Free shipping on all Stampin'Up! products from April 6-10

Hello friends! Hope you had a nice weekend! What better way to start of the week than a free shipping perk from Stampin'Up! Have you been eyeing some goodies from the Occasions catalog?  Well, I would say that now is a great time to get it!  Plus, with no minimum order for this Free Shipping Deal, it doesn't matter if you get one thing or get a bunch, shipping is on the house!

A quick recap from our weekend - we had a very nice Easter at the Diehl house!  Little man painted eggs for the first time.  I loved watching his reaction as he turned each white egg into a colorful masterpiece. His expressions were truly priceless.

How about you all? Hope you had a wonderful weekend. Would love to hear from you! Sending you all Easter blessings from our little family.

Thanks for visiting today. Catch up with you all soon. Bye for now!

A Holly Jolly Christmas to you all!

Hello there, blog friends! I just wanted to pop in and wish you all a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours.  May you enjoy the time with your loved ones this holiday season.  Virtual hugs to you all!

Happy Thanksgiving with a couple #tbt's

Happy Thanksgiving to you all, dear blog friends!  

As I'm sure many of you are in the midst of turkey day prep and/or festivities, I'll keep this short and sweet with a couple of flashbacks from Turkey Day's past...

Hard to believe that little man's first Thanksgiving was 3 years ago already!  

Here's a place setting from a few years back...

And our table.  

I'm now still in the midst of our turkey day prep myself, so I'll say bye for now and best wishes to you all for a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy September!

Hi all! Can you believe it's already September?!  Things have been pretty hectic on the home and work front for me, but in a good way.  Alas, my blog suffered as a result.  Lots of stuff going on at the Diehl household.  For the last month or so, it's been a combination of home improvement projects and general work business.  But, August was also a momentous month for our little man.  He started Pre-School!  Time has been going by quickly here, so while it may have seemed quite here on my blog, it has been quite a busy time in the background.

Now, let me share a few things:

First of all, one of the home improvements that has been a work in progress has been my craft studio. Here's a glimpse of my new storage holders from Stamp-n-Storage - I love the stamp pad holder and my new punch holder, too! They fit the Stampin' Up! stamp pads and punches perfectly.

Here's a look at the full wall:

The room just got a fresh coat of paint, too! It went from an egg shell color to this new Lemon Sorbet color, which I just love!

Here's a closer look at my framelits and embossing folder holders, too.  LOVE these!

I'm so pleased with how my stamp room is coming along.  But I'm going to have to leave you hanging for the rest.  It's still a work in progress, so stay tuned!  I'll share the rest when it's ready for showtime! :)

In the meantime, here's my little guy on his first day of school:

This is a picture of a happy moment.  He was not the biggest fan leading up to this, but as you can see behind him, he found a new fun toy....numbers and pegs that he put together, in order, from 1-10!  This is his cute little proud face.  I love him!

And lastly, here's a pic from our weekend at the beach...such a beautiful way to spend Labor Day!
The weather was gorgeous and the day was fabulous!

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend.  I'm looking forward to reconnecting with you all this month and share more of the goings on in my life and of course, more crafting, which just has a way of sprinkling a little bit of happiness on everything ;)

Have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Outdoor photo shoot!

Happy weekend blog friends! Today is such a beautiful day in Southern California that I decided to do an outdoor photo shoot of my cards. :)  These are the cards from a stamp party I did last weekend.  Simple, quick, and so easy peasy!

For this Make a Wish card, I used the Happenings Simply Created card kit for the card base and then created my tag with Scallop Tag Topper Punch. This card comes together really quick with just a couple of embellies to add a touch of pizzazz.

For the Happy Birthday card, I used the super cute Banner punch, and then added a small strip of Pool Party card stock that I embossed using the Decorative Dots embossing folder - both of which are products you can earn for free during Sale-a-bration {going on now til March 31st!}! Hope you like the the cards.

