Christmas 2013

We survived another Christmas in the Sadler house!  Weeks NO - MONTHS of preparation and the day comes and goes so quickly!

 

Here's what our living room looked like after Santa Claus stopped by around 2:00am!

 

 

Here's Ryan before we started opening gifts.  Notice his Christmas T-shirt!

 

 

Here's a picture of Ryan with all the "loot"!  His smile seems a little bigger in this picture, doesn't it? Ha!

 

My favorite gift to receive is GIFT CARDS!!!!!

 

 

I love to be able to pick out something special myself - and all these gift cards will make that possible! - By the way, this isn't all of them - I opened more later in the afternoon!

 

 This is the only picture I snapped at our family Christmas dinner.  The picture wasn't all that great, so I made it into a snow globe to make it a little more interesting!

This is our "annual" Christmas photo.  I'm very happy how it turned out and think I'll use it on next year's Christmas Cards!

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy NEW YEARS!

 

 

Lisa 





It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

One . More . Day!!!

Then I'm off for the next SIXTEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BEST. GIFT. EVER.

 Here's how I've been spending most of my time:

I made 15 snowmen out of old fabric bolts - I think they turned out so adorable.  I also created some Santa Claus decorations from the fabric bolts! SO CUTE.

The snowmen will make a great gift for our neighbors who bring over gifts and for teacher friends!

The 3D Santa Candy Bar Wrappers are so cute too!

~ Be sure to click on the picture to make it larger ~ 

Each year Ryan receives a Christmas Ornament that represents an interest or event from that year.  This year's ornaments are: A Graduate and College Coed. 

 

To date, I have wrapped OVER 317 gifts!  They line the spare room at my brother's house - awaiting transport to their destination!  56 of the gifts are for students (cute Santa bags) - I share my day in two different second grade classrooms!

Shutterfly had a Christmas Card promotion - I took advantage of the promotion and ordered several different versions using the photo we had taken over the summer.

  

I love making homemade gifts for family and friends.  In addition to the snowmen and candy bar wrappers, I made Ryan a Marvel Comic Fleece Blanket and two sets of notecards featuring Star Wars and Superhero graphics.  I designed a Dunkin Donuts gift card for Bill and then created personalized notecards and/or notepads for many of the teachers.

Here are some more of my projects - - (More Shutterly Fun!).  I made some sympathy cards - unfortunately, I have had to buy way too many of these lately.

Then some "fun" Wizard of Oz" cards

 I made these gifts for my friend, Carolyn for Christmas.  The first is a journal with her kids pictures on the cover:

 and this mouse pad.  I took pictures of her family at the beginning of fall and used the photo I snapped on the Riverwalk. 

Since I didn't post in November - here's what we were up to last month!

Jacob turned 14!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE!



We celebrated Thanksgiving at my parents - I made this "turkey veggie tray" and 3D Turkey candy bar wrappers - These candy bar wrappers turn out so adorable!

  

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to stop by again soon to see our Christmas Celebration!



It's About Time For A Random Update

It's been awhile since I've updated.  School is back in session, and with my spare time going toward designing things for my TeachersPayTeachers products I've been busy.

 

Right before heading back to school, we decided it was time to replace some of our old cabinets in the garage.  The file cabinets were beginning to rust and were unsightly.......

Here are the new black storage cabinets.  We placed a gray runner in front of the cabinets for the finishing touch.

 

I was at Target and found this mirrored table on an end-cap.  Someone purchased it online and returned it.  Target marks items that are online only 50% off when they are returned - It looks perfect next to Bill's chair.  (There were actually two tables - I hope my mom likes it when she opens it up at Christmas!)

 

Unfortunately, someone tried to break into our home during the middle of the night.  I had just gone to bed around 1:15am and within minutes the alarm on the sliding glass door went on.  After calling the police, we found that they were already in pursuit of the suspects and had the K9 unit out.  After dusting for finger prints, we found the lock on the door was no longer working - so we needed to purchase a new door.  (Notice the blinds inside the glass)!

 

I've been busy designing gifts for Christmas - taking advantage of early deals. I made several of these tote bags for co-workers.

I then made 10 different "teacher stationary cards" for several of the teachers at school.  I liked them so much I had to make some for myself!

Then I designed a card for our family.

We celebrated my dad's birthday.  He turned 71 on October 11th!

 

I started ordering/designing our Christmas cards for this year.  There have been many offers and with the help of several emails and accounts - I came up with these four designs.

 

Ryan loves C.O.D. and continues to work at Jewel. If he's not working or going to school, you can find him playing video games, watching movies, or on the computer!

 

Happy Fall Y'all

 

Summer Happenings!

I forgot to mention in my previous post that Bill and I celebrated our anniversary on June 4th!

