December Daily

Hello!

It's Christmas Eve! The festivities are in full swing! Hope you all are having a merry time! I'm popping in to share a few pages of our December Daily and then it's off to bake our favorite sugar cookies. Must leave Santa fresh cookies, right? ;)

Our 10th and 11th of December is about giving...to the poor and to Christopher's teachers.

It's so important to give year round because there is so much need out there! And during the holidays it's time to give a little extra to help make every one's holiday special. We gave the Toys for Tots drive, at our local Whole Foods, a set of Melissa & Doug wood blocks. I figured every child should have building blocks!

Every year we thank Christopher's teachers for their dedication and hard work by giving them gift certificates to Target and sometimes Starbucks. We're sure they receive plenty of ornaments, candy and apple themed gifts and that they could really use some money!

On the 12th and 13th days of the month we featured our kitty Java and a snowflake handmade by Christopher!

It's been a tradition for many Christmases to unpack the reindeer antlers and plop them on one of our cats for a good chuckle. This year poor Java had the honors, but he doesn't look to thrilled about it does he?

I'm not the only one who gets to play with paper and craft up some fun during the holidays! Christopher made a snowflake at school that I folded up and placed in this tiny envelope.

I hope you are spending these holidays enjoying some baking, carols, crafting and family time! Enjoy!

Kathy :)

December Daily - Days Eight & Nine

Hi!

I'm getting back on track with our December Daily after taking time to work on Christmas preparations and design team projects.

Here's our eighth and ninth days of December. On the eight I started working on our annual Christmas ornaments.

I've been using a lot of my favorite thin metal dies for our ornaments and December Daily.

Ahhh...hot chocolate! We drink a lot of cocoa during the holidays! With fresh made whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon! And we enjoy sipping it from these adorable cups a friend of mine gave us a few years ago.

Well, this is the last weekend before Christmas. What's on your agenda? Since I've got most of our Christmas preparations taken care of, I'm not venturing out into the hustle and bustle! I think I'll whip up a cup of hot cocoa and keep working on our December Daily! ;)

Hope you have a great weekend!

Kathy

December Daily - Days Six & Seven

Good day!

The December Daily is moving right along and I couldn't be more happy about it. I know how much we'll enjoy it years down the road and I imagine that when Christopher is an adult, he will love reading about the activities we enjoyed during the season.

First, I have to tell you about a funny conversation that happened this morning while Dan, Christopher and I were getting breakfast together. As my husband was pouring a glass of orange juice, it reminded me of the fresh squeezed tangerine juice I picked up at Whole Foods over the weekend so I said, "I got you and Christopher some tangerine juice to try." Dan stood there looking at me like I just sprouted another eye so I said it again, "I got you some tangerine juice." I guess I'm pretty soft spoken because he just kept staring at me like I was crazy and then he said, "You got us some canned green juice?" Oh my! Canned green juice?!?! LOL I had to pull myself together so that I could say, "No! I got you some tangerine juice!" Finally he got it and was laughing too. All morning we just kept cracking up and making further jokes about it. Ah...the little things!

So here are days six and seven of our December Daily. On the sixth I typed up our family letter to send along with our Christmas cards.

For our seventh day I started addressing all the handmade cards I've been making for my design team assignments. I hope everyone enjoys the extra fancy one-of-a-kind cards this year! Usually I create a design or two and then duplicate it.

I got to do a little blog hopping yesterday and it's been fun seeing all the fabulous projects everyone is crafting and I loved seeing some of your decorated homes! Hope you are all having a great time preparing for Christmas! Thanks for stopping in!

Kathy :)

December Daily - Days Two & Three

Hello!

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can........keep up with the December Daily even though I've only finished up to December third and it's the ninth! ;)  The project has been put aside temporarily so that I can make gift ornaments and address Christmas cards. I wish there were just a couple more hours in the day to get it all done; how about you?

Well, I'll make this a quick post so I can get back to it. I love making my ornaments and cards, I just don't like how quickly the days go by and that I need to get it all posted in the next couple of days so they arrive in the mail on time. After that things will calm down a bit. Ahhh.....just breath! ;)

So here's my 2nd and 3rd days of our December Daily...