Last but not least, here's a pic of my cute little helper! He's growing up so fast and starting to talk up a storm.  We had a great time in the backyard today.  Note - no cards were harmed in this photo shoot. :)

Thanks for stopping in!  Have a great weekend.

Halloween Greetings

Halloween spooks to you, dear blog friends!  Hope you had a fantastic Halloween!  This is a pic from our evening's festivities.  It was lots of fun!  Let's just say, my little owl had a HOOT! :)

Have a great night!  Bye for now.

Happy Father's Day!

Hello my dear bloggie friends!  I just wanted to pop in real quick to wish all of the Fathers out there a very Happy Father's Day!  Here are my two handsomes - aren't they they cutest!

I'll be back later with a few posts, but in the meantime, enjoy your day with the special dads in your lives!

St Paddy's Day and some MDS fun

Hello there blog friends!  Hope you guys had a nice St Patrick's Day!  It also coincides with my mom's birthday, so we got to spend some time with her today, too.  Here are a couple of pics from our St. Paddy's day that I thought I'd share.  I had fun putting this layout together in MDS.  I used the Downtown Grunge and the 2012 Modern Prints Paper.  It really is so much fun tinkering with the layout.  I know this is a pretty basic one, but fun nonetheless!  I started with an 8 1/2" x 11 page layout, but cropped this to a 5x7 print size so I can put it in a frame. 

I was on a roll, so I created the layout below, too, using the On the Go digital papers and embellishments.  So cute!  I have been wanting to use this digital paper with this particular picture because it totally matches my little man's shirt!  Here's the look at the 5x7 page, which I also want to put in a frame...or maybe I'll make an album.  We'll see, but I'll be prepared with a hard copy of it either way :)

So, there you have it!  I am totally loving MDS.  The cool thing is, if you want to check it out, you can do a 30 day trial for free!  I think it's a pretty awesome offer, but you should definitely see for yourself if it's worth it for you.  You can check out the deets and download the software here.

Well, my dear friends, it's WAY past my bedtime, so I'm gonna say bye for now.  Hope you guys have a great rest of your weekend!  Since it's a rainy weekend here in Southern California, I may get to do more digital crafting or stamping afterall, so stay tuned!

Happy New Year, dear bloggie friends!

Hello there!  How are you guys?  Hope you had a nice time over the holidays.  It always seems to go by so quickly.  So much so, that I didn't really get a chance to post very often to the good ol' bloggie blog.  Nevertheless, this was an especially memorable holiday season with Denver.  The entire family had lots of fun doting on him.  It's a lot of fun seeing Christmas through a child's eye!

Then, after the holidays, it was time for some much needed {early} Spring Cleaning at the Diehl house.  Is it just our household, or do you guys accumulate a bunch of stuff, too?  It's incredible how instantly things can pile up!!  Now, this might be a good segway for me to share some of my New Year's Resolutions with you {as it primarily involves me managing my piles - heehee}.

1.  I resolve to keep my house and my crafting studio neat.
2.  I resolve to work out, eat well, and stay fit {this is an annual resolution!}.
3.  I resolve to make sure I keep a good family/work/crafting balance in my life.

Those are the top 3.  I figure if the list gets too long, then nothing gets done, so I am going to focus on these. Wrapped into #3 is figuring out how to manage my time with crafting and this good ol' blog, so I appreciate you all hanging in.  I have so much crafting energy stored up, it's just a matter of time for me to find a way to share it with you all!

Now enough about me. What about you all?  I would love to hear about your New Year's resolutions!  Feel free to share if you'd like.

Hope you all have a great first week in 2012 and I'll catch up with you guys soon!  Bye for now.

{Merry Christmas!} to you

Hi there blog friends!  I wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas from our home to yours.  Hope you enjoy spending time with family, friends and loved ones over the holiday season!  Also wanted to share our Christmas photo this year.  I have succumbed to going digital, but I am such a big fan of MDS, I had lots of fun making this card of my little Santa Baby :)

Holly Jolly Christmas to you all!

from our home to yours...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a touch of some papercrafts this year with our napkin ring/ place settings...

