A Couple More Christmas Cards

Ok, ok. So I got a little carried away after I posted my Christmas card, and ended up submitting two more! I just couldn't help myself. And I stayed up way too late. Here they are. The Whole World and Rejoice, Rejoice  :) Merry March Christmas!

Business Holiday Card Challenge

Hi guys! I haven't submitted to any Minted challenges for a while now. After work all day, then launching new wedding invitations and bringing in some new brides, I've been feeling creatively drained. It's okay. I get it that I can't give everything 100% all the time and since entering challenges is solely for my enjoyment, it's naturally one of the first things to go. But, I just had to sneak at least one design into one of the current holiday challenges which close today. Holiday challenges are my favorite and even though it was a struggle to think about Christmas while is 80 degrees outside, it was important to me to stretch myself for this one. So although I wish I had made time to submit a few more, here is the one I entered into the Corporate Cheer Business Holiday Card Challenge. Hope I'm feeling more inspired for the upcoming Holiday Photo Card Challenge!

Merry Christmas!

How was your celebration?! Maybe you are still celebrating? We had a lovely couple of days...

serving at church on Christmas Eve,
a late night drive up into the mountains after the service,
waking up Christmas morning with my parents and brother to english muffin bread & cinnamon butter,
passing and opening so many thoughtful gifts,
a brisk walk with my dad and our family dog,
a few rounds of a new card game,
some delicious meals and treats,
a little online decorating and house planning with mom,
a steady fire burning in the fireplace,
and another late night drive down the mountain at the end of the day.

And now we're outta here in just 5 little days! Can't believe the adventures that are ahead! And I definitely can't believe how much packing I have left to do... Things are wild around here. But we are thankful and blessed :)

A New Kind of Winter Wonderland

Hello there! Is it a Winter Wonderland where you live? Snow has been a hot topic on Facebook and Instagram this past weekend and I must say, I'm a bit jealous! Although I'll never see snowflakes fall outside my window in our new desert town, it's the most wonderful time of year here too. With highs in the 60's and 70's and the sun shining bright, it's my ideal weather for sure. The nights are quite crisp and chilly and we've added extra blankets to our bed. The best! This morning I even got dressed under the covers because it was so cold in our room. Does anyone else do this in the wintertime? You must try it. My mom taught me to do this on the dark cold winter mornings when I was a little girl and it makes a world of a difference.

So you can see, we're enjoying our own kind of Christmas season around here. And although I love to watch the white stuff fall, I can be thankful that I'm not scraping off car windows, slipping on the ice, or  shivering as I run my Christmas errands. And that I can just take a quick trip up north any time I need a snowfall fix. In all things, give thanks :)

Well, how was your weekend? We had a really sweet couple of days off. Since Friday, I've gotten to:

Sip coffee with a dear new friend.
Watch Miracle on 34th Street. Paul saw it for the first time! It's so charming.
Take a drive up the mountains to visit my parents.
Enjoy the lights in the town square, and the carols at Acker Night.
Paint my new resale finds for my future office.
Nap under my favorite quilt.
Visit our house. It's so very much almost finished. Just a few weeks now!
Finish up our Christmas stockings. I used this tutorial for the cuffs.

And what's on my to-do list for this week?

Get going on our packing. I'm actually looking forward to this! Gives me a chance to go through our things and get rid of whatever we don't use/need. Nothing like a fresh start!
Address and mail out our Christmas cards.
Finish my Christmas shopping.
Drink lots of mint hot chocolate.
Watch The Nativity Story.
Keep the Christmas music playing.
Pray for a thankful heart and a humble spirit.

Christmas is Coming

Oh yes it is. I love the months of November and December and they are even more exciting to me this year because we hope these will be the months we get to move into our first house! But that's beyond the point of this post. This post is to tell you that Christmas is coming and you should get started on those darling traditional Christmas cards. I love Christmas cards and all growing up I used to spend hours reading through all of the letters and staring at the pictures my mom kept in the basket on the kitchen island. So fun!

This year I've created my very first cozy line of photo Christmas cards. I already told you about my design for sale on Minted, but did you also know I have a handful of other designs for sale in Etsy shop? They are listed as printables, which means I would create your personal card with your photo and information, and then send you a file that you could have printed as many times as you like, wherever you like. Easy Peasy! Or if you prefer to have me print them for you, I can work up a quote for that too :) Check them out! By the way, all the awesome photos were taken by Jasmine Nicole Photography.

