Saturday, November 28, 2009
Congrats to Miss A!!
Friday, November 27, 2009
The Day After
I thought I might get up and go to Target about 5 a.m. but yeah, THAT didn't happen. Nope, I chose to sleep until 7:45 thank you very much!
And, following my usual day after Thanksgiving tradition, I ate a piece of pumpkin pie slathered in Cool Whip for breakfast and enjoyed a cup of Starbucks via instant coffee.
At 9:30 a.m. I grabbed a trash bag, some boxes, my black Sharpie, my phone, and all sizes of ziploc bags and headed down to the basement. Can you guess what I was geared up to do? No? Well, I decided to tackle the dreaded Scrapbook Room. I taped up several boxes and stood in the doorway for several minutes just trying to decide where to start. Folks, believe me when I say it looked as though a tornado had blown thru that little 6x8 room. After about 30 minutes I got my organizing groove on and soon was separating the items I was keeping from the items I wanted to craiglist as well as fill up another 30gal trash bag of junk. It took me a good 2 1/2 hours or more to sift through it all. The room is by NO means cleaned & organized. All I really did was fill up 3 average sized boxes of scrapbooking supplies to sell on craigslist. What was left over is still all just sitting down there without much order to it. I seriously need to borrow my dad's super-sucker to go over the carpet before using my real vacuum. I have so many little buttons, brads, staples, etc all over that floor. It would kill a normal vacuum cleaner in about 2 seconds.
At 1:30 I started to Craigslist all the goods. In addition to the scrapbooking items I also listed 5 other items. Hoping now that I get some hits.
I have enjoyed my 2nd of 4 days off work. It's nice to be able to say I accomplished something besides sitting on my bum eating left overs.
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Here are some of the things I am thankful for...
~~~Family
~~~Accomplished Tasks
~~~The puzzle time Blake & I had yesterday
~~~Sweet kisses from Caiden
~~~Tastebuds....oh how boring life would be without them!
~~~VOD - Video on Demand - I rented The Proposal while sitting on my couch in my PJ's last night...how cool! (cute movie by the way but not as good as I expected to be honest)
~~~Memory Boxes - I took a few moments to look inside one of mine downstairs today and smiled as I read some of the old cards/notes I had saved over the years.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Tuesday's Thankfulness
Anyway, I really wanted a Starbucks coffee drink and blueberry scone so I decided I could swing it even though I was running late. It's amazing how I can justify something for a SB coffee & scone :) On the way to my little piece of heaven-on-earth I was thinking that I didn't want a Mocha this morning but didn't know what exactly I did want. I pull in the drive-thru and I hear the attendant come over the speaker to the car in front of me and asked "would you like to try our new Caramel Brulee Latte?" The woman asked what was in it and I strained to hear the ingredients and OMGosh.....I knew what I wanted. So, with anticipation I pull up to the speaker and eagerly wait for her to ask ME if I wanted one, too. I can't believe I am this excited at 7:10 a.m. on a Tuesday morning. I truly am an addict!!
I think you can guess what one of my 3 thankful for's will be...so without further ado
1. I am thankful for Grande Caramel Brulee Latte's
2. I am thankful for my body being able to "so far" fight off what I think is a sinus infection trying to flair up.
3. I am so very thankful for the relationship I have with my brothers. We don't always see eye to eye about things but they are still my big brothers and I know I can count on them to be there if I need them.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Thankful Thankful Thankful
1. My new 3" thick memory foam mattress topper. It has made all the difference in the world in me being able to sleep in my bed. This morning I literally kept resetting the alarm and staying comfy cozy under the covers.
2. McDonald's coffee.......if I can't have or don't want to spend the $$ on Starbucks then McD's is the next best thing in my opinion. And oh how I need it this morning.
3. Having a job. I may not always want to be here but I am so very grateful I have it. God has been so good to us and our business over the last 20 years. He has seen us through very lean times and blessed us with some wonderfully abundant years, too.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Between Scary and Sacred
On Nov 1st the leaves on the trees are still holding on....still changing from luscious green to the warm tones of autumn. The crispness in the air is finally letting us know it just may be here to stay. It is such a sensational time to stop and reflect on yet another season of thanksgiving but WAIT, where did it go???
