Ok. We live in Washington State - we don't get weird weather here... So tell me what is going on...
First we have massive flooding. In November we received 1/2 the amount of rainfall that we usually receive over the course of an entire year. In 30 days we had THAT much rain.
2nd, we had this freak snow storm. Beautiful to look at through the front window - not so fun to have to deal with.
And now, we finally have power after what is being called "The storm of the century." The wind that was blowing was clocked at 89 mph in our area and someplace (can't remember where) it was blowing as fast as 127 mph. It sounded like a freight train trying to blow its way through my bedroom. Trees down, power off, freezing house :(
They expected it to take 5 days to restore power in our area but thankfully it was just about 2 days.
So, how did we pass the time?
By baking on the woodstove of course! Grace and I had made gingerbread dough on Thursday that we planned on baking over the weekend. Well we had the brilliant idea of baking some cookies on the woodstove because the fire was burning SO hot in there. We cut out some gingerbread men, a few trees, a reindeer, and a birthday cake, put them on parchment paper and carried them to the woodstove. Slipped the parchment paper onto the top of the woodstove (parchment is save up to a temp of 450 - in case you ever want to try this). We left them on there for about 18 minutes - they would have been perfect if we had taken them off after about 15 minutes but truth be told, they were pretty darn good.
Here they are in their gingerbread-y goodness. I thought about tackling royal icing without a mixer but then decided that was just silly!!! So we had plain gingerbread cookies and it was wonderful.
I had a few craft kits that we bought at Michael's so Grace and I made some clothespin santa's and reindeer. We started on the foam & fuzzyball Nativity scene but there are no instructions or good photos so we eventually stopped doing that one because we had NO idea what we were doing - but it was so much fun just to sit by the fire and laugh and have a good time - even Jason got in on the action making a foam wiseman.
Jason brought out the big flashlights when the sun started setting and I took advantage of that light to get some Christmas gifts done. I finished making 4 journals :) and they really look nice.
In the next town over they had power and Jason's dad called to see if we wanted to go over there for dinner with some family friends so I got to spend about 1 1/2 hours in the car (there and back) knitting... not a bad way to pass the time.
We had a lovely dinner with our friends, got back home and the house was still cozy (thank you wood stove for choosing to work!), Grace wanted to sleep with us of course, so she and I cuddled together on my favorite sofa and she fell asleep.
Since we were roughing it Jason broke out this battery thing that you can plug cords into. It has an official name but I don't know what it is - all I know is when the power goes out you can plug the portable dvd player into this thing and watch movies. So we watched some of The Pretender and I fell asleep.
At what I'm guessing was 5-ish a.m. I woke up to our bedroom heater buzzing away and said a silent prayer to the gods of electricity.
But I was also a little sad... When the power is out the three of us tend to stay close to home, close to each other, we find ways to entertain ourselves that involve ALL three of us. It forces us to slow down and reconnect because there's not much else to do.
I'll just be thankful that we had 2 days of that - and wait for the next power outage...
I also think I'm going to be putting together an emergency box of sorts. I always think about it, and it isn't as if we don't have what we need - but it sure would be nice to have everything in one place. I was thinking I'd go as far as getting some activities that can be done without power to put in the box. What do you think? Now that I know I can cook on the woodstove I think I'll be unstoppable!
Later today comes an update on my Christmas crafts and other things I'm doing. I have finished lots of stuff!!!
Happy day
Under the heading "How am I going to live with this girl" comes...
2007 Real women scrap Girl of the year
Oh my, she is so excited. This morning she got up, looked online (how is it that a 5 year old knows how to log on to my computer???), got to Tasra's site, and saw our photo... She screamed much like I imagine her scream will be when she's 13 and a boy calls her for the first time...
Grace: Mommy you won
Me: No sweety, I didn't win
Grace: yes mommy, our picture is right there. Tasra said you won
Me: No, there is another lady that won.
Grace: Oh (looking very dejected)
Me: But let me read this to you
But, it gets better because we couldn't choose just one winner so we created three categories.
The winner of the Girl of the Year Award, who will receive her own box of goodies (for mom too) is...Little Miss Murphy and her mom for letting her join the big girls for a little fun with glitter, glue and pink paint!
It really did turn out better than I expected. I used a Bazzill gated album (white) and covered it in green scalloped Bazzill paper (left side) and the PP on the right is... hmmmm - without going into my scrapbook room I am going to guess Scenic Route? It's a line from last year and I could be WAY off base - so I'll look and correct myself tomorrow if I am. I've always been a huge fan of pink and red and green and light blue for "christmas colors" long before it was *popular* so this book is definately not a nod to the trendy colors of the season (I hate looking like I'm just following the crowd) but a true reflection of the colors and feelings I surround myself with during the holiday season. The cover of the gated album is magnetic (thank you Bazzill) so the Magnetic closure sticks right on and adds the perfect finishing touch.
