Clutch

One of the things I taught the girls for Protocol was that you shouldn't carry a full-blown purse to a fancy event. The proper place for your purse at the dinner table is on your lap, under your napkin. Most purses are too bulky for that. Thus, the evening bag, or clutch. I realized sometime during my research for Protocol that I didn't own a clutch. I borrowed one from my mom to use as an example in class, but it didn't match my black dress. So... I dug around in my fabric scraps and found some stiff-back velvet, satin, and cording I had been given. I did a little playing on my sewing machine and... voila! A clutch. Since the material was given to me, it was basically free. It took about 30 min to make, start to finish (I probably would have spent more time than that shopping for one) and it matched my dress nicely. It's a trifold design, so it essentially has two compartments, which was sort of nice. I promised Robert I'd put up a picture, so here it is. My one-of-a-kind masterpiece.

2 Peas Update

I updated my 2ps gallery with about 10 more LO today. Yippeee!
(go to my gallery to see the journaling for this LO.)

My Favorite Card

This is currently my favorite card. I scraplifted the idea from 2ps, but I really like it.

Michael's $1 Acrylic Stamps

I have a love for acrylic stamps. And though I can't say I'm terribly fond of Michael's, I do like that they have a WHOLE lot of acrylic stamp sets for $1. Yep. I like that. They had about 20 different sets, and I bought 16 of them. So last night I sat down and made a few cards with them and some of my scraps.

HS Mask Cards

A few weeks ago I bought a Heidi Swapp alphabet mask set. I haven't had much time lately for crafting, with Protocol and all, but I did get some cards made. And last night I managed to scan in a bunch of layouts I'd done earlier, plus a couple I did yesterday. So MIM is back at last.

Sheer Brilliance!

I got this in my email this morning. It made me laugh - I'd never thought to get Ellie to do my housework for me!

Jealousy.

I know we should be thankful for what we have. And I am. But seriously... I want one. There are more pictures here and here.

Chocolate Party!

Tomorrow we are going to a chocolate party. Woohoo!! Our friends Doug and Michael have one pretty much every year and they're a lot of fun. Not too healthy, but a lot of fun. Now... what to bring this year....

Last year I brought cappuccino truffles... they're a hard act to follow. I might have to make some again this year. I might also do white chocolate covered pretzels. Hmmm... what other goodness can I concoct? I believe that's what I'll be spending my day doing today. Helllllllooooo Inner Martha!

Snowy days are even more grosser.

Rainy days are gross, but snowy days are even more grosser. At least I get stuff done on rainy days. But seriously... who wants to go sit in a cold basement craft room and scrap on a cold, snowy Spring day? Not me.

Another one bites the dust...

It's rainy and nasty outside and I feel blah. Sounds like a scrappin' day to me. Ellie's been fussy and clingy (more teeth?) but during her morning nap I managed to crank out two baby gift albums start to finish - one 8x8 and one 6x6. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I'm working on a 3rd right now, but Ellie's actually drinking her bottle without getting distracted, so there's no WAY I'm going to move her to the basement right now. So I'll just wait. She'll be ready for another nap in not too long. I might take one then, too. We'll just see.

Rainy days are gross. :(

Good Day

8 single page LO

That's what I call a good day.

10 single page and 2 double page layouts. That's my total for the weekend. Woohoo!

Ideas...

It's been weeks now since I've had a CJ to work on. I hope they didn't just get lost in the mail... I still have those same two LO done that I've had done for forever and no books yet to put them in. *sigh*

In the meantime, I've got an idea for a mini book I'd like to do for Ellie. I'd love to create an album for her of my favorite songs to sing to her. It'd be like a little lullaby songbook and scrapbook in one. I've got so many great pictures of her that remind me of songs (when you wish upon a star, you are my sunshine, twinkle twinkle little star, etc.) that I want to do this. I don't know what size to do it yet... still working on that.

I'd also like to do an "abc" album/storybook. Both of these are ones that I'd like to make "Ellie proof" so she can actually look at/ play with them. I don't know if it will happen, at least with the "abc" one, though. My ideas so far are not babyproof, LOL! =)

I got a mini album and a half finished in Texas, though, so that was good. And I did a LO today of Ellie with some pictures from way back when. (Can you say that about someone who hasn't even had her first birthday yet?) So at least I'm doing a little scrapbooking in my spare time. And just now, in the middle of posting this, I got distracted and did two more two-page layouts. I guess I'd better publish this post and get back to my craft room while the juices are flowing. Happy crafting!

