Well, I'm still running behind on my Project Life.  Only by a couple of weeks though.  Someday I'll be caught up!  I hope...

I did manage to finish up the last few Jade sketches over at ScrabookSteals, so I'm doing pretty good on my scrappy new year's goals.  Just not 100 percent yet.  And I have to go back to work tomorrow, so now I'll have even less crafty time.  Better make the most of it!

 Here are weeks 3 & 4 in my Project Life:

Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life - Week 2

So my New Year's resolution of keeping up with my Project Life is not quite happening...I'm only a week behind, but still.  I have to go back to work in a month.  If I can't keep up now, how the heck am I going to keep up while working full time!? Sigh.  C'est la vie!

As I was working on my week 2 layout today, I came to the realization that I need to start organizing my PL photos in folders by week.  When I had my PC the date the pictures were taken was always part of the little file tag.  Now that I'm on a Mac, that date isn't there...not even in the metadata.  And this momma brain has a hard time remembering things these days, so separate folders it is!

Here's what I put together for week 2:

This layout incorporates some more freebies, more digi washi <3, and some American Crafts Dear Lizzy and 5th & Frolic elements from acdigitals.com.

Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life

I've decided to join in the Project Life fun!  I've been contemplating it for awhile now and decided that 2013 would be my year.  I have a really good camera and some great glass to go with it, so what better way to make sure it gets used then to start Project Life!  Since I already have tons of scrapbooking supplies (I may be close to being on an episode of Hoarders...ha ha) and I didn't want to take away from my regular scrapbooking, I decided to go digital.  I bought the Project Life Clementine edition digital kit and templates from Jessica Sprague.com and I also found tons of free printables to use on my pages while searching on Pinterest.  But enough rambling, here is my 2013 title page and my week 1 layout:

I never knew how much fun digi scrapping could be, but I love it!  It's just plain fun.  And I'm in love with digi washi tape...it's just as cool as the real stuff.

Thanks for popping in!

December Daily

I finally finished my December Daily album!!  Well, ok, almost finished.  But I'm really really close and I decided I should just go ahead and bind it together and post pics, so it's not summer when I actually get it fully completed.  I just have 3 days to finish, so shouldn't take too long...just need to get some pics printed. So, the rest of this post will be very picture heavy with shots of all my pages.

For my DD, I ordered the amazing October Afternoon Very Merry mini album for my 2012 album.  Now if I were to be completely honest I would say that I also ordered the entire collection of Simple Stories Handmade Holiday for my DD album, but decided not to use it for this one.  I'll save it for this year's!  :)

I changed up the OA mini album a bit since  I wanted to make my album 8x8 -  so I could scrap more pictures and bind it with my Cinch (that has been collecting a very nice layer of dust).  The bases of my pages are AC white cardstock covered with OA paper.  I used a few pieces of other OA lines and added a few extra embellies of my own and lots of washi tape (I just can't get enough of it...real or digi). Here it is:

A few important things to note when using the Cinch:  Make sure the guide is fully pushed in or pulled out before punching and make sure your paper is in the right way.  I learned these things the hard way...oops!  Oh well, nothing a little washi can't fix!  The Cinch really does live up to it's name though.  It is FABulous!  Seriously.  I can see many more books in my future.

As always, thanks for popping in to check out my little crafty blog.

Happy New Year!

My first post of 2013 is a catch up of some things I finished last year.  With the hubs being on vacay from work for a couple of weeks over Christmas, I was able to catch up on my mid week mojos from Scrapbooksteals...Crafternoon nap time just isn't long enough most days! :)   I now only have a couple of random sketches left and I've completed every sketch they've put out since the very first one!  Yay!  Here are the 8 layouts I finished (please excuse the crappy picture quality...I was too lazy to bring out my dslr...but that will change this year!):

Now, to finish my December Daily album!  I'm over halfway done and hope to be finished by this weekend.  I'm also doing Project Life this year!  Digital version, so stay tuned for those layouts to be posted soon too.  It's all part of my scrappy New Year's resolution:  Keep up with scrapbooking/crafting/sewing, document more of our family's memories and use my dslr more often...I use it lots, but I'd like to use it a lot more since it was a big investment for it and the glass I have for it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Homemade Chocolate Liqueur

Merry Christmas!  I'm raising a virtual toast to everyone with this recipe for homemade chocolate liqueur.  Let me tell you, it's divine.  I based my version off of a recipe found here and made a few slight variations of my own.  So here it is!

Chocolate Liqueur 

2 1/2 cups Half and Half

2 cups of Whiskey (I used Jack Daniels, but use whichever brand you fancy)

3 300ml cans of Sweetened Condensed Milk

2 tsp Vanilla

2 tsp Instant Espresso Powder

1/8 cup of good quality melted chocolate (I used Bernard Callebaut)

2 Tbsp shaved chocolate

Combine all of the above in a large bowl and mix using an immersion blender or a hand mixer on the lowest speed.  Note: It will not fit in a blender unless you have a gargantuan one, and it will also not fit in a 12 cup food processor.  Store in airtight glass jars and consume within 1 week.  Makes 2 wine bottles full and a a few extra glasses so you can taste test.  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Advent Calendar Activities

It's been a busy few weeks trying to keep up with Advent Calendar activities, Christmas baking, crafts, gifts, and remembering to move our house elf, Bob. So I thought I would do one big post about some of the highlights of the last few weeks.  Here it goes:

Bob has gotten into a few crazy things, but mostly he just moves around the house now.  While he hasn't really improved toddler behaviour, my little guy loves looking for him each day and talks to him a lot.


Christmas donuts from Tim's were a huge hit.  This weekend I'm going to try my hand at making my own baked chocolate candy cane donuts.  Recipe to follow!  :)

We went to see the CP Rail Holiday Train when it pulled into town on a freezing cold Friday night.  Lots of fun despite the cold and a great way to help those in need this holiday season.  For any shuterbugs out there, I shot this with my Canon 5D (on a tripod) f/9 ISO 100 with an 8 sec exposure.

More giving by supporting our local Santa's Anonymous.  My little guy had fun picking out toys for other kids.

Snowman pizza!  A cute idea I saw on Pinterest that I had to try.  It was a hit!

Elf punch!  I saw an idea on Pinterest (where else!?) for Grinch Punch while you watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas and thought it was a great idea.  I modified the recipe slightly since I don't give my little guy pop...here's my version:

Elf Punch

Lime Sherbet
Lime Perrier
red and green sprinkles to trim the rim of the glass (I also added green sprinkles in the glass since my lime sherbet was not green)
"Mom, it's so good"!  Direct quote from my little dude.

We've also made cookies, looked at Christmas lights, watched a few holiday movies, had hot chocolate, and other fun activities.  It would take forever to post about each one, but I am planning on documenting all the fun in my December Daily scrapbook mini album.  So far I have the front cover done...but I have everything documented in my journal book (otherwise the old mommy brain will not remember) and the plan is to finish it over the Christmas brake when the hubs is home and I can spend more time in my crafty space.

That's it for now...thanks for stopping by!