{Some stamp time}

I finally had a few minutes to make a card---I have so many that I need to make. I need some graduation cards, so I started there. After that long away from my stamps, I had NO stamping mojo---and I was struggling to get anything going. I finally decided to use this paper and that helped get me started. It's from the Beautiful Blooms patterned paper pad---the colors in this pad are SOOOOO great! I cut the mat of polka dot paper with the large scalloped border die from Papertrey Ink.

This mat and graduation image are one stamp from the For the Graduate set from PTI. There's a die to match that makes it so much faster to cut it out---LOVE this innovation from PTI---dies and stamps that coordinate! I bought this set since Hannah was graduating, but I didn't even get to use it in the month of May because life was so insane! SOOOO, I'm giving her friends their gifts late! Anyway, I stamped the mat twice---once in Hawaiian Shores and once in Pure Poppy. I punched the center out of the red one and put it on the blue mat. I stamped the hat (there's a separate image) in Memento Tuxedo black ink and then cut it out and added it on the focal image. The sentiment strip is a piece of  Linen Vellum Cardstock. I added three Hawaiian Shores vintage buttons to tie in the color of the mat. Since I have so much stamping to do, I kept this one simple, but all sorts of things could have been added to this card to make it even better.

I made the envelope liner using the new A2 Envelope Liner die. I am going to enjoy this item---I LOVE to line my envelopes, and this makes it so fast and easy---what a great addition to the PTI store! Well, I need to get some laundry done. Today was my last day at school for the year---of course, I'll be up there working into the summer, but this was the last "official work day"----YIPPEE!!!

Thanks for stopping by to see me---it makes me smile to know you've been here! Enjoy your weekend!
Kathleen~

Graduation Wishes: (all products PTI unless noted)

Stamps: For the Graduate
Dies: Large Scalloped, A2 Envelope, Mat Stack 1
Paper: White, Beautiful Blooms Patterned paper, Linen Vellum cardstock
Ink: Hawaiian Shores, Pure Poppy, Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Vintage buttons, dimensionals (SU!), glue dots

{Hannah Rebekah}

The other major event in our family last month was Hannah's graduation from Trinity Academy of Raleigh. She graduated last Saturday, May 29th. Hannah----what can I say about Hannah---she was the youngest for nine years----then the special blessing came along and she wanted to share a room with him. She had no idea that this would last until Caitlin moved out three years ago, but she was fine with it---most of the time. Here are some observations to help you know Hannah better:

• She loves learning---now, don't get me wrong, she's not the perfect student, but she LOVES to learn---very curious, very interested in books, people
• One of her favorite things to do IN THE WORLD is hang out in her room--ALONE--watching Gilmore Girls or Dr. Quinn reruns.....or any of a dozen other tv shows she loves! And if you enter the room while she's so engaged, she'll pause the dvd because you have messed up her experience---it's truly an escape.
• She's a RABID Harry Potter fan ---seriously.....it can get ugly!
• She loves to travel---she's on her fourth overseas trip right now (Senior Class trip to Italy) and she's 18---WOW!
• She has a beautiful singing voice---I'm amazed sometimes at her talent
• She loves the Lord---her prayers indicate a strong and intimate relationship with Him---
• She loves her Daddy---now, she loves her mama, too---but she is almost dependent on her Daddy---she loves to sit and talk to him---to learn from him, to bounce ideas off of him, to analyze life with him
• She watches The Jonas Brothers with Joshua. It's their thing---now, at first, I just thought she was doing it to hang out with Joshua and I thought that was sooooo sweet---since then, I have learned that she actually likes it---hmmmmm, not sure about that, but this is an honest assessment!
• She doesn't clean her room----seriously---it's awful---WHY am I telling you this? I suppose to let you know that even really bright, eager, over achieving children have some terrible quaility! David and I just keep the door closed! Now, lest she read this and get irritated with me---she will clean her room if we FORCE her to---so, it does happen occasionally!
• She loves good literature----Lewis, Austen, Tolkien, Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Albert Camus----the list goes on. She hopes to be an English teacher someday---perhaps in a University. 
• She's a good student---it all goes back to that "loves to learn" thing---she really does love to learn and this translates into being a good student. That doesn't happen for everyone---but it has for her.
• She loves her friends. She will be the first to admit that she will likely not be best friends with these friends in 4 or 5 years, but I do think she will stay in touch with many of them all her life. She knows that college changes your relationships, but she's sentimental and loyal enough to go to the trouble to keep up with people.

