December 29- cards December 30- 2007

December 29th- my title page

December 28th- my weakness

My Weakness....... CHRISTMAS COOKIES!!!!!

December 27- Sleep

this is my ode to being lazy and just relaxing for a week!!



It's all scrapworks on this LO

December 26- Jammie Day

This is my personal holiday!!!!! try it some time

December 25th- Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone

December 24- Christmas Eve

What a totally relaxing day it is. So Surprising!!

used scenic route papers, chipboard and sticker and American Crafts thickers

December 23- Stockings

A little something about our stockings this year



Used MME and Bo Bunny papers, Li'l Davis "stocking" Sandylion stockings

December 22- To Do

I loved this Melissa Francis paper and just had to find a use for it. It just feels so old school to me. journaled my to do lists inside the basic grey monograms

December 21- Freeze Frame

I had no desire to take any pictures of the house since we have been taking tons of the with the leak for the insurance company. What I wanted t journal about was how, despite the insanity of my life right now, I have been able to freeze frame my brain in the holiday spirit and nothing seems to be able to break that. For page I used KI Memories Papers and a cute little Sandylion tree sticker I got at Michales this morning

December 20- SURPRISE

and what can be more surprising in my life right now that ice damns causing my kitchen roof to leak thus leaving my kitchen looking like this with less than 3 days before our huge christmas eve party. LOL taking in in stride though. For this I used my around the block christmas papers again and some american crafts thickers.

Playing a little catch up here

well I spent a bit of time today catching up on some entries since I was sidelined b/c of the house leak then my accident yesterday. My head is still killing me from the fall yesterday. For those of you who don't know what happened here is the story: 1. b/c of all of the snow and ice build up on the roof, we developed an ice damn that has caused this awful leak in the kitchen which now has caused the contractors to open up a huge hole in the kitchen ceiling and one of the kitchen walls is now opened down to the beams, it will be beautiful while hosting the Christmas Eve party; then 2. while walking into work yesterday morning with my friend my foot hit a patch of black ice and my feet went right out from underneath me. I went down backwards hitting head first on the sidewalk. Even I heard the thud. My friend said she saw my head bounce off the sidewalk. I ended up at the ER and had a concussion. today I felt like i had been in a car accident. Scrapping certainly made me feel better this afternoon

December 19- Dear Santa
this is my thank you letter to santa for allowing me to have nothing but wonderful Christmas memories even in a childhood that was less than perfect I have just happy happy Christmas memories








December 18- The Menu
this page is a TOTAL scraplift of a page I saw someone make earlier in the JYC. for the life of me I can not remember whose page it was. if anyone recognizes it please e-mail I would love to give proper credit for this amazing design I just LOVED



December 15 part 2
had to redo December 15 due to a change of plans for Christmas Eve. I am leaving the original there though so I can follow how the season changes daily

December 17- Perfect Gift

i did my own take on this one today since we are not exchanging gifts with anyone this year, including each other The boys have opted, yet again, to donate the Christmas present money to the Save Darfur Fund (http://www.savedarfur.org/content?splash=yes) Sorry I can't link. So what I did was started thinking about the best gift giving moment I've had. feels so great to be thinking about these awesome memories.

I think this is my favorite entry so far




Lots of KI Memories here plus American Crafts thickers which I added Ranger Sparkles to

December 16- Grateful

all about being grateful that we are snowed and iced in today. totally loving it

December 14- Carols and December 15- Visitors

Well I spent most of the day making our Christmas cards but has a bit of time left to do yesterday and todays entry in my journal. Not thrilled with todays entry. It's just doing nothing for me. Oh well here goes nothing

December 15



Around the Block christmas paper
American Crafts thickers


December 14



papers and letter stickers are Love Elsie Noel
misc stickers and rub ons from Making memories, 7gypsies, doodlebug, piggy tales

December 13- Presents

I wanted to keep this page very simple with some very simple journaling about our present routine.

Basic Grey Figgy Pudding paper and basic Grey letter stickers
I inked the tag with several different Tim Holtz Distress Inks
7gypsies stickers

December 12- Change

change is always occurring it is important to just learn to embrace the change and make it work for you.

Basic Grey Figgy Pudding and Fruitcake
Scenic Route journaling paper
American Crafts leg warmers felt thickers
stampin up and CTMH stamps

December 11- The Tree

this page ended up more about our handmade ornaments. The one in the photo is actually an ornament I made in 1966 when I was 5 years old.
scrapworks paper
chatterbox letter stickers and photo corners
stampin up and close to my heart stamps

December 10- wrapping

lots of journaling about how we are not giving gifts this year so wrapping is not happening, unless I take seth's suggestion and wrap empty boxes. LOL

scenic route roxbury paper
cut individual Heidi swapp bling to decorate the tree
KI Memories christmas paper, chipboard and ice cubes
Love Elsie Noel stickers
Doodlebug letter stickers
stampinup and CTMH stamps

December 9- Tradition

when I was a girl it was tradition for us to bake Christmas cookies with my Mom. Well the tables are now turned and she comes out to my house to bake the same christmas cookies with me and my boys. it's nice

Basic Grey Figgy Pudding
EK Success letter stickers
stampin up and CTMH stamps

December 8- Christmas Images

well I have no images this year yet so I cruised flicker for images. I journaled about my promise to keep my camera with me this season to capture my own images

December 7- Lists

well i have officially created a page I hate and you know what........ I don't care. I was stumpted on this one and I just wanted to get my lists down and then on a page. It really is all good to me.

used Love Elsie Noel papers and stickers with October afternoon die cuts for my lists all products purchased at www.houseofpaper.com (sorry can't link)

