Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2009! I hope you all had fantastic celebrations last night, remembering with fondness the blessings and challenges of 2008 and looking forward with hope to whatever 2009 has in store. Kat felt well enough to venture out for a bit (going out with her brother and his girlfriend for a couple of hours on Saturday wiped her out and she's ended up nearly bed-bound ever since -- but she says it's absolutely worth it!), so we almost headed to a friend's house. Yes, we were invited; we weren't crashing their party, ha ha! But just before we left, we gave our friend a call and lo and behold, she wasn't home! Talk about all dressed up and nowhere to go! No worries, though, we went to see a movie instead: Bedtime Stories (the new Adam Sandler flick) and had a good time!


Here is our Christmas card... well, the version that got sent to most of our family and friends anyway... I just couldn't decide how I wanted this year's cards to look. The finished product is fashioned after Shalae's card, which can be found on Shelli's blog. Her card is so cute!! And what a fun idea! I didn't have the tools that Shalae had, so I put my own spin on it. My cards are almost-4-inch squares. The photos inside are just 1/4" smaller than the card stock. The corners are notched using the corner of my curly label punch. Boy, did that punch get A LOT of use this season! I really like the texture on the card front (I'm not one to usually go for textured papers, but this worked out nicely, I think). And the little bird on the background stamp (French Flair; retired SU! stamp) showed up in just the right spot! Again, most of the materials used are from my stash (hence the variety of colors). The only thing I bought this year was the Curly Label Punch Bundle from Stampin' Up! -- yay, me!!





Thanks to everyone who's been dropping the wonderful comments on my posts, by the way! I can't figure out how to send you an e-mail reply... help, please?? I do want you to know that I totally appreciate your kind words and encouragement and sharing! I get so excited when I open up my e-mail to find a notice that I've got a comment to moderate!





Oh, and in other holiday news, my son and his girlfriend came to visit!! It was so nice to have him here with us again, and his girlfriend is just too cute!! They really do seem to be a good match -- she even got him one of those metal brain teaser puzzles for Christmas, and it has him totally stumped (no easy task!). The visit was all too short, naturally. I also got a call from my eldest daughter, who will ship out again in a couple of weeks. This will be her last tour before she gets out of the Navy (she'll be gone six months this time). Kat and I are putting together a little care package to send her... hope to mail it tomorrow.

Well, it's back to crafting for me! I'm taking full advantage of these wonderfully lazy days before I head back to work on Monday. I just love vacations!

~ Pia