@ 3

Here's a layout I found while sorting pictures that I never posted. This is one I quickly whipped up back in September because I wanted to make sure I got some of my 3 year old's typical day or likes down. I don't normally use this many photos on a layout but I like the outcome.

Let's see if we can't get some scrappiness up here.

Way back in September 2011 I attended a scrapbook weekend retreat. I love these. I get more scrapbooking done in 2.5 days than I do in a whole year.

Here is one layout I made.


Prior to going down there, I decided I was going to attempt to make a masking tape flower. I used this tutorial as my jumping off point. It's not hard at all.



There will be more layouts to come soon. I just need to weed through all the files.

Note To Self

January 3, 2012

Dear Krista,

This is your post-Christmas 2011 self writing to you with a few words of advice/wisdom for you to take into account this Christmas season.

First and foremost, get your shopping done now!!! Prioritize this and have it done no later than December 10th! Do it online and don’t worry about sales that might be better in the future. Hopefully you have even been shopping throughout the year and have some purchases made.

You have to buy for:

(all of our family)
Toys for Tots
Military Servicemen

You have to bake/craft for:

(all of our friends)

Secondly, do NOT spoil the girls! You bought way too much last year for them. So much so that they didn’t really appreciate anything. Except the Squinkies. If those are still cool, get them a package of those. I know you have this vision in your head of a tree exploding with presents underneath it on Christmas morning, but that doesn’t have to actually happen for the girls to have a memorable Christmas. If you still want the look, wrap up empty boxes in Christmas paper. Or better yet, put fun love notes for everyone in boxes and wrap them up – still fun to open, no money expended, and you get more presents under the tree.

Do you have the Christmas card photo taken already? If not, plan it now. If you do, upload it to Costco and order 100. You don’t need more than 100. You had too many extras last year.

Next, decide on a church service you are going to now and don’t change course for anything. If someone else schedules something that conflicts with the time you have picked, so be it. You’ll either be late, need to leave early, or won’t be able to attend. Note: St. Paul had a Christmas Eve Children’s mass at 4:00 last year that the girls might enjoy.

Another thing … get your wrapping done ASAP! Forbid yourself to be wrapping anything on Christmas Eve like you did last year. Remember? You were up until 2:30 in the morning.

Also, do not forget about Santa’s milk and cookies. None of this popping cookies in the oven at midnight again.

Last year things were so crazed you didn’t get to read the girls Twas the Night Before Christmas like you have wanted to each year. Plan that into the evening. Perhaps read it at Papa Moose’s to all the little ones.

Buy the girls one cute Christmas t-shirt each.

Do NOT overpack the month of December. Remember you already will have Diego and the Triplet’s birthday parties not to mention possible Alexander’s as well. Say no. Don’t feel like you have to do everything. I think you should keep it to two planned things only. Taking the girls to walk around the Chino neighborhood of lights one night. And having the friends over for a Christmas craft another night. If all of your shopping and wrapping is done, you can do more.

If you have not already formulated a plan, purchased items, and begun to work on extra Christmas crafts for the house, forget about them. Don’t add to your stress.

Get to bed early.

Make Joel watch Love Actually with you.

Sit down with the girls and watch Elf, or Santa Claus, or Polar Express.

Do NOT forget to take a picture of the girls in their Christmas dresses like you did last year! You still need to put them back in their dresses and take one for this past Christmas.

If you can accomplish all of these things, I think you will enjoy the Christmas season much more. Remember, it’s not about how perfectly all the decorations are put up or the visual image people see. It’s about the memories and the bonds created with your family during this special time we celebrate the birth of Christ!

With love and hope for you,

Krista

Merry Christmas ... Happy New Year ... and perhaps I should just say Happy Valentine's Day too!

Phew ... I AM SPENT!!!!


Just the thought of organizing some stuff to put on this blog exhausts me. So I apologize to any of you who pop in here from time to time only to get frustrated that I still have not added anything new.


I wish I could say I was up to a whole bunch of crafty goodness this past holiday season, but I didn't even have the time for that. :

It is clear that I need to rework my life. I feel a huge hole having not crafted a real personal or selfish project lately. It's been a LONG time. Yet there's nothing that is propelling me to go do something. I could make the time if I really wanted to. I am not sure what it is. Hopefully I'll get the mojo back soon. I'll make that one of my New Years Resolutions.

I have two main resolutions this year. In the past I have had so many and I don't even remember what they are so naturally they don't get accomplished.

1. play with my kids


2. get to know my husband better and nuture, foster, cherish our friendship

I wonder about the thoughts any of you are having upon reading those. :) Basically it boils down to me not knowing how to play with my kids. My daughters have amazing imaginations that I marvel at. I cannot remember EVER playing the way they do. Turning suitcases into airplane food carts, creating a whole world of adventure under a sheet, etc. If I ever had an inner child, she has been MIA for a long time. I want her back. The other resolution is fueled by the realization that this past year, for the most part, my best friend (husband) and I are like two ships passing in the night. We go through all the normal routines of life with kids, but I don't think we've gotten closer. If anything we've grown apart -- I thank texting and email for this. It's hit me hard and I am over it! I want us to get to KNOW each other better, spend quality time TOGETHER, TALK about our days together, etc. It shouldn't be too hard, but will require some special attention to change our bad habits.

