Birthday Time!!

I have two new birthday invitations to share. The first is for a high school friend's little boy Breckan. He turns one on August 11th. Nicki is really good about updating Breckan's website so I have watched him grow via the internet. I am hoping to meet him at my 10 year reunion in July.

The second is for my friend Megan's daughter McKenna. I did McKenna's first birthday invitations and for the longest time they were one of my favorites. I think these are one of my new favorites. They were really fun to create. I had some new flowers that I hadn't been able to use yet so this invite was perfect for them. The final product really came together with the flower embellishment that I added to each of them. Below are a couple of photos that show the variation.

Prayers to St. Anthony

I said many a prayers to St. Anthony, actually I even sent myself an email with this prayer........

"St. Anthony, when you prayed, your stolen book of prayers was given back to you. Pray now for all of us who have lost things precious and dear. Pray for all who have lost faith, hope or the friendship of God. Pray for us who have lost friends or relatives by death. Pray for all who have lost peace of mind or spirit. Pray that we may be given new hope, new faith, new love. Pray that lost things, needful and helpful to us, may be returned to our keeping. Or, if we must continue in our loss, pray that we may be given Christ’s comfort and peace. Amen."

For those of you who have read my previous posts you will know that I had accepted the fact that I had lost my flash drive. Well, between prayers and acceptance, it has returned. It was at home this entire time........in the washing machine. Luckily, it still works and I was able to retrieve everything I thought I had lost!! YEAH!!

New Camera

For about the last two years I have been saying that I wanted a new camera but wasn't sure what type I wanted to get. On one hand I just wanted a newer compact digital to put in my purse to have at any given picture moment. On the other hand I really love photography enough I could make it another hobby (as if I need another) so a camera with changeable lenses was my other option. I decided to start bidding on eBay. I tend to only do this when I am wanting to make a purchase but not ready to commit to the price. This way I can bid what I am willing to pay but I am not being suckered into more. After bidding on both types of cameras, I finally won the bid for a Sony Cybershot. I am really happy with it. Other than the fact that it doesn't have the ability to change out lenses it takes really good photos. Here are a few I took of our landscape. This is also an excuse to brag about Tom and the beautiful landscape he designed for our house and continues to add to each summer. So if anyone is looking to improve their yards......I might know a landscape designer that can help out. I do have to take credit for our potted plants. That is the one part I get to have a hand in. Enjoy.................

Sand in the City

Every year the Nebraska Children's Home Society Foundation has Sand in the City. This is a sand sculpting contest to raise awareness of Nebraska Children’s Home’s programs, which include adoption services and education, unplanned pregnancy services, medically fragile foster care and child care, while raising funds to support our efforts. Corporate teams work with professional sand sculptors from throughout the nation and local architects to build incredible sand sculptures, using more than 350 tons of sand! This year I agreed to volunteer as one of the local architects. It was an amazing experience that I am hoping to participate in again in the years to come. And the cherry on top was that I was supporting a cause that had just blessed a good friend with twin baby girls. I was paired with the PayPal Merchant team. They were awesome to work with. Our team was "Seuss in the City" and our sculpture was "Dr. Seuss Storytime". Here are a few images of our team, our sculpture, and the sculpture by the Master Sculptors.

Baby Stella

My friends Annie and Sam gave birth to a baby girl on April 9th. She is so cute. Stella is being baptized on June 22nd and I was privileged to design here baptisms announcements.

Monograms

One of my recent projects was to design wedding programs for Sarah and Brian. I was really excited because it had been about a year since my last programs. I had some new ideas for monograms that I had been wanting to use so this was an opportune time to try one of them out. Here were the options I gave them.

lost and still not found

So I lost my flash drive the last week in May and I still have not found it. I used it to store all my recent designs and my DBS artwork. Although I have been able to recover .jpeg's or .pdf's from emails or the random times I saved on my hard drive at work, I am still missing a lot of my work. I was really bummed about this but I guess I am going to have to see it as a chance to create some new designs. So look for new stuff!!