James David

Rebekah had her baby!  I took a few photos for her, just for fun.  These are a few of the best:

We picked one and I made her birth announcements:

 I made a name plaque to match the nursery set that she chose.

Nautica's Zachary crib set

And I made a bath towel hoodie for the little guy.  He hates to be cold, and it's super cozy and plush. It also coordinates with the nursery.

I used cotton towels--one bath towel and one hand towel-- from Target for the hoodie itself, scraps of cotton fabric for the sail boat, and ribbon from JoAnn's to trim across the bottom of the hood, and all the way across the bottom of the cape.  Quilter's cotton worked so much better for doing the applique than scraps of towel, because the cotton doesn't warp as bad.  (Kaylie's "K" was not supposed to be nearly so big!)  I'll have to ask Rebekah for feedback on functionality.  :)

Congratulations, Josh & Rebekah!  Welcome to the world, James!

The Other Baby Book Website

I did something new and super exciting!!  

I helped to design a website!  For someone else!!  And I got paid to do it!!!

No, really, I did!  This is how it happened:

Rachel, a friend of mine from high school, was asked to put together a new website for a pair of authors promoting their new book.  And Rachel, being the web-savvy girl that she is, said sure!   She felt confident that she could handle putting it together, but felt less sure of her ability to make it look good and is used to working in a team anyway, so she asked the authors if she could bring in a partner: me!  (She said that I was the very first person she thought of to help with the aesthetic elements of the site; is that not an incredible compliment to me or what?)  She told them a little bit about me, showed them my blog and my digital scrapbook pages, and they gave their stamp of approval.  

Fast forward 10 days, about a gazillion e-mails, and a few curses (generally directed at Word Press), and voilá!  A website is born!  If you think of it in terms of building a house, Rachel did all of the construction, and I did all of the interior and exterior decor:  headers, fonts, colors, images, etc.  I just might break my arm before I'm done here, but I'm incredibly pleased with the way it all turned out.

I have to thank Kelly and Lizy, who started me down the path to digital scrap-booking in the first place.  That, combined with my blogging prowess (too much?  Probably, but hey, I'm on a roll here), is what helped me land this gig.  I have just been dying to tell you about this, because I knew you'd be proud.  :)

The book itself is called The Other Baby Book, and is intended to provide an introduction to natural parenting, an alternative to the more mainstream practices and philosophies about parenting through the first 12 months.  I would highly recommend this as good reading for all expecting parents, and parents of young babies, not because I think that everyone should espouse all of their ideas, but because it is good to be informed.  (After all, if you don't have all of the information, how can you make a sound decision?  So it is worth reading, even if you get to the end and say, "Nope, this 'natural parenting' thing just isn't for us".)  And if you want to know more when you get done with the book, then the website that we just put together has a whole stack of suggestions for further reading.

Toy Story Birthday Invitations

Since the girls' birthdays are only about 2 weeks apart, we'll be doing double birthday parties for them until they get old enough to want their own.  This first time around though, I going to have a few of the "1st birthday" things for Kaylie, like chocolate cupcakes in addition to a carrot cake for Elora and set up a special spot for her with the appropriate decorations.  But for all practical purposes, this year's party will be Toy Story themed. Elora loves Toy Story. 

found here

No, you don't understand.  Elora loves Toy Story.  If I let her, she would watch all three movies, in reverse order, every day.  (When she was sick over Christmas, and we let her vege in front of the TV?  Yeah.  All 3 movies.  And the time that she was sick before that?  You get the idea.)

found here

It's hard to say which character she likes best, but I picked Jessie as the central theme for her invitations.  I'm no Jessica, (you really should go look at hers, she designed those from nothing!) but I decided to design and print my own, rather than buying them pre-made. I found this image online, and downloaded it. Now I have to wait for the ink I ordered to get here so I can print them out.

I had a hard time choosing between doing a flat card or folded card, but in the end went with the flat one for the invitation,

 
and made the thank you cards folded.  Now, where is that ink??