Merry Christmas

coconut, white chocolate, sliced almonds and caramel
pecans, caramel and dark chocolate
1 of the 4 fruitcakes I made
With the holiday approaching I have been busy making some candies and fruitcake. It seems like there just is not enough hours in a day when you have a day off. With both my husband and I working in retail it is a busy busy time.

I hope each and every person that reads my blog has the happiest of holidays and spends it with those you love.

A Few Layouts

I mentioned to our oldest daughter last May that I would like to have a kitten. The next morning she and one of our grand daughters brought us this tiny little pewter gray fur ball. A few days later our daughter and two of our grand babies came to visit. You can't tell from the pictures however, no cat was tormented to take these beautiful photos. As a matter of fact Maggie Magee played with our grandson with his toy train too.


The above layout brings back memories. Inside the snowman card is the explanation. Have you ever fallen asleep waiting for your babies to fall asleep Christmas Eve? Well, I did. Christmas morning I awoke to two precious baby girls crying. My oldest said "we was bad, we was real bad, Santa didn't bring us nuffin". It about broke my heart. I response was well Mommy fell asleep on the couch maybe Santa hid presents omewhere in the house. They were so happy when they found them in my closet. I hope I never forget this memory in my old age and if I do thankfully I scrapped it to remind me.


There are several years of photos in the above scrapped pages. I am in the process of sorting several years oof photos and scanning them to disk so they do not fade any further. Then I can send the discs to my daughters so they have pictures of the years of my memories. What did we ever do before computers? Isn't it amazing how just one photo can bring back so many memories? the weather, the season, the smells, the colors, they things we did and the things we hope for the future. I am thankful our two daughter grew to be such strong and elegant woman.

I haven't updated my blog in some time. With the holidays, work and family it seems time just flys.

Memories

I am just trying to go through an old box of pictures and scrap the ones I want to scrap and share with the family duplicate photos.

I am shocked at myself I didn't use my Cricut or SCAL program for this double page. I just used items that I had on hand. I am happy with this layout and plan to use it again.

Our Playground

Years ago my husband built a playground in our backyard for our two oldest grand babies. I wanted to scrap the pictures.

Picture Perfect

Let a little boy find a pile of socks and you never know what he will do.

It's Horrible

I thought I was protected. Not to worry, I am getting it back now. My computer shut sown and wouldn't boot up correctly. I had to reformat it and reinstall the software. I am still working on getting some of my programs working again. I have not been able to get my printer connected and my SCAL is still on the back burner. Wish me luck. With my hectic work schedule I am not sure how long it will take me.

Live and in Concert

Just a quick layout as I HAD to use these adorable pictures.

hair today memories tomorrow

His parents decided he needed a haircut. I miss those curls.

Tough Day in the Castle

When she plays she plays hard. She so loves to play dress up.

Playing Some More

Just Playing

I wanted to see how this layout would look if I took it into my sketch program.

Baking Cookies at NeeNee's

We had such fun baking peanut butter cookies that I had to scrap it.

Because

Just because someone asked if I could enlarge and show the detail in my Christmas layout here it is.

Our Little Rock Star

When I printed the pictures our daughter had taken of one of our grand son's I just HAD to scrap them. He is so cute. I didn't have an orange print paper so I had to improvise. I used an orange ink pad I had in my stash and added it to the background paper. When I laid it out I felt the page needed more so I went through my black & white paper drawer and found the mod one. It seemed the embellishments on the page got lost without it. I added a 1/4" band on the top and bottom and ran it through my cuttlebug with a sizzix texture plate.

Petting Aquarium

I realized I had not uploaded the double page scrapbook pages of our visit to the Petting Aquarium.

Thankful

I finally have what I believe is a finished double page for Thanksgiving pictures. As always I welcome your comments.

Back to Work

Well, it's the last day of my and my husbands vacation. The past 10 days have been great. I am sitting here browsing the web and my dear husband is painting the dining room. He painted the kitchen a warm French country yellow to go with my roosters collection and the dried palm green will compliment our dining room furniture beautifully.

Earlier in our vacation we had to buy a dryer as ours give up after only 15 years, LOL. The appliance dealer said it was amazing that ours had lasted that long.

I did pretty good until the past couple days. Didn't go shopping. Didn't spend any money. However, like I said until the past couple days. I did some searches on eBay and the rest is history. Bought a few tear bears, Cricut Everyday Paper Dolls, a Tim Holtz distress ink pad (my favorite ink for my scrap pages) and a couple pieces of paper.

