Cheesy things that happen when Mom is distracted...

While I was busy finishing up my last blog posting, Blake discovered some melted cheese that Conner had not finished. He was enjoying cleaning the bowl. Thank goodness that I had something down over the couch or I'd have one cheesy couch.

*Notice the mark under his left eye. This kid is constantly hurting himself. He is trying to start walking and has no fear. This particular owie happened while playing with his brother. He was trying to get Conner who was hiding on his bed, Blake lost his footing and tip over onto the corner of the bed. Go figure, it was the only area that could hurt him since he was surrounded by the blankets and pillows his big bro put on the floor.

House Pictures (Part 5)

Things are moving just a little slower right now. The roof is on and has been for a bit, but I didn't have great pictures to share. It seems that I have misplaced my kit lens and so I have had to shoot these with my 50mm. I love my 50mm, but for wider shots in tight space, it just doesn't cut it. So, cross your fingers that I find my other lens.

The choice of roof coloring is awesome. We chose something called architectural which means it has some nice "texture" appearance to it. The color is a warm, neutral that will go great with whatever color we paint the house in the future.
This is a shot of the entrance from the driveway. The door goes in the recessed area behind the column. Again, the large window on the right of the picture is my scraproom.

This shots shows you some of the great detail in the roof with the gables. The windows are the boys rooms. The gable over the window will have what is called knee braces to dress it up. We love the look of craftsman style and Mike Connelly our builder has the same style. He makes our lives so easy. What a blessing it was to find him and his wife (their company)!

This is the side of the house from the driveway. The window towards the back (left of the picture) is our master bathroom, the little window up high is the window over the shower in the kids bathroom and the three 2 x 2 windows are in Conner's bedroom. We are adding a belly band and shingles above the line to add interest to this side of the house.

Since I can't find my other lens, I couldn't get a good full shot of my door. Which actually turned out to be a positive because I love how this picture turned out. After having a standard mobile home door that I hated (no embellishments hear ladies), I am in love with my new door. It actually may be my favorite part of the house!

She's having a baby...(not me)

My best friend (been my friend since 5th grade) is having a baby. She is excited and scared, rightfully so with your first. I am so excited for her! She loves Mickey Mouse, so I couldn't wait to create a card using the Giggles and Grins paper packet. This weekend she is coming home, well visiting us from Nebraska. She left me to move to Nebraska just a month before I had Conner. I was devastated, but as a friend I did what I should and supported her. I am always glad when she comes back to say hi and this time we have something more to celebrate.


Hopefully, she doesn't check my blog this week, because I couldn't wait to share the card with all of you.

How sweet...

My dear friend, Nona, nomiated my blog as one that she loves! Now I get to share a few of my favorite blogs to visit (besides Nona's).

Sparkle

Kathi

Lisa

Jenn (Jenn may not post often, but when
she does the artwork is amazing!

House Pictures (Part 4)

The walls are up. Brian is standing in my scraproom. I can see a good portion of the yard from it. What I can't see, we are talking about adding cameras so that I can see. Conner loves to be outside ALL the time! But I have to be able to see him at all times, so the cameras along with Tyson as his guardian will make life just a bit easier.

These are our trusses. Brian even got to be home to see them arrive. We sat out in the back of the truck for the best view. So cool!

The peaks are super tall! Jenn actually drove by one day and thought that maybe we had decided to build a two story home.

The framers and roofers overlapped. Even before the framing was truly complete, the roofers were throwing the black paper on the roof.

The house is framed and the windows are in. Our dreams are coming true!

Thank you for sharing in our dream home progress. If you take anything from this, I hope that it is a greater understanding that you too can achieve your dreams. We ran into so many that said it couldn't be done or implied it. Keeping our eyes on our dream we kept moving forward. At times I doubted that it would happen, but I didn't let that stop me either. As Randy Pausch (known for his Last Lecture - watch it if you haven't seen it) said, brick walls are only there to prove to yourself how much you want something. Don't let a brick wall stop you from accomplishing what you heart desires!

There are still new pictures coming! I'll get those today, but tomorrow I plan on sharing a couple of cute cards that I have been busy creating. As my title says...Creatively is Calling.

House Pictures (Part 3)

Happy would be an understatement when describing how we feel about the house progress!

The outside walls are up and you can even start to see the shapes of the rooms. This is a picture of the left (when looking at the entry) side of the house. The rooms you see are the two bathrooms, our walk in closet and our bedroom. We realize that these rooms are not big. It is funny to understand Brian and I as a couple. We are such a great fit. Most couples experience a lot of disagreements while building, we have been on the same page the entire time. So, when it came to having big bathrooms, we opted for rooms that were efficient and easy to maintain. No need for two sinks and a separate shower for either of us.

Every night we come up to the house after the workers are gone and walk through the entire house. We love being on site! This shot is looking towards the front of the house. The rooms with the big windows are the boys rooms. They are going to share a room and have a playroom while they are little.

This shot is the looking toward the back of the house. I love all of my windows! When they were designing the house I must have ask for big windows a hundred times. The designer told me the sizes of the windows and I just laughed and politely asked..."but are those going to be big." The mobile home had the standard mobile home windows and was dark even during the day time. Winters were really hard for me. Now with these windows and our 9ft ceilings, I think things will be much "brighter."

