Christmas Questions

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends . Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE !!! Just copy ro you blog and change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then comment here so I know that you posted it and come over to see what you wrote.
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper for the kids so they can tear into it, gift bags for grown ups

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial. We had real growing up, but they're so expensive and they're a PAIN to take care of!

3. When do you put up the tree? Day after Thanksgiving

4. When do you take the tree down? The day after Christmas this year, usually we wait till later.

5. Do you like egg nog? Yes, but only a bit at a time. Egg nog ice cream is delish!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? a horse!

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Well, we did, but the pieces kept getting mysteriously broken and ending up in bizarre places in the house. We found the set in the basement of this house when we moved in, so I'm not too heartbroken about it ;) I really would like the Jim Shore nativity set, I think I'll start collecting it.

8. Hardest person to buy for? my dad, definitely. Good thing he loves my scrapbooking, because that's what I'm giving him.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Me!!! ahhh, just kidding ;) Any one of my kids, Levi, my mom, they're all easy as pie.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? none this year, too busy preparing to move and tie things up at work before I leave.

11.Worst Christmas gift you ever received? A 2nd hand white kitten sweatshirt (with a collar!) when I was a teenager. Ugh!

12. Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story, A Garfield Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? When I have extra money during the year.

14 Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yep (sorry, but sometimes you do what you gotta do)

15. Favorite Christmas Dinner? Dinner at mom and dad's! Mom makes like 6 different pies, that's the best part! Oh, and it's even better if we're staying for several days, because there's tons of leftovers!

16. What do you want for Christmas? to have my house miraculously packed up by Saturday.

17. Favorite Christmas Song? O Holy Night, Mary Did you Know, Carol of the Bells (especially the Trans-Siberian Orchestra version).

18. Favorite Christmas Memory? When we had a silver tumbleweed for a Chrstmas tree. At the time I hated it, but now it's one of the funny things I remember :)

update

Well, it seems CRAZY that we're moving in less than 2 weeks! I don't have anything packed yet. I have been going through closets and cabinets, etc throwing away and setting things aside to give away. We need to get some more boxes, but I have some good ones to fill up in the mean time.

My mom has been here this week, we picked her up last Thursday night in ST Louis. She and my brother Neil will be leaving for NE on Friday morning.

I have had some sort of on again off again bug for the past 2+ weeks. I would get a fever and chills and my throat was swollen up and I had a really bad cough. I finally feel like I'm getting over it, I hope that's true! Both the kids have been sick lately too, and Alexis picked up something and got sick yesterday. Today was her very last day of school and her last chance to say goodbye to her teacher and friends, so I was a bad mommy and let her go to her party. She had a headache and tummy ache, but REALLY wanted to go...and I didn't want to keep her from saying goodbyes.

Not sure what we'll do this afternoon, but I need a nap! I was up 6 or 7 times with Alexis last night and twice with Micah because he had a nightmare. And I vaguely remember dreaming about someone's arms and legs all falling off.

Memorabilia Holder

Here's a memorabilia holder that I made for a scrapbook this week.

If you want the detailed photo tutorial on how to make it, check out today's post at The Little Scrap Shop! www.thelittlescrapshop.com/blog

Moving to Nebraska

For those of you that haven't heard yet (that care ;) ), we're moving to Kearney, NE at the end of December! Levi accepted a position with the State of NE at a youth rehab and treatment center and I'll be preparing to go back to finish my degree at UNK this fall.

It will be crazy moving a few days after Christmas, but if you know us, you'll remember that it will actually be the THIRD time we've done that in the last 4 years...hehe :)

Levi graduates December 15th, this is actually his last week of regular classes and then finals are next week. My mom will be flying in on the night of the 13th to stay for a week or so and then she and my brother Neil will be going back to NE. Neil has lived here in Jackson for the past 14 months or so, and he accepted a job offer in Scottsbluff as a roofing foreman for a guy he used to work for.

