Ho, Ho, Ho!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday!

We were together as a family with DS visiting us for Christmas. What a treat that is. He was lucky to get out of the Pacific Northwest due to all the snow. For a while, we weren't sure he'd be here for the holiday. He made it! We so enjoy his visits.

Did you have a wonderful holiday? Was your tummy full? I made our Christmas menu a bit different this year. We had a fabulous ham from Basse's Choice. They are sooooooooooooo delish! With that, I made grits rich with Gruyere and Mozzarella cheese. DS doesn't like potatoes so grits was the substitute. I also made wild rice with cranberries, mushrooms, onions, celery, and topped with crispy bacon and cashews. Oh, that was really good! We also had an artichoke casserole and orange jello salad made with cottage cheese and cool whip. It was a nice light dessert.

Just after dinner, a storm moved through the area. Our lights kept flickering, the wind was really blowing - I mean gusts at 50 mph! The rain was coming down in torrents. What an odd December!

I found a couple of sites this morning that are giving away a really nice blog candy offering. Here are the links. They have some wonderful blog candy offerings! Check them out!

http://linda-wright.blogspot.com/2008/12/blog-candy-up-for-grabs.html

http://crafts-international.blogspot.com/2008/12/blogg-candy.html

http://thepaperfreak.blogspot.com/2008/12/im-offering-my-first-blog-candy.html

Join in the fun - maybe one of us will win!

I haven't taken any photos or done any scrap work for the past couple of days. I've just been working on other things.

I hope your holiday was very special! Come back soon!

XO

Chris

Las Vegas Snow & Here, Too!

"Oh the weather outside is frightful"
"And the fire is so delightful"
"And since we've no place to go"
"LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW"


The Snow Fairy Came!
No, this isn't a black and white photo! This is how it looks outside this morning!

I am sooooooooo excited! The snow if just falling thickly. We have a fire in the family room fireplace and the blinds are open so we can watch the snow fall outside. The landscape is white, and our Christmas lights are twinkling. Sadly, our lighted, moving reindeer have shorted out, HA, HA! They are dark and still! LOL. They couldn't take the snow! I feel like I'm a kid again. I loved winters in Pennsylvania. This is a wonderful treat!

My first experience of snow in the Mojave desert was in 1974. Las Vegas had nine inches! At that time, there was only one snow plow in Clark County, NV, and it was at Mt. Charleston. Since then, the county purchased a second one! LOL You have to understand that Clark County, Nevada (where Las Vegas is) covers 8,091 square miles! It's very large! The streets were a mess!

Driving to school that morning was "interesting." I had a Mercury Cougar XR7 with a huge engine. The back of the car had no weight. I remembered that my dad told me to always make sure the back end was weighted down. So, before leaving for school, I packed a 20 lb. bag of kitty litter in the trunk and filled the trunk with cinder blocks, my encyclopedia books, and a bunch of textbooks, LOL. I did make it to school without an issue! LOL I definitely had enough weight in the trunk!

We had three inches in 1979. DH and I had just moved into our home and one of the access roads to our area was a steep hill that was still dirt. DH and I decided to go skiing! We carried our skis and spent the evening skiing down the hill and walking back up. We had a blast! It was so much fun. We skied until about 10:30 that night. School was cancelled the next day, so we were able to play late!

In 2003, Las Vegas had another significant snow. DS was so excited, he came and woke us up about 2 AM. DH told us to get dressed. We piled into the Navigator and went to a park where we took some photos. Then, we drove around taking more photos of The Strip and other areas until 6 AM. The neat thing was that we weren't the only people at the park or just out and about. Lots of people were in the park at 3:00 AM playing like we were! People were on The Strip taking photos of the snowy hotels.

Today, Las Vegas is, once again, being whomped with snow as are we just north of Vegas, It started about 4 PM and hasn't stopped. There's about 3 inches on our lawn so far. I AM SOOOOOO EXCITED!!! There is nothing I love more than winter snow. It just makes things so beautiful! It just makes it feel more like Christmas, too!

OK, I've bored you enough. I'll post some photos in a bit. I have to download them from my camera. I hope it snows all night! I can't wait to look out the window tomorrow morning to see just how much we've gotten.

Here is a photo of our home taken at night:

This is so much fun!

XO,
Chris

Christmas Cards to Share

Oh, we're supposed to get snow tomorrow! I am soooooooo excited! I feel like I'm 10 again! The anticipation, the beauty, the feeling of Christmas! I so hope that the storm holds true and we get the 3 - 5 inches that are predicted!

I've been making cards. I thought I'd share some with you.

The first one is of DH when he was sooooo little. This photograph just places a huge lump in my throat! The innocence in DH's face. Santa looks so real. We're sending this card to DH's dad as his Christmas card. I think he'll like it. I tried to make it vintage looking by using vintage colors with gold. What do you think?



This card uses a Tilda stamp. I am so in love with these little characters! Her pants are a rust color, but for some reason, they don't look brown, but a dark red. Oh well. I used some old BG PP for the matting. I love the vivid colors. I also placed her on pop dots so that she stands out from the card.



This is a Pageframe Design clear acrylic card. (See Happy Scrappin' link) I apologize for the yellow look, but if I used a flash, it would create a glare. So, I had to take the photo without the flash. I used a clear sticker on the front of the card as well as some "snow" effects. The bird, leaves, and branch are all silver. It is so pretty. Then, on the inside, I added the sentiment and a ribbon w/ snowflake brad. I like the dimension I achieved.



This is another Magnolia stamp. I thought this Santa was so cute. He's on pop dots so that there is some dimension to the front of the card. The colors are so rich.



Another cutie patootie Magnolia stamp. The simplicity is so wonderful. I embossed the back mat using a Cuttlebug embossing folder entitled Snow drops.