SOOOOO, that's a lot of information---and there's so much more I could tell you about Hannah, but, I'll just show you some pictures of the day. Hannah has decided to take a Gap Year with Thinking Beyond Borders next year. I'll tell you more about that in the coming months. The short of it is this: She will travel the world for 8 months with this group---learning, serving  and growing. She has been granted a deferrment to Davidson College, in Davidson, North Carolina and will begin there in the Fall of 2011---I believe she will be a changed girl---I can't imagine traveling the world and it not changing who you are! I can't wait to see what God does in her life to prepare her for this next step on this journey we call life. She's started a blog so we can keep up with her travels---I think it's mostly for her mom! Since she's in Italy with her class she decided to start it early!

Anyway, here are pictures from graduation day!

 Getting that silly mortar board to stay "flat" can be a problem.

Hannah and Sarah Beth---one of her dearest friends.

Here's a picture of the choir singing the traditional "Irish Blessing". They ask alumni to come up and sing with them. We had SOOOO many alumni this year---it was so sweet!

David was still the Chairman of the Board at Trinity ( for a few more days---he's about to roll off the board), so he had a part in the ceremony.

Hannah with Dr. Robert Littlejohn, our Headmaster and Steve Pond, the Upper School head.

Here's the class after the ceremony--yes, there are only 14 in this class.

This is David's oldest brother, Gene. There are twelve nieces & nephews on David's side of the family---Gene goes to all the graduations & weddings. He had just been here two weeks before for Caitlin's wedding, but he came back for Hannah's graduation. So sweet!

Here's a picture of the kids at the reception after the ceremony.

Hannah with my parents---it's so nice to have them close by so they can be at all these special events!

This isn't the best picture, but it's the one we have! :)

So, this is our Hannah! She's such a great girl--I wish you could know her. I can't wait to tell you how the Lord provides for her to go on this Thinking Beyond Borders trip. It will be a great summer watching Him work! Thanks for looking in~

Kathleen

{A Little Crafty}

Well, I've wanted to get crafty for sometime now, but I honestly haven't had time---but, I did decide I HAD to make the program for the wedding. On Saturday morning, May 8, a group of my friends---my crafty friends---and I got together and began the process of putting the programs together. I had formatted everything the week before and cut the orange paper---the program was a 5.5" square. The cardstock was  beautiful bright orange textured paper that I ordered online from The Papermill Store. The inside paper was a nice linen from the same place---I had gone to Archivers to look for paper, but the price was insane, so I began to shop around online and I found this to have the best price....and, by the time I got a decision about what was wanted, I needed to GET 'ER DONE! We used a beautiful Bazzill paper for the lime green---it's a shimmer paper and it was so perfect for the accent on the front of the program. We used this monogram on several things for the wedding---stickers for the favor bags, napkins, etc. I wanted to find this font that we had used on all of these items. It's called Liorah.
I did have to buy it---but it was worth it because it matched all the other things we had used--- The formatting of the inside did take a long time, but again, it wasn't really hard---just time consuming. We had 2 full pages (well, what I mean is---two pages folded in half cut to 5.25" square and copied on all eight sides of the pages---make sense?)

Anyway, my friends and I probably put in about 20 man hours that morning and it ended up taking over 80 when I ended up counting it all up. I had NO idea it would take so long---some of the bridesmaids ended up coming over and threading & tying ribbon----lots of ribbon! I was pleased with how they turned out---and Caitlin was---and even though this was my little contribution---that was the most important thing! The truth is---she really didn't care----so, she just indulged me! Isn't that sweet of her?

Here's another picture that has some of the gift bags I made in the background. I printed all the tags on the computer (using the same font, of course!) and then just layered it using my Spellbinders Labels Four Dies and tied them onto Kraft paper bags that I had stuffed with orange and green tissue paper----that I bought in bulk----if anyone needs some.....or alot!  Seriously---everything I give for the next 3 years will use these colors! I hope you don't mind!

Thanks for stopping by---Friday is our last day of school, so I do hope to be around here much more often---goodie for you~ hmph!

{MacArthur Lives!}

Yes, it's true---General Douglas MacArthur was alive and well and speaking to the children in Mrs. Lyon's third grade class today at Trinity Academy of Raleigh.

Joshua read a biography on Douglas MacArthur  for this project, wrote a paper and then had to do an oral report---

---now, I would have been so sick to do this when I was a third grader, but Joshua was so excited! He was up and dressed before 6:30 this morning.  After school today, I walked to my classroom and he and a friend, Justin, had gotten their costumes out and put them on! How great is that!!??

Here are a few pictures of MacArthur, and JFK with one of the third grade teachers, Mrs.Poole.

