SVG attic Advent Calendar

Last year I made several Advent Calendar's as gifts.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to finish mine.  When I saw that SVG Attic was doing a anything goes contest I knew this would be my chance to finish my calendar.  I used the Nutcracker Sweet from Graphic 45 (I love this paper).  I buy up all I can find all the time.  When I saw the Advent Calendar file I knew I had to go hunting for 8x8 pads so I could make this calendar.  I made four of these.

You need three or four copies of the same sheet of paper.  Then you cut different elements out to create a dimensional look.  I love how they turned out and I can't wait to use mine this year.  (I just wish I had more time to take a good picture, I'm finishing last minute again!).  Hope I get this uploaded before the contest ends.

Alice's 1st Birthday - Wonderland Lamp

When my great niece Alice turned one, I wanted to make her something special.  Of course with the name Alice, I want to do something Wonderland inspired.  Fortunately for me, Thienly (an SVGcuts designer) came up with the perfect idea for me, the Wonderland Lamp.  You can find the instructions for it here.  I love Thienly's and all the other DT projects and this one was no exception.  Here is the lamp I made for Alice:

My Great Nephew Conner and Great Niece Alice

I can't believe my niece is oldest enough to be married let alone have children.  Since I have become interested in taking pictures and need practice taking pictures of people (I prefer landscapes) I asked my niece if I could take pictures of her children.  Here are some pictures of Conner when he turned one:

What a handsome little guy!

This same month we welcomed Alice to the family.  She is almost exactly one year younger than her brother.  These are some of my favorite shots of her:

What a sweetie!

Sunflower Field

One day while just driving around town my mom ran across a sunflower field.  She called me and asked if I wanted to grab my camera and go take pictures with her, of course I said yes.  I'm not sure what this farmer grows the sunflowers for but they sure do make for some pretty pictures!  These are two of my favorite ones.

I love taking sunflower pictures!

Grandma's New Fence

My mom loves working in the yard.  She also has a neighbor that has big dogs which she is scared of.  So we did some investigating and pricing and decided that it won't be that hard to build a wooden fence.  I am a do it yourself kind of girl and I said it doesn't look that hard.  All we have to do is rent an auger (to dig the holes), put up the posts and then attach the pre-made panels.

I can honestly say, I have never worked so hard in my life!  Apparently, Gaston County used to be one big rock quarry, seriously.  And digging a 3 foot hole no matter what you are using is hard.  I convinced my brother-in-law Aaron to help me.  I had everything planned out.  We started over a holiday weekend (so we could finish in one weekend).  Day one we made great progress, it was hard but we didn't really have too much trouble.  Day two we started hitting the rock bed.  This made things very difficult.  By day three we were looking for help.  We convinced my daughter's boyfriend to help us and then I called my husband, when he got off work and had him come help dig the last few holes.  Finally, by late afternoon we had all the holes dug and posts installed.  We put in 18 posts!

I took one extra day off from work and Aaron and I put up all the panels the next day.  I have to admit the finished product looks amazing.  All the hard work was worth the end result.  What a beautiful addition to the yard!

Stephanie's graduation

In June of 2011 my second daughter Stephanie graduated from High School.  I can't believe I now have two daughter's that have graduated from High School, it sure makes one feel old.  

Stephanie was a great sport and let me take her out to get photos.  Of course it is June in North Carolina so it was like 100 degrees!  We waited until the evening so it would be a little cooler, if that's possible and we went to Daniel Stowe Gardens.  Unfortunately, they close at 5:30 pm but they told us we could take pictures anywhere before the garden entrance.  They have a little pond not far from the entrance, so we took our pictures there.  I got several nice pictures, this one is my favorite: