The Sign, The Sign

I've waited patiently (ok, semi-patiently) to have a sign put in front of the barn. If K's friends had not gotten into the sign business I think we would still be just the grey barn on Northfield Road, but alas they did, and alas, he decided that it was an "ok" thing.

Fundraising Ideas Wanted/Needed

Well I'm needing ways to make extra $$$ for our adoption fund. So far I've got the idea to make a few diaper cakes as well as onsie bouquets. K is going to figure out how to make some horse "accessories" for me to sell. I've also thought about selling some digital files I've created using my Cricut Die Cutter with the software, I've also thought about a garage sale. We're needing to raise $10,000 - $20,000...which is a HUGE #! I've got the 3 year plan in mind, I "think" that's doable. If you have ANY ideas, what so ever, please leave them in the comments section of my blog and I'll be checking back! Thanks so much for your help in advance!

Memorial Weekend

We worked the entire weekend, so not exactly rest for us. Most of it was working towards going to a horse show we didn't even go to! I'm pretty sure someone upstairs was adamant we stay home this weekend, we attempted to go to two different horse shows and made it to neither one. Lack of stall space at one facility and crummy looking weather (which of course turned out to be a beautiful day) kept us from the second.
We did manage to make a drive down to a clients home (3 hours one way) to look at K's show prospect for next year. Then we came home and made it to 2 out of 5 open house graduations we've been invited to. Open Houses are HUGE here in Hoosierland. My SIL and I were unaware of what a BIG DEAL these are, people hop from party to party the day after graduation to congratulate each graduate and snack at each home. We attended K's cousin's and the gal that's been cleaning our stall's, open houses, both were very well attended!
We also managed this weekend, to purchase an investment horse for next year. He goes by the name Ringo (yes, like Star, because the breeders expect him to be a "star"). So I'm sure once Ringo makes it home, I'll have some new adventures with him!
So, I think after our lesson giving, stall cleaning, show prepping, horse purchasing, prospect looking, open house hopping weekend, I'm tired...and I'm hitting the sack!

The Whirling Horse Eater

So we got a new tool, the horse walker (pictured below), which was a generous gift from the in-laws, however it was a gift that required patience from all involved! So my MIL shopped and shopped to find "just the right" horse walker within the price range she was looking for. And with all new and exciting things, it did not come soon enough, delivery company says Tuesday, I think the semi rolled in 2 days late...go figure. Now setting up said walker, several things had to happen first, ground work, electric line, cement poured, ASSEMBLY of walker and assembly of fence around walker. Now of course FIL got HIS part done, running electric line, scoping out site, etc.... Cement guys FINALLY made it, I love it when they tell you they'll be there TUESDAY, what they FAIL TO MENTION IS WHICH TUESDAY (in this case 2 TUESDAYS went by on the calendar!) So K and I go to a horse show and we come back to a completely assembled horse walker, NOW THE FUN BEGINS!
Now we have to TRAIN the horses to WALK on the Horse WALKER. Should be easy enough, right? K turns it on, we discover we have 2 speeds, walk and trot and will go either direction, however when you turn it on, IT'S ON, there's nothing gradual about it, it's ON! So we go get the first guiena pig, ummmm horse. We start with a horse we figured has SEEN a horse walker before and go and get her, now horses, like dogs that have been leash trained, KNOW to give to pressure, but occassionally the fright and flight reflex kicks in, so we put our first victim on the dangling rope and turn it on, the horse FREAKS, pulls back and realizes that she's being pulled FORWARD then LEAPS forward, after trying to adjust herself to the speed, she's "kind of" got it figured out. This is NOT necessarily a GOOD sign, especially on the horse we THOUGHT had been on one of these before. Onto our next victim, whom I KNOW has never seen a "hot walker" before. We get my horse, now he's not EXTREMELY tall, but he IS the tallest horse in the barn and I CAN NOT see over his back, so he's not small either, I walk him out the back door of the barn and his eyes bug out of his head and he snorts...and THEN he jiggy jogs in place just at the SITE of the WHIRLING HORSE EATER, err horse walker. So because he's a trusting soul and he LOVES me, he decides to be lead, err lead me, closer to the WHIRLING HORSE EATER, we open the gate and decide to NOT shut it down, but just to walk to the next hanging rope that whirls by and attach him while I walk with him and then kind of fade out, hoping that it will be less of a shock like it was to the first horse.
So I get my horse brave enough and we wait for the hanging rope to whirl by AFTER the first horse, my thinking, horses are herd animals, hopefully this horse will WANT to follow the 2nd horse...yeah right. So I walk a brisk pace, but unfortunately for me, my horse doesn't WANT to walk a brisk pace, he's more interested in the WHIRLING HORSE EATER, Will it EAT me? So after TWO laps I FINALLY get him UP to the rope ALMOST close enough to attach him. Notice I said ALMOST! Now because the footing is SAND and it's NEW SAND, it's rather bogging down my pace as much as the uncooperative horse is. So there I am, trudging through the sand, one hand on the whirling rope, one hand on my horse and neither the two shall meet, I've just become the human Binder cord! After SEVERAL attempts I get horse hooked up to the rope and am able to let him slog through the sand and I sit back to watch. Not bad, he walks/trots a reasonable pace. I go on the hunt for some Advil, it had been a long day .... at 10 a.m.

