Happy New Year to you and yours!

This Christmas has been different. Why, I'm not completely sure but it was. Family and friends have been here off and on, which is always a good thing.

This coming year I'm hoping to post more often than I have. I am going to talk a little about some miracles that have happened to my DH and I, in the last 25 years. Just as a way to do some documenting of our life and things for my children to hold onto. Of course you will also see some artwork and to that you can also add me taking part in LOAD again.

Have a wonderful safe night everyone and hold someone a little closer tonight!!

Merry Christmas!

Family visits, 2 full days of baking, stuffing presents, and last minute shopping. I'm done and enjoying a little bit of quiet while my Step brother has taken my children to see Avatar in 3D. I am also waiting for the mailman or even ups. I ordered a few things that I hope get here in time for opening gifts tonight.

Oh, are you questioning the stuffing presents? lol, I thought you might. Years ago when my girls were younger we started a tradition of wrapping tops and bottoms of boxes with pretty Christmas papers. I never felt right about going and spending a lot of money on wrapping paper to only have it be thrown away in a matter of seconds. Plus over half of my family doesn't like to actually wrap presents so at least I can guaranty that everything looks pretty under the tree. We started saving nice heavy duty shoe boxes, fruit boxes and just about any other box that would work. This also helps you to think about your gift purchases. If you know that you don't have a box big enough to fit the gift, we have found that we have a tendency to not purchase the gift. In less of course it comes in it's own box then you are safe.

Merry Christmas to you and yours this holiday season. Remember the reason for the season is Jesus, who came to save the world. Enjoy your family and laugh until your sides hurt.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

I have discovered that I have a hard time doing projects that I don't really want to do. Normally, I can just push right through it and get it done. Honestly I am trying......sigh. My heart is just not in it? Keep pushing it has been over a year since I was given the information to do this project. Time to move on and get it done!

I found out a few days ago that family is coming for Christmas. So starting tomorrow morning until around the 28th of December we will have a house full. One of my very best friends is coming and she will be making us Christmas Eve dinner as a family present. I'm pretty excited. I just have to remember that we made a promise to keep our purchases down this year and not going shopping to look for gifts. I NEED to be creative, make something from my heart that will be appreciated. I hope it will be, anyway.

Christmas shopping is done! I am thankful over the years that we have taken the time to 'pre wrap' boxes!! All I have to do is lay everything out and put them into boxes. Done and so wonderful. My problem is I fight the hurge to buy one more gift almost on a minute to minute basis. I need to look at a few projects I have been meaning to get done. Maybe one of those could go under the tree in the next 4 to 5 days.

Helping my girlfriend's daughter is such a blessing. It is so much fun to see her face light up as we teach her to measure and allow her to mix things. She is so excited to give her gifts. That is when you know they come from her little heart. Hope they will be received as such from her family. I'll report back on that after Christmas with some photos of what we made with her.

Offical Snow

It finally happened, Spokane's offical snow fell Tuesday night. I spent an hour and a half shoveling yesterday morning. The rest of the snow turned into slush into the morning and we now have ice plus freezing rain.....oh joy.

This week has been all about finishing up my shopping, which I can say is done except for stocking stuffers. Now I will move onto having the trees decorated by this evening so I can put away all the Christmas boxes which are driving me nuts! My level of want to do much, has been low but I'm doing my best to push through. I have to be realistic about what I can do in the next 8 to 9 days.......wish I could have one more week before Christmas! The gifts that were suppose to be out in the mail to get to family for Christmas, just aren't happening. It is okay and I'm not going to feel guilty.

Yesterday, I also spent 2 hours in the dentist chair, not fun but necessary. I bit down on something at Thanksgiving so it was time for a new crown on one of my molars. The best thing in finding this new dentist......he can do a crown in one appointment instead of two. He takes a picture of the molar and the computer he has cuts the porcelain in the office. Today I just have a little bit of soreness in my jaw and where they shot me full of novacain.

So what are your last minute things to get done?

Busyness

So I haven't liked busyness for a long time. I'm much happier if I can just slow down, not have anything planned at all do things spare of the moment. Of course with two teenagers in the house life is sometimes busy but I count myself fortunate that my teens like to have their down time. However this Christmas season we are doing everything possible to slow way down and shop for the things that mean the most instead of buying mindless gifts. The most exciting thing that is going on is we, meaning the children and I are taking one of my girlfriends little girls for a few days in the next couple of weeks. We will be helping her make gifts for her family members, she is in first grade so this is a pretty big deal. They drop her off and are able to get some shopping done without little eyes around. The BEST thing out of all of this, we have made a new set of friends.

