Ever Thankful!!!

Last week was a difficult week and I am hoping this week will be much brighter!

It seems that lately most of my posts have been about giving thanks, but I think that in times such as these you had better count your blessings. I refuse to be depressed!

I think that one of the hardest things in life is seeing your kids go through disappointment and difficulties. When they are younger you can put a band aid on their hurts and give them a kiss to make it all better. When they are adults, you have to encourage them and help guide them in another direction. It is painful being a parent sometimes, but through the difficulties, you know they will grow and mature and become the amazing adult God has created them to be! So here is my thankful list for this week:

1. I am thankful that each of my kids are unique. A special combination of their father and me. They each have special talents and interests. They are amazing!

2. I am thankful they are coming home for Christmas!! Whoo hoo!! This year will be very speical indeed!

3. I am so thankful we have a home for them to come back to!

4. I am extremely thankful for our jobs that provide for our needs. In this day and age when people are being laid off left and right, we still have jobs!

5. I am thankful that God has a plan. Our plans may fail, but He doesn't fail. He knows our needs and provides for them every day. He will not leave us nor forsake us!

6. I am thankful my girls get to spend Thanksgiving together. I will miss them, but I know they will have a great time together!!

7. I am thankful that I still have the time and energy to be creative.

8. I am thankful that my sweetie, my son and I make time for each other. During this busy time of 2 jobs and and just trying to make it day to day, we are making sure to have some quality time througout the week! So Important!

9. I am very thankful for an extra day off this week, Whoo hoo!! I can't wait!

10. I am thankful that we have another day to live, be happy, and rejoice regardless of the circumstance. Thank you Lord for another day!!!

Today is a very special day in fact! It is my sweet hubby's birthday!! Happy Birthday Sweetie!! You may be another day older, but you are the youngest man I know. You have so much energy and spunk! You are amazing and I love you!!!

I finished another sketch layout for the So Sketchy Blog by Allison Cope. I hope you get to take some time to check out Allison's work! She is amazing and her sketches are so fun to work with!!

I used my November SC kit for this layout. The journalings says, "Believe you are beautiful, and this is not conceit. You did not create yourself, God did and all of God's creations are beautiful".

I hope you all have a spectacular day!!

Kristii

Happy Monday!!

Good Morning everyone!! I hope you are having a happy Monday!

I can't believe the weekend is gone already!! Our weekend was so relaxing and low key. I needed the rest and relaxation something fierce!! We went to Billings on Saturday and stayed the night in a nice hotel. Benny was invited to the Billings' West Twirp Dance so we decided to make a weekend of it. He looked quite handsome in his tux and his date looked gorgeous!! It was so good to get away for the weekend!! Here's some pics for you!!

They had a fantastic time!!! What a nice guy to go all that way to do a nice thing for a friend!! You rock Benny!!!

Scrapping the Music!!!

I hope you get a chance to check out Scrapping the Music this week. The song is I'm just a Girl by No Doubt. I decided to do a more whimsical, Cinderella style layout. All the embellies and papers from my Studio Calico kit were perfect with this layout. I also used a Martha Stewart punch for the edges.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Monday!!!

Kristii

Little Red Scrapbook Reveal!!!

The DT November gallery is now up at Little Red Scrapbook. The DT came up with some amazing designs and I hope you get to take some time to check them out.

I will admit I didn't have as much time to finish my designs this month as I normally would, but for the most part I am happy with them. My kids were my main priority last weekend and I am still in awe at the fact they drove all that way to surprise us!! My heart still warms at the thought!

My first layout is done with the picture my kids took just before they came up to the door. This layout is a scraplift of my LRS scrappy friend Robin aka ddcdragonfly:

This layout is of my sweet daughter putting on the final touches before her wedding! Isn't she beautiful!!I had a lot of fun with this sweet picture of Grandma just getting off the airplane for a visit with the kids. They were so excited!! I used the Cricut Storybook Cartridge to cut out the tree.

The pictures in this layout are quite old and very dark, but they are some of my favorites. Bethany just loved helping her daddy!! They had quite a special relationship and they still do today!!

Thank you for taking time out of your day to look at my blog! I hope your day is filled with sunshine and smiles and the knowlegde that you are special!!

May God's blessings be yours,

Kristii

Halloween Fun!

I know, Halloween is long gone, but I just have to share the layout I did for the So Sketchy Blog. I just had to do a layout of the picture of my husband carving the pumpkin with the saw. It had to be a funny layout. I don't usually do funny layouts, so it was a great change of pace. I don't always have to be serious and soul searching. I don't know why I don't think of doing fun layouts more often. They are fun! Imagine that??

Here is the sketch:

and here is what I came up with!
I decided to use Saw 5 as my theme- I just loved the catch phrase! I cut the edges of the layout jagged to give it more of a saw feeling. I had a blast thinking about the little touches in this very simple layout! My family just loves it. The spider web gives it the right effect! I used Making Memories and Theresa Collins papers, Cosmo Cricket and Making Memories alphas, and a Jenni Bowlin ticket.
The journaling states:
Proof there is too much testosterone in this house.


