Days 16-19

I love the cute Santa. It's from Jenni Bowlin from her Mistletoe Junque box.

This was all about the perfect gift. I had professional black and white photos of the kids taken and gave them to my parents and both grandmas. The photos turned out well.

This page is also about perfect gifts. (sorry about the glare on the photo.) I saw someone else put photos off the page in their work and liked the idea. I think it was Stacey.

This page is about the Christmas menu. It's actually a smaller side pocket page with a few tags for journaling.

This was a fun one to do. I cut this Santa out of a store bought Christmas card. My letter to Santa is tucked inside the green pocket. Thanks for looking!

Happy New Year

I know, I know...I'm a bit behind the times. I have finished my Christmas Journal. I decided to end it with New Year's Day. My journal is getting huge! I already moved up to 2" binder rings! This has been such a great experience. Thanks so much Shimelle for such a great class. I have really enjoyed seeing everyone's journals as they progress. I haven't had time to comment but everyone's work is wonderful. Here's days 12-15. Sorry the photos for day 12 & day 15 are blurry.

This Was Fun

Thanks to Georgia for posting this on her blog! This was fun.

You Are a Minimal Christmas Tree

You're not a total Scrooge, but you feel no need to go overboard at Christmas. Less is more, and your Christmas reflects refined quality.

What Christmas Tree Are You?

Day 11: Oh Christmas Tree

We went to cut down our tree last Sunday so Day 11's topic was fitting. The photo on the left is my hubby cutting down the tree. I left I photo mat on the right page for a photo of the lighted tree. The kids and I decorated it yesterday. There are 2 hidden tags: one about real vs. fake trees and the other about our tradition of new ornaments every year.

My grandma started giving me and my sister a new Hallmark ornament every year when I was 5 or so. Now the kids get one every year. I also worked on an album this past weekend about my fave ornaments from a class I am taking online at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I've nearly finished the framework (I ran out of Heidi Swapp chipboard stars) and then I need to take the photos and do the journaling. Once I have some of the pages completed, I'll post them here.

Day Ten:Wrapping

Loved this one! Quick and easy and a lot of fun! I don't really enjoy wrapping presents. Just seems like folding laundry to me. I've wrapped a total of 2 presents so far this year. I love to order gifts online and have them giftwrapped so that I don't have to do it.

Day Nine: Family Traditions

This page has tags for different types of family traditions so that I can add more tags as I think of more traditions. One is about gifts. The journaling reads...

We open most of our presents on Christmas Eve after dinner. The kids are in total agony by the time the adults finish our meals. We pass one gift at a time to everyone and then open the gift. The only gifts opened on Christmas Day are Santa Claus.

This was a great journal topic. I really had fun with it!

Day Seven: Shopping

This page has a pocket for tags with gift lists on them. The gifts need to stay a secret you know! :)

Day Six: Good vs. Not so Good Memories

Day Five: Countdown to Christmas

Day 5 is all about counting the days to Christmas. This was so much fun to make but I spent hours on this layout. I don't usually spend this much time. It was absolutely worth it. I started the layout as just squares with numbers and then my husband made a comment that seemed to be a challenge to me. Of course, it really was just a passing comment about opening doors and I took it from there and ran with it. Each square is a different paper except the solid is the reverse side of some of the patterned papers.

Each page has two doors that open to reveal a photo of my family.

This page has a pocket for a tag about the advent calendar we had when I was growing up and the one we have now. I made 2 tags so that one side could have the journaling and the other side could have a photo of the advent calendar.

When I was young, the Advent calendar was the start of the Christmas season! It was such a huge part of our holiday!

Day Four: Perfect Christmas

This post was all about the perfect Christmas. Shimelle challenged us to draw a picture in our journals but for some reason this layout popped into my mind immediately. I did freehand the tree and then cut it out of Basic Grey paper. The black stickers are 7 Gypsies, another fave of mine.

Day Three: Christmas Cards

I haven't been very good about getting Christmas Cards out the last several years but this year I did manage to get some photo cards made at Costco. Now, if only I would get the stamps I ordered online last week from the post office, then I could actually mail them. The layout has a pocket under the green ribbon for me to stick one of the cards inside of it.

Day Two: Weather

It's all about the weather on this entry! I remember now that the reindeer rub on is from Fancypants as are the snowflake rub ons from this page. Love these rub ons! The glitter Joy is a rub on from Making Memories. More Basic Grey paper. A Heidi Swapp gem is in the center of the snowflake in the bottom right corner. I cut out two snowflakes from the Basic Grey Snowed In paper and then I layered the two with pop up glue dots. Lots of fun! The letters in the title are Making Memories shimmer stickers.

Day One Manifesto

This is the manifesto page. It states my commitment to taking the time to journal each day. Love it. The scalloped paper is Karen Russell for Creative Imaginations. I cannot remember off hand who makes the reindeer rub-on but I love it! The letter stickers are from the Basic Grey Fruitcake line.