Did Ya Know?

These handy little tricks?

• Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.
• Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!
• Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
• Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.
• To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of so ur cre am, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.
• For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.
• Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.
• Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yum 1.
• Reheat Pizza Heat up leftover pizza in a no nstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.
• Easy Deviled Eggs Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.
• Expanding Frosting When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
• Reheating refrigerated bread To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it re heat faster.
• Newspaper weeds away Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.
• Broken Glass Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.
• No More Mosquitoes Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
• Squirrel Away! To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.
• Flexible vacuum To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
• Reducing Static Cling Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and -- ta da! -- static is gone.
• Measuring Cups Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
• Foggy Windshield? Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
• Reopening envelope If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.
• Conditioner Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair...
• Goodbye Fruit Flies To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
• Get Rid of Ants Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!
• INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink, ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material - I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like.

Embellishment Organization

I've been organizing my embellishments and came up with two different bead storage systems at Wal-Mart that worked wonderfully for my irredescent flowers.















This worked wonderfully for my brads and eyelets.

AHA! and they've been keeping it a secret, all these years!

Who knew? Why has this been kept top secret? Did you know that on aluminum foil (and saran wrap and wax paper) that there are little tabs you can push in that will keep your roll of aluminum foil from LEAPING to it's certain death on the floor? All these years I have had rolls of aluminum foil, saran wrap AND wax paper that continually tried to commit suicide by leaping out of their boxes and onto the floor and I could have prevented it! Who knew that some GENIUS gave aluminum foil a seat belt (he's probably a billionaire)! Why did no one ever tell me this fabulous little secret? Why do they not ADVERTISE it on TV, now THAT would be helpful instead of those goofy ladies in the lab coats! Here's a picture of what a tab looks like pushed in and not...maybe you can "save" your aluminum foil from certain demise and lock it into place also!

Getting To Know You, errr, Me...

I picked this up on another blog and thought it was kind of fun. Feel free to copy it if you like...

1. Do you like blue cheese? Nah, not really
2. Have you ever smoked heroin? No, never
3. Do you own a gun? Nope, we're firearm free, but I'm great with a manure fork!
4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? Well, we live out in the boonies, so we don't have a sonic!
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? When I had to see the oncologist, YES... other stuff...not really.
6. What do you think of hot dogs? Hebrew Nationals are THE only hot dog I will eat (and they are expensive to boot!)
7. Favorite Christmas movie? Elf, how could you not like Elf?
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Diet Mt. Dew
9. Can you do push ups? Sure, but probably not many
11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My wedding set
12. Favorite hobby? Scrapbooking and/or crafting
14. Do you have A.D.D.? No
15. What's one thing you hate about yourself? Sometimes I speak before I think
16. Middle name? Leslye
17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment..... I need to do laundry, I need to clean the scraproom, I wonder how late we'll work tonight
18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday. Diapers (for a diaper cake), Containers for my embellishments, Pizza Pan (again for the diaper cake)
19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Diet Mt. Dew, Water and Diet Mt. Dew
20. Current worry? Finances
21. Current hate right now? Life is rushing by waaaay to fast!
22. Favorite place to be? Home
23. How did you bring in the New Year? Watched tv
24. Where would you like to go? Florida to Disney World!
25. Name three people who will complete this? Post me a comment if you do on your blog!!
26. Do you own slippers? Nope
27. What shirt are you wearing? Red Old Navy 3/4 Sleeve
28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Nope, too slippery
29. Can you whistle? Yep, pretty good too
30. Favorite color? Pink, it's my "signatcha" color!
31. Would you be a pirate? No, that pillaging would get to me
32. What songs do you sing in the shower? I hum and it's usually some stupid commercial that was on tv!
33. Favorite girl's name? Samantha
34. Favorite boy's name? ?
35. What's in your pocket right now? I don't have any pockets right now
36. Last thing that made you laugh? DH, he's a ham sometimes!
37. Best bed sheets as a child? White with flowers
38. Worst injury you've ever had? I've been very lucky and have only ever sprained my ankle
39. Do you love where you live? Yes!
40. How many TVs do you have in your house? 2
41. Who is your loudest friend? Chris, but then again, I'm just as loud as she is!
42. How many dogs do you have? 3
43. Does someone have a crush on you? Now, how would I know that? LOL
45. What is your favorite book(s)? Anything by Dean Koontz
46. What is your favorite candy? If it's dark chocolate and has either carmel or rasperry in it, I'm in!
47. Favorite Sports Team? Not really a sports fan, but Broncos
48. What song(s) do you want played at your funeral? Lifes Been Good to Me by Joe Walsh
50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? I overslept and I wonder if any of the horses got out.

