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Journal Your Christmas

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This will be my fourth year to participate in Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas class. Yesterday I took down the basket that I set out each Christmas that holds all three previous journals. I looked through each of them and am so glad that I've recorded the events and experiences that make up our holidays each year. I hadn't forgotten that Adam and Sarah got stuck in New Jersey last year and Tracy had to make the six hour trip down to Newark Airport to get them. I had forgotten, however, that when they left to fly back to California, Rochester was experiencing winds up to 60 mph. I'm very sad that they won't be here this year, but traveling during the winter holidays certainly is iffy.

My first album is documented in the side bar of the blog. I thought I'd post a few photos of 2007 and 2008 here so you can get a taste of how different these albums can be. I bought a 6X6 post-bound album at Hobby Lobby yesterday for this years album. I don't do a lot of prep work, since I won't necessarily do a page every day. Between Shimelle's prompts and the prompts from Jessica Sprague's new course Holidays in Hand, I'll have plenty of inspiration. I also subscribe to Ali's blog and get inspiration from her December Daily album.

Here are all three journals:

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The first two were pretty traditional 8X8 albums. Last year I did an acrylic album which I loved.

Some pages from 2007:

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The apparent blotch on the page is actually my shadow!

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And from 2008:

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I had totally forgotten about our stolen tree last year!

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Some days I did two-page spreads, others were only one page. Although the overall colors stayed pretty consistent if I wanted something different for a page, I didn't worry about it.

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The back of the Sing page is an envelope that hold a Children's Sermon that was preached during Advent last year. It really spoke to me, and I asked for a copy for the album.

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This is actually two pages, a Hambly transparency with the title and number on it, overlayed on the photo collage. Hopefully, tomorrow I will have some of this year's journal to share with you. I bought a black album since the only red was too bright for my color scheme this year. I hope to get it decorated tonight or tomorrow.

For Amy & A Tour

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Amy left a comment asking how I take photos of my cards. We live in a VERY dark house, lovely, but dark with almost no natural light that allows for good indoor photos. I've tried lots of things, but have been reluctant to invest in a light box for photographing my cards. Recently, however, almost by accident I've come upon a system that is working quite well. My husband bought the wrong florescent light bulbs for our son's room. They were "daylight" bulbs, and Matt hated them. So I switched with him, and it took a bit of getting used to but for indoor and nighttime photography they have been great. I also use a piece of white foamcore board that I bought at Michaels. I cut it about halfway through so it bends in half and use it as the background. Sometimes I put a piece of coordinated cardstock on the back of it, but often I leave it as is. The white board makes color cast correction in PSE really easy. It looks like this:

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And I get a photo like this:

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While I was at it, I decided to take some photos of my study. It's a small room which I have crammed with as much stuff as it possible. I'm in desperate need of a major purge again, but I think it will have to wait until after the holidays.

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My desk is an L-shaped desk I bought at Staples ten years ago. It has held up really well and has a good amount of work space. To the right is a stamp cabinet Tracy built for me nearly 15 years ago. Each shelf holds an acyrlic picture frame with stamps organized by theme.

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The bookcases came from Target seven or eight years ago when Sarah moved out and I took over this room. The CD holder is from IKEA and houses my acrylic stamp sets as well as CDs.

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I love my chair from LL Bean. It flips out into a single bed when we need extra space for company.

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Last year I found this printer's drawer in our garage and refinished it to hold my most used rubber stamps. The table underneath pulls up to counter height when I want to work on a project standing up. I paid $20 for it at IKEA several years ago. It was a great solution for a tiny room. I can't get into my closet when it's pulled up, but it hasn't been a major problem.

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The closet is small but hold a ton of stuff. The racks on the door and the hanging drawers are both from The Container Store. The two units of drawers underneath came from one of the office supply stores. I have to say I love this space. Until I moved into this room, I shared space with the rest of the family. It was fine, but this is great. It's not big, but we've managed to utilize the space pretty effectively. I do have to admit, however, when I'm in the middle of a big project I end up with stuff all over the floor as well. Usually I'm really neat and organized, but I'm not a neat crafter!

