So Much To Learn

I put together a few cards as thank you letters for the gifts Gwen got for Christmas. I put them all together, stamped the image, and then went to color in the faces with my prismacolors and the black ink from the stamp started smearing everywhere! I was so frusturated since I had almost finished them when I found this out. It turns out I can't use the prismacolors with the inks I normally use. I will have to use a more steadfast ink like Staz-On. I think that is why I have been sticking with stamping. There are endless new techniques and rules for me to learn and research. I really enjoy researching things for some reason so I haven't gotten bored of this quite yet. I know Steven is hoping I don't for a LONG time considering all of my "blow" money (we each have a spending allowance) has gone to this since September. I'm really in need of clothes because somehow my clothes money goes to this hobby too. That is okay since there are no clothes to buy here anyways really. I cannot wait to go back to the States and let the grandparents watch Gwen for the afternoon while I grab some coffee from Starbucks and walk down each and every aisle at Michaels and then try on all of the clothes I want at Old Navy without having to make it into a Peek-a-Boo game with Gwen to keep her happy. :)








I used the same stick-figure set as I did for Gwen's Christmas card (All in the Family) by Stampin' Up. I stamped the body on patterned paper and cut it out to add a little more dimension. I colored them VERY carefully with my prismacolors to try to keep the ink from smearing. It did in a few places, but it is hard to tell.

I will try to write a post on Gwen tomorrow with a little video. She is doing some cute new things I can't wait to show you!! My 3rd anniversary is coming up in a few days! I'm really excited to go on a nice date. Steven is planning it. The only bummer is that we just found out that everything out in town is closed for a Japanese holiday from Jan 1st-3rd so that pretty much limits our options to eating at the one restaurant on base, Macaroni Grill, and going to whatever movie they are showing the night we can get a babysitter. I'm not complaining though...we have only had American food (yes I know it is Italian...you know what I mean) maybe twice since we moved here. I MISS it!

1st Christmas

So Gwen's first Christmas is the day after tomorrow! Tomorrow we start alot of our own traditions with our new little family. We each have a pair of pajamas under the tree to open tomorrow night and wear while we bake cookies and decorate them together and then snuggle up while we watch The Grinch with all of our friends. Okay, so Gwen probably won't help decorate too much, but she will help eat!!

I decided Gwen probably needs more friends as she has recently started trying to make friends with the vacuum cleaner...I kid you not. The vacuum cleaner comes out to play several times a day now that Gwen is eating almost all normal foods. Graham crackers, meatloaf, bagels, corn, you name it and it has been smashed into our carpet this week alone. Gwen likes to stroke the vacuum and even offers it her toys. At least she is not terrified of it, right?

She is more active with some of her toys that I think she did not fully understand how to work before. She site in her corner and laughs and laughs at them. It always makes Steven and I smile at each other as we wonder what is going through her head. Gwen went to see Santa for the first time and she got a quivery lip, but did not cry. She definitely did not like him though. I was majorly disappointed...he did not have a beard! All of her first shots with Santa and he doesn't even look like the real thing. We decided to tell her that he was on a Marine base so he had to shave to keep up with the Marine Corp regulations.

I made this card for her in honor of her first Christmas. I really wish I had some Christ-centered Chrsitmas stamps, but they don't make nearly as many as they do snowflakes, snowmen, presents, etc. The one I HAVE to have one day is called City of David by Stampin Up, but it is retired so I will have to get it off ebay or something similar.

This one is made using the sets All in the Family (a stick figure set I just got) and Flaky Friends (a retired set). Steven says I need to add about 30 more presents to make it more realistic. :)

Mommy's New Digs

This week I had a crazy idea. Like the average person, I actually have lots of crazy ideas, but the problem is that I just won't let mine go. I have been labeled stubborn, impatient, and impractical but I guess it is all how you look at it. Lately I have been getting more and more into my stamping, but I hate using the kitchen table because I rarely finish a project in one night and I want to be able to leave my work out without making the house look cluttered. I am an absolute freak about having a clean house since having Gwen, but we can analyze the reasons for why that is another time. I am extreme. I cannot let myself go to sleep with even a tiny mess in my house. A 10 month old and that philosophy don't mix because sometimes you need a break. I was never like that before. It got to me this week and I was too overwhelmed so something had to go and that ended up being my workout program. I haven't gone ALL week. I really need to because that is the one thing I do all day for ME.

