Happy Birthday Jesus!!

Those 4 days flew by faster than I could have ever imagined! We had wonderful candle light service last night and even though I was on the platform playing the piano and Arte was speaking, Kelsey (3) managed to hold her candle without lighting her hair or anybody else's on fire! I'd have to say there were a few close calls!!

Jesus truly is the reason for the season and I pray that He was a part of your Christmas this year, bring you and your loved ones peace and joy. I just wanted to do a quick post to say Merry Christmas and to share our 2007 Christmas card.

4 more days!!

This past week has been full of fun and excitement. I love this time of year! There is always such a happy buzz at the school as the children are finishing all their projects and their 'secret' presents for the family. And of course, there are the graham cracker/ginger bread houses full of slopped on frosting and half eaten candies. You gotta love it!!

Last week I was able to get a bit of scrappin in but this week I wanted to try and focus on the kids. We've snuggled and watched Christmas movies, wrapped presents, made cookies, had play dates and read lots of books about the Christmas story- the true meaning of Christmas. There are kinds of projects I'd like to get done but the truth is, I don't want this Christmas to pass and my kids see me too busy to even reinforce to them what the season is all about. Plus, just getting to be with them while they're home from school for two weeks is such a blessing.















These are a few things that I made last week with some of my new goodies that lovely Secret Santa sent me. Thank you Tracy!!! I also finished my Piggy Tales peek-a-boo album which was a ton of fun to do. I think I will post that here tomorrow.
A few days ago I had a little bit of excitement. If you've ever been published, you'll be able to relate to this! I was in somewhat local craft store that carries Scrapbook Trends and CARDS idea books. I got to see my work for the very first time in print!! It was soooo incredibly fun! Scrapbook Trends Wedding has the layout I did about ARte's cousin Peter and CARDS has my very first ever card published on a two page spread. Super fun to see. Also out right now is Scrapbook Trends Dec. issue which has my clear mini album but I haven't got to see a copy of it yet. Soon though! I'm supposed to be getting them in the mail. That would be a fun thing to get right before Christmas!!

Right now... I'm trying to decide what would be a fun thing to do with my kids tomorrow. A.J. LOVES Monopoly and Ashley is catching on to it but it's not real fun for Kelsey. Hmmmm... it would be though to set up a game on the table tonight and have it all ready to go in the morning for us to play at least for a little while!! I think I'll set out some Christmas mugs and hotchocolate with marshmellows for them to each make with their breakfast. Now THAT sounds fun!! okay...I'm off to set up a table!

Love, Elsie - NOEL

Yes! I'm lovin this Elsie Christmas line. It's perfect for all my old Christmas photos. These are some BAD pictures because of our bad weather but you get the idea. Fun stuff!

Secret Santa

I have two different Secret Santa's this year from two different places. I have to say, my Secret Santa from Candy Cane Lane is absolutely AMAZING!!! I mean she is the BEST Secret Santa EVAH!! I can't believe that I have received 3 packages already. The first two were a very fun, nice surprise but the third one was so sweet it nearly had me in tears. I opened this cardboard box only to find the most adorable home made santa bag that had been stitched together. Inside it was full of goodies, including some adorable homemade ornaments. OH! And Hershey kisses with candy canes... mmmmmm!!! Somebody's been reading my blog and found out about my love for Hershey kisses!! It was so fun to open and I was so blessed with the love that was put into it, I just HAD to post the pictures and hope that my Secret Santa is reading so that I can say THANK YOU so much!!! I was truly shocked, blessed, and very excited to get the goodies you sent!

Need a little Christmas craft idea?

The December crop is going on right now at 2scrappychixdesigns.com and there are some fun projects that the design team have come up with. Here is a lil glimps at a few things that I have posted there. There games, challenges and lots of fun so be sure to check it while you can!

Storm's a blowin!!

Wow, what a storm!! They said a hurrican was coming but really, I'd never seen anything like that here so I didn't take them too seriously! There were over 120 mile winds. Trees down in yards and across the road all OVER the place! The lights went out right as Arte was finishing up his sermon at church. Driving home was like sliding across an ice rink. Crazy!! Our original route home was blocked by 3 huge trees so we went around another way which became blocked right after we got home. A gigantic tree fell on the road and I know there were angels watchin over us because we just missed being under it by minutes. Here is a photo of the trees that came down just behind our house. If you click on it you can see how big it really is! The rain kept coming after the storm hit but now finally have some sunshine. Yahoo!!!

