A {grateful} month: Day 3

Nov 3 - Today I'm grateful for my husband. He helps with anything that I ask, is amazing patient with our daughter's stubbornness, and lets me have my pregnancy annoyances. He has become an anchor in my life and helped me weather many storms that I don't think we both signed up for when we got married. He has blessed my life in more ways than I could have imagined. Love you!

{Halloween} 2011

Put a quick layout together for Halloween. It was pretty low key this year. We had a Trunk or Treat at church and then went Trick or Treating with our next door neighbor and their daughter. I think E made out pretty good with the candy :)

Supplies used: Rhonna Farrer Haunted trees brush, Echo Park Apothecary - paper and elements, Carina Gardner 5x7 template, 
House of Three Rounded Corner Brush, Hof3 - Design District Font, Stampin Up - Baker's Twine

A {grateful} month: Day 2

November: A {Grateful} Month: Day 1

UPDATE: I can't help myself...I had to do something digital.

I've been reading this book:
29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life by Cami Walker

It's about a lady who decides to give 29 gifts for 29 days to try and improve her health. She was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, which is an autoimmune disease that is pretty debilitating.

She also has a website that allows people to share their experiences with this challenge.

Anyways, I been feeling like I need to focus on something positive lately because I've been feeling kind of down. Can't really explain why...might be the pregnancy hormones or the stress of a new baby joining us soon or other details I won't go into. I just feel like I need to focus on something other than feeling sad. I realized around this time last year I was working on the 21 Day Challenge with Rhonna. I kind of wanted to do my own thing since I don't have a lot of time or energy at the moment to do anything elaborate. I'm keeping it simple, and I think I'll save the gift giving challenge for another time.

This being said, I am still feeling inspired to do something to get out of myself. It is November and that means Thanksgiving. So many stores are already glossing over this - Christmas was out before Halloween this year. I want to find things to be grateful for each day - no matter how small they may seem. This probably isn't going to very fancy, but I might turn this into a digi project later on.

So here's to Day 1 (yes, on November 2nd - I owe 2 grateful things today):

Nov 1 - I'm grateful that I had enough energy to get the laundry done, vacuum the floors, and spend time raking up leaves with E today. We had a good day. I even got a nap while she took one.

Supplies used: Grateful Glam - Rhonna Farrer, Stampin Up! - Falling Leaves, Autumn Spice, Jodie Lee - Junk Mail Overlays

{Lately}: Cards

I've been working on some cards to sell in my mother-in-law's store. I hope they sell, but just wanted to show what I've been working on.

See my Cards photostream in Flickr

A {hurricane} weekend

We survived! It turned out to be a low key weekend. Instead of spending it at the beach as planned, we spent a lot of time indoors. I was kind of bummed because the beach is so much more appealing than 12 hours of constant rain. This happened to be the first hurricane I've ever been through. Luckily, it pays to have a husband who grew with hurricanes. He had us prepared about 2 days in advance - filled up the gas tanks, got out the 72 hour kits, filled the bathtub up with extra water, got us a few gallons of milk, and turned the fridge/freezer temps down just in case more trees fell on the power lines - so we could avoid the rush...which inevitably was going to happen. Lucky for us, Irene was downgraded to a Category 1 storm by the time it hit us. This meant a lot of rain, some strong winds, a few broken branches, and some minor flooding in our car (it already leaks...we just can't figure out where). We feel very blessed that many people were praying for our safety. It really only rained for about 12 hours and we only lost power for about 3 hours. All in all, I feel like I can do this again...maybe not for a while.

I didn't take any pictures other than our neighbor leaving her windows open during the rain storm...I guess she likes the fresh air and 40 mph winds coming into her house :)

Here's what it looked like:

It was a pretty massive storm. I think it was about 497 miles wide!

A friend of mine took these pictures from Walmart. If you needed any flashlights, water, or batteries...it wasn't happening after Friday.  Good news is we were plenty prepared. :)

{Digital} Birthday Cards

Here's a little sampling of birthday cards I've made:

Alpha: Valerie Wibbens acetate letters (the lily pad), Flowers: Shabby Miss Jen - Sweetie Pie Feathers: Kitschy Designs Background: PrelestnayaP Designs TexturesPack5 (Digital Design Resort)

Cardstock: 300 DPI paper, Stamps: House of 3 - pink party, parisan anthology, magical designs sparkles

Cardstock: Splendid Fins - Closet Stripes, Closet Plaid, Stamps: house of 3 - inked edges, graphix word art Frames: liv.e designs - sketched frames 

Cardstock: Stampin Up - raspbery tart, calypso coral, kiwi kiss, rose red, Elements: Stampin UP Shapes: Stampin UP Alphas: Valerie Wibbens acetate letters (the lily pad)