Some extremely sad news!

On a very sad note, a lovely and talented scrapbooking friend of mine passed away yesterday. I will miss her tremendously. Rosie made the most amazing cards and whenever I hear of Christine Adolph stamps, I will always think of Rosie! She was a fixture at my LSS and she will be missed tremendously!! Rosie, you made a lasting impression in many a heart here in the valley and we will miss your smile! Even though your talent was amazing, you still took classes and enjoyed what we had to offer! I should have been learning from you girl!! My heart goes out to her friends and family!! Keepsakes retreats will never be the same!! We will miss you!

May the peace that passes all understanding be yours today,
Kristii

Surprise!!!

What a week! It was full of busyness and lots of work!! I ended up working 52 hours this week, whew!!! I am exhausted! I knew it was going to be a crazy week, and I was all geared up for working and sleeping this weekend. We stayed up pretty late on Friday night and I didn't worry about it because I knew I didn't have to be to work until 10. I usually get up before 5 so sleeping in till 8 or 9 sounded heavenly. Wouldn't you know, about 5:30 am the dogs started barking. I was a little cranky because they bark at the slightest noise. Well, my hubby got up to investigate and the dogs went ballistic. He was going to open up the front door to prove to them there was no one there, and much to his surprise the screen door was open! After adjusting his vision, who did he see on our porch???? Our sweet, wonderful, amazing daughters!!!!! What a surprise!!! We were totally blown away! We had absolutely no idea they had planned this. I got up and I was so surprised I started crying buckets!!! I just couldn't believe they were here!!! We are so blessed!!! Needless to say, I still had to work, but everything else became secondary. I had a fantastic weekend with my girls!!! I am sooooo happy!!! I even did a layout based on the surprise for my DT work for Little Red Scrapbook!! What an awesome weekend!! Here is the picture they took in our driveway just before they came in to surprise us! Aren't they beautiful?!!!
Speaking of Little Red Scrapbook, I have some sneak peeks from my designs for this month.

This month's kit was a lot of fun to work with!!!! Lots of pretty patterns, florals, and ribbons!!!

Thank you to all who particiapted in Color Me Daisy's Blog Hop! I will be checking out everyone's blog as soon as I can. My kids will not be leaving until Tuesday and I just can't spend too much time online while they are here!! It has been a lot of fun to see everyone's transparency projects!!!

I hope you have time this week to check out Scrapping the Music's Challenge Blog!!! This week's song is Video by India Aria! There are a lot of amazing lyrics in that song!!! Here is my take on week #61:

The lyrics I took from the song are:

When I look in the mirror the only one there is me Every freckle on my face is where its supposed to be And I know our creator didn't make no mistakes on me

I switched the words around in the first line to make my title and wrote the next two lines by hand. I used papers and supplies from my Looking Glass kit by Studio Calico. Mostly Basic Grey Offbeat goodies.

I am off to make some cinnamon pull aparts for my kiddos and then get ready for work. I hope you all have a great day!

kristii

Color Me Daisy Blog Hop!!

Welocme to the first ever Color Me Daisy Blog Hop!!! All the daisy girls will be posting projects using transparencies. You never know what we will come up with, you will want to hop from blog to blog to see great tutorials and eye candy. Don't forget to leave a comment, all people who leave a comment get a chance at winning a great prize from Color Me Daisy. We hope you will get into the Blog Hop Spirit and make your own transparency project!! Everyone who participates will get another chance to win a CMD Prize!!! Post something on your blog dealing with transparencies and we'll hop on over to your blog to check out the eye candy and leave you some love! You have Friday through Sunday to join in the fun! Sign in on the Color Me Daisy message board so we know to hop on over to your blog. And make sure you check out everybody else's blog, and who knows? You might win a great CMD prize!! I can't wait to see what you all will create with transparencies!!!

Here is my little project:

The Fancy Pants Glitter Cuts Autumn Frame transparency found in the November Color Me Daisy Kit, Feeling Fall, is perfect for our blog hop! It is beautiful and full of glitter!! However, I decided to use it in a different way.

When putting together my layout, I decided it needed a punch of color. The glitter side of the transparency was pretty, but just didn't give my layout the color it was shouting for. I found that if I turned the transparency around, the backside was a nice bright orange/red color. It was perfect for my layout!

Here is my layout and you can see how the simple act of turning the transparency over gave my layout the punch it needed!
I also did a project with a transparency last month. I don't know if you have ever made cards with transparencies, but they are a blast to make. The dimension you can create by layering your elements on top of the page as well as behind the page is amazing.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you take on this challenge!! . Check out the Color Me Daisy site and see who else is participating in the blog hop. Then hop on over to see their projects! I can't wait to see what you create!!!

Kristii

So Thankful Part II

I am determined to focus on Thankfulness this month. It is such a busy time and I tend to lose sight of what is important if my focus isn't centered in the right direction. There are so many things to be thankful for, I just can't stop at the top ten. So here is the second half of my top twenty. These are not necessarily in order from greatest to least....I am just writing what comes to mind.