Joshua's costume was so easy to put together. The pants are just a pair of his khaki pants. The shirt is an older white shirt that I tea dyed---thanks to my good friend and fellow blogger, Kris Stoner. She had recently written this post about dying a dress for someone and I decided that I was going to have to dye a shirt for Joshua to wear---I couldn't find a khaki one. Anyway, when I called her to ask about it, she suggested I try tea dying the shirt first---YEA! It was so easy----no need to do the whole dying process!

I couldn't find any gold stars, so I bought these at Wal-Mart the other night.

Then, I spray painted them with gold paint and glued them on to his shirt and hat with glue dots.

 

The corn cob pipe was a find that David ran down and we were done! I'll tell you, Joshua just lit up when he put that costume on---he's not a big fan of school---and who is this time of year, but he LOVED this!

Thanks so much for looking today! Only two more "wake ups" for Joshua---and he is so happy---and NO MORE LUNCHES for mom, we have two half days left---and she is extremely happy about that---

How about you? Do you hate to make lunches, too? Let me know---is it just me?

Kathleen~

{Wedding pictures sneak peek}

Eeeeek!  Check out Kaitlin Roten's 2point5dphotography blog post here with a sneak peek of Caitlin & Carson's wedding pictures! I can't wait to see the rest! And check Kaitlin's other blog posts---she has some amazing pictures!

Kathleen~

{The Reception}

Here are some pictures of the reception---everyone was----uh, glowing....because there was a record high that day of 96 degrees. Did I mention it was an outdoor reception? AGGGHHHHHH!  It was so hot---but it was fun anyway! Here are some photos---

Allison & Tim

 Taylor & Parker

Maggie (Carson's sister) and Heath or Heather----whatever!

Sarah Kate (Carson's sister) and Mike

Liz & Doug 

Sara & Tim

Lindsey & Robbie

Hannah & Randy

Joshua

Caitlin & Carson---she took off her beautiful blue shoes--she was going to wear her boots, but it was too hot!

First Dance--soooooo sweet!

David and Caitlin---father/daughter dance

One more!

Carson & Dawn---his mama!

The groom's cake---he's a big hunter, so the bullets were a fun addition!

Cutting the groom's cake~

The bride's cake was so beautiful---if you live in the area and need a cake--you HAVE to use Christy Haas. Contact me and I'll give you her information---everyone said this was the best wedding cake they had ever had. And I have to agree---it was moist and soooo tasty! LOVED IT!

It was a shame to cut it---but it was so worth it! YUM!

Back to the dance floor---there are a BUNCH of these--and I think this part of the story deserves it's own post.....just wait!

Hannah and I---

Dancing---there are lots of pictures of dancing---but this will do!

We had a balloon release as they left---instead of throwing things at them! It looked really great! I wish I had some better pictures of it---I'm sure I'll have some when I get all the pictures from my family and the official photographer.

Well, thanks so much for indulging me---I'll have the Joshua post sometime this week---and the other major life event in our family---Hannah's graduation from Trinity Academy of Raleigh.

{Some wedding photos}

So, one of the reasons that I quit blogging for awhile was this small thing called a wedding in our family. We had a lovely wedding on Saturday, May 15 in Rocky Mount, NC. Caitlin and Carson got engaged in October. They wanted to get married in Rocky Mount so they could have the reception at Carson's family home.  So the planning began and before we knew it, May was here---I missed a lot of what happened in pictures because I just didn't have time to take pictures of some of what I wanted---oh well, life goes on with or without a blog post!

A family friend of ours, Denise Myers, is a photographer and she brought her camera and put these pictures on Picasa for me to capture---how sweet is that!? Here are just a few pictures of the ceremony---with a few comments for each. The ceremony was a very simple one---so focused on Christ---it was beautiful. I'll post the reception another day! We'll have the "official photographs" someday soon.

Ben Salmon led the congregation in Come Thou Fount while the wedding party walked in.

When Caitlin walked in, only Ben was singing---it was anti-climactic in the most beautiful way.

Here's a picture of Carson when he first saw Caitlin---that's always the best picture---pure joy!

 Caitlin arriving at the altar.

 Caitlin at the altar with her daddy and Carson.

Caitlin and Carson taking their vows--Carson's dad is his best man--next to him.

The ring ceremony

Hannah was the maid of honor---so pretty!

Here's what the wedding party looked like. No flowers, no candles---just their friends around them.

The kiss!!!

Mr. & Mrs. Carson Matthew Guy

SO, that's the ceremony in a nutshell---it was precious. It so honored Christ---someone told me---it was a worship service and two kids got married! I know that is exactly what they wanted. What a blessing to have kids who want to put Christ above all! Praise the Lord!