We had a wonderful Christmas this year! The girls were thrilled with their Santa gifts (American Girl Dolls), there were lots of yummy cookies and eggnog, and the Wii was a hit for all of us!
Christmas Eve (Lauren was being a pill and did not want to cooperate, but she had to pucker up to keep from smiling!)
Christmas Day and the new dolls with matching dresses!
Lots of snow...
I love decorating the house for Christmas! This year I have a new addition to my holiday decor. My Mom made me this fabulous wreath!
I love the dragonflies and the key that she added to the wreath!
It took me over a week to figure out how to package the gift card for Megan's teacher. I saw the idea over at Beneath My Heart, and knew I had to try it!
It all started with a can of Pineapple, which was opened from the bottom and cleaned. I added some Hershey's Kisses and a Gift card, some patterned paper, ribbon and a little bling...
And this:
Yeah... you can see the hot glue mess that I made on the bottom of the can...
I added glitter and flock to the PP with double sided sticky tape. The bottom tag says "Pull my tab".
One of our holiday traditions is making homemade hot cocoa. Of course the girls get to help (and yes they washed their hands first)
Saturday night we attended my company holiday party, and it was a blast! The hotel was gorgeous, the food was actually really good and the DJ rocked! Carla stayed the night with the girls, and we used hotel points so that we could stay at the hotel, which would have been more enjoyable had I not overindulged in wine. I should have stopped when the bar turned to a cash bar, but I had to have one more drink... oh well. It does not happen often!
Here are a few more cards that go in the set I posted about yesterday. Again.. most of the supplies are PTI.
The lines of glitter were made with sticky strip/ red line tape/ whatever you want to call it. I just put the tape on, removed the red stuff and poured glitter on top of it. I let it sit for a min and then burnished the glitter into the tape really well.
I have one more card and the box to take a picture of.. but I can not post the box until after the gift is received since it would totally give away who it is for!
Wednesday the girls had their Christmas Program for Kindercare. They both did great!
I finished a gift set for a friend this weekend and I love it! All of the materials are PTI except for the Nestabilities and the Martha Stewart glitter and punch. I am not sure where I got the bling...
I received this gift bag for my birthday, but before I could reuse it (in its original form) the bottom got torn. It was too pretty to throw away though!
So, I trimmed, matted and added to CS (PTI) and now I have this card!
I am not sure who will receive this card... it might just stay on my craft table for a little while so that I can enjoy it!
Did you know that tomorrow (November 19th) is the 34th Great American Smokeout? Less smoking leads to more birthdays. This press release from the ACS states:
For resources to help you or a loved one quit smoking, even for a day, check out the Great American Smokeout Challenge page today!
If you would like to donate to my team, just click on the badge at the
top of this post. If you would like to start a team for the Leavenworth
Kansas Relay for life, please email me for information. If you would like to find out about a Relay for Life event in your area, check out the main Relay for Life website.
Did you know that The American Cancer Society (ACS) is the official sponsor of birthdays? This is from the official More Birthdays page:
The movement for more birthdays is about everyday people comingIf you would like to donate to my team, just click on the badge at the
top of this post. If you would like to start a team for the Leavenworth
Kansas Relay for life, please email me for information. If you would like to find out about a Relay for Life event in your area, check out the main Relay for Life website.
I finally got a Cricut! I have wanted one for a while now, and when I saw the pink Journey Bundle from Michaels I knew that I had to get it! With a combination of birthday money/ gift cards and award money from work I went down to Michaels last week and bought it! I can not wait to play with it (tonight hopefully), but until then I wanted to share a great Cricut resource that I have found.
Have you heard of My Pink Stamper? Robyn, also known as the Pink Stamper, posts vidoes on her blog showing how to use the Cricut, tips and tricks, and walks you through her projects using the cricut. I have learned so much from watching her videos and I know that you will too!
Are you a cancer survivor or do you know someone who is? Survivors are the reason that we relay and we want to make sure that every survivor is included in the Relay For Life events in their community. Please encourage any survivors that you know to register with their local Relay For Life event. For Leavenworth County, please register here. If you would like to start a team, or join an existing team you will have the option to register as a survivor when you sign up, if you do not want to be on a team, please use the "Register as a Survivor" option.
If you would like to make a donation to the Relay For Life, just click on the badge at the
Directly behind where I sit in my craft room is this sterlite cart. In the bin on top is where all of my alphabets are kept in their original packages. Chipboard, rub ons, stickers etc. They are all in here. The top drawer is where my stamp supplies (blocks, baby wipes, cleaning pad etc) are stored. The middle drawer is where I keep some SU stamps and the bottom drawer hold my heat gun, glue gun, extra rubber etc. Originally I had this drawer under my workspace, and the bin with my alphas were on a shelf on the other side of the island, but I kept pulling the alpha bin over to the other side and decided that it just needed to stay there! I am thinking about getting a clip-it-up for my alphas.. but it will not work for all of the items in their original packaging (KI Soup, Paper Studio chipboard, Heidi Swapp Chipboard... just to name a few.)
