We've Arrived

Well, we're here in the house, but we're still digging our way out of all the boxes and paper. (See below--there are actually three children in there). I've got my machine here, but haven't found the keyboard for the computer it hooks up to. Wish me luck--I've got to dive back into the unpacking.

BTW, the table is only in the family room because the floors were recently refinished. (Lots of fun and smell :D ). We haven't moved it yet.

Move in Progress

I haven't been able to post anything as I don't have access to my computer. (I'm at my sister-in-law's home). We're in the process of completing our move, but we've hit a few snags. I'll keep you posted and look for more vinyl projects when I am settled.

Princess Night Light

My daughter occasionally wants a night light when she goes to bed. I took our Princess word art and put it on an acrylic block. The block had a hole drilled into the bottom through which I fed a strand of battery operated lights (about 20 lights), and viola! A perfect night light for her room.

October Fun

It's already the 5th of October. Halloween is three and a half weeks away, and it's time to decorate. Consider putting vinyl rub-ons onto your windows and doors...

Clean Office and Moving

So the end result of a verrrrrrrry long and story is that we are still moving out of state. I've got my house all cleaned up for house showings (see the pretty office below), which unfortunately has put a big crimp in my ability to create gorgeous projects with vinyl.

(First I have a bathroom remodel, then I spend my summer away from home, and now I have to keep my house spotless--not an easy task with my kids). I'm running a bit short on pictures with all of this, but I do have a cute nightlight I created using our PRINCESS word art that I'll try and post soon.

Hopefully it won't be too much longer before we relocate, and my sweet husband has agreed I need a space I can call my own for crafts AND computer stuff. (I knew there was a reason I married him). We're looking as some places that have the potential for that, yet are modest in size and price (read full unfinished basement instead of partial with a crawl).

We also agree I need a laundry room instead of a laundry closet. (Our boys generate a massive amount of laundry).

Time to get organized

One of the things we did this summer was spend three weeks in Utah. My kids got to visit with all of their cousins there (on both sides of our family), and I got to spend some great time with my sisters! My youngest sister and I helped our mom out (who was pretty ill) by helping her declutter and simplify her life. Her pantry was a thing of beauty when we finished!

Here are a few photos of pantry containers Jodee (Walls of Wisdom co-owner) did.

I'm back!

Wow, what a whirlwind summer! We put our house on the market, visited family, moved to another state and moved back (yep, we moved back). In any case I'm home and I have some fun ideas to share.

Hope you had a great summer too!

And since it's back to school time, here's a fun wall Jodee did for her son's room. (She used two layers of vinyl for the effect).


Oh, and in case you were wondering, here's how the bathroom turned out.

Moving Update

Well, the house is nearing completion for getting it on the market. We had to basically do a master bathroom remodel since our grout went bad and it rotted the wallboard behind it. We had to rip it down to the studs and start over. We were told we can't put the house on the market with a major problem like that, so we had to take care of it first. So much fun!

Thankfully we're almost done with that. So a word of warning. If you have a tile shower, you should know the grout needs to be resealed every so many years--frequency depends upon how often the shower is used. It's pretty inexpensive to do, and it will save you the headache that we had.

Oh, and if you are blessed with a 1980's pink tub like we were, you can have it resurfaced/reglazed for under $500--even if it is jetted. In our case this was the cheaper option than having a new tub put in.

The Final Winner is

Number 3, Linda SS! Congratulations Linda! Email me your address, and I will go to the post office and mail off all the candy for all of the winners.

Thank you everyone for celebrating with me! (And thanks to Mandiannie for telling me how to do a screen capture!)

Third and Final Blog Candy!

The third & final blog candy is this adorable, pink Princess vinyl. It measures 18"x 9 3/4". It was designed by Meridith Anne of Lizzie Anne designs. This would be perfect in any little girl's room!

So, given that I've had a problem with posting and we've lost our rhythm of the giveaway, I'll do the drawing on Saturday night. (10:00 CST). This should give you plenty of time to post and share the news. Just leave a comment and good luck for the last time!

Phew! I have Internet again!

Wow, talk about lousy timing. After I posted the winner of the second blog candy giveaway, I went to take care of the kids. About one half hour later I came back and..... no Internet. My network connector, which has been known to spontaneously disconnect itself, gave up for good, and my network went down.

I had no idea how dependent upon the Internet I am.

Yikes.

More bad timing--my oldest just started shrieking that the dishwasher was leaking. Apparently I've never explained the difference between dishwasher liquid detergent and dishwashing liquid soap. Hmmmm.

Lesson learned.

And the Winner Is...

Number 4, Lisa! Congratulations! Email me your information and I'll get this lovely quote out to you.

I meant to get this posted last night, but my DH roped me into replacing a few of our old lights like the lovely brass ones you see with the new ones. It took us several hours. :sigh:

I'll be back soon to post the last giveaway!

More Blog Candy!

For the second giveaway this this week, I'm going to be giving away the vinyl for this quote. It's the perfect size for an 8x24" board. I'm not including the board, but you can find ones cut and routed at local craft stores.

Good luck! I'll draw for the winner Thursday night.

