all in, all done!

alert the presses....ALL of my guaranteed christmas orders have now been mailed!!!! (still have a couple of local orders to finish!) now excuse me while I go ice my hand...for the rest of the day.

it's that time of the year!

it's been crazy busy over here at oak hill designs! I had a five person vendor open house last sunday here and we had a great turn out! lots of great products and yummy food and drink! :)

a couple of new pieces I just whipped up last week and added to the store....





don't forget...oak hill designs can help you with everyone on your christmas list! :)

back to stamping I go....

halloween 2011...pumpkin carving

while everyone else in blog land has pictures of their adorable children in their halloween costumes, I have pictures of my adorable children (and neighbor!) carving pumpkins.

this has become our yearly tradition...order pizza and carve pumpkins with the neighbors. something all of us look forward to each year.

during the carving....







the finished products!





and, I know this picture would be so much better if I would've turned off the flash, but with my new camera, I haven't quite figured this out yet! :) total, complete honesty, folks! so know that it was pitch dark during this shot...



and sadly, this will be the last year with all three kids since ashton will be in college five hours away next year....let's hear it for skype! :)

a sale!

do you 'like' oak hill designs on facebook?? you SHOULD! I just announced a great pre-holiday sale going on today....25% off ALL pieces in my ohd store on etsy with the coupon code WINNER. a great way to conquer that holiday list EARLY! :) be sure to share this sale with your friends!

and here is a sneak peek of the new 'look' coming to ohd soon! let me know what you think!

family pictures....

last saturday, we got the whole family together for some family pictures. we had SO much fun with whitney and she is so awesome at her hobby (seriously, not even her full time job!) as you can see! (pics will enlarge if you click on them...)



the cousins having fun with leaves!



me, my mom and my sister, mindy.



the sisters, spouses, mom and dad



the whole group! (notice I'm not really smiling....I had just 'biffed' on a low spot in the weeds...surprised I don't still have some in my hair, on my lips...)




another shot of the cousins...after playing in the leaves! :)

so much fun and so many great memories to have forever!

wednesday and sunday.....

those two days are laundry days at the reisner household!

our laundry area is located in the worse possible place in our whole house--in the mudroom, right off of the garage entrance. when we moved and discovered that we had made a HUGE mistake in putting the washer and dryer there, I knew I had to do laundry only a couple of days a week. if I didn't have a schedule, I would have laundry all over my hallway EVERY day of the week (it is bad enough just 2 days a week....)

it is funny though, that my children can NEVER remember to bring their laundry to the hallway.....someone is ALWAYS complaining that a certain thing didn't get washed. it's not going to get washed if you don't bring your laundry out! I've even heard the occasional, 'but you didn't remind me...'. um, sure.

then we always have the problem of the laundry going back where it came from. nothing is more irritating than to see them just pick what they need out of the mountain and leave the rest there. see my evidence....



so tell me....do you have certain days that you do laundry? do your kids do these same things?? :)

service awards dinner

last night, tom and I attended the hy-vee service awards dinner. this yearly dinner honors regular and full time employees with 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 years of service to hy-vee. also, all employees over 20 years can attend yearly (although they don't get an award, just recognition), so tom and I have attended for the last five years. this year, tom received his 25 year award.

we always look forward to this event-great to hear our CEO ric juergens speak, see the growth of the company, and GREAT FOOD!! oh my gosh. the dinner is always pretty much the same, but the dessert always changes and last night didn't disappoint. the meal was salad, chicken breast and beef tenderloin, grilled veggies (zucchini, onions, peppers), sweet potatoes and regular potatoes, and a chocolate cupcake with a chocolate filled center and topped with a ton of whipped cream for dessert! almost too rich to eat...but no one had a problem at our table! :)

five for friday....

this is some sort of record, I'm telling you! three days in a row of blogging! a few fun friday facts....

1-tate is feeling much better today, thankfully. he has his eyes all the way open most of the time and has some spunk back.

2-tom and I walked in the 'gotta start somewhere' walk today with a group from hy-vee. it was fun, except for the horrific winds...

3-I am wanting a new look for my etsy store and business card....I still love what I have, just wanting a fresh, new look. thinking red, aqua, mustard yellow and gray...thoughts/opinions?

4-in the past month I have read of two Iowa teens being killed when their atv rolled over on them. this causes me to be anxious again and thankful at the same time. john was SO incredibly lucky. thank you, doug!

5-happy that ashton figured up her RAI score and it is high enough (by alot!) to apply at the u of iowa. I just wish the college wasn't five long hours away....

happy friday, everyone! leave me a comment with your five for friday!

poor tatey.....

isn't this just pathetic? really.



last night, we noticed that tate's eyes were all red and he didn't want to open them up all the way. then the green goop started flowing. poor thing.

bright and early this morning, we headed to the vet's office to find out what was going on. turns out he has an eye infection that was triggered by bean dust. the treatment? drops 3-4 times a day. who wants to come put these in for us? :)

do you pin?