December 6- Christmas Memories

super simple tonight since I have NO TIME left for creating

basic grey paper
Imaginisce rub ons
stampin up and ctmh stamps

December 5- Advent

Well as the kids get older counting down to Christmas seems to have disappeared. We do take joy in our advent wreath though and lighting the candles every night.

basic grey fruitcake pattern paper
KI Memories die cut paper
heidi swapp chipboard
stampin up and ctmh stamps

December 4- The Perfect Christmas

OK, well this one was difficult since I desperately fight the urge to be perfect so I tried to approach it another way in my mind. Thinking that no matter what I put down on the paper today.... it is perfect. I made a list of all the things I love at Christmas that scream a perfect Christmas to me.

papers are KI Memories
American Crafts velvet thickers
Making Memories charm
doodlebug LOVE tab
stampinup numbers stamp
close to my heart december stamp

December 3- Christmas Cards

Well todays Christmas journal prompt has us thinking about Christmas Cards. I love making and receiving cards. I havent received one yet but I know they are coming. yipeee

my journal page is using Piggy Tale Ba Ba Blacksheep paper, letter stickers and chipboard letters.
date numbers stamp is stampin up month stamp is close to my heart

December 2- Winter Wonderland

I love the snow. Everything about it. It just screams Merry Christmas for me. Thanks Shimelle for reminding me!!!

I also finished my cover and love how it came out

December 1

Well the journal begins today with my manifesto. This is bound to be a wonderful holiday season. I am sure of it!!
My cover is drying and will premier later today or tomorrow


BTW- the papers, chipboard element and acrylic letters are KI Memories.
The rub on title is making memories
the PEACE stamp is www.catslifepress

the turkey disaster!!!!!!

OK, I can not even believe I didn't get a picture of this. It is so unlike me. But I must say I was a TAD bit aggravated. Well totally friggin pissed off may be a better way of explaining it

Let me set the stage for you all. I love Thanksgiving and turkey!!!! Lots of turkey. Plenty for dinner, lunch the next several days, soups and pot pies. You name it, if it is turkey I love it (except devane for some reason). Several weeks ago Roger went out, without consulting with me, and bought a turkey frier. He announced that he was going to fry the thanksgiving turkey. after some negoation what we came to was I would roast a smaller(15 lbs) than usual turkey and roger would fry a 13 pounder. That would give us all we need. I told Roger to make sure he knew exactly what he was doing b/c I was depending on him. He had been putting things together, reading directions, so I thought (oh you funny funny girl) we were good to go.

Cut to Thanksgiving morning. I am up at 5am getting things organized and ready. I get my turkey preped and stuffed and finally in the oven in time to be able to take it out at about 3pm. At 11AM Roger is all of a sudden trying to put the frier together and saying it is defective. WTF!!!!!. and the next thing I know he is rigging the friggin thing with duct tape. Yes folks that is right. My brilliant husband is using duct tape to hold together something that will be boiling oil at ungodly temperatures!!!! This is where I find out there has been NO dry run of seeing if the frier works. That is issue number 1. Issue number 2...... I hear the following "Hey Kare, can you goole how to fry a turkey?" "WHAT THE *@^#@ ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??!!" "I lost the directions." he tells me. So I google, find directions and let him know, complete with time to cook the turkey and the temperature for the oil. By everything I read it should have taken 39 minutes for chrispy golden fried turkey.

Cut to my turkey coming out of the oven and roger leaving to fry his. Guests arrive. 40 minutes pass. Guests are eating appitizers. Roger reports he need about ten more minutes. My turkey is sitting longer. 15 minutes goes by. seth comes in and says Dad needs 10 more minutes. Male guests go out to check on the frying. 2 more bottles of wine are drunk. My turkey and beginning to get a little dry. OK we just need 10-15 more minutes. The anger is starting to mount in my entire body. 10 minutes later Roger and my BIL come back in for another glass of wine. We need another 10 minutes but "Karen can you please start to carve your turkey?" "Are you kidding??" In 10 minutes time I am carving a turkey, which I suck at, getting all of the dishes out onto the buffet and all of a sudden Roger walks in with his turkey on a platter.

OMGoodness I can not even explain what it looked like. It was like a 13 pound something or other had been plucked out of boiling water. I wa the grossest thing I have ever seen. It was a glossy pastey greyish yellow color. The entire room just fell out laughing. It could not have been funnier (well at that second I could have thought of a thousnad things that were funnier) So I did not have enough turkey. All my guests had turkey but there was nothing left over, no turkey no stuffing. I didn't even have turkey on Thanksgiving. LOL not a big deal usually since I would eat it for the next several days. Now a few people tried Rogers turkey and said if you just took the skin off the turkey was actuall good. But I wasn't trying it.

So what happened you ask....... well here is my brilliant hubby. "I don't need this thermomiter. I can figure out when to put the turkey in." WRONG!!!!! The love of my life has absolutely no patience!!!!! He does not test the heat of the oil. He puts the turkey in the oil before it is hot enough. It drops the temperature of the oil and the turkey cooks at to low a temperature. DISASTER ensues. the rest is history and fodder for stories for all thanksgivings to come.

So I tommorrow a new turkey will be roasting in the huntoon oven. I had some stuff left over to make some more stuffing. I still have all the good trimmings so we will be good to go tomorrow!!!!!! I will have my turkey sandwhich on Sunday!!!! Pot pie SUnday night. It's all good now. Yesterday........ well that was another story....... until the 5th bottle of wine was opened then I didn't care what had happened.