Gingerbread Night

It seems that gingerbread house decorating is becoming a tradition here. This was the first year that the Mr. and I went to the meeting room for the gingerbread night, but I hope it wont be the last. It was such a fun evening! Not only were gingerbread houses and animals decorated but games were played, bellies were filled, crafty Perler doo-dads were created, sugar induced giggles were heard and the scent of gingerbread, apples and popcorn was in the air. Autumn and Winter are such heart warming seasons. It's time to bring out the blankets, start a puzzle and keep a pot of hot tea warm on the stove all day.

Susan did a lot of the planning and decorated the tables so nicely.

Perler beads are so much fun!

The beads even attracted grown men, who would have guessed! At first they were just helping the little girls use the hot iron to melt their designs together... but then we looked over and they were making designs of their own! We had the pleasure of meeting a brother in the Lord from the Australian island of Tasmania. It was his first time traveling so far and it was nice to get to know him.

Even though the photos of the kids above are so washed out (thanks so much fluorescent lights) nature was extremely beautiful right on the other side of that wall. Look at these colors!!! God is so good to give us such beauty to look at.

Baby Cake ate almost 1/2 this apple before the spaghetti dinner was served. She loved it!

The residents of this gingerbread house must have called 911 when their roof collapsed.

Gingerbread decorating time!!!! Recipe for candy distribution: one for the cookie, two for the mouth. Repeat as needed. Droo and Cake's mom made all the gingerbread and by the looks on the kids faces and the amount eaten by all, it looks like it was a hit! Obviously I didn't eat any because I eat gluten free. Next year I plan to bring my own gluten free gingerbread, I just didn't think of it this year. There was plenty of other snacks I could eat though. :)

Droo gets the idea!

Amber and Chiquita

The guys playing Phase 10.

Papered tablecloths are always an invitation for artists.

My favorites from this pile are Apples to Apples and Dutch Blitz, throw in Rummikub and I'm good to go. :)

The Jackpot*

*alternately titled "The Loot."

Quite a while ago I won a blog giveaway that was listed in the giveaways carnival over at Bloggy Giveaways. I was contacted and told I won a $25 dollar gift card to one of my favorite stores to spend money at- Target! And who do I have to thank for this? A blog called Cut Up The Cards! Thank you for your generous giveaway. I was so excited to receive the gift card in the mail and hoarded it in my wallet for quite some time while I decided what I wanted to buy with it. This was going to be a want item, not a need item!

Well, after a lot of going back and forth at Target one day, I decided to just wait a little longer until I found something I really wanted and loved. That was when I walked into the scrapbooking isle and saw this:

A huge square double sided storage box. One side has lots of compartments and the other holds 12x12 papers. I picked it up and walked straight to the counter to buy it. I was in love!

Then I realized that I still had more money on the card so I bought these:

A package of 70 sheets 12x12 spectrum colored card stock and a black writing pen for card making and scrapbooking.

Now, why was I so excited to find this organizer box? Because of this:

My mom and sister had just sent me a birthday present of embossing and card making supplies, and a friend (LeAnne) gave me a whole bunch too (not shown.) I wanted something to keep it all in. Stamps, stamp pads, heat gun, gems, glue, powders, pens, ribbons. Everything but the socks. :)

There is is, all organized and pretty, doesn't this case look like it was designed for this? As soon as I saw it, I knew it would work great for the embossing supplies.

And while I am showing off my birthday goodies, here are a few more. Thanks everyone! Sorry for all the gifts that I left out, I know there are a few. My sister who helped out with the embossing supplies also spent money on me while she was here visiting- a new dish towel set, glasses case and a clear stamp set. Drooler's Mommy gave me an amazing Anne Geddes book. The list goes on.... I am a very spoiled girl.

Don't forget to stop over at Bloggy Giveaways next week for 100's of chances to win! I think there were over 900 giveaways last time.

Craftiness

When Kim was here she totally inspired me. This card was made using my sewing machine and some paper she gave me. Instructions: Sew the little pieces of paper to nothing, just sew them so it looks cool and go really slow so you don't sew them to your fingers. Then glue them to your card. That way you don't have sewing sticking out on the inside of your card!

By Kim. The buttons are sewed on. You can also just sew the buttons to nothing and glue them on if you have sticky enough glue.

Buttons and buttons and more buttons. I love buttons! Kim bought me this $4 bag of misc. buttons from Walmart in Canada. They don't have them at our Walmart here so I asked her to pick one up for me. There are tons of buttons of all shapes, sizes, colors and styles.

We sorted them for fun. It's like doing a puzzle, very relaxing!

The dining room became our craft room for a couple of days.

