Go to work in your SLIPPERS!

Yes, I get to go to work in my slippers! AND for Christmas I got 2 new pairs! LOL My friend Becky gave me the Tiger ones and my husband gave me the pig ones! How cute are those! Jackpot!

My husband says, "slippers are your trademark". That is what I wear to work. Since I have a home business I get to wear slippers. My Close to my Heart business has been the best job I have ever had.

If you would like to start the New Year off right and earn extra income, you too can start a Close to my Heart business! It is a great way to get your OWN scrapbooking done (tax deductible) get free & discounted products, meet new friends, earn free trips and oh yes, I almost forgot...make EXTRA MONEY all while doing a FUN JOB!

Give me a call or send me an email and I will be happy to talk to you about starting your own Close to my Heart business!

Oh and the last picture, that is my fun penguin hat that my friend Sara got me for Christmas! How cute is that hat! And warm! Now I need to find a pair of slippers to match my hat!

Magnifique!

I recently went to Colorado on a "working" road trip to my friend Julie's house! But with work comes play...and of course I had to bring COLOR coordinated popcorn balls to match our Magnifique layouts! lol

Here is the layout I made to show at my last Open House, but I didn't have any pictures for it yet...so here they are! This kit is SO beautiful! Not only can you use it for a TON of different things, but I also saw SNOW layouts in this too. Watch for those in an upcoming post. But I took our snowflake stamps and added a little snow pizzazz and now I have snow pages using this kit.

That is what I just LOVE about our kits...they are so versatile. So get out those snow pictures from all that snow last year and get scrapbooking them!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Today I thought I would share one more picture of our decorations. This picture was taken right before my husband work party. I just love how the focus is on the candles but you can see the fireplace and the tree in the background.

Remember when you are taking pictures these next couple days...take them at different angles instead of straight on. Also, take them in different places. We seem to take them at the same locations every year. Same tree, same decorations, same angle. Branch out this year and take your pictures differently. You will be happy with the result.

I hope you are almost done with all the shopping, preparing, wrapping and cleaning. Take a deep breathe and enjoy the next couple days with family! I pray you will have a safe and fun weekend.

And remember to celebrate the birth of our Savior! That IS really what it is all about. Enjoy and I will see you here next week!

So from my blog, I wish you a VERY Merry Christmas!

Memories

Today I want to share pictures of Grant. It is a hard day, but I decided to share these so silly pictures with you of how silly he really was.

The picture with the flowers behind his ears, was when he and Cody were decorating dirt cake cups. We put fake flowers in the individual cups. Hmmm I wonder who got the flowers after they were behind his ears! LOL

Then we were swimming and he just looked so funny with his goggles on.

The last picture...well, it is true Grant. I didn't know how fun someone could have by putting an orange slice in their mouth! lol He was always trying to make someone smile! And after all this time, he still makes me smile!

Remember how important pictures are. And scrapbooking truly does make us relive our memories over and over again! So keep clicking those pictures...especially the silly ones!

Noel Banner

I made this NOEL banner a couple years ago, but I just love it. I just took 4 Cranberry circle pieces of cardstock, matted with patterned paper, stamped evergreen branches on Colonial White and then used our Dimensional Elements alphabets to spell NOEL. You can use whatever word you want. Then I added some ribbon and sparkles.

The last thing I did was put them together with our hinges and a complete project. Give it a try. It adds a little personalized touch to your decorations.

Strange but YUMMY Dessert

Chocolate Cherry Treats

Need a FAST, EASY and YUMMY dessert? Here it is. Not the best picture on our granite counter, but trust me...they are yummy.

I got this recipe in my Food Network Magazine...it was a pull out from Kellogg's.

They are basically Chocolate Cherry Rice Krispie Bars. They were so intriguing, I just had to try it. I didn't think they were going to be good, but what the heck...

2 c Kellogg's Rice Krispies Cereal

1 c semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 c chopped dried cherries

1/2 c chopped pistachio nuts

3 T butter

2 c miniature marshmallow or 20 regular marshmallows

1 t vanilla

In a large bowl combine Rice Krispies, chocolate, cherries and nuts

In medium saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows. Stir until completely melted. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Pour over cereal mixture. Stir until well coated.

Evenly press into 8 x 8 x 2 dish coated with cooking spray. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cut into squares. Best if served the same day.

TRUST ME...they are just as yummy on day 2 & day 3, but there wasn't any left to test them on day 4! lol

This is a great treat if you are short on time! Hope you enjoyed them as much as we did!

Christmas Layout

Here is a Christmas layout that I made the other day. It is from our Magic How To Book. It was a pretty quick layout. Some days I really like quick! lol I took these trees and cut them out, then popped them up. Added a few red sparkles and done. On the right side, the card that says Peace on Earth is a journaling piece that can pull out.

I have been making a bunch of Christmas layouts...I better have enough pictures!

Christmas Decorations

It's that time...time to stop scrapbooking (EEK) and start decorating for Christmas. Normally we don't start to decorate until the first weekend in December, but my husband volunteered to have his work party at our house. BREATHE! lol It's ok...we like to host parties...but with that came a little stress. We have to start decorating early. So we started the day after Thanksgiving.

Now we volunteered to host the party not only because we like to host, but it will keep us busy in a very hard part of the year for us. 11 years ago, our 16 year old son Grant died in a car accident 3 days before Christmas. It really makes the holidays hard, but we are getting better and have figure out that staying busy works well for us during this time. I tell you this to remind you that it doesn't just happen on tv, it can happen to any of us...so hug your kids and enjoy the moments...oh and take pictures! LOL

So...out came the trees and decorations and here are some pictures of our house. I will share more with you later...I am waiting for a picture to arrive and it was too light this morning and the sun hit the tree funny so I couldn't take a picture...but here are some pictures to put a smile on our faces. I even decorated our cats "entrance" to their area and Corley was nice enough to come out for the picture...ok it took 3 takes, but it finally worked! LOL

This picture is our last picture of Grant. We were at Disney and we found Tigger so I MADE them pose with Tigger (he's my favorite character). Cody is on the left and Grant on the right. We just love this picture...they are both laughing as Tigger hugs them. I am very thankful for this picture...it makes me smile.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like CHRISTMAS!

The stores are ready, the neighborhood's are getting decorated, the trees are going up...so you know what that means...it's now officially the Christmas season!

So with that in mind, I wanted to share a Christmas layout I made (I copied from the catalog), mine is a little different....but I LOVED it.

I used our Mistletoe kit and our Father Christmas stamp set (D1449). The part that I really love is the NOEL. I stamped it in Cocoa, then I stamped it in Cranberry on a separate piece of cardstock. I then cut out the Cranberry NOEL...yes, I really did cut it all out. Then I stuck the Cranberry Noel down on the Cocoa Noel to give it a two tone look. Now, would I do this 50 times...NO, however, I did it this once and just LOVE how it looks. I felt it was worth the time to have an amazing layout.

You might be surprised on how cool this look is and it is worth your time. Give it a try!