How much cuteness can you handle?

I am definitely enjoying my new sock monkey slippers (Wendy, I know you will be so jealous - but I know where to find them!)
Yet more scrappin' today, I'm really in the groove - feels good to drop all these pages into my album. Also working more on my pregnancy journal/minibook which I will have to photograph sometime soon. If you want to see more of my layouts, check my flickr set.
Speaking of cute - what about these onesies for baby W? awwww... and the rooster was a gift from Bill's parents. I love it - perfect to perch in the farm-themed nursery.
Today I was browsing Etsy to look for some more farm artwork and found LilyPig's photographs. I think these would be hilarious framed as a group!

Christmas scrapbooking

I had a lovely lazy Saturday at home today - and armed with new photo printer ink and paper, and my collection of Love, Elsie Noel paper, I was ready to do some major scrapbooking. I love the tiny size of this Maya Road mini (2 1/2 x 2 1/2") and the pinks and blues in the Elsie paper.

I finished the mini and several layouts, but I'm still up for more scrapping tomorrow, since I have so many fun photos from the week (thank goodness for a mom, brother and sister who love to take photos)! Better head to bed for some beauty rest!

Class Samples

I'm teaching two classes in this round at Reminisce. The first is a baby album for photos from baby's first year on January 17. The concept is that people who are either behind in their baby scrapbooking or making a gift for someone can come to class and leave with a finished album ready for 4x6 photos of baby for each month of the first year.

My next class is "Fun with Felt" on February 5th - felt is hip and happening in the scrapbooking world, so it is fun to play around with the products we have right now. The class is this tag, gift bag, and a felt card - plus a 2 pg. 12x12 layout using felt items.

So, if you're in the neighborhood, I hope you can join me for one of them!

Happy Christmas!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We had so much fun and good family time in both Des Moines and Iowa City over Christmas. These are a few of my favorite moments - more photos are in my flickr set. Of course, everyone was so generous with gifts, and I've been spending the last couple nights learning about my new camera (I knew was coming) and my new iPhone (total surprise!! in an awesome way!). Looking forward to having the next few days off work to work on setting up the nursery (we picked up the furniture last weekend while in Des Moines) and scrapbooking some of the fun photos from this week. Of course - I'll be back with photos of the nursery, adorable things that baby W got in his stocking, and my projects for upcoming classes at Reminisce. :) Have a great weekend!

Crafty Goodness

I've been up to some craftiness today... loved this idea for cocoa mixes in a jar. And the Love, Elsie Noel line is so cute. The tree and pocket tag were punched out on the Accucut machine at Reminisce and I used my QuicKutz to make the name. Fun & quick gifts - I have a little assembly line out on the kitchen counter as we speak.

Also started working on some fabric tissue holders (here's a great tutorial), but I only finished these two before my sewing machine got messed up somehow.


And finally, a great find while shopping with Wendy today - an egg basket for the nursery - great for the farm theme, eh? I will be able to find lots of baby cuteness to fill it with, I'm sure. And check out the adorable sock monkey ornament!

cool.

Now you can search for etsy shops by location - Shop Local. This makes me happy!

Working up to those last days before Christmas with lots of wrapping, last minute making, and hanging out with friends and family. Also getting the crib/nursery furniture situation handled (thank you Craigslist) and I'm so excited to start putting it together! Oh, and remember this dresser - I bought it and my sis drove it over from Des Moines today. Now I'm thinking about what color to paint it - maybe a bright red?

That's the update for now!

Thursday happenings

Working on some last minute crafting projects tonight, which included making these new paper beads. Must say that I really love this batch. Also working on checking over all our Christmas gifts to make sure what else I need to pick up. The shopping is very close to being all done!
In case you were wondering, here's the baby belly at 22 weeks and a shot of one of our many icy trees. Luckily we haven't lost any trees or big branches in our yard yet. The ice is a slippery mess around town, but it really was beautiful to see the sun shine through the trees this afternoon.

ice ice baby

So, I guess my first clue that there was some big weather coming was when I stopped for groceries at Hy-Vee on my way home and it was *insane*. Seriously, I thought the world was coming to an end. Anyway, Tuesday we did get lots of ice and nasty weather (I think we're due for just a nice fluffy snowstorm!) and school was canceled for the day.

I used part of the day to work on finishing up our Christmas cards and getting them addressed and ready to send. I didn't want to commit to one design and get tired of it, so instead I bought some Northern Exposure and played around with several different designs, then repeated the ones I really liked. Yeah! Check one thing off the list - now on to wrapping gifts!
Of course, some of the day had to be spent lounging around and playing on the Macbook. Cleo was happy to be of assistance.

It's a Boy!

We had our first ultrasound yesterday and all I can say is Amazing. We decided ahead of time that we would find out the sex if we could and even though Bill already knew *wink wink* it was a boy, it was still very exciting to hear the news! I can't believe how much detail and depth they can show in the ultrasound - getting to see his little fingers and toes and face and the heart working... just amazing. Everything feels much more real now that I feel like I've really seen him and met him! We went out for dinner with Bill's parents to celebrate and Bill's mom brought me his little blue baby booties!

Just in time I received this sweet onesie from Harrilu's etsy shop. Isn't it the cutest?
Oh, and I have one more spot on my Handmade PIF if you want to play! Come play!

Handmade PIF

So, this is a new idea for me - but I loved it right away when I had the chance to read Zhenia's blog today.

Here’s how the PIF works:

I will send a handmade gift to the first three people who leave a comment and tell me that they want to pay it forward. If you’re interested you must have a blog and you must write a post offering to send your own handmade items to three of your readers.

The time line is pretty generous too: I have a year to send out my handmade items and you have a year to send out yours to the people who comment on your blog.

As Miss Fish points out:

Please don’t be intimidated by the whole handmade thing. No one is expecting you to make a quilt, knit a sweater, or fold 1000 origami cranes. How about some handmade soap, or marble magnets, or a pretty ornament?

You know, you only need to send some hand-crafted love in the mail. It’s all good.

Don't be shy - come play along!

gift from afar

What a treat to receive this box from Australia in the mail! Kristi and Josh are living in Melbourne right now and they sent us this wonderful Christmas package. Enclosed was a cute kangaroo card and ornament and aussie candy. But the really fun thing was for baby W - an Australian animal mobile for the nursery. It was hard to photograph - but SO cute! Can't wait to hang it up...

cozy.

Rain and ice and snow - oh my!

Man, is it nasty out there. I am so glad that I don't have a good reason to leave the house today. Very happily staying warm and cozy inside... enjoying our Christmas decorations... listing some new ornaments and jewelry on etsy (btw - if you are in the market for ornaments, check out Zhenia's sweet birds!)... listening to music... making new paper beads for some extra special people with custom jewelry requests... and definitely thinking about having soup and/or hot chocolate soon.