Christmas time

Oh, My!! Christmas came early this year as my family celebrated on Sunday due to some work schedules. So, we were home on Christmas without the kids so we enjoyed a movie date together. We liked the movie Lincoln, which was good. It started out slow but ended nicely. We hadn't been to the movies in awhile so it was fun to be out. We had tried to go earlier but the movie was sold out. It used to be that the movies were empty when we went with the boys.

Anyway, I did get cards crafted and mailed in a timely manner. I had colored Riley the Wreath in Oct. while watching TV with the hubby. I added a bit of gold glitter stickle on the ornaments and a bit of red stickle on the holly berries. The little sentiment was a free digi, which I didn't make a note about it. I cut it with a scalloped oval and popped it on a slightly larger oval. I layered Riley on red cardstock and then on Michael's Recollection's Christmas striped paper. I put a piece of glitter ribbon by American Crafts across the bottom of the striped paper. I used the dark green cardstock for the bases. It was a bit dark for writing on so I used a white pen or a green Sharpie to sign our names to the cards.

Of course, I didn't make quite enough of the Riley cards so I did a Plan B card, which was some more of the cards I had done for my sister's retreat. I used Michael's Recollection 8 1/2 x 11" Christmas paper pack, using most of the pack for the cards. I added a bit of icicle stickle on the little squares, outlining the squares. I used most of the Recollection paper cards for the friends at work and other people like the UPS guys and the mailman.

One gift I got from a co-worker was this cutie. The Santa will have

 a new home in my scrapbook room 

since he has the cricut green trim instead of the 

traditional white trim on his suit. I love him!! 

Of course, the Hershey Kisses are gone!

Speaking of my scrapbook room, I need to do a bit of reorganizing in it. My older son got rid of some items in his 1/2 of the closet so I have a bit more room in it now. I think I'll get a few more cubes from Michael's and put them in the closet. The closet doors will close now!!

 My younger son and his fiance' will here for a few days if the snow lets up so they can safely drive here. My photo above of my dog Ace as a Christmas tree won us 4 tickets to the light display at the zoo. So the four of us are going tomorrow or Friday, depending on the weather. It will be fun!! Thanks, Ace!!

I'm enjoying my school break but it is flying by so quickly!!!

I do hope you all had a wonderful Christmas 

with your family and friends. 

Hopefully, you will find a few crafting moments 

in your busy holiday time.

Project Life 365 in 2012

I started taking a photo a day at the beginning of the year. I found it online as Project 365, Project Life 2012, and a couple other names. I combined the titles into my own title. It has been fun to take photos of random events, out of the ordinary thoughts, and fun facts. I have had a hard time getting a photo some days with my new job and the darkness of winter. But other days, I get lots of photos. But spring is here and I hope to get out more often now.

The project has been thought provoking because it makes me wonder more about the shots I take. Additionally, I take photos more carefully too. It has encouraged me to get out of my rut driving from home to school and back again. As I drive around town, I see something that would be a great photo but I can't stop to take a picture right then. That's frustrating. But I'll keep that picture idea in my head and later in the week, I'll take to find a way to get the picture. I found myself observing the world around with a different outlook, wondering how the observation could develop into a picture. The project makes me notice things more like the trees that were cut down near the cemetery. The trees were huge and very old and suddenly they were gone. The city had to cut them down before the trees fell down in the next storm due to the disease and bugs within the trees.

Many of my Project's photos are of objects and things as my kids are away at college and I work in a school where I can't take students' photos. I have been photographing cookies and other food. I have found that I need better lighting for my indoor photos. I don't like the glow of the new energy light bulbs or the flash of my point and shoot camera as the flash is too harsh and yet, the flashless option is too yellow.

I also need to find a better way to crop and edit my photos. I thought I was at one time to edit and correct my photos on my computer. But my laptop sends my photos to Paint and I can't edit there as I did on my old computer. I need to ask my geeks in the family to help me find better ways to edit and crop my photos before I upload the photos to Shutterfly or Walgreens, which both of these have editing features.

I look forward to Spring finally arriving here. The spring flowers, the robins hopping around, kids with kites at the park, enjoying the first picnic at the park. Below are a few of my Project Life 365 2012 pictures.

Sunday Breakfast with hubby and hot chocolate

Sunset on the first 50 degree day in February.

Bluejacket Hockey game we went to as Early Valentine's Day date

One of the old trees cut down in front of the cemetery I pass every day to and from work.

Ace dog

McDonald's Shamrock Shake - Yum!!!