Hounds of H. E. Double Hockey Sticks

Here are our Hounds of Hell, aka our "kids" (since we don't have any 2 legged kind). Thought you might want some faces to the tales I have of them.

This is Ruby, the youngest, she is an australlian cattle dog aka red heeler. She has also been dubbed the "barn alarm", as no one can walk into the door without her "wooo wooo wooo" calling. Grandpa and my father in law have snuck up on her before, but never all the way. She is also my continual shadow and wouldn't you know it, she was supposed to be K's dog, but she has DEFINATELY turned into my dog and is constantly at my feet. She also has a sock/foot wear fetish, not to chew, just to have and heaven forbid if another dog comes near her stinky "prizes". She also gallantly rescues me from the vacuum, which she is quite sure is harming me in some way...sigh....

This is Spanky, the "middle child". He's a Jack Russell Terrorist or as Granny once described him, a "Jack Daniels Dog". Don't let his adorableness sucker you in too far. He has Napolean syndrome in the worst way and tries to fight Hank all the time (he has yet to win, but keeps on trying). He also has "selective hearing", which is absolutely maddening when you want him to come to you when you've got "stuff to do". He is the most vocal of our puppy pack and will let you know EXACTLY his mood between his woofs, groans and grunts. He is also the best dressed of the pack, since he is short haired. My MIL makes sure he's a well dressed dog and he has several embroidered outfits that will fit his rough and tumble lifestyle. He's the best mouser/bird hunter out of the pack. He is also the first dog to sit in your lap when he's covered head to toe in mud or manure. He's also the most likely dog to come sit next to you if you HATE dogs...he makes sure you'll love dogs by the time you leave just with his sheer persistance and excitement to have you there, with him. He is also "my" dog, we've bonded...

This is Hank, our oldest "hound". He is an australlian cattle dog aka red heeler. He was my birthday present, but bonded with K, so actually he's K's dog. He's extremely loyal and will follow K around the barn the entire day. We can leave the premises and he will wait underneath our grain bin for our return. All the tennis balls belong to Hank and he will relentlessly worry you about playing "the whip" game with him (his favorite). He's also the brut that will hold Spanky down and let him know who's boss.

The Flight of the Bumble Bee

We've all been there, you get that phone call..."hey, I'm in the neighborhood, mind if I stop over?" and then you do it, the flight of the bumble bee clean. Grabbing anything off of any surface and stuffing it in anything that has a door or drawer. Glancing at the clock and counting down the exact moments the unexpected guest is supposed to arrive thinking to yourself " can I get the floors cleaned, the living room dusted and hose down the bathroom?" And heaven forbid anyone steps in your way...this is PANIC MODE PEOPLE, MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!!!!!! Grabbing Pledge, Fantastic, really anything the squirts and a rag, remembering to light that vanilla/cinammon candle and praying it covers up the mystery smell (for me, it was those stupid carrots in the refer...see previous posting on Mystery Smell), trying to vacuum around the hounds of hell while they attack the vacuum on 2 sides (while the largest dog hides in the bedroom). And I'm sweating it, wondering if I can make it clean enough to be presentable.
Now, I'm not a "horrible" housekeeper, but Martha Stewart I'm not (at least in the clean department). I have an artist's brain (have you ever notice that most artist's are a little cluttered?), so I'm happiest with SOME clutter, but what I'M happy with, is not necessarily COMPANY CLEAN.
So if you call me, because you're in "the hood"...give me a 1/2 hour, to make the homestead presentable and if I seem a little out of breath at the door...well you know, I was doing the flight of the bumble bee cleaning! But PLEASE come over...my house probably needed a good straighten up anyway!

