be merry !

Today is Christmas card day! I've designed my own card in Photoshop, which I admit I'm not all that good at. I think it turned out cute, except the photo filter I chose came out a bit darker than I would have liked.

Designing my own cards has started me thinking about digital scrapbooking. I have only scrapbooked traditionally, but digital seems like it would be fun too :)

Here's my card with my three kids who I tricked into thinking I just wanted a quick pic of them by this tree ;)

Has anyone else designed their own cards through Photoshop or another program? I'd love to see. If you leave me a comment with a link I'll come take a look!

Have a good weekend :)

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Surprise!

What would your reaction be if while you were shopping at the mall a lovely woman in a pretty pink dress began to sing a Christmas song, loudly, as she rode up the escalator? Maybe you'd think she was just being extra festive?

What if a large group of women all wearing the same color dresses, joined together with this woman and put on a beautiful performance of "Home for the Holiday's"? Right in the middle of the mall?

I've never seen anything like it, but it actually happened to the surprised shoppers at a Chicago mall, and you can see it play out below. Just watch the shoppers reactions. Some look confused, while others join in and sing along.

If you weren't in a festive mood before, you certainly will be after watching this :)




* This post is sponsored by T-Mobile

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retro christmas

My favorite style of Christmas ornament has to be retro, or vintage. I just love the details, colors, and crafty glitterness (I know that's not a word, but I made it work :)

I also love the fact that these types of ornaments bring back memories of Christmas's past, such as large get-togethers with family members who now have families of their own, or have passed away.

I wish I could claim the ornaments I've shown below as my own, but this is just sort of a wish list.

Right now my tree is full of hand-me-down or gifted ornaments, one's my kids made in school, with a few newer one's I've bought. One day I plan to have a tree full of retro ornaments. Then I can be a kid again :) Or at least pretend!

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wordless wednesday . . .

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sound the alarm . . .

... get to the station ~ come join the celebration!

I spent this afternoon finishing up a custom order for fire truck birthday invites. They turned out super cute and I thought I'd share. I've removed some of the personal details from the photo for privacy purposes, but you can still get the full effect :)

I love when I receive a custom order for something that I have never made before, such as these adorable invites. At first I try to envision what I'd like the end result to be, and they usually turn out completely different than that vision. Which is not a bad thing at all :)

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Musical Monday!

Yesterday afternoon we attended Taryne's holiday piano recital. Normally she is very nervous, but this time around she was feeling more confident. I was even able to get a few nice photos of her {which is not an easy task to do with all the goofy faces she loves to make}.

Here are two of the best photos from the bunch~

The theme for this years recital was "Going to the Movies". Each student chose a song from a movie they enjoyed as their recital piece. During their performances photos were shown from their movie, which was a nice touch.

The movie Taryne chose was "The Little Mermaid", and the song was "Part of Your World".   It turned out beautifully, and I am very proud of her. Way to go Taryne!

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