Peace–It’s Just One Little Word

On December 1st I wrote this from a journaling prompt to “encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?”

December 1 ~ One Word.

2010 in one word…Chaos. It has felt like we are chasing our tails all year. Our business was so consuming so we stopped, but the rest of the year has been a whirlwind. Some self imposed, some imposed on us. As we are winding up the year, work for me has been more crazy than normal with a structure reorganization. And November brought us heart break in the sudden bad turn in my mom’s health. Now that we are in December, I am spending my evenings in the hospital, my days at work, the few minutes I have in the morning with my boys and squeezing in Christmas shopping on my lunch hour.

As I look to 2011 I hope for Peace. Time to enjoy our life, time to enjoy our boys, and some freedom from everyday worries. No life is perfect, but I pray we have some peace in our days.

Little did I know when I wrote those words, that we would be faced with more before the year would end. Ten days after I wrote this, my mom left us. We dealt with the holidays grieving our huge loss, one we didn’t expect to happen so quickly.

I have never chosen a word of the year before, it is a “popular” thing for us scrapbookers to do. But this year it seemed so appropriate. I felt a need for calm, quiet, reflection, hope, and serenity.

Peace – (noun) – 1. a state of tranquility or quiet. 2. harmony in personal relationships

Synonyms – calm, quiet, stillness, silence, tranquility, harmony, serenity, agreement, friendship, love, order, unity, relaxation, rest, repose

Quotes that resonated with me  -

“Peace is not something you wish for; It's something you make, Something you do, Something you are, And something you give away.” ~ Robert Fulghum

“When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.”  ~ Peace Pilgrim

“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it”

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”  ~ Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta

“Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Peace is its own reward.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere” ~ François de la Rochefoucauld

“Peace is the deliberate adjustment of my life to the will of God.”

“All we are saying is give peace a chance.” ~ John Lennon

“Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.” ~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy

To help me remain committed to my word for 2011 I have signed up for Ali Edwards One Little Word class at Big Picture Classes. Each month we will receive an assignment to help us remember what we have committed to, I know this will be important for me this year.

ScrapTiffany…playing catch up

I think it’s about time I do a ScrapTiffany post again. With the loss of my Mom last month, I have been off of my regular blogging routine, and Tiffany has been graciously understanding with my ScrapTiffany assignments.

I wasn’t sure I would have the desire to scrap, but found during the past few weeks I have found a bit of solace in a little scrap therapy.  So if you check in at ScrapTiffany regularly you would see I have had submissions posted most weeks, but hadn’t updated my blog .

Anyway, we are going to remedy that today with a big catch up post. First, today’s post over at ScrapTiffany is the kick off of the new Design Team and a brand new blog design. Our challenge for the week was to scraplift another design team member.  I chose a layout by one of the new designers, Sophie to scraplift. I still want to do a more thorough “Turning 40” post and layout, but other things took priority on my birthday and I just haven’t gotten to it. For now, I have the most important things documented on what I want to focus on at 40…

I used the Studio Calico December Metropolitan kit and add-on’s for this one.  This was Sophie’s layout that I lifted….

Next in the catching up department, a couple weeks back we did an All About Boys challenge. I was able to scrap one of my favorite pictures taken this year of Mike and Jackson using a Citrus Tree Studio kit I picked up over the summer.

Check out the other designers here and here

And one last ScrapTiffany layout I have not posted.  Last week we had a Year in Review challenge which I happily used as an excuse to use my Studio Calico month stamps along with a quick collage and another layout from the Studio Calico December kit.

Check out the fun ideas the ScrapTiffany designers had to document 2010 here and here.

On Tuesday it is my turn to host the ScrapTiffany blog here is a peek at what I have coming….

See you soon….

ScrapTiffany's Thrifty Thursday

It's Thrifty Thursday today on the ScrapTiffany blog and it was my turn to post. I wrote about how I got thrifty with my Thickers. Here's a peek....

Head on over to ScrapTiffany to see the rest.

ScrapTiffany Monday

This week at ScrapTiffany was handmade flowers. I made mine by punching several circles and adhering them together, folding them to make petals and then forming my flower with the petals.

Check out what the other ladies did at ScrapTiffany.

Last week I was consumed with dealing with putting my mom and the hospital, so I didn't get around to posting last week's ScrapTiffany challenge.  It was a sketch challenge week, and this was my take on it.

