One more book club item came in!

Isn't this the cutest thing! What a beautiful little boy. Jenn Claar did this project, inspired by the Foof-a-la-life book. I had seen it before, but because Jenn was not able to attend our meeting on Monday I did not have photos to share. But, thankfully she sent me a photo today (good thing she had one because I believe this was a gift from her to a dear friend of hers). Anyway, I know that she really put a lot of effort into this project - I had the privilege of watching her work on it some last month. Wouldn't you just love the be the dear friend who received a gift like this!?!

Jenn - Thanks for sharing and for allowing me to share with others!

Scrapbook Book Club Enjoyment

Every third Monday of the month a Scrapbooking Book Club meets at the local scrapbooking store where I work. We've changed our format from using pre-assembled books and kits from a third-party company to selecting our own books or magazines and producing something that was inspired by the book. Below are a few results from this month. Lots of fun. All of these projects were inspired in one way or another from the book "Foof~a-la -Life"

First is my project, a mini tag book with a Christmas theme:

The handwritten words are from the first and second chapters of the Gospel of Luke.

I used a stamp of the baby in a manger on each page, although it is difficult to see here.

It was a lot of fun to put this book together!

I had grand hopes of making eight or nine of these books for Christmas, but don't get your hopes up, because it just didn't happen. Maybe another year.

This next project is from Rosie Faust, a local scrapbooker who I admire. She takes a lot of my classes, but she knows enough to be teaching practically all of them. She does wonderful work, and is inspiring!

Those are Rosie's hands as she shows us the dimensional aspects of the flowers she hand cut for this page. The folks in the photo are her parents and other relatives, many of whom have passed away - great job of getting them documented so future generations will know a little about them.

You can see some more of her cut work in this photo.

And here you see the interactive journaling block.


And this next project is by Barb Larsen, who travels a long way to join us. It is a photo of her daughter Sara, who is also in the book club. The photo is of her first experience with Chocolate, which has lead to an apparent obsession.

This project was actually inspired by the book we are doing next month, called "That's Life" by Nic Howard, otherwise known as Nic from NZ because she's from New Zealand. Barb is just a bit ahead of the rest of us.

Love the layering of the clock transparency over book paper with the glitter heart topping it off.

The thing that inspired Barb was to run the title up the left side of the page. Very effective!

This project by Jan Astrom is really wonderful! She has a whole story about how the man featured in this project is an ancestor of her husbands, who was a famous shell collector - the photocopied pages from a book are about him and his excellence in shell collecting. Pretty neat family history.

She mounted all of this on a painters canvas - beautiful job!

And the shells are shells that were actually part of the ancestor's collection! Wow! What a family heirloom she has created!

So, book club is inspiring! Believe me when I say that my photography does not do these projects justice! We are having a great time together! And, it insures that nerds like me who could never skip a homework assignment get at least one project a month accomplished - I'm afraid that some months that's about all I can do, although I dream of doing oh so much more!

Sick Boy Has Reading Break Through

So, Jansse's been sick for the whole week, and a visit to the doctor today confirmed that he won't be going tomorrow either. Christmas break has begun, however unfortunate the cause of that beginning may be. We'll have a week worth of homework to do over the break, and he'll have a test or two when he gets back, but these things are managable. He's got something viral, maybe influenza, probably started as croupe. Ugh! Merry Christmas! We knew it was the real thing when he spent two days in bed by his own choice. Yesterday was a bit of a break through in that he read to himself for hours (it was a reading break through, not a health break through). So, now he's engrossed in Box Car Children books all by himself, and proud to be reading three and four chapters at a sitting quietly. He did come to dinner last night and announce: "I love reading!" When I go out to do some errands today I'll pick up the 8th volumn for him to start.

Jansse is really sad because not only does he feel terrible, he's also missing Christmas festivities at school tomorrow, including his class doing its first play - he had a pretty big part! Not much we can do about that. Hopefully he'll be better enough to participate in the church Christmas program this weekend (I'm a bit skeptical, but maybe he'll be better).

So that's the news from Gallatin Gateway today. I may be back later, if I get a chance. Otherwise, hopefully on Sunday.

Still no topper, but oh well.

Here is the tree - minus topper still, but oh well:

This is the angel I made:

And here's a closer look at her. I can't decide if I want to fill in her lips with red or not. Afraid to mess it up and ruin her.

