Scrapbook Weekend

I have never gone on the scrapbook weekend with the girls before. It never worked with my schedule until this past weekend! I had so much fun! The girls are such die hards - they get up early in the morning and can scrap as late as three and four a.m. the next morning! I brought enough supplies to do four layouts which I finished and I was able to start on Jackson's Valentines's for his classroom.

This first layout I used paper from Crate Paper from their "Static Collection." I bought the paper when the scrapbook store was still open, and I am just now am using it! I am so far behind! The pictures are from when the kids went up to Pismo Beach - Avila Beach - and San Luis Obispo after Christmas with the Dad's.

The second layout is "Turkey Time." This is from thanksgiving this past year! I used American Crafts paper from their Night Fall Collection. I like the colors and how it was balanced with the black. Thanksgiving is always fun to scrapbook, but it makes you hungry!

The third layout I worked on was the finishing touches on Jackson's Cub Scout Fire Department tour page. He is now in Boy Scouts, so I am behind in his Scouting Album also. Fun to see how much he has grown since these pictures were taken. Seems like only months ago... yikes! The fourth layout I'll share later. I amde a Valentine layout.

 I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the Scrapbook Inn was! It was a brand new house with an awesome view. My friend, Valeree and I were able to sit at a large window and look out while we scrapped and munched on snacks. The girls all brought something to share which made it really nice. There were no "food" runs. A new snack or lunch/dinner item was brought out for everyone. How nice!

 We were greeted with this nice sign to help yourself to snacks. Our bedroom had these cute footsie socks with a cute note attached with a ribbon. The home was so clean. You felt so comfortable walking around and using the kitchen and the facilities. I was very impressed. Plus I figured the rowdy group that went were going to get rowdy... but no. They are some serious scrapbookers and got right down to business and worked until the wee hours in the morning. I was even able to finish my book I brought. It was just so relaxing! We did put on the movie The Bridesmaids and cracked up! Thank you Judy for bringing some comic relief! What an awesome Saturday Night!

This is my friend Valeree. We finished up on Sunday and drove to Toms Farms for a late lunch and then headed home. Such a nice way to start of the New Year! Thank you Trish for inviting me!

Thanksgiving 101

Thanksgiving morning is the beginning of a non-stop go, go, go kinda day. The day before - Wednesday is a great day. I have the day off from work and have a chance to get some Christmas shopping done. Some stores had a two day special (Tuesday and Wednesday deals) before the "Black Friday." This was nice. No one was in the stores... love that! All the food prep is done on Wednesday and the last minute cleaning of the house. With kids destroying rooms right after you put them together, Wednesday late afternoon and evening is the only time to really set things up for the Thanksgiving celebration. Now, I have found in my older days as I open packed holiday items - such as Thanksgiving display items, I can not remember how they were displayed? I did not decorate fro Thanksgiving last year so I was totally surprised by some of the items I had accumulated. (A good thing and a bad thing). So Thanksgiving 101 tip number one: Photograph your displays. Either pack the pics with the items in the box or keep a notebook and put them in their. Maybe with your checklist.

Thanksgiving morning, up at the crack of dawn making my pies. I made the Pumpkin Pies, my sister-in-law made the Pecan Pie and purchased the Apple Pie from Apple Farms in San Luis Obispo. She also made a Pumpkin Crisp. Which basically is a graham cracker crust with a layer of pumpkin, some roasted walnuts on top and a layer of homemade whip cream on top of that. She uses the Trader Joe's Heavy Cream. Do not use the kind from the supermarket. Once you use the Trader Joe's kind nothing else will do.

And speaking of Trader Joe's - we also buy their Cranberry Sauce and Cranberry Orange Sauce in a container. It simply is the yummiest and helps alleviate the task of making the sauce yourself. Too many other things to do... We used the Cheesecloth Method of cooking our turkey this year. We heard this keeps the turkey moist and makes for a crispy coat. Not sure if we were sold on this. David did not like the skin as much. Maybe he should have removed the cheesecloth earlier... But it looked nice and yummy!

We watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Always fun to have on as we bump into each other in the kitchen. Turkey has to be in the oven! Five hours cooking time! Twenty four people will arrive before the feast at 3:00pm.

I saw a Thanksgiving Trivia Quiz on the Internet, and thought how cute to type these up and place randomly on the three tables. This way guests who did not really know each other had a way to break the ice. Plus trivia is always fun.... gets people talking!Thanksgiving 101 tip #2.

Fresh flowers on the table always add a nice touch. We had gone to an event for my son's school over the weekend and took the centerpiece at the end of the night. The flowers were red roses sprinkled with sequined picks. I bought a floral arrangement for $3 from Trader Joe's, simply cut the daisy flowers down to size, pulled out the red roses and inserted the daisies into the green floral sponge and "wallah" a centerpiece! That is Thanksgiving Tip #3.