I am still working on a Thanksgiving double page. I am not sure if it is strange it's just that I cannot seem to do single pages. Of my 5 complete scrapbook albums not one has a page inside the front cover. It's like I have so many ideas that I just cannot do just one page. And, I have to admit the last page is empty to. Call me strange. Who knows? Hopefully I can get past this one day. Most people that look at my albums (both adults and children) ask how come there isn't anything on the front page? If you have a suggestion or solution to this dilemma I would really like to know.

Made a Purchase

As much as I enjoy Sure Cuts a Lot I find myself going back to my Cricut cartridges, Cuttlebug dies, Sizzix dies and some of the other brands I have. I was reading online about the new Cricut cartridge Everyday Paper Dolls. If you have read my posts and viewed my layouts you have probably noticed I like paper dolls and Paperkins. I just HAD to order the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge.

I enjoy using my Cricut Expression for it's versatility and the sizes I can cut. I remember telling my loving husband I didn't NEED another Cricut. I am so happy I gave in.

If anyone out there is interested in purchasing my Cricut Machine Personal Electronic Cutter that uses 6inch by 12 inch mats I would accept any reasonable offer. Includes cutting mat, power supply, manuals, blade and blade housing. It would not come with a cartridge so you would have to purchase your own. The Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter machine is the future of home crafting. Simply by touching a button, Cricut can cut beautiful designs and alphabets for card making, scrapbooking, and paper crafting.

No computer is required, just plug it in. Place your favorite cartridge in your Cricut and choose from hundreds of designs in 12 different sizes; ranging from 1" to 5-1/2"! That's thousands of possibilities! Cutting customized shapes and alphabets has never been easier.

The Cricut machine weighs only 7 lbs.

Just leave a comment and let me know how to get in touch with you if you are interested. I would accept a PayPal payment.

Trick or Treat

I just finished another Halloween double page layout. I am being so productive this vacation it is scary!

Happy Halloween!

Here are the Halloween pages I have been working on. The photos were taken in 1986. I had forgot that the prints are not 4" X 6" like the standard is now. Next time I will measure the pictures before cutting the mats. Our two daughters on the left and yes, that is me on the right.

Premade Pages

I punched over 100 branches for the tree. There has to be an easier way to recreate this and not spend 2 days creating and finishing this layout. The ornaments on the tree I have had for some time. I purchased them to use on a Christmas tree for my dollhouse. However, when I had the idea for this layout I dug them out of my stash and used them here instead. I also used those fingernail stickers as ornaments. I look for them on clearance and add them to my stash for later use. The fireplace I received as a PIF and have been holding onto it for a couple years to use for a layout. The snowflake embellishments were given to me by my friend Amanda and have been sitting in my sticker stash. All of the papers I used in the Christmas layouts came from a clearance purchase. I paid $2.00 for the pads of Martha Stewart cardstock and bought 4 of them. The candle sticks were made by backing candy wrappers with sticker paper and free hand cut. The candles were cut from a Q-tip and highlighted with a gel pen on the tip. I highlighted the fire in the fireplace with some stickles. The little Nutcrackers came from a magazine I received in the mail during this layout and when I saw them I knew just what I wanted to do. I cut the picture out roughly. Backed it with cardstock and fussy cut those tiny images out. I then curled the long edges to make them look 3D and have dimension then attached a pop dot to the back. The teeny tiny Christmas cards were printed from online to use in dollhouses. They were the perfect size. Some of the presents I cut with my Cricut and some of the others wre gift tags that I purchased last year and decided they would be the perfect addition for my embellishment. The tree was made by cutting a triangle, punching and gluing branches of at least 3 green colored paper and cardstock. (I curled them a tough before attaching) I thoght I was finished and decided it needed more dimension when I cut ff the back of the angel pin and it still stood too far off the page. So I cut another triangle. I attached more branches to the edges and then added pop dots to bring it off the page. The angel pin was attached with pop dots and dimensional glaze.
My thoughts for this page was "The Perfect Tree". It seems everyone I know decorates theirs differently so I decorated 4 different trees I cut with my Cricut. I used beaded trim, beads, stickles, dew drops and some of those fingernail stickers. Since it was about decorations I then cut ornaments with my Cricut for page accents.
This was intended to be my quicky page just to see what the reindee looked like when cut. I beleive they are cute little fellas. Then of course I needed to cut a sleigh to make it make sense to have reindeer. The presents were a PIF I received some time ago that I was hanging onto for a future layout. I will add more embellishments to this page when I add photos.
I just think these gingerbread people are the cutest. When I found the cookie stickers in my stash from Mrs. Grossman I realized they matched the Martha Stewart papers perfectly. Imagine that. I used a little ribbon and some Christmas charms that I have. I still believe these gingerbread people need a little more. I will look through my SCAL files and see if I can find a spatula, mixing spoon, bowls or something to embellish further. Those little gingerbread people seem just plunked on the page and don't make sense why they are there.

