1/31/08

lovin the birds.

i can't get enough of birds these days...from my fabulous new su! stamp set:


to my rockin new jacket i found at this amazing store: heritage 1981. okay, they are owned by forever 21, but they are more vintage. i just plain love them. had a bit of a shopping spree there the other day...okay, not really, but i did get a few pieces of clothing. how did i not know about this place? i mean, i love the name...heritage 1981...the year i was born...it must be cool then.
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1/30/08

10 tiny toes

a layout for milo's album...i have gotten into gold lately. kind of vintage...kind of new. i like it.

here's a detail of the chipboard letters, painted in gold.

recipe:
cardstock: stampin' up!
dsp: daisy D's
chipboard letters (large): stampin' up!
chipboard letters (small): the paper studio
frame: wild asparagus
paint (on edges and chipboard): making memories

ENJOY!
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1/29/08

sweet & sassy


yup. that's hadley all right. no explanation needed.
recipe:
turquoise cardstock - stampin' up!
dsp - stampin' up!
sticker alphabet - american crafts
ribbon - various

the "&" sign was one that i cut out and then traced onto the paper. enjoy :)
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1/26/08

bathroom hooks

here is a fun and super quick project i made today...the kids got these really cute towels from my grandparents, for christmas...and i wanted them to hang in the bathroom...so i made them each a "c", "h" and a "m"...so they knew where to hang their towels. i like how it turned out...and it matches the shower curtain, rug and towels i got for the upstairs bathroom!


AND, i forgot to mention the other day that i'm being published again!! papercrafts has accepted one of my cards for the "holiday edition"...not to be published until october. i'm so excited!!! and my first publication will be out so soon...the paper trends idea book coming out in april...can't wait!
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1/25/08

never too old...


my grandpa paola got an i-pod for his birthday this year...i snapped this picture, the first time he had it on...in my journaling i wrote "his response was "how'd you get that record in here!"...it was too funny...
so, here is a fun page i made for that occasion...i never wanted to forget hearing him say that!
card stock: bazill, su!
black journaler: sharpie
dsp: su!
paint: making memories

i hand wrote the title...and then doodled around it...doodling is my specialty. :)

and i've been told that IKEA no longer sells those stackebos...i will check next time i'm there!

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1/24/08

lots of babies


i've got some friends who are all expecting babies in the next couple of months, so i figured i better start stocking up on my baby cards! the recipe for this card:
river rock, very vanilla, basic black cardstock
basic black grosgain
su! chipboard
blue paint
basic black journaler
scallop circle punch
and, i've also had some people ask what i use for my stamp pad holder...it's called a stackebo from IKEA...they are like 4.99 or something and they are for dvd's, but they fit the stampin' up ink pads very nicely!
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1/22/08

i've been scrapping...


i'm entering the creating keepsakes "hall of fame" contest...the prize is $1,500 in cash and about the same amount in scrapbooking materials...anyways...this is a layout, that i made, but in the end, didn't like it for the contest, so...here ya go...all the layouts i'm doing for the contest cannot be seen until after it's over.
materials:
chocolate chip, blue bayou, close to cocoa cardstock
my mind's eye designer paper
chocolate 5/8th ribbon
craft white ink
big deal alphabet
gel pen
brads
journaling says: "does this kid drive me crazy? yes"
"does this kid cause trouble? yes."
"does this kid push my buttons? yes"
"do i love this kid? whole-heartedly yes."

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1/21/08

beate's sketch #31


it's been a long time coming, but i am back in the game! my craft area is set up, and i am good to go. so, i decided to try out beate's weekend sketch challenge, that i used to try quite often. i used "a little birdie told me" from the new SU! catty...purely pomegranate...watercolor paper...aquapainters...i think you can get it...if not, ask me! enjoy :)
and if you didn't see the below post, this is now my crafty blog...check out my family blog (link is on the side) if you want to stay up to date with the anderson family!
thanks!
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new blog!

okay all, i've added another blog to your daily blog obsession :) i am starting a new blog that is just our family blog...you can view it here: www.andersonfamilycrew.blogspot.com
this way, i can keep all crafty stuff here, and all our family stuff there...if you like both, then you can check both blogs out :) so, check back here for creative stuff...check out the other blog for family stuff! thanks!

1/20/08

it's been a while!

