Tuesday, December 28, 2010

December Calendar Blog Hop

Welcome to the December Calendar Blog Hop!

This month I’ve decided once again to join Karel at One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity in another Blog Hop. This time around we are doing a Calendar Blog Hop from December 28 through 30. We have more than 12 bloggers, each with a gorgeous 12X12 Double Calendar Layout for you to re-create for your very own 2011 Calendar...just in the nick of time.

A bunch of wonderfully talented ladies have gotten together and we're each making a 12X12 double calendar layouts--at least one for every month of 2011. Every blogger will design a two page layout for a 2011 calendar. The first page will be a cute layout, to include the month and some mats for pictures. The second page will be the days and weeks, with cute embellishments for special days. Each blogger will post her (his?) creation for the hop---along with the detailed how-tos of making it. Every person who participates will then have all the instructions for making the entire year's calendar just as they need it!

*The Blog Candy for this hop is the fantastic Designer's Calendar Cricut Cartridge, donated by our own hostess, KarelJ. You need to leave some love, in the form of a comment, on Each and Every Blog along the way. Make sure you leave a way to contact you in each comment. On the 31st, KarelJ will use random.org to generate a blog number and then a comment number from that blog. She will announce the winner on her blog, and contact them by whatever means they left for this.*

1. January and April: Celeste at Touched by a Butterfly at http://touchedbyabutterfly.blogspot.com/
2. January and September: Jessica at Overjoyed Scrapper http://www.overjoyedscrapper.blogspot.com/
3. February: Christel at Scrappin' Sista http://onescrappinsista.blogspot.com/
4. February and March: Karelj at One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity http://karelj.blogspot.com/
5. March and July: Diane at Crafting This Moment (You are here!) http://www.craftingthismoment.blogspot.com/
6. April: Bonnie at A Scrap Above http://ascrapabove.blogspot.com/
7. May: Michelle at Peanut Butter and Jelly Designs http://peanutbutterandjellydesigns.blogspot.com/
8. May: Natalie at Timeless Legacy Designs http://timelesslegacydesigns.blogspot.com/
9. June: Lisa at Lisa's Paper Butterflies http://lisaspaperbutterflies.blogspot.com/
10. June: Jamie at Glitter, Paper, Stamps, Oh My! http://jamieisacraftymomma.blogspot.com/
11. July: Summer and Jennifer at Cricut Diaries http://cricutdiaries.blogspot.com/
12. August: Denise at Starlight Scrapper http://starlightscrapper.blogspot.com/
13. August: Gina at Gina Thornton Stamping http://ginathorntonstamping.blogspot.com/
14. September: Deb at If It's Groovy http://ifitsgroovy.blogspot.com/
15. October: Rebecca at Creations with Becka http://www.creationswithbecka.blogspot.com/
16 . October: Lora at Notes From The Scrapbook Lady http://scrpbooklady.blogspot.com/
17. November: Belinda at Queen Bee's Musings http://www.queenbeesmusings.blogspot.com/
18. November and December: Col at Col's Creative Corner at http://www.scrappycol.blogspot.com/
19. December: Deb at Tidbit's Place http://tidbitsplace.blogspot.com/

When it came to creating my calendar pages I’ve had to change them up a bit because of some unseen events that kept me from having the energy to scrap. Therefore instead of doing 2 two page calendar layouts I was only able to create 2 one page layouts. I’ve managed to create these layouts with a place for your calendar, journaling as well as included photos and have the page not be cluttered.

I am so far behind on my calendar pages that this blog hop gave me motivation to work towards getting caught up. Now that my son is 24, it’s hard to get the photos & events to scrap with him in them. I find calendar pages are perfect for keeping up with our lives on a month to month basis.

I keep a purse sized calendar on the go at all times as well as a wall calendar to keep track of important events, birthdays, etc. By doing this I am able to take the information from them & create calendar layouts. Right now I am working on the year 2005. It’s scary to think that I am that far behind on my calendar layouts.

