me & my scraps

head over to my new blog!

2012-01-11T16:10:00.000-08:00

Be sure to head over to my new blog. I have several new posts up along with some others coming soon, including Project Life etsy shop updates. After you click over you can follow my blog over on the left hand sidebar (you don't have to be a typepad user to follow). I'm not sure how many people are making it over there yet but if you 'follow me' then I'll know!! So be sure to c'mon over :)

a new year, a new blog!

2012-01-08T01:14:00.002-08:00

I've been contemplating this move for a few months. I haven't been all that thrilled with blogger lately, especially when uploading photos. So I've decided to head over to a new blog.

You can now find me here:

http://michellewhitlow.typepad.com

I hope to see you over there!!

stuff to share...

2012-01-07T17:44:00.000-08:00

So, I have some stuff to share.

But I can't for 2 reasons: 1) I'm working on a new blog & would rather share on the new one, & 2) I can't upload any pics because I need to pay for my google storage (which I don't want to because of #1!)

I have my cover page & first week done of Project Life

More pics of my December Daily

Etsy shop update

Good stuff!

I'm hoping to have the new blog up & running here very shortly. Right now it's very plain & very basic. Trying to learn a new way of blogging is a little confusing...but I'll get there!

So I hope to be back shortly!!

December Daily 2011 {days 3-7}

2012-01-03T19:34:00.000-08:00

What better way to ring in the new year than to finish up unfinished projects from last year. And goodness knows I have a lot of unfinished projects from last year...what, with a cross country move & a new baby!

I have pretty much finished up my December Daily with the exception of a few days that I'm working on and I'll be sharing the pages over the next few days. I'm also working on getting caught up on Project Life...both the family album and Addie's album. So I have lots to share over the coming days!

Left side is the backside to day 2, right side day 3 & 4.

When I was working on my December Daily I originally figured I would do a front & back side for each day. Then I realized I don't always have enough to share for the front & back of a page which is why days 3 & 4 are combined.

Left side - journaling for days 3 & 4. Right side - day 5.

I didn't have anything to share for day 5 so I used a picture of my daughter's paper chain & snowflake decorating that she did Thanksgiving weekend.

The picture was taken at the end of November but that doesn't matter to me. It's still part of our holiday decorating! Star punch is Stampin' Up.

The left side is the back of day 5. I just love the print of this OA paper so I left it as is. The right side is the beginnings of day 6. We had a lot going on that day - Christmas shopping in the morning with the hubs, then an orchestra concert & holiday program at school. So I have a few pages for day 6.

In the envelope I have some photobooth pics that the hubs, Addie & I took at the mall. Sometimes it's fun to just stop & take those :)

I journaled right on the back of the envelope. On the right side I have flocked snowflake paper as a little divider between the envelope & the rest of day 6's pages.

I love how you can see through to the next page. I added some Stickles on the edge.

More of day 6.

The left side is journaling, the right side holds school programs. I found the page protectors at Staples. They were nearly the perfect size (5 1/2 x 8 1/2) so I just trimmed a bit off the top. Even the holes matched up in my album. Bonus!
The hubs & I had to split up that night because my 2 oldest both had holiday programs going on the same night. I couldn't find a journaling tag I liked for this page so I grabbed one from my new Project Life kit.

The right side is from the same night with my daughter's orchestra concert. I still need to find the program from that night to put in the album.

Left side day 7, right side day 8. I cut down a trading card page to put some photos of the frost covered trees for day 8. Still not sure if I'm going to add anything to that side or not.

So how did you do on your December Daily?? Did you finish?? Still working on it??

11 in 2011

2012-01-01T10:39:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I normally don't do this but since this was a pretty big year for our family I thought I'd share some of my favorite layouts/projects of 2011.

So, in no particular order...

A big hug for Pooh - Noel Mignon {love} the photos
in this layout

Sweet Anticipation - Noel Mignon

Pure Sweetness - Noel Mignon

Addie at 2 months - Noel Mignon

Glimpses of You - Noel Mignon

First Snow - 3 Scrappy Boys

You Two

My girls - Noel Mignon

Nostalgia - Noel Mignon

Let's Paint - Noel Mignon

Thankful - 3 Scrappy Boys

And an 'honorable mention'

Little Did I Know - I just love this layout because this photo was taken just 2 days before Addie was born :) I still remember the day like it was yesterday.

And a couple of my other favorite projects this year:

Baby Gift from a drink container

Altered frame for Addie's nursery

Travel mini

Whenever I go back & look at the layouts & projects I've done, I realize just how much I love this hobby & how much I cherish that our family memories are recorded. I love looking back and reliving the memories. And I love that my children love looking through them just as much as I do!

First Snow!

2011-12-31T00:37:00.000-08:00

As I was going through all of the layouts that I've created this year it occurred to me that I never shared this one. I shared it over on the 3 Scrappy Boys blog but I guess I forgot to share it here!

I made this one using the December Add-On kit which has several Lily Bee papers in it that I just love. Isn't that newsprint paper wonderful??!

I kept the layout fairly simple, letting the photos speak for themselves. I did add some stitching to the circles & Stickles to the alphas to make them sparkle a bit...like snow!

Happy New Year's Eve!

mini cinnamon rolls with orange glaze

2011-12-30T19:26:00.001-08:00

Yes, I have more cinnamon rolls to share! Remember the cute little mini cinnamon rolls I shared a couple weeks ago?? Well, I've made an improvement. One of my favorite cinnamon rolls are the Pillsbury orange rolls. Makes my mouth water just thinking about them :)

I kept the recipe for the mini cinnamon rolls the same but changed the recipe for the glaze/frosting.

Make 2 rectangles from 4 of the triangles of crescent rolls pressed together, brush with melted butter, then sprinkle with cinnamon & brown sugar.

I am very liberal with the cinnamon & brown sugar :) Roll up & cut into 8-9 pieces & place in a well greased mini muffin pan. Bake at 375 for 10-11 min.

Don't they look yummy??

For the glaze, mix:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1-2T milk
2T melted butter
1/2 tsp orange extract

Drizzle on your cinnamon rolls, enjoy & wish that you had made a double batch!

Thankful

2011-12-29T12:01:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite photos of Addie right now. Love it :)

I created this layout using the 3 Scrappy Boys December Add-On kit. I cut the 'count your blessings' from the twill ribbon in the November Trio kit and also added some Studio Calico tissue scraps along the bottom of the photo.

the day after...

2011-12-26T16:42:00.002-08:00

We are still hanging out, the kids playing with their Christmas presents, being lazy, being together. I love hanging out the day after Christmas. Nowhere to go, just be home & relax!

I'm not one of those people who tears everything down the day after. I like to savor it. Enjoy it. I almost hate checking facebook the day after because inevitably there are people making comments like 'glad it's over', 'can't wait to get this tree down', 'ready for it to be done'. Really?? Oh sure, the tornado of Christmas paper that ran through my house yesterday left destruction in it's path. But it also left 3 happy children!

It was Addie's first Christmas. There won't be another like it. Oh sure, next year will be great. It'll be so much fun with her walking & saying a handful of words. But there only one first!

It snowed just a little bit on Christmas Eve which was very exciting.

Not snowman making snow but just enough to get us excited!

The kids made gingerbread houses while I made some cookies for Santa :)

We went to church on Christmas Eve as usual.

Then stopped at Starbucks on the way home for some yummy hot chocolate. The kids wanted that to be our new tradition :)

Christmas morning was wonderful...even though I was dead tired from all of my children keeping me up all.night.long.

It was a Lego's Christmas for Ben & girly stuff from Justice & American Girl for Olivia...and a few baby toys for Addie :)

We spent the entire day in pjs, enjoyed some Christmas music from my new cd, had yummy food, cookies & holiday punch.

And we tried to whip each other's butts at Mario Kart

Addie cracked me up at her fascination with the wrapping paper

Those eyes! hehe That's her latest look over the last couple of days. I have several pics of her doing that. One of her favorite toys was the puppy her big brother & sister got for her :)

That and her Fozzie Bear...

And the kids got me a hee-larious Beaker ornament & a Mickey Mouse popcorn bowl.

Yes, they certainly know me well. And yes, I was still in my pjs, it was about 9pm and that was my dinner :)

And now I have to tear down the Christmas tree...not because I want it down but because it is so dried out that it has become a fire hazard. Boo! So that's what I'll be doing tomorrow. Gonna leave it up just one more day :) All of the other decorations will stay up til New Year's Day.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

have a blessed Christmas

2011-12-25T12:17:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Eve!

