I've Been a Busy Little Bee

Well, it has been a while, but only because the holidays make us all so crazy busy. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. We visited my family for Christmas and will be visiting Andy's for New Year's. My brother and his family finally made it safely from Alaska. We were worried. They had tried to leave on saturday, but were snowed in. They finally were able to get there on friday evening. How great it was to see them all! And, boy, my nephew JAmes has grown so much! What a happy little guy he is!

This is one of the pictures from our Christmas cards this year. OMG we were so silly. We took about 100 or so pictures and none of them were turning out. So, Andy and I just started to go with it. We started to just take silly ones.

This year, we decided to go pretty simple for the teachers. Jake and I got mason jars and filled them with 8 different kinds of beans to make a layered soup mix. We added a bay leaf and a bouillon cube. On top went some ribbon and fabric. We added this to a bowl and included the recipe and also some candy. Finally, we wrapped them in cellophane and added a pretty ribbon and an bell ornament (which I had gotten last year after Christmas for like nothing!). They turned out lovely and cost only about $4.00 per person. Not bad. I also made some for my co-workers at the library. We made about 16 or 17 baskets. Also, a friend from AMR, Leslie, has been going through some pretty tough times. Stacey asked us to make her some 4x6 inspirational cards which she will be sending to Leslie to help her through her journey. I made about 6 for her. I just wish I could've done more. Please read her blog and keep her in your prayers.

Take care and ttyl! :)

Finally scrapped...WooHoo

OK, so I could've scrapped well into the night, but I finally went to bed. I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. But, oh, did it feel so good to actually touch the paper and embellishments. I finished some projects for swaps and what-not, and I also worked on a mini-book for my cousin who just had a baby girl. I'll post that when I finish it.

I finished my project for Stacey over at All Moments Remembered. She is awesome and some of the gals there are presenting her with this album with LOs from all of us. Stacey started her blog and store about a year ago, so this is her 1yr present to show her how much she means to us. We were supposed to make an 8x8 LO with a picture of ourselves on it, our name and message board name, when we joined, and what we like about AMR. (BTW, it isn't crooked, I just took a crooked picture, LOL) Here is mine:

Speaking of Stacey, she had asked us to make some gift tags from Santa to some needy children where she lives. I only finished 12, but love how they turned out. I used some tags that I've had for years, stamped a single image on them and then used chalk to color the image. To soften the background, I also chalked around the picture. Finally, I inked the edges and added some red fibers. Very sinple, but they look nice. Finally, I participated in a cookie recipe card swap and a candy recipe card swap. I laminated mine after making a simple digi card. They had to be 6x6, and could be digital or traditional.