2009 Christmas Windup part 2

So Christmas Day was ROUGH! I had only gone to sleep at 1am and my Kayla is used to being let out in the morning by at least 6:30 and I'm not even sure what time it was when she woke me up. I groggily stumbled to the nearest door to let her out. Then I flopped back down on the bed for more zzzzzz's. A called me then to wish me a Merry Christmas and to tell me to be careful driving home in the evening. I didn't talk much because my head was POUNDING and I was feeling OLD! I heard Mom, Jerry and Kane opening up gifts, but my head hurt and I just went back to sleep. I woke up a few hours later (still feeling rough) and discovered that Santa had left a stocking for me! It has been forever since I have been good enough to get goodies from Santa but there they were...new makeup brushes (I can NEVER have too many of those!!), a beautiful marcasite snowflake pin, a Christmas scarf, cashews and some body scrub and lotion. It was so special to get my goodies from Santa.

I took some medicine for my head and slowly began to feel better and better. Watched Christmas movies with Mama, Kayla, and Al (Kane had Christmas toys to play with!!)

Then that afternoon Kane and I went to Daddy's. I love my Daddy so much (love my Mama too!) I just wish he and Linda would stop buying all the presents. We all agreed years ago that the kids were the only ones to get Christmas presents...I guess I just need to resign myself that even though they agree, they are probably not going to stick to it LOL! I got the prettiest cross necklace. It is silver and there's a dove on the front. It is very, very tiny which is AWESOME because I had been wanting a tiny necklace of some kind (this is unusual because I usually like big chunky jewels...LOL). A got a wallet, which was awesome because he actually needed a new one! I'll try not to wash this one in the washing machine.

I got back to Memphis on 12/25 at 11:20pm. Tired but so happy A was at home and awake. I also discovered that the present my friend Mary E had given me a couple of weeks ago and told me not to open until Christmas has apparently been hidden by one of the cats (ok, so I know this has to be Starbuck, she has just started carting off anything she can carry to "hide"). I've looked in the easy places, but I think maybe it is hiding upstairs in my craft room and that will take me a while to go through...lots of hidey places there...(that's why I haven't thanked you for it yet Mary E).

I loved seeing my brother and my sisters. I was so glad to get to tell Danelle how much this year's Christmas devotional touched me. Don't get me wrong, I have always enjoyed them...but this one was extra special and meaningful. I was amused to hear that she was a little unsure about sending it out and thought it was morbid... and happy to hear that loads of people had felt the same way I did about it.

Everyone was in pretty good health and the kids were all ecstatic about their Santa gifts. We missed having Stefanie, Sydney, McKenzie and Celie but I hear they are so happy and better off living in Florida so I'm glad for them.

I hope everyone's holiday was as nice as mine.

I also hope to go through and get some pics and projects up this week. I do work every day (January 1 is my first holiday to work for 2010) but I'm hoping to get lots done this week. The house HAS to be clean for New Year's...that's my big NY tradition LOL!

Hugs,

Charity

2009 Christmas Windup

Ok so I woke up at 2:30 to finish some elven duties and wash a load of clothes so I could take my favorite Christmas sweater to wear for Christmas. Apparently I forgot to turn the dryer on when I loaded it so at 4am when I was ready to pull out and pack my sweater (ok, yes I waited until the last minute this year and will try not to do that again) and that's when I noticed that apparently I had never turned the dryer on. I was not ready to leave my house by 5am, but did leave a little before 6 so that was good :)!

I stopped in Tupelo to deliver Monica and Bella's gifts (on time for once!). I also swung by Starbucks there for a lovely venti peppermint mocha (made with 1/2 syrup). (This is my alltime fav drink!!!) It was so good to see Monica and update her a little on why I haven't been calling anyone much lately. Kayla tried to eat packing peanuts at the UPS store and was SO happy to get to see her Monica. (or her half-Monica as she has lost so much weight this year.)

Then we made a big old elf stop in Fulton and visited with the Brandon and Lana...who were so much fun and so EXCITED for Christmas (they told me yesterday that they got exactly what they wanted and more for Christmas). Lana wanted me to stay or wanted to go with me to my Mama's but we convinced her it would be easier for Santa to find her if she stayed put.

Then I got to my Mama's house and shortly afterwards found out she wasn't getting off work as early as she had planned...here's where the fun started.