2011-12-24T11:05:00.002-08:00

Today's Agenda:

lots of cookie baking

homemade meatballs in the crock pot

gingerbread houses

Christmas pjs for the kids (still have to make those!)

church

and maybe a quick stop at Starbucks for some yummy hot chocolate on the way home :)

(that was my grocery shopping trip last night...everything is made better with hot chocolate! Mmmmm.....)

opening a few presents (the kids always open the present from each other on Christmas Eve)

tracking Santa on NORAD

enjoying Christmas Eve with each other

Have a blessed day!

winter break

2011-12-23T11:47:00.002-08:00

Christmas is coming way too fast this year. It's my favorite time of year...I wish it would slow down!

Picked up some vintage ornaments at Goodwill a week ago. Score! And I picked up this cute vintage suitcase at my quilt retreat in October. I'm planning on redoing the inside (one of the many items on my 'to-do' list!)

Some new decorations, some old, some handmade. Can you tell I like Charlie Brown ;)

We went to see Arthur Christmas with friends.

Such a great movie that I'm thinking of taking the kids to see it again next week.

We went to see A Christmas Story playing at the dollar movies. Awesome.

Many hours have been spent on Club Penguin...

Something fun came in the mail...

Project Life for next year...I ordered Clementine for Addie's 2nd year and for our family album. Which reminds me...I realize I haven't been very good at sharing my pages. So next week I'll be sharing Addie's album...I promise :)

I've been working on my December Daily (and so has my oldest daughter). Almost caught up. My friend Theresa & her gang came over yesterday.

The boys...

The girls...

hehe :)

We still have gingerbread houses, popcorn garland, Christmas cookies & a few other holiday crafts to make :)

I have to brave the grocery store today. And possibly Target. My daughter's birthday is just 8 days after Christmas so it makes for an even busier Christmas season. It's nearly noon and I'm still in my pjs. Guess I'd better get going!!

Merry Christmas Eve-Eve!!

what I want for Christmas...

2011-12-23T10:37:00.000-08:00

I've had this Kitchenaid stand mixer for 11 years. The bowl is missing because it's currently in the dishwasher from making some yummy cookies. And there's probably food on the side of it. It's well loved :)

My hubby bought it for me our first Christmas together. I never asked for it. Somehow he knew...and it's been one of the best Christmas presents I've ever received.

Cause I love to bake. Especially at Christmas time.

But check out this lovely from Kitchenaid...

It's a thing of beauty. A 7 qt bowl-lift residential stand mixer. Seven!! To me that translates into double batches of Christmas cookies. Drool....

You can win one by going to Mom Spotted and entering her giveaway.

Someone's Christmas is going to get a whole lot merrier!!

mini cinnamon rolls

2011-12-21T17:00:00.002-08:00

I made these for breakfast today. Aren't they cute??! I was looking for something quick & easy to make. I didn't feel like making muffins (and a big mess in the kitchen) because the plumber was coming to install my new dishwasher.

{Insert very excited squeal here}

An early Christmas present. Something that was not asked for but certainly appreciated.

Back to the mini cinnamon rolls...

Found this recipe on pinterest (of course!) and had to try it out. And as luck would have it I had one tube of crescent rolls in the fridge!

I used a very liberal amount of cinnamon & brown sugar. And be sure to spray the pan very well because the brown sugar likes to stick (and cook) to the pan. I'm going to try doing these on a stone next time for easier cleanup. The only thing I would change next time is the frosting...I didn't really taste the maple syrup (and I did use real maple syrup) so next time I'll probably use vanilla extract.

You can be that I'll be making these on Christmas morning along with my crock pot breakfast casserole.

Now I gotta run & go do some dishes...just for the heck of it! hehe

6 months

2011-12-21T00:30:00.003-08:00

It is amazing how much this little one has changed...even just in the past month. She has quite the personality and is just so stinkin' much fun!

She loves to babble/talk/blow spit bubbles/grunt like she's filling her diaper (even though she isn't). She can be quite loud when she wants to be.

She loves to grab her toes...and many times will pop that big toe right in her mouth!

She has the best disposition & is rarely fussy. If she's upset, there's a reason - aka messy diaper/hungry/tired.

She's better about being around strangers...for the most part. She still sometimes gets upset if there's too many people around her that she doesn't know. Like in my older daughter's classroom when all the girls were crowding around her. Kinda freaked her out & she started wailing.

She loves to try and grab everything...my hair, my Coke, my water bottle, my necklace, whatever. She still hasn't quite figured out how to get those hands to work how she wants but she sure is trying.

She got her first tooth just 2 days after turning 6 months old. She has mastered rolling over & seems very eager to crawl. She is a very observant baby & loves to watch & study everything.

She loves her mobile & little music/aquarium thingy in her crib. She loves to be sung to. She also loves stuffed animals so we were sure to ask Santa for a Fozzie Bear puppet for Christmas :)

She loves to lift her legs way up & slam them down when she's in her crib. Her big sister used to do the same thing. And now she can wiggle around a bit which means finding her in her crib like this...

I decided to get one of those breatheable bumper pads because she was getting her legs caught in the crib slats. So far I'm really happy with it. It's a lot less bulky than a regular bumper & very easy to wash.

She's a spitter-upper but thankfully {for the most part} she's not as bad as her big sister was. Now there was a super spitter upper!

She weighs just over 17lbs and for the most part wears 6-9 month clothes although some are a little big on her & some of her 3-6 month clothes still fit. Just depends on the maker of the clothes.

So far her favorite baby food is bananas...just like her daddy :)

I wish time would slow down just a bit. We're just having so much fun with her :)

tis the season...

2011-12-20T09:32:00.000-08:00

for waiting in line at the post office! This was the scene yesterday...

Strollers come in quite handy when you have a lot to carry!! The last couple years I've been late getting packages out. And actually we have one more to go out. Lots to mail around the holidays with everyone living in different states.

We had fun with those boxes before we packed 'em up :)

Fra-gee-lay...that must be Italian!

I hope your holidays are going well!! We're heading out today to get a few last things, heading to the post office to mail the last 2 packages, & then we can spend some time making yummy Christmas treats :)

sweet & tangy meatballs

2011-12-17T23:27:00.001-08:00

I've been making this recipe for probably 15 years...at least. And it's so darn easy you won't even believe it.

4 ingredients.

That's it.

Oh, and a crock pot. And a whisk :)

They're perfect for pot-lucks because there's virtually no prep time. Oh sure, you could make the meatballs from scratch. And I do with my other meatball recipe that I make on Christmas Eve. But this recipe...just stick with the frozen kind. It works just fine.

Place the frozen meatballs in your crock pot. Mix together 1-36 ounce bottle of ketchup, 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce and 3/4 cup packed brown sugar. Pour mixture over the meatballs & stir gently to coat. Then set the crock pot on low for 4-6 hours.

That's it.

Seriously.

Told ya it was easy!

Now, don't overcook them or the meatballs will start to fall apart. Usually I'll pop them in the crock pot a few hours before I'm going to have company, then turn it off just before serving. Crock pots temps vary, so you may need to cook yours a little shorter or longer.

I made these for our Christmas party at mom's group last week. I knew I didn't have a ton of time to get them cooked in the morning so I thawed the meatballs the day before. Then I cooked them on high for the first hour & a half, then on low for another hour & they were good to go.

Since there weren't too many left from the party I made more the next day for dinner :)

My kids devoured them. Even the picky kid asked for seconds :)

yesterday's {POTD}

2011-12-15T10:21:00.000-08:00

{picture of the day}

Just Addie & me...her snoozing in my lap. At night when everyone else is in bed. My favorite time of day :)

The photo is a bit grainy. The vacuum cleaner is still out. That's ok. That's life. At least you can't see that the dresser is dusty ;)

I love that you can see her little hand. So precious.

This one will probably go in Addie's Project Life album rather than the December Daily but we'll see.

Today I'm working on the kid's treat bags for their last day of school tomorrow. Probably blizzard bites & pretzel hugs (recipes to follow for sure!)

And catching up on my December Daily. I have the pics printed & ready to go in my book.

