So happy with this one!

Please know that I am very aware that I am NO super card maker yet :). I am learning a TON as I do this. So PLEASE forgive me if I am being "braggy," but I was so happy with these little notecards, and I was thrilled that I got a decent picture. I wanted to show it off!

These are thank you cards; here is a close-up of one.

And these are going to be given away on my Facebook fan page. :) I really loved the colors of this paper- blues are my favorite color! Plus, I love snowmen in case you didn't already figure that out. :)

So anywhooo, HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, BekaBoo :)

aaahhhh, that's nice

I am so enjoying this break away from "reality." Last night, I slept in the recliner since my back has been bothering me again, but Barbara and Matthew slept downstairs with me- a little campout! :) That made my night!!!! We slept in this morning- so nice! Just one of the perks of having older kids/teenagers/working young adults!

Robert, as always, wanted to go somewhere- we tease him, but he seriously has some ADHD-ish traits! So he, Barbara, and I went out. I spent my Michael's gift card (thanks Brooks family!!!), then we hit Petsmart and Hobby Lobby- paper, stamps, and ribbon were ALL 50% off! WooHoo!!!

I came home and cleaned out my ribbons and put them in the new basket I bought today and then made some cards this afternoon. I bought some pretty Christmas paper and made a couple sets of small cards and put them away for next year. I am hoping to try participating in some craft bazaars, sales, etc. this next year, and I need to make things ahead of time and get my stock built up quite a bit. I have a bunch of paper cut and ready for tomorrow- birthday cards, snowflake cards, and sympathy cards.

This evening found me taking Matthew to his friend's house to hang out/spend the night. They live on the far side of Winston- about 35 minutes from here, so I had a nice ride.

I still have two bags full of papers to grade- yuck!, paperwork to take to school tomorrow- I need a signature for grad school, guided reading books to fold and staple for next week, bills to pay, and some other paperwork to do for home. Break is going fast. I am going to hate going back, but I am thankful for the time off to rest and be with the ones I love!

Prayers...

I had planned to come home from school, cook dinner, eat, start grading the HUGE pile of papers from the last week that I didn't get graded over the weekend or entered into my grade book. Then I was going to start making Christmas cards for my family back home and something little for my third grade team.

Instead I came home and made condolences cards for a coworker's family as one of our teachers died today very suddenly. Not the way I wanted to learn to make these kinds of cards.

I don't know why I'm even posting them, but thought I would.

creating

baby shower cards

I finally finished all the cards for my sister's baby shower next week. I had to wait to share them for a while so people could receive them, but now I can finally share. I just wish I could go home to be there for the fun.

I'm lovin' it! :)

I don't put too many photos of my cards on here because I have a blog for the card making business, and because I am nowhere nearly as good as Rachael who visits here sometimes! But I LOVED these and wanted to share them. They turned out really nice. The best thing about them was that I got this stamp & the little paper clips at Dollar Tree! Pretty cool! I haven't made myself any cards yet- just for others and to sell, but I think I might have to make some more of these. :)

Business Adventures...

About a year ago, I started trying to make cards to sell. Our hope was that I could do something that I like doing, learn to do it better, and make a little profit while doing it to help us financially (eventually). Rob has been super supportive of this adventure.

So one year later, I can see a lot of improvement in what I am making from where I was last year!!! And I have a decent amount of sales under my belt for something that is so start-up and not my first job. I also continue to set goals for myself- learn something new (techniques, tools, ideas) each month, slowly purchase stamps and tools, read & research new ideas & learn from other card makers, and learning how to grow a business... So today I am stepping out a little more and taking another step in trying to grow my business. I am hosting my first giveaway on Facebook. I created a "fan page" and am doing a drawing for a small set of notecards & mini notepads. The cards are cute & colorful! I would love it if you'd pop in on me and see them and enter if you'd like to. I'd love to have you in my Facebook "friends" list. If you feel comfortable with it, please help me spread the word. I really want to help our family financially, and need to start taking this up a notch to do so.

Thanks a bunch! Happy Sunday to you all! my BekaBoo Creations blog (my Facebook fan page is linked at the top of my blog site)

My young people are home!

It's Sunday night, and the kids just got home from their youth group beach trip. I made it through the long weekend. I had time with Rob yesterday before he went to work, and we had a wonderful day together today- a quiet day. :) That quiet is now gone with three young adult people home, but I'm okay with that. The dog & cat are happy to see the kids too, and Rob and I have been listening to them all talk about Myrtle Beach. :) The day is coming soon when they'll be gone, but I'm not ready for it yet.