That's about it for now I guess!

Stamped card

here's a card I made with a new stamp Levi bought me in St. Louis a couple weekends ago.

December Challenges!

This month at the Little Scrap Shop, I was in charge of desiging the challenges and here they are! You don't want to miss your chance to win these prizes, so enter ASAP!

December Challenge - All that Sparkles!
I want to see a layout that shines, sparkles and glimmers! Use up some of that glitter, some of those gems, use anything that catches the light for this challenge! I also want to see the frosty colors blue and brown. It doesn’t matter what shade or pattern, just have them there!
*PRIZE* for this challenge is a pack of that yummy Basic Grey Figgy Pudding donated by The Little Scrap Shop!

December Sketch Challenge - Folded Top Holiday Card
What better way to say “hi” during the holidays than with a homemade card! Let your creative juices flow with this sketch. I’ve provided you the bare bones, so feel free to use your creativity with the paper and embellishments.

here's a sample of mine

*PRIZE* for this challenges is a $10 gift certificate to http://www.scrapbook.com/ donated by the lovely Jennifer of Mine by Magpie.

Mine by Magpie specializes in preserving the most priceless moments in life, in the most unique of ways. A 12×12 framed layout highlighting your photographs is a perfect gift for a new parent, grandparent, newlywed, spouse, good friend…the possibilities are endless! Each project is completely one of a kind, designed specifically around your choices of themes, photo sizes, and different techniques, Let us enhance and protect your memories in an unforgettable way. Prices range from $35 and up!
Visit her myspace at www.myspace.com/minebymagpie

Oh and did I mention that there will be a prize also awarded to someone picked at random? That’s right, just enter the challenges and your name will go in a hat for the random prize. If you enter both challenges, you get TWO chances to win, good luck!

December at the Little Scrap Shop

The December kit for the Little Scrap Shop has debuted with a bang! This is the kit that I picked out, so I'm extra excited :) Even though it just came out a few days ago, we're nearly sold out! So if you want one, get on over there!!

Included in the December kit are:
6 - 12×12 Sheets of double sided Paper Trunk Batik papers

1 - 12×12 Sheet Prima Paintables snowflake paper

1 - pack Prima Belle Fleur flowers

2 - Large crystals from the Prima ‘Say It In Crystals’ line

5 - Clear Stamps from the Prima ‘Build-a-Frame’ Stamp Collection II
And best of all…
1 - 6×6 Clear Acrylic album!!

This album is not like the other acrylic albums currently available. Our album has a thick, laser-edged, pre-drilled acrylic cover and back, and four flexible acrylic pages! We had these albums custom made for this kit, so you can guarantee that you will not find this style or superb quality of acrylic album anywhere else!

And since you’ve all been nice this year, we’re offering these kits at the incredible price of just $30 (plus flat-rate Priority shipping)! We know these kits are going to go like hot chocolate after a snowball fight, so be sure to purchase yours today!

While you’re at our shop, be sure to check out the discounted prices on our previous 2007 kits! Some kits have been discounted as much as 50% off!! These kits would make great stocking stuffers for scrapbooking friends and family, or how about a little gift for yourself?

Free!

Here's a LO that I completed for the November Sketch Challenge.

Fall 'N Angels

Here's my newest Layout. I created it for Challenge #2 on http://www.thelittlescrapshop.com/. I had to use the word "Angel" somewhere and use something "angelic" in the layout. The photo was taken at a fall farm and is of two sweet little girls that belong to friends of ours.

Check out the November challenges if you haven't already, some wonderful prizes await the winners!!!!!

I hope everyone had a great Turkle...eh..Thanksgiving Day!

On our way to Nebraska this past weekend, Levi was talking to Micah about a book that he had brought with him to read. It was about a turkey. For some reason, Levi had "turtle" on the brain and called it a turkle. Not only that, but while he was making fun of himself for calling it a turkle, he then accidently called it a turty! hehe!

