Thankful

I am thankful. I am blessed. Here is our Thanksgiving:
Kent & Seth helping with the meal (whew, got a little tight in the kitchen but their help was much appreciated!)

Tessa loved the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade:

So thankful for Dad and that he joined us for our Thanksgivng meal:

And I'm thankful that Tessa helped Kent get up the leaves in the back for a couple of hours on Friday!

Life isn't perfect... there are health issues and everyday stresses in our lives, but we are truly blessed in more ways than I can count... and I do thank God everyday for those blessings.

Merry December Days mini...

Okay, so I have to fess up... I often "combine" projects, challenges, etc. Otherwise, I might never get anything done! So for December, I am combining my December Daily and Merry Days albums into one. Here are some pictures of what I have so far:








For my "cover" I used a lot of things from the Scrapbook Circle December kit (not the acrylic album... had it in my stash). And in the last photo for Dec. 24 and 25, I used a couple of great stamps from Unity (love these stamps)!

Scrapbook Circle December Kit - so FUN!

I've started creating with the Scrapbook Circle December kit and it is so much fun! Filled with festive papers from Prima, Heidi Swapp, October Afternoon and BoBunny, as well as Kaiser Pearls, Stickles and the fabulous Prima tape, well, let's just say it is divine! Here are two very different layouts I have done using the kit. The first is of our Christmas card Photo Shoot and all items are from the kit except the buttons and the black "2008".
This second layout was inspired by a challenge at Willow Traders (WWW#4) and I did add some black cardstock, some bling for the Scrapbook Circle Oct. kit, the Thickers, and an antique button I had. I painted the cardstock border with Stickles and "faked" my stitching. This kit is so versatile with traditional holiday colors as well as lots of pink! So much you can do with it! And lots more I plan to do with mine, so stay tuned!

Stories In Hand

Jessica Sprague's free class, Stories In Hand, is simply terrific! She has put so much thought and planning into this class. It is something I hope to use often to prompt my families' stories. I did my binder a little differently, since I had already decorated my little American Crafts album for a class I took at Scrap Etc. in April (it was a great class by Gretchen M. but not an album I felt compelled to complete, so I repurposed my little album... thank you Gretchen!). I haven't done much writing of my stories yet... or even "snorkling" for ideas (I started a bit late due to our trip to the beach)... but I will! And I can't wait to take some of Jessica's digi classes once I get PSE (hopefully for Christmas)!

My best gift ever...

So, Cathy Z's blog contest got me searching photobucket for this layout I did a while ago about the song Kent wrote me as a surprise gift our very first Christmas together. Still need to get that transferred from the cassette to a CD - wouldn't want to lose this precious gift one day when the old stereo dies and we no longer have a cassette player (yes, we are a bit behind... dh does have a portable MP3 player and we only listen to CDs now, but still have a few cassettes in our possession!). Of course, this layout was about a material type of gift... there are obviously many "non-material" gifts that would be higher on my list, but here I was thinking of a present-type gift.

As we approach this season of gratitude and gift-giving, please take the time to make your gifts count... and the best ones do not have to be expensive... the best presents truly are the ones from our hearts. But I won't send the Wii back if someone wants to get me one, lol!

Bad Girls Christmas Workshop

Doesn't this look fabulous?



Wendy and her designers are incredibly talented, so I cannot wait to see what will be created in this free workshop! I'm really just a "lurker" over at Bad Girls every now and then, but I am always amazed at the talent and creativity in the galleries. Can't wait to check it out and play along!

Where I've been...

The beach in November turned out to be wonderful. Lots of sunshine, heated pools & lazy rivers, a cool resort with a terrific game room (Seth now loves playing pool... Tessa's trying to learn PingPong), go cart racing, sand digging, and low enough humidity that my hair did not frizz! Who could ask for a better mini-vacation?