My new background

Well did you notice my new snazzy background? We, much to my surprise found out a couple of days before Christmas that we are expecting a baby boy. We are very excited and when I say we I mean everyone except big sister Elaina who is convinced that the ultrasound tech is wrong and therefore we can not possibly know that it is not a girl until the baby is born. She has concluded that boys are annoying and she would much prefer another sister! Well I tried to explain the ultrasound pictures to her but she just would not even hear it. Anyways now it's on to the name game, we have so far an Elaina, Evan, Owen, and Avery, so it seems we have a vowel thing going on. Now I am fearful this poor baby shall remain nameless, John and I are both very particular about names we like common but not to common and it has to be as my hubby would say not efeminate. So any recomondations out there? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

A kitchen sneek peek for Angie

Okay we are about halfway through our kitchen redo and I am trying to decide on a border, so I thought Angie would need to see some pics!

Christmas morning

Our children don't get alot of gifts from us on Christmas we want them to realize that Christmas is about remembering the birth of our saviour. It's also about tradition and being together it is not about "STUFF". However what they do get they absolutely love and appreciate!

I'm back again

wow it has been so long since I last posted, but with the holidays everything has been so busy plus for some strange reason my camera would not give up it's pictures for me to upload. Anyways it is finally working again, so here is a picture of an artboard I made for my mom for Christmas using the new and extremley gorgeous new Veranda creative basics paper pack from CTMH, and Veranda stickease and some new copper mini medley photo corners which will be available for sale starting the 1st!

Have a very mice Christmas

Honestly, are these not the cutest cookies ever? I found the recipe for these little mice cookies in Taste Of Home magazine and decided to make them for my daughter to take to school today! Oh and how perfect that I had just ordered the Merry Little Christmas stamp set from CTMH'S Holiday Heyday clearance sale! I just made the toppers yesterday so they had to be quick and simple, the stamp on the back is from SU! Hopefully everyone will like them, daddy and I had a sample last night when they came out of the oven and they were yummy!

Yummy-Pretzels and Truffles

So here are some pictures of what I did today, and this is what is left. Chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate chip cookie dough truffles. There is also some pictures of the boxes I made yesterday that are now filled for gifts for Christmas at my in-laws tommorrow! These are just so easy to make but look so complicated, I love that!

Pretzel boxes & a gift purse

Okay, I am making some gourmet chocolate covered pretzel's for gift's and wanted to make some boxes for them to go in so I found this blog www.kristinscrafts.blogspot.com and she had an awsome tutorial for these boxes and they were so easy except for the window part which proved to be a little complicated for me, I apparently have to practice cutting straight with a craft night. I will post pictures later with the boxes filled with the pretzels. Now the cute little purse I made using Evensong paper and found the tutorial at Julie's blog www.paperpleasing.typepad.com. I velcroed the lid and will probably fill with truffles!

Recycled pumpkin cans and an old coffee can

Wow, I guess I am finally a recycler! I have one of those cool can openers that leaves no sharp edge when you open a can, so I am going to fill my cool little pumpkin cans with honey roasted peanuts and then hot glue the lid back on! The other can is from some ground coffee that was sitting in my cupboard for about a year. We figured out the joy of grinding our own organic whole bean coffee so I figured it was time to ditch the old and reuse the can, I will fill it with chocolate chip cookie dough truffles for someone! I used Evensong paper, cranberry ribbon, and the Merry Pursuits and Holiday Trinkets stamp sets. I also used the Just For The Holidays stamp set but that is on the top of the cans and I forgot to take a picture so you will just have to use your imaginations!

Christmas Candy Cane Cookies

How yummy do these look? I found the recipe over at Julie Buhler's blog www.paperpleasing.typepad.com she has alot of great papercrafting tutorials as well! Anyways as soon as I saw these I knew I had to make my own, and they are so good the kisses actually have little crushed candy cane pieces in them! Don't you just love the holidays and all the festive foods you can find? I will be posting some containers I recycled and decorated a little later, they are almost finished but not all the way!

Holiday Trinkets Card

Okay so I was suppossed to post some pictures of my Christmas cards the other day, but I swear my pregnancy brain is just not working! Well anyways I made alot of cards with alot of stamps and only took this one picture, oh well! I used last years Evensong creative basics and the Holiday Trinkets ss as well as cranberry sparkles and ribbon!