A view of the inside. I simplified things and have 3 strips of paper on each page - either pink, red, green, or blue (mixed and matched). The sheet that I'll journal each day of advent on came from here. They were designed by Erica Hernandez who did a great make and take at 2 peas which is where I got the very general idea for my advent album. Check it out when you have time - it's pretty cute!
behind each daily advent journaling page is a pocket. In each pocket there will be either ornaments for Jason, Grace, and I to hang on our tree for the day or a small bazzill chipboard chip that I covered with cardstock that has an advent activity... you can see the ribbons sticking up from behind the page - each page will have something like that at the beginning of advent. We have activities that range from: working on teacher gifts, making gingerbread house, making wrapping paper, to watching Charlie Brown's Christmas...
this is an example of the advent activity tag. The back is blank until we do the activity. During the activity I'll take a picture of us, or the finished product and that photo will go on the back of this tag - then on Christmas day I will put all of these tags on a length of ball chain and we will have an "instant" mini-album of the 25 days of activities we did during advent, complete with photos!
On the days we don't have an activity, Grace made simple ornaments using KI's winter/holiday chipboard shapes
She also chose our initials from the same line of chipboard alphabets - which are so cute... initial ornaments :) those just make me SO happy.
There are lots more - but I'll post those later, right now it's taking forever to post photos.
My starbucks advent calendar. Not sure how we'll use this. I was thinking of putting in some journaling prompts (along with the obligitory chocolate)... then each year I can use those prompts for a scrapbook - wouldn't it be interesting to see how the answers change over the years. Now to think of questions that would be interesting for the 3 of us... Anyone have any ideas? (and I do know there are no dates on there yet. I haven't put them on - it's my project for tomorrow!)
BasicGrey Blitzen line - truly one of my all time favorites... I've often wondered what it would look like if I used that to wall paper my walls :) but it is a small consolation that I got to cover my advent calendar with it.
My computer has decided to exert its power over me so I'm going to leave you with just these photos... tomorrow I'll bring to you the paperchain of power as well as the sock that knows no ending...
Enjoy the beginning of this holiday season - drink in the sights and sounds and smells... go make some gingerbread!
C
I went to bed one evening and life was normal... I wake up the next day and this is what I'm surrounded by...
about 6 inches of snow - and our neighbors tree on our fence!
Luckily I am a sucker for the absolute beauty that snow creates because man alive it was cold.
The snowing began on Sunday while my husband was gone so Grace and I built this beauty
She hasn't named him yet, but she goes out to check on him every 1/2 hour or so to make sure he's still there.
Monday rolls around (and I learn how to keep a mean fire going in our woodstove!) and after listening to the news for an hour I determine that Grace does have school and it is on time - even though there is about 8 inches of snow at our house (more in out-lying areas). So we bundle up, make the trek out to the car, freeze our tail feathers off driving to school - not to mention risking our lives facing the IDIOTS who don't know how to drive in the snow... to get to school and have the principal tell us that classes were cancelled.
And then an hour later I get a call from the office manager telling me school was cancelled... I suppose better late than never - but my frost bitten toes would have LOVED to stay inside since they didn't have to go outside...
cest la vie, oui?
So we spent the day doing tons of fun stuff: folding laundry, washing dishes, scrubbing the toilet. Well, really I did those things and G complained that I never play with her. So after listening to her for longer than I could stand, I put on my coat and mittens and we went out for a snowball fight. It was a blast... We both got soaked - but she was SO wet she had to come in to take a bath... She's quite the little competitor too - her snowballs were big and pretty compact - and she has a mean arm - good aim with excellent power.
While she was taking her bath I worked on my Advent album. I got the basic idea for the album from Erica Hernandez's Two Pea's Make n' Take project - Mine is different, but follows the same general idea.
Since it's nearly 11pm and I'm to tired to get the camera, I'll describe it tonight and photograph tomorrow.
The color scheme is bright pink, bright green, & bright blue along with Christmas red. The album i used is a white Bazzill gated album. I have 25 pages, one for each day leading up to christmas in december. Rather than ornaments behind each page I sat down with my husband and daugther and we came up with the activities we wanted to do in December and I wrote them down. These will be printed and glued onto a piece of 1.75 chipboard and the chipboard will have a ribbon at the top much like the ornaments in the example do. When we're doing the activity on the tag I will take a photo fo us doing the activity or the finished product and the picture will then go on the other side of the tag. At the end of december I will have 25 of these tags with activities on one side and photos on the other. I will use a binder ring to keep them all together and we have a nearly instant mini book of our december activities!
It's SO cute.
One more snow picture - and album photos coming tomorrow
My favorite snow angel.
The title is little misleading but I decided to blog today no matter what, about what I've been busy doing. So I head out to my studio (I love saying that) to take some photos and what do I find? The camera battery is dead. Not so dead that it won't take ANY photos - but dead enough that I have to turn it back on after each photo that I take. Extremely annoying and doesn't make for great photos. So I give to you a showing of mediocre photos of the *great* projects I've been working on.
Last night I was reading Martha Stewart Homemade Gifts and was inspired to make some ornaments that I've always wanted to make. So I broke out my favorite scraps and made these...
I love these globes. I remember making them in Geometry (hi Mr. Gerber!) and loved them then and we they were only made with plain paper.