10 more days until Christmas!!

holiday inspiration {via} pinterest

2011-12-14T00:15:00.003-08:00

Darn you Pinterest. You are such a drain on my time some days. But oh the inspiration! And now my 'to do' list is oh so long!

(Click on any of the images to take you to the link)

InLinkz.com

If I had the time I would love to use the snowmen cups filled with blizzard bites for my son's class but given my kids only have 3 days of school left I don't think that's gonna happen. Maybe next year.

Definitely going to do the Reindeer Feet...I'm thinking a canvas with all 3 of my kiddos & their feet :)

And when I see those beautiful vintage ornaments it makes me want to scour the earth to get some of my own! Believe me, when I'm at garage sales & thrift shops I'm always keeping an eye open for them.

When am I gonna start looking up these ideas in August so I can be on top of things for the holidays?? Anyone else feel this way?? hehe Oh wait a minute, I had a 2 month old in August this year!

I hope this gives you some inspiration! You can follow me on Pinterest to see some of the other goodies (edible & non-edible!) I have pinned :)

our weekend - the good, the bad & the ugly

2011-12-12T12:24:00.000-08:00

First of all, before I get into our weekend I wanted to comment on a reader's comment. Shannon had asked about my daughter's first communion dress that I made last year. To see the finished dress you can go to this post Shannon :)

********************

Now, on to our weekend. Saturday we decided to head to the mall downtown to see Santa, do a little shopping, grab lunch & then see the new Muppet Movie.

We had to wait a bit to see Santa. Cause, ya know, he's a very popular fellow this time of year. As we were waiting in line I realized that Addie had cut her first tooth. Woo hoo! Just a day after she turned 6 months old :)

Anyway, our visit with the big man was very uneventful...as in, no screaming for Addie :)

She was more interested in looking at the fur on his red jacket...and at the lady behind the camera who was squeezing a squeaker toy :)

One seriously big Christmas tree!

A view from the 4th floor at night...

We also made sure to stop at Macy's & mail our letters to Santa in the 'special' mail box :)

The Muppet Movie was cute. Not what I expected, not like the 'old days' but still cute.

Then Sunday hit...

and at about 3am we had our first casualty. Ben got sick. Then Olivia got up that morning feeling sick. We all felt super cruddy but Ben & Olivia got hit the hardest.

We stayed in pjs all day. Emergency buckets strewn about the house. Unfortunately mom is never allowed to be sick so I had to run out to the store to get stuff for homemade chicken soup. Boy, that sure hit the spot!

I've already had to disinfect all of the bathrooms & change out the toothbrushes. I'll probably do that again tomorrow.

By nighttime the extreme symptoms had ceased. Thankfully everyone is feeling better today. The kids stayed home from school today and only have 4 more days til winter break.

Hard to believe Christmas is in less than 2 weeks!!!!

I still haven't mailed any Christmas cards (or even begun to pull that together). I haven't gotten any teacher gifts, or class treat bags, mailed out the gifts to the grandparents.

This will be a busy week!

oh the weather outside is frightful...

2011-12-09T10:37:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's been very chilly here lately!

Lows in the teens, 'highs' in the 30s.

The frost on the tree branches never melts (most of these pics were taken in the afternoon). And they all just look so magical.

I especially love how the pine trees look.

I always get a few weird looks when someone sees me pulled off to the side of the road...taking pictures of a fence.

Or when I'm crouched down in my front yard taking pictures of Christmas bulbs...

No matter, I'm getting great shots :)

And poor Mater...so frigid on my truck these days...

I love being in a nice warm house, enjoying a cup of hot chocolate & seeing the pretty winter outside.

Unfortunately, I don't get to enjoy that hot chocolate for too long...there's lots of cleaning that has to be done! Christmas boxes still out, the 'fancy' dishes still sitting on my counter (from Thanksgiving) that need to be put back in my china cabinet, more decorating...

But I'll put on the Christmas music. Somehow that makes cleaning a bit better, dontcha think?!!

And when this little one wakes up we'll have a little snuggle time :)

She was a little cranky last night since she had some shots yesterday :(

And after I pick the kids up I'll probably hear a lot of girly giggling in the house since my daughter is having a friend over after school. My son will probably retreat to the basement & play his video games I'm sure!

This last week has been a bit crazy...school holiday performances, orchestra recitals, Christmas shopping, etc...

Next week is the last week of school. Crazy! Thankfully I think I might almost be done with my shopping. And I just got Addie's outfit to go see Santa so we may brave the mall this weekend and go see the man in the big red coat :)

December Daily 2011 {cover, day 1 & 2}

2011-12-06T16:13:00.004-08:00

I am so excited to do a DD album this year. It's Addie-boo's first Christmas, we're living in a new state, life is good :)

I decided this year I wanted to do a 6x8 size album. I've done mostly 6x6 in the past but I wanted a little extra room this year.

Originally I was going to put it in an album like this one. But then after creating a few pages I realized that I liked it minus the album better.

I'm also not sure if I'm going to created a chipboard cover or not. That had been my original intention. But then I kinda liked the look of the trading card page protector on top with the first page peeking through & didn't really want to cover it up.

So as it stands this is the cover...

A trading card page cut down to fit. I added a Jenni Bowlin mini bingo card along with some other accents. I also added some punched circles in 2 of the sections & then sewed it closed.

A couple accents on the back side.

Page 1 has one of my favorite Christmas papers from Echo Park. I stamped a Christmas sentiment from an Ali Edwards set onto a shipping tag, added some baker's twine & stitched down the side.

On the backside I have a Christmas quote. I actually found this at my local scrapbook store on a piece of vellum. But then I decided I wanted to print the quote out on strips instead. The font is Typenoksidi.

Note - if you're going to use the fronts & backs of pages like I am you need to plan ahead a bit. I knew I wanted to stitch down the side of the shipping tag but I first decided what I wanted on the backside. It worked out that the stitching also ran down the side of the quote.

Day 1

Day 2

Keeping this book pretty simple = manageable during the busy holiday season!

Today the hubs & I headed out to do the rest of the Christmas shopping for the kiddos. I guilted him into it ;) For the last 10 yrs I've done all of the shopping. For everyone. And I need help!

Unfortunately I ~~had a meltdown~~ hit a road block in the middle of Toys R Us because someone decided to steal my holiday journal...with all of my lists...and the list of stuff my step-mom had bought the kids. Mean people suck. Bah humbug!!! I think I'll go eat some Christmas cookies :) My son has his class holiday performance at school tonight so I'm sure to get my holiday spirit back!

InLinkz.com

December Daily sneak

2011-12-04T13:59:00.001-08:00

I'm currently working on my December Daily. I have about half of the album completed and I'm working on the filling the first few days with pics.

I should have more to share tomorrow. Right now I'm enjoying some family time. We came home from church and had a wonderful breakfast/lunch.

Pancakes. Bacon. Eggs. Yum! The only thing missing was maybe some biscuits & gravy. Double yum!

The kids are making presents :) and we're going to ~~finish~~ start decorating the tree. It's been up for a week with lights on it but no decorations. So we need to fix that!

And in the midst of all this my washing machine broke so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my handy husband can fix it. Cause a new one is not in the budget right now! It's 10+ yrs old and this is the first time we've ever had an issue with it.

********************

I also have an etsy shop update. Finally. Whew!! The shop is open! I will be listing items for the next week and updating here. Currently I have a few December Daily/Christmas Album kits in the shop.

2 of them sold before I could post about the kits so you have to be quick! You can 'like' my facebook page to get updates - click on the link in my sidebar ----------->>>

I'm also working on some fun holiday pillows and some December Daily/Christmas embellishment kits. So stay tuned...

********************

Oh, and one final thing...I updated my playlist to Christmas music. I don't have it autostart cause I find that annoying when you go to someone's blog and music starts blasting and you can't find where to turn it off! It's on the sidebar ------>>>
Just click the play button and it'll start :)

holiday journal

2011-12-02T13:35:00.001-08:00

Are you a list maker? I am. I love lists. I'm very much a visual person so if I need to get anything done I need to put it in a list or I will always forget.

Now I know there's a lot of fun toys out there that you can put your lists on. But I don't have any of those. No iphone yet :(

But even if I had one of these I still probably wouldn't use them. I love to jot things down on paper and cross them out when I've completed a task. There's something very gratifying about that to me. Makes me feel like I've accomplished something!

