Hurray for May

I found this free desktop background download on the Shabby Princess website and thought I'd share. I'm totally diggin' this digiscrapping stuff and absolutely LOVE my new Photoshop Elements software!

I found my new blog banner at the same website, and made the buttons myself (tres simple). I hope you like the new look!

Spring Cleaning

Hi all -
Yes, you're at the right place. I just decided to lighten things up here with a new template and lighter colors. The old template was also driving me crazy because it didn't stretch to fit my screen. I know, I'm so particular. ;o)

More pictures soon!
Sarah

My Boys

Here is an updated picture of Jack. Eyes closed, as usual. He seriously sleeps ALL THE TIME. Or at least it seems like it... until about 3am, and then you're reminded that he does wake occasionally. This was taken over the weekend, so he's about 3 1/2 weeks old here.


I love the little finger over the blanket. :o)




This is totally off topic, but if you read my last card-filled post, you read about the onesie card made with Taken With Teal that I liked the best. Here's a picture of it:

I'm uploading my first video here!! How cool is this?!? Thanks to Deb for inspiring me with her blog!! Here is Henry with some of his animal noises. Note that some of them might not be noises you are familiar with. I mean, who really knows what the zebra says? So we improvise! In case you're wondering, the dinosaur says "stomp, stomp" but instead of saying it, he just does it. The dragon breathes fire, the lizard licks his lips, and the bunny nibbles on a little something (these are hard to make out on the video). The snake and the butterfly say basically the same thing, and he has long thought a "snail" and a "snake" were the same thing. "Nana" is Grandma. At the end he's asked about pie, and he knows who makes it... Nana! Enjoy!

I'm Sealy!

I just got this shirt (among other things) for Henry at crazy8.com. I was recently introduced to the website and love their clothes. And I love their $5 shipping even more! Henry fell in love with this shirt as soon as I took it out of the box. He held it all night and barked like a seal every time he looked at it. LOL! He's such a cheeseball when you pull the camera out!

Johnny Get Your Gun!

Finally! Here are the rest of our Public Enemy movie set pictures!

Here is an updated on the Exclusive Company (now an old school Walgreens):


And here is the (almost) finished product:

(Note: This photo, along with those marked below, was taken by my friend Sandy's husband Dan Schneider. Thanks Dan!)



A little further down Main St. we have the new front of Satori Imports and I believe that is the old Christian Booknook (now House of Heroes) to the left (I don't even recognize it!).

They redesigned our stop lights for a throwback look (thanks again to Dan for pic):

Here is the billboard that was built around the sundial in Opera House Square:

Further progress on the New Moon Cafe:

More Main St. storefronts:

Some old cars on the movie set (courtesy of Dan):

There you have it! Johnny did come and address the crowd a few times, shaking hands with people but not signing autographs. Unfortunately it was too cold for me to take the little one down there and stand out in the cold waiting for a possible moment for hours on end!

Filming wrapped up tonight and according to the news city crews will be working to "return Oshkosh to 2008" through the weekend. I don't know about you, but I kind of wish they'd leave the changes in place!

Catching up with cards...

Here are some of my most recent creations...

I made a bunch of cards in this onesie design (big thanks to Lauren Meader for the design idea and template!) to use as thank you cards for baby gifts we have received. It took me awhile to find my mojo with this one. My final design used Taken With Teal, and a different center stamp, but I'll have to post a pic of it later. This is one of the other colors/stamps I tried but I wasn't as happy with it.



This is Jack's birth announcement. We did a Raggedy Ann and Andy nursery theme. The card was designed to be super easy to mass produce. I procrastinated for so long on these, I had to have somethign I could mass produce in a hurry. I'm still happy with the results though. It has a classic look to it, IMO. The picture makes it look like Andy is stamped on white, but everything is either Very Vanilla or Night of Navy...

And here is a checkbook cover I made for my grandma. It's her third one. :o) When she wears out the cover she'll ask for a new one (cover) and I'll make a new insert to go with it. I *think* the other two are in my Splitcoast gallery if anyone is interested (you'll have to go back a few pages to find them).

We got a loaner crib from my cousin for baby Jack. I thought I could help Darrin move it (despite being about 36 weeks along) into the house and up the stairs, but quickly learned that was a bad idea. I started contracting as soon as we got it in the house and had to call for back up. Our friend (and Henry's godfather) Ryan was quick to lend a hand, so I made this thank you card for him afterwards. This is a classic example of why I didn't buy much of the In Colors this year. This card uses Sky Blue paper and the Designer Series Paper (all In Colors) but then it is Old Olive and Really Rust, which are almost identical to the Wild Wasabi and whatever that burnt sienna color is that is an In Color this year...

