January's Card Making Class

Just 1 spot left!! Reserve it ASAP!

Start 2010 out right by getting those birthday cards all ready to go. And learn new crafting techniques at the same time.

Come join me on Monday, January 11th from 7pm-9pm.





Cost: 3 cards for $7 OR place a $20 order and get them for free.

Can't make it that night? No problem, just let me know and I'll send you a Birthday Card Making kit.

Wordless Wednesday

Cute Little Boxes

This past week I've made a couple little crafty gifts for various gift exchanges coming up. I needed something to put the little treasures in. I had a pattern sitting around for a cute little box/card holder and decided to give it a try. I borrowed the pattern from Vicki over at Wizard's Hangout. She always has great ideas and projects.

The first one holds 10 cards I made for Kenny's Secret Santa gift exchange at work. The box measures 4 1/4 x 5 1.2. I made this out of the Close To My Heart Sweet Home paper packet. I used background and texture paper for the box, which after wards I realized I should have used cardstock to give it a little bit more strength.




I made this box using CTMH Jingle paper packet. The base is Tulip cardstock.

It's Official....

....we are House Hunters! We have recently gotten all of our ducks in a row, per say, and when we find our "dream house", we are ready to buy. It's been a long time of waiting, watching and being patience, but I'm so excited to say the time has finally arrived. No more renting (yes, I know there are upsides to that). I can finally paint walls and not have to pack or unpack boxes for what I hope to be a really really long time.

I know the process that is ahead of us may be really challenging, long and daunting. When you've waited as long as we have to buy a house you tend to possibly be a bit more picky. At this point we are willing to wait for the right house, in the right location, and for the right price.

Do wish us luck and that sooner then later we find ourselves a house that fits the bill.

Happy Half Birthday, Shane.

Our little guy is officially 2 1/2 today. I wanted to get a few quick pictures of him this afternoon and during this process he went from looking at me, to not looking at me (he told me he was eating, duh Mom!), to giving me a cheesy eyes closed smile and finally he told me to stop (guess he had enough of the camera in his face). This pretty much sums up life with Shane. One minute life is happy and wonderful and the next his life is crumbling before our very eyes. I can say he is consistent though, he has been like this his whole 2 1/2 years of life. The other day after some huge dramatic incident (I call him my Drama King), Kenny and I told him that if he was going to go into acting as a career he just needed to make it big so he could pay us back for all the years of watching him "practice" his acting skills.

Wordless Wednesday

Mojo Monday

I finally got a chance today to participate in Mojo Monday. I made this card using the colors from Color Me Monday on Jeanette Lynton's blog.



Supplies are all from Close To My Heart: (featured colors are Sorbet, Twilight, Outdoor Denim and Cocoa)
--Aspen Paper Packet
--Outdoor Denim Ribbon
--Frosty Friends stamp set
--Prisma Glitter

Blog Giveaway

Jump on over to Fabule$$ly Frugal Mom and enter to win a Couponizer. Looks like a handy item to have if you are a coupon user or want to be one.

Signs of Christmas

There are signs of Christmas all over our house and I'm loving it.

{I read Shane Polar Express for the first time last night. It made me so happy when he asked to hear it again! We are planning our first Family Movie Night next weekend and we'll be watching Polar Express.

{Gifts are wrapped, cards are ready to be mailed, the tree is up, decorations are out and I'm pretty sure they can see our lit up house in outer space. It appears that Kenny and I may be having an allergic reaction to our Christmas tree this year. We are attempting to ignore this fact, because I will NEVER have a fake Christmas tree in my house!

{Christmas cards are arriving in the mail. I love the excitement of going to get the mail and seeing what cards have arrived from family and friends.

{I went to an ornament exchange party last night. Each person brought an ornament for someone else that showed what the holidays meant to them and their family. It was super fun to hear about other people and their family traditions. One girl had a tradition of passing down an ornament from her collection every year to another women. The one she gave this year was 30 years old and originally was her Mothers. The ornament had come from Germany as well.

