Confessions Of A Scrapaholic

25 Days of Christmas

I am so, so, so, so, so, so excited for Christmas this year. Well, that's not true. I am excited for the days leading up to Christmas. I love the anticipation, the planning, the Christmas music, the movies, the decorating. There is nothing like experiencing Christmas through your child's eyes. Flea (our Christmas elf) made his appearance the day after Thanksgiving, like clockwork. The handy little fellow even set up our Christmas tree for us. I am on a mission this month to photograph him in each new spot he lands when he returns from visiting Santa at night. I am also going to get our daily photo blog updated soon. Pinky swear. I just have to get the photos off the camera. LOL!

In the spirit of getting project accomplished during the holidays I am taking Tiffany Tillman's "25 Days of Templates" class at Renee Pearson.com. I just watched the video for day one and Tiffany certainly doesn't disappoint. And I'm not just saying that because I'm one of her template gurus. The girl rocks Photoshop. What can I say? The class is amazing. Not only do you get TWENTY FIVE templates, there are also planner pages, a gorgeous kit, a Shutterfly discount.... tempted? It's not to late to sign up. Here are a couple of layouts that I have done so far.

I love this next layout. I used the journaling for a blog post I wrote years ago. The Q&A made for excellent journaling. It was almost cut and paste! I did include a smaller 8.5x11 layout for the questions that didn't fit on the larger 12x12 which I am OK with. When the girls are older and learn the big secret, they can find out how I did. Until then it will remain hidden behind.

See how they coordinate? You know how I like the coordinating. :) Speaking of which, I finished our 2009 Halloween album pages. I never did get around to posting our Halloween pictures. Bad, bad Maegan!

Proof! I haven't dropped off the face of the earth.

This picture was taken by the amazingly talented Angela Parris of Stillpoint Photography in Spokane. It is one of my favorites from our photo shoot last summer. You can't see Eden's face, but it captures her little spirit perfectly. My girl is always on the go, exploring, and generally trying to give her momma a heart attack.

More later. But for now, sleep!

A Pumpkin Obsession

I think it’s safe to say that I’ve developed something of a pumpkin obsession. Or to be more specific, a pumpkin decorating obsession. I blame my friend, Heather. She goes all out for Halloween at her house. I have drooled over the decorations she’s posted on her blog for years, and apparently it has rubbed off on me. I had so much fun painting, decoupaging and glamming up my pumpkins. We don’t do spooky Halloween decorations at our house, instead I call this Halloween Chic. You should see all the other jeweled and sparkly things we’ve got going on. Halloween is quickly becoming one of my very favorite holidays. Who knew?! I took this picture of my pumpkins the other day and I just had to scrap it. Didn't they turn out cute? It is so much more fun than carving pumpkins and they last forever!

Click HERE for credits

In other scrapping news, my Frozen Pancakes layout was chosen as a Gallery Standout today. I've never been chosen before so I was pretty darn excited. I have had that photo sitting on my desktop for at least six months so that I would scrap it. (I kid you not). It is such a nice feeling to have it d.o.n.e. Now to finish up the 10+ layouts that have been sitting on my desktop for who knows how long... Does anybody else do that?

Only two more days until Halloween, can you believe it?! Don't forget, you still have one more day to BOO your neighbors. Zoë and I went out last night and BOO'd three families without getting caught. WHOO HOO! Last year our neighbors came outside just as we were sneaking up to their front porch and busted us. What are the odds?

My New Favorite Album

I have been scrapbooking for about ten years now and I just finished my very favorite album, Me: The Abridged Version. Cathy Zielske taught this class at Big Picture Scrapbooking and I would recommend it to anyone. It was hands down, the best class I have ever taken.

It's not my favorite because it's about me, it's my favorite because of how it was designed. This album lists, from A-Z, little stories and tidbits about me. They are stories that probably wouldn't have ever been told otherwise. Who am I kidding, they never would. In the last ten years I have created exactly two pages about myself. After looking through and reading this album you know pretty much exactly who I am and what makes me tick. Those are precisely the sort of pages I strive to create. Real glimpses of life today. Real glimpses of mine and my family's stories. I fully intend on making another album every 10 years. It will be fun and interesting to see how I have changed. I am also on a mission to have Kelly write down his own A-Z and make him an album, but I'm not holding my breath. Click here to view the entire album. I'm a bit quirky. You've been warned.

Coming in as a close second is Our Family Halloween Album. I am totally on a Cathy Zielske kick right now, can you tell? Have you heard that she is now selling her templates and Designer Digitals? How awesome is that?! I finally made a title and dedication page for the Halloween album (read: totally copied Cathy's) using Heather Ann's new Wickedly Cute kit. She designs the cutest Halloween kits. And don't even get me started on the treat accessories. She makes it so easy to be crafty.

In Two Short Hours...

It took me a little less than two hours this evening to create our new family Halloween scrapbook. I am going to put it on display with our Halloween decorations. Don't you love it when projects come together so quickly? I may still mess with the placement of the year a bit and need to make the title page, but that can be done tomorrow. Kelly's flight landed a few minutes ago and he should be walking through the door soon. I can't wait to get these printed and in an album tomorrow. Whoo!