You can see last week's challenge here and here over at ScrapTiffany.

Have a great Monday.

Christmas, Weekend Round Up and a Turkey

I've been MIA lately, with a lot going on. Last week we received some upsetting family news, and the end of the week was spent processing it.

Work has been crazy lately, we are consolidating our office with our Denver office and everything is moving to our office here in Phoenix. So work life has been busy in interviewing, hiring and planning for this transition. Oh, and it is year end, and I am an accountant.

I have been working a lot of hours lately, and seeing my family less than I would like. But, I know I am lucky that I will still have my job after this transition.

And because of my busy work schedule, at home it is beginning to look....

a lot like.....Christmas.....

(p.s. the picture for the frame is being printed today to go with the Christmas theme)

Yes, we put up our tree and decorations the weekend before Thanksgiving. I have to work the Friday after Turkey Day and we host the meal every year. So several years ago we stopped trying to do it all after Thanksgiving and moved the inside decorating to a week before. I have a few finishing touches to add after a trip to the store, so I will share some more photos soon.

It was sad putting this away.

Turkey does really get the short stick. (Although the Halloween stuff was gone a few

weeks ago).

Friday night this crazy boy....

...crawled out of his bed....twice. He hasn't tried it again. But we did buy a toddler bed over the weekend just in case. Unfortunately the crib tent doesn't work on his style of crib.

Stinker!

Mike put all the trees up last week (yes, all means 3, 5 if you count the small ones in the boys rooms).  On Saturday he took the boys out during the day so I could do all the rest of the decorations. Then Saturday night we all enjoyed the tradition Mike and I have had for years. Munchies and snacks while enjoying our now decorated house.

Sunday we just hung out and rested.  I have picked up the cold that the rest of the family is getting over. So we just laid low...

As we head into the home stretch for my two favorite holidays of the year, our challenge at ScrapTiffany this week was Food/Recipes. So on honor of the big bird I'll be cooking later this week, I featured Turkey My Way.   I have perfected my bird over the past 15 years that I have been the holiday host. And I am pretty proud of it.

I'll give you two of my secrets, a fresh organic turkey and Reynolds Oven Bags. The rest is my secret, ;)

Head over to ScrapTiffany to see what the other designers did.

Just a peek at one of the pictures from our recent photo shoot with Maggie Holmes. We are lucky that she lives nearby. We met Maggie a few weeks ago and late last week picked up our photos.

I'll share some more tomorrow.  Have a great Monday.

Birthday Boy Weekend & ScrapTiffany Monday

Last week got away from me, and I didn't get a chance to post the winner for my drawing from the ScrapTiffany Holiday Blog Hop.  So without further delay the winner is (as picked by Random.org)... Scrapfaire said...

Red Velvet Cake is a must for Christmas! Love your recipe file!

November 8, 2010 4:58 AM

Congratulations!  E-mail me here to claim your box of goodies.

Mike and I did some Christmas shopping on Friday night at Toys R Us. Our first date night in about a year. Santa will be making 2 little boys very happy this year.

After shopping, we did get to go out to a grown up dinner at Dvine Wine and Bistro. It was fabulous. We splurged and had bruschetta for an appetizer, shared a bowl of potato bacon soup, and then we both ordered the filet mingon for dinner. We finished it off with a Kahlua Mouse Chocolate Cake.  And to go with dinner we had a fantastic bottle of wine, Opolo Moutain Zin - '06 Paso Robles. Oh to be a grown up again. (different year on label)

Jackson's birthday party was this weekend.  He really loves the Yo Gabba Gabba show on Nick Jr. I bought tickets last week to take him to the live show coming in a few weeks. When the music starts for the show, it doesn't matter where he is in the house, he comes running to watch.

I had the "brilliant" idea to make Yo Gabba Gabba the party theme. Of course that was before I realized that there were no themed decorations to go with said theme.  Add this to the ton of hours I have been working, and it leaves me in a jam. I didn't have much creative time to make decorations, but I had bought a couple of things to go with the theme already.

So we improvised with printable decorations from the Nick Jr site, a few scrap supplies and some colorful decorations from the disco and general birthday sections at Party City.

I attempted to make the cake match the theme.

I was pretty happy with the banner.

