The Movie to Beat

Wow. wow, WOW, WOW! We decided to spend the evening at the Patch Theater with about 600 of our closest friends. LOL! Seriously... it was packed. We had to sit on the second row. Which, surprisingly it was not that bad on my neck, but very loud. Totally worth it though, because this is an AMAZING movie! The story was one you've heard before, but told in a way that was like nothing I've seen before! I don't want to give too much away... but I'm dying to talk about it with everyone... so go watch it! It is beautiful, and touching, and exciting, and .... well, just go watch it!

T-Online

So yesterday the internet mysteriously stopped working. All the cables were fine and the lights were blinking, but no internet. So Rob spent two hours on the phone with telecom this evening, finally to discover that when we moved they lost our account! So since we {apparently} weren't paying for it (we have so many payments to Deutche-Telecom that I don't know what's what) they turned off our line! Weird thing was, the phone still worked! And we used it for two months with no problem! So what gives? Seriously? They "forgot" to update our account with the new info so they just deleted! So anyway... Rob was great on the phone, completely in German, and we have internet back. Hooray!

Blog Backgrounds

I uploaded my designer blog background with supplies from the Countdown to Christmas kit I'm giving away. Check it out! http://kellysdigitaldesigns.blogspot.com/

My First Animation

CHECK IT OUT!!! I MADE THIS!!!!

It took me awhile to figure it out, but now that I have the hang of it, it shouldn't take me as long to do it again. It is sooooo cool!

Haven again

I taught Digital Scrapbooking today and this was the page I made while the students were practicing. The kit is called Truly Yours by Amanda Heimann.

Quick Updates

For the family who are wondering where I went....

Haven had her first trip to the orthodontist this week. Her teeth are a pretty big mess. Basically her baby teeth aren't falling out because her permanent teeth are stuck in her head because there isn't enough space for them to come down. Poor baby. So they fitted her for a retainer to help move the baby teeth, and then when the permanent all come down she'll get braces.

Rob and I were sick most of the week with a painful sore throat.

Haven had a chorus concert last night. I'll try to get some photos processed and maybe a video clip up. But I have to teach a class tomorrow, so maybe in a couple of days.

I'm learning A LOT about Photoshop and vector graphics. Very exciting for me. But of course everytime I learn something new I get insomnia. So I'm not getting much sleep these days...

Well, that's about it for now...

School Pictures

I got Haven's school photo today. I wasn't really crazy about any of the choices, but I thought this one had the most potential for playing around. I bought the full rights to the image so I can share it and play with it. Here's the original file:

And my favorite edit:

This is Coffee Shop Powder Room (there was a lot of harshness in her face to clean up) and Aly's Barely Vintage.

And just for fun, here's Haven over the last three years. Wow!

Countdown to Christmas

Well, I don't know if I was inspired today, or if I had a moment of insanity... but I've decided to do a digital scrapbooking "Advent Blog." So every day until Christmas I'll be posting one small part of a kit to download. Wish me luck!

Check it out here starting Dec 01.

New Digital Stuff

Check out my designer blog for some new stuff. Here's a page I made.

I think it takes less time to make the digital products than it does to get everything uploaded to the store properly, blog about it, and make some stuff with it! It's so much fun though!

Around the House

I spent the whole day today in my pjs, cleaning and working around the house. It was fabulous! My craft room is really coming along. I'm going to have to be careful to not make it TOO nice because I might want to spend ALL my time there! It's just so nice and cozy. Every room has it's own heating control so I can turn on the heat in the morning and after a little while it's warm and toasty and I can spend hours in there!

The music/entertainment room made big progress today too from Rob's efforts. He has his rocking chair in there, so he is also in danger of getting lost in his room. At least these two rooms are on the same floor, so we're sort of in proximity of each other! I put together four of the little shelves on the right, in 10 minutes each! We're working hard to get this room finished before my dad comes to visit.

And here's a few things I haven't blogged about, but are fun {for me}.

We had to get a new fridge. Actually... did I blog about that already? What drama! This is the one we finally ended up with. It's taller than the door! I can barely reach the top shelf. The kitchen island is from Ikea and it makes a huge difference in the kitchen. I still have a few things I can't fit, but it's getting there. The new dryer came at the same time as the fridge. I LOVE having the laundry in the bathroom! I actually don't mind doing it now!

