Celebrating Collin!

It's hard to believe that another school year is starting for the boys today. Time certainly does seem to fly by the older they get. We have a senior, freshman and 7th grader so we're busy with Jonathon looking at colleges and starting the application process. I have no doubt I'm going to blink and we'll be doing the same with Collin.  It is amazing to watch them grow and soar. 

On Thursday, Collin will be 15. We're so proud of what a hard working and kind young man he is. He developed the best habits for school during his 8th grade year and is going into high school with a quiet, positive confidence. He's following in Ryan's foot steps and will be in high school show choir and also wants to join the bowling team.  Can't wait to watch my beautiful boy soar! 

So...here's his card following this week's CAS(e) this Sketch.

Happy Birthday Collin

Happy Tuesday my friends. We're celebrating Collin's 13th birthday and the first day of school. It's hard to believe we have three teenagers in the house.   Lucky it was the first day of school or I wouldn't have a recent picture of Collin by himself. He's definitely hit the phase where he doesn't like his picture taken :)  I wish I could describe what a sweetheart he is.  He loves to cook...seriously love to cook and it a very big nurturer. On the nights when Pat is out and I come in from work, Collin always asks what I would like for dinner and is at the ready to make grilled chicken, a burger on the grill or pasta. He LOVES to cook. He is very tactile...anything with his hands he loves to do too. He also loves fishing and is starting to try his hand at golf. He's a very clever guy!  And he never hesitates to give a kiss, hug or a quick I love you. Love him to pieces and hope his 13th year is an awesome one!

Here's a very CAS card for CAS(E) this Sketch.  A very little interpretation of the sketch!

And here's the crew on the first day of school...sophomore, 7th and 5th. Time is flying!  And don't you love Collin's face?!

Warm Wishes

Happy Sunday my friends.  I'm sitting here pretty tired after two days of show choir competitions, but honestly I wouldn't trade it for the world. Both Collin and Ryan's groups did really well - both coming in second place.   It is so fun to watch Ryan as a senior with five years in the group and to see the smiles on Collin's face as he competes for the first time.  I asked Collin what the best part was...and he said, "I don't know...all of it. It's just so much fun."  He's so adorable up there and is very proud that he's a good dancer.  My favorite part with Ryan is the early morning and late night talks we have when he is getting ready to leave or when he gets home. The day started with a quick breakfast talk at 6 am and ended with a long conversation when he got home at 2:15 am. The friendships they make through this group, the life long skills they learn of being part of a team and working hard will forever serve them well. We are very blessed to have wonderful directors that set  fantastic examples for our children.  My heart is full every time I watch them perform.  

Getting a start on Christmas cards for next year...when I saw the challenge for the Merry Monday challenge, I knew I had a few tiny scraps of this plaid paper left so I quickly put it to use with this very CAS card.  Always nice to get a jump start on my Christmas cards!

And now...I'm off to go pick up Jonathon from his youth group retreat!  After which I'll promptly be sitting on the couch!

 

Now & Forever

I've been thinking, thinking, thinking about this adorable MUSE card from Michele this week.  I love black, red and white together.  I had some new dies arrive on Saturday from Frantic Stamper so I of course had to put them to use. You can see that I followed the color scheme and layout pretty closely from Michele's inspiration card below. Added a few gems and the sentiment and Pat's Valentine is ready to be written out and sealed :).

Hope you had a great weekend.  Ryan and Collin had the start of their show choir season on Saturday.     Hard to believe I have one just starting and one finishing.  I love, love, love this picture that my friend took off them from their holiday show.   It should be another exciting year.  Collin is my shy one, but he is loving it.  Proclaiming, "my second performance was so much better than  my first.  I know the moves."  He's adorable up there!  Here is is hamming it up with a couple of his friends before they performed.

 

For the Happy Couple

Happy Friday my friends!  I'm really looking forward to the three day weekend. We have a few graduation parties to go to on Sunday and am I throwing a wedding shower tomorrow afternoon. So, I was very lucky to have already had this card made and it fit perfectly with the challenge over at CASology. The wedding colors are teal and navy...ignore that my stamping could be significantly straighter! I should have used my Misti.

I thought I'd share this note Collin left for his third grade teacher yesterday.  Absolutely melted my heart.  He is finishing up 5th grade but man oh man did his third grade teacher rank on his all time favorite list.  She now teaches sixth grade so we are hoping he gets her again next year. This note sums Collin up...multiple pens...looks like there is dirt or something all over the page...he loves writing in cursive but added an extra ma to his name.  Don't worry he knows how to spell it. He melts my heart.  And I love how he signed as her favorite student. She got a big kick out of it and sent it to me.

Congrats Grad!

This week I'm go to have a hodge podge of cards to share with you.  Today it is a graduation card for a co-worker of mine recently completed her under grad and I wanted to get her a little something.  I had originally made this for the Runway Inspired challenge, but waited too long to post it!

