It's still Dec 29th

... and I finished a layout.
This one is for the New Years crop at Scrapcentral.ca
The challenge was to reflect on something from the past year.

The journaling reads: "A year ago we partied in the New Years at Mary's. Then she moved. I wondered if we'd make the effort to keep in touch, stay friends. We have. I'm so glad"
The papers and felt frame are part of my prize package from Inspired Blueprints. The product is from BlueyeDezines, an Australian scrapbooking manufacturer. They have loads of fun felt products!

Still no layouts

So I thought I'd tell you about Breanna's Christmas present to her brothers. She put a lot of time, thought and effort into this gift. I'm not sure it was truely appreciated.
The 'anger management' doll has already seen some abuse. She hand sewed it out of white polar fleece using her own pattern.
The booklet includes such topics as '10 ways to make your parents proud' and 'Top 5 ways to make your siblings happy'. The cutest page was 'How to get on Santa's good boy list...'

Sorry, Mum, I didn't get any scrapbooking done, but I did take a few pictures today. Some of us at Scrapcentral.ca are going to work on taking photos EVERY day for 2009 so I thought I'd get some practice in taking pictures of the everyday stuff.

Breanna loves to bake so I got her a cookie press for Christmas. We tried it out yesterday with no success. I'm not sure if the recipe was faulty or if Breanna measured ingredients wrong, but the dough was way too dry and wouldn't hold together even after I tried to resurrect it with an extra helping of melted butter.
Then today we tried one of the recipes from the booklet that came with the cookie press. It still wouldn't work so I phoned the lady that sold me the thing and asked for some advice. Apparently the dough is supposed to be really sticky so again we added more melted butter and it worked. Here's Breanna finally getting some shapes out of the press.

Rick bought the kids a hockey table for Christmas.

It's been a big hit, though we have some sore losers in this family. Is it any wonder when we have winners like this...

Christmas packaging.

Scrapbooks has some fun ideas for decorating Christmas presents. I printed out this pattern for a mini box and Breanna and I made a few up. They are perfect for little gifts and they can also double as tree ornaments. The one's pictured here are for teacher gifts. We'll make some more out of Christmas paper for our tree.

More Christmas stuff...

I popped into the store yesterday (Unforgettable Memories) to drop off a couple more layouts using the new Reminisce Christmas line and Lynette commented on my circle layout. She figured she would never be able to do a layout with so much whitespace, BUT she said, everyone was commenting on it, and liking it. In fact, one woman bought all the product needed to make one of her own. I love that someone likes my layout enough to want to have one like it in their own album.

Also yesterday I dropped by the Post Office to drop off a couple parcels and pick up one. It was't a Xmas parcel like I was expecting. Instead it was a package from Inspired Blueprints. They are a new scrapbooking sketch site and I won their very first ever monthly prize last month. The package came all the way from Australia and had some really great product in it. Lots of felt trim and frames, gorgeous papers and 4 rubon sheets. I can't wait to dig in to it all and build a couple layouts.


Today I got a couple more parcels out (have the cousins taken care of) and Breanna, Duncan and I decorated the stairway. On one side I have all my 'manly' ornaments hanging in the garland. These are all fishing and/or outdoorsy themed... Hmmmm. I can see a gingerbread ornament one of the kids added while I wasn't looking.
On the other side I have my '12 days of Christmas' disney balls, though we're missing a couple that have broken over the last few years. Eventually I will have enough fishing ornaments to do all the stairs in one theme.

Christmas Elf

This little elf (and 5 of his friends) decorated our tree growing up. Mum passed them on to me a couple years ago because I mentioned how much I loved them.

I found this great tutorial on making Origami stars. Breanna and I used Xmas patterned paper and made quite a few of them this evening. They are quick and easy and look so pretty as ornaments. The one pictured here is made with five 4 1/2" squares.


After cutting my 4 1/2" squares I had 3" strips of my patterned paper left so we made some smaller stars from the 3" squares. I think we may use a few of them in the different sizes to create a wreath.

It's Saturday and I'm working full time at the moment so today is my day to sleep in. When I got up I found my children keeping themselves busy. Rick had already left to spend a few hours baiting Fisher traps in remote spots. They went in by helicopter today. He loves being outdoors, hiking hills and spotting wildlife. Today was a balmy -5*

Duncan had his eyes glued to the computer screen playing on World of Warcraft.

Daniel was also on a computer. The baby one Rick bought home for me a couple weeks ago.

Breanna was busy working on her crocheting. She wanted to learn to crochet a few nights ago so I started her off with silver thread and seed beads. Aunty Louise had showed us how to make pretty jewellery a couple summers ago and Breanna got right to work. Two of the bracelets she crocheted went to kindergarteners as rewards for good behaviour during her lunch hour duty. Now she is busy crocheting a scarf for her teacher.

Breanna's fish spends most of his time lying motionless at the bottom of his tank/nightlight, but as soon as I sit down beside him with my morning latte he perks up.

We've started decorating for Christmas... I'm working on a layout of my elf.

We've started baking too...
I've done a half dozen trays of almond roca already.
Breanna and I have tried three different Ginger Snap recipes so far. The Epicure Spice recipe was 'okay'. The recipe on the blackstrap molasses carton was horrible. The 3rd recipe Breanna found through a Google search was the best. We also baked some Cranberry orange chocolate biscotte from Epicure.

When he got home Duncan insisted on being measured. He's pretty sure he's growing and he may be right; only an inch to go and he'll be the same height as me. Poor Daniel isn't growing nearly as fast as he'd like, but he was a little taller then last time he was measured.

After dinner Duncan and Rick played backgammon. Rick plays for foot rubs; Duncan plays for more computer time. Duncan won 3 out of 4 games this time round.