Nesting

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I haven’t decorated much of my house yet. I have been waiting for my mom because she will bring some things to put on the walls and I decided to leave everything empty until all the paintings get here. But my friend Katie posted some Christmas presents on her blog the other day and I couldn’t resist buying some for our house. I had to get this amazing wreath and I cannot tell you how beautiful it looks in person.



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I have a thing for birds’ nests. I’ve always loved seeing others’ photos with nests in them and so when I saw this garland and the nest in the first photo, I didn’t even think. I bought them with love and adore them. The long tree in this photo was the only item that didn’t really turn out the way I’d hoped. It’s too tall. But I still have plans for it. I plan to get a wreath for it to sit in and I plan to dangle some beautiful things from it instead of using the candles. Let’s see how it turns out.



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And I bought these little runners for the table. A little bit of color. Love them, too.



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In the end, I am glad I got them all. They were each on sale for 60-70% off and they make me happy. What more can a girl ask for?

December Daily – Day 17

I decided to use some of the photos I took around the house. It turned out they matched the paper perfectly.



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Here’s a close-up. I cut this clock from the Teresa Collins overlay I have and added a little star.



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And here’s the back. I had not documented David’s advent calendar adventures yet so I decided to do a simple page with it.



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Here’s a close-up.



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No words this time. Sometimes the photos do the talking.

Daily Photos – December 18 2009

I can’t believe this year is almost over. I am so not ready. Not just yet.

This is from a wreath that I just got for our house. More coming in another post.


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Last night I decided it was time to stop mourning and whining and get back to being joyful. So I did a 180 with my attitude. All is better now.

Nathaniel has discovered the presents under the tree.



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I love that Amazon is doing frustration-free packaging this year. I love the free shipping too. Amazon rocks my world.

David has been home all week. I feel bad for him but there’s been too much sickness in our house to risk spreading that at school. His school is officially closed for break now. He’s been pretty wonderful at home and so I let him play the Wii to day. He loved the Wii Fit boxing.



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Our stocking holders were these cheap ones from Walmart until I filled them and they fell on the floor. Six times. And they have these sharp edges which ruined the molding and my foot. I was holding them on there with baby wipes and finally decided to do away with them and bought these simple ones that hold so much better. No more wipes on our mantle.



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It’s Friday. I am planning to relax this weekend. Work on my art. Read. Bake some with my son. Draw some. Cuddle up with my husband. Just enjoy life. Simple, ordinary, magnificent life.

Why It’s Awesome to have Two Kids

These videos are very similar and they are mostly for me and my family so you might likely find them boring. Feel free to skip. But I love them.

and here’s one of just Nathaniel. More of the same:

Daily Photos – December 17 2009

Today was a long day. I woke up with a sore throat and tired and cranky. And Nathaniel is also still cranky. So we did a lot of sitting still and doing quiet things.

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Poor David is still home. His nose is still really clogged and with Nathaniel sick and me getting sick, I didn’t want to take my chances. He spent the day watching movies and coloring his box. I love him so.

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And Nathaniel ate and cried and clung to me most of the day.

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Thank you for your well wishes. We’re all mostly on the mend. I called a plastic surgeon today and got an appointment for next week so I can have someone look at my nose. And I am catching up on my endless todo list and there’s light at the end of this tunnel. I can’t see it just yet but I know it’s there.

December Daily 2009 – Day 16

I apologize in advance for the quality in these photos. It gets dark so early here so I wasn’t able to snap good quality ones. I will try again tomorrow and replace these if I can get better ones. (Fixed now.)

Today’s page is all about wrapping presents so I wanted to make the front look like a present. I wrapped it and used the day tag like a present tag. Here’s the front:

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And detail:

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And the back tells the story of our now full tree:

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We’re more than halfway now. That makes me sad.

Weekly Digital Downloads – Number Cards

This week’s download is a set of number cards that can be printed and used on your pages. Or used digitally. If you like them, let me know I can make more numbers. Wasn’t sure if these were neat or lame.

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You can download it here: number cards set download.

You are welcome to play with these as much as you want and use them anywhere you’d like. You are NOT allowed to sell them ever. You don’t have to but I’d appreciate a link back if you do use them.

These cards use brushes from brush portfolio and other free ones I’ve stumbled upon.


This is part of a weekly digital download series. They are posted every Wednesday. You can find all of the ones that were posted here.


2010 Projects – Weekly Gratitude

My good friend Lori pinged me on IM a few weeks ago and showed me The Gratitude Project by Brenda and she told me how much she liked the idea and that she wanted to do it for 2010. Not only did she want to do it, but she wanted to “teach it” and have a community around it, etc etc. She wanted to make downloads, ideas, etc to encourage other people to practice weekly gratitude, too. And then she asked me if I’d like to do it with her.

Would I?

Mmmm. Let me think for a second…Ok, I’ll be honest I didn’t even think for a second. I typed “YES!”

