one, have a terrible relationship with food. I eat for comfort, I eat to live, I live to eat, I diet, I try to eat healthy, I eat junk,...it is all very evolutionary. I would give it up all together, but I do want to see my children grow old. Some of the bad comes from the perpetual feeling of deprivation that I have due to numerous and annoying food allergies, which have only grown worse as I've gotten older and borne children. The last two weeks have been especially challenging as I've had three major allergic episodes and I don't know what the new culprit is. So I'm kind of at a loss as to what to eat right now. I'm allergic to many "healthy" foods, including nuts and seeds, chicken, several vegetables and fruits, certain legumes, and other staples of a healthy diet. (My allergist told me on Monday that I'm amongst a small subset of her patients that she labels "scary"). So I'm not eating well; I'm eating safe. Which translates to a lot of refined carbs, which, like eating out while on vacation, get old after the novelty wears off. So much for the 15 pound weight loss. I'm bummed because I still have so far to go!

Okay, so this is an emergency room visit on a plate for me, but I thought the photo was cute.

What I have noticed about my relationship with food is that healthy habits on my part are generally easier to keep when I'm not tired. And I don't mean the I-stayed-up-too-late-last-night-therefore-am-tired-today kind of tired. I mean the kind of chronic sleep deprivation that accompanies small children and hormone changes. I was doing quite well until recently, in fact.

There are at least two things on this plate that would cause some problems for me.

The baby has been a good sleeper at night almost from birth, although his day time sleep has never been good. I didn't really mind the day time sleep issues because we were getting a good night's sleep. I joined Weight Watchers, started working out regularly at the gym, got back into a routine with my personal trainer, and was feeling like my goal weight was actually attainable, rather than a far-off dream from another planet.

I had begun to think that the extreme sleep problems we experienced with my older son's babyhood were not going to plague us this go-round. I was wrong. November marked not only the end of daylight savings time, the bane of sleep-deprived parents everywhere, but the beginning of earnest teething for the baby. While the baby is generally pleasant when awake and shows none of the behaviors we came to expect when my older son was cutting a tooth, he isn't sleeping. Not at night, not during the day. For the last month or so, the baby is sleeping for 20 minutes at random intervals during the day and waking every 90 minute most nights beginning around 11 p.m. Oh, and did I mention that he is up for the day between 4-5 a.m.? Which means we are up for the day then too. Suffice to say, we are both tired, and my efforts to go to the gym and eat healthy have pretty much flown out the window.

I can't even begin to list all the problem foods on this plate. Looks tasty, though, doesn't it?

I've not given up just yet, as I keep hoping (somewhat vainly) that today will be the day the fog lifts and I can get back to my life. I've been dragging myself to a Pilates class once a week, and am still halfheartedly tracking POINTS with Weight Watchers, but I confess I lack the motivation and drive and kept me going prior to November. Luckily, I still have my creative drive and keep poking away at various projects, and am glad to receive requests for more--stamping is keeping me sane! I keep hoping I'll find the motivation and drive to get back to my healthy lifestyle and continuing weight loss efforts, along with the energy that made me consider reorganizing and further simplifying our home. Needless to say, both projects have been put on hold for the moment.

But that is what New Year's Resolutions are for, right?

Wedding Invitations in Style

I know, you can't believe it, two posts in two days! I'm pretty unmotivated to create today, so I spent this morning running errands. I took the long way to the post office to get in a walk (there was no way I was going to make my Zumba class at 9:30 given my allergies and general exhaustion this week; Pilates on Wednesday was quite enough for me, thank you very much).

After I mailed my packages, I walked a bit down Chestnut Street because I remembered seeing a consignment shop there that I've been meaning to check out when I didn't have my children in tow. It was great! Lots of nice things, little bit high on the prices, but good quality items and presented nicely. Almost felt like I was shopping in a regular store! Definitely a few steps above our local Salvation Army--I always feel like I need a shower after being in there. I found a corduroy jacket that fit great, but was a bit more than I wanted to spend, and a very cute pair of leather heels, but passed on both in favor of two great skirts on the clearance rack. I have two small children, and hopefully more to come, so I need to be realistic about what I really wear every day. In any case, it was good to get out of the house, and walk around in the crisp cold air--winter is my favorite season!

