Another tree bites the dust...

This tree finally had to go. It wasn't a bad looking tree, just sitting in the wrong place. From our driveway it blocked our view to the front door and just seemed out of place. Good 'ol Phil Wills (our excavator extrodinare) took it out with no effort. Turns out we were lucky that we decided to remove it as it was rotten on the inside and it would have just been a matter of time before it came down.

Blake is officially walking (running)

Can you believe I painted my scraproom nearly orange?! Before selecting a color for my most important room (shhh, Brian already teases me that we built the house just for my scraproom), I decided to do some color theory research. I love yellow, however based on color theory it isn't the best color to paint a room. Orange was a great option and is said to evoke feelings of action, warm, happiness, etc. So, here is a little glimpse of what my room looks like.

House Pictures (Part 7)

Things are getting closer. Brian and Andrew have a couple of things to tie up and then it is time for inspections. Once those are done, Mike takes back over and we start things such as insulating and sheet rocking. I can't wait to see the walls become actual walls.

Yesterday was a fun day. We have done quite well with our budget. Actually, I should say Mike did an amazing job and by doing the mechanical and Andrew helping out with the electrical, things are looking good. So, since we had to reselect our flooring, tile and counter tops to go with the change in cabinets, we looked at upgrading just a bit. We are still waiting on the numbers to make sure that we haven't totally blown our budget (by miles) out of the water.

The Walnut Pre-Finished Hardwood flooring is going to cover most of our floors (entry, hall, living room and kitchen). Some of the colors don't appear on camera as they do in person. The Corian (which we may look at Granite) is actually like chocolate milk. I love all of it, however the border tile makes me really excited. The leaves are shiny and actually reflect the color of the cabinets perfectly.

Rather simplistic in the bathrooms and utility rooms. Our back splash will have just a row of the 2 x 2 tiles. The color palettes for the entire house go together rather well, cohesive.

House Pictures (Part 6)

This last weekend they started siding the house. All of our windows are wraped (all four sides), it gives the house so much character. They will be adding Hardiplank shingles above the cut off line here. It will serve as a great accent! Can't wait to see what it looks like.

Brian and Andrew have been working hard getting the Electrical in. I am so excited that Andrew is our Electrician. He and Brian work wonderfully together and they are taking care of me. There are 10 can lights in my scraproom, you'll never have a problem seeing in my house again. Oh, don't worry it won't be too bright either, they are going to be on dimmer switches.

And here are some more pictures of my door. This is sort of what it looks like looking at. There are still some stickers on it and packages of mounting hardware, but you get the idea.Once Brian and Andrew are done with the electrical (and Brian has to finish up the heating) things will begin moving quickly again I think. Oh, by the way if you need some good referrals on Electrician's and Sheet Metal guys, let me know and I'll get you the names of our guys (they have been great)!

Garage Living

It has been 11 weeks since we moved into the garage. Some were worried that we would have a rough go at it. Other than being cold when it chills off and dirty (from all the dust), it has not been too bad. I promised Nona I'd share some pictures and so here they are, minus the bed area. We sleep off to the left of the top picture, sectioned off by a curtain. Our beds are in a U shape and right up against eachother. I think the boys like being so close, worries me a bit about having to move into separate bedrooms. Although, I can't wait to have my own room again...scraproom that is, lol. The above picture is of our kitchen (fridge sits off to the left). The sink is in the back right corner. The washer and dryer are not hooked up, Brian's Mom has been doing our laundry (heaven sent). Funny thing about cooking in the garage, to run any devices (micro/toaster/burner) we have to turn off nearly everything else. I ended up buying a battery back up for my computer, because we blew the breaker so often and it was hurting it.


This is my scrap area. My hubby is so great to me! He actually hung up all my shelves, so that i could stay organized. I also have my paper racks cabinet on the wall behind this area. Surprisingly, I have nearly everything still within reach. I only had to pack a handful of boxes upstairs.

I don't know what I would do without the garage. My mom worked the entire time I was growing up, so I am rather solitary. My family is all in the area and great, but living with them may have sent me over the edge. Building a house is such high stress, being in someone elses space would have been like being in a pressure cooker. Say a few prayers that the house will progress quickly so that we don't have to figure out what to do in the cold weather.

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!

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)

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.

Pictures as promised

The last couple of days have felt like weeks, but we have accomplished so much more than I would have imagined. Brian and I are so lucky to have some strong friends (thank you Andrew, Russ) and family (thank you Dad, Jereme and Dave) who have helped.

On Weds. I left to go pick up lunch and was floored when I came back (I wasn't gone too long), the siding was gone on the side I could see from the road and many of the interior walls were gone. We ended up calling it a night around 6:30 because the skies opened up on us with the most impressive thunder and lighting storms I have ever experienced in Washington. Go figure, sunny and hot with no rain until we start pulling down the house. Even though it was earlier than we intended on stopping, the guys were able to have the house 20-25% down.

Yesterday, they removed the porch awning and the metal roofing and much of the remaining siding. I took the boys to the store to get charcoal so we could have a BBQ and some other items we needed. We also picked up our revised building permit with NO "Fire Sprinklers Required" stamped on it. We had to submit a revision to have our driveway increased to 20ft wide to get that requirement removed. Yes, I did say 20ft wide...crazy uh. We knew we'd be able to meet the minimums so that we wouldn't have to install fire sprinklers in our house (they are expensive and have the potential to leak), but we were concerned because the lender wanted a copy of our building permit. We had not figured the sprinklers into our budget and knew that if she saw the original permit she'd have a heart attack (based on the fact that she has been a bit of a pain to deal with all along - so concerned about EVERYTHING). Thank God the new permit was ready for me yesterday, so I could give her the clean copy. ;)

I have a lot more pictures and some video to share, but I need to go wrangle the kiddos. So, back to work I go :)