So happy Turkle Day tomorrow everyone. Or is it Turty day...I don't know.

Here's a homemade chipboard album that I made recently. I bought the chipboard sheets, covered them with Prima IOD paper, embellished them a bit, cut holes in the pages with my cropadile and inserted rings and decorated with ribbon. Great for Christmas gifts!

Long weekend

Well, towards the end of last week, we got word that Levi had a job interview scheduled for Monday (yesterday) in Kearney, NE. So we planned a very quick trip up there! We left on Saturday morning about 6:30AM and got to Kearney at 4:30PM. We had some time to just relax and let the kids go swimming at the hotel after dinner, so that was nice. The hotel was really nice and had a swimming pool and a heated whirlpool that the kids could also get in and they loved that!

Then we went to church on Sunday at St. George and visited with everyone there. They're so wonderful, I really liked getting to know them better.
After lunch, we went around looking for houses/apartments so we could get a feel for what the market is like. We're just going to rent, and since housing is SO HIGH, we'll probably end up in an apartment. Which made me sad because our house is SO big here and I love it to pieces, and even a 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment would be about 1/4 the size of our current house!
I really do like the Kearney area though and it's 10 hours closer to my family so that will be worth it.

A fun surprise awaited me Sunday night! When we went to dinner at Red Lobster with Fr. Christopher and his wife, the first person I saw when I walked through the door was my friend Mackenzie! She lives about 4 1/2 hours from Kearney, but happened to be there that weekend visiting her sister who lives in Kearney. So that was a crazy moment! :) We were both in shock at first I think! She had no idea that I would be in Kearney that weekend and I had no idea she would be there either. So it was fun to at least say hi and talk for a few minutes.

I'm STILL waiting on my package for the December kit from Paws on Scrapbooking. They sent it out 2 weeks ago, and it's still MIA. It's being sent from Canada though, and mail from here to Canada and vice versa can be VERY slow and silly. I just hope it comes in one piece, preferrably BEFORE December!

Well, I'd better get back to work now! Hope you all have a great week!

Winter Wonderland

I've been playing with my Silhouette, and I made these pretty layered snowflakes yesterday! They were really fun to make.

Prima Tape

Today's blog post at The Little Scrap Shop is a review on Prima IOD Tape.

check it out! www.thelittlescrapshop.com/blog

Is a Cutting System for You?

In my blog post today for the Little Scrap Shop, I compare and contrast cutting systems such as the Cricut, Silhouette, etc. Here's a taste of the article, but to see the whole thing, you've gotta go to the source!
http://www.thelittlescrapshop.com/blog/?p=175
And while you're there, check out the new November challenges! You won't want to miss out on those cool prizes! And there's ONLY a few days left if you want in on the Fall Sweepstakes! Hundreds of dollars worth of scrapbooking prizes await you and it's free and easy to enter!

Is A Cutting System for You?

by Amy Hadley

These days, most scrappers utilize some sort of cutting system in their layouts. In fact, I’ve been seeing more brand new scrappers splurging on a system within a month or two of picking up the hobby. Some buy machines before they even understand what they do or that there are fundamental differences between them. It’s difficult to buy a machine and be happy with it if you don’t match it up to your personal needs as a scrapbooker, and the more you know about the different kinds of machines, the more informed and accurate your decision will be.

There are two general kinds of systems available, the manual and the electronic. Manual machines are those that you manipulate yourself and do not use electricity such as the Sizzix, Cuttlebug, Quickutz Squeeze, Quickutz Revolution, etc. You have to buy dies for them, and you are limited to the size of the die. The Cuttlebug is one of the newest manual die cutting machines. The Cuttlebug also features embossing folders that you can create embossed paper with and the Cuttlebug is compatible with die sets from most of the major brand scrapbook die cutters on the market. You can also cut chipboard, foam and felt easily with the Sizzix and Cuttlebug, and they can be taken to crops if you wish. The Sizzix is one of the oldest die cutting machines and is based on the “old school” industrial die cutters you see in teacher supply centers and colleges. If you’re a no frills scrapper and don’t plan on using more than one or two fonts, this machine could be a good fit for you economically. As electronic cutters take over the modern market, the older manual machines go down in price. However, some stores have stopped carrying them as well, so check into your local market...

