Goal Accomplished...AGAIN!

Today is an exciting day! I just received my issue of the Spring 2008 Just Cards magazine. My "Gone Fishing Birthday" card is on the cover (!!!!) AND I have 3 cards of mine total in this magazine! This is so exciting for me, as this is the first time I have actually seen my work in print. I know I have a card being published in another magazine in May, but I haven't received my copy of that magazine yet.



Here's the cover. My card is the bottom right one with the fish, fishing boat & fishing hat!




Pg 14 Daffodils



pg 72 Gone Fishing Birthday



pg 109 Thank you Rose (also seen on pg 105)



I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I HAD NO IDEA! I submitted these cards back in December. I thought they would contact me if they decided to use them! What a wonderful surprise today. I am so excited! I'm doing the happy dance!


I originally made these cards to sell at a craft show in December 2007. The weather was really bad the day of the show (our first snow storm of the season) so the show didn't do very well overall. I had so many cards left over that I decided to submit one of each design to this magazine. I still have many of these cards for sale if you are interested in purchasing them. You can see them here in my Etsy shop, or you can contact me here for more info.


Thanks for looking. I just had to share my excitement!
More house stuff tomorrow.

Smiles,
Jennifer

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Tile, Tile, and more tile!

Progress continues and decor decisions are underway! Today you will see the choices we have made for our floor tile throughout the house and shower tile in both of our full bathrooms. Also, our fireplace fits nicely into today's post as well.

This first picture is a close up of the floor tile design that we have throughout our house--the garage door foyer, kitchen, front door foyer, and in the hallway to our bedrooms, & into the full bathroom at the end of the hallway. I love this tile! The mix of colors is beautiful! This picture doesn't even do it justice--the color is better represented in the next picture.

A hallway picture! To the right is just plywood--that will be the family room carpet area. The office/den is to the left, the large open doorway. We have French doors there.

Here is the tile in our Master bathroom. It is different hues of gray and brown. My husband likes grays, blacks, & whites, so I let him pick out the colors for our bedroom. The walls in the master bathroom are a light gray and we have an oak vanity/cabinet in our bathroom, so this picks up the colors of the tile nicely.

Here's the Master Shower. The wall tiles are a creamy gray toned off white & gray design. Shower doors have not yet been installed in this picture.

This is the full bathroom shower. It is the same design as the master shower, but the tile is a creamy white & beige/brown design rather than gray.

Yes, tile even on our fireplace! Please excuse the dust on the vents. If you look close you can see designs on the wood area. Once it gets painted they stand out a lot better. Boy, does this baby kick out some heat!

Hope you're still enjoying the pictures of our house--Let me know what you think! Over the weekend I'll post all about the cabinetry in our house including the transition of the kitchen! Hope you'll check back soon to see more!

Smiles,

Jennifer

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Inside Development!

With today's post, I'm showing the beginning stages of development of the inside of our house. From drywall down to decoration: floor tile, shower tile, cabinets, counter tops, & paint! It's all coming next--today and over the next few posts!

OK, Drywall first!

Today's first 2 pictures are of the living room/kitchen. Remember, this is all one big room. You can see the fireplace (covered with cardboard to protect it from the drywall stuff), our big picture window to the right of the firplace, and the hallway to the bedrooms on the left. Straight through this hallway is our Full bathroom.

This second picture is just the other side of the picture above. This is our kitchen. This is a better picture of the nook area where the doorwall is (to the left).

Here is one of our spare bedrooms. We have 2 of them & they are set up just reverse of each other.

Here is our Master bedroom. Not sure what the ceiling is called specifically, but it like a tri level ceiling. On the far right wall is the entrace to our Master batheroom, & the doorway at hte front of the picture on the right is our walk-in closet.

This is the shower in our Master bathroom. Gotta love that little seat!

Here's the finished outside front view of our house. Bricking is done, Front door is in (not yet painted) garage doors in place, and house number block on front of garage. Still no porch, & still a muddy drive way!

Stay tuned for tomorrow--tile, tile, and more tile!

Thanks for visiting!

Smiles,

Jennifer

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Making Progress!

Well, as promised, here are the pictures of the bricks, front door & a few from the inside! The dates for this group of pictures is from Nov. 10th 2007 to Dec. 27th 2007. Unfortunatly, I don't have as many pics of the inside as I would have liked for today. Up to this point all the inside pics are just beams of lumbar, & look like 'nothing' in the full room shots. My husband bought me a new digital camera for Christmas, so all of the better pictures are on that camera. I guess I'll have to upload those & include them in my next post.





This first picture is of the framed fireplace. It sits right in the corner of our living room. You can see part our big picture window to the right. The Nature Conservation (Our Backyard!) is about 50 feet from this window. Behind the fireplace to the left is another small window. That is in our Master bedroom Bathroom.

Here you can see all of the packed insulation in our kitchen. The window cut off the the left is our Bay/Nook, where the doorwall is. The doorway to the right is the entryway from the garage foyer into the kitchen. And the small window to the right is in our half bathroom. To get you orientated with the layout and the picture above, imagine this picture as a clock. The fireplace from above would be in the 7-8 position. The backyard at the 9 position. Yes, our kitchen & living room is one big open area. (Just wait till you see it with the cupboards in! I love it!)