CJ Progress

I've been missing seeing how the progress is coming on my 5 senses CJ, but now Andrea has posted pictures of her LO on her blog! Woohoo! I just have to say that I cannot WAIT to get this back in a few weeks! It's so exciting and after taking a week off to catch up, I'm looking forward to getting the next few in the mail so I can work on more LO! I think my next one to do is "Quotes". I'm trying to figure out exactly what I want to do for that so that it's original, but at the same time, I'm really looking forward to the challenge. I've got a couple ideas, so we'll see what I end up with. In the meantime, though, I'm here, in Texas, having fun away from home. Yippee! So the CJing will just have to wait until I go back home.

Hambly Class

Tomorrow night I get to teach a class on using Hambly papers and overlays. I'm pretty excited about getting other Bozeman scrapbookers interested in Hambly products, mostly because I love them so much!!

In the class we're going to do a resist technique using the Hambly craft papers. We'll be making a one page LO and two cards. The background paper on the LO is Foofala, but everything else is Hambly. The class description from the Keepsakes blog can be found here.

CJ Entry: Music **SPOILER ALERT**

We took a little break from the CJ rotation to let people catch up, but I am going to be out of town, so I worked on the next LO anyway. Andrea's theme is MUSIC and I did something VERY different from what I normally do, but I LOVE how it turned out!

The explanation/journaling is behind the CD (which, btw, does have a song on it, though it might have to be played on a computer and not a CD player... didn't check on that one.) and basically explains the connection I have between the song "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" and Picasso's Guernica, which is pictured on the right page. I had a ton of fun doing this LO and, again, wish I were keeping this one for myself. I think I'm going to print out color copies of all of the LO I did for these journals and put them in a book for myself. It won't be as cool as the real LO, but it will help me remember some of my favorite LO. Things I like best about this LO:
Picasso's Guernica and U2 "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" theme - it's like a trip in a time machine for me.

• The real CD integrated into the LO.
• Hambly
• Purple Onion (the Art and Music stamps were ones I got in a random "grab bag" a while back - PERFECT for this LO!)
• The quotes.
• The sheet music paper - comes from a book my dear friend Jodi Mae got me back when we were in college... A few of the songs I've written are in this book and I absolutely LOVE the way it's set up. So I cannibalized a sheet for this project.

I hope you like it, Andrea - I had a ton of fun working on this one! My next CJ entry will be "Quotes" - I'd like to get that done before I leave, too, but this week will be busy, so we'll just have to see how it goes.

Lately

There has been a serious dearth of postage from me lately. Sorry about that. I've been doing some scrapping, but haven't been in the mood to scan and stitch LO to get them posted. I finally scanned a bunch of stuff the other day, and I've worked on stitching a few one-page LO, but I haven't posted anything. Sorry. I'll get to that one of these days.

I have been taking pictures of my wee one. Target had flower headbands in the $pot (haha! looks like dollar-pot! Okay... I'm tired.), so I took a few fun pictures of her in that. Silly girl - I'd put it on and she got all cute and charming as if she KNEW I wanted adorable for the camera! I've even got a photo-less LO done for a picture of her in it, just waiting for me to print the picture. And best of all, most of the items for my LO were RAKs! (Random Acts of Kindness, for those not in the know...)

I joined a RAK group on 2ps and have been having fun sending off stuff for others to use that I didn't particularly care for. You know - the few papers out of the stack that weren't my style. Or the leftover embellishments from projects I'm finished with. The cool thing is that I've also been getting RAKs from people, so I'm getting new things to play with! YAY!

Mostly I've been working on stuff for my classes at the LSS, working on updating the blog for the LSS (but really... getting paid to combine my love for blogging with my love for scrapbooking?? It's great. Kind of like getting paid to combine my love of teaching with my love of scrapbooking, really....), attempting to clean up my craft room (unsuccessfully, I might add...), planning Protocol for Petra, and getting ready to go to Texas in a week. So things have been crazy. But I will post new things soon, I promise.