{Various Christmas parties are on the calendar. I'm excited to celebrate with many friends and family in the next few weeks!

{Plans are in the making for some Christmas cookie baking. I'm doing a cookie exchange for the first time this year. Lots of yummy cookies to eat come Christmas.

{Shane calls all snowmen "Frosty". He loves looking at Christmas lights outside. I can't wait to take him to see some really cool lit up houses next weekend. He can't seem to keep his hands off the Christmas tree. He is just so excited about all the ornaments hanging on it. When I was wrapping presents this week, he voluntarily wrapped up his big Legos for Mema and Papa. He has put them under the Christmas tree and reminds us daily that they are "surprises" for Mema and Papa.

{My paper whites are planted and growing so quickly. Before I know it we'll have the wonderful smell of those delicate little flowers floating through the whole house.

{The advent calendar is full of "surprises" for Shane. He is having a hard time this year only opening one day at a time. He gets to open it after breakfast, but come late afternoon he is ready to open another one.

{At church this morning one of the Pastors reminded me how important it is to use the term Merry Christmas instead of Happy Hoildays or Season Greetings. I find my self often using those terms because I dodn't want to exclude any one and their beliefs during this time of year. But he reminded me that we wouldn't have this time of year if it hadn't been for the birth of Jesus Christ.

Merry CHRISTmas my friends!

Santa Visit

 

We made our way to see Santa today. We had been preparing Shane for this visit, knowing that there was a good chance he wasn't going to be so up for it. We were first in line and actually got to see Santa wait in line at Starbucks for his morning coffee. Us adults found that to be sorta funny. Shane got to sit in Santa's chair before he even arrived. But of course as soon as Santa was close up and personal Shane wanted nothing to do with him unless "Mommy" was there with him. After Santa trying really hard to get Shane to stand in front of him, he told me I could hold him on my lap and hide behind his back and not be in the picture. Well, as you can see my legs clearly made it into the picture, but Shane was having a blast now that Mommy was there and Santa was reading him a story. Shane even signed to him that he wanted a train for Christmas. He then didn't want to leave. Oh, life as a 2.5 year old can be so hard....for both Mommy and Shane!

Just as an FYI, this Santa is at the Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, WA and is the best Santa I've ever seen. He is wonderful with the kids and looks great. Every day he has a different shirt on. This is our 3rd year seeing him.

CTMH Holiday Heyday Online Clearance Sale

It is a Holiday Heyday CTMH's Online Clearance Sale!
Get all your holiday shopping done in one spot this year with our online clearance sale! Many items are 50% off, with some discounted as much as 80% off regular retail. The selection is incredible, too! Shopping began today: Wednesday, December 2, and continues through Thursday, December 17 or while product supplies last! The prices are incredible, so don't wait to buy.

A few details:
* You will be restricted to FIVE per each item.

* Note that clearance items may not be combined with regular-priced items in a single shopping cart, and clearance purchases are not eligible for Stamp of the Month.

* Orders of $100+ = flat rate shipping of just $5 ($99.99 and under have weight-based shipping)

* A special clearance sale link will be available on MyCTMH shopping page during the campaign just for this purpose; only clearance items will appear in the clearance shopping area and only regular-priced items will appear in the usual MyCTMH shopping area.

Close To My Heart December Newsletter

Can you believe it is December already!?! This is my favorite time of year. There are so many things that I want to do that I run out of time. I can't wait to get decorating, along with some time to sit back and enjoy the spirit of the season.

National Papercrafting Month Constant Campaign
Felicity Collection
The exciting National Papercrafting Month Constant Campaign beginning December 15, 2009 and running through the end of January featuring the Felicity Collection which has decorative die-cut paper, three gorgeous color schemes, and a D-size stamp set that include flowers, flourishes, argyle, birds, and an entire alphabet! This collection has a retail value of $34.95. You can buy it outright, or get it free!

There are various ways to qualify for a FREE Felicity Collection:
* Purchase a minimum of $60 in full-retail priced stamp sets
* Place an order of $125 or more in full-retail priced Close To My Heart products.
* Hostesses get the package FREE with a Home Gathering sales total of $400 or more.
* New Consultants who join Close To My Heart between January 1–31 will receive the package FREE in their New Consultant Kit.