And the grill. It's my first gas grill ever. It was really hard to make the transition, but I have to admit, it is great! I love how fast I can grill now and that I don't have to clean out the ash every time. I don't feel like I have to grill enough for the whole week now.

After cleaning and organizing my craft room I wanted to make something quick and fun, so I made these.

My plan is to sell them really inexpensively at the craft store. The idea is to use them like you would a gift bag, for small gifts. I'm stuck on calling them "gift cans" but there's got to be something better. "Gift Tins?" Suggestions welcome!

Banana Cookies

I was in a baking mood this week and found a recipe for banana drop cookies. They sounded interesting so I decided to give it a whirl. Oh man. So I took them to work and everyone kind of curled their lip and said "banana cookies?" I don't have any photos to show you because everyone ate them! Lizy asked me to post the recipe, so here it is:

From Better Homes and Gardens {New} Cookbook from 1981!

Banana Drop Cookies
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Grease a cookie sheet. (I used parchment paper instead.) Stir together 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves. In a mixer bowl beat 1/2 cup butter or margarine for 30 seconds. Add 1 cup granulated sugar and beat till fluffy. Add 2 eggs and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla; beat well. Add dry ingredients and 1 cup mashed banana (2 medium) alternately to beaten mixture, beating after each addition. Stir in 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Drop from a teaspoon 2 inches apart onto a well greased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet immediately; cool on a wire rack. Frost cooled cookies with Banana Butter Frosting. Makes 60. (I don't think we got 60 out of it, but I probably made them too big.)

Banana Butter Frosting
Blend together 2 cups sifted powdered sugar, 1/4 cup mashed banana (1 small), 2 tablespoons softened butter, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. If necessary, add additional powdered sugar to make of spreading consistency.

I know you're probably thinking, uh, that sounds wierd. Let me tell you, that frosting... I wanted to just eat it with a spoon out of the bowl. The cookies taste a lot like banana nut bread. The frosting is what makes them special. So give it a try and let me know what you think. You won't hurt my feelings if you don't like them because it's not my recipe! Haha!

Art and Espresso

This is where I'll be through Saturday. If you're in Stuttgart (sorry family...) stop by and see the wonderful art and crafts for sale. Remember to "support living artists; the dead ones don't need it!" (I just love that quote!)

Halloween 2009

I "made" all the costumes this year. Jennifer generously gave me the satin and fringe to make the flapper dress. She also let me borrow the wig. I got several suggestions to go with black hair... what do you think? I found the hair piece, gloves, necklace, and the "cigarette" at jewelry stores in town. The cigarette holder is actually a hair pick and Corinnea made the cigarette out of paper at the last minute. It looked pretty darn cool!

I did these side by side pictures of the kids to help you understand their costumes. A lot of people didn't know who they were.

Haven was Coraline. Coraline is a movie (clay-mation, I think) that came out last year? It's about a girl who is unhappy in her real life and gets sucked into an alternate life where everything seems good but it has a sinister twist. I think it should be required watching for all children who have problems with gratitude and attitude. It's not for really little ones though. There are some scary bits. My favorite line is "she spied on our lives through the little dolls eyes..." We found the jacket, boots, and stockings at the Schwaben Galerie. So lucky because otherwise I was going to have to make the coat out of felt and I wasn't looking foward to it. The wig was a hot topic all week. Haven did NOT like it. It went through several phases and there was lots of threatening to not go trick or treating... but she finally agreed to wear it and it was fine. If I ever have to make a wig again I will do it better.

Ethan is Ben 10. This is a little cartoon the kids watch on Cartoon Network. Ben discovered a "watch" that bonded with his DNA and allows him to change into these ten different aliens for short bursts of time. The picture above is Ben with his 10 alter-alien-egos. The shirt is just a t-shirt sewn over a turtle neck. The watch thingy is from the PX. His costume was EASY. And he totally looks like Ben 10! But, poor thing, no one really knew who he was. And after he put on his coat during trick or treating there was no way to know who he was.