The result of the sorting.

A few favorites.

The result of the card making. (Thanks for the photo K.)

Thanksgiving Preview

Today is preparation day. Not only for Thanksgiving, but also for conference! I thought I would give a quick glimpse of what it is going to look like around here tomorrow.

Table centerpiece.

Mantel

Hand made napkin rings.

Napkin Ring Tutorial:

1) Drive past Michael's on your way to Costco when you are in a rush. Let mouth fall open as you gaze at the 90% signs.
2) Park, get out, buy bunches of small 2-3" silk flowers as needed.
3)Purchase package of 18 gage floral cloth wire. If you don't have wire cutters, straw or strong glue (I did) buy those also.
4) Finish shopping as needed, rush home.
5) Cut 6" pieces of wire as needed with wire cutters, shape into circles using a tea light candle.
6) Twist ends around circle, leaving ends sticking out. Those ends are where the flowers will be placed.
7) Use pliers to make the bottom of the circle flat, so the napkin rings sit well. Your circles should now be a D shape with the twisted ends on the round part of the D.
8) Tie a straw bow around center of twisted ends.
9) Pluck off a bud and a leaf from any stem. Place drops of glue into their holes. I used wood glue and let it dry over night and it worked great. Regular white glue is not strong enough. Add glue to the wire ends too if you like. Place flower and leaf onto ends of wire.
10) Let dry overnight. Check in morning- one of mine had to be re-glued.
11) Fill with cloth or white paper napkins. With paper napkins, it looks nice if you open them up, and then pull them through the ring.

I made 21 napkin rings for under $4. Guests can take them home as favors if they want. I think these would also work well for wedding showers or little girls birthday parties.

A Crafty Evening at the McLean House

Last Thursday I got to go to the McLean house to take part in a card making party. Anna made some awesome food, I got to meet Sweetpea and Sprout for the first time, and meet some new people. It was a lot of fun and the cards turned out beautiful. It was really weird being at Anna's house, since I read her blog every day. It was like being inside the computer... I felt like I should be leaving comments or something while I was there!

The card making festivities.

Uncle Phillip, Sprout and Sweetpea.

Sprout was very interested in Kitten.

The cards we made. Three of them are called "floating cards" and are made with clear plastic.

Sweetpea gives her Auntie Em a kiss.

Dave, Sweetpea and Kitten.

Knitted Socks!

Remember this post that Knitterykate wrote? I loved the sapphire socks, which were her September socks for her "knit from your stash" and "gem of the month" knitting games. I left a comment that I liked them and well, guess what? She gave them to me on Sunday! THANK YOU AUNT KNITTERY! I love them so much. They remind me of a Lite Brite. (By the way, even if you know what a Lite Brite is, click on the link- it's great!) I have been wearing them all day and they are keeping my feet at a nice even temperature, they fit perfectly and are really comfortable.

A Lot of Memories

For a couple of weeks, I had been working on a secret project that is now FINISHED! The Mr. was working long overtime summer hours at work and while he was out of the house, I had time to scrapbook. The scrapbook is about our courtship and starts at Burbank conference, December 2000 and ends shortly before our wedding in April 2002. While I was going through all the photos, momentos, letters and journal entries in order to build a proper time line, I was overwhelmed with memories. It was such an exciting time in my life, and looking back on it all one can see how the Lord really led us into a deeper love and appreciation for each other. The scrapbook is finished now, and sits of the shelf so that we can look at it whenever we want. It will be a nice thing to have in the years to come, as life gets busier it will remind us of those "fluttering heart" days of an early relationship.

Flowers

Yesterday was a slow day for me. I didn't have all that much to do, (or should I say "that I wanted to do") so I ended up spending a little bit of time in the afternoon with pencil crayons and cheap printer paper. I have decided that I like to draw. I used to draw a lot when I was younger, but most of it was just squiggles and doodles. I find it really relaxing. Since it was gloomy and grey outside, I drew flowers. Here are a few examples. (Be gentle!) Sorry for the low quality, since they are photos and turned out really dark. We don't have a scanner.

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If you haven't already looked at this, in the side bar I have uploaded a free desktop for anyone who would like it. It is a collage of photos I took on June 1. The best part of my walk that day was seeing the rabbit. It was so much like Thumper, that I laughed and scared it away. First it walked around in a circle, found a nice place to dig a little and bunny-plopped down onto it's side to have a nice little bunny-nap. It is so funny how they bunny-plop. It's like they just throw themselves down onto their sides and fall automatically into a deep relaxing sleep. Adorable. I hope to see this bunny again on future walks. Even if he wasn't as cute as Thumper, he sure was fun to watch.