Photo Traditions and Merry Christmas!

Do you have any specific holiday photos that you take every year? I always take a photo of my girls holding Christmas tree ornaments up to their ears like earrings. It started quite by accident one year while we were decorating the tree, and it was so cute that I made sure that we repeated that photo every year. Now we can't decorate the tree with out our annual earring photo. What about you?

I also try to always take a photo of the kids in front of the tree before opening gifts on Christmas morning. Last year it wasn't too successful though (see previous post) and I'm hopeful that this year I will get my photos. Hopeful, but I'm willing to take whatever I can get, LOL. My little Rachel is quite demanding, and I have a feeling we will have a few tears throughout Christmas morning. Why? Because we do not do a 'free for all' type of gift opening. We open them slowly, taking turns so we can see what the other person is getting too. I fear this will be just too much for my 2-year old, lol. Oh well, it will make for a fun page!

And here are my most recent pages:

Fall Walk: credits here.
Heart Sing: credits here.
Christmas Spirit: credits here.
BRRR: credits here.
Christmas Cheer: credits here.
the Nativity Story: credits here.









In case you are wondering what's up with the nontraditional page shapes... I have noticed lots of paper scrappers scrapping 6x12 layouts. I thought this was a great idea so that I can print some pages at Costco without wasting space :) It's kind of fun to do something different as well.


I also want to wish each of you a happy and safe holiday! Merry Christmas!






















I'll see you in about 2 weeks, have a fun winter vacation!

A few holiday pages

We just moved our 2 1/2 year old into a big-girl-bed. Her response was that it was 'broken', lol. Poor baby :) It took about an hour to get her to go to sleep and I'm thinking that my timing is actually pretty good. How is that? Well, now that all our television shows are gone due to the writer's strike, I have lots of time to shoo her back to bed, LOL.

Uh oh, I hear the closet door opening. Time for me to go be mean I guess...

Okay, I am back, and here are a few winter pages that I recently completed.

Snowman Bandit: credits and journaling here.

First, a Photo: credits and journaling here.

Christmas Earrings: credits here.

I'm back, again...

Here I am, playing catch up once again. This time it's because I have been so very sick for a while, since Thanksgiving actually. I just keep getting knocked back down, but I think I have finally beaten it after two rounds of antibiotics. Uck, I hate being sick.



Today, for the first time in weeks, I'm actually feeling pretty great. And my family will definitely benefit, because I am actually cooking tonight. We have been living on my husbands cooking, take-out or simple dishes like... pancakes, LOL. Finally we will be getting back to our regular routine.



In fact, I was feeling so good that we even decorated cookies today. Boy, nothing is much more fun or messier than watching a two-year old go at a bunch of sugar cookies with frosting and candy toppings, LOL. I haven't downloaded my photos yet, so I can't share... maybe next time.



Here are a couple of layouts of my sweet girls. Have a great day everybody!



Perfect Pumpkin, credits here.


From the apple tree, credits here.


My 2 girls, credits here.

More catching up...

Winter, 2005 credits here.

Rachel, credits here.

School friends, credits here.

the Patch, credits here.

Catching up on layouts...

Sock Play, credits here.

Outer Space, credits here.

Second Grade, credits here.

Beauty of Fall, credits here.

All about the products today...

Today is all about the products! I was going to chatter about life but I'm really more in a scrapbooking mood since I neglected to scrap all weekend (and it was a four day weekend for us). So on to the scrap items that are floating around my brain and hard drive!

If you haven't heard about the blind date contest, you really should mosey on over to the Sausan Designs blog to hear about it. You only have this week to enter... I won't give you the details, but the contest is fun and the kit even better (and on sale only this week)!

And I'm totally loving Tracey Monette's new paper pack, Colour Outside the Lines. I think I will do a monochromatic page using each of these papers because I was quite happy with the way this one came out. See here for credits.

I don't usually buy paper packs, but I have bought a few lately that I haven't yet used, but am dying to do so.

Old Brick House by Jenna Desai.
















And Landscape ART Paperie No. 1. by Anna Aspnes.

Okay I have to admit, I cringed when I saw a Christmas layout in the gallery on November 1st. I actually cringed, LOL. It's too soon!!! But two weeks later I am beginning to get in the mood and I'm also starting to see some cute Christmas products in the stores.

Well let me ask you, is there anyone that doesn't love a brush by Michelle Coleman? She has a new snowflake brush that is (I feel like a geek whenever I say it, but here it comes) awesome.

And speaking of awesome, are you guys watching Chuck on Monday nights? It has quickly become my favorite show, I love it. And I love it when they call the sister's boyfriend Captain Awesome, LOL.

Okay, back to scrapping...

And check out these snowflakes by Jackie Eckles and these ones by Leora Sanford. I love a good snowflake... can you tell?

Well, I know there are ton more Christmas products out there, and a ton more will appear within the next few weeks. It will be crazy trying choose which to buy, LOL. So good luck with that!

In the meantime, I think I will get started on some pages using snowflakes! Have a great day!

a little Rachel love

This has been such a crazy month for me. I volunteered for too many projects plus the addition of Halloween, birthday parties and more. Crazy, it has been, I tell you.

But over the last few weeks my first turned 8 years old and had her first slumber party. What chaos! LOL I can't believe the noise that little girls can create. Thank goodness the weather was nice so they could play outdoors part of the time. And as part of her present I took her to her first concert, the Hannah Montana/ Jonas Brothers tour. The only other times I can remember her being this excited was when she found out she was getting a sister and when she learned she was going to Disneyland. LOL
















We had a good time. I told her that I had been to lots of rock concerts, but this was my first pop concert and she thought that was funny. LOL

On to scrapping...

Here are a few pages featuring my sweet Rachel:

Sweet Dream credits.

Rar credits.

First cereal credits.

















Have a great weekend!

Fairy Tales

The coolest new kit is out, available at both Sausan Designs and Little Dreamer Designs called Fairy Tales. You have to check it out!

And here are two of the pages I created using the kit.

Random catch-up pages

Still trying to play catch up. Here are some random pages.

Back 2 School credits.

Ready to Roll credits.

Learning to Fall credits.

Hmmm

A few more pages...

Credits/journaling for these layouts:
Hat Switcheroo
4 years later
Wanna be





Have a great day!

Halloween kits

I totally lied about being back from blogger slackdom. This has been one busy and hectic month and I keep getting sick!

Well, anyway, I wanted to share the Halloween kits that I worked with this year and a few of the pages that I created with them.