A Bittersweet Ending

After 3 wonderful years, we are closing!  It’s such a bittersweet ending.  We’ve enjoyed being a part of your lives and your homes, and your all have truly touched our lives in many ways.

We have a wonderful addition to our family.  Our baby girl, Evie, joined our family on May 24th, 2010.  Our lives have never been the same.  She is such a blessing to our family.  She is almost 5 months now and is just growing by leaps and bounds.  We love watching her discover new things and overcome new obstacles.  Right now, it is trying to master sitting up.  We’ve almost got it!  She’s about ready to crawl too, but mom is ready for her to slow down just a little bit.

I was hoping after she joined our family that I would be able to continue to keep our website business going, but unfortunately I am unable to keep up with the demand.  We’ve moved back to Birmingham since our little one has joined our family, and I have also started working again as well.  When I come home in the afternoons, my main focus is to spend time with my baby.  Sometimes I am able to get some work done, but most of the time I am taking care of her.  I wouldn’t trade a single moment.

It is going to be very weird going to Christmas Village this year and seeing my normal spot with another vendor, but I wouldn’t trade getting to spend time with my baby for anything.

Children are such a treasure.  Many of you told me what a blessing she was going to be, and she has been such a blessing and so much more.  

Thank you for being a part of Simply Written Designs.  We will cherish each moment.

She’s Here

We are very excited to announce that our sweet Evelin “Evie” Lane has joined our little family.  Monday, May 24th, at 6:18 p.m. our family grew from 4  to 5 (this includes our 2 labradoodles Sipsey and Lily).

We were admitted into the hospital around 12:30 on Monday, but with Evie being late and I was only dialated to 1 centimeter, my doctor helped us to make the hard decision to have a c-section. God had is hand on us because He is the only one that knew what a blessing a c-section would end up being.  When she was born we found out that she had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck 2 times.  Not only that, but they also found meconium when they broke my water.  God was definitely taking care of us.

Our sweet baby is perfect!  She looks like her mom, has her dad’s toes (and maybe he will be lucky and she will keep his blue eyes).

Thank you all for your prayers.  She is truly a blessing.

“R” Notecards

This custom stationery was designed to be used as “Thank you” cards for a wedding.  The “R” is written with Psalm 118:28:

“The Lord is my God!  I will praise Him and tell Him how thankful I am.”

They were printed on natural colored paper.  The back of the notecards say, “specially designed for you.”

If you would like to order custom stationery, please do not hesitate to send me an email for a price quote.  When you order custom stationery, you will receive the original design in a frameable size as well.

Music Note

This custom ordered Music Note was made as a special birthday present.  It is written with the birthday boy’s favorite hymn, “Come Thou Fount”.

I had enough room left at the end to add a special note from the birthday boy’s wife and boys.

Please excuse the quality of the picture.  It has become very hard for me to take pictures of my work because of my ever growing tummy.

Her Monogram is Ready!

Alan and I have framed the monogram that I made for our sweet baby girl’s room and they are hanging over her crib.

We matted each of the pieces with a fabric mat that we made.  The 2 pieces on the outside are a solid pink mat with a green/pink ribbon trim.  I am very happy with the way they turned out.  Now all we need is our sweet baby girl.

Custom Apple for Teacher

I have been busy making custom apples for end of the year teacher gifts.  They are written with quotes from the children in the class.  This apple, made for Ms. Erin, has quotes from her 3 year old class.  The apple is written with, “The best thing about Ms. Erin is…”  A few of my favorite quotes are:

“She is pretty and loves the mystery box”

“Carrots and she plays Play-Doh with me”

“She teaches me about things I like”

If you would like to order an apple for your child’s teacher, there is still some time left.  I have 2 apple prints that you can choose from on my website that can be personalized with the teacher’s name in the middle.  They are $15 plus shipping and handling.  If you would like a custom apple like the one shown here, please email me ASAP as we are getting close to the end of school as well as the due date for our sweet baby girl.

Yard Sale

Getting up at 4:30 in the morning is not on my list of fun things to do.  I know that it is possibly something that I should be getting ready for, but I LOVE my sleep.  We have spent the last couple of weekends cleaning out the house getting ready for our little bundle to join us which has led us to having a yard sale.  My sweet hubby has been working to the bone trying to get everything ready.  He is being such a good sport.  Because of my swelling, I get to sit and watch while he wheels and deals.  You don’t realize how much stuff you accumulate over the years until you start to clean closets.  I’m getting worn out just watching him.  We are going to be here until 3:00 and then I think we will probably crash.

As I sit here watching, some little boys are pulling the flowers off of my azaleas that I wait all year to watch bloom…At least it is a beautiful day!!

Custom Stationery

I have just started making some custom stationery.  The one pictured here is the Thank you that I made for my Baby Showers.  I have our sweet baby’s monogram on the front.  The stork is written with James 1:17:

“Every good and perfect gift is from above.”

The inside is blank.  The back of the card has “specially designed for ___” and has her name.

Please feel free to email me if you would like to receive a quote on custom stationery.

Our Baby’s Monogram

Wanting to do something special for our baby’s nursery, I decided that I would make her monogram.  Our baby girl’s first and middle names are family names, one from each side of her family.  Keeping this in mind I decided to ask her grandparents to come up with a Bible verse for our little sunshine to live by, and Alan and I picked one out for her as well.  The “E” is from my side of the family and the Bible verse was picked out by her Gigi and Grumps.  They chose: Proverbs 3:5-9

“Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own.  Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track.  Don’t assume that you know it all.  Run to God!  Run from evil!  Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life!  Honor God with everything you own; give Him the first and the best.”

The “L” is from Alan’s side of the family and the Bible verse was picked out by her Oma and Opa.  They chose: Philippians 4:4-7

“Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Alan and I chose a Bible verse and a chorus from a song for the “R”.  I heard the song, The Words I Would Say, by Sidewalk Prophets one day and knew that if I could tell her anything, I would tell her what the chorus says:

“Be strong in the Lord, and never give up hope, you’re going to do great things, I already know.  God’s got his hand on you so, don’t live life in fear.  Forgive and forget but don’t forget while you’re here, take your time and pray, thank God for each day, His love will find a way.  These are the words I would say.”

I changed a couple of the words when I made the “R” so that it would be more personal for her.  The verse is Psalm 25:4-5

“Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths, guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are my God and Savior, and my hope is in you.”

Once they are framed, we are going to hang them over our baby girl’s crib.  I’ll put a picture of them up once they are hanging.

Wiggles and Giggles

We did quite a bit of shopping while we at Cottontails.  Wiggles and Giggles is always one of our stops.  We pick out an outfit for my nephew at each year and this year we were able to order one for our little one.  The outfit came in last week and is so cute!!  It has her name monogrammed on the front of the top in pink (I have her name blurred out for the time being, but we will announce it when she gets here) .   I have to be honest, the polka-dot pants were the selling point.  I am a big polka-dot fan and thought these were precious.  Make sure to check out their website to see all of the precious clothes that Lisa makes.