Christmas Morning 2009~Digi Layout

It's lightly snowing outside and the girls are  playing with their new goodies behind me. I thought it would be a perfect time to try to scrap some Christmas morning photos. I just splurged and picked up some new templates and kits this morning and just had to make use of them!

Janet Phillips (who started it) is stepping down as owner of The Daily Digi. Turns out she is now going to be a designer at Sweet Shoppe Designs. They just announced it on their newsletter this morning. I think Janet is one of my favorite template designers, after Kay Miller, of course, so I was tickled to see her there. I really like that Janet creates templates for lots of photos. I'm using Too Many Photos 2 in my layout.

I also picked up a couple of new kits from NitwitCollections. They were released earlier this month, but I really looked at them this morning and fell in love, so I bought the goodies for Deer Friends and Snow Folk. I say goodies because you can get just the kit, which stands alone, but Mary Fran also creates add-ons to the main kit, which are usually "must have" in my book. *Ü* I used Deer Friends goodies in the layout above. I like the homespun feel of the kit, especially since so many of the presents I gave were of the homemade variety.

We had a great day and hope you did as well.

Better Late Than Never...

The girls and I finished our baking today, which proved to be a great way to pass the morning and afternoon for two excited girls.

They both were a big help to me. First we made some sugar cookies (more on that in a bit), then we made Russian Tea Cakes, one of Steve's favorite cookies. The girls had a blast rolling the cookies in the powdered sugar.

I laughed out loud when I caught them doing this! Anticipating eating the yummy treats we'd been creating. LOL

To avoid the cheesy, forced smile they are prone to give me these days, I made Amy laugh.

Then we had to tickle Jessica...

Here are some of the other goodies we made...Honest to goodness, this breakfast bar WAS clean earlier this week, for about 5 minutes. LOL The bane of my housekeeping existence. Anyway, brown globs are what I grew up knowing as chop suey candy, but you may know them as haystacks. It's chow mein noodles and peanuts covered with melted chocolate chips. The other day we made a batch of butterscotch ones. My mom made them every year at Christmastime. They take me back to when I was a girl.

The other cookies are store-bought sugar cookies, and we added mini M&Ms. I saw the idea on a blog or the Real Simple cookie emails I signed up for. (I can't remember which).

I was struck by how cute they looked with the M&Ms making a picture of some kind, so I had the girls go to town.

Here you can see better some of the ideas they came up with on their own. I only suggested a tree (which is what I saw when I saw the idea). You've got a wreath, Santa's hat, a couple of trees and a snowman. Just goes to show how creative kids can be. These cookies spread a lot more than I anticipated (is it the thin air here...I dunno), but they sure look cute, don't they?
 (Edited to add...we also made plenty of Spritz cookies in red and green, too!) Steve really likes those, too!



We finished the afternoon watching Santa Claus is Coming To Town. I told the girls that I watched it when I was a girl, but on tv, so I only saw it once a year. They were quite impressed with that. LOL

The impromptu hugs and smiles on the girls' faces with their excited chatter about Christmas was all the gift I needed. I think my heart grew three sizes bigger today. It almost made me want to cry. (My mom has been on my mind a lot, as she often is around the holidays and special days...I still miss her so! That probably had something to do with me feeling super sentimental today, too)

I thank you for stopping by and for all your encouraging words when I post. It means a great deal to me that you care to stop and share a thought or two along the way. May your Christmas be filled with magic.

Hugs and Merry Christmas!

A Few More Gifts...

Yesterday afternoon the girls and I went to my friend, Becky's, house so the girls could have a playdate with her kids, Aaron and Julia. Becky and I weren't sure that Aaron would be up for having some fun since their beloved dog, Bronco, had to go to doggie heaven. Bronco had been ill since August and it was time. I hope the girls helped distract him a bit from feeling sad about the loss of his friend. They have another dog, Tucker, who probably helps to ease the sadness just a bit.

Anyway, I had to create a couple of goodies for the kids and waited to share until after we saw them.

