I'm back...

....a couple months shy of a year later! What happened? Well... just a few days after I posted my last blog I found out that we were expecting baby #2. It took us a little by surprise... wait... that's a lie!!! It down right shocked us. While we wanted to add to our family, right then was quite what we were expecting. After all, we had a 5 year plan. After much trouble getting pregnant with Ashlinn we were not expecting it to happen out of the blue.

Anyway, the pregnancy wasn't a normal pregnancy in regards to what most women experience. It started off with morning sickness which was the first sign to me that something was up. Around the 14th week I started experiencing the same problems I had with Ashlinn's pregnancy except this time around it was much worse. I'll spare the details from the hell that I endured because quite frankly, I'd rather not remember the hell I went through.

So, onto the best part...we welcomed another little girl into our family. On July 9, 2009 our precious little girl, Emersyn Jean was born at 5:20pm. She weighed 7lbs 3oz and 19 inches long.

She is such a great baby and if it wasn't for the occasional squeal from her you wouldn't even know we had a newborn in the house.

Big sister is finally starting to adjust to not having all of the attention. I thought I was going to lose my mind for a little while. Although I thought she'd want to be more of a helper...she's just not that into it.

So, that my friends is where I've been for the past 10 months or so. I have gotten back into my card making and will hopefully be updating on a regular basis again as I am working on more fun projects for upcoming craft shows :)

Stay tuned!!!

O' Christmas Tree

I am one of those crazy Christmas loving decorating fools. My friends all tease me because normally I put my tree up the day after Halloween. Yes, November 1st!!!! I got a late start due to the craft show so it didn't go up until the 2nd weekend of November. My 2.5 year old daughter helped me decorate and was rather cute helping me place ornaments. Here is a picture of her helping with the lights.

I also get teased a lot for having a non-hodge-podge tree. I will cherish this until Ashlinn starts making ornaments for the tree. I've been teasing my husband that this will be "MY" tree and we can put another in our finished basement. He's not buying that idea just yet.

So here is our 2008 tree that is missing the bow for now. I haven't unpacked it yet. I have to dig for it this weekend.

What a success!

I had my very first craft show this past Saturday. I was a little nervous, no...I was down right scared to death!!!! I stayed up until 2am on Friday night crafting more as I felt I didn't have enough. When 2am hit...I told my friend Stephanie - I quit! We had to be back up at 6am to get ready to head to the show and set up. We arrived with about an hour or so to set up and not having time to do a "mock set up" I just sorta winged it... I didn't have time to take pictures so that bums me out.

The show started at 9am and we had a steady stream of customers through out the entire day. They seemed to flock to my booth in groups which was kinda weird. I had people lined up to get Christmas tags that I had made and put in piles allowing them to mix and match. This was against my wishes as I had wanted my husband to help me bag them up. However, lesson learned...we both think they sold way better unbagged where people could pick which 8 they wanted for $2.00.

I had several compliments on how beautiful my cards were. Although I didn't sell as many cards at this show as I had hoped...profit wise...I did EXCELLENT. Way more than I expected. It boosted my ego some and left me with motivation to get into another craft show on December 6th. We had several requests for birthday, thank you and get well cards and I had only a few on hand. So in the next week or two, I'll focus solely on those cards and restocking my gift tags.

I had altered letters " Ho Ho Ho" and that sold within the first hour. I actually had one other person come back and want to buy it but it was gone. I've picked up more for the next show and can't wait to get them done.

In the mean time I haven't been able to take many pictures - but I'll leave you with an altered frame that I made with a Christmas theme paper. I don't remember who the paper manufacturer is though...

Mini Tote's and 3x3 Cards

I finally got a chance to sit down and make some more stuff for the craft show. These 3x3 cards are so fun and easy to make. I've decided to put them in a mini tote. This set was made from new Stampin' Up! Ski Slope designer paper, Old Olive Card Stock, and the following stamp sets: Tags So Much, Say It With Scallops, and Punches Three.

Each tote holds 4 cards and envelopes pretty comfortably. I added some tissue to finish it off. I'm pretty happy with the results and they are super easy to mass produce. I've made 3 sets already!!

Brad and I headed out to a LSS out by my parents house. I was in search of some different stamps and designer paper but only ended up buying one set of stamps and a few sheets of paper. Sometimes they have super cute stamps but I only saw a few but didn't feel the "have to have" feeling with them. From there we hit up Hobby Lobby to pick up a few more frames for me to alter.

I'm making good progress on the craft show stuff finally! I felt so behind. I just haven't been up to it lately. My Grandma has been diagnosed with Stage 2 lung cancer. She starts radiation and chemotherapy on Monday. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Merry Wishes Nugget Tin

I've been trying to be productive this weekend. I think I was able to make about 20 cards, one altered letter and one nugget tin. I have 9 more nugget tins to go!!! The one I made tonight was using new Designer Series Paper from the Holiday Mini Catalog that is available in October. This project is incredibly easy to make no matter what the occasion. I have made this set for Christmas to sell in the craft show. I may have to lock them up to keep my daughter from getting into them. While I was wrapping the nuggets she discovered that I had them out and asked for one. I told her she could have just one but Mommy needed them for a project. She ate it and sure enough she came back for another one. My husband chimed in and told her "No Ashlinn, Mommy needs those".... she started saying "want one Mommy" so how could I resist. She got another one and headed over to my husband and says "Ha Ha, got one!!!" He and I both burst into laughter. For being only 2 she amazes us sometimes! She ended up getting three! That would fill one row of my nugget tin!!! Little stinker!

For the outside I decided to use my new snowflake edge punch made by Fiskars. It's not as easy to use as the SU Scalloped Edge or my Martha Stewart edge punches that's for sure. I made a 2" band of Kiwi Kiss and a 2" band of Baja Breeze. I took the snowflake edge punch to both sides of the Baja Breeze. Then I punched Tangerine Tango and Close to Cocoa circles out and glued every other color behind the snowflakes to add color. Once I was finished I glued it to the center of the Kiwi Kiss cardstock. I used 5/8" white grosgrain ribbon in the center of the band. The tag is made from a SU! set that I don't recall the name of at the moment. I attached it with silver elastic ribbon to match the tin. The tag is also layered a bit to give it some dimension and I used two different inks as well.