Yuma Baby Shower

At the beginning of June, we celebrated little Baby Phillips here in Yuma! Ellen planned the most phenomenal Maryland themed baby shower and we had an amazing time snacking on crab chips and Old Bay fries. There were so many small details that were put into the party, from Chesapeake Bay napkins to Maryland flag toothpicks. Even the invitations had the Maryland flag on them!

We ate, we played games, opened gifts and enjoyed time together. We also had a baby photoshoot at the end - these four little rugrats are hysterical and each one of their personalities shines brighter every day!

I can't thank Ellen enough for all of the hard work she put into making this event so perfect.

Alright, enough jibber-jabber. Here are some pictures!

 

Here's a screenshot of just how many pictures I took in attempts to get a good one. One in which everyone was looking (impossible) or one in which a baby wasn't trying to slobber on another.  I tried to pick the best one of all of them. Either way, they're adorable.

If you want to know where the toothpick flags are from (they have every state flag) or any of the other small details are from, leave a comment on here and let me know what I can help with!

A New Addition

This isn't really new news, but I wanted to make sure I put photographs up from the Gender Reveal Party my sweet friend Erin put together.

Back in January, David and I were blessed with the news that a little baby Phillips would be joining our family come September! Honestly, there's a longer story behind trying to start a family and all that, but that's another post all together. We called our parents and our closest friends to share the great news. My mother of course bawled her eyes out and is so excited to be called Oma come September. David's parents guessed why we were calling because they literally were just in Yuma visiting and we found out the day after they left. 

I waited a while to tell my middle school students just because I really didn't want them telling me that I should name my baby after them. (Yes, that happened... a lot.) In the beginning of March, there were two girls in one of my classes who guessed it before I said anything. One class period, they were giggling and I decided to ask what on earth was going on (usually I ignore giggling during work time, but they wouldn't stop staring at me!). One of the girls said they couldn't tell me and they had a question to ask me but it had to wait until April. I guess to them, it would be obvious that I was pregnant or not by the time April came around. Eventually, I told only one of my class periods - because I know how quick news travels in a middle school. 

I asked one of the girls how on earth they knew I was pregnant and she said "You were moody." 

Oh lovely middle schoolers. They tell you how it is.

Then at the beginning of May, my good friend Erin (she's been on this crazy military ride with me since Virginia) put together a little reveal party for us. We just had a few families over, ate food, had fellowship, and made a huge mess to find out if we were having a little girl or boy.

When we went to get the anatomy ultrasound done, I gave the technician a card and had her circle the gender and seal it in the envelope. Right after the appointment, I dropped the envelope off at Erin's house so I wasn't tempted to peek.

Here's the tutorial Erin used to make the Poppers! You could easily make these for any event.

Here's how the madness went down!

After we found out a little girl would be joining our family, the hubster (David) said that he had to call my dad and ask him how he did it. Sidebar - I'm one of four girls... my poor dad.

One of my students gave me the sweetest gift of clothes for little Baby Phillips and although I won't be teaching next year, I can't wait to visit the middle school and show my previous students our little bundle of joy!

Tulips & Lace Studio: A Custom Piece

I'm trying to be more consistent with blogging. You can see I'm doing an AMAZING job of that...

I think I have worried too much about having a perfect post with the best edited images and forget that I really just want to get my stories out there and down on "paper". My posts won't be perfect, but at least I'm posting.

Most recently, I've been working on getting my Etsy shop together and listing pieces that I created months ago. I just finished up a custom hand-lettered piece for my dear friend Ellen and I'm excited to share that with you! If you're interested in having something created, jump on over to the shop and email me your ideas!

Check out what's new in the shop! ------> Tulips & Lace Studio

I will be posting some events from the past couple months - clearly not in chronological order but I want to make sure I document them.

Happy Wednesday everyone & Happy July!

Two Thousand Fourteen

Well, it's been a while. sorry. again. I've even been on break from teaching for two and a half weeks and done nothing. I guess that's what break is for. I've decided to make sure I did something this last week of break. so I went to buy a new 2015 calendar, fill said calendar out with all the birthdays, anniversaries and upcoming weddings, and hopefully get some paintings done for the shop.

I also wanted to take a look back at 2014 and try to remember what we did. Here it goes!

warning: tons of pictures. that is all.

We started off the new year by camping in Yuma. Something we definitely don't do quite enough. In the future we have plans to camp at the Grand Canyon!

I traveled to Michigan at the beginning of February for my Grandmother's funeral. Obviously, not the most fun reason to travel, but I did get to see Vegas from the sky at night and I got my fill of real snow and cold weather in Michigan. I also got to spend time with all of my sisters!

