Noodle Soup

The holiday season may now commence

This year’s holiday planner was a combo project – part getting organized for the Christmas season, and part learning to use a new tool.

You see, I have an embarrassing confession to make. I was one of the first people to own a Bind It All – I purchased it during CHA Winter back in 2007 when it debuted. I brought it home from the show, all excited by the possibilities…and then it sat there in its box, in a corner of my bedroom, until this week. You math whizzes have probably already figured out that’s just shy of 2 years. Preposterous! And yes, I was duly ashamed of myself.

Every time I thought about opening that box, the learning curve turned me off. I didn’t have time to read an instruction manual or watch a video, or mess with trial and error. But this week I decided to give myself amnesty from the guilt, open the box, and figure the darn thing out. My holiday planner was the guinea pig project.

I will admit that it didn’t turn out perfectly. I chunked up the cover while learning how to punch the holes, and I tweaked part of the wire binding.  Those things bothered me for about 11 seconds, but I’m over it now. Most importantly, I had FUN making it, and I love the colors and the haphazard, sticky-out parts and the graph paper I used. The holiday season may now commence – I’m ready!

So without further ado, I present my 2008 holiday planner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used a lot of this 'n' that, all of which I already had on hand (yay me for denting the stash!) Here’s a quick rundown of the main stuff: The chipboard covers are from the Theresa Collins line for Bind It All, as are the precut papers I put on them. I added some borders cut from a sheet of Cosmo Cricket’s “Hello Sunshine” 8x8 pad, Dymo labels, some Gartner Studio stuff from Target, and various letter stickers, envelopes, tags, and library pockets I had lying around. I still plan to add a piece of elastic to hold it shut. If you’re wondering about something specific that I didn’t mention, shoot me an email.

If you missed the back story on my annual tradition of creating a holiday planner and why I cannot survive the holidays without one, go here.

And now I would like to leave you with a challenge. I know I’m not the only one with some sort of product languishing about for ages. Leave me a comment about that thing you’ve been meaning to bust out of the packaging…and then do it! Today. No more putting it off. I guarantee you will be glad you did. Bonus points if you share your completed project on your blog (or with a friend if you don’t have a blog). I hereby absolve you of guilt over how long your whatever-it-is has been sitting there, just as long as you use it NOW.

Friends in fun places

I think one of the coolest things about scrapbooking is the way women’s innate social nature forges friendships based on the common bond of creativity. I have gotten to know so many great people through this hobby –  women from all over the world with whom I would probably never cross paths, if not for our mutual love for crafting the stories of our lives with photos and fun products.

Well, in the case of Stephanie Ackerman, that’s not entirely true. I probably HAVE crossed paths with her many times without realizing it, because she and her cute little scrapping “shed-teau” are only about 5 minutes from my house. She has undoubtedly heard the wails of one of my kids pitching a fit in the grocery store at one time or another, and I have most likely buzzed past her while driving too fast down the toll road. But the hobby of scrapbooking is how I met her in person at CHA last year.

Stephanie just launched a really nifty new blog last week called Creative Souls. Go visit if you get a chance. If Stephanie is involved, you can be sure there will be some serious creative inspiration to be soaked up over there.

I met Lain Ehmann for the first time on the same day I met Stephanie, although I had known her through her blog, podcast, and emails for many months. We connected at Big Picture Scrapbooking when she requested one of my layouts from the gallery for a class she was working on, and we clicked instantly. She was also one of the (sneaky) masterminds behind my huge surprise at CHA last year.

Lain is one of the wittiest and most down-to-earth girls I know, and luckily for all of us she decided to share her “real life” brand of scrapbooking humor in an adorable little book called Snippets. Snippets is slated to hit stores the first week of December, but it’s available now for preorder. You can go here for a sneak peek that is sure to tickle your funny bone and leave you nodding your head in agreement…and then do what I did – email the preorder link to Santa (or your hubby, significant other, mom, dad, sister…) and mention what a great stocking stuffer it would make! If you've had the kind of year that makes it more likely you'll find coal in your stocking (hey, it happens!) don't despair. You can enter to win your very own autographed copy by posting about Snippets on your blog this week, and leaving Lain a link on her blog. 

 

You can also join the virtual launch festivities on November 20 over at the Simple Scrapbooks website. Lain will be chatting it up on the message boards at 1 pm Pacific time, and there will be some fun contests and prizes. Trust me - those Simple gals know how to throw a party!

Kudos to both Lain and Stephanie for following their creative passions! There is seriously so much positive energy in this industry and I love it when the brilliance of creative women carries them to new and exciting places.

Scrambled Saturday with extra fresh air and a side of glue sticks

Just a typical, busy Saturday at Chez Morrison. The boys have haircuts this morning, followed by a costume fitting for Reece’s play. Meanwhile, the girls are on mission to restock their makeup bags and toiletry cabinets. Well, two are. Taite is just along for the ride, and whatever tester lotions and perfumes she can reach…plus a spin or two in the twirly makeup chairs, no doubt. I don’t understand the phenomenon that causes Kendra and I always run out of everything at the same time, but I hope Bobbi Brown thinks of me on her next vacation. I’m certain today’s purchases will be paying for a good portion of it.

