June Card Class

Okay so we posted the pictures of our June Stamping group having our first class in my new craft room. Although the room is amazing, I think our cards were even more amazing.

You may know how crazy we are about the circle scallop punch. Well we found a creative way to use the scallop punch as a flower. We folded it in half and then cut along the scallops to create the illusion of petals. We used a dimensional to pop it up and give it a 3-D element.

On this next card, we wanted to utilize one of the frames from the vanilla hodgepdge hardware set. Although this card took a while to come together. I was super happy with how it turned out and I enjoyed the layout. We used my new Three Little Words set and did some scoring on a Scor-Pal to create a tile image, but it is difficult to see in the picture.

The last card is one of my favorites. The layout came from the April or May Stampin' Success magazine. I love the tree from Thoughts and Prayers and have wanted to do a version of the card ever since I saw it featured in the magazine. I love the mix of yellows, golds, and black. I think it looks elegant and simple, which is something I love to do in cards. Just goes to show you that cards and scrapbooks don't need lots of "stuff" to make a visual impact.

Our Big Boy Austin

I just realized today that I never posted anything on Austin since March right after he was born. Well he was in the NICU for 3 weeks and then our little guy got to finally go home.

He has grown by leaps and bounds. Austin is now 3 months old and weighs in at a little over 9 lbs. He has caught himself up to where he should be if he had been born on May 3rd. He would only be a month and a half old right now. I love talking to him, because he now smiles at you when you talk to him. I can't wait until he starts making cooing sounds. He is such a good baby, just like his mommy was when she was a baby. And Lindsay is a wonderful mother. And loving every moment of motherhood!

Austin was born with a severe club foot. They made braces for him in the NICU, but they said it is so hard to make such things for such tiny babies. Now that he is a little bigger he has to go to Children's Hospital in Milwaukee once a week to have a full cast put on, and changed weekly. Today I went with Lindsay on the road trip. This was cast number 4. Hopefully he will only have to go 2 or 3 more weeks. It has improved so much just with the casting, but that will not be enough. He will have to have surgery as soon as they decide the casts have done what they can.

I feel so terrible each time we see him because he can't just flail like a baby should. Well until last Friday. He managed to get that cast off of his leg on his own during the night. Lindsay said she didn't know if she should laugh or cry. Cry because she was sure that they were going to make her drive down to Milwaukee again last week to re-cast him. Well the physician's assistant talked to the doctor and he said it was fine that Austin could wait until his appointment today because he didn't want the family to drive all the way from up north. Now I know we are north of Milwaukee, but I laughed so hard, because he calls this up north. Anyway here are some picture of our beautiful grandson getting his new cast on today.

OUR FIRST CLASS IN THE NEW CRAFT/CLASS ROOM

Well after all of the hard work that Amanda and her father put into this room, twice now because of the flood, they really pulled it together in time to hold our June class here. There's still more to be done adding shelves between the upper cabinets, and a few other touches. I must say I am very jealous that my daughter has such a fabulous room to play in when ever she wants.
Maybe I can get her father to re-create my craft room to enlarge it just a little! SMILE!

SNEAK PEAK AT 2009-2010 IN COLORS!!!!!

There is so much exciting news coming out of the Stampin' Up! Office! Stampin' Up! sent a message to demonstrators stating that they should save their retired In Colors - we never know what's around the corner and what they are up too, but something may be coming back so don't get rid of your retired In Colors!

The NEW 2009-2010 In Colors will be released in the 2009-2010 Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog and made available on July 1, 2009. Remember we are going back to 1 catalog a year. Below is one SNEAK PEAK of the Colors. YES - Stampin' Up! will be offering Stampin' Write Markers in THE NEW IN COLORS!

Graduation Gift

Nick's cousin Maggie graduated this year from high school. She is a sweet and simple girl. I love her! So I decided to put together a little basket for her to send a note to her friends and family while she is away at college. The basket included a Birthday and Anniversary Calendar, 5 packs of four cards for different occassions, stamps, envelopes, a fun monogramed notepad, and colorful pens for writing. I think it turned out cute and was pretty inexpensive to put together.

Confessions of a Teacher

Okay at this point in the school year most teachers are thinking about summer break. I wish I could be one of them. With our basement flooding, the craft room being a mess, sending my students off to middle school, and packing up my room to go to a new school next year...summer break has been on my mind, but not at the forefront. I just wanted to show everyone my temporary storage for the summer while I figure out what to keep, store, move, pitch, and rummage sale. I can't believe I have accumulated this much junk in only 5 short years. This is madness!











I know it is hard to see, but I swear every inch of floor, closet, desk, and floor space is occupied. Yikes! I can't wait to leave this behind and craft!

Craft Room Before and After

Okay the craft room was nearly finished and I was hoping to show some before and after pictures of my beautiful space, but unfortunately these aren't how I wanted the pictures to turn out.

Before:

We just had the counters installed and I was filling up cabinets. Full cabinets make a happy Amanda.

After:

Now I know what you are thinking. You're thinking that these should be the after pictures, but these pictures took place BEFORE our basement flooded two weeks ago from too much rain. It was devestating to work so hard on something with my dad and see all our hard work vanish.

They had to poke holes all along the bottom of the drywall to get the moisture out of the walls.

We had a water restore place come in and dry out the carpet and concrete and now the carpet needs to be reinstalled, but all things considered, it could have been worse. (At least that's what everyone keeps telling me.) I think this is someone's way of telling me I was too cocky about getting my craft room. I upset the craft gods.