December Daily Album-Cover through Dec 5th

Since there are over 60 photos associated with this

album, I thought it best to break it up into 5 day segments.

Project Life Week 2

Week two of Project Life is in the book now, and I

couldn't be happier with how easy this process has

been so far. Take pictures, develop pictures, round

corners and slip into page protectors. Add journalling,

and fancy inserts, which come with the core set and

voila, your week is done.

The only thing I find hard about the process is

deciding on which stories to tell and photos to use.

I decided to tell the not so big stories, which I

would usually do a scrapbook LO about, that

way leaving it to be a more living kind of book.

The left hand page is shown above

The right hand page is shown above

The full week in a glance.

Project Life Title Page

I was not sure whether I wanted to add any extra

details to the basics that came with the kit, but I

decided a little extra bling would make it pop!

Week 1 Project Life

I was so excited to get my Project Life and even more

excited for January to begin so I could start documenting

our lives in a weekly fashion.

And I am happy with the start I have made since I have

already got photos printed, and put them and journalling

into the album to get week one done. Yay me!

Been a long time since I dug out my pencil crayons for

a layout, but the REMEMBER repeated over and

over just called for a punch of color.

Kinder Surprise

I decided to start a fun series here on my blog all about camera play.

One, because I love taking pictures and sharing them, and secondly,

my point and shoot camera came to an unexpected death just days

before Christmas, leaving me with my Nikon D40, which I love, but

still don't "get" if you know what I mean. So this will be me

posting more and more as I learn how to use this camera I have

had for 3 years now. Today, I'm playing with my micro setting.

Amy did stockings this Christmas for Tim and I, and we

both received a gift pack of Kinder Surprises.

Which is awesome, because a toy inside your

chocolate is good at any age. :)

This is the fun Giraffe I got in mine, it is supposed

to be filled with water and when pushed down,

the water will come out of it's mouth :)

Little green Monkey is a stamp that Tim got in his

surprise, and I must say, not the best stamp out there,

more like a green blob then a green monkey face.

Wow!!!

I came home from work today and decided it was time to de Christmasfy the house...I figured a few hours and I would be done....lol..what little I knew when I started 5 hours ago. Because most of the stuff was in the living room and Tim is addicted to his xbox right now, I piled everything into the dining room, vacuumed and dusted so I was clear of the TV...lol and off I went into pack everything up mode. This is a big portion of what was around the house, but not including the tree.



I asked Tim to snap a photo of me taking down the tree decorations, lights etc because as I was doing so, I was enjoying a trip down memory lane, different ornaments having a story, the homemade garlands each with there own history....you see, when the tree goes up and it's decorated, it's the girls that get to take their own trips down memory lane and it's all them in the decoration process....for me, its when it comes down, and I carefully package it up safely to be stored til next Christmas.












Okay, what's up with a box that seems to be laughing at me with the question, "you expect all that to fit into me?" I know it fits, does each and every year, but it amazes me that it is at all possible, crazy tree, 3 separate pieces, and the stand all fit into this box, with the help of lots of duck tape to hold it all in there. There are literally layer upon layer of old tape strips from years gone by.




I carefully piled all the ornaments onto the floor, placing them on top of the tree skirt for fear they would roll over over the place. Carefully wrapping up each and every ornament took me a very long time, and then of course packing them into containers to bring to storage is a chore in itself, trying to conserve as much space as possible.





And this is how the table will stay tonight, I am dog tired and have no more desire to tidy, clean or put away another thing...tomorrow is another day....

First time :)

We got our new Espresso machine on Boxing Day and I set it up a few days later, made the counter area a little mini coffee bistro :) I have been scared to try it out, so last night Amy read the little book that came with it, and made Tim and I our first lattes from it. Not too bad, a bit weak, but right now it's trial and error. So today when we got home, I wanted to try it myself, and boy did I make a mess.




I did manage to make 2 little cups of espresso, to add to our lattes, I made Tim's his usual caramel, and he said it didn't turn out too bad, just have to get used to heating the milk up hotter is all, but it foams so much, I have to figure that part out. But just for the espresso brewing part, look at the mess, argh, hopefully that gets better as we go too.





And talk about milk spillage, just a bit on the base, the counter and the cloth, I am sure I will get better at judging how full is too full to make the little steamer jug. I know it says half way, but that doesn't fill the travel mugs, so I did 3/4 full, and spilled a bit, but it was the perfect amount of milk.






This is my drink, I used eggnog as the milk, and added gingerbread syrup (don't tell Jordyn, since it's hers from a Christmas gift... :P) then added some whipped cream, and it turned out pretty good I must say.








A view of our brewing station...can't wait to see what other combinations I can come up with as I get more confident with our new machine.

And a big thank you to Linda, my mother in law, and my dad whom helped us out with the purchase of this via Christmas money :)