Valley of Vision

Thou God of all GRACE,
Thou hast given me a saviour,
produce in me a faith to live by him,
to make him all my desire,
all my hope,
all my glory.
May I enter him as my refuge,
build on him as my foundation,
walk in him as my way,
follow him as my guide,
conform to him as my example,
receive his instructions as my prophet,
rely on his intercession as my high priest,
obey him as my king.
May I never be ashamed of him or his words,
but joyfully bear his reproach,
never displease him by unholy or imprudent conduct,
never count it a glory if I take it patiently
when buffeted for a fault,
never make the multitude my model,
never delay when they Word invites me to advance.
May thy dear Son preserve me from this present evil world,
so that its smiles never allure,
nor its frowns terrify,
nor its vices defile,
nor its errors delude me.
May I feel that I am a stranger and a pilgrim on earth,
declaring plainly that I seek a country,
my title to it becoming daily more clear,
my meetness for it more perfect,
my foretastes of it more abundant;
and whatsoever I do may it be done in the Saviour's name.

Scrap-Tastic Goodies

So I know I've been MIA. Such is life right now. lol, I've got a TON of goodies from the Fabulous (if I do say so myself) Frosted Elegance kit from Scrap-Tastic....which I designed! lol. (three out of the four of these are done with Sally's sketches from Splitcoast Stampers, the other one is from pencillines.)

Scrap-Tastic Stuff

I got the January Project kit over at Scrap-Tastic this month too...and not just the main kit (which is totally yummy and I got to design!) Anyway....here's some stuff I did with the Cupcake Cutie Card Kit.


(This one and the one below both use some of the new Pink Paislee Sweetie Pie Postcards...aren't they so cute?!?!)



(there is stamping on the inside of the card that shows through the window a bit, but it didn't photograph well.)
I just LOVE this Painted Lady pp by Kaiser. I just fussy cut around the wings a bit and then bent them up for some dimension, inked the edges and added my sentiment and was done!

Soo...

I'm not usually this bad about updating...but with the morning sickness kicking in, along with the early pregnancy tiredness, two littles, Christmas, and DT work....I've been struggling to get the bare minimum done lately! lol. Sorry about that. Anyway, I think things are looking up sickness wise...we had Christmas with my family today and it was wonderful! I can't wait to weed through my photos tomorrow and see if I got any gold! (I'm soo bad about getting good shots at Christmas!)

Anyway, I've got a TON of stuff to share...so be looking for that in the next few days too. Thanks for sticking around even when I wasn't! lol

Catching up

So I've been doing my December Daily...just got a bit behind posting!

Day 6


Day 7
and yes, that is what you think it is!!!! :)

December Daily: Day 4

Yesterday I wasn't feeling great and I wanted something that was special but simple. I decided before I even looked through my photos that I only wanted to do one page so that I could fix that whole nasty problem of my days being on the front and back of a page instead of facing each other.

When I saw this picture of Kessa from yesterday morning I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it! (as always the photo is clickable if you want to read the journaling, and I highly recommend it as it will give you a good laugh!)

Dinner Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Dinner Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Can't you just see Kessa in this?!?!

December Daily: Day 3

And here's day 3. I had it done just didn't get it posted last night. (the picture is clickable if you want to read the journaling.) Have a great Friday!

December Daily Day 2

Here's day two of my December Daily! The first page says "For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!" and then there is hidden journaling under the picture of DD looking at her bible and playing with her little people nativity that says, "We got Kessa and Zeke this Little People Nativity this year as part of their x-mas present but decided to let them have it early and it came in today! After setting it up and playing for a few minutes Kessa ran and got her Big Picture Storybook Bible and started flipping through it. All of a sudden she got very excited. "Look! There's baby Jesus!!!" She had found him in her Bible. She got to play with him AND read about him!"


and as always....some randomness from today! ;)

December Daily (Day 1)

As promised....here is a before and after of my December Daily Day 1.

Here's the Before:
And After:

The journaling on page one says "Kessa and Sophie helped me make Peppermint Mocha Cookies...they turned out great! (and they tasted pretty good too.)

Under the picture of Zeke it reads, "Poor little guy." Zeke got first for the first (and second!) times today. Those goldfish...much prettier here than how I saw them again later. I still don't know what's wrong, he doesn't eve have a fever. I'm praying he wakes up all better tomorrow."

