Around Here - Almost Spring!

I've been trying to think of a better lead in to this blog post than something cliche like "I can't believe how fast time is speeding by" or "It's the middle of March ALREADY?!"  But I couldn't because the fact is, the days really have been going by too quickly for me and often by dinner time I'm left with a partially unfinished To Do List and not enough energy or time to do anything other than hope there is something decent on the DVR so I don't get stuck watching some strange documentary my husband runs across on the History Channel.  Don't get me wrong - I'm not overwhelmed or stressed right now.  I'm on top of all my Have Tos for the house, the kids, the Etsy shop, finally getting a handle on an exercise routine and getting more active, and even working in time with friends, fun things with the family, and even a few things from my When I Get a Chance list.  Still, there always seems to be things I don't quite get to for days at a time - like blogging!  So I thought I would do a quick Around Here post, if only to get myself back into the blogging groove. 

This is what my craft table looked like this morning - remnants of last night's Card (making) Group and today's crop of countdown blocks getting ready to ship out.  

And have I mentioned I finally joined Instagram?!  

It must be "baby season" again because I've had a pretty big bump in sales for the pregnancy countdown blocks in the past few weeks and quite a few friends and acquaintenances have announced pregnancies in recent months too.  It was my turn to host our monthly card making group so, of course, I chose baby cards for the theme.

Can you guess which one was mine?  Yup, the one with the baby feet ;)

Speaking of babies - it's baby season out on the ranch too.  We have a handful of new calves born the last few weeks, including this little guy.

He was born in the middle of the night during a really cold snap and my Dad was concerned that he wasn't eating.  I was the only one around to help out first thing and "got" to spend the better part of my morning playing cowgirl as we attempted to get the baby and his mom in from the back pasture and into the small corral near one of the closer sheds.  It was quite a process and in the end we had to bring almost the entire herd into the corral then take them all back out to the pasture again.

On the up side, while it was may have been cold it has been absolutely gorgeous outside.

On the Mom Front - the kiddos are keeping busy with school and activities.  Miss Kate is doing great on the swim team and knocked quite a few seconds off a couple of her best times at the meet last weekend. 

Tyler's class was required to participate in the school's creative challenge (the theme being "Behind my Reflection is so Much More, Talents and Skills for me to Explore) and he chose to do a photo project in which he used mirrors to take selfies doing things he enjoys or is good at.  We got that turned in just in time for him to start working on a "storytelling" presentation that must be 3-7 minutes long and include expression, guestures, and props.
Kaitlyn also had a big book report due, in which she had to turn the book into a breakfast cereal then create a TV-style commercial for it.  We all spent a funny evening as cast and crew recording said commercial.  I was dreading it, but as it turned out I haven't laughed that hard in weeks.  Seriously though teachers, can the parents get a little break here?

As I said, the weather has been gorgeous with very few storms and the a-typical practically snow-less winter has continued.  I was nervous that we wouldn't get a chance to use the groupon for tubing that I got the kids for Christmas but we managed to slip in on one of the colder week nights shortly before they closed down (early) for the season.  The only snow in sight was what they had manufactured for the tubing and cross country runs.  Crazy weather.  The tubing itself was tons of fun.  We also managed some time at the ice skating rink with cousins, which was pretty much the last of the activities left on our (imaginary) Winter Bucket List.

My husband got both of us fancy new pedometer thingy's and we've been trying to make being active a priority.  That has involved a lot of walks outside - with the dog on the ranch, or loading up the kids and their bikes/rollerblades and getting to know the local walking paths.  The second option was prompted in part the day the dog came home all muddy and full of burrs from our walk in the field, and from the fact that no longer living in a neighborhood means the kids can't just step out the door and have somewhere to ride their bikes.  Everything else makes up for that little issue though, and we are very happy to be living "back home."

And that, my dears, is part of what has kept me away from the blog lately.  That and the multitude of things that needing fixing - the computer spent a week being repaired, the brand new fridge finally arrived but conked out within days of it's arrival, and so on.  But I'm trying not to dwell on the annoying parts and enjoying the fact that for today I have found some free time to do some "catching up"  And maybe, just maybe after I grab some lunch I might be able to do some scrapbooking before the kids get home from school.  Ya think?!

Christmas Cards 2014

Hot chocolate, a corny Christmas movie on the Hallmark Channel, and a stack of newly arrived photos - that's how I spent some of my time on Saturday afternoon.  Love it.  Love the season.

Christmas cards have been making their way into my mailbox every few days and I've been having fun adding to my little Christmas Card book.  This is the 5th year I've been keeping them like that and it's been fun to flip back through all the past years, seeing all of my friends' children at different ages.  However, I've been a little anxious to get my own cards pulled together and out the door (so everyone can have our new address) and I was so happy to see that my Christmas photos had arrived at the post office a couple of days earlier than expected.  I sat right down and started putting them together and stuffing envelopes. 