I am thankful for:
11. knowing that God is in Control
12. the fact that I live in a free country
13. for each and every breath that I have been given
14. time-even though there doesn't seem to be enough in the day, may I learn to use it more wisely
15. books-what a delicious way to spend some of the free time I have been given!
16. the changing seasons (snow is in the forecast for today)
17. the growth that has taken place in me and my family over the years
18. cell phones-it helps my family stay in touch on a daily basis!
19. Christmas-my kids are coming home!!
20. my children's personalities...they are all so different and special! I am so blessed!

I am also thankful that my daughter Bethany is taking up the craft that I love so much! She sent me a picture on my cell phone of a page she created yesterday! It is beautiful! I am hoping that she will send a picture to me that I can post it here. I can't tell you how much it blesses my heart!

November's kit is now up at Color Me Daisy!!! Whoo hoo!! What a fun kit to work with.

Here are a couple of projects I have finished with this awesome kit.


This project is my favorite. I just love October Afternoon products and these papers are awesome. I decided it would be fun to use color blocks along with this awesome picture of my kids we took while we were on the beach in Washington. The journaling states: My heart is so full of love for you. Stay close to each other, love one another deeply, and always be there to listen. Take care of each other always. I used a Martha Stewart punch to make the decorative edge. You just gotta love her punches!!

November Challenge at Color Me Daisy!!


This card was made for my monthly challenge. I hope you can participate!! It is very easy, just make a card of thankfulness-whether you make a thank you card or a Thanksgiving Card, it's up to you. Post your finshed card to the November Challenge Gallery at Color Me Daisy and also post a link under Kristii's November Card Challenge and you will be elligible to win a prize!

I can't wait to see what you will create!!

Tomorrow I will post some layouts for the Color Me Daisy November Blog Hop! I hope you will check back and play along!!

Have a great day!

kristii

Election Day

Finally! I am so tired of all the campaining-I have another word for the whole process, but I will choose to be positive instead of negative! The bright spot in this 2008 election has to be Tina Fey and her interpretation of Sarah Palin. She is truly a bit of sunshine on a cloudy day.

I will vote after my sweetie gets off work and wait to hear the results. The next 4 years will be very interesting that is for sure!

I am so excited to share my publication news. I was contacted by Stacey Michaud about a layout that I had done this summer that was perfect for an article that she wrote for ScrapStreet.com Magazine this month. You can view the article here. Thank you Stacey for considering my work! What an honor! That is one of my all time favorite layouts and it is so rewarding that someone else liked it too!!!

I am off to work on my projects for Little Red Scrapbook. This month's kit is gorgeous!!

I hope you will be able to play with LRS scrappy goodness this month too!!!

I have to work on my Bible Study this morning too. I hope you all have a great day!

May God Bless the USA!

Kristii

Thank Goodness for an extra hour of sleep!!

Daylight savings time ended this week and it certainly did feel good to wake up Sunday Morning knowing it wouldn't be as late as it seemed. Wouldn't it be nice to add an extra hour of sleep every three months or so. I could certainly use it!

I was able to get a lot done over the weekend, hooray!! I am all caught up on my laundry, I made two dinners for the week-a pot of stew and chicken noodle soup, I cleaned my kitchen and swept and mopped my floors, went to the grocery store, and I cleaned my bathrooms. This week will be a bear as it is Parent Teacher Conferences and Open House/VIP night at Hallmark. I will be working every night but Tuesday and also on Saturday, so I will virtually have no extra time. I am all geared up for the busyness, so hopefully it will all go by quickly!

I also finished a card class I will be teaching at Keepsakes by Design on November 20th.





There are plenty of spots open, so sign up at Keepsakes by Design today!! I always love teaching card classes and these October Afternoon papers are a delight to work with!!

I also finished up my projects from Color Me Daisy, but we have a surprise coming up for you later this week and I will wait until then to post my projects!

I started a new book this weekend and it is one that I think everyone should read!!
Here is a synopsis from Amazon: "Calling The Shack a truly unique piece of literary genius would be an understatement. It would be like calling The Sistine Chapel a simple work of art. But like both masterpieces, you need to delve deeper to truly appreciate what is in front of you. The story's premise is a simple one: the unconditional love God has for us all. It answers the questions we all grew up wondering and the answers just might change your entire outlook on life while changing your preconceived notions of theology. And yet, not everyone may agree with the ideas presented to them within the bindings of this work, they will all agree that this is the most thought provoking read to come out in years. I'll try to be brief with the story so I don't spoil it for the few left who haven't read it. A man loses his daughter in a most horrific fashion and his belief in God is beginning to strain. Suddenly he finds himself at a shack near the scene of his daughters disappearance where he is reminded of the love, truth, and wisdom of God. In short: it is about a man who lost his faith and through the powers of prayer rediscovers God the Almighty. The writing is flawless, the story is refreshing and warming, and the message sheds light on the power and love God has for us all. " It is truly a remarkable book!!

I hope you all have a great week!

May the joy of the Lord be your strength today!

Kristii