Fiskars Training class - a hit!!!

Last night I had our first Fiskars Training class at Taylor Made Memories. Nanci (pictured in the last photo with me) and Gwen were gracious enough to allow us to use their store. It turned out to be a lot of fun! I'll update this later with more photos. For some reason when I try to format them, I keep erasing the ones I've uploaded. Hoy... if I could just master this blog/photo thing! LOL! There were 10 gals all together who went through the training and became Certified Fiskars Demonstrators. We shared stories, drew names for fun prizes, laughed together and learned together. The most best part for me was seeing the faces on the women as they discovered how these amazing tools actually worked. It was also fun to see the excitement on their faces as I introduced some products that they had never seen before. Thank you ladies for a great night together!

More Thanksgiving Pictures!

While we were in Beaverton, we went to the park and although it was VERY cold, the kids had fun playing around! We were actually at a park with a playground but I think the kids had more fun playin in the leaves and climbing the fence! At our place at the coast, there aren't a lot of colorful fall leaves and not many piles of leaves at all so, they had a really good time!

So VERY thankful!

Happy Be-lated Thanksgiving! I can't believe it has come and come but let me tell you I feel that I still have SO much to be thankful for. We were able to spend Thanksgiving with Arte's family and now my parents are visiting from Canada. That alone is so special. But something happened this year that made it extra special for me.

Just before we left for Portland, we found out that a good family friend of ours was going in for emergency triple by-pass surgery. We drove a few hours on Wednesday to go see him and his wife as he was just getting out of surgery. He did well but I think it was a bit of a wake up call for us. It just gets ya thinking. The night before we left, my very best friend in Canada told me over the phone that her Dad (who is a Pastor and who she works for and is very close to) was just given 6 months to live. WOW. That's a tough one. It left me nearly speechless. I'm so glad to serve a God who fill me with confidence and hope that all things are in His control.

As we were driving to Portland, we had a moment in the van where I thought my heart would explode with happiness. My 3 yound kids (8, 6, and 3)were singing to their favorite kids praise and worship CD. You could tell that they were getting louder and louder and it seemed to become a compition to see who could be the loudest! LOL! As the song finished I talked to them about what the words meant. The words said "I will worship with all of my heart." I explained to them that with all of your heart meant that you really were singing from your heart because you're are grateful for the blessings in your life and that whoever is 'loudest' isn't the most important thing. What was important was that it's from the heart. We played the song again (it's their favorite.) I totally could have balled my eyes out. There was such a change in the atmosphere of the van although they were almost singing just as loud but you could really tell that it was sincere, totally from the heart. Even our little 3 year old! Arte and I sang along with them and it was so loud and strong and beautiful. It was a moment that I will never forget. I truly felt God's love envelop our van, giving us a big hug and reassuring us that He will never leave us or forsake us even when it seems the world around us is falling apart. I don't have a photo for this moment but I'm definitely going to scrap it!

Then, on Sunday morning, the message was all about hope. It was wonderful. There are so many of us in the world that feel like there is no hope. I don't normally do this but I feel so impressed to right now. If you are reading this and feel like you are a person without hope and would like to hear this message that was spoken at our church, I would be happy to send you a copy. Whether I know you or not, I love to get you a copy. Email me at julieoverby@peak.org.

In the end, we had a fabulous time in Portland. Here is a picture of our kiddos with their cousin Tanner.

2 cards published! Wahoo! AND I finally got my ALBUM done!

I'm having a lot of fun with my Noteworthy goodies. I was excited and shocked to find out on a SUNDAY?? that the two cards below were picked up by CARDS magazine. Wahoo!! That was so fun and I was so excited that I will have 2 in the same magazine. Haven't had that happen yet. Now I'm crossing my fingers for this mini album that I submitted. I focuse on each page and then went through and matched up something on the 'back' side. I wasn't even going to do anything on the back side but I had more photos so I decided to try it and see what happened. I had a LOT of fun making this album. I love having fun with my kids and that's what it is all about!

*My album got picked up too!!! WAHOO!!! So sorry if you didn't get a chance to see it*

Noteworthy

Has it really been four days since my last post? Seems like yesterday! Well I thought it would be worth mentioning that I have completely fallen in love with this new Noteworthy line by Making Memories. Such great colors, papers and embellishments. Of course, I had to try a few cards with them so here is what I came up with...

