Good Grief!

What happened to March? Time flies when you are busy living life. Well, in case there is still anyone out there who checks in on us from time to time, here is a little something I hope will make up for the lack of posting last month!

Lily singing "A Your Adorable". Her favorite version is by Dean Martin. This one is my favorite!





And of course, some pictures. First, just a few cards, then on to bigger and better things.

This is the Valentine's Day card Lily and I gave to Robert. I had a ton of fun making this card. Once I got started with the hearts, I just couldn't stop. (Of course this is because our hearts are just overflowing with love for him!)

This is a card we sent to our dear friend who recently lost his mom. We are praying for you M and H...and Lily won't let us forget!

We made these cards at my Stamp-a-Stack class last weekend. So cute and super easy.

I went to get Lily up from her nap one day and look what I found...Snowflake and Panda all tucked in their bed. Too cute.

Snowflake and Panda's mommy very proud of herself for taking such good care of her babies.

I did a spur of the moment photo shoot with my little point and shoot camera. There was something about the way the sun was coming in through the window and lighting up the room that makes me just love these pictures (and not to mention the cutest photo subject ever!).

This picture is blurry, but I just love the laughter...real and genuine. These moments are precious moments.

Here she is once again, being a good mommy. This time to her "costume baby". (She isn't really into naming them yet.)

And last but not least...reading books with Lao Lao. She loves her books and constantly wants us to read to her anything she can find. One of her current favorites is the See's candy catalog. I have no idea where she got that!;o)

New Projects

With the rapidly approaching Christmas season, I've been busy working on all kinds of stamping projects. I've made Christmas cards, gift tags, gift bags, gift card holders, ornaments, all kinds of fun things! My favorite part about being a Stampin' Up demonstrator is having a class and watching peoples faces light up when they see how easy it is to make such fun, cute things! I've always thought it makes a gift so much more meaningful when it's made with your own hands. Here are a few things we did at my class this last weekend.

The larger card is a pocket card...the white card with the tab pulls out.

Two little gift bags. These are really cute and so easy...a lot of fun to make.

Gift card holders...you pull the tab and the gift card is attached to it. Again, super easy and so cute!

A cute set of gift tags. I think I'll be using these on my Christmas gifts this year.

Today I got out of Christmas mode to work on some birthday, thank you and baby cards I need to get sent out.

This one is so cute! I copied part of the idea from another card I saw. If you click on the picture, you might be able to notice the detailing on the bottom. I scored on the white every 1/4" so it looks like wainscoating (sp?).

These are the same...only one is a birthday card and one is a thank you card.

And I couldn't very well post without putting a picture of our sweet Lily. Here she is after her bath tonight. She is just the cutest thing ever!

More Stamping Fun!

This first project I made for a woman at church who has been sick for over a year with no real diagnosis. She is a wonderful, Godly woman and I pray it's God's will that she be healed soon. I used a Stampin' Up tin, decorated it and placed a card and bookmark inside. The pictures came out a little bright...again, not the professional photographer in the family!

(Don't pay any attention to all of Lily's stuff in the background on this one!)

The following cards we made at my Stamp-a-Stack class on Friday night. Everyone got to make 10 cards for $10. We did two of each design...one birthday card and one thank you card. I love doing these classes. They are a ton of fun, and everyone walks away with a "stack" of cards to have on hand for a lot less than what they'd pay at the stores. These pictures came out a little better. It dawned on me that my husband has this great light tent out in the garage that's perfect for taking pictures!

I'm Still Here...(and more projects!)

So apparently I took an unintentional (or maybe it was intentional) hiatus from blogging. The challenging thing for me about blogging is all of the pictures get uploaded onto our main computer. I rarely use this computer because during the day, I am a little preoccupied.;o) And if I even think about attempting to use it, Lily will quickly find me and proclaim, "Mommy check da email...no!" So my options are to do it during the very valuable nap time when there are many other things that need to get done, or in the evening. Fat chance there due to my husband being on it most of the time! So I am usually on my laptop, which has no pictures. I suppose another alternative would be for me to learn how to upload the pictures onto my laptop myself, I just have no interest in learning that. I suppose I should know, but I am a pretty simple person who really couldn't care less about these things, especially when I have Robert around to do it for me!;o) The fact that I have even managed to keep up a blog is pretty mind-boggling to me.

