The One After The Fire

So, it's been another year. Lots has happened. Most notably, my house burned down in a wildfire that destroyed over 1500 homes and nearly 50,000 acres. It has been the most unimaginably difficult thing I have ever endured.







I did actually finish a set of wedding invitations for some friends of mine who's wedding was last weekend. They turned out really well, but I will have to dig around to find a picture of them. I can't seem to find one, and the extra I made for me to keep... well... it burned with the rest of my house.







I will also post shortly the pictures of the thank you notes that a friend made for me to send to people who have generously gifted us to help out with the restocking process. They are super cute!







For now, though, here is a picture of what used to be our home. We have moved into a new house in a new neighborhood, but it will be a while before it really feels like home...

The One After the Dry Spell

Hmm, not sure how all of 2010 (and darn near half of 2011 I suppose) went by without a single post. Where does the time go? I'm not sure, but if you figure out would you please let me know where to find it?

I've decided that I am going to make a concerted effort to post at least something every day. I watched Julie and Julia yesterday again, and that may be my inspiration, not sure. It may be nothing more than some work related anecdote of the eternally STUPID, but it will be something nonetheless. I am working with repeat DWI offenders now, and their trains of thought and dysfunctional reasoning frequently provide me with moments of hilarity.

I have a couple of projects on the horizon. A wedding invitation for a co-worker and a 50th anniversary invitation for a friend's aunt and uncle. Hopefully I can get my creative juices flowing again in short order. A trip to Papersource usually helps that along! I will be better about posting pictures of the end result!

The One on Father's Day

Well, I finished Father's Day cards for my hubby and my father-in-law. I got out the camera to take pics of them, and Lo and Behold, the friggin thing was BROKEN... My $800 (not now of course, but when I bought it) Canon DSLR, will not take a picture. It turned on, but wouldn't focus and wouldn't shoot. I started to examine it, and one side of the lens was jammed in. It was significantly crooked, like when you screw a lid on wrong. Never let anyone tell you a bone folder is worthless. It proved VERY effective in prying my lens out, and THANK GOD it works. Lucky for my 7 year-old that he was next door when I discovered the issue, as I am QUITE sure that he was responsible.

At any rate, here are my cards for Father's Day. Don't think it is weird that the one for my hubby has a gun on it. He has gotten into competitive shooting, and actually has spent all of today at a match. He will think it is cool (i hope). The other is for my father-in-law. Sadly, I have no father's left to make cards for, my father passed almost 8 years ago, and my grandfather passed in January. My mom and grandmother are paying hommage to him today by sprinkling his ashed on a lake in Minnesota with my uncles. He did love boats and the water, so it is only fitting.

The One with the Wedding Invitation

Wow, I can't believe a month has gone by. I am really bad about posting stuff on a regular basis. I guess it is a good thing that no one actually reads this!! :) I finally finished the wedding invitations for my co-worker. They turned out really well I think. I did realize that embossing 100 invitations is quite a challenge. Definitely got my money's worth out of the Cuttlebug on this one. Embossed the background card on the invitation, the reply and the reception cards. LOTS of embossing. Looks really good tho'! Here are some pictures...

The One When She Was TWO!!

I can't believe that my little girl is TWO! Well, two going on twenty, but two nonetheless. Here is a picture of her at her party today... I realize I am partial, but she is pretty darn cute... I called my BFF on the way home this morning with the cake, and told her that I distinctly remembered several years ago saying that I would NEVER buy any of this princess s**t if I had a girl, and lo and behold if I didn't have a carload of it this morning. Princess plates, napkins, balloons, and a cupcake cake in the shape of a crown. She quickly confirmed that I had indeed made that promise. Oh well, what can you do?? I concede that I gave in to the princess theme; however, I feel OK about it since my little one is just as apt to sit in the sand pile and fill a dump truck with dirt and pour it over her head. Good to be well rounded right??

So, after having a party for the princess and feeding the whole family lasagna for lunch (lasagna for 16 is quite the load of food), I am now printing out and assembling baby shower invitation for a friend at work. The only people I know who require 100 invitations for a baby shower. Holy cow. It is quite a project, and I will post pictures when I am done with them. For now, I am going to post a set of cards I did for my mom's birthday (which is 2 days before my little one's).

The One in the Bluebonnets

And finally, a little bit of my blondie in the bluebonnets. Found a huge, thick patch near my mom's house, and she sat right in there like she belonged!!

The One on Palm Sunday

In honor on Palm Sunday, here are the small Easter cards I made for my peeps at the office. I have learned that having to do 20+ "somethings" for holidays takes a lot out of me, since I tend to design on the elaborate side. I did these small, so the embellishments would not take so much time. The eggs are only about 2.5x.3.5. Small enough that I could cut out 9 from a 12x12 sheet of paper. the ric rack was cut of a double sided sheet, so I could just flip one over to do the middle stripe. These are the only two I glittered, as it again took too much effort. The rest I just stickled here and there. The effect was just as cute...

The One in Heels...

So, it's been way too long since I have posted. Mostly because I have been lazy about taking pictures of my projects. Today I feel very accoplished, so I thought I would finally update this... I finished a couple of projects I was working on, two set of notcards for friends of my mother's and my Happy Spring cards. I forgot to make an extra Spring card, so that picture will have to wait until I can make another one. Here are some pictures of the shoe cards I made.

I used the shoe cut from the Wedding Cricut cartridge and welded it into a square cutout from a card. I ran the top layer cut of the shoe thru the stickermaker and covered some with glitter, some with flock, and some with these really cool micro marbles I found at Michaels. I think the black, red, and white colors turned out well.

I hope my mom's friend likes them! The other set was the cross cards that I posted some time ago. Finally finished those too!


The one on the left here is flocked, and the one on the right is glittered. For some reason I didn't get a picture of the marbled one. Its too bad, they really are cool looking!


Here is a Thank You card that I made using the Gerbera Daisy that the Paper, Scissors, Ink lady designed in Design Studio. It is a fabulous cut, but looks like a hell of a lot of work. Glad she had the time to do it, because I never would have had the patience to do all that work! I think it looks particularly good int his stardream paper and Bling! Pink and Chocolate are my favorites! Well... maybe pink and green...

The One With The Crosses

My mom's good friend is a minister, and she also performed my grandfather's funeral service. Her message was fabulous and she is truly a gifted preacher. Her sermon was the only thing that abated my overwhelming saddness that day. Anyway, as a Thank You for all she did, and for being such a great friend to my mom, I decided I would make her a set of notecards. Here are some pictures of two that I have done. I think they will all be a bit different, we'll see how it goes...

I bought the Wedding cartridge for my Cricut just for this purpose. I just LOVE this cross that is on there. Oh, yeah. I also bought it because I intend to make some cards for another one of my mom's friends that made us a TON of food for all my family during the chaos of the funeral and such. She is a shoe fanatic, and the Wedding cartridge has a really cute high heeled shoe on it too. I'll post pictures of those cards when I get them designed. Trying to get these done first.

Until next time...