Here is Tilda holding a Christmas wreath. If you look closely, you can see that I embossed the back mat using my Cuttlebug "Winter House" embossing folder.



This card is dark green, but it looks black. I embossed gold paper with the Cuttlebug Christmas ornament embossing folder.All of these folders are available at Happy Scrappin'. I took some colored rhinestones and glued them to some of the depressions in the foil. I wanted to add a bit of sparkle and a bit of color. I used red, green, blue, and clear rhinestones. Then, I remembered I had these beautiful gold pointsettia Primas. I used that to cover the knot in the bow.



And now for a single layout! This is one of DH's favorite photos of himself and our son. I tried to keep with the rusts and navy blues found in the photo. My guys went for a hike at Zion National Park. There had been a snowstorm the day before. If you look closely, you can see a snow plop on DS's hat and wet drip marks on DH's jacket! I used copper elements to keep the LO very masculine. This is one of my very favorite color schemes. I did some stitching around the edges of the PPs. The alphas are navy blue felt Thickers. TFL!


Father & Son

Thank you for stopping by! I hope I get some snow photos to share. **keeping my fingers and toes crossed** I am so glad you took the time to visit!

XO

Chris

Deck the Halls!

Oh, I just love this time of year. Everything looks soooooo festive! We have the lights along the rooftop, the lighted animated deer on the front lawn, and the tree is up! Our two felines, who are normally banished from the living room and dining room, have been given the ability to roam freely in there, too. They just need to stay off my white sofas and chairs! They may think they look absolutely gorgeous against the white, but, the floor is their area! LOL At night, we'll put the baby gate back up and close the double doors that lead from the dining room to the family room. I can just see the two of them snoozing away on something white! The tree has cat friendly ornaments along the bottom.

My scrap room is a disaster! I've got so many projects going on that it is a total mess! If a burglar came in, he'd think someone already had been there and ransacked it! It's on my "to do" list. (at the bottom)

Here are some LOs I did. Hope you likey!

I did this LO for DS. It's a photo of his "fur baby." She was given to us by my father-in-law. The minute Holly (the cat) saw DS, she took to him like white on rice! If she could crawl under his skin, she would! She is devoted to DS more than any animal I've ever seen. I hope he likes it. I used Basic Grey's Offbeat for most of the layout. The photo doesn't show the grey that I used on the left side and the paper behind the birds. It looks tan.


My Love for You is Sublime

When I saw this photo, the title came to me right away! I used Sass Lass for this one. One of the clouds has been elevated using pop dots.


Pucker Up Sweet Cheeks

This LO has my little sweet Annapurrna. She passed away a year ago at age 17. I miss her dearly. She was such a sweet animal except when she decided to imitate a snake and bite as fast as a rattler! She never did stop that habit. She'd sit and watch me do my hair and makeup. I'd pretend to put it on her and she'd squint her eyes the way cats do when they are making "love eyes." I used BG Urban Prairie. The fish are Scenic Route. I've elevated the fish on pop dots, too. I also added clear colored rain drops to look like bubbles.


Day Dreaming

I took this photo of DH at our beach house. Summers on the Oregon Coast are so peaceful and sleep comes easily. When I took this photo, the Sony Mavica camera was the one to have. LOL Compared to the digitals out now, the Mavica was archaic. The photo is horrible! The solid mat behind the photo has been embossed on my Cuttlebug. It is navy blue and from the Boxer line as are the other PPs and embellies.


I Love to Listen to You Breathe

Thank you for stopping by! I am glad that you took the time to visit!

XOXO,

Chris

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

DH and I did some shopping yesterday. We got the cutest Nutcracker. He's about 3 feet tall and made of wood. We also got a red conical shaped "tree" that has lights. It stands to the side and behind the Nutcracker outside by our front door. The red "tree" has lights, too. I'll take a photo of it and post it. It looks so cute! I love to have something by the front door each month.

I worked on a couple of mini albums. It was a labor of love. DH took it down to the copy place to have them bind it and the gal there didn't bind it right and two of the inner pages fell out because the holes weren't placed right. I was sooooooo miffed! It took a week to make the album. Luckily, I was able to lessen the width of the cupcake top by cutting off the holes she made. Poor thing. She just didn't know.

This album uses pretty much all Basic Grey Cupcake goodies - paper, embellies, chipboard shapes, buttons, etc. DS was two on the day these photos were taken. I'm guessing he got the sweater as a b-day gift as he has a summer b-day and summers in Las Vegas were easily 116+° (47+°C.) which is hardly sweater weather! I baked the Big Bird cake because, at that time, he was so in love with anything Sesame Street. I also added touches of bling here and there - balloons, word, gift, etc. It turned out better than I had thought! LOL Here it is:











I hope you liked how it turned out. I just had so much fun doing it, too!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

XO

Chris

Can You Believe It's December?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We were lucky enough to have our DS and DDIL here for a visit that was sooooo appreciated. Bless their hearts, they drove for two days to get home. They did get back home safely and my prayers were answered!

Congratulations to Susan! There were only three comments posted, so the odds were good, LOL. Susan will be enjoying some new Basic Grey Ambrosia. Please PM your address so I can get this out to you, Susan. Calia and Kerry, thank you, also, for taking the time to comment. It was a bit disappointing that I only had three respondents, but I know it's a busy time of the year.

I recently did this LO with the crisp, clean reds and greens of the Christmas season. I LOVED the CS because of its leather-like texture. I bought it a couple of years ago and saved it for just the right layout. I thought this was it! The red and green solids are suede so there is yet another element of texture. The stitching and glittered highlights add a third. Here it is:



Joy to My World!

Thank you for stopping by!

XO,

Chris