Merry Almost Christmas

I've been receiving the cutest cards in the mail from family and friends. I love them all. Homemade, store bought, self-designed, whatever. I really appreciate each card, and love seeing the photos and reading the letters. What's killing me is that I haven't put something together for us to send out. I don't even have a good photo. Sigh.

Enter this:

A few months ago, my friend Erica kindly asked me to guest at Two Peas in a holiday card challenge with her. I created this one, all digi.

So now I'm wondering if I should replace the photo with a more recent one of us, send it to the printer, and call it done? It's obvious that it will have to be a New Year's card. Or maybe even Chinese New Year? Which is on February 3rd (giving me more time to slack off.)

It's the year of the Rabbit. So I have a feeling it's going to be a good one.

Hope you have a Very Merry Christmas and The Happiest New Year!

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One Winner + One Layout

Good morning and happy weekend! We are all sick here, but luckily, my husband is home and NOT sick. Little miracles do happen. So glad someone is here to take care of us. Alas, sick or not, we have to get out of the house to allow for showings and open house. I foresee lots of mall time during this weekend. I'm sure the kids will love that. (In case you don't know me well, I'm a bit of a sarcastic person.)

Anyway, first, our winner of CK's two special issues.

And that would be

Arjanne said...
The every day issue looks really inspiring! Thanks for the chance!
December 8, 2010 12:33 PM

Arjanne, drop me an email using the button on the left sidebar. Congrats! I think you are going to love both issues.

I just got the January CK. So totally exciting. My first issue as part of the Dream Team. I've got this layout in it:

As seen in the January issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

I was supposed to create a layout a la Stacy Cohen, and I don't think I accomplished it all too well. Stacy is one of a kind. Her layouts are amazing and intricate. If you don't know Stacy's work, you need to check it out.

Alrighty. I'm off to clean up the house (for the millionth time this month), and go to the mall. How very suburban of me.

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Yes, another giveaway!

I was looking back at the few posts I've written since I started this blog, and realized that I have a large number of giveaways, and a very small number of layouts shared. Not sure what that means. I should scrap more? And share? Hee hee.

But anyway.

Creating Keepsakes is giving away two of their current special issues to one of you! I have read them both, and found them to be filled with great ideas, information galore, and just nice eye candy.

Scrapbooking Everyday Memories. Love that sweet cover. You can get a sneak peek of this issue here.

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks: Stamps & Ink. I have so many stamps, but I'm not that good about using them. This issue will give you a ton of ideas of what to do with stamps, inks, etc. Take an inside peek here.

Please leave me a comment, and I'll pick one lucky person this Saturday morning. Please do check back to see if you are one of the winners!

Meanwhile, I have a discount code for you to treat yourself (or a friend) to a little something from the CK store: CKDT15 (this is good for 15% off all items in the store, expires 12/20/2010). Nothing like an early holiday gift to oneself. Trust me. I know this from experience.

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Winners. Yo!

Good Morning! Thank you all for your sweet comments. It's interesting how many of us dislike stainless steel appliances! You'd think that manufacturers could come out with stainless steel that repels fingerprints by now. One can dream.. or buy white appliances and save lots of money!

Onto the goody boxes! I used random.org and we have two winners!

Rhonda V. December 4, 2010 10:34 PM
First of all, I agree with you wholeheartedly on the stainless steel appliances! What a great idea - pre-kids. ack!
Best of wishes in your home selling, your changes will really help!
Would love a box full of scrap goodies, what fun!!!

mcscraps5November 30, 2010 5:17 PM
Wow! I liked the red color on the walls, too.
Thanks for the chance to win. Good luck on the house selling!

Winners, please email me using the button on the left column within the next week. I would like to send out your boxes before Christmas!

And if you didn't win, don't despair. I'll have more boxes. Meanwhile, I'll have another giveaway tomorrow. Two special Creating Keepsakes issues that I think you'll enjoy. A lot!

