Happy New Year!

Just popping in to wish everyone a very happy new year.   I'll be back soon but for now I'm enjoying my family, especially my sweet little grandson who I had the pleasure of seeing again earlier this week.  Tomorrow he will finally get to meet his grandpa, his aunt and his great grandparents who have all been very anxious to see him.  They are in for a real treat, he's that special.

Happy 2015!   I'll see you soon.

Happy Christmas Eve!

It's definitely going to be a very different Christmas for us this year.  In the 13 years that Jay's been out of the house he has always made it home for Christmas but that's not going to happen this year. We're definitely going to miss them.  

Ok, on to happier things.  Like Christmas cards and BFF gifts.  :-)

I decided to make my Christmas cards again this year and now that I've received confirmation of their arrival from several of you, it's time to share them. Here's the design I came up with this year although my lousy unstaged Iphone photo does not do it justice.

I have to say I'm extremely pleased with them.  All 45 of them.

In addition to the ones above that got mailed, I also made Christmas cards for those on my local gift giving list.  Each one was different and unfortunately, due to time constraints, I wasn't able to get photos of most of them but here are two that I really loved.  The elf one was one of my favorites. That was until Meg sarcastically commented that it looked like Miley Cyrus in her Wrecking Ball video.  Great.  Thanks.  (I'm trying really hard to forget she said that because I absolutely adore that little elf.)

 The snowman stamp is from Waltzingmouse.  The elf is a WPlus9 design.

I gave a quick sneak peek of my BFF gifts this year in an earlier post.  The significance of the contents won't mean much to anyone else but my BFFs will totally love these.

I created the gift bags using a Lori Whitlock Silhouette design.  I love them and will definitely be using them a lot for future gifts however, my favorite part of the design is the tag sentiment.

I adore that sentiment!  I stamped the martini glass (Stampin Up) and the sentiment (Riley and Company) onto vellum and then colored it in with Copics. So cute.

You may have already guessed the contents of the gift bags....

They'll be receiving "nips" of our favorite spirited beverages along with tiny lip glosses from Ulta.  I'll be delivering the gifts later today.


I'm also chugging away on my December Daily album but I'll share that with you later in the month.  Right now it's time to bake up a batch of peanut butter blossom cookies.  I'm just waiting for my Hershey kiss unwrapper to wake up from her vacation slumber.

A Little of This and a Little of That

Things have finally started to slow down around here.  All gifts are wrapped, Christmas cards are postal, December Daily is slowing getting caught up (details in a future post), holiday cookies are being made (and eaten), and most importantly, my son and his family are home and doing well. Today is the first day that I feel "in control" and able to breathe...and it's AWESOME.  :-)

Yes, we assembled the gingerbread village with a hot glue gun.

BEST. IDEA. EVER.

Meg LOVES her gingerbread.

And a little munchkin update.

Isn't he beyond cute?  :-)       I can't wait to get my hands on the little guy again!

Introducing....

... my new little grandson.

Meet Finley Archer born at 3:41 AM Wednesday morning, weighing in at 5 lbs, 15 oz and 19 1/4" long.  I know I'm totally biased but I don't think he could be any cuter.  There were a couple of hiccups along the way but both he and his mama are doing great.  


Expect to bombarded with lots of photos in the future but today I'm keeping it short.  I have to of course share a photo of the little guy with his grandma.

But this is by far my favorite photo....

Father and son.  I am one lucky mama/grandma.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Just some snippets to show our Christmas happenings....


The outdoor decorations are up.

Our mischievous elf has returned.

The tree is still a work in progress.

I'm managing to stay current on my December Daily Album.

A snippet of this year's BFF gifts.

An even smaller snippet of this year's Christmas card. *wink*

And finally, the highlight of our week thus far.  Meg, who struggles terribly in math, got a 97 on her most recent math test.  She was so excited she had to show me her grade online.  Woohoo Meg!!!

More Home Improvement Projects

December around here means Christmas fun but before I share any of that with you I'd like to rewind a few weeks.  Amidst all of the baby shower planning we were also preparing our home for a new look, mainly in the form of new exterior paint.  The crew arrived two days after the shower and by the end of the week, we had a beautiful new paint job.  In the weeks following we (in this instance I mean, Randy) have been busy replacing all exterior light fixtures as well as lanai ceiling fans. Today, I'd like to share some before and after photos.

If I'd been thinking ahead, I'd have much better before shots.  This one was taken soon after they arrived and trust me, as you can see by the plastic on the windows, they got right to work.  You can also see the different color swatches I tried out to determine the "perfect" combos.  ( A big shout out to Mom who helped me tremendously in the crunch time decision making process.)  I'd like to also add that the landscaping is not normally this bare.  I had several plants/trees removed as well as all bushes cut down dramatically to make it easier for the painters.

Here is a photo of my bare front porch, looking far uglier than I'd previously thought.

Enough Ugly....Time for the "Afters!"



This is my front porch as of this morning.  As you can see, it's decorated for Christmas but I'd also like to draw your attention to the four beautiful new light fixtures that my awesome husband installed this week.  (Note to self - I need to find something Christmassy for my little table.)

Here are better views of the house.  The main color is Mega Greige (which happens to be the color I painted the interior foyer last month), the trim color is Creamy and the door color is Darkroom....all made by Sherwin Williams.  LOVE their paint!

I am truly loving the transformation.  We still have little things to do yet (like painting those corner gates black, new landscaping, etc) but I couldn't be happier with the results.