She called and said that she may be working until 4pm or later and that Jerry and I would need to start dinner. The dressing (yes real cornbread dressing) was thawing on the counter, she had pre mixed the ingredients and frozen it well in advance and that would need to go in the oven about an hour before we wanted to eat it but we had to make: sweet potato crunch, mashed potatos, dumplings (chicken and), english peas, and green bean cassarole. I peeled, Jerry made the mashed potatos all by himself. I peeled the sweet potatos and we kind of made that together while I also put together the green bean cassarole (I don't really like green bean cassarole but others do and that's what Mama wanted...it was almost all eaten). Mama told me the green bean cassarole recipe was on the side of the French's onions. She also said that she had plenty of ingredients for it. I put together what was on the can and AFTER I had it all mixed and ready to put in the oven thought "this isn't a lot for the amount of people that are coming, should I have doubled this?" but went on with the sweet potato crunch which was at a standstill (Kane was stirring everything while we dumped it in his bowl.) because Jerry couldn't find the Nutmeg. I told Jerry just to dump in the pumpkin pie spice in place of the individual spices but he said that Mama had said to follow the recipe and we had already put in some extra sweet potato because we cooked more than needed(LOL men!). We then pulled all the spices out of the cabinets (there was NO nutmeg). When Jerry turned around I dumped in some pumpkin pie spice and told him I was now in charge of that dish and it would be fine and no one would know the difference (I think he was still worried, he kept asking me how I knew it would be allright and didn't I need measuring spoons).

The dumplings were easy, except my mom likes to use those pre frozen already rolled and cut ones and I don't, these were frozen in a block for some reason and we had to use a knife to seperate them LOL. But the best thing EVER was the dressing.

Remember I said it had been assembled and frozen beforehand?

Well it was on the counter, all thawed and ready to go in the oven, so I uncovered these huge pans of dressing and they were like shallow lakes. All the chicken stock was floating over the cornbread portion. I had Jerry help me slide these in the oven when the green beans and potato crunch came out. and we almost lost one pan...chicken stock everywhere over the bottom of the NEW OVEN (lol...they did get a self-cleaner). I was just guessing that it would soak in while it cooked (I had never cooked frozen dressing). Mama gets home and I tell her about all the stock and she said "It had that much even after you stirred it up?"

Then I said "Stirred it up? I didn't stir it, I didn't know I was supposed to do that."

Needless to say, everyone had a big laugh and I think this is just as funny right now as when it happened.

Then she said she didn't teach me to cook as well as she thought she had. I told her I didn't even remember her making dressing as I was growing up.

Then she said "I didn't make it then, Big Mama did" so it wasn't her fault after all LOL!

I love traditional holiday food at Mama's. I love when everyone comes in and starts really piling on their favorite things. I love that I will always get: dumplings, dressing, red velvet cake. I love that we always have turkey and ham for Christmas. I love that the cranberry sauce is always sliced but molded into the can shape.

I love the kids, the screaming, the squeals, the laughing and the hugs.

More on Christmas tomorrow.

Hugs,

Charity

Merry Christmas!

I had every intention of blogging while in Alabama, but decided that for once (or really twice) that I would just spend time with my rl family instead. I have some funnies to relate and will do that later today, just wanted to go ahead and say Merry Christmas (one day late) and thanks for all the support you have given me this year.

Love,

Charity

Design Team Call!!!

Ok, I have gone and done it!!! I decided to try out to be a Tulip Girl at Label Tulip. These ladies have some AWESOME creations and the kits are ultra-fab since the club is under new ownership!! Wish me luck! I had the hardest time deciding what to submit, or what I think is DT worthy, but I came up with my personal favs and hope they love them too! Happy Holidays everyone. I will be posting some more photos of projects before Christmas (it has become a personal goal of mine now...). I have been a bit depressed as of late and need the creativity to keep me going.

In Full Swing!

So I have made the following this week:

Chef Hat with Matching Apron (yes, I sewed, can you believe it???)

Two Altered Journals (moleskins to be precise)

I also made an A-L-A-N-A banner...will try to post pics tomorrow because I have to work this weekend, and it's getting late.

Almost done with my Christmas scrappies and got a great new card idea today.

If I finish my other projects this weekend I may give it a go for ya!

Happy Weekend everyone!!!

My first real Digital Layout!

So today along with the blog banner...I decided to try an actual Layout:

Do you think I'll make it as a digital scrapper. It's ten o'clock people, this took FOREVER!!! But I did it and all by myself :)

This was using the following FREE digital kits from twopeas:

Bright Smiles by Michelle Underwood

Eloquent Autumn by Betsey Tuma

Indie Pops: Celebrates by Tia Bennett

Be sure and leave me some comments...I need the encourage/discouragement LOL!

Going Digi...