On this afternoon’s agenda: a family hike, a trip to the craft store, the ceremonial weekly vacuuming of the whole house (and the kids’ accompanying panicked toy scramble), and hopefully some studio time. It’s time to whip up my annual holiday organizer, and I have another fun little project I’m working on that is still under wraps. Can’t wait until I can tell you more about that one!

Hope your Saturday is just what you ordered.

Don’t let this happen to you!

Come and play, everything’s A-OK…

Today is the 39^th anniversary of the premiere of Sesame Street. Wow! I watched the very first episode from my playpen when I was 2...or so my mom says. I don't remember that specific day, but I do have lots of great Sesame Street memories, from my childhood and from the years my own kids have watched it. My childhood favorites were Bert & Ernie, the funny little songs like this one

the informative stuff like this

 

and the counting song where the baker always fell down the stairs at the end (did you know that baker was Jim Henson?)

 

But my all-time favorite was this:

 

Do you have a favorite Sesame Street character or memory?

Sign of the times

I snapped this photo with my phone over the weekend.

 

Gotta love a sense of humor in desperate times!

I’m it!

Stacy Julian tagged me, so you have her to thank for these seven fascinating tidbits about me:

1. I like to use a plastic spoon to eat ice cream. Call me crazy, but I think a metal spoon makes it taste different.

2. When I was in elementary school, I won a contest at a local department store to attend a day of clown school. My husband says this explains a lot.

3. These are my two favorite places to regroup and recharge:

 

 

4. My favorite thing to make for dinner lately is taco salad. The whole family loves it, and it’s easy peasy.

5. When I was in high school, I worked early mornings at a bakery. I used arrive at work with my 80s perm still wet, and when I had to “pan up” all the dough from the deep freeze, my hair would freeze solid. Kind of like Madonna meets Mr. Snow Miser.

 

6. I am not generally a superstitious person, but I do have a “lucky mug”. Good things always seem to happen on the days I drink my morning tea out of that particular one.

7. If I ruled the world, I would make it a law that all cute pajamas have to be long enough for tall people. (And until then, I will keep wearing capri jammies, or spending a ridiculous amount of money for the one kind that goes all the way to my feet – PJ Salvage).

I am tagging the following seven people:

Joanne

Emilie Ahern

Tina Cockburn

Jennifer Mattix

Heather C.

Lindsay at Cosmo Cricket

And…

Congratulations to Lois H., whose name was pulled from an empty Sprinkles cupcake box (yum, btw!) by a somewhat reluctant teenager who I interrupted from her Humanities homework. Email me your address so I can mail your "what's in my shopping bag" treat.

ETA: Math has never been my strong subject, but I swear I really do know how to count to 7! There were 7 linky-dinks there when I hit the save button. I have no idea where the last one went. Or why one of them mysteriously changed fonts. Anyway, Tami V. - you were also supposed to be tagged. Just when you thought you were off the hook. ;)

Which Witch is Which?

Halloween, circa 31 BT (31 years Before Taite):

 

Halloween 2008:

Yep, that’s me in the first picture, and Taite in the very same witch costume that my mom made for me when I was 6. Only she’s 4 and it fits her perfectly. She is tall, but not an Amazon…I was just a total shrimp until jr. high.

So many memories come flooding back when I look at that old photo – the house I grew up in, trick or treating with my brother, Halloween traditions that my siblings and I still observe 35 years later. I was practically transported right back to 1973, watching my little girl run from one door to the next in that costume (which of course turned me into a big, goofy, sentimental, flashbacking faucet of tears for a minute). You betcha I’ll be scrapping that old photo with at least one of these! The hard part is going to be narrowing down what I want to say.

Reece dressed up as a Guitar Hero...

…something I was decades away from ever hearing of back in 1973. Shoot, I was still 4 years away from learning to play Pong and Space Invaders on my state of the art Atari game system.

I love that Reece’s costume is so pop culture. I wonder what his kids will think of it.

Kendra is a last-minute kind of costume girl, and as I was heading out to a Halloween party with the little ones, she was scrounging around for random objects to throw together some sort of ensemble for hanging out with her friends and watching scary movies. She is too old to trick or treat now, which is kind of sad, so I started a new tradition with her this year – “Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet” Halloween pedicures. Brilliant, don’t you think?

I am off to spend our “freebie hour” hiking with the fam today. I was tagged by the fabulous Stacy J, so tune in tomorrow for some riveting randomness about me. I will draw a winner from the What's in Tami's Shopping Bag? post tomorrow, too…so if you haven’t left a comment yet, there’s still time to enable me with your latest fantastic finds.