I received one of my Christmas gifts early this year just so I could use it before Christmas. I got one of these, yes I got the Apple green. I'm so excited!! I made a Christmas Rum cake yesterday and it was sooo good!! Enjoy, make one for yourself and do let it soak up all the glaze, it is worth it!

Make someones day

That is what I did yesterday. I took Stacy Julian's challenge and purchased a hot chocolate for a bell ringer. We have been having a real cold spell here in the single digits. This bell ringer was doing what she could to keep herself warm and she was ringing her bell a little stronger when I left. It made me smile and it is exactly what I needed.

This week has been busy and seems like it should be Friday already. Dentist appointments have happened for everyone in the family and I got my hair foiled yesterday for the first time since we moved to Spokane. It still surprises me how good I feel about myself after I get my hair foiled. The tones are a little warmer this time but that is okay. Even my children like it so that says something.

Saturday

This has to be one of my most favorite times of the week, the other day being Monday. I am usually up before everyone else. The coffee gets started and I just enjoy the little bit of silence. I take care of our five starving animals, not really starving but they think they are. I find that I actually have to work at being nice if someone gets up with me. So this morning I am just enjoying the rumble of the furnace, drinking my morning coffee in my new Starbucks Christmas cup and thinking about what Christmas projects need to be started today. I have usually started by this time, somethings should already be finished but there is nothing I can do about it now but just start.

So here is to a productive day!

What I'm loving right now

I'm loving, Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas. Yes, I know it is only day three but oh my gosh! He is an incredible artist!! If you like Tim's tags you might just like these by Ellen Hudson, she is following Tim in creating tags.

I'm loving, what Heidi Swapp and Teresa Collins are doing. They are two of the people that are on my I love their product list. Do you have one of those or am I the only one? All the kits they put together are sold out, dang it! If you love it, make sure you email Heidi and get put on a waiting list. Who knows, they might try to make a few more.

I'm loving, this idea from Stacy Julian and have already made a trip to Target for the albums. They also had them in black......nice. The goal with this project is to pick out a few Christmas photos and put them together for my children. Kids.....forget what you just read!

I'm also LOVING, that these two are exspecting thier first baby sometime in July!! This means that with my lovely daughter Nicole exspecting #3 in February and Angela in July I will have 5 grandbabies and will have surpassed my own number of children. That is a weird thought and the fact that I still have two teenagers at home......ya, I do believe we could reach 10 someday.

You just never know

This past summer was kinda crazy for me and all the things needed to get ready for our daughter's wedding this past September. However I did take time out for me and one of the things that I like to do is take part in survey's. Maybe silly to some and sometimes they are time consuming but they can be very interesting. Around mid August I think, I did a survey for Colorbox. After I was done I recieved an email thanking me for taking part in the survey and notifing me that my name was going to be put into a drawing to win a box of product. A few weeks later I I recieved another email saying I had won a prize box. Wow, what fun to get this in the mail.........

It is a beautiful collection of papers and accessories in blues and greens. With a few bits of pink thrown in for good measure. Gee....wonder why I love it so much? I just figured out today what I am going to use the album for, sorry to close to Christmas to tell you. You will have to wait.

Goals and Creativity

So I have a goal this month and that is to post 'something' everyday. I can't promise it will be awe inspiring or give you any ah ha moments but we should have a little bit of fun!

So for the first day, you need to know that this man is at it again! He is creating his 12 tags of Christmas and if you don't know who he is you better go check him out. You will want his product by the time you see all of his tags. That is how I got hooked and he isn't bad on the eyes either ;o)

Welcome to December everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

May you and I remember what today is really all about. May we focus on the good, leaving the negative stuff behind. Love your family and hold them a little closer today. Get wrapped up in laughter until your sides hurt, then do it again. Eat plenty of turkey and the trimmings so you will feel like you can't move.

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Mini Pocket

I do so love Wilna's coffee albums but I knew with this one I wanted to add a few tags. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE tags but they aren't always the easiest thing for me to work with. Well, up until now that is! I found Laura over at Following the Paper Trail and I tell you what, this woman is amazing with her designs. I actually stumbled on her Utube video's and now I'm hooked.

