Baby it's cold outside!

Happy Wednesday! Winter has finally arrived in Maine! We have had a couple of snow storms but today it is COLD! The wind it blowing and tomorrow the wind chill is supposed to be 15 degrees below! Brrrr. This morning as I dropped off Ashley at the school - I went inside to pick up something from the teacher and all the kids were coming into the building saying "WHAT - no outside recess???!!!" The school is on a hill and the wind was blowing hard up there! The teachers are smart! (besides - who wants to have recess duty in the wind??!!)
I hope you are all having a wonderful week! i have gotten in a little scrapping time. I finished one more 12x12 layout but I cannot post pics yet as it is a gift! The other one is almost finished! I had to wait for some paint to dry to finish assembling it! They are so much fun to do!
I have gotten some terrific inspiration from this site here. There is some amazing work on here! Check it out! I need to wrap presents tonight as we are headed north to visit my husbands family for the 1st of many Christmas celebrations! (I hate wrapping presents!). I will try and remember to take some more pictures of the cards I finished making the other night! Some are very plain and simple, but quick! Gotta love quick this time of the year!
Off to test the mock toffee I made! Have a terrific day!

12x12 layouts

Happy Monday all!!! We had another few inches of snow last night. Just enough to make it messy and slick driving! I think I am all done Christmas shopping. Are you????

So you have any special traditions that you and your family do for Christmas? Please share them with me! I would love to hear about them!

As promised - here are a couple pictures of 12x12 framed layouts I have made for Christmas presents! I can safely post them here (and on Facebook - since neither "gift getters" do much online!) They are very close so I will post pics of the one with the most pictures!!!

I used the Stampin Up DSP Cottage Wall paper! I love their DSP since it all coordinates and the colors are so vibrant! I might have to order another package! I inked some chipboard elements (photo corners and photo turns) moss green and the others violet, to match my colors! Then I used clear embossing powder on them to give them some shine and to seal in the color! I also used up some square slides for frames. I sponged on some of the moss and violet inks as well. I also sponged some ink onto the white flower to tone down the stark white! And of course I had to use some big, bright flowers! Gotta love flowers!

I am in the process of making a couple more framed layouts but they will have to wait until later to post as I don't want to spoil the surprise!!! Have a terrific day all!!!

Some scrapping has been accomplished!

While we were having our jammie day while it snowed the other day - I actually got some simple cards done for a Christmas present! I still have more to make but it is a start! I got several ideas from Splitcoast Stampers site for the stamp sets that I have. It made the card ideas so easy to pound them out! Perhaps more will get done tonight!!!

I did also work on some layouts for gifts! I will get some pics of those as well and get them posted! have a terrific day!

Finally!!!!!!!

I am still here!!! Yesterday we got snowed under with about a foot of snow! So - Ashley and I had a pajama day and got some much needed things done!!! And I got to spend some time in my scraproom!!

But - I promised pics and info on our mystery trip to Boston! For those who hadn't heard - Santa had a letter delivered to McDonald's last Thursday telling the girls that they were headed on a mystery trip the next morning. After a train ride, several clues and a few snafus (including a $60 cab ride) we arrived at the American Girl Doll Store in Boston! The girls were awesome! They ran in and chose the dolls they wanted fairly quickly! They wandered around deciding on a couple of outfits. There was so much to look at! And the place was super busy! We thought that a Friday wouldn't be too bad! Wrong!!! I cannot imagine what it would be like on a Saturday! :)

We made reservations at the Bistro for lunch! The dolls had their own seats and even were served a small muffin! Lunch was yummy!

We window shopped in the mall, saw Santa and thanked him for an awesome adventure! We called our buddy the cab driver (Tom) and he took us to Quincy Market. We wandered around there, listening to a band playing Christmas carols and watched some street performers dancing. Then we worked our way back to North station to catch the train home! It was a very long but fun day!

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

Wow - where has the time gone? It has been almost a week since I posted! A lot has happened since then!!! On Friday Santa surprised Ashley and her cousin Grace with a mystery trip to Boston to the American Girl Doll Store! I will upload and post pictures tomorrow! What an awesome adventure! I will definitely be scrapping this event! The girls are even convinced that they saw an elf!!! If you ask them - they will tell you that they couldn't see her ears (because she was wearing a hat) but her toes were curled!!!! :)
Christmas will be here before you know it! Are you done your shopping??!! I have some projects that MUST get done! Hopefully I can find a few minutes in my evenings to get started on them this week! Tonight is supposed to be my dance class but we will see! We are expecting the first BIG snow of the season tomorrow so who knows what tomorrow will bring! It snows over the weekend and it was so pretty but I really am NOT looking forward to snow!
On a side note - I have been listening to the Go Fish Guys Christmas CD "Snow" and love so many of their songs! This one is called "Christmas with a capital C". Hopefully you can view the link to it here! What a song! It makes me remember that Jesus is the reason for the season each time I hear it!
Well, I will see you tomorrow with pics from our trip! Have a terrific day!

Decorating the house

This is the latest I have put up the Christmas decorations in a long time. But having to run out to replace the lights threw me off this year!!! But here are some shots I got while in the progress!!!! Enjoy! I love snowmen! So the majority of my decorations are snowmen! I even leave some of my favorites out all year round! Ash decided this year she cold put the tree together! She did pretty good too!

The Christmas village was my moms and she gave 1/2 of it to use and the other half to my brother's family this year! It looks so beautiful set up in my entryway!

Ashley and my yellow lab Maggie were being silly laying on the floor! And poor Maggie - she wasn't so sure about the reindeer antlers either! Hopefully she will get used to them! I am sure Ash will have her wearing them a lot!!

December at last!!!!

December 1st! That only leaves 24 more days till Christmas!!! Yeah! I love this time of year!!

I promised last week that I would post some pics of my table from the craft fair a couple of weeks ago! So here they are. Nothing fancy but I had a good time!!!

Every year on Thanksgiving we take the girl's picture to put on a t-shirt for my dad. We have done this every year since Grace was a baby. Dad loves his t-shirts and wears them whenever he can!! He knows about this gift but is thrilled all the same! The girls were being silly this year! Here are some random shots from our "photo shoot" from Thanksgiving!!!

I finally got my Christmas lights yesterday. We found out (after we had them all strung on the tree) that the cat had chewed the cord. So I had to go to Walmart yesterday! The rest of the house is mostly decorated! I will post pics tomorrow!!!

The Elf came yesterday. For those who do not know the story of our Elf - here goes!!! Every year - around the weekend after Thanksgiving - a magical Elf appears in our home. He moves around the house, keeping an eye on things. You never know where he will be. Some days he stays in the same spot for a while and other times he moves several times a day. This morning he was hiding among the snowmen on my shelf. Then, on Christmas Eve, he reports back to Santa (or beforehand if need be) and lets him know if Ashley has been good. He magically appeared around Christmas the year we moved into our house! I will try and get some picture of the Elf! He does some interesting things when no one is home!!!

Have a terrific day! Thanks for popping in!