Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has a great year and "May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions." Joey Adams

Brayer class with Michelle Zindorf

On November 14th Lacey and I went to our favorite store in Nashville, IN (Papertrix) and took a stamping class. I had been following the work of Michelle Zindorf on her blog. She does great cards with a brayer. When I found out she was teaching a class in Indiana, I knew we had to attend. Her blog is http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/ She does a great job of showing you step by step how to make her cards on her blog. Lacey and I had a great time at her class, and learned how to brayer without the harsh line. If you have a chance to take her class I would recommend it. Here are the cards we made at the class.

Our Christmas Card

Here is our handmade Christmas card for this year. This was sent to all our family along with two pictures of us all. The supplies used to make this card are…

Stampendous- Winter warm stamp
Stampin up- Serene Snowflakes stamp
Whisper white, brilliant blue, and brushed silver paper
Brilliant blue and black ink
Marvy snow marker
Ticket corner punch
Copic markers- C5, B26, C1, Y06, YR04, and B21

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a great Christmas. This past weekend we celebrated Christmas with both sides of our families. The grandparents spoiled Daniel rotten. Aunt Gena got him a pony, and Aunt Lacey got him a fun toy that makes LOTS of noise (I think Lacey is trying to make me pay for something I did to her when we were growing up). Everyone had lots of fun with Daniel. He was exhausted after all the fun. Now we get to have a relaxing Christmas at home with just the three of us. I could not ask for a better baby's first Christmas.

Poor Tim

On December 5th Florida played Alabama for the SEC Championship. The winner gets to play for the National Title. Needless to say it did not go well for Florida. We lost to Alabama 32-13. This was payback for Florida beating them badly last year. The Alabama players had been waiting all year for this rematch. It was an ugly game for Florida. Daniel loves to watch football. He did not watch this game, and instead covered his eyes so he did not have to watch it. I just felt bad that this is how Tim Tebow’s college football career is ending. At least an Alabama player won the Heisman trophy, and hopefully Florida will only have one loss this year to the team that wins the National title.

Thanksgiving

Although we were dealing with illness, Thanksgiving Day was actually a good day for us all. We were all feeling well. We went to my aunt Janny’s house for the big family celebration. We all had a good time. Here is a picture of Daniel for his first Thanksgiving, wearing the hat they made for him at daycare. Thanksgiving weekend is always fun because that is when the big football game between the Florida Gators and FSU is. In recent years the Gators have dominated FSU. Of course the Gators won again this year. Here is a picture of Daniel in his Gator outfit for the big game.

Sickness, Sickness, and More Sickness

It has been forever since I have posted a blog. The reason for the lack of posts is my family has been sick off and on basically since I went back to work. As if going back to work isn’t hard enough, or busy enough, my entire family has been sick at some point recently. The week before I was to go back to work my husband Nathan got the swine flu. I was so worried Daniel and/or I would get it, but we did not. There has also been the issue of the shortage of swine flu vaccine. There was a massive vaccine clinic at the football stadium here in Louisville. Thousands of people went to this drive in clinic. On the first night we all went down after work so I could get the vaccine, so hopefully I won’t get sick. Daniel is too young to get the vaccine. We had to wait a little while, but it was not too bad. My first week back to work I did not even make it a whole week before I received a phone call that Daniel was running a temperature. By the time I picked him up and got him home he did not have a temperature. I think he was just getting overheated at daycare. This overheating issue went on for several days, but is finally better. Then Nathan and I both ended up with a stomach virus within a matter of hours of each other. At first we thought it might be food poisoning, but we later learned the virus was going around at daycare. Luckily Daniel did not get that either. My parents came to visit their grandbaby that weekend. We were all better, and I cleaned all the bathrooms, but Grandma even ended up catching the stomach virus. Nathan then ended up with a sinus infection. Ever since he had the swine flu his immunity has been down and he has caught everything he has been exposed to. He literally has been sick for weeks. Daniel also got his first cold right before Thanksgiving. It was better over the long Thanksgiving weekend, but then came back that Sunday night before we went back to work. I also did not have a good Thanksgiving. I ended up having a fever, and other symptoms. So, on what was supposed to be a fun day off I ended up having to take a walk in appointment at the doctor office. Which meant I had to spend two hours at the office, mostly just waiting to be seen. I have told the story before about how Daniel does the things that the baby book says he should be doing that week. Well after going back to work I had gotten a little behind in reading the book. One week he had dry skin that was really awful. I did not know what to do with him. No amount of lotion could help the problem. I later read in the book for that week and they talk about how babies can have chapped skin. I told Daniel he doesn’t have to do everything they talk about in the book. I was hoping we would all be better after our long Thanksgiving break, but that did not happen. I guess I will have to settle for us all being healthy by Christmas. That is quickly approaching, and I can’t wait. I knew we would deal with Daniel getting sick when he started daycare, I just did not realize we would ALL have to deal with that issue. As of right now we are all doing much better. I am looking forward to the time off at Christmas, and hopefully I will get back to posting more often about more enjoyable things.