Two More Christmas Cards

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Here are a couple more Christmas cards–all Papertrey Ink. I spent some time this afternoon on another card, trying to find a design I can easily duplicate. I need a dozen more perhaps. Usually I create just one design, maybe two, and duplicate them. This year I tried to make Christmas cards for lots of the challenges I participated in so I have many different ones. The only problem with that is I have a nice album that contains the different cards I've sent each year. I guess my blog will have to be the record this year!

Mittens 

I bought these tiny clothespins years ago (from Impress Stamps, I think). As soon as I saw these mittens in the Winter Swirls stamp set, I knew I'd use them on a card. The snowflake punch is from Martha Stewart.

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A simple card; you can't see the embossed circle in the photograph unfortunately.

Finally. . .

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It's been an especially busy week, but I finally got time to do some crafting, and just in time to get this anniversary card in the mail to our dear friends in Maryland.

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All the materials are by Papertrey.

And I finished these:

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These are gift tags for the family gift exchange on Thanksgiving. There are many more, but this shows all the diferent designs, and in the back middle you can catch a glimpse of the back side of each tag. I got the idea from Heather Nichol's blog. Again, all the supplies except the snowflake punch  and ribbon (Michaels) are from Papertrey Ink.

Gratitude

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Shimelle's prompt today for Blogging for Scrapbookers prompted a bit of exploring for me. I was frankly surprised to see that I've been blogging since June 2005 and have written almost 500 posts. Amazing. Shimelle asked us to look back to a year ago and see what we were blogging about. It's a great idea and the first prompt I came to in the November 2008 archives was Thanksgiving. I had made a list of things for which I am grateful and not a one of them has changed in a year. I am one lucky lady and several tragic events of the past few weeks have just made me more aware than ever of all my blessings.

After family, friends have always been at the top of my list of blessings. We've spent the last two nights with good friends, eating delicious food, sharing stories, and reminiscing. Tonight's dinner was the first of biweekly dinners and bridge with good friends. Thirty some years ago we started playing bridge and having dinner every Wednesday night. In addition to the bridge game, Eileen and I made an informal agreement that we would never serve the same meal, so our repetoires of recipes really increased. We had a lot of fun, ate really well, and maybe the bridge game improved. After Matt was born, I couldn't keep up with a full-time job and two kids so the weekly dinners disappeared. We continued to play bridge in a duplicate group, however, which is now in its 37th year. Last month we decided to reinstate the Wednesday night dinners, but every other week. So nice to come back to an old pattern now that all our kids are grown.

Tonight's dessert was a new recipe for me, found on the Mommy Coddle blog last week. Absolutely delicious!

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I served it with vanilla ice cream, a bit of homemade caramel sauce, and candied pecans.

Holidays in Hand & An Update on Leaves

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I don't know why I was surprised. I've taken several online courses with Jessica Sprague, and they have all been fantastic. Her free Stories in Hand class was awesome and revived my interest in telling some of my childhood stories. But I was surprised this morning when I signed in for today's lesson in the Holiday in Hand class and found these fantastic prompts for the month of December.

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The prompts are beautifully designed and so thoughtful. I printed them on matte photo paper, and they look great. Jessica gave us two size options, and I chose the smaller ones which fit perfectly on this little easel. I'm planning on displaying it on my desk, ready to stimulate ideas for my Journal Your Christmas album. Between this and Shimelle's prompts, I should have no problems finding meaningful ideas to scrap this holiday season. There are still several lessons left in this course, but it's already been a great experience. Best of all, it was free!

Someone left a comment on this post, asking what happened to all the leaves on our street. Late this afternoon the town crew arrived to "pick them up." Our understanding is the leaves are then composted by the town.

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I love that they have this screen that keeps the leaves from blowing out of the truck. For the first time in several weeks, we can once again park in front of our house.

