For the New Year

Last week when I was at Target I picked up a couple of journals that I've covered. Both of them have a hot pink binding so I picked pattern papers to go with the binding. The large one will be my journal for the year. I think it still needs some embellishments - just don't know what yet. The smaller one will be for the books I've read. It should hold 2 years worth of books. I like to keep the title, author, copyright date, and date I've read the book along with a few notes on what the book was about. I also keep some lists of books to read, books to buy as gifts, books that have won awards, and books my book clubs are reading.

Cards

I got most of my Christmas cards sent out on Monday. I had the day off so I headed to the PO on their busiest day of the year. The line wasn't too long and the clerk was cheerful. I had to put extra postage on some of them, so I hope they all got to everyone all right. I have a few stragglers left to send out but I'm out of stamps at the moment.

I made two designs this year since I didn't have enough of the wild wasabi green paper to do them all in green. I used a new SU stamp set, Season of Joy, for both designs. The white card is made with some great linen texture paper that Tim brought home. I love making our cards every year so I hope everyone enjoys receiving them.

I also made a few gift tags to put on the few presents I have to wrap. I just used some scraps of card stock and the Season of Joy set and Ornassortment set from last years cards.

A New Holiday Tradition

Last year I found a easy microwave recipe for peanut brittle and have added making peanut brittle as my newest holiday tradition. I will confess that I tried making a batch on Sunday after I made the peanut clusters, but I burned it. Burnt sugar can sure stink up a house. I was off on Monday and did the last of my Christmas shopping and candy making. The bad part about having this yummy stuff in the house is that Tim just doesn't eat it and it's too cold and dark out to do much walking.

Peanut Brittle

1-1/2 cups of peanuts

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup white corn syrup

1/8 tsp. salt

1 tsp. butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

In a large microwave proof dish, stir peanuts, sugar, corn syrup and salt. Cook 8 minutes on high. Stir well after 4 minutes. (Be sure to keep an eye on it.)

Stir in butter and vanilla. Microwave on high 2 more minutes.

Add baking soda and quickly stir until light and foamy.

Immediately pour onto a lightly greased sheet and spread out thinly. When cool, break into small pieces.

Now it's Christmas

I made peanut clusters today. It's a traditional family holiday treat at the Holles house. Mom usually sends me some, but this year she is taking it easy. I called her this morning to see if she had Grandma Holles' "official" recipe. We decided it's 2 parts chocolate chips to 1 part butterscotch chips. I have all of Grandma's recipes in a box, and I'll have to dig out the recipe and see if we got it right.

I used 1 package semisweet chips and half a package of butterscotch chips, which I melted in the microwave. Then I added most of a jar of dry roasted peanuts - Tim managed to eat some of the peanuts. I think Grandma used Spanish peanuts in hers, but I don't like them. I made one large sheet of clusters. I even have Grandma's large old jelly roll pans. Lots of good memories with peanut clusters.

And now it feels like Christmas. And yes, there will be a scrapbook page to come.

What's the temperture you ask?

Well, it was 80 degrees out yesterday. Last night we slept with the bedroom window open - which wasn't great for my sinuses. It doesn't seem right to have the Albemarle Christmas parade when it's 80 degrees, but they did. I didn't go to the parade, I went over to my friend Judi's house instead. I wasn't very inspired to stamp so I worked on this pine cone Christmas ornament. It's a fussy little project, and I probably won't make any more. The base is a 3 inch Styrofoam ball. Pieces of pattern paper are cut 1 inch by 2 inches and folded into triangles and then attached with straight pins (a thimble is a must). I'm happy with how it turned out. And now there is an ornament hanging on our tree.

Happy Anniversary

Today Tim and I are celebrating our 14th anniversary. I have to say, they've been 14 great years, and I wouldn't have wanted to do them without him. Tim isn't a big sweets eater, but he does love cheesecake so this morning I made one. I got the recipe from the Keebler Ready Crust label.

Fluffy Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie

2 pkg. (8oz ea.) cream cheese, softened

2/3 c. sugar

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

2 eggs

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin

1 extra serving size graham cracker pie crust

Beat ingredients together until smooth. Pour into crust. bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Cool for one hour on wire rack. Refrigerate at least 3 hours.

I also made the card for him this morning. I think I need some more masculine stamp sets. I used the Big Pieces and Little Pieces stamps sets and the Rough Edges Alphabet to stamp the greeting. The paper colors are True Thyme, Close to Cocoa, Marigold Morning and Very Vanilla, and the ink colors are Basic Brown and True Thyme. It's a very simple card accented with a silver metal tag and brad and some True Thyme ribbon.

Happy Anniversary Honey!

'Tis the Season

It's early Sunday morning and I'm up, laying on the couch looking at the Christmas tree. I guess I've caught up on my sleep from our trip to South Dakota for Thanksgiving week. I put the tree up yesterday afternoon while Tim was outside painting one of his bikes. Tree stands must require a Y chromosome for assembly because I just couldn't get the thing together without Tim coming in to give assistance. This year we just put light on, no ornaments, and it is sitting in the corner by the fireplace and front window so people can see the lights from the street. We had to run to Lowes to get a new string of lights. I found a tree skirt on sale while I was there. It is made of felt, so it coordinates with the stocking my Mom made us - only it's not as nice as the stockings. Riley and Tarzan enjoy playing under the tree. I still need to decorate the mantle, but the stockings are hung. We also need to put the lighted garland on the front porch, but I do have the wreath hanging outside.

I've been busy making my Christmas cards. I had to make two styles this year because I didn't have enough green paper to make enough cards of one style. I'm almost done, I have some cutting to do and stamping the envelopes. Then I have a few gifts that I would like to make.

I hope everyone else is having a good holiday season.