And for the fun of it...some pictures from today. :)
Sophie had a good time playing babies today! (but Whitie never got too far either! lol)
yea, I'm one of those "cool" (or crazy!) mom's who lets them jump on the bed! I mean, when else do I get to see that look of sheer delight on my daughters face?!
And out Little People Nativity came today! Woot woot! Everyone had fun playing with it.

Advent Conspiracy

I saw this on Virginia's blog and I'm loving it. We are in. We are ALL in. We too have been trying to figure out how we want our family to celebrate/remember/enjoy/worship CHRISTmas.

December 1st

Wow....can you believe it's December?!?!? We had quite the....eventful start to the month...lots of interesting things to record in my December Daily. Just popping in to share a few photos...tomorrow I'll start my daily sharing of my D.D. pages. :)
(you're never too young to have a drinking buddy!)

Thankful

Maybe it's a little late, but only on the posting part. I created this LO earlier this week, using mostly Pink Paislee Vintage moon stuff, with a little bit of Office Lingo, and some Jenni Bowlin stuff thrown in. I am truly SOO thankful my kids are friends and I'm praying that they will always be such good friends!

(now you can gear up for Christmas posts...cause I've gotten the Christmas bug. We decorated today! :)

Peppermint Swirl

Just some fun stuff I made with the cute Peppermint Swirl kit from Scrap-Tastic!




These pictures of Kessa are from last Christmas....I can't believe how much older she is!!! *sniffle* (although she's still the same size! lol)

Christmas Gift Basket

I had a lot of fun making this with my Peppermint Swirl kit from Scrap-Tastic. It's now availble in my etsy shop if you know anyone that might be interested. It's full of great holiday goodies and perfect for making all your little x-mas gifts and scrapping those special little moments. For this gift basket I made these home decor blocks that say "Merry" on them. All the papers are American Crafts (and they're two sided so I only had to use 3 sheets!!!) After I trimmed my paper and adhered it to the blocks (which my dad cut for me, Thanks dad!!!) I put a VERY heavy coat of Modge Podge on them and then added the Thickers once it was dry.
I always enjoy my envies being pretty so I stamped a big snowflake from the Pink Paislee Tinsel Town set on the flap of them.


The cards are really cute IRL, but I still haven't quite gotten the hang of photographing clear ones! If you've got any tips PLEASE leave me a comment!!!!


More to come tomorrow from this yummy kit. I'm not usually much on x-mas LOs, but I'm pretty pleased with the ones I did with this kit.

December Daily

So, are you interested in the December Daily idea but just don't have the time to make one? My very talented friend Babs is giving one away. This is the December project kit over at Scrap-tastic. However, Bab's isn't giving away the project kit....she's giving away the completed album!!!! Check it out and then leave a comment here. That's it. Bab's will draw a name from everyone who comments by 11/26. Good luck!

Downtown Holiday Jacket and Pant GIVEAWAY!!!!

Downtown Holiday Jacket and Pant GIVEAWAY!!!!

Wow, this is just TOO cute! Can't you see Kessa wearing this? I'm sooo going to be stalking this ladies blog and store now!

Shout Out

crowdSPRING, hire Kelly Purkey for your new Community Marketing Manager!

Overheard

As Kessa was pretending to read a book I heard her mumbling...

"Constipated....God is constipated."


Welcome to the loony bin.

Etsy Update

Ok, I've been promising it for a few days now and here it is! An etsy update! You can see more detail at BabyFishDesigns.


The fun thing about this set of little boy cards is that they're really little! They're aprox. 2.5x3.5! Perfect for tucking in gift bags or adding to boxes.
This fun set of cards also has a matching "purse" that they all fit in! They make a great hostess gift. You can see all the details and the purse here.
And this 3-D gift card holder I just LOVE. I had so much fun making it!!! There are close ups of the presents and snowmen here.

Tips and Techniques

Every Tuesday we have a new Tip of Technique over at Scrap-Tastic and today it was my turn to post an idea! :) You can check out the entire post here. And here's a little sneak peek.
I'm off to Champaign with my mom and littles to see my BFF for the day! Hope you have a great Tuesday too!!! :)

(oh, and I've got some fun projects I've been hoarding that I'm hoping to post tomorrow, so be sure to come back and check them out!)

