More Invitations!

This is an invitation I did this past week... the criteria was for a summer spa party (over the 4th) with aqua and white. She lives out by the beach so I wanted to include that in the theme. I printed the words, inked the edges and put them on a slightly darker card stock. The shell is from as stamp called the Postal Shell from Stampington & Company - there is a background to the shell, but I stamped with embossing and then sprinkled different distressed embossing powders - the effect actually makes it feel like sand. After I embossed I cut the stamp out and used dimensional tape to make it stand up more. The other stamp is from a Stampin Up! collection... I printed the inside of the invite from my PrintPro Shop program.

A Bridal Shower

Heather's Shower!!!! The wedding is not until October, but we decided to do the shower this spring so that there wasn't a summer shower. In Sept we'll do a girls day/ night which is hard to ask people to participate in 2 things with the wedding right there, so I tried to spread it out!

Anyway - here is the invitation that went out! I decided to do a butterfly theme b/c it's something that Heather loves. I used the AccuCut machine for the butterfly. For the blue swirl I stamped with Stampin Up's heat and stick and then sprinkled glitter over. The background is Bazzil's bling paper. Finally I stamped an engagement ring and used gold stickles around the ring part and more bling for the 'diamond!' I attached that to the ribbon on the right. I do wish I had planned a little more and been able to use Stampin Up! paper for the butterfly b/c writing on Bazzil is such a pain!

Watch for the other projects for the shower to be posted... I made a mini 6x6 clipboard to keep present notes (which I did!) and a recipe book that included recipes from everyone that was invited to the wedding.

Recipe Box

I have so many projects that I have been wanting to finish up, so I finally made a list and am trying to get them done one by one! AND trying not to add more... the list includes a recipe box (seen here and talked about more below), gifts for heather's shower (almost done with those and will post AFTER the shower!), a book about Skippy - he's my lovable cocker spaniel that is the sweetest little guy in the world. I've never had the foresight to keep pictures about my dogs and also try to write about them while they are alive! A book about Isabella... I never thought I'd love a cat, but I do. She's just precious and has a very funny personality, sometimes I don't think it's that funny when she has this awful meow at 4am. Finish up Theo's album about his first year. I'm getting there on that. I also need to finish up the little album that has a LO about each month in the first year of his life. A mini acrylic album - Kate is having a contest at the shop for the month of May making an acrylic album. The prize is machine that you can use to bind little books - I WANT this! And the drawing is on my birthday so it's only fitting that I should win! I am going to do that book about girlfriends. A mini chipboard album with the pictures from our day at Fenway. A calendar for each Mom and Keith's Mom, Vera with pictures of their little guys - that's for Xmas, but it would be nice to not cram to finish in December! A calendar for me... yah, it's April. I want to do a calendar for Claudia next year too. Some vintage cards for Pat.

Along with doing all of these I want to create my new scrapping space at Keith's. I have cleaned out the front spare room - this room has TONS of natural light and is a great size. I'm plotting that! I want to paint it an apple green. I have some little projects that I want for that room... I bought the St Patty's day kit from Scrapologie primarily for this great cone that she had. I want to decorate it and have fun things poking out the top! There was also this great hanger that I have my vintage St Patty's Day postcard hanging from, need to update that regularly. The hanger is SO damn cute!

Well... the recipe box... I've been dying to have one for years. I have a folder full of recipes that I cut out, print off, etc. The plan is to put the recipes that I want to use again! I am very happy with how it came out. I think I'll add things that I find along the way. I still have to finish the dividers inside - haven't found the right thing yet.

