We went out today!!

Wahoo!

Mitch left me the Jeep and we got to go out today! Man, you can't believe how crazy all of the side streets are. My neighborhood is gorgeous and SUPER slippery. It is the perfect place to go sledding. And, we would, if we had a sled!! Snow like this just doesn't happen in Oregon, so we are not at all equipped. Maybe we'll have to remedy that.

So, we went to take care of some essentials.

First stop: Dutch Bros. I was seriously missing my Annihilator, and I figured that I deserved it after all that I have had to put up with the last week or so. $3 of heaven in a cup. Ahh.

Next: Safeway - which was totally crowded, completely out of ice cream and almost totally out of eggs. It's interesting to see people get all bent out of shape because there isn't any ice cream! In this freezing weather!

While I was there, I picked up some raspberry syrup from the Starbucks for snow cones. I was trying to teach Grant about the dirty snow and the clean snow and he asked about eating the clean snow. I told him that we used to make snow cones when I was a kid, which of course, led to the trip to the Starbucks counter.

Third: A quick pit stop in Mitch's office.

After that: Video store. Needed some new movies to watch. Grant picked a documentary about undersea life (surprise, surprise, right?) and I picked a kid movie that I have never seen.

Then: A quick trip to my friend Melanie's house to drop off a bit of the syrup so her kids can join in the fun.

Next: Stop off at a local restaurant for a GC.

And: Drop off library books.

Finally: Grab the mail and go home. All in all, it was a fun and productive trip. I feel ready for Christmas, now! It was great to get out!

Here are some fun pics!

Snow Days

We are having a beautiful white Christmas around here! The snow started last week, and with it came the snow days. Grant was home all of last week, thus beginning his Christmas break a week early.

On Wednesday, Katie came over and we baked cookies and the two kids built a snowman:


Then, on Saturday, while I went Christmas shopping, the boys built an igloo! Okay, so it is missing some parts, but it was a lot of work!! I took a picture of it last night:



And this is the same view (through the sliding glass door) today:

Notice the snow build-up along the bottom!

And, just for fun:




So, while I've been cooped up, I've been working on some fun things. The layout above is courtesy of some new items from Vera Lim. As I mentioned earlier, I was asked to join her hybrid CT, and I was THRILLED to accept. I already own a bunch of Vera stuff, and it is so fun to get it for free, now!! For my paper-lovin' friends, Vera is also a designer for Prima Marketing (and so are Dianne and Corina!). Here is the hybrid project I created for this release:


And, I put together this little layout with Danielle Engebretson's newest release featuring my cutie:


And this one with a pic from Thanksgiving using Anne DeJong's newest release and a template that I am putting in the store on Thursday:


And, since I'm stuck here, I thought I would have a sale at my store:

It's a new release!!

I've been having so much fun with this new set of templates. So cute! You saw the sneak peek yesterday, and they are in the store and on sale today!!


***

And, I picked up these fun quick pages by Jaime Young yesterday, popped my pictures in them, resized them to 4x4 and printed them out. I glued them to coasters, hot glued some ribbon on them and this is what I have:

This was a super fast project!! The QPs are only $1 today at Funky Playground Designs.

Oh, AND I entered a contest at Prima Hybrid. It was a "sport our blinkie" contest and didn't require any talent on my part. Easy. Well, only 3 of us entered the contest, and I won! I feel kind of bad because I don't think anyone knew about the contest. At the same time, I had a giveaway going over at DST for a Prima Hybrid kit, and 157 people entered. Oh, if they only knew that their chances were MUCH better over at the PH site. Oh well! Their loss!! I'm excited to see what I get. They said, "A kit", and those are valued at between $29 and $35. Good grief! Well, I will definitely be doing the kit justice and will thank them profusely by posting it all over the place!!

little reflections

It's been snowing lately. Well, not at this exact moment. Actually, right now it is sunny and pretty with flashes of light reflecting off of the mounds of snow decorating our swing set. It is so cold and so beautiful! Downside: no school. Oh well! That just means more time for my kids!!

I love my children. Of course. You knew that. I love just being with them and holding them and cuddling them. I love it when we can wrestle on the floor together and Grant is extra gentle because I'm the mommy. Cole hasn't figured out the "be gentle with mommy" rule, yet, but he is super quick to give me hugs and kisses when he plays too rough.

I finally have a child who opens Christmas presents WAY before Christmas. Thankfully, it was Cole opening Grant's present and Grant didn't see. Cole was hiding in the little "house" that the kids had pulled out in front of the tree. I found him picking at the present and eating a candycane he had stolen off the tree.