So for my pocket on my coffee album I followed Laura's general instructions for her Multi pocket envelop pattern found here. I did end up adjusting my pocket from her original design but not by much. Please remember this is NOT my original design so any credit needs to go to Laura. I do not have photos of the pattern pieces so please see Laura's utube video

In these photos you can see where the pocket insert was placed. You will have two pieces for the insert. Piece #1 measures 10 1/2 x 3, you will score this piece at 3/4", 2 3/4" and 3 1/2". Piece #2 measures 4 x 3, scored at 1/2" and 2 3/4". Each 3/4" are your flaps for each side of the tag pocket. These will be on either side of the page, in my photos they are the red pieces. Take piece #2 and place adhesive on the 1/2" flap, then place this onto piece #1 at the opposite end from the 3/4" score line. Now you will just follow Laura's instructions on how to place the pocket insert between the pages. Then Wilna's instructions for finishing your album. Tag inserts are 3 x 3 1/4". Have fun creating!!

What a month!


Where did it go? I just can't believe that we will be celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday! Well, all I can say is the turkey and the trimmings are purchased. It will be a quiet day with only my parents here but I'm okay with that. We had some of our cousins over this past weekend and it was a nice time with no agenda other than spending time together.


This month has also been a little struggle for me. It started out with a bladder infection, which I haven't had in years, then realizing that I am officially in full swing pre-menopause, and my Mom not doing well..........ya, it is all I can do to focus on being thankful for the little things. I've been taking time to be creative and that is helping. Again this year I seem to be having to force myself into the Christmas spirit. I can't believe how early Christmas stuff was put out. I sure don't like the commercial end of it all, it just gets me in a bug humbug mood.


One of the things that has been helping me and my attitude is I have made two new friends. I am so enjoying their company. We are trying to get together every other week to just have fun together. I have missed doing that! One of the things we put together was a one of these, designed by Wilna. I can't tell you how sweet these are and once you start making them good luck in trying to stop collecting cups!! I have a few in the works and will share them when I get them done, until then enjoy this one. There is a special pocket in between two of the pages so extra tags can be added. I'll post information on that tomorrow with a little close up.
Materials used: A tall Starbucks Christmas cup, Pinecone Press Christmas/Winter papers bits and pieces of their new holiday line, Snowflake punches, Tiny attatcher by Tim Holtz, Martha Stewart baker's twine, Snowflake ribbon, Snowflake brad(for encloser), Vintage photo Distress ink by Ranger

My Highlights and apology

LOAD for me may not meant a layout a day BUT it did mean I got a lot done! Final count for me was 32 layouts with at least 10 more pages planned with paper and photos chosen. I fell in love with creating pages again for my children's albums. It just makes you feel so good.

Day 29, Have fun with your page.

Day 30, Collections. The collection that is close to my heart is my bears. My DH started giving me Teddy Bears for Christmas 25 years ago. This is a start of my pages.

The month of October also held me to finish a couple of projects that have been sitting waiting to be done for more than a year. They were projects that I wanted to do for my blog give away. So to the ladies that won my give away, thank you for being patient with me and I hope you are enjoying your gift. This is what they received with a few other things thrown in. Only differance between the two is the colors, so I am showing you only the covers of both of them and the insides of one.

Can I have a do over?


I would like to start part of this month over! The part where I loose my energy level and then get an infection, which leads me to being on medication for the last 5 days. Add to the fact that a side effect to the medications I'm taking are headaches, well lets just say my body just hasn't been very happy. With a consent headache concentration goes out the window so no more pages have been done for the LOAD challenge. I have had burst of energy so in that time I have been able to sort photos, plan pages, look for sketches and pull out papers. So I guess really that is have the battle right there with 10 pages waiting to be put together, not bad. I'm happy to say that I'm okay with where I'm at and what I've done. So on to the last couple of days I had done for the LOAD challenge.

Day 18.....Prompt: Scrapbook a Holiday page. The picture says it all as my daughter looks on and lets us know what she thinks about having to stick her hand down the turkey to be stuffed.



Day 19.....Prompt: Pat yourself on the back for what you have gotten done so far this month. Celebrate! I celebrated by making two more pages for my daughter's wedding album. I just love how all these papers are flowing together.

Just a couple of things

I love inspiration and I get it from anywhere I can these days. I dare say I could spend hours going to my favorite sites and blogs! I thought I would share just a couple with you, who knows they may just inspire you.

1. I LOVE Wilna!! I've had opportunities to take some fun classes from her and I gain knowledge every time. She is being featured at Ali Edward's blog today and teaches you how to make a book out of a Starbucks cup. As someone who has done this......it is WAY easier than it looks. Give it a try you WILL fall in love!

2. I also am a fan of Stacy Julian, she has a brand new blog and it is wonderful. Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and set yourself to reading. You won't want to miss any of her posts!! Plus she is doing a special give away so you will really want to check it out!

