Wow...it's been a long time!

I knew it had been a long time since I had posted, but not a peep since August is terrible! One of my goals for this year was to post at least once a week. Well, I didn't make that goal, but a lot has been happening in my life and I just didn't make the time.

When I got back from my wonderful vacation to Ireland and England I went back to work with a vengence. I've been working a lot of overtime in the last few months. I've also work nights for the last month. I don't know how people who work nights all the time do it. After the first of the year I am saying "No" to all those extra shifts!

I also spent a lot of my time with my parents this fall. My dear Daddy, who has been bed ridden for the last year and a half, died in November at age 92. Before his death the whole family had been helping Mother take care of him. I was so glad to be able to help with his care. Dad gave his life to Jesus a long time ago, and because of my faith, I "do not grieve as those who have no hope". I look forward to the day when all of us will be rerunited in Heaven! Here's a picture of Daddy with a few of his favorite girls, my Mother and my daughters, Amy (in cream gown) and Rachel (in purple gown).

WOYWW

It's "What's on you workdesk Wednesday" at Stamping Ground-  http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/
There isn't much on my workdesk today. I cleaned up a bit last night. The only thing left are a few tools, some ink pads, 2 stamps I am planning on using soon and my neglected knitting. Someone asked last week what I was making with those bold colors-purple and yellow. Those are the school colors of Rachel's high school and I making a scarf for her. She is a junior this year and if I don't get busy on it she will have graduated before I finish it! lol I didn't work on any cards yesterday. I was crocheting a pair of mittens for my brother-in-law. I made a pair for my sister and he really liked them, so I'm making a pair for him too.
Danielle

Haven't been doing much in the crafting department lately. Rachel wouldn't wear the dress I made for her birthday party. She said the skirt was too "poufy" and she looked like a cupcake! I thought she looked adorable, but then I am her mother. Every once in a while I pick up some crocheting, but I haven't finished anything. I've been having a bit of a block when it comes to creativity I believe, but this too shall pass.

Rachel's party invitations

Rachel and I made 88 invitations for her birthday party. It seemed to take forever. There were 3 layers for the MP3 players and the top layer had 4 little pieces that had to be placed individually. Lucky for me Rachel was able to help or it wouldn't be done yet! We used the Cuttlebug to emboss the background paper. All papers by DCWV. The MP3 player was cut from the Paisley Cricut cartridge. The "you're Invited" was from Alphalicious cartridge.

Rachel's 16th Birthday

Rachel will be 16 this month and we are having the traditional Sweet 16 party. I am making her dress for the party. Rachel went with me to the fabric store and picked out the pattern and fabric. She picked a beautiful pink stretch satin for the bodice and underskirt, and a sheer pink with glittery spiral design for the overskirt. I love having live "Barbie dolls" to dress, it's so much fun! I will post a pic when it's done, I promise.

Pretty girls in pretty dresses!

Prom was on May 30th for my daughters' school. Amy was a senior and Rachel was a freshman. Rachel wasn't expecting to go at all, being a freshman, but one of her friends who is a junior doesn't have a steady girlfriend and he asked her. She was thrilled. I had to work that afternoon and when I got home from work the girls were just about ready to go. Ron took more photos, but they were on the 35mm camera and the film hasn't been developed. These photos aren't great, they are on my old digital camera that I bought about 13 or 14 years ago. I really need to get a new camera! Amy dress is a medeival style. The underskirt and the bodice insert are gold crep-backed satin, the overskirt and the rest of the bodice is ivory brocade and the sleeves are gold organza. It was such fun to make, but it took me a long time since I worked on it in short blocks of time because of my busy work schedule. Rachel's dress was purchased at a local department store since I didn't have enough time to make her dress also. Maybe next year I wil be able to make a dress for her.

Rachel and Reesie

Reesie won't hold still enough for a photo unless someone holds him, so I had Rachel grab him around the neck so I could take a new photo! He's almost as cute as she is in this picture. He is a real sweetie, but he is still apuppy and is in the "chewing" stage. He goes through a rawhide bone in about 15 minutes! He has also nabbed a few shoes that the kids haven't put away. He especially fond of flip flops and has ruined 3 or 4 of them, of course they weren't sets, but the girls have many pairs, so I'm not too worried. He did get a pair of Clark's that were Kristen's, but hopefully the girls will remember to put their shoes in the closet now!

Rachel's Birthday Card

I made a simple card for Rachel's birthday and decided I didn't like it at all, so I decided to start over. She decided to visit my craft room about that time and I let her decide what papers I would use. After she picked the papers I made her leave while I worked on it though! I cut the 15 about 4 or 5 times in yellow cardstock and layered them together, then added the patterened paper. They were cut with the Cricut from Story Book. The butterflies were made with a Martha Stewart punch and are all double layers. All the patterned papers are from the Berry Sweet stack from K & Co. The ribbon is from my stash. The sentiment stamp and the ballons on the inside of the front cover are by A Muse. I liked how this one came out MUCH better than my first attempt at her card. She liked it too!

Yeah Rachel!

Our youngest daughter, Rachel received an award at school, so I made her a congratulations card, just for fun. It's small (only about 3.5 inches) because I cut up a piece of packaging to make the acrylic base. The school colors are purple and gold so that was my starting point. The award is called a Star award (Success Through Academic Recognition), so I had my theme, and here's the card. Amy told me Rachel will now believe she's my favorite child. (All of them try to get me to say that they are my favorite or else accussing me of favoring another one. LOL)
Danielle

My Children

A bit more about my children-as it says in my profile I am mother of 4. They are Kristen-22, Lance-20, Amy-17 and Rachel-14. It's so hard for me to realize that my "babies" are so grown up. At this point they are all still living at home. Kristen and Lance are college students and Amy and Rachel are in high school. As an "impartial" observer, I have to say that my children are absolutely wonderful! Kristen made Dean's List again this semester, Lance just completed training for the Army National Guard and received an award for "Distinguished Graduate" in his class, and Amy and Rachel just received distinguished honor roll awards for this semester in high school. They are also the cutest things you ever saw! (You'd never know I'm a proud mama, would you?) They can also make me want to pull my hair out from time to time, but we'll let that one go for the time being.