Friday, February 27, 2015

Video Share


This afternoon I moved my laptop onto the couch in order to edit photos a little more comfortably.  As I was going through my files I remembered this cute video I took of Jay and Fin last month.  It provides a bit of insight as to how I injured my back last weekend.









Yep, the infamous yoga ball.  Tiggers, Bumbles, and Baby Boys may bounce. Grandmas do not.



Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Weekend Photos


Just a quick post to share some of last weekend's photos.  My back, while better, is still bothering me quite a bit and it's difficult to sit in a hard chair for any length of time.


We arrived on Saturday afternoon so we were able to visit with Jay and Colleen before they left to meet up with friends for the evening.  Meg is absolutely smitten with this little guy.






Unlike her first visit where she was afraid to hold him, this time she played peek-a-boo with him...




She fed him....





She paced with him when he was fussy...






And when that didn't work, she bounced him on the notorious yoga ball...

(Note to self.  Never, Ever, Ever bounce on that ball again.  Not even for a second.)



She even tucked him in to sleep.  Finley doesn't know it yet but he's got one very cool aunt.






We learned first hand that Fin can be quite the Fuss Bucket.  (He takes after his daddy that way.  *wink*)  But Jay seems to take it all in stride.  When all else fails, wail with him....





I really wanted a nice family photo but we never really did get our timing down. Here are a few of the better shots.  








We miss the little guy already.




Monday, February 23, 2015

"Grandma's Down"


Excuse my obscure title but my family will "get it."  :-)

Meg and I had a wonderful visit with Jay and his family.  Pictures will follow but for now, I'm down with horrible back pain.  Let's just say that Grandmas and yoga balls should never mix.

Catch ya in a day or two.  *sigh*

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Birthdays This Week


In addition to Jay, two dear friends of mine also celebrated birthdays this week. Their cards seemed to be traveling via the pony express but hopefully it's safe to share them here now.



For some reason masculine cards are difficult for me.  Here's the one I made and sent to Jay, who actually received his on his birthday. :-)









My dear friend Catherine celebrated her birthday on Tuesday but her card (mailed last Saturday) did not arrive to Idaho until yesterday.  grrr!

It was a lot of fun to make and color.



The inside reads "Okay!  Light the Candles!"  Being a cardmaker herself (and a very good sport) I knew she would get a kick out of it.




Also celebrating a birthday on Tuesday is my friend Laura.  I haven't yet received confirmation that her card made it safely to Michigan so Laura...



POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT.  LOL!











Switching gears...

Anyone here watch Sherlock on BBC?  I don't know why I'm so late to the party but I'm glad I finally gave it a shot.  (Maybe it's because Benedict Cumberbatch will always been Khan to me.  LOL!)  It's extremely entertaining and I'm thoroughly enjoying my Netflix binging. Sadly though, there are only three 90 minute episodes per season and I've never been very good at pacing myself.

Meg and I are making a road trip later today to babysit the little guy this evening.  Can't wait!












Thursday, February 19, 2015

A Very Special Day


Thirty-two years ago today this boy entered my life.






Today he's all grown up and 2014 was a very big year for him.  He finished his BSN and quickly landed a great job as an RN,







asked a wonderful woman for her hand in marriage,

(yes, I like his hair longer and tell him so EVERY time I see him)





and became a father with a son of his own.






I'm just so proud of the man he's become.  Happy Birthday Zoid!  I love you so much.



Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Photo Opp


Meg has never been one to willingly stand before my camera but she looked so pretty on Saturday that I pulled the "Because I'm the Mom and I Said So Card." She was headed to a party and knew that "no photo" meant "no ride" so she very begrudgingly complied.



The Scowl...





The "Okay but I'm not showing my braces" look...





 The "Whatever you do, don't laugh" look...





The "Mom's making me laugh" look....








The "I'd better smile so I can get oughta here" far off look...






The "Don't look at Mom" pose...





The "I'm done!" signal...






And the Escape...





I tried.  *sigh*  Thankfully little Fin hasn't reached this stage with his parents yet.  :-)



Saturday, February 14, 2015

Happy Valentine's Day


I hope everyone gets to spend some time with the ones they love.  We do our exchanges first thing in the morning and since we all looked a bit haggard, I didn't take any photos.  I hope to get a few later on today.  Here are the cards I made for my special someones...




