231 Addressed Invitations

As I got down to the end of this project, I was amazed how my hands continued working despite the pain I was experiencing! I had a goal and I had to get it done! This was the last stack of envelopes that I finished up to deliver on Thursday. I almost went through 3 cartridges of blue-black ink on these which I thought was pretty amazing.
My poor finger! Can you see the bruising? (Of course there is a little bit of black ink residue on my finger too!) My fingers will be so happy to have a break.

Cards for this week

This baby card was for a shower that we had on our floor for one of the guys. His wife was able to come in and attend the party even though she's pretty much on bedrest. I used three papers, pink organdy ribbon, and 3 pink stones. Inside I wrote Congratulations.

One of the ladies in my department is taking an early retirement so she can spend more time with her granddaughter. She has her last day on Friday. I made this card with 3 papers and a piece of red organdy ribbon. I wrote her name on it and a note on the inside.

Fun Surprise in the Mail

We came home on Monday to a box on the front step. I wasn't expecting anything, but it said Publix on the return address. I was talking to my sister at the time and she said that it was probably formula. I agreed since I had just joined their baby club and set it aside.

Later that night I decided to open it and look at it. I couldn't believe what I found -- this wonderful guide for caring for a child! Look at how thick it is! I can't wait to take a look at it and see what great things are inside.

Not only did I get this book, but I got lots of great coupons too!

Our Niece's 16th Birthday

Our niece turned 16 on Sunday so we decided that to make it a little extra sweet that we would send not just one card but 16 cards! I didn't make all 16, but here are the ones that I did make:
This is an adaptation of a template that I saw on CPS that was supposed to be a vertical design. I used a variety of pink papers and just wrote a cute little poem on the inside.

This one is just a flat card that I designed and wrote a little bit on the back. I used some paper that had candles all on it, but cut the candles out to do separate ones. I decided to play off the word 4.

Here's a card that I did that was a different size - probably 3"x 4". I used the happy birthday paper and played off the colors in that paper.

This was a simple one because I just used a Suzy Zoo die cut that I had. I just matched the colors and added a little writing on it.

Here's another flat card that I just used a variety of letter stickers to spell everything out.

This one didn't quite turn out the way I envisioned, but I do like the colors. I wrote Happy Birthday to you! all around the edge of the butterfly.

So far I've heard that she's gotten about 6 or so of the cards. I expect that she'll have the rest this week. The other thing that we did was to have different people write the address on the outside envelope to throw her off. It worked! :)

Busy, busy

As I'm finally not feeling utterly exhausted each day, my time is now being filled with a calligraphy project. I'm doing 250 wedding invitations!!! This is the biggest project that I've done so far - almost twice as much as any of the others. I'm off to a slow start, but gaining momentum. I did 32 outside envelopes over the weekend and hope to get close to 100 done this week. Last week I did 27 (I know, woo hoo!).

At least while I work I get to listen to some awesome music and the cats like to keep me company. I'm hoping that since I'm on a roll now, I'll get the rest done lickety-split!

An accident

We were minding our business, watching tv on Wednesday night when POP! A hole is in the window. It only went through one pane of glass and since we'd been seen beebees around in the driveway, Barry assumed that's what it was. He went out to the next door neighbor's and talked to them about it. We called our landlord as well and she was going to see if she could stop by during the day and talk with the parents (since they weren't home that evening).

So far, we have had no one say anything about it, but we're hoping it'll get fixed soon. It's not a big hole (as you can see), but we wouldn't want it to spread. Crazy!

Abbi Mae's Card

I made this card 3"x4" for a little girl that is having eye surgery today. Her family adopted her from China, knowing that she had some problems. They've had her for close to 2 years I think and have finally gotten to the point that they are going to have surgery to get a new cornea so that she can see! The family is staying at a Ronald McDonald House in New York for the next couple weeks and some co-workers are sending cards every couple days. I finally got mine done and brought it today. The colors are similar to a card I just made, but it's because the papers were still sitting on my desk. Hopefully the bright colors will cheer her up!

First Maternity Clothes

Well, the picture is fuzzy, but I think that you can get the idea of what we were going for! I wore the first maternity item I have on Sunday. It was this black skirt. Exciting, I know.

You sort of can see that I'm getting something around the middle there! It really varies on what I wear. Mostly it looks like I've gained a few pounds - only 3 in fact.

My Name's in the Bible!

I found this the other day and couldn't believe it! I am working with a bunch of different language New Testaments, checking various items to make sure it's all correct. I found this page when I was looking at the Malagasy New Testament. Do you see it? My name is there 3 times!!!!

Who knew?! Glad for a little excitement on a loooong Friday afternoon.

