I'd appreciate it oh so much if you would...

head over to my brand spankin' new website and maybe follow it? or share it with a friend?

*DISCLAIMER* This website is still very much "under construction" so don't be scared!

All of my cards, videos, card kits, and other projects will now be listed on the website as well as any promotions, giveaways, and exciting news. I still want all of you amazing people to know what's going on with my SU business but I don't want to have to post anything else on our personal blog.

I am so excited about this new adventure in my life and I have tried to set very realistic goals for myself. My first workshop is next week so *fingers crossed*.

Thanks so much for everything you guys do. And thanks for all the encouragement I have received about my new business! I'd love to hear from you and I'd love to have you following my new blog!

Thanks!

COMING MONDAY: Our design binder part 1...

Home sweet home...well, almost...

I shared with you earlier this week a picture of our new home.

It is so interesting each week to go visit and watch it come together little by little. This past week they got all of the drywall hung, taped, and mudded, installed the fireplace and then started on the siding! I have been promising you pictures for quite a while and so I decided that it was time to deliver.

So here ya go:

our home....

This is the outside view with the exterior trim, shutters, and brick. The wood shake should be up in the next week or so...

I LOVE the siding and the color choice! It all matches so well!

The back view of the house. The morning room is all that needs to be sided.

This pictures was taken during the drywall process. I have NEVER seen men work so fast in my life! They had the drywall hung in our entire house in ONE DAY!!! Woot for them!

This picture is taken from inside the entry way. You can see the great room, the morning room, the kitchen island, and a tad bit of the dining room to the right of the picture. I love the open floor plan!

This is the loft area. To the far left is an open area where my scrapbook room will be. The middle area is the 3rd bathroom and to the right, out of view, is the 4th bedroom.

The fireplace is installed! And yes, the pasty white legs reflected in the glass belong to yours truly. Fab.u.lous.

Our morning room which looks into the woods behind the house.

Our master bedroom. Not the greatest angle for a picture but it works.

The master bathroom. Loving the future double bowl vanity and 5 foot shower.

I hope you guys have enjoyed this mini-tour. I will definitely keep you updated on all of the progress. It's coming along so fast and I'm really hoping it's ready by my birthday which is August 27th.

Anyone have any decorating ideas for any of the rooms? Seen anything interesting on Pinterest? Please share! There are two more bedrooms and 2 more bathrooms so I have a lot of blank slates to fill. I'd love some ideas!

I need your 2 cents:

source

I stink at coming up with names for myself.

I mean, no joke, STINK at it!

When I created this blog it took me MONTHS to come up with Our Life on a Marquee

and it was only when I was just randomly typing away one day that it just appeared on my screen and I was like "Duh!"

My creative block has struck again.

I have been racking my brain for the last 3 weeks trying to come up with a name for my new Stampin' Up! team. I've thought of Stampin' Gal, Stamp your heart out, Stamp-a-palooza, and other ridiculous names that are either A) already taken, or B) just too ridiculous to consider.

SO HELP!

I know that there are some super coolio thinkers out there that read this blog....

I'd love your input!

Thanks in advance!

A great deal:

I want to first of all thank you for all of the sweet encouragement that I got from so many of you guys regarding my Stampin' Up! adventure that I recently began.

I wanted to share with you a card I recently made and two options that you may be interested in.

First of all:

the card

I made this card using a ton of my supplies that I recently received from SU and I am in LOVE with it!

I thought you might like it too:

soooo

with that being said I am offering my first official kit!!!

Option #1

If you would like all of the supplies needed to make this card (minus the adhesive) and all of the directions to assemble it, it can be yours for

$10.00 and that includes the shipping costs!

Believe me, it's a deal! Why? Because first of all: I do all the hard stuff (measuring, cutting, etc) and 2. you get a pretty little envelope in the mail with lots of pretty little pieces of paper and stamped images and you get to take them and make a beautiful card!

Option #2

Also,

I got a little inspired and decided to make a set of thank you cards that are simple and yet still very cute:

anyone who places a $35 dollar or more on my Stampin' Up! website IN THE MONTH OF JULY will receive this set of (5) 3x3 Thank you cards for FREE in the mail from me!

I'll be honest: I've already got some made up because I am being hopeful here people!

So there ya go:

two simple options that allow me to ask you to help support my business without having to get down on my knees and beg....although I'm not above it...so if this doesn't work a knee begging might very well make it's way onto YouTube or something, and I know that NOBODY wants to be seeing that!

Once again, y'all rock! And you inspire me everyday!

If you are interested in either option #1 or option #2 either email me or just leave me a comment below! I look forward to hearing from you!

*Power of positive thinking...right?*

Now this is rockin' my socks off!

Hello! What a beautiful Wednesday we are having here in Ohio. After being under a heat advisory the last couple days the 80 degree weather doesn't seem so bad!