This one was for Randy.  I got the idea from a card I saw online.  I really love it. So cute.









Meg's current "favorite animal" (it changes every few months) is the hedgehog so I made this one especially for her.  The shimmer on the heart really threw off the lighting so the coloring isn't showing correctly.  Sorry.



The greeting continues on the inside.  It says "Sending you HEDGE HUGS".  She loved it.





Jay and Colleen lost out to Fin this year.  Here's the one I made and sent to him.  Hopefully he receives it today.




I used a Silhoutte cut file to create the adorable teddy bear.  I thought he looked a bit sad so it fit well with the greeting I wanted to use.





Meg is going to a birthday party this evening.  She said the girl loves pink and sparkles so I made two cards for her to choose from.  My ever critical QC person actually loved them both and had a hard time choosing.




In the end she chose the purse/tag combination.   The paper purse came from a very old K&Co die cut paper pad so it was really easy to make.  She'll be putting a Bath & Body Works gift card inside. (At this age, we are all about the gift cards!)


Enjoy Your Day!

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Recent Cards


As you know, I am big into cardmaking.  Did you also know that I am horrible at actually mailing out cards?  Well, I am.  Horrible, isn't it?

One of my New Year's resolutions is to actually give/send out the cards I make (rather than just give them all away as gift sets).   I have five friend birthdays in January and two family birthdays plus Valentines in February.  So far I'm keeping up!

When I make a card for fun I can usually whip through a card fairly quickly however I'm finding that when I create one with a specific person in mind, I struggle and it ends up taking forever.  The sad part is, I don't think the two hour cards are really any better than the 15 minutes ones.  *sigh*

My sis' birthday was Monday.  I made her this card last week.  Now mind you, it didn't turn out exactly how I had it envisioned in my head but I didn't think it was all that bad.



But when I showed it to Meg her comment was "It looks like Lady Gaga threw up on it."  *heavy sigh*


So I toned it down and made her this one.






Today is my nephew's birthday.  (Happy Birthday Ben!)  I made him what I thought was a very nice nautical card last week.



It had this cute saying and gift card insert on the inside.





Once again my highly critical QC person (aka Meg) immediately said it was too patriotic for a February birthday.  After some thought I created this card using a Silhouette cut file.  Hopefully he receives it in today's mail.





I had to do some online research to find out the correct colors on an Xbox controller.  I sure hope I got it right.  The inside also has a gift card pocket.  I thought the saying was really cute.




Meg totally approved of it.  (Thank goodness.)




And finally, here are a few cards I made just for fun.  The first two are lifts of cards by Yana Smakula.




I really love how they turned out. I plan to make a couple more in the future using gold ink.




And lastly, a baby card....just because.





Yesterday I spent the day clearing off my desk and doing some major rearranging in JulieWorld.  I'm headed in to enjoy my fresh space and hope to whip up a few more cards, just for fun.

I'll share my family Valentine cards with you next time.  Thanks for stopping by!




Tuesday, February 10, 2015

December Daily 2014....in February 2015


In my defense, I did finish my holiday album in January but it's taken me until today to get it photographed.  Lucky for you *wink* I'm not going to go through it page by page but rather, give an overview of the album itself.

I started with the Tim Holtz Small Folio which as you can see is as bare as bare can get.









Here is my outer cover.  The project grew as the month went on.   It's stuffed. As in overstuffed.



As full as it is, I'm very happy to report that I did not buy one new thing for this project.  All of the supplies are from my stash.




And here's the view when first opened.





What you see on the left is an accordion album that I constructed using cardstock.  When opened it looks like this.  (At this point I took the album outside to photograph.)


The top flap also opens up for more photos.  The bottom flap displays my 2014 Christmas card.




The back side of those pages are also filled.  This is how it looks when I flip the left pages over to the right side.  

 



It's difficult to see but the middle portion of the folio also has an accordion album.  I've spread it out here with the left accordion going left and the middle accordion going right.  The back side of the middle accordion is also filled.  (Not shown)






The far right side of the album has flip pages.  (Gotta keep a man's privates, private ya know.) 





There are a few other nooks and crannies that I'm not showing mainly because they're difficult to keep open long enough to photograph.  

I really love how different it is from my albums in the past but I have to admit, it was A LOT of work.  Someone please remind me next year to do something on a smaller, easier scale.  (Catherine, I think that means you.  *wink*)