So I created a quick and easy little holiday journal that I can shove in my purse or diaper bag when I'm out holiday shopping and see something that I want to remember.

I simply took some kraft paper, grid paper, ledger paper, and a page out of a Christmas book and sewed the book down the middle. I decorated the front with some white paint and embellishments/paper and that's it!

Tis the Season!!

Papers - December Add-On kit

Alphas - November Trio Kit

Baker's twine - etsy

the perfect tree

2011-11-28T08:51:00.002-08:00

Every year, just after Thanksgiving, we head out to find the perfect Christmas tree.

Only this year we got to take the kids out & cut down our own tree. The last time we did that the kids were 1 & 3...so they didn't remember what the experience was like.

We headed up to Green Bluff & after driving by the 3 farms that had trees we settled on Hansen's Orchard. We set out in the field of trees to search for the perfect one.

Stop to take some family pics. Make a ton of crazy, silly noises to get the baby to look up from what must have been a fascinating tree branch on the ground...!

Let me tell ya, pushing a stroller through bumpy terrain...not easy! It kinda made me smile to think that I'll have a little toddler running around here next year :)

Anyway, we eventually found our tree. Ben 'helped' daddy cut it down while the girls documented the experience :)

Gosh this girl is just like me. And after it was cut down & they were wrapping it I realized just how big the tree was.

Um, yeah, I almost thought we were going to have to put the tree in the front room because it has higher ceilings but ended up cutting about a foot off the trunk to make it fit in the family room!

And before heading out we enjoyed some yummy hot chocolate & candy canes :)

As always, after getting our tree we went out to eat. This year we decided to stop at Frank's Diner which is a train car turned restaurant.

So neat. And the food....yummy!

We all unanimously decided that our new tradition will be to go there every year after getting our tree.

Now to finish decorating the tree & the rest of the house!

I'll be back later today or first thing tomorrow morning with an etsy shop update!

paper snowflakes

2011-11-26T18:12:00.002-08:00

My oldest wasted no time in starting the Christmas decorating in our house. She spent half the day yesterday making paper snowflakes.

Of course, I had to look up on the internet on just how to make them cause ours were turning out pretty funky! I found this site that was really helpful. So grandma & I helped out & we made tons of paper snowflakes to decorate the house :)

She also made tons of paper garland. We have it strung just about everywhere. I love it :)

My son joined in on the garland & snowflake making so now we have it everywhere. It reminds me of when I was a kid & would decorate the house. I was always into decorating. Always :)

We're heading out today to get our Christmas tree. I'm so excited that we live somewhere that we can go cut down our own tree again. I've missed that part of the Christmas season so much.

thankful

2011-11-25T19:13:00.001-08:00

I have much to be thankful for this year. Especially for this little turkey!

This little one has us laughing at her cuteness each and every day :)

We have my dad & step-mom in town this year for Thanksgiving so it was nice to be able to cook for someone other than the 4 of us...well, technically 5 of us but Addie didn't eat turkey this year ;)

I brined the turkey again this year which made for a very juicy turkey. Yum. I didn't get too many pics cause, um, I was hungry.

I tried a couple new recipes this year which all turned out great. Like these bacon wrapped smokies...

Super yummy. Definitely will be making those on Christmas. I followed the recipe except for freezing the smokies (not sure what that step was for??) and I used turkey smokies (you couldn't tell the difference with the bacon & the sweet sauce).

I also made some Texas Roadhouse style cinnamon butter. That was a definite hit. No one used the regular butter for the biscuits. I'll share the recipes for the biscuits & butter in a separate post. Mmm....I think I need another one!

********************

Oh, and the Breaking Dawn premiere last week. One word. Awesome.

Such a great movie. I can't wait to go see it again! They did such a good job with this one. Even Kristin Stewart who I don't particularly like was good. Can't wait to go see it again.

********************

When we came out of the movies it was snowing...and continued to snow off and on all weekend.

I could not get the kids to stay in the house. They played out in the snow for hours.

It all melted on Tuesday. But I'm sure it will soon be back!

********************

My hot water heater went out on Tuesday...you know, 2 days before Thanksgiving. That was good timing. Thankfully we got someone out on Wednesday to fix it and {keeping fingers crossed} it's been ok since.

********************

I hope you all had a wonderful turkey day with lots of friends, family & thankfulness. I'm not a black Friday shopper so we slept in a little, stayed in pjs, and enjoyed each others company :) Our company is heading home tomorrow so we'll probably head out for our tree this weekend!

happy turkey day

2011-11-24T07:16:00.000-08:00

I shared this a few years back but I thought it funny enough to share again :)

Happy turkey day!!

are you going???

2011-11-17T16:54:00.001-08:00

12:05am

Tonight.

Are you going??

I can't wait! It's gonna be the best so far. It's been a while since I've read the book. I had every intention of reading it again before the movie came out. But I got busy and that didn't happen. Plus the fact that it's still packed in a box in the basement!

I just watched the trailer again & got goosebumps. I hope Kristin Stewart can pull it off. We'll see!!! Either way I get my dose of Edward & Jacob so it's all good :)

****************************

On a non-vampire & non-werewolf related topic...I have a post up at 3 Scrappy Boys blog about getting started on my December Daily. Head over here to check it out!

my sentiments exactly

2011-11-16T10:01:00.001-08:00

I don't like seeing Christmas lights on before Thanksgiving.

I don't like hearing Christmas music before Thanksgiving.

I hate that Hobby Lobby (and many other stores) are out of all of their Christmas stuff before December even hits.

I don't like that everyone wants to skip Thanksgiving. Or it seems that way anyway.

I miss the days where you wouldn't see Christmas stuff (or hear the music on the radio) until turkey day.

For me it just takes away the excited anticipation of the Christmas season. And then you get to hear how everyone is 'sick of Christmas' before it even happens. That's sad.

Don't get me wrong, we put our lights up outside before Thanksgiving. We have to. I have so much decor that I put up inside and out that I just can't do it all in one weekend.

So the outside stuff goes up the weekend before Thanksgiving and the inside including getting our tree happens Thanksgiving weekend. Although, now that I live somewhere that it snows I may have to change that timeline a bit!

I love having all of my outdoor lights up ahead of time so that on turkey day (or night) I can turn the lights on and 'officially' start the Christmas season. But they don't go on before then. There's people around here who have had their lights up and on for the last week (or more).

I make a big deal out of it. I wait til it's dark and then we all go outside & light up the house. Thankfully it usually doesn't turn out like Clark Griswold where I'm freaking out at lights not turning on & attacking miniature reindeer ;)

Call me old fashioned. But I miss how it used to be :)

Disclaimer - and if you're one of those people who turns on their lights early I am in no way criticizing you. I just miss the days when we used to wait for the Christmas season!

pumpkin cobbler

2011-11-15T12:41:00.003-08:00

Do you love pumpkin pie?? Then you will looove this recipe.

I love just about all things pumpkin. Well, except for shakes & drinks...that's kinda weird to me. I like my pumpkin in muffins & desserts!

One of my favorites is pumpkin pie. Unfortunately no one else in my house likes it. Huh???

Oh well, I figured I'd try this recipe anyway. And it was super yummy. And I've made it twice in the last couple weeks :)

I topped it with some whipped cream. Yum.

The only thing I changed was adding about 1/2 the pecans that were called for in the recipe. And I did use evaporated milk. Other than that I kept it the same.

Recipe found here.

11.11.11 and other weekend happenings

2011-11-14T11:18:00.000-08:00

First of all, thank you to all the men, women and families who serve and have served. We couldn't live without you!!!

How did you spend Veteran's Day?? Addie & daddy spent time watching war movies :)

We had company in town...my very, very good friend Becky that I've known for over half my life. Whew, we're old! hehe

So we took her to the mall downtown for some pizza at Rock City Grill. But before that my wonderful hubby helped some ladies with a flat tire. What a man :)

Then onto food! Black & white pizza please!! And some yummy chocolates for the girls & covered apples for the boys :)

We headed back home & watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2.

Saturday morning we woke up to a bit of snow (cue squeals of excitement!) That afternoon we headed out to see Puss In Boots at the movies. Much better than I thought it would be.

And wouldn't you know it, when we came out of the movie theater it was snowing again!!!

This time there were some decent flakes. So my kids promptly came home & made snowmen in the dark!

I think all of this snow might have been our fault. A certain little someone was wearing her Christmas pjs...