So over the past few weeks in my absence from the bloggoshpere, we have been getting back into our regular routine since summer has ended. Lily is back in her music and gymnastics classes. She is doing so well and is getting much more involved and participating a lot more on her own rather than with my prompting. I'm going to put on my proud mommy hat for a second: Lily's music teacher told me today that she wants to put her in the next age group level as she is more mature than the other kids in her class and she doesn't want Lily to get behind. Wow. Now I can't really take much credit for that as I think a lot of it is just her personality. However I do take credit for the fact that I do discipline her and correct her when she is not doing what she is supposed to be doing. A lot of other parents let their kids run around and make no attempt to keep them on task. Anyway, enough ranting about that. We've also been keeping up with the political season and are very excited about the turn of events with John McCain choosing Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate. I like her, and not just because she is from my home state!

In other news, we are in the process of switching churches. We love, love, love our current church and are very sad to leave. But the distance is getting to be a bit much for us...40 minutes is a long way to go for church, especially when I am there 3 days a week for various things. We are one of the last families from our town to finally leave due to the distance. Our new church is only 5 minutes away and we already know several families there. We went to the service there this last Sunday. We were warmly greeted by many people as we walked in the door...refreshing. The nursery director saw me walking in with Lily. She came over to introduce herself and show me where to go and got us all settled in. We loved the pastor who preached that day...they are currently studying the book of Ephesians, which is one of my favorites and has one of my all-time favorite verses: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. It is a gift of God, not as a result of works, that no man should boast." Eph 2: 8-9. What an amazing gift God has given us. Yes....salvation is free! There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn our way in to Heaven...we will never be good enough, and we don't have to be! God sent His Son to pay the price for our sins. All we have to do is completely turn our lives over to Him and give Him control...therein lies the hard part. But once you do, you will know no freedom like the freedom in Christ. Praise the Lord!

As promised, here are some more pictures of projects I've done over the summer. I hope you enjoy. I promise I'll get back to more Lily stories and pictures next time!

This is the birthday invitation and banner I made for Lily's party.
I just love the panda stamp I found.

The following projects I made at the Stampin' Up convention in Utah.
An adorable little box for cards.

A cute little scrapbook page. I added the picture of Lily after we got home. The original sample had the word "you" instead of Lily, but since they gave us a whole set of chipboard letters, I put her name instead.

I am not an "orange" person. I normally don't care much for the color except at sunset, but this bag we made is beautiful. It made me like the color a little more.

The following are bookmarks. The one on the right is the one we made at convention.
The other two I made after I got home.

I am really loving altering items. (See the info on the box I used for my sister-in-laws birthday gift in my previous post!). This was just a plain white tin. I would still like to add a little something to the top, but I'm not sure what yet...some sort of saying or scripture maybe.

This little box is perfect for 3x3 sized gift cards. I am loving this new Bella Rose designer paper.

This is another altered tin...a band-aid tin! I decorated it and filled it with little gift tags.

A birthday card we did at a class at my house several weeks ago. Cute and very simple.

A pocket card...another of my favorites. I may use this style for our Christmas cards this year. I'm still working on some ideas. It's never to early to start planning!

I love this new stamp set as well. It's called Eastern Blooms and was one of the sets
we got for "free" at convention.

I love the popped up butterfly on this card. This card uses 3 new stamp sets from the new catalog. The butterfly and the flowers in the grass are from the Flight of the Butterfly set. The grass is from the Inspired by Nature set and the saying is from the Upsy Daisy set.

This is the Inspired by Nature set. I didn't like it at first, but now that I have used it and have
seen several other ideas, I love it!

See...I can't stop using it! On this one, I embossed the flower in white on designer paper. So pretty.

Another popped up butterfly, I wasn't crazy about the way this card came out, but it's still cute.

