More Christmas Designs

Top Etsy Picks: December 2010

The other day, a friend of mine asked me where I find "all this cute stuff." I told her Etsy. She then told me that she'd never heard of Etsy. I gasped. So, just in case there are any more of you out there that don't know what Etsy is, or that happen to be interested in my latest Etsy obsessions, here ya go! :)

Hint: if any of these just happened to appear under the Christmas tree for me, it wouldn't be too difficult for me to feign surprise.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

1. Egg Nog Scented Soap - Um. YUM.

2. Eventually Necklace from the R house - Some days I just need a reminder that my deepest wants will be mine eventually if I can just stay the course.

3. Peacock Feather Dish Towels - They match my kitchen completely and are wonderfully glamorous. Plus, our current dish towels are ugly. majorly.

4. Left Me At The Fair - C & I said the l-word for the first time on Santa Monica beach, right after we rode the ferris wheel. I'd love this print in my house!

5. Cute Christmas Owl - Owl + Stripes = Perfection

6. Tree with our initials - We get a Christmas ornament for every anniversary. This beautiful little tree would look so cute to commemorate year 2.

7. To Be Brave print - The words say: "it is in all of us to defy expectations, to go into the world and to be brave. to want, to need, to hunger for adventures. to embrace change and chance and risk
so that we may breathe and know what it is to be free." I don't know where I'd put this, but I'm thinkin' this is one of those "buy now, figure the rest out later" deals.

8. Letterpress Initial Necklace - I just think this encompasses everything "me" in a nutshell. This might be my favorite find. [Along with #3, #7, & #11]

9. Calendar - I need a new one for 2011 and the illustrations on this one are to-die-for.

10. Pomegranate Stamp - I think this little stamp is so wonderfully cheery. If I had it, I would seal each and every envelope that left our house with it. Including the bills. Perhaps it would make paying bills a bit less obnoxious?

11. Hope Necklace from the R house - See #2.

12. Weekly Planner - Designed with typography after my own heart. Maybe one as gorgeous as this would make me actually carry it around and use it. I sincerely think it would. I'm motivated this year.

Christmas Party Invites

I've been loving the holiday season and the designs that come with it! Being asked to design Christmas Cards and Party Invites is one of my favorite e-mails to receive. These are the latest and greatest! What do you think?

To celebrate the holiday season and to help out my fellow procrastinators, I'm offering a $15 Christmas Card design special until the end of the week! Leave a comment here or e-mail me if you're interested!

Give Thanks Album: Finished!

This little ditty is finished and headed to my door! :) Can't wait to see it in person!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Cooking Class: Week 1

Due to popular demand, I've decided to post the slideshows I use during my freezer cooking/oamc/canning/etc. class that I teach on Thursday nights. We've barely finished week one, so if you're interested in coming, browse through this presentation and do the homework! You're welcome to come over this Thursday at 7 for week two where we dive straight into freezer cooking!

Freezer cooking

View more presentations from CallMeKristin.

Give Thanks Album: #16-21

Yes, this is my family. Boom Baby!

I realize this is over 4 minutes long, but my favorite part is the AWESOME finish. Worth the wait for sure. :)



Sigh.

I'm proud to call you my fam.

I'm also STOKED to see ALL OF YOU tomorrow!!!

Woot!

Give Thanks Album: 11-15

Facelifts All Around!

It was recently brought to my attention that people actually want to know what I'm designing. It was also brought to my attention that a lot of people don't even know the extent of my designing.

So here it is, friends.

I design websites & blogs.

From scratch, from blogger templates, from wordpress, etc.

Headers, custom coding, backgrounds, buttons, navigation bars, social media buttons, etc.

Basically, I design the whole enchilada.

I design promotional materials.

This includes, but is absolutely not limited to, backdrops for retail stores, signs for retail stores, flyers, brochures, newspaper and magazine advertisements, etc.

I design parties.

Invites, announcements, dessert tables, etc.

[10 bucks says you're sick of hearing about these. :)]

I design by request.

I've designed senior ads, touched up photos, scrapbooked for others, etc.

[I would LOVE to design pass-along cards for adoptive couples.]

Like I said, I design the whole enchilada.

And now, I'm giving those design services a home.

Click here to see examples of the whole enchilada.

I figured I'd fill you in before you just started seeing random posts about new designs I've done. :)

There are currently 3 of 5 openings available in my design queue. If you would like to discuss pricing for your design project please contact me.

Give Thanks Album: 5-10

I know it's been a while since I've posted my layouts for my give thanks album. I write the journaling for each page as the days go by, but having time to actually scrap the layout is an entirely different story! I did just score a free 8x8 shutterfly book, so it looks like this album is going to get printed a lot sooner than I thought!

On My Mind Today

Lunch.

This morning, I was woken up with a hot mug of cocoa from C after he smooched me and pointed to my slippers and robe all ready for me. That's my life ladies. Be jealous.

I had a wonderfully relaxing morning full of snuggly robes and puzzles. I got ready for work and gave myself a time limit to work on the puzzle so I wouldn't be late getting out the door. Time limit came. I stood up.

And then realized how absolutely wrong my time limit was! I needed to be AT work at 9:45. Not LEAVING for work at 9:45!

In my frenzy to grab something for lunch I threw the can opener in my purse along with a tupperware bowl, spoon, and can of Spaghetti-Os.

Yep. It's one of *those* days.

And yet, I still have a grin on my face because of that wonderful man of mine and his ability to make waking up something awesome.