Thanks Momma for texting me and calling me and helping me understand that there is life after children & that those feelings are normal. :)

I made cards :), did grad school homework, watched a couple movies on Netflix, did laundry & hung it up outside (love to do that!), cooked myself something yummy, ate pico de gallo. Rob found a show on Netflix that we LOVE; it is an old BBC show, "As Time Goes By." We have been watching episodes today while we did work. Really enjoying it!

Have a great week!!!

My pretty coneflower was being enjoyed by the bees as well.

Rach, I figured out something to make those cards look better; they were too plain. I am much happier with these now.

This one is my favorite- I love that verse!!!

Weekend Alone

My kids left today for Myrtle Beach with Robert's church youth group (Robert's 2nd family). They are all our kids' youth leader, and I could go on & on about the three leaders and their love for our children. They were a God-send to us here in N.C. - truly the only church family we have here. I am so thankful for them!!!

Rob is still in school through part of next week and working this home stretch at the ballpark, plus he has a band gig this weekend, so I will be spending most of the next days alone. This will be the longest stretch of my life that I've ever been without family (except for Girl Scout camp that one year). I clung to Momma after Daddy died, and I got married at 17 and started our family at 19. The kids have never all three been gone for this long at the same time, and Rob & I have never gone on vacation or left them anywhere more than a night with my parents.

I am a family person, so I don't really like this much, but perhaps it will be good for me to "practice" being post-kids as that day is looming in the near future. So while I am practicing how to function without my children :), here are my plans:

• relax a bit (watch a movie or two, read, sleep in a little if my body will let me)
• do my homework for Monday's class- a MUST
• make cards (This is one I made up with Rob's help to draw a template. It's kind of simple, but hopefully people will like it. It flips open on the side for more writing space.)



• cook something that I want- now to figure out what that is :) (I did make myself a huge bowl of pico de gallo this afternoon and have been eating it tonight! YUM!)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! What do you have planned?

BekaBoo :)

busy week ahead :)

Yum, yum. I am enjoying some clam chowder in a bread bowl! So delicious, especially with this horrible cold I have! It's going to be a crazy busy couple of weeks, and though I am super sick I am going to fight this bug to "the death" of it so I can be ready for my cousin's visit in TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!! My cousin, Regina, is coming to see us, and she is bringing her two youngest kids (Bella and Sarah). I could not be MORE EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!

I have grad class this next weekend, so this week is the last week to get the huge-mongous list of readings, assignments, and projects done. I've kept a good pace these past weeks and am well on my way to being ready- I "just" have to finish my clinical interview paper (at 13 pages now!) and read a book on assessment (oy!) with only five days left.

I start 3rd quarter assessments tomorrow too. Praying God blesses me and gives me some good news in that realm so I can bless families with good news on report cards this quarter! I've been working my fanny off with the help of my new t.a. (God bless that woman for all the blessing she has been to my kids and me!!!!), and I am hopeful that our hard work will produce some good results on our tests.

I've got a card order to fill and am finishing two card sets for my church's ladies retreat and for an old high school classmate's church's silent auction. I want to finish those tomorrow night and get them ready and out the door on Tuesday morning! I get to use my new BekaBooCreations stamp on them- YEAH!!! It's so pretty! :)

Sometime soon, I MUST find time to do our taxes. Praying about that too. God knows what we need, more than I do, so I'm trusting He will provide all we need.

Well, I hope you all have a TERRIFIC week! Hope to have time to write again soon, but it might be a few days.

Until then, love,
Rebekah/BekaBoo :)

busy

life is crazy busy but work is getting better thanks to some major answered prayers!!!

THANK YOU GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i am making monogrammed note card sets. these are two sets i made for a coworker and my momma :). hope you all have a terrific end to your workweek!

busy, busy, busy

whew, i'm tired, and i still have a lot to do before bed! just popping by to say hello. i am still feeling run down and feverish and achy. :( but the good news is i made it through the day, got a lot accomplished at school and here at home. after driving from work to pick up barbara at the college, then to winston to get matthew, then home to pick up robert and then dropping the two olders at work, i came home and matthew and i fixed dinner. yum, yum!!!!

i worked on card projects while dinner was cooking and just finished up several small sets and even posted them to my store. i'm trying my hand at making cupcake decorations, waiting for them to dry- not sure if they'll turn out... hmmm..... hoping to work later this week on some monogrammed note cards and invitations that i could post and sell...