I chose the month of March & July for my months to do. For my layout I chose a background paper in green keeping with the color for St. Patrick’s Day. I also matted my calendar in green & made a little booklet on the left hand bottom corner to do my journaling in. The photo’s I printed off & fit them in little slides that I made. I then added the month & a couple of Shamrocks to finish off the page.
The month of July basically followed the same sketch idea (the sketch idea is my own). For this month I did in red & white keeping with our Canada Day colors. I added the fireworks, again the slide mounts were hand cut with photos in them and this time the journaling booklet is on the right hand side of the page. Again I’ve added the calendar which is filled in with monthly events.

I really like how they’ve turned out & how I’m still able to include pictures & journaling all on one page. I’ve covered the calendars for the pictures as to protect the names, etc on them.

I hope you’ve enjoyed another option of creating calendar pages without having to do two page layouts. These are fun pages & a great way to showcase those special events in your life.

Thanks for stopping by & enjoy the rest of the blog hop. The complete list is above and if a blogger did 2 calendar layouts both can be seen at the same post. Enjoy!

Editted to add: I've had a lot of comments about my "firecrackers". I bought a die cut a long time ago of a firecracker & saved it. I used it to trace my firecrackers & cut them out by hand.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Are you on Santa's Naughty or Nice List?

Growing up my mother used to keep a calendar in the kitchen at Christmas where she’d mark down the days that my sister, brother & I were bad. Supposedly Santa would come in & check the calendar & if he saw our name or initials on it, he’d know that we were bad & would leave us presents accordingly. I remember how much it would scare me if I saw my name or initials on that calendar & how hard I’d work to not see my name there.

Now days you can check the online version of Santa’s Naughty or Nice list & see just where you stand. You can also go back again & check to see if you’ve moved up the naughty list. Well, with only a few days left until Christmas, I just had to check & see where I stood on Santa’s Naughty or Nice List. You can check here if you want to see how you’re doing. This is a fun site for young & old.
http://www.claus.com/naughtyornice/nn_hmpg2.php

Well, here’s what Santa had to say about me….

Nice, but has been naughty at times. Neatness and politeness have been very good over the last two weeks. Shows proper respect for others. Shares well, but could always be better. With a little more effort could be near top of "nice" list.

Sounds like I’ve been a good girl this year & just maybe Santa will be bringing me something special.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Fiskateer Holiday Cookie Recipes from the Past

I love holiday sweets and cookies. The looks, smells and tastes of cookies this time of the year.I love trying new recipes and sharing them with my family during the holidays. When DS was young we use to make sugar cookies and cut them into Christmas shapes, decorate them and give them as gifts.

Over the past few years, one of the Fiskateer Leads or possible one of the Fiskateers would post to the Fiskateer blog a request for Holiday Cookie Recipes. Each year I have saved all the Holiday Cookie Recipes that were posted on the Fiskateer blog as a result of these requests. I copied & pasted each recipe to a word document, formatted it, corrected any spelling errors (I hope I got them all) and saved them to my computer.

Starting in 2008, one of the Leads or possible one of the Fiskateers posted to the blog requesting Holiday Cookie Recipes. That year there were 29 cookie recipes posted. Did you know that Santa has a favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie? Here you'll find the recipes for: Gingersnaps, Snickerdoodles, Monster Cookies, Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies, Whoopie Pie, Chocolate Macaroons, Sugar Cookies, Whipped Shortbread and many more favorite cookie recipes.

In 2009, again someone posted to the blog requesting Favorite Holiday Cookie Recipes and once again I saved them to a word file. This year there was a huge response and there are 52 fabulous cookie recipes such as: Monster Cookies, Sugar Cookies, Candy Cane Cookies, Oatmeal Gingersnap, Black Forrest Cookie, Oreo Bon Bons, Chinese Chews and many more delicious cookie recipes.

This year Tami (one of the Lead Fiskateers) posted on the message board a request for Holiday Cookies. I emailed Tami and told her about my saving the cookies recipes from the past couple of years and she asked if I'd be interested in sharing them. I had posted last year that I would email the file to anyone who was interested and was shocked at the response. It was a lot of work but I send anyone who requested it my document. Tami suggested that I covert the document to a pdf format and share it on my blog. I've also added the recent Fiskateers Gifts from the Kitchen recipes that I've saved to my files. I'm waiting patiently for some new 2010 Favorite Cookie Recipes to fill the current blog post by Tami. Hopefully there will be some new recipes that I can save and later post here.