Dr. Hufty paralled this worldly transition from the scary to the sacred by using the scripture out of Luke where Jesus healed the 10 Lepers. With just His words he healed them and as those 10 outcasts went from the scary (the leper colony where they lived) to the sacred (to see the priests who would ritualistically cleanse them for entry back into normal society) only one count them, ONE, came back to Jesus and gave thanks for the healing. WOW!!!
So, my challenge to myself and anyone reading who wishes to take it on is this: While the world sees the need to skim over "the thankful" in an effort to do what they feel has to be done for the economy (pah-lease) I am going to take this time to stop and offer up my thanksgiving for the blessings in my life. I may not blog it everyday but at some point during the day I will quietly reflect on 3 things I am thankful for.
I will start with these 3 things:
1. Thank you Jesus for second (third, fourth, one hundredth) chances. Your mercy is amazing.
2. Thank you Jesus for my hilarious little Molly-dog who has rediscovered her toy box.
3. Thank you Jesus for Autumn colors and the eyes to behold them.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Mother Hubbard's Cupboard....
I work at my local food pantry once a month and have been for over 2 years. Actually, my Sunday school class volunteered to work together. It seems since the down turn of the economy our shelves have dwindled to less and less as the need has grown more and more. It saddens me to see such bare shelves and to tell some people "I am sorry but we are out of that item".
Today was Scout for Food day and you are probably familiar with it. If you aren't, it is where the Boy Scouts distribute a plastic grocery bag to every house in the area on a Saturday with a note asking people to donate items for the local food pantries. The following Saturday you are to place your filled bag on your front porch by 9 a.m. and the BS then go around and collect the filled bags and deliver them to the pantries. Before I left go to the pantry I volunteer at I filled my bag and then grabbed another bag and filled it, too.
We normally only have about 5 or 6 of us working on a given Saturday but today there were oodles of folks showing up to help out and thankfully so because this is a HUGE undertaking that requires many many people to get it done. The food is delivered to a building across from our pantry......items in the bags are tallied for a count and then taken to any number of tables to be sorted and boxed up. The boxes are then lugged over to the pantry and our "group" began to fill the shelves. We filled and filled and filled the shelves and it was so exciting to hear someone yell "no more room for chicken noodle soup! no more room for corn!"
We went from bare nothing shelves to shelves overflowing. It's my understanding the count was approximately 9,000 items collected. Oy, thatsa lotta food! Sadly though, it will probably go faster than normal because like I said before, the need it greater this year. So, if I may put a little bug in your ear.....if you have an abundance of canned/boxed goods or toiletries such as toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, etc. then find out when your local food pantry is open and fill up one of the gazillion blue Wal Mart bags you might have stuffed in one of those handmade cloth bag holders and drop it off when you are out doing your errands. Better yet, let your neighbors know ahead of time and see if they will fill a bag, too. Trust me when I say "every bag counts and will be put to very good use for a family struggling to make ends meet".
It was a good day.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Always Changing
See what I mean? Really? Do you? Cause I ain't feeling the same enthusiam. Sorry, I forget not all "5" of my readers are scrapbookers, hee-hee! I am a brown-freak! Love me some brown in my clothes, my jewelry, my purses, and most definitely in my scrapbooking papers & elements. Brown just makes any other color it is paired with POP or in the case of this kit, ooze with yummy-ness :) Do the words "ooze" and "yummy" really go together in a sentence? Okay, so yet another one of my sicknesses coming out.
It really helps to have one darling photo subject to work around. Isn't Miss M. just a doll? And you can see how much her Grandma loves & adores her.
FYI, the bling-bling circles are from a different kit called Cafe Date by Irene Alexeeva at Scrap Orchard.
So, that has been the extent of my night as I have listened to the rain falling outside my windows. Thanks for stopping by :)
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Sciatic Sunday
Ingredients:
¾ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup butter (melted)
1 ½ cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup pumpkin puree
½ cup walnuts (chopped)
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon nutmeg
Step 1: Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and line an 8×8 inch baking dish with aluminum foil. Lightly grease the foil. In a bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.
