~ If you pin it, they will come.~

Tonight, while putting B. to sleep...

Me: Do you know that I love you?
B:  (big binkie smile, nods yes)

Me: Do you know that your daddy loves you?

B: (big binkie smile, nods yes)

Then, as if I forgot to mention it, B (through the binkie, while twirling my hair): AND Gwamma loves me!


It's probably important to the story that I also tell you, she was holding her {Pinkalicious} magic wand at the time (apparently, this is now required for sleeping).

Also, I learned that I've been scraplifted on the Scrapbook Circle Blog.  Pretty cool.

One more thing...Pinterest is a powerful thing.  Not only do you get sucked in for hours at a time and it really seems as if it's only been minutes (similar to the story line of many a sci fi novel), if something gets "pinned" that links back to your blog, you get people looking at your blog!  Woah.

Why am I not sleeping?  Oh, right, Pinterest!  Sleeping now!

~ dec. daily - 1, 2, 3 ~

I was finally able to complete a few pages of my December Daily album, at least enough to post.  I think it is possible that some pages may continue to get tweaked here and there, but for now...let's go!

the cover page

I would like to do something fun with the left side, have a few ideas, but nothing is quite working at this point!

I'm finding myself using a lot of kraft (the book that I'm using from Elise Blaha's etsy shop has some, and I've added some with embellies, letters, etc.).  But there is also some traditional red and green.  I like it!   The cover page lists some of the things I would like to do in December.  Cricut for numbers, Martha Stewart letter punch for alphas.

day one spread

Day one -- Highlighting a new tradition in our house (the 25 wrapped books), and a trip with Daddy to Menards.

Thickers "one", EK punch on photo mat and more help from my Cricut for the tag!

One of the things I was waiting for in the mail was the cool Hambly Transparent Sheets that Ali Edwards is using.  Although they came in a timely fashion, I was late to decide I wanted them, so I had to wait.  They were worth it!  Here is one dividing my two stories for day two (Bea taking pictures, and packages beginning to arrive on our doorstep)...

day two spread - left

day 2 spread - right

I added the paper on the right.  The paper, along with the letter stickers on this spread are from Memory Works- 25 Days of Christmas 6x6 paper pad that I purchased at my local scrapbooking store.

Day three we decorated the Christmas Tree!  For this one I had a bunch of photos (none of which were THE PERFECT PHOTO), so I created a collage in Picasa and printed it as a 5x7.  Then, cut and adhered it across the two pages.

day three spread

t{h}ree -- get it??? 

Day four and five are half done, and day 7 only needs a spot of journaling and a number.  I have photos printed out for all pages through day 13, and most of the rest are picked out, just not printed.  This past weekend we had one family Christmas celebration, so I have many to choose from for that day -- and not so many on others.  I am going to try to allow myself to not get hung up on exactly what day something occurred (at the encouragement of Ali Edwards).

On another note, I signed up to do One Little Word 2012 with Ali Edwards, through Big Picture Classes.  Let's see, One Little Word, a 365 +1 group and a 52 weeks group on flickr, plus my family, job and other crafty fun...what am I thinking??? Oh, and this blog that no one reads!  :-)

Geez, do I worship Ali Edwards?  I've mentioned her a lot today!

One more thing...cool app...needed by all.

~ whew! ~

Crazy days!  My holiday book came on the 7th!  So, I've been working on taking, uploading and printing photos...and a little bit of scrapping here and there.  Unfortunately, I don't have even ONE day finished!  I have several days almost completed, but none to show here yet.

I have been using Picasa lately and loving it!  Since my December Daily book is only 4x6, I need photos in various (small) sizes -- and if I want to get more than a couple on a page, it seems that the collage feature in Picasa is necessary.  If you haven't checked it out, you should -- it's handy.  I like it better than the {free} version of Picnik for collages and I use PSE for anything I can't do in Picasa.  

I've had to go to my local scrapbooking store as well as order a few items online as I'm working through this book.  This has been part of the reason for the delay in a complete day or two to show, but I love it!  It's fun!  Here is a sneak peak at a few of the photos I've been working on.  I still don't know for sure which ones will make the final cut, but here are a few from the last week or so (in random order).