Our Beautiful Front Door! I just love the decorative side glass panels. Opaque enough to let the light in, but you can't see the inside through them. Now, you can see our chandelier from that top window. I'll have to get a pic of that for a later post! (Yes, you guessed it--here the porch is missing!)

Finally the bricking starts! This is what really turned it to a "house" for me. I could really see it all coming together in my mind. Not quite sure why, but the bricks in this pic look more red than they really are. It is more like variations of light & dark beige/khaki/toupe colors. Poor little mason guy, freezing his butt off laying our bricks! :-)
Another view of the front of the house. Here we have a roof with shingles and gutters.
Here is a close up of the brick work, and a truer representation of the color. This is the peak at the front of the garage that can be seen from the front.


Almost finished with the brick work. Now it's really a house! This is about the halfway mark--3 more months to go!

More pics coming soon! My upcoming posts will include drywall pictures, so you'll get a better idea of each room, and then it comes down to decoration: floor tile, shower tile, cabinets, counter tops, & paint!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Smiles,

Jennifer

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Step By Step

Building our new house! The progress continues, step by step, frame by frame, day by day! The pictures in today's post range from October 23, 2007 to November 3, 2007. There are lots of pictures today. Enjoy!

This first picture is the framing of our 3 car side-turned garage.

Framing rest of house, front view

Roof rafters in place. View from back of the house.

Windows are in! Complete front view of our house.

From the pictures I posted yesterday, you can see the beautiful Nature Conservation that is behind our lot. Well, we knew it was too good to be true for very long. Since we've moved in, the city has been chopping down trees, supposedly for farming. Here are some pictures taken yesterday of the thinned out Nature Conservation & the wild turkeys that came to visit! These are the same group of turkeys in each picture. I tried to get good pictures of all of them. There are 5 or 6 of them total. We don't have grass yet--our yard is all mud, so the grass you see in these pictures are our neighbors yards. Look at the picture of the very large male turkey. His feathers are all spread out, and he looks like a real Thanksgiving turkey! I wish he was on our side of the fence. What a picture that would have been! My husband said since mating season is approaching, he's trying to impress all of the other 5 female turkeys. Boy, is he gonna be busy! :-)

And this is "Stewy". The possum that comes to visit almost everyday around 5pm. My husband named him after 'possum stew.' We buy reduced produce at the nearby fruit market to feed him. It's so nice to see the animals back there. After all they are doing to create the farming land, I hope they stay.

Thanks for letting me share my story with you. It's fun to know that people are interested in reading about it just as much as we were excited about it during the building process. Stay tuned for more pictures tomorrow: bricking, the front door, and the inside!

Smiles,

Jennifer

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From House to Home

Well, after 2 weeks my Husband & I are finally pretty much settled into our new home. With all of the talking I've been doing about being so excited to move, I've finally had a chance to go through some pictures and to post them here for you all to see. I'll post a few pictures everyday & tell you a little about each one. We could consider this a digital scrapbook! This will give me some extra time to get my craft room developed. We all need a space to let the creativity flow, otherwise there will not be any creative happenings for me to share with you!




Just for a little background info, my Husband and I bought property last May. We worked all summer with an architect, who helped design our house just the way we wanted it. Finally, the contractors began digging our basement on September 11th, 2007. Our move in date was March 10th, 2008. I just think it is so ironic that practically 6 months to the day we moved in!




Here's our property the day we bought it. Gotta love all those trees!





















Digging the basement.

















The completed basement.


Main floor complete, rough carpentry has started.

My goal is to post a little bit of the house progress everyday. This will help me to focus on my real scrapbook as well. I hope you will visit everyday to read my story. Stay tuned...more pictures tomorrow!


Smiles,
Jennifer

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Welcome to the Blog World!

Blogging! What a weird word! It took me a long time to understand what a Blog was and why people do it. After checking out a few of the blog links on my favorite websites I quickly learned what "Blogging" was all about. Now, everyone is doing it and I no longer want to feel left out! I've created my blog to share my life and love of paper crafts with others. You will read bits and pieces of my life and be able to see my paper craft creations. I'm currently addicted to Scrapbooking and creating greeting cards, and in my free time these 2 crafts have become "habits"! I just can't get enough.



I've been making greeting cards for about 4 years now, but only started Scrapbooking about 9 months ago, when my Husband & I bought property last May to build our dream house. I've been scraping the progress ever since and we just moved in 2 weeks ago! More importantly however, over the last year a goal of mine was to get my greeting cards published in a card making idea magazine. After many submissions, I finally achieved this goal with an email from the editor of CARDS Magazine! I have a Birthday card published in their May 2008 issue! You can see the magazine here.



Thank you for welcoming me to the Blogging world! I look forward to sharing my Ink N' Scrap Habits with you. Please stay tuned for pictures and more details of my current projects as I develop my blog!

Smiles,
Jennifer

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