May you all have a wonderful day with your friends and family.  Wish you a day filled with thanks and gratitude.  We have so many things to be thankful for, especially for our sweet little blessing!

Have a wonderful Turkey day!

I {heart} sweet potatoes!

Hello blog friends!  How are you all?  Getting ready for Thanksgiving?  I know it's been a while since my last post.  Thanks for hanging in :)  Theres lots of stuff going on as usual, but I wanted to share the latest developments with our little boo!  He's already 5 1/2 months old...where does the time go?  Well, I am excited to share that he has made his foray into solids.  First, the rice cereal.  Then came the sweet potatoes.  It was fun watching his reaction to new flavors :)  At first he was tentative, but after a few spoonfuls, he went to town.  What's not to like?  It's SWEET potatoes afterall ;)  Next flavor of the week - squash...just in time for Thanksgiving. 

I had fun making the layout using My Digital Studio {MDS}.  The layout above uses the Noteworthy paper, and the Pennant and Circle punch.  Digital scrapbooking is really starting to get addictive!  What I love about it is that I just took these pictures last week, downloaded them and then was inspired to make a layout.  I think I do love the convenience factor - all my supplies in one spot.  In my computer.  And, the best part?  No cleanup!  Just save the files and viola - I'm done.  Heehee.  I say that as my stamp room sits in dire need of a reorganization and heavy duty picking up.  That's one of my projects for the weekend!

How about you all?  What are your plans for Thanksgiving?  Well, I will be back with a post shortly for this month's Final Friday Giveaway AND a bonus giveaway for surpassing my 250,000 hits!! Woot woot!

Hope you guys enjoy your weekend.  Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Digital Scrapbook day and {free} digital downloads!

Hi there bloggie peeps!  I am finally over my cold and feeling much better.  Hard to believe we're already into November though...yikes!! I need to get started on my Christmas cards!!  Have you guys started?  Well, I guess that's really a topic for a separate post altogether.  Today, I've got some fun news to share!  Since tomorrow is Digital Scrapbooking Day,Stampin'Up! is making a big to-do about it by giving away some free digital downloads starting today, November 4th through November 7th!  Isn't that cool?  I have to say, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the images and layouts in this free offering.  Head on over to MyDigitalStudio.net to check them out and download.  They are free for ANYONE and EVERYONE!! You don't need to have My Digital Studio to use the downloads..  You can use them with any of your digital applications {so AWESOME!}.  Here's the link to all the deets.  It's definitely worth the while to take a peek! 

Just to share a sneak...Here's a digital card I created using one of the free layouts. It was originally a "Home For The Holidays" layout, but I changed it up a tad to be more harvest/Thanksgiving-y to match the photos I wanted to use.  I've used a few of the pics in other layouts that you may recognize, but some are new, too.  The sentiment I used is one of the freebies from the stamp brush set - I love the font!:

What do you think?  I really am enjoying the digital scrapbooking.  My little boo boo has inspired me to capture and remember all those precious every day moments in life.  It's truly amazing.  Pictures are such dear snapshots of life unfolding before your very eyes.  I think becoming a mom has given me a whole new perspective.  It has reaquainted me with the innocence and sweetness of youth, which I am greeted with everyday seeing my sunshine's smile.  Now, I see the pull of scrapbooking.  Taking pictures and capturing the emotions of the moment is addicting!  Ahh, but as usual - my enemy is time and trying to find enough of it to enjoy life AND chronicle it, too.  There's the rub.  I think you'll probably see more of the digital scrapbooking on the bloggie blog, woven in with posts of my cards and papercrafting.  Afterall, this is Rose's World, and it's continually evolving and starting to "revolve" around the little guy.  Stay tuned.

That said, I've got some stamping, crafting, and some "me" time ahead of me this weekend!  I'm going to Sandy Hancock's Demonstrator meeting tomorrow, and I'm excited about it.  I have a feeling I'll have lots crafty inspirations to post about in the coming weeks!

Well, my friends, that's it from me for now.  Hope you guys have a great weekend!  I'll catch up with you guys in a bit!

