Thankful for...Fall

Fall can be dismal and hard to get through some days. But with days like today I am grateful it is fall. The sun is shining, the leaves are blowing in the breeze and there is patches of blue sky. I am thankful for fall and the beauty that can be found therein.

Thankful for...This Time of Year

It's that time of year where the holiday season is upon us! I am so excited. I recently watched "Miracle on 34th Street" and felt it was a great kick off to my holiday season. I don't ever think it's too early to start up feelings of gratitude and thoughts of our Savior's birth. I feel like there is magic in the air at this time of year as the world comes together and thinks more about the miracle of Jesus' birth and what He has done for each of us.
I am thankful for this time of year to reflect on the past year and all that I have been blessed with.

So Many Challenges

Sunday afternoons like yesterday are always my favorite. No phone calls, no meetings, no plans, good food, chocolate, family time and crafting time!!!

I was able to get a few different cards created which was nice.

This one I did for a monochromatic challenge over here at The Crafty Pad. Doing this actually showed me how hard it is to do and that I need to open myself up to similar colors and patterns. I did also challenge myself to use a color I don't normally use. I loved out the buttons turned out. It reads "Sew...How are you?" Cute huh?! I found this paper while doing my other card and couldn't pass it up. Just a simple plain card.

I created this card to meet the color challenge here at Hamboe Hoedown.

I found a super cute card over here and was inspired by it. I created this card after seeing it.

Don't you just love this paper. It's a simple but cute Halloween card that I am submitting in the Halloween challenge over here at One Stop Craft.

This one is definitely one of my favorites that I created. I did some layered ornaments and then hung them from a piece of ribbon. I am entering this card in the Baubles or Anything Hanging challenge here at Crafty Hazlenuts Christmas Challenge.

I also made myself a light box to take photos in. It's not a very good one but I will play around with it.

A Pink Teddy Bear

So I've been trying to clean things out a little and de-junk (well it's not all junk but you know what I mean). I had a large box and a bag full of stuffed animals. I decided to go through them and see what I could part with. Man this was emotional for me. I took pictures of all my animals and dolls and then put them in front of the door to pile them up.

Benjamin had fun playing with my stuffed animals. I also sent them all through the dryer before letting Benjamin play with them. His favorite is the pink little teddy bear. Not Jared's favorite but what are you going to do. I think it's funny out of all the animals and dolls he picks the pink bear.

I just love this shot because I feel like you can totally see him talking to my old Christmas Panda Bear. Benjamin absolutely loves my 1" foam paint brushes and hanging out in empty or full actually laundry baskets. He also flipped them this night (September 18th) to climb up and get on top of the TV stand. Such an active boy!

The Rearranging Itch

On August 23rd I got an itch...and itch to rearrange our living room. The main purpose for the itch was because Benjamin is a climber. He climbs everything. I was incredibly nervous of him climbing my piano up and over the edge to the door downstairs. So we moved things around. We had recently moved our big couch downstairs and the little couch upstairs too so it was time to rearrange anyways.

Benjamin had a blast with us cleaning and rearranging the furniture. He just would run back and forth and all around. He was laughing and screaming and was just so excited. It would crack us up how much he was enjoying it! There's no picture of Benjamin running around because we were too busy cleaning.

The Seattle Aquarium

Let's do some catching up...and in no specific order.

On August 19th, 2011 we went to the Seattle Aquarium with Benjamin. It was an event hosted by my work (Accenture...I currently work for Accenture and I am now a full time employee and work on the Microsoft account.) Jared met me at work with Benjamin and we drove over to Seattle. There was some construction going on so we got to do a little extra driving on the Via Duct I believe.

We were able to enjoy some conversation with a co-worker and his wife while eating some dinner. After we finished eating which was an adventure with Benjamin (He has a hard time eating in public because he gets so distracted by other things) we went into the Aquarium. We really enjoyed the free family time together. You can call us cheap but it's not something we would on our own.

Benjamin had fun running around and around and climbing. He really got a kick out of the moon jelly fish that go around you in this cool circle thing (the pictures did not turn out). And it had a lighting system that would change colors. It was fun.

We had a good time and wore Benjamin right out. He slept most of the way home that night.

Made Room to Craft

I took some time to craft tonight! My crafting room is beyond me right now. It's very overwhelming. I need to clean, organize and the dreaded step...get rid of things. We shall see if that part will actually come into play.

Anyways I made a slight dent in the room and while cleaning up a few things decided to make a card.

I am entering it the below two challenges:

Color Challenge over at My Craft Spot

Sketch Challenge # 62 over at Peachy Keen Stamps

I had fun making the card tonight and getting my creative juices flowing again.

Happy Crafting!