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.

Its only a couple of months late

This past August Ron and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. Crazy. I've been with this wonderful husband of mine for 11 years. Sometimes I just shake my head and I can't believe how blessed I am to have him. This isn't the best picture of us, kind of a spur of the moment kinda photo but it is recent. Here's to at least another 50 years together. Can't wait to be old and grey (or not depending on the avaliblity of hair dye), driving around in the Camaro with you hunny!

The latest scrapbooking...

I finally got a chance to do a little scrapbooking on Friday night. Its been so long I almost forgot what to do! I think between not having the actual time to scrapbook and the fact that I haven't been taking that many pictures of my own kids its been hard to be inspired. Yes, I'm a scrapbooker and don't have many pictures from the last 2 months. Sometimes you just need to live in the moment ;) Here's the first layout that I did of one of my new nephews (I've got 2!) He's such a cute baby but Owen sure doesn't like it when Ron or I hold other babies. I used Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love paper line with Basic Grey ribbons, Adorn it foam stickers and my new cricut expression Calligraphy cartridge.

This layout was done to document yet another child who loves to get into bags of flour and play around in it. Everyone who loves to feel the silkiness of white flour run through their fingers put your hand up. Papers are from the Memory Workshop's Everyday Scrapbooker kit. Pattern papers are by Adorn It. Title is done with the Lyrical letters cricut cartridge.

This layout was so fun, I managed to get some great photos of Ron this summer/fall. Love this man to pieces, even after 11 years of marriage he still makes my heart go pitter patter <3>Papers are by Basic Grey My little monkey streaking across the yard in mid September. Who would have thought that it would have been that hot? Papers used where the Cosmo Cricket Earth Love kit. That has to be one of my most favorite paper lines lately.

My little Owen out in the bush :) Papers are from the Memory Workshop's everyday scrapper kit.

check out this cutie!

A couple of weeks ago Ron needed to go cut wood and since it scares me to death him going by himself, we packed up the kids and went out to the bush with him. They had fun playing around after we were done cutting. The dvd player in the truck was a lifesaver. Ethan and Abby aren't that cooperative for picture taking lately but this little guy is :)

Seriously kicking my butt!

Last photo of summer (or the crazy warm fall we've had)

I won't tell you that I've been crazy busy, you all probably know that from the lack of blog posts. Besides working full time again, family stuff has been piling up. Can you believe that I haven't scrapbooked since my last scrapbooking post?!! It shocked me too. I'm happy to say that this weekend is *my* weekend. I've got a scrapbooking night on Friday planned and hopefully I'll come back recharged and raring to go for Saturday just by myself. Except for throwing some food at the kids.

In other news, my computer still hasn't arrived from being fixed. Fingers crossed for today. I'm super curious to see if its the same computer. I should have placed a blue dot somewhere to see if the same one came back or they just replaced it with a new one and will sell my old one as a refurbished one. Now there is no way to tell.

Little Blessings Dayhome is hopping lately. We've had a month of adjustments and are smoothly sailing into month #2. Last night I interviewed a new client who starts this morning and we're praying for a great day. My prayer for this whole venture of mine has been that God provide me with the right kids. So far its working out. I'm thankful that I haven't had to advertise and am almost full to capacity.

I'm hoping to post some new scrappiness this weekend after a hopefully productive couple of days. Would you believe that I have 3 Memory workshop kits that haven't been opened, a pizza box of new goodies and a brand new cricut expression that I haven't barely tested? Its driving me crazy!!

Speaking of cricut, with the purchase of a new one, my little bug is for sale. It is a very well taken care of machine that will come with the George cartridge, Jasmine cartridge, brand new blades, and 3 brand new cutting mats. All is being sold for $110 (or better offer). I'll post a picture of the cricut lot soon. Delievery will be included if you are in my area.