Archives for December 2010

Well the craziness of Christmas is over and we are embarking on the New Year.  For it to be 2011 makes me feel rather old, even though I’m not that old, but the number 2011 just seems so strange.  We Kelleys are hopeful and excited to see what God has in store for us in 2011.  My mind could go in a million different directions just thinking about what all may await our family this New Year.

Top 3 Things I Am Most Excited About For 2011:

#1:  Hands down, meeting of our third son. I thought about him and his possible family in Ethiopia a ton over Christmas.  We have so many things up in the air this time around and so many things God has pressed on our hearts about the process to getting him home.  We know time may be greatly different than Sol’s.  We feel God has placed on our hearts things we never even thought about with Sol’s adoption and we want to make sure we act accordingly to what God is leading us to do.  We anticipate seeing just how God will unfold his story and everything in between.

As I mentioned in the last post, we do 3 gifts for each kiddo on Christmas.  This year I knew I wanted to find them each a kid backpack.  I absolutely fell in love with these and snagged them at an awesome price:

So on Christmas Eve when we pulled their presents out I actually cried because I had forgotten that we had gone ahead and bought a fourth backpack for our next little boy.  Josh just smiled at me when he noticed I was tearing up and gave me a tight squeeze.  I just cannot wait to have him home and let him sport this around.

#2 Our church’s carepoint in Swaziland with Children’s HopeChest. The launch date has been set for February 20th at our church and we received all the kids profiles right before Christmas.  82 kids that need to be sponsored and development projects like a kitchen, wells, bathrooms, chicken coops, etc are awaiting us.  If you live in the area and want to join us on February 20th please do.  To read more about this and see if this is something you or your church may want to be apart of CLICK HERE.  There are so many opportunities available.

#3 Going back to Africa.  We are hoping to make it to Africa at least twice in 2011.  Once to Ethiopia to bring our boy home and at least once to Swaziland to hang with and love on our sponsor kids.  This makes my heart super happy.

And I hope everyone’s Christmas was fantastic.  Ours was too much fun.  All the kids are just at that super fun age.  Even though they don’t look it, except Sol, they were really excited Christmas morning.

Harper LOVED her doll bed.

Hud was thrilled with his motorcycle and tool set.

And Sol couldn’t get over his firetruck to make it to his other presents (notice his 2 snowflake packages in the background).  He was in love and Harper and Huddy were done before Sol even made it to his other presents.  This made us laugh.

Also it turns out I may like the day after Christmas even more than the day of Christmas.  All the festivities were completed and we just stayed home and enjoyed being with just our little family.  The boys TOTALLY cracked us up sporting their silly bandz and head lamps from Aunt Jen.

I pretty much took several days off from crafting, but did finish up two projects.  This 8×24 canvas was for our friends at church, Stacey and Kurt, who are about to bring home their son Jonah from Ethiopia.  I couldn’t make it to their shower, but knew I wanted to make Jonah something.  Stacey said she would love for me to use his Ethiopian name and with that, I couldn’t wait.  I love how it turned out and Stacey did too.  Praying that sweet boy is home soon.

I also finished up another giveaway camera strap for Facebook.  This will be up for grabs tomorrow, January 31st on my Facebook page to welcome in the New Year.  If you’re a fan on Facebook check it out tomorrow and enter to win.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has an awesome New Year.  Thank you so much for all the business this year and assisting in bringing our next little boy home.  2011 is going to be insanely great!

This post is a smorgasbord of Christmas randomness.  Just feeling it tonight.

I made a lot of Christmas gifts this year, but my all time favorite was one for Harper.  We keep Christmas pretty low key at our house.  We do the 3 gifts for each kid and then stockings with little stuffers like chapstick, fun socks and a few other little goodies.  We keep a limit of about $50 per kid, so of course, I love a good deal.  I knew that I wanted to get Harper a doll bed for one of her gifts, so I started checking out some antique places for a cute old one that I could fix up.

I ended up finding one just down the road from our house at Mrs Annabelle’s Antiques.  I love this store and Mrs Annabelle herself is just the sweetest.  She actually lives right down the road from my dad, so he picked the bed up for us…just $5.  My dad added a board to make it a little sturdier and white washed it for me…THANKS Dad so much!

It is seriously so stinkin’ cute.  I covered a little foam for the base of the bed, made a little pillow and also made a little quilt.  I have a feeling I am going to have one happy little girl in the morning.

It turns out that a slinky at our house has absolutely no chance of making it to see another day.  The boys are no good for a slinky.

Finished shopping this week with 2 cute little helpers…they totally rocked Target in all it’s holiday madness.

Somebody, AKA our “Kroger Fairy” has blessed us every month of 2010 with a Kroger gift card.  I cannot say enough about what this meant to our family this year.  We are beyond grateful, so THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU Kroger Fairy.  Another giveaway will be coming soon and of course, those sweet stamps will be put to use.