CJ Entry **Love Is...**

**SPOILER ALERT**

I think this is my favorite LO so far for these CJs. I'm not sure I want to send it on. *sigh* But I will. This one goes to Jenna. I titled it "So this is Love..."

CJ Recipes

I finally got the next CJs in the mail today! Yippee!! I'm so excited about getting them and sending them on. Anyway- as requested, here are the recipes from my Comfort Food LO.

CJ Entry "Happiness is..."

**SPOILER ALERT**

**SPOILER ALERT**

My CJ this week is Sheila's "Happiness is..."


I love this picture of Leif and Eliana taken this summer. I titled the LO "This is happiness" and the journaling reads: "Happiness is watching him go from husband to father." I got to use a bunch of stuff from my stash, plus my Purple Onion swirlies. One of these days I will lay off the swirlies. Maybe.

CJ LO "Let's Eat" Entry

**SPOILER WARNING** Iffen you don't be want'n to see the page, you'd best be avert'n yer eyes real quick like. **/SPOILER WARNING**

Well, I'm still waiting for the CJ to arrive in the mail, but I decided to go ahead and get the LO done now so I can get it in the mail as soon as I get the book. Actually, I went sort of crazy and have finished this AND the next two LO, so I should probably pick up some other project to work on now that I'm oodles ahead. But I've got stuff for the LSS coming up in the next couple weeks, so I wanted to make sure I worked on my CJ entries while the inspiration was there. Okay... without further ado, here is my recipe LO:

... and a detail shot of the innards of my "recipe box" on pg 2. I was pretty proud of that li'l 3D goodie. Plus it allowed me to cheat and include more than one recipe since I couldn't narrow it down to my favorite.

HAPPY NATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY!

Errr.... Scratch that. National Scrapbooking day isn't until May 5. My bad.

CJ round 2 **MY LO**

I'm the 2nd entry in Samantha's CJ. Her theme is "This Circle Journal Brought To You By The Letter C" and our entry had to do something with C. So this is my take on it...

I used DCWV pp, Li'l Davis alpha stamps, DCWV alpha rubons, Dymo label maker, and a handcarved swirly stamp.

Recently....

I've actually been doing LO again lately. It's been great. Some of the LO I really really like. Others I'm just glad to have done. I haven't finished stitching them all together yet, but here are a few of the one pagers I like.

Ready to take on the world.

Well, my circle journal is ready to head out into the great wide world. Today I finished the sign in page and did my layout. The official mail date is Monday, but I'm going to be out of town Monday (yippee!) so I will hopefully get mine in the mail tomorrow.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for....

The cover. My favorite thing about the cover is that I incorporated one of those wheels you turn for different words to appear in the window. It's been on my "someday I want to use this on a LO" list for forever, and now I've actually done it! So the title of the book is "can you {sense/see/hear/smell/taste/feel} it?" I thought it was fitting for the 5 senses theme.

I'm also loving the Hambly and Purple Onion stamps on this journal. I'm getting good mileage out of both on this project! (Oh yeah - and the ribbon looks really bad in the picture because I had it flat on the scanner, but there is brown, pink, and green ribbon tied down the spiral album edge.)


This is my intro page. It's pretty self explanatory. Again, love the Purple Onion!


My sign in page. Each spot is marked with the initial of a participant, in the order that the journal will progress. The tags are actually three tags fastened together with ribbon - one each for signature, picture, and the date. Another interactive page. =)


And this is my 5 senses layout. It's about Alloway, NJ, where I spent my summers growing up. I finally used my Hambly rubons on this LO for the first time! Also used Hambly pp and overlay, as well as Purple Onion stamps and DCWV background pp. Oh yeah - my favorite thing about this LO? After I printed the journaling on vellum, while it was still wet, I sprinkled it with clear embossing powder and set it. I love the result. Embossed, computer generated type. Yeah, I'll be doing more of this in the future. Very cool.


I'm getting very excited about this project and can't wait until I get the next book to work on! I've already got ideas for some of the themes coming my way. This is going to be a lot of fun.

CJ Route

Seriously. It's pretty cool that our little circle journals will make this trek around the U.S. Thanks for posting the route, Andrea.

eta: You'll have to click the empty picture box above to see the picture. I don't know what Blogger's issue is, but I'm going to leave it as is.