3. Something I am inspired by and hope to someday take part in is HERE. A very special retreat put together by Melody Ross and her sister. Read some of the stories and be inspired. Can I say again.......I SO WANT TO DO THIS!

Where does time go anyway?

I just can't figure it out. Time, it just flies by.

The LOAD challenges have been going well for me. To date I have created over 30 pages in 19 days, which for me is a record. The reason the number is so high is I'm choosing to do layouts that I need to do for each of my children's albums all at once. It is a system that seems to be working for me and it is making me extremely happy to watch pages come together. Yes, I know there are a few days that are missing. I didn't do a few days just because I needed to not feel like I was rushed to post.

Day 12......Prompt: To use a title of who you are, a business card on the layout or to just do what you want. I chose to do what I wanted to work on. These photos of my children are some of my favorites. My two youngest were 18 months old and 3 years old, they were afraid of the sprinkler. Their two older sisters put a stop to that fear by showing them how to hold the sprinkler so you could get everyone wet. The key here is they didn't know the photos were being taken until much later in the event. Gotta love a good telephoto lens!

Day 13......Prompt: What one word holds meaning for you right now. The word that holds meaning for me right now is home. It took me quite some time to feel like this was actually my home. The love for it came slowly and I love being here now. The second page to this will be of pictures of the house with our stuff moved in. I just need to be able to get it looking nice for at least a day or two.

Day 14.......Prompt: What color do you feel like scrapping? Greens and Blues are some of my favorite colors. My scrapbook corner is done in these colors just because they make me so happy. So that is what led me to finish up the other half of the layout set from Day 12.

Day 17.......Prompt: Do a page for you, happy colors, favorite products or photo you love. I've always loved this photo. It was taken about 6 weeks before I found out I was pregnant with our son. We hadn't had a family photo done in such a long time that family was complaining. This would also be the last time I ever purchased 11x14 photos. I cut this one down to 9x9 to make it a little more manageable. I paired it with a casual family photo taken two years before this. It will be placed next to the family photo done earlier this month because the paper colors go together.

It is cold here

WAY to soon for it to be so cold! All the leaves haven't even started to change color, what is up with that? My flowers were beautiful then we had our cold snap, now they are wilted and dying. It is so sad, the only hope I have though is remembering that spring will come.

I was trimming the old flower seed pods from my lilac bushes last week and I was struck with the awe in seeing next years growth of flowers. God gave me a tap on the shoulder and reminded me that everything in life has new growth just waiting to grow. If I hadn't slowed down I would never had taken the time to see. Thanks God for the gentle reminder.

Day 9.......Prompt: What is the most important thing to capture in your scrapbooks? This is an a page from an ABC book I started a long time ago. Favorite photos of my children at different times of their lives. I don't want to forget anything about being a mom and wife. I want to pass my memories on to my children so they don't forget. That is why I scrapbook.

Day 10......Prompt: Scrapbook a dream or dreamy photo. This is my dreamy photo. I will never be able to get this day out of my head. It was a perfect day at the park and this was one of those pictures that you look at after you pick up your film from the printers and say wow. The title to this will be Shine, my daughter's hair was shining in the sun. So beautiful!

Busy weekend


The weekend was wonderfu but busy. We spent most of Saturday at my son's Marching Band competition, where his band took 1st place in their division and 2nd place overall. They did a great job!! Go Mt. Spokane!!


For the LOAD challenges I decided to give myself permission to skip Sunday. I am okay with it and it was nice to just not be in a rush. When I get some time I will be adding supplies used in each of these layouts. I just didn't think about it until today.


Day 7......Prompt: Do something you haven't finished. I made this double page layout a VERY long time ago! I've had pictures made up for way to long. This was such a beautiful day and it was the first time my youngest daughter swam in a lake.


Day 8.......Prompt: Just be happy doing what you are doing. I love these photos of one of my older daughters. They were given to me by my neighbor and I was able to scan them in to make pages for each of the girls.

Here I go


I'm plugging right along on the LOAD. The last couple of days I've struggled but have been pushing through.


Day 5.......Prompt: Fall colors. My two younger children playing in the leaves with their Great Grandpa. Pretty special photos!



Day 6......Prompt: Do something on your layout you have never done before. I've always wanted to print on a transparency. This was a lot of fun!!


If you like to visit other blogs for inspiration you may want to head over to Fabulously Artsy. She is doing a blogfest all month long, talk about some good talent. Enjoy!!

