Six Christmas celebrations and counting.

     Yesterday's Christmas celebration with my side of the family means that I have formally celebrated Christmas SIX, yes 6, times so far this month!  Nothing measures up to our quiet but not always calm celebration with our immediate family, but they were all fun in their own ways.
     My niece hosted this year's Gleason Christmas, far out 'into the sticks' as many would say, with 16 of us non-fur-family members in her home.  Good food was only the beginning of the festivities, as she had chosen our white-elephant gift exchange to be of 'resale' items, ie items we found at Goodwill, the Salvation Army, Pawn Shops, yard sales, etc.
     She and I immediately thought this would make our shopping SO EASY this year, but in fact, it made it surprisingly difficult.
     When I asked her for gift suggestions for the gift exchange between our sons (independent of the adult white elephant gifts), she remembered that her son needs black ties for his band concerts now.  So of course, I could not find a solid black tie to save my life, even without following the resale purchase rules.  I guess I waited too long and didn't think of going up town to a typical men's clothing store.  Our local Meijer no longer even sells them (yes, I asked an employee and she said they do not stock them anymore!) and Wal-Mart had none to be found.  Therefore, he received several ties, many of which were quite colorful and tacky, but no solid black ones, along with "New Tree" scented potpourri hangers for his first vehicle.
     I was immediately in tears when I realized that the hatchet that our son received was originally MY FATHER'S (who passed away just 10 months after walking me down the aisle)!  Wesley had put a hatchet on his Christmas wish list, after reading a book named "Hatchet" in class, a story about a young boy who gets lost and the only item he has with him that can help him survive is his trusty hatchet.
     I have SO many wonderful memories to document here, with so many wonderful photos, that I will be sharing them in several posts this week, while preparing to host my sister-in-law and niece for a day of scrapbooking on Friday.
     I hope you all have had a VERY MERRY & SAFE Christmas, with so many precious memories to document in your scrapbooks, altered projects, home decor, etc. and that crafting projects based upon your winter experiences keeps your HEART WARM & MEMORIES SAFELY DOCUMENTED. 
     Gentle Christmas hugs (as well as those for Hannukah, Kwanza and whatever celebrations you may share with your family and friends) and to all warm winter wishes.

My Birthday Crop...let's try this again...

          I spent over an hour working on this last night, giving up at around 12:30 am.  After all the frustration of my pics not posting, I now discover that NONE of it was saved/posted.  Another learning experience I guess. haha
          I was lucky enough to have my best bud, my niece Sarah, join me again for an overnight SCRAPBOOKING PARTE'!  A bonus this year was the 1st overnight & crafting visit of my sister-in-law, Deb.
          For the past few years, Michael & Wesley have been going to stay with Grandma Stream, leaving the house free for my girls' weekend.  The only male lucky enough to hang with us was our cat Rusty.  Myself, Sarah, Deb, Dakota, Smoke & our kitten Squirrel all enjoyed our 'girl time', without the loud, masculine influences (& interruptions) of Michael & Wesley!
          We started out our weekend with a trip into town to develop Sarah's film (from a disposable camera) from her son Brandon's horrible accident last Halloween.  She thought that she would be able to look at and work with the photos by now....after trying to scrap them, she realized that she wasn't quite ready yet.
          During our wait for the film to be developed, we enjoyed an inexpensive treat of lunch at Mancino's.  From there we checked out Dollar General for some decorative boxes that Sarah & Deb had been seeing, as well as a trip into Peeble's for nice work shirts for Sarah's new teaching position.  We then visited Grandma Veerman & Aunt Annetta, discussing our girly plans for future play dates, including a possible overnighter at Grandma Veerman's beautiful, large home, before returning to my home to start crafting. 

  

My (belated) Bday Crop & (almost) clean studio...

    My birthday crop wasn't held until January 29th this year & between getting permission to post some pics & digging out around here, I'm just getting around to posting some of my pictures.

    Two of my local scrapping friends, including my 1st & BEST scramping friend Dawn (that's scrapbooking AND stamping for those of you not familiar to our crafts), came to spend some time with me. 

  Dawn brought me this AWESOME adhesive gun!!!!!! plus refills, stamps & rub-ons!

Dawn even brought gifts for Wesley...bath paints!  I've been thinking about getting some of these for him....she read my mind.

    Michael & Wesley were just leaving for GR (Grand Rapids) to go sledding with his family as my girlfriends arrived.  Because my GOOD camera (my digi Rebel) is in need of work & Michael took the CoolPix with them, I was without my camera...."feeling naked" as I usually say upon these rare occasions!

     I apologize for the remaining clutter & in-progress demolitioned state of my studio.  The area beside my former "cutting station" cabinetry used to be part of our utility room's storage space.  When we moved here, Michael built shelving units to house all of our boxes of "stuff" until we finished unpacking the household items, and then stored our ever-growing collection of Christmas decor.  The floor and walls of the utility room were not finished when we moved in, so the new square footage of my studio needs the floors to be brought to level with the existing floors, and one exterior wall needs to be brought flush with the wall behind my former cutting station. 

    We have the new walls framed in, but currently they are curtained off until we spend the money on drywall & paint.  I am planning to complete the sw wall with white wainscoting below & a shade of dusty lavender above, similar to the color of my curtains that hang there now (I robbed them from another portion of my studio & our bedroom).

    Hopefully this summer we will scrape down the textured walls so I can do the remaining wainscoting & painting, as well as add insulating flooring.  I can't wait to rip out the orange carpeting that is on the stairway & office/mini-store area of my studio!

   

 My former cutting station, now my Cricut station, plus storage for all my additional cutting & embossing supplies.  

 Tables for guest scrampers, the first of which Wesley now claims as his own!

 

 

     Anyway, this is the cleanest my studio has been since we ripped out the walls, and even though it is still decorated for my belated birthday crop, this gives you an idea of what I'm working on.  I'll also include some pics of the layouts I've been working on, as well as other layouts I've done with my 3 Birds products. 

Last Christmas

Last Bday's layout pg 1-2

Last Bday's layout pg 2-3

3 Birds paper

Last winter

Stamp Rack

Okay, I'm REALLY frustrated with this program not letting me put things in the correct order!  One last time & I'm gonna post it....

My 3 Birds main display

New Year's Eve & friends...

     I just got hooked up to skype a few days ago & have been able to find a couple of long lost friends whose info was on Facebook.  My niece was just hooked up to high speed via satellite and we were our 'firsts' for skyping.  We look forward to reaching other family members and friends, both locally & from out-of-state.

     We look forward to watching our niece and grand-niece grow up, as we all missed each other in previous years due to living so far apart.

     Thanks to the prompting of my niece, we recently spent part of New Year's Eve together here in Ludington, & we were all impressed with the Ball Drop & following fireworks.

  Included will be a couple of pics, utilizing my less expensive digital camera, as my Digi Rebel is in need of repair.  I hope to have it fixed before my birthday crop on the 29th.   

Whoo-hoo!!!!!!!