CJ Theme!

Drum roll please....

the 5 senses.

That's my theme. I worked on the cover tonight, so I should be able to post a picture of my journal in the next few days. I'm pretty excited about how my cover is coming together. I think this is going to be a lot of fun and can't wait to see what everyone else is doing.

Circle Journal

I am going to do a circle journal group this winter/spring. It's been on my list of things to do and I've never done one, so I think it will be fun. And I'll get one more thing on my "to do before I die" list checked off.

Now, for a theme. This is where you guys come in. I need some help deciding, so please add a comment to vote for the theme you think I should choose!

1) The five senses (you know - taste, smell, touch, sight, and hearing)
2) Favorite games
3) My purse (what people would learn about you if they went through the contents of your purse)

OR - does anyone have any other awesome circle journal theme they wouldn't mind me stealing?

I'd like to get this nailed down asap, so vote already!

2007 Scrap Resolution

While I am not making any personal resolutions this year, I am making a scrapbooking resolution. I wasn't planning on making any, but then Memory Makers magazine was asking people to email in their scrapbooking resolutions. I thought to myself... "If I really want to accomplish something in my scrapbooking this year, what is it?" And this is what I came up with:

“

In 2007 I resolve to scrap my heart. I want people browsing my albums to see ME - —to know my passions, to feel the love I have for my family, to cry at my pain and to overflow with my joy. I want to convey emotion in my pages— - sometimes with words, but more often by my color choices, layout design, photo content and titles.

That's what I want to do this year. I will be doing plenty of pages for the LSS, but I don't want my work to become mundane. So I resolve to scrap my heart out. =)

What's even more exciting to me is that the new Memory Makers email newsletter came today and they quoted my resolution in their "From the Editor" section. It's not quite the same as having my work published, but it's enough to make me excited today.

jacob's ladder

A while back I planned to do a class on making a jacob's ladder mini scrapbook. We postponed the idea until later, and now the time has come! Here's the album I'm doing for the class.


It uses Foofala and Daisy D's papers, and Foofala rub-ons. The "technique" for the class is using rub-ons on ribbon. I like these jacob's ladder albums because there are four different ways you can look at them, and because of the ribbon placement, each one is different. I also like that they actually work! You can see the rest of the album at twopeas. Here is the video:

First DT Meeting

Well, we had our first DT meeting at the LSS today. I met a bunch of new people, got some inspiration, and picked up materials for my upcoming projects. I'm very much looking forward to being part of a design team and hope I have something to contribute. I know I have something to learn from it. We get "paid" for the DT position in free product for our projects, plus being paid for the classes we teach.

I haven't been motivated to scrap lately. I think it's mostly been due to the mess I've made in my scraproom. I know that when I'm down there I ought to be cleaning up (Craft night here on Monday!! Eeek!) instead of playing. Now I've got new projects to work on, though, so we'll see if I manage to get everything cleaned up over the weekend or not.

And speaking of playing.... I got my Purple Onion stamps yesterday!!! They're all cut out and stickified now, too, so I'm ready to play with them! I got a ton of stuff, including some freebies! I love that they always send a couple little freebies. I also love that I got stuff on sale. I'm such a sucker for a sale.

And speaking of a sale.... Hambly's got a coupon for 10% off an internet order if you check out their blog. Look! Buy! Craft! I found more Hambly at the LSS today when I was browsing around. Mmmmm.... LOVE Hambly.

Okay. I've rambled. I'll try to post pictures and cards once I get them done and scanned. Happy crafting in 2007!

Bless this Chick...

Blessthischick has this cool emporium where you can make your own little icon chicks. They're adorable! I went playing with them this morning and made these three... Which do you like best? Try it. It's therapeutic, I tell ya.

3 Bugs Winter LO

Well, Christmas is over and I will soon have dozens of new pictures to scrapbook, as if I have finished the looming pile of previously printed photos. There's something about Christmas that just makes me want to take pictures, and they're the kind of pictures I just want to scrapbook. These pictures are older, but I love them. I submitted these two LO to the DT call for 3 Bugs in a Rug a while back, but I wasn't chosen, so now I can post them online. I can feel many more Christmas and winter LO coming on, but these are the first of the season for me.

