"The best Christmas ever"

proclaimed my littlest, as I put him to bed tonight. He got really lucky, and scored a ton of cool toys this year- lots of Lego... Star Wars and Atlantis; Clone Commander Blaster gun, Nerf Dart tag, Lego Rock Band, an electric piano, and a ton of other stuff. Yes, he got spoiled. Last year, he got hockey stuff, books, and clothes, but not really any toys. I remember him being upset about that, and this year I decided to go all out with the toys, since soon I won't be able to do the toy thing. He's growing up, and won't be into that in a few short years, so I really enjoyed seeing him so excited. Isn't that what it's all about?

My eldest got the only thing he really wanted ( besides a cell phone) on his wish list- an IPod Touch. Man, even I don't have one of those, and  can I say that I was a little jealous of him for a few seconds when he opened it up? I'm excited for him b/c he's passionate about music, and I remember how excited I was years ago when i got a Walkman for Christmas one year, when music was my life. ( yes, I'm  THAT old. ;p)
 I got a much needed update to my old and dated PSE program from Bob. ( thanks hon!!)  I've just installed PSE 8, and can't wait to try it out- right now I'm waiting for it to copy all my 4,000 + photos.
 Other than gifts, our Christmas was cozy and fun, and very much focused on family. It was perfect. We stayed home for the first time ever as a family this year ( family dinner is tomorrow) and we all stayed in our pj's the whole day, lounging, playing, watching movies,  napping and eating lots of Christmas treats. Very relaxed, and much needed R&R. Just perfect. :)

Here's a few WIP pages from my DD. Keep in mind that I"m working out of order and off the cuff when I can get something done, so these are just very simple and basic pages that I may or may not add to later.
I can see the benefit of doing the album beforehand, as it's hard to decide where the pages will go and how they will fit if you're doing them like I am, one at a time. But I will make it work, and will post the entire thing once it's all assembled, so you can get a better idea of what it looks like once it's all put together. :)

Day 10 ( first page of spread is not done, but idea is there)

Day 16

 a very simple page with a full page photo and journaling about my thoughts for that day. Thinking heavily about my Mom and MIL that particular day and missing them alot.

Day 17

a page about my Flickr addiction, using a mosaic from my favourite photos file there. This page literally took me about 5 minute to put together, but I`m so liking how it turned out.

I have to leave you with a photo of the last day's Lego advent calendar figure. We were pretty sure Santa would make an appearance the last day, and here he is! The kids really adored this calendar. It truly was one of those times when you're happy to have doled out the $$ for something a little extravagent.Worth every penny for my Lego loving boys. :)

I'd like to wish all of my blogger buddies & readers a beautiful and peaceful Christmas- I hope your day was as perfect as mine has been. It has been wonderful to connect with all of you through the magic of the internet- thank you for your friendship, comments, and presence here.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

xoxox

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Houston, we have an entry!

 Day nine= DONE.  I'm psyched. :)

My printer is fixed, thanks to my husband who spent an hour reconfiguring things and re-installing the software the other day, after much whining from me. I'm so happy to be able to print at home again. I don't remember the last time I took photos in to be printed, but I really should do it on a monthly basis.

 We had our first big snowstorm of the year on Wednesday, which is the topic of my Day 9. I have photos for the previous days printed out now, and will work backwards I guess, when I have a chance to catch up, hopefully over Christmas. I'm not going to worry about it for the time being- I'm just so happy to finally have something done.

My 2 pages are extremely simple. In keeping with the mood of that day, I wanted it to be 'quiet', so I didn't add a lot of extras. Lots of white space on page 2. I like how it turned out, and will be sticking steadfast to my theory that less is more, for my taste anyways. :)

Here are a few close-ups:

I have some fun stuff for yesterday's entry to do tonight...We had the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games torch runner come through our little 'burb yesterday afternoon (exciting and emotional) and last night, my son performed in his first High School band concert from his Band Etude studies. A great full day to document. :)

 I realized after the fact that I should probably cover the inside of my album.  I've decided to use something subtle, a la Molly, and will go with a dark forest green Swiss Dot paper from Bazzill that matches the green words on my cover. Will be picking that up tomorrow at work. Speaking of which, I'm finding it difficult to do entries on the days I do work, and wondering how to solve that dilemma. I'm thinking about just doing a non-photo layout for these days, as it's tough to get decent photos at night. But with tree lights, that could work out okay. :)

Be back soon..

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Bah humbug.

I've run into a major snafu with my Daily December album, wouldn't you know. My BRAND NEW printer won't print my pictures in anything but a lovely blue hue, ( yes, I have checked the ink!) which means I'm running behind on about 4 days of entries.  So I'm heading off to Costco in a bit to get some photos printed off, and if I have the energy left after getting the kiddos in bed, I'll try working on it tonight. I`ve been feeling under the weather lately, and kind of stressed out in general. Too much on my plate maybe.  I desperately need a deep shoulder massage, because I have one big massive knot that`s been giving me a literal pain in the neck the past few weeks, not to mention a headache. Not fun.

