Christmas Joy!

Oh joy - I am working nightshift tonight... It takes a special person to be able to do that all of the time and I am glad someone can and it doesn't have to always be me!

So, no time to share a creation - actually no time to make a creation since I have been gone all day and came home to the answering machine blinking and the hospital on the caller ID - meaning only one thing...can you work tonight? I will - I feel like the Lord would want me to... If only others felt that way...

Here is my cup of Christmas joy that I am sipping while I wait for one of the other nurses to call me back with the definite to come in or not... I first had it at Bob Evans on Black Friday and I am in love!

I guess I technically do have a creation to share - one of our Christmas cards for this year. The template is from Shabby Miss Jenn's... I hope you enjoy!

God Bless You,
Mary

Daily Bread...

I've not had much to post lately, because I have been working on Christmas presents and a lot of that is just making the same thing over and over right now! I am tickled to be doing some homemade for Christmas! What I want to share with you today is how I am giving breads for Christmas. Here is my Apple Bread - I sampled both the bread and the presentation on my mom and dad!! I got the idea for making a wrap from the Paper Crafts Gourmet cookbook, which by the way if you have not gotten - what are you waiting for?

God Bless You,

Mary

2S4U

Yesterday I had a big blog typed out... Yesterday I had the blahs and the eeyores horrible all day long! Abby and I had a rough day together - one that made me feel the the most awful mommy ever! Snuggling up to her last night made it better though! Thank GOD today was a new day and HE has made things better!




Here is my submission for this weeks challenge at 2 Sketches... I did NOT intend on this being a Christmas card, but...I guess you can see what it turned out to be! Love that cuttlebug folder Swiss dots and some Maya Road chipboard covered in CTMH ink! The bling, why that would be the after Valentine's Day special from Wal-Mart a couple of years back and the stamp is from my favorite - PaperTreyInk! And yes - that is a piece from my Willow Tree Nativity helping the card stand up!

Five things I am Thankful For:
GOD - oh boy - I could go on about my LORD all day! He is soo good!
FAMILY - my world revolves around my husband, little girl, and my parents!
Christian Family - there is nothing like a good brother or sister in the Lord to rejoice with you and help you pray, or be there in more difficult times too
HOME - nice warm home in this cold season
WORK - in tough econnomic times it is a blessing to have a job!

Enjoy!


God Bless You,
Mary

25 Days of Christmas

Oh I just love this idea! I find Christmas a hard thing to scrapbook... Here I have this little girl who I love to dress in pink, pink, and pink and lo and behold most Christmas colors are red and green! Now nothing against the red and green, I love it, but sometimes we clash. Sometimes it is hard for me to come up with a good layout because there are 900 items in each pictures and people ever which way. Enter the wonderful 25 days of Christmas album.

Now if you want to see how the 25 days of Christmas album is really supposed to look, hop on over to Ali Edwards blog and she will show you how it is done. For now, you have mine to look at! I am so excited at the idea of snapping a picture daily to stick in here and write a couple of lines about. I even left some extra pages in the back because I know I will want to add extra of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! All products except the acrylic album are by cosmo cricut! The second pictures is an idea of how I did the inner pages! (This is a 6x6 album).

God Bless You,
Mary

Something for Me

As I sat upstairs working on Christmas tasks the other day, my husband hit me with a question - "What do you do for yourself?" Uh, lots...right? That was my initial response, but when we talked about it more, he wanted to know what I really did for just me... I feel very blessed in knowing that I have a husband that cares so much, but really - that is a hard one!