A group from Yuma went to Big Bear, California to enjoy a ski/snowboarding weekend on the mountain. We made the best of it - even though the snow was more like slush during the day and ice at night. We really want to go to Colorado for some great skiing before we leave the west.

I think one of my favorite things to do is be a pit stop for people heading out to San Diego as they are PCSing. This year we had three friends stop by before finishing their cross country drives. We've been to San Diego many times since living in Yuma and it's truly a great escape especially during the hot summer months here. I traveled to San Diego for the NAEA Conference over Spring Break and was able to visit with some of my professors from JMU! 

I coordinated my first art show for the middle school students at the local library. The Spring 2015 art show will probably definitely be on the local news! One of the secretaries at our school said she could contact the local news channel and have them there at the show to interview students and such! 

In the spring and the fall, we celebrated lots of new babies in Yuma! Baby showers galore!

David promoted at the end of May - aka a day away from the crazy middle schoolers for me. ;)

I SURVIVED THRIVED TEACHING MY FIRST YEAR OF MIDDLE SCHOOL ART!
I seriously was in survival mode for a portion of that year. whoops. 

OPENED TULIPS&LACE!

TURNED 25! Hello quarter century. 

Celebrated our two year wedding anniversary & traveled to Jamaica! We went with our wonderful friends, the DeVines and really enjoyed time together. After Jamaica, we traveled home to Maryland so David could see everyone before he deployed at the end of June.

David headed out for deployment and then I headed to Minnesota for some cabin time with the Phillips Family.

Also EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO NOTE: 

I READ ALL OF THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS IN THREE WEEKS. 

Probably sat on my reading chair more than I slept in my bed over those weeks. #harrypotterforlife

While David was gone I went with our good friends, the Ices, to the Grand Canyon for a whirlwind weekend trip. #NanNans

Started teaching another year at RW Middle School (I wish it stood for Ron Weasley). Decided to take a trip to Utah mid October to visit the marvelous Noelle Ulman. Once I got back, we were in the home stretch of deployment being over.

David came back on Veterans Day and then a few days later we went to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. I always love an excuse to actually dress up and take a day off of work ;)

Kathleen Payne Photography

My family traveled here from Maryland (and Uncle Buck Leo from Michigan) for Thanksgiving. We did the most touristy thing in Yuma aka seeing the territorial prison. Trekked up Telegraph Pass and ate lots of delicious food!

This December we've enjoyed weekends on the couch, the gorgeous warm weather and a great visit from Noelle right before Christmas.

Most importantly this year we've found a church family who truly has the word of God and the spirit flowing through them. We have both grown more in our relationship with Christ and can't wait to see what God has in store for us in 2015! We've truly seen that Jesus is better than anything we could ever have or want and we pray that God continues to use us for his glory this next year.

CHEERS TO TWO THOUSAND FIFTEEN!

A Gift for Baby Annie

My co-leader from InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at James Madison University just had the most darling little girl! Annie was born in October (and shares a birthday with one of my college roommates ::cough::Rachel::cough::) and is super adorable.

I wanted to send Emilie and baby Annie a little useful gift that I hope gets some mad spit-up action. I mean - its a burp cloth so I don't see why it wouldn't. Babies just eat, poop/pee, sleep, spit up, repeat right?

My friend Robin and I had a little sewing day at her house back in early October and I was able to use her stunning embroidery attachment! Robin was so gracious to teach me how her machine worked and let me drool over it for a while. I have my own Husqvarna sewing machine (thanks mom!) but it is not even close to the beauty of Robin's machine. Smooth, slow, controlled stitches and an awesome attachment arm that lets you use your knee/thigh (some part of your leg) lift the presser foot. AH-MAH-ZING - as Penny Hartz would say. Happy Endings reference for those of you fortunate enough to see that beautiful sitcom. Thank you Ellen for introducing us to that show!

Tangents aside - here are some images of the little gift sent off to baby Annie. If you want to know the step-by-step of how I completed this project, feel free to comment below and I'll add it on!

I'm sure I'll make tons more of these in the future. I mean, who wants a boring burp cloth anyway?

New Mini-Magnets

Just want to drop by and let you all know about the 6 new mini magnets I'm listing in the shop today! Over Columbus Day weekend I was able to avoid the couch; I know, miracle, and instead I was able to create some new mini canvas magnets. Three of the magnets are more towards the abstract style I typically painted in college. I think I was afraid to attempt realistic paintings with oil paints in college, so I tried my hand in non-representational, abstract pieces and I must say I was pretty dang good at it. (Maybe in the future I'll post some pictures of my undergrad art show at James Madison University.) Anyway, here are a few pictures of what you can find in the shop!

You can find all of these new pieces over at Tulips&Lace Studio

Thanks for all of your support!

Stephanie