Valentine Garland

I was inspired by the heart garland at Skip to My Lou. I am not very good at crochet, and I knew if I attempted it would take forever, so I came up with this version. I created my hearts from red cardstock (so the backs would be pretty), the used a glue stick to attach to fabric. when dry, I trimmed the fabric around the cardstock heart, punched holes with my Crop-A-Dile and then let my daugther lace the yarn around the edges. I fed the ric rac through the laced loops on the back of the hearts and hung up. Project took about an hour and a half start to finish (it a few breaks here and there!). Added a festive touch to our family room and was a great project for the 3rd snow day in a row!!

Got Snow

Just gotta love a snow day!!

Birthday Cakes

Fish Mama over at Life As Mom is having a birthday cake round-up. There are some really cute cakes there, so if you make your child's birthday cake or think you might like to, check out the ideas there. Here are some I have made over the last couple years. Last year my neighbor taught me how to use an icing bag and I tackled the butterfly and Strawberry Shortcake. It is like a giant paint by number and once you get the feel of the bag, it is not too difficult and I think the results turned out pretty good.

Think we are going to bake some cookies today. We have our 3rd snow day in a row and they kids are getting a bit antsy.

Winter Table

For me, January can be so blah -- after taking down the Christmas decorations, the house looks so plain. I count the days until I can get out the Valentine decorations and add some splashes of color around the house. The other day, I decided it was time. Got out my red placemats and these napkins that I made from 1 yard of fabric. Cost of fabric (purchased at Wal-Mart -- ours still has a fabric section) was $2.44 -- so 4 napkins were $2.44 -- the cheapest pre-made napkins I found were $3 -- so pretty good deal. I have Valentine napkin rings in the works too -- maybe the kids will finish those today. We love clementines around here (my 2 year old ate 2 last night for her dessert) and I find that we eat more of them if I have them out on the table. Not to mention that they add a little sunshine to our table!

First Snow

The girls got new sleds for Christmas and have wanted to try them out, but yesterday there was just not quite enough snow. After a few slow trips down the hills they decided that the playset might be fun in the snow. Nothing like a nice fast plastic slide when you are wearing a snowsuit!

Superstar!

Life is full of drama at my house! I love the Fancy Nancy books and so do the girls -- dress up now has added fun! Did this for 52 sketches (see sidebar) sketch #4.

Perspective

Perspective can make all the difference when you take a picture. Love this one of the girls, looking down at them from the upstairs landing. Just as it is important to get down at their level to take a shot, sometimes it is good to look for the unexpected angle like this one.

Have not been scrapping, but sewing and knitting a lot lately. Hope to post a photo of what I have been working on soon.

Cold Day = Hot Soup

This is one of my favorites and tasted so good these past few days when it has been sooooo cold! If you like Vegetable Soup it is a must and VERY easy. Thank you Martha Stewart! It is called Big Batch Vegetable Soup and recipe can be found HERE.

Sock It To Me!

I did it! I figured out how to knit a sock. I was always told that socks were hard because of the crazy double point needles and creating the heel. Yes, it was more difficult than a scarf, but I figured it out and now I am ready to make a pair -- see I just made this one out of scrap yarn to see if I could teach myself, and I did a little happy dance last night when I finished it. The class at the local knit shop costs $40 -- and I am sure it is wonderful, but I just do not have that money to spend right now, it making a pair of socks is on my "things I want to do list" and it looks like now I am going to be able to do it on my own. Yeah! By the way, if you are a knitter -- I used this pattern. CLICK HERE.

I am heartbroken about Simple Scrapbooks stopping publication. I just discovered it this past fall and LOVE it. I am a former Creating Keepsakes subscriber, but canceled it and started up with Simple because it met my style so much better. I will miss the clean layouts, the practical tips, graphic design tips, the project suggestions (I LOVE mini books) and the designers that I have grown to love. I find it kind of funny that I feel like I know these girls because I can recognize their work even before I read it in the credits. I will miss Stacy, Wendy, Cathy, Lain, Angie, Elizabeth and Mi'Chelle to name a few. The press release says they will incorporate Simple into CK mag -- I am just hoping that it is incorporated A LOT. This is my public thank you to the Simple staff for helping me cut through the overwhelming world of scrapbooking products to help my identify my style and do what is most important -- put my photos with words to make a story. You will be missed.

Invented Spelling

I just love with kids are learning to write! My kindergartner wrote this this afternoon. Invented spelling just cracks me up. Anyway, her teacher always has a Morning Message for the kids and she was playing school with her baby dolls and wrote this message for them. Love it -- what a great moment to capture!

Happiness is...

One more inspired

Just love this photo -- digital is awesome.

Inspired

Yes -- still the December book. I was inspired by my friend Angie last night to play with my photos a little -- add some warmth and some text. These will go on some extra pages in my album where I have some blank spaces.

And...still December

More from the December thing -- these are all the pages complete to date -- hopefully more completed today.

I changed my music option at the bottom --- was starting to annoy me. So, it is still there, just does not start automatically. :)

Still December...

It is my hope to be out of December before the end of January!! :)

December Daily -- catching up!

Worked on my book some more last week until I ran out of pictures. Picked up the rest of the pictures at Walgreens yesterday, so hopefully will finish soon. I am ready to put this project to bed! Will post more either later today or tomorrow. Oh, and figures -- Walgreens extended their 10cent pictures on 50 or more. Glad that I can get some more developed for 1/2 price, but kind of irritated that I stayed up late uploading photos when I could have been getting my beauty sleep!

Sketch Challenge Week #52

This is my version of the #52 sketch challenge. Had hoped to not be digital for this one, but even now do not know if I have completed in time by the deadline -- oh well, cute page if not. Love this crazy photo of my family. We always do a crazy shot after we do the serious one. Sounds like Julie has something new in mind for '09 at 52 sketches...52 weeks -- can't wait to see what it is. Still mulling over my "word" for this year. Too many choices! Also debating over resolutions -- guess I better decide since we are almost 3 days into the year!

Remember -- tomorrow is the deadline for 10 cent prints at Walgreens. Code word is DEAL and you must order 50 prints.

Veiws from the workshop...

I figured that I made over 20 gifts this year -- I was a busy little elf. So much so, that I am kind of in withdrawal. Last night, frustrated with nothing to work on as we watched TV, I started a baby hat for a friend and actually finished it in one night. That is a first! Anyway, I made 5 CDs, 5 sets of magnets for teachers, 3 candy bags, 4 coffee cakes, 2 scrapbooked calendars, 2 knit scarves, 1 set of fabric coasters, one fabric coil bowl, and 2 photo cubes. Also made December Daily album (waiting on final photos to finish), 4 napkin rings, 3 dozen iced sugar cookies, over 50 christmas cards and many thank you notes. Wow -- that is a lot when I see it all in print! I love it though -- in my opinion handmade gifts are fun to make, fun to give and fun to receive. Here are some pics I took making my bowl and the scarf I make for my sister-in-law. (Scarf pattern was easy and turned out pretty. Was hand-dyed wool -- so colors were just beautiful. Pattern is: Knit on size 11 needles -- CO 18; K1, YO, K2tog -- repeat until end of the row. Every row is the same pattern.

Oh yeah -- Happy New Year! I have high hopes for 2009 -- I hope it can deliver!