Happy Halloween from the King of the Jungle

Hi all!  Happy Halloween to you!  Our little lion will be celebrating his first Halloween!! Being sick the last few days has kind of impeded my grand plans of making a lot of Halloween cards, but I managed to put this together using MDS.  So fun!

Have a great one!  I'll catch up with you guys soon...

a trip to the {Pumpkin Patch!}

 Hey there bloggie friends! Just wanted to share some pics from today - we went to the pumpkin patch with Denver and had so much fun! He was being so cute, too!

Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!

Paper Parade Sneak Peek!

Hi there!  I'm back with a quick post of my project for UStamp with Dawn and Friends Paper Parade!  My project showcases a Mini Baby Album of my adorable little guy and a matching card using the Party Animal Simply Scrappin Kit.  The colors of the kit are so adorable and the cute embellies made assembling the album a breeze.  Here's a peek at a couple of the page layouts...

There are so many INCREDIBLE projects in the Paper Parade series - truly a wide array of crafts for lots of different occasions {holidays, showers, wedding, babies, to name a few!}.  Plus, you'll get detailed instructions and pictures with every project along with a complete supply list.  If you haven't checked out UStamp With Dawn and Friends, it's definitely worthwhile to subscribe!

quick {snapshots} of a delightful shower!

Hi all!  As many of you know, I'm not a scrapbook gal by nature, so any scrapbooking endeavor is quite a feat on my part!!  With that said, here's a page I put together with just a few snaps from Denver's Welcome shower that my dear cousin and friends threw last weekend.  It was so much fun!  I am so grateful to be surrounded by such awesome family and friends :) 

These 4 photos don't do it justice, but all the details and decorations were absolutely impeccable and the time spent with family and friends was priceless.  It was a lovely day!  Michael and I are so blessed to have our little Denver.  I am so in love with my family unit.  There we are in the last picture on the right.  I {heart} my sweet boys : )

Hope you all have a fantastic Labor Day weekend!

11 years ago today...

I married this handsome man, who also happens to be the love of my life.  This was our engagement photo, which was taken on a beach in Malibu, not too far from where we actually got engaged.  It feels like it was just yesterday.  My, how time does fly when you're having fun!

Happy Anniversary, dear husband.

Thanks, dear blog friends, for visiting today.  If you're reading this, in the spirit of our anniversary, tell someone that's important to you how much you love them :)  Let's pay it forward.

Have a fabulous day! :)

Fox and Friends Thank You

Hey blog friends!  Happy July and Happy belated Independence Day! I know it's been a long time since I've last posted, but Denver has kept me and the hubs pretty busy behind the scenes!  We are really enjoying him and can't help but revel in all the new developments that we see every day in our darling little boy!  It's incredible to me that he'll already be a month old tomorrow!!  I truly can't believe how fast time flies!  I know many of you have told me, and I am in fact witnessing it to be all too true.

Believe it or not though, I have a card share today!  It's actually the thank you card I made (and continue to make..heehee) for Denver's Thank Yous.  I love the Fox and Friends set - especially with the tie in to our safari trip, too...I just love the adorable animals and I thought they would be great for these cards. Here's a closer look:

I've also been having fun dabbling with MDS - here's a few simple things I've created:

a little page commemorating my birthday this year with a family photo!

I also made another version of Denver's announcement from the hospital photos we got:

and here's the back side:

Hope you enjoyed these!  Bye for now :)

Happy Father's Day!

Hi dear blog friends!  How are you guys?  I wanted to do a quick post to wish all the DADS out there a very Happy Father's Day.  I also especially wanted to wish my hubs a wonderful and happy FIRST Father's Day!  Here's a card that he's getting from Denver ;)

On a separate note, I also wanted to say thanks so much for all the sweet heartfelt comments and warm wishes I got from my last post!  We are so excited and truly feel so blessed!  We're starting to get into a routine, so once we're settled in a bit more, I'll share more about the goings on in our current world ;)

Toodles for now.  Have a great one!