Anyways, back to the point. I really wanted my own workspace. Steven has his own desk in the living room, Gwen has her little corner with her mats and buckets upon buckets of toys. I had a couch to sit on. Although I really wanted my own place, therejust isn't enough room in our 700 sq ft place. Our "living room" is already functioning as part dining room, part play room, and part office as well. Then it came to me.Steven should build me a desk INSIDE our entry closet. I got to measuring and went out that night in search of my desk. I'm impatient, remember? I found one the next day even though I had been told an estimate of 2 months before any desks would be on island. Here is my final result. There are baskets on the shelves to hold all of my inkpad, tools, tape gun, etc. The cute cups on my desk hold all my prismacolors and spools of ribbon. My stamps have been remounted in the CD cases. My paper cutter, die cut machine, and everything else is on the shelf at the top. Talk about making the most of what you've got!! I am in love and the best part is that I can be a mess and no one will know!











The closet shut.




Gwen is not my little helpless baby anymore. It is kind of sad, but fun because she amazes me everyday. How did you learn THAT? Always leaves me scratching my head. She eats the meals we eat now. She had a bit of a Chicken sub from Subway for lunch and some leftover pizza for dinner. She has figured out how to use her other tall toys as leverage to help her get to her tall wicker wastebasket full of toys and can grab things out she wants to play with. She likes to sit in my lap and "help" me with my art projects. She already has quite a little attitude and has recently learned to throw a fit if I take something away from her that she wants which is almost every 2 minutes because she is on the go. Those little eyes do not take a break for one single second. They are always scanning the room for the next thing to get into and the one after that. I swear she just keeps mental lists and she never forgets a single one of them. She has even learned to hit mommy in the face when she gets mad. That definitely stunned me. She is 10 months. Has she even witnessed someone hit yet?!! Let's just say....she is not GOING to be a handful, she IS one. I will be making LOTS of use of my Mommy Space in the evening to unwind. ;)

The Rarely Seen Quiet Side

Gwen is RARELY quiet. That girl is full of spunk and energy. She is a little camera shy though. It is amazing how hard it is to capture her smiling when that is all she does in reality. Here is a video of her just watching Steven work on the grill. I will try to post some more of her playing tomorrow. I figured that soon enough it will be hard to get her to stay still to capture long videos of that sweet face so I wanted to get them in there while I could!

Getting Too Skilled in "NO"

Gwen has definitely picked up on the word "No." Now she will even shake her head every time she hears someone say the word even if they do not gesture it and they are not even directing the term at her. Not sure how much longer that is going to be "cute." She has learned to wave, but that one is much harder to get her to do. She does it at the right times so when you try to get her to do it out of the blue just for the camera, she flat out refuses. She's too smart for me. Today I got her dressed up in her cammie dress, but she was impossible to take pictures of because she was screaming trying to get the camera from me while I attempted to snap a cute shot. I finally gave in and let her have our old broken camera to hold on to. It didn't work for long because the one I had was much cooler of course:

Bootcamp-Week 6

6 weeks ago I signed up to do an intense workout program called "bootcamp." It is normally 3 months long, but in my moment of insanity I signed up for a second session meaning I will be in it a total of 6 months!! Many people told me not to expect results right away. They warned me that you may even gain weight in the beginning as you build muscle mass. They were so right! Tha past 6 weeks have been so discouraging as I didn't lose ANYTHING.

Out of nowhere this week I LOST 5 POUNDS!!! I am so excited! I have 15 to go to get back to pre-pregnancy weight. I am trying to think of rewards to set for myself as I hit 120, 115, and 110 lbs. We have a fabulous place here where you can get amazing nail art done like this:




I also considered getting myself a new bottle of perfume or one of the 1 hour massages they offer on base for $30! What a deal! I already know I am for sure getting a photo session done just of me once I reach my ultimate goal. I had a photo session done of myself right before Steven got home from his last deployment because I had been working out HARD (2 hours plus a day) while he was gone. I sent him the pictures while he was still in Iraq. Then, less than a month later we were pregnant with Gwen. I want to have another set of photos taken when I reach my goal. I still look at those photos from back then as motivation.

100 Yen Creations

I got this little bottle at the 100 Yen store. It is very similar to the Starbucks Frapuccino bottles, but easier to find around here and cheaper too! 100 yen is about the equivalent of 1 US dollar. Our 100 Yen stores are FAR better than US Dollar stores. I made this bottle for my friend whose husband deployed. I still haven't decided if I would like to give her the version with a photo or without. Obviously that is me in the picture and not her. I would like to go print out a picture we took of their family recently, but 1) I haven't done that yet and 2) I want to do everything possible to keep their family safe during this deployment so I would prefer not to post an actual picture of them. Therefore, you get to see me instead so you get an idea of what it would look like finished either way.

I ran 2 different sizes of the Nestabilities Large Rectangle scallops through my Big Kick to make the frame for the photo as well as the stamped image. The image comes from the retired 2003 Stampin' Up set "Simple Somethings" and the sentiment is from the Close to My Heart set "Say It in Style." Both are stamped in Close to Cocoa and colored in with Stampin' Pastels.