After several days of trying to figure out how to add the Fiskateer Favorite Cookie Recipes from 2008, 2009 and Fiskateers Gifts from the Kitchen 2010 to my blog, I finally figured out how to add the links. I hope that you all enjoy these recipes. Here they are:

Fiskateer's Favorite Cookie Recipes 2008
http://www.scribd.com/doc/45150056/Favorite-Cookie-Recipes-of-the-Fiskateers-2008">

Fiskateer's Favorite Cookie Recipes 2009
http://www.scribd.com/doc/45150213/Fiskateer-Favorite-Cookie-Recipes-2009

Fiskateers Gifts from the Kitchen 2010
http://www.scribd.com/doc/45150303/Fiskateers-Gifts-From-the-Kitchen-2010

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Back to School Luggage Tags

Recently I’ve been working on these Back to School Luggage tags for 7 of my great nieces & nephews. I stumbled across these Back to School Emergency information luggage tags a few years ago on the web and they’ve been on my 2 Do List since then. I finally got around to making them & plan on giving them to my little great nieces & nephews for Christmas. I think that I’ll hang them on the Christmas tree first as a decoration. lol

Right now I have Chloe’s tag in a “Badge Holder” but I’m not too thrilled with it. I like the looks of the Luggage Tags better although now day’s they aren’t that easy to find where I live. I know I have some luggage tags around the house & have to dig them out. The tags for Jaden & Dakota are in ATC sleeves at the moment but I wanted to give you a sneak peek for now. I’ll show the finished one’s when I find my luggage tags as well as show you the boy’s tags I made for my Great Nephews Jeremy, Andrew, Gavin & Dallas to hang on their backpacks (& diaper bags). Jeremy is the only one of the boy’s who is in school right now. Andrew & Gavin (brothers of Jeremy & Jaden) go to day care so I thought that this would be perfect for Andrew’s backpack & Gavin’s diaper bag. Not wanting to leave Dallas out (Chloe & Dakota’s baby brother), I also made one for his diaper bag.

On the one side of the card it lists the students name (first name only for safety reasons), their school, teachers name and classroom. On the other side of the card lists the parents first name & phone number (a space for mom & one for dad), Pediatrician’s name & phone number, Poison Control Phone Number and a space to write in the child’s allergies. Everything you need to know is listed on these little cards that you attach to their backpacks for the caregivers to have at their fingertips. There is also a place to put the child’s photo so that it’s easy for the younger kids to identify their backpacks.

Here is a picture of the girls tags so far:These next two are in ATC sleeves until I can find the Luggage Tags to put them in.

Origami Flowers

Twice a month five of us girls get together & take turns teaching a new project. A few weeks ago it was Kristy’s turn & she showed us how to make these cute origami flowers. Once you got the hang of the folds, they were pretty easy to make & went together pretty quickly. We each made 5 flowers. Since I didn’t have a small vase to show mine off in, I have them in a Mason jar. TFS!

First Snowfall

Well we’ve managed to be lucky enough to avoid snow up until Sunday, December 5th. My son had called me from London around 4 pm asking if we had any snow here. At the time we had no snow & it had been a perfect day. He said that he was stuck in London (Ontario) & that they were having a big snowstorm. He’d been out earlier to check the road conditions before deciding whether to head home & said that they were really slippery. He’d slid through one of the intersections. I told him to stay where he was as at least he was warm & safe. He wasn’t overly thrilled as being warm & safe also meant that he wouldn’t be able to make it into work on Monday.

I took a drive uptown around 5:30 pm on Sunday to get some bread figuring that if we were going to have a snowstorm, I didn’t want to run out of bread. It was just starting to snow here. By 8 pm the ground was covered & we had about 2 or 3 inches of snow. It was still snowing yesterday morning & we were still under a snow squall warning. Thank goodness my son was able to drive home from London yesterday. I guess he thought that he'd get out while the going was good. They certainly had a lot of snow dumped on them.

Once again today we have a Snow Squall Watch in Effect. I’m so glad that I don’t have to leave the house. I do worry about my son driving into work but fortunately he only has about 15 miles to drive & they do tend to keep the main roads pretty clean. At least tomorrow the weather is looking better & they aren't calling for snow. Stay safe & warm!