The Party's Over

The party is over...finally! After months of planning, everything pretty much went off without a hitch. Lot's of food (shredded pork, a Hoosier favorite), of course cake, made by the same woman that made D's graduation cake (she also made K & I's wedding cake) and good time was had by all!

It was very low key and well attended, here are a few pictures from this event...I think I'm going to go and crash now, I didn't really understand how much this has been on my mind over the past few months and I'm exhausted! Enjoy!

Oh, don't they make a lovely looking couple?

No wedding reception is complete until you have witnessed the "cake smear"!

Here's a picture of the wedding favors I did along with the flower table decor. I think the tables did end up looking very nice.

Assistant Horse Trainer

Our "not so new" assistant horse trainer, Joan, hard at work. She works for peanuts (errr, fed 2X a day and DON'T FORGET THE GRAIN!) and seems to love her job. What IS her job exactly? Depends on the horse we team her up with, with the babies she teaches them how to lead, they pull back and she stands firm until the learn how to move with the pressure (think about teaching a puppy how walk on a leash). For the older horses, like Alex (pictured here) she is a reminder, Alex likes to LEAD his owner across a field when HE wants to, not when his OWNER wants to... picture a dog pulling on a leash...now multiply the poundage to about 900 lbs.....that's a LOT of dog dragging you! So what Joan does is walk the horse around where SHE wants to go, the horse doesn't want to follow or go another way, she will quickly change direction and if it STILL doesn't follow her she will back up and give it a quick little kick in the ribs until it DOES follow her! It usually only takes one or two days of the "Joan Treatment" before the horse falls in line. If we have a horse that runs off, Joan can stop them in their tracks, she'll stop, turn and direct them somewhere else...she will also walk a small circle for the really nervous ones, basically lunging them, until they regain their senses.

For those wondering what Joan and the horse are attached with, we use a neoprene girth around Joan's neck (soft and somewhat giving)...the girth is the thing that holds the saddle in place, around the belly on a horse. Attached to that is a non-giving rope that is attached to the girth at one end and to the halter of the horse at the other end.

Joan pecularities; She is the dinner alarm...it it's a minute past 5 p.m., she's out there braying for her dinner...you can be late for anything, just not HER dinner! and don't forget the grain! If you don't feed her grain she WILL follow you, hay is NOT good enough!

She was named Joan after another trainers client that K rented stalls from earlier in his career. Joan was a very LOUD client...and Joan the donkey can be loud with that bray, I can always hear her in the house...especially if I overslept and I'm late with breakfast...who needs roosters? I've got Joan.

Joan is ridable IF you want to go where SHE wants to go. It's funny that we use her to teach other horses how to lead, but she herself can be difficult to...especially if it's somewhere she doesn't want to to go.

She LOVES bath's and grooming time and will stand stock still for either, wish she could teach THAT to the horses.

So if you're at the farm towards evening and you hear braying in the background, just know, I'M late with Joan's dinner!

A Couple of Characters

This was taken sitting in the bleachers at a horse show last weekend while we were watching the classes.

Mystery Smell

Yeah, we've all had it before...the dreaded mystery smell in the refrigerator. It's usually take-out that should've STAYED THERE. However, this time the mystery deepened. Short of actually taking E.V.E.R.Y. single thing out of our refrigerator, my little short cycle cleaning WAS NOT taking care of the smell. The smell not only permeated the refrigerator, but the kitchen and family room and it would follow you out of the room and tap you on the shoulder. It smelled like TRASH! (ick!)

So each day I would quickly clean a shelf in hopes to find the mystery smell, I started on the bottom with the thought of if it's not eye level, I probably missed it, but with each day the smell only worsened, it was so horrific, that K and I were fighting each other running down the hall to grab the lysol spray out of the bathroom (you KNOW it's THAT BAD!). My candles weren't covering it up and I'm not talking the Dollar Tree candles but the big $$$ Yankee Candles...then it smelled like vanilla trash...yuummmmm....errr...NOT!

And about day 3 I thought, ARM & HAMMER BAKING SODA...YES, that absorbs smells, I've seen it on tv, and by golly THEY wouldn't LIE, WOULD THEY? So, since I didn't have any EXTRA boxes hanging around, I used the box I normally bake with. Amazed with my brilliance, I placed that little yellow box happily in the trash smelling, cold box and went off to bed, hoping for a little reprieve of odorific air by morning.

