Friday, December 27, 2013

Goodbye Christmas Hello 2014

Now that Christmas is over I am so looking forward to 2014. I've got plans for more DIY projects, spending time with my niece and nephews, exercising, and hiking in the back country.

Here is our white Christmas tree and Mr. YoYo.
 Autumn in Christopher's lap
 Me holding Autumn
 Me and my dad
 Megan and Elizabeth getting Furbies
 William getting an Ibanez

I took some video of William playing the guitar. Wait til you hear this guy play!

Saturday, December 21, 2013

The Cards have been Mailed

I had fun this year making my Christmas cards which is all due to the fact that my craft group got a headstart in October. That burst of creative energy helped me to finish early and enjoy the Christmas season as one should.
Here's a pic of our gift exchange at Adora's on Dec. 14th. These girls appreciate all the effort I put into wrapping their gifts.
The cards below are from our October get together. We each made 3 Christmas cards to share and came home with 9 ready made cards plus additional ones we made during the day. Victoria did the deer cards, Adora did the "it's the most wonderful time of the year" printable with red polka dots and washi Christmas tree, and I did a shooting star type card.


and here are more Christmas cards I made...




On Heidi Swapp's blog she showed a tutorial using her folders to make a card set. I had some colored folders that I have been hording for some time and decided this year was the right time to use them.

 and that's all I got! Hope you are warm and enjoying a holiday movie sipping a nice ginger ale brew!

Friday, December 6, 2013

December I feel you

so cold here in the pacific northwest. I can't leave the house without my winter jacket, scarf & gloves. I do not like being cold. I wait til the very last second possible to get out of my car to catch the train to work. While waiting to cross the street I look for people bigger than myself to stand behind to block the chill. And I finally bought de-icer for my windshield so I don't have to continually scrape and scrape. De-icer has totally changed my mornings from sad bear to happy bear!
i know it's been a long time since I posted and much has happened around the home front. christopher and i rented the atticat from home depot and blew in insulation. i had the pleasure of feeding the atticat and it was easy as pie. christopher might say the same about being in the attic, but he definitely had the messier job.
it was just like pink fluffy snow. i am so glad we finally took the time to do this project ourselves. so much cheaper than hiring out.

the beginning of november, victoria and i attended the scrapbook convention in bellevue. had a blast shopping and missed adora who was hosting a birthday party for ari. after the convention, i have been in full craft mode making christmas cards for the holiday bazzar at my work. i whipped up a birthday card for my coworker eli who likes steampunk. i think she will be surprised when she opens it
i had a most wonderful thanksgiving with my family and even accomplished some diy projects on my to do list. that always makes me happy. attempted to see what the hoopla was about on black thursday, but only lasted 10 minutes before i walked out. i have no interest in waiting in a big arse line!

i totally enjoyed every minute I spent with this little guy.

he remembers me now and will run up to me for a hug which was not the case a couple of weeks ago. his vocabulary is increasing which i am so thankful for. one day seth you won't have to watch from the window when the big kids get to play or your dad puts up the christmas lights. one day!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Loving Autumn


blurry phone pics, but i love it!

Brand New Car for the Birthday Boy

someone was spoiled rotten on his birthday this year! yep, none other than Seth!

he got a new car to ride inside the house (yes, he already has the big car for outside.)


a new scooter

a new helicopter
more cars
grandma got him tons of clothes, shoes and toys. my gifts to him were books. i want him to love to read.

he did such a good job blowing out his candles. i was surprised he knew how to blow.


happy 2nd birthday seth. we love you so much!

Squirrels & Pumpkins

now that fall is here we had to chop down the sunflowers since they were looking pretty droopy. the squirrels were loving meal time at my house. christopher caught an amazing photo of a squirrel hanging upside down from a flower and enjoying a nice meal of seeds. unfortunately, he was a messy eater. i have seed shells everywhere.

next year i will wait a little longer before roasting so the sunflower really dries out. for roasting, i just soaked them in salt water overnight and roasted for 40 minutes.

next up on the agenda....pumpkin carving!
we have all three of christopher's kids this weekend so it was time to carve pumpkins.


 Elizabeth's on the left, Megan's on the right.
William's on the left and Christopher's on the right.

i have a small corner in the family room with my pumpkin assortment. of course, i had to go for the white pumpkins because they are tre chic.



on the home front, i have been busily decorating the family room walls. i bought 5 prints from society6 and framed them with ikea frames. i just need one more large print to finish off the gallery wall. i included two canvases i did myself in photoshop. i saw this hilarious statement and knew it would work well. "Kindly Refrain From Whining." So appropriate!


 i even used my chevron washi tape for the canvas border. love how it turned out. the other canvas was a nice dalai lama quote.

here's a pic of the fire place mantle. christopher hasn't complained too much about the amount of pink i have brought into the room. when i saw that pink peony print at society6 it was a total must have. since then i check back often to see new work at society6. you should check them out. they have great prices! i also think the bull skull on the wall helps to counter the feminine feel of the room.

i don't think i ever posted my birthday present from dad. it is so cool. a four horned ram skull. i think it kinda freaked christopher's kids out, which is good so they don't touch it. elizabeth has named it charlie.
keeping my eyes peeled for a skeleton of a small animal perhaps a squirrel to add to my collection.

on the crafting front, i am making good progess on christmas cards. my last craft day with victoria and adora proved to be very productive. we all came away with 9+ finished cards.
i will post those shortly. hope your fall season is off to a good start :)

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Check off the to do list, woot!

Back when we lived in Seattle, I had these two chairs I wanted to reupholster. Having never done anything like it before I just hoped for the best!
Here is what we started with.

Once we undressed it, we got it to look like this.
I wanted a fun pattern and bought a tan colored zebra print. Wasn't sure how Christopher would feel about that, but he seemed not to mind.
After months of letting it sit on the back burner, we finally made the final push to complete the 2 chairs.
Here they are now or here is one now. We finished both I just didn't photograph them together.
Sprayed painted her white and backed it with a tan colored velvet. I think I should have gone with the darker color in the zebra print, but it's too late now since I am done with her! I think sewing the cording was what took me so long to finish. It seemed a little daunting, but once I started it wasn't that bad. I originally had planned to do a double cording, but I didn't have the right presser foot for it. It's not perfect, but these hands of mine and Christopher got the job done which we are proud of!




Yes, I still make cards.....

It's been awhile, but I still love to make cards especially birthday cards.
Here's Adora's 51st card

and Yolande's birthday card

I bought a pack of banners made by Pebbles and combined it with stitching, a vellum bag of cheer, a dotted background using Heidi Swapp's stencil and Color Shine and some sprayed seam binding made for a fun day of card making.

Here's some more...





and here's a picture of my desk...

 which will stay like this for some time, yawn!



Friday, September 6, 2013

Welcome Autumn!

Linda gave birth to her 3rd and final child! Welcome Autumn Rain!