{bliss}

happy Friday!

Christmas has arrived at Peek in the form of the PDT's favorite Christmas collection layouts!  So much beautiful work in the Gallery today, check it out here.

This layout uses one of my favorite Christmas collections that Pat picked up at CHA - Daisy Buckets "Wrapped Wishes"  I love the soft colors, and I love that it works so well with other collections that were released at the show.  There is just something about that soft pink and green combo that is just so peaceful and "Christmas-y" to me this year.  The little felt birds and poinsettia are from Brenda Walton's Peppermint Twist line, which I adore as well.

My second project for this layout is (shhhh!) actually a Christmas gift for a friend and uses the Renae's House line that I love to pieces, Carole's Christmas.

Hope everyone is had a wonderful week.  I'm up to my eyebrows in projects, Christmas and otherwise!  I'm looking forward to our first significant snowstorm on Sunday night - woo hoo!

Finished one last project today that I can share.  This was a painted snowman chalkboard that I picked up at the dollar store to alter.  Used the scraps from my mini album to decorate it and added some sparkle with Stickles.  :)

Anthropologie Catalog Color Challenge Week 2

Here's Week 2's example page.  You can find out details about the color challenge this month here at Peek!  I am still in love with the Funky Vintage line from Making Memories, and think it looks very nice with the Narratives Antique Cream goodies!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  My Mom and I had a successful "mission" this morning, and I was able to get just about everything on my shopping list at Target and WM!  I was almost done shopping anyway, so this was mostly for fun for me!  My Mom got a ton of shopping done, so it was a morning well spent.

So here we are - the holiday season is now officially underway.  It seems like it was just a little while ago that we were packing away the ornaments and decorations, and here we are, pulling them back out again today.  The girls and I are putting up the little tree in their room this evening.  I swear the wheel of the year turns faster and faster the older I get!

Working on finishing a few little projects this afternoon so I can "clear the decks" for some big projects next week.  Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Snow Day! First of the Season...

There was actually enough on the ground to make a quick snowman before Aileen had to go off to school this morning!  :)  The eyes, nose, buttons and mouth are all wired together and run on batteries, so I am hoping that he'll hold together until dark so I can turn them on to see what they look like.  Uncle Peter got those for the girls last year for Christmas and last season wasn't a good one for snowmen, so we only used them once, I think, and the snowman was too far away from the house to be able to see the lights.  This time Aileen and I made him right next to the front steps, so we can see him from the porch. 

Don't you just love all the leaves and pine needles mixed into the snow?   lol!  Reminds me of the snowman Pigpen makes in the old Charlie Brown Christmas show!

Happy *snowy* Tuesday, everyone!

PS  I didn't waste any time scrapping some of my photos of Aileen building the snowman!  Here's a layout I finished tonight using Allison Connor's "Frosty" collection!

still life with jingle bells....

A work in progress on my desk...  this Christmas line, Carole's Christmas by Renae Lindgren just makes me so happy! 

Looking forward to tomorrow afternoon when the kids get home from school and we can launch Operation Turkey day in earnest.  I've got baking to do on Wednesday, and some cute projects for the girls to do with me in the kitchen on Wed. as well as we wait for Jonathan to arrive home from college.  I'm so excited that everyone is going to be here this year.  For the past several years, the family has all sort of "done their own thing", so this will be the first time that all of Tim's family are here for the holiday in a long, long time.  I'm going to actually have to set up a second table for adults, and I think I'll revive the old "kid's table" tradition for the girls and Connor too!  Looking forward to the Macy's parade in the morning, and I'm breaking out the Mannheim Steamroller cd's in the afternoon!  Woo hoo!  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year.

Wishing you a cozy week, and hope that you're surrounded by love and family this holiday week...

Anthropologie Catalog Color Challenge Week One

I'm soooo late getting this challenge rolling this month.  I totally overestimated both my energy level and my available time this month!  But here is the Anthropologie Catalog Color Challenge example for Week One.  You can view the inspiration piece here, in the Peek Gallery, and the thread to post to with your pages is here, in the Challenge Forum.  I love, love, love Sassafrass Lass, and have been hoarding these Indian Summer patterned papers for a bit, and finally broke them out for this challenge.  Pretty, pretty, paper!  It's based on one of the November PageMaps from Becky Fleck (thanks, Becky!) and the brown accents are Fancy Pants felt. 

There will be 4 challenges for this catalog, and I will do my best to post them every Friday. :)  Have fun!

Renae Lindgren chat reminder

  ...chat with Renae Lindgren at Peek Friday night, November 16, 2007 at 9pm eastern.  Hope to see you there!

What I'm Thankful For...

