I'm waiting on my blog banner wish fairy to make me a new banner ...

So please be patient and hopefully "she" will be off work long enough to add it. LOL Wink, wink Angie!! I did change my Christmas music up a bit and changed the background but have no idea how to change the blog banner up top.

We got the 2nd Christmas tree up today

and it was the perfect day to stay inside. It was a rainy cold 40 degree day so we got the tree up and all the decorations up inside. All that is left to do is to put our 2 big wreaths outside and we will do that one day this week (when it warms up). Charlie is also trying to decide whether or not to put up our lit up palm trees. Last year we never got around to getting them up and the neighbors said they missed seeing them when they would drive by. LOL

Can you guess which is my favorite ornament? Hint - its orange and yellow. Ha ha

Don't the dogs look thrilled?

LOL

Ladybug is the black & white springer, Tudi is the brown and white springer. Don't they look cute????

Got one of our Christmas trees up today

We put up 2 Christmas trees. One is 9 feet tall and it goes in the livingroom. We have really high ceilings so it looks great in there. The one we put up today is 6 feet tall and I picked it up on sale at Target 5 years ago - it was regular priced at $99 and I got it for $4.50. I think that's the best bargain I have ever gotten, anywhere!!! Its my snowman tree. All the ornaments on it are snowmen. I have snowmen lights too that I found at Cracker Barrel. I love this tree, its my favorite one of all I think. We've been putting it in the basement but since we really don't use the basement that much, I decided we would put it in the kitchen by the table so we can look at it all the time. I do spend alot of time in the kitchen!! Why is that? LOL So here is one tree. I hope we get the 2nd tree up tomorrow.

So ... who braved the Black Friday crowds today?

Not me. I stayed home and cleaned up from yesterday. I stayed up late last night making 4 more "somethings". I can't say what because certain people read this blog and they will figure out one is for them. LOL So I need to finish up my little somethings today. The glitter is drying now, that's all I am going to say!! I really want to show you all what I have been making but I just can't ... not yet!

Emily went to the mall this morning with her friend Ashley. They had full intentions of being there at 5 am when they opened but they didn't wake up in time so they went at 10. The last I heard from her it was 1:00 and she hadn't bought a single thing. WHAT? She hasn't bought anything? So I am anxious to see what she finds by the time she gets home.... Ok, back to my stamping my little "somethings". lol

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I just want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! We have alot to be thankful this year (and every year!). I am cooking just for the 4 of us and I think I am going to try and convince Charlie to hang up the outside wreaths today since its going to be a high of 62. More cold days are coming in the upcoming days!! Gobble Gobble!!

More gift boxes

I made some more gift boxes today. Have you tried to make any yet?

Another gift card holder

I came across this gift card holder on you tube. I did one and it is super easy and goes together really fast. I used the standard 4 3/8" x 5 3/4" envelope. Here is how mine turned out. I hope you'll try one.









What do you think?

Another cute gift card box idea for you

If you haven't been to Stamp Act's blog, you must go and see all the fun projects she does. I frequent her blog and this gift card box was easy to do if you go by her instructions. First, you will be cutting the bottom of your box. Measure 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". Score at 3/4" around all 4 sides. I cut a tiny slit on the 4 long sides of the box and then used sticky tape to hold the sides in place to make your box.

Now you will make the lid. Measure 4 1/2" x 6" and score all 4 sides at 7/8". Again, I cut a tiny slit in each corner so you can bend them into make the box. Before you tape your sides, you will want to use your border punch around all 4 sides. I used my Martha Stewart scallop dot punch. Then when that is all punched, glue the sides together. Again, I used the sticky tape so it will stick good.




The next step is the little card holder on the inside of the box. Measure that 3 3/4" x 5" and score all 4 sides at 1/2" all around. Before you tape your sides together, you will want to use your slit punch and punch a hole in each side. This will hold the gift card in place. I stuck it all the way in and punched. Then adhere the sides using sticky tape. Add your gift card.