This was our best wrapped gift this year…no way Jack new what it was 🙂  Those are pretty cute toes.

Hands down, this is my new favorite picture of the boys.  They shared some orange juice at my dad’s Christmas this morning…too, too sweet.

I picked a few new fabric this week…totally loving these.

The boys have worn this Matchbox garage out…Thanks Dad and Judye.

And I love these kids!

Truly thankful beyond words for Jesus and God who sent that baby to save the world.  Merry Christmas!

I soooo enjoyed reading everyone’s comments about what they are most looking forward to about this holiday season.  Thanks for sharing and being apart of the camera strap giveaway.  I used random.org this morning to pick the winner and congrats to…

Meredith #152. Super congrats and check your email for an email 🙂

I am really excited about taking new orders again starting January 17th, but until then I am plenty busy with hanging out with our little family, doing crafty things that I have been wanting to do and getting ready for Sol’s 2nd birthday party.  I cannot believe he is already going to be 2!  WOW!

I have finished up a few more projects this week.  My great friend Jessica needed special tees for some little ones in her life.  I love how they all turned out.  Jess is super thorough too…she new exactly what fabrics she wanted and designs…made my life easy 🙂  Thanks so much Jess and hope all the little kiddos love their tees.

My other friend Alissa recently had her first baby…baby Scarlett or baby “Carlett” as the boys love to call her.  Scarlett is just the sweetest little thing and I just had to make her a Christmas ornament.  She needed one!  I hope this will adorn their tree every year as a sweet reminder.

I am almost finished with my Christmas present crafting.  Only 2 more projects that need to be completed.  Yesterday I finished up my nephew Will’s gift.  Will is only 4 months old (almost 5 months old) and babies are usually pretty hard to shop for especially when they are the youngest of three.  He has plenty of toys and clothes, etc, so I wanted something different and special for him.

A little while ago I bought a name pillow pattern from the insanely talented Chrystal at Little Bit Funky.  You should totally check her out because she completely rocks!

I ended up making the pillow a bit bigger and using my own template for the letters…Will’s name is so short, so I wanted the letters to be bigger.  I love how it turned out and hope Will can keep this in his room for years to come.

And hope everyone has driven around to see their local Christmas lights.  This is something we do every year with the kids and each year it just gets better.  We get bundled and take a special snack.

The snack is probably the part they most love.  But this year we found two local houses that had their lights set to music on a radio station.  Super fun to watch.

The pictures don’t do them justice, but trust me, it was a site to see and the music was a super fun addition.  The kids loved it and we did too.  So big THANK YOU to the people who deck their houses out in lights, pay the electric bill and let others enjoy.  Our family sure did.

Happy Tuesday!

Thank you guys so much for entering to win our ONE Month waiting giveaway canvas.

I have been crazy busy the last few days so I went with the wonderful Random.org to pick the winner.

Congrats to #284 CHRIS COOK.  Check your email for a new email 🙂

Thanks again so much to everyone who entered and all insanely sweet words.  Unless we get our referral between now and January 15th, there will be another art piece up for grabs on January 16th, so check back.

Now for the last giveaway of 2010…a camera strap.  I have really enjoyed making these and am super excited to offer these for order when I open back up on January 17th.

Here is some info about the straps:

*Entire length-60″
*Fabric Length (including the leather ends)-32″
*Width of fabric strap-Just under 2″
*Nylon Strap Length – 14″ inches each
*Width of Nylon Strap-1/2″

This will be a pretty quick giveaway since Christmas is less than a week away.  It will end tomorrow Monday, December 20th at midnight and I will announce the winner on Tuesday the 21st.

There are several ways to enter again:

-Leave a comment about what you are most looking forward to with the holidays

-Blog about the giveaway

-Facebook about the giveaway

-Twitter about the giveaway

-Become a fan on Facebook HERE

-Follow in Twitter HERE

Once the winner is posted I will be in touch asap, so I can get the camera strap in the mail and on its way.

And here are a few projects I have finished up lately.  My dear friend Ashley needed some key fobs for some Christmas presents.  Thanks so much Ashley.

My mom wanted a special gift for a good friend of hers.  She wanted a 11×14 Names of Jesus canvas.  Thanks Mom!

And this 11×14 canvas is one of my new favorites.  This is going to my best friend.  Can’t wait to give it to her!

Now enter away and Happy Sunday!

Thank you guys so much for all the super sweet comments and for entering in the ornament giveaway.  If you did not win one of the three awesome ornaments by Sara Sparks, you can still get one!  Sara has a new email address set up and you can reach her at sparksinthekiln at gmail dot com

Sara has had such a great response from everyone that she has set up an Etsy store:

http://sparksinthekiln.etsy.com

Sara will be taking orders through email and etsy convos for right now.