Oh, I did NOT walk around base as a flapper. I promptly changed after the costume party at the movie theater. I was smart and brough tennis shoes for the TWO HOURS we walked around collecting candy. This year was the longest we've ever stayed out. My head still hurts... It was pretty fun. Haven ran around with several friends and I had fun walking around with the other parents. So it was a nice evening.

WE HAVE INTERNET AGAIN!!!

I'm so busy catching up on everyone else's stuff that I don't have pics to post yet. But I'll get there! I'm just so happy to be connected again!

Moving Update

Just a quick update:

We finished moving on October 3rd and are now in the arduous task of unpacking and finding places for all our stuff. The new place is a bit smaller so it's an adventure. We ordered a refrigerator and dryer from Media Markt before we moved and they still have not arrived. I found out the other day that the clerk who helped us was "new" and pretty much did everything wrong. We should have a call from the moving company next week to set a delivery appointment. I can only hang so much laundry from the little rack and the shower door! And I'm pretty sure the family is tired of frozen dinners! Rob did get our new gas grill (I know... I caved... it's my first gas grill ever...) built on Thursday so I'm hoping to fire it up this weekend and see how it goes. Monday is a holiday and I am so grateful for the time to unpack and organize. As much work as it is, I have to admit I really love organizing and the required shopping when there isn't enough room for stuff! But I will be happy to have everything finished.

Ok, that's all for now. I promised pictures from Haven's birthday, but until we get internet at the house it's really hard to do decent posts. Hopefully next week I'll be back online. Of course I'll be in such withdrawal that I won't want to get off for a week! Haha!

AAFES Fashion Show

AAFES put on a family fair a few weekends ago and the Haven participated in the fashion show. She had two outfits, one sporty and one casual. She got to choose from several different pieces of clothing and she put her outfits together. Be sure and watch the video of her hamming it up on the catwalk!

Ethan at Ikea

Today is the big moving day. We've been moving all week, so since I pre-scheduled this to post I can't really give you an update. But I can give you a pretty funny video to keep you entertained.

Hannah and I (and Ethan) went to Ikea earlier in the summer and this was Ethan in the line to checkout.

Interlaken, 2009

Every year we go to Interlaken for the International Baptist Convention Summer Assembly. It's one of my favorite trips. We started taking the kids with us last year. This year we went to the Schuh chocolate store to do their behind the scenes tour. It wasn't really a tour, but a demonstration of how chocolate is made. Complete with LOTS of samples. Oh man... the mint chocolate they had this year was amazing!!! They also had a brand new one with cinnamon in it that was made by a graduate student they had interning there. She made it with the Montezuma temple stamped on each chocolate. It was a pretty fun little afternoon adventure.

OH, and I made the scrapbooking mini kit used above using colors from the chocolate in the room. More info will be available on my design blog soon.

Theater Camp

This was the second year Haven participated in theater camp at the Kelley Theater. This year the kids wrote their own short skits and performed them at the end of camp. The two videos below are the skits Haven was a part of.

Rent a Parent

Game Show

Camping in the Bodensee

I did mention this camping trip in a blog back in June, but never posted the after pictures. Rob and Haven went with the youth group down to the Bodensee (one of the main lakes in Germany) for a weekend camping trip. Ethan and I stayed behind. I'm not really into camping and Ethan had a birthday party to attend. I am sorry I missed Shana getting baptised in the lake though. That must have been really neat!

Today is Haven's birthday and we're having a sleepover. As soon as I have some time and internet connection again I will post pics. 12 today! Where did the time go?!?

5th Grade Picnic

Ok, these are super old. I got so far behind! This is Haven’s end of school picnic. I can’t remember if I blogged this or not… For sure I hadn’t made a scrapbook page yet, so here you go.

Plus one of just Ethan. He was so darn cute that day!

We went to the new apartment yesterday to take measurements and plan where all the furniture will go, and to see what furniture has to stay behind. We can take most of our stuff, and hopefully Emanuel will take some stuff when he moves out. Here’s some photos of the new place:

Apartment in Magstadt

The top two floors of the building are ours. Bottom left, small pictures: 1) the smaller balcony on the upper floor. 2) My future craft room! Oh yeah! There’s a duplicate room that will be the electronics room (video games, music equipment, etc.) 3) One wall of the living room with big windows. Right two photos are my favorite features: 1) Corner tub in the main bathroom (there’s two bathrooms and one shower room, all with toilets) and 2) the kitchen. I think it has double the counter space of what we have now.