Even the birthday cards were Yo Gabba Gabba (printables and wrapping paper on a card base, with StayzOn ink for the stamped message).

Party time...while Daddy grilled dinner, we played outside...

Nicholas worked on his picture taking skills....

As taken by Nicholas....

After dinner was presents....

Then of course cake....

I made a pumpkin spice cake with pumpkin cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Jackson ate 2 pieces. So I guess he liked it as much as the rest of us.

And I need to dig out the camera manual because of all the pictures that should have been great turned out blurry. I am blurring the focal point and getting the background sharp. Not sure what I did to the settings to make that happen. But it is frustrating.

Last week the ScrapTiffany team participated in the Hippity Hop Blog Hop, which was a collaboration of a few challenge blog sites. The hop is over but you can still check out the posts starting here at the Sassy Lil' Sketches blog.  I didn't have any time to post anything as the week progressed. But I will now share the layout I did for the Blog Hop challenge.

It was a recipe challenge where each blog added one ingredient to the "recipe" to use for your layout:

Ingredients:

Sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches

Use 3 of the same thing from ScrapFit

Use ink paint or mist or all 3 from Crop Suey

Use some Lace from ScrapTiffany

Use some texture or embossing from Cuttlebug Spot

So here is mine....

How I made mine...

Sketch - Kept the overall general design in tact

Use 3 of the same thing - Stars were my pick for 3

Use ink paint or mist or all 3 - I chose some Studio Calico Mr. Huey's for my banner with a base coat and a spritz of white on top for a splattered look.

Use some Lace from ScrapTiffany - Lace designed paper

Use some texture or embossing from Cuttlebug Spot -  Circle journal spot embossed with my Cuttlebug

And finally, this weeks challenge for ScrapTiffany was to use crepe paper. So I bought some to decorate for Jackson's party so I would have some for a layout.

Here is what I did...

I stitched the crepe paper down to make my sky background. I thought it would rip, but it worked just fine. I found some vellum in my stash and used my new Fiskars Cloud punches to make my clouds.

I also played with some new Martha Stewart punches I have recently picked up on clearance and during last weeks Veterans Day sale at Michaels.  Martha Stewart now has some punch anywhere punches in some basic shapes and designs so I punched out my journaling spot and added some paper behind it. There are a few other newer Martha punches I am going to have to get my hands on one coupon at a time, of course.

Now it is time to get ready for work, and another busy full week. Hope you have a great one!

ScrapTiffany Holiday Blog Hop

Welcome to the ScrapTiffany Holiday Blog Hop. We are so excited to share our Holiday Ideas with you on Monday and Tuesday this week.

You should have arrived here from Laurel's blog. If you arrived here first, head back to the ScrapTiffany blog.

I am so excited to finally share this project with you. Every year around Chirstmas I do some holiday baking. I always make the same line up of treats, but every year I end up hunting around for my recipes. I needed to get them all in one place. I had this box leftover from a mini album project and it was the perfect size for a recipe box.

I used some Pink Paislee and some fabulous music note fabric from a Color Me Daisy kit (no longer available). I added American Crafts Thickers, a splash of paint, a dab of ink, a trip through the sewing machine, some punching and the outside of my box was decorated....

Close up (I told you that fabric was fabulous)...

Backside of box...

The tabbed recipe cards were cut from the Cricut From My Kitchen cartridge...

I typed up the recipes and labels and added a couple of paper strips (Lettering Delights Going Nuts font)...

And what would a recipe be without a yummy picture. On the backside of the recipe card I added a picture, a couple of paper strips and another tab.

Thanks for visiting me for the ScrapTiffany Holiday Blog Hop.

Leave a comment telling me what your favorite holiday treat is and I will draw a name to receive a box of some scrappy goodies that will include some things I have left from a few past Studio Calico and Mosh Posh kits, as well as some holiday scrappy goodies.

The next stop on the ScrapTiffany Blog Hop tour is Norazah.

And if you get lost here are all the ScrapTiffany ladies to help you get back on track:

Sheri

Abby

Becca

Jackie

Jennifer

Jessica

Katie

Kay

Keely

Kristi

Kristina

Laurel

Michelle (me)

Norazah

Rebecca

Summer

ScrapTiffany

Happy November!

We had a very busy and very fun weekend with all the Halloween festivities. I baked pumpkin spice cupcakes and burned sugar cookies on Saturday morning.