I'm keeping it pretty simple, much like our 2010 December Daily. I'm adding some stitching and a couple extra accents.

Here's a little Sugar peeking out of the kitty Christmas Stocking! Isn't she adorable?

Christopher's awesome photo with Santa!

I better run and get a couple more ornaments made and I have to run to the post office with some of them. Hope you are enjoying these days and not too rushed.

Kathy :)

Christmas Crafting

Hello! How are you today? Are you busy with Christmas activities? I've been crafting up a storm! Each day I've been working on our December Daily album and holiday decor projects. Today I will start making some gingerbread ornaments for our friends and family. Tomorrow we will head to the mall to visit Santa! Christopher is so excited! How about you? Have you been baking? Wrapping gifts yet? Christopher is the only one who has his gifts wrapped and under the tree so far! :)

Here's one of the decor projects I made this week, a Let it Snow frame.

The patterned paper I used for this frame is from October Afternoon's Very Merry collection.

I used a glue pen to trace all the snowflakes and added Crystal Fine Glitter from Martha Stewart. I love all the sparkle it creates!

The sheet music is from 1927 and I also outlined all the notes and bars with a glue pen and glittered them.  The tag, from Staples, was stamped with a Papertrey Ink stamp and glittered around the edges.

The snowflake in the center is a foam sticker from my local craft store. I topped it with a pink button and a pair of mini jingle bells. If interested, this is listed in my Etsy shop.

Would you like to see our latest December Daily album pages? I've seen many beautiful December Daily albums that are so inspiring!

For the 6th of December I created a page about working on our December Daily book! ;) I had to catch up from the weekend before and created three pages on the sixth!

I printed small wallet size photos of the three pages I worked on and tied them together with baker's twine and made a little library card pocket with a Papertrey Ink die. The journaling tickets and stamped edges are also Papertrey Ink.

In between the 6th and 7th pages, I added this transparency to jazz up our album a bit.

December 7th is all about hot chocolate! Yum! We drink a lot of it this time of year!

On December 8th we had snow on the ground and a morning temperature of only 18 degrees! That's cold for us, 20 degrees below normal! While I was uttering "brrrrr," Latte was sounding a "purrrrr" as he was curled up in the sun on the couch! ;)

I have one more share for you before I take off and work on this year's ornaments. For years I've wanted a Christmas tree in my bedroom. It stems from wanting to sleep under the tree when I was a girl! At 44, spending the night in front of the tree in a sleeping bag doesn't sound all the comfortable, but I still like the idea of falling asleep under the glow of Christmas lights. This year I found a sweet little flocked tree that I set up in the bedroom.

Here it is! Isn't it lovely? I took all the vintage mercury glass ornaments I've been collecting to decorate it. I think it's so beautiful and I feel so spoiled when I get into bed at night to read with just the soft glowing lights of this little tree! I am able to read without a light on because I read books on my iPad.

I'd like to leave you with a little assignment! That's right, homework! ;) Wait! It's good homework! I want you to do something special for yourself. Spoil yourself with a tree in your bedroom or whatever it is that would make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Perhaps that would be a hot toddy?!  If it means you have to spend $100 dollars, tell your husband that Kathy told you to do it! ;)

Christmas Shares & Giveaway

Hi! It's the most wonderful time of year! That means there's so much to share with you! Yesterday I was blog hopping and ran across a great site that had this quote tag to download. I've been searching my computer history this morning trying to find the blog I found it on with no luck. Note to self...write things down! :)

It's a lovely quote by Helen Keller and I love the way the font size is changed and the text is arranged. Doesn't it make a sweet little display? I put it in a vintage pressed aluminum bowl in my bedroom. I made a couple of these so I could give one away. Just leave a comment on this post today and I'll draw a name tomorrow morning and post the winner.

I spent some time yesterday working on our December Daily album and have some photos to share with you.

My entry for the third of December is about coffee and crafting. Oh how I love the holiday drinks at Starbucks and their Christmas Blend! Do you have a favorite Starbucks holiday drink? And what would the holidays be without crafting?