For the rest of the article go to the link provided above for The Little Scrap Shop!

The Library is Closed for Ballet

Last weekend Levi and I ended up cleaning up Alexis' room because she was being a wild animal and decided she was just too "tired" and "sore" to do it herself. Well, we took her toys and put them all in an extra closet in our room for the week as punishmet, so all she was left with was her books and a table and chair in the play room. The play room is a huge walk in closet connected to her room. It's got built in shelves and it's a great play room because it's quite large. Earlier this week I noticed that she was spending hours in her room playing "library." She had taken all the Childcraft books and put them in the shelves in the playroom and she also took all the fall and Thanksgiving books off her shelf in her room and placed them in the playroom. Why? Because that's what librarians do. So she set up a library and took her stuffed dog to pick out books.

This morning, I caught her writing on a note taped to her door. She doesn't really write much yet, so she was just scribbling while she talked.

"The library is closed today. The lady who owns the library is teaching kids ballet. If you like ballet, please come to the library. But the library is not open. Unless you like ballet."

Professional Looker

So I was downstairs in the kitchen and Alexis was evidently playing a secret game of hide and seek. She was behind the stove and I noticed she was there and said "hi sweetie."

She came stomping out and exclaimed, "Are you a professional looker or something?"

huh?

I asked her what she was talking about and she said, "You know, everywhere I am, you look and see me!"

So that's me, I'm a professional looker ;)

Some new Layouts

I loved this photo of DD at a fall farm sitting on bales of hay. I took it when she was watching the other kids play, she didn't even notice. I started out with an 8x10 in color and black and white and pieced the color over the black and white manually (not digitally) and adhered it down. I used Tim Holtz vintage photo distress ink on the edges of the photo.

Oh Monday...

Well, this weekend was spent just relaxing and cleaning. It was nice, it's been a while since we had a quiet weekend with nothing major to accomplish! I got a little bit of scrapbooking done, I'm working on a circle chipboard album for Micah (from the November kit). I think he's really going to like it!

Micah told me that he has a friend named Ben and evidently he taught Micah to pull the neck of his shirt down and say, "I'm buff." *rolling my eyes over here*

It was funny though, here was our conversation:

"Mom, I said that once with Ben on the bus."

"Why did you say that Micah, you're so goofy."

"I said it twice actually."

"Twice? You guys are weird" :)

"Actually I said it 10 times."

hehehehe :)

Oh, and I'm so happy for daylight savings time right now! I got up at 6:45 and was actually awake because it wasn't dark out. hooray! Let's see how long this lasts....

Here's some fun pics I took of Alexis when I took her to Mc Donald's last week to play.

Pics from Last Weekend

We went to a Fall Farm near St. Louis last Sunday with some good friends of ours. Here's some fun photos!

Here's Micah after he made it through a corn maze. Goofy kid!
Here's the "Pumpkin Chucker" that shot pumpkins about a 1/2 of a mile! It was really fun to watch and really loud!

Here's Micah and his stagecoach.

See the cone sticking out of the goat's mouth? :)



The straw pyramid and slides

It's Starting out to be a Great Day :)

Here's what I got in my e-mail box this morning from Paws on Scrapbooking...

CRAZY BLUE !!!
You are our choice for Guest DT Member for the month of
December!
Your Kit will ship next week for you and we are anxiously
awaiting your creations!


Thanks for being a great part of
PAWS ON Scrapbooking!

