live, love, laugh, create

The Holiday Rush

Its been a whirlwind for the past couple of weeks! Cookie swaps, last minute chocolate parties, a staff holiday party, shopping, a stomach virus, a final project for class,  shopping, baking, a final exam, get togethers with extended family, the flu that started on Thursday and carried through to today, a snow storm.....its been busy here, thats for sure!

I went to a card and cookie swap on the 10th. It was hosted by the owners of my former LSS...they still keep in touch with many of us and we look forward to this party every year. There was lots of great cookies

 
and someone really went above and beyond, but we won't mention Suzanne's name...or show the cookies that she made either

 
awesomely delicious!

Here is a sampling of the cards

 

And lets talk about these tags....pure genius....a unique alternative to cards. They were packaged in groups of 5 tags per ring

 

Kudos to my friend Ruth for such a great idea!

We had Bob's family get together the week before Christmas at his sister's house. Almost everyone was there, except for Bob, who had a cold, and 2 of his nieces who had to work.

 

Why is it that everyone has to gather in the kitchen? We always do that, and Chris's house is huge, so its not like there is not enough room to spread out or anything....

We got our tree the first week of December. It was a big one this year. I was actually told it was too big....seriously....a Christmas tree can never be too big! But not to worry, it was quickly dwarfed by the volume of gifts placed under it!

 

Sorry that its a little grainy, but I used my little point & shoot without the flash...

I honestly believe that the size of the gift your kids ask for are in direct relation to their age and height....2 of them got TVs for Christmas....one got a queen size bed, which, by the way, did not get placed under the tree...

A good time was had by all, except for Chris who is sitting on the couch with a stomach virus..

 
and for some, it was their first Christmas

 

And although I had a wicked cold/flu, I puttered through the day and got dinner on the table (finally) at about 6 PM....not bad, considering I wanted to throw in the towel and beg for mercy by 10 AM.

Santa must have thought I was a really good girl this year. He really loves me and was incredibly generous

 
Awesome, just awesome.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Card And Cookie Swap

I have been suffering from a lack of creative mojo lately. It might be the lighting class I am taking which is all technical and no creativity. I admit that I am also a procrastinator. But I work well under pressure, so I got 10 cards done for the card swap tomorrow night in about 2 hours. I had chosen my materials a few weeks ago based on something I saw in the 2peas gallery. This card had a lot of detail and seemed pretty labor intense, but it is really cute. I changed mine up a bit so I could use what I had on hand.

 
I have had these My Mind's Eye and Bazzil paper packs for quite a while, saving them for "something special", of course. So given the fact that the card swap is Monday night, they fit into the "something special" occasion without a doubt.

 
I purchased these stamps from Technique Tuesday with plans to include them in my December Daily album pages. They worked well for this project too.

 
I bought this Basic Grey Jovial stamp set from 2peas. I actually had better luck buying it through Amazon.com. ,although it did still come from 2peas. Go figure....

 
The cards were a little labor intense, at least for me. I don't have the patience for cutting at all, and there was 10 snowmen, 10 hats, 10 scarves, 10 carrot noses, 10 pairs of eyes and 10 pairs of arms to stamp and cut out.

All in all, I think they came out pretty good given the fact that I am not much of a card maker any more.

 

Here is the inside sentiment

 
Now its on to the cookies....I have a recipe for the Starbucks Cranberry Bliss bars, so I thought I would make those...5 dozen to be exact. The beauty of making bars is that you can cut them up small so you don't have to make nearly as much as you would for drop cookies. I'm all about saving time since I also have to study for my final and upload my photos for print for the final project.

Thanks for stopping by!

'Tis The Season

The race is on! Christmas is 2 weeks away, class ends a week from Tuesday, the cookie and card exchange is Monday night and I am not ready for any of it!

Last weekend we went up to Battenfeld Tree Farm to cut down our tree and one for Kelle too. We lucked out with the weather, as it has not snowed here yet, which makes it easier to trek up the hills while searching for that "perfect tree".

 
We found our tree first, within a few minutes, actually. Sean cut it down while I took his picture. Choosing the tree and taking pictures are my jobs. The remaining jobs are for the men.

 
 
 
All secure and ready to go!

 
Oh, and bringing the tree inside and putting it up is another man task. Then we girls take over

 

and make it look all festive and pretty.

I ordered some business card samples a couple of weeks ago from a company called Moo. I didn't realize they arrived last week because I got a lot of mail one day along with some packages and didn't look at the return address until yesterday.

 
I am really pleased with how they look. They are only samples, but I do like the photos I chose from my files.

 
I think my 2 favorites are the horse and the Golden Retriever in the lower right corner. What do you think?

I am derelect on my December Daily, but I think I can salvage my reputation by condensing it to 2 weeks instead of 30 days. I think it all depends on this week when class ends, the card and cookie swap is over and I catch up with the gift wrapping.

I do have my first page though! The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree was chosen at a home about 25 minutes north of me.

 
Pretty neat! Several years ago a tree right around the corner from our house was chosen. I didn't even know it until I watched the news the night it was cut down. Did you know they plant a new sapling in the place where they took the tree from?

We are excited about the holidays and looking forward to having our children here with their significant others and friends. I kind of don't mind the rush of it all either. I just wish I could take the month off from work to get everything done!

Thanks for stopping by!