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.

December Daily project

So I'm a little late to the game but at the last minute I decided to join in and do the December Daily challenge set forth by Ali Edwards, check out her blog for details (http://www.aliedwards.typepad.com/) The general idea is to create an album before the holiday crazieness and document your own December traditions and preparations. So I ordered this very cool Prima canvas album just for something different to work with. I limited my supplies to cardstock, Stampin' Up! Christmas papers (gorgeous by the way), red stickles, Christmas stickers and chipboard from my stash and my cricut. Oh and I dragged out my sewing machine for the canvas pages.

The very cool thing about the canvas album is that it has a variety of pages both canvas and page protectors, plus I added some chipboard pages to make up the 26 pages that I needed. I went with an extra day besides Christmas because my family has a pretty cool tradition on Boxing day and I wanted to document that.

I kept my pages simple cause that's how I scrapbook and its how I love to do it. My cricut came in handy as I used it for all my numbers which represent the days of December that I'm documenting. I used the Hello Kitty font.

And I finally found a use for those Stampin' Up! felt snowflakes that just don't seem to match anything. The felt adds a nice texture. I dressed it up with some glitter and stamped with red stazon.

Finally used some of my ranger inks color wash (cranberry color) my fingers seem to now have a permanent red tinge. The candy cane was part of an old large chipboard set from Making Memories that included a snowflake, candy cane, a tree, and an ornament. The tree is pictured is a chipboard page insert. (Shown sprayed with a celery color wash)

I had a bunch of fun with my sewing machine which went beautifully through the paper and canvas. My mom would just roll her eyes if she knew I used my machine more for scrapbooking than actual sewing.

you can't really tell but this awesome dot paper from making memories is all velvet flocked. Very cool. Plus I finally found a use for my adhesive felt borders from Queen & Co. they've only been in my stash for 2 years.

It was so cool to dig into my old stuff and find uses for them! This believe tag came as part of a MME Christmas line from 3 years ago.

The snowflake paper (from SU) has a flocked velvet texture as well. Here is the other chipboard insert (the ornament) sprayed again with color wash. I had to cut part of it to make it turn well and lie flat in the album but it works.

The backside, adding zig zag stitching to adhere my journalling cards. I made the cards myself cause I didn't have enough of one kind for this project. I took a journalling stamp from an old SU! set that I got a garage sale and stamped 25 times on kraft cardstock (my favorite being Stampin' Up!'s version) and cut them out, rounded the corners with my WRMK corner chomper.

I managed to use some old MME Christmas papers as well. I *love* pink and red together!

Some stamping with stazon and just a bit of sparkle with Christmas red stickles (one of my favorite colors)

you may not be able to tell but the pewter snowflake paper has shimmer in it and its so beautiful! (from SU! again)

the red polka dot frame is from MME, has been in my stash for who knows how long and will be the spot where I put my photo. I haven't included any other photo mats cause I haven't decided how I'll print them yet and I'm not sure what sizes I'll do.

I included December 26 because we have a family tradition of brunch at my auntie's place.

I'm super excited about this project because to be honest I really don't like scrapbooking Christmas. It seems like the pages are all the same and I'm really too tired to scrapbook or sometimes even take photos during the actual event. Hopefully this will help. It will be immensely helpful that I have a great photo printer so I'm planning to do a daily print and journalling.

Finally a scrapbooking share!

I got to scrapbook! This layout was done with the Memory Workshop June kit, but I added a kraft cardstock background.

It took going away for the weekend for me to get some creative juices going again but boy I had fun. Since I had limited space/time I just packed up a couple of kits from the Memory Workshop, a basic tool kit, some extra basic cardstock and photos to match. That's it, along with my laptop and some dvds. Most of these layouts are done with the June kit but I've added some extra cardstock and of course I hit the local scrapbooking store and found some too cute bo bunny paper.

I've been just itching to use these Prima pearl swirls and I finally found a cute page to put them on.

This paper is the Bo Bunny (striped) and I paired it with some Cosmo Cricket girl friday papers. The Jillibean soup journalling spots are a new purchase of mine and I love the ones in orange. Used a new martha apron lace border punch and some ali edwards stamps and done in less than 25 minutes, minus the inking accident that I had that I had to cover up.

you can't tell but I dropped my ink pad on the striped paper and I had to cut a small piece to cover it up. You wouldn't have known if I hadn't told you ;)

I didn't get too far into this kit (August or September I can't remember) because when I dug out my photos that I had put with the kit I wasn't too happy so I'll save it for later.

