January Challenge

Posted are a few photo's of my paper storage, I LOVE Cropper Hoppers, they keep your paper clean, wrinkle free, ez to thumb through and save on storage space. That being said they are so great that you can end up storing so much paper that you forget how much you really have!!

So my January challenge to myself and you is to use up some of what we have, as an added challenge I am going to focus on our older photo's that are always waiting for a little love. The previous post using Felicity were pictures from years past for the most part. Our girls are age 26, 27, and 32, the pictures I used are from their baby photo storage albums, I plan on digging into those and making a dent in my overflowing paper stash over the month of January.

Check back later to pick up a few tips, motivation and a blast from the past, Heck I have some pictures form as far back as the 1800's I will share with you

Happy New Year!!

Sorry I have not blogged in so many days!! I thought I had updated the blog right up until Christmas Eve but looks like I forgot, oops. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and will celebrate the New Years in a way that you enjoy.

I will try and catch up on some post today between getting a head start on New Years dinner and finishing last touches of cleaning up after Christmas

First off our latest CTMH cattie goes live on January 1st!! I have to tell you the on line cattie does not show the products as well as the real cattie, if you would like a copy send me an e-mail and I will get one to you.

Second we are running a special for the month of January, you can check it out at my on line shop, I love when we run a special at the same time a new cattie is released, everyone ends up with a freebee when you order $60.00 in stamps and we have lots of great new stamps you are gonna want.

The layouts posted are using the January special Felicity kit, you are going to love the papers and stamp set included and for FREE is even better, the kit does not contain card stock so check your supplies when you place an order so you will have what you need to get busy creating

A little scrapbooking

Here is a Mini album I put together a few years back with all of our favorite snacks for the holiday's. i would have so many people ask me for recipes when we would host a party and of course I would forget to send them the recipe! So I whipped this up and keep it on display, if someone wants the recipe they can copy it right then or better yet use the scanner and make a copy before they leave. I can't show you the other Christmas related scrapbook gifts for two reasons, reason one is they are for our girls and reason two is I wrapped them before I took a picture. here is a hint go to Making Memories website and look under cook books, they have an EZ Peszy holiday cook book that is a must have.

I know it is crazy for me to send business away from my CTMH site but this is something we don't carry and also I like to think of myself as an equal spending scrapbooker.

More from Tuesday

I will try and make up for lost time while Tyler is taking a nap. Our Niece and her children were able to come over for a long weekend this past week, Ty loves to have cousins to play with! We all went for a sleigh ride Saturday night with a stop at Panara's for hot chocolate, then closed the night out with a trip to Barnes and Nobles, Wheeee. I am to old for all the activities with the little ones. For those of you from up north in NC our sleigh rides are in parking lots, the sled has wheels, now we could head up to the Mts and do a real sleigh ride but that would mean we would need to drive the 2 hours to get their, I can tell you that ain't happening until they get a little older!!

Lori Ann loved riding around yelling Merry Christmas to everyone, Daniel thought the horse was a tiger and kept yelling out giddy up tiger, and Tyler was all about the wheels. As you can see in this picture he was falling out of the sled trying to watch the wheels, no wonder I have high blood pressure

Oop's forgot to blog Monday

Sorry about that, I have Tyler all week, Daycare closed for 2 weeks but county school's are open until Wednesday so I have way more help than I need.

We couldn't get the Gingerbread houses done Sunday so Tyler and Bob worked on a few this morning, as you can see AJ decided to get in on the act. Tyler is so funny he calls them the Chickenbread houses, don't know what that is all about but it is funny as all get out! We keep telling him no they are Gingerbread houses, but he has a mind of his own, he is giving his houses to Mommy and Daddy and Meme and Pap Pap

When the girls were in school we would do one for all of their teachers, averaged over 30 each year, you talk about WORK, but they are really cute and make the house smell great, as the girls got older and wanted to buy gifts for every friend they had we started having a Gingerbread party and had the kids all bring a mystery Santa gift for under $10.00. All the kids got to go home with a small gift and a Gingerbread house to share with the family. This sure saved us a lot of money but again, what a mess and lots of work

Baking is done

Wow two posts in one day, that won't be happening very often. Thought I better post my baking photo's now before I run out of time before Christmas, only 5 more days until Christmas!!! Yepee, today I will work on getting all the other snacks made and in the freezer so I can kick back and enjoy some quiet nights watching Christmas movies with our favorite cookies and tea.

Tyler and I started our baking and candy making a few weeks back, I am so lucky to have extra room in the garage refrigerate to store cookies, our regular freezer and inside refrigerator are full to overflowing so this is a nice treat for me. I make lots and lots of our family favorites of cookies and candy then store them in the freezer so when one of us needs a quick desert tray to take to a party we are all set, of course all the girls need to do is give me a call so they can pick up their to go order, lucky girls!

