I am excited to share photos of my now 14yr old son! I can't believe that he is actually 14 now. I really do love that he is getting older and somewhat more independent. His birthday was last week and I thought about uploading the photos all weekend but never really had the time to do it. But here is one of my favorites of him. I hate that is seems kinda blurry but it is an amazing photo of him still...

I swear that he is getting more and more handsome by the day. And yes if you can make it out...he has a mustache! Scary! At 13!!!! I joke that he will have a beard before high school. He thinks that would be awesome but I so hope not!

But besides that I have also completed my journal pages photos for several pages and I took photos of those also this last week. I am actually completely caught up on photos, it's just having the time to add them to the pages. Between the journaling and everyday life I need to add a few more hours to the clock so that I can get some other things done.

These are the few pages that I actually photographed to add to the blog before I forgot to get them done.

This first page is for November 26th. This was another day of Christmas shopping and also I created our labels for our presents. I have done this for years, but I journaled a little about how the labels have changed over the years and how now I have two little ones to keep my company while making them this year. And here is a close up of the label example that I made for the page accent. I kept these pages simple but added alot of my own handwritting.

This is November 27th's page.

The actual page is a transparency that was sold as a set on QVC yearrrsss ago! I mean a really long long time ago. I have all of them actually still and decided that I might as well get them out and use the if I could throughout this book.

A couple days later than planned

Is exactly the way things goes sometimes. I had planned to upload pictures of my completed pages for Thanksgiving and I had so many other photos that I wanted to share as well but what I learned is that Tracy without a broken foot can do so much more in a days time than Tracy with one. And so that means some things that I had planned on doing get pushed forward to the next day's to-do list. I was thinking today that this is just the wrong time of the year to have a broken anything. I mean I have my son's birthday, then the holidays and then my birthday the first part of January and then Ani's birthday shortly after that. This is just the wrong time, but sometimes you just have to do what you can when you can.

But I can say that although I still haven't printed the photos for the album that I have edited most of the ones that I want to use. And that I have really gotta keep my camera battery charged. That sometimes is the hardest thing to remember to do. Because unlike my old Sony cybershot (DSC??) this cybershot (DSC-H55) it doesn't take good pictures when the battery is low. And so I am seeing a lot of blurry looking pictures for Thanksgiving and our shopping adventure that Vele and I went on.

I am excited to share the Thanksgiving page which the journaling and the what you are thankful cards are completed. I think I will be taking photos of everyone solo again so that I can get some great photos.

so here is the layout....

and here is page one closer. I really can say that the flowers were not my original idea but I can't find my pumpkin Quickutz die. I love that die and have no idea where it is, I plan on unpacking my XXXL navigator bag, but I can't do that just yet since I need some more storage options for the stuff in there and it is possible that it is in there. And so that is why there are flowers there instead of a pumpkin. Page two is actually a 8.5x11inch baseball card sleeve sheet protector that I cut the first row of sleeves off so that it could fit into my book. On my previous posts you can see that there are a couple of these sheets throughout the book. I and I plan to use this one to put the 2.3x3inch photos of the family in there to match the card on the backside that tells what they stated that they were thankful for on Thanksgiving day.

Today was a really cold day and it was a perfect day to actually hand out cupcakes to the neighbors. So the girls and I made cupcakes (I made them, and they ate the M&Ms that were on top) and when both boys got home we knocked on several neighbors doors to hand out cupcakes. They were all surprised and there weren't many that we actually got to give out but the kids are happy cause that meant that they had extras. They want to do the same thing again but with my sugar cookies or chocolate chip cookies. I think that I can try to make some in a couple of weeks or so and do that again with them.

We got to meet a couple of the neighbors that we seem to always not see. But that was much fun and it surely will be the topic of my journal page for December 30th. Well I think I better head off to bed because it is like 2:30am here...

Well let's see what to tell, what to tell? I have just about finished all the frames for the girl's room. They have 6 frames in all, and 4 of them are up with photos including the canvas. I have one more canvas to finish and then it goes up. But I have no idea what to do with the last frame? It's bigger and I am thinking of swapping out the family picture frame and putting a mini scrapbook page in that frame using the family picture from this year.

The boys' room isn't so easy. I have been searching for the "right" type of maps. And I think what I might have to do is take photos of maps that I like and take them somewhere and blow them up. And then I have to start working on their framed photos. I also decided that instead of a bulletin board on each side of the room that I will create my own version of curtain wirer so that they can hang things that they like. I picked up some floral wire and I am looking for a bunch of binder clips in different colors (well until they really decide on a color) so that I can put the binder clip's arms through the wire and hang them on the wire so that they can clip on whatever they want. I figured that might look better than a bulletin board too.