And now the snow is gone, it's back to the same 'ol same 'ol routine...until the next batch of snow blows in!

first snow of the season!

2011-11-12T13:37:00.000-08:00

My kids were beyond excited. No need to get dressed...throw a coat & boots on and run out the door in your pjs to throw the first snowball!

They ran outside without gloves...and quickly realized it was too cold to go out without them!

I never eat November snowflakes...I always wait until January ;)

It wasn't a ton of snow...just a little taste of what's to come. And it's all gone now. But it was a fun morning :)

beautiful fall

2011-11-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

I don't know about anyone else but fall is my favorite season. Sure, the other seasons have their beauty. Winter & the beautiful snow on tree limbs. Spring with it's pretty flowers emerging from the ground. Summer & the smells of suntan lotion & pool water.

But the colors of fall are just wonderful to me.

Sometimes you just need to stop and enjoy nature...and explain to your kids why in the world you keep driving down side streets to take pics of trees ;)

And by the way, that tree in the top pic has already lost all of those beautiful leaves. That's why you have to stop and enjoy them...because very soon they're gone!

Halloween in a new town

2011-11-06T14:17:00.004-08:00

This was our first Halloween in Washington. I was excited to live in a neighborhood with sidewalks again...makes trick or treating much easier!!

This year I managed to talk the kids into doing a theme...can you guess :)

Alice, the Mad Hatter and the white rabbit

I thought about doing to Baudelaire orphans from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. But we may do that one next year.

I made Olivia's dress & apron although I wish I'd had time to make it a bit more poofy. She wanted a more 'original' version of the dress so I used the same dress pattern that I used for her first communion dress. And in hindsight I should have made the sleeves a bit more poofy, too.

Ben's costume which was obviously like the Johnny Depp version of the Mad Hatter was so much fun to make. I found the jacket at a thrift shop & embellished it up along with making the bow tie and pants. The hat I found in the Halloween section at Joanns and made the scarf to go on it.

Addie's costume was pretty simple...outfit from Target and bunny ears from the Halloween store.

Our friends came over to go trick or treating.

I took Addie out for about a block or 2 just to say we took her out on her first Halloween and then came home because it was a bit cold for her.

So I came back home & gave out candy while daddy took the big kids to more houses.

It was a fun night with frights, friends and lots of candy! After the kids got back & took showers we settled in with some popcorn & watched Scared Shrekless :)

Get your smash on & some new goodies

2011-11-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

I'm editing some Halloween pics to share with you all. Til then I have a few non-Halloween things to share :)

The November kits are on sale over at 3 Scrappy Boys. There are 3 kits to choose from:

Main Kit:

Add-On Kit:

Trio Kit:

I'm so thrilled to now be a part of their design team and I can't wait to get the trio kit along with some other goodies from the shop!! Honestly, the only reason I didn't get one of the other kits is because I just purchased some of those same papers before getting on the team. Love that Jillibean Soup paper :) Otherwise I would have ordered more!

********************

Today I have a post up at the 3SB blog about using smash books and how my kids use them as their scrapbooks.

Head over here to check it out :)

********************

I'm trying to get caught up on my Project Life albums. Hopefully I'll have some pics to share of those soon :)

I just got a lovely white box of goodies containing some of Becky Higgins' new page protectors for next year's PL. I haven't ordered a kit for next year because I'm holding out for the Clementine edition :)

********************

And last but not least I'm working on items for my etsy shop including some fun pillows, December Daily and travel albums along with some other goodies. I had planned on opening in October but that didn't happen.

I'm shooting for this weekend but I have picked up some kind of nasty cold so we'll see how much I get done this week. But I'll be sure to keep you posted!

kinda glad, kinda sad

2011-11-02T17:51:00.001-07:00

Can you tell which one is Addie's pumpkin :)

Another Halloween has come and gone. For me it was too fast. I made the kids costumes so I was all consumed with that last week. I didn't get up many decorations. In fact, I decorated the outside of the house the day of Halloween.

My kids came home from school and were thrilled :) I felt bad that I hadn't pulled out anything. My kids really enjoy my Halloween and Christmas decorating because I usually go all out (hello, I'm the mom that has been known to have 4 - yes four - full size Christmas trees in the house!)

I normally dress up for Halloween

Or at least do some fun makeup & a witch hat.

That didn't happen this year.

It was Addie's first Halloween and I'm bummed it went by too fast.

I know, I know, she's only 4 mos old. But still.

I did still manage to make the kids mummy dogs for dinner. But that was about it for the Halloween food. Much less than I normally make.

We were running so crazy after school because they get out an hour later than I'm used to...and it gets dark here so darn early...that I didn't get too many decent photos. So I've already warned the kids that I'm going to have them dress up again & do a Halloween photo shoot. I'm sure they won't mind :)

I'm hoping to slow down a bit & enjoy the upcoming holidays. I don't want to plow through them at 100mph and miss all the 'little' things. That's the best part :)

Friday Friday

2011-10-29T08:51:00.001-07:00

I've received so many nice comments on Addie's quilt. Thank you :) I've also been asked several times about which pattern I used so here it is: Abundantly Blessed by Cotton Way.

It's an easy pattern although there was one step that had confusing wording. I had experienced quilters with me and they didn't get that one part either. But none had done a 'non-traditional' quilt like this one. But after finishing it I think I understand what she meant so if you do this and find it confusing let me know!

The pattern also comes with the template for the white shaped pieces that get sewn on top. After using the template a few times I just freehanded it and it worked just fine.

I think I'll probably make another one of these quilts because I just love the look of it. I may try and make one a little bit bigger, we'll see!

And btw, if you didn't know this, the designer of the Cotton Way patterns is the mom of the designer for the Ruby line that I used in my quilt. I didn't even realize it at first when I bought the 2! You can check out their blogs here.

********************

I came home yesterday morning from taking the kids to school to find this:

I was too tired the night before to clean up the pan of chicken that was on the stove. Apparently my dog took it upon herself to have a snack...and dumped my dish, and the chicken, and all the grease all over the floor.

{sigh}

Chicken grease mixed with broken glass....nice. I was grateful to not have tile floors anymore. Otherwise I might have had a cracked floor & even more shattered glass. And our family might be minus one dog. Just sayin'...

********************

I got a new toy...

I've been wanting one of these for a looong time. And when I saw one at Costco...attached to a really good price...I snatched it up. It's a little bit of a pain because it's on the smaller side but it looks so cute in my kitchen and makes some yummy popcorn. Mmmmm....popcorn....

Now I need to move my pictures that are on the wall behind it...

********************

The kids had their Halloween parties yesterday. They really have an awesome school that knows how to celebrate that's for sure.

We had a zombie and a witch...

And, of course, they will have different costumes for Halloween. I was at the school for nearly 3 hours & totally exhausted after from running back and forth to their classrooms.

Matching spider webs :) A lot of the moms even dressed up when they came to help out at school. I am so doing that next year! Addie enjoyed watching all of the kids dance the Monster Mash...

I actually bought that onesie last year after I found out I was pregnant. I added a black ribbon ruffle to make it a little more girly.

********************

I made 'monster mix' for the kids classes. I vary it up from year to year but here's the basics:

Chex cereal, teddy grahams, pretzels, marshmallows & candy corn. Sometimes I use caramel corn instead of the cereal.

I usually bag it up since usually I've found that there's so many treats the kids can't possibly eat them all. This way they can take it home if they want.

I found these easy zipper bags so I didn't have to fool with twisties...when you're making 50+ bags it makes it much easier.

********************

I realized today how much I still have to do before Halloween. Can you believe it's just two days away?!?!

I'm finishing up the kids costumes & I'm hoping we can head out to the park tomorrow & do a quick photo shoot with them all dressed up.

And it just dawned on me that we haven't carved pumpkins yet. Eeek!!!

quilting retreat

2011-10-26T23:26:00.001-07:00

Last weekend my friend Theresa...aka my Spokane travel guide extraooooordiniare & great friend :)... invited me to a quilting retreat. I've been to many scrapbooking retreats but this quilting retreat was a first for me.

I needed the break.

And some time to spend getting some things done...cause quilting is time consuming and quite hard to fit into a schedule with 2 active older kiddos and a 4 month old!

There was such a great group of people that went, the place had awesome views...

