Merry Christmas 2012

Hi friends!  I haven't sent out Christmas cards yet.  I'm just not feeling it this year.  Maybe I can get around to it very soon being that Christmas is coming really soon.  Like the day after tomorrow...

Here are the photo cards Dustin designed for us to send out.  I just picked out the pictures, he did the rest.  Hopefully, we get them sent soon.

Merry Christmas, friends!  

Project 365 (+1) Deux

Hi friends! I hope you're having a great day! We are having a pretty good week around here. We are adjusting to Dustin's new work schedule and it's a little hard but we'll make it through.

If you have read my 30 Before 30 then you know that I'm reattempting my Project 365 which is a photo a day, every day for a year. The first time I got so caught up in what everyone else is doing, I lost sight of why I wanted to do this. I want to capture memories, the everyday ones. I just want to get in the habit of taking photos and hopefully, I'll learn to love it again.

Isn't it convenient that my birthday is the last day of the year? It just makes everything so easy when you start over in a new year. I think I might be a little OCD because having my photos match up with the day of the year really makes me happy.

Jan 1 - Brady taking a picture of me taking a picture of him.

Jan 2 - My friends Gina and Suzy got me cupcakes to celebrate my birthday! So sweet!

Jan 3 - My poor kids had to go with me to get Brady's kindergarten registration packet at 7am in the cold. I'm so glad we won't have to do that again.

Jan 4 - I found PINK MOSCATO sparkling wine at Trader Joe's. Seriously, have you met me? This is just SO me!

Jan 5 - Snuggling with my Parkie.

Jan 6 - Lemon and cherry candy cane. There are tiny holes in the candy cane that you can drink the lemon juice through. So yummy!

Jan 7 - My lovebug napping on the couch.

I'm linking up to:

Merry (late) Christmas

Hi friends, sorry that I've been so distant. We've been busy and SICK yet again. Oy! Here's just a quick post to show you our Christmas card.

Project 365 (Week 1 and 1/2)

***For Jo's Bday blog hop, CLICK HERE. For Lawnscaping blog hop, CLICK HERE! Both have lots of candy and commenting on them ends today.***

Let me start this post by saying that I am full of remembrance today for all those lost in the Sept 11, 2001 attacks. This is something that I think of all the time and I can't believe it's been 10 years.

I had already decided that I would post my Project 365 on Sundays and I'm proceeding to do that because I don't believe that Sept 11 should be a day full of sadness. While I agree it's important to remember and show respect to those who lost their lives, I believe that's something we should do EVERYDAY.

Day 1, Sept 1

One picture of each my kids because I don't pick favorites. (D70 no flash pics with some editing)

Day 2 - Sept 2

Parkie having "coffee" at Starbucks. (iPhone 3G picture with a little editing.)

Day 3- Sept 3

Parker and Logan before Deanna's wedding (Dustin's iPhone 4 picture with editing)

Day 4- Sept 4

Flowers from Deanna's wedding (D70 pic with flash bounced of ceiling, edited)

Day 5 - Sept 5

Brady playing Creationary (D70 with editing)

Day 6 - Sept 6

Parker sunglasses and PJs (D70 with editing)

Day 7 - Sept 7

Brady is 4 years old. (D70 with Light Scoop, edited)

Day 8 - Sept 8

Dustin's photo face, he makes it every time! (D70 with Light Scoop, edited)
Day 9 - Sept 9
Brady helping with dinner (D70/Light Scoop, edited)

Day 10 - Sept 10

Camryn at her bday party (Nikon Coolpix point and shoot no flash with editing)

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Our Christmas Card

So, I haven't been crafting lately. Well, not in the traditional way I guess. I did however design our Christmas card for this year. I just simply CANNOT mass produce that many Christmas cards. Plus, I think that people like seeing pics of the kids so I do a photo card.

I'm pretty much in love with this card. The pictures are by my friend Amy of Amy Leigh Photography. Well, except the one in the lower left hand corner, that was my step dad. Dustin did help a little with this card. But only a little. :)

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Limelight Photo Challenge

Today is Limelight's first birthday!  Happy birthday Limelight!  (It's Dustin's birthday too, so lucky you guys!  ;) )  Anyhow, Jennifer is hosting a really fun challenge.  We did this at WCMD and it was so fun.  Here are my entires.

