Ready. Set. SHOOT!

Given my lackluster performance behind the lense during the Thanksgiving holiday I hesitate to even bring this up...tho' I DO have some wonderful stories to share; for example:

On a train trip into the city my brother-in-law turned to my son and asked "Are you okay with a 50 minute train ride?" Without pause Sam turned to him and said "The ride's okay but I don't know about spending 50 minutes with you."

PRICELESS!

Anywho....amongst all of my other "I'm going to do better this year!" wishes for the season I really want to do a better job with our photo journey. Yes, get the candid shots...but, it's OK to ask for people to pose. There are some great ideas over at DPS (the Digital Photography School) here. I want to take pictures of the food, the decorating, the presents...but i want to take pictures of the process more this year. The hows and whys and wheres...why DO I collect santa's for the mantal?

What's your plan? I'd love to hear about it.

Warm wishes for the week to you and yours,
:) h

ACK!! I forgot!!

I forgot to take a picture of the bird!! I ALWAYS take a picture of the bird...well, not always obviously. How can I tend to all the kitchen responsibilites and still remember to take pictures? Argh!! Let's jot down some memory tickles....

• Uncle Ed and the Gerritsens over...kids playing Wii inside and tag outside (in 30F weather). Guys watching football. Women folk cooking and talkin' kids and scrapbooking in the kitchen; Sam starting grace at dinner; Abby gobbling her first crescent roll. 
• As for food: Day before prep: pumpkin cheesecake, cranberry salad, potatoes with mascarpone and roast garlic; Day of: Turkey, stuffing, green beans, apple/spinach/bluechz/toasted pecan salad, rolls, dips, the best gravy ever (recipe follows)!
• Day after: leftovers. ;)
• By the third day all of the rich food is kicking my butt to the treadmill...but I took a nap instead. 2 HOURS. 

I'm SO thankful for my husband and my kids and our family and friends... I'm even thankful for life's craziness.  Thank you Father.

UFO Sighting!!

Nope. Sorry...not referring to extraterrestrials. :) Quilters will recognize 'UFO' as 'unfinished fabric object'. I shamelessly adapted the acronym as a title for my monthly scrap classes: Unfinished Foto Object. :) Come on! It works! Every month, 8-10 of us get together and scrap a summary layout of the previous month's activities. As a result, we'll have a year in review album no matter how much other scrappin' we're able to accomplish thereby satisfying the Mom Rule of Relaxation: sure, it can be fun, but it has to be productive! :)

Below you'll find the November class example (October pics of course). All the products are CTMH with spiders and "crew" cut on the Cricut. Inspiration for the left-hand page comes from the uber talented Becky Fleck (Page Maps, Vol. 1). Enjoy! :) -hp

Pictures galore!!

So you don't think I've just been sitting on my tush for the last month :) thought I'd post some pics of recent projects.

This is a banner (shown 'rolled' up) I made for my daughter's first birthday. I got the overall banner measurements for yet another self-paced class at Big Picture! :)

This is a card I made for a challenge during the Crop Chocolate first "official" online crop!! I used the new Echo Park Wintertime paper pack...the mittens and "Let it Snow" tag are from that pack! The "Snow friends" stamp, cardstock and white hemp are CTMH.

This is one of my favorites!!! It's my holiday organization box. Includes tabs and cards for Halloween on thru the new year. This project was part of a "Saving Your Sanity" class with Jen Mohler over at Big Picture. She had hers in a file box...I like the basket, don't you think? It was so fun to make....now I need to USE IT!!!

NOTE!!! Big Picture is celebrating 5 years this week!!! So far we've had 50% off two classes with more goodies to come!! Check it out!

I'll post more in a bit!

cheers!
:) hp

Shhhh! Do you hear that?!

I feel like I'm standing on the precipice: the beginning of the holiday season. You wait and wait and wait as the roller coaster car slowly makes it's agonizing crawl to the highest peak. Then you hover there..enjoying the scenery and hoping you can capture at least one moment of bliss before you're hurtled through space to the new year. Hear that faint jingling?...you're about to go!

How can we slow it down!!?? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

TWO Day Crop!!!

All day crops. I LOVE them! I host them. Problem is the time required of course. You have family…commitments…tough to pull away and find someone to fill in for you while you go create! Enter the online crop! The best part? You don’t have to do anything or go anywhere!! When you have the chance, you sit down, log in, and enter a challenge or two. It’s completely free and you can win prizes!!

My favorite scrap deal website is hosting a TWO DAY crop this coming weekend, Nov. 6 and 7. 48 hours of challenges, games, prizes, and chat! Come join the fun!!!

All you need to participate in the Online Crop and to be eligible for the prizes is to have an active CC account with a valid e-mail address. It will be part shopping, part crafting, part challenges, and completely fun! Come play to win some prizes, complete some projects (layouts, cards, altered items--you know finally use up some of you stash), and have some fun! There will also be some fun mini-games and activities going on under the Sweet Talk section of the website throughout the weekend, so make sure to stop by Sweet Talk and check them out too.

Can't make it for the whole weekend? No worries! The main challenges will be posted beginning on Saturday November 6th at 11:00 AM (CST) on the main page and it will alternate a challenge, then a SWEET deal, then another challenge, etc. If you miss a challenge on the main page they are always accessible under the "past deals" section of the website. The deadline for the submission of projects to be considered for prizes for the challenges is MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8th, 2010 11:59 PM MST unless an earlier deadline is stated. That is approximately 24 hours after the crop ends. The challenges will be posted between 11:00 AM and 11:00 PM (cst) on Saturday Nov 6th and 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM (cst) on Sunday Nov 7th.

Hope to see you there!!

http://www.cropchocolate.com/

:) hp