Stardust Memory Keeper Box

I just love these CTMH Memory Keeper boxes, they are inexpensive they come flat and they can be used for so many things. I used this one to make a baby keepsake box for a baby just born who's family goes to our church! I used CTMH'S Stardust paperpack, and Spot On Backgrounds stamp set. Everything used was from CTMH! I actually have been working on more Christmas cards as well which I will hopefully post later this evening!

A blizzard and Christmas cookies

Okay let me start off by saying that I was supposed to post pics of the sweet treats we made at Aubrey's yesterday and guess who did not take their camera? Yup me, but wait the batteries were dead anyways! Oh well we had such a good time and if you want to see pics just head over to Aubrey's blog www.welcometomyarmylife.blogspot.com. On another note the pictures of the kids in the snow are from 6:30 this morning, today was the 3rd snow day in a row for Elaina and that is a very rare occurance! We probably got about 3 ft of snow in the last 24 hrs, I am glad we all got to stay home safe today and wow I gotta tell ya I have lived here in New York all my life and I still love the snow, it is so beautiful outside! Anyways we made sour cream cutout cookies today thanks to Angie by way of Mary Jo for the recipe and then I made homemade frosting which is just perfect, not too sweet but I had no food coloring and my husband tells me he does not want those chemicals in his food anyway, so we just frosted them white and then added some sugar pearls on some of them. If you notice they are brown in color it is because they were made using only whole wheat flour, and they were still scrumptious! Thanks be to God for the wonderful memories created this week with my family!

A sneek peek at some finished kitchen cabinets

I am not for sure how well you will be able to see in this picture, but my husband is working on remodeling our kitchen and he started with the cabinets. They are going from bright white with silver hinges and white knobs to antique white with brushed bronze hardware! It is a slow process but my hubby is amazing he gets started right after dinner even though he has been doing construction work all day, and his back has really been bothering him all week! I am so thankful for such a hardworking man! Now later this morning I am heading to my neighbor Aubrey's to make some goodies with the kids! I will post pictures later in the day!

A Gingerbread Train

Well it is cold and blustery here in New York today and school was closed so my three oldest children and I decided to make a Gingerbread Train the kit came from Target! It was fairly easy considering I am not artistic! Probably just as much candy was eaten as was put on the train but we had a blast doing it! Now hopefully I can work on some cards!

Homemade Lemonade in December?

Who says fresh squeezed lemonade is only for the summer? My husband got groceries the other night and he picked up a bag of organic lemons, add a little organic raw sugar and ice cold water and you have nice fresh December lemonade! My husband is remodeling our kitchen this winter and he started by taking off the cabinets to paint them, so the kids and I had to find something fun to do and this was it! We got our fancy Christmas glasses out and dipped the rims in sugar and voila December lemonade! Sorry my picture taking skills leave a little to be desired but hopefully this will become one of those treasured Christmas traditions that we can enjoy for years to come!

A baby gift-Good Times

Okay this was a quick little baby gift I made for a couple at church that just had a baby boy! I used Good Times paper, Chocolate and Buttercup ribbon, letters were cut using the Plantin School Book Cricut Cartridge, and I used the Just For Boys, Checklist and Picture Perfect stamp sets, Chocolate ink, 6x6 accordian album and some of that amazing felt!

A sneek peak at "Felicity"

Is'nt it so pretty? This paper pack is called "Felicity" and the paper and stamp are part of a great special that CTMH will be offering from mid-December through January! I will hopefully be sharing more peeks of this amazing set in the next few weeks! The pics are of my daughter's that my amzing neighbor Aubrey took! The paper and stamp set are from "Felicity", I also used Desert Sand and Sorbet cardstock as well as ink and a little Cocoa ink too. I used a Colonial white top coat and pearls, and lot's and lot's of sparkles.

A 1st grade class project

This is a little wreath my daughter and I made for her class project for December. sI used Gift Of Love and Holiday Trinkets stamp sets from CTMH. The flower and ornament are both heat embossed with gold ep. I also used micro beads, liquid glass, gold brads, and colored with Copics.