The Last Week of 2010

I can't believe how fast this year has gone! I am not exaggerating when I say this year just flew by for us.

With that said, in the past week, I have gotten new hair :0)
New color and just a bit shorter. My natural hair is much lighter than this and doesn't have the red highlights.

We baked cookies despite not really feeling like it this year. But I pushed through on Christmas eve and got a batch done. Here is just a few we frosted. I love Evan's little gingerbread man. He really put a lot of effort into it!

Christmas Day was nice and quiet. I was not feeling well at all, so we didn't go anywhere!

We just opened presents and hung out at home. But it was ok despite feeling so crummy. I still enjoyed being with my family. And we just took it easy.

Plus it was a white Christmas, which the kids loved :0)









But like true traditional St. Louis weather, the snow is all gone already.
And we are having thunderstorms, tornado warnings and abnormally warm weather on New Year's Eve.

Anyway, I have been seeing a lot of blog posts with Ten in 2010 scrapbook layouts. I did something similar here
in 2009. A nine in '09 post. But I didn't really take a lot of photos of layouts in 2010. And the ones I did take photos of are mostly on the blog already. But I have a feeling that will change in 2011 with being on Scrapgal's design team :0)

I do want to do a Ten in 2010 favorite photos post though soon. I've been finding a lot of photos I love again lately as I go through my files and re-save them to month files since losing my huge folder with all those edited photos. So that will be coming soon!

I just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Looking forward to a peaceful, healthy, happy 2011!

On My Way!

Taking a class at Big Picture Scrapbooking called Wellness Journey. The link takes you to the description.
I am really looking forward to it, because I need something to jumpstart me in 2011.
I need to take better care of myself.
I've been trying.
Sometimes succeeding and sometimes not.
I think it's hard sometimes to put yourself first when you have others to take care of.
And I don't mean for selfish reasons.
But sometimes I just need to make sure that I am doing what I need to do to keep myself healthy and well for my family.
Because when I'm tired, don't feel good or am feeling down, I'm a grump.
And I don't like being a grump!
So I hopefully I can keep up with this journey and make some much needed, positive changes towards my health!
Wish me luck!

Merry Christmas!

And a Happy New Year!

Scrap Friends Make a Calendar For Charity

My friend  Marie organized a calendar project among some of us scrapbookers to raise money for charity. At this time, we are considering a food bank because the theme of the calendar is recipes.

At this time you can find it here at CafePress.com for sale. If you need a 2011 wall calendar and some new recipes this may be the calendar for you.

I created a layout and chose a recipe for the month of March. You can check out the calendar and what each month looks like and it's recipes at the link above :0)

Christmas Concert

Well, Evan had his annual school Christmas concert last Thursday. And I have to say the pictures really didn't turn out like we had hoped. A combination of no flash photography allowed with being to far away even with the super zoom lens = blurry shots. But that's ok. I'm keeping a few of the best ones :)
It was a really cute show called Star of Wonder. And Evan sang his heart out!
So proud of him :0)

This is an ornament I made a few years ago when U2 was on their Vertigo tour. I really wanted a U2 ornament for our tree since we are such big fans. So I used a clear glass ornament and filled it with rolls of strips of black patterned paper. Then decorated the outside with red and white poster paint pens to represent graphics from the album design. It says Vertigo there on the left. I did the bullseye design on the bottom and on the back is another graphic from my concert t-shirt.
I am making ornaments like this again this year for neighbors and my nieces and nephews. Obviously not U2 ones, but Christmas and snow themed ones. And camouflage, hunting theme ones for my nephews who like to hunt. : )
So that is what I am working on in the scrap department right now!

So Happy!

I got some big news on Wednesday!
I am officially on the design team at Scrapgal.com
Can't wait to start!!

Visiting with Santa

Evan was actually off school last Wednesday, so we decided to make a trip over to the mall to see Santa. I figured the crowds would be next to nothing and I was right. We just walked right up to him :)
I couldn't get in to close, but we did end up getting the "professional" package. It was worth it though because a CD of our photo and a $25 gift card to shutterfly where I usually get our Christmas photo cards from were included with it.
So photo cards made easy this year! Just need to order them :-O

And then here they were telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas. Evan had a lot to say :0) And yes, Evan still believes. At least he says he does. And who are we to take that away from him. I'm happy we have another year! I have a feeling we won't be so lucky next year though because he's asking a lot of questions. And has already told me he thinks Rudolph isn't real. 

