Happy New Year! & my word for the year

New Years' is typically a time to make resolutions and start fresh in many ways. Ali Edwards has started this one little word thing a few years ago and I've spent the last couple of days trying to decide on what my word should be. There were so many potential words, I mean come on the English languge is amazing. But I've decided on the word INSPRIRED. I know as a scrapbooker most people would say its just an easy one to to but let me explain.

This year I want
to be insprired to learn more
be insprired to teach more (to the children & adults around me)
be insprired keep things simple
be insprired to step out of my comfort zone more often
be insprired to tell more stories and record my memories
be insprired to be in the moment more
be insprired to reduce my clutter and resuse my stash
be insprired to use more wisdom

Parent gifts

I had a fun inspiration when I saw the new Stampin' Up! catalogue that showcased this cool background stamp. One side it is a blank weekly planner and the other side is a to do list. I had been taking pictures of my kids that I babysit so I thought I'd make a weekly planner for each of the moms. I also did one for Ethan's teacher. I added photos into the planners at various intervals. Using my bind it all machine I bound the stamped pages and photos then I decorated the outer covers. I'm super happy about the project however after stamping those images 416 times I'm kind of tired of the stamp ;)

a tiny update

Just thought that I'd post a quick update during the first quiet moment that I've had in a long while. Its the same story here, lots of Christmas prep and just general chaos! Between concerts, wrapping presents and still working there hasn't been much down time for me. Hence being sick again. I've been keeping up with my Dec. daily book and that's been such a cool experience for me, kind of like a slice of life scrapbooking project. I'm more of an everday scrapbooker as opposed to an event type of one so this has been totally me. I plan on doing it next year as well although I'd like to complete to book way before the first of Dec. not just hours before Dec. starts.

I'm sort of done with most of my Christmas prep (except the cards! ack!) that will be finished this afternoon hopefully. I'm so happy that I'm not hosting any get togethers this year. Last year was quite stressful, especially with a fractured nose and concussion. This year I plan to just be in the moment and of course take pictures. Speaking of pictures I grabbed a borrowed point & shoot to take shopping with me yesterday (for my Dec. daily of course!) and I'm so bummed about the pictures! They are all grainy and awful! At one point I was hoping to get a nice little p&s to keep in my purse but I don't think so! I'll stick to my big camera and just know I'll get good photos :)

I'm hearing the stirrings of a little monkey so quiet time is over. I plan on posting the photos from my Dec. daily soon.

Our Gingerbread creation

this was our, and I use that term lightly, project for the 1st of December. My little dayhome kids did almost all the work. I glued the structures together and they did everything else. They loved it and the funny thing is the 2 year old had a longer attention span than the 4 year olds :)

The cool thing is that we won 2nd place at the Festival de Noel :) I'm so proud of my boys!

Days 2 through 6

We've sure had a rough week so far. Between Owen getting with a cold and an eye infection, Ron still being sick, me possibly having strep (and the whole fainting thing) Ethan is now starting. Poor Abby is the lone one standing right now. So without further adieu...my December days 2 to 6. This was a page about Owen's meds and the dvd I bought him to make me feel better. Poor little guy glares at me after we administer the eye drops. Not that I blame him.

This page is about my last minute struggle to get my projects completed for the Festival de Noel. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to but still managed to complete 3 projects.

Here's the reason that my projects didn't get finished. The night of the 3rd I got a high fever and went to be early. About 3:30 or 3:45 am Dec. 4th I got up to take some tylenol and the next thing I knew I was lying on the floor in the kitchen. I tentively sat up and I couldn't figure out why my nose was running. Turns out it was bleeding like crazy. A little back story, last year on Dec. 23 I fainted twice after being extremely sick with the stomach flu and hit my nose, fractured it and got a mild concussion. Never had a bleeding nose with that. So this year when I was bleeding like crazy I called Ron and he came and helped me clean up, lay down, drink some water then helped me with a bath cause I bled all over the place. Then we stayed up from 4am on because he was worried that I might have a concussion again. Needless to say I'm feeling better, sore in places, like my eyebrow (??) but now I possibly have strep. Whole nother story. So I took a picture of my poor nose which I fear may never be the same.

This page is all about the Festival de Noel. I had so many cute pictures that I couldn't decide on which one to use so I put 6 in a little vellum envelope that I had. We did very well at the Festival. My dayhome kids placed 2nd for their category, I placed 1st for my wreath and my nativity scene and 2nd for my card. Abby placed 2nd for her gingerbread cookie and Ethan placed 5th for his. I would have loved to have had more enteries but see the previous page ;)

Day 6 involved a whole lotta stamping. If I never stamp with stazon again it will be too soon. I'm in the middle of my great idea for Christmas and once again I'm leaving it to the last minute. Due next Friday of course. So yesterday afternoon while watching season 2 of the Big Bang Theory I stamped 416 images.

Dec. Daily update

I did day 1 yesterday :) sorry I can't show it cause it has picutures of my dayhome kids. I we worked on our Gingerbread creation for the Festival de Noel and it turned out so cool! The boys really got into it and surprisingly the 2 year old had the longest attention span for decorating (course that could have something to do with the chocolate chips he snuck) I printed out 2 photos for my Dec. daily page 1 (2x3 size) and added my journalling. After the festival I'll post a photo of our creation. All I can say is that a hot glue gun was a life saver for building our structures. It made it so much stronger and with little hands not being that careful we only had one roof come off which was quickly fixed.