Are to taking lots of pictures of the little things you and your family do for the holiday's? Get your camera out right now and take a few shots, you will be happy you did in a few years!

The stocking are hung

32 years ago my sister Sherry made our oldest daughter the most beautiful hand made stocking with tons of sequins and bead work, it is still just a lovely today as it was way back then. I thought what the heck I will make one for Bob and I and as each of our Daughters came along I would make one for them. As the girls are beginning families of their own I make a stocking for our new Son-In-Law and of course Grandbabies. Man they take forever to finish and it has become so hard to see all the little beads and sequins these days, but we are blessed that are family is continuing to grow so I won't fuss any more but I need to remember to get started on the new stocking for next year as soon as Kelli and Nathan find out what the baby will be.

Our Niece Kym and her children are up from Birmingham for a visit so we went out last night with the kids to burn off a little energy, they are all so excited over Christmas this year and bouncing off the walls!! They had so much fun on the sleigh ride, they were screaming at the top of their lungs Merry Christmas to everyone they saw.

Christmas picture

Had to wait until Heathers Christmas cards had arrived to everyone before I posted Tyler Christmas photo's. Bob and I took him for the sitting this year since Heather was sick, she sent 4 different outfit for us to change him into, you will notice he is wearing the same thing in all these pictures. I felt lucky to get him into any clothes at all let lone get him changed 3 more times, when we have Ty he wants to hang out in his PJ's all day, that is unless it is nice enough to play outside then he is very willing to cooperate!! My favorite photo is of him in the chair, the poor lady was working like crazy to get a good pose but Ty just wanted to hang out in the chair like Papaw, so funny, I finally told her just get the shot and lets move on. I hope I can get my Christmas picture in the next few days, can't seem to get everyone in one place at one time and all dressed, hair just right, the list goes on and on!!

Snow in North Carolina!!

We have been getting a mixture of snow, sleet, rain and freezing rain for most of the day. We are right in the middle of two different predictions, for the Charlotte area and east they think maybe an inch or two, just to the west of us maybe 5 miles they could see 4 to 6 inches and the mountains will get hammered, can't wait to see what we end up with Saturday afternoon when it clears out.

This is the earliest I remember getting snow since we moved here 14 years ago, but who am I to say, I can't remember what I did yesterday sometimes!!

I know this is not a big deal to you Northern ladies but snow in the south is a huge deal for us, we usually get maybe a little something in February or March, other than that we have to drive up to Boone, NC to get our snow fix

Last of the Christmas tree's

Last but not least here is our family room Christmas tree, in case you lost count that is a total of 9 trees! At least I hope I posted all of them, I will have to go back and check when I can catch my breath. This tree is our only live tree in the house but that's OK with me, less needles to clean up after the holiday's!!

We put all of our family favorites on this tree that we have accumulated over the years and also ornaments our girls made in school, our baby is 26 so that tells you how old some of them are, one of my all time favorites is the pinto bean gingerbread man shown here, is that a cute idea or what! and so fitting for a good old southern family, don't you just love that teachers take the time and money to put into our children so we can look back and reflect when they were just little ones. A huge thanks for all the teachers out there who give so much of themselves to our children.

The tree skirt posted here I bought our first Christmas 34 years ago, each Christmas I would work on finishing it thinking this is the year I will have the time, the nativity scene wraps around the entire skirt but I am to lazy to get under the tree and spread it but you get the jest of what it looks like. I think it took me 10 years or longer to get all the embroidery and bead work done but I still put it out even when it wasn't finished.

Keep following along I have plenty more Christmas cheer to take us right on up to Christmas day, I hope this is inspiring you to take photo's of the little things that make Christmas special for your own families, the tradition and memories you document now will be so precious to your family now and for generations to come

Not your traditional decoration

Bob is so excited that Bama is ranked number 1 that he pulled out his 8 ft tall Bama blow up to put in the yard as soon as Christmas is over, Tyler loves surprises so he decided we should have it ready for when Papaw comes home tonight, I wonder if I can win some sort of prize for having the most unique decoration? Looks like there is an elephant in the room literally

More Christmas

Bob bought me this little jewel a few years ago to put on our mantel, so cute and its great fun adding a new ornament each time we are blessed to have a new family member!! This year we added Nathan our new Son in Law and we already know we get to add one in 2010 for our newest Grandbaby, can't wait to see what we will get, Tyler needs a cousin.

Cute story this morning, Bob and I are getting to old to drag all the gifts down from the attic on Christmas Eve so this year we decided to hide them under the tables that we have our Christmas village on, of course we ran out of room so the spillover is in the Harley trailer. Tyler and AJ were running around the house being silly this morning when Tyler yells out "Nanny I found the North Pole", They were both under the table cloths having a heyday!! Had to think fast to distract him so I grabbed a few stamps and we worked on crafts as he calls it! This little guy keeps us on our toes and has us laughing all day. Grandbabies are the best!!!