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Weekend In Photos: Staying Out Edition

We had our first showing on Saturday. And that person is interested. I'm not going to hold my breath, but woohoo! And then we had an Open House on Sunday. I had to come up with things to do outside of our house all weekend. The plans were worthy, but the weather was frigid. In the end, we ate/drank (indoors), looked at books (indoors), shopped (indoors).

At our favorite Mexican restaurant. Good Mexican food is rare around here. Looking forward to lots of choices in LA.

I'm not above bribing the kids with presents to buy myself some goodwill and love.

Michael's on Saturday afternoon. Uhm, the kids were not excited. But I did get a Slice Hands-Free Mat at 50% off. So I was excited.

Anthro: coat too big, kids too cranky. I had to get out of there quick, or defenestration might have occurred. If there had been a window.

Next day: more food. Malaysian food in Chinatown. Yes, my kids do know how to use chopsticks. What kind of Taiwanese mother do you take me for?

We had to forgo walking around town looking at sculptures because of the cold. We settled for some Chinese pastries instead. Not as educational, but so much tastier.

Yes, more eating/drinking. This time at Barnes & Noble for some hot chocolate and mags.

And finally home, where my oldest decided to reveal that he indeed had some homework due early Monday. But decided to wait til late Sunday to tackle it. Nice. Note the sheepish look on his face.

And that, my friends, was my exciting weekend. Go us!

I'll be back tomorrow with two winners. Go you!

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Moving Stats

If you came by for the giveaway, you'll find it here.

Hi hi hi! Thank you all so much for the well wishes. I can use all the help to get the house sold. And thank you on the love re: CK Dream Team. It's really an honor!

A few of you had questions about my move, and I thought I'd answer them here, since Blogger doesn't not allow me to email you directly.

Where: 2,720 miles away. Los Angeles. We've lived there before, so it's not entirely foreign. But it's been a while.

When: have no idea!

Stagers: I hired a stager recommended by my realtor. She came and basically told me what I already knew: pack up a lot of our belongings, put them in storage. Then a few days later, she came back with two movers, and they rearranged all my furniture, lamps, pictures, etc. The guys would move a sofa, and the stager would go, "Can you move that an inch and a half to the left?" Totally what I'd do, if I had someone else doing the heavy lifting. I may have found my next job. As a stager. Not a mover.

What else we did: painted all the red away (boo hoo), refinished the bathroom walls and tub (a guy came and sprayed the 60s out of them, it's all white and so beautiful now), put in new medicine cabinets, organized every closet in the house (thank goodness old houses have small closets), cleaned every nook and cranny, Magic Erased the remaining walls within an inch of their lives (note to self: buy stock in whatever company makes those), and the evilest thing of all: made the kids pack 99% of their Legos away.

Remember that photo of my dining room being painted?

Now, it looks like this:

(photo taken by Judy Petersen)

Not my thing, but hey, if it will sell the house... And yes, Marie, you can quote me on your crusade against stainless steel appliances.

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Cyber Tuesday Giveaway

The house officially went on the market yesterday. Phew. Got the house ready in one and a half weeks. I think that's pretty dang good. (Don't look too closely around the basement, though.)

Some photos from the past week-ish.

One of things about staging a house that bums me out is doing away with personal choices. Apparently Ralph Lauren's Hunting Coat Red is a bit much for some people. So, goodbye red. Hello beige, er, I mean Navajo White.

A quick visit to biggest's Science class. Experimenting with pH. Nothing melted + nothing exploded = a good day.

There used to be a very ugly medicine cabinet in that hole. And a very ugly light fixture above it. In a very ugly yellow bathroom. That's all gone now.

We also made some time to goof off and eat at Cheeburger Cheeburger. Funny that we missed In-N-Out so much when we moved here. And now, we'll miss Cheeburger.

Making Michael Ruhlman's lemon bars. When I read that post the very first time, Ruhlman mentioned that his fourth grader could make the dessert, so I put my then fourth grader to the test. And yes, they were that easy. This time around, my pro-lemon-bar-making-chef sixth grader mentored his fourth grader brother. The lemon bars were amazing. Make some today!