...and great trail guides :)

The retreat was at what used to be a ski lodge over in Idaho. To say the view was beautiful was an understatement.

It rained on Friday & Saturday which sometimes left views like this.

But it's neat to see the clouds move in and out of the hills. I had *no* cell reception whatsoever. My only communication other than one call from the lodge phone was the internet. Thankfully I took my laptop. Olivia took it upon herself to email me 145986459678 times on Saturday.

(Max & Dozer were the retrievers) Do you think she missed me?? Ben was busy playing video games so missing me was minimized ;) There were a few girls there for a scrapbooking weekend and one of them had a 2 month old. Oh that was hard seeing her & missing my baby.

But I got some much needed time to finish some projects. I also discovered that the local store back in GA where I purchased the stippling foot for my machine was not only the wrong one but also a very old product.

I went to a local store here when I got back home to get the right one and the dealer was pretty surprised that they even sold it to me since they were a Husqvarna dealer and should have known better. Now I'm out $35. ugh. But at least I now have the right one and can finish a couple other quilts that I've started.

Anyway, here's a few more 'scenery' pics. Til tomorrow...

Addie's quilt...just wanted to add

2011-10-25T14:18:00.002-07:00

Thanks for all of your comments on here & facebook about Addie's quilt :)

I was going through my pics to do a post on the quilting retreat last weekend and I realized that I had wanted to show a before and after pic of the quilt.

As I said the last post, there's no binding to this quilt. It's all raw edges. Those white pieces are stitched right on top of the blocks. It looks something like this:

This was midway through sewing on all 144 of those white pieces. Whew!

And then when you wash it it comes out like this:

Pretty neat, huh?!

Now, no more pictures mommy!

I'll have pics of the quilting retreat tomorrow (or maybe later tonight)!

Addie's quilt

2011-10-24T23:12:00.002-07:00

After 4 1/2 months I still can't get over all that hair!

My #1 priority at the quilt retreat last weekend was to make Addie's baby quilt.

I searched around until I found a pattern I liked...and one that would be easy enough for a beginner quilter like me. When I stumbled on this one I knew this was it!

I'm so happy with the outcome! It makes me smile just looking at it.

Isn't that fabric just yummy??? The fabric on the front is Ruby by Bonnie and Camille (Moda) that I picked up at the quilt show a couple weeks ago and the back is TaDot (Michael Miller) in celery.

I {love} the Ruby line...it's so 'me'. I'm thinking I need to pick up some yardage in that fabric once my budget allows :)

Oh my word...I could just eat her up!

I love that this pattern has all raw edges. No binding. Simple but really cute. I need to trim a little bit more and I found a couple mistakes, one in particular that needs a simple fix. Other than that I'm really happy with how it came out.

And Addie seems to like it, too :)

breakfast

2011-10-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

Mimosas, hanging out at the quilting retreat, laughing, sewing, laughing some more.

Cheers!

stink eye

2011-10-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

Do you think this is the look she's going to give me when she's a teenager??

Or how about this...

She's a crack up!! hehe

I totally see my husband in that first one. Yes sweetie, that is the look you have on your face when you come home & the house is a mess. Love you :)

I'm already getting glimpses into the future...

my love of fabric

2011-10-19T14:39:00.000-07:00

When I started 'officially' sewing 2 years ago, I quickly learned that I would develop a love of pretty fabric just as I had in the scrapbooking world with pretty papers.

There are sooo many choices out there. So many pretty things you can make. So many tutorials, kits, projects...they go on and on. And Pinterest doesn't help with this...it only adds to my 'to do' list!

Last week I went to a quilt show in town. Oh my, the fabric. Let's just say that I have a lot of projects to get done. Good thing I'm heading out to a quilting retreat this weekend!

Here's some of my pretty finds...

Hopefully I'll have many finished finished creations to share next week!

out in the pumpkin patch

2011-10-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we headed out to the pumpkin patch after church. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather. Sunny & beautiful, just a tad chilly...perfect.

My kids don't really have memories of being in a 'real' pumpkin patch since they hadn't been to one in almost 6 yrs.

It was a big pumpkin patch. Note to self - bring gloves next time...pumpkin stems are very picky!

Ahh, those mountains. So pretty.

My son kept going for the big green pumpkins. Not sure you can carve those!

But I appeased him & got a small little green one for our porch :)

We actually went to 2 different farms. At the first one we got our pumpkins & some veggies. At the second one we went in a corn maze & did some other fun things with the kids.

Yes we did!

Addie hung out blowing spit bubbles!

It was a fun day spent with my favorite people :)

4 months

2011-10-16T10:00:00.002-07:00

Ok, seriously, where is the time going?? She is 4 months old already?? And I haven't even sent out all of my thank you cards yet. Man, I'm bad...definitely gonna get those finished this week.

Little miss weighs a little over 14 1/2 lbs. She can now sit up in her Bumbo seat (something she couldn't quite do just a few weeks ago).

Best thing ever invented. I really could've used one of those with my oldest.

She is such a good baby & so much fun. She's not fussy too often and when she is there's usually a good reason. She has figured out how to blow spit bubbles & loves to 'talk'. She loves to see herself in the mirror.

She spends a lot of time trying to figure her hands out. Bringing them into the center, putting them in her mouth all the time, trying to figure out how to grab things.

We put her booster seat together cause we're going to be trying cereal soon. The first time she sat in it she promptly fell asleep :)

Her hair is getting longer & still has these really pretty highlights. She loves to put her hands up in her hair & the other day she grabbed her hair & I don't think knew how to let go & started crying. Never had that problem with my kids before!

She's still drooling like crazy. I mean, whole top of her shirt soaked kind of drooling. I'm starting to see some white of her bottom tooth so we'll see when it'll actually make it's appearance.

She has discovered my hair...and pulls really hard!

She's very observant & loves to sit & stare at people & everything around her.

She's very much a mommy & daddy's girl. She'll smile at strangers while she's sitting in her stroller but if someone she doesn't know very well picks her up...and she suddenly realizes that mommy is not holder her...she will promptly being crying (or screaming as she did to the pediatrician at her 4 month check up!)

Her big brother & sister still love doting on her. In fact, they're now both 'fighting' over who gets to share a room with her when she gets older. Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts when she's 2 and getting into everything!

But still, it's super cute. They're very protective of her. She's a lucky girl.

We all are :)

Oh, and she has one more very large (and furry) protector...

who ya gonna call??

2011-10-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

Did you go? Are you gonna go?? It's only this month! The re-release of Ghostbusters! I love when they play 'older' movies at the theaters.

We have one theater in town that is playing it and since it is one of my all time favorite movies I just had to go see it on the big screen!

I don't remember if I actually saw it in the theaters when it first came out but I don't think so. But it's hard to remember back that far ;)

My kids love this movie too so we were all excited. Although, I have to say, I think we've watched the 'tv' version too many times cause I forgot how many times they swore in the movie. Kinda felt like a bad mom a little bit...

My husband...was torn between going to the movies & going to karate. Huh??? It's Ghostbusters man!!! Who did I marry?? Get your priorities in check! ha!!

I'm off to take some stuff to my booth & then maybe do some pumpkin pickin' this weekend!

pumpkin topiaries

2011-10-13T12:45:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I headed outside with the kids to make our pumpkin topiaries for the front porch. I used to do this when we lived in TN. But then we moved to GA and it seemed pointless because 1) we lived about 150ft from the street...hence, NO one could see them, and 2) it was too hot & humid & I didn't want to go through all of this effort for them to last less than a week.

But now we're in WA and it's much cooler & a lot less humid so I was happy that I could start doing my topiaries again.

Plus, I have a great porch to put these on :)

I don't remember where I found the original inspiration as it was about 8-9 yrs ago. Maybe a Southern Living mag?? Anyway, I'm sure there's tons of inspiration out there but I didn't bother to check since I've done these before.

So here's how you make them:

Grab yourself 3 pumpkins in 3 sizes...think of it as making a pumpkin snowman :)

Doesn't that small pumpkin have the best stem??

Of course, you don't have to do 3, 2 would work really nice, too. (The fatter, rounder ones work better than the taller, more oval ones)

Then recruit the minions to help de-gut the pumpkins...

You'll want to cut a hole in just the top of the fattest pumpkin and a hole in the top and bottom of the 2 smaller pumpkins.