16/365: help! my big brother is attacking me with kisses :)

17/365: jewelry. i've been meaning to post a pic of this for a while, but i never had it up until now...my bestest friend, jami, made this earring holder for me for christmas...it's an old, chunky frame, spray-painted with gold, and it has gold mesh in the middle (where you hang the earrings)...isn't it awesome!!! i love it...thanks james!! (and there hanging next to it is the greatest hat eva...thanks alli!)

wow, where do i begin?? it's been a long couple days since i last posted...it's been long mainly because we stay at home all day long, cause i just don't know where to go! we do go and venture outside every once in a while...but would you believe that 2 days this week, it was just too hot to be out for very long...i started sweating!! the weather here is friggin' crazy...it's been in the high 70's, low 80's for a couple days, and then today we awoke to 50 degree temps. which, believe me...i would have taken 50 degrees any day in january in kansas, but here...it's just plain cold. people showed up to church with their winter coats on...crazy folk. and, to top everything off, last night we were under severe weather watches all night...tornado watches too...yup, tornadoes...i guess i can't escape those. but, we were wondering what you do if there is a tornado, cause there are no basements!! yikes! anyways, friday night we decided to go to the "mall of millenia"...supposedly this luxurious, upper scale mall here in orlando...we needed to get out, and that sounded interesting! but first, i needed to pick up some pictures that i had printed at ritz photo...well, we plugged the addy into our GPS and headed towards ritz...if you've ever drove in orlando, you know that there are tolls EVERYWHERE...you can't get on a freeway without paying a toll...so, when we got to the exit, we accidentally took the wrong turn, and ended up getting back onto the freeway...heading the wrong direction...and heading towards yet another toll. well we didn't want to pay the toll AGAIN, so we decided to go through the side that said "south-no toll"...we thought we were being so smart, and we would head through that, and then get off at the first exit, and turn back around and find ritz...only, the next exit wasn't for 6 MILES...yup, 6 friggin' miles! so, we drove the very looooong 6 miles, and got off at the very first exit, and guess what we had to do...PAY A FREAKING TOLL! and to get back on the freeway...pay another freaking toll!! can you believe that? we thought we were being so smart by going through that exit, but instead, it took us an extra 12 miles, and an extra $2!! what a rip! then, once we got to the address, we couldn't find it...we drove around this one parking lot for like 30 minutes or so...so, we decided to stop and eat there, rather than driving to the mall to eat...and after that, we headed back in search for ritz...finally finding it...only to be told that my order was not there, and if it was something i ordered online, that it would be across the street at the ritz pix in the mall. (not the mall we were planning on going too, but hey). so, 2 hours after heading out of our house, we ended up at a mall...but not the mall we were trying to get too...it was quite an eventful/stressful trip...i still love you keith :)
saturday morning, i made a trip to the local grocery store and spent way too much money...the super wal-mart is opening down the street sometime this month, so we have to go to the store, and spend way too much money on things that we can get for a lot cheaper at wally world. oh, i can't wait for it to open!
last night, i stayed up late and scrap booked! oh, it felt so good to be creative yet again...bummer for you all though, cause i'm submitting these pages to a contest, so i can't show them until after it's over! :( but, i do love these pages...i'm super proud of them!
we went to "summit" church this morning...this church is HUGE! they have 3 services, and have bought out an old movie theatre...they use every theatre for different things...it's really quite interesting, the way they have renovated it...anyways, i'm a church snob, and it's very hard for me to be impressed, cause i have high expectations, but i was somewhat pleased with this one. they had an awesome kids program, and that means a lot...we're going to try something closer to home next week (this one was about 30 minutes away)...but, we live out in the boonies, so a lot of stuff is that far away! there are some churches just right down the street, so we'll start checking those out. i met a lady at church today...and it turns out she just lives right down the street from us, and her husband works at CRU as well! so, we exchanged info, and she's going to be in contact with me about some play groups and stuff like that...i need some connection, so this is great!
well, it seems like a lot longer, but we have officially been here for a week now. i already miss my family and friends so much that it hurts! it's hard for me to hear about what's going on back "home"...i so want to be there, and hanging out. it's just such a weird feeling...to know you're not a part of that anymore. it doesn't seem real quite yet...i still think that i'm in kansas...just on a vacation right now. and then it hits me...this is where i am. for good. at least for now. i miss you all...who's coming to visit first???? the guest room is cleaned and ready to go for visitors!
well, i leave you with a picture of my craft space! i got the desk top and legs from IKEA...the top was only $29.99 and the legs were $5 each. the shelves are $14.99 from IKEA...the tall, skinny shelf was clearanced there for $40...and it matches perfectly! and then i just have a modge podge of other stuff i was using before...but i love the space...it's so much brighter compared to my 'craft dungeon' that i previously had...i love having that huge window right there! this is the other side of our bedroom...so, it's nice to be able to work right there, and have keith or the kids there too-unless of course you catch them opening your paint bottles and painting your new table. yup, caedmon you're officially a stinker (like you weren't before).

