My Aunts gift to my dd for her 1st bday

My Aunt gave my dd a old fashioned sled for her 1st Birthday (which was on Saturday), this is the wooden sled with the red metal/wood back rest on the back of it. I gave my Aunt this hint, because I needed something for my dd to ride in when there is snow on the ground when we walk my oldest son to the bus stop. Lol, in these pictures my dd is getting pulled up and down our long hallway in ur house about 15 times or more! She refused to get out, she's get out then get right back in again to cry until someone would come along to pull her and she'd even wave as she was being pulled down the hall.

We used the slide for the first time this morning, we were all bundled up to walk my oldest son down to his bus stop and my dd was sitting in her sled. She sat there the whole way down to the bus stop and back with a huge smile on her face, giggling anytime she would go over a bump. The smile in the picture is the same one she had on to and from the bus stop, lol, too cute. She also lay all the way back with her head resting on the back of the backrest, I think she was watching the birds fly by and clouds move.

My dh's family had a Birthday party for her yesterday afternoon, which was nice since we had to put her Birthday on hold since my parents booked my Grandmother's funeral on my dd's bday (forgetting that the 8th was their Granddaughter's bday). My family will have a bday party for her next week along with my dh's bday, my nephews bday and my Uncle's bday, when things with the funeral have calmed down a bit!

Here is the card I made for my dd, I made it the other night when I was at Julie's house...once the girls were asleep I was able to get some things made and this was one of the things I made that night. I used a piece of blush cardstock for the cards base, then I cut out a piece of patterned paper from my slab of Autumn leaves paper from the slab called "Smitten" and attached it to the base using photo stickers. I then cut a piece of mellow moss cardstock out, used the ticket punch on the corners and then stamped a star frame around the outside edge of the cardstock using the versamark ink pad. The star stamp that I used, was from a Christmas border clear acryllic stamp set by Stampendous from Michael's about 2 months ago and thought this was the perfect time to use this set. I then used a piece of white cardstock, I stamped the little girl from the "Tu tu- terrific" SU stamp set and I colored her in using my Tombow markers. Next, I attached a piece of my light green "Straight 'n' Narrow" ribbon across the center of the card and then I attached the green piece of cardstock over top of the ribbon in the center of the card. I then took my cardstock with the little girl stamped on it and I attached it to the green framed cardstock using my photo stickers again :) ( you can never have enough of those photo stickers)!

A Sympathy Card from Julie

Thank you Julie, for this sympathy card that you made for us and for the card/meal that you made my parents it was really sweet of you :)!! I also must apologize for not posting this card sooner, I kind of got caught up in doing other things, and getting ready for my Grandmother's funeral etc. So here it is now, better late than never...but still should have been posted sooner! My Grandmother's funeral was on Saturday morning at 10 a.m., it was a really nice service and my dad gave a wonderful eulogy (not sure of spelling here)...I was dried eyed until my dad got to the middle of his talk. He ended it starting each sentence with : "I see her hands...." for instance, "I see her hands knitting sweaters for us children, I see her hands making meals, I see her hands washing our clothes, I see her hands in mine as she breathed her last breath..." There wasn't a dry eye in the place! It was interesting because my grandmother kept her everyday life to herself, so when I heard she was part of a weekly book club and was part of some peace movement thing I was shocked. I have only ever met 2 of her friends, but there at her funeral they came out of the wood work and I only knew half of the people if that there. All in all the funeral went well, it was different from the other funerals that I have attended because my Grandmother was a Unitarian. I have never been to a Unitarian service or to a funeral by that denomination before, so that too was interesting...they lit a candle at the beginning of the service to signify life, then at the end the blew it out signifying death and life continuing on. Which I thought was neat, but at the same time I found it hard to watch the candle get snuffed out...even though my Grandmother had passed away a week ago, seeing that candle being blown out was almost making it more real. Make sense???

My first altered tin

The other day a catty came in the mail for my dh, the catty was for a store called Princess Auto...it has everything imaginable in this place which is probably something you wouldn't think with a name like that. Anyways, I was looking through this catty and I found larger tins that everyone has been using for their advent calendars :D but I wasn't sure how much bigger...so I sent my dh on a mission. He called me on Friday afternoon when he was on his way home he stopped in at this store to check it out for me, sure enough these tins are about a size of a can of soup or Jam jar. I was thrilled to pieces because this was the exact size that I was looking for :)! They wanted $1.88 each for these larger tins, going to send my dh back there to get me more, he only got me 6 the other day but I don't know how long they will be $1.88 :).

Saturday night, I was over at Julie's house babysitting her 2 dd's and I brought all my crafty things along with since I had to get 2 of these tins altered and 2 cards made for Sunday afternoon. So I used the SU patterned paper called Wintergreen for the sides of the tins, that I measured and cut out...then had to re-cut 2 more times. I then cut out 2 pieces of scrap Bravo Burgandy and Mellow Moss cardstock small rectangles, I used the ticket punches on the corners, then I attached the two colors together using some super tacky tape and some mini pop dots. Next, I cut out some white cardstock in a small rectangle, I then stamped the "Flaky Friends" stamp set tag onto the white cardstock and then I attached it to the other two layers using the mini dots. I cut out a circle out of some dark green cardstock, then I stamped the large Jolie's Fleurs flower stamp onto some white cardstock. I colored in my flower using my Tombow red and green markers, making the flower look like a Christmas flower (I stamped out several flowers and colored them in differently until I came up with the style I liked best). Next, I attached the flower to the circle using the mini pop dots and then I sort of bent up the edges of the petals of the flower. I also got some light green "Straight 'n' Narrow" ribbon from Michael's that was on sale the other day, and thought that it would be the perfect ribbon to use on this tin. I put the ribbon on one tin just below the lip of the lid, then the second tin I altered I put the ribbon on the lid of the tin and to be honest both places looked great with the ribbon where I had put it.