Ok, so I made my last banner by taking a class. This one (for Christmas 2009) I made myself!!! From Fantastic Digi kits (free digikits!!!) from twopeas. You do not have to have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to use their kits (can't use the brushes unless you have them, so don't waste money kids!). They have a remarkable amount of FREE resources including digital scrapbook kits, fonts, and how to (see the education section). If you've never been to twopeasinabucket check them out! They have a huge communty and btw...my handle there is Aeify. Hope to see you soon and let me know if you digi...I think I'm gonna like it!

Holiday Happies.

...(lots of private emotional things that just never would come out right so pretend there are actually lots of words here...) Thanks for listening :). Anyway I have been working REALLY REALLY hard to make something especially nice for Nana and usually when I try to work on something for the in-law side of the family, I get so nervous that they won't like it, it won't be good enough...blah blah blah...

I made something I am SO proud of!!!

Here it is. A chipboard purse by Maya Road that was gifted to me by my very first Fiskateer Secret sister...all dolled up with a few other things but mostly Making Memories Vintage findings...Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint and Glimmer Mist!

The outside paper I got in a grab bag from Eclectica I also got my Vintage Findings paper and embellishment packs there...The letter "ribbon" is from the School Collection...the rickrack and ribbons are from my stash and there is distressing on the edges and the lace with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo. The top paper also has peeled paint Stickles painted over it.

This flower on top started live as a pair of DH's old black jeans. I salvaged them for my scrap pile :). The alternate pages are from an old dictionary that I got at a thrift store here and they are hosed down with Olive Glimmer Mist and then the edges are kissed with Copper Perfect Pearls

The original thought was that the book would be held closed by those awesome Basic Grey Magnets, but it won't stay closed with just those so I took some stretchy brown ribbon and made a little garter to hold it shut. It stands up by itself just fine.

The title page...all photos are of Nana and Papa's Great Grandchildren :).

The boys are the oldest, so they get the first pages. By themselves and then together.

I've been creating...

Ok, so remember when I said my goal was to get my Christmas cards ready before Thanksgiving?

Even if you don't, I got most all of them ready, except I was a couple short. I used some shimmerz...LOVE THEM and glimmermist in Candy Cane, Graphite and Marshmallow. There are two photos of the envie here ...trying to show you the shine.

So this photo is darker, but maybe you can tell it's shiny here. I really pared down my list this year and I have mostly just mailed to family...have a few friends left to go.

And here's the card!! I've been trying so hard to improve my card making skills. Thanks to Kristina Werner (click her name to go to her blog). I've become a faithful follower...via youtube. She makes cardmaking look so simple and fantastic!! Not to mention she introduced me to the Corner Chomper (link goes to my fav lss...they carry the Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers)!

Do you believe this is Halloween Paper? It is...American Crafts Halloween. The backside of the polka dots is orange LOL got this on sale (of course) after Halloween. The ribbon is by Making Memories...Paperie Collection. The Fluer (they didn't all get a fluer, some got crosses and some got doves) came as black, blue, an gray foam. They are by American Crafts and I got a little tube of them last year at Big Lots. I have LOVED the shapes but didn't use very many until now. There is also a label shape. I painted the foam with gray acrylic paint as a primer (gray worked better than black or white...go fig) and then used Shimmerz for the color! I used an almost dry brush dipped in shimmerz to highlight around the polkadot area too. The card is distressed with a little Vintage Photo Distress Ink and the sentiment is from a holiday collection by Hero Arts and stamped in Fired Brick Distress Ink. I was not brave enough to try and make my own card bases (I know this is not hard, just didn't wanna have to struggle with envelopes.) so I just went with a package of card bases/envies that I had gotten at Michaels. In the meantime, I got some at Hobby Lobby...HL quality is SO MUCH nicer IMHO. But these cards looked great. There is no sentiment inside (most of them anyway) just holiday wishes.

Sorry I've been so neglectful of late but in a seperate post, you'll see why.

Twitter

Ok, I did it...now I'm a tweeter. I am sure this will be more fun when I get a smartphone, but the chance to win Ranger products did the trick.

If you want to follow me, my twitter (name?) is of course scrapfaire (I'm liking this almost as much as my previous online alias LOL). I don't know how much I'll be tweeting, but you are welcome to follow there.

I'd like to say THANK YOU to Sudie Alexander for being my first follower, I'm honored!!!

12 tags of Christmas Day 1

Can't believe I'm going to try to play along every day...what an inspirational morning!!! In case you haven't heard Tim Holtz is working on his 12 tags of Christmas. Every day there's going to be a new tag/tutorial to inspire the masses and prizes galore just for commenting. I decided to play along and am pumped.