House is dripping in Christmas cheer

Hard to see all the really cool houses and extras in the Christmas village but we have two 6 Ft tables end to end in the dinning room all decked out with village houses, we really need to stop buying them but they are Oh so cute!! Spent the day Christams shopping and worked really hard not ot lose my Christmas buzz!! Man grouchy people should just stay home for the holidays

Little Bitty Tree

Here is our Little Bitty bathroom tree full of miniature ornaments, poor little thing is a little lop sided but i can't replace it, Heather got it for me back when she was in High school with her own money, we have added so may ornaments over the years for special events or places we have visited. Bob enjoys this tree the most since it is located in his reading room, however Tyler seems to be following in his PaPaw's footsteps and hanging out longer than need be in the bathroom, must be a guy thing.

New for Christmas

Here is a soooo cute fun thing to pick up at Hallmark this year only $10.00!!! This cute little fella sits quietly in the refrigerator until you open the door, then he will sing you a song or nicely ask you to shut the door. Perfect gift for a hostess, dirty Santa gift or for everyone on your list that needs to smile more often

A tree just because

Oop's not a very good picture of the tree, it looks like it is leaning but really it is perfect, I need to learn to take better photo's!! I like to have a tree in any room I spend time in, this is the living room tree, nothing sentimental about this tree it is decorated in white and silver and just looks pretty, I put 2 of Tyler's favorite Dept. 56 sets under the tree so he can play with them and hopefully leave the Christmas village alone. He will set and watch the train and race cars and make up stories about the people, eventually he goes into Boy Mode and they start having big crashes and lots of wreaks, he is a true NASCAR fan!!

My Fat girl Mermaids

Here is a fun tree loaded with chunky mermaid and underwater girls, I finish off the tree with costume jewelry from salvation army and goodwill, this is a tree that just makes you want to grab another piece of cake and say to heck with it. I like to put a small piece of jewelry under it each year for our girls to open on Christmas morning

Star Trek Tree

Can you stand to see another tree? Bob is a huge Star Trek fan so when Hallmark came out with a series don't you know he had to have it, once the collection grew we started putting them on a tree of their own, he has his tree in the bathroom so he can play around with it while he is reading!!

Cold and rainy here today so Sunday dinner is what we call the soup kitchen, have Taco soup, Potato soup, and Vegetable beef soup on, we will split the leftovers with the kids so no one will have to cook for a few days, that free's us all up to finish up shopping, baking, and watching Christmas DVD's

Annual Lawn Mower Parade

Had a great time at the COLD Lawn Mower parade today, this is one of the hightlights of the holiday for Bob and the guys, we have it all, Lawn Mowers, convertables, bikes, Fire Department and Santa, Tyler loved it all

Can you stand another Christmas tree?

Here are our baby's first tree and Nativity Tree, we have each of our girls and Tyler first Christmas ornament on the smallest tree and on the larger tree next to it is a set of Nativity ornaments, this is a great tree for the little ones, they can take off all of the nativity ornaments and play their little hearts out since they are all made of cloth and felt they can't get hurt.

More Christmas cheer

This is Bob's Lionel and Harley tree, he has it loaded in Lionel Hallmark ornaments and Harley Davidson's, He started collecting the Harley's after he bought his own bike 6 years ago, I am sure it won't be many more years before they will need a tree of their own. Can you guess what our yearly trip to the Hallmark store is, it ain't pretty!

Almost done with Christmas shopping and wrapping, need to get boxes ready to mail over the weekend so I can hit the post office Monday morning before it gets crazy, I am trying my best to stay out of the crowds this year.

Saturday is our annual lawn mower parade so we will be up early to make sure Bob's mower is festive enough for the Lawn Mower Drill Team!!

Christmas Cards

Our Christmas cards have had enough time to arrive at their destination by now so I can post what we used this year. I had heard of flower soft over the summer but haven't seen it in any of our local stores nor had I seen it used. While we were on our Mt trip in November I ran into a display of flower soft at the Super Scrapbook store in Pigeon Forge, bingo!!! I picked some up and decided I need to use this oh so cool new product for Christmas cards. If you are interested in flower soft check out U tube, lots of demos on how to use it. I am looking forward to the winter when I will have a little time to play around with my CTMH stamps and flower soft. I had to send out 2 different cards this year because I ran out of toppers and still can't find what I need in our area. I am so proud of myself, I was able to get all 70 cards created and in the mail by the first week in December, a new record!!!

Supplies Used:

CTMH Colonial White card stock

CTMH Barn Red card stock

CTMH Prisma Glitter

CTMH Card Chatter Christmas stamp set

CTMH Welcome Home stamp set

CTMH Made with love stamp set

CTMH Barn red ink pad

EK Snowflake punch

Flower soft toppers

Vintage Christmas flower soft

Polar white flower soft