P.S. The Malagasy language is spoken in Madagascar.

Cards for a Co-worker

A co-worker asked me to make up some cards for her so I worked on them tonight to bring in on Friday. I used 4 different papers for this one. I'm always looking for paper with red in it that isn't valentinesy or christmasy and I found this at Joanns. I added the smaller yellow with red flowers from my scrap pile and then matched the colors with the other pieces. I used some black letter stickers that I had to spell out Thanks! I also used some cream organdy ribbon.
I had this apple-teachery paper that I used as the basis of this card because the co-worker wanted to give to her daughter who is a new teacher. I used a little kid sticker on a red circle I cut out and then I used complimentary colored paper to tie it all together. When I get to work, I'm going to add some writing on the cream part with a red marker I brought. I added a pocket on the inside because she wanted to add in some verses on slips of paper.

No more Netflix

Since April 2009, we have subscribed to Netflix. We enjoyed catching up on movies we'd missed and see tv episodes that we'd not had a chance to see. After 2 1/2 years, we are ending our subscription. The price per month is going up too significantly for us to write off any longer. Plus, we've been doing a bunch of rentals (for free!) from the Blockbuster kiosk at Publix.

So long!

First Baby Outfit

Although we have gotten a baby gift already (from our friends in St. Louis), here is the first outfit that we got. My parents actually gave it to us for my birthday.

Guess we'll see if they are right! :)

Baby Shower

We had a baby shower to go to on Sunday afternoon and I made a couple things for the gift.

This card is 3x3 inches and I used some baby paper that I had already. I added two stars. The green star has congratulations written around the edge. I wrote the baby's name on the yellow star.

Here is the gift bag that I made. It's pretty simple with just plain blue paper with a piece of paper that has baby boy words on it. I used a piece of jute and put a couple knots in it.

What we've been doing...

Most don't know that we've gone through 3 miscarriages over the last 3 years (Sept. 2009, April 2010, October 2010). We've struggled to see what God would want by having the three little ones with Him. Our struggle with infertility has been over 7 years and culminated in January 2009 when my doctor said that I would probably never have children. I had surgery in August 2008 because of a polyp in my uterus and the doctor also drilled in my ovaries to release some of the extra hormones stored there.

We know that God has a plan for us, but it was so hard to see what that could be. So, on May 26, it was a great surprise when I took a test and this was the result:

The line is so faint, but it's there. In fact, later on, I found out that this was just barely 3 1/2 weeks. So, I called in to the doctor and made an appointment for June 6 thinking that I was about 7 1/2 weeks along. I went in for the appointment and when she did the ultrasound, I was not as far along as I expected. This was a great disappointment and led me to believe that I would probably have a miscarriage. I began feeling "well" and realized that something wasn't right.

I was supposed to go back on June 13 but cancelled the appointment because I didn't want the bad news before we went up to Michigan for vacation. I had an appointment on the following Monday, June 20 and expected the doctor to say I'd have a D&C. Can you believe that when I went in the doctor says "There's a heartbeat."? I about fell off the table!

So, Barry & I went in on June 27 and we got this ultrasound picture. The baby looks like a little teddy bear, don't you think?! Our friends gave us a cute teddy bear with a jellybean scarf since the baby is about that size now. We've been calling the baby Jellybean!

We're at 14 weeks and are excited to see what God has in store for us. Baby Stevens is due February 3, 2012.

First Week of August Cards

I messed up and didn't get a picture of the birthday card that I made for my niece. Several things were not going well on it and I guess I just wanted to get it in the envelope and done with! In any case, we have a busy first week in August with 3 birthdays and 2 anniversaries. Here's what I came up with: I used 6 different papers (counting the little hearts!) for this card. I used a piece of pink organdy ribbon and some hot pink letters to spell mom. I had the Happy Birthday paper (you've seen it before!) and I just cut out one of the sayings to add to this card. It's a little bright, but that's the point, right?!
Here's another birthday card (with the pink Happy Birthday paper!). I used a design from CPS that I've done fairly recently, but modified it to a smaller size since I was going to put this card inside of the anniversary card below. I tried to use complementary papers that pulled out the colors in the pink happy birthday paper. I also added a piece of pink organdy ribbon, a hot pink j and a little cute heart. I used some zots to adhere the ribbon and they are pretty awesome!

This card I actually made 2 of. I had this cute Valentinesy paper that I had left over with "loves me loves me not" on it and then I matched the colors with the other papers - reds and pinks. I wrote a simple Happy Anniversary on the front and added three hearts. It's pretty simple, but since it's going through the mail, it needed to be!

I know we have a few more birthdays coming and I need to do thank you's too. So, there should be some more cards coming! :)