You're almost done. I made a belly band for my box. Measure 1" x 8". Use sticky tape to make it a band. Don't make it too tight, it should slip right over the box. Then I used my 1/2" circle punch and punched out my image and then stuck that to a SU scallop circle. Adhere that to the belly band. Voila! All done!!

Look at these adorable snowmen boxes

When I first saw these over at Splitcoast, I thought they were so cute. I made 2 today using her templates. You can see her version here. If you need the directions, I found them at this blog.


These are the supplies I used:

For the Box: One 8.5”x11” sheet of white cardstock

Embellishments:
brads
cuttlebug snowflake folder
Sparkler dots (for eyes)
Liquid Applique for one of the hats
Red line tape

Elf stamps by CTMH

Soccer season is over ...

We lost today's game 3-0. It wasn't half as cold as yesterday and I didn't even have to wear my coat so that was good. The boys played hard and we just had 12 players on our team while the other team had 22. So everytime they would bring in the "extras", it was like a whole new team was playing against our same guys!! Come spring we will be all ready to play again. Then, BOTH Emily and Nicholas will be playing!! Here's a team photo from today.

Concord Christmas Parade

It was a beautiful day for the Concord Christmas Parade - even though it was pretty cold. Here are Emily and Xavier in the VW Bug and Rachel and Juanita in the red car. I also took a photo of Emily, Xavier and Oceana. Oceana is the 2008 Homecoming Queen.



Nicholas had his soccer tournament today and it was a chilly 40 degrees with the wind blowing like crazy! They were tied up at the end so they had to go into overtime and we won 6-5. We play again tomorrow in game #2 at 1:30 pm and if we win that one, we will go on to game #3 at 3:00 pm. Its going to be a little warmer tomorrow (50 for a high) but we will bring our gloves, hats, coats, ear muffs, scarves ... to stay warm!! LOL

14 degrees ...

is this really November or February already? LOL This is really early for us to have these frigid temperatures! What's going on? Getting us ready for winter I guess. And we're not loving it either. lol

We did not get any snow flurries today

like they were predicting!! Oh well, we have a LONG winter ahead so I am sure we will have them before the winter is gone.

Tomorrow we have the Concord Christmas parade and Emily is riding in a VW Convertible so I hope to get lots of great photos. We have to bundle up because the high is going to be about 40 tomorrow.

Are you needing storage for your clear dollar stamps?

When Chelsea was visiting, we came up with this idea that I needed a better way to store my $1 clear stamps. I have had them all over the place and she said I bet these fit into a binder using the baseball sleeves. Well, after Chelsea went back home, I came across this idea on someone's blog (I can't remember who now) but they had the same idea and it was working great for them. So I found an extra 1" binder that I had on hand and decided to put my clear stamps in this binder. They are all in 1 place and I have them in sections. "Animals, holidays, letters/numbers, phrases" etc and we'll see how this filing system works. Here are a few photos so you can see what it looks like:

Snow flurries!!! Here?????

The news said last night we would have possible snow flurries here today, early this morning. The dogs woke me up at 4 am and as I was standing outside, I felt something "wet" hitting me but not sure what. Its too dark to see. LOL Its definitely cold enough outside and it won't accumulate to too much but I am still excited at the possibility of seeing the white stuff. Can't wait for it to get light outside and see it. It may be over by then!! Come on snow!!

If you want a good laugh, click on the play button above to see the disco Thacker's in action

LOL

I am trying to figure out how to turn off the Christmas music I already have playing on my blog but its not working so you will hear 2 songs playing when you play the above. I will have to work on this tonight.

ENJOY!!

A new stamp company has started

The stamp company is called Whimsy Stamps and she is taking pre-orders already for the 3 stamps she shows on her blog. They sure are cute!! You can see them here. She is also offering blog candy too for a chance to win one of these adorable stamps. Check it out.

Yesterday was a heat wave compared to this morning!!

It was 17 this morning. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Ok, now I am officially cold. But don't tell Charlie. LOL

I changed my Christmas music so you wouldn't get bored with the same songs playing. If I remember, I will try and do this every few days :).

Now I think I will go get a cup of hot cocoa :).

