Scrapping tour

Today was a blast! Liz, Alex and I trekked through the East Bay, visiting scrapbook stores. Liz and Alex had never been to My Daughter's Wish (Pleasant Hill), and they wanted to go to Scrapbook Territory (Berkeley) as well, and since I've been to both I played tour guide.
I hadn't been to MDW for several weeks, and it was a great time to go, because Mallory was there (home on break from school). And it's always fun to see Sheri running a class, she does such a great job. MDW is definitely my favorite scrapbook store, because Sheri really gets interesting product, stuff that's different from anywhere else; she really can push you creatively, which is what I need!
It's always interesting to visit Scrapbook Territory, and it always to be raining when we go there! I was lucky enough to find Ali Edward's Life Artist, since I didn't get it when I should have from Creating Keepsakes. I can't wait to read through it tonight! Hopefully I will have time tomorrow to be creative....Tim Holtz has interesting thoughts on that today in his blog .
Happy crafting everyone!

Cookie Day

Our annual cookie day was a week before Christmas, and things went very smoothly this year! And I had a great time spending time with my new buddy, Lilly. She is adorable, and I think Amy (her mom) will have her hands very full once Lilly is more mobile - you can't let a sweet face fool you :)
The highlight for me this year, were the Peanut Buttercup Tarts....very tasty, and supremely easy! And I've started preparing for next year, already painting tins and cans for next year.
I'll be updating with Christmas pictures this week, and we're still celebrating with family this weekend. It was a wonderful Christmas, very relaxing, we stayed home, napped and all played with new toys. Once again John has proven he is the best husband in the world, getting me a new camera, a Canon Rebel xti!! It's so phenomenal, and I can't wait to figure out how to use it...even with my basic knowledge I'm taking pictures that look better.
Goodnight!

The season gets crazy!

What a crazy week! I watched little Peter nearly everyday, and that kid is hilarious!! And it's been such a wonderful experience for Sofia, she's talking more (even if it's to scream "Mine" like a banshee), and is getting the knack of interacting with someone nearer her own age. However, they've gone from bickering almost constantly to working together in their mischief, I can tell already I am in a HEAP of trouble!

I've also been getting as many hours as possible in on projects, as I have gift to finish and Tim Holtz ideas to play with. His 12 Tags of Christmas is now over, and I'm a little sad; it's been a blast looking at new ideas everyday, and hoping against hope to win the daily prize. Even though I didn't it was still really great to see step by step instructions for things you usually can only get in a very expensive class, and reading what every one else wrote, and the camaraderie was a lot of fun!

To explain the attached picture, I've been playing with the PhotoBooth on my Mac, and though I seem to have more wrinkles than I realized, it's not a half bad picture. I also washed my hair and put on make-up for no particular reason, so look out world!!

Off to make cookies....

Visiting Santa

One of my favorite things to do every holiday season, is to visit Santa. Only in the last two years has Matty willingly agreed to do this (his first experience with Santa was not very positive - some Santas are kind of mean!!), and I think it helps he has a little sister to set a brave example for. Last year I was the photographer for our school's Santa, and in all 250 children Sofie was the only one who screamed having her picture taken!
I had very high hopes for this year, I found a really great Santa, at the mall in Corte Madera; they actually built an entire cottage for Santa! We waited in line for an hour, and the entire time Matty rehearsed what he wanted to ask for (an electric guitar), and Sofie practiced what Santa says (ro, ro). You can see by the pictures that things actually went about as I expected! No matter how hard I tried, I could not peel her fingers from my arms, and honestly tears seemed to actually SHOOT from her eyes! It was very sad!
Since she refused to sit with Santa, it seemed a reasonable compromise to take Matty and Sofie's picture together outside the cottage, but unfortunately, Sofie spotted Santa through the window, and it went clearly downhill from there! But I will use this photo as part of our Christmas card next year :)

Creative Day

I think I've finally figured out how to get fairly decent photos of my layouts, so here are some. The Jenni Bowlin kits arrived yesterday, yeah!! So it's been a fun day of creating, doing laundry and cleaning bathrooms; and now I'm taking a few minutes to blog while cuddling with the Sofie-Belle. Later tonight I'm going to try to blog a few photos of our adventure yesterday to see Santa.
Happy Sunday all!

The celebrating has started!

We had a great time this weekend, celebrating an early Christmas and John's birthday, at his mother's in Sacramento. The kids loved waking up at Nona's house, and opening gifts.
And I finally got around to getting Sofie's bangs trimmed, and actually did it myself, having found my grandmother's "bang-trimming" scissors! I got them shockingly straight, more than likely because she wasn't expecting me to come at her with a pair of scissors!
Just starting and finishing some gifts for friends and family, and having fun working on tags inspired by Tim Holtz!

The TV Ban

So Matty has been watching about six straight days of movies and TV since he's been sick, and it's obviously had a negative impact on his behavior. Since he was well enough to go to school today, I decided he was also too well for ANY TV. I usually let him watch some cartoons while Sofia's napping, since that is one of the few moments in my day I can get anything done, without being up too late. Instead, today we did crafts; Sofia even learned to not eat Play-Doh, which is a huge accomplishment for her! I've decided that she generally only puts things in her mouth now for two reasons - habit, and to get me to chase her.
Here are some pictures of the kids being crafty, and yes, Sofia colored on my white Pottery Barn table with a black crayon. But it's all good....that's how we roll here (and besides, some Soft Scrub got it right up).