Now for the 3 winners and of course my sweet little helpers were ready to assist.  Hud was busy being busy and waiting patiently for breakfast.

Congrats to:

AND

Way to go ladies.  #140 Dianna, #69 Ashley Baker and #91 Kelly Raudenbush.  I will email you all very soon.

And a HUGE thanks to Sara for sending these amazing ornaments my way.  Sara you are too kind.

As promised, today starts another giveaway.  We have officially been on the wait list for our next little guy for 1 month and 1 day.  To celebrate I will be making an art piece for each month and giving it away.  I am going to use our Tennessean newspaper for each piece with the 15th date.  So check out the first piece.

It’s funny because with Sol’s adoption we never made it to month 2.  We literally waited about a month and a 1/2.  Sol’s adoption was so quick.  With this adoption we flew through paper work, but I have a feeling we will be waiting longer, but who knows what God has planned.

In the mean time we will celebrate being a little closer to seeing our son’s sweet face as each month passes.  This canvas is a 10×10 mixed media piece.  As always there are lots of ways to enter:

-Leave a comment…I would love to here what you would do with the piece if you won

-Blog about the giveaway

-Facebook about the giveaway

-Twitter about the giveaway

-Become a fan on Facebook HERE

-Follow in Twitter HERE

Please do leave a separate comment below for each entry. Giveaway will end Saturday, December 18th at midnight.  And the winner will be announced on Sunday.

Can’t wait to see who wins.  Happy Thursday!

Today is the last day to enter to win one of the awesome Africa ornaments made by Sara Sparks.  Giveaway will end tonight at midnight and I will announce the 3 winners tomorrow.  CLICK HERE TO ENTER or scroll down to the last post to enter to win.

Also today marks our 1 month being on the wait list for our next little boy!  As promised, there will be an art giveaway tomorrow.  I want to use the newspaper from the 15th for each of these pieces, so I snagged a paper this morning and will work today until I get it finished.  Wish me luck.

I finished up some tees for my own kiddos yesterday.  I bought these cute little striped long sleeves a while back and have just now had a chance to adorn them with something.  That something just so happens to be hedgehogs and I love them.

My kids are very fond of them too.  I love making them things like this.

I gave away 3 fabric bracelets last week on my Facebook page.  The winner got to customize them.  Here they are about to head out to Anne…Congrats again Anne and hope the recipients love them!

And I made another new camera strap for a family member.  Really love this fabric combination.

While I was at it, I also made up an extra one for one last giveaway before Christmas next week on my site.  Sneak peek!

That about wraps it up.  Recap:

*Drawing 3 winners for the awesome Africa ornaments by Sara Sparks tomorrow…enter before midnight tonight.

*Art giveaway starts tomorrow to celebrate 1 month waiting for our boy

* AND camera strap giveaway next week

That is a lot of fun stuff going on.  Happy Wednesday!

I have been having so much fun hanging with Josh and my kiddos with all the holiday madness upon us.  We have been spending time with family and friends, hitting up Christmas happenings and just enjoying being together.  I’m still crafting, but it has just been for friends and family at this point…not the order list I’m accustomed too.  But it’s good for me to take a small break and just have some fun.

One project I have been hard at work on was an elf costume.  Yes, you read that right.  One of my friends, Susan, celebrates her birthday by having all her friends dress up likes elves and paint the town Christmas colors.  We even all have jobs and name badges…crazy?  I think not.  Fun?  I think totally YES!  My elf job is being the keeper of the naughty and nice list, so I had to make my costume match appropriately.  And here is what I came up with.

Your jealous aren’t you?  And what about those shoes?  You know you want a pair.  Harper was totally in love with my costume, so I had to make her at least a hat.

The boys enjoyed rocking the hat as well.

So Friday night all the elf ladies got our elf fun on.  We dressed and then doused ourselves in glitter and Christmas magic and we were ready to go celebrate Susan’s birthday.

One of our friends Tanya is a photographer so she snapped a bunch of pictures at her home studio before we headed out to Opryland Hotel.

Opryland was probably my favorite part of the night.  It was totally decked out for Christmas and super busy.

Everyone thought we worked there and everyone wanted us to stop and take pictures with them…of course we obliged.  And taking pictures with the kids was the BEST.  They really thought we were Santa’s elves…too much fun.

So if you have ever wanted to dress up as an elf and go out in public, I highly recommend it.  You will have a great time!

And here are some orders for some friends and family I have been working on.  More key fobs…as always.  One of my aunts and my friend Melody wanted some key fobs.  I must say, I really do not get tired of making these.  They are just fun.  Thanks Auntie and Melody!

And another friend, Amanda, wanted a special Christmas ornament for her new little girl Macy she just brought home from Ethiopia.  Wasn’t sure just how this was going to turn out, but I am really happy with the end result and hope Macy will love it for years to come.  Thanks Amanda.

