New Year's Resolutions

I have thought long and hard about our family new year's resolution and my personal resolution. I am a fairly organized person but because I work two jobs and have all the family things going on too my home tends to get a little messy sometimes. Mike and I decided that the girls are going to help out more around the house. They are at an age where they should be helping more around the house. So we have decided that there will be no tv until their rooms are picked up. And each one of them will have a specific chore to do every week. As for me I am going to try to use my time more efficiently. Just try not to procrastinate as much. Sometimes that can be hard when you are tired but I just need to get things done and then I can rest. We have also decided to join the YMCA. Less tv sounds like a good thing to me! Then we have decided to have a short family prayer time before bed every night. We have always said prayers with the girls before bed but we haven't been as consistent lately. If you don't give them a firm foundation how can you expect them to make the

right choices later?

What are your resolutions?

Sisters

My sister's birthday was yesterday, she just turned 29. I am so proud of her. She has had a lot of challenges with her health and school and she has never given up, though at times I am sure she wanted to. She just keeps plugging away. We are so lucky to have a supportive family. My mom and dad have taught us so much about life...common sense stuff...but more importantly they have taught us that life is nothing without a relationship with the Lord. When times get tough and we always turn to prayer and He helps us through it. Sure we are not with out out disagreements with each other but I thank God for my family everyday.

Family Book

Here are a few pictures of a book I made my brother and sister in-law for Christmas. Bobunny came out with these great word chipboard books. I chose family but they have them in Baby, Friend, Party, Love and Believe. This paper I used is new from K & Company. I thought it looked fun and adventurous, which is great because the bro and sis I made it for have 12 kiddos! Their life is definitely an adventure! I tried to get some good shots of the book but it was a bit difficult. I don't think these pics do the book justice but you get the idea. I was very sneaky about getting current photos of everyone. At Thanksgiving I made them all pose for me so I was able to get everyone. then I filled in on other pages with some pics I already had. They really liked this gift. It was a lot of fun to make and I am glad they like it!

Perpetual Date Book

I made a perpetual date book for my mother in-law for Christmas. I totally cased this idea from my friend Nikki she made one for an aunt of hers. The book is a 6x6 3-ring Bobunny chipboard album. I just love those little things! Bobunny puts out such a great line. Any whoo...the paper is from K & Company. I liked the colors and patterns, they reminded me of my mother in-law. I made pockets for each month and a card that slips into each one states the month and "dates to remember"at the top. I had a few extra pages so I included photos of our family. I think she liked it...well, gotta go do some after Christmas organizing. Have a good night!

Best Presents

Here are the best presents ever! I thank God for them every day. I pray that we raise strong, compassionate, God loving, responsible young ladies. All we can do as a parent is lead by example and pray for the best. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you a safe and happy new year!

80's Layout

This was such a fun layout to do. This is actually a gift for a gal in my office. Every year she has an80's party and I thought this would be a fun layout to help her get her "80's album" started. The sticker embellishments are from Jolee's and the paper is new from KI. I thought the colors were perfect for the 80's. On the bottom of the second page I don't know if you can tell but those are leg warmers...LOL...remember those? Well Mike and I need to wrap presents so I am off to do that. Thanks for stopping in!

I have been tagged!

I have been tagged by Emily to tell you 7 things you may or may not know about me...so here we go!

1. My middle name is Mischael (pronounced Michelle) it is my mom's middle name too!

2. I would love to be published some day.

3. I was scared to death of dogs as a little girl...if I was around one I would freeze up and not move a muscle. My dad would have to come and get me and take me away from the animal!

4. I love to sing karaoke with my husband.

5. I love to read religious books about my catholic faith.

6. My sister and I quote chick flick movie lines all the time.

7. I am usually the only parent at school plays or programs that will crawl around on the floor to get a good shot of my kid performing!

Now I have to pass on the fun to others so I am tagging Lynette, Michele, & JoEtta (this might force Jo to finish her blog :D )

Dog Tin

One of my best girlfriends just got a puppy and I thought it would be great to make her a fun little tin for Christmas. All of the paper and stickers are Bobunny. They have such cute stuff...so naturally I was thrilled to find they had pink dog paper! Perfect! The tin is from Pine Cone press. I just made an accordion fold out of black cardstock and put the rest together. I hope she likes it. I went nuts taking pictures so you could see how it unfolds. Thanks for stoppin' in. Hope you have a great week!

Little Mama

Here is a layout that I did using a bunch of goodies that my pal Lynette gave me. The paper worked out perfect with the embellishments and matched Sidney's pj's too! Don't you just love it when you can sift though the paper that you have"collected" and actually use it instead of using something new that you just picked up at the store? I have such an addiction to paper. If I could just get myself caught up then I could buy the new stuff for new projects and not feel so guilty. But do you think that stops me? Unfortunately, no. Does anyone else have this issue? 8 more days till Christmas. Can you believe it? Where does the time go? Well gotta go take one of the girls friends home. Talk to you later!

Our Crew

Mike's birthday was a few weeks ago and I couldn't think of what to get him for his birthday. One night, when the kids were in bed, I was scrappin' and trying to think of "the perfect gift" and it hit me like a ton of bricks...I will fly Thomas home for his Dad's birthday. Thomas moved to Seattle a little over a year ago. So I called him and asked him if he wanted to fly home for Dad's bday. He was so excited...he happened to be at work that night and put in for the time off right then and I booked his flight as we were talking. So I was supposed to keep it a surprise...and I am usually not bad at doing that, however I couldn't stand it and I told Mike. He was pretty excited about it too. So anyway making a short story long...here is the most recent picture of our crew. Thomas, Whitney, Sidney & Haley (in order there in the photo). Have a good night!