We sat and ate lunch at a little sports bar (the only thing still serving food that late in the afternoon) and got a feel for our new little village. We have about one week before the move so we’ll be packing every day.

For some reason our internet connection got messed up a couple of weeks ago and can’t be fixed. We aren’t really trying too hard since we’re moving so soon. So I’m going to schedule a few posts of things you’ve missed of our summer. Hopefully that will give you something interesting to read while we move.

Open House

The potential buyers all came through the house this evening. We spent the weekend cleaning the basement and touching up some places where the wallpaper was really dirty. And general cleaning. There were a lot of families/couples who came to look at the house. The most exciting was Karen Oleksa and her husband! (For those of you who don't know, she used to work at the Gussy Goose with me and Jennifer.) They were really interested and I think it would be cool if they bought it. So now it's packing and cleaning for the next few weeks. So if you have moving boxes I'm begging!

In other news, Emanuel ended up NOT taking the job because it ended up being some kind of insurance scam. So my child care is not in turmoil anymore! And I got my IPOD back. Apparently I ran over it when I dropped it because the LCD is cracked in several places. But amazingly it still works! Someone turned it in to the school office and Haven picked it up for me. I think it's awesome that someone turned it in! It's just too bad that it's broken because Ethan really likes playing games on it. Thems the breaks....

September Blog Challenge

Stop by my design blog on Friday afternoon and join the fun!

Green Acres is the Place to Be...

So we signed on the house in Magstadt. It's a cute little village. Plenty of stuff we need. Just out there... But not as far as some people have to go, so it's not really "Green Acres" I just think it's funny to sing the song!

We signed the lease on Sunday and now it's planning, packing, preparing the house.... lots of work. We walked around Magstadt after our meeting with the landlord and I was so excited to realize there is a Greek restaraunt right around the corner from the house!!!! If you know me, you know my happiness revolves around good food. There is Greek, German, Italian, Turkish, and Spanish food in Magstadt. All the important cuisines! There is also a cafe and the major bus stop area right by the house. There is a playground a few blocks down the road, and a forest walking area across the main street. There is a grocery store in town, but it's just slightly too far to walk if we have to carry anything heavy. But to send Haven for emergency toilet paper or whatever would be ok!

Emanuel won't be able to move with us, so I strongly encouraged he go find himself a job. So he did. He starts Wednesday. So now I get to also sort out my babysitting situation on top of everything else. :/

Soooo.... really grateful for the blessings, but please keep us in your thoughts cuz it's going to be one heck of a stressful month!

Updates

1. I lost my Ipod touch today. WAAA!!!!!

2. Haven had her school orientation at RB Middle School. (I think that's where I lost my Ipod) She starts school on Monday. 6th grade... where did the years go?

3. I finally finished the big huge massive collossal report that has been driving me crazy for the last two weeks. Bound and in Mr. Holzinger's hand!

4. We probably found an apartment. It's in Magstadt and it's the perfect size for us. We have a second meeting with the landlord on Sunday. It comes with no realtor fees and it already has a cool kitchen. Our only compromises are we probably won't have a permanent guest room (it will have to be a multi-purpose room), and it's a bit farther than we had hoped to go. BUT it's not TOO far and it's managable. Haven is happy because it's still in the zone for the middle school she wants to go to. Some of my colleagues (Gwyn and Erick from Marketing) are excited because it's the same town they live in. Oh, and I may have to buy a new grill (poor me, I have to shop...). I don't know if they'll let me use my big charcoal grill on the balcony. We may have to buy a little gas grill. We'll see.

That about covers everything. Keep us in your thoughts!

A quick project

One of our customers was trying to do a clever little invitation for her husband's 50th birthday party. I guess his friend is turning 50 also. So they want to do a 50's themed party. She wanted the guy's faces superimposed on Elvis and the Fonz. So I volunteered. Here's the card front.