I still want an ikea expedite for the dinning area. I want to store our scrapbooks there, right now they are still sitting in a box (the very last box to unpack) and I have a bunch of them also on a small self that the printer is sitting on. Let's just say that the self isn't going to make it for long...lol lol those books are taking over! So this weekend Vele wants to hit garage sells to see if we can "find" one being sold that way. I guess I am not too concerned about if we find one or not because there is always IKEA.

But onto scrappy matters. My holiday journal is coming along really nicely. I have been working on it on and off since my last post. I don't plan on labeling my pages with dates ahead of time, because I know that there are already some pages that I am going to want to maybe switch around. But I thought about some dates that I wanted to make special pages for so I have labeled those. For instance the 1st,3rd,9th,16th of December are family members' birthdays so we have those days themed for that in a sense. But I made sure to really make the 3rd be special since that is my son's birthday. He will be 14yrs old. I am so excited because he is getting older but at the same time I see everyday that he is becoming a young man everyday...maybe it's the mustache he has over his top lip or the fact that he is standing over me by at least 4 inches now...but this is all signs that he is growing up...sigh!

Ok the book, sorry I completely got off topic. Here is the cover as it is now. I am thinking of adding a reindeer on top of the label as if he is peeking from behind it. I am also thinking of doing the same thing with a little turkey die too. Since this is for Thanksgiving to Christmas. My pictures aren't the best. I took these this morning in between lunch and storytime.

On December 3rd I used transparency and so I embossed three different star stamps that I had. I then painted around the boarder with red and metal/silver paint mixed. The end result is really nice. I really do like it. The hole re-enforcements were plain with and then I stamped them with red mini stars. I am going to do that for several of the pages. I have pulled out mini mistletoe, tree, and snowflake stamps to use.

And then here is the envelope that I am going to use for journaling about him getting older. And also another page for Dec 3 for any additional pictures. I like that I went with stars instead of a cake or something because if I decide to make this one page for Dec 3, I can just move this page to another day.And here is a glimpse of some of the other pages that I have made so far. Dec4 is a 2 pocket album page from an old photo album that I took apart to do another project and I had several others left over. The long piece (holiday fun) is another envelope. I had stitched the cream papers (which are the back of a memo type pad I got for 49cents from lss garage sale).

This project is turning out to be fun. I mean really scrapbooking without any reason behind it other than to just have fun hasn't been done by me for awhile. And I am glad that I decided to go ahead and do this project although I thought it would be too much work. It is just so fun to play again. I have tons of stuff out everywhere and since I really don't have storage that isn't such a great thing but I am having fun right! LOL...until we chat again. May you have a blessed day, evening, night or morning!

Holiday journal

I woke up today determined to get things done around here. And so that is what I have been doing. The girls room has move artwork on it. And the boys bullentin board is decorated and hung. I can't wait until my oldest gets home so that he can see it. But I also got to thinking about this holiday journal/scrapbook. I don't want to call it a daily because it isn't that at all but more about our new holiday season here in AZ.

I am planning on getting information on some places here so that we can get alot done while the kids are on Christmas break. It seems so weird and exciting to be thinking about Christmas and not have to think about snow. But then I also am feeling a little sad that we won't have a first snow...but what can I say. I am a midwest born and raised girl...eventually not having snow would have gotten to me. Right? But I know that it will pass once I start seeing snow photos and layouts of past family outtings.

Well I just wanted to show in pictures some of the progress that I have made so far on the Holiday journal. I think I might start mine from Thanksgiving break forward. It seems that it would fit my family and style better if I did especially since we usually put our tree up after dinner on Thanksgiving day.

First I started with a ceral box as a template of the size that I wanted the album to be. I know that I could have just added up the pieces and did the math...but this is the way I went. I just cut off the one side panel. And there was the beginning of the mini album!

Then I layed out my canvas that I had laying around and cut it about 2 inches around the entire cereal box. I then marked were the spine will be and traced around that. Then I measured 1 inch in on the front and back panels and drew lines were I wanted to add the stitching. I decided half way through the project that I wanted to add x's in the corners of the panels and so I did that also. I will most likely go back and add them so that they are larger.

And here is the finished stitched cover. I love it. I haven't decided if I will just cover the cereal box or use a heavier chipboard base. But if I go with the cereal box it will most likely be flexible enough for me to have some kind of elastic closure. And I haven't glued it down either because I am going to embellish the cover and that will mostly likely be with hand stitching and diecuts and paint also. I am super excited though.