Photo of the Day January 28th

Over the past week I've thrown myself head-first into the designing of wedding invitations for my cousin Heather. She and her fiance Shawn will be getting married in the fall and I've offered to make their wedding stationary... such a fun project, with so many minute details to be decided upon! After pouring over my Stampin' Up catalogues and looking at traditional wedding invitations, I've made lots of little samples (like the heat embossing experiment shown above) which have been approved, discarded, revised, discussed and recreated. After several conversations with Heather and a couple trips to the post office with samples to check sizes and weights, I think we've almost got the design worked out. Next step: figure out how many invitations they need and what that translates into in terms of supplies. I've only got three more days as a Stampin' Up demonstrator, so I want to be sure to put in that supply order while I still get a discount!

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Photo of the Day January 27th

Sophie's sitting in the middle of her "train" in today's picture - it's what we call the lineup of winter clothing she has to wear this time of year. I lay them out on the floor in the order she needs to put them on... snow pants first, coat next, and boots for the caboose. It's a fun way to make her interested in getting dressed for school, since most of the time she'd just rather be playing! I often wish I had a snowsuit like Sophie's when we're walking to and from Tecumseh in the mornings... parts of me keep warm, but without my own pair of snow pants the wind just cuts right through me. It's a good thing we're usually in a hurry in the morning - the brisk pace helps keep me at least a little bit warmer.

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Photo of the Day January 26th

Happy Birthday Gerry!

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Chris is hard at work in the kitchen today, making a few "ahead of time" meals for the rest of the week before we head out for dinner to celebrate his Dad's birthday. On the agenda: goulash and lasagna, for which Chris is making his own pasta. We've had a little mishap though, as George left evidence of having checked out one of the lasagna noodles as it lay drying on the dining room table. With the cats now safely locked away in the bedroom, the rest of the noodles should actually be able to be used in the lasagna instead of being tossed in the garbage!

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Photo of the Day January 25th

Before writing up and sending out my "Going Out of Business" notices last night, I spent the evening in the company of my Book Club discussing the novel Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. It was a fascinating read: a modern day Gothic-style ghost story that was at once compelling and slightly creepy... it certainly made for good conversation. My reading group has been getting together for seven or eight years now, with some fluctuation in members as new people join and others move away. There's an unchanging core to the group though: three or four members (myself included) who've been there since the beginning and who bring in new members on occasion - in fact our hostess last night was our newest member Lara, who did a great job making us feel welcome and providing discussion questions. Thanks for another night of excellent conversation ladies, and I look forward to seeing you all next month!

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Photo of the Day January 24th

A peek into some of my many drawers full of stamping supplies...

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I made it official today: I've announced to my customers that I will no longer be a Stampin' Up Demonstrator as of the end of this month (which is shockingly just a week away.) I've been thinking seriously about giving up my Demonstratorship for about 6 months now, and with the end of the quarter having just passed it seems like the appropriate time. I love the company and I sure do enjoy the product, but I don't seem to be able to prioritize the time to schedule workshops regularly, and with sales quotas to meet I'm making my goals by being my own best customer - which heaven knows is no way to run a business. So, in fairness to my budget I'm going to return to being a customer for now, and will continue updating Summer's Creative Corner (my crafting blog) with all manner of creative projects as I take them on. Although I've been planning this for a while I can't help but feel sad this evening... I truly enjoyed being part of the Stampin' Up! family and will miss the sense of fellowship that being part of the local group of Demonstrators offered - they're a fantastic bunch of women who always made me feel welcome, shared their ideas and passion, and made me laugh each time we met. Good memories...

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If you're interested, I'm sharing my 20% Demonstrator Discount on any orders placed between now and the end of January, so please let me know if you'd like to get your hands on some card stock, scrapbooking supplies, or rubber stamps at a discount over the next week!

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Photo of the Day January 23rd

After taking a two-hour nap yesterday afternoon (which is seriously unheard of in Sophie-world), my little girl is feeling much beter today. That darned cough is still there, but the fever is gone and her attitude and energy level has improved dramatically, so we decided to let her go to dance and gymnastics class today. Sophie was thrilled, especailly because “show week” is coming up at The Little Gym and this will be her last chance to practice her routine before performing for family and friends next Saturday. For the next semester of classes we’ve decided to switch to Wednesday nights instead of Saturdays to take some of the craziness out of our weekend, so this is also one of her last opportunities to see some of her Saturday Little Gym friends... I’m so glad she was well enough to enjoy it.

Photo of the Day January 22nd

Well, it appears I spoke too soon with yesterday's post about no one laying on the couch under a blanket all day due to illness. After being up many times with a frustrated and coughing Sophie throughout the night, she is now surrounded by kleenex, a cup of water, a blanket and Nunu Kitty while watching cartoons. No school again today, and we've cancelled our Speech therapy appointment as well... I'll have to give some serious thought to whether she'll be well enough to attend dance class tomorrow afternoon. On a school-related note, I must give Tecumseh credit for their very thorough investigative process when Sophie didn't show up today. I was so tired after our long night last night that I forgot to call the school to let them know Sophie wouldn't be in, and by 10am they had called the house (I couldn't get to the phone), left a message on the cell phone, and called both Chris's mom Shirley and his sister Mary. It's good to know a student's absence doesn't go unnoticed, but I feel horrible that the secretary had to make all those phone calls and bad that both Shirley and Mary got a bit of a fright when the school called them. Good lesson for next time: no matter how tired and incoherent I am I'll take a few moments to call the school before they send out the bloodhounds!

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