The end is near

Wow - I cannot believe I have been MIA for almost a month. Sorry about that. The month of December is so busy from start to finish for us. We start with a Christmas Dance Recital, then parties, school stuff and then the big day itself. Before I know it - it is New Year.

But never fear - I am still here! Today I wanted to share an adorable layout I received for Christmas from my mom! They dog-sat our lab Maggie while we attended a Fireman's Convention this past fall. My dad kept saying, "you just wait" but never let on to what he meant.

Mom snapped a few pics and made this:

Don't you just LOVE it? The shiny background is a snack bag from Petco that has paw prints all over it! What a great way to recycle something!! I immediately came home and hung it on my wall!!!

I am hoping to be back again really soon! Thanks for hanging in there with me! Happy New Year!

Thanks for popping in!

Baby it's cold outside!!!

Brrrrr!!!! The weather here in Maine has turned frigid! Much colder than the norm. I dislike the cold almost as much as the heat! At least I know I can always curl up in a warm fuzzy blanket if I need to!!!!

Are you done your Christmas shopping? We are almost finished. Got the men in our lives to do. I leave that job up to the hubby - with a little prompting, of course! :)

I wanted to share some pictures today of

1) the mess in my basement in the wake of installing my new counter tops &

2) a few of the pages to an album I will be giving for Christmas!
Here we go:

These are my 2 new counter tops my hubby gave me for my birthday!!! Aren't the beautiful? I don't think I gushed this much when we built the house many moons ago! They look so bare compared to my small and extremely messy table on the other side of the room!!! I still need to add the peg board over the counter and my towel racks with my much loved punches! Then I will add things slowly to see where I can use them the best!

This is the mess created when the hubby started the installation:

Bad huh? It will get better - I promise!!!

Ok - on to scrapping stuff.... I know - enough already about my counter tops!!

I found this awesome album kit put out by Autumn Leaves called the "60 minutes scrapbooker". It has an album, paper, and embellishments. All you need to do is assemble pages and add pictures. Some pages are even all assembled for you! Can you say QUICK??? And it is so pretty. There are several options, family, vacation, girl, boy, etc. I picked them up quite a while ago and now, after finally getting one together, wish I had gotten more!

Here are two of my favorite pages:

I honestly think the hardest part was trying to decide what pictures to use. (And most pages have enough supplies to make 2 pages).

I hope you have enjoyed today's pictures!!! I will share some more later this week!!!

Thanks for popping in! Stay warm~

time flies

Wow - does time fly~ Sorry that I have been MIA lately! I really have been busy! I am off to my last craft fair of the season this weekend and - truth be told - I am happy about it. I am burnt out. It has been a good season but every weekend there has been something going on.

I haven't even decorated my house for Christmas. I ALWAYS do that the weekend after Thanksgiving and this year it didn't happen.

I did manage to squeeze some Black Friday shopping in but then got sick and have been up and down with this cold. I blame it on my kid but who knows.

This Friday night our Girl Scout troop is participating in a local parade. Last night was another work night but I had stayed home from work so I didn't go and share my germs! I have been told it looks awesome! Many many thanks go out to the men who have helped us... Shane, Rob and Rich. We appreciate you so much! I cannot wait to get some pics to share with you!

My hubby finished installing my counter top in my scrap area so now I just need to rearrange everything. I think that will be a time consuming project! I will take some pics of that as well to share! I cannot wait to start working down there! I have some projects that need to be done for Christmas!

I always try to come up with a special idea for the teachers in Ash's life. This year I went a little non traditional.... and won't share in case she peeks.... but this is something I have done for teacher's in the past. Altered clipboards. Sometimes I put initials on it, sometimes a calendar or cork square. Sometimes I just alter them. Like this one:

I think it is so pretty. I love the blacks and pinks. Hope you like it too!

Thanks for popping in today and just a reminder......24 days till Christmas!!!

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

Good morning my blogging friends!!!! I hope you had a fantabulous weekend!!! I was busy once again, which seems to be the story of my life!!! I promised pictures of the candy bar snowman I made last week and here they are!!!!

Aren't these guys adorable?? I found them here, on this wonderful site. You can follow her links to get the free download for the snowman face. Be sure to spend some time on Kerry's site - as she is a great papercrafter! She has some awesome ideas!

I had some leftover fleece so I sewed a tube and cut it to about 5 inches or so to make the hat. I tied the top with DMC floss and added a little jingle bell for festivity!!!! The scarf is just made from some extra fleece I cut into a strip and tied around the neck! (I believe that you can find a video of how she made her's on her website!)

