Yay! December Daily is almost here!

Okay-I can’t wait any longer.  Time to start posting photos from around the house.  I found these glittery reindeer in the “dollar” spot at Target.  I grabbed two and am hoping to use them as part of my centerpiece for Christmas dinner.  And I haven’t had poinsettias for years.  Thought I would try them for a little bit of red. 

And next…my favorite puzzles.  I have the kids mix them up for me and then I sit and work on them (in my “free” time ) 

I don’t know what I’m most excited about tonight-December Daily, Journal Your Christmas, or Tim Holtz’s “12 tags of Christmas!” 

Happy December First!!  Hope yours is Crafty!

Thanksgiving 2011 Part II

Chopping celery for dressing.

Bryan eating the leftover celery.

Elizabeth is journaling.

Mom and I.

Snacks!

Elizabeth and I.

Isabella and Grandma laughing!

Sweet potatoes!

Standing in the rain.  Preparing for a redneck Thanksgiving.

The lean-to was a success. 

Taking a picture!

Choking Matt.

My sweetie. 

Jakey, Patricia, and Isabella.

Sari and Russ!

Girls!

All the Girls!!

Holding Isabella.

Sari! 

Two-fisted drinking. 

I’m not sure what this was.  But it’s funny.

Katie and Jeremy!

Elizabeth and Bryan and Isabella.

Playing with the baby. 

We had a great Thanksgiving! 

Happy Wednesday!

Thanksgiving

My new favorite Thanksgiving Tradition-taking photos of just us kids. 

Sisters first. (And I came sooo close to wearing my plum sweater.  We would totally have all been matching).

All four of us.

Love this!

And this one.

Really love this one!

And this one.

And this one.

I’m not sure I really have a favorite.

Because these pretty much all sum up what our family gatherings are like.

Except that Kate isn’t really a floating head

Happy Tuesday! 

Turkey Dinner at Home

Yum!

Goofy

Suave

Sweet

Family around the table. 

Together.  That is the most important part of the holidays.

The table is all cleared off.  Happens twice a year

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!  I am sooo looking forward to spending time with family this weekend and eating some turkey!

Since it is Thanksgiving, I want to share some things that I am thankful for this year: 

1. Modern Medicine for allowing me to have my gall bladder removed so quickly and expertly.

2. Health Insurance for footing the majority of the bill.

3. A bonus this year that will cover the amount that we owe.

4. A speedy recovery. 

Have a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Getting Ready 2011-December Daily and JYC

I love the new Ali Edwards stamps from Technique Tuesday.  I am loving being in the club and automatically getting these lovely stamps in the mail every month.  The night that I got them I was playing with them and my husband asked me, “Have you used all of those stamps already?”  And I replied, “Yes…I have to try them out and see how they work .”  So this stamp is on the inside front cover of my December Daily.

I love art journaling.  And this year I am doing my Journal Your Christmas (Shimelle’s Class) album as an art journal.  And I am way excited.  I have been prepping my art journaling skills.

I have also been playing with Ali’s Designer Digital templates.  I have new ink and new photo paper.  Next was to figure out how I was going to make sure that they print correctly.  This sheet actually printed slightly smaller than the others, but that’s okay because I think I will probably be adhering the photo templates to the back of the date templates in most cases. 

I also used a bit of her “Messy Little Christmas” stamps/brushes on the photo for a finishing touch. 

The first thing I did was touch up the photo a little.  I had taken the photo at night with a flash and it was underexposed just a bit.  Really, I just made the white a little more white.  Then I dropped the photo into the template.  I recolored the .png file white and added it to the photo.  Because I really really do <3 Christmas.  And I saved it as a .jpg when it was finished.

Then-to make sure that it prints correctly, I opened a new 8.5x11 sheet and dropped the .jpg of the template onto that sheet and saved it as the “print ready” version of my template.  This keeps me from accidentally printing it out and having the whole thing print out at 8.5 x 11.  I really dislike wasting ink!

Next-I used various things laying around on my kitchen table to make an art journal page.  (Just flexing my art journaling muscles  

These trees are just triangles that I cut out and put glitter on a few years ago.  They have been moving around my studio waiting for a home…

I used LOTS of the Ali Edwards November stamps.  And I LOVE the vintage santa from Tim Holtz.  And the Martha Stewart snowflakes.  Well I just love everything that I used on this page really. 

And I’m excited about journaling on the pages once I have them created. 

Is it Dec 1st yet? 

Happy Wednesday!!