Happy 30!

Mindy, one of my bosses at work, turned 30 and we decorated her office... And I made her a card and we ate lots of cake.

And this was the little envelope I made to go with it...

I think birthdays should always be lots of fun. My mama raised me right, I guess...haha! ;)

Shell Island Adventure

Our dear friends, Bryan & Melissa had won a stay at a local beach hotel/resort and it had a free shuttle to Shell Island, so we popped over with them! I don't have a lot of pictures from the actual beach part (Melissa does maybe?!) but here's a few from on the way... Tori was being uncharacteristically snuggly - which of course, I loved immensely!

=) Happy Monday! Amber

Time Flies...

Has it seriously been two weeks since I last posted? I have been TOO busy. Working on baby showers, house cleaning, work, exercising, CPA studying....ack! I have a few things to post but more or less, any scrapbooking (read - non-necessary activity) is being eliminated until I can get my act together...

But until then, there are a few crafty things in my backlog...Father's Day cards for today...
Have a good weekend!!

A Mother's Love

Ever since I got these pictures developed, I've had a picture in my mind of this page...I seriously just LOVE these pictures. Anyways, the fruitition of said mental-image: Lots of little bits and pieces of all sorts of stuff: Thickers (of course?), Dear Lizzy fabric paper, SEI swirl, tissue paper flower, K&Co. patterned paper and glittery frame, AC pen, and Making Memories die-cut and buttons!

Enjoy your weekend!! Amber

What?! A layout!

Yes, it's true! A layout today...a two year anniversary layout!And a close-up of the flowers... I heart Thickers. The end! Happy Thursday! Amber

Random Picture Tuesday.

Oh, how I love these two little sweeties!

Memorial Day Vacation

Since Adam and I both started new jobs, we don't really have any vacation time...so we (kinda last minute) decided to go to Atlanta, Georgia for the weekend...

We went to Stone Mountain...And watched a little 4-D movie they had there...And went on a train ride around the mountain...And even little scaredy-cat me made it up to the top of the mountain via a frightening cable car ride...haha!We did some other shopping and eating stuff, that I don't have pictures of, including a delicious Cheesecake Factory meal...mmmmm! *Insert visual pictures here*

Then, we went to Bass Pro and spent fooooreevvver in there (we actually went, and then came back again!) I entertained myself by taking a gazillion pictures of Adam looking at fishing stuff. Haha! I'm his personal paparazzi!Then we went to a Braves game - this was the highlight of our trip...it was really fun!

Then we got ready and left...with just a bit of shopping on the way home...

It was a very fun, in spite of being short!

Enjoying.

Right now I'm enjoying:
...spending lots of quality time with my dearest
...the sunshiney, summery days
...that new grass is replacing a dirt filled yard
...strawberries (yum, yum!)
...sorting through old pictures and remembering times gone by
...using up my scrapbooking supplies for classroom crafts
...my mega-cricut. Thank you so much, dear mother-in-law!
...lunches at home
...life, every breath, every moment with those I love

Trying hard to find balance between what I think needs to be done, what actually needs to be done, and what needs to be let go. Trying to rest in God instead of being so stressed and busy. Trying to look around, and consciously be grateful for so many things, both big and small.

I am blessed, blessed, blessed.

Happy Thursday! Amber

Kickball Festivities!

So a couple weekends ago, Bryan and Melissa and Adam all played in a kickball tournament and I tagged along to watch these two cuties....oh the AGONY! Haha! Just kidding! We watched Mama practice for about 2.300053 seconds and then Taylor decided to start taking pictures...

"Smile, Tori," she says...
"Okay, Tori, let me take a picture of your nails. Here, lay them out pretty..." she says...

Then a random picture of me and Tori that I LOVE in spite of my little (??) double-chin!Then they took naps. Pretend naps!Then we played at the park until we were all tired, thirsty, and hungry!

Recipe/Note Holder

So this is the Mother's Day craft I promised that I am about a month late in posting! Haha! It's a *little* time consuming but only if you make a gazillion like I did...

Paint small terracotta pots on the outside, and little wooden kabobs or skinny popsicle sticks green. While that's drying cut out or find foam, stiff fabric or flower shaped stickers for your flowers. Glue mini clothespins to the back of the dried green sticks, and glue a chunk of foam (obviously doesn't have to be prettily cut!!) to the bottom of your pots.
Whew. That was the hard parts...then assemble flowers and glue/stick/etc. to the front of the "stems"And glue/pin fluffy boa stuff to the top of the foam to cover it up. Cut out little hands (I used my Cricut) and gather bright stickers for children to decorate hands with...once completed use the clothespin to attach the hands to the flowerpots! And an example of a finished one:

Even though it was a lot of work, the kids REALLY loved them and were so proud! Obviously, if you had an older class or children, they could probably do a lot of this themselves, but with 2-3 year olds...not so much! =)

Mother's Day Cards

Well, if you're sick of looking at my butterfly card set, I can not blame you. I am sick of looking at it too! CPA Exam Part One is over, hopefully I passed. Who knows!?

On to belated Mother's Day cards...this one was for my mother-in-law...

And this one was for my mama...

And a picture of my gorgeous Mama and Nanny - two of my favorite people in the whole wide world! XOXO!

Happy Wednesday! Amber

Butterfly Card Set!

I know it's been a little slack around here this week - studying for the first part of my CPA exam - so stressed about it! Anyways, probably will be my last post until next week - just a quick card set I made using some older supplies - for those last minute-need-a-handmade-card occasions! Hope you have a great week!

Oh, Happy...

Just a fun little birthday card today! Enjoy your weekend! =) Amber

Yummy Cake...

I'm sure I've mentioned this before but Taylor & Tori's mom, Melissa, is a great cake decorator and makes their cakes every year for their birthday...it one of Taylor's favorite things when she looks through her scrapbooks to find her birthday cakes and then say something like "Yes, this was my birthday cake when I was two years old" - it is seriously the cutest thing.
There's something about this page that is just a little "off" to me - I don't know what though! I used a NSD sketch and some of my fav embellishments - I love these chipboard button stickers (Martha Stewart) and these oh-so-cute puffy flower accents (American Crafts)...

But every page doesn't have to be perfect right? I'm trying to get into the mode - paper & pictures - get the stuff documented! It's just HARD to be DISCIPLINED in your HOBBY! Ha!

Epoxy Stickers!

Up today is just a simple, easy birthday card I made for a friend at work for her daughter - using lots of Making Memories Design Shop stickers - I seriously have a thing for "dimension" and am a sucker for mostly any kind of clearanced dimensional sticker - this particular pack only cost me $.80!! You might can't tell from the picture but the little cake and banner are both on foam adhesive. Anyways, I love this card and almost couldn't give it up. But for $3, I gave it up, rather happily. =)

Happy Wednesday! Amber