well said cards

My Mother's Day

It's hard to believe that I've been a mom for almost four years.  My little girl has taught me so much about being grown up and how much I needed to grow up.  Children have a way of helping you realize not to sweat the small stuff.  They also have a way of teaching you to celebrate the small stuff.  I was looking at some old photos of my little girl when she was a baby.  It's amazing to listen to her today.  She'll be four in just a few months and then before we know it off to Kindergarden.  

I had a fantastic Mother's Day with my DD and DH yesterday.  We spent the day outside, did some shopping and ate lots of yummy treats.  It was a really great day!  

Hopefully I'll have some cards to share tomorrow.

Happy Stamping.

Sweet Friend

I actually made a card.  It was nice to just make a card and not worry about all the design constraints that go into working for a single manufacturer.  The ice cream float stamp is by A Muse, the "sweet" sentiment is by Stampin' Up and the "friend" sentiment is by Paper Tray Ink.  

Much like the rest of the world, I have a few friends that have been laid off from their jobs in recent weeks.  So I've been making some cards to send to them to lift their spirits.  

Life around our house is finally starting to slow down a little.  My job is starting to ease up a little and I've been able to find some time to make some cards.  It's been nice to go through some of my stash of rubber stamps and make cards without deadlines or guidelines.  I still go back to a lot of my A Muse stamps because I just love the simple images.  I don't like a lot of detail on my cards or my images.

I made a small stack of cards that I'll be sharing this week.  The weather here has been warming up a little.  I think we're finally done with the snow and we've been seen a lot of Spring showers.  We even had a couple of really hot days.  Those were a welcome surprise.

Looking forward to a nice long vacation the first week of June.  The countdown begins - 26 days left.

breakfast on the go.

I have so many excuses for not eating well.  One of my biggest excuses is that I don't have time.  I work 50+ hours/week and I have a toddler.  Well guess what, it's not that hard to eat well when you're busy.  I've found some great ways to get breakfast on the go.  The quiche recipe in this blog post by Mark is a favorite in our house.  If you own the South Beach diet book, these quiche cups are in that book.  We load them up with veggies and canadian bacon.  I make a dozen for the week.  My hubby and I each take one with us to work to heat up in the microwave at the office.  Combine it with 16 ounces of water and 8oz of coffee.  I never feel hungry.

When 10am rolls around at the office, I eat 20 almonds.  That holds me over until lunch.  I've been cursed with being lactose intolerant - there is rarely dairy in my diet.  If it wasn't for my sugar consumption I'd be rail thin!  I found a fantastic resource for recipes.  The Paleo Cookbook has great recipes for gluten free and dairy free diets.  Worried about getting gassy from eating so many vegetables, well if you drink plenty of water it isn't a problem.  You don't need beano! ha!  ha!

Don't starve yourself.  Eat healthy, drink water and take a walk with your family.  Spring is here!  It's the perfect excuse to get outside.

Happy Wednesday.

diets.

We've all tried them, right?  I know I've tried them.  Ever since I had my daughter I've been on a mission to get my body back without much success.  It just will not go back to what it was before I had her.  I've tried to refocus my intentions with regards to my diet.  Instead of thinking of it as a diet, I'm thinking of it as a lifestyle change to eat healthier.  I've done some research on some sites that have helped me out.

• Sticking to your diet - If I ever had to choose one blog to read daily it would be Zen Habits.  It is by far one of the most informative and amazing blogs I read.  It had a post recently on sticking to your diet.
• Mark's Daily Apple - This site is interesting to say the least.  It offers up some odd ideas for dinner, but some very practical ideas for eating on a budget.  Lots of food information on this blog.
• Zen to Fitness - This site is another favorite of mine.  Great information on working out and nutrition.  Some great secrets to nutrition like foods to avoid year around.

Nothing else to report.  I'm not on a diet, I'm working towards changing bad habits.  I'm happy to report white flour has been out of my diet for three months.  I'm working on sugar and reducing caffeine.  It's not easy, but everyday it gets a little easier.

My goal is to get back to running this Spring.  Sign up for at least (3) 5k races and work on training for a half-marathon.  I know I can do it.

Here's to a week of healthy habits.

A girl's hair.

I love having a little girl for so many reasons.  Mostly because I can really relate to her.  I love dressing up my little baby B and I also love fixing her hair.  She has been blessed with auburn hair like her daddy and it's curly!  So after spending the afternoon on facebook, I switched gears to hairstyles for little girls.  I surfed the web and I found some great sites with ideas!

• Jackie & Kassie's sweet hairdo's - I love this site because the youngest girl has hair about the same length as my Bella.  I wouldn't use a curling iron or hairspray on Bella, but the ideas are great!

• Rockin' shorty hairstyles - This site is great because the little girl has short hair.  It's not easy have a girl with short hair.  Most girls Bella's age have really long hair, for some reason hers just isn't getting very long very fast.

• Hairstyles for girls - This is like hair origami!  I love this site and I've tried one of these hairstyles on Bella already with great success.  This is a great site if your daughter has long hair.

I think the key to getting your little one to cooperate is to start them young.  I've been fixing Bella's hair with rubber bands and barrettes since she was a year old.  Now she sits still and enjoys getting her hair fixed.  I love it!

Another day in paradise.

Turning over a new leaf.

