Merry Christmas & New Year Resolutions oh yeah, and nieces baby shower invites

Merry Christmas!  I do hope that you were surrounded by loved ones and counted your blessings.

Before I tell you my Crafty Resolutions I wanted to share some photos of my wonderful niece's baby shower invites and a few decorations.

 Oh what a joy it was piecing together over 60 of these!  My sister and I worked on them ALL day and we are very pleased with how they turned out. 

 Sisters idea to knot the twine and put it at the top to look like a vine.  we used stock stickers for the inside monkey due to time constraints.

 This is the back of the Diaper Cake my sister made. She did an outstanding job - I'm so proud of her!

 The front of the awesome cake.  My sister is very much like Martha Stuart in the sense that she can sew anything, decorate like you would not believe (her home is like a showcase) and she is probably the best cook I know.  She is not crafty in this sense - she claims I got those genes but she proves herself wrong with this diaper cake.  I wish I would have taken more photos of the house and how she had animals hanging from here and there - the cookies she made that looked like monkeys and the beautiful array of food and deserts!

 I wasn't sure what animals I would use on the banner, so I cut out tons of them - cause you never know. You'll be able to see in another photo how they are all throughout the living room where the shower was held.  I really like how this banner turned out.  Jaxon is due to arrive January 28th or so and will be Lauren & Ray's first baby.

 My beautiful niece, her super sweet loving husband Ray, my sister next to Lauren and Rays mom next to him.  June 09

Laurens bestie made this cute Monkey in a tree and framed it. Everyone at the shower put their thumbprints in various shades of green on the tree and it now hangs in the Nursery.  What a fantastic idea!

This toy box was made by one of Lauren's friends - hand drawn and painted - beautiful! 

Ok - now that is out of the way let's talk Resolutions.  I normally don't do Resolutions cause lets face it, they are hard to stick to. But I don't think I'm going to make any I can't stick to so here we go!

1.  I will stop buying stuff cause I want it and start padding our teeny tiny savings account. Hubby says we can not live off of crafting supplies when we retire and I suppose he's right.  Sigh....
2.  I will make at least 3 items per week in my craft room.   I must take the time to use my supplies and make pretty things.
3.  I will post at least 1 time per week, complete with photos and or video. No more babbling posts about nothing with empty promises of "I'll try to post soon"
4.  I will TRY, yes TRY to start my scrapbooks (I only have 15 brand new still sealed Westin books from 40 years ago that need filled) but only after I see that #'s 1, 2 and 3 are being done!

So, if you read this far I'd like to reward you by announcing some blog candy.  I will give the winner a cartridge, a cuddlebug folder set and a few surprises. The more comments I get, the more things I'll throw in the box of Blog Candy - To qualify for the blog candy, please leave a comment and tell if you have resolutions.  Tell me if you think I can stick to mine and if you aren't already a follower, please become one.

Happy New Year everyone!