After gutting 6 pumpkins I realized I really need some cool pumpkin carving tools like they have on Halloween Wars :)

Set the pumpkins on each other & adjust the holes so they sit better.

Then fight with your kids over the power tools...cause power tools are fun :)

I used 2 different drill bits. The top pumpkin has small holes, the middle has big holes & the biggest pumpkin has both. Of course, it's your pumpkins & you can do what you want!

That type of drill bit that is in the pic makes a cleaner hole. I had 2 different kinds of drill bits & the bigger holes didn't quite cut as clean of a hole. But I had to use what the hubby had!

Then clean them up a bit...along with your grass that looks like a pumpkin massacre has taken place.

All those pumpkin guts are just from the drilling!

Stack the pumpkins on top of each other in an urn or something similar. I have flower pots/urns that are on my porch year round & usually use those. I find that I like to use something to somewhat hold them together. Usually I use garden stakes but since I couldn't find those I used some metal bbq skewers.

Hey, they worked! Just use something to stake the pumpkins to each other. You don't need a ton. I only used 3 per topiary.

Then feed some lights through all 3 pumpkins. I used 50 mini clear lights with a white cord for each one. I find that the white cord looks better than green when it's lit up.

You'll need to cut a smaller hole in the back of the large pumpkin for the cord to come out. You should probably do that before putting the lights in.

Wrap some grapevine garland around the pumpkins & add some fall foliage.

The grapevine garland I think helps hold the pumpkins in place a bit, too.

I also added a cute little scarecrow (Michaels on sale for $4.99) sitting on a small hay bale (leftover from last year) to hide some of the cord.

And at night...

I wish I had a better pic. It really does look so much better in person :)

So here's a few things to keep in mind:

If you live in a hot/humid climate your topiary won't last as long. When I lived in TN I would usually get about 2 weeks out of this before it would start to smoosh in. Although, when we would have a warmer month I would barely get a week and a half out of it.

If your topiary is exposed to the elements (like rain) it probably won't last as long. (Mine are on a covered porch)

I've thought about doing this with fake pumpkins but haven't for 3 reasons: 1) I'm thinking it might be a fire hazard to have lights inside of those fake pumpkins (but not sure), 2) they are so light that I would worry about my topiary not staying up, and 3) real pumpkins are just so much more pretty!

Like I said, you could also do this with just 2 pumpkins. Or cut a design that flows through all 3 pumpkins. You can really get creative with this!

Happy Fall!!!

baby toes

2011-10-10T15:45:00.000-07:00

Layout created mostly with Noel Mignon's Bee's Knees kit.

I just realized that I totally forgot to share this layout. A little while back I participated in a 'layout tag' on the Noel Mignon message board. The basic idea is that Noel emails you a layout to draw inspiration from, you create a layout & send it back, and then she sends your layout on to the next person in the chain.

Kind of like a scrappy version of telephone! It's a lot of fun...you can check out the other layouts here.

crock pot chicken and dumplings

2011-10-08T19:44:00.001-07:00

I love this time of year for many reasons. But one has to be the cooking...stews, soups, roasts, all that good comfort food!

I love crock pot recipes, especially on the days we have karate or other after school activities because I don't have time to make dinner otherwise. So crock pot meals work perfectly.

I found this recipe & immediately wanted to try it. I tweaked it a bit (I need more spices!) and it was sooo yummy. Definitely a keeper!

Crock pot chicken and dumplings

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 Tbsp butter

2 cans cream of chicken soup

2-3 cups chicken broth

1 Tbsp dried parsley

1 tsp McCormick garlic & herb seasoning

1 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp pepper

4 grands flaky refrigerator biscuits

Place the chicken in the crock pot & add butter. In a bowl, mix together the soup, 1 cup broth & spices and add to the crock pot. Cook on high 4-6 hours. (I cooked on high for 4 hrs & then cut to low for another hour) Then shred the chicken in the crock pot. Cut the biscuits into small pieces (about 9-10 per biscuit) & add to crock pot. Add an additional 1-2 cups of broth and cook on low for an additional 30 min.

You could also add chopped onions or a can of mixed veggies but I opted not to add those.

close call...too close

2011-10-06T12:10:00.000-07:00

This is what a deer did to my car last night...

...when it ran right out in front of my car, in the dark, on the way home from the grocery store. His front 'fender' hit my front fender. All 3 kids were in the car, my oldest saw the whole thing...and immediately started bawling. Cause I smacked right into that deer. And the only reason the entire front end of my car wasn't crumpled was because I managed to swerve a bit to the left and hit on the side rather than straight on. And thankfully I was going less than 40mph.

I've gone this long without feeling what it's like to have an airbag smack me in the face. I'd like to keep it that way.

It could've been so much worse. So much worse.

The baby...didn't even wake up.

My son...didn't even realize why we were pulling over. I think maybe he thought I hit a really big bump or something.

Two people came out because they heard a 'crash'. The one guy said his dogs started going nuts.

I keep hearing that big 'thunk' in my head & picturing that deer coming out of nowhere and just appearing right in front of my headlights.

And as I was standing outside of my van talking to those people, I saw another deer run across the road in the exact.same.spot.

I lived out in the woods in GA for 5 yrs and managed to avoid the deer. But not here I guess!

You just never know what the day is going to bring sometimes. Life is funny that way...

And by the way, did you know that if you hit an animal it's considered 'comprehensive' and not 'collision' with regard to your insurance?? I figured anything with me actually driving was considered collision. But nope. And you know what that means...bigger deductible. Gee, thanks deer.

an oldie but a goodie...and a winner

2011-10-03T10:37:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year...time to pull out the Halloween decor! Then Thanksgiving. Then CHRISTMAS!! woot woot!!

This time of year is always so fun. I'm hoping to work on some decor items today for my home and for sale. Last weekend was pretty much spent on the couch holding this little one...

She had a fever all weekend. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that her fever is gone. She didn't wake up with one this morning but as a mom I know that doesn't necessarily mean that it's gone for good. So we'll see...

Anyway, I was going through some Halloween stuff & stumbled upon my sign that I made last year. Don't you love when you come across stuff that you forgot you made??

I just love that little skeleton head. He's so cute :)

If you want to see how I made it you can go here. It was made with Noel Mignon's Halloween kit last year. Btw - I believe she still has some of her newest Halloween kit left in the shop. Kits are a lot of fun for projects like this. In fact, I just found a new kit club (well, new to me anyway) called Burlap and Buttercups. Burlap?? I'm in! You all know how I love burlap :) I just picked up their October kit...it was too pretty that I just couldn't resist :)

And what's even more fun is that I get to find a new spot to hang it since we're in a new house :)

*********************

And speaking of Halloween, the winner of the Halloween magazine is #5

So that means Shelley, you're my winner! Email me your addy (meandmyscraps {at} yahoo {dot} com) and I'll get that magazine out to you!

the great pumpkin mystery

2011-10-02T17:42:00.000-07:00

We came out today to see one of our beloved pumpkins on the sidewalk with it's guts spilled out...

I hate to say it but my first instinct is to say that someone smashed my pumpkin. However, since only one was taken (I ~~have~~ had 3 on my porch) I'm wondering if the strong winds we've had made it roll off the step.

When we lived in Michigan the squirrels would attack my pumpkins & leave pumpkin guts all over my porch...but the carcases would remain up on my porch, not down on the sidewalk.

The kids took it upon themselves to try & solve the mystery. And my daughter made her own Spiderwick Chronicles type notebook.

She just cracks me up :)

They didn't figure out what happened yet. So the mystery continues...

just a couple of cards

2011-09-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

Just a couple simple cards made with some fun Doodlebug papers & embellies. I love adding butterflies to cards. Heck, I love adding butterflies to all of my projects!

I spent nearly the entire day today hitting yard sales, working on some crafty stuff for both my etsy shop & a new shop in town.

And when I got home I realized that Addie has a low grade fever. Poor thing has a stuffy nose, too. Bring on the teething!

TGIF :)

homemade croutons

2011-09-29T12:24:00.001-07:00

I love buying those fresh loaves of french bread at the grocery store. Of course, nothing beats making bread at home & smelling up your house with that yummy breadness.

Breadness??

Something about the smell of that bread just leads me to the bakery section!

But despite how much I looove bread, sometimes we don't finish off the loaf & it starts to go stale rather quickly. So what I do is just make that last part of the bread into homemade croutons.