My 1st Halloween

We just had our first Halloween with little Daniel. Today was a nice day. I am trying not to think about going back to work on Monday, and just enjoy what time I have this weekend. First we all got to enjoy Florida beating Georgia in football. Tim Tebow broke Herschel Walker’s record which was nice to see actually against Georgia. Then we got to dress Daniel up in his cute pumpkin outfit he got to wear while we handed out candy to all the kids who came by our house. Nathan had fun carving the pumpkin for outside. Daniel eventually wore out and went to sleep all nice and cozy outside in his daddy’s arms. Nathan also had fun taking pictures of the full moon.

WHEW!

It has been forever since I have done a new post. It has been a crazy two weeks. On October 18th we had a going away “party” for Josh. He is off to boot camp for the Marines. As you can tell from the picture Daniel was very sad about this. We all wish God’s blessings on him while he is away. Almost two weeks ago Nathan got sick with what is most likely the swine flu. He is mostly over it, but has a lingering cough. I have spent the last two weeks worrying that Daniel or I would get it. That would be scary with such a young baby. Watching the news every night and hearing about the flu, and how there is not enough vaccine is not helping. Thank goodness (knock on wood) neither of us has gotten it. Hopefully I have some immunity to it by being a teacher and being around kids, and I have passed on that immunity to Daniel. That means Nathan has had to stay away from Daniel, so I have had to do all the feedings, etc. So, that means there has been no extra time to craft or blog. This week has been extra crazy because I am transitioning Daniel to daycare before I have to go back to work next week. The first two days I went with him, and the next two days he stayed for several hours, increasing each day, until today when he is going for a full day to daycare. Daniel has done really well going to daycare. He has good teachers at his daycare. The first two days when I went with him were really for mom to feel better, not him. He comes home exhausted though. As you can see from the picture he is very tired, but Elmo helps make it better. There is so much to look at and do there (including watching those other little people who are his size and crawling around), and all kinds of noises, that sometimes even wake him up from a nap. All this week I have been practicing getting Daniel and I ready in the morning. He has definitely been preparing me for what could all go wrong. One time I was feeding him and he ate too much. I knew it was too much, but he acted like he was still hungry so I kept feeding him. Needless to say he vomited it all up everywhere right before we needed to leave. That meant a wardrobe change for Daniel and I. I told him if he didn’t want to wear the giraffe outfit he should have just told me. He didn’t need to go through all that trouble. On another day he was taking a good nap, and I knew he would be hungry when he woke up. Needless to say he woke up literally just two minutes before I was ready to put him in his car seat and leave. I went ahead and put him in his car seat, and explained to him that we needed to leave. I warmed up the bottle right before we left, so when we got to daycare it would be ready. He was okay with all that. He didn’t cry or scream, and waited until we got to daycare and eventually ate. Daniel’s skin has also been an issue this week. He normally has dry skin, and bad cradle cap. This week his face has been all red and irritated. The ladies at daycare have asked if he is okay. So, of course Daniel would develop really bad baby eczema this week. So, we went out and bought soothing, unscented Aveno soap, and lotion. Hopefully that will help. I have posted a cute bath picture here. On another morning when I was already up feeding Daniel, Pepper our dog woke up and proceeded to vomit on our new carpet. That meant Nathan had to get up and deal with that. Needless to say Daniel and Pepper have been helping us “practice” getting ready in the morning by creating all the bad situations that could happen in the morning. I was a little worried how Friday would go. Today Nathan and I did a real run of what it will be like next week. We have both been dreading this, and how we are going to coordinate this and be ready on time. That means Nathan has to do the morning feeding (I need time to pump Daniel’s next meal), and all of us have to be ready and out the door by 7:30 so we can get to work on time. This morning went really well. Nathan and I were pretty much ready to go. We actually had to go wake Daniel up around 7:00 to feed him and get him ready to go. Nathan took care of that while I finished up getting Daniel’s bottles ready to go in his bag and all the other little things done. Now I just hope every morning goes so well. People have been asking me if I cried when I left him for the first time at daycare. I did not. Going those two days with him for several hours really helped me be okay with it. Also, having to worry about the flu makes leaving a healthy baby at daycare seem not so bad. People have also been asking me if I am ready to go back to work. It has probably a blessing that I have not had time to sit and worry about that. I am as ready as I will ever be. I went to school yesterday and meet with Cindy who has been my long term sub. She has done a wonderful job, so that has been nice for me to not have to worry about school. It was easy to get what I needed from her before I go back on Monday. Well… I have this whole day to get stuff done (thank goodness). It would be nice to sit around and just relax, but there is too much to do. This house needs to be cleaned, I need to do plan my science lessons and do some things to get ready to go back to work on Monday, and I need to get ready for Nathan’s dad to come over to celebrate his belated birthday this evening. At least there won’t be time to sit around and miss my sweet little baby. If I am productive today, then I can enjoy his first Halloween tomorrow!