Source of Joy

I did this LO for another crop challenge at Noel Mignon. I know that the title is rather...morbid...but it really isn't if you read the journaling I swear! The challenges was to use nothing but paper. No embellishments at all...no letter stickers, nothing like that. I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out. I paired one of the flocked papers from the DCWV Rock Star pack with some scraps from Cosmo Crickets Get Happy line and I'm loving the results! I also used the Stampin Up small star punch and spiral punch.
On a side note...I'll take a better picture tomorrow or Monday, but I have to get this up before the deadline which is tonight...so no good lighting!

Journaling - "You two are not my Ultimate Source of JOY....I tell you that because I love you. Ultimate and true joy can only be found when Christ saves you from your sins and blesses you with a relationship with Himself. Look to Him for your joy and then you will be able to find joy and happiness with others also, but your world won't collapse if they let you down because your joy and idenity are in Christ and you know He will never let you down."

Edited to Add - new photo of the LO, much better!

Kit Giveaway

Here's the dealio....Scripts is going to give away a kit to one lucky person!

Follow the few simple rules, and you can be entered to win a November Scripts Kit and the Supplement!
1. Check out the Scripts Blog HERE
2. Post a link on your blog about the giveaway contest we are having!
3. Add the Scripts link and logo on your sidebar
4. Come back to the Scripts Blog and let us know that you've done it, and you will be automatically entered!

BONUS: If you have friends that play too, and in the comments on the Scripts Blog, they tell us that they found out about it from YOUR blog, you will both get an additional entry!

(so if you decide to play be sure you tell them that Gina sent you and we'll both get entered twice!)

Good Luck, and happy blogging!

**Contest Ends November 20th!

Fun Times

That's right...I've got more LOs to share with you! I'm finding a TON of inspiration over at the Noel Mignon Harvest Crop (it's still going on so you can join the fun if you want! :))

This first one was a challenge to scrap using only things on our desk...thank goodness I'm a messy scrapper!!!! However, none of my letters stickers were on my desk! Eek...I found the big letters stashed in a paper pack though...so I was saved. Kessa was only 14 months old in these pictures!
and some close up goodness...lots of dimension here.
This next one was to use no store bought embellishments...no flowers or mirrors or clocks or the like...but this YUMMY Sassafrass paper helped me out...and I'm really happy with how it turned out. The photo is compliments of my SIL Chelsea and her amazing Canon D80!
and I love the bird so much I had to give you all a better view of him...
and of the trees just for the fun of it!

Have a great weekend!!!! (oh, and be sure to check back in tomorrow...I've got some pretty cool projects to share with you!)

LO Goodness

Well I've been sucked into another on-line crop and I've been rather productive. This first one was a sketch challenge and I was able to use my YUMMY new Pink Paislee goodies from the Tinsel Town line. Sorry the colors aren't great...it's been raining for 2 days around here and its supposed to rain for like 3 more!


and some close ups. I accordian folded some pp and layered it under the trees that I cut from a different pp. Then used a press on on top.
This bird is from an October Afternoon stamp set. I just kinda nested him down in the bow and stuck on some glue once he was where I wanted him. I was going for a bit of a "wreath" feel with the green circle so I did some outlining with clear and pink stickles.
This next LO was for an ephemera challenge...and I'm thinking I don't like the results at all!!! Anyway, my MIL took my DD to the Butterfly House last month, but her camera lenses fogged up and she got no good pictures at all. For the big one I made everything B&W except for the blur which is my daughter ;) and I left it colored.

and a close up of the tickets from this little excursion. I used a brad to hold the two tickets and the photo strip together and then fanned them out.

December Daily

So I finished it! Here's the front view...

And an over-view of the inside pages....if I'm on top of things I'll post a before and after pic of each page during December when I get it done. :) (and let's just say that the 2 inch rings Ali used/recommended would NOT be big enough for this...these are 3 inch rings and they're too little...the price I pay for loving junked up pages! ;)

and for good measure...I LO I did Saturday night. I used one of Deb's great sketches from AllyScraps and this picture was take Saturday at the park...love it. DS is a big kid, but he looks so small with DH. :D I LOVE seeing DH with our kids...melts my heart.