random reflections

Happy Birthday Times Two!

Yesterday was Caleb's eighth birthday and Hannah's third. They woke up to a decorated house, and two new birthday posters drawn by their dad.

Adam started this tradition when Caleb was one, and each year they both get a new poster. This year they are all hung on the walls going upstairs. If you'd like to take a peek, Adam did a short video showing all the posters yesterday and posted it on FaceBook.

Once they'd opened a couple of gifts we took off for the Betty Brinn Children's Museum in Milwaukee. The museum was really crowded, but it didn't effect their enjoyment in the least.

Both Caleb and Hannah helped bake and decorate the birthday cake. They also picked out their individual candles while we were at the grocery store deciding what kind of cake we should bake. The chocolate cake with chocolate icing  was delicious!

We sang Happy Birthday twice, and each one blew out their own candles. There was a huge cheer when Caleb blew all his out on the first breath.

There were, of course, handmade birthday cards. Hannah's was a close copy of this card. I don't own the dies, so it was almost a one-layer card. I purchased this Simon Says set, Critter Crowd, as soon as it was released knowing I'd be able to use it for multiple kids' cards.

I used a die from Pretty Pink Posh I purchased at Impress Stamps in Seattle in September, and some images from the Simon Says "Out of This World" stamp and die set for Caleb's card. 

Both cards were photographed with my iPhone, and I'm not sure I'm a big fan, but I'm going to keep at it for awhile, and see if I can get the results I want.

I'm working on a Highlights and Faves post for 2019 as well as a One Little Word post for 2020. Hopefully they won't be too long in coming!

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas and Many Cards

The truth is I've been enjoying the holiday too much to blog. I've spent a lot of time in my craft room and the Christmas cards have all been sent, and most have arrived. I thought I'd do a mass blog post to share some of my favorites and to enter them in a few challenges. First off a new to me challenge called Day of the Month. This month's challenge is Poinsettia.

Although I posted a couple of cards earlier featuring the Altenew "Modern Poinsettia," this one is my favorite and I'll be entering it in the Poinsettia challenge as well as The Christmas Kickstart Challenge.

I found both of these challenges through Michele Ferguson's blog. I've been following her for awhile now, and was lucky enough to have coffee with her when she was in Rochester recently. 

Here's another variation:

The Altenew "Modern Poinsettia" turned out to be one of my favorite new stamps this year. One of my favorite new dies was My Favorite Things "Joyful Wreath." I made several variations of this card:

I had a chance to craft with two friends in November, and borrowed a couple of stamps from one of them. It's an older (now retired) set from Waltzing Mouse, but I don't recall the actual name of the stamp set. There were several images, but I chose two--a bird and a reindeer.

Snowflakes were also a theme this year:

I'm entering this one in the CAS on Friday challenge: Christmas.

Finally a group of cards made with Ink to Paper's "Modern Gift Tag" set. It seemed like I waited forever to get this set of dies, but luckily, I was able to borrow a friend's set while I waited or most of these cards wouldn't have made it to the post office in time.

My favorite of the bunch is this wreath which combines the MFT's wreath with the die cuts from Modern Tag. I'm entering this is The Flower Challenge where the challenge is to Use a Die.

We celebrated Christmas with Matt, Betsy, the girls, and Betsy's family last night. On Christmas night, they'll be back for the early part of the Walker family Christmas. We'll have dinner too late for the little girls, but there will still be seventeen of us gathered around two tables. Best wishes for a wonderful holiday! 

 

Addicted to CAS: Blessed/Blessing

I've got a couple of cards for the Addicted to CAS challenge: Blessed/Blessing.

I'm truly down to the wire getting this challenge posted although I made the cards days ago. There are two cards with very subtle differences in color and in embellishment.

The sentiment and the die cut letters are from Ink to Paper's "Season of Joy" set. The gorgeous snowflake is one from My Favorite Things set of dies, "Stylish Snowflakes," cut from some very glittery paper I picked up in Milwaukee awhile ago.

The second version is nearly the same, but a slightly different color of blue cardstock and a larger embellishment as well as blue metallic die cut letters.

I'm also linking this up with Simon Says Work It Wednesday where the challenge is "Ho, Ho, Holidays."

 

 

5 in 5: The Christmas Decoration Issue

I'm joining Sandie in her monthly meme 5 in 5 - one day late as it turns out as I always intend to publish on the fifth. Lots of things seem to be getting away from me recently. The days are flying by. I've been busy making Christmas cards, but not finding the time to post them. The 5 in 5 post was also on my mind, but it wasn't until I saw Sandie's blog and then Mary-Lou's blog show up in my Feedly account last night that I realized that the fifth was already here. The advantage to it this month, is that both Sandie and Mary-Lou featured Christmas decorations, so I decided to do the same. We always seem to have a few new ones, and this year is no different. I've downsized a lot of our decorations, and sent several to Goodwill this year as well, but the new ones just seem to show up!

First off two decorations from trips we took in 2019. The first came from our trip with Sarah and her family to DisneyWorld last January. This turned out to be much more difficult to photograph than I expected since both Mickey and Minnie are quite sparkly in real life. I had totally forgotten I'd purchased the ornament until I unwrapped it as we were decorating our tree.

The second ornament came from Holland, Michigan when we were there for the Tulip Festival in May. This ornament has been laying on my roll-top desk in the hall ever since we returned. 

The largest of our new decorations is the result of a lovely gift certificate a friend gave me for my birthday in May. As soon as I saw this lovely "scene," I knew it was the perfect way to use the gift certificate. This is on our dry sink that originally belonged to my great-grandmother. On the side table in the same room is a collection of tin houses and a church. In addition, it's something my friend would love. It's too bad the flickering battery-operated candles don't show in the photo!

All year round, I have a collection of pitchers on these shelves in my kitchen. For Christmas last year, I found this one with the red and green arrangement, and this year added the little red cardinal to the shelf.

Lastly, a particularly beautiful poinsettia. We always have two or three in the living room, and I love this pink and white edition.

I love decorating for Christmas, and sitting in the living room with all the pretty lights and a fire in the fireplace. We've already had nearly 25" of snow this year, so it certainly feels like Christmas-time.