I'm posting because of a few requests to see the wedding invitations. I bought a tutorial on how to make it from another demonstrator a while back and modified it for the bride, who wanted the invitation to be in two languages, English and Russian. I like the color combination a lot--she wanted a blue to match her engagement ring, which is a light blue stone, very close to Baja Breeze. A perfect match! The bride also wanted a pop of red, so we decided Cherry Cobbler would the be perfect complement to Baja Breeze. I will say that I've got Elements of Style out of my system for a while now. I think that set will go to the bottom of the pile for a bit. Nothing like making 150 wedding invitations and 80 thank you notes with the same stamp set to give you style fatigue. Oh wait, I still have to make her programs, but I have some time before I need to get working on those!

These are the coordinating thank you notes--I used a template that I've been enamoured of for a while--I like the tone-on-tone style, and the little pops of color are great, in my humble opinion. Plus these notes are elegant and useful for a variety of occasions, so if she has some left over, she can use them for other things.

Just for You: Elizabeth

I've had a lot of different ideas for this post running around in my head for a few days, and just can't seem to settle down to one thing (in more ways than one), so forgive me if this is somewhat scattered and brief. My children are finally on the upswing of a nasty respiratory infection, after a month of interrupted sleep and crankiness, and I'm starting to feel a bit better myself, although I'm still quite tired and somewhat congested. At least the stuff is starting to make an exit, however slow. I've been feverishly trying to finish those wedding invitations I think I've mentioned a time or two, and I'm happy to announce that they are, in fact, done. The thank you notes that go with them are about half done. I'm nearly finished with the Valentines for the From Our Hearts box, and I've got about 12 Christmas cards to make yet. After that, a few odds and ends for Christmas gifts and then I can breathe for a while.

While I'm breathing (in-out, in-out), I'm going to attack my house, which has started to feel overfull. I'm sure by some standards, we are positively spartan, but I've always struggled between extremes of pack-ratism and monkish asceticism when it comes to my belongings. When I clean out, I tend to get rid of too much stuff, and when I let things be, I tend to accumulate too much stuff. It's hard for me to find balance. A few weeks ago, I stumbled across this blog call The Nester, and in it, she mentioned a book called Organized Simplicity. I was immediately struck by the title and ordered a copy that same day (I know, one more thing to add to the pile...). I've been reading it in fits because that is the type of book it is, and I've decided I need to go through my house room by room and really take stock. My husband thinks that as long as there is still room for things, we shouldn't worry about it, but I'm starting to feel suffocated and stressed by our stuff. When we moved here, we had 60 boxes of books (which we pared down to about 50). I know that another book cull is needed. What I'd really like to get our book collection down to an amount that will basically fit in the living room. We have massive built-in bookcases there that are pretty full at the moment, plus five more on the second floor that are totally full, so I definitely have my work cut out. I think a season of fasting (Advent) is a good time to take stock. Last Lent, I took stock of my menu planning and household chore organization; this Advent is to be our physical space. So I don't think I'll be posting much in December because I'm not sure how much I'll be creating. And as anyone who has read this blog long knows, we don't celebrate Christmas until January 7 anyway, so I've got time.

My card for today is simple (as are many of my cards lately). It uses the Elizabeth ala carte stamp (so versatile!) and an embossing folder. So easy!

Supplies:
Melon Mambo, Old Olive, Whisper White cs
Elizabeth, Teeny Tiny Wishes stamps
Old Olive, Melon Mambo ink
Gray satin ribbon (non-Su!)

A cold in my head

So here am I, home on a Sunday morning with a cold in my head, a sore throat, and the general maliase that accompanies any good sickness. My older son has been messing with a cold for several weeks; the baby has been congested for about a week, and I guess now it is my turn. The thing I hate about being sick (well, there are lots of things to dislike) is that it takes me F-O-R-E-V-E-R to get over things. I'd say, on the average, it takes me twice as long to kick a virus as most people. I blame all my allergies. Gotta love them allergies--they are seriously hard on the immune system. So while being sick kind of stinks, the prospect of being sick for the next month really stinks. Hopefully my immune system will prove me wrong for once and I'll be feeling better before Thanksgiving.


I know I've been AWOL again from the blogosphere. Sorry about that--I've been absolutely snowed with work! I'm still working on those wedding invitations for our priest's daughter, plus I'm trying to get some Christmas projects made (no progress on those yet) and finish my own Christmas cards. Oh, and make a bunch of Valentines, since the From Our Hearts deadline for Valentines is December 26. Oy. Did I mention that after months of being my awesome good sleeping baby, Max has started getting up at night? I hate teething. (His, not mine)



So, two cards to share today--these were in the last box I sent to the troops. It was a handy way to use up a few dsp scraps I had lying around. I think I made 8 of each card. I've been experimenting a little with stamping directly on the dsp and I think I like it!