My favorite teacher in elementary school was Mrs. Newell, my 3rd grade teacher. I loved how we started every day with a silly song and then we’d continue to sing throughout the day, too. How great is that?! One song that still stands out to me was a song all about a donut… maybe that’s why I love donuts so much now! She read us books like “The Secret Garden” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. We’d sit at her feet and listen to one chapter a day and I could hardly wait for the next day to come. She was smart too—when she read to us, she asked us to rub her feet and legs. Each one of us anxiously awaited our turn. She had us all tricked! Ha! But we loved her and her stories; what else could we do? I looked forward to school each day that I had Mrs. Newell as a teacher!

My other favorite teacher was in college. His name was Dr. Reese and I have never met anyone who loved Jesus more than he. Not only did he teach me about Jesus’ love, he really showed Jesus’ love in everything that he did. He was a quiet and gentle man who always had a truly genuine smile on his face. He taught me things I never understood before about Jesus and it was a complete pleasure to sit in his classes. My husband, Joey, and I were married during college and we had a car with a wrecked fender. He spent hours with Joey one afternoon helping to replace it. Then one hot Georgia day, in the dead of summer, I was mowing the grass in front of a lecture building. (I was working with the grounds crew to help pay the bills that summer.) That lawnmower was the pits—it kept dying on me and then wouldn’t start! I was hot and miserable. Then out walked Dr. Reese, who was in the middle of his work day. He stopped, took off his jacket, and started yanking on that starter to get it to turn on. He tried and tried for what seemed like ages, but it never did start. That mower was just terrible. I was so impressed how he stopped everything he was doing, yanked on that crummy old mower and got all sweaty (with no success), all for little me.

Thank you Mrs. Newell and Dr. Reese for loving and teaching me!

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My daughters told me a design with a peace sign was a must, but I didn’t know it would be THIS popular! After a few weeks of printing up a whole bunch of our Peace Sign Stationery, my eldest daughter (age 12) said… “Um, Mom, it’s cute but you need to do one that’s a little less cutesy - something my friends would like.” I said, “Well, ok, how about you help me design it, then?” So we sat down together and tweaked it here and tweaked it there… she was the director and the colorist. It wasn’t long before the Teen Peace Sign Stationery was created! So whether your peace sign lover is a little girl or a big girl, we now have two variations that each of them can enjoy. I hope you like these new thank you note designs. We also have Peace Sign Party Invitations and Peace Sign Address Labels!

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We’ve got a new look, a new logo, and a new site! We’ve been working really hard on our redesign and we are so excited that it is finally live!

It has felt like building a house… you think it’s going to be ready to move into on a certain date but then for a gazillions reasons it gets postponed again and again… and just when you think it’ll never get done… it’s finally ready! Whew!

So take a look around and let us know what you think. We’d love to get your feedback and hear your thoughts! And don’t miss out on the sale we’re running now… 35% off calling cards!

The post It's all NEW! appeared first on Amy Adele Blog.

He did it! Corban walked 20 steps on November 9th! I am just now posting this because I’ve been chasing him ever since! Yippee!

We were starting to worry a few weeks ago because he just wasn’t progressing very well. Then all of a sudden he began taking a few steps consistently over the past week or two! We are thrilled, to say the least. Now he can can show off his new moves to his Great Grandmother when she comes for Thanksgiving!

Thank you for all your guesses and kind words. It looks like Laura had the best guess with Nov 10th!

This Christmas should be very busy at our house this year. (Oh, our poor Christmas tree!)

Thanks again, everyone.
-Amy

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I just wanted to write a quick follow up from my last post to tell you all of this year’s Halloween at our home! Emily was a self described “orange-a-holic”, Grace was a pumpkin (an old costume my mom made for me when I was a kid), and Corban was a lion. I converted a brown sleeper into a lion costume by sewing orange and yellow felt onto it for the mane. We got a good laugh because he kinda looked like an Indian chief when I first started putting it together but I curled them a bit and that helped. Corban wore his costume long enough to prowl around before bedtime and then the girls and I went off on a hunt for candy! (Dad held down the fort by handing out treats.) My oldest, Emily, was especially determined to get a bunch by RUNNING from house to house. I wasn’t expecting to get a work out, but that’s ok… I needed to work off the extra candy calories anyway. She savers every piece and eats her candy at a pretty slow pace, so I estimate by how much she gathered, it’ll last her until next Halloween without a problem! Here’s hoping your Halloween was safe and tasty!

The post Our Halloween 2010 appeared first on Amy Adele Blog.

Every year when Halloween comes along, it always brings back great memories of when I was a kid. I loved Halloween — the excitement it brought was way more fun than the candy (although I liked that too as you can see).

I would get so excited about the events of the day. I would wake up and put on my best orange outfit, head off to school where we’d always have a class party, and then rush home to do homework so I could carve my pumpkin! I loved creating a happy little face that glowed in the dark on my front stoop. Then I’d be sure my costume was all ready to go so I could put it on after dinner. Deciding on what I wanted to dress up as was the most fun. I’d start brainstorming in the summer and then ponder on it forever…

We never went out and bought our costumes. My mom would put a few things together that she found around the house and POOF I had the cutest costume ever! The magic of mom! So anyway, we’d eat a quick dinner and then get DRESSED! I’d pray that it wouldn’t be too cold… the worst was when I had to wear a coat over my beloved costume. When I was younger, my Dad always took my sister and I (she’s pictured below) trick-or-treating while my mom stayed home and answered the door for all the other little kids in our neighborhood.