We went to the pumpkin patch at Schnepf Farms

And played in the train park at the farm

We decorated the burned sugar cookies. Nicholas likes to decorate but doesn't like to eat cookies with frosting on them. So Mike will eat those, and I set aside the cookies I did not burn for Nicholas to eat, sans frosting.

I carved the pumpkin and Nicholas had a chat with him

The boys dressed up in their costumes

Jackson really didn't like his at first, but he got comfortable as the night wore on

And went trick or treating, we made it through 4 blocks in our neighborhood. One more than last year.

Then came home and checked out our haul (and maybe had a pack or two of M&M's.

This week at ScrapTiffany was a Color Challenge. The colors worked well with my October Mosh Posh kit. The title came from a song they sang on Glee while I was making this page.

Wednesday is my turn at the ScrapTiffany blog and I have something fun to share for fall.

And next week is our Blog Hop at ScrapTiffany. So check back next Monday and Tuesday for some Holiday inspiration and a chance to win some goodies.

Also, the design team at ScrapTiffany was asked to participate in the Hippity Hoppity Blog Hop as well. So check us out next week over on the ScrapTiffany blog.

Have a great Monday!

Happy Birthday Mom and Back from Vacation and Catching Up

I haven't made it here in a while.  We were on vacation last week at Disneyland and in San Diego, and the week before I got busy wrapping up at work and getting ready to go out of town.  So lots to share today! First my Mom's birthday was on Saturday. Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!

In honor of my Mom, who has been battling cancer since 1998, I signed up for the Arizona 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk that will be held in November 2011.  More on that in a future post. But I am excited to do this!

I did my ScrapTiffany assignments early since I was going to be gone. But never got my posts scheduled while I was away. So I am sharing my projects from the past 2 weeks.

Last week the challenge was to Scenery Photos.  I choose one of my favorite photos taken when we camped at Pismo Beach a few years ago.  I had this one blown up and framed in our hallway. But I realized I had never scrapbooked it.

This week at ScrapTiffany is all about Banners and Pennants.  I made this to decorate for Fall. The pumpkins and frames were  sprayed with Maya Mist. I have it hanging on my patio door but it is on glass and doesn't photograph very well, so finding a way to photograph the whole thing was a bit of a challenge in itself.

Now onto our vacation...

Last Friday night we were deep in packing mode to leave early Saturday morning. The boys stuff was piled on the dining room table by Mike for inspection by me before it was packed up. I look forward to the day that we don't have to pack diapers. I packed each day's outfits and each nights PJ's in zip-lock bags which made it quick for getting dressed each day. I brought them all home and left them in our suitcases for the next trip.

This is Nicholas "helping" me pack Mike and my clothes.

After only 4 hours of sleep, we were up at 4:00 a.m. to get on the road by 6:00, which turned into 7:00 by the time the car was loaded. The kids were buckled in their seats and I was getting ready to pull the car out of the garage so Mike could put his car back in....I turn the key....and "click, click, click".  Yep, the car wouldn't start. So we called AAA and hoped and prayed that it was not the alternator.

I had to get the boys out of the car and spent about 20 minutes with Nicholas having a melt down because he thought we weren't taking him to Disneyland. I finally got the boys settled down watching TV while we waited.

It turned out that it was just the battery and once we had a new one we were on the road. The boys are good travelers and we made it to California in pretty good time.  We checked in to the Embassy Suites by Disneyland and headed to Zubie's in Huntington Beach for my Dad's 65th birthday party.

Sunday morning we were up early and had the brilliant idea to walk the 1.5 miles to Disney from our hotel. The walk in the morning wasn't too bad, and we were soon on our way into the park.  The first thing we saw after entering the gates was a train pulling in to the station, making Nicholas one happy little boy.

We were quickly down Main Street, since Nicholas was directing traffic "This Way Daddy! This Way!" with pointing to emphasize. Stopping was not an option nor was getting any pictures.

First ride was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Nicholas let us know he did not like waiting in lines. As crowded as it was during our trip, he was going to have to get used to that real quickly.

The merry-go-round was on Nicholas's request list, so we obliged. We also flew with Peter Pan and rode with Pinocchio.

After a popcorn break we headed to It's A Small World. Both boys loved it.