I decided with the holidays fast approaching and both my husband and I working in retail that I would pre-make some holiday pages for our family photos. It seems like I never have the opportunity to scrap photos until well into February. I will add the journaling and page titles when I decide which pictures to use.

I welcome your comments.

Looking for a Recipe

I have been searching online for a Crab chowder recipe. I have seen many with crab, corn and potatoes. I am just not sure which would be the best. If you have a favorite Crab chowder recipe please leave a comment with the recipe or the website for me to take a look at.

I have canned lump crab meat in my pantry, small red potatoes, frozen corn niblets and some imitation crab meat legs in the freezer.

Our Little Princess

I just had to scrapbook these photos. When I saw the dress and the Barbie I bought it for her hoping she would like it. She said "NeeNee I am a Princess".

Altered Rolodex Cards

I almost forgot, I finished all the altered art Rolodex cards for the swap. I welcome your comments. I added some of my favorite things to my cards to be able to tell you a little about ME. Sunflowers-because they say Spring time and make me smile. The clock face rubber stamp-because when my Dad passed away my Uncle gave me his pocket watch, my Grand father's pocket watch and my Great Grand father's pocket watch he carried in the Civil War. The crown stamp-because 2 of our grand daughters love to play dress up. One of them called me last night and said "NeeNee I want you to buy me a QUEEN and shoes to match the QUEEN". She calls a crown a QUEEN. The lady bug or ant buttons-because it shows my love of flowers and gardening. The rubber stamped words-because they describe my creative side. The torn address-because I always seem to make mistakes and wanted it on purpose this time. I decided if I created a mistake on purpose maybe everything would come together the way I wanted. And last, the tiny postage stamps-because it is a Rolodex card and shows a mailing address and I imagine receiving altered Rolodex cards from so many places of the country.

ATC Ace of Spades

My second ATC playing card for a one on one swap I participate in. This is my rendition of the Ace of Spades. I started with a beautiful black and white damask paper. Added a few strokes of red paint. Cut the spade game piece on my Cricut after I came up with a design I was happy with in Inkscape. I them stamped and embossed it. The silver is gutter tape which as an extremely sticky back. I ran it through my Cuttlebug with a textures Sizzix plate and was very happy with it. The design I chose mimicks the damask paper. I them removed the paper backing and adhered it to my ATC. The buttons I have had for a long time. I never knew exactly what I wuld do with them however I felt they called to me to go on these altered trading cards.

Southwestern Eggrolls

it doesn't look too appetizing at this stage however, it tastes delicious
yes, see I CAN roll eggrolls, nice and tight with nothing dripping out of the folds, and the picture below shows them fried and golden

Yes, Southwestern Eggrolls! I enjoy them so much. We live in a small town and there's no Chili's restaurant here. I just cannot see driving 45 minutes each way just to have them so I made some myself. My husband loved them. He had never tried them before. Dip them in some sour cream or guacamole. YUMMMMMM!!!!!!! We had them with a pot of yellow rice and some refried beans with cheese melted on top.

Breakfast Anyone?

Usually on Sunday my husband and I have breakfast. He was so tickled with himself on his accomplishment of the hash browns I took a picture. He wanted it in one piece and golden. I didn't understand the fuss as you have to dig into it and cut it apart to serve it anyway.

27 years

Tomorrow will be my loving husbands and my 27th Anniversary. We have been together over half my life. Bill is a loving husband, father and a wonderful grand father. He is also a true Southern gentleman that spoils me rotten.

Altered Rolodex Swap

I'm ready! I purchased a Rolodex and have joined the Altered Rolodex swap in the online group I belong to.

Journals for Cancer Patients

Cancer isn’t a gift, it just showed me what the gifts in my life were. Cancer was life-changing for me. Many things I wrote in my journal were positive ones and that Cancer had altered my views about family, spirituality, work and the future. Thankfully I have been Cancer free for 10 years.


Journals for Cancer Patients. As with any other journal, it is a place to write down your thoughts, wishes, hopes despair and inner feelings. Shirley Nagel, has recently had this disease touch a member of her close family and she created one of these journals for her loved one. The journal has become a place for important phone numbers, medical instructions, notes for daily tasks, and love notes for the future.....yes, a life line! What a wonderful way to express feelings and thoughts that you may need to note.