And lastly, GIVEAWAY! The scoopage: several very kind and generous manufacturers sent the CK Dream Team huge amounts of scrapbook goodies. It's been like Christmas every other day. Alas, I'm only one person and I can't use it all (plus I'm afraid a potential house buyer will open my craft closet and think I have a serious shopping addiction, which I may or may not have, but I'm not going to talk about it today.) So I'm sharing my bounty with you! I've filled two USPS Priority boxes with stuff. Tons of stuff. They are packed to the very top. It's totally random, so please forgive me. I should have taken photos of the content, but uh, I didn't think about that until they were filled, and then I was too lazy to take it all out. But as you can kinda see, there are: mists, Thickers, adhesives, tons of patterned papers, bling-y things, stickers, chipboard, the works. New stuff. You are going to like this.

I have two boxes for two lucky people. You have until next Tuesday, December 7 to leave me a comment. Sorry, dear friends living in other countries, these are heavy suckers, so I can't send them abroad. Please check back on Wednesday to see if you are a winner.

With that said, I gotta go polish my appliances. I'll never buy stainless steel stuff again.

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EightiesTurkeyPainting

Hello hello! I didn't do a Weekend In Photos this weekend. Sorry. Alas, I didn't break out my phone camera once. The reason is that we are moving to Los Angeles. The realtors came over, freaked out over our house (which I took as sign that they loved it. I hope.) and want to put it up for sale immediately. Which means, I've spent the past few days running around like a headless chicken (and looking that poorly also.) And will continue to run around headless for a few more weeks.

It's been chaotic and nerve-jangling.

But life moves on. And yesterday, as I was getting the littlest ready for school, I realized we had forgotten to make his turkey project, due, uh, yesterday (of course.) Luckily, middlest was home and he's a crafty one (in more than one way!) So the three of us worked together and made this adorable gobbler. We got to school and found out that we were the only people who remembered to turn in the project. So typical.

After everyone got home, we went to IKEA to get some decorative stuff for staging the house. And of course, the kids wanted to eat some meatballsgravylingonberrysaucemashedpotatoes. I'm so glad we did eat there, because this girl dressed up in the best 80s outfit showed up. Yes, I shot a photo. It needed to be recorded and shared. Tight, shiny red pants. Baggy  purple shirt with huge shoulder pads. High tops. And a headband! Priceless. I was in awe and love with the getup. I miss the 80s.

So I leave you with those lovely images, and I'm off to do more work on the house. I probably won't be here much for the next week or so, but I do have lots of scrappy goodies to giveaway when I return. So see you soon.

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Weekend In Photos: The Chinatown Edition

I spent a delightful day with my dear friend Margaret. Every few months, we go and get haircuts together in Center City, followed by chowing on yummy food in Chinatown. Afterwards, she usually wants to visit Chinese knickknack stores, and buy everything in sight. I usually have to talk her down. This time, she was in search of the perfect jade dragon. I just wanted to visit my favorite pastry shop to get some dan-tat and a boba drink. But I'm a good friend, so we searched high and low, and found her dragon (and a few other questionable buys.)

Chinese checkers. Kind of hard to play if one can't read Chinese. I can't play it.

Chinese dragons are friendly. Uh-huh. (And apparently, they have good orthodontists too.)

Not sure what this is. A basket of cheap, fake hair? Blonde? In Chinatown?

No idea what's printed on this plate, but it's beautiful.

We Asians dig our jarred, canned, and packaged foods.

Love the store signs in Chinese. Again, I can't read Chinese. 
(I can hear my Mom sighing from far away.)

Happy with my boba and new haircut. What did you say? My hair looks exactly the same?
It's a bit shorter. Really. Really!

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Winners of Ella books

Hello hello! I meant to do this earlier in the day, but uh, I forgot. Sorry!

Let's not dwell on my mistakes. Moving on to the winners...

I had help picking the winners from my little imp. He folded the little pieces of paper, and picked the names. Good, helpful imp.

Oh, his wrist looks gigantic from this angle. Kinda creepy.

The Journaling books go to:

Debbie D said...

Thanks for the giveaway I would love the journaling book since that is how I waste so much time trying to journal my pages. Congrats on being selected to the Dream Team!