Got Tunes?

Ok I have been to so many blogs. Some have music, some don't. I hear some people say that they don't like to hear music on blogs because it is distracting. So I have thought about it and decided...I want music so if you don't want to hear it just turn the speakers down:)

I had actually tried to add music a few months ago and couldn't figure out how to do it. Emily over at 3 Peas In A Pod helped me out...gotta tell ya...I was making it WAY too hard! Thanks for the help Em!

Library Card Album

Here is another spin off of the little lunch pail idea. I found these small spiral bound notebooks on sale at Hobby Lobby for $1.50 and covered them with fun paper. Then I covered all the library cards and pockets and stapled ribbons on the ends. Then I wrote with white gel pen each grade (you can't see it in these pics because I was trying to rush to get this done before my customer came to pick it up) but you get the general idea.

So can you believe that we are on the final count down to Christmas? I am just about done with my shopping. I have several projects to finish this weekend so check back in with me. I hope you are enjoying the holiday season. May God Bless You!

Lunchbox

This weekend was so busy! I taught a class at Scrapbook Garden on Saturday and then Mike's son flew in that evening. We were on the go most of the weekend. I will have some fun pics to post of this weekend later on this week. I forgot my camera so my step daughter is going to email me the ones she took. Duh...what kind of scrapbooker am I? Sheesh!

One day I was sitting here thinking of some fun projects I could do for the craft fairs I was going to be this fall and I thought up this one (with a few creative tweaks from a friend of mine) *wink*. I am sure most of you will agree there are usually a lot of extra photos left over from those school picture packages we buy every year. And wouldn't it be cool to come up with some way to display them in order by school year and be able to journal a little bit about each year? Thought so. So here it is. This cute little lunch box and inside are library cards, covered with paper to match the outside, with the grade on each card. Then you an journal a few memories on the back! Fun huh? I sold all of them and had orders for a few more. If I didn't have scrapbooks for my girls school years already I would make one of these for myself! Tell me what you think! I love to read your comments. And remember if your cruzin' my blog and see something you like let me know. I would love to make something for you! Have a good evening!

I spy...she's 20

Here is a layout done with Scenic Route paper line. They have great rub ons and chipboard letters! This was Whitney's (Mike's daughter) 20th birthday. She loves Osaka Steakhouse so we thought it would be fun to eat dinner there. It is pretty hard to see but the layout says I spy...and then I wrote different captions next to each photo... the one that cracks me up is the one above Whitney and her then boyfriend it says "once upon a time" LOL! I know she probably won't like it that I scrapped this photo of the two of them but she looks so cute...and besides this is what was going on at that time in her life. Aren't my in-laws a crack up? They are right below the pic of Whitney and her ex!!!

I hope to have a fun project I am working on for a customer posted in the next few days so check back in with me.

Hope you are having a good week...tomorrow is Friday...YIPEE! I am so excited for Saturday...I am flying Mike's son Thomas home for his birthday gift! Isn't that exciting?

Gotta get working on a few things before bed. Talk to you later!

Birthday Layout

This tells you how far behind I am on scrapbooking...this was Haley's 11th birthday...a year and a half ago!!! Oh well...the important thing is that I got it done right? I always try to do something fun and different for their birthday every year. This year there was a new pottery studio that opened up and she wanted to have a party there. It is a pretty cool place and the owners are great! So anyway with all the bright colors I thought this Junkitz Salsa paper was perfect. I know the pics aren't great. I need to work on taking pictures of my 12x12 layouts. Most of the layouts I see on blogs are digi scrappin...but I just can't get into that. I need to feel the paper and get glue on my fingers...know what I mean? I am home with a sick kiddo today. I took her to the doc cuz I thought it might be strep...nope just a virus. I hate hearing that...just because it has to run it's course. I just want them to feel better. Well thanks for stoppin' in!

Western Invitation

Here is a fun little invitation I made for one of Mike's cousin's birthday parties. She was turning 50 and her sister wanted to have a fun party with family and friends. I searched all the magazines for ideas and saw something similar to this...I just tweaked mine up a bit and came up with this fun little invitation. I tied twine around the front of the card to give it that added western look. We had a good time and I got a lot of complements on the invitation! Thanks for peekin' in.

Dance Bag Book

This was another special order for Christmas. A friend of mine has a daughter that dances and she wanted a little book she could put snapshots and journal memories into. These bag books have been a real hit this year with my customers. This concept has been around for a while but they are so inexpensive to make I can sell them pretty reasonable (especially when you hit the Hobby Lobby 50% off sale **wink wink**). It is made from 3 brown lunch sacks so there are actually 10 small pages. I only took a few pics so you could get an idea of what the inside looks like. I made large tags with ribbon stapled to the ends to fit into the each pockets inside the book for extra photo or journaling space. Pretty fun! Thanks for stoppin' in. I hope you are enjoying the holiday season. Take time to enjoy the true meaning of the season. It is so easy to get so caught up in the hustle bustle of life! Have a great week!

Shoe Frame

This frame is a special order for a friend of mine, it's a Christmas gift for her daughter. She loves pink and black and of coarse shoes! So I painted the shoe to match the paper. This was such a fun project!