I think these are going to be awesome teacher's gifts, added to a gift of cocoa and a candy cane in a mug, anything! What a great way to brighten someone's day- even after Christmas!!!!! In the blah, dreary days of late January, pop one of these on someone's desk and watch the smiles appear!!!

If you want to see one of these (or several) in person- be sure to stop by the 17th annual craft fair this weekend at the old Nichol's building in Wilton (on Rt 156) this Saturday. There is going to be a boatload of crafters there and entertainment as well!!! I hope to see YOU there!

Thanks for popping in today!

*** Remember - there is only 38 more days till Christmas!!***

Another TGIF

Happy Friday!!! I hope you have all had a fabulous week! It has been a busy one for us! I am sorry for not being here to post more this week! I have been working on a few projects as I can find the time tho! I found the cutest Hershey Bar snowmen the other day and just HAD to try them out!

My daughter makes fleece sleeping bags for 18" dolls (or any doll for that matter!), so I have tons of fleece available for the hats and scarves! I will take a pic this weekend to share with you!

Also - my wonderful hubby bought me some counter tops for my birthday, for my scrap area in the basement. Since we finished the basement and I set up my area - we have been hesitant about it since most of my "stuff" is under the water pipes, etc. We have finally decided to rearrange things. I am so excited to get things underway. The best part is we got a great deal on a section of the counter tops since there was a tiny (and I mean tiny) scratch in it! You can hardly see it and cannot even feel it! Love a deal! I will be posting redesigning pics as well, as we get going on it! So once again- I am seeking out some design and storage ideas! I found this area online and like the looks of it!

This one doesn't look like it has much counter tops but lots of storage. I need to weed through some things that I haven't used in FOREVER! It will be hard but it is time! Altho - I haven't been scrapping- only creating- for quite a while! I cannot wait to get started making layouts again! If you have any storage ideas you want to share - please leave a comment!

Well, it is another busy weekend for the Walker household so ! am off to plan things out! Thanks for popping by~

Another rainy day here in Maine!

Happy Monday to all my friends in the blogging world! I hope you had a fantastic weekend! I took part in the 2nd annual Fall Festival at the TW Kelly Dirigo Middle School and it was great! The gym was filled with crafters of all kinds, I saw a ton of friends and the kids had a great time! Thanks to those who stopped my the booth and said hi!

I actually have this weekend off from craft fairs - kind of! My mom makes the most beautiful 18" doll clothes so I am going with her to an American Girl doll tea this Sat afternoon! (plus Ash wants to go!) But I did book another craft fair for the 20th in Wilton! I will be posting info on that this week!

Today I wanted to share a quick project that I made for last weekend's fair! I made 2 varieties but the 2nd set sold before I could get a picture of them for you. I will make more and post them!

I call them "Snowman Kisses". They are a tic tac holder! I need to add a small tag that says Snowman Kisses but aren't they cute??!!!! A friend has requested a few in other colors for stocking stuffers! So this afternoon I am off to find colored tic tacs!!! Another lady this weekend paired up a cocoa packet puller, a tea bag card and the tic tac holder as a set! I never thought of doing that!! Guess I will be making some more that match!!!

I hope you have enjoyed today's short post! I have been busy cleaning and catching up on Mount Washmore! Laundry seems to pile up when I turn my back!!! I am sure I will leave this afternoon for dance class and the laundry bins will fill up magically!!!!

Thanks for popping in and have a great afternoon!!!

Tea for .... well, One!

TGIF once again!!! Here we are again - peeking at more goodies that you will find on my craft table this weekend!!! This item is another one of the those great teacher's or co-worker's gift ideas!!!

Picture yourself.... it is snowing out and you are sitting in your favorite overstuffed chair, getting ready to dig into your newest book and it seems like there is something missing. What could it be? A warm, steaming mug of tea!!! Here is the perfect thing!

A gift packet with a single tea bag perfect for giving! Add one of these to the tea lover's stocking or along with a nice mug and a gift certificate from the local bookstore and - voila! The perfect gift!

I used a small piece of paper and scored it in two places to create the flap and the pocket! I added a scalloped edge punched piece of card stock to the edge of the pocket, some ribbon and closed it with 2 small brads, rather than sticky strip to make sure it held down (and because I do not have any more!!)

The front is similar to a card and I added a small stamped image and matted it for depth. Inside the lid I added a cute sentiment and punched it out with the large scallop circle punch! Easy peasy! I will be working on more of these to add to my collection of them!

Be sure to stop by the TW Kelly Middle School in Dixfield on Saturday (from 9-2) and see the crafters and their wares! Be sure to say hi!!!

Thanks for popping in today!