Another Sunday….
Another Sunday Shutterbugs photo is up. Go check out Edie’s and my blog here. This week’s theme is PAIR……….Show us your photo!
Filed under Photography | Comment (0)My Birthday Surprise!
My birthday was yesterday. Yes, on Thanksgiving! I was actually BORN on Thanksgiving Day all those many years ago. Anyway, my husband is wonderful in that it really didn’t take him too many years of being married to figure out that the BEST gift to get me for ANY holiday including my birthday is CASH. First reason, my wish list of things I want to buy is a mile long. Second reason, I’m always broke! It’s the perfect gift!
But yesterday was made even more fun because my husband and daughter sent me on a birthday scavenger hunt to find my gift. Summer wrote out all the clues on a piece of paper for me to follow and Ken had hidden $20 bills throughout the house. Now, I will tell you that I *suspected* something was going on when the night before I came home from the grocery store and went to put groceries in the freezer and found a $20 bill. Hmmm… why is there money in the freezer? So apparently hubby had tried to hide them a bit early! ha ha I thought it was pretty funny, but when I asked Ken if he was going to start storing his cash in the freezer because he didn’t trust the banks anymore, he just walked away without a word! ha ha
Behind the pillow on the couch…….
Behind my favorite photo of Summer……
Inside the china hutch that we don’t use and also don’t store china in. It’s actually never opened, so I can’t understand why there’s an inch of dust on the shelves. I’d better tell Ken those need cleaned ASAP.
In the sort-of-fake gas fireplace……another item we never use…….
In the dryer………
Behind a photo turned into a painting of our little baby girl. She was horrified to hear that I’m going to show this on my blog. She thinks it’s “hideous” (in her own words). I was horrified to find an inch of dust on the top of this thing. I *think* maybe I should be dusting my house more often.
In a photo album where I store photos I’ll scrapbook someday……if I live to be 200…….
There were a few places that I was too embarrassed to show you, such as the inside of the freezer. Apparently that needs cleaned also. Geesh! But there were 10 spots in all, so I made out pretty good! I told Ken my expectations are pretty high for Christmas, so he’s gonna have to open that wallet even wider. ha ha He didn’t think it was very funny!
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I sure did!
Filed under Life | Comment (0)Winner of Lunch Box Love
Sorry I completely forgot to draw the name on Monday. I printed out the 10 comments, cut them up into strips, threw them into a bowl and drew one out! How’s that for technology? The winner of the Lunch Box Love notes is…………..JODI! Thanks for entering Jodi. I am going to try to e-mail you via the info you (hopefully) provided when you left your comment to get your mailing address. Congratulations! Thanks to all the other ladies who entered!
Filed under Life | Comment (0)New Shutterbug photos.
It’s a new week, and that means Edie and I have posted a new photo over on the Sunday Shutterbugs blog. This week our theme is ORANGE, however you choose to interpret that. As usual, Edie’s photo is breathtaking! Go check it out here.
Filed under Photography | Comment (0)Sneak Peek.
I’ve been busy editing the wedding photos from my first paid wedding job! I took 900 photos in the hopes that I’d get a few hundred great ones, and that worked out pretty good. Here’s a sneak peek of one of my favorites.
Lunchbox Love Notes.
I have always been the kind of mom that leaves my daughter little notes in her lunchbox. I usually draw a picture of something or write “I heart you” or “Mommy loves you” (when she was younger). I enjoy that kind of stuff, connecting with her in the middle of the day when she’s at school (or sometimes even just around the house).
(photo from Say Please website)
A few weeks ago I was contacted to try out these darling “lunchbox love” cards for kids and give my opinion on what I thought of them. Well, I finally got around to checking them out and oh my goodness they are soooo CUTE! So fun! I can’t wait until my daughter takes her lunch to school again so I can slip one inside her lunchbox. They can also be put into a child’s backpack!
They are double-sided with 1 side saying something positive and wonderful such as “I love you” or “be kind” or or ” I care about what you say” or “I can’t wait to be with you later” or “do something sweet for someone today.”
Then the other side has a fun little trivia fact on it. It says “Did you know?” and then it has a question or fact. Some examples I got were “Did you know? Butterflies taste with their feet.” or “Did you know? You use more calories eating celery than there are in celery.” My personal FAVORITE is “Did you know? A turtle can breathe through its butt.” I seriously cannot WAIT to add that to Summer’s lunchbox! I may not even wait for that opportunity. I plan to just stick one up here and there where she will find it, such as the bathroom mirror.
(photo from Say Please website)
These came in a cute little (very heavyweight) holder with a flap closure, and I love the inside flap design. It says “Positive words can change a person’s day, a life and eventually the world.” I just think that’s awesome. The cards themselves are also made well, sort of a cardstock weight and slick, like almost laminated but not, sort of hard to explain actually. But they seem very nice, like they won’t fall apart if they’re handled a few times, ya know? The company is Say Please and if you want to check out what other kinds of things they have go to their website. You can buy these in Michael’s arts and crafts stores now too (they sell bite size version for $1)
I received 4 sampler packs of Lunchbox Love (16 cards in all) and I actually got them to send me an extra set for one of my blog readers! I love that they agreed!