The last prize will be another unmounted vinyl, but this one was designed by Meridith Anne of Lizzie Anne Designs!

Congratulations to...

Mary Puskar! Random.org generated the number 5. I'd post a picture of it, but I haven't quite figured out how to capture screen images yet. (Anyone who knows how is welcome to email me & fill me in on the details).

Mary, please email me at tiffiny@wallsofwisdomhome.com with your information, and I'll be happy to send you your new candle holder!

Time for Blog Candy!

On a fun note--when I checked my blog out early Tuesday to show Jodee (the other original half of Walls of Wisdom ) how to blog, we saw it's gotten over 1500 hits now! Woohoo!

Other great news is Jodee has decided she will also begin a blog (and I'll be posting the link as soon as she creates it).

Next, we had a great business meeting, and I'm really excited about some of the things we'll be offering in the coming months. (Like an exclusive line of vinyl designed by Meridith Anne of Lizzie Anne Designs among other great things!)

Lastly, we're coming up on our 3-year anniversary as a company.

So, in celebration of all this, I'm going to be offering some BLOG CANDY! Since it is our 3-year anniversary, I will be giving away 3 different items this week. The first item I'm giving away is this dove/peace candle holder. The first drawing will be on Monday evening, March 3.

You know the drill--leave a comment & I'll use a random number generator to determine the winner.

Good luck!

Winter Wonderland

In case you're having a hard time seeing what is in this picture, there is a bunny near the bottom of the photo, and a few birds on the bird feeder. We originally put the bird feeder up for my cub scout son. (He wanted to earn the World Conservation Patch). The bird feeder has been a hit. It's been a hit with the birds, the squirrels, the rabbits, the chipmunks...

It was pretty amazing just looking out my window for 20 minutes or so and just watching the animals come and go. Pretty cool huh?

Vote!

If you live in a Super Tuesday state, make sure you get out today and cast your vote! It's important that all of us participate in our civic process of electing our leaders. Many people have died protecting our rights and freedoms--the least we can do is exercise the privilege we have to vote.

So get out and make your voice heard. Every vote counts!

Great Giveaway!

Meridith Anne of Lizzie Anne Designs is giving away some great blog candy over the next couple of days in celebration of getting over 10,000 hits to her blog. Today she's giving away 7 fantastic stamps to ONE lucky winner! Go check it out here, and Good Luck!

She's reminded me that I didn't celebrate my own milestone of 1,000 hits, so I think I will have to come up with some blog candy next week. What do you think? Do you want another tile? Be sure to let me know in your comments.

Coats, coats & more coats

Well winter has definitely hit, and we need our coats. We need our coats, boots, scarves, gloves, hats, earmuffs...

So where do you put all of that stuff? (Especially if you have more than one child?) My friend came up with a pretty good solution for her family. She put up coat hooks in her hall closet (low enough for the kids to reach), and they are now labeled so each child has a place to hang his/her things. Genius!

I'm going to be doing the same thing with our laundry hampers. This ought to eliminate any confusion over which laundry hamper belongs to which child. I'll post pictures when I have them.

Digital Sunday

Just a quick post tonight. Isn't it amazing how far we've come in this digital age? I remember my dad's old TRS-80 from Radio Shack. It had one game, "Olympic Decathlon" which was highly pixelated and you had to press keyboard keys to run it. He recorded data on magnetic tapes (using a specialized tape recorder), and his modem had a cradle which you had to physically put the phone into.

Tonight I've checked three different email accounts, video-conferenced with several members of my family, downloaded digital photos of the pinewood derby and updated my blogs. Yesterday I visited a bulletin board I'm a member of, and I played a video game with my daughter which is light years better in graphics than the "Olympic Decathlon" I used to play with my dad. Isn't the digital age amazing?

And in a lot of ways it allows us to reach out and make better connections. I live pretty far from some of my family members, but with video conferencing I can visit with them on a regular basis. How cool is that?

I have to say I'm grateful for the ways technology has improved my life.

Beautiful Ballerina

Well apparently my camera doesn't like taking pictures of pale purple (I took 15 pictures with a ton of different settings & couldn't get the purple to come out darker), but here is the card I made with LAD's brand-new ballerina stamp. I used Bazzill papers and SU! inks. The ribbon is from American Crafts. The background stamp is In the Background from LAD.

I had fun making her. I colored her hair dark brown to play off the ribbon as well as a tribute to my daughter (who has taken to calling herself "Princess June" after the Little Einsteins character). Both have darker hair. :D

I've been posting a lot of paper crafting projects lately, so I think that I will post some vinyl projects next. Stay tuned...

A Bouncing Baby Boy!

I have a nephew! Well technically I have 10+ nephews, but the newest one made his appearance yesterday! He was a little over 8 1/2 lbs. & 21" long. Another nephew was born about a week ago. (He's adorable too!) He weighed just over 8 lbs and is 20" long.

So in honor of my two nephews, I thought I'd post a baby boy card.

Actually, I used this for my little boy’s birth announcement. I have to admit, I stole this fabulous idea from C. Tepa Farias. We swapped cards at a SU! convention, and I just knew I had to have this card. Her version was in pink, and used a different background stamp and ribbons, but it was just too cute not to "lift".