This card I actually made a long time ago with a set that is now retired called By Ones and by Twos. I was trying to get myself out of the box of my usual color combos. I don't love this combo, but I don't hate it either, although I do love the actual design of it. This would be a good gender-neutral card I think. I actually got this stamp set as a gift from my friend Jenny before I signed up as a demonstrator. She bought it for me because it has a stamp that says, " adoption is when a child grows in its mommy's heart instead of her tummy". How sweet is that?! It's a great set for someone having twins as well.

That's it for now. I am working on a little scrapbook gift for Lily's friend (though I won't mention who as she may read about it here!). I will post pictures of it when I'm done. I saw the idea and thought it would be a great gift for said friend.;o)

More Projects

It's been a while since I've posted any projects. I just haven't been able to get my wonderfully busy husband to get any pictures lately. I plan on giving him his "honey-do" list this weekend.;o) Anyway, these pictures are of Ellen's birthday gift. Her birthday was on August 1st but I was at the Stampin' Up convention (woohoo!) so we celebrated the following weekend. I forgot to have Robert take pictures until after she had already opened her gift. Surprisingly, Robert happened to have his camera with him.;o) You won't believe this, but the box I wrapped her gift in was actually one of the boxes our lunches came in at convention! You know you're addicted to stamping when you look at your lunch container and think, "I can decorate that!". And you are even more addicted when you can say that out loud to your best friend. The pictures aren't the greatest since he was on such short notice and didn't have access to all of his equipment, but I think you can get a pretty good idea.



I'll post more projects this weekend.

Home Again and All is Well

First of all, I had an amazing time in Salt Lake City! I didn't get to see much of it...the convention kept us pretty busy. The lake looked really nice from the airplane though! We had so much fun and got lots of new stuff. We got to make several projects (I'll post pictures soon), buy lots of stuff at the Momento Mall (that's where they sell convention memorabilia) and got tons of new ideas. I'm having my New Catalog Open House this Saturday and can hardly wait! But more importantly, Lily did incredibly well while I was gone. God must have really prepared her heart for my being gone. Almost always she cries in the morning if I'm not the one to get her up...even daddy won't do. But she didn't do that while I was gone. She was happy to see her Nai Nai and from what I've heard, they had a pretty great time together. I am so thankful for that. Thank you Nai Nai! It made the trip so much more enjoyable knowing that she was doing so well.

On another note, Robert is having his gallbladder surgery tomorrow at noon. If it comes to mind, please pray for everything to go smoothly and for a quick recovery. We leave for Oregon a week from tomorrow, and I just want him to be comfortable so he can enjoy the trip. The doctor said he should be fine to go...a little uncomfortable and it probably won't be a good idea for him to drive. That's fine as my mom is going too, so she and I can take turns driving. I just pray the surgery and recovery go smoothly and that he won't be in a lot of pain.

And on one more note, for those of you who may be interested in following up with Steven Curtis Chapman and his family after the loss of Maria, they are scheduled to be on Good Morning America this Wednesday, 8/6, on Larry King Live Thursday, 8/7 and they have an "extensive feature" in People Magazine scheduled to be on shelves 8/15. I pray God will be glorified as they proclaim their faith in and love for Him, even as they walk through this valley. They know Gods' promises are true and He has promised never to leave or forsake us, and that all things work together for good...for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. I pray many will seek Him after hearing what the Chapmans have to say.

A Gift For a Friend

I recently saw this idea and just had to copy it. It's a stationary box filled with cards, envelopes, gift tags, a note pad, stamps and a pen. It is sooooo cute and not nearly as difficult to make as I thought it would be. A little time consuming and careful following of directions, but not difficult. I love that Robert has his light tent now and can get some really great shots of my projects! Anyway, I sent this to my friend Karly in Arizona (hence the "k" in the center). From the message she left, I think she liked it.;o)

We went blueberry picking again today, and this time we filled 3 containers whereas last time we only filled one. There were just tons of them! Lily ended up eating pretty much all of the ones she picked. It reminded me very much of the book Blueberries for Sal, one of my favorites as a kid. Afterwards we came home and made blueberry pancakes for lunch. Yummy! I'll post pictures of that soon. In the meantime, here are the pictures of the stationary box.