Mr. Peepers

During the summer of 2008 we had a “pet” bird. Someone must have let him loose, or he accidentally got away. This little budgie visited our backyard daily. He got the nickname Mr. Peepers because he would come up and look in our bay window. What he was really doing though was letting me know the bird feeders were empty and I needed to fill them back up.

The supplies for this scrapbook page are all from Basic Grey the Urban Prairie collection.

Cute as a bug

I had noticed on many of the blogs I follow that many crafters were using Copic markers. When I was at my favorite stamping store in Nashville, IN called Papertrix one time they had them. I bought a few that day to try out. I really like them. They have a vibrant color. Well, another time when I visited they had these “coloring” books by Sue Coccia, http://www.earthartinternational.com/, and they looked like they would be fun to use with the Copic markers. I bought one of the books that time. This is one of the images I colored, , cut out, and used for a scrapbook page. You could also color them and just frame the picture. I have since bought two more of these books. She has a variety of books with all kinds of animals to color. The supplies for this page are…

Bugs and kisses stamp set
Basic Grey Indian Summer paper
Stampin up Ruby Red paper
Spica markers in Lavender and Red
Copic marker colors YG 63, R29, V17, Y06, B05, B26, G24, B21, Y38, C5 and R22

New hair and a wild night

On Saturday my family came to visit from Indiana. They went shopping and spent time with Daniel. They took care of Daniel while I went to get my hair cut. My hair had gotten really long since I have not had time to go get my hair cut (just had a baby). I was ready for a change to a much shorter style. My long, thick hair is a pain to blow dry. I was a little nervous about going for my hair cut though. The person who has cut my hair since I moved to Louisville (9 years) is no longer at the salon I go to. So, I was trying a new stylist and getting a new style (just a little scary). I spent lots of time looking at hair style magazines, but finally decided on a hair style. On Saturday I went and had my hair cut by Brandy. I was pleasantly surprised. She did an excellent job, and I am very happy with my new look. At this point the day is going really well. My only concern now is how Tim Tebow will play against LSU in the big game at 8:00. My family left in the afternoon. Fifteen minutes before the start of the game my husband was feeding Daniel. Well… Daniel proceeded to vomit every bit of that five ounce bottle he just ate, and I think even some of the milk he ate earlier everywhere. I had to rush and get two towels. I needed one towel for Daniel and one for Nathan, they are both soaked. It should be noted, my husband had asked me earlier in the evening if I wanted to give Daniel a bath that night, and I said we would wait until the next day. I have since told Nathan he is not allowed to ask me that question. Needless to say we ended up giving Daniel a bath Saturday night. I took Daniel over to the sink while Nathan grabbed everything for the bath. I peeked at Daniel’s diaper and was so upset that I now also had a poopy diaper to deal with. As if the scene was not crazy enough already, when I started to take off the diaper Daniel decided it was a good time to pee, a yellow fountain as Nathan calls it went all over my arm. At this point things were so bad Nathan and I just stopped to laugh. Then we gave Daniel a bath, through which he cried and screamed the entire time. Then I went and got Daniel dressed in a new outfit that did not have a single gator on it. Of course he had just spit up all over his gator outfit (this is not the first time he has spit up all over a gator outfit). Nathan tells me Daniel just doesn’t like the Gators. That is just not going to work, but I will have to deal with that later as he gets older. I finally got to sit down and watch the game on tape delay. Daniel was now exhausted and settled down and fell asleep for the rest of the night. The night ended on a good note at least. The gators beat LSU and Tim Tebow is back playing after his concussion. I was at the Kentucky game when that happened. That was a scary moment for a gator fan, and so I am just glad he is back. Needless to say Saturday was quite a memorable day.

I'm exhausted after my VERY busy weekend out and about

Our pediatrician recommended waiting until Daniel was 2 months old before taking him out around large groups of people. They told us if a baby gets sick before then there is a good chance they will have to be put in the hospital. I had to be put in the hospital as an infant when I developed an infection. So, we were not taking ANY chances. Daniel just turned 2 months old this past Friday. So, we were ready to take him out around large groups of people. It ended up being a VERY busy weekend. We didn’t plan it that way, it just happened. On Friday we went to the St. James Art Fair. He did very well there. We were there for several hours and got to see all the neat art work. We only had to take one break in the park to feed Daniel (and ourselves). Then on Saturday he did not go anywhere, but he was left alone with dad (for only the second time). They both survived that day. On Sunday we went to church for the first time, and he was an excellent baby at church. That afternoon his Grandpa came to visit. Then on Monday he got to go to school. I took him to the school I work at so everyone could meet him. He did very well at school also. Needless to say though after his very busy weekend, where he had to be a good boy all weekend, he was exhausted. So, by Monday night he just needed to sleep on daddy’s shoulder.