I'll leave you with a picture of Collin all dressed up for his band concert last week. He was really pleased with his tie and hair gel when I got home. Love that although he normally avoids his picture being taken he was proud to be "dressed handsome."  And of course, Marcel had to sneak in the picture too.

Thanks a Bunch {and Collin's Recital}

So..I quite often buy patterned paper, but don't use it in mass.  For Collin and Marcel's teachers, I decided I needed to use up some of my patterned paper for their teacher card sets. The card sets have eight different cards (2 each of the following):  thank you, sympathy, birthday and thinking of you. This card is one of the thank you cards.  I used eight different sheets of patterned paper to create a colorful background.  The cards were then finished off with Reverse Confetti flowers and sentiment.  Love that RC set.  I'm pleased to be using up some of my patterned paper!

I had a bit of time this weekend to catch up with some of my Project Life layouts.  Still in love with that app.  Collin had his recital a few weeks ago at a local restaurant. We were able to enjoy a glass of wine/beer as about 20 different children performed. Great way to spend the afternoon!  We are so blessed to have our family close by to support our children.

Happy Birthday Collin!

Popping in to wish my Collin a fabulous 11th birthday today!  He still seems very little to me, but I'm sure in just a couple of years he'll be standing next to my as Jonathon does and surpassing me in height. This little man has a love of live. His birthday present lists describes him:  

• a pogo stick (he's active...riding his bike, scooter, skateboarding and he has massive cuts on his knee right now from a crash)
• a fishing net (he loves to be outdoors and his happy to sit and fish for hours on end.  Pat told him he'd take him night fishing and his face lit up)
• an xbox game (yep...he loves Minecraft like the best of them)
• a root beer making kit (he loves to cook...he can make a mean omelette...and he's never too far from a lemonade or slushy stand at the end of our drive.  I'm sure root beer will be added next.)

He can be loud when he is in a very comfortable situation, but most often his is on the shy side.  His eyes do his talking a bit more than his mouth.  Love seeing those eyes light up and a sweet little smile escape accompanied by a blush. Love my little man tons. Happy 11th birthday beautiful boy.

 Above is his card (neon green is his favorite color) and below are a few pictures from his birthday.  His buddies Jake and Logan came over and we went to David Busters for games.  You can see the smile on his face when he got the root beer maker.  Collin wanted cupcakes (store bought were just fine...) but we forgot candles so we turned out the lights and used the grill lighter. Have to improvise!

 And I had to share this picture below.  I think we could do a before and after as I could see this same picture being taken in college.  Thankfully water are the only drinks being used so far!  The boys used their tickets at David Busters to pick them out!

Now and Forever (and Collin's Drum Recital)

I've updated my stamps for sale page.  If you are interested, please click here.

Happy Tuesday friends.  Popping in with a quick card for this week's CAS(E) this Sketch.  When I was working on some other cards this weekend and had my die cuts out I was inspired to use these WPlus9 die cuts for the current sketch challenge. I love the touch of patterned paper and the funky vibe it gives to the card.

On Sunday, Collin had his drum recital. He is super shy so before he went up he told me he was going to look out the window instead of at the people in the audience. The rehearsal was held at Graeter's (a fabulous Cincinnati based ice cream shop).  Each of the kids in the recital got free ice cream after they played. He did an awesome job.  His teacher videotaped him in class so if you're interested you can check out what he played on You Tube.  I love his sweet little smiles when he plays one of the parts that is a bit harder!  As always, we're so lucky to have family close by to come cheer him on.

Collinisms and Get Well Soon

It seems that when I make a card for the MUSE challenge I'm always sneaking it in at the last minute.  I was itching to play along this week as Bev's card is truly fabulous and my Uniko stamps needed more ink. The detail on the butterflies is so gorgeous.  This card was very quick to make and is easy to mass produce too.

Last week I shared some Marcelisms with you. I thought it would be fun to chat about all the boys at different spots.  So...here's what my sweet little 10 year old, Collin is up too.

• Every since he was very little he has loved to cook. It started with pretend play making tea for us with water.  He's deliver it to my mum proclaiming that is "scrumptious and delicions".  He's now making grilled cheese and scrambled eggs and bacon on a regular basis.
• He also is extremely handy.  Out of our four, he is the one that is exactly like Pat.  Wanted to know how to build things and more than happy to do yard work.  All 63 lbs of him has taken over cutting my mum's yard as well as cutting most of our yard too.  When he took his shirt off the cut the grass, we were cracking up laughing.  We really aren't making him do it!

• He loves to fish.  Last week he went to fishing camp. He didn't catch anything in over 30 hours of fishing, but man oh man did he have a great time.  He loved every minute.  "Mom, I'm so much better at casting, tie the knots the way dad does and putting the worms on myself."  He also used his grass cutting money towards a new rod. 

• Monopoly is his favorite game right now. Friday night was a sleepover night for our nephew, Will, and Collin's first choice was Monopoly followed by a game of Headbandz. Love that game!