Minted Christmas

I was so honored to have one of my designs chosen for Minted's holiday card collection. InstaChristmas is now available on minted.com. And they're offering 20% off until October 8 with the code PREVIEW2012.

Minted Holiday Challenge

Minted's Holiday Challenge just closed and I entered a handful of designs. Their Holiday Challenges are traditionally the biggest challenges of the year and 2012 was no exception! They had over 2600 entries! Wow. There are so many, in fact, that they are doing TWO rounds of voting. That means my designs have to get voted in the first round in order to even be considered for their Holiday 2012 collection! There were so many amazing entries, that my goal is just to get even a couple designs through to the second round of voting. If you like any of my designs, would you help me out by clicking on the image to take you to the voting page? And definitely check out all the amazing entries here.

 

  

 

 

A Little Of This, A Little Of That

This morning I went to Starbucks before work. I used some of my credit card rewards points for a Starbucks gift card so it's outside of our budget! Hubby doesn't like frivolous spending (which to him, $4 coffees are....and I suppose I probably agree) so he's happy and so am I!

I digress...

I ordered one of these beauties

and I told my Barista that I wanted it less sweet so she put in half the pumps and wah lah! It was amazing! I don't think I've really utilized the wonder of customizing my own drink, but I pay the big bucks, so why shouldn't I get it exactly how I like it!? Ahhhh... America.

At lunch today I started a DIY Christmas project for my sister-in-law. *Mary if you read this, skip to the next paragraph!! Unless you don't mind finding out one of your presents. Then I'm totally cool with that. Anyways, I'm crocheting her a scarf and it's really hard to make it straight. I'm wondering if it's just worth it to fork over the extra bucks for a beautiful, already made scarf. But maybe it's the thought that counts. I'm trying to hand make a lot of our Christmas presents this year (one of which I'll post later this week as part of my Pinterest Challenge!), and I'm hoping the others have a better start than this stinking scarf.

Tonight I'm planning to make dinner and I'm really scared. Remember my suppertime confessions with the chicken fiasco?! It has scarred me. I get butterflies in my stomach just looking at the kitchen. But on Monday night I pulled out my trusty ole crock pot and slow cooked us up some amaaaaazing beef stew, so I'd say about 28% of my confidence has returned. Anyways, I'm going to give this a whirl:

Yummm. Doesn't that look amazing?! It's straight from one of my favorite blogs, Summer Harms. She always has really great recipes and her pictures of her food are gorgeous.

Isn't blogging weird? I read blogs, and sometimes I feel like I'm friends with the people who write them. About a year ago I had a dream and some girl whose blog I follow was a character in my dream (not you, Summer Harms, just in case you by chance happen upon my blog). Isn't that creepy? I walked by her and she had no idea who I was but I knew all this stuff about her life. I think what weirded me out the most about the dream is that that situation could seriously happen in real life. Do I know too much about people I don't know?

Some new things are happening in my life. And they are secrets right now. Well one's more of a secret than the other, but I just really can't take having secrets. I want to TALK about it. I want to tell people and be outwardly excited! I must say though, it is fun to have a secret with Paul. We wink and whisper and pray and make plans that no one else knows about. But I'm ready to let these secrets out now. Paul says I should pray about these things instead of talking about them with other people so much. He's smart. I should. And I will. Sigh. But I still really wish I could tell you right now.

Christmas in October

I always feel sad when the weekend comes to an end :( This weekend has been beeeaauuutiful here in Chicagoland and Paul and I were able to get out for a couple solid walks. We love to go on walks - walking together made us fall in love in the first place! We always have good talks, and this weekend was no exception. In fact, we've been discussing some very important potential transitions in our life, so I was thankful for the extended time together. But alas, Monday comes! So instead of finishing my homework, I thought I'd cheer myself up with some Christmas card designing! Here's where I'm at so far...

Merry Christmas: from our home to yours :)

Here are some Christmas scenes from our house this morning!

Britt and I had such a sweet morning with pancakes and prayers and coffee and laughter and music and heart to hearts. I am so thankful for some downtime in the midst of this bustling season. Now it's time to bundle up and get to work finishing up my Christmas shopping with my favorite PDS. I just really like that guy ;)