Merry Christmas!

Memory Makers has a new online scrapbook program that's free, so I decided to give it a try. Supposedly I can imbed or link to it here. So.... we'll see if it works...

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Etsy Shop

I've been looking to sell some of my crafty things lately, so I started an Etsy shop. For those of you who are not familiar with Etsy, it's an online shop where you can buy handcrafted items. I don't have much on there right now, but will be adding stuff as I have time to post it. I'm not sure if anyone will be interested in it, but I decided to take the plunge and go for it anyway.

Check it out - it's at elizabethwickland.etsy.com

Freecycle

I joined a freecycle group this week. No, it has nothing to do with riding a bike (thank goodness - not sure I'm in shape for that!). It's a group of people in the Bozeman area who post emails listing free stuff they want to give away or find. So... it's like recycling, for free. Get it? Anyway- I was excited to find this group. If you haven't looked into freecycling, you should. Even if you're not a big recycler, everyone likes to get stuff for free.... Check here to see if there's a group in your area.

For those of you who live in Longview, there's a group there, too!

My "Inconvenient Truth" Hat

We watched An Inconvenient Truth tonight. And while we watched, I crocheted a hat. Start to finish. With free yarn. (Thanks Michael - I love swap night at craft night.) Several of my friends have recommended An Inconvenient Truth lately and, like Jenny and Nicole, I've decided to blog my thoughts on it.

My first thought, about halfway through the movie, was that I was a little disappointed. I already knew all that stuff. So... I decided to give the whole thing a shot before making up my mind. After the movie and the half hour update I came to the conclusion that, yes, I already knew all that stuff. At that point, though, instead of being disappointed, I was relatively encouraged -- hey, I already KNEW all that stuff! Thanks to the worlds of PBS, the BBC, and NPR, we've seen and heard our share of news on global trends over the past few years. We've heard about the glaciers melting (we even saw evidence of that when we went to Glacier Nat'l Park a couple years ago), the coral reefs dying, the lakes shrinking, and the relationship between the carbon levels and temperature in ice cores. Yes, we find that sort of nerdy television interesting, so we've immersed ourselves with it whenever possible.

So, nothing Mr. Gore had to say was new to us. But the most exciting part of the whole movie for me was the credits. No, not because it was over. To the contrary, I think it was pretty well done and informative and you ought to see it if you haven't. But the credits were interesting to me because mixed in with the names of all the people were ways you could do your part to help slow global warming. And as Leif and I watched the suggestions go by, it was like a checklist of things we already do.

• Use energy efficient lighting. check.
• Turn down your thermostat. check. (Brrrr... notice I'm crocheting a HAT? There's a reason.)
• Use mass transit when possible. err... Bozeman's still working on a mass transit system. But Leif does carpool to work and I carpool to craft night when I can.
• Recycle. check. We compost, too. (That wasn't on the list.)
• If you can, buy a hybrid car. check.
  
• Ride your bike or walk to work. check. Leif rides his bike in the summer.
• Use renewable energy sources. This one is prohibitively expensive right now. If we had $15,000 for solar panels, we'd do it in a heartbeat.
  
• Vote for politicians who will pursue legislation to change environmental policies. check.
  
• Tell people about An Inconvenient Truth. check.

So that was encouraging. We also use cloth diapers. =) That wasn't on the list, but sort of goes along with recycling and composting. In general, Leif and I agree on what we can do to make a difference and we are both willing to make a few sacrifices to do so. Our reasons aren't necessarily the same, though. Leif usually does things because it's more economical, while I do them because it's better for the environment. I'm not against saving a little money, and he's not against being good stewards of the earth - that's just where our priorities are slightly different.

Here's my thinking on "saving the planet." The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. He has called us to be good stewards of the things He has given us. That includes the earth. As a Christian, I feel that it is my duty to be responsible with the gifts God has given. That means my talents and abilities, my husband and daughter, my body, my property, my neighbors, my enemies, and my planet. Should we save our planet at the cost of our lives? (ie- do we spend so much of our time, energy, and resources on developing new ways to reduce greenhouse gasses that we forsake the relationships we have and demonstrate a lack of love for our neighbors?) No. Do we go into serious debt to put solar panels on our roof? Not right now. And I'm okay with that. There is a balance. But I do believe that where possible, we should do everything we can within reason to take care of God's world. How will our children learn to be good stewards if we don't model stewardship for them? It's a good legacy.