well, have a great night...thanks for stopping by...keep updating your blogs...i love to read what's going on in your lives :) love you all!
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1/18/08

#14 & #15

14/365: a typical florida sky

15/365: sweet hadley bean

i will write tomorrow...i'm so tired tonight! off to my cozy bed!
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happy birthday DAD!

today is my dad's birthday...#50!! oh my gosh, i can't believe your 50, dad! i feel like a parent when i say that! anyways, here are some pictures of the kids...wishing you a great day! (milo decided he needed a nap, so that is why he's not in these pictures :) )

is this kid a model, or what? he's even got a model pose going on.

hadley was of course sad, because she wanted to hold the sign...

here she is not cooperating...what's new?

yes! a good one!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!
we love you :)
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1/16/08

the rest of the story

well, so amy & otis left today, to fly back to kansas. they were such a HUGE help to us this past weekend...i do not know what we would have done without them...a huge thanks to you all...you know that we are so grateful, but we can never say it enough! they helped with everything while they were here! and not to mention, that amy photo documented a lot of the road trip, so i'm super thankful to have those memories! thanks amy :) it was sad to say good-bye, and also hard because we were at the airport, and you know how you can't stand there for too long or they might come arrest ya, so we had to say quick good-byes...but i wanted to hug a lot longer! driving home, it really hit me...okay, this is real...i think having them here lessened the blow of being in a new place, away from everyone that i know and love...so, when i was driving home, i all of a sudden felt very...lonely. i know that friends and family will come visit, but at the same time, the dreaded time will always come when we have to say good-bye yet again. and i just don't want to do that, ya know? i want the best of both worlds, with our friends and family and this amazing job opportunity all in one place. but, that is just not how God wanted it for us right now. so, for now, we are here...but i know that i can quickly meet new people (which i already did, and i will tell about shortly), but it still feels lonely. i dunno, i just hate being this far away, but at the same time, i love this new place that i am in. that is exactly why "bittersweet" is the perfect word for this life change.
so, onto some more happier things :) here are a couple pictures that amy took of the kids this weekend. this is the playground right outside...it's a perfect size for the kids, and there are a couple benches, shaded by palm trees, that i can relax on and watch them.


oh, and look how big milo is getting! amy took this on one of our stops during the road trip...i can't believe he's almost 6 months old! he is such a happy baby...so easy...loves his big brother and big sister...they entertain him quite often. he's rolling all over the place now...and he must have his pacifier (or "pucky" as we call it) 80% of the day. the remaining 20% of the time he is eating. so, he's always sucking on something :) he is such a joy.

here is our pool, which is almost directly outside our house...it's heated too! it's funny cause orlando is having a "cold front" right now...you can so tell that we are not from around here, cause when we went outside to play, my kids had on shorts and t-shirts, and all the other kids had winter coats and hats on. i'm all "are you kidding me???" it's nice out here! anyways...we are getting used to this warm weather...actually it didn't take long to get used too. i am a warm blooded individual, so i don't know how i ever survived in the cold :)

can't wait to try the pool out!
well, everything in the house is slowly, but surely coming together. i think the secret is going one room at a time, and completing that room, before moving on to something else. i would start something and get sidetracked, and i ended up with more piles of junk strewn about the house...it was not looking pretty. but today, i finished hadley's room and 2 of our bathrooms. it felt good to get those complete. tomorrow...my scrap room (i can't wait!!) and the boys room. i think, if i go at this pace, i won't get burned out...and things will get done. oh yah, forgot to mention that my dishwasher doesn't work. if you know me personally, then you know that i have not had a dishwasher for like the last 5 years of my life (my mother in law is probably thinking "so what...i never use a dishwasher"...and yes sue, i think you're crazy for that!!! :) ) but anyways, when we got here, our dishwasher was broken, and so they sent someone out on tuesday to look at it. his response was "i'll be back next tuesday to fix it, i need to order a part". A WEEK??? are you kidding me? i have to wait a week for this bad boy to work? ugh. fine, i'll hand wash my dishes for one more week. when you've been doing it this long, what's one more week, eh? oh, but for real...the internet and my dishwasher...the 2 things that i so badly wanted to work when i got here...and they were both not working! hmmm...weird.
oh yah again, we met a really nice family that lives 3 doors down...we ended up having a lot in common...random things, but still. like, he is half asian and she is white...my husband is half asian, and i am (of course) white...as if you couldn't tell. they have an almost 4 year old and a 1 1/2 year old. caedmon and the older girl had fun playing "super robot" and "princess"...she's going to be a testy one, i can tell ya that much...caedmon has a lot to watch out for...the mom, christine, stays home during the day...and steve (her husband) works at crusade too! he rides his bike...but not just any bike...one of those old banana seater...wide handle bar bikes. how cool is that? keith and him can "ride bikes" together to work. funny. anyways, so they are nice, and i see some play dates in the near future. not sure how much i have in common with her, but doesn't hurt to find out, right? we also have a church we are going to check out this week...keith's boss goes there and he has been telling us about it for quite sometime...it definitely looks like a church we would dig...so, pray that it goes well. we really need to find a "home". anywho...i miss all of you! i can't wait to actually sit down and catch up on lots of blogging that i've missed. and i promise to post pics of the place once i get it looking decent :)
i'm falling asleep at the wheel, so....goodnight!
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catch-up part 2