Layout a Day

Day 3....Prompt: Your childhood dream. This was it, being a Mom and Wife. Photo was taken Fall 1988......wow, the girls were so little!

Day 4........Prompt: We were to scraplift something. I scraplifted this technique from here for this layout. My oldest daughter was in The Wizlard of Oz, when she was a senior in high school. All the pages will be using this technique. Very fun! I also had some Wizard of Oz paper that I had picked up a long time ago so I just cut it apart. I don't think you can see it but the swirls have a little bit of glitter on them.

Layout a Day

Day 1.....I blinked. Prompt: To create a layout with Cardstock, patterned paper, letters and one embellishment. I have so many photos of my daughter Angela that are not scrapbooked I thought it would be only fitting to use some in her wedding album.

Day 2......Companion layout to the above. Prompt: What did you do this summer? We got ready for a wedding!

This day

Friday was a rainy day. One of those days that you just want to stay in bed or curl up with a book. It would have been nice if my day had gone that way but I ended having to run to my son's high school, he forgot to pack his lunch. I don't mind doing it really. I count myself as fortunate that I can be home to do things like this.

Saturday was the first time in over a month that we didn't have to be anywhere. My son was away at a Marching Band competition and the rest of us just took it easy. No where to go and nothing pressing to do. We managed to not even get the small amount of yard work, we need to do to close up the yard for winter. That will have to be done durning the week so we will be ready for the guys to blow out the sprinkler lines this Friday. Winter is on it's way. I am going to miss my gorgeous potted flowers! My geraniums grew bigger than I have ever had them grow. Everyone in the neighborhood has commented one time or another this year how pretty the front of the house looks. It has meant a lot to me to be noticed for our hard work.

I learned this past week is how important it is for me to not forget to take my thyroid medication. I forgot to take it Friday morning and proceeded to paid for it all weekend. I felt like I had been hit by a truck. It will be something I don't repeat!! I'm not sleeping well at night, not sure what is up with that. Something more to talk with my doctor about.

My LOAD pages are coming right along. It feels good to get things done but it has taken forever to get in the groove. My corner has exploded so I guess that is a good thing, at least I'm having fun. No more excuses for me to not get my scrapbooking done. I have all this beautiful product and I seem to just collect it, not using it often enough. I will be sharing my pages in the next couple of days. Just doubling up so it makes it more interesting.

One thing I have always had a hard time doing is taking good photos of my artwork. What worked at my old house doesn't always work here at the new house. I stumbled onto Erin Grotegut's blog last week and she gave out information on what is called an Infinity Board. I am pleasantly surprised on how well it is working. It really does make things look clearer. Give it a try, you might just like it.

October

Welcome to you - I am ready to embrace you and all you have for me. I am on a journey to change a little piece of myself, in hopes of moving in the right direction. I'm excited but I don't want to fail myself. I WANT this and NEED this!! It takes 21 days to make a change and I want this one to last a lifetime.

Years ago I took a challenge from Rhonna Farrer, to work on changing something in my life. I would join with other people doing the same thing. I missed out this last time she did it but have decided that today the first of October would be a good time for me to do this. For me, a challenge to change the part of my life that I KNOW needs to change! I will share my journey as I go but I need to keep it to myself for now. I need to enjoy this process and right now it is the scariest thing I am facing.

At the same time this month, I am also joining up with Lain Ehmann for another addition of L.O.A.D. I so need this to jump start my scrapbooking, which I haven't done much of the past year. It isn't to late to sign up, just scroll down on her page and she tells you how to do it! Come join us, anytime it is going to be fun!!

The Dust is settling

AND I do believe fall is starting to settle in. The nights and mornings are cooler, makes me want to pull up a good book and stay under a blanket all day. However, the days make me want to get out and soak up as much sunshine with more temperatures as I can. Daytime is still like mid-summer, 75* to 85*........I really do love this time of year.

Angela and her new family were on their way back to their home last Wednesday. I was sad to see them go but also knowing it was time for me to settle back into a real routine. It is amazing how tired I was after they left. Somehow you just seem to push through each day getting things done but I do believe I am getting caught up on my sleep.

I couldn't decide what pictures to post of the wedding so I made a little slide show. I wouldn't normally do one but with wanting to share so many pictures it seemed like the best option. Just scroll down and enjoy!

October is fast approaching and I will be taking part in the LayOut A Day Challenge(LOAD) with Lain Ehmann. I haven't done this in such a long time! I'm hoping that it will be a good start to Christmas presents I have planned for my children.