Okay now for the GIVEAWAY.  So yesterday I ran out to the mailbox (as I do everyday because I HEART mail) and I had a package all the way from Australia.  What???  Well I immediately tore into it when I got in the house and it was the sweetest package I have received in a long time.  It was from a customer in Australia, Sara.  She is simply amazing.  Inside were 4 beautifully pottered Africa ornaments,

the sweetest card and some totally delicious Aussie cookies.  Imagine an all chocolate Kit Kat.  Yes, they are divine.

I can’t begin to say what this package did for my heart.  Sara did this all on her own, for absolutely no reason.  We don’t know each other except that she has ordered from me before.  This was just a pure kindhearted deed and I feel that is one of the best examples of kindness.

In the package Sara included 4 ornaments and of course I had to immediately add one to my tree.  She said I could sell the others to help add to our adoption fund, but when this sort of kindness is shown to me, I try to do something kind in return…some how.  So up for grabs are the other three ornaments.  I will draw 3 winners.  This would be a great addition to your tree or a wonderful gift.

They are handmade from pottery and they are just gorgeous.  Each one has a pottered heart in the middle as well with the word “adopt” stamped in the middle.  They are really, really amazing.

You can enter lots of ways:

-Leave a comment, just any old comment will do or you can make it about a Christmas favorite

-Blog about the giveaway

-Facebook about the giveaway

-Twitter about the giveaway

–Become a fan on Facebook HERE

–Follow on Twitter HERE

Please do leave a separate comment for each entry. Remember, I am a “write every entry down on a slip of paper” kind of person and separate comments makes it easier for me to keep up with.  Giveaway will end Wednesday, December 15th at midnight.  And all 3 winners will be announced Thursday morning. I asked Sara for any additional information she may want for me to add and here is what she said:

“I am still just a novice potter, no website or anything like that, I do it because I love it and love to bless others. I’ve actually never sold any of my pieces, I mainly give them away. I guess if anyone is interested they can send me an email at dazed4messiah@gmail.com Please have them put in the subject line: adoption ornaments so I know it’s not spam :).  As far as prices go I would say $12 for small and $15 for large plus shipping cost.”

So if you want to order some please contact Sara.  And Sara…thank you for being such a kind and sweet person.  Really!  You blessed our little family more than you will ever know.  Happy Sunday!

I have been making my way through my order list and finished up my last customer order this weekend.  I have several family and friend’s orders left to complete.  Family and friends know our lives and how crazy busy we are with three little ones ages 3 and under, so I pushed all of their orders to the end.  They all understand and live close so they have no problem being last in line 🙂  Plus they know where I live and can harass me for their orders and all is well.

So my last official order will be in the mail this week and is headed to Malisa in Georgia.  She wanted a special adoption piece for her little girl’s room.  I was so excited to make this piece because it was my first girly themed Africa piece.  Love how it turned.  Thanks so much Mailsa for your business.

Also made up lots of key fobs for some of my dear friends who wanted some gifts for co-workers.  Thanks Alissa and Courtney.

With having a little more free time it means I can work on things I have just been wanting to do.  Ideas I have had on my brain.  One of them was an art piece I wanted to make for my friend Courtney.  She absolutely loves cupcakes.  Seriously, she is a cupcake connoisseur.  Courtney mentioned to me that she would love a cupcake piece with the verse “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.”  Psalm 119:103  I loved it.  I loved the idea, the concept, the verse, the whole idea and it just stuck with me.  I finally had some time to put Courtney’s vision on a canvas and she loved it.

I also have had countless emails about turning key fobs into bracelets.  It was time to make that happen as well.  These will be available to order in January and will cost $12.  I really love how they turned out.  The phrase or word does need to be pretty short in length so that it will visible on the top of your wrist.  I used 2 rings at the end of each bracelet to allow for a secure fit.

Now for some cuteness.  My little nephew Jack’s 3rd birthday was yesterday and this past weekend we went to his firetruck themed birthday party.  It was too fun and the kids had a blast.  Can you tell?

I laughed out loud when I saw this picture loaded on my computer.  The boys don’t look too thrilled, but they had so much fun sporting their fireman hats and checking out the fire station.

They even got to try on the fireman’s helmet and sit in the drivers seat.

And Uncle Chris even rocked an entire fireman’s uniform including one of their big electric saws.  I think he had more fun that the kids did.  Happy birthday Jack Boy…we love you tons!

I sat down tonight and took a good look at our family calendar.  I will be re-opening for new orders starting on Monday, January 17th. This will give me enough time to finish up celebrating the holidays with my sweet little family, take a small weekend getaway with Josh and enough time to get Sol’s 2nd birthday party planned.  Cannot believe he is about to be 2!  Where has the time gone.  Happy Monday!