I made these tins for two of my dh's cousins for Christmas, I thought these tins filled up with the Christmas M&M's would be perfect for them! I am going to make some more tins today, and some more cards too. I will post these as I make them :)!

Hope all of you are staying warm, and that you had a great weekend :)!

My middle child...poor guy

This morning I had a doctor's appointment with my family doctor for my middle child, because when he has certain foods he has an emotional break down...his reaction to these foods is a complete melt down. He just cries uncontrollably, he becomes loud, he becomes frustrated...just a mess! Usually it is chocolate (we've eliminated that from our house), milk (hasn't been on that since he was younger), and food coloring like in Cheesies ( just found that out at Julie's dd Birthday party. Anyways, we don't know what to do with him when he has a reaction and we would like to know what else he is allergic to. My family doctor has heard of children with behavioural allergic reactions, but she didn't know much about it...so she has referred us to a ped's dr. Our dr. said that if this dr. didn't know what was going on that they have loads of connections to help us figure out what can be done. It just breaks my heart when I see him have a reaction to food like he does, or when he has a break down in a store we are in...and I am sure that if we knew what was going on with him he probably wouldn't have alot of the behavioural issues. So now I am just waiting for a call to find out when he can be seen by this Ped's doctor, I hope it is soon because my dh isn't able to handle our son when he is like that. My dh has hardly any patience when it comes to this issue...so we hopefully will be able to fix this soon...or at least get put on the right path!!

I was a little disappointed by our doctor visit, guess I had higher expectations...and thought we would get referred to a allergist right away or something...didn't think we would have to goto another dr. Gotta look on the bright side, we are getting help...just not as fast as we were hoping for!

Ty, Cindy Connell

Thank you Cindy Connell for the very beautiful Christmas card RAK, it arrived in my mailbox today and it made my day :)! I love all the colors you chose and the layout, I have to say that I also really like what you did with the flower. Beautiful work :)!

Will have more cards posted later for you to see :)!

a baby card for a little girl

This is another card that I will be using for the set of cards for one of the boxes of cards I will be giving to someone for Christmas :)! I used a piece of blush cardstock from Carousel as my cards base, then I cut out a piece of patterned piece of cardstock so that it would only cover half of my card. I attached it to the bottom part of my card using the photo stickers, and the patterned paper came from the large slab of patterned paper that I picked up from Walmart (called "Smitten"). I then used a piece of Mellow Moss scrap piece of cardstock ( I also used the ticket punch on the corners), attached it to the center of my card and then I stamped the bunny from the set called "A Birthday Wish" from CTMH. I stamped the image onto a white piece of cardstock, colored it in using my Tombow markers and then I attached it to the piece of Mellow Moss cardstock using my mini pop dots. I was going to stamp an image onto the top portion of my cards base on the Blush cardstock and also the Versamark ink pad, but then I thought it would make the card look too busy.

I have to make a few more cards (okay a bit more than a few cards), and then I am done...then I am onto another project that I have to finnish before Sunday. I found large metal stainless steel containers at a place called Princess Auto (it is one of those stores that has everything that you can imagine in it ), that resemble the wedding favor tins that everyone is using for their Advent calendars on their blogs. These one's I found are larger, not too sure of the size, but can let you know tonight when my dh brings them home :)! I thought they would be a perfect size to alter, and to add xmas candy inside to give to people for Christmas...you know those people in your life like the mailman, the bus driver or if someone you weren't expecting to give you a gift does give you one..then you can whip one of these beauties out :). I am trying to give the people who are recieving my greeting cards and boxes a variety of cards, not to give them one set theme...so far so good :)!

Beautiful Sympathy card

I used Mellow Moss cardstock for my cards base, then I stamped the leaf images all over the card using my Versamark stamp pad. The stamp set I used is a clear set from Stampendous that I had picked up from Michael's several months ago when they first came out ( love this stamp set). Next I attached a strip of Chocolate Chip cardstock across the center of the card, and then I attached a piece of cream colored (almost marbled) cardstock to the center of the card. I then stamped 2 single leaves on either side of the center stamped image using the white dew drop ink pad, which I thought made the card more like a sympathy card. I stamped the center images on the cardstock using the Niagra Mist dew drop ink pad , and added the sentiment "Comfort" in the bottom corner of my center stamped image using the Bravo Burgandy SU ink pad. This card isn't for anyone inparticular, it is just going to be part of a card set that I am making for my sister in law or my son's teacher, that will go in the altered boxes I posted earlier. Am impressed how this card turned out, at first I wasn't sure as to how this card was going to turn out...it was iffy for a few hours :)!