Are you sitting down?

'Cause I don't want you to *fall* down when I tell you "I found time to stamp!" :-) It's Teacher Appreciation Week so for A's two teachers, I made a "movie night" gift set. It includes an altered Frappuchino bottle, a cover for a bag of microwave popcorn and a holder for a gift card to a local video rental place. All items used Stampin' Up's retired Roses in Winter set (along with All Year Cheer 1 and Too Terrific Tags) and the colors Old Olive, Pretty in Pink and Purely Pomegranate. It was all packaged in a white lunch sack with a rose and two leaves stamped on it. The bag was tied shut with some ribbon that looks a lot like Purely Pomegranate.

Roses in Winter is one of my favorite sets and one that's not leaving my stamp space any time soon! I'm a late-comer to the 2008 In Colors, and I really enjoyed working with the Pomegranate.

A Singing in bed

I sit with A for a while at bed time. The goal is to help him calm down and go to sleep, but sometimes it doesn't work! We've managed to get to church for a few weeks in a row now, and it has made quite the impression on him. He's fascinated with the conductor and likes to play "conductor and choir" at home. He climbs up into his bed with a straw, a pen or some other kind of "conductor thingie" and has us sing "Thine is the Glory". He's heard it enough that he's got a good grasp of the words. Occasionally, he'll pick up his little bible and start singing once I leave the room. One night, he started in while I was still there. This video was taken in the dark, so there's no picture, but you can clearly pick out the songs he's singing!

Okay - so the "New" Year is 1/4 gone...

hmmm... I really should write more often! We've been keeping busy between work and home. The weather is getting nicer - the azaleas are already blooming - so we're spending more time outside. I took this picture of A after the Easter Egg hunt in our town. The hunt left a little to be desired with kids and parents pushing their way for these nasty marshmallow eggs. A wanted me to carry him. He ended up with two eggs.

I've had less time for creative endeavors than I'd like, but I did manage to get this page done over lunch today. It's for the Oscraps Designer Spotlight Challenge. I've been hanging out there more than many of the other digiscrap communities, even if I don't participate much in the conversation. I still learn a lot! I've been collecting a lot of digiscrap tools to work with. Now I just need to organize them. Right now, they're all on CD's at my office in chronological order from when I downloaded them. I have to open up a bunch of files before I find what I want to use. I've copied the CD's onto our home computer since M&D gave me Photoshop Elements 6 for Christmas. But they're not organized there either. I need to work on organizing them so I can try to get the creative juices flowing again!

Credits: Sally's Template for the Oscraps Designer Spotlight Challenge
Papers by Sue Cummings and Jenni Cantrell at Oscraps (both from the O's 2nd Birthday Bash)
Stars by Mikkel Paige from her Doodle Me Big set at Oscraps

Happy New Year!

Now that I've finished the Christmas gifts - 2007 brag books for the Grandparents (I should order one for us too!), I can get back to creating for me again! I decided to start with a template so I could get my feet under me again. Credits forthcoming!

This picture was taken on the back steps of my parents house on Thanksgiving 2007. We were watching A playing with the other "kids" who attended dinner at my parent's house. Some of the neighborhood kids stopped by too, including the son of A's former babysitter. It was a great day - great food, great company, great weather (as you can see from our short sleeves!). The only thing that could have made it better was if we could have spent it with P's family too. Guess we can't have it all.

Here's hoping you have a great 2008!