How do I become a Fiskateer AND more photos!!

Some of you asked about how to become a 'fiskateer.' This is not some 'secret' club or something for those of you who were wondering! Fiskars has a blog and message board where a community of scrappers meet and share their ideas and words of encouragement. There are fun inspirational 'on-line' crops and interviews with scrapbooking celebs. There is no obligation once you join. Although, beware, you may be sucked into all the fun that goes on! So far there are over 2700 fiskateers and I'm quite certain that many more will be joining in the next few months. Oh... lil secret... once you join, you get a FABULOUS lil welcome gift in the mail that shows just how much Fiskars cares about their customers, enough to add a personal touch.

Once you visit http://www.fiskateers.com/kateers.com/ click on 'how to join' One of the 4 leads will get you varified through email (which just means they want to make sure you are a real person and not some spammer person.) It doesn't make a difference who you choose. If you were wanting to take it one step further, there may be someone in your area (one of the Nifty Fifty) who became certified to train others to become Fiskars demonstrators. In this case, you would have possible opportunities to even get paid to do what we LOVE to do! Let one of us know if you want more information about that.

Now onto to the photos! I just had to post this photo of my sweet Ashley who, the night I got

home, decided to gather a pile of everything 'orange' that she owned. I thought it was so funny because I hadn't even told her the significance of us spreading the 'orange' fiskars Love all over San Antonio! I also had to post a photo of my new horse (craft cart) full of goodies and box full of scrappin' supplies. There's a photo of one of the most beautiful restaurants that we went to eat. During our boat tour of the river walk, I took this photo of one of the original buildings that were built in the city. I thought it was just so pretty! Stephanie said that her cheeks were hurting so bad on Saturday night from smiling so much! Had to take a picture! The rest are just of me and some new friends and our fun time croppin' together!










As far as my favorite Fiskars product goes, it's funny because as I was reading everyone's answers, I thought... 'well, ya... I really love that too!' It truly is hard to just say I have a favorite. I was pretty much hinting in my post toward the fact that they gave us alot of adhesive because I am SOOOO picky about my adhesive. And seriously, if you have not tried Fiskars adhesive yet... you are going to be AMAZED. It glides so perfectly and is so forgiving. I love that it is in sections so that you can easily to a tiny bit or a lot. It almost sounds crazy to say that it's my favorite fiskars product but you have to understand that it was an Awesome discovery for me. You see, I use my adhesive nearly EVERY day on nearly EVERYTHING that I'm working on so it's important to me for it to be very functional. So, valkenwill you are the winner of the new heart squeeze punch!
Lastly is a photo of me and my new dear friend Melanie. We hit it off right away since we're both Canadians, LOL! Really, we had more than that in common. She does scrapbooking for charity and I think it's such an AWESOME thing.

Please let me know if you have any questions about Fiskars or becoming a Fiskateer.

I Love You to the Moon and Back

I got this great news before I left for Texas that one of my layouts was picked to be in the catwalk at Scrapinstyle TV. What does that mean? It just means that one of their fashionests (DT) liked it enough to have it highlighted for the week. It was fun for me because I hadn't had a layout picked yet at that sight where there are SO many incredibly talented scrappers. This has become one of my personal favorite layouts.
***edit***Just found out that ScrapbookTrends wants my layout for an Embellishment idea book that they are coming out with, wahoo!

Fiskars Round Up (part 2)

What an fantastic trip. From the moment I stepped into the first meeting, I was shocked. I continued to be shocked all throughout the weekend. Let me go back and explain why I was even in San Antonio.
May, one of Fiskars leads called me on the phone and announced that I was chosen to be apart of something BIG that would be happening in November. I had NO IDEA just how big she meant. Before too long, an all expense paid trip was planned and I would be leaving for Texas.
The first night that we got there, I came in late and very ill but I couldn't help but smile as I walked into a room full of ladies at tables with orange hats with their fiskateers number on them! All around the room their were craft carts that were clearly our 'first gift.' Suzanne insisted that we brought our 'horse' to every meeting because we would be filling it up with goodies! Along with our 'horse' was a great pair of fiskars scissors that even had our name engraved on them! That night there was a wonderful class (that I missed due to being ill) but it was chalked full of fun stuff and I did get a kit to complete later.
Saturday morning, we started out early with breakfast and some history about Fiskars. WHO knew that this company had been around since the 1600??? And over all these years, it has been a company about people.