So, I took a break from working on Christmas gifts for others, scrapbooking for Abby, and homework to make this:

It is really a recipe holder, but I am going to fill it with Bible Verses. I love having my encouraging word for the day from KLove Radio and I think as I collect them, I am going to place my favorites right in here for safe keeping. The candy is covered with scraps of paper and is placed in the box jumbled because sometimes that's how life is, and it reminds me that we have the Lord to unjumble our lives if we only trust in Him! As most of you know, either from knowing me personally or reading my blog, I am trying to fulfill my dream of becoming a diabetic nurse educator/practitioner, and it is hard! There have already been obstacles thrown in my path that if I didn't have the Lord to trust in, I would have given up - however I will press on and "run with patience the race that is set before me." (P.S. I just found out yesterday that I got an A in my last class!)

God Bless You,

Mary

Who Me?!

I am so blessed - today has been a wonderful day! WOW! It seems as if I have a LOT to post today!!

First of all, I received my copy of Paper Crafts Gourmet in the mail yesterday and oh my goodness! All I know to say is order it, order it, order it! I was so surprised when it came and I can't believe that I won such a fabulous prize! Tonight we are trying the Minestrone Soup with Parmesan Crumble found on page 155. Although I have not tasted it yet, the aroma has my house smelling wonderful!


Next, I have had the incredible honor of receiving this award from Sherri at Roses in My Heart (http://rosesinmyheart.blogspot.com/).
As I understand, part of receiving the award is that I am allowed to pass the award on to five bloggers of my choosing. I would like to pass this to:

1. Amber - http://www.thecountryscrapper.blogspot.com/

2. Annette - http://annette-paperbistro.blogspot.com/

3. Melissa Phillips - http://lilybeanpaperie.typepad.com/lilybeans_paperie/

4. Kazan & Laura - http://2sketches4you.blogspot.com/

5. Sherry Wright - http://www.sherrywright.typepad.com/

Okay, now I can't tell you how hard that was to narrow it down to 5! I have so many favorites that are on my "visit daily" to do! (P.S. Bonnie & T - you would have sooo been on my list, but I was sure someone else would chose you ;)

Now we go to this - I have NEVER been tagged as a blogger and I just got tagged by Annette at Annette's Paper Bistro (http://annette-paperbistro.blogspot.com/) and here is how this works...
7 Random or Weird Facts About Me:

1. My dream is to be a Diabetic Nurse Educator/Practitioner and I am working on that now!

2. I have a Canon 40D camera and take my little girls pictures myself.

3. I love country/vintage stuff.

4. My Camry is my dream car.

5. I went to the scrapbook store today to get stuff to finish up some Christmas presents.

6. I rarely cook, but LOVE to bake :)

7. I love to plan and am currently looking for the perfect 2009 planner/organizer! any tips?

The 7 blogs I chose to tag are:

1. Melissa @ Lily Bean's Paperie (http://lilybeanpaperie.typepad.com/lilybeans_paperie/)

2. Sherry @ Season's of Change (http://sherrywright.typepad.com/my_weblog/)

3. Michelle at Mish Mash (http://michellewooderson.blogspot.com/)

4. Taylor at Taylored Expressions (http://tayloredexpressions.blogspot.com/)

5. Pam at Stamping with Serendipity (http://smileycollector.blogspot.com/)

6. Erika at Stampin Momma (http://stampinmama.typepad.com/stampin_mama_a_mama_that_/)

7. Heather at Stamp with Heather (http://stampwithheather.typepad.com/stamp_with_heather/)

Now, if you are still with me - here is my scrappyness for the day! I decided to participate in the CPS card sketch this week! I love it when I have the time to do little extras that make me happy! All the products used on here are the same as what I used on the card for the 2 sketches challenge - in fact, these are the scraps!!

God Bless You,
Mary

Time....

*When I started to post this blog, I realized that I didn't just forget to add the bonus sketch - I forgot to do it all together! If I get a chance this evening, I will try it out and add it to the bottom of this post!*
How appropriate that the embellishment I chose for the front of my card is about time since it is something I never seem to have enough of!

