I am not usually one to get excited about Christmas. I do not get into the Santa thing and I do not tell my children about that. If you want to do that, I will not tell you not to, but it's not my thing and that should be okay, too. The Christmas memories I have are mostly good. The Christmas memories with my parents and siblings only were definitely the best. I remember the dinners the most...houseful of family, lots of cousins to play with...definitely very noisy with lots of laughter and fun. The food was of course delicious because my mother made most of it and she is an outstanding cook.
Now that my dad is gone, this Christmas feels different. I know it's not even Thanksgiving, and no I am not one to rush the holiday seasons. I love Thanksgiving for the same reason I just mentioned about Christmas memories. This year will be our first Thanksgiving without my dad. This will also be our first Christmas without my dad. And it will be the first Christmas living in my mother's home after many, many years of being gone. I am with my husband and our children so it will definitely be something very different this year.
I guess in an unconscious effort today I sort of got into the Christmas Spirit. Maybe I thought that buying some pretty wrapping paper and gift bags like I do every year would sort of be in keeping with tradition. After all, many of the traditions we held fast to before will be a thing of the past this year. Some things may remain the same, but nothing will truly be the same without my Dad here to celebrate with.
I was happy to pick up a few Christmas presents today, though, and I was delighted to find some gift wrap, tags, and bags today. I decided to create a YouTube video showing some of the bags I purchased. Here are a couple of photos:
Here is the video:
Thank you for hanging out with me today! I felt inspired to share a new post on my other blog: Bridge-ing The Gap called Before and After. Hope you will go and check it out!
Hugs,
The sentiment and image are stamps from The Angel Company but they are no longer available. It was fun to use a non-traditional color combo and create a snow scene with my glue pen and Prisma Glitter. I would have waited until the glue dried better before snapping the photo but I am late as it is to get this done!
Here's a close-up of the card I made. I used the Scor-Bug for a fun decorative effect.
The designer paper is from The Angel Company. The tag is from the same paper set called Penelope. The "thank you" sentiment is a PWP stamp set called Lotsa' Love and I used French Lilac Palette Hybrid Ink which matches the card so well.
Little Miss Kadesia got a present from MRS. CLAUS! You read that right, MRS. Claus! She gave this to me in PERSON and I can tell you that it is the FIRST gift she wanted to open and just look at this reaction! Her voice was barely above a whisper as she said AN ICE SHAVER?!! She was so tickled to get this that she was SHAKING! She loves it!!! Now she'll be rushing the seasons for weather warm enough to warrant making her favorite icy drinks! THANK YOU MRS. CLAUS! YOU DID REAL GOOD!
So we are full, we are happy, we are blessed beyond measure and I hope you all are, too! I am so thankful for all of you who take the time to check my blog. I love the comments you leave me! I love the wonderful emails and facebook messages I get when you share how I've inspired you somehow. It's truly a blessing and I am eager to get 2010 started with new classes, new projects, new fun and A NEW SPRING CATALOG February 1!! Woohoo!! My daughter's birthday is tomorrow so it's a fun-filled day for her! I will post a recap of the day as soon as I can! Plus a really fun post is coming up Thursday! Stop in and see!
Do you see the kids holding hands in this photo? I just LOVE that! I didn't know they had done it until after she was done taking our pictures! Thank you for hanging out with me today! I hope you'll come back tomorrow to see another fun project!
This is my two year old son, Javan! He loves the pretty ornaments and he's trying to show me which one he likes. FYI: He likes them ALL! LOL
My daughter, (who turns 8 two days after Christmas), Kadesia, is putting some of her heavier ornaments on the family tree. They were tipping over her little tree! LOL
Here are my two precious miracle babies standing in front of our tree!
Here, Daddy is reading them The Night Before Christmas. Aww!
After everyone went to bed, I stayed up a little longer so I could use my hot glue gun to fix one of my snowmen's arms. It worked great! Then Kadesia had a snowman ornament that lost one of his pom pom buttons and his eye balls. Not sure where the nose is but I glued the rest back on and it's holding just fine! Both snowmen are in recovery and are expected to be back on their "feet" in the morning...as long as Javan isn't around! LOL
I am using Burnt Umber Palette Hybrid Ink. The deer and cloud flourish are from the Reindeer Food stamp set. The sentiment "noel" is from Tag Tidbits. The shimmer on the card is from my Clear Stardust Glittering Gel Pen. All of this can be purchased from The Angel Company. Let your Angel know you'd like to place an order! If you don't have an Angel I would be happy to be yours!
Have you seen this book before? I got it for only ONE DOLLAR at the Dollar Tree! I was so excited. I have seen some episodes of Knitty Gritty on television before and LOVED it so I looked through the book quickly and there's so many fun patterns in this book! I had to snatch it up!!! Yay! It's a great book with a really kewl system to rate each project. Most will say beginner, intermediate, advanced but she rates her projects in terms of how long it takes each project like: PLAYDATE, WEEKEND AT NANA'S, SUMMER CAMP so I thought that was kewl! Speaking of knitting, I have managed to knit a few more rows while Kadesia was at gymnastics and then a little today while I was waiting on something else. I will share a photo soon, I promise!
Yes, I know it's only March 1 and NO I am really NOT rushing Christmas along, but here's the challenge part... Last year I signed up for a Christmas card challenge but then I didn't do so well! Ugh! I just had too many other things going. This year I decided to try the challenge again. I set a goal of how many cards I want to make each month. For February, I wanted to make 3 and I did it just in the knick of time! I will sign these and address them tonight or tomorrow sometime and put them in my little holder. I am so glad I got these done!! Yay!
I designed this card so that it looks like wall paper and a window with some wall art! I hope you can "get" that from seeing it. I had a lot of fun doing this one! The stars were stamped with the star from the Wild West stamp set from The Angel Company. The snow and snowman are all sparkly with Prisma Glitter. The sky is sponged in Reflection Blue ink. The "JOY" sentiment is stamped with Iris Palette ink and the stars have my Purple Tombow marker outlined.
This is a stamp set that was offered in December. I just love this Whimsy Santa. He's so cute! I used Prisma Glitter for the snow and to outline his hat and coat. The sky is sponged with Starry Night Palette ink. The image was stamped with Noir Palette ink. The basket and wooden handles are colored in the Chestnut Memory Marker.
This card uses Burnt Umber sponged on the base card and around the script designer paper. The brown cardstock and sentiment edges also have Burnt Umber on them. I used Red and Green Tombow markers to color in the image and then L'Amour Red and Viridian Leaf for the sentiment. The sentiment is a FREE Gift With Purchase stamp that you can get with any $30 purchase!