The journals can be created by using a black & white composition book available at chain/discount stores. You can cover the front and back with beautiful papers and then decorated it as much or as little as you like. Leave the pages inside blank for the recipient to write down whatever they want to.
If you would like to be a part of this and create Journals for Cancer Patients, please contact Shirley Nagel at SRCattle@aol.com for more information. I hope many of you will think about this sweet endeavor that Shirley is organizing and pass it on to your friends. It is fine to showcase the cause on your blog and to include Shirley's email address for contact purpose....always use Journals for Cancer Patients in the heading title. At some point in life, this disease touches every family. From my own experience it helped me to get through some difficult times. I truly believe this is a worthy cause. There is no benefit for anyone except the Cancer patient that receives one of these journals.

Doctor Appt. Update

Well, it was time again to refill my prescriptions. I called the pharmacy and did the press this button thing, press numbers, pound sign, telephone number, language, etc. The next day on the way home from work I went in to pick up the prescriptions and only part of them were filled. The pharmacist said that the doctor denied some of the refills. I was confused and shocked and asked that they resubmit the request. On my morning break at work the next day I called my doctors office and questioned why the prescriptions had not been refilled. It seems that after 6+ years with my primary doctor he is uncomfortable treating my rheumatoid arthritis with the chemotherapy and steroids. He requested that I see a rheumatologist so that we are both certain that I get the best care for my disease. Fortunately I called the rheumatologist that he suggested and they had a cancellation later in the day. I had blood work, ex rays, dexa scan and a physical. I had to wait as he stated a week to ten days for the results. Next appointment and I went in I was informed that I was taking the right medication for my disease however he has diagnosed me with fibromyalgia as well. I thought that having cancer 5 times in my life was difficult. I am having a difficult time daily with my rheumatoid arthritis and now fibromyalgia. It does however explain why those squeeze hugs hurt. If anyone knows the triggers either food, weather or stress that bring on flairs and the difficulties that goes with them I would enjoy learning more about my disease.

Thank you! Penny

My wonderful online friend has created a wonderful blog page for me. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Thank you Penny!

Gone but Not Fork-Gotten

I have heard that socks go missing. Barbie shoes stepped on in the middle of the night disappear in the trash can. Those hair barrettes that mysteriously disappear. Well, what happened to my forks? Twenty five years ago we purchased a stainless service for twelve. How is it that over the past six years i have had to hunt high and low on the internet to replace the forks? If you find your missing socks, Barbie shoes, hair barrettes and my forks please return them to me. I will make you a home cooked meal as your reward.

My dollhouse

Just another one of my projects I have been working on for several years.

That Cat

She gets into the strangest places.

Playing Cards

First in a series of playing cards. These are my Jokers I made them for a swap in the ArtHaven Creations Friendships group.

More Garden Pictures

more pictures from our flower gardens

Oh Maggie

After our grand daughter finished opening her presents our cat decided she was going to take the packing for herself. Our silly cat.

Another craft project finished.

I finally finished my wooden perpetual calendar.

Happy 4th

We will be celebrating the 4th with our family. It was our oldest grand daughters 11th birthday yesterday. She has requested a strawberry bundt cake. It is in the oven baking as I type. When it is cooled I will frost it with a mix of strawberry premade frosting and cream cheese so it isn't too sweet.

My loving husband has the grocery list for the food. He will be picking up supplies for hamburgers, hot dogs, cole slaw, deviled eggs and potato salad. Of course just plain potato chips for the kids.

I wish each and every one of you that read my blog a Happy 4th of July.

Christmas in June

I finally got around to adding the pictures to a double page I put together last November for a challenge in the scrapbook group I belong to. Now, if I could just find those Thanksgiving pictures I could have those pages finished too.

Garden Pictures

We love flowers. These pictures were taken June 2008 of some of our flowers. Most of them grown from seed and these were their first blooms.

Leftovers

I just couldn't resist using the leftover page for a background for some pool pictures of our grandchildren.

Random Thoughts

Today is the last day of our week vacation. I did not get a lot of scrapping done however I did get to finish some other craft projects. We had a wonderful visit with 4 of our grand children and they crafted with me as well. (pictures to follow)

A very special lady and my new online friend helped me to design/make a file for my SCAL. I signed up for a swap in the scrapbook group I belong to and the theme is Splash Pool Time. I knew I wanted curly q's and I knew the words I wanted. Penny ran with the idea and made me a svg so I could cut it. Unfortunately I am an inpatient person and flaked at the end when I used my Sizzix and some dies to finish quicker rather than cutting the additional files she created for me. Check out her blog in my sidebar. She is an amazing artist and will definately inspire you.