A Tradition of Ornaments

My family has a tradition of getting a new Christmas ornament every year. When my brothers and I were growing up Mom would buy us a new one every year. When I moved out on my own I had a small box of ornaments to take with me to my new home. Mom has continued to buy us, and now our spouses, a new ornament every year. Tim and I also started a tradition when we travel to new places, or places we love, of buying an ornament as our souvenir.

During the last Virtual Scrapbooking Night on splitcoaststampers, one of the challenges was to make a mini scrapbook using chipboard coasters as the cover. When I first looked at the challenge, I thought there was no way I could do that project in two hours. But it is a very quick little project. I didn't go overboard with the embellishments which helped keep it a quick project. On one side of the book I put photos of some of the ornaments my mom has given Tim and I since we've been married. The other side of the book is ornaments we've bought as souvenirs. I have more photos, so I will need to expand my book a little.

I used two pieces of pattern paper from Flair Designs along with Garden Green, Mellow Moss and Real Red cardstock from SU! The stamped labels are from the Label Classics stamp set, and the title is done with the Rough Edges alphabet. The stamped ornaments are from a set of stamps by EK Success my friend had just picked up for me at Big Lots. I used a little ribbon and a chipboard letter T on the cover. I used my circle punches to make a place to write the name of where the ornaments came from. Unfortunately, I don't have dates for most of them - I'll have to start keeping that information.

I love how my little book turned out, and now I can look at my pretty Christmas ornaments all year long.

Chicken Stew

I'm home for lunch. I had to come home and let Fred out. It was raining when I left this morning and he decided to stay in. My lunch was some leftover Chicken Stew from last night. It was very good, so I wanted to share the recipe. I made this up, so please pardon the lack of a "real" recipe.

Chicken Stew

saute chopped onion, garlic and carrot
add: about 2 cups of chopped cooked chicken
one can of corn
one can of black beans, very well rinsed
one can cream of chicken soup and one can cream of celery soup
one can of chicken broth
diced cooked potato
diced green chilies to taste
simmer until hot

The temperature has dropped since our rain this morning. This was so warm and yummy for lunch on this chilly day. I hope y'all like it.

This and That

Just wanted to share a couple of pictures with you. I didn't get any scrapping done this week. I'm trying to move all my stuff out of the dinning room and into the spare bedroom. We might actually paint our living room and dinning room. And maybe even repaint the kitchen. Tim put some test colors and the wall, and I think we like them. Green for the living room, red for the dinning room and yellow for the kitchen. Whoever painted the walls last used and exterior oil paint - or something really funky - and it all needs to be sanded before new paint will stick. It's going to be a huge mess - which is why it's taken us four years.

This weekend, Tim sadly had to cut up the new bike frame he got for his birthday. It's a steel frame and it developed a crack in the bottom bracket. The company is sending him a replacement, but first he had to destroy his and send them photo proof. It was a very sad day at our house. The new frame probably won't get here in time for him to rebuild before our trip. So we are going to SD bikeless for once. My brother Jim has a bike at my parents, so if Tim gets desperate, and the weather is good enough, he can ride.

We now, officially, have a new kitty. Yes, this makes FOUR. We took Fred to the vet on Friday to be neutered and have a rabies shot. He pouted a little when I brought him home. But we've let him out several times over the weekend and he keeps coming back. He is a darling little boy. The vet's office considers him cream colored - I was calling him orange.

And that's all the excitement around here.

A Little Nut

One of the challenges during VSBN last weekend was to use the phrase "Families are like fudge, mostly sweet with a few nuts" as a starting point for a scrapbook page. My little nephew, Matt, is a little ham. He makes the greatest faces when his picture is taken. So I had to scrap a page with his adorable scrunched up face. It's a very simple page - no embellishments to take away from the cute photos.

Holiday Lights

Here is my VSBN challenge and sample page as promised.

Holiday Lights The holidays are full of lights and glitter. Candles burn, Christmas tree lights twinkle and tinsel sparkles. Your challenge is to make your page sparkle. Use glitter, rhinestones or other sparkly stuff. I don't usually use a lot of sparkle on my pages, so I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.

If you're a scrapbooker, please join us on splitcoaststampers.com and join in the scrapbooking fun.

VSBN Weekend

It's Virtual Scrapbook Night all weekend on splitcoaststampers.com. There will be scrapbooking challenges posted every 2 hours this afternoon. I am hostess for the 6pm EST challenge. My challenge is using a product I don't normally use, so I'm excited to see what other people come up with. I'll post my sample page later this evening.

Tim is off at a 12-hour race today. They start racing in about 10 minutes at 9 am and they'll quit at 9 pm. I talked to him a bit ago and he's cold. He'll warm up one they get going, so I'm not to worried about him. The high today should be 68, so he'll be all right. He's set up his tent next to some friends, so he'll have a good day.

Isn't life great? I get to spend all day with my online scrapbooking friends (and maybe one in person too) and Tim gets to spend all day with his bike friends.