Nicholas thought he would make a call to Mickey Mouse with his new phone (the one we bought him so he would be entertained in line). Isn't that like talking on the phone in the movie theater? Good thing no one could hear him, since we were in the front of the boat and it is pretty loud in there.

Mike's brother's, Scott and Jon, live in Southern California and have annual passes to Disneyland so they came down to the park with their families. The boys loved hanging out with their cousins at Disneyland. This was very nice when we were almost at the front of the Winnie the Pooh line and it broke down. The little ones entertained each other the whole time and didn't seem to notice how much longer the wait was.

There were all kinds of Fall touches throughout the park. It looked like a pumpkin patch or something was in the Big Thunder BBQ area, but we never did make it in there to find out.

All the little one's fell asleep about the same time. I went on Pirates of the Caribbean with Scott, Lorie, Kaitlyn and Kylie, while Mike and Jon stayed with the kiddos. After the ride they needed to call it a day, since they had work and school the next day. But I did get a nice picture of Scott, Lorie and the girls before they left.

Right after they left, the boys woke up. Mike and I decided to head to California Adventure to grab a glass of wine at the winery. We were also just in time for the parade, which you can catch a pretty good view of from the elevated level of the winery.

The parade featuring many of the Pixar movie characters made one little boy very happy. Nicholas knew most of the characters, since they are the stars of the movies he loves.

Jackson enjoyed the show too...

Every time Nicholas sees this picture now that we are home he tells me it's Jessie and Woody from Toy Story.  :)

Wow was Nicholas excited when he saw his hero Lightening McQueen and his best friend Mater.

After the parade we headed to Taste Pilot's Grill for dinner, but not before stopping at the train for a photo-op. This is one of the few pictures where everyone in the picture is looking at the camera and one of them isn't making a really weird face at me for taking the picture. I love my boys....

After dinner we went back to Disneyland and took the train to Fantasyland to ride It's A Small World again, then we drove the cars at Autopia.  We finished our ride just before the fireworks show. We found a spot near the Matterhorn and watched from there. It was a great show, but you couldn't hear the soundtrack with it. But we all enjoyed it anyway.

It was about 9:00 when the show ended, well past the boys normal bed time. So we headed back to the hotel. Remember I said we walked?  Well now we had to walk back, so that great idea wasn't so great at this point. Especially since we were slightly past the walking range most people would do. So once we passed a certain point, there weren't many people out and it was less than ideal.

To be continued.....

21 Years Ago Today....

We went on our first date...

So today is our "unofficial" anniversary. I couldn't have it any better.

Ask and you shall receive....I guess

I know I have been complaining A LOT about the heat this year in lovely Arizona, aka 'the oven". We have been hoping for fall, but really?

"Fall"-ing trees????  They said we had winds up to 70 mph in some parts of Chandler. Must have been in our front yard. This is the 4th or 5th tree  we have lost in our front yard in this spot. The first 2 died and the last ones were knocked over in storms. We have lived in our house 5 years, and between a severe frost in 2007 that killed a few other trees and the winds, our tree landscaping looks like we have lived here 5 minutes. I want my trees to grow up.

I went on a walk this morning and the only other trees that were lost were in the common areas, no other homes that I saw. Just loving that we get to pay someone to remove the tree and plant another one.

On the upside we may finally be heading towards fall. It should be in the 80's to low 90's for the rest of the week. Hasta la vista 100 degree temps!

Mike took the boys to Snip It's for hair cuts yesterday. They both look like little marines with their short do's.

Here's a card I made for my friend that is coming back to work today after a very long and bad illness. It's a scary thing to think you are going about your normal life your still relatively young, overall healthy and then wham, life stops you in your tracks. I am praying she is back feeling like her normal self soon.

I made this with the new Pink Paislee/House of Three Parisian Anthology paper and trim. I picked up the trims at my LSS last week. I was paying for my other purchases and looked over and saw them peeking out of a box of new stuff that hadn't been put out yet. I asked if I could buy them even though they weren't up for sale. I misted the paper with Tattered Angels. It didn't show up in the picture too well, but it the glossy part of the paper is still creamy off white.

The stamp was found in the dollar bin at Michael's a month or so ago. They had a few "vintage-y" style stamps (birdcage, old fashioned key and old typewriter) that I got as well.  Oh and the trim....swoon.

Have a great Wednesday!