Adoption & Fire

Packing Up & Moving

Wendy — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:07:05 -0800

After three years of being on Typepad, we have decided to move over to a self-hosted website. While we have loved using Typepad we have simply outgrown it and have decided to move on to a bigger and better house for Adoption & Fire.

This will be our last post from here. Please visit our new site and make sure you bookmark us or change your feed readers! We can't wait to see you over there!

Referral Layout

Wendy — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:39:37 -0800

Happy Referral Day- One Year Ago Today

Wendy — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:55:47 -0800

It's hard to believe that one year ago today we flipped over the photos of our precious baby girl and saw her crazy hair and chubby cheeks. We were so excited to get that phone call and then make the short drive over to our agency to see her photos. Where has the time gone?

Life 365, Week 18-24

Wendy — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:02:12 -0800

Okay so this layout has not been my favorite as of yet. I wanted to cram a bunch of photos into a one page spread. It worked, but I didn't put enough effort into the design element of it. I'm going to leave it like this though because I have last week's layout that I need to work on and I am going to get started on our trip to China album. So, I don't want to get stuck with a page I don't like and then that's all I think about and I get so frozen about one layout that I just stop altogether. That's a vicious cycle I tend to face in this craft. I am not going to let it bleed over into my digi/hybrid scrapping.

By the way, ScrapbookPictures.com is having a great sale on printing 12x12 and under. I am trying to figure out what format I should print these in? 12x12, 10x10, or 8x8. I don't want to get too much smaller than 8x8. Let me know your suggestions!

Chinese New Year Happenings

Wendy — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:54:20 -0800

Chinese New Year has been a favorite holiday of mine for a long time. I love the dragon dances, the colorful decorations, the red envelopes, and the little trinkets my parents send to me every year. If I am anywhere near a CNY parade, I want to go. Since adopting our daughter, CNY is even more important to me because it's part of her culture and I want her culture to be entwined into how we raise her. This year we have been pretty excited to share the holiday with her and want to do as much as we can to incorporate the holiday festivities into our life.

We kicked of the holiday with a super cute card and a red envelope from my parents. I need to take a picture of what the inside looks like but Catherine was smitten! They have a knack for picking out the best CNY trinkets and cards to send to us. I know this year was extra special to them because they got to send it off to Catherine:

On Saturday, I kicked out of funeral planning mode and went into full celebration mode. The Houston Chinese Community Center held their annual CNY festival. We got their first thing and it was already packed. We spent about an hour with our friends the Richters and the Fourneigs as well as the Freemans and the Fields. It ended up being a little too crowded for our enjoyment and so we decided to head off to dim sum but not before posing with a couple of beauty queens (Catherine will beat them out one day!) and taking a swig of Waxy Gourd drink (blah!)

The Dim Sum restaurant was also packed out but we ended up getting there at the perfect time. The dragon dancers made their entrance about 10 minutes after we were seated. I don't think Catherine knew what to think but she was a little freaked out by the noise at first. She had her head buried into John's shoulder with her eyes squished shut. I managed to get her to look at the lions and after a few minutes she adjusted to the drums and the dancing and actually enjoyed it.

Most everyone in the group aren't huge Dim Sum fans but they are good sports and are willing to go during this time of year. I end up doing the ordering because I grew up with this type of food and it's fun to pick things off of the rolling carts. It makes me feel a bit more connected to the culture when I order the food with confidence. Catherine was a trooper and tried almost everything but she loved the noodles and sticky/Jasmine rice the most.

On Saturday we have one more celebration dinner with the Families with Children from China group. I can't wait!

Flowers, Flowers, & More Flowers

Wendy — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:18:57 -0800

Martha Stewart is the guru of all things decorating. Pick up one of her magazines or watch her show and you will be amazed that she can turn a simple apple into an elaborate centerpiece! I am always envious of her Thanksgiving dinner table settings or the elegant mantels that she decorates for Christmas. If only I had an ounce of what she has, my house would be magnificent! Of course having an endless supply of time would help me out too.

When I heard that Martha Stewart had a line of flower centerpieces through 1-800-Flowers, I jumped up and down with glee! You see, I love to send flowers to friends, family members, and of course to firefighters in our departments that are celebrating an occasion. I am a sucker for placing orders online only to have the local florist make the delivery. Since I don't have a ton of time to actually make the trip to the flower shop, it's much easier for me to place the order over the internet. I always use 1-800-Flowers but I never realized they had a Martha Stewart section because I tend to order the same 3 to 4 arrangements. When I heard she had floral arrangements, I immediately hopped over to the site and added several of the arrangements to my favorites. They are just beautiful! Here are my favorites:

And my all time favorite:

Can somebody please send me a bucket of roses? How Martha Stewart is this?? Love it!

So, dear husband...since our anniversary and Valetine's Day is coming up soon...hint, hint! I could seriously use some MS styling and designing skills to spruce up our decorated corner:

What I've Been Up to the Last Three Days

Wendy — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:07:14 -0800

I've been burying two firefighters over the last three days. Glamorous, my job is not.

Happy Birthday Babe!

Wendy — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:56:51 -0800

Today my dear, sweet husband has a birthday! Happy Birthday Babe! Last year, less than a week later we received our referral for Catherine. I'm not sure I can top that birthday present...well, maybe I can. We actually have her home for this birthday. He does have to work though, so we are planning on bringing a cake up to the fire station.

Buy Handmade, Sell Handmade

Wendy — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:24:46 -0800

I am a big believer in handmade goods. I love to shop handmade and I used to sell handmade items on another well known site. Their fees to list items were decent and at first I enjoyed the site but it seems like it has gone more of the commercialism route in the last year. After I noticed that there seemed to be less and less of the handmade items that I wanted listed, I stopped selling my items and I really haven't shopped there as much.

Recently I found a new set up called Art Fire and I like this new platform better. It seems like this organization is more inline with helping the artist make a bit of money. It can be pretty expensive to sell handmade items and for the most part, artists don't make a killing off of their products. What I like about Art Fire is if you are an artist that only has a small amount of items to sell then you can list your items (with photos) for free! And if you are a fan of buying handmade gifts then you will love to know that Art Fire doesn't charge a fee to the buyer. All of your money will be given to the artist.

The other bonus? Art Fire has partnered with Trees for the Future and for every free member that joins, a tree will be planted. Their goal is to plant 1,000,000 trees! As a tree-hugger, I love this concept!

If you are looking for a new place to sell your items or if you are wanting more choices in buying handmade, you have to check out Art Fire!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Wendy — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:26:41 -0800

Photo by Noggin

2009 is Year 4706 in the Chinese Calendar. It is also the Year of the Ox.

For more information on the Lunar Festival, visit this website!