still enjoying

school :) Previously, the boys would be thrilled when Leah went to golf tournaments, since I would give them the day off from school too. But now, with what Levi refers to as the "fun school", they actually are glad to do it even if Leah is gone. Let me tell you, night and day. Really. And not only are they enjoying it, I honestly feel like they are learning and remembering even better :) I am so thankful for the Lord leading us to this program.

So, how about a thank you card? I love these little sprig-y flower stamps. And I especially love how they look when stamped in gray. This was a very quick, simple card :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!! Can you believe that it is almost December?!?! Since we've had our Christmas decorations up for a while now, I'm ready for December :)

date fun :)

Tomio and I went out on a date yesterday :) It was, must say, super fun :) We honestly don't get out just the 2 of  us very much at all (I'm pretty sure at most, this was the 2nd time this year...) Now, I love my 4 peeps and I really wouldn't have it any other way. But it was really fun. And the kids were thrilled to hear Mama and Daddy were going on a date, 'cause that meant they got to spend the afternoon with Nana and Papa. So it's win-win :) We had dinner and a movie--just like back when we were young and dating heehee. 17 years together and it's still fun :) We stayed out a little later than we had planned, and the kids still weren't ready to leave Nana and Papa's though.

Ok. I have another flower card today. Some more of my favorite Unity stamps. The sentiment is from PTI though. The card is made out of the blue, and then I used the white negative from the diecut label as a frame. I also impressed the white frame for some detail too.

Thanks for stopping by everyone!! Happy Thanksgiving :)

embossing...

I'll go through awhile where I don't any kind of heat embossing at all, and then I'll start up again. And then sometimes, I'll start something, but it won't turn out, so I'll leave it for months. Well, that's what happened with the tree on today's card. I stamped and embossed the tree ages ago, but I couldn't get it to turn out to my liking. I found it again the other day, and decided to use it :)

I actually barely did anything else to it. Just matted it and tied on the twine lol. I really like how it turned out though. I stamped and embossed the tree first. Then I stamped the text, and then I inked over it in 3 different colors of  distress ink. I love how the tree stays white since the ink on top just wipes off.

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope your weekend is moving along slowly :)

yay for school :)

I don't think I ever thought I would actually say that. Or even my kids. But there was absolutely NO complaining about doing school today. There were lots of smiles and listening on each other's lessons, and some very great memory verse recitation. Today was the 2nd of our new school. I was little nervous about starting it, and I'm definitely still working out timing etc. But I must say, I am loving it :) yay! I really thank God for leading me to it at just the right time. And in case you are interested, after all my raving :), you can check it out at Heart of Dakota.

I thought I would share a layout today. I made it a little bit ago. With thinking about and working on our new school stuff, I still haven't been creating as much as I normally do. I really love how this layout turned out :) The picture are old though, maybe about 4 years old. I took these from inside while Tomio was saying 'bye to each of the kids. He did this every morning on his way out  to work :) So glad I captured it :)

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a lovely week :)

I'm not really

a busy person, lol :) I can go days without leaving the house.  But then there are a couple of times a year where we have several things going on and I actually feel like I am "busy". This happens to be one of those times. The kids had double swimming this past week, we went to a new church, we had our annual "girls' shopping trip" on Monday, and then today we had our "fall party". And, the rest of our school books came, so I've been going over that too...goodness. Fortunately, it is "good" busy. All fun things :) Still, I'm hoping for a little more down time over the next few days (but not counting on it).

Here is a card for today. I know, I am going to try to use some other flowers more too. But these are just so pretty and easy to use :) I really like the matching die cuts too.

well, I am tired tonight, so it's going to be another quick post. Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you are having a great week so far!!

some books and a tree.

Well, a little over half of our new school books came:) 3 out of 5 boxes of books. Everyone was so excited, and can't wait for the last 2 boxes. Even Miss Emma kept asking "is this Emma's?" while we were dividing them up. Fortunately I have a few things planned for her "school" to keep her busy while I work with the others.  I'm really hoping the rest come today!!

As for the tree, well, we put our Christmas decorations :) Yes, the first week of November. And I have to say, I *love* having our decorations for up so long. I'm always already making Christmas cards and doing my Christmas shopping at this time anyway.

And now for a card. I have a "thing" for silhouette flowers. I just do. So these are from one of my favorite sets of flower silhouettes from Unity. Lots of pretty ones. And I have to say, that I have had nothing but the BEST customer service from Unity. Really helpful. And they even have had specials with free shipping overseas, and I am pretty sure that is first I have ever seen that. Thought I'd mention it, just in case :) I used Hero Arts envelope pattern for a little texture. Another must have for me :)

Thanks SO much for stopping by! I hope you have an awesome day!!

okay...

I think it's time for a layout. I've actually made a few layouts lately. I even *seem* to have gotten a little bit faster at it too. Which can be good considering I usually have the same layout sitting on my desk for a week. I haven't finished all of Levi's other birthday pages yet, but since I am no longer stuck under the " I must scrap chronologically" way of thinking (which is definitely the best choice I ever made. I enjoy my scrapping *so* much more now), I didn't let that stop me from scrapping the cutie-pix :)

Last year Levi chose Batman, and this year it was Superman. It's funny. Every year, I know Tomio is going to do an incredible job drawing the pictures on their cakes with chocolate. And yet, every year, he still manages to exceed my expectations. It think it is so fun for the kids that they can ask for any picture they want, and they know Daddy will draw it.( if only I had that talent). I am really sticking with the less is more look for my layouts (well, and cards too) lately. I still experiment with other looks too, but I always seem to come back to more clean and simple.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you are having some nice fall weather. It looks like it is finally getting cooler now here. yay :)