i'm caught up with my "photo a day"...which i'm going to start calling "365"...photo a day started getting annoying to write. anyways here is 12/365: home sweet home.

13/365: hmm, i love a clean kitchen.

i will write more tonight :)
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catch-up part 1

just trying to post my "photo a day" pictures...here are the first few:
photo #8: big u-haul

photo #9: welcome to florida

photo #10: my new stove...what a beauty!

photo #11: first day of a new job!

i will post the rest later! :)
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1/15/08

a fraction of the story

oh my gosh! i haven't seen the internet for 5 friggin' days!! seriously, our dsl was hooked up bright and early monday morning, but we were having connection issues, so it didn't start working until late this afternoon. for real y'all, i never want to be without my love (a.k.a. the internet) again! so, as you can see in the pic...we made it to florida! yeah!!! the drive was a looooooooong one, but none the less we made it.
it's amazing how slow time can go when you are stuck in the car for 20+ hours...it was probably a good thing that i couldn't get on to blog for a couple days, cause my brain has been so fried...i would probably have typed jibber jabber. so, the road trip. everyone wants to know about how it was, and what more is there to say than: 3 kids. 20 hours. one car. thank goodness that my step-sister came with me, otherwise, it would have been about a 48 hour trip, with all the stops i would have had to make. i so wanted to get out at each "state sign" and take a picture, but when it came down to it...getting to florida an extra 5 minutes later, did not sound very appealing. so instead, we just looked at the signs as we drove quickly past them. it was fine...at least i got the florida pic! now, if i ever thought about complaining about having to be in the van with all of the kids, i just quickly thought about driving this thing:
yah, no thank you. i'll take the van with the screaming children, rather than the 24 ft. u-haul, complete with an infiniti being pulled behind. keith still has a headache from the jiggling he did the whole 1246 miles. the worse part? he couldn't drive over 65 miles per hour. luckily for keith as well, my step-mom's dad, otis, drove with him...that made me at least feel better...ya know? in case anything happened to the u-haul on the side of the road, at least otis would have been there too. BUT, thankfully, nothing happened to either of our transportation...we made it in one piece!! this is a pic of the one nap that the kids took the entire trip. yah, one nap. fun. and comfy, don't you think? my neck has a kink in it, just from looking at this picture.
here's our little caedmon driving. just kidding. but, isn't he cute?
well, when we arrived to our house, keith's new co-workers were waiting there to help us unload all of our stuff (and there was a lot of stuff!) not only were they there to help, but they had brought bags of grocery items that we may need the first couple of days! how nice was that?? their kindness blew us away...we were definitely so thankful for that! they unloaded the u-haul in less than an hour. now, we have the fun job of sorting through everything, and trying to make this house our "home"...which it won't take long, cause i'm loving it! we went to IKEA last night...and i spent way too much money :) i mean, come on though, i've never lived less than 10 hours away from an IKEA, so of course i'm gonna go crazy! our big purchase was a couch and ottoman...oh, it's a beauty! i love it!! and, i got a desk and shelves and some other goodies for my scrap room!!! yeah!!! so, otis and amy helped today by setting up my table and shelving in my room...i will take pictures soon! it's looking pretty :) well, i have soooooo much more to write, but it's late here, and i've got to get to bed and get some good rest. i am fighting this cold/flu bug...yuck. take care y'all...and thanks for stopping by...i missed you all!!! g-night!

we made it

we made it safely to florida and we FINALLY have the internet...i will write more tonight when i have the chance!

1/10/08

we love you!

hey friends and family...we love you tons...thanks for loving and supporting us...we expect lots of visitors in orlando...the happiest place on earth :) photo #7: peace and love.

andersons...out.
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