am working like a crazy woman at school on getting ALL of the assessments completed this week with the kids. i promised them if they helped me get them done we'd celebrate with ice cream on friday.

okay, i better get going. need to get tutoring stuff ready, look over the assessments from today and get to bed. i hope these chills go away. i wore my jacket all day in class today and i NEVER do that- i'm sure i looked a little silly...

big ideas...

i've been working hard on break (don't worry family, it's been a great, relaxing, fun, creative kind of working hard). :) i've been creating lots of card sets for my site and have made a bunch of winter/snowman/snowflake cards as well as valentine's sets... then this week i did a lot of business research, found some sites where i can order supplies in bulk and save money, made my first bulk order of adhesive (next month envelopes, then in march i will start ordering cardstock online), bought my 1st really bigger price/size piece of equipment, and found a couple new projects to try to teach myself. so yesterday i tried something new and have made (and already sold!!!) these cute boxes with little note cards in them...

started thinking hard about an idea that was suggested to me a while back by a friend of my momma's and ran it by a few people today, and just keep thinking and thinking and thinking. my sister gave me a TON (literally) of feedback on the questions i sent her and took my simple idea and stretched it out to be even way cooler and better...

so here's the deal. i'm TERRIFIED and EXCITED and NERVOUS and EXCITED all at the same time. i know i am not as talented as so many other people out there- i have always wanted to scrapbook but have not been successful in actually doing it. i have only been making cards for a few months, and when i look at other's cards online they are so much more detailed and in-depth and beautiful than mine- i keep mine simpler out of lack of funds on my part and because i'm also trying to start turning a profit eventually... i feel a little like it might be conceited to think i could start a business when i've not been doing this for very long. i am afraid i will look silly to myself, to others who know me, to people who might be watching...

but i'm going to start taking this thing i've started to a new level very soon i think. i will be sharing as i go i'm sure. until then, i would sure appreciate any prayers you can give because i'm nervous and excited and terrified (did i mention that yet?)... it would be so neat to really be able to make money and get a business going out of this. it would be so helpful to our family if i could start to make money and actually make this viable... well, i'm just excited and so thankful for my family that is here in nc who has to look at everything i make and tell me what they think, help me figure out the little problems when i get stumped or can't get a design to lay out the way i want, and to my family back home who has been supportive of my new idea, bought some cards and helped me spread the word to their friends, and who are now listening as i bounce ideas off of them and offering me their constructive ideas...

card making marathon weekend!!!

I've been a VERY busy girl this weekend!!! :) I made over 130 cards- a new record for me. I had so much fun creating and not having to do schoolwork and only this creative, fun stuff. I made a bunch of cards for gifts, but I can't say to whom or identify which cards yet 'cuz the recipients haven't gotten theirs yet. :) I can't wait to surprise them though, that's for sure!!!

all the cards I made

I recently bought my first embossing materials and have been learning how to do that. I absolutely LOVE these cards. SO pretty. I'm going to have to make myself some of these!!!

Can you see it? I'm also experimenting with the photography part because a couple customers now have told me that my etsy site doesn't do the cards justice, so I'm trying to improve the photos I take to help get my sales going.

This was my favorite picture today. I loved the angle and the way the card looked. I like the charms I found for these cards too.

Well, two more days of teaching and then I'm home for a little bit! I wonder what I'll create over break????

just a quiet December Sunday

Our backyard today at 5:30 PM. I just thought the different shades of blue (which don't show as well here) and the silhouette of the trees was pretty.

It has been a quiet Sunday. We're starting to have to get used to the two olders being gone more. Between their church activities, work, and college, it's getting to be Matthew and us more and more. Matthew is our "quieter" child so the house is definitely changing as we enter this new phase of our lives. In a couple more years we will probably start losing some or all of the kids, so I'm trying to get used to this new silence. :)

As I said it was kind of quiet around here today- Not a creature was stirring, not even the animals. Here are the girls, Emily & Charlotte. We still have not found homes for them and cannot bring ourselves to take them to the pound. I know we're suckers!!! And Samson, who never lets me take his photo, even was relaxing! :)

I was working to fill orders today and made some extras while I was at it to post on my etsy site. I just loved "Frosty!"

Trying my hand at making gift tags.

Now it's time to prepare my tutoring plans and start (YIKES!!!) my last HUGEMONGOUS grad class assignment due in one week!!!

Happy Sunday all!

my 1st set of Christmas cards

i'm working to make Christmas cards- my own and some to sell. i have three teachers (two from work and one from another school) that want me to make their cards, so i'm really excited!!!!