If you need new wrapping paper, go buy it yourself. If you delegate the task of finding wrapping paper, you may end up with 200 yards of blue paper. Even if you coach the buyer to avoid the cartoon characters and anything with pictures of Santa, you may end up with an unfortunate purchase in the form of a 200 square yard roll in shades of blue. Do you have any idea how long it will take us to get through that roll? Don't get me wrong. If you decorate your Christmas tree in blues, more power to you. I don't. My tree is mostly reds with the occasional cotton ball sheep thrown in for good measure. Red and green. Green and Red. Blue? Hmmm.

I had a nice conversation with my mother-in-law this morning discussing Christmas presents. Specifically, what do you get for a 2.5 year old who loves everything his brother (age 5) loves? Legos, Jedi Knights, Cars cars, Spiderman stuff. Uh. But, that is what we get for Grant. Hmm. I feel your pain, Dee! It was tough, but we finally figured out what to get for Cole: a Spiderman costume . . . that will also fit Grant. Yeah, basically they WILL trade. They will share. That is just what they do, and I LOVE it! I'm so thankful for brothers who love each other! Oh, I NEED to do more pages about that.

I did a hybrid layout yesterday and posted about it on the FPD blog. I'm excited! It was fun and easy and I got to use my CTMH stash. I've "resolved" to do at least 1 hybrid layout per month in 2009 . . . maybe more.


I was recently asked to join Vera Lim's CT!! What a huge honor! I'm one of the hybrid gals, so I get to do hybrid blog posts. Hey . . . that goes well with my "resolution" doesn't it? I could do hybrid layouts! Ha!

I have something new going into my store on Thursday. Here's a sneak peek!

Is this terrible?

I mean, I know it's boring, but I'm not a designer and I don't own any CU items. Help!

my pictures are obnoxious

I would be sincerely grateful if anyone out there could tell me why my pictures are turning out SO huge. I am choosing the "small" option when I upload, so what gives? I want to change my blog back to the minima template, but then it cuts off my pictures. What? Help!

Please!

**Edit: By the way, I'm actually just grabbing these pics from the web, so they are already saved at 72ppi. I think the "Big" ones are 600x600, but you can see when I have resized them a little smaller - 550x550 or 500x500. So, uh, now what?

It's in!

I told you that I would let you know when Dianne put the album in her store! Well, it's in!!

Click here to purchase!

A new release and some fun layouts!

Ah, Thursday. The day when things happen around my blog. Don't you wish every day was Thursday?

Anyway, I had a new release today! Check it out:


And, here is what I did with it:



I used Dianne Rigdon's gorgeous new Christmas In Your Heart Collection!! (Oh, and if you just love this, wait a few days. Dianne will be putting it in her store! I'll let you know when it is in!)

And, here are a few layouts:

We got our Christmas tree on Sunday. Here is the first layout from that event!
Using some goodies from Krystal Hartley and the gals over at Funky Playground Designs. Click here for credits.

I love this pic of the boys from this summer. My friend Alysun captured so many great pictures, and I love scrapping them!!
I used a new kit by Corina Nielsen (Funky Playground Designs). Click here for credits.

And then, there is this one! I took these pics two summers ago and always wanted to scrap them!!
Using some Traci Murphy stuff (Funky Playground Designs). Click here for credits.

You know your 2-year-old has . . .

watched too much Kung Fu Panda when:

He can't actually speak coherently yet, but he CAN quote the movie. Seriously.

"Hi-yah!!" is heard throughout the house at the oddest moments.

"Skadoosh" becomes a common threat. And, he even knows how to twitch his pinky just so.

Christmas Heart Hybrid!

I met Jess Gordon the same way many people do, I think. I must have googled "Scrapbook Ideas" and her blog came up! Ha! I poured over her blog that day and read all kinds of wonderful tips, downloaded freebies and admired her work. I commented a couple of times, and imagine my surprise when she wrote back to me!!

Since then, I keep up with Jess through her blog (I've got it in my reader!), and I've asked for favors a couple of times for the DST Insider. We leave warm fuzzies for eachother in the galleries, and she even RAKed me once with a gorgeous quickpage album.

So, I must have been feeling cocky one evening when I was reading her blog and she mentioned having a "one kit CT call." She already had enough people volunteer, so she didn't need anyone else, but still, I wrote to her and said something about making a hybrid pretty for her. She sent me the links and the rest is history!

Jess Gordon's Christmas Heart kit is gorgeous. It was EASY putting these boxes together for her, and I love the results. We decided to collab a bit and now she has them in her shop! Go check it out!


**click here to go to her store**

And, in case you were wondering about that little, Perfectly Square box, it is NEW in my store!!

**click here to check it out!**

OH! AND, I am a new sponsor at My Scrapbook Art! If you post regularly at MSA, you realize what a privilege this is. To celebrate, I'm having a little sale, but you have to go get the coupon code from my post at MSA! (ChereKaye is making my banner!! I'm so excited to see what she comes up with!!)