Goodbye November

December is a day away and I've been a busy little crafter. Started pumping out birthday card after birthday card and now I get to focus on Christmas.

Looking forward to blessing my family with gifts and cards, decorating the house, family meals, play time with the kiddos, watching the snow fall, movie nights with Christopher, the list goes on.....

10.16.14

as i prepared to make 2 boss's day cards for my bosses, christopher kindly asked me to make him 3 boss's day cards bringing my total to 5.  wasn't expecting that, but being a card maker you just go into production mode. i found inspiration from danielle flanders and made 2 cards on the diagonal, 2 cards into prize ribbons and one heidi swapp style with a lot of banners.

Goodbye Sod and Filbert Tree!

I had been asking my dad if he could bring his excavator over to remove some lawn for a fire pit area and he told me he would get back to me. Well, last Saturday I get the call that he's coming over and I am thinking Oh Crap I am so not ready. Christopher was a little irked at me for not having a plan, but I did have a plan...remove as much grass as my dad could possibly do!

We started with the fire pit area which we were definitely sure of.

and then I was like do you think you could remove a large bush and Filbert tree. My dad was hesitant because it was so close to the house, but I encouraged him saying why don't you try and see.

Oh my goodness, I can't even begin to tell you how elated I was for having this removed!

Back to the fire pit area, so he cleared that out and I said if you still have time you can remove lawn from the privacy screen up to the gate.

I worked like a dog raking it out as well as removing spots of grass that he couldn't reach. Seriously, I worked like a dog and felt every muscle in my body the next day. But here is what we have and I am jumping for joy not having to mow this area any more! Hello pavers and gravel!

Happy Day!

Rag rug and Project Life

Happy to report I have been crafting again. It started with a coworker mentioning rag rugs and myself not knowing what one was. I Googled it and thought I could that, so with her generosity she provided long fabric scraps for me to practice with. Another coworker is a master knitter/crocheter so I sought her instruction to start me off. I ran out of girly colors to make this one any bigger.

I love how busy it keeps me while watching hockey with Christopher. Now that I can make an oval, I am learning how to crochet a cirlce. Pics to come.

Being in crafty mode, I decided it was time to start Autumn's scrapbook album. Linda received a 12x12 album as a gift so all I needed were photos. Unfortunately, Linda is one busy mama/loan officer and photos she did not provide. I have been slacking taking photos so I relied on what I already had which wasn't much and made 6 pages to start Autumn's album. Once I showed Donnie and Skylar the album, they immediately sent me more photos of Autumn that they had taken with their phones. (more work and pics to come)

I have been wanting to try a simpler way to scrapbook called Project Life. It uses pocket pages and precut cards to make scrapbooks fast. Being my frugal self, I didn't want to buy the pocket pages so I just improvised and did as much Project Life style as I could and some are clearly not PL style. I was just so happy to be scrapping again.

Go Big or Go Home!

It's nice to be able to look out the kitchen window and see a back yard that makes you smile. I remember when we first moved in, the back yard was such an eye sore. We had a legion of dandelions that mocked me daily until I couldn't take it any more. Christopher likes to take it slow and steady so I can only imagine what he felt as I came full force with a mission to re-landscape the back yard.
He is a good sport and a wonderful carpenter who brings my dreams to reality. (I never tire of our before and after photos)

Here is the start of our 2nd arbor and privacy screen.

 Our neighbors felt like they were on set of Lord of the Rings waiting for the Orcs to scale the fence.

That is a 6 foot ladder for comparison. Go big or go home, eh! It really feels like we are in the home stretch. Tear out some grass to create a fire pit area and jack hammer the existing patio and re-pour a new patio and the back yard will be done of big projects. When that day comes there will be a big Par Tay!

Keystone, CO

Christopher's son Nathan finally tied the knot to his one and only Bre. It was my first time in Bronco land and I couldn't believe how flat it was. Christopher and his three other kids drove to the wedding and made a Griswald family vacation to Yellowstone then picked me up at the airport.

First impression -- Denver traffic sucks big time. When we finally made it out of Denver proper we started to see the mountain side of Denver ,but only on 2 lanes. A 90 mile trip took just short of 4 hours. 

We thought we would have plenty of time to freshen up for the Friday rehearsal dinner, but with traffic we rolled into the Dam Brewery straight from the airport.

We got to meet Bre's family, Nathan's mom side of the family and the bridal party. It was fun watching Christopher beam as a proud parent. Nathan and Bre painted Chinese sayings and framed them as gifts for the bridal party and their parents. Christopher's says joyful and kind (if i can remember correctly) Nathan and Bre are both poets and the poem Nathan penned for his dad was so thoughtful and touching. Christopher tears up every time he reads it.

On the day of the wedding, we took a 30 minute gondola ride to the ceremony. It was beautifully situated on the mountain top. I believe Bre's dad and brother made the trellis.

I unfortunately did not get any photos of the happy couple with their dad. Nathan and Bre gave Megan and Elizabeth the duty of handing out the programs and mini bottles of bubbles.

William had the duty of walking Bre's mom down the isle. Quite the job for the young man! I say these two look dazzling.

Nathan and Bre are totally think outside of the box kind of people and they cut the cake first before dinner.

 Yes that is all cake. The logs look so real!

Check out the dessert table. Yum!

Can you say Candied Bacon S'mores!

The couples' first dance was by a band I never heard of called Cake and they made sure to get their groove on.

One of the fun things Nathan and Bre planned for their wedding was a photo booth with props. I think Megan loved the photo booth the most. We were able to put our photos in their scrapbook and take an additional copy home with us. What a great idea!
Here are some of our photos.

This is just a snippet of the photos the kids took. It pretty much consumed them all night long. The next day we attended Nathan and Bre's farewell brunch and said our goodbyes as we headed home and they head back to China on Wednesday. It was super special to be apart of their wedding and I pray many blessings their way.