Projects...

This week I've started working on a couple of projects:
1 - the advent boxes that Ali E first shared, and has recently shared a photo of one her friend did --- I've got my boxes in a layout and ready to paint. I'm putting mine in an old photo frame, bc I just can't stand the thoughts of 24 holes [tiny as they may be] in my wall... I'll share more photos as soon as it's done. And 2 - the gratitude journal that Cathy Z shared this week - originated with Emily F. I think. Love it. The idea is to pull together random left over papers, envelopes, cards, etc. to form a journal. I'm using an 8 x8 acrylic journal I've bought recently. SO while this is not a great photo, I hope you can see that there's three layers in sight from the start [acrylic cover, 1st half page, and 2nd whole page.] You'll need 26 pages front and back [for fifty two weeks] - and my plan is to use a consistent title font, a circle photo or two, write random things I'm grateful for each week. Speaking of that - I'm grateful my camera has perked up - it went into a funk last week and we thought it might need to be repaired - refused to turn off and kept running the battery down - but after tweaking it a little [leaving the card open so that it had to turn off] it's alive and well again. WHeew! But I didn't take nary a photo during Thanksgiving... just a little hard to pull it out and take photos without my dad there... scrapping some Christmas photos from last year - and a little harder than I expected... but I'm okay, day-by-day....

Do you Remember...

the creeping crud of 2006? That horrible stomach bug that crept through your system for WEEKS? Well, for the last several weeks I've been trying to remember what caused me to have so little Christmas decor out last year... we were heading to Disney right after Christmas, sure, but we've done that several times and always still had the Christmas feeling at home. This was IT for last year. NOTICE: NO TREE!
Well, I finally did pull one out of the attic in the play room and plugged it in -
with NO ORNAMENTS.
Then over the Thanksgiving weekend - I remembered , like a bad dream, really - the creeping crud. The bug that everyone laughed at you [behind your back mind you] because you just couldn't shake it --- until they got it too. I didn't feel completely 'normal' again until January or so - and now I'm wondering if THAT was a precursor to the other medical things I started dealing with in full-force in the spring...could be....
So this year I'm feeling GOOD. I've even scrubbed my kitchen floor inch-by-inch on my hands and knees [sore, but thankful for the energy to do it.] And I'm ready for Christmas! I'm soooo looking forward to getting everything out and up and pretty for the season. I even have a brand new tree I bought in 2005, but haven't used yet. I hope to have it done and ready to sit and enjoy with hot chocolate and carols by the weekend.

Design Team Creations from the November Kit!

November Magnolias

Just wanted to share this pretty flower I've been watching outside my office for the last few days. Pretty strange for November - and it's no wonder my allergies are giving me some problems since blooming trees are no fun for me...

Pool Room Slaw

This used to be one of my favorite fall traditions - making a big batch of pool room slaw to enjoy and share with others. It's yummy with lots of different meats and reminds me of my favorite bbq slaw. It's been a while since I've made it - maybe Mobile -? Possibly on Clovis - ?
 Just can't remember - but I do remember that the last time I made it I burned it terribly and ended up throwing it all out. Yuk! So the key is to begin timing from the time it's put on the stove - not from boil.... Here's the recipe:

Pool Room Slaw
Mix together:
3 cups sugar
3 carrots - grated
1 gallon cabbage - grated [apx 4-5 small cabbage heads]
2 large bell peppers - diced
3 onions - grated
1 cup white vinegar
1 tsp. pepper
1 TBLS salt
3 cups yellow mustard
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Mix together and cook 20 minutes - counting from the time it is placed on the stove. Put in pint jars and water bath to seal. [I used the food processor to make quick work of the prep.] Yummy!
EDITED TO ADD: I usually water bath for 20 - 30 minutes --

 So that was part of my day's work. Craig got out the leaf blower [a favorite thing of mine - truly] and started working on the leaves. Keep in mind that this is our first round. It really takes two of us to get it all to the street - so I helped a little with the raking. We'll NEED to do this every week until the end of January. But it will probably get done every other week... because there's just more to life than raking [blowing] leaves - mindless task that it is -

There's at least this many more at the street already! This is just a small price we pay to be able to enjoy this [and so glad the leaves are pretty this year - everyone was concerned that the drought would prevent these beautiful colors]:

Happy Fall Y'all!

Be watching -

Design Team Notifications will be going out to all entrants this week. So be watching your email boxes. And again - this was a difficult decision as we thought each and every entry was worthy Design Team material! But we can only pick nine - so very hard to do.

Ahhh Fall!

My favorite season!
And while we say goodbye to the last vegetables of the season [yes! I picked these peppers last night!] we also say hello to cool fall evenings, colorful mums, pumpkin goodies [not much for the pie- but love pumpkin bread!] , and leaves - leaves - leaves. I'll do my best to remember to share with you just how many leaves we deal with each year! We've been in this house four years now and have had such trouble keeping up with the 'leaf pick-up' days. Each year I try to make the effort to see when it's posted. Well, everyone in town must have the same issue because it's been in the local paper almost every day for the last month. Our pick-up week was last week and wouldn't you know it - not a leaf had fallen from even one tree on our street. Until THIS WEEK. Leaves are everywhere! Beautiful, crunchy, lovely leaves. I'll post some photos later. For now enjoy these pretty things I got from the 'mum man' for $1 a pot - any size! Today was a good day!
Tomorrow evening we're taking our annual walk through the botanical gardens with our camping buddies to start the holiday season. We'll head to Pizza Hut afterwards and enjoy a cozy time sharing together- hope you're weekend is fun too!

A little reading ...

I just wanted to share this little book that I know without a doubt the Lord led me to in the bookstore about a week ago - right at THE MOMENT that I needed to slow down and take some time to re-evaluate all that's going on in my life ... Tasra does an outstanding job using the designs principles of scrap booking to show how the Lord is the great designer of our lives. It's been a blessing to me to read throughout the week - and I think I'll read it again this week! If you're interested, you can get more info about Tasra and her scrap philosophy here.

Design Team Entries

are everywhere! And we've been having a difficult time with decisions about these! Each one is wonderful and shows faith in unique ways on scrapbook layouts - love them all! But unfortunately we can only choose nine this year - a difficult decision - be watching for info soon.

Trying to sloooow down

That's what I've been told to do by two [3-?] different doctors. But you know it's not so easy to do since I've been going at a frenzied pace for about six months now. My body is telling me I must slow down - and I've been checked [and double-checked] and there's absolutely nothing wrong with me. So Friday my director gave me permission to stay home and relax - and I did! I sat out by our fire pit most of the day - just reading - and journaling- and praying - and pretending to be camping... very nice.

And Drew was home for the weekend so we had a nice relaxing Saturday and Sunday too - with a little time for some photos:
And I've taken a little time to scrap -- with paper - something I hadn't done in a few weeks. Very therapeutic for me. I've also been playing around with digital scrapping since I'm taking "Up and Running" with Jessica Sprague. It's been fun - and I know I'll incorporate some of the digital elements into my paper scrapping -and I HAVE enjoyed making the quick digi layout - but I know I'll always be a true paper scrapper at heart. Here's a favorite [the photos were taken with Craig's cell phone - so the pixels are low to start with.]:Been reading some nasty things about the Hall of Fame winners - 2007 - so I bought the book myself before making any judgements... what do y'all think? Some pretty awesome work in there - some pretty stringent rules to follow -- I'm toying with the idea of entering for '08. Even if it's never sent off - it would surely be a creative challenge!