I have hands

Nathan and I have been reading the book “Your baby’s first year, week by week”. It is funny how accurate the book is. We read what he should be doing a certain week. More often than not that is exactly what new things we see him do during a particular week. For week 8 there is a section titled “He’s fascinated with his hands”. It talks about how babies this week will examine their hands and other objects by putting them in their mouth and sucking on them. They are realizing their hands are a part of their body, and the other objects are not. The translation of all of this is during week 8 you might end up with a baby who sucks their thumb. As you can see from the pictures that is what little Daniel is learning to do. Hopefully he really won’t and is just exploring. We don’t want him to be like his mother who sucked her thumb for a very long time as a child, and had that bad habit to break.

One more rose

Just when I thought I wasn't going to get any more roses, one more bloomed today. It is not fully opened. So, it looks very different than the one I took pictures of the other day. Depending on the way it is turned it looks like a butterfly. I thought it made for some neat and pretty pictures. I hope you enjoy.

Precious Boy

Here is a scrapbook page of my baby boy when he was only six days old. He will be two months old tomorrow. My how quickly they change and how quick time goes by. The supplies I used are…
Paper: Bordering blue, more mustard, and Heidi Grace snowflake park dots with flocking
Stamps: Along the same line
Scallop edge punch
The flower and bird chipboard are from Sassafras “Wild side”
The “Precious Boy” is from Little yellow bicycle “Baby boy safari”

Halloween ATC

This month I am doing a Halloween ATC exchange at one of my favorite stamp stores, Papertrix in Nashville, Indiana. Nashville is a great little town to visit in the fall to see the leaves changing and do some fun shopping. This is the ATC I have come up with for the trade. Supplies are…
Only orange paper, elegant eggplant paper and ink, and Halloween night patterned paper
1 ¾ “ circle punch
Stamp sets- “What a hoot” and “Twick or Tweet”
Copic markers #Y06 and YR 04
Black eyelets

I love red

We have found that Daniel loves to look at anything red. It is a good thing there is quite a bit of red in his nursery that he just loves to look at. So of course when the grandparents visited this past weekend they had to get him a red stuffed animal. Elmo is a perfect bright red. We also just got Daniel a swing which he loves to sit in. We put Elmo just above Daniel for him to look at. Daniel loves to look at Elmo. He sits in his swing and has to look way up to see him, as you can see from these pictures.

Visitor at the door

I found a visitor at our door when I went to get the mail. That is a praying mantis hanging out right underneath our door bell. I must say I was not expecting that when I went out our door. He makes for a neat photo though.

Fall rose bloom

Today I am going to let you enjoy a picture of a pretty rose from my garden. This is the last of the rose blooms this fall. We received a lot of rain in the last week, and it did a number on my climbing rose bush. Part of it actually fell off of the trellis. The rose bush also didn’t get taken care of very well this year since I was a little busy, being pregnant and all. So, it was time to do a major fall pruning on the rose bush. I did get one last set of flowers to bring inside and enjoy. I hope you enjoy the picture. The rose bush’s name is Cl America.

Baby Shower Thank You card

I made this card awhile back after a baby shower was held for me. This is the thank you card I made to send people. It uses the Hero art stamp set “Playful animals” that has some really cute animals to stamp in it. I used Copic markers to color in the animals.
Supplies…
Ink: Stampin’ up pacific point, summer sun, real red, close to cocoa, and garden green
Stamps: Stampin’ up Sheltering tree, hero arts Thank you so much and Playful animals
Copic markers: Y11, Y38, YG 17, N3 and C5

Fern ATC

In August I participated in Wishful Thinking’s ATC swap based on the theme “How does your garden grow”. I came up with a fern themed ATC card. As you can see I have included a picture of the ferns growing in my garden. I received five ATC cards in return and I have also posted them so you can see them. The other cards are made by Cathy, Michele, Robin, Jan, and Denise. You can see the rest of the cards under “monthly highlights” on the Wishful Thinking website… http://www.wishfulthinking-in.com/index.htm
Supplies for the fern ATC card are…
Hero Arts “ferns” stamp set, SU old olive paper and ink, SU Kraft paper, Glimmer mist in olive vine, Distress stickles in peeled paint, mill hill beads #10041, and Kreinik Metallics cord #205 C