Secret Sister gifts

Good morning! Yesterday I told you I was going to try to get my fall decorations put away and my Christmas ones out. Well, guess what! I actually did it! I am so excited. Now I just have to put the tree up and decorate it (I couldn't do it all in one day!!) To top it all off, my mailman came right to my door and delivered the mail to me today. Why, you ask? Well because there was a package for me! My Secret Sister sent some goodies my way. She must know me well because she's been sending me altered items. I love them!Just look at the cute little altered tin she sent me...and look at all the tags that were inside!She also must have been reading my mind because she sent a wonderfully scented vanilla shortbread candle. In her note, she said to light it while I decorate for Christmas. It could not have come at a better time-even if she had tried. I love when everything works out like that!

I was also busy creating downstairs last night. I will have to get some pictures taken of the picture frames I made so I can show you. Until then...

Happy Scrappin'

December club layout

I am pretty proud of myself this month. Club does not meet until Sunday and I already have the layout done and prepped for everyone. I even have pictures on mine! Am I ahead of the game, or what?I even stepped outside my box this month and tried something that I learned from Corporate (at Leadership and then again watching the Art & Soul episodes on my website). I mixed patterned papers from 2 entirely different kits. This is pretty easy to do when the company makes things simple for us with their 60 coordinating colors. I just chose a patterned paper that I liked and then went to my paper packs to see what had a coordinating color. I actually used the back side of the other B&T to get the twilight color I was looking for. The front side was just a bit too busy for me, but by flipping it over, it was perfect.I also found some perfect pictures for the page. I added my title, but will let the club girls decide what they want on theirs.

Now today, my hope is that I can get my fall decorations put away and get the Christmas ones put up. This is not something I look forward to doing, but once it's done, I love it!

Happy Scrappin'

My first Studio J layouts

Ok, ok...hopefully this will work. Here is the very first layout I made in Studio J. Halloween pictures already scrapbooked. You can't beat that! This one uses the Enchanted paper pack.Then a day later, CTMH Corp. told us that a new Halloween paper pack was available for us to use. Look at how easy it was for me to use the same exact layout only using the Boo paper pack. I love it!I will be showing you more of this Studio scrapbooking as I can. Just wait until you, too, are able to get your hands on it (Spring of 2010). Trust me, you will also love it! You can even scrapbook your photos while you are still on vacation! How cool is that?!?

Happy Scrappin'

I hope that everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving with their family and friends. I know we did. We were all stuffed.Today I went up to the cemetery to put up a little tree for the kids. I actually found some solar lights at Target while I was shopping so I picked them up. I found just a cute little tree and some green and gold ornaments to put on it (gotta be just a little John Deere :) You know, I even thought about what I was wearing when I went up there today. It is deer hunting season after all. I put on my red jacket and away I went. Boy am I glad I did, 3 truckloads of hunters drove through the field right next to the cemetery while I was up there.

Thank you to whoever put the wreaths up. They are beautiful. Tony's is John Deere and Rhonda's even has horses on it. How thoughtful!

Hopefully in the next couple of days I will be able to share some Studio J layouts with you. I have been telling you about this for a while now. Last Monday I was finally able to get my hot little hands on it. I have been creating like crazy. I am LOVING this studio scrapbooking. I will never give up on the classic scrapbooking, I love that too much, but this online version is so quick and easy, I can see myself doing more of this, too. Once I place my order and have the hard copies in my hands, I can take photos to show you, but until then I just need a little more computer knowledge to be able to capture the screen shot to show it to you.

Happy Scrappin'

Happy Thanksgiving

When you dread straightening the home today for company, be grateful for having a place to host guests.

When you clean the dirty dishes from the Thanksgiving spread, give thanks for the food that contributed to that mess.

When you're stressed by the traffic en route to visit loved ones, be grateful for having the means to travel.

When you encounter the long lines shopping Black Friday tomorrow, appreciate the consumer choices you have in this country.

We are truly blessed to have so many wonderful family and friends surrounding us. We will be sharing that love around our table this Thanksgiving Day. I want to wish each and every one of you a blessed Thanksgiving.

Happy Scrappin'

Girl's Day Out

What a fabulous girl's day out I had with my Mom, Sister, and nieces. Ever since I was a little girl and Dad would leave this week to go up north deer hunting, Mom would take my sister and I Christmas shopping one day over the Thanksgiving week vacation. Well, we have continued that tradition ever since. I don't think we have ever missed a year. I absolutely love spending the day with my family. Each year we get a ton of Christmas shopping done-we are doing our part to stimulate the economy! This year, we also had a fun little girl's day fun at the nail salon. We all got a manicure. How fun was that??Thanks for a fun day, girls! Sam, we missed having you along, but know that you are enjoying your time in the woods hunting with Dad!

Happy Scrappin'

November Club layouts

Oh my gosh, I had so much fun last weekend. First of all, I did an expo in New Richmond. I made a lot of new friends and re-connected with some old. It was a great day!

Then on Sunday, my Club girls were here. This is the layout I had prepared for them to make.A big thank you to my friend Rachel. I pretty much copied a layout that she made for this, I added a few items that I took away from Lynn's pages, then I added the new Close To My Heart flip flaps to put more photos on the page. See how that works?? I intend to copy something exactly and end up putting my own spin on it anyway :) I love the sparkle the glitter adds, but I admit, some of my club girls didn't like it so much! Sorry girls, at least the mess is at my house and not yours-LOL!Happy Scrappin'

*Just a little note here...I really had intended to get this posted sooner, but blogger was not cooperating with me and my photos...really, it's the truth!