Five Recent Reads

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I am very behind in reading Shimelle's prompts, but I am keeping to my commitment to blog every day. I thought I'd share five of the latest books I've read.

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Three of these are fiction and two nonfiction. I probably read about 50% of each over the course of a year. I belong to a wonderful (couples) book group, and the group probably averages the same percentage. Both of the nonfiction titles above (The Professor and the Madman & Team of Rivals) were book group selections. Team of Rivals has to be one of the all-time best books I've read. I thought I knew a lot about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, but I learned so much reading this book. It is wonderfully written, and although very long, easy to read.

The Professor and the Madman is an older book about two men who were instrumental in the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. It's a fascinating and surprising story. Earlier this year I read Reading the OED which I really enjoyed so this was a good follow-up.

While I'm Falling is the third Laura Moriaty book I've read. I consider her books well-written "beach books." Easy reads, but usually a compelling narrative.

Breakfast with Buddha was great fun to read. I picked it up over a year ago at my favorite independent bookstore, Northshire Books. Unfortunately, Northshire is in Vermont, and I only get there once a year. I won't buy any book there I've ever read about or heard about. The staff produces great little summaries that they post under the books on display so I'm always on the hunt for new books to read.

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Yesterday I finished Gate at the Stairs. It got a rave review in the New York Times and I was anxious to read it. It is beautifully written, very funny, sad, tragic, and at times, perplexing. About 2/3 of the way through it I wasn't sure how I felt about it at all, but by the end, I was hooked. I'm hoping my daughter or a friend will read it so I can discuss it with someone.

My next read is Still Life by Louise Penny. Rochester is so fortunate to have a wonderful Arts & Lectures series that brings in distinguished authors. The next lecturer is Louise Penny, a Canadian mystery writer. I am unfamiliar with her, so I want to get one of her books read before the lecture in December.

Speaking of Arts & Lectures, Thursday night we heard Geraldine Brooks (March, Year of Wonders, People of the Book, Nine Parts of Desire). She was fabulous; entertaining, informative, and so engaging. People of the Book was the best book I read in 2008, hands down.

Project 365 and Shuttercal

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Photojojo sent me an email this weekend about Shuttercal.com. It's a free site where you can upload your daily photos to a calendar. Then, if you wish, you can have each month's photos printed in a cool square format.

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I signed up, and it's very easy to use. One thing I like is photos don't need to be resized before uploading. I have a Photo a Day blog (on the sidebar) which sadly needs much updating. I started working on in early in September but didn't get back to it. So why move to Shuttercal? I wanted to try it out because I think I'd love having the photos printed next year. (If I decided to take this one again.) And it's renewed motivation to get the daily photos processed.

Just Around the Corner

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It's hard to believe, but Christmas is just around the corner. There have been years in the past when I have completed most of my Christmas shopping by now. But this year, I had barely begun before today. It's true that the busier I am, the more organized I am. It's not that I'm not busy now that I've retired, but it's a different kind of busy. I'm no longer captive to others' schedules, and it's really been lots of fun.

I was, however, somewhat shocked to read on someone's blog this week that there are only 30+ days to get your shopping done if you need to mail packages. For the first time ever, I do need to mail all of Sarah's and Adam's gifts to California. So today I got a good start on the shopping. It was in the 50's; highly unusual for November in western New York, so it was a great day to be out and about. When I got home, I pulled out my Christmas Planner. I made this four years ago, and it has proved incredibly helpful.

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There are six sections: Gifts, Cookies, Cards, Menus, Decorating, and Receipts. In the Gifts section I list each gift I buy. It's very helpful to be able to look back and see what I've purchased other years. Last night, when I asked for ideas for stocking stuffers, Adam told me I'd always done a good job, "just do the same again." It was good to be able to see exactly what that was. The other sections have similar lists. Under Decorating I list the new decorations I purchase each year. The Receipts section is one of my favorites. It has an envelop for each person or group of people so if something needs to be returned after the holiday I know exactly where the receipt is.