I loved the pompom ribbon though :)

This is also Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday paper and normally I don't use pattern paper as a background but I found that the alphabet paper worked well with the pictures.

I had gotten the extra felt trim (from Making Memories) and put it under the title. Not the best pictures but I loved that they were of Owen "reading"

Finally scrapbooking my kids' first day of school. Little bit of girl friday papers and jillibean soup journalling spots and done. Super easy and I love it. I'm a big white space kinda gal.

Adding journalling with these spots is so easy. They will definately become part of my comfort scrapbooking supplies.

Some of the new (to me) Bo-Bunny shaped paper. I loved these photos of Ethan putting together legos.

Because the paper stands so well on its on, I just added some stamps, a bit of journalling and a little bit of rubons. I figured that I better use them before they dry up on me.

A quickie from before this weekend.

I used a Memory Workshop everyday kit called What a hoot.

I did this layout a while ago and hadn't shared it. I had to document my new career change.

Sugar Free November

I'm taking part of a sugar free November challenge right now. I felt that it would be good for my health to cut back on my sugar intake. I've been finding many ways to cut my cravings which are getting better all the time. Lots of fruits, veggies, light cheese and almonds have been helping. But I love having some baking. Here's my favorite muffin recipe that has been a huge hit with my family, except for the Prince of Plain, he won't touch them.

Pumpkin Pecan Bread (made into muffins)

~taken from 375 sensational Splenda recipes by Marlene Koch~

Ingredients:

1/4 c. canola oil

1 c. pumpkin puree

1 large egg

1 large egg white

1/2 c. low fat buttermilk (or skim milk with 1tsp. vinegar)

2 tbsp. molasses*

1 c. + 2 tbsp. splenda granular

1 3/4 c. whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ginger**

1/4 tsp. cloves **

1/3 c. chopped pecans

* I don't care for the taste of molasses so I just add the extra pumpkin puree instead of molasses

** I just add 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Steps:

1. preheat oven to 350 F and spray a muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray

2. whisk together oil, pumpkin, eggs, buttermilk, molasses and splenda

3. add flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and nuts into mixture and mix till just blended (don't overmix!)

4. spoon into muffin tins

5. bake for 20-23 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Since there hasn't been much scrapbooking going on...

Some new photos of the kids. Crazy how big and grown up they are looking. My Owen is just crazy into everything, talking up a storm and totally knows how to get into child proof locks. Child proof my eye!

Ethan turned 11 and is pretty close to being as tall as I am. His feet are already bigger than mine! My Abby just gets more beautiful everyday...we're working on the attitude ;)

Had to bribe the older 2 to get some photos done, the youngest doesn't get it yet.

Still trying to find the balance over here. I forgot how much working full time can take out of you. When I was at the school there were no such things as 9 1/2 hour days :P

Did a major scrapbooking room reorganization and purge of just stuff this past weekend. Any ideas as to what to do with the box of goodies?

Right now...

...he's going to be turning 11 and will be heading into the teenage years way before I'm ready.
...is an awesome big brother to his little brother, now his little sister is getting bugged big time, course turnabout is fair play.
...is learning about least common multiples and I thought that only happened in grade 8 ??Ack!
...is loving Tae Kwan Do and its giving him confidence, yay!
...loves Club Penguin and anything to do with his nintendo ds, if he could sit around in his jammies all day and play video games he would.
...she is picking out her clothes with an eye for pattern, just lovely.
...is feeling a bit of that middle kid syndrome, we're trying to give her some extra attention for this.
...is reading very well in English and I'm super thrilled to see her reading "Green Eggs & Ham" to her little brother.
...is totally liking privacy right now, that and going to Claire's Accessory store to buy fancy lipgloss.
...he is not staying still for photos.
...is climbing on everything and then falling off occasionally.
...cut a bunch of teeth without me knowing it.
...grabs my glasses off my face and then gives me a kiss to "make it better"
...has temper tantrums by sitting on the floor, then easing himself back ever so slowly till his head touches the floor, then he cries. Heaven forbid if he hurts himself. What a faker.

Look at what was in my driveway yesterday morning

This poor little guy is a Greebe. He's a water type bird. Yesterday morning we found him struggling to take flight in our driveway. Apparently Ron says that they need water to take off. He tried and tried but could barely make any headway so Ron picked him up and put him into our rainbarrel (he was late for work) and the little guy was so happy swimming in circles and diving down. When Ron came home from work he put him in a pet carrier and drove to a local pond and put him there. Hopefully he can head south now and a find a flock that will take care of him.