My Spot of Sunshine: November 2011

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Hello...

Well, I just got back to work yesterday from Thanksgiving vacation. I had 5 days off in a row and it was soooo great! Hope you all had a great holiday. Ours was so nice, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner this year. We stayed home all day, watched the Macy's parade and some movies - it was perfect. We attempted to go to the mall on Black Friday and it was too crazy, had to get out of there. Max got two shirts for $5.00 each and Mike got 2 shirts too. I also got 99.9% of my Christmas shopping done on Saturday!!! Now I have to wrap all those gifts LOL....

So now that it's officially the Christmas season, here's a little survey I saw at The Curious Pug. Feel free to take the survey and post it on your blog, I'd love to see your answers :)

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Eggnog wins hands down.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? He wraps them and they look so pretty.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I love blinking white lights.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? I only did one time, never think to do it every year.

5. When do you put your decorations up? The weekend right after Thanksgiving.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? We always have Italian food for Christmas, so I would have to say baked ziti.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Where I used to live when I was little, the street across from us was just trees. I remember one Christmas Eve looking out the window waiting for my aunts to come over and seeing all the snow falling and all the snow covered trees. It seemed almost magical and I'll never forget how I felt, the excitement and anticipation of Christmas.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I really don't remember to tell you the truth, but I don't remember being upset about it.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes, we exchange gifts with my aunt and my sister's family every Christmas Eve.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I used to always change it up. I used to do different themes and colors every couple of years. Now I just keep it simple, not too much decorating.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love to look at it but hate to go out in it.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes, well I did years ago. I actually want to take my kids ice skating this winter.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I've had a lot over the years, but my favorite when I was little was my Cabbage Patch doll.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Remembering that we're celebrating the birth of Jesus and also just being with family. I love to celebrate the whole season leading up to Christmas Day too.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? My homemade Tiramisu.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Baking christmas cookies every year.
17. What tops your tree? A star.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Definately giving, I love to see everyone open the gifts I bought them and see their faces.

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? Yum - I like them in hot chocolate.

20. Favorite Christmas show? I love all the shows on ABC's Family 25 Days of Christmas (one more day!!!).

21. Saddest Christmas Song? That Christmas Shoes song, it's so sad :(

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Wishing you...

a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

May you and your family have a wonderful day!

Hugs, Marlene

Friday, November 18, 2011

My 8.5 x 11 Project Life album update & how I print my pictures...

Hello and Happy Friday.

Today I want to share an update with you all on how my Project Life album is coming along.

For 2012 I decided to make my own album since PL is offered in only 12x12 size and I think the 8.5 x 11 size will be more managable. I decided to still go with the picture a day format and I have set-up my book by months. This is my first volume for January to May 2012.

Items I bought for this project:

* We R Memory Keepers Photo Sleeves Item No. 50030-8 (fits 8.5 x 11 three ring albums)

* Cinch Wires in white

* Karen Foster Design Treasure Keepers (4 clear pockets with magnetic closures)

* Jillibean Soup sweet & sour soup Cardstock Stickers

* Year.O.Graphy Expressions Cardstock Stickers

* Year.O.Graphy Fundamental Cardstock Stickers

* Various scrapbook papers

* Smash pads for journaling

* Bind-it-All (which I already had)

For the covers, I took two pieces of old chipboard that I had and cut them down to approx. 9 x 11 and covered them with patterned papers. I also had an old clear 3 ring binder which I cut the front and back covers off to use just for extra protection.

On the inside cover I placed one of the clear pockets to hold journaling cards and labels. They come with a sticky back so you just have to peel it and slap it down.

I used two photo sleeves for each month which holds 36 pictures for the month, more then enough for a picture a day and journaling cards.

I also love the Smashbook concept, so I decided to add three sheets of 8.5 x 11 papers after the photo sleeves. I plan to use these pages as I have with my current monthly Smashbook, for extra pictures, events that are going on, etc.

I also added a plain cardstock page which I plan to add a calendar page. I created both a calendar and a sort of calendar grid page in MS Word, I'm not sure which one I'm going to go with yet.

I'll be journaling in each box for each day, things that are happening, birthdays, cute stuff my kid's say, etc.

I've set up each month's pages the same.

I bound the whole book together with my Bind-it-All machine and I did use Cinch wires and they worked great with the Bind-it-All hole punches.

When this book is done, I'll make Vol. 2 for June to November 2012 and a separate book for my December Daily 2012.

I also wanted to share how I will be printing my pictures for each day.

I love to use Microsoft Word. Here's a little tutorial on how I size my pictures {hope it's not confusing LOL}:

(1) I go to MY PICTURES where I have all my pictures stored. I right-click on COPY of the photo I want to print.

(2) Then I open MS Word and I right-click on PASTE.

(3) Now my picture is in Word. I click on the picture and then click on my TEXT WRAPPING button which is on my picture toolbar and select SQUARE.

(4) Now I can click on the each of the circled points and size my picture down. I usually will eye-ball it and line in up against the ruler on the top and left side. Once I get it close to the size I want, I print a copy {greyscale of course to save my colored ink}, cut it out and see how it fits into the photo sleeve pocket. If it needs to be adjusted I go back in and re-size the picture until it is perfect.

(5) Once I get my pictures perfect I can go in an add my next picture. I size it against my first picture so that they're both the same size. I can fit 6 pictures in one sheet to print.

I also created my own grid cards for journaling in the same way. I printed them on white cardstock front and back and I like the way they turned out.

I know this may be different for some of you but it's a method I just go with and it works for me.

The only thing I foresee as a problem is that if I take horizontal pictures they're going to have to be smaller then the vertical ones. But I do plan on using my Polariod Instax camera too and those fit in really nice to the pockets.

The main point I want to get across is that you can make any album the way YOU want.

You don't have to be stuck with just one option - make it your own!!!

I'll definately update you guys with pictures once January comes along.

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Hugs, Marlene

Monday, November 14, 2011

December Daily 2011 update...

Hello everyone. Hope you all had a great weekend - I did :)

Back in July I had shared the beginnings of my December Daily album. I had put it away and took it out recently and decided that I hated the cover. So I re-did it and hated that one too. Well third times the charm LOL I'll still be adding embellishments to the cover, but this is what I have so far.

And these are my pages, not all of them but the whole book is basically set up the same. I'm using one page per day. I used the DearLizzie Christmas line and some Hambly vellum and overlays throughout the whole book. I made some different pocket pages on some of the pages and I haven't glued down my number tags until I'm ready to do the page.