(materials used: *SU whisper white C/S *Basic Grey figgy puddy C/S,

*Offray Ribbon, *Making Memories Journaling spot, *Making Memories Metal,

*Cocoa Ink by CTMH, *Flourish by Maya Road)

God Bless You,

Mary

ABBY Chipboard Album

I love making little creations for my little one as keepsakes even though she is quiet to young for them as of yet. On one of our tips to Tennessee this Summer, I picked up these cute little chipboard letters of Abby's name and immediately knew what I wanted to do with them - make ABBY a trick or treat album! I sometimes find that Halloween is hard to scrapbook since she has only been cute little things so far like a duck and eeyore last year! These little covered letters made it so easy to customize with pumpkins, etc, but still have the Halloween feel there!

I know that I have been MIA a lot lately, but I am wrapping up one class at school and starting another one this week! That usually means that things will slow down for a couple of weeks before they pick right back up again and I'll stay busy for another 2 weeks! I became a nurse because both my mom and dad suffer from diabetes and I want to be able to do something to help. I currently work on the Pediatric Unit of the hospital where I am employed, but hope that once I finally complete school (years from now), that I can get a job working with diabetes patients.

LUCKY!

I can't explain to you how lucky I am to have my wonderful little Abby in my life! These pictures were taken near St. Patricks day because of the little shirt that I got her from Old Navy. The hat - well that belongs to her beloved Pap and she loves to play with it!

Quick Christmas Card

First off - GO VOTE! NOW!

I absoluteley love the Bazzill In Stitch line of products! I have all of the templates that I have currently been able to find and the trees on this card are from one of the latest sets I found! The mittens are stamps from my new Paper Trey Ink goodies from last months release. The cold is upon us and I am definately feeling Christmas more and more!

Short one today - sorry!

~Mary

Children are a Gift...

I have been so into the card making and creations aspect lately that I have let the scrapbooking slip somewhat! What better day than today to share a scrapbook page of my little one. She truly is my gift from God and lets me know what love really is. I have very much enjoyed my couple of days off from work with her, I dread seeing it end, but have wonderful memories of these past days to last me until next time we can do it again!

I used many different items on this page and am not sure of any of the vendors. It was mostly just things I placed together from piles of stuff rather than planned out and coordinated.

I have been working on homework since we arrived home from church, so she did not have the opportunity to jump in front of the camera today - I'm sure she will again soon though.

Happy Scrapping!

2S4U - Happy Fall

I have enjoyed a wonderful fall day with my husband and daughter. It is not very often that we are able to spend a day together at home without having to rush off here or there! We enjoyed playing outside together and I sat and relished in how blessed I am as the two of them took a nap in the family room while I sat here in my scrapbook room and played away.

Since it has been a rather peaceful day, I decided to play along with the 2 Sketches 4 U and do BOTH the challenges! When I saw the first challenge I immediately knew what embellishment I wanted to use - the new Prima bling as well as the cardstock, some scraps of Daisy D's that I have left from a chipboard album I am working on. Add these with the Long Time Friend stamp that SU! had a couple of years back and you see what I ended up with. The ribbon is from a large box of American Crafts ribbons I purchased from QVC a while back and just busted into today. The image is colored in with copic markers!

The bonus card is almost always my favorite and the only one I usually do. When I saw this bonus sketch, I knew immediately what I wanted to do. I started off with brown for my base which I often do, then built upon it with more scraps from the Daisy D's pile. The primas are part of a bottle of green that I just *had to have* and have barely used in the 2+ years I since I purchased them. Throw in a little jute and add my stamped image and you have it. By the way, my stamped image on this card is one of my favorites. A tractor from my retired SU! Tractor Time set. I saw this set on eBay for 150.00 today and it made me really appreciate already having mine! My tractors are one of my favorite sets and often times a go to when I don't know what else to use. This set lets being country at heart shine through!

Of course when I was photographing my creations, this little cutie wanted to show off!

Have a blessed day and remember to be thankful and relish in the small moments with those you love - including your most loved scrapping supplies ;)