So, it was a pretty productive day. After posting a to do list of sorts last night, I wrote a more detailed one for the next three days (well, today, Monday and Tuesday) and ended up with over forty things on the list. Ugh! I got most of today's things done - except not mop the kitchen floor. I hate white kitchen floors, especially when its wet and muddy outside and everyone comes in through the kitchen. Always looks a mess. But I did get other stuff done, so I'm not going to beat myself up over one failing. Tomorrow is pretty daunting, but I think I can manage most of it, especially things like make my cake - lemon with white frosting, as usual.

I'd better end here or I'll go on and on and end up into my birthday before I'm done. Getting late, and I'm getting old, so time for bed for me!

Getting There

It was evening before we got to the decorating for Christmas part of the day - spent time moving filing cabinets, filing for the office, running errands, off-loading a friends stuff to our barn so she doesn't have to pay for a storage locker. So, really we didn't get to start in earnest until after dinner. But, I guess you could say we got a lot done. But, there is still a lot more to do.

We are struggling with a tree topper. I made an angel - photos of her tomorrow - but she does not fit on top of the tree. Jansse and I bought this star at Walmart as a "back-up plan," but it won't work on the top of the tree either. So, back to the drawing board on a tree topper. In the meantime, we are trying to put the angel and star to good use. This is where the star ended up. I like it, although the photo does not show all the white frostiness of the whole arrangement.


So, tomorrow is the day to:
1. Figure out a topper for the tree so it can be finished;
2. Find a place for all of these items and much more;

3. Put up some garland around the house;
4. Find a use for all the lights we have from before the pre-lit tree;
5. Make fudge and bake cookies (something with pecans because I have so many) for mailing on Monday (oh, does that excite you? So, you think you're getting some, huh. We'll see); and
6. Clean a bit so the decorations can be seen through the clutter (and to be better prepared for the upcoming week!)

I know, this all sounds like so much fun, huh? I think I'll be tired by the time I go to bed tomorrow night. Hopefully some photos of finished projects tomorrow.

This coming week is "get organized" in all of life week. I have no choice, its gotten out of control, and is driving everyone nuts.

Gingerbread houses & fake trees

The fun activity of the week for Jansse was the Gingerbread House decorating opportunity at church. He had a blast decorating a little Bethlehem house that will be used to decorate the church for the season. The good woman in charge, Dorothy K. and her daughter Becky K. made 100 houses for the children to decorate and display around the church. She has done this every year that we've gone to church at E-Free Bozeman. What a gift to the children, and frankly to us mothers who are a total flop at putting together the houses on our own. There must have been 25 different kinds of candy and sweets to use to make the colorful creations.
Now, not that I'm not proud of Jansse's house, but I have to admit that when I saw the finished item I couldn't help but think of the house on Sanford and Son - you know the early 70's sit. com. about the father and son who owned the junk yard. Yep, in true family style, Jansse's house had a yard full of junk - no pattern, order, or design to it, just the things that Jansse likes put where he wanted them. Sound at all familiar? I'm sure many of you have an idea of what I'm talking about. And I love it! Just to be clear, I am definately referring to my side of the family. Anybody remember Daniel's cars in the front of the house on Sorci. All those car parts mixed in with the old boxes of nuts and . . . well frankly, a bunch of junk. And, sometimes if you saw our house you might say the family resemblence is closer to home than I might admit.

Today we are going to put up our tree. About that tree...well, we went with an artificial one this year (and next, and the next, and the next). We'll have to use it for at least 4 years to accomplish the savings we intend by going this way. I am a bit nervous about this transition because I've always had a real tree. Will I miss the fresh pine/fir smell? Will I feel yucky about it? I don't know. I've bought sented candles to help with some of that issue. I'm planning on making some really special decorations. I'm trying to be optimistic about the outcome here. I know there are some real advantages - don't have to water, tree comes pre-lit, no falling needles to clean up, easier to find the family time to put it up because we don't need the time to go select it in future years. So, this is going to be good, right? I'll post some photos of the process and the finished product later.

In anticipation of this big day of decorating, I made a tree top angel. Not sure if she'll fit, but if not, I'll find another use for her around the house. When I post the tree results I'll include a picture of her.

Until then, have a great day!

I'll be back with more later this evening, but I was looking at blogs myself, and want to direct any who are interested here http://lindaalbrecht.typepad.com/simple_things/ It is Linda Albrecht's blog, and I was completely blown away by todays posting. I wish I could do work like that! Its my goal to someday, but first I think I need to find another oh, say 20 hours in each day! Have fun, and be back later!