 I love how each of my boys have a unique personality and interests. Right now, pictures of Collin are only when he's not paying attention. He'll have nothing to do with a regular picture, but I do love that he'll still be quick with a kiss and an I love you. His sweet little freckles melt my heart.

Thanks

I hope you are all enjoying the Memorial Day weekend.  It has been absolutely beautiful weather here and we're been spending time outside relaxing.  The little guys had the sprinkler out and then decided to have a lemonade stand.  Collin is the organizer:  making the lemonade, getting the table out, making the signs and Marcel is the salesman.  Not a shy bone in that little guy's body.  Their friend next door came out too and he has a snowcone maker which was quite the hit. At the end of the day they had made $20.  Needless to say they were pleased.  Unfortunately, we didn't break out the sunscreen and Collin is paying for it as I type up this post Pat just finished putting aloe on his sunburned back.  Yikes.

I hope you all get time to relax this weekend too. I had to play along with this gorgeous color combo for the current PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop.  I love it!  Kept it very, very simple using a much older PTI set for the circles and the Wet Paint set for the sentiment.

You Are Appreciated

Hello there, I'm back with another card for the current Clean & Simple class. I love this faux effect where you stamp in color and then stamp in white over top of the color.  Very clean & crisp.  One of the tips in the class is to make sure you have a very juicy white ink pad.  Mine isn't too juicy but I love the end result.  This card is thinking Spring and we've had sunshine here for a few days....the snow is supposed to come back tonight.  I'm still thinking Spring!

It's concert week at our house this week.  Jonathon's choir Monday night, Collin's class last night and jazz band/Jonathon's show choir this week.  Needless to say, I'm not doing a great job keeping schedules straight!  Here's Collin hanging from the monkey bars after his show...and with his teacher Mrs. Carter.  He adores her! 

Thanks a Latte

Hello friends...popping in to share a fun card using the current Viva La Verve Sketch and color challenge.  It's been a really long time since I've played along with a Viva La Verve Sketch, but it's a new year...and I do need to get moving on replenishing my card stash!  I loved the color combo too so I decided to play along with both.  Have you seen the new challenge blog for Viva La Verve? If not, pop on over and take a peek.  I simplified the sketch a bit, by inking the circles, masking and adding the chevron image.  All of the stamps are Verve.

So...what's happening around your neck of the woods? The change at our house is that Ryan has started his first real job (outside of baseball umpiring).  He is a host and bus boy at a local restaurant.  I have to say I'm pretty proud of how he's handling it so far. He's picked up a few extra hours, is learning how to use their on-line scheduling software, etc.  Pat went with him to set up his checking account with a debit card so that his checks can be direct deposited into his account. It's fun watching him grow up!    We have one week until show choir competitions start too...can you tell I'm excited?!

I also wanted to share this picture of Collin. The kids were off school on Monday/Tuesday because of extremely cold temperatures. They went back yesterday.  Collin came home and crashed.  This week has been extremely stressful and there is something about the peace of watching your little ones sleep that is calming to me.  I had to snap him on my phone to keep that in my heart.  I did wake him up for his drum lesson.  He has a recital at the beginning of March. I can't wait to get his picture behind the drum set.  He gives the real Collin smile when he's drumming or talking about how much he loves drumming.  I'll be sure to share the picture. It is awesome that he has found something he really loves doing.

Collin's Birthday {and a card to share}

 Hello friends, it's pretty rare around here that I go four days without posting, but back to school and our house getting struck by lightning on Saturday night crafting took a back seat for several days.  We have to have our chimney replaced, roof fixed, some appliances replaced and drywall work done.  Here's hoping the insurance company is easy to work with for the repairs.  I am so thankful no one was hurt when the lightning struck so working through the logistics of an insurance company is not a big deal.

But that isn't why you stopped by!   First, I have a card to share with you for the current PaperSmooches Challenge.  The inspiration photo was flowers and I of course had to ink up my PS Reflections set. Love it!  This is very similar to another card I made with this set, but I love the white ink on the coral.

And next..I have Collin's birthday pictures to share with you.  He was so excited to have his birthday party at a go kart place.  It was absolutely awesome. The boys had a ten minute race on the go karts and several races using remote control cars. That combined with pizza, cake and presents made for a perfect birthday!

I love these pictures of him with his cake. The left hand photo is a pure Collin face. It's a little bit of I don't like being the center of attention, but I'm so happy I'm about to laugh face.  It is 100% Collin...adorable!

And here's the whole gang getting ready to go kart on the right hand side. The pictures of them actually driving the go karts didn't turn out very well!  The bottom two photos show them with the caps they had them wear underneath the helmets.  Probably a good thing as they were very sweaty when they finished racing!

 Our gifts to Collin were a mini locker (he loves doing the combination) and a metal detector. He loves going through our yard and out with Pat whenever possible to metal detect.   Collin looks for the metal and Pat digs up what he finds...it's pretty hilarious really and he absolutely loves it!