I was trying to imitate the Hawaii Five-O font and dvd art with the wave and the red outlined text. I am really proud of how seamless the heads are. It was cute to do and it's one of the first creative things I've done in a really long time!

Just Checkin In

Just wanted to let you all know I haven't forgotten you. Life has been pretty darn stressful lately. The temporary promotion is going fine, but I'm exhausted. It's so much to keep straight! I've had to work late way too much to get reports done and stuff. But I'm on my way out now. My last day will be 15 September. They hired someone to fill the position so I'll be passing everything on to him soon. It's been an awesome experience, and I'm so grateful to have been given the opportunity!

In other news, we're house hunting. Five years in our little Vaihingen mansion is ending. The landlord wants to sell the house, and no matter how many ways I tried, there's just no way we can get the money to buy it ourselves. So we're in the market. House hunting is not fun. Well, it's fun to look and see what's out there, but it's not fun to see how far away everything is. On the plus side, since we've been in the house five years we get up to six months to move out. Hopefully that's enough time to find something nice.

Ethan goes back to school on Monday. It will be good for him to have something to do in the mornings again. Haven is doing theater camp all this week, so I should have some photos to share eventually... I'm not crafting at all. We are cleaning a lot though.

So keep us in your prayers! We're slowly (or maybe quickly) losing our minds!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

We celebrated Ethan's birthday this evening with pasta and ice cream cake. His presents included a new scooter, some transformers, the new Veggie Tales movie, and some Ben 10 toys. Ethan and Haven spent the rest of the evening riding and playing outside.

Work is crazy busy right now. I've been exhausted. But hopefully next week it will get to a normal level of busy-ness! :)

Summer finally came!!!

And I couldn't be happier!!! And I'm going to work really hard to not complain about the heat when it gets really hot! :)

So I have some interesting news, but you have to tough it out and see my pictures first!

Here's Emanuel, Haven and Rob at the train station last Friday. They went camping at the Bodensee last weekend with the youth group.

Here's me thoroughly enjoying the sunshine and warm weather!

Ok, well you just get my feet this time...

I'll grill in any weather, but Monday evening was PERFECT! It was warm and sunny, and there was this lovely little breeze going....
I sat outside and ate way too many toasted marshmallows.

And I've been craving melons like crazy the last few weeks. I think I may be dehydrated. But the cantelope and watermelons this year are so yummy!

And I have a new weakness.... I've never really cared for cookies until I discovered these. It's chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin. Corinnea of course makes a killer version of these (did yours have chocolate chips? I can't remember) but it's so much easier to buy the little package of pre-formed cookies and just plop them on a cookie sheet!

Ok, as a reward for making it through my post you get to hear the interesting news! First of all, we leave for Switzerland on Friday for the International Baptist Convention annual retreat in Interlaken. Rob and I are running the audio/visual equipment for the main sessions. I will have only intermittent internet connectivity while there.

Second, I am going to be temporarily promoted for a little while to fill an open position in another division while they go through the process of hiring someone. I start tomorrow! Which begs the question why am I still on the computer..... The job could be very short, or until the end of September. And at the end I get to go back to my happy place at the Arts and Crafts. I'm looking foward to the challenge and my brain is already overstimulated at the thought of all the new things I'm going to learn.

Oh, AND we went to see the new Transformers movie the other night! I was giddy! They aren't profound or life changing in any way, just pure big cars, crashing robots, aliens built the pyramids FUN! I don't know what my thing is for transformers... maybe it's because I could never figure out the rubics cube, but transformers I can do! Haha! The next Harry Potter comes out this summer too! Yeah! Maybe I'll hold off on being an adult until after all the summer movie releases!

Happy Summer!

Krumping: an urban street dance form characterized by free, expressive, and highly energetic moves involving the arms, head, legs, chest and feet. It has become a major part of hip hop dance culture. Krumping is used frequently in dance battles. Dance "battling," a form of dance where competitors face-off in a direct competition, arm swings and chest movements known as Flares and Bucks being extremely common.

Who says white kids can't dance?

Ok, that was fun, but what is up with this weather?!? I can't take much more! It is June 24th and I am SO COLD! I need the sun! And flip flops! And my halter tops! Waaaaaa!