There are so many great card options out there right now, but I get caught in the "I can just do it myself" mode every year - you know the one.  The day spent outside with the tripod and the camera on the self-timer, fingers crossed the whole time that the photos will look even half-way decent when you get home.  The time spent on Pinterest looking at card ideas and cute quotes trying to figure out the Very Best option for this year.  Then trying to pull it all together in Photoshop, using only the 4 commands I am familiar with.  ;)  And doing it all at 10:00 PM (when I'm normally in bed) because you realize your coupon code for photo prints expires that day.

All things considered, I didn't actually mind the process - I'm just laughing at myself for rushing through it yet another year.  One of these days I will remember to take photos in October with perfectly coordinated outfits and all of November to pull the cards together.  For now though, my method did still result in reasonably cute Christmas cards for the year - phew! ;) 

Ok time for a close look at them, right?

Front:

Back:

Well, I'm off to take photos of the kids playing in the falling snow.  Maybe I can use those photos for next year's card and be super duper on the ball for next time?! ;)

Time for the Tree!

It doesn't quite feel like Christmas until the decorations are up, does it?  I held off on putting up the tree until after Tyler's Minecraft party - I can only imagine what those wild and crazy kids would have done to the tree.  I have visions of a toppled tree and broken ornaments or at the very least we probably wouldn't have found all the Nerf darts before New Years!

But the day after the party, it was definitely time to pull some of the Christmas decorations out.

 All of our stuff is in a giant inaccessible stack in the garage right now so we used one of my Mom's trees and decorations.  It looked a little sparse when I first set it up but by the time we were finished with it I don't think there was a single bare branch.

 I also discovered that when it comes to decorating the tree, my Mom is a bigger perfectionist than I am.  We were all ready to call it good and she just kept going and going...

 Turned out gorgeous though, right?  I was happy I had taken the time to wrap gifts a few days before and stashed them in the closet so we would have some ready to put under the tree.

 And that, my friends, is the sum total of my decorating for this year.  We don't have much space right now and I'm happy with just the tree, and the stockings, and watching the Christmas cards slowly roll in from the mailbox so I can add them to my card collection.  I love Christmas!
Bambi does too ;)

Linking to:
Christmas Tree Party 2014

Back to Card Group!

One of the side benefits of moving back home - card group!  The same friend that started up my old card making group has a new one going now and I got to join them last night.  Yay!  I'm completely rusty (and slow!) and couldn't find half my stuff (thank goodness the local "Drug Store" has a small scrapbooking section so I didn't have to run all the way to Walmart for glue dots!) but it was so nice to get back to something that used to be one of my favorite nights of the month.

One night per month, we leave the kiddos home and get together with a small group of crafty ladies.  Everyone designs one card around the theme that month's hostess has set, and makes kits for everone in the group.  Then we all get together to put together our kits and we go home with a handful of new cards for our stash.  It's a lot of fun seeing all of the different personalities and techniques - such a wide variety for one tiny little theme.

 The theme for this month was Thank You cards.  This one is mine:

I was so excited to run across a fun little blog full of FREE cut files for the Silhouette machine. and as soon as I saw the "thanks" one I knew that I had to use it.  (cut file can be found here)  I cut it out of cardstock and used that for my starting point, grabbing a couple of fun patterned papers from my stash and cutting out the "ever so much" sentiment from black vinyl.

The kit looked like this:

 Not bad for my first card club in 4 years, right?  Can't wait for next month!

Horse Party Invitations

 I've managed to find a little breathing room this week in among work, keeping up with the house and all the moving preparations.  October is fast approaching and with it comes Birthday Month in our families - there are at least 10 that we actively celebrate with close family and friends and several others that I acknowledge with at least a note all within about 18 days between the end of September and the middle of October.  It's intense.  So I took advantage of some extra time this week and dug into the actual party prep for my daugher's birthday.
I thought I would go ahead and share the invitations I finished yesterday.  (I'm always so excited when I finish things, you know?!)  The last few years I have been leaning more toward the digitally designed invitations so I could just get one all laid out and print out as many as I needed.  This year Kaitlyn wants another slumber party and I limit the guests to only three so I decided to make them a little more "scrapbook-y" and three dimensional.  She was very quick to select horses as her theme this year and a few weeks back she sat down with me and we looked at all kind of ideas on Pinterest.  It was a lot of fun.  In the process we narrowed her theme down even further to a western/cowgirl style in pink and brown and that was all I needed to set myself off an running.

 I'm all about using what I have right now and I was happy to find this great chocolate brown and two tone pink polka dot paper in my stash so I used that for the background.  I then proceeded to find some fun western fonts and a font of horse dingbats that I was able to use for the horse silhouette (and will be repeated in most of the other printables/decor for the party).  The rest of it just kind of flowed from there.

The invite reads:

Wanted

your presence at

Kaitlyn's 11th Birthday

so put on your boots and mosey on over for a 

Slumber Party

The Caldwell Homestead

(address)

The shindig begins at 6:00 PM and you can round up your cowgirls at 10:00AM Saturday
(date)

Give a Holler:  Alayna (phone number)

Don't forget your bedroll!