(photo from Say Please website)
To win these, just leave a comment saying how many children you have and what you would do with these. I will do the random draw for one of your names on Monday morning, November 23.
I checked out their website and found out that they also sell other cards, not just for children. They have Lunchbox Love for Teens & Tweens, Birthday Boys, Birthday Girls, Girlfriends, People You Work With, and Those You Appreciate. I love the idea of all these different themes. I want to buy the ”girlfriends” and the “those you appreciate.”
For those of you that want to go check out the website and order, I got a coupon code in my samplers that I’ll share with you for saving 10% on your order. Use coupon code LBL4ME. The card also says if you buy 4 volumes you get free shipping!
Now, I think I’ll go hang one on Summer’s bedroom door!
Filed under Life | Comments (10)Sunday Shutterbugs!
Another Sunday has come and gone, which means Edie and I posted new photos to our Sunday Shutterbugs blog. This week our theme was OLD.
Come on over and check us out on the blog and maybe share a photo of what you consider OLD to mean! Go here.
Filed under Photography | Comment (1)Halloween photos.
My daughter knows at the end of Halloween what she wants her costume to be for the next year already. No, I’m not kidding. So last year she had decided she wanted to be a “cheerless” cheerleader. All dark and goth-ish. Really? REALLY? Not that I have anything against goth-like, don’t get me wrong. I’m not one to judge, never have been, and if you want to dress/look dark and depressing you go for it! But my little girl is 9 years old. I mean, I don’t expect her to still like The Little Mermaid but geesh…..let’s not go for the rebellious dark stuff until you’re in your teenage years, okay?
But, I’m all about letting my kid spread her wings and make her own decisions, even at 9 years old, if it’s not really going to hurt her or anyone else, so I bought the costume and let her wear it. We talked beforehand about how I wouldn’t really want her to sport this look in “real life” and about what sort of image it portrays of people/kids who actually do sport this look in real life, how they’re stereotyped as being “bad” kids who do bad stuff they shouldn’t be doing, etc. I’m not saying that IS the case, but let’s face it; society does that and that’s the reality. Anyway, it wasn’t like a totally DEEP conversation, just a quick little talk about it since we had the opportunity due to the costume.
Personally I thought the stitches on the face were a nice touch!
You’ll see in the above photo her treat bag, which is one of those recycled bags some people take to the grocery store. I say “some” people because although I have half a dozen of them I have NEVER remembered to take them with me to get groceries. I’ll tell you what, my kid is nothing if not environmentally conscious. Have I mentioned on here I’m not allowed to buy paper plates any longer because they’re MADE FROM TREES? Not kidding.
I snapped this last photo while we were out trick or treating with my daughter’s best friend, her mom and their dog (who mom dresses up every year). This year she was Daisy the Clown.
Is she cute or what?
Last year she was the cutest I’ve ever seen her. She was a geenie! With the cutest hat with a little tulle veil on it and everything……until she ripped it off of her head, chewed it up, and then peed on it in the middle of the living room floor. It’s been a year ago and I’m still laughing about that one!
Filed under Life, Scrapbooking | Comment (0)So Happy Together.
(click to see photo larger)
Remember those goofy photos my daughter and I did and I showed you here? Well, I was inspired to actually get them onto a scrapbook page right away and since I was working on projects to apply for the Bo Bunny design team I used their stuff for the most part. And I was having so much fun putting these pages together that I totally forgot to tell the story of WHY I took the photos. I had a senior moment there.
Here are the little details:
I used pop dots to pop up the flowers in my paper (I cut flowers from another sheet of paper and applied on top of another flower with the pop dot). I also used my Sakura gold glitter pen to just draw some glittery outlines on the flowers (and the birdie’s wings). But you probably can’t see any of that stuff!
Studio Inspiration Board.
I’ve been in the process of renovating my studio/office a bit and after finally getting (most of) the walls painted I was able to hang my inspiration boards back up on the wall. My dad made these for me out of stainless steel (I think) sheets. I took before and after photos to show you what they looked like before I covered them up with inspiration.
BEFORE:
I also wanted to share the darling magnets that I use on my board made by my darling friend JB so long ago I can’t even remember. I love them and think of her often when I see them.
and AFTER:
It’s a bit harder to see those magnets now! ha ha
Above is a “map of my heart” drawing done by my daughter when she was maybe 5 or 6. It’s one of my favorite things and I don’t want to forget to scrapbook it someday.
I also love the little love note she wrote us. She used to leave them around the house when she was little.
Yes, there are 2 pairs of sunglasses on there. The blue Cinderella ones are from a Disney World trip we took my daughter on for her 3rd birthday so those are going in the Disney scrapbook and the others she just looked so darn cool in them and I have tons of photos of her wearing them so they’re going on a scrapbook page someday. I plan to take the ear pieces off and glue them down on the page. The Cinderella ones might end up hanging on the spine of the scrapbook. Who knows?
Just a few things to add into scrapbooks sooner or later. The water resistant tag is from some piece of clothing and I plan to put it on a “rain” layout.
One of my favorite things to do on the internet is look at other crafty people’s studios. Show me yours!
Filed under Projects | Comments (2)