A discussion for another day is how all of this stewardship/conservation thinking affects my favorite things... like scrapbooking. I've got a few thoughts on that subject as well, but it's almost midnight, so they'll have to wait.

If you haven't seen An Inconvenient Truth, do. It's worth the watch, especially if you've never given a second thought to the issue of global warming. And if anyone has any comments on what I've said here, I'd love to hear them. It's good for discussion, and this is a subject that ought to be discussed.

In closing, I leave you with a peek at my "Inconvenient Truth" hat. No pattern, just keeping my hands busy so my brain would be free to process the information at hand. The second photo is of the detail on the top. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We've all heard it. Here's one way I put it into action. What have you done?

If Martha Were a Geek

She's make this instead of a gingerbread house for the holidays.

Scrapping Again

After a long hiatus, I am finally posting on 2ps again. I've posted several LO in the past couple days, but this is my favorite. It's also my favorite of the LO I've completed recently. I've done a few others I REALLY like, too, but they're for a DT submission and I can't have them posted on the internet until the DT has been chosen. So... you'll just have to wait for those. Who knows? Maybe they'll choose me and it will be worth not having them posted just yet. Let's just say I'm really into sparkly, shiny things these days. =) Like the LO above, for example. Glittery letters, glittery snowflakes, ghost snowflakes (can you see them?), rhinestones... Love shiny things. I'm told I was fascinated by sparkly things as a kid, too. Maybe it's my inner child coming out to play! Whatever the case, I'm just glad to be playing again and posting things to 2ps. I've missed it.

Just for fun...

Create your own friendquiz here

Basic Grey Fruitcake Card

I worked on a LO today using the new Basic Grey Fruitcake line. The LO isn't finished yet, but I did have some scraps, so I made this card. I love how it turned out and I thought I'd share! Hope your holidays are going smoothly. Mine are, and I hope to be able to post more of the craftiness I've been involved in soon. =) I love this time of year!

(okay... so you can't tell from the scan, but the card has a rhinestone and the snowflake is covered with glitter, making this an uber sparkly card!)

My Craftroom

Pie Day!

Thanksgiving is two days away and with Ellie's four month checkup tomorrow and family coming into town tomorrow, too, I'm making my pies today. I've got two pumpkin pies in the oven right now and they smell SO good. We'll see how they turn out, since I used my own pumpkin instead of the canned variety. It's not as smooth as a canned puree would be (I made it in the blender since I didn't have a food mill yet - but now I do!!), but I think it will be fine. I'm not sure I've ever made pumpkin pie completely from scratch (puree, crust and everything) before, but I have now. I'm not making my own whipped cream, though. I could, but that's just one more thing to do. Canned whipped cream from Costco it is!

Okay... now for my pie crust recipe. You asked, Tam! It looks uninteresting, but don't knock it 'till you've tried it!

PIE CRUST
makes one 9 inch double/lattice crust or two 9 inch pies

2 C sifted all-purpose flour
1 t salt
2/3 C shortening
5-7 T cold water

Mix salt and flour together. Mix shortening into flour with your hands. Do not use any utensils. When the shortening is all mixed in and is somewhere between cornmeal and peas, add the water. Adding a T at a time, mix the water into the flour mixture with your hands. Form into a ball. Roll out into pie crust. For unfilled baked pie crust, bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes until light golden brown.

I just have to add a little note here about how great my mom is. A few years ago she took all the recipes my brother and I grew up on (and a few of her favorites found after we were grown) and put them into a recipe book for us. I use that book more than any other cookbook in my kitchen, hands down. I know the recipes are tried and true and they're all right there. Thanks, Mom.

Pie Crusts

Make pie crusts. Check.

Thanksgiving Preparation Schedule:

Monday -

• Clean house
• Thaw pumpkin puree

Tuesday -

• Make pies
• Crush pretzels
• Crush pecans

Wednesday -

• Thaw turkey
• Thaw ham
• Make yambake
• Make strawberry pretzel salad

Thursday -

• Make stuffing
• Make green beans
• Make potatoes
• EAT!!