Caring for people has been the heart of it.

LOVE that.

So, the very first class we walk into, was like the best Christmas you could EVER imagine!!! Our chairs were piled high and over flowing with trimmers (4 different sizes), stamp presses, stamps, border punches, punches, templates, eyelet setters, and that's just to name a few. Of course, each class that we went to had a kit full of paper, ribbon, stickers, rub-ons... everything we needed to complete a project and then some. And tape... lots and lots of adhesive. Stephanie, Holly, and Cheryl each taught a fabulous class and every time we switched rooms there were new goodies to open. Unbelievable. We seriously could not believe our eyes.

We broken into four groups, the last class that we had was with the leaders from Brains on Fire which is like Fiskars 'PR' branch. It was informative and also interactive where we were able to give feed back. Awesome.

We spoiled not only with things. Fiskars way beyond that. We were spoiled with some excellent restaraunts and delishious foods (most of which I couldn't eat but I still felt spoiled!) These lovely gents playing the guitars serenaded us out of our hotel and onto a river boat where were taken on a little boat tour up the river walk. It was AMAZING!!! I will post more photos of that later. It was so special and so fun for all of us gals in our orange hats, to be hanging out together. People would ask what the hats were for and we pass them out a pair of scissors and tell them it was a gift from Fiskars. So fun to spread the LOVE! We were each given 3 pairs to pass out at some point.

Saturday evening was a special treat. Heidi Grace and Nancy from Cloud 9 each gave a class and blessed us with tons of product. It was neat to catch a glimpse into their hearts and lives to understand how the companies really came to be.

Toward the end of the evening, we were informed that they had extra boxes of supplies to work with and to help ourselves to all the stuff on the back table. Wowah! That was like taking off all the lids in a candy store where a 3 year old is standing free!!! It quickly became a spread the supplies party and you could tell that everyone was quite excited to be getting some more stuff! I left a little early because they were asking for anyone who hadn't got a chance to have any of their projects taped for Fiskars TV. So... I went off to do that. That was hilarious. I was sick and my voice was shot and I'm sure looked horrid and totally did not plan what I was going to say. It was pretty bad but hey... it was an opportunity so I took it! Can't even tell ya what they are going to do with it... if anything! LOL!

In the morning, there was still yet more Fiskars love being poured out on us. We got to hear a bit more about the heart of the company and how we are able to communicate that to others. Then, the 3 leads got up to say a few words and begin a 'graduation ceremony.' Kleenex boxes were flyin' as everyone spoke about how wonderful it has been to be apart of something so amazing and how it was so great to build friendships over such a small time. We were each called up one by one and given a necklace with a pair of scissors for a charm, a flower, and most importantly 3 big hugs from our fearless leaders. It was so sweet and so awesome.

My favorite part about this weekend was how all the leaders of this company, including Suzanne and the 3 leads just became one of us. They 'hung' with us, laughed with us and told stories with us. We were all just a bunch of happy scrappers bonding with our passion and learning a bit about one another. It was soooo personal and just sooo very awesome.

Obviously I got to spend more time with some than with others. I really didn't think I would feel like I got to know some of these people the way that I did. It's so fun to go on the board and actually 'know' the people you are talking to. That alone is special. But it was most amazing that this company invested so many resources, so much time, so much effort into us. It feels great to know that someone has that much faith in you!

Fiskars is about a company who really want their customers to understand their products so that people can get more out of their paper crafting and 'memory perserving.'

Thank you Fiskars and everyone one of you who put soooo much work into making this weekend so special for us. It was such an honor to be there. I truly have been blessed.

I wanted to share some these fabulous photos. The first is of Cheryl and I. She is such a dear. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to have not only met her but really get to know her. The two of us have really connected through emails, phone calls, and a lot of common experiences. To actually hug and spend time chattin' about life really deepend our bond.

The second photo is of Heidi Grace and I. She is such a cutie! Heidi really shared alot about her life and was so REAL with us. She is smart, genuine, talented and beautiful. What an honor to meet and spend some time with her.

I have soo many photos to share. These are just a few to capture the feeling of the weekend. I may post some more later just for fun!

Now to pass on some Fiskars LOVE!!! We were given a 'bit' extra to pass on so the first one to post here and guess what my favorite fiskars product is will be 'feelin' the fiskars love when I RAK them!