This is the "big" side of our house. We strove to have our space in the living areas of our home. Here you get a look at our entry way, the open kitchen with an island, our utility room with guest bathroom and of course my dream scrap room (which could always be turned into an amazing rec room - right).

Tomorrow you'll be treated to an outside view of the house up!

House Pictures (Part 2)

Standing at this point, you used to look at the front of the mobile home. Once it was down, we stood in awe of how pretty our property really is. We are so lucky! What looks like a pile junk up there is actually all the wood to start building the house.

In just one day they framed the floor. We have a nice crawl space. It is taking shape.

Another day later, they have the floor covered. Conner is just in heaven. I was teasing him that he was being naughty and telling him to go to his room. He'd giggle and run over to the space that will soon be his. After that he just ran laps. And yes, I know it isn't the safest thing to let my son run barefoot in a construction zone...but unless I duct tape the shoes on there is little choice.

Piles and piles of dirt is a little boys dream. Can't you just feel the joy oozing from him?

My sweet little bug boy. He can pick up nearly any bug and not get bit. Now granted potato bugs are big biters (lol), but he had been picking up fire ants before this.

Until the cozy house is finished, this is our "tub." For most baths we visit our family members. Without a doubt the boys would prefer that we always bathe them in this tub. Look at how dirty they are! The water looked the chocolate milk after this cleaning.

The walls go up! And isn't it fitting that my scraproom wall would be the first to be raised. Dreams are becoming reality.

Okay, now you have to wait until tomorrow for a new set of pictures. I promise they'll be good ;)

House Pictures (Part 1)

Phil Wills was amazing and did all of our excavating. There was an impressive amount of cement beneath the mobile home. Phil made it "disappear," thank goodness as it would have been very expensive to haul off. As it was we ended up needing three dumpsters to get rid of the mobile home.

Blake enjoyed all the equipment on the property. He does this funny little thing of tucking his bottom teeth behind his top teeth.

I think that this was one of my favorite parts. The amount of dirt moved was amazing. Phil levels this pretty much by eye, he has been in the business forever and has worked on the projects of many of our family and friends.

The framing crew came out and in just a short time laid out the foundation wall frames.

These got filled in with the cement and created the first stage of our foundation.

I was always a tomboy, so when the pump truck came out I was thrilled. It is so cool! With this one truck they were able to reach all the way across our property. Without the pump truck I think they would have had to run the cement by wheel barrow.

Check Back Tomorrow for More Pictures
(I've even scheduled the post)

Ready for pictures...

I was all set to start posting pictures several days ago. Imagine my surprise when I went to download my photos and my computer flashed a warning of not enough space. Out of 80GB, I only had 130kb left.Yikes! So, yesterday I ran to the store and picked up another external hard drive. Today I removed all my documents/photos onto my first ext.hd and have them backed up on the second one. Now I am ready to start sharing :)

I have so many pictures I am going to share them over the course of several days. The post are scheduled, so be sure to check each day for a new set of pictures. I'm such a tease, I know.

I'm still here...

I am back from Convention and have been for some time. Internet is finally up and steady. Now if only I could gain several more hours (and the needed energy) in each day. I'll be back soon with some pictures. Rather than wait until I have the photos (my computer says I don't have enough space - but I have a plan) I like to update you all.

~~ House ~~
The progress on the house has been amazing. If you remember we tore down the mobile home the first week in July. Now just a month and half later, we have the foundation, all the walls up and today they are roofing it. Friday we finalized our cabinets and they should be here in four weeks. Tomorrow the plumber comes out. I look forward to sharing pictures, it really is unbelievable. Please pray that the progress continues at the same speed, we'd love to be in the house before the weather turns.

~~ Artwork/New Catalog/Convention ~~
I am sure that you are all wondering where all the pictures of my artwork are. I have decided not to share those quite yet, I'd like to keep them a surprise for the release of the new catalog.

The new catalog is AMAZING! I know that I got to see much of the product early, but I'll tell you what...the product that I didn't get to see until Convention blew my socks off. Close To My Heart never fails to impress me. Here are a few tidbits until my launch, think clear (album), organization and rub ons.

Convention was a blast! We got to stay in the Gaylord Palms Resort and never left the hotel (except to go to the airport). That may not sound like a positive to some of you, but for me I don't do well in the heat and loved that I was comfortable the entire time. I met some super duper Consultants that kept me up all hours of the night. One of those ladies, Corinna, joined Nona and I in the courtyard until nearly midnight every night giggling. We had unbelievable Create & Takes that I can hardly wait to share with you (have to wait until the launch).

My favorite announcement is that Close To My Heart has refined our donation committment and now exclusively supports Operation Smile. The company has promised $150,000 this year and you have a hand in those donations...a percentage of all stamp sales goes to Operation Smile. We spent a morning touched by the pictures and the changes in the kids lives who are benefited by Operation Smile. I have made a promise to myself to raise enough to cover 5 surgeries with the help of my customers.

On September 6th, I am hosting a catalog launch party to benefit Operation Smile. All proceeds from the party and online orders that day will be donated to Operation Smile where for just $240 we can cover the cost of a surgery and change a child's life. Within the next week, I will be releasing the complete details and opening up registration.

If you have actually read this entire post, thank you. I'll be sure to post pictures soon since I know that is what I enjoy myself.