So that's it. Hopefully I will be back before Valentine's Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

For the last 2 years I took the month of November and on each day, I logged in and typed a post on what I was thankful for.

As can be evidenced by the fact that I have not posted since mid October, I have been having a hard time making my way over here to post. And it's not for lack of material. I have a ton of scrapbooking layouts still to post from my scrap weekend in September. I have to finish up posting about Hannah's Nightmare Before Christmas party. There's Halloween pictures. Hopefully some day I will get it all up here.

But I don't want to let today pass without throwing out there in cyberland that I am extremely thankful for all that is my life. My wonderful husband, my amazing two girls, a home over our heads, jobs for both of us, two loving dogs that drive me nuts but continue to only love, that my step mom is residing in Heaven, free of pain, after being plagued with a nasty battle with skin cancer, that my grandma is too up in Heaven after suffering a major stroke on New Years Day 2011, for my awesome friends, for knowing that God is present in my life and the ability to listen to His guidance, for knowing that He forgives me when I don't listen and so much more.

May you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

that picture above is sadly not my porch. I found the picture here.

It's a Good Coffee Life

This is a little project I whipped up for an auction basket donation for my daughter's school. Each class has to prepare a basket for a silent auction that will raise money for the school. Her class's theme is Starbucks. We donated $5 to be put on a gift card, but as each day passed, the depseration in the teacher's voice grew as she pleaded for parents to contribute. Well, I have given more money in the first 8 weeks of school than I thought I ever would, so more wasn't an option. What was an option was all the scrapbook supplies I have lying around. So with great pleasure, I dedicated a few nights to making this fun minibook.

Each page is actually a coffee sleeve you get when Starbucks gives you your order. I took four of them and covered them in patterned paper. Then I sewed the bottoms closed on each sleeve so they could be used as a pocket. Then I punched them with my bind it all and used a 1" white wire ring to turn it into a book. The rest is random embellishments as you'll see. In each pocket, I turned an empty Starbucks gift card into a tag.

I think this could be a great gift for that coffee drinking friend.

Shared on:

Good or Bad?

I am trying to decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing that my iPhone 3G screen no longer gives me a clear picture of what's on the screen. I can see the screen but it's blurry, like where there's a whole bunch of extra lines across the picture. I may or may not have thrown the phone down on the ground with some hefty force. Yes, it's been one of those days. And no, I don't normally throw my phone when I have a bad day.

Cons:
- can't really use the phone for leisure activities - checking email, blog hopping, web surfing, game playing, etc.
- GPS is going to be more difficult
- sending text messages will be more difficult

Pros:
- I will no longer stay up at night for extended periods of time checking just one more of my crafty blogs
- I won't have the ability or desire to do a whole bunch of other things I shouldn't be doing on my phone while in the car
- I might actually pay better attention to conversations because I won't be half distracted by the most recent Facebook status update
- Might be closer to getting a newer phone (which will then erase all of the pros above)

I have such a love/hate relationship with the smartphone technology.

Nightmare Before Christmas Party - Zero

I finally got my pictures uploaded of my daughter's Nightmare Before Christmas party decor and thought I would share them here. There were so many more ideas I had for the party that never came to fruition because I ran out of time, but here we go.

I'll start with my favorite piece. Zero the ghost dog that belongs to Jack Skellington.

I got the idea from here.

He was quite simple so don't be intimidated. Seriously, I am have very little experience sewing anything. All you need to do is find a good picture of him from the movie and then follow the tips on the link I provided above. The only additional tips I have are:

(1) don't be concerned about quality fabric - the shearer the better since he's a ghost dog

(2) use white hangers when forming the ears so you don't see too much of the metal in them when done and rather than cutting out the shape of the ear from fabric and forming the hanger onto that, I formed the shape of the ear with the hanger first, then hot glued that to my fabric, then trimmed all the excess fabric but about a 1/2 inch from it, and then hot glued the remaining edges of fabric around the back side of the ear.

And just like that ...

... it is October and my oldest baby is 6 years old.



It is unbelievable to me how quickly the past 6 years have flown. This little girls nothing short of amazing. Unfortunately the poor thing had to suffer her first sickness of the school year and was not at 100% for her party. More on that later. So not fair! But something I think I had better get used to considering her birthday comes just weeks into the new school year with lots of germs making their way around. {sigh}

Stuck

That's what I seem to be. I have had a layout sitting on my table for weeks. Hating it completely. Each day it calls to me and I think I'll give it a few minutes, but I don't. I can't find the time or the energy, especially at the end of the day after everyone is in bed. So today I am going to tackle it. Unfortunately, this is what I have to deal with if I am to follow through. Ugh!!! Real life!

UPDATED: a few hours later, I am done with that layout. Not my favorite by far, but it just needed to get finished. I think sometimes you just have to let it go and say, "So this won't be my best work." On to the next project. Which really should be cleaning my scrap space ... again.