Also note that you can take advantage of a
10% discount on your orders for the Month Of December and FREE Shipping charges
if you purchase products before your kit ships out. Kits will be mailed on
Tuesday November 6th.
If you accept this DT Position, I will email you an
online coupon you can use to benefit of this 10% discount for the month of
December.

OUr DT Kit for the month of December is Daisy D's Paisley
Sugarplum with a value of about 40$!

Woo HOO!!!!!

November kit debuts!

(by Angel - owner of TLSS)

The Little Scrap Shop is happy to present our November kit, ‘Color Me Creative’. This is our first mini-album kit, and includes a premium (and very nice sized!) 6-page chipboard album, plus papers and embellishments so wild and colorful, we’re sure they’ll inspire you to create!
Kit includes:
12 - Sheets Tinkering Ink Blur double-sided 12×12 cardstock-weight patterned papers1 - Full Sheet Tinkering Ink Slang rub-ons (black AND white in one pack - how sweet is that?)1 - Full sheet Tinkering Ink Funk Die Cut stickers (dozens upon dozens of awesome nested die cut stickers!)1 - 8×8 Rusty Pickle ring-bound 6 page chipboard circle album (these things are BIG, will hold 4×6 photos and then some!!)8 - American Crafts red & teal (4 of each) medium (6mm) bradsHandful (between 8-12) Rusty Pickle lavender buttons (various sizes)1 - Bam Pop Trubbles clear stamp
We’re including pics of both sides of the Tinkering Ink paper so you can see how incredible they are!!

This is also our first kit to include BONUS papers! You’ll also get:
4 - Bam Pop Version III 12×12 papers (everyone gets at least one sheet of foil accented paper!)6 - Bazzill 12×12 textured cardstocks in coordinating colors (2 of each of 3 colors)

This kit is HUGE - worth over $40 retail, but it’s yours for only $30 (plus shipping)! There’s enough stuff here to make an entire 8×8 circle album, and who knows how many layouts! These papers are fun, bright, funky and youthful, so if you have little kids, teen kids, big kids who used to be little kids, grandkids who are little kids or big kids, if you’re married to a big kid, or if you’re just a kid at heart, then this kid… I mean KIT… is for you!

http://thelittlescrapshop.com/

And here's a LO that I created using the kit paper. I cut the letters with my brand new Silhouette, I had so much fun :)I cut an "x" in the background and "ripped" open the sides so it looks like the photo is with

in and bursting out. I used Queen & Co Felt Fusions (green scroll) and cut it up a bit. I also used new Prima border tape, but it's hard to see in this photo. You can see it better on top of the LO photograph - it's a green pattern.

A Fun Time Was Had By All

Well, tonight I took the kids to a local church and they had the time of their lives! There was a fun hay ride through the woods, a bon fire, free hot dots, chips and soda to begin with. Then there was a huge carnival inside the gym. Tons of games and waaaaaay too much candy :)

Micah decided that he would go not as a power ranger and not as Shrek....but as a Shrek power ranger. Interesting, no? Initially he wanted to go as a DEAD power ranger. I asked him why and he said that it was because his costume was old and ripped and so it looked like the power ranger had died..hehehe!

Alexis was a fairy godmother. She used an old princess dress, wings that she scored at a garage sale last month for 25 cents and a toy magic wand. She felt very beautiful :) Here's part of the Scooby Gang that was at the carnival.

Oddly enough, the pumpkin that Levi and Micah carved after he got home from school today was sprouting.

In other news, I got my Silhouette yesterday! I also got the November Design Team kit from The Little Scrap Shop, yea! The kit officially debuts at www.thelittlescrapshop.com TOMORROW! So go check it out :)

Candles

I'm pretty much a huge sucker for candles. I love how they smell when you burn them, and I especially like to use certain candles for the seasons. I just like coming to a house that has candles burning, it just makes you feel relaxed and comfy.