Step 2: In a separate bowl mix together melted butter, sugar, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs (one at a time). Add in the flour mixture, a little at a time and stir until the batter is evenly moistened. Divide the batter in half evenly into 2 separate bowls.
Step 3: In one of the bowls blend in the cocoa powder and chocolate chips. In the second bowl of batter stir in pumpkin puree, walnuts, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
Step 4: Spread ½ of the chocolate batter mixture into the bottom of the baking dish. Pour ½ of the pumpkin batter mixture over that. Repeat the layers, ending with a pumpkin layer. Drag a kitchen knife or spatula through the layers in a swirling motion creating a marble appearance.
Step 5: Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool and cut into squares.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
A Super Saturday
- I rolled out of bed about 7:20 a.m. and cranked out a scrapbook layout while I ate some breakfast. Multi-tasking at 7:30 a.m.??? Hello, who IS this person?
- At 8:30 a.m. I made myself presentable and ran some lidded containers over to mom & dad's
- 8:45 I was out the door to run errands
- Stop #1, the bank
- Stop #2, McD's to grab a soda (very thirsty this morning...I know, soda was not a good choice but I wanted fizzy)
- Stop #3, drive thru post office drop off box
- Stop #4, Pak Mail to purchase packing boxes & paper....more on that later
Back home I unloaded the boxes & packing paper and grimmaced at my junked up front porch. Last weekend I purchased a 40 ct box of Glad Flex Trash Bags and put them to good use so I decided it was time to use some more. I started pitching junk! When I was satisfied with the improvement of the porch I went in to tackle the dreaded bedroom.
My bedroom has been a catch-all (as well as my kitchen, too) Back when I last kept Trevor overnight I took a bunch of stuff from the livingroom and stacked it in the bedroom wherever there was space to do so. Was trying to avoid constantly running to keep Trev out of something he shouldn't be in. Just seemed like less stress at the time. Well, that "stuff" stayed in the bedroom along with the pack-n-play.....which also became a catch-all in & of itself!! OY!
I could not tell you my process of working on the room and frankly I am sure you don't want to be bored with the details. All I knew was I wanted to P-U-R-G-E!!!!! I packed up all my summer clothes & shoes. I started taping up boxes and stuff I wanted to keep for when I get a larger home down the road I packed up. The rest was thrown out. I made a small pile in my livingroom of items I want to Craigslist. I know I should have done more than just trashed some of the things I threw out but I know me and it would never make it to its' other destination like Grandma's Attic. Just being honest....it would either sit in my car or somewhere in my home (where I am flat out-out of room) forever!!! I packed up 5 boxes and filled up 7 trash bags. How insane is that? My bedroom looks like a bedroom.....well, once I get the boxes moved to the basement it will look complete. However, the left knee and lower back just could not phathom carrying heavy boxes & containers down the steps. No, that is for another day when maybe I can sweet talk Josh into coming over after work and helping me.
At 3:30....6 1/2 hours after I started out, I was ready for 2 Tylenol Arthritis pills and some R&R. I laid down on my bed, set my timer for 1 1/2 hours, covered up and let the Tylenol take effect. Upon getting up I decided to tackle a few more little things. I rehung my newly washed mini-blinds in my bedroom (only got 1 set cleaned today) I then purged my bathroom shelves and straigtened them up and I managed to fill up another trash bag. OMG!
It is now nearing 8 pm and I so wish my washer/dryer were upstairs because I need to do wash but do NOT want to go downstairs. I still have lots more I want to pack up & throw out. The kitchen & scrapbook room are my 2 biggest jobs ahead of me. Something tells me I will be filling up the rest of those trash bags from those 2 rooms without any problems.
So, that was my super Saturday. It feels good to have actually accomplished something for a change.
Did you have a super Saturday? Leave me a note and tell me about it :) ~Hugs~
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Countryside Christmas
Happy Scrapping!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Welcoming Miss O!