Father's Day and other Fun

We all woke up too late to make breakfast in bed for Rob (like I got for Mother's Day), so we took him to lunch after worship and spent the afternoon at the PX.

The kids each made a picture, and here's some of the other loot.

I made this art collage as a class project last week and blogged about how to make it here.

I had WAY TOO MUCH fun shopping for these!
Everyone know what they are? Well, just in case you don't, it's the symbol for the Rebel Alliance (from Star Wars of course). I bought them from this seller. There are so many fun Star Wars cuff links it was really hard to choose! I thought these were the best because they are Star Wars but they're still kind of sleek and kind of like a little secret!

So I broke out the sewing machine. *GASP!* I know. It's be AGES since I did anything crafty that didn't involve the computer. We got in this new pattern by Amy Butler at the shop and I couldn't resist!!

The yellow fabric is from the Basic Grey line. As is the purple fabric below. Anyone remember when I bought this fabric and said it was going to become a shirt? It was right before Christmas when Kara gave me the cute little purple earrings. Well, this fabric is now happy to be a dress and I wore my earrings with it today!
I made the dress first and it's a size too big. I'm going to have to do some adjustments. I did the shirt next and it fits much better. The photo editing is just for fun because the background was so busy.

The really funny part is that I remember sometime back in the 80's when my mom and I were shopping at Anthony's (that's a department store in Texas, not the Pizza place here) and tent shirts and stretch pants were all the rage! I was a little on the hefty side and some lady in the store said the tent shirts looked like maternity clothes and I would have plenty of time for that later! Now here I am in 2009 with my tent shirt and stretch pants! Life is funny. At least this one is a little classier than the knit one from the 80's!

Headlines

OCD 4-Year Old Learns to Fold Clothes

Look out world!

My first blog train

I'm participating in my first blog train over on my design blog. If you hit all the stops you end up with a nice digital scrapbooking kit. You can also play along in the games and challenges and win prizes! Check out my design blog for all the details.

Last Saturday

Last Saturday we went to Monbachtal in the Black Forest for a Church family picnic. It was really a lot of fun!

School Project

Haven had to write a journal as if she was a girl on the "Oregon Trail." She went ALL OUT on this project. Complete with soaking the pages in coffee to "antique" them. She makes me so proud!

Conversations with Kids

I decided to get in a quick grilling while the rain was holding back and Ethan came out to help. So we started by cleaning the grills. He got one and I got the other. So I finished scrubbing mine and turned to tend the coals and he flipped my grill over and said, "You missed a spot." What a nut! He totally made me clean the underside of my grill too!

Then while Haven and I were chatting tonight she noted how her little shelf was full. I suggested she throw something away to which she replied, "No way!" Most of you know Haven suffers from severe Hypochondria. So I told her about a new disease I think she has: Packratitis. It went like this:

Me: I think you have "Packratitis."
Haven: What's that?
Me: It's an inability to throw things away.
Haven: DUH!

Duh. Oh man I love these kids!

A Day Out

At the Pool

The kids had some fun, but they spent most of the time with Ethan trying to get Haven to get in the pool with him and Haven pouting. That's ok. I got to listen to almost a whole audio book in between their visits to the towels.

At the Park

On the way back to the house we stopped for ice cream and hung out at the park for a little while. We're all sunburned but it was a really fun day!

Happy Memorial Day

I made a mini kit for Memorial Day. You can read more about it here.

They Say it's Your Birthday

It's my birthday too!

Happy Birthday to:

My cousin BJ
Tichina's daughter Kiki
and Eric Stuber

Also
Cher
and Jimmy Stewart

Closet Confessions

My latest kit based on all my co-workers is finally available, which means I can take a break from my computer! Maybe I'll have time to upload some photos now...

You can read about all the details here.

Creative Team

Check out some pages my friend Lynette did with my kits:

Summersault Kit

Eco-Friends

Colors of Spring

Sweet Silhouette

And here's one Lizy did:
Sweet Silhouette

It's so fun to see people using my kits! It makes me feel like a real designer! LOL! If you want to see some more page done with my kits you can check out the Digiridoo Gallery here.