I, of course, posted a photo of me the year I chose to dress up as a bumble bee. I remember that year because when I went to the door of an older couple who lived 2 doors down from us they said to me, “Are you a martian?” I guess they saw the antennae and thought martian? I was not pleased at their guess. But the candy they gave me made up for it.

I hope you have a great Halloween this year with your little ones! My girls haven’t decided what they want to dress up as yet. My youngest daughter has said she wants to be a cupcake. (How in the world am I going to pull that off?) I like to create their costumes like my mom did… so I’d better get out my magic mom dust!

Oh… and if you are planning a Halloween Party this year or if you want to send your next note with seasonal flare, I have a few new invitations, stationery and such you may want to consider. See them here!

The post My Halloweens when I was a kid appeared first on Amy Adele Blog.

Yes, I know I talk on and on about my baby boy but I do adore my girls just as much! Emily is 11 and going into 6th grade. Grace is 7 and going into 2nd grade. At the beginning of the summer I asked them to make a list of things they wanted to do this summer. They put things such as going to the zoo, water park, and sleep-overs. I’m proud to say we got most of the items checked off! But one of the last things on Emily’s list was to do a lemonade stand.

I did a few of those as a kid but my girls had never done one… so this was the year! We live on a pretty quiet street and we knew it would be a dud if we did it at home. So we decided to do it at the Amy Adele office. Emily made all the signs and the lemonade, I gathered all the supplies, Daddy posted our signs along the road, and Grace ran around helping everyone and keeping Corban happy. We packed up the car on Monday morning, (it looked like we were going away for a week, because we had so much stuff), got some balloons and headed to the AA office. We set up just in time for the business traffic at the lunch hour. We weren’t sure if anyone would really stop (no matter how cute we or our signs were) but after a few minutes we had a few thirsty customers! It was very exciting! Not everyone stopped of course, but we got a lot of friendly smiles and waves. We were out there for about 2 hours and boy was it a hot one… 99 degrees! Corban couldn’t get enough lemonade…

Thankfully we had a giant shade tree to sit under, whew! In the end, my girls made $21! Not bad, I say! It’s going in the family pot for a family fun day… yet to be determined.

Here’s a pic of my lemonade stand a long, long time ago. I’m pictured on the right with my good friend, Jenny.

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Summer is almost over for my girls but the adventure of learning to walk has just begun for my little 16 month old Corban! Yes, it’s that time! He’s been cruising along tables and climbing stairs for a few months but now is when the real fun of letting go begins. He has yet to take his first steps and rarely even stands for half a second on his own. His physical therapist guessed that he may be walking by now… but not quite yet! He can walk when pushing a little wheeled walker and he can walk when holding onto two strong hands. Our latest trick is trying to get him to walk with holding onto one strong hand. He seems to have this incredibly high pain tolerance we are all amazed at (even his physical therapist). He falls but barely whimpers and just keeps going! It must be a NICU thing.

So… the question is, when will our little guy take his first 20 steps? The closest one to guess the right answer wins $100 off their next order. To enter this contest, just add a comment to this blog post.

Make your guess as soon as possible, because the entry closest to the exact day with the earliest time-stamp will win $100 off her next order at AmyAdele.com. Even if someone else already beat you to the punch with their guess, don’t hesitate to still enter. Every subsequent person who also guesses the right date will get 40% off their next order.

Here’s a clue… both my healthy (non-premature) girls didn’t walk until 18 months so don’t be too surprised Corban is taking his time, especially considering his early arrival.

The post When will Corban walk? $100 Contest! appeared first on Amy Adele Blog.

Ok… so I don’t know why but my boy loves to look out windows. These shots were taken at his favorite spot, my office window. His physical therapist was loving it too because he’d practice getting up on his knees there.

And then there’s the fingers… Oh how he loves those two fingers! He was quite addicted to them. My parents had to pay thousands of dollars and I had to endure 3 years of braces because I loved my fingers, too… so I’d rather nip it sooner than later. We’ve tried putting lime juice, lemon juice and even vinegar (yuck!) on those fingers and he didn’t flinch… not even a wiggle! But just saying plain old “no” and pulling them out of his mouth stopped the routine. We’re still amazed that was all he needed.

The post Corban and his two fingers… appeared first on Amy Adele Blog.

We sell a lot of the little red crab stationery so I thought an invitation and other items would be good to add this summer. People love their crab and lobster parties, ya know! My husband’s aunt asked me to do a crab fest invitation for her so I placed my little red crab in a basket and put him on a table then added her text and she liked it just fine. When I went to prepare the design that would go on the site, my 11 year old daughter, Emily, took one look and said, ”Oh Mommy… he’s too cute to eat!”

She’s often right about such things when it comes to my new designs and I value her honest opinion. As much as I loved my little red crab, I wondered if my customers would think the same thing. So I created two designs… one with the little red crab in a basket ready to be cooked and another one that was similar but with no cute faces showing. I sent it out to a few people and the majority said… nope, he’s too cute to eat! Geesh! I couldn’t leave my little red crab out to dry… what’s a girl to do? I really wanted my little red crab on an invite so I thought about it some more and came up with the perfect solution. I added my little red crab on an invite after all… just not in a basket ready to cook. That way my customers could think what they wanted… they could use it for a crab fest or just a simple kid’s party invite. Then for the serious seafood lovers, I did another invite with lobsters in a basket, but NO SMILES. Time will tell what will work best for my customers. I’m just glad I figured out my seafood invitation dilemma.

The post "Oh Mommy… he’s too cute to eat!" appeared first on Amy Adele Blog.