I did some holiday crafting on the third that included this little vintage Santa tag.

The fourth of December was an exciting day because we got our first snow, an unusual event in our area! We only get a few inches a year and it almost always falls in January and February. What a lovely surprise that made shopping in downtown Hillsborough feel like Christmas!

Do you spy my peppermint mocha? I can't resist a hot cup of Joe on a snowy shopping day!

For my December 5th entry I have a photo of Christopher's little snow guy. There was enough snow left from the previous day to make him. I went on a treasure hunt with my friend Audrey and found more vintage ornaments for our tree. Well, it's shaping up to be a wonderful December!

Now I'd like to show you some more photos of our holiday home. Yesterday I showed you the living room and today I'll show you the dining room.

Here's our little folk artsy looking tree. It's fun to have a few little trees around the house in addition to the main tree in the living room.

Photographed below is an even smaller tree! Isn't it darling...covered with snow and colorful ball ornaments? It's actually an ornament (see the hanger), but I like to display it this way.

I love this sparkly berry wreath...an after Christmas clearance item from Target I picked up years ago.

I think this little wreath could use one of my handmade tags and a beautiful bow!

Continuing on the rustic theme, the table has a couple fur trees that I left a la natural.

Isn't this little elf and his Jack-in-the-box darling? He's a Lori Mitchell figurine. They are the sweetest and you can collect them for every holiday!

I didn't want our little elf to be alone so I've placed this adorable little lamb on the table with him. He's got a soft woolly coat and rusted jingle bell around his neck.

For my last photo, I made this vintage image Santa tag. He looks splendid placed in this hammered aluminum bowl with an ornament!

Well, I hope you are enjoying the holidays. If you have some decorations you would like to share or a December Daily album, leave me a comment and I'll come take a peek. Thanks for dropping by! :) Kathy

Recipe Cards, December Daily, Recipe & Winner

Hi! I'm happy you're here because I have a few shares for you today! But before I launch into that, how has the first couple of December days been? Busy? I hope you are finding time to relax and enjoy! Are any of you making a December Daily album? If you are I would really love to see yours!  Leave a comment about your December Daily project and I'll come take a peek!

For my first share, I'd like to show you a hybrid project I created yesterday using a new digital kit from Two Peas in a Bucket. The kit name is 'Yummers'designed by Lauren Reid.

I love this kit with all it's baking and cooking themed patterned papers and elements that are perfect for the holidays as well as for scrapbook pages about cooking and baking. I think this bundle of six recipe cards would make a sweet gift, don't you? You could add some home baked goodies or a couple kitchen gadgets and hand towels.

My favorite part of the Yummers kit is the food drawings. LOVE the poultry leg, carrot and fruits. Well, I think they are all too fun! :)

My next share is the second page of our December Daily album.

I decided on our Christmas card for this year and started writing them out. I used a hand drawn doodle of a Santa hat and turned it into a digital image to print again and again. Then I just added glitter to the red part of the hat. Easy and still handmade!

I opted for a monochromatic theme for the second entry. I love how it looks! I'm wondering though if I should add a little sparkle to my snowflakes? Maybe a little rhinestone to the centers? I always look at my finished project and think of something else I might do with it! Ha!

Now for my last share...I tried another new recipe last night. This one is perfect for those who love quick, fresh, healthy and low calorie meals. We can all use that this time of year with the over indulging of baked goodies, and Starbucks' holiday coffees! ;)

This recipe is called Debra's Grilled Chicken. It's a dish you cook on the grill, but I used our indoor George Foreman grill and it worked perfectly. Instead of wrapping your grilled chicken in tin foil and throwing it back on the grill for a few minutes, I stuck our tin foil wrapped chicken in the toaster oven to finish cooking. For my son who doesn't like tomatoes, I left that part off and simply melted a little Parmesan cheese on his.

I almost forgot to announce the winner of the snowflake embellishments! Oops! :) The winner of those lovely glittered snowflakes is Jeni Alen from My Stampin' Spot. Congratulations Jen! :)

So, this concludes my shares for the day. I hope you enjoyed them. And I wish you a wonderful day filled with holiday goodness! :) Kathy