So we are on our way to 100 followers and I have already been contacted about a super cool giveaway that one of my readers is willing to donate to the cause! I can't tell you what it is just yet, but believe me, it's pretty fabulous!

I decided to throw in a little incentive of my own...if I get to 100 followers by the end of July I am going to throw in a FREE Stampin' Up! stamp set to one lucky reader! And the best part is: the winner can pick the set! So lets see what we can do to get the word out!

With that being said I wanted to let you know that I am in the process of creating a Stampin' Up! page to be added to this blog so that I can redirect all of my SU stuff to that one instead of posting it on here.

If you live in my area I would love to come to you and host a workshop. It's so worth the time and I want each of you to see how much free stuff you can earn just by having a few friends over to make some really cute stuff! Below I have included the hostess benefits program:

You would not believe how easy it is to reach the minimum and receive your free goodies! Also, you can visit my website here and place orders. I am hoping to have at least $300 in orders before the end of the month so make sure you contact me if you want any goodies!

Thank so much for all the support and encouragement you have shown me! You are the reason that blogging is fun and I love doing what I do!

Woohoo!! Let the summer begin!

FINALLY,

some fresh air!

Last Thursday night was our last night in our old home.

Remember me mentioning how I was listening to the sights and sounds of our old home on our last night there?

Well, what I was really listening to was the sound of water dripping from our second floor bathroom through the ceiling and onto our kitchen floor. Fabulous.

That's what we woke up to the day before we closed. The day the new owner was doing a final walk through to make sure the house was in tip top shape.

But, we got a plumber in there super quick, the new owner is an extremely nice and understanding gal, and we finished getting moved out and into our new temporary home. Landen's parents house.

So far everything has been going pretty good. Abbey is adjusted to her new surroundings and I have had a lot of time to work on my design binder (check back here tomorrow) and all of my new Stampin' Up! stuff (don't forget to schedule a virtual workshop with me and win lots of goodies!)

I also figured out how to get internet onto my computer using the ole ethernet cord. Can't believe I forgot that! That's the only way we survived in college before the whole wireless fad.

So here we are, all settled in, on the web, and ready to unveil the next step in our home adventure:

our new home!!!!

It is slated to be finished at the end of August so fingers crossed that everything goes as planned! We are so excited about it and I have been going through paint colors, design plans, blueprints, and everything else you go through when building a home.

You can expect some regularity out of this blog from now on out, so thanks again for being so patient with me and all of our craziness!

Also, don't forget, as soon as we reach 100 followers I have a pretty rad giveaway to announce...let's see if we can do it!!!

Guess what I did...

You'll never believe what I did this week:

I BECAME A STAMPIN' UP DEMONSTRATOR!!!

I have been in love with Stampin' UP! products for for-eh-ver! I love their stamps, their inks, their papers, their logo....I'm pretty much obsessed; and after noticing how much money I was spending on scrapbooking supplies (and countless arguments between the Mr. & I because of said spent money,) I decided it was time to bite the bullet! Might as well make a little money doing what I love right?

So I did it! I jumped head over heals and I LOVE IT!

I've already set my first goal for the year (a 5 year anniversary trip for the hubby and I).

I can't wait to get started.

So here's the deal.

I'd love to be able to do workshops with you all. You know, get together with you and make some really cool crafts and meet all face-to-face.

But since most of you live like hours away from me I came up with a little scheme.

What if I used a little device called Skype and did like virtual workshops? Shazamm! I'm a bonafied genius!

So here's the deal: I am going to be offering online Skype classes during the week of July 18-22. If you'd like more details just click the 'email us' link over on the right sidebar and give me a holler. You can also visit my website here.

I will be uploading a video of myself opening up my first Stampin' Up! box of goodies next week sometime. If you've ever heard of Stampin' Up! or have ever considered joining now is definitely the time to do it! You can ask me more about that when you holler at me about the virtual workshop!

Also,

I am looking for some pretty rad names for myself as a new stamper. Have a suggestion? Leave it in the comment box and I will select my top 5 favorites and host myself a little poll of the people.

Oh, and I'm thinking...with all this cool stampin' stuff I'm going to have it'll probably slip it's way into my 100 followers giveaway somehow.

AAAaahhhhhHHHH snap!

Farewell 515 Harrison

It's funny.

You get so caught up in the busyness of certain events that you forget to stop and savor them.

This whole ordeal of selling our house started back in April.

At first, the feelings were surprise, then excitement, then frustration as week after week went by and we kept receiving little to no news.

Finally we found out that all the buyers stuff is ready to go and all we were waiting on was the title.

Woohoo.

Not.

We then find out that somehow, 4 buyers back, someone forgot to sign the stinking deed.

Which led our realtor on a wild goose chase around the neighborhood chasing after some man who had to sign some ridiculous affa-somethingoranother in order to FINALLY get our house sold.

Now, it's the 6th of July and our house is tentatively scheduled to close tomorrow @ 5:45.

We'll see.

