Archives for July 2011

Business First:  I am still working through my order list, but I am getting there…thank you so much for being so patient with me.

And this 11×14 canvas was ordered by Cheryl in Alabama.  She wanted a special gift for her husband’s new office and I was thrilled to work with her.  Thanks so much Cheryl and hope he loves it.

And today is Sol’s Gotcha Day.  I cannot believe he has already been home for 2 years.  In some ways it seems like yesterday and in others like a lifetime.  Oh man, I am just incredibly thankful for this kid!

I cannot imagine life without him.  When I was looking through the pictures of us in Ethiopia I was just overwhelmed with emotion and amazing memories.  “How blessed are we” was all I could think.

Seriously…How on Earth did God decide that He would bless us with this sweet child?  Why did He take a chance on us as Sol’s parents?  The only thing I can come up with is because God is good and loving and merciful and thought He’d give us a chance and I am beyond grateful that He did.

I love letting Sol see all these pictures as well.  Even as I type he is sitting in my lap repeating “That’s me momma” and asking “Why Huddy not with me?”  I love telling him about Ethiopia and all about that special time when he had all our attention…before we threw him into the wild Kelley household.

And OH.MY.WORD, what has happened to my sweet little Sol baby?  Where did all this time go?  I’m at a loss, but I can’t say I want to go back…with any of my kids.  I enjoyed my time when they were tiny, but I am in love with their growing personalities.  I find them completely amazing and I have the privilege to watch them grow and change and to pour into their little lives.  So I don’t want to go back…I would miss them too much.

So today we are celebrating that priceless day when we were blessed to be handed this incredibly, indescribably, awesome little boy.  I still remember the director in Ethiopia bringing Sol in completely dressed in girl clothing.  We all had a good laugh and then we soaked in that moment together as a travel group.  Those memories are simply priceless and if I haven’t said it enough…we are beyond blessed.  Love you tons sweet Solomon!

And it’s giveaway time:  Up for grabs is a custom digital art print and a custom key fob of your choice. 

I recently contacted Dana at Lifelines Designs and asked her to design a print for our house.  I knew the basic text I wanted, but of course, Dana delivered so much more and I.AM.IN.LOVE.  So check out my sweet 8×10 print:

Here are the great giveaway details…the winner can totally customize the print.  Yep…destination, countries highlighted and even the background color and color of the heart can be changed.  How fun!  The winner will receive the customized pdf in their email and can print as many copies as they would like.  And the key fob is totally customizable as well…your choice or fabric, text, applique…whatever you heart desires on a key fob.  Fun times.

***There are several ways to enter and please leave a separate comment for each entry***

-Leave a comment about someone who you are just crazy, blessed to have in your life

-Become a fan of Lifelines Desings on Facebook and leave a comment here saying you did so

-Share this giveaway on Twitter and leave a comment here saying you did so

-Share this giveaway on Facebook and leave a comment here saying you did so

-Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment here saying you did so

Giveaway will end this Wednesday night, July 13th, at midnight and I will post the winner on Thursday.  So excited and a BIG thanks to Dana for sharing with us.

And if you would like to win this 18×18 canvas, shipped straight to you, check out my PPA Facebook page and enter to win.  Celebrating 2,000+ fans and Sol’s Gotcha Day in a big way.

Lots of fun celebrating going on.  Happy Tuesday!

I am so excited to be back on my computer without the spinning rainbow of frustration.  Josh fixed my computer and I am just so excited!  Thank you Josh Kelley!  YAH!!  I felt like I was getting much better at posting pretty regularly and then BAM…computer crash.  I was without my computer for about a week, so now I am happy to be back on track.

In the true randomness style of this blog I present to you the following:

True, true love.  They are becoming quite inseparable.

My craft night with my Bible study has been cancelled two weeks in a row…so not cool.  So while Josh took Coop fishing, I had a little impromptu craft night with these cool kids, which included decorating hot rocks with crayons (see tutorial here) and Sweet CeCe’s.  They (and I) loved it.

I heard Huddy yelling over and over again, “Mom come look what I’m cooking.”  Expecting a plate full of plastic food, I was completely surprised to find an oven full of Sol instead.

We attended a super fun 40th birthday party last night for our friend Melody.  The party planners decided we should stock her wine rack.  Mine had to be classy…you know how I roll.

And today we went to check out our brand new local library.  It is absolutely amazing and they had all kinds of fun stuff for the kids today, including a balloon artist.

Josh and I have decided that hands down the most annoying balloon creation is the ginormous giraffe hat…on foot or in the car…especially with the windows down.