In lieu of album pages, I'll leave you with a layout I did for a very cool French magazine called 'Esprit Scrapbooking'. Beatrice (the editor) emailed me a few months back asking me to do an interview on the 'Clean and Simple' style, and when I got my copy in the mail on Monday, I was happily surprised to see that I had a 4 page spread in the magazine- definitely exciting! The entire magazine is really fantastic, and I feel honoured to be asked.

 Anyhoo, I'm a bit put off that I'm behind on my album already, and with everything else to do this month, it's very tempting right now to just let it go. But I'm determined to follow through this year- especially after seeing some really beautiful albums on blogs and online sites. Cheer me on, will ya? ;p
 See you Wednesday if all goes well!

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It's here....

We woke up to snow this morning and I had to go out and take some pictures. :) The first one is always so pretty & definitely helps put me in the Christmas frame of mind. ( click for a bigger view)

Still haven't taken photos of last year's DD album. I'm honestly not motivated to do it now, since I'm about to embark on this year's tomorrow, but I will at least take one or two shots of it,  and post them along with this year's as I go.

Here's a layout I made last week for the WCS 'Grateful' theme. My guys- I love them. :)

I used some of the new AC 'Letterbox' stuff on this one.

Happy Monday to all of you! If you're doing a December album, let me know, I'd love to see it.

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Good Things

Today’s word on the WCS blog is GOOD. I decided to put my version on my poor neglected blog, because after seeing Stacy’s post last night, I thought it was lovely, and should really stand on its own.

Here are 5 good things that I’m loving right now because of their simplicity and do-abilty ( is that a word?) as the hectic month of December draws near. Because who needs complicated in December, right?


1. My Daily December Album

I’m sure all of you reading this have heard of the Daily December album concept, made popular by Shimelle Laine and Ali Edwards. I made my first one last year, and although I enjoyed it, I think I tried to be a little too eclectic for my own good. This year, I’ve opted for something much more in keeping with my style. I covered an American Crafts Modern Album (8x8) with some October Afternoon word paper, and just added a simple title and a Bling Christmas tree from Basic Grey as my embellishment. I’m not a bling-y type person as a rule, but for Christmas, I do enjoy a bit of sparkle.  My inside pages aren’t done yet, but my plan is to make very simple pages with the photos and words as my main focus, with minimal embellishments. I know I said I’d share some of my album from last year, but I haven’t gotten around to taking photos yet. If any of you are interested in seeing it, let me know, and I’ll get my butt in gear to post them.

2. LEGO Advent Calendar

 I have two VERY Lego crazed boys, especially my youngest. He lives and breathes it. When I found this Advent calendar last week, I hesitated before plunking down the cash for it since I found it a bit commercial, and dare I say it, not really in keeping with the spiritual/religious aspect of Advent. But when I saw how HAPPY it made my kids, I decided to just go for it, and I’m glad I did. They’re so excited about it, and I think it’s going to be something really fun for them to look forward to everyday as we count down to Christmas. And you can’t deny the total cute-ness factor.



3. Homemade bread

My pal Linda has been singing the praises of no-knead bread and posting yummy looking photos (like this one above) of her various no knead loaves on Twitter this past week, so I’ve decided to give it a try. She swears it takes only 30 minutes and that the results are as good as a French boulangerie’s. Here’s the recipe she recommends. Bread is one of my favourite things in the world, so what’s another ten pounds just before Christmas?


4.Handmade Christmas cards

I made 30 of these cards ( sold in sets of 5, with envelopes) for my son’s Cub Scout troop to sell at his School Fair last weekend, along with another 20 of various designs. I’m happy to say that they all sold, and the Scout troop made over 100$. I wish I had started earlier and made more. I was lucky to have the help of a friend who came over one evening to stamp and cut while I embossed and assembled. They turned out lovely, and I now want to make a variation of it for my own Christmas cards. I’m realistic that this isn’t quite so do-able due to time restraints, so please don’t quote me on this one. ;)


5. Internet Christmas Shopping

It suits my hermit lifestyle, and I love that I can shop in my pyjamas with coffee in hand. Or a glass of wine, if it happens to be past 10 pm.  I love ‘live’ Christmas shopping, but the internet is fantastic for getting the job done on my own time- can’t beat that!



Have a great Monday. Hoping I can make it back here this week! :)



xo

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Pssst...

What a blur my life has been the past week! CRAZY busy. Seriously, there aren't enough hours in the day. I'll be back here tomorrow to show you a little of last year's (ummm, unfinished)  December Daily, as I gear up to actually get this year's prepared. ;) I'm bound and determined to finish it on time this year.

 I'm guest blogging with the amazing Stacy Julian at Write.Click. Scrapbook. this week and next,
in celebration of American Thanksgiving, so make sure to come and visit us there. It's going to be a fun and inspiring 2 weeks!

xox

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Some Canuck humour for ya...

This gave me a great laugh this morning... hilarious, no? ;p

I'll be back soon I hope.. I have school fair volunteer duties ( baking, wrapping, and cardmaking) to do this week along with all the other daily stuff, so I may be MIA for a while longer. Why does life accelerate to 200 MPH in November??

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