My Christmas Cards & Photo Book

Some of you have asked about our Christmas cards from Shutterfly and since I only sent out a few to bloggy friends, I thought I’d post how they turned out.

I thought they turned out AWESOME!  The quality was just as good!  I also made photo books on Shutterfly that turned out amazing.  For years I have done photo albums for the parents and grandparents – but it was very costly and time consuming.  This year I thought I’d try the photo books to see how good they turned out.  They were perfect.  I had over 150 photos in them and I did the 8x8 size so they are not large to store.  I ordered 9 for family and kept one for us and one for each kid to put in their box of memories.

I will most definitely use them again.  Their quality is great and their shipping times were super fast.  Am I getting anything in return from Shutterfly to say all this?  Absolutely not, though that would have been a nice perk!  I was just reaally impressed with their products.  The card was a folded 5x7 that opens up to more photos and a message.  Hopefully you can see the inside!

So, here’s what I ended up with:

Many Memories Tree Christmas 5x7 folded card

Turn your photos into personalized Christmas cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

And...

 

Click here to view this photo book larger

Have a great Thursday!

Oh and guess what????  It’s snowing.  Yes, it hasn’t snowed in town all season and we actually have some snow that is sticking to the ground. Weird winter here in Colorado!

Project 365, Days 346-359

Booyah!  This is the final ‘catch-up’ post for my Project 365!  Woohoo!  I don’t like being behind – and finally I’m caught up.So, as you will see, some of these photos were taken on the same day – due to me not getting my camera out some days.  I know it’s suppose to be a photo a day, but it didn’t work out that way, so here’s what I have!346
Missy’s (the pig) stocking.  I made this for her the first Christmas she was with us – 18 years ago!
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This is under my mom’s tree.  One of her pugs, George (the one on the left in the photo) loved to lay under the Christmas tree.  This was in honor of her puppies.
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This was on our annual Lady’s Night.  This year we all went to see the play, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”.  (L-R) Me, my mom, my sis-in-law, Cassie.
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This is me and my cousin’s wife.  Every Lady’s Night we have about 25 shots of us being goofy. 
 
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We did two rounds of sugar cookies this year.  This was our first round!
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My Santa figures by the tree.
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My Christmas corner.
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My good friend and I went and got manicures and pedicures.  My toes are a bright red with tons of sparkles.  Too bad you can’t see the sparkles really good in the photo – it’s purty!
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Second round of sugar cookie decorating!

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Me and Hubby the night of his work’s Christmas party.
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This is the day we delivered the Christmas cards and gift cards to the two Ronald McDonald Houses of Denver.  We gave them to 76 families.  So, I’m holding all the gift cards in the first photo and then the others are me and the kids with Ronald.  We take photos with him every year!  I thank all of you, again, who donated to help us with the gift cards.  You are amazing!


* * * * * * *357
The Christmas cards for the families at the Ronald McDonald Houses of Denver.
* * * * * * *358
Christmas Eve at Hubby’s dad and step-mom’s house.  This is me, Jeff (Hubby’s half bro.ski) and Bella.  Jeff played with that car all night ;o)
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Christmas morning!  My beautiful kids!  I hope they like each other this much even when they are older :o)  The last one is of me and the kids.  It’s a tad blurry, but it’s still cute!

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Have a great Tuesday!

Project 365, Days 332-345

Here I am still playing catch up with this.  The photos below are from the first 2 weeks of December!

332
This was the beginning of my Christmas decorating.

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333
Some ‘outtakes’ of our Christmas card shoot!

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334
Obviously I had taken too many photos by this time.

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335
My beautiful kids.

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336
Nick, from youth group, was a human taco this night.  We had a battle of the sexes and OBVIOUSLY the guys lost.  He was their captain, so he got to reap the harvest of loss.

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337
Some fabric for a Christmas project.

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338
Oooh, yarn, for a Christmas project!