Thankful

March.... my least favorite month of the year. And for the last 2 years it's come to me with such sadness and stresses for those around me. 2007... Jane Bierwirth, a surrogate aunt to me, passed away. Fran lost one of her doggies... both Courtney & Fran pregnant with their second children and having to go through these stresses.
This year has not been any better... if possible, has brought such sadness. As you grow into your 30's you know that at some point you will have to endure the death of parents, and your friends parents. I have been so fortunate to grow up in an environment where my parents made so many close friends when they first moved to Newburyport in 1969. These people are akin to many aunts, uncles and cousins. Some that I am closer to than others, but all the joys and sorrows are met the same.
Late February started with a call from Courtney that her father wasn't going to make it through the weekend. Fred II passed on March 3, 2008 - 50 weeks after Jane. Her father was my father's best friend and Jane Bierwirth's husband of 40 years. Bierwirth-Newbert weekends were something that all 4 of us kids made sure that we could make. At least for a night and then let the parents go off and have their time! Our families have grown, but with that there was so much hope that we could have big Bierwirth-Newbert weekends with David, Fred, Lillian & Jane serving court to all their grandkids. We can still do it, and we will still do it but there will be some big empty spaces. My parents will do anything to make sure the Bierwirth grandkids remember their grandparents.
That same weekend my Mom and Richard were away at the Philadelphia Flower Show, which they were supposed to be until March 10. On Feb 29 Pat collapsed in my father's arms with what we later found out was a brain tumor. Pat has become a very special aunt to me. Over the next few months she will be undergoing radiation and chemo therapy to shrink the tumor.
When Mom got home from Philly she got news that a very dear co-worker was in a coma. Linda Latime was just one of the most wonderful women to grace us with her presence. She cared about everyone, took time to know about everyone and put her heart and soul into so much. Linda passed away this past Tuesday and we celebrated her life this afternoon.
What's so hard for me is knowing these girls, Courtney & Kim, that will have to go on without their mothers and in Courtney's case both of her parents. Both were so incredibly close to their mothers. It has made me appreciate so much the time that I have been able to have living with my parents. At 30 I wouldn't be able to appreciate it this much. I would still have my own agenda. I don't doubt all that I have gone through in the past 5 years allows me to appreciate this, but I also know watching these girls with such poise and strength. Obviously recovering from an accident showed me that strength comes no matter what, but I am still in awe.
I can't let this post go without mentioning that my brother, Eunice & Matt lost a very dear friend last week also. He got pancreatic cancer in his 30's. We've already lost a friend to cancer at 30 so we know how unfair it all is.

This lay-out that I am showing here is about being thankful... I wrote a little blurb about all that I am thankful for - family, being around while my first nephew was born and his first years, getting to know my brother as adults, meeting Keith and having faith that love really is true, my closest friends who stood by me no matter what, my little doggie Skippy, and at a point when I never thought I would be able to use the skills I worked so hard to develop in my 20s and early 30s, I have found a company that is a perfect match for me.

This is what I call my 'box of love!' Instead of a box of chocolates... I loved this chipboard box from the moment I saw it and knew I wanted to make it as a fun gift for Keith for Valentine's Day.
I used the "Adore" line from My Minds Eye that came out for Valentine's Day on the outside of the box... a great way to add a little masculinity with the blues. Inside I did a little 3x3 chipboard book that basically told him that I love him... I used some of the Daisy D's papers, die cuts and rub ons - if you didn't see these they will bring you back to your childhood! SO FUN! I also took 14 scraps of papers and used words from the 7 gypsies 97% complete stickers and the WordFetti from Making Memories to write little love notes... all in all I think it came out so cute and fun. He loved it.

Theo turns 1!

On February 5 our precious little boy turned one! And he had a first birthday party like none other!

It's been such a joy to watch him grow and develop over the last year. He's becoming such a little man... he's got a wonderful giggle, he has a signature toothy smile, he is such an active guy - moving around in his excersiser or just shaking his legs up and down - and he brings such joy to all of us. I am looking forward to so much this year... as he gets to know me as his auntie, being able to spoil him, watching him move from his commando crawl to walking in the next few months, the start of words. It's just going to be so much fun. I really think that coming from 2 nerdy parents (that I adore) he is going to turn out like his auntie as a social butterfly that is constantly watching what else is going on around!

The birthday party... one of the wonderful aspects of having a Korean sister in law is learning these wonderful traditions from the Korean culture. The first birthday is a big celebration in their culture - for a long time babies weren't making it so they had a party when they turned 1. It's called the Tol. Here shows a picture of Theo in his traditional silks (his Han bok) that represent health, wealth, love and happiness in the different colors along the arms. He was so good in wearing layers of silk! Eunice & Strat wore their silk outfits from their wedding. The ceremony is that you put items out that represent wishes for the child. For example: a very long string all tied up to represent a long life, fresh food for good health, money for good wealth and then they added engineering tools, a stethascope, a football and a few other things. When the parents say, the child then reaches out and whatever he/she picks up represents their life. Theo did so well with all these people around him and just about then started the meltdown! He did end up grabbing the long string.

Stratton's birthday is February 7 so we get to celebrate them together. The first picture is of Theo enjoying his first cupcake along with his Daddy! He LOVED that frosting... the pictures of him are just looking at the cupcake until he was able to eat it.

Happy Birthday little man... I love you very much.

An Invitation...

These are cards that I did as an invitation for a brunch that my parents are hosting in a couple of weeks... coming off the distressing class I thought it would be fun to use that technique. I also came across these stamps from Stampin Up that I had bought a few years ago... there is a third with grapes...they worked really well with the various embossing powders to really bring out the image!
Oh... I really do love all these techniques that I've been learning!