Ben

Wow! I've got all kinds of news!  A new website, changes on A.Steed's.Life., and a BIG, HUGE, ONCE-A-YEAR SALE.

Over the past several weeks, my own personal webmaster (aka Ben) has been hard at work helping me put together a brand new web site for Signs by Andrea.  My sign business and Zazzle poster sales have grown so much over the past year, it was time to give them both the attention they deserve.  To do this, I'm separating my blog into two separate websites: 

• AndreaSteed.com will remain my personal journal and crafty blog.
• SignsByAndrea.com will now be dedicated to news and information about my signs and (de)Signs, as well as a great source of inspiration for all sorts of home decorating tips and ideas.

I think you'll find the new website is easy to navigate and offers a much more pleasant shopping experience.  Now you can personalize and add any of my signs to your shopping cart instantly, pay online, and track the status of your orders.  It's fabulous.  I'm beyond excited. :) 

And this new website couldn't have come at a better time (nothing like a deadline to get us going)....  Beginning today, I'm offering my HUGEST sign sale of the year.  It's time to start getting your shopping underway and get ahead of the holiday rush.  This is the one sale you want don't want to miss.  It doesn't get any better than this:

.

So come on over now and check out the newly launched SignsByAndrea.com and tell me what you think!

Day 5 - Friday.  Busy all day long.  Working, laundry, packing the kids (for a trip with Daddy - yay!), errands, more work and then freedom (from kids), but not from work. :) That's okay, I think work is fun.

The stats:

• 160 photos saved to my hard drive.  30 shown here. Many of those were product pictures though...so they don't really count.
  
• Ben thinks Fridays are haunted around here.  The kids and I always seem to be worn out from the week, on each other's nerves, and have no patience with each other, which results in lots of crying, whining and yelling (by all of us).  So I usually try to take them someplace fun instead of keeping them cooped up inside.  
• Notable differences about today compared to every other normal day - Ben took the kids to Auburn for the weekend, and I got to stay home by myself!  I think the last time that happened was early last summer.  I was due. 
• Another notable fact about today - We received our information packet about our sponsored child in Ecuador via Compassion International!
  

Ahh...Thursday.  Day 4 of this project. 

Thursdays are usually pretty good days around here.  Lots of work to do, Ayla's at school, and usually Paxton goes to his friend's house for the morning.  This week, he was home, but he "helped" me work and read stories, so it worked out just fine.  My Week-in-the-Life exercise went a little better today (helped that it wasn't raining and I wasn't sleep-deprived from storms).  I have found though that I manage to do about 10 noteworthy "tasks" before I even make it downstairs in the mornings to get my camera.  Today, that included getting two kids dressed, changing Ayla's sheets, letting the cat outside, and starting a load of laundry.  None of which I enjoy doing before I've eaten my bowl of cereal and checked my email...but what can you do?

The stats:

• 75 photos saved to my hard drive.  30 shown here.
  
• Paxton *actually* performed on the potty tonight...after three consecutive trips DURING dinner.  He also appeared to be scared to death of the entire experience once he realized what was going on.  We made a big deal of how great it was, and he was rewarded with chocolate chips. 
• Notable differences about today compared to every other normal day - Paxton didn't go to Shelby's house this morning and was home instead, which means Ben & I didn't have our regular Thursday lunch-date.  But otherwise, today was a pretty normal day!
  

Day 3.  Wednesday. 

Rainy.  Cranky.  Tired.  Working. Seems like we had more fun the last time we did this project....hmmm...

The stats:

• 102 photos saved to my hard drive.  30 shown here.
  
• Paxton LOVES the self-timer.  Thinks it's hilarious.
• Notable differences about today compared to every other normal day - pretty much nothing.  Today was pretty basic and normal.

Day two..we made it through. Lots of work and things to do. :) Just click the image to see a larger version of our Tuesday:

The stats: 

• 96 photos saved to my hard drive (30 shown here).
• Don't be fooled.  Paxton is NOT potty trained.  He just likes to "try".
• Notable differences about today compared to every other normal day - I went to lunch at Ayla's school because she was "Star of the Week" and Paxton joined Ben at Disciples Fellowship for "Lunch on Lorna."

Day one of my Spring 2011 "Week in the Life" is complete--at least as far as getting to the kids' bedtime.  I may have to retire my camera at that point each night this week...I'm beat. A day full of activities (some normal, some extra) plus photographing them, and writing 'em all down will wear a person out.  Now I'm off to watch some TV and veg...okay, maybe I'll get one shot of that. :) 

Here's what today looked like at our house (you can click the photo to view the images larger):

The stats: 

• 128 photos saved to my hard drive (35 shown here).
  
• The first three lines of photos in this collage all occured before 8:30am.
  
• Notable differences about today compared to every other normal day - We went bowling & Ben gave blood.

If you joined me...how'd you do?  If you didn't, why not?  Give it a try.  Do a "Day in the Life" instead of a week and give it a shot. :)

Back in December, Ben had the opportunity to take a tour of several Compassion International projects in Ecuador as part of a marketing campaign on Heartlight.  Compassion wanted to give the web-marketers who support and promote Compassion on various Christian web sites a first-hand experience of the work they're doing all over the world, but especially in this case - Ecuador. 

Along with a small group of Christian web-savvy businessmen & women, Ben experienced a life-changing, perspecitve-altering week amongst the kids, employees and volunteers associated with the Compassion International projects in Ecuador.  While it would take days to re-tell every story of his adventure (literally...it took him days to show me all the photos and tell me all the stories when he came home), he has put together a few articles on Heartlight to tell the stories of some special people he met and describe the fabulous work that Compassion International is commited to in Ecuador.

Take a peek at his journey here:

• A Fork in My Path
  
• It's a Small World After All
  
• We Exist
• Compassionate People
  
• From Surviving to Thriving
• and his Ecuador trip photo gallery on Facebook.

If these stories touch you like they have affected us, please prayerfully consider sponsoring a child through Compassion International or contributing in some way to their mission.  It really does make a difference.

Instead of doing all the things I *should* be doing today, I was inspired to make these photo tags for each of our Christmas stockings as I was in the middle of decorating the house for the holidays:

I made Paxton one too...but he doesn't have a stocking yet!  I gotta get on that...

Supplies: 

• Pressed Petals Chip Chatter Alphabet
• Imaginisce Polar Expressions Rub-Ons
• Imaginisce Polar Expressions Ribbon
• Clear Scraps acrylic circles
• Crop-a-dile
• large white eyelets
• alphabet beads
• artistic wire
• StaZon black ink
• glue dots