The one above is made from scraps of all of my favorite papers - for the most part Basic Grey with a couple others thrown in. The globe below is one of the Christmas decorations that will grace my studio - Pink of course - a Heidi Grace paper I bought last year and it had these adorable glittery circles with holly and trees and a variety of christmas sentiments - I've loved it for a whole year and not known what it was meant to be... well now I do - it was meant to be my scrapbook studio's Christmas globe ornament.
Now I'm trying to decide if I need a Christmas tree in my scrapbook room! I'm leaning toward YES! I can just imagine an entire tree decorated in ornaments I create from scrapbook supplies. Just the thought of it makes me SOOOOO happy. I think that my room would totally trump Disneyland for being the happiest place on earth if it only had a Christmas tree! Stay tuned and see how it turns out.
Another project I've been working on is a gift for a family member. I'm sure this person doesn't read the blog - but just in case ;) This album is filled with photos of Grace from birth through this year and I am in love with it. I'm not usually a "junk-y" scrapbooker so it was fun to step out of my box and play with that medium. I love the junkitz stuff and love this ruler book. I just found out they have a Tiny 2x3 ruler book! I am SO all over that. It is SOOOOOO small.
This is obviously the cover - everything is Junkitz except the big red Heidi Swapp flower... (and the cute picture of my kid!)
and last but not least I put this adorable accordian album together. I can't decide if I want the accordian part to face the way it is or the other way (it should make sense when you see the photo) feel free to give me your input... I think it if flip the accordian part then the cover will open out rather than up and down and might not seem so bulky (it seems odd to me)
I forgot to turn the picture before posting it (sorry) the S faces the correct way - the ribbon arrow faces down - and to the word " kindergarten" in the black sticker line at the bottom of th
e page.
Here is a photo of the envelope/accordian portion of the album. I used 7gypsies 97%complete stickers - it's the long sticker sheet that has a ton of stickers - long strips with tons of words - some tabs - a large 3x4ish sticker (that wold be the S is for school sticker on the front cover) and just a ton of other stickers) I use the tab stickers for tabs (how original) and also made tabs from same size/shape stickers just stuck to the front and back of each other and adhered to the top of the envelope. I've always liked these stickers but never really known how to use all of them - but with this little envelope accordian album - I used nearly the entire sheet of stickers for the album - so I am making these for gifts for family as well (they have a sheet with "F for family" and "R for remember" that will be perfect)...
if anyone is interested in directions - let me know, the albums are so simple.
So that's what I've been working on lately.
Christall
So I realized it's been nearly a month since I've posted anything. Probably closer to 3 weeks - but hey, if I flaked on my job for that long I would have been fired, right? So my apologies...
I haven't been doing anything particularly special or difficult - but it seems that I have been doing things that just suck up every last second of my time. I'm wondering if this scrapbook studio was a good thing - because every spare (and not so spare) second is spent in there just living, and breathing creativity - I feel so alive in there.
I am still cleaning and organizing and making the space - but it has been used and well loved during that process. If any of you are trying to find a way to make more time or space for scrapbooking in your life and your home you simply have to visit Aby's blog but also check out her services. We live thousands of miles apart and she was able to facilitate my journey from out of control (time wise), cluttered messy house, no space for anything - to a pretty organized home, lots of time for scrapbooking, organized days, and a peaceful life. I swear to you - she helped me make some of the biggest changes in my life and I still haven't been able to put into words what she has allowed me to do. Simply amazing! Check it out!
I went to CKC Bellevue - that was a ton of fun. I took the Stacy Jullian album-in-a-day class which I loved! It did take 2 days to finish, but my album is done and I am in love with it!!! My daughter adores her new baby girl Addie and when Grace (my daughter) heard that I'd be seeing Stacy she insisted on sending a present to her friend - so here I am with Stacy and the puppy that Grace sent to baby Addie
I've taken so many Big Picture Scrapbooking classes - and several from Stacy herself. Heard Stacy give the keynote address at Creative Escape 2006 - but none of that really compared to just hanging out with her for the day during that class. Her enthusiasm is SO contagious. She is amazingly real - a beautiful woman that just exudes love and compassion and fun and life. After attending the backstage party at CKC I can now be found serving my daughter sprinkles on almost everything - and it's just changed the dynamic of our day. Sprinkles - who would have thought...
Here are the infamous sprinkle pancakes! I suppose everything does look a bit happier with pink sugar sprinkles on them!
On a creative front - I've finished 3 layouts for 3 CJ's and mailed them to S. Africa. That feels good! I'm continually amazed at the talent I am surrounded by. I've started on Christmas gifts - I have 2 nearly finished and 3 more started... That's about as specific as I can be right now - not very exciting is it?
I should have more scrapbooking photos I can post this afternoon - I'm going to finish up a few projects I've been working on for a while - and I've also decided to take the plunge and scrapbook that awful wedding pictures I have from my wedding. We ended up with the worlds worst wedding photographer and the photos are awful - so after 9 years I'm finally able to look at them without crying - and decided that it's time to make something beautiful with them :)
Happy day!
Christall