Take the bread & cut it into cubes.

Sprinkle on a good amount of olive oil. Then sprinkle one whatever herbs & spices you like.

I usually use Italian seasoning or oregano, garlic salt (which for some reason is missing from the pic) & fresh cracked pepper. Then I sprinkle on some parmesan cheese & give it a good toss.

Spread it out on a pan & bake at 350 for about 8 minutes. Don't bake too long or you'll have some super crunchy croutons...and not in a good way. I usually just make mine in the toaster oven so I don't have to heat up the entire oven just for some croutons. My toaster oven has become one of my best kitchen friends over the last 2 years.

And after baking the bread you have yummy fresh croutons! Throw 'em in a baggy and they'll keep for several days. I like to put them on top of a grilled chicken salad. I would have a picture but I was too hungry to wait ;)

Yum!

hello fall! {and a giveaway)

2011-09-28T18:01:00.000-07:00

Last Friday marked the 'official' first day of fall. Now, I can tell you that having lived in GA the last 5 years this day meant absolutely nothing when it came to the weather. Because in the south you don't really have a true spring or fall. It stays pretty ~~warm~~ hot through October (at least).

But here in WA...fall is definitely in the air along with all of the wonderful things that go with it. Crisp mornings, shorter days, leaves just beginning to change colors, pumpkins, apples, baking, pumpkin spice candles, pumpkin muffins (or any muffins for that matter!), Halloween costume shopping, sweaters & sweatshirts, and inevitably the countdown to Christmas :)

Bring on the sweatshirts, this is my time of year!

And for the giveaway...

Apparently my brain is not functioning properly. Because, I purchased not one but 2 of these magazines:

I guess I liked the cover so much that I noticed it not once but twice! Anyway, I thought I'd share my extra one with one of my readers :) There's some cute stuff in there including a mini-album from Ali Edwards. So if you'd like a chance to win, just leave a comment & I'll pick someone at random. This giveaway is open to anyone but if you live outside of the U.S. I will ask that you pay for shipping. Sorry :(

I'll leave it open til Sunday afternoon. And maybe you could share what your favorite thing about fall is :)

baptisms...beautiful beginnings

2011-09-24T13:23:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was Addie's baptism. It was a beautiful day. Just perfect.

The dress was Olivia's. I just love it. I'm hoping to see future grandchildren in it :)

A kiss from big sister before church :)

She slept through almost the entire Mass. Barely even moved when she was getting holy water poured on her head...I thought for sure at that point she'd wake up & fuss ;)

The priest doing her baptism was newly ordained this year and is new to our parish. He had done a few baptisms before but this was the first one since becoming a priest. But he did a great job.

We also had a couple visiting priests, one from Tanzania and one from India who was a traveling missionary who did the Homily. He did such a wonderful sermon about choosing to live for God. Basically the premise was that you could choose to act like others, choose to act badly when you see others doing it, or you can choose to live for God & essentially choose to live a happier life. It was a perfect sermon for my kids :)

After church we took the visiting grandparents to one of our favorite places...

YUM :)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Tomorrow starts children's liturgy (Sunday School) which means waking up much earlier. Wish me luck!!

while I'm photo editing...

2011-09-21T11:24:00.001-07:00

...and tagging clothes for a kids consignment sale, and getting stuff ready for the yard sale at my LSS, and cleaning my house from company this weekend, and trying to do something with the 18 lbs (yes, 18!) of apples my kids picked on Monday...

I thought I'd share a few layouts I've worked on. You know, before my basement had the minor flood & all of my scrapbook stuff got even more messed up :)

New Friends

papers, flowers - Basic Grey

kraft tag - Maya Road

'play' bingo card - Jenni Bowlin

thickers - American Crafts

date card - My Mind's Eye

border punch

I took this picture at a great park in town with our new friends. My kids love them :)

Buddies

paper, flower journaling card - Basic Grey

alpha stickers - October Afternoon

kraft envelope - Maya Road

number '2' - Sasafrass

kraft journaling card, twine - My Mind's Eye

border punches, tiny attacher

I love this picture of Addie & Tucker. So cute to think that they will be growing up together (he's only 9 mos older than her).

I used the patterned paper to make a little pennant & attached some baker's twine with my tiny attacher.

Just Perfect

patterned paper, flower - Basic Grey

thickers - American Crafts

ticket stamp - Tim Holtz

pink ticket, buttons, circle punch, border punches, string, shipping tag

One of my favorite pictures of the kids. Totally unplanned. Sometimes those are the best :) I actually had this photo blown up to a canvas & it's hanging in my living room.

Can you tell I really like the dotted cardstock?? I think it's Bobunny although the green might be Bazzill. I can't remember, I usually grab several sheets of the few colors I like when I'm in my LSS...mostly white, green & yellow. Just gives some texture to the background. On this layout I cut out a few of the circles in the paper & added buttons for interest.

I really love some of the new papers from Basic Grey, esp the circles one in this last layout & the florals in the first one. Some of it came from recent Noel Mignon kits & I also picked up more at my LSS.

That's it for now! Happy hump day :)

yummy fingers

2011-09-20T23:09:00.000-07:00

They're so yummy!

I'm working on the pictures from Addie's baptism this weekend. She was beautiful. I love baptisms...great beginnings! I'll have those soon :)

Muffadoodles

2011-09-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

definition: the muffin version of a Snickerdoodle

aka: super yummy!!!

I made these last week and have since made them again. They are sooo good and very easy to make. I could not find the original link to the recipe so I've added it below.

You must try them. They are cinnamon sugar goodness :)

Muffadoodles (Snickerdoodle muffins)

Ingredients:

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. cream of tartar
3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 and 1/4 cup sour cream
2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup additional sugar and 2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon mixed together for rolling

Preheat oven for 350 degrees. Cream the butter and sugaruntil soft. Add in the vanilla, and then the eggs oneat a time and mix until each is incorporated.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, bakingpowder, cream of tartar, nutmeg and cinnamon.

Add the flourmixture and the sour cream alternately to the egg-butter mixture,scraping the bowl occasionally.

Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out muffin batter one at a timeand drop into a shallow bowl filled with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll the “ball” of batter around in the mixture until it iscovered completely in cinnamon sugar, and then place into a prepared muffin tin. You can either use a sprayed muffin tin or use liners (I used liners & lightly sprayed them).

I used a large scoop & got about 18 muffins. Bake for20-22 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Enjoy!!

take steps

2011-09-16T10:26:00.002-07:00

My friend Brittny recently did a post about Crohn's disease and a walk that she's doing to raise awareness (and money) for a cure. I'm a bit late in getting this posted (sorry Britt) but I still wanted to make sure that I made mention of it.

You can head here to read her post about her sister.

I won't bore you with a long post...she did a great job considering she doesn't even have the disease!

I was 'officially' diagnosed with Crohn's in '06 when I had extreme abdominal pain, went in for surgery because they saw 'something' on a CT scan, only to come out of surgery with a huge incision down the front of my stomach, a tube down my nose to drain my stomach, and an IV surgically implanted in my chest. I was told I had the disease, that my intestines were knotted up like a fist. I lost over a foot of my small intestine, part of my large intestine and my appendix. I was also told that I might not be able to have more children because my ovaries were covered in scar tissue...we all know how that turned out, right?!

Living with an intestinal diseases sucks. I hide most of it well. I try to ignore it to be honest. But it's hard to ignore when you try and do errands and you're looking for a restroom every 10 min. Or the first thing you look for when you go anywhere is where the nearest bathroom is. I feel ill after nearly every meal. I never know when it's going to be a good day or a bad day. It's very unpredictable. If there were some magical diet that would cure it I would do it in a heartbeat. But there's just not. No magic diet is going to keep my intestines from getting a blockage. And the thing that sucks the most is that my dr said it would probably happen again at some point in my lifetime since the first occurrence was when I was only 33 yrs old.

It's not cancer. I'm not dying from it. Although, I do have an increased risk in getting colon cancer. Many people have worse issues than me. So I deal with it. It's all you can do. I just really, really, really hope & pray that my kids don't inherit any of my 'issues'. But if they do, they certainly have a sympathetic person in their corner! Because I've had issues my whole life...and I'm just now getting 'used' to it.

So head over to Britt's blog. And maybe make a donation if you wish. And thanks for reading :)

Updated - Britt is having a giveaway for this. You can check it out here!