  Well after a busy year, my career has taken a turn for the better.  The recession has caused me to shift gears a little and now my time for crafting is a lot more limited.  As a result I had to walk away from my role on the A Muse Design Team.  There just wasn't enough time for me to dedicate time to making cards for A Muse and I didn't need the extra pressure of deadlines right now - I have plenty of my own for work. 

  I've been trying new crafts.  I took a class with my friend KC in Portland, OR to learn soldering and collage.  The photo on the right is from Sally Jea n's website.  I made that bird in the background!  I love doing collage now.  It's a very free flowing process.

  I've also discovered some new blogs that have been inspiring me:

• Scissor Variations - there are some great vintage projects that are cool.
• and other silly things - this site has some cute images and ideas.  I love the little bears.
• Pam Garrison - lots of fun images of her beautiful craft room; some vintage storage options.

Sometimes change is good.  In the creative process I really believe it's necessary.  I've been uninspired to make anything for months now.  I'm hoping the changes in my life will open some unexpected doors of creativity in my life.  As I explore my new creative process I'm spending a lot of time enjoy friends and family. 

Life is good.

It's almost 2009!

Can you believe that it's almost 2009?  I'm still shocked at how quickly this year has gone by for us.  It seems like a blur with my job change, month off between jobs, the economy taking a dive, Baby B starting pre-school. . .what a year!  I must say that 2008 was eventful for us and it was a good year.  We took some great family vacations and spent a lot of time with our friends and family.  For that we are grateful.

Do you ever submit cards to magazines?  I've only done it once.  The card above went with this card to CARDS magazine because it was accepted for publication, but this one must have been cut at the last minute.  Oh well!  You win some, you lose some.  It was a pretty easy card to put together. 

Did you have a nice Christmas with friends and family?  Did you eat lots of yummy food and was Santa good to you?  Unfortunately our gifts were delayed in the mail due to the weather, but we were happy to just be with each other.  It could have been a lot worst!  Baby B was very good this year and Santa brought her lots of goodies.  Luckily we shopped for her earlier in the year and got everything wrapped and hidden under the stairs in November.  WHEW!

Okay, that's all for today.  I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday.  We're just days away from 2009!!

Happy Stamping!

Merry Christmas.

 

 Here is the last of my Christmas cards.  The snowflakes are from the Peace and Cheer set by A Muse and the sentiment is also by A Muse.

 

I added some Impress Sparkle Glitter to these cards.  The ribbon and card base are by A Muse.  That red cardstock is from some scraps I had laying around.

 

These are some little tags I made for Baby B's preschool teachers.  She loves her teachers, so I put these together for them.  I used the large A Muse alphabet set and the Peace and Cheer set.  I used my Karen Foster snap stamp letters and a sentiment from a Green Grass Stamps set I got two years ago.  I put the tags on the reindeer munchies Baby B and I made.  I think her teachers loved them!  Especially when I told them Baby B helped make the treats.

You can see in this next photo that I added some diamond stickles to this card to make it look like snow.  Pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with family and friends. 

Merry Christmas Eve!! 2nd Post today!!

     

Can you believe it?  Two posts in one day!!  If you have not checked out the contents of my Advent box - scroll down and check it out. 

I hope you all are enjoying your Christmas Eve!  What do you typically do for this holiday?  It varies for us from year to year depending on if we're close to home or traveling to visit family.  This year we'll be with my FIL and his girlfriend at their house with her family.  Her son is going to pop the question to his girlfriend - they've been together since 7th grade!!  It's nuts.  Hopefully we can make the drive over there - we just got hit with another winter storm.

So the smart thing to do for your Christmas cards is to make one design and just duplicate it.  However I get really bored easily, so I made ten of several designs for my cards this year.  Many of them featuring A Muse stamps.  The chandelier idea is actually from a Memory Box design I saw at Impress Rubber Stamps.  Dang they are just so clever!!  I had a lot of fun making my cards this year.  You can click on the thumbnails at the top or here's some close ups of them.

 

This card features the A Muse Chandelier and the holly from the Peace and Cheer Set.  The greeting is by Impress Rubber Stamps.

 

Isn't this A Muse Winter Girl just the cutest?  I really loved putting that liquid applique on her coat.  That's the A Muse small snowflake with the diamond stickles.  The sentiment is from the Holiday Greetings II set.  It has some great sayings that are perfect for a lot of the A Muse images.

 

If you're a Memory Box fan then you recognize that little penguin.  That "cheers" sentiment is also by Memory Box.  The other sentiment is a discontinued Hero Arts sentiment that I just love.  Hopefully you got it before it was discontinued - I got mine last year in the clearance bin.

I added some stickles and some flock to this little guy to give him a little dimension.  I love the flock!!  It's so easy to use.

 

I love this Holiday Car by A Muse.  It's the perfect image for my masculine christmas cards.  All my guy friends hate it when I send them cards with ribbon and sparkle.  I think this sparkle is okay since it's supposed to be snow.

The sentiment is from the Peace and Cheer set by A Muse.  A simple and fun little cards.

Merry Christmas!

What's inside my advent box?

I put a little blue flock in my advent box to go along with my snow theme.  I also put a little snowman (aka the Hippy Snowchick) in there as a surprise!  I just wanted someone cute to greet you when you received your blue flock. 

I hope you enjoyed checking out all the contents of the advent boxes on the A Muse News blog.  Our Design Team certainly enjoyed making them.  It's all we could talk about when we got together in November. 

Happy Holidays everyone!