Visual Designs by Chris

Chris Durnan

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Archives for April 2013

Mother’s Day Card

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This is a  Mom’s day card. My son and I made for CAD. 
 It says inside. “Mom you are my blue bird of happiness.” I love cuttlebug plates. And my son helped me pull this together. He’s so fun to have in the studio with me.The goal for him was to find some way to use the Gelly Roll pens that are glitter that I have. He loves to use them. I have had them for years and am still surprised they haven’t quit or gummed up. So he pondered this totally white card while I worked on something else and then said hey lets color the birds blue. And then sat and stared at my jars of embellishments. Easy to find something when they are sorted by color. He picked the pink bow that matched the ribbon I had already placed out to use.  Love the creative process. 
We decided to highlight our bluebird of happiness when there was a teeny bit of over coloring and we couldn’t get it removed. So we colored it with blue pencil. to make it stand out instead of try to hide it. 
Love it. 
Today a VDBC newsletter will be coming out. You can sign up for these newsletters on the front page of our store. 
Have a wonderful weekend!
Enjoy!
Chris

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My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

Birthday Day!! For our son! 9 woohoo!

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So in honor of my son’s birthday.. Here are some reboots from my blog to celebrate the day. Things that make me smile always. But I might be totally biased and I put in some of the stories that went with at the time.
Enjoy!
Chris

PS If you make it all the way through these pics.. you are probably, Mom, Dad, Nanna, Grandma, Papa or Grandpa or Boppa.

From May 2009

Yes that is my son conducting in the picture above. He practiced over and over the song because he wanted to be the kid that got the mic part. However, he didn’t make the cut I guess so. He decided if he wasn’t gonna be the guy then he was gonna conduct him. hahah. too cute. And as you can tell He is very SERIOUS about his conducting. haha.

*

And the practicing in our house included the bathroom. I would ask him what he was doing and he was sitting on the floor belting out the words at the top of his lungs on the floor of the bathrom. “What are you doing hon?”” I am singing MOM. It sounds good in here” My son has joined the ranks who sing in the bathroom for the acoustics. IT IS awesome. 


From April 2010
I am not sure what this conversation was about? Maybe like…
See this stick horse… You can be replaced if you don’t listen.
or See this stick horse.. this is what happened to the last horse that didn’t listen.
hahaha. Okay just teasing. I asked him what he was doing. He said
“DESENTIZING. You know mom where she won’t be afraid of anything &
needs more experiences. She hasn’t seen my rodeo stick horse”
 “Oh yep. you’re right” was my come back before I got..
you guessed it… the eye roll… for interrupting his training. haha.
From May 2009
Comments from my son this weekend that just made my Handsome Hubby and I just giggle.
” Wow there’s a porcupine in here”
explanation: My son was trying to get the strawberries out from behind a pineapple in the fridge and kept getting poked. But he yelled it like there really was a porcupine. just made us giggle and try to keep straight faces.
Setup: Watching a John Wayne movie and my son is cramming some toys down on the floor and lays his head on them… “What ya doing?” my kiddos response “Well I am pretending this is a saddle as you can’t take a pillow out on the range or you’d be called some Fluffy Cowboy” This time I was in the kitchen and heard this and my eyes were watering I was trying so hard not to giggle. My HHubby response was “You’re right” and on they went to watch the rest of the show.
Things to make my hubby just beam…
“Hey Dad Wanna Watch a John Wayne movie”
This left Rays of sunlight coming out of the room from my hubbies big grin.
I, myself, started to clean house. I have seen them all. so I was good. haha.
“Hey Dad. We should go on a roundup and take the horses and go. Wouldn’t that be fun”
Again my husbands beaming grin light the sky more then the sun.
Sept 2012
So while Dad was working horses, cows and having adventures. 
We got to hang in the truck and at the hotel. (Yes I got our truck back. woohooo!!)
My son is here kicking back as we watched Dad for a bit. 
My son almost beat me twice in chess. It was killer. He is getting really good. 
He just looks right at home doesn’t he.Love those dimples!


This photo below Dec 2011
November 2009 at the Races
Although my hubby and I decided my son was probably just slightly young for this adventure. We still had a good time. We got to about 70 laps to the end and we were sitting on a picnic bench behind the stands and our son was waving his checkered flag while my hubby and I listened on the headphones. And my son came up to us with the peace sign (2 fingers in a V). This is sign language in our house for 2 minutes and we are done/going/bed etc. So we pull off our headsets and he says “2 minutes and we are going back to Aunt Becci and Uncle Dave’s house” and he looks at my hubby shows him the 2 minute universal signal and says “2 minutes Dad”. He was done. my hubby and I giggled. I said really? did we just get the two minute count down? US? the ones who created it? We did go so we could get back on the school buses shuttle out of the raceway area before the lines were so long.