But the whole point of this post was not to bore you with the facts of how we sold our home.

But to kinda reminisce with you over some of the memories we had in our home.

1. This was our first home. We had lived in an apartment for a year before we moved to Ohio and God just kinda dropped this house into our laps.

2. We made some really great friends in our next door neighbors. God definitely blessed us with that.

3. We got Abbey and went through the whole crazy puppy period in this house.

4. We had a family BBQ for Landen's 25th birthday here.

5. We celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary here.

6. We survived "The Wind Storm" in our house, only suffering minimal danger.

7. We had our first "real" fight. You know, the "if you don't quit throwing tantrums and acting like an idiot I'm going to leave" kinda fight. Even though we both knew no one was going anywhere.

8. We completely gutted and remodeled our upstairs bathroom and our kitchen. Also along the same time as our first fight.

9. My dad, his dad, his grandpa, and our neighbor built our deck. I'm extremely sad to leave it and even contemplated finding someway to sneak it away with us. Landen wasn't a fan. Neither was our realtor. Go figure.

and

10. This was the place that I learned that I could survive away from London, Ky and that I wouldn't die. Because that's what it felt like at first when we moved here. Like I was literally going to die. But God showed me that I was stronger than that, and after while this house became my home.

Don't get me wrong, I am looking way forward to our new home. Pictures will be coming soon. But I will miss our little home on Harrison Avenue and everything that we shared in it. As I'm laying on our mattress in our living room floor, taking in the sounds and smells for the last time, it hit me...these are the moments I am going to remember for the rest of my life.

Thanks a ton for being so patient with me during all this craziness. Hopefully once we get settled in at his mom and dad's I will have a little more time on my hands. Plus I had a great response to my last post about a giveaway for 100 followers. I can't wait to share that with you! Once we start getting closer to 100 I will let you in on the big surprise.

You should read this...for realz

I don't know about some of you other bloggers out there, but just like with every thing else I do, there comes a time when I have to do some deep self reflection on why I am doing whatever it is I'm doing.

I started this blog about a year ago and I have had so much fun making new friends. using this as a creative outlet for myself, finding tons of new ideas for new things, etc;

but I have also reached a level of unrealistic expectations. I look at some of the blogs that I follow on a regular basis and I wonder "why can't I have 539 followers (I just pulled that number out of my behind), or, "why can't I have like 50 people paying to sponsor my site", or the best one yet, "why am I not as popular as ______?" Oh my grapefruit, how TRIVIAL is all this, not to mention just a little high school.

In my attempts to be "popular" I have followed the crowd and tried to host my own weekly link up series, have cool (or at least I think they are cool) giveaways, you know- really branch out; but just like everything else I start, I only half-way do them. Because you see, that's me. Queen of starting great ideas and never finishing them. I have a whole basketful of craft projects that are 85% complete. I don't want my blog to be like that too.

I love the readers that I have because we communicate. I can expect to read a comment from at least a few of you on every post. That is what blogging is all about. Kinda like why I'd never want to attend a huge Mega Church. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with them, but for me, I like that small get-to-know-the-pastor-his-wife-and-all-his-youngins kinda church. I want my blog to be a place where we can come together and talk and share ideas without all the popularity crap that holds me back.

So I'm throwing expectations out the door. I'm not getting rid of my Ode to Wednesday link up because, honestly, I think writing letters to inanimate objects and then posting them for the whole world to see. I am not, however, promising that it will be available every week, every month, every 3 months. If it happens, it happens, and if it doesn't, well, you won't miss it anyway.

I want my blog to be about me, about my life, about my interests, my hates, my fears, and my honest opinions. I hope that along the way I can attract similar people who feel the same way. I'm not opposed to having 539 followers or more. I'm just going to stop stressing myself out about how to "get there" and just let it happen.

With that being said, I have a bit of a contradictory statement coming up so...BEWARE.

I am creeping slowly toward 100 followers and I would love to have a super cool giveaway in honor of all my super cool readers.

However,

I am not committing myself to buy anything, make anything, dream of anything, etc, because to just be honest, I don't have the time. Our life is psycho crazy right now and I'm doing good just to force myself out of bed every morning after tossing and turning till like 3:00 with a brain that just WON'T TURN OFF!

BUT

If any of you have any ideas for giveaway products either that you have made, that you really like, giftcards to an Etsy shop, whatevah you think would tickle someone else's fancy...then hit me up. You WILL get a super cool post about you and your giveaway item and then some lucky reader will get to bask in all your amazingness.

I hope this post hasn't scared all y'll off. I am so insanely grateful to each and every one of you and I love getting on my blog and reading the comments that you so nicely leave. It really puts a smile on this gal's face. I also hope that I'm not the only one that feels this way. Do any of you struggle with the popularity pull just like back in our teeny bopper days?

Again, thank you guys, you're great.

and OH HOLY CRAP! It's JULY ALREADY! SHEESH TIME, SLOW DOWN!