I went to Kohls today and got a candle that I'd been wanting for $5.00. They're normally $10, but it was on sale, wooo hoo! If any of you have a Kohl's store and looooove candles, check out their Holiday Memories line. They are the BEST candles! They're soy candles, so they burn forever and ever and they're very clean burning. Their scents are very appealing and strong when burned. They're also good sized jar candles, so when the candles are 50% off, they're cheaper than Walmart candles which are SO not as good.

My fav scent is White Christmas which is a blend of cinnamon, mint and chocolate.
Now it feels like fall...I love candles!!! :D

No school for kiddos

Well today the kids don't have school. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but today both Levi and I have to work, so that means they're here with me at the office. With just Alexis, it's not so bad, she can watch movies downstairs or play on Grant's computer when he's not here. With both of them, it's pretty much meyham. There's 3 floors of the church and they've made a mess on all three. I would have stayed home this morning, but this ALSO happens to be one of my busiest days of the month at work. I'm trying to get the monthly newsletters out (220 of them) and there's just a lot of end of the month things to do. Hopefully I'll at least knock a good portion out of the way so I can just go HOME soon! I'm taking a 10 min. break right now for coffee and for e-mail so I figured this as good a time as any to post. :)

Hopefully I'll recieve my DT kit in the mail today! It's always exciting to get actual letters and packages in the mail instead of bills or random junk. Tomorrow I'm expecting my Silhouette to come and that's even more exciting! I've been saving up for months and I've been wanting one for years so I can't wait to play with it. For those of you not in the know, it's a computer based cutting machine that I'll use for scrapbooking. It can cut letters (of hundreds of fonts), numbers, and many designs and shapes.

This weekend, we went to St. Louis for church and stayed with our friends Nick and Diane. After church, we ate chilli dogs with our church family and made our way to a Fall Farm. So between us there were 3 families and 7 kids and everyone had a great time. My favorite was the "Pumpkin Chucker" which was a high powered machine that someone made for launching pumpkins across a huge field. Those babies went about 1/2 a mile!

There were also corn mazes, a straw pyramid with slides and of course pumpkin patches and all sorts of fall fun stuff. I'll try to get some photos up later on.

Well, my break is over so I'd better get back to work!

Ok let's do this

I've had a blog before. If you have known me long enough to have the address to that blog, you also know that I haven't updated it in over a year. For quite a while I was fairly good at updating it and then I just stopped. And the longer I didn't post, the easier it was to just let it be. It was probably right around the time I discovered myspace.

So here's to trying again!

This blog will probably be a little different, since I'm in a different place in my life. If you detest scrapbooking, you may night like it very much I'm sad to say ;) The first of October, I was accepted to be on the Design Team of an online scrapbooking kit distributor and blog with its own online gallery. It's called The Little Scrap Shop and being on the Design Team means that I receive each month's kit for free (they're worth about $40!) and get to make layouts, cards, and other projects with them for myself. We also get free products from different companies at times. I get one week a month to update the blog for 7 days straight. I write articles and tutorials and also write reviews as well as other things scrapbooking related.

If you'd like to check out the site and see more of my work, go to http://www.thelittlescrapshop.com/

In other news, Levi graduates with his bachelors in less than two months! We're trying to find him a job in Kearney, NE because after the first of the year, we'd like to move there so I can finish my bachelors as well. I'll be going back for Business Education (high school business teacher).

Micah (6 1/2) is a first grader this year and is doing extremely well. He's a whiz at math and science, and he really likes learning. Alexis is in her last year of pre-k and just turned 5 in September. She's also doing very well, and goes to school Monday-Wednesday in the mornings. Levi has been substitute teaching quite a bit lately (he also works weekday evenings 5-10:30PM at UPS) so that means Alexis gets to come to work with me. She usually watches movies downstairs or plays in the nursery. She's also really into having me print coloring sheets off the internet this week :)

Well, that's about all I can do for now, I need to actually get some work done seeing as how I'm at work.

Hopefully you'll see more of me! hehehe..