Welcome to the world Miss O! Congrats my dear friends, she is beautiful :)
Monday, November 9, 2009
New Kit TBA on Thursday!!!
Here it is as it was intended to be....a Christmas kit. This is Trevvy last Christmas. I have a feeling I know what kit I will be using to make my Cmas cards this year ;-)
And here I am showing the versatility of the kit by doing an Autumn layout with it. Another photo of Caiden playing in the fall leaves at Nana & Papa's house! To make the photo blend better with the colors in the kit I did the following:
1. I duplicated my photo and on the top layer I cut Caiden out of the photo.
2. Next, on the same top layer I blurred it and turned it a sepia tone.
3. Now, what was left was the bottom layer of Caiden showing thru in its' original color and the surrounding leaves are blurred and sepia toned. This is a new technique I just happened to teach myself recently....I LOVE IT!!!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Fall Make-Over
A little 5x7 photo card I made for the winning team from our Scavenger Hunt Friday night using the kit, Apple Of My Eye by Tracey Howard @ Scrap Orchard. This was for the Slogan Challenge.
The Blakester!! This challenge I was suppose to use a typewriter & a handwriting font on the same page. I used the kit "Play" by DeCrow Designs @ Scrap Orchard.
And this little number was for a Scraplifting challenge. I got to lift one of Amy Stoffel's layouts. Isn't this a darling photo of Caiden? I used several kits...August & Autumn Harvest both by Amy Stoffel herself (I thought it appropriate to use her designs for the lift) and the word art is from Elegant Word Art by Bethany called Autumn Leaves Word Art Pack...all @, you guessed it, Scrap Orchard!
And this last one, using some close up shots of Caiden's sweet smiling face, was for a Template challenge. I used the kit "Kissing Frogs" by Lyndsay Riches. Caiden loves to give kisses so I thought it was appropriate to use this darling kit for the challenge :)
Friday, November 6, 2009
Memory Foam, Etsy, DSD
#1 Sold my beloved recumbent bike this week and with part of the money I purchased a 3" thick Memory Foam mattress topper for my current bed. Took it out of the packaging last night and gave it time to 'bounce back' into shape. This morning I placed the cover over it.....no easy task to accomplish by ones self but I did it. I then placed my down featherbed on top of that and tonight will be the true test to whether the $160+ dollars spent was worth it. If not, I will move on to Plan B....return topper & purchase a Doctor's Choice mattress from The Denver Mattress Company.
#2 Today marks the beginning of Digital Scrapbooking Day or DSD. It really goes the whole weekend but they call it "day". It's a super-duper fun few days in the world of digi-scrapping. I won't get to participate in the fun until tomorrow as I have other fun already planned for tonight. Believe it or not the fun I had planned long before I knew it was DSD was to attend a Digital Camera Scavenger Hunt with my church group. I will be a judge so I don't get to go out and take all the wonky pictures, bummers :( Tomorrow I really really need to go to Wal Mart very early and then I plan to come home and see what kind of trouble I can get into over at Scrap Orchard & who knows where else my mouse will take me!!!
#3 And finally, I am excited because I ordered the most adorable little, hand-knitted, camo hats w/ear flaps for all 3 boys for Christmas. Below is a photo of one very cute model showing off the hat.......
I found them on www.etsy.com which is this awesome website where all these amazing hand-made items are for sale. You can get lost rummaging through this site for hours if you are not careful :)
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Peace by Studio Rosey Posey
You can go directly to the kit in the store by clicking this link:
http://shop.scrapbookgraphics.com/product.php?productid=26230&cat=0&page=1
Wanna know the best part???? It is 40% off Nov 4-8th so grab it while it is on sale!!!!!!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Frightfully Fun Fall Frolic
Living out in the boondocks, Brian & Andrea have no shortage of leaves whatsoever. So, I was very excited as fall approached this year because I knew the boys were big enough to get snapshots of them playing in the piles of leaves. Here is the layout I did using photos of Trevor in the 2009 Autumn leaves. I didn't have photos of Caiden when I did this layout. I do now so come back soon to see the LO I do with his photos.....got a GREAT one of him and his Pa Pa :)