I love this idea so much! Last year, I attempted to practice daily thankfulness and it didn’t last very long. But I love reading those entries now. I am sad I didn’t continue and I am determined to do it this time around. I’ve already figured out my format and made sure it will be easy to keep up with it.

My plan is to write three things I’m thankful for each day. I will add that to my daily posts (which is another project for 2010) and then once a week, I will pick one thing and practice gratitude. More on my weekly project coming soon.

In the meantime, here’s our blog. It’s where Lori and I will be posting everything. We hope to have a post every weekday. Let’s see how it works. If you’re interested in this idea and want to play along with us, make sure to leave a comment there. Practicing regular gratitude is really good for your soul and it’s been proven to make people happier.

I hope you join us!

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Like last year, I am picking a few special projects I plan to do for the duration of 2010. These are recurring projects that are daily, weekly, or monthly. I will share them in the next few weeks as we approach the new year.

Daily Photos – December 16 2009

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I love that Nathaniel’s puffs are heart-shaped.

Nathaniel didn’t sleep at all last night until 3am. So this morning I was wiped and decided I needed a mental day. I’ve had the last five days off for vacation and I have over 300 emails in my work account. I am traumatized at the idea of going near them.

Tons of Amazon boxes showed up yesterday (David calls them the smiley boxes cause of the logo.) so I decided it was as good a time to wrap as any.

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And here’s one of the little boy who was struggling a lot today. He has not been wanting to sleep cause he doesn’t want to be left alone but he won’t sleep when I am there and he needs the sleep so badly.

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I managed to port all my comments from the old blog. Some of the pages are still the old style and they shall stay that way. What do you think about the redesign? I wanted larger images and I missed having a side column. I will fill it up over the next few weeks. This is project #1 for 2010 for me. A bit early but so it goes. More on the projects coming later.

Please let me know if you notice anything odd with the site, I am trying to fix all the quirks. And I am also open to all opinions/suggestions of course. Still feeling my way around it.

December Daily 2009 – Day 15

I apologize in advance for the quality in these photos. It gets dark so early here so I wasn’t able to snap good quality ones. I will try again tomorrow and replace these if I can get better ones. (Fixed now :))

For the 15th, I glued a paper to the back of David’s writing to Santa photo and stitched it to the overlay to create a pocket. Inside the pocket, I put his letter. Here’s the front:

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And here’s back. I put a little xmas tree on the letter that shows through the overlay.

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And a detail to show the stitching:

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Keeping it simple still.

Daily Photos – December 15 2009

I spent the whole day making some changes to my website. This is my yearly redesign and it’s very much unfinished. But I had to move because for the first time in ten years, I moved to not using my own database. I am now using hosted WordPress. There are many reasons to do this but I need to spend the next few weeks playing with it and seeing if I like it. So I thought why not now. It’s not like I don’t have 5 million things going on.

Here’s me this morning. I woke up to see a much more swollen face.

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I also woke up more depressed and sad. I am guessing the reality of what happened is finally hitting me now that the adrenalin and shock are wearing off. It’s going to be ok and I am already feeling better about it but I had a rough day today and so the kids very kindly played by themselves a lot.

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David spent the day in his Buzz Lightyear costume. He still has a runny nose so I’ve been keeping him at home.

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All was well until Nathaniel woke up from his afternoon nap and he was very hot. I took his temperature to find out it was 103. I didn’t even want to think of what might be wrong so I took him to the doctor and despite the Tylanol, his fever was still 102. They checked him and said he was ok and to watch and see if he feels better by Thursday. He’s been all sweet and mostly happy but I’m a basket case of course.

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It’s only Tuesday but I am so ready for this week to be over already. Tomorrow I’m back at work after a long break which means hundreds of emails to be read and a ton of catching up. Fun fun fun!

Ok I am off to sleep. More changes tomorrow. I haven’t moved over the comments yet and some other things either. But you are welcome to leave me comments on this post. Hopefully it will work. I am afraid you will have to change your RSS reader if you’ve been reading me on Google Reader, etc. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Daily Photos – December 14 2009

A whole slew of photos today. Just felt like capturing my family.

David decided he wanted to write a letter to Santa. He wrote it all by himself. I sounded out the words to him so he could recognize the letters. Here he is writing it.

And writing some more.

And the finished product.

Nathaniel is still loving these biscuits. I took it away for two minutes and he cried until I gave it back.

And it makes a mess. Huge mess.

He’s standing all the time now. Still can’t sit down by himself but can stand up just fine.

And here’s me. It’s hard to see my bruise. I am not all black and blue but my nose is swollen quite a bit. And my thigh and back hurt a LOT.

Thank you for your kind words. I am trying to rest and relax. I happened to have taken today and tomorrow off work and David’s sick at home so except for a quick trip to work (to pick up a Christmas present) I’ve been home all day. Oh and the camera is all fine as you can see.

Happy Monday.