This is the Easter card I made for my Mom and Grandma. As I'm typing this I have the distinct impression that I've already posted it here. Forgive me if it's a duplicate.

And this is the card I stamped when I couldn't sleep at 6am on the morning of my c-section. LOL. It's a retirement card for a former co-worker. If I had it to do over, I would have used glossy white paper under the image and colored it with markers instead of Prismas/Gamsol so that the colors would be more vivid.

There you have it! Enjoy!

Scroll down for a new post (on 4/15) called "Life After Baby" and stay tuned for more Johnny Depp movie set pics!

Life Since Baby

Hi All -
Sorry I haven't posted lately. I've been caught up in spring cleaning (crazy, I know) and that has chewed up what little free time I have had. But let me tell you it sure feels good to have it done (well, "in progress" would be more like it).



Things are going well with Jack. He's quite the sleeper... during the day. ;o) I still get about 6-7 hours of sleep at night (in 2-3 hour spurts) but he does the majority of his hard core (read: restful) sleeping during the day. Part of me thinks I should wake him up more during the day so that he will sleep more at night, but I'm trying to hold off because it gives me a lot of one-on-one time with Henry which he needs right now. At our last weight check, Jack was up to 9lbs 5oz. He was 9/2 when born and 8/6 when we left the hospital. Our next appt is in early May.



Henry is doing pretty well, all things considered. His little world is starting to return to normal and that is helping immensely. He did very well in the beginning, then regressed a little, but as I said things are on the upswing now. His new word is "pie". LOL. He learned that while we shared a piece of grandma's home made rhubarb custard pie (and it helps that one of his favorite books mentions a pie as well). I wrote all of his words down the other day and there are about 26 total so far that he is saying. I'll share them the next time my computer and list are in the same vacinity. :o)



Here are a few pictures for you... First we have Jack, at about five days old:



And here is Henry at about 2 mos old for the sake of comparison:

They look quite a bit alike. Jack seems to have a darker complexion than Henry. He must get that from my Mom and Grandpa (whom he was named after), as the rest of us all seem to be a bit pastey ;o). Although I seem to remember Henry's earlier pictures making it look like he had a darker complexion as well due to the after effects of his jaundice (which Jack has as well, but not nearly as bad as Henry's was). Jack also has darker hair and eyes (so far).

EDITED TO ADD: This is a total afterthought, but look how unhappy Henry is in his Bears outfit!! Now check out this post (bottom picture) and look at that big grin on his face when he wears his Packer jersey. ;o) lmao!

Stampers... stay tuned for some new cards soon! I have them loaded, just need to find time to post them. Same goes for more movie set pics!

Johnny Depp to film in Oshkosh!

For those who don't know, he's filming part of his next movie, Public Enemies, here in Oshkosh! The city is buzzing as set crews are in town altering the fronts of various buildings on Main St. Signs are coming down, and are being replaced with new store fronts, new paint, etc. It is very cool! We got out and took some pictures on Sunday so I thought I'd share them. Here are some of the sites that are being used:


The Exclusive Company building (a cd/record shop) is being transformed into an old fashioned Walgreen's drug store. All of those pop outs that say "Drugs" at the top are wooden additions to the existing building. Here is a side view:





Here is the front of the building:





And here is the signage that is waiting to go up:

We also have a town square (a.k.a. Opera House Square) with a HUGE sundial in it. Here is an aerial photo of the area:

And here is the structure that is being built around the sundial. I'm not sure if it's going to be a storefront or what. We drove by again today and no additional progress has been made.

This is the back of the same structure. Apparently they will only be filming it from one side!

They have also transformed our local coffee shop (called the "New Moon Cafe" as noted on the small white sign) into the "Skalsa Restaurant". There are more shops being transformed beyond these, but I couldn't get any good photos from the car and couldn't get out with two babes in tow!

I'll take more pics and post them if anything exciting happens. Maybe I can even get a picture of Jack Sparrow himself! (CHRIS... the real thing! No fake Halloween pirates! Can you even imagine?! )

They are also filming at our old First National Bank building, which is across the street from this restaurant (the exclusive co., restaurant, bank, and sundial are each on one of the four corners of the same intersection). I believe they are also doing some filming at the Grand Opera House, but can't find any info to back that.

Jack is here!

Baby Jack arrived on Thurs, March 27 weighing 9lbs 2oz. The nurses thought he was a big baby, but he looks tiny compared to Henry who was 10lbs 9oz!

We're enjoying our time with our new family member and are trying to get into a routine here - slow but sure!

Henry is doing well adjusting to his new role as big brother. There have been a few jealous moments but overall things are going well.

Stay tuned for pictures! Give me a week or so and I should have some loaded here. Just trying to stay on top of the household things in the mean time. :)