Its 38 degrees and dropping!!!

It sure feels like Christmas outside now. I have been cold INSIDE the house all day. Couldn't figure out why. Yes I know its cold outside but we have our heat on and I should be warm enough right? NOPE. Heat wasn't working. Charlie banged on it and on it came. Thank goodness!! We are going to call in the morning and have it checked out since this is just the start of winter (which won't officially be here for another month).

Another card using my new Read my Tee set

I have quite a few birthdays coming up in January so its time to start on those cards now :). I was recently introduced to fun flock and I used it on her sweater on this card. I love fun flock, you just add glue to your paper and press the fun flock on. No heat setting needed.

Someone has a birthday coming up in December

so I made "her" this card. This is a brand new set from Hanna Stamps called Read my Tee. I paper pieced her pants and shirt and the cupcake. The cupcake is actually a stamp from Judith but the heart and "I" is from the same Hanna Stamps. I can see how I can make alot of different cards using this stamp set. I put this on a big card as she measures 6" tall. Make sure you have an acrylic block big enough to hold her since she comes unmounted. So who will get this cute birthday card next month? I'm not giving any hints!!!

41 days until Christmas? How is this possible?

Once Halloween comes, the time seems to fly by don't you think? I have my Christmas cards all done and I have even started addressing them. I need to do the "family letter" for out of towners so I will start on that soon. Today I made a couple of cards. I don't think I have stamped at all since Chelsea left! LOL I found this bella stamp when Chelsea was here and I colored it 2 different ways. In the first photo, I colored it with my new Koh-I-Noor woodless pencils. I love these pencils, they just go on like butter. I then blended the color with Gamsol. I also sponged the background with a little green ink. I bought some sponges at the $1 store - I saw that on someone's blog. They work great!! On the 2nd card, I used my Copic markers. I also used this "new to me" glitter pen that Chelsea told me I had to get and I'm so glad I did. Its a Gelly Roll Clear Star pen. Love it!! So ... do you like the 2 cards I made?


I have been busy making Christmas gifts and as cute as they all are, I can't post them for fear that those people read my blog and then the secret will be out!! And we can't have that, can we? I am making quite a few things this year and I really like how they are all coming out. I've made 4 different things so far and I think I am just about done so you may have to wait until AFTER the holidays for me to post them so I don't ruin the surprises :). You understand don't you?

Have you tried the Michelle Zindorf technique yet?

I have been a little afraid to try her technique but with Chelsea here last week, we tried it. Chelsea got it right on but it took me SEVERAL tries and even then I wasn't in love with what I had done. So today I decided to drag out my 3 inks, my brayer and my snowman again - this one is a bigger snowman than last time and it took me 6 tries but I came up with these 2. You can find the directions here at Michelle's blog and try it yourself. If it doesn't come out the first time, keep trying. Let me know what you think of my 2 cards.

Happy Birthday Angela!!

We hope you had a great day today.



Can you believe this is a Coach birthday cake? I found it here at this website. Its too beautiful to eat if you ask me. LOL

Since Walmart and Kohls have their Christmas music playing in their stores,

I decided to add a Christmas playlist to my blog. If you do not want to listen to it just yet, please just turn your speakers down or off. These are some of my favorite Christmas songs and I will add more when it gets closer. Just trying to get in the holiday spirit.

Look what Chelsea made each of us out of coasters

Is this not the cutest holder? I have my Copic markers in it and it is just perfect. I will take 4 different angles of it so you can see each side. In the first photo, she added flipflops and my name. (How adorable is this?) 2nd photo is a place for a photo to add. She put a piece of acetate on there so you just slip the photo under the acetate. 3rd photo has post-it notes. 4th photo has a place where you can use a dry erase marker and add your notes. Again, she used a piece of acetate that you can just write on and then rub it right off.

Super Duper cute. Hmmm, maybe I should make someone this for Christmas. Thanks so much Chelsea!! Love it!!

Here are a few photos that Ellie took yesterday

Left to right Ellie, me, Chelsea, Michelle
Left to right Michelle, Chelsea, me, Ellie