I love the website pinterest! such really cool things to love and lust over!

these are some things that I repinned this morning. I really wish I had more time to look at everyone's awesome boards, but I just can't seem to carve out the extra minutes to do so.


so tell me...do you pin? I'd love to follow you!

it is FINALLY starting to look like homecoming!

our school administrators are very anti-tping....claiming it is vandalism and littering, to the point of having police officers patrol the school during homecoming week. well thank goodness one group of kids were able to get the school's trees tped. it just isn't homecoming until someone tps the trees!

it's homecoming week!

today is 'duct tape day' here at ELC. ashton's outfit is pretty darn creative and cute, if you ask me! :)

here is the front view:



the back:



and we can't forget the necklace:



or the hair bow:




it was so funny to watch her walk since her legs kept sticking together!! hope she survived all day in this cute ensemble.

hello and welcome!

I have always been a HORRIBLE blogger. I always felt like my life was so boring in comparison to other cool bloggers (I live in Iowa, for pete's sake....what is exciting about Iowa?). Most of my favorite bloggers have young, cute kids. My kids are cute, but they are teenagers (and one about ready to go off to college next year...).

I promised myself that when I had a blog redesign (that I still am not totally thrilled about....) I would be way better about blogging. well, that hasn't panned out so well, either. so, let's pretend this is my first blog post and go from there! :)

let's start with a pic of my lovely family....



my husband, tom, and I have been married for 21 years. he works as an inventory manager at my former work place. tom loves to garden (ours is HUGE) and do most anything outside.

my daughter, ashton, is 17 and a senior in high school this year. (gasp!) how did that happen?? she is hoping to be accepted to the university of iowa next year and wants to be a pediatric pulmonologist. ashton LOVES softball thanks to cat osterman and jenny finch. right now ashton is a cheerleader for football and loves her job at our local wellness center.

my son, john, is 15 and a sophomore in high school this year. john loves all things outdoors-fishing (regular and ice), hunting (ducks, geese, deer, pheasants), trapping and trap shooting. john also played tennis for the first time last year in high school and loved it.

tate, our cockapoo.....tate is six and full of anxiety, has been since the first day we brought him home. tate loves to play soccer in our yard and his duck plush toy that sounds so real it's scary.

me! I am so happy to say I quit my day job, after 22 years with the company, on may 20th of this year to focus on oak hill designs full time. definitely a hard decision to make, but I am loving the no stress of working at home doing what I love. the color pink, flamingos, reading, and attending my kids' activities are my favorite things!

now you know about me and my family.....leave me a comment with your blog or twitter address so I can get to know you!

first day of school 2011

today is the first day of school for my kids. yay!! :) hard to believe that this is ashton's last first day of high school. I don't like to think about that for too long.

as I was getting ready to take the picture with both kids, john turned to ashton and said, 'you might want to move up a step..'. yep, he definitely has passed her up!

this last sunday, we had lots of fun out on spirit lake with our friends. it was REALLY hot and humid, but it was perfect for the lake! I could have used last year's shot of the boys.....they still look the same from the boat, it is just when they stand up that you can really tell the difference! :)

here are some favorite shots of the day...

john and his goggles....keeps all that water out on the tube



ashton loved the leisurely tube ride...



while the boys liked it a little rougher and faster!



this was Ashton's favorite place on the boat...soaking up the sun!



what is your favorite way to beat the heat?

softball, softball, softball, softball, softball!

saturday, we watched FIVE games of softball. it was THE absolute best day for softball-80 degrees, the occasional (although the last game it was not as frequent as we would have liked...) breeze, and sunny skies! here are some shots for you to enjoy!

i'm in LOVE....

with this awesome new stamp I just ordered in! I made this fun piece for my sister! find it in my etsy store soon!

a few more new things!

you will all (all two of you that read....) that I am scheduled for a BLOG MAKEOVER!! I am really hoping this motivates me to blog more often, instead of just using twitter and facebook.

we've been super busy over here with softball games (this week is 8 games in 6 days...) so I've just been trying to keep my head above water! and trying to create a new piece here and there!

some great new pieces!!

I will be back with a 'real' blog post soon, but in the meantime, here are some great, new items!! which is your favorite??

for me??

I NEVER make myself any new jewelry pieces.....I know that just doesn't make sense because that is what I do! but I am usually so busy creating pieces for other people, that I just continue to wear my OLD designs. besides, I can always count on my mom and my daughter to have a new, updated oak hill designs piece on! :)

well, on monday, I received a new set of stamps in the mail and I was dying to try them out. finally, a perfect opportunity to create something for myself! :) the photo below is the finished product of a sterling silver washer, a brass luggage tag, a gold tag, a pearl, and a heart charm. I love it!! perfect to wear with everything!!

I have also attached a photo of my favorite ring combinations! I am such a pink girl and I love the sage green color paired with it.

what is your favorite color combination??