December Stamp of The Month
Notice the Details (set of 41)
This set is perfect for the coming new year and is only available until the end of December. It is great for calendars, cards, scrapbook pages and projects like a dry erase board. Visit my December Blog Hop post and take a tour of this months blog hop. You'll find fabulous ideas and ways to use this stamp set.

Christmas Orders
You need to have your orders place by Tuesday, December 15th in order to assure they will be at your house for Christmas morning.
January Workshops

Starting January each month I will be having a Card Workshop, Scrapbook Workshop and a Project Workshop. You can always visit MyCTMH website for up-to-date information on my workshops, as well as pictures of what we'll be making.

Card Workshop -- Monday, January 11th 7pm -- Make 3 Birthday cards for $7, or place a $20 order and get the cards for FREE.

Project Workshop -- Saturday, January 16th 6:30pm -- Make a Memory Keeper Box perfect to keep all those special 2010 memories. Cost TBA.

Scrapbook Workshop -- Friday, January 22nd, 7pm -- Stay tuned for the new Spring 2010 paper packet we'll be using to complete 2 12x12 pages. More details to come in early January.

Spring Idea Book
Released January 1, 2010
I had my first peek at the Spring Idea Book this morning. It is full of bright new paper packets and flowery stamp sets. Book a gathering for January and you'll get your very own Spring Idea Book for FREE.

Studio J
Close To My Heart has done it again, come up with something no one else has! It is digital scrapbooking like no other. No need for special computer projects or college classes, you will instantly fall in love with Studio J. Coming Spring 2010.

As always I'm here for all your crafting needs or questions. Please let me know how I can help you.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Sincerely,

Jessica

December Blog Hop

Welcome to our Close To My Heart Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring December's SOTM, which is Notice the Details, a set of 41 stamps. If you have come here from Linda's Blog, you are on the right path!

This month we have over 60 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!


(Click the image to view it larger)

This month I used the stamp set to make a dry erase board. This project is so quick, simple, easy and super useful! This one hangs in my craft room so I can keep try of all my projects.

Now "hop" on over to Sylvia's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their blogs to get some great crafting ideas! Remember, the Notice the Details SOTM is only available until the end of December! Click here to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount or even free!

If you get lost on the hop or find links that aren't working, click HERE for a complete list of the blogs.

Cousins

We are celebrating Thanksgiving in Reno this year with Kenny's family. After a small adjustment/warm-up period, Shane is now having a blast with his two cousins, Carolyn (5) and Meredith (3). He seems to tend towards Carolyn. I think that her being that much older there isn't as much of a sharing problem and more of Carolyn playing games with him.

No Poop or Throw-up Travel Day!!!

We made it to Reno yesterday afternoon after having probably our easiest travel experience of our lives. We left our house around 7:45am. Where Shane slept in until 7:15 (that hasn't happened in months!), we almost had to wake him up. He even told us as we were heading to the car that he had "pooped". We've been working on that for months, too! There was no traffic and we got to the parking garage in half the time we had allotted. After getting to the airport that felt just about empty, we spent a brief few minutes checking into Southwest and then another brief amount of time getting through security. I think the highlight of our flight was the TSA agents that were incredibly nice and accommodating. One allowed Shane's unopened juice box to go through and another TSA person had the stroller opened and ready to go for us. He even asked us if we knew about the play area around the corner. Kenny and I kept looking at each other wondering what world we had ended up in! We ended up being through security and at the play area before 9am! Amazing!

Shane did fantastic on the flight. He needed a diaper change minutes before we got on, but the timing worked out great. He was pretty anxious on the take off. But he soothed himself by sorta humming and talking to himself under his breath. I felt bad for him, but was happy to see him work himself through it.

If you've ever heard any of our past travel experiences, you know that this was a much needed break! Thanks travel world for making it a super easy trip! Lets hope the way home goes half as smooth!