It's starting...

to look and feel like Christmas here. With all the talk to Christmas this and Christmas that online because everyone knows that the Christmas season is in full swing in the scrapping world...I am in the mood already to decorate. See I am a last minute kind of girl in the house. Outside the lights have to be up by a certain date because of the neighborhood but inside usually lags behind and I take it down right after Christmas...a naked tree is depressing.

Shimelle last weekend had a Christmas Crafting weekend. I started slow and worked on a few things but mainly I worked on my December Daily.

The first challenge was a Woven Christmas Card. I scrap lifted Melissa Mann because my card skills are less than what they should be.



The next thing that I tackled was the size of my Christmas Journal. At first I thought that I would do a 6x12. All went well. I gathered my paper, cut it to size, covered my covers, decorated the cover page and then I attempted to punch the holes. Because of my bad hands...no crop-a-dile for me because I don't have the strength to squeeze. (It only bothers me when I am at the scrapbook store and its part of the class and people are looking and waiting for the tool. I try to skip it) So I old schooled it and used a paper punch and hammer. Well all went great on the first set of holes...the 2nd set - not so great. I was going to leave it until I noticed that my paper was pulling so I just had to walk away. I went to bed and realized that I can just cut my paper and move on.

My journal is now 6x9.25. I cut right under the holes. I also moved on to my Bind It All. So yes, my pages have holes and bind it all holes on one end. Oh well, I am not perfect.

My Cover Fancy Pants Christmas Magic - Deck the Halls


Inside Foo-Fa-La - Black, Red and Cream


My Inside Cover Page Basic Grey Wassail - Mantle


All My Pages More Info Soon


Next I worked on my page numbers for my pages. I went with the same style because my paper is all different.



They are a Maroon with white numbers cut with Keystone on my Cricut. I rounded 2 of the corners of my maroon squares and used Diamond Stickles on half of the numbers to look like snow.

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In all of this drama, I worked on my Christmas Cards. Pinterest was my inspiration. Remember what I said about cards and me...

Here is what the ones I found from Sweet Paperie



Here are mine




I used Ocean, Pear and Black Bazzill. A corner punch, Ribbon, Buttons, a Uni-Ball Black Gel Pen, a stamp from Studio G and black ink.

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On the baby home front...we are at 2 weeks and the babies are all over the tank and still hanging on momma. They are getting bigger :)

My Last 2 weeks

The last two weeks have been a little hectic, odd and exciting all at the same time. I know that when we get into this time of year it starts moving faster around here and before I know it we are at the end of the year.

October 29, 2011
My babies birthday. It's hard for me to believe that she is now old enough to drive and get a job. I can't believe that she is 16 already, she is supposed to still be the little girl with pig tails.

This year she went out of her norm. She decided that she was going to run a 5K bright and early. No sleeping in for her birthday...we were up and out of the house at 6am to get downtown in time for her to warm up.

This was our view of the grounds when we got to the race site.


I missed her leaving the finish line...there was a extremely large mass of people. Normal running people, barely running people, fast running people and then there was rude running man. He almost knocked down 2 woman by pushing them to the side so he could run fast past them.

I did manage to catch her coming back in


And even though its a bad shot, I love this photo


These are close to the start/finish line. I took my photos and yelled to her to run fast and finish hard. This was the 1st time she heard me during a race. She smiled. Her time was 27:24. I was worried that the pavement would aggravate her shin splints but she didn't have any trouble.

Then we went home for a nap. For dinner, Samantha chose Benihana and she took her friend Ellie with us.



Later after we got home from dinner and the mall we had cake.



This cake...oh my this cake gave me all sorts of problems. She asked for a turtle cake this year. I called HEB, Randalls, Fiesta, another HEB and a bakery. The grocery stores couldn't make a turtle cake because they just didn't know how to do it. The bakery would make it but it started at 20 servings at $5 per serving. There is only 4 of us at home...no way. I went to Kroger and noticed a dragon cake. If they can make a dragon...they can make a turtle. I finally got to talk to the woman who made the dragon cake and she said she would try. I told her as long as it looked like a turtle we were good.

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November 5, 2011

We had babies. I hadn't seen Larry (my crawfish) in about a month. HE was hiding in the rock that is in the tank. I knew he was alive and was to the point I was going to take the rock away when....



Larry comes out and this is what I see. Oh course, I freak run to Google and am looking up "crawfish tail growth" and to find out that my HE is a SHE. Apparently according to Google they can take weeks to months to lay their eggs. I have had Larry since she was saved from the pot of boiling water in late June. Then Google who by this point is not my friend anymore tells me that she can have 100-300 fry. Oh my.

Well she has had her babies. They were clear in the beginning with little black dots for eyes. They didn't photo at all. Now they are bigger and are starting to get some color. I am going to have lots of red ones but I still have some who are clear so I am hoping I get some blues. I am going to give them to people who want them as a pet and won't eat them. I am going to see if the pet store will take some of them and the rest I am going to take to the pond and creek. Yes, I will probably cry.

Babies 3 days old eating on the algae tablet.


Babies a week old coming out to eat. They are so cute and they swim backwards!


I will be back tomorrow with my scrappy stuff from Shimelle's Christmas weekend.