To make this day even better, it was Mike's birthday. He was able to actually meet us at the mall on his lunch hour, see the kids with Santa, and have lunch with us! Always a treat :0)

Later that evening, we had cake, a special dinner and presents for him. 

So it was a good day!

Page of the Month Contest

This is the scrapbook layout I made for the Page of the Month Contest over at Scrapgal
It's based on a sketch they provide. I am making an 8 1/2 album for me with my thoughts and feelings on that amazing trip to Ireland Mike and I took summer of 2009. Yes, I cannot believe it has been that long already!
But there are so many things I remember from that trip so vividly still. And other things I am forgetting, but am so grateful I kept a daily journal on it. And then blogged about it here  and  here  and here  and here  and  here  and finally here

I had a lot of blog posts about Ireland. But I pretty much took my daily journal and just added the photos. A fun combination! Plus I added a few bits and thoughts of how I felt after coming back. This trip really was something I am proud of. Flying over the ocean (yikes!). Having to leave my children behind in another country let alone continent! Seeing U2 live. Meeting people I will probably never be able to see again, but who made a difference to me in that short time I was there. Spending that time with Mike just relaxing and exploring a whole new world to us.

I hope to go back some day. I really do :0)

For All My Scrapbook Friends :0)

If you are looking for a scrapbook site to hang out at, I found one recently. Since Cropper's Cottage and Scrap Diner closed, I've been wanting to find a site again that has fun boards to chat on and where I can post and share layouts and scrappy stuff. I do hang at Studio Calico kit club a little bit, but since I'm not getting the kits anymore...for now :0), I'm not participating as much. And a lot of it is kit chat anyway.

But ScrapGal is fitting the bill for me :0) And you can find it here
I've been a member for a long time, but mostly just shopped there. Never quite made it to the boards.
I'm so glad I did!
So for those of you who are still looking come by and say "hi"!
The women there have all been very nice :0)

Christmas Reading

Erin and I picked up a huge pile of books at the library yesterday. I already have quite a collection of Christmas books for children from my teaching days. And even more since the kids were born. But there is nothing better than new books! Especially from the library :0) Tonight Erin and I read two of them for bed time and they were both winners in my opinion. And I think her's, too. Especially since she is sleeping with one of them right now :0)

This was one of the sweetest little books ever! A little boy makes gingerbread pirate cookies with his mom for Santa, but the captain is his favorite and he wants to keep it. When Santa comes his cookies are gone so he goes looking for them. The pirate captain tells Santa "you can't eat my crew." And then Santa gives the captain a pirate ship and turns them all into pirate toys for the ship so the little boy can keep them and play with them. And they won't get eaten :0) It was really cute!

The next was Dragon's Merry Christmas. But I could only find a photo of the pack. I liked the Christmas story so much though that the others are definitely going in my request list from the library. It sounds like Erin's teacher read this book to them at school, too. So that's why she picked this one out and is currently sleeping with it. This is a new thing she has started. Instead of sleeping with a stuffed animal or "bed friend" as we call them, she is sleeping with favorite books. A child after my own heart ;0)

And lastly, this is neither a Christmas book or a childrens book. But it comes highly recommended by me. I loved this book. It's a great story about a women who comes from Japan after world war II to be a bride to an american. The story also talks about her relationship with her daughter and other family members back in Japan. I really enjoyed it and loved the main characters!
Plus I was excited to find a link to the author's blog margaret dilloway
when I was looking for a photo of the book on-line at Amazon.com
I added her blog to my roll of fun and inspirational blogs below on the right. I always love fun finds like that!
Can't wait to read some more of our library finds this time around. For her and me.
As for Evan, he is reading Star wars chapter books right now with Mike. And he finds his at the school library or at the book store, which is why he didn't get any with us at the library. So glad our children love to read!