Did you know that the ACS has a free summer camp for kids with cancer? And it is located right here in Kansas! Camp Hope takes place each June at Camp Aldrich near Claflin, Kansas. This year, 68 campers attended Camp Hope free of charge because of donations to the ACS. Camp Hope is a place where kids can be with other kids who truly understand what they are going through. There is round the clock medical staff along with all of the other activities typically found at a summer camp.
If you are interested in donating to the Relay for Life, just click on the badge at the
top of this post. If you would like to start a team for the Leavenworth
Kansas Relay for Life, please email me for information. If you would like to find out about a Relay for Life event in your area, check out the main Relay for Life website.
When I finish a layout it typically goes on display in my craft room. I hung two curtain rods parallel on the wall, and have page protectors hung (with the opening to the left) from curtain clips. This allows me to easily add and remove layouts for display. Though I have been trying to be better about putting layouts away in the appropriate albums after they rotate off of the wall, it does not always happen that way. My second location for finished layouts is in an iron wall pocket that sits above my desk/ counter-top.
Other items on my desk include my favorite fairy lamp, a basket of cards given to me, my "project" basket (the green one), and my ink/ paint storage. This space is where I set up my cuttlebug and sewing machine when I use them.
I have decided to dedicate Wednesdays to Relay For Life.. at least on
my blog! Every Wednesday I will post something about Relay. How funds
raised are used in the community, what resources the American Cancer
Society (ACS) has available for survivors and their caretakers, updates on our local Relay etc.
This week I would like to tell you a little bit about what the Relay For Life is. The Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society's primary fund-raising event. This is what the ACS has to say about the Relay For Life:
The American Cancer Society Relay For
Life is a life-changing event that gives everyone in communities across
the globe a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled
cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease.
At Relay, teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or
fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path.
Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times
during the event. Because cancer never sleeps, Relays are overnight
events up to 24 hours in length.
Relay began in 1985 when Dr. Gordy Klatt, a colorectal surgeon in
Tacoma, Washington, ran and walked around a track for 24 hours to raise
money for the American Cancer Society. Since then, Relay has grown from
a single man’s passion to fight cancer into the world’s largest
movement to end the disease. Each year, more than 3.5 million people in
5,000 communities in the United States, along with additional
communities in 19 other countries, gather to take part in this global
phenomenon and raise much-needed funds and awareness to save lives from
cancer. Thanks to Relay participants, we are creating a world with more
birthdays a world where cancer can’t claim another year of anyone’s
life.
If you would like to make a donation to the Relay For Life, just click on the badge at the
top of this post. If you would like to start a team for the Leavenworth
Kansas Relay For Life, please email me for information. If you would like to find out about a Relay For Life event in your area, check out the main Relay for Life website.
Lauren is my chocolate girl. Do not get me wrong, Megan likes chocolate also but not the way that Lauren does. Eric made cheesecake for my birthday, it called for dark chocolate ganache and he let the girls lick the bowl/ spatula. Megan did not like it at all, Lauren however...
This weekend my SIL gave me the best belated birthday gift ever... she kept both girls overnight! The girls had a blast, and Mommy had some much needed alone time. I even spent some of it in my craft room!
This layout is about traditions. Specifically BBQ traditions in the Frymire house. I am determined to use up my stash, so out came some REALLY old PP by K&Co. The chipboard letters are from Heidi Swapp and Paper Studio (Large T) and were spritzed with Red Velvet Glimmer Mist along with the red gingham PP. The chipboard absorbed the glimmer mist differently than the PP (of course) and did not look right. So I pulled out my PTI Pure Poppy ink pad and added a little more red... perfect! The chipboard "S" has the edges inked with Pure Poppy also. Under the title and focal image is a scrap of "denimish" (ok.. not a word but I can not think of a better one right now) fabric that i frayed the edges on. The focal picture and the "s" accent are up on dimensionals.
I think that I want to go back and distress the edges of the denim PP a little, but other than that I like it!
I really need to get back in my craft room.. but I saw this today and wanted to share it! Such a cute idea!
October is the start of a new Relay year for Committee Members and Team Captains. Time to come up with fresh ideas to make this years relay the best yet. As a committee member for the Leavenworth County Relay for Life, I am ready to get started! I am so proud to be a part of such an amazing event. An event that not only raises money for ACS services in our community such as the Hope Lodge, Look good... Feel Better, free wigs, 24 hours phone support and Patient Navigators, but is also a way to show our support for survivors and caregivers in our community. If you would like to donate to my team, just click on the badge at the top of this post. If you would like to start a team for the Leavenworth Kansas Relay for life, please email me for information. If you would like to find out about a Relay for Life event in your area, check out the main Relay for Life website.
This weekend I actually used my sewing machine... on fabric! It is mostly used for cards or scrapbook pages, and has only touched fabric a couple of times since I have owned it. With the cruise coming up in 10 days (yeah!!!) I had to get working on the fish extender.
A fish extender is a hanging pocket thingy used to contain little gifts that other cruisers in our cruise group (DIS Boards) will be leaving for us throughout the cruise. I could have bought one, but wanted the girls to be involved so I let them pick out the fabric. I still need to cut the dowel down and add ribbon and some trim, but the sewing is all done!