A cat nap.  Brady fell asleep on the couch.

Something Yummy.  Brady's birthday cake!  MMMMM!

Four.  Our little family of four.  Parker is still in my tummy.  :)

My Labor of Love

Last Wednesday, Maren posted a challenge on the Unity forum to be inspired by pictures of cake she found on Flickr.  I was inspired by the whole "theme"of bright, fun cakes.  And then I noticed that you could make a 3D project for the challenge and my brain went into overdrive.  

I found a template (on SCS) for making little pieces of cake from paper.  There are 33 pieces in this cake.  Each piece will go to one of Brady's 2nd birthday party guests.  (I HAD to rationalize spending ALL this time and supplies making a 3 layer cake somehow.)  So, instead of making some frilly girlie cake, I decided to make a jungle cake for my lion and monkey loving son.    

This cake features the animals from Unity's Wild and Crazy Bunch.  The "leaves" are actually trees from Unity's Giggle Grove and Unity's Tiny Trinity.  I cut out each animal in two different colors.  The leaves are also done in two different colors.  I added Prima flowers with dew drop center.  The cake is held together by some green polka dot ribbon that I got at Michael's.  The cake topper is a photo cube highlighting adorableness from Brady's 2nd  year of life.  I used some stickers to write out the birthday greeting for him.  And that's it.  :)  It took about 16 hours after all the IMMENSE amount of cutting.

Wish me luck!  The winner of the contest will be announced on Wednesday and then later people will vote on a grand prize winner.  :)

Here are some more pictures:

Photo Tagged...Again

Have I shown this picture before?  I can't remember.  I've been tagged AGAIN.  By Lindsay.  It was probably her the first time too!  :)  Maybe we should try looking back like 4 months and seeing if I've written the same thing with the same picture.  

This is Brady's first bath.  Look how tiny he was.  I love him!  

Now these tagging games have rules and here they are:

•Open your photo folder on your computer

•Open the 6th folder of photos

•Select the 6th picture

•Post the picture on your blog with a description

•Invite six friends to join the challenge

•Link your six friends to your blog post

I will tag:

~Heather

~Danni

~Kerry

~Wendi Winn

~Emily

~De

Gorgeous Giveaway: Crystal Willis Photography

My lovely friend Crystal is offering an EXCLUSIVE for my blog readers!  She is giving away TWO free 5x7s of her gorgeous photographs to one lucky winner.  I am so in love with these gorgeous pictures and vibrant colors!  They are such a great inspiration!

How to win (there are THREE ways to enter!):

1. You just go to her Etsy shop and pick your favorite.  Leave me a comment about what your favorite photo is and why.

2. You can make a purchase at Crystal's shop and come back and leave the Etsy transaction number in my comments

3. You can make a card inspired by one of the photos, leave me a link in my comments and I will link your card on my blog at a later date.

So, I'm giving you THREE ways to win.  You are more than welcome to do ALL three for three entries to win.  You may do one comment per entry type.  The deadline to enter is August 16th at 12 midnight PDT.  I will randomly choose a winner on August 17th and do a post then.  

Dustin's Father's Day Card

I struggled for a long time with Dustin's Father's Day card. I am not great at making masculine cards, it's just not my thing. Also, I don't really have stamps of anything that Dustin likes.

I went to Michael's today and searched all over for monkeys or computers in anything. There were none! No stickers, stamps, paper, etc... All they had were lame foam stamps and I really don't like using those very much. I was at a loss. I had no idea what to do.

I came home and tried to force myself to make a card. I tried to make one using my Penguin Dude, but I am not happy with it. So, after searching the internet for ideas, I decided to make a photo card. Well, duh! How did that not occur to me?


This card is pretty simple. I just picked out the pictures, sized them, and gave them a frame based on a color I selected from Dustin's shirt in the main picture. The text is also a color I got from Dustin's shirt. It was simple and easy and I'm very happy with it. Hopefully, Dustin will like it too. Now I just have to figure out what the card from Brady will be. Oy!