Thanksgiving Tip #4 is photograph and archive displays and the menu. I always take a pic of the food on the table so I know what we served. I had guests bring appetizers since we used both ovens I did not want someone bringing a side that needed to be baked. They included Crostini with Trader Joe's Pico de Guillo, Baked Brie with a Cranberry Walnut Chutney, Artichoke Dip, and various Cheese Rounds.

Thanksgiving Tip #5 - Invite guests who like to do dishes and have hand lotion available at the kitchen sink and in all the bathrooms! Your hands get so dry from washing dishes. I like Bath and Body Works lotion. Soft on the hands and not greasy. This day I am not kidding we were at the sink doing dishes all day long! We kept saying "Didn't we just wash this?" Andother tip is to cook using good cookware. Good cookwear heats food evenly and cleans easily. Check at my husband's web site for some great cookware! FactoryDirect2You.com. We use All Clad, Le Creuset for the casseroles and Shun knives. I can honestly say every guest who has helped in the kitchen LOVES these products and ends up ordering some for their own kitchen investment. They are pricey - but well worth it!!!! You only need to buy these items once in your lifetime. And they cook your food more even and the dishes clean so easily. It is amazing! Check out his site and create a "Wish List" for yourself this holiday. You will be glad that you did. These are awesome and Tip #6!

All that work for just this? Turkey, Stuffing, Home Made Gravy, Honeybaked Ham, Homemade Ham Glaze, Grilled Polenta, Yams with Marshmallow Topping, Asparagus Spears with Chopped Bacon, and a Corn Souffle!

Tip #7 is quite simple. Have a Christmas Movie ready to watch as no one has energy for touch football after dinner. Plus it is dark outside. I purchased Four Christmases. It just came out on Blue Ray on Tuesday. The girls watched this hilarious (absolutely hilarious - or maybe it was all the carbs and drink that made us think so) but we laughed so loud! The boys played Texas Hold 'Em in the other room.

Autumn Birthday

My Dad's birthday is at the end of November. We usually combine his birthday with Thanksgiving, because it is so hard to get everyone together. The kids have such crazy schedules in sports. This weekend, for example, we will be at the kids sporting games - so no shopping. I scrapped my Dad's birthday from last year. We had a cake and made the Thanksgiving all about the birthday. It was quite nice actually. I used the new line from Basic Grey called Indian Summer. I LOVE this group of papers. It is so me! The colors are so conducive to so many projects and photographs. Mixing the browns and oranges with fuscia... how fun! Plus the chipboard embellishments really add to the project at hand. I copied a famous scrapbooker's layout for this page. But instead of having one photo on the page, I chose several. And it really tells the story.... right down to Jackson peering into Grandpa's spectacles to "see what he sees." How cute is that! So glad I was able to snap that memory for him.

We Are Thankful For...

I am hoping over Christmas break I can understand how Photoshop works. Even though I altered all the pictures the same way, one came out okay and the other two are too washed out.

These are pics from Thanksgiving last year. We celebrated the holiday at my sister's house. Thus, we are thankful for other people who host big events! So many pictures were taken this day and I only wanted to do a two page spread. So I thought about having the main pictures on top and "peppering" the smaller ones on the bottom. This way the story is told all at once.

For Thanksgiving, my Mom made the pumpkin turkey for the centerpiece, and my sister who must have been ambitious made the stuffed tomatoes (so I had to take a pic just in case this never happens again!), and David arrived just in time to make the gravy! It was a scrumptious meal. And so enjoyable since we did not have to host or cook! Yikes, that means this year we will have to do it all! Well, David mostly. But, that's what happens when you are a chef.... you cook!

Turkey Day!

This layout was fun to do since it reminded me of how "crazy" Thanksgiving was in 2007! We celebrate Thanksgiving twice most years. Once with my husband's family and once with mine. Thanksgiving has been at my Mom's house for years and she always throws in my Dad's birthday with it since it is so close. This layout shows our Thanksgiving at my Mother-in-Laws house. What cracks me up, is that "whatever could go wrong this day, went wrong." People did not arrive on time. Key items were not purchased, my Sister-in-Law cooked the turkey on the BROIL setting all morning, thus the blackened belly of the bird. Some parts were cooked and then some under cooked. We had to carve the turkey and figure out what was eatable now and what had to stay in the oven! In the mix of trying to find the right dish to bake something in...

we broke the favored white baking casserole dish. Someone knocked over their glass of wine and the glass broke. When my step daughter was young she had a "kitty" mug that she liked to drink from, the handle to this was broken when the turkey came out of the oven and needed room on the counter top and my husband had to make room by jabbing the baking pan against items on the counter. The kitchen in my Mother-in-Laws house is so tiny only two people (or better yet - only one person) can be in the kitchen at a time. The garbage disposal does not work - so dish detail is cumbersome. But through all of this we ended with a nice meal and everyone making an "extra" effort to smile for the camera... (don't know if you can notice the effort of smiling). The paper used here is scraps I had in a folder marked "Fall/Harvest." The wood tag was a recent purchase from Michael's Recollections line... The stickers are from Debbi Mumm. Does she even have scrapbook supplies anymore? But a little of this and that put this layout together... atleast for a chuckle!