 

The 2009 installment will be coming soon. It may have to be a double-installment because we are taking Zoë trick-or-treating in Disneyland and then again on Halloween! I may actually be more excited than she is.

My Favorite Place to Visit

Two words: Design Dazzle.

My friend Lisa shared this blog with me last week and it has become my all-time favorite online place to be. It is beyond eye candy, my friends. Here you will find every sort of crafty design inspiration you can imagine. Home decor, fun treats, themed parties.

Sigh. I am one happy lady.

Now, before I leave you, here is another little bit of enabling. If you are a scrapper make sure and check out Cathy Zielske's blog post today. She created templates for her amazing Halloween album! I had planned on working in the yard and office today but instead I am making a Halloween album. In fact, with the templates it will probably be so quick and easy that I can make the album AND work the yard and office. I can't wait!

What a Difference One Week Makes

Kelly has been out of town on business this week. It is always hard for him being away from the girls, but especially these days with Eden growing and changing so quickly. I don't want him to miss a single milestone so I have been taking lots of pictures and videos. It truly is amazing what a difference one week makes in the life of a baby. Here is Eden last week, walking a good amount, but she still crawled. I would say it was about 50/50.

And now the video I took today. Kelly wanted me to make sure and get a video of her "drunken sailor" walk, and honestly, it is just about gone. I would say that yesterday was the day she decided to become a full-time walker. She is getting so good at steadying herself. It's funny because she will start to crawl then realizes, what am I doing? I can walk! And then she stands up and goes. She walked around in the playroom for a good hour solid this afternoon. *sniff* My baby is getting to be such a big girl!

And in other big girl news, I took Zoë to meet her kindergarten teacher today.

Cutest.Thing.Ever.

We introduced ourselves. Zoë, of course, talked the teacher's ear off. She told her all about her loose tooth (she has TWO!) about her sister, on and on. She's is not even remotely shy and I love that about her. I wish I was so outgoing. She starts school next Wednesday, but this was a wonderful opportunity to alleviate any anxiety Zoë may have been having about going to a new school. We toured the classroom, found her cubby, her name on the table, brought in our supplies. It was all very exciting. I'm not sure, but I may be more excited than Zoë... And guess what else? She is going to be riding the bus! Why the school district requires it, i have no idea. We live a mile from the school for Pete's sake, but she will be dropped off on the corner every day after school. I am going to make a sign for her first day. :)

I've got a few layouts to share as well. With Kelly being gone I have been watching Weeds and scrapping at night. (It distracts me from the creepy noises in the house.) Wanna see?

Click HERE for credits (and a larger image)

Click HERE for credits (and a larger image)

Click HERE for credits (and a larger image)

These *ALMOST* Make Me Want To Cook

I have been making it a priority to document all the little details of our family, whether it be working on home movies, taking daily photos, or compiling our favorite recipes. I hope to one day have enough to print a Shutterfly album. For now, I am going to resize them to 6x6 and put them in a little album in the kitchen.









Created using Recipe Album Templates by Heather Ann

Summer Time Fun = No Blogging

I didn't quite realize how long it had been since I last blogged until I got an email from one of my favorite aunts asking if I was OK. (I love her!) Everyone is fine, we have just been enjoying this wonderful summer weather, and oddly enough we got busier once summer vacation started. I will post more about that later once I get my photos edited. (You know I don't like posting without photos.) For now, I wanted to share a few layouts that I made last week. My friend Emily came over for a visit with her two darling little girls. Ashlynn and Zoë play together amazingly well and kept each other entertained for three days while we scrapped. It was awesome.

Click HERE for credits

Click HERE for credits (and a larger image)

Click HERE for credits (and a larger image)

Click HERE for credits (and a larger image)

A Passion for Cooking

Let me be clear. I am most definitely not talking about myself. Don't get me wrong. I can cook, and I do cook. But given the choice I don't. Honestly, if there was some sort of pill I could take instead of having to eat I would do it in a heartbeat. The entire process annoys me: the planning, the purchasing, the preparing, the cleaning...

Kelly is the complete opposite. He works so much that he doesn't often get the chance to cook, but when he does he loves it. Take breakfast for example. Sunday morning he made us pancakes from scratch. Before last weekend I was the pancake queen at our house (that is until I started sneaking in whole wheat flour and wheat germ which I have been told "ruins" them). Kelly brought Zoë out an enormous pancake. It was the size of a dinner plate. She immediately dubbed it "The Great Pancake." Not only was it huge, it was delicious. Kelly tweaked the recipe (of course) and added honey. That is one key difference between he and I. I follow recipes to the letter, he is constantly experimenting. I knew a family tradition was born the moment I saw "The Great Pancake" so I whipped up this quick recipe using Heather Ann's fantastic recipe templates.

I think that Kelly may just be in charge of weekend breakfast from now on. A few weeks ago he also tweaked the french toast recipe. We were out of vanilla and instead of just bagging the whole idea and serving cereal (like I would have done) he decided to use vanilla ice cream instead. Yummy!