I have the book Amigurumi Two (as well as the first one, which pretty much started my love of Amigirumi) and in it were a pair of robots. A boy and a girl. Amy and Jessica thought that the boy suited Aaron and that he would love it.

Amy wants the girl one now...are you surprised? She is very much the same except she has two antennae (and is stitched with red and pink stripes). Anyway, the girls had fun playing with this little guy until we left for our playdate. hee, hee! They kept talking in a robotic voice while doing so. Too fun.

The girls pretty much pore over my patterns and tell me each critter they want me to make. Let's just say, I will never be without something that I could be creating. I might even need an extra room just to house all the ones they want. LOL

Miss Julia LOVES kitties. And I found the pattern for this little cutie on the cover of this book at the library. I modified the face slightly. I initially bought the eyes that look like real eyes, you know with color and the pupil. I placed (but didn't attach) them on the face and proceeded to freak out just a bit. You know those portraits that are hung up where it looks like the eyes are following you? Well, that's how this one looked to me as I was trying to figure out the placement. It gave me the heebie jeebies and I thought it might also give Miss Julia the heebie jeebies, too. So I used my trusty black safety eyes.

I also changed the color of the nose and mouth. In the book they are yellow. Yellow? Seriously? That was a little disconcerting, too, so I used a sweet pink that reminded me of Sarah's nose.

What really appealed to me was the fact that the kitty was created in such a way as to look like it was playing with the ball of yarn. So of course, I had to roll up a little ball. I wasn't quite sure how to secure it so it wouldn't unroll, so Miss Julia (or her mom) can roll it back up if they want (or toss it if it gets too annoying...lol)






These were fun to make!

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I just came across a post on Bakerella's blog that had my jaw hanging open and drool dripping down onto my keyboard. I don't know if you subscribe, but this is too incredible NOT to share. Check out Candyland. Wow!

Hope you have an awesome Christmas Eve!

Rice Krispies "Gingerbread" Houses...

I was in Michaels the other night, looking for something else entirely (but didn't find). On my way out I spied sign that said the gingerbread house kits were only $7.99, so I stopped and looked and all the kits were gone. Oh well. Then I looked a little lower and found kits to make Rice Krispies houses and the kit was only $4.99 AND it made TWO houses (& more)! Works for me! I haven't felt inspired to have the girls make gingerbread houses this year(and they haven't asked, either). Maybe because I got my gingerbread house "fix" in the crocheting of the gingerbread house.. LOL Knowing how much the girls like Rice Krispies treats, I thought, we'll give it whirl.

They were quite excited. It worked out pretty well. Only there was one tube of white icing for two girls. They, of course, started to bicker over how much time the other was taking to use the icing. So, I snagged my colored gel icing from the cupboard and that soothed their restless creative souls. LOL Thought you might like to see some pictures....

While waiting for the mixture to set, I had them draw out what they wanted their house to look like. To be honest, it was more of a mommy sanity saver as they were anxious to get started and they needed to wait before they could.

Jessica and Amy both wanted to use the blue icing, which looks awfully black to me, but whatever. So, instead of bickering over white, they bickered a little over the blue. Sigh...I tried!

You can see a bit of Amy's "plan" in this photo. Those candies came with the kit. If I'd have planned this a bit better (a-hem), there would have been more and varied candies to use.

Not the best photo in the world, but you can see them intent on their project. Don't you just love how "stripey" Jessica felt yesterday in her outfit selection?Love it when she does that! LOL Hey, they are both stripes, right? That's what she tells me.

Amy's masterpiece. There was enough mixture left over for them to make a few other items, like a tree and a Santa.

Jessica's masterpiece. I love her scallops. She really tried to make patterns, but ran out of the colors needed to finish it. The circle on the side is a snowflake. It's actually a pretty good one, but white on the krispies doesn't show up too well.








I wanted to let you know that my knee appears to be fine. I think I tweaked a muscle (ligament? Connecting tissue?) rather than cause any serious damage. Only, it's colder today than it has been and I can "feel" it in the knee. Lovely. Well, that's where Ibuprofen can help, right? Thanks for the concern that's been expressed. I really appreciate it.