And speaking of babies, I'm really happy to report that my friend with the broken kneecap is doing so much better. It was tricky getting around with a newborn and a cast, thankfully that came off a little over a week after the baby was born. She then wore a brace for a while, but that is off now too. She's able to bend her knee & drive again and has regained most of the motion in her leg. She hasn't been able to do any running yet, but I'm sure that is coming. (The baby is only six-weeks-old after all).

Babies are so sweet aren't they? (Especially when they are napping :D ).

***********

The other day I mentioned the sweet new stamps I got from my friend, Meridith Anne of Lizzie Anne Designs? She gave me the brand-new pirate, pirate saying, and ballerina from their winter release. (Before they were available for purchase). I can't tell you how excited I was/am. I had planned on having a card posted with my cute new stamps already, but life has interfered with my plans. I'm hoping to finish the ballerina card tonight and post it tomorrow.

Happy New Year Resolutions

Have you made New Year's Resolutions? I did. Once again I'm trying to get myself organized. (Well my office that is--the rest of my house is okay.) I went so far as hiring a professional organizer last year, and we made good strides until I was put on partial bedrest.

Things sort of fell apart from there.

But I'm at it again and now you can see more of the floor in my office. The thing that buries me is the sheer amount of papers. I have all my crafting projects and their ensuing mess, the forest of paperwork that comes home from school, the home improvement/decorating swatches, pictures, sale advertisements that get thrown into a box, the scouting stuff, the catalogs and magazines I want to look at, and I have to go through all my old Stampin' Up! papers to sort out what needs to be kept (for tax purposes), and what is useful for this point in my life. The things I've been able to keep organized are family finances and my Walls of Wisdom papers and information.

I'm feeling positive though. I've been making good strides, and I'm more than halfway there. The kids and I have a new system for incoming papers, and we've been decluttering and finding lots of things to give away or to sell.

In this whole process, I've uncovered more old cards I had made. I thought I'd post a picture of one of the first Spectrum pad cards I ever made. This was almost 10 years ago, and before we started using decorative wire. (We were using decorative edge scissors still though--funny how things go around).

I had wanted my balloons to pop off the card, so I used some dimensionals and some thread I had knotted together and then taped behind the balloons to make it appear as if they had strings. I used my trimmer to cut out a window for the "Happy Birthday" to appear through. I sponged the edges to help the dimensions appear a bit better.

Isn't it funny how some things (like decorative edges) go around in cycles? Do you have a favorite trend that has come back? Do you have resolutions you'd like to share? I'd like to hear from you.

One of my other resolutions is to do a little more scrapbooking. I just checked out the new sneak peek designs at Lizzie Anne Designs, and I'm in love with the new princess set. I think it was made for my daughter. I'm definitely going to be getting this new set!

The Gift that Keeps Giving

Happy New Year! I apologize for the funny error with the photos from my last post. My computer randomly dropped my internet connection while I was uploading my photos as I was posting. I reconnected and thought it went through alright, but apparently I was wrong. You should be able to see the photos now.


My friend Mica send me this darling gift in the mail. She rolled the white lunch sack, and made her cards with Stampin' Up! stamps and materials. I particularly love her card. It's simple, but very cute. The two-sided paper and stitched ribbon add a fun flair.

(Alas, this year I sent Mica and the other 200* people on my Christmas card list store-bought cards--though in my heart I stamped them one). As I mentioned in my last post, it was a particularly busy Christmas for us this year. And to top it all off, one of my children had us singing "All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth". My sweet pea has been miserable as two bottom teeth made their way through the gums. Add to that an ear infection and pretty much all my sweetie wants to do is be held.

I don't know if you've ever tried stamping with a young one in your arms, but it's pretty impossible. :D

Anyway, inside Mica's cute wrapping job was this recipe card holder. I had cut the vinyl letter for her and her church group as well as a few extra for gifts she was making. I guess I was one of the lucky recipients of the gifts!

Thanks Mica! I love it. I've already got my favorite Williams-Sonoma recipe for Butternut Squash soup on the metal board and ready to go for dinner tomorrow. I'm so excited to use this. Mica knows I love to cook (when I have the time), and I have needed a good recipe card holder for a long time.

And speaking of gifts, let me just say there are definite advantages to being such good friends with the owners of the best new stamp company out there, Lizzie Anne Designs. Meridith (Anne) sent me the cutest new stamps for Christmas, AND THEY'RE NOT EVEN AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE YET!! (Okay, so if you wait a few more days you can get them too, and BELIEVE ME you want to get these stamps).

Not sure what I'm talking about? Well throughout this week LAD is revealing several new stamp sets they adding to their already fantastic collection on January 7th. Today they revealed four new sets. I can't tell you what the stamps that I received are yet (I promised them I wouldn't spoil their surprise), but I can STRONGLY encourage you to check out their sneak peeks throughout the week.

So what was your favorite Christmas gift this year? Was it handmade? I'd like to hear from you if you are willing to share.

*The actual count is 199 Christmas cards--really it is. When you have as many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends from numerous moves as we do it adds up quickly. :D