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.

Happy Halloween

I just had to show you the Halloween cards I made for the kids this year. I made these Saturday night and the crop I went to. It was the perfect project to work on at the end of the day. The sketch came from a SCS challenge, and was the perfect place the start. The pattern paper is SU! from last year, and I love it. The stamps are Making Memories foam, also from last year. I cut out the large image and popped it up with pop dots. I just love how they turned out.

We aren't doing trick-or-treating this year. We never get many kids, and those that do show up are too big and don't wear costumes. And I just didn't need to end up with a big bowl of my favorite candy left over.

Morning Traditions

A couple of weekends ago was the Virtual Scrapbooking Night (VSBN) preview - four scrapping challenges were posted on SCS. The Day Out With Thomas layout I posted last week was for one of the challenges. Another of the challenges was to scrap a holiday morning tradition. Tim and I don't have a regular holiday morning tradition, but we do have a nice Sunday morning tradition - Tim makes us breakfast. The challenge was posted on Saturday, so Sunday morning I took pictures of Tim making us a very nice breakfast - bacon, gravy, eggs and biscuits. And this past Saturday I finished up the page. One of the criteria for the challenge was for it to be cozy and use texture - I hope lots of ribbon counts.

This coming weekend is the big, two-day VSBN. I'm sure I'll get lots more pages scrapped.

It's Fall!

And I can prove it. Well, if you look at the scrapbook pages I did this weekend, you'll know for sure that it's Fall. I did one page of my niece Hannah in the pumpkin patch. I'll show you that page once I do the page for my nephew, Matthew. I did a Fall page for me - a couple of weeks ago I spent a Saturday sitting on the porch enjoying to cool weather. I took a picture of my laptop, cup of Chai, and scrapbooking magazines. I used some Basic Grey pattern papers that I love, and some of the new Prima flowers my friend Judi and I bought, and some great new wide grosgrain ribbon from SU!, I put some little pearl centers in the flowers. It's a page about me using scrapbook supplies I love.

I also did a Fall page for my nieces, Sarah and Sydney. Their mom took them outside for a photo shoot and sent me a copy of the pictures. I love the Basic Grey papers and SU! ribbon that I used on their pages - not typical fall colors, but so pretty with their sweaters. The title is stamped - I used markers to color a flower stamp from Big Pieces. I then cut each flower out and stamped one letter on each flower. It's a good thing I like cutting out, because I had to cut out 8 flowers (4 for each page). And the flower stamp is an almost perfect match for the flower in the paper.

All Aboard

After my walk this morning I finished up a scrapbook page. Splitcoast Stampers had another mini Virtual Scrapbooking Weekend this Saturday. One of the challenges was to make a page without any embellishments - only paper, stamps and ink. I made a page for Sarah or Sydney's book (I'll make another page, so they'll each have one). They've been to visit Thomas the Train several times. Someone even saved one of their admission tickets for me, so I used that for the journaling on the page. I think the picture of the girls is not from the year of the admission ticket - Kirsten can let me know. It's a simple but bright page. I used the stamp set Circus Train for the square embellishment at the top of the page. The colors I used are Summer Sun, Real Red, Brilliant Blue and Basic Black. I cut "All Aboard" out of a piece of pattern paper and made a tag for the title.

Lake Norman State Park

Tim and I just got home from a great day out. The morning started with Tim making bacon, gravy, eggs and biscuits for breakfast. Then we drove up to Lake Norman State Park, a riding spot we hadn't been to before. Tim met up with a group of Dirt Divas (local women's mountain bike group) and others. They rode the trails for a couple of hours while I wandered around on some of the trails. I took my camera and got some shots. After the ride, a bunch of us went out for dinner and beer. The weather was great today - warm but not hot. LNSP is a hour and a half drive for us, so we go up there often.

I've got some photos of the day to share with you, but Blogger is having problems again. I'll try to upload later this week.

Hanging Out on the Deck

We started a bad thing this weekend - we let Riley and Tarzan out on the back deck. They are both very interested in the new kitty, Fred. They've all met each other in the doorway when we are going in and out, and they watch each other through the bedroom windows. They all seem to get along just fine. So we let Riley and Tarzan out. They are both really good about staying on the deck and not wandering off or fighting with Fred - because they've discovered the grass growing up between the deck boards. Now every time we open the back door they try to rush out so they can nibble grass. Riley sits at the back door and cries to go out. I think what I need to do is grow a pot of grass for them to eat in the house.

The top pictures are Riley and Tarzan wandering out of the house and saying HI to Fred. The bottom picture is Riley eating the grass (oaky, I'm sure it's a weed) coming up through the deck boards.

Burn

Friday night my friend Judi and I went cropping. It had been awhile since we'd gotten together to scrap, so it felt great. I got 2 pages done and another one started. I had to leave early since I had to work on Saturday. I can't show you the page I made of Hannah playing in the snow because it's my sample page for the upcoming Virtual Scrapbooking weekend on SCS. But I love this page that I did of one of the races that Tim did this year. This is from the The Burn 24 Hour Race that was held at Dark Mountain at North Wilksboro, NC. This was the first time Tim has done a 24-hour race. He likes to do 12-hour races by himself, but for this big one, he was on a five man team. They were set to come in 9th place, but knew that there was a special prize for 10th place, so they worked very hard to come in 10th. They won a case of Burn energy drink and a tube of butt cream each (yes, that's what it's called - it's to prevent chaffing). For the page, I used Wild Wasabi as the base and accented with Softy Sky and Pumpkin Pie and a little black. There is a touch of pattern paper on the chipboard"(". The only stamping is the title and the bike tracks across the page. The journaling is hidden behind the blue paper and pulls out with the orange tab.