Cow Sorting below in April 2009 and the Fair

Pushing the cows with Dad.


My kiddo receiving his buckle from the guys
My big guy with all the big guys and gals who won.
His buddy Eddie

Look Mom!

A congratulatory hug from a friend
Watching the trains at the fair (He wants to go back and see them again)

My son’s BOLT impersonation at the fair. haha.
Riding with Dad from Nov 2008 and some cute stories. 
So here are my guys hanging out on the fence line watching the team penning. At one point a lady squeezed in and moved a bunch of horses over in the line. And my sons horse being smaller backed out of the line on her own. And my son says. HEY HEY HEY!! and the other adults who had been hanging out with him all day said. Oh Sorry! Did we squish you out! And they all moved their horses butts over again and Dalen pushed his horse up on the line again. Dad was grinning from ear to ear. It got to be be Dalen got asked for good luck by some of the older guys we know and Dalen would yell the whole time they were in there… Go Eddy.. good luck. gettem. Go Go Go Eddy. things like this. it was cute.

This lady in this picture owns the arena below. My son told me last time we bought hay from her he was gonna marry her because she had lots of hay for his two horses. ha. Practicality is good, but I am not sure I would ask him to marry so we could get good hay at this early of an age. hahaha.



Fishing in May 2008


Then my little one and his catch of the day.
That’s all I can do for now. Maybe some more this weekend. I might be biased, but Ithink he is so cute. 🙂
Enjoy!
Chris

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My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

Help Wanted!

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Are you interested or know someone who will be??
VDBC has come to where it needs some outside promotion help. If you are interested, please contact me so we can chat.
This position would be a commission paid based on sales for the month with bonuses for surpassing certain levels.
The right kind of person is outgoing, interested in crafting with digital cutter files, frequent the many digital cutter sites and willing to promote our store and files.
If you are a person who spends time in the many forums and groups, this might be the perfect bonus to your craft purchases.
Please contact me by email  with the subject  PROMOTIONAL HELP.
Thank you for your interest!
Enjoy!
Chris

To get quick fun updates of things going on, you can join my facebook page.

My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

Green dish.. “3 dish”

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We are going through a food rethink here in the Durnan house. Recently, we have been doing “not less then 3” with most meals. The three being a combination of vegetables. So the side of our plates are filled with some combination of 3 or more veggies.

Last night, we cooked the 3 dish, but we bounce between cooked and raw. Surprisingly my son is jumping in and enjoying it.

This dish was alot of green veggies.
*zucchini
*asparagus
*peas
*onion
*fresh rosemary
*smidge of garlic
Tossed and heated up just so the zucchini was starting to cook and the onion had that shiny sheen when its cooking.

Normally, my son would hem and haw but he ate this and said it was good. He was eating away til he realized the teeny chunks were asparagus and those slowly got left behind. But the rest got eaten. And there were other veggies in the dish so no worries.

My son tossed his with some turkey italian sausage and gfree noodles and of course for this child no plate is complete without a little cheese. So parmesan.

I also had some noodles and my hubby passed on them. He is avoiding “the box” when it comes to food as much as possible. Love it! He is doing such a great job.

Our “3 dishes” mean the veggies are filling our plates.

I have some red russian kale growing on the front porch I shoulda snipped a little of that to. Maybe next time. Oh and fresh cilantro, but that woulda changed the whole taste. Fresh cilantro is very strong.

If you have any lots of veggies recipes, send them my way. Cooked or raw. I am lovin’ it.

Have a wonderful day!
Enjoy!
Chris

Time Machine

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The best part about having a child in the house is watching the creativity and the imagination. How boxes get squirreled away to the room to become other things. We are on a massive cleanout as we work on countdown to birthday. And these boxes are getting moved out but here is one worth keeping. A box time machine. This has controls and doohickeys galore. It is the beginning of the term “upcycling” we use as adults. A serious upcycle when a box can become a time machine. Gives me a fresh perspective on creativity daily. Also makes me look at the simplest object and imagine what it could be. I hope my Cowboy and I help our son keep up his creativity and imagination. I think later in life you need these things to think outside the box. To think past what things are meant or supposed to be and think more about what they could become. If you see my husband or I leaving the hardware store with random fittings and parts and we can’t really explain what its for… just know we might be retrofitting a time machine.

Have a wonderful day!

Enjoy! Chris