:)

Baby Announcement Design: Baby Hightower

Those of you who've been around a while know that I design Baby Announcements, Baby Shower Invites, Christmas Cards, Bridal & Wedding Invitations, Graduation Invites, etc. It's a total blast and I really love doing it! Now that all the proceeds are going toward Party with the Calls, it's just that much more exciting when I get asked to design!

Stacey asked me to design an announcement for her brand new little guy. [For those of you considering different birthing options, check out her blog. Kevin came through a water birth! She answers tons of questions and just gives great information. She's one of the reasons that if when we get pregnant, we'll be checking out all of our options.]

Christmas card season is coming up! Are you ready?

Halloween in AZ

We took a quick trip down to AZ last weekend to say goodbye to Max, our faithful, fun date car. C's parents had a truck for us, and with our recent obsession with carpentry, how could we resist? Plus, C's brother Jared will be home from his mission soon [crazy?!] and will need Max to woo the young ladies.

We picked a great weekend to go for a number of reasons.

1. We left on the day we found out IUI #1 didn't work. Thank you, THANK YOU, for all of your prayers, fasting, temple-ing, etc. on our behalf. We sincerely appreciate it, and felt every single prayer, and hope that you'll continue it when we decide to start up treatments again in a couple of months [after the holidays.]

2. JT had a football game on Friday night that we were able to catch. He played his mind out, left it on the field, and I was giddy watching my baby brother completely tear it up. [No pictures. I was too excited. Sorry! Although, for all you SHS-ers, I even managed a "GO PANTHERS" once or twice. It took a lot of psyching myself up and tasted like vinegar coming out of my mouth, but I support family. Even if they DO go to COCONINO. Ugh. I will, however, die before a "Go Eagles" escapes my lips. I'm still working on being mature.]

3. Rick marched in the NAU homecoming parade Saturday morning. He looked so cute studly in his uniform.

[caption id="attachment_1232" align="aligncenter" width="550" caption="He's the tall snare drummer on the end. "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1233" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="I can't believe how small he makes me look! He's 14. Sheesh. "][/caption]

4. Amberlee had a Halloween party to go to on Saturday night, but she couldn't get a hold of anyone for details. She decided she just wouldn't go. At the last minute, one of her friends called her and said she would be by to pick her up in 5 minutes! Adrienne and I went into high gear turning Amberlee into a 50s girl. She looked GREAT if I do say so myself. *Air Five Adrienne!*

5. 20 hours in the car means C and I get uninterrupted time to talk, laugh, and remind ourselves just exactly why we are best friends. It also means that we have completely focused time to discuss moving forward with our family. From talking to the doctor, we'll most likely be needing to do IVF, which comes with a $25,000 price tag. Having so much time to discuss just exactly how we're going to make that work was wonderful. I love being on the same page with him. He is such an incredible, selfless man. I am the luckiest. girl. ever.

Give Thanks Album: 2-4

Meet Ginny!

We bought a bunny.

Her name is Ginny.

We love her.

She'll stay about this size forever.

Awesome.

And she's already potty-trained.

She's much more cuddly than a turtle.

We're trying not to neglect Pato, but she's pretty cute.

C loves her too.

Suns Game!

While I realize that certain members in my extended family may refer to this game as the "Jazz" game, we'll just avoid all silly-talk and call it what it was. :) The Suns won by 16! woot.

C & I, and C's twin Kiara & her friend Sarah represented in the Orange & Purple for the Suns. We were not really among friends. I had never been to an NBA game before, & I really had a great time! Thanks Adam & Em for scoring us some tickets!

I had no idea how intense fans can be, especially AT the games. I will say, though, that we enjoyed watching the fans sitting near us as much as, if not more than the game itself. lol. cracks me up. I think someone needs to explain to them that they are NOT the ones on the court playing. Too much.

Halloween Dessert Table

We threw a Halloween party the weekend before Halloween. I've been designing party tables for Whipperberry, and decided to try my hand at a dessert table for our little get together. I was really happy with how it turned out!

If you've got a party coming up, I'd love to help you design it! You can see my party packs here, or if you want something completely custom, just e-mail me! 

Halloween Party!

We threw a Halloween party the weekend before Halloween. Our swanky neighbors made these awesome gravestones for our front yard. My favorite is that on Cedric Digory's headstone it says {Team Edward}. Ha. :)

We played a game called Trick or Treat. There was a bowl full of strips of paper that either said "Trick" or "Treat" on them. If you got "Treat" you picked a piece of candy out of the candy bowl. If you picked "Trick," you had to perform a trick in order to get your treat. This would be me putting as many marshmallows in my mouth as possible in an attempt to accomplish the trick: Ghostbuster.

Nasty.

The Mummy.

Donuts on a String.

The Scarecrow: Also known as "General Humiliation." Thanks for being a good sport Jake!

Tommy after bobbing for apples. Took him a while, and he was in almost up to his shoulders before he found the apple with the quarter in it. :)

The Littles. Chris's wife, Emily, is blindfolded and trying to get chocolate syrup into his mouth without bending her knees. Most of the time this is quite messy. These two were way too good at it. Made for a bit of a let-down, but their communication skills were impressive.

Our conjoined twins [Brian & Allison] drawing the best ogre they could using their feet and pistachio pudding.

Not too shabby, eh?

Mario & Princess Peach taking their turn in the apple bobbing bucket.

We had a total blast and will definitely be doing this again! Thanks to everybody who came!