 

  TWENTY YEARS

 

 He knows me so well! He gave me a bunch of gift cards and cash so I can enjoy shopping this summer!

 

 

Ryan and I went to the zoo with my friend and her kids!  It was a beautiful day, until I received a phone call from my mom saying that my dad needed to go into the hopsital immediately.

He had a test done and the doctor called saying he needed to go to the hospital

because his heart rate was more than double what it should be!  So we

loaded up the car and headed back home to wait to see what

the plan was going to be.

 

 

 

A "simple" procedure of shocking his heart to try to get it back into sinus rhythm, took a turn for the worse, as he had difficulty waking from sedation - which was a sign that his heart was weaker than they had anticipated.  He was taken to CCU and ended up needing to stay for 4 days.

 

This is all he wanted - TO GO HOME!

A week later, my brother was working and attacked by a Pit Bull.  He needed 16 stitches!  Thankfully he was wearing a glove - because this could have been a lot worse without a glove on! 

 

 

Here's a picture of my parent's backyard.  My dad asked me to take some pictures while all the flowers are in bloom!

 

 

Ryan leaves for vacation with my brother, David this weekend!  Hoping they get good weather!

 

 

 

New Car and Father's Day Projects

Today is Father's Day!  Hopefully I'll have a few pictures to post after our get together.  I made some reusable totes as gift bags this year. 

 

This is the one I made for my dad.  Although we all pitched in for a recliner/rocker chair - I wanted something "special" - so I purchased a Blackhawks Stanley Cup Finals T-shirt to put inside.

This is Bill's tote (Notice the second jersey says SADLER and the year

 In other news......I bought a new car (new to me) It's a 2013 Chevy Impala in Silver Ice Metallic.  I purchased it on a whim - as I went to the dealership to pick up my brother and a couple

hours later drove off the lot with it.

Sure miss the Grand Prix - but it was time!

Ryan and I are sure enjoying the "freedom" that summer brings.  Sleeping in, no routine, shopping, visiting, shopping, shopping and shopping! I'm so grateful for all the gift cards I received from Bill for our anniversary and from the students this year!

Many Pictures from Graduation - Scholarship #2 - Projects for School

It's been an extremely busy month! Here is what we've been up to this month!

 

Ryan received his second scholarship.  His essay was one of the four chosen to receive the IPCA scholarship - which is my union.

 It was held at Carrabba's and the food was excellent!

 Once again, he was the only boy out of the four winners. 

 

 At the end of football season, the football team gifted me with a photo session for our family. (As I had taken pictures from the field for the past four years). I chose the following three poses:

 

 

Ryan graduated on May 26th!

These are the graduation announcements we ordered through the school

 

Getting ready to mail the announcements

 The inside envelope

 

There were over 600 graduates 

Ryan is about three quarters of the way back on the right side.  My mom, dad, brother, Bill and I are sitting in the lower right side of the picture not too far from the railing. 

Here is Ryan walking into the arena

It was extremely hard to get a good pictures from so far away!

Here he is getting his diploma.



 This is the professional picture we purchased. 

I'm outta here!

This picture appeared on the Daily Herald Website

I decorated the mailbox while Ryan was at work and he came home to this

 and this was hanging on the garage door when he pulled into the driveway!

(The balloon bouquet was given to him by the front end managers from work)

 

These flowers were delivered from Aunt Marge

GO GO MUSTANGS COLORS 

 Before we left for Northern Illinois University we took these pictures

 It took a few stores until I found clothes to match the colors of Ryan's cap and gown!

 Ryan with his best friend and our neighbor, Raymond

 Ryan received many generous gifts.  These were the gifts that Bill and I gave him.

We got him a new laptop, cash, and gift card.

(The teddy bear is dressed in a cap and gown and reads: Mustangs 2013" 

 The Diploma

 

Although Seniors have been out of school since May 23rd, I'm still working!  We had snow and flood days, so we don't get out until June 5th.

~~~~

I was asked to make something for the bus drivers for Bus Driver Appreciation Day.  I had the students from the three different buses sign these foam board cards.

 

 

I made these Tagxedo's (similar to Wordles) for some of the teachers/friends for an end-of-the-year gifts:

 I made some classroom signs too

(This is for a teacher who is getting married and will have a different room number due to a new last name)

I wrapped the framed art in these cute reusable bags 

I made matching cards

 

 and attached them with these matching butterflies - they turned out so cute.

 This is a personalized reusable bag for a teacher I check snacks for each morning.

 These are the gifts I'm giving the students.  It's pencils that say "Third Graders are #1" and some

Play Dough

 

Tomorrow is Field Day and the following day is assemblies and other events to wrap up the year!

I'm looking forward to having the next 2 1/2 months off!

Hope the weather gets better!