November 4, 2010 7:39 PM

and

party of five said...

I would love to have a copy of the journaling book! Thank tou for the chance!

November 6, 2010 12:32 AM

The Boy books go to:

Stacie said...

I'd like the BOY book please. Mostly because your work is in it. And I'm not even kissing your booty by saying that ;)
November 2, 2010 4:06 PM

and

Tammie said...

Thanks for the opportunity for the books. I have 2 boys and would love the scrapbooking for boys book!

November 4, 2010 7:51 PM

Winners, please email me by using the Email Me button on the left.

Thanks everyone for playing along! Hope you are having a great weekend.

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THANK YOU!

Thank you! For all the love. Here, via Facebook, Twitter, emails, comments at the CK blog and Club CK. Y'all sure know how to make a girl feel special. I wish I could email each of you individually, but uh, I can't. Blogger, get with the program!

My fellow Dream Teamer and friend Nicole Harper posted her first layout ever published by CK, and I thought I'd share mine. It was my very first layout published anywhere, and the very first one I submitted. So yes, I was super lucky. When an editor called me to ask for the layout, I freaked out, and could barely talk. Dork-a-rama. But they gave me another chance, woohoo, and here I am.

I think it was for September 2006 issue? Maybe.

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A Bit Surreal

Very surreal. Feeling so honored to be included in this year's Creating Keepsakes' Dream Team.

Thanks for all the love! It really means a lot to me.

ps: if you came by for the giveaway, there's still time! Find it here.

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Giveaway! Giveaway!

I was imagining me, kinda like Paul Revere, riding through town yelling "GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!"

Yeah. Bad mental image. Sorry.

So, onto the goods!

Ella's Essential Guide to Scrapbooking Boys. What a choice book. I wrote a bit about it here, and have some free downloads that I used for my layouts here.

And then, the equally awesome Journaling That Matters book.

What makes these books so great? My work is in them, of course!

OK. Fine. Just kidding. What makes them great are the incredible layouts/ideas/tips inside each book. Stumped for what to write on your layout? Flip (in an e-flip sort of way) through the Journaling book, and you'll be de-stumped. Out of ideas on how to scrapbook manly pages? Check out the Boy book, and you'll find one that fits your needs. Pretty cool, eh?

I have TWO (yes, 2) copies of the Journaling book, and TWO (2 again) copy of the Boy book to give away. Please leave me a comment saying which book you'd rather have (or if you don't care because you just want a book, ANY book), and I'll pick four winners on Friday. Because that's a good way to end the week. Good luck!

(And as usual, please check back to see if you are the winner. Blogger does not allow me to see your email address.)
(Oh, and that would be me and my biggest on the cover of the Journaling book. Now that's hot!) 

eta: I'll pick a winner Friday night, and post it Saturday. 

I've closed the comments now (5:37PM ET). I'm running around like crazy today, but I'll be back in a few hours to pick a winner!

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Weekend In Photos: The How We Get Our Kicks Edition

Halloween aside, we spent this weekend roaming the aisles of Home Depot, Costco, and IKEA. Good stuff.

At Costco, pre-hot dogs and giant stash of toilet paper.

At IKEA, making ourselves at home. At least, we did not take naps.

More IKEA. We call this exercise. Yes, we are those parents.

Home Depot tile section. So confusing. So lacking in help.

The kids did take some time off from our amazingly fun weekend to play with the stuff left by the Great Pumpkin (in exchange for their Halloween candy stash.) That GP, what a swell squash.

BTW, I'm having a giveaway tomorrow! I have two different Ella books to give away. Do come back then.

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Bring It On, Halloween!

This was my day.

Parade #1 for Preschool Monkey.

 Followed by cafe au soy break with the Mr.

Followed by parade #2 for Charlie Brown Ghost (Preschool Monkey called it a Swiss Cheese Ghost.)

And now I'm home hanging out with the Preschool Monkey again.

Not a bad way to end the week. Have a great weekend and Happy Halloween. (We are hoping for a visit from the Great Pumpkin!)

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