In crafty news, lots of new orders are on their way to their new homes.  This camera strap was ordered by Holly in North Carolina.  Totally love her fabric choices.  Thanks so much Holly.

These sweet Africa tees are headed to Jennifer in Kentucky, Rachel in South Dakota and Debb in Idaho.  Thanks so much ladies.

Jenifer in Tennessee needed a special girly pirate tee for her little girls birthday.  Love the piratey cuteness.  Thanks so much Jenifer and hope the party is amazing.

And lastly this 10×10 Love canvas and sweet China tee were ordered by April in Georgia.  She needed a special wedding gift and a special adoption gift.  Thanks again April and hope everyone loves their gifts.

In super crappy news, my trip to Swaziland has been cancelled.  To say I am completely and totally bummed would be an understatement…like comparably bummed to not getting our referral Friday.  I am having to let this go in a HUGE way…it wasn’t up to me or in my hands, so what more can I do.  Hoping and praying the trip will be rescheduled soon and I can finally get to Swaziland.  Having to realize God is in control way more than me and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Giveaway coming soon…sneak peek above.  Happy Saturday.

I have been out of the loop in a big way for several days now…my computer crashed.  Dun-dun!  This for me, was just about disastrous.  And not because I couldn’t get online or blog or respond to customers, but because I hadn’t backed up some really important things…like pivital things…like some crazy important adoption documents and some super, duper, really, really important pictures.  I was so ticked at myself, but the items were salvaged after Josh spent, oh, about 14 hours on Sunday trying to get them.  Our computer is still currently spinning that God-forsaken Mac rainbow wheel, but those crazy important things we did retrieve and now I have learned my lesson.  I do at least have a loner computer I can work on…thanks to my father-in-law.

I think I might buy a bumper sticker that says “Back That Thing Up”.  I feel that is appropriate now.

I did finish up a few more orders.  This first 8×10 canvas headed out this morning to Heather in Indiana.  This piece has become quite popular and I do really love it.  And I cannot say how awesome it is for others to like what you do as well.  Amazing.  Thanks so much Heather.

This 10×10 canvas was ordered by Laurie in Colorado.  Laurie wanted a sweet canvas for her little girls 4th birthday.  She chose a quote from one of their favorite bedtime stories.  How stinkin’ sweet is that?  Thank you so much Laurie and hope the birthday girl has a great birthday.

And this set of key fobs headed out to Vanessa in Texas.  Lots of great fabric choices and verses going on.  Thanks Vanessa..totally appreciate it.

We did have quite the crazy busy weekend.  Hope everyone enjoyed the 4th like we did.

 There was lots and lots of “swimming” going on, as always.

Sol has a new technique where he literally just flings himself over the side and into the water.  Harper and Huddy are always so impressed.

The kids totally loved all the fireworks going on everywhere.  I love Harper’s face as Josh lit the first firework on, ummm, July 2nd.  Yes, we are that family, but we only did it early, not late in the night…notice it’s still daylight 🙂

All the kids enjoyed sparklers.  Sol even almost gave Huddy a third degree burn on his forehead.

And we always laugh at Huddy…he is this brave, dare devilish child, but yet, still scared of cats.  Yes cats are his arch nemesis.  Turned around and saw his newest trick.  I was a little impressed.

And this was our 2nd annual Canoe Fireworks.  We actually enjoyed the big local fireworks in a canoe directly underneath these ginormous fireworks.  They were absolutely amazing…in my opinion, some of the best around.

Huddy, for some reason unknown to us, refused to watch the fireworks at first.  He wasn’t crying or upset, just refused to look at them.

Harper finally laid down the law with him and insisted that he must watch because she just saw a blue one (his favorite color).  He gave in and was hooked.

Sol actually fell asleep sitting up in the canoe during the grand finale.  Apparently fireworks so loud and powerful you feel them in your body, is a sweet lullaby to Sol.  He looked so out of it…it was quite humorous.

We shot a few more fireworks afterwards and then our night ended with some extremely tired kiddos.  But they really had such a great time.

And I have a few really fun giveaways coming up, including our 8 Months Waiting Art giveaway on the 16th (saying some prayers we don’t make it to this one 🙂  Before that I will have a 18×18 canvas giveaway on my PPA Facebook page to celebrate reaching 2,ooo fans.  I also have a great digital art giveaway lined up for your guys on my site and on my PPA Facebook page with Dana at Lifelines Designs.  You can find her Facebook page HERE.  You don’t want to miss any of them…so excited.  Happy Tuesday.