Back at the beginning of 2011, I made an unofficial and unspoken New Year’s resolution to read more. My primary plan for doing this was to simply read for a few minutes before going to sleep at night rather than opening up hulu to watch my favorite show or just close my eyes to sleep. So, was the resolution a success? What did I read? Can I share an in depth and insightful analysis of each book?
Yes, I think that it was a success, and if you know my history of book-reading, you’ll be surprised that the list is longer than 1 :)
Here’s what I was able to make it through this year, in order of completion:
- Crazy Love by Francis Chan
- HTML 5 for Web Designers by Jeremy Keith
- The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
- CSS3 for Web Designers by Dan Cederholm
- Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias
- Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper
- The Elements of Content Strategy by Erin Kissane
- Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marchotte
- Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
- Designing for Emotion by Aarron Walter
- Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp
Finally, I intentionally titled this post with “list” rather than “review,” but if you have specific question about a book, feel free to comment. And FYI, I’d recommend any of the books above to a friend.
Merry Christmas!
Every year it’s a challenge to design our Christmas card. I spend many months designing cards for pipe|up, but then need to stir my creative juices to come up with just one more for our own card.
This year was no exception. I really love so many of the designs in my shop this year. (Is that ok to say?) I loved designing them and I feel so honored when an Etsy shopper scours through thousands of possible card designs, adds mine to their favorites–usually among many other very talented card designers–and then purchases one of MY designs. It brings me such delight. I also had some great text and layout ideas shared with me by close friends who just want to help me succeed in what I love to do. There’s really no reason, other than the surprise element, that prevents me from just using one of the designs that already exists.
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But, you see, I do love a little surprise. And this year, in particular, we have fun news to share with friends and family and I knew exactly how I wanted to share it. No, the “+1″ is not referring to Parker. We’ve been gifted a brand new little life and will soon be a family of four. We feel so blessed.
We also wanted our card to reflect the true meaning of Christmas–the birth of Jesus, our Savior and light of the world. ”May they know He came for them” is from “Christmas Christmastime is Here” by Rosie Thomas. It’s a perfect message that we want you all to know and believe.
A few weeks ago, our church held a Women’s Christmas Tea. My dear friend, K, shared with the group some holiday traditions she and her family have begun. She closed with this:
I hope you know tonight that He came for you. Because of Jesus, I have complete forgiveness of sins and I don’t need to earn anything. For those who have a relationship with Christ, He came for you. For those of you who are still deciding what you believe, He came for you. He came for all of us that we might know the love of God and experience His grace.
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He came for you. Merry Christmas.
Yesterday, while I was working at the computer for a bit, Analiese occupied herself with some toys. I glanced back and saw this arrangement:
A further head turn, and there was this (notice her real milk in the background):
Then, I started roaming the rest of the house to see what else she had lined up and found this in her room:
My little organizer!
This evening, she came out of her room with her arms full of lovies. We have a collection of a few that didn’t make “the cut”, but she still likes to play with them. She also put on the headband herself.
It wasn’t too long before she was lining them up to take a nap on the floor. She’s telling the last one “night night” in case you can’t tell.
I just ordered our Christmas cards and I can’t wait for them to arrive. We went the fancy-shmancy route this year and ordered actual cards versus printing them as photos which is what we’ve done in years past. However, since the cards come with envelopes, we may actually be saving money since I won’t need to order them through my beloved Paper Source. They just have such pretty colors…it’s hard to resist.
But I digress. The purpose of this post is to offer a free printable download. The inspiration comes from the back of our Christmas cards, which I will post once they’re in the mail to friends, family and neighbors. And they’ll probably make their way to pipe|up in next year’s collection.
Consider this a sneak peak…and a treat…for you….or for your wall, which is where mine is:
The window to the left is very white because we woke up to SNOW when I took this picture yesterday morning!
Here are a few colors for you to choose from:
{ Click on the image to open the color you want in a new screen. Then, click on it again to download the 5×7 printable. }





























