One Week!

Could Christmas really be one week from today? Actually, I'm so excited! I feel relaxed... almost. Most of my shopping is done. Christmas cards are almost all out (yes, cutting down to the wire!) The house is feeling Festive (though, chilly, too!) The kids are counting down the days. I can't wait! I still have tons of gifts to wrap, though. And one more Secret Sister gift to send out, which needs to go out tomorrow.

I love Christmas time. I love the excitement, the cheer, the traditions. The kids and I have been singing Christmas songs like crazy. Their faves this year are Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman (no surprise there!) I can't wait to make cookies this weekend (cutting that down to the wire, too!) I'm looking forward to Christmas Eve at my sister, Vicki's house (though it needs to be EARLY, b/c last year my kids fell asleep on the way home and missed out on before bed activities at home!) Christmas Eve and morning at home, and Christmas dinner at my parents' house.

I also have a couple layouts to post. One, "Made with Love," is from Christmas a few years ago... Jack decorating Christmas cookies and singing Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. So cute! I wanted the layout to have a real homemade feel.


The other, "California Fresh" is another Jack layout, a couple years ago in Santa Barbara. I love the Bam Pop bird, and the title elements are all homemade. I need a better image, though.


I'm also super excited to see my layout come out in January's PageMaps! It will be my closest thing to being published, since I never submitted a single thing in the entire year of 2007! Maybe I'll get my butt in gear and submit next year! Or not! :)

Wishing everyone a warm and wonderful holiday.

Cheers!

Big Changes at The School of Scrap!

Come on over to The School of Scrap and see the fun changes going on! There will be fun challenges posted, tutorials each month, and other fun changes going on! See you in the halls!

I also wanted to show a few of my recent layouts, some of which are using products from our incredible sponsors!

First, there's "Patch '07," which uses products from Club Scrap, Tie One On, and Magic Mesh.


Next is some detail work of a layout using the beautiful papers from Paper Trunk.


Here's one where I tried to make my own title using a technique from Deluxe Techniques magazine.


And here's one I did making the fun flowers taught over at
One Little Word.

Welcome, November!

Well, we survived Halloween, and what a blast we had! Three Halloween parties, two school Halloween parades, Trick-or-Treating, and a Halloween carnival later, we're welcoming November with open arms! So far, November has been amazing, with sunny weather in the mid-to-high 70's! I Loooove living in California! We're also going to Disneyland with Ron and Roberta (Jeff's parents) for (American) Thanksgiving! We're so excited!

We had two fun dinner parties back-to-back this past weekend. The first was with friends where we had a wondeful Thai meal (she's a FABULOUS cook!) And the next night was bolognes over fettucini plus baked Mac-N-Cheese (the good homemade stuff.) Great company, fabuous food, and nice wines each night. We're so lucky to have such fabulous friends here! And, of course, the kids always have a blast getting together.

Not much else to report. Yesterday we had an open house, so took the kids to see The Bee Movie. Pretty cute. But while we were parking, Jeff backed up into a pole, so the mini has yet another dent to deal with. It's amazing this thing is still in one piece! (sort of!)

I hope everyone's having a wonderful day! I certainly am! :)

The Great Capsize of 2007

First off, Saturday was HECTIC! Jack's soccer game was a late one (12:45) and we had THREE Halloween parties to attend after that. Since DH had to take his cousin to the airport after soccer, he missed the first Halloween party. At each of the first two parties, we were to bring an appetizer. I made antipasta platters (salami, wet mozzarella, olives, brie with sauted garlic, etc.) My friend, Allison, makes this fabulous queso dip, which is melted Velveeta, tons of veggies, other cheeses etc.

So I drove both families to the first party (minus DH, since he was going to the airport.) Allison loaded TWO crock pots of her queso into the back of the van, since we weren't going to stop at her house in between. Each crock pot was in a box to stabilize it. So we have fun at the first party (which we arrived at late, due to soccer and getting all the kids and appies ready) and stayed for an hour or so. Then we headed up the hill to get DH and my second platter. As we're approaching my house, one of the lil boys says, "The queso tipped over." We weren't too worried, because nobody heard anything, and he could have been exaggerating. As we pull into the driveway (it's now completely dark, and we don't have lights along the driveway,) the hugest, scariest witch you've ever seen jumps out in front of the van. It's DH, of course. The kids were all screaming, but I figured it was fine. I stopped the van, and we were gonna all run in to grap jackets and fleeces for party #2. I go to Charli's door to get her, and she's absolutely hysterical. Completely shaking in her boots and sobbing. I guess Daddy's costume sorta back-fired. So Allison and I run in to get jackets, and Michael, Allison's DH, walks in and tells me, "Uh, Michelle. I'm going to have to comfirm a full capsize." So I open the back of the minivan, and sure enough, the box with the crock pot is UPSIDE DOWN! The ENTIRE back gate had queso dripping out all over the bumper, and the raised gate was raining queso all over the place. Then the van lights went out, since it timed out. Then I couldn't find my keys. So there we are, nine of us, completely in the dark with queso everywhere, scared children, and we're late to the second party. We finally find the keys, get everyone in (took the crock pot out and soaked up some of the mess, but left much of it to deal with later.)

DH made Michael drive, because his long, black, witch fingernails were in the way. Charli wouldn't have anything to do with Daddy, out of sheer terror. I thought he was holding the platter of antipasta, but didn't pay attention, since I was comforting a frightened Charli. As we arrive at the second party, the platter of antipasta goes FLYING off the center console, onto the front carpet. Wet mozz balls and garlic olives were rolling all over the place, and Michael calls out, "Who has a pink razor? It just got doused with olive oil." Fortunately, my phone survived, and most of the platter did, but what a total scene we were!

Allison and I laughed our butts off all night, and we will forever remember The Great Capsize of 2007.

Life is Good

That's our favorite phrase lately. We've been wearing those shirts, too. This fine October day, it will be in the 80's, so I'm taking the kids to the Club for a swim right after school! Ya gotta love Indian Summer in California.

I've decided I need to do more blogging. Not just posting layouts and talking about crops and other scrapping events, but blogging about my life and the kids. I don't keep a journal, so this is the next best thing. AND, I can send my blog addy to my friends and family in case they want to have a look!

I just snapped this picture of Charli. She asked for curlers in her hair last night after her bath, and here is how it turned out. Pretty cute! Just a few curlers fell out. Her hair's really coming in nicely after "the incident" this summer.

Fall is fabulous. School is busy. Jack's having fun with soccer and Bionicles with his buddies. Charli's loving preschool. My kids ROCK. Love my hubby.

Life is Good.


Charli just now


Jack at soccer recently

Two recent crops!

I've had a ball at two recent crops... the first was the Crop for a Cure crop at Scrap-N-Circle where I did this layout, Mama's boots.

The second was at
ScrapLove, where I did this Rolling Along layout,

along with this Family canvas.

It feels really fabulous to scrap just for fun!

A couple more layouts

Here are a couple more DT layouts I did for The School of Scrap!
The first was using a quilling kit from Lake City Craft Company.

The next one is another Junkitz layout using more of the Fanciful line! I also had the need to get some felt on there!


TFL!