Well, the big kids are off to writer's workshop for homeschooled kids today. So it's just Levi, Emma and me today. It's amazing how it feels like I have practically no kids to look after when just some of them are gone lol. I remember feeling like my hands were so full when I just had Leah as a baby....ha! little did I know. I've heard people say that raising kids is wasted on the young, but I think having one baby at home is wasted on first time moms lol. You don't get to relax and enjoy nearly so much since you are too nervous. Now that I know, I have 3 kids and my baby....just not quite the same :)  But I'll take 'em :) Don't know what I would do without 'em, really.

sorry no fun project again. I'm not the only one who doesn't seem to have as much time to stamp around the holidays am I?

But here's a picture of Levi and Miss Emma together :) They both love to watch Blue's Clues together.

So glad you stopped by! Hope you have a lovely day!

doctors

Today was Rhys's first check up for his braces. We actually stopped at the pediatrician first and got some cold medicine for Emma and Rhys since their coughs seemed to be hanging on. I was reminded of how glad I am that they still get all their meds for free :) Then we went to the dentist. Everything seems to be in order, he adjusted the rubber bands or whatever the technical terms are lol. He also said that I was doing a great job of brushing Rhys' teeth with the braces~yay!! I was nervous about it since they said I needed to brush them well since it's easier to get cavities etc. But apparently I'm doing a good job. Sometimes it's just nice to be reassured, you know? Even if it seems like a little thing.

Ok. I have another tag for today. This one already has a name on it though :)

Simple and fun :) I just stamped the snowflakes in Walnut stain distress ink, and added the strip with the Merry Christmas. Stamp and trim the holly leaves and add some buttons for berries and you're done :) I really like this snowflake though. It is from Verve, I think.

Thanks for stopping by. Oh, did you notice I changed my profile picture? The other one was at least five years old, so I thought it might be better to have something more recent lol. This one is from last week, so that's pretty much me now. I can feel like I'm not deceiving anyone now heehee :) By the way, did you realize there are only 18 days till Christmas?! That's what Rhys was reminding me of today :)

a break...

from Christmas cards :) After having "one of those weekends", I had "one of those days...." today. I had really hoped to have some fun just making tags and some Christmas cards, but housework just seemed to get in the way...So, we'll take a short break from Christmas cards for an everyday card.

But I have to be honest...I'm not really sure I like it. More like I'm pretty sure I don't. It looked a lot cuter in my head lol. But I do think the felt butterfly turned out cute! I'll want to try that again for sure. The pattern paper is Basic Grey. Anyway,I think I'll have to work on using pattern paper better on my cards lol.

Thanks for stopping by!! Did your week start out like you planned? Mine not so much, but I'm loving the sunny weather! 

cookie card :)

I know weekends are supposed to be for resting...but you know, I don't really seem to feel like I get much resting done on the weekends....is just me?!
Anyway, I wanted to share some more tags today, but I haven't taken the presents out from under the tree to photograph yet....but then I noticed I had one more super simple Christmas card that I hadn't shared yet :)

These seem to have been my favorite colors for most of my Christmas cards this year. I stamped the jar directly on the white. Then I stamped the cookies on Fine Linen cardstock and sponged on some white ink. Well, actually I used a Q-tip again. I just used a red pen to add the red sprinkles. Then I matted it on the red and white pattern paper and added a sentiment. Finished off with the button. Really quick to put together. And since you aren't really carefully coloring in anything, the cookie part was quick too.

 I'm really into the Christmas mode now, but the weather has been a little to warm for Christmas if you ask me. It just doesn't seem like December. Just watch though, I'm sure I'll be complaining about how cold it is in just a few days lol :)Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you are ready for Monday :)

cookies, cookies, cookies....

We have a sort of tradition. I say sort of  because we just started it a couple of years ago, and I don't know exactly how "official" it is. Anyway, it's a tradition of making and decorating cookies for Christmas. Sometimes we make sugar cookies, sometimes ginger cookies. But the point is to have fun. Eating yummy cookies is of course an added bonus, but the actual yumminess of the cookies is not all that important :) So that's what we did today. We made and decorated sugar cookies. All the kids including Miss Emma. And it was established ahead of time that yes, it was ok to make a mess. Good thing too :)

It started out calm enough....

But then things got a little out of hand :).....

Since there wasn't enough room on the counter, we moved to the living room table.

We used cookie cutter shapes and made our own...unique designs :)

 Emma really enjoyed the colored sugar....

see, hands!

making a candy cane...

                          What's wrong with making hotdogs out of the dough?!

I'm making a big doughnut!!

I think it might have taken me just as long to clean up as it did for them to make all the cookies....but it was definitely worth it :)

 Don't you think? Hope you are having an awesome-ly fun day!!

tiny tag...

It's already pretty late here, and I should be in bed heehee. But I thought I would pop in and share just one more tag I made, really quick :) Really sorry you can't see it very well in the photo. I used my jar die from the Friendship jar set and cut out two--one in Fine Linen and one out acetate. I didn't even use the stamp. I stamped the little snowman and colored him with my copics just a little. I used a Q-tip to dab the white on him like I did on the other snowman before. I actually added the text after I colored him in, but it worked out ok. I   used white Stazon to stamp the snowflakes on the acetate. Punched a hole in both and threaded some twine through. I didn't get a photo of the back, but there is a place to write to and from :)

Ok, sorry just to post and run. My body and schedule just have not been able to catch up after I've been gallivanting all over the place lately. But I did start on an actual scrapbook page today, which it feels like I haven't done in ages. And that makes me happy :) Thanks for taking the time to stop by!! Just a couple more days till the weekend :) fun :)

not yet...

I know I said last week and maybe even the week before, that I was out and about way too much. Goodness, I was hoping that things would calm down and be back to normal already, but it sure doesn't seem like it yet. We left really early this morning to head out for a ladies' card class we were having. It didn't start till 10, but we had to allow plenty of time to get stuck in traffic and still get things set out. All went well, the ladies loved it, and my kids had almost too much fun hanging out with Papa and their cousins again. Miss Emma seemed to miss Mama a little bit more since she has cold, but she's definitely getting even more fond of her Papa :) Anyway, at least tomorrow we should be able to stay home and be calm...and hopefully it will last through the next few weeks.
I have a couple more tags I made that I haven't added to their respective presents yet :)

Nothing super fancy again. I really tend to use my scraps for my tags. I kind of think of it as a challenge to see what I can do with them. So that is what I used here, combined with some stamps and some dies. I usually like to add string or twine to my tags when they have this traditional "tag" shape, even if I don't actually use the string to attach it.

Ok, I'm really going to try to have a relaxing evening of stamping or crafty-blog surfing :) Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you're have a restful week :)