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339
Our church teams up with Angel Tree Network and this year our church ‘adopted’ 550 children.  Hubby, the kids and I sponsored 4 kids this year.  You have to buy each child 2 gifts: a clothing item and a toy or game.  We had 3 boys and 1 girl.

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340
My mantle!

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341
My puppy’s stocking.  I always put our pets’ stockings in storage with ours, so this year when I pulled out all our stockings, I pulled Jerry Bean’s out and I cried.  I forgot they would be in there.  I hung it up above my drawing table. 

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342
Lots of tulle for a gift for Bella!

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343
Leaving for a weekend in Winter Park with 70 teenagers.

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344
The view from my window in the cabin.

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345
Inside the cabin.  It was a beautiful place.

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I have two more weeks to catch up on and those will post tomorrow!

How was your Christmas?????

Ours was good.  Lots of running around as usual, but it was fun!  We had no snow here in town and in fact it almost got to 60 degrees.  So not cool for Christmas Day in Colorado!

Now that all the busyness is done for Christmas, I’m hoping to get back online a little more.  My computer missed me!

I missed all of you!

Now I need to go catch up and see how you all are doing!

Happy Monday!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Hubby, Bella, Scout and I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and that 2011 will be your best year yet!

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Christmas Card Display Wreath

I have a slight addiction to Martha Stewart Living.  It’s sad.  It’s embarrassing.  It has so many cool ideas, though, I just can’t help myself.

I was bored with how I was displaying my Christmas cards, so when I saw a new idea in a Martha Stewart Living magazine, I figured I’d give it a shot.

All in all, I spent less than $10 on all the supplies and I actually like how it works.
You’ll need:a couple needlework hoops – I did one large and 2 medium sizesa couple packages of mini-clothespinscraft glueribbon for hanging

 I glued the mini clothespins every two inches around the hoop.  I alternated the pins – one facing out, one facing in.I let them dry overnight (simply because I got side tracked and didn’t get back to it the same day).Once dry, I attached the ribbon and hung on display.This is the large hoop.
 This is the medium hoop.
 
I like how it turned out.  I needed something different and for under $10.00, couldn’t beat that!

I hope you all are having a great Christmas season.  Amazing that Christmas is this Saturday.  I have been going non stop the past couple weeks.  Now, Bella is out for two weeks, so I’ll have 3 kids with me all day, everyday.  Can you see me smiling :o)

I finally got my Christmas cards sent out TODAY.  Nothing like receiving a card on Christmas Eve, right? I ordered them through Shutterfly and they turned out amazing.  I was impressed with how well they looked.

Well, lots to do today.  The kids and I are making sugar cookies – rolling and cutting and baking.  Tomorrow we will frost them all.  I’m excited – these cookies are wonderful!  I also need to get my sewing projects done.  I need Brandi here to help me out since she won’t get off her machine.  Please, twin, help me out!!!  I’ll clean for you if you’ll sew for me :o)  I am also going to try to get more photos up this week since I’m behind. 

I think my major goal for 2011 is to stop being behind on things all the time.  That means I need to prioritize, learn how to say no to some things and stop having so many projects going at once.  Sigh.

Happy Monday!

“Remember, this December, that love weighs more than gold.”
Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

 

WW ~ How I Survived A Weekend With 70 Teenagers

How did I manage to survive a weekend in the mountains with 70 teenagers?

Simple…

I have never had an “energy drink” in my entire life! Honestly. In fact, I had no intention on drinking even one of the 4 Red Bull’s that they gave each leader for the weekend retreat.

Um. Ended up drinking all 4 between Friday night and Sunday morning.

For a person whose body is not use to caffeine – this stuff WORKED!!!!! 

I was wide awake for the all nighters the girls pulled.

I even got a little goofy – hehe!

It’s simple.  This was how I survived my weekend with 70 teenagers.

"Joyfulness keeps the heart and face young. A good laugh makes us better friends with ourselves and everybody around us."

Orison Swett Marden