I will try to come back and post either later today or tomorrow morning. I have a couple other things to share that are gifts and I want to be sure not to spoil any surprises. *Ü*

Have a great day!

A Couple More Presents...

I sure kept myself busy today. I haven't said anything, but Steve finally ordered his flat screen tv and it arrived yesterday. It's a 42 inch one and he's gotten it hooked up, but we still need to figure out all the bells and whistles.  Up to now we didn't have any curtains on the big window in the great room (where the tv is located). Steve is now nervous about people being able to look straight into the room and seeing his new baby. So, he asked me to look for some curtains. I was able to find some simple (inexpensive) ones at Walmart this morning, along with the rods needed. I decided to put them up and surprise him when he got home from work. I maybe should have waited for him though, because at one point I lost my balance and fell, twisting my knee pretty good. It's not swollen, but it sure hurts! I didn't let it deter me though, and I got the curtains up. It looks okay. I like a lot of natural light in a room, but these are fairly sheer so some is still allowed in. The color looks decent in the room. Whew.

Once that was done, I turned to a project I needed to get done in time for swim class today. We hang out with some good friends we've made over the past year or so. Jessica is in the same class as Annabelle and her little brother Ryan (who's 4) often plays with Amy while she waits for her class to start. Heidi has watched me create project after project as we sit together and chat away. I really, really wanted to make some projects  for this great family. So, this morning I got busy. I made Heidi a covered ornament like I showed in a previous post. For Ryan, I made this super cute elephant. The pattern is from the same booklet I used to create the lions the other day.

And for Annabelle, I made this

She should be able to wear it as a pony tail holder. The flower is 3 inches wide and I layered two buttons on top of each other for the center. The fabric is from Hobby Lobby.

I couldn't post this earlier in the day because Heidi reads my blog and I didn't want to spoil the surprise. *Ü* They all seemed very happy with their gifts. Yay!

And now I must close and get back to work on a few more projects...this is what I get for starting too late to do what I want to leisurely. LOL Ah well, it's part of the fun of the season, right?

Have a good one. Thanks so much for stopping by. Oh and I forgot to let you know that Jessica's ear quit hurting on Sunday and she's been fine ever since (knock on wood). Thank you to those of you who asked.

Til next time!

One Way To Go "Green" This Holiday Season!

 You may or may not know that I give my godson and his brother a gift card for whatever present giving occasion comes around. I usually try to dress up the packaging for the gift card. When I saw this on Holly's Hog Wild About Stamping, I knew I had to try it for myself!

What a fun way to give a gift! Oops, as I look at the photo of the "dressed up" wreath, it looks a little warped. I can fix that no problem, though. I included a plain one so you can see it. The wreath takes 15 dollar bills and I wanted to give them $20, so I searched online and found this site and I checked out the Money Star, which led me to this page that shows how to make a star using 5 bills. Perfect! I wanted to dress up the wreath a bit, but didn't want to do the rhinestones and I could only find some silver cording and ribbon. Not spectacular, but it'll do, right?

I timed myself making one of the wreaths and it took me 10 minutes to fold all the parts and put them together. Not too shabby. It also shows it's not a difficult fold. The star kind of looks complicated, but honestly, it wasn't hard either. You just need a smidge of patience when tucking the points together.

So, if you need a last minute gift, you may want to try this. Holly has a video showing how to do the fold and she's very thorough, well worth a look-see.

I got Louie the Lion done last night, so the teacher gifts are done. Making progress! Yay!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a super day.

Meet Lucy Lion

I have to share this! I'm giggling as I look at what I created today. The girls' school mascot is a lion, and I got the  bright idea to crochet a lion for their teachers as a holiday gift (in addition to the ornaments I made). Anyway, I used a pattern by Vanna White from a little booklet I picked up at Hobby Lobby (you can find it at Joann's and Michaels, too I think).

The first one is done and Amy named her Lucy. Jessica named hers (yet to be created...starting tonight) Louie.

Look at that little piggie like tail. Oh my goodness, this turned out way cuter than I thought it would. LOL I hope the teachers like them. *Ü*  Amy wants one now....