I printed that onto cardstock then tore along all the edges and inked them to give it a weathered/distressed look.  Then finished it off with a pink ribbon and the horse silhouette which I had mounted with foam tape to give it some dimension,

Kaitlyn is very happy with the invitations and I'm starting to get kind of excited for the party myself.  Four more weeks to go...


Linking to:
DIY Projects and Receipes with the Party Bunch

Quick Cards

 I love scrapbooking - playing with all the fun patterns and colors, the embellishments, all the fun layouts...but I haven't taken the time to do any real scrapbooking in probably three years (eek!).  I promised myself I would start scrapbooking again this year, but the closest I usually get is applying scrapbook paper to countdown blocks.  During our little crafty time over Spring Break, I did however manage to make some cards - go me!  My friend was working on hair bows (which turned out really cute and I may have to create some for Kaitlyn now) but I needed a bunch of cards for Girl Scouts, so I pulled out the patterned paper scraps and off I went.  I forgot how much fun it is, and how easily cards come together.  (It totally had me missing our monthly card making group in my old neighborhood!)

In only a couple of hours (or less - who can tell with kids running around and dinner to make in the middle of it all?) I had 6 birthday cards (hopefully that is all we will need until the end of the year) for the girls

 a couple of thank you cards for our special guests (an EMT for our first aid/safety badge, and our trip to the cupcake bakery last night, which was so much fun!)

and while I was at it, I made a couple of thank you cards for the girls to sign for my co-leaders.  April 22 is Volunteer Appreciation Day and they deserve the recognition.

Sometime soon maybe I can pull out the photos and really scrapbook, but first I have orders to box up and drying racks to paint and dinner prep to think about...

31 Days: Day 30 - Cards and Tags

We've talked about parties. We've talked about gift ideas and creative gift wrapping. I guess that only leaves cards and tags.

Tags are pretty much a must when it comes to gift giving - at least if you want the person to know who it came from or where it's going to! But a lot of the time the card itself is an after thought. You've spent all this time deciding on the right gift then shopping for it or making it yourself and wrapping it up all pretty and all you want is to be done with it, right? Well, that's what happens to me when I hit that point. But I hate to just throw something on there and ruin the look.

When it comes to Christmas I try to think about the tags ahead of time, print them out all at once, then have them ready when I'm wrapping up the gifts. This year I went for a monogram look on the tags. Simple, easy and classic.


For all the other gift-giving events life throws at me, I try to keep a good supply of cards on hand. Most of my stash lives in this little guy - my card organizer box. I created a bunch of these a few years back as gifts, along with one for myself (see original post here) and it has worked pretty well for me.

Inside are tabs so I can keep the cards organized by category.

Here's a look at a few of the cards in the box.

And for those little things that don't really require a full out card, just a place to write To and From I use little tags or small 2x2 cards like these. They're also a great way to use up all those scraps!

Keeping the box fully stocked was pretty easy back when I lived in Utah and participated in a monthly card making group. I'm overdue for a big card and tag making session. Hopefully I'll get around to it after all of this holiday craziness passes us by.

Barn Invitations

**Reposted on the new blog.  Click THIS LINK to see not only the invitations but all the fun party details and photos!


Two weeks until my little guy turns 3! His favorite thing is to be out with grandpa, either on the big equipment or helping feed the cows. So the theme I chose for his party this year is Down on the Farm. I'm feeling pretty proud of myself for having the planning and prep work all done already (I'll show it off after the party). And we hand delivered these fun little invitations this morning.

To make them, I simply drew a quick barn pattern and cut them out of red cardstock, making sure to cut the opening for the barn doors. The white "trim" is very thin strips of white cardstock. The tricky part was cutting them that thin. Then I just printed out the wording for the inside and attached it to the back.

Monkeyin' Around

In my world, October is our Birthday Month. Between my family and Sam's we have 6 birthdays in the stretch of time between Sept 30 and Oct 16. SIX! Not the least of which is Kaitlyn's birthday (on the 14th), which has been part focus for the last few months. I can't honestly tell you how early I started planning her party, but it was probably sometime this spring. You know me, the planning and prep is my favorite part. And since Kaitlyn decided on a Monkey theme barely one week after her last birthday, I've had plenty of time to gradually piece it all together. And now it's time for the final preparations.

I'll do a big post after the party, but I thought I'd share the invitations with you now. These little babies are going out tomorrow, provided we can figure out who some of the people are that she wants to invite (anyone else have this problem with their kindergartener? She plays with kids every day at recess and on the bus but for the life of her cannot remember their names. That is, if she has even remembered to ASK their names).
I paper pieced the monkey face, making up the pattern as I went along. Not bad 'eh? He kinda looks like a bear but hopefully the pokey-out ears and the Monkey Around statement inside will tip them off to the theme of the party.

I also whipped up a card for Kaitlyn, because I loved this image. My friend Callie introduced me to the Dustin Pike images and I'm in love! I enlarged two of his other images for part of the party decor...but you'll have to wait to see those.