....yeah, NOT... so I'm off digging on each shelf, tossing perfectly INNOCENT produce, tortillas that were still soft, cheese that was still shredded and not a hint of wetness, you know stuff that was purchased only a day or so before, UNTIL....yes,

W.A.I.T. for it...




A SMALL rubber maid container hidden behind the margarine tub and two bottles of condiments with 3, yes I counted, 3 baby carrots, looking quite innocent UNTIL you open the container. No wonder I missed them, they didn't look like a science project gone array or anything....they looked extremely innocent, like the dog that just pooped on the rug (who me?)...

(Inhaling Deeply)...yeah...mystery smell SOLVED. And about $40 of groceries tossed out...

Cricut Cartridge Storage

Here's how I store my Cricut Cartridges with books, keypads and cartridge. I use a photo storage box and put them in by alphabetical order. I love that I just pick up this box and go and fits PERFECTLY in the top of my green cricut bag!

Ribbon Storage

Everyone is always looking for ideas on storage...so here's mine for ribbon. I used the Cropper Hopper Ribbon Cards and wound each ribbon on it (easy enough!)... I then secured it with two rubber bands length wise, I've tried stick pins and was CONSTANTLY sticking myself as well as the pins would stick in the ribbon in the next card creating quite the mess. I LOVE my new rubber band method! I put the cards in your standard photo storage box, I have finally moved to two boxes, so I'll make a tag with the colors on it. I like that this storage is compact and that I can see EVERY SINGLE ribbon I have, makes finding my ribbon a snap as well as keeps it neat!

Mother's Day Cards

Well, I'm not sure why this card ended up sideways, but it's simple and in one of my MIL's favorite colors brown (she's the queen of brown!)... The brown paper is from one of my paper stacks...though I'm guilty I just don't know which one!

Here's a card I made scraplifted from Card Trends. I like the different colors, I don't think this picture really did it justice! Martha Stewart Scallop Edge Punch used. I had a lot of fun making this one.

This card was scraplifted from last years Mother's Day issue of Card Trends. It was simple and I got to use my Martha Stewart Scallop Edge Punch

On the left is a one sheet box I made and the matching card is on the right. Quite fun to make. The box was a little more challenging, but I found it fascinating that it was made with one sheet of 8 1/2 X 11 paper (directions found on split coast stampers here http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/onesheetbox.php). The card was scraplifted also from Split Coast Stampers...Lauren Meader...I just love her work!

Mother's Day Gifts

I've been busy making the blue bracelet on the left (actually I liked the one I made so much, I made another one)...I actually copied it after the one on the right, which I ordered and liked so well, that I wanted another one, but alas, I knew it would not get here in time for Mother's Day...so I scraplifted, but with jewelry. It was fun and easier than I imagined! I googled how to finish the ends (since the directions on the jewelry findings package were clear as mud) and am glad I did...the blue bracelet is actually the 2nd made...I couldn't get the first one finished at the end, so I had to remake it! NOW that I know what I'm doing, I would love to make more, now not only will I be stalking the scrapbook aisle when I shop at the craft stores, but the bead aisel as well...just what I need another addiction!

Big News

Ok, so we've been talking about this for over a year and we have a lot of financial work to do, and we've been slowly leaking it out, BUT we've decided to adopt...there...it's now official! Specifics, I have no details on as we are just beginning the process. So hopefully (fingers, toes, an available appendages crossed) within the next 5 years we'll be parents (I'm hoping sooner, but one never knows). It has been a long journey to even reach this point. It's hard when your body fails you for what is so seemingly easy for everyone else. It takes a long time just to accept that seemingly small fact. So we're at that point...we're ready to begin the adoption journey, I'm scared out my mind for a million reasons, but that's what parenthood starts out with anyway whether I was having a biological child or not...so we're off...wish us luck!

Baby Onesie Bouquet

How absolutely adorable is this bouquet? I didn't make this, but I want to! I must find another baby shower to go to, to give this to someone. Below is the blog with the directions...what a great way to package baby onesies!

http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2008/04/08/onesie-bouquet-for-a-boy/

Baby Onsie Card

I made this card to go with the blue diaper cake (below). I used Stampin Up's So Many Scallops Sale A Bration stamp set and scallop punch. CM's 1 1/4" circle punch. This was really easy to make and you can get the directions to make it here:

tp://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2008/02/05/create-your-own-onesie-card-tutorial-and-important-note-please-read/