Two Worlds Collide...

One of my favorite new shows is 'Ugly Betty' on ABC. It's one of the few shows you can watch online. Anyway- Martha will be guest starring on Ugly Betty tonight. Life just keeps getting better and better.

It's Turkey Day!

Today is the day I'm cooking our turkey. My favorite thing about turkey day? The smell. The whole house smells delicious. My least favorite thing? I can't eat it until next Thursday. So tempting, and it smells so good.

Thanksgiving is at our house this year, and we have guests coming in on Wednesday, as well as Ellie's 4 month checkup on Wednesday, too. So I'm trying to make sure I do everything I can ahead of time. Thus, the turkey gets cooked today and is frozen until Thanksgiving. It's one of those tricks my mom taught me - the wonder woman who makes Thanksgiving dinner for twenty some college students each year.

I've had my menu planned for forever, and I've stocked most of the ingredients, though I'll go through and double check that I have everything early next week. Here's the menu...

Turkey Breast
Ham
Yam Bake
Green Beans Almondine
Mashed Potatoes
Stuffing
Rolls
Cranberry Sauce
Relish Tray
Strawberry Pretzel Salad
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Million Dollar Pie

What are you having for Thanksgiving??

Christmas Cards

I've finished making my Christmas cards! AND they're even signed. Now all I have to do is write our Christmas letter and print out the labels and send them out!

One more thing crossed off the list.

How are your Christmas cards coming?

Three Bugs in a Rug

I went to the LSS today to get some paper and I came away with a bunch of Three Bugs in a Rug stuff. Some Holiday papers and some of their Spicy line. And some rubons. I've got four pages planned and started with the stuff I got (waiting on pictures, though!), including one of Ellie in her cute little Christmas outfit, when we finally get around to taking a Christmas photo. I'm guessing that won't be until after Thanksgiving, because the Christmas tree won't go up until then. But when it does, I've got the LO done and waiting for her pretty picture! And I got to see the new Basic Grey Christmas line today. WOW. It just arrived, but will be on the shelves and for sale when I go back to teach my class on Saturday... and I'll have to get some. Beautiful, beautiful stuff I tell ya.

Anyway- so it appears that the 3bugs papers did the trick and my scrappin' motivation is back in full swing. I'm even motivated to finish those pages I started in Texas. Now if I could only clear some workspace on my desk....

Demotivated

I have had zero motivation to scrapbook lately. None. I finally went down to the craftroom today just to make Thanksgiving invites and even that was sad because I found out my embossing gun is broken. =( Nothing like having to spend craft money on a tool you already have just because it broke. I don't even know what happened to it. It worked before I took it to Texas, and now it doesn't. So... I'm guessing something happened to it while it was in my luggage. Grrr. And unfortunately, it's not a tool I feel like I can live without. I had to use my clothes iron to do the embossing on my Thanksgiving invites. Now THAT takes me back a few years... back to when I started embossing over my toaster and eventually graduated to the iron before getting a bona fide heat embossing tool. Yeah. I'm sad mine died and I'm still not motivated to scrap. Oh mojo.... come back please!

MIM Challenge #4!!

Okay... two weeks for this next one. And because Halloween just passed, I know you have plenty of fodder for this one! Your challenge (compliments of Tam) is to...

USE A CANDY WRAPPER (or ten) ON YOUR LO!

Get to it and I promise we're back on track now! This is a good one for those cute halloween pictures!

MIM Challenge #3 Results

Finally! Here are the results from last month's MIM Challenge #3. Turn something ugly into something beautiful. I used a thread scarf and Tam took an ugly memory and turned it into a beautiful LO to memorialize a friend. Thanks!

Welcome Back, Flylady!

Well, I got with the program and followed my Flylady routines today and last night. It was great to wake up to a shiny sink and clean kitchen, so when I woke up this morning I made my bed first thing and it made me smile. =) I was out running errands pretty much all day, but it was nice to come home to a still-clean house. I didn't leave my breakfast dishes out, and I didn't have things piled on the counter. Woohoo! Routines really do make things so much easier for me... I don't know why I fall away from them, but I do. Today, however, I stuck with it and it feels great.