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The Christmas Planner has turned out to be one of the most useful projects I've ever made.

CPS 141

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It was a busy day:  Zumba, lunch with college friends, a hospital visit, grocery shopping. While I was watching the Friday news programs, I managed to get a quick Christmas card made for CPS 141.

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I love stamping an image on more than one inchie and then separating them. A few gems, a little glitter, and some feathery ribbon (I have no idea where I found it), and it's a quick and easy card. I love the shimmery cardstock from Papertrey as well. The snowflake is from Snowflake Serenade by Papertrey.

My Brother and Me

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In an earlier prompt, Shimelle mentioned blogging a story you want to use later on a scrapbook page. I have two pages in mind for these photos. One with the story in today's post and one with photos of my brother and me from our childhood.

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Both of these photos were taken on the new Hudson River Walkway Historic State Park in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Recently I went through all the photos I have from my childhood for Ali Edward’s Yesterday and Today class. I was saddened to find only one photograph of all four of us. It’s an old, old photo and not in very good shape. Since my mother took almost all of the photos, and hated to be in photos, there are very few of her, and none of just my mom and me that I can find. There are few more of my father and me, and lots of my brother and me, and a professional photo of my father, my brother and me taken after my mother died. But I also realized that there are none of my brother and me as adults. I have photos of his daughters, of him and my son, of him and his girlfriend, of him with his daughters, but none of just the two of us. So when we went to visit in October, I made sure to get a couple of photos. Now if he would just smile!

Embellish with Owls

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I've had a lot of fun this afternoon making cards for a couple of challenges. All of them use the same images. The first is for the Embellish Owls Color Challenge.

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I recently purchased a fun clear set of Hero Arts stamps I'd been looking at for several months. A 50% off coupon sealed the deal. One of my favorite images is this cute little owl.

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Here's a detail shot that emphasizes the glitter on the owl.

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Stamps (Hero Arts, Memory Box), Cardstock (Papertrey Ink), gems (Amuse Creative Candy), twine (unknown), button (Papertrey Ink), Copic markers and Spica glitter markers.

Here are  a couple more cards using the same images but different color combinations. On the first, I stamped the branch on the back of a coffee wrap and then cut it out. The leaves were stamped, cut out, and attached to the branch.

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And finally the simplest of the three:

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November Leaves

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The last few years it has snowed before we've gotten the leaves to the street for pickup. Matt brought home the power blower last night and Tracy finished blowing in the dark. This morning he dragged the huge pile from the backyard to the street. It is an amazing pile.

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Here's the sad part. There are still leaves on the trees.

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Quite a few, in fact.

Moxie Fabic Plum Crazy

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I finally had time to create a card for the Moxie Fab Plum Crazy Challenge. Once I had the peacock colored and layered on two Nestability oval die cuts, I went hunting for a card. In my stash were these wonderful tags and envelopes from Paper Source which were just perfect. The perfect ribbon in the "purple box" as well.

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Stamp (Hero Arts), Copic markers, miscellaneous gems from stash, card (Paper Source), ribbon unknown, Nestability oval and scalloped oval dies.

Projects

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Two projects on my "to do" list have been accomplished. The first you can see readily as I have created and posted a new banner on my blog—without any help! I have really avoided this task for weeks because I was afraid I would mess up the blog and not be able to recover it. The second project still needs a little work, I think. I created a watermark for my photos which you can almost see on the second photo below. It's pretty hard to read, so I need to adjust it a bit.

The adult ed class on external flashes was quite good. I now  understand all the buttons on the flash and what they do. I haven't had much time to play with it, but here are two photos. The first is with the on camera flash. You can see the glare on the mantle and the light is quite harsh. The second is with the external flash and is much more pleasing to my eye. I'm planning to get some more practice with people (we did a bit in class last night) before Thanksgiving, and hope that the family photos that night are better than usual.

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