Title page

Here's the title page. Most of the patterned paper on the page is from Basic Grey's Fruitcake but there are a few pieces of Basic Grey's Blitzen line as well. The name stamp is from Jenni Bowlin. The "Noel" and "Merry Christmas" chipboard stickers are from Making Memories. The chipboard star is from Heidi Swapp. I painted it red. Love using stamps and paint on my pages.

Christmas Journal

I am participating in Shimelle's Christmas Journal class which you can join here or view everyone's work here. I joined a little late so I spent time catching up this past weekend. Here's the cover. I didn't like the first try so I redid it yesterday. This is much better than the original attempt.

Ali's Week 2 Newsletter Challenge

I subscribed to Ali Edward's weekly newsletter and I'm lovin' it! I really enjoy the way Ali expresses herself in her layouts. This week her challenge was to create a layout using what your family did last month as the content. I don't ever do layouts that contain only words and no photos so this was really fun to do. I used items from one of my Jenni Bowlin kits and added some basic grey letter stickers ( for the names). Patterned paper is Scenic Route from Jenni's kit; pink stencil stickers are Heidi Swapp from Jenni's kit; the white flower came in one of Jenni's kits; and the white pen is a uni-ball Signo gel pen from Stampin' Up.

Missing my kids

My kids are gone for 3 weeks to stay with Grandma and Grandpa. Every summer they stay with them. My kids really love it but boy do I ever miss them. The first day or two is nice and quiet but then after that it's just too quiet. They are both in swim lessons. My daughter is a little fishy. She will swim until she just can't swim anymore. I don't mean playing but actually swimming. Only 2 1/2 more weeks until they come home. Miss you my babies!

Last weekend, hubby and I went to our friends' lake cabin on Lake Coeur d'Alene. We had a really great time. The cabin is gorgeous and the views were absolutely amazing. The weather was perfect "lake" weather. We spent quite a bit of time just hanging out on the covered deck enjoying the views and staying out of the direct sun. We did sun on the dock for a bit. Fun time!

HOT!!!!

Oh boy is it ever hot here! It's going to be 97 degrees which is one degree below our record for June 27th. Our average for this time of year is 77 degrees. The fed-ex driver just stopped to deliver a package and stood in front of the AC while I signed for the package. There isn't AC in her truck... can you believe that?!?!

There's a new county pool near our house that I've not been to so I thought I'd take the kids there this afternoon after work. This pool puts the city pools to shame!!! There's a review of it here. It has diving boards, a cool slide, and buckets that dump water like a fountain. I have a feeling we'll be spending a good amount of time there this year.

Arbor Crest Winery

I had a fabulous evening yesterday. I attended an event at Arbor Crest Winery. The winery is on a hill overlooking the Spokane River and the views are absolutely gorgeous! The gardens are really beautiful. The winery is on 84 acres and it's a great place for a stroll or a picnic.

The house in the photo was built in 1924 and was open last night for viewing. It has incredible views and some really fabulous antiques. The kitchen has an electric refrigerator that is one of the earliest refrigerators. If you click on the history link on the website you can find out more about the history of the property. The original owner was somewhat of an original thinker. Very interesting.

I'm not a wine drinker (I guess one day when I grow up I'll come to like it) but I do know that Arbor Crest has won several winemaking awards. Wine Spectator recognized them as one of the Top 50 wineries in the world for their production of affordable premium varietal wines. I picked up a bottle of their Cab Franc for my husband.

Catered for You provided the food. Our menu included:

Summer Grilled Chicken w/ fresh fruit salsa
Jasmine Coconut Rice
Salad w/ raspberry Vinaigrette
Seasonal Grilled Vegetables
Rustic Bread & Butter
Lime Custard Tart
Ice Tea

The food was absolutely delicious! It was such a great time. If you are in the area and haven't been to Arbor Crest, you really must!

My Summer Reading List

Today's 2Peas Challenge is to blog about what's on your summer reading list. I LOVE to read. I read about 4 books per week. It's my biggest way to decompress after work. I just finished reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. That is an excellent book. I think I enjoyed it even more than the DaVinci Code. I'll probably read another one of his books this summer. Maybe both! Right now I'm reading The Devil Wears Prada. Very funny book.

I bought a really great book from Borders yesterday. Making Family Journals by Linda Blinn. It includes instructions on making different kids of book structures and different kinds of projects about your family and to do with your family. It's very artsy. There are several techniques and projects that I'd like to try when I can find some time. There is a kitchen journal that includes recipes, photos, labels and also guest comments and/or drawings. I love this idea because the kitchen has always seemed like such an integral part of the home. I love to cook for people and the kitchen is such a great gathering place. Great book! Check it out if you get the chance.