A Merry Christmas to you

I hope and pray everyone has a very Merry Christmas. With lots of love & blessings :) Mine definitely have been wonderful.
I made this PEACE banner at the beginning of the month. This entire month, I think I've been striving for PEACE. In my life, love & family. Lot's to think about and be thankful for. Mostly for peace in my heart. I'm grateful for all the blessings God has poured out on my life this year. So this banner represents that most to me right now.
(A closer look)

(I'm all about the details! *LOVE*)


I also made these little cuties to hang around the dinner table with some of the FiggyPudding line (BasicGrey). And to add some more fun to the table, I couldn't help but also make these little guys too. Gotta use up the Christmas paper right?! Hehee. I think the paper cutting was more a form of therapy for me after a half day at work. I woke up all excited about it, that I just wanted to make Christmas decorations all day! No worries though, I made it to work and was very productive :)

And he was a huge fan of the little birdies, he just kept looking at them all HAPPY ;) Such a cutie patootie! From my family to yours, FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Giving Me

Have you ever made something and given it away as a gift.
I made a Baby Girl banner for a friend of mine recently. I don't usually give away scrapbook stuff that I make. I'm a little too embarrassed to give anything I make to anyone besides my family. My poor familia! HA! I think they sometimes would rather settle for a gift card or something store bought. hehee. Oh but my excuse is that I make things from my heart. Often times, I end up loving the gift and it's hard to actually give it away!!! That's kind of sad. I do give the present away, eventually ;)



Well, my friend Sonia told me a few months ago she was pregnant with a baby girl! I was so delighted, mostly because of God's provision for her and her family. They had been praying for another beautiful baby. And yes, the Lord has proven himself faithful! So excited for her, I rushed and made this banner/booklet. After I finished it, I think it took about a day. SO exhausting!!! I hung it up in my room and just took it all in. My first banner. My first gift I was planning to GIVE. I kept asking myself why I had done a banner etc., and really had no reason other than it seemed like a great idea at the time. So now, months passed...and then finally came the time to give it away. Oh my goodness, I was so embarrassed!!! I didn't want to give it away. I loved it, yes, but would she?! I was wondering if maybe I should run out and buy her an album instead, and I did go to the store and found one. But I didn't buy it. I couldn't. I bought a BEAUTIFUL damask box for it instead. Oh my, that box is so gorgeous! I hugged it and didn't let it go all around the store!



So finally, I gave it to my friend. I added envelopes on the back of each letter, so she could put her baby stuff in it. And the box is perfect enough to hold the entire banner as a booklet & other cute baby things. Still a little nervous that I actually GAVE it away. But, my dear friend was gracious and really enjoyed the gift. It made me feel very happy inside, that a little bit of me will now be happy in their home. :) I can't wait to see her baby girl! She's special to me, for sure.



This is the end result :)

It's been a while :)

To kick this wonderful post off I'm adding some past layouts that I haven't yet shown :) It's a special treat for you. I love that around this time of year, we start thinking about things we are thankful for. Well, I'm super thankful for traveling- no matter how much I dislike planes. Just get me there and I'm happy :) For this layout, I had a chance to take Norma to Santa Barbara to celebrate her birthday. Yah for both of us! It was not only beautiful, it was peaceful. Amen to that! So this is me kickin' back and relaxin'.


This is a picture of us, before I dropped my digital camera and it died :( Very thankful for this shot, it seems classic. The wind in our hair, the large black sunglasses and very happy smiles. It definitely describes the trip I think. I was so happy not to fly or drive to SB but to take the train. Norma had been wanting to do that for a while, so we did. It took forever but we had nothing to hurry up and do. So nice.


Another trip I took was to Colorado for a staff retreat. (Thanks Sara for taking this picture!) I'm thankful for the beauty that surrounded me there. So gorgeous. I loved it. More for the personal and reflective time. I had fun getting to know my co-workers and seeing them in this different element. We biked to the next town together- that was crazy! But we did it. I hope we do something like this but maybe in Hawaii?! HA! I can dream.


Speaking of dreaming... doesn't he look so cute all happy and dreamy? I think so. That's just best Auntie talk though :)
Baby Gilbert Barron came into our lives about a month ago now. He is soooooo adorable! I like that he's quiet. I love quiet babies. Maybe that's just a stage though, still cute. My sister Cindy and her husband Gilbert's first baby. Congrats guys!!! I've already had the "blessing" of changing him. Man do I NOT miss that. EWWWW! hehee. Still, when you see that cute little dimple smile, it's all worth it.


And this is Coco and me :) While we were in the waiting room to visit with Cindy & Gilbert and their cutie patootie. I was a little bored and I had my camera, so I was paparazzing Coco. Hehee. That was fun. What was even better was finally meeting my little nephew for the first time. SOOOOO Soft. Sooooo small! I had this fear I'd drop him. It's been so long since I held a baby. Whew. Nothing bad happened. Baby G is all well and happy. And so are we. Off to finish some creative work :) Have a great & super blessed day!

On Vacation...

and I'm finally able to blog :) I LOVE vacation time. It seems like I've been holding my breath for this moment. Now I'm finally able to rest and relax. Although it seems like I'm always on blog break! HA! But I do feel like blogging, so I will update and not just with words, but with pictures too! Woohoo! ;) my fav. kind of blogging.


I received my package from BasicGrey and I got the Figgy Pudding paper collection so I made this little banner. It's actually supposed to be the "origami style ornament" paper to this collection, but my origami skills are seriously lacking. No joke. Apparently I have no talent at it (or following instructions-jk) so I cut the paper up and used the gold/silver string that came in the package.


The banner made my heart happy so I made 2. One for Mario (Feliz Navidad) and one for me (Blessings) How [ delightful ] :) I sure hope he likes it for Christmas. During the process of making this little gift, it gave me a chance to pray over his life and his family. It was perfect, I need more time to STOP. And reflect.


I was also thinking about my creative process. As of late, it's been tough. Having a job that requires creativity non-stop. Day in and day out. My creative juices tend to check out. Then I panic. I freeze. I question. I loose focus. It happens every year, at least once. So I went back to my artistic get-your-hands-dirty-with-wet-paint-I'm-lovin'-the-creative-moment style I used to employ in art class. I realized I'm not fond of following instructions when I'm trying to be creative :) It's a good thing. For sure. And that's okay. It's O K A Y. I am letting that control freak in me g o---> f a r a w a y. g'bye >)
Note to self: start drawing & painting again-or you'll seriously regret it.

* Excited *

Really I am..... I just have fallen off the face of the earth but a lot has happened...
1- Ordered my new Canon 40D! Comes in Thursday and I am so very excited about it.
2- Feeling Inspired. I should be updating this blog often as I will have lots of pics to share and scrap :)
3- I WON a BG contest and I am totally just blown away by the response. I love Basic Grey!!!!
4- I have a package of $100 worth of free BG product coming my way! I can't get enough! >)
5- Counting my blessings and I know this list can go on forever.

I went and had lunch with Coco, Stephanie & David. So much fun to be around. We enjoyed the cool San Diego evening and some delicious Greek food....mmmmm...yum. Had a great day at work...lots of stuff getting done and stuff getting checked off my to-do list. Love that. Well, not much else, just working on some crafts and enjoying some PI kits that I've stashed around...I'll end with a picture of my scrap page for the Basic Grey Obscure contest. (I'm glad for the process of creating this page, I felt unrestricted, creative, free flowing and excited. Love that feeling. Nothing else matters, not if no one else likes it or if it looks ugly...just create-live it, love it, do it -*Love that*
:)