...is the theme of today's upload at Peek!  I have so much to be thankful for, but it always comes back to my kids.  I love Samantha Walker's "Day by Day" collection, and have been hoarding it since I got it, so I decided to break it out for this page.  Love the way it came out, and I love the little snippets of the Q&Co felt ribbon with it.  I can't get enough of brown these days.  :)

I feel like I've been running all week long.  We've had something to do every single day this week. A play date (yay!) on Monday, lunch out with Daddy on Tuesday, Bee's field trip to the Leddy Center on Wednesday, today is Parent/Teacher conference day and tomorrow is Friday again already!  My "to do" list for Thanksgiving is a mile long, and I need to go grocery shopping and get myself organized in the next couple days.  We're having the whole gang here this year, so I have decided instead of trying to cook "Turkzilla" as I have done in years past, I am going to cook 3 boneless turkeys - one glazed, one with a cajun rub, and one "traditional"!  I think it will be fun to have some variety, and I love that there is no waste with the boneless turkeys. 

And I am happy dancing over the fact that this year I don't have to work on Thanksgiving OR Black Friday!  Woo hoo!  How nice to be able to enjoy the holiday without having to pack it in early and get ready from work like I did last year.  And I am super excited about being able to get up while it is still dark and sneak out of the house with my Mom to go Christmas shopping on Friday morning.  Last year we had about 95% of our total Christmas shopping done before noon!  :)  I'm hoping to be able to do the same thing again this year!  I made a good start over the weekend, actually, and am looking for certain door-buster deals and very specific things on my list for the girls. 

Off to grab a second cup of coffee and get a move on today.   Have a good one!

new favorite quote:

This was in the daily email from Teri Martin's Quote a Day group.  LOVE it!

Success means fulfilling your own dreams,
singing your own song,
dancing your own dance,
creating from your heart and
enjoying the journey,
trusting that whatever happens, it will be OK.
Creating your own adventure!

- Elana Lindquist

If this isn't just the perfect quote for today, I'll eat my bright orange cowboy hat!  lol!  At first I was a little concerned about going out into the stores to teach employees and craft teachers about Fiskars products.  Except for children's craft projects, I've never taught any sort of crafting.  But I can see the benefit this type of informal product demonstration would have for both retailers and teachers.  The store employees will gain the knowledge that will help them make product recommendations for their customers.  The teachers will be able to integrate Fiskars tools into their class curriculum which will in turn benefit the stores where they teach their classes. It's not about pushing product, it's about promoting the creative process, in whatever form that process presents itself, and that is something I can definitely get behind!

Speaking of creativity, here's a little something I put together last night with Renae's House "Carole's Christmas" collection.  Love the whimsical papers, and non-traditional color scheme.  I'd love to have a pastel Christmas decorating scheme this year!

Fiskateer Round Up Projects

I've been working to finish up some of the projects from the classes we were taught at the Roundup to demonstrate all the different Fiskars tools.  My favorite project (and thus the first one I finished!) was this adorable Cloud 9 mini-calendar project using the Chocolate Chalet collection papers and sparkle rub ons.  I've left Nov and Dec blank for new photos to complete it, and I think I will give it to my husband for Christmas!

The second project was taught by Cheryl and used the border punch, the new squeeze punches, and the texture plates and texture tool.  I like the embossed look it gave the cardstock, and we sanded it a little to "shabby it up" a bit and help the pattern stand out.  This page is pretty much "out of the box" - I only changed the colors up a bit to match my photos better. 

The last project I finished up was Holly's class.  I looooove how simple and elegant the finished frame is!  You start with a blank canvas, a sheet of flocked Heidi Grace Paradise Point paper and a stapler and this is what you get:

More class projects to follow as I finish them!  Again, a huge thank you to Fiskars for making this weekend possible, and for their incredible generosity and investment in the "Nifty 50", and additional thanks to the the Leads, the Brains on Fire folks, and our wonderful teachers: Heidi, Nancy and Julie for sharing so much of themselves with us.  What's not to love about a company that totally wears it's heart on it's sleeve, and puts so much faith in those chosen to represent it?  I couldn't be prouder to be a Fiskateer, and to be able to pass on what I have learned in the classes this weekend!   

overwhelmed...

...by the wonderful weekend I spent with the Nifty Fifty in San Antonio.  It was such an incredible experience.  Meeting so many of my online friends at once, and finding that they are just as terrific in person as they are on the message boards was one of the best things about the trip!  I took today to breathe a little and try to set my "Mama's been gone all weekend" house to rights, and catch up on laundry...

I'll do a "real" blog post tomorrow.  I just want to take this first opportunity to thank all the awesome people at Fiskars and the great folks at Brains on Fire for making this event a reality.  Hugs and kisses to all the Leads, Suzanne and our special guests Heidi, Nancy and Julie.  Thanks to my wonderful roommate Erin, and my new-old-friend, Amy, and so, so many others who touched my heart and inspired me over the weekend.  I can't remember the last time I laughed so much (and cried so much!) and shared so much with such a sensitive and caring group.  I loved every minute of it, and definitely had a tough time coming down from my cloud today!

More tomorrow - must get some sleep now!