December Daily 2017: Day 1

Hello! Can you believe it is officially December? I was excited to start my December Daily album. This year I am doing my album "junk journal" style. For the first page I have used papers and ephemera from Tim Holtz Christmas collection. I added a tea stained doily and some zig-zag stitching. The numbers are from the Heidi Swapp Believe collection.
I will share my cover on another day, but it is made from a package I recieved in the mail. I will bind it all when I am done with the pages. This allows me to more easily sew and stamp on the pages as I go.
If you are doing a December Daily type album I would love to see pics! Share a link in the comments if you would like and I will leave you some love. :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Emily

December Daily 2013: DONE!

Hi, there! I FINALLY finished my December Daily album for 2013.  I was great about keeping up with it on a daily basis at the beginning of December, but then got behind with our busy schedule. I used the same style of Simple Stories album that I used last year. I used the Heidi Swapp Believe collection this year.  I bought the 12x12 paper pad and cut my own 4x6 and 3x4 cards from the papers.  I did this all ahead of time, which was super helpful. I also used the borders, and several embellishment packs that went with the collection.

I love that this album helps to keep in perspective not only the big, traditional holiday happenings, but also the little things that are just part of life.  The layout above shows that I reorganized my pantry, along with watching Rudolph in the evening.

I also wanted to include some of the artwork that my boys made for me over the holidays. I picked a day, that I forgot to take a photo and added some art to the layout.  The Santa in the top right was too big, so I just snapped a photo of it so that it could be included.

Here is a page that shows a less than happy holiday memory, but still part of life! A sick kid.  I also like to include my home decor in my albums, so that the boys can remember some day.

I didn't want to bore you all with a photo of every page this year, since I was bad about keeping up with it, but here is a glimpse!

Thanks for stopping by!

Emily

December Daily: Day Twenty-Four & Twenty-Five...DONE!

Day twenty-four-We were busy traveling to different family parties.  We started out with brunch at Grandma's house (hubby's side of the family), and then later in the evening we went to my aunts' house for dinner.  I was so excited to get to go to my aunts', as we have not been able to do this in a lot of years!

Day twenty-five-We started the morning off with a visit from Santa! I think it is cute that my sixth grader had the hardest time going to sleep, and was the first one in our room in the morning.  We opened the "Santa" gifts and stocking first, and then they got their presents from Bill and me.  The were crazy excited to open their very own iPads.  I am glad that I will no longer have to share mine with three boys. :)
They were also surprised to find an aquarium with their very own hermit crabs.  The video of them opening the ipads and seeing the hermit crabs is priceless!

Thanks for hanging with me while I completed my December Daily.  I think I am going to take the Project Life plunge, so you will have to put up with some more scrapbooking in the New Year!  I will soon be back to regular blog post with my cards, too!

Emily

December Daily: Day Twenty-Three

Day 23-We were able to celebrate Christmas with my hubby's extended family this year!  We had fun visiting with aunts, uncles and cousins that we normally do not see on a regular basis.  Aunt Cathy had a fun scavenger hunt for the younger kids, and the adults did a white elephant gift exchange.  Max and Luke fell asleep on the ride home! 
I am going to try to post Christmas Eve and Christmas day tomorrow or Sunday.  Once my kiddos are back in school next week, I hope to get back to my normal blogging routine.  It is nice to take a little break.

Thanks for stopping by,

Emily

December Daily: Day Twenty-one & Twenty-two

Day Twenty-one-Our first snow of the year! Just a dusting, but snow none the less.  We were also busy with Christmas parties at school.  Super lucky this year that Max and Luke's classroom's are right across the hall from each other.  It allows me to zoom back and forth and see them.  Max is making ornaments in the upper left corner, and Luke and his friends used toilet paper to decorate their friend as a snowman.  So cute!

Day twenty-two-Basketball, Taekwondo, and an evening of looking at our favorite local light displays and Nativity scenes.  We made sure to stop and get some peppermint mocha's and hot chocolates before we started our venture.  Now...let the crazy Christmas travels begin!  We will be traveling to five parties in the next four days. I haven't done this in a lot of years, but now that Max and Luke are older, we decided to give it a go.  Hopefully they will not be grumpy when Christmas actually arrives!

Thanks for stopping by!

Emily

December Daily: Days Nineteen & Twenty

Day nineteen-We went to The Cincinnati Zoo's Festival of Lights.  I always enjoy seeing the lights, and this year we decided to stop and check out Santa.  I am so thankful we did, as the Santa at Bass Pro was kind of a scrooge!  This Santa was amazing, and was very attentive to my guys.  All three boys were excited to see some of Santa's reindeer.  I am upset, because I obviously did not have my flash on for the reindeer and Frosty photos.  Oh, well.  Still memories in the making!

Day twenty-A busy day!  I met my friend Tari for lunch, and then after school we had basketball and another Cub Scout Christmas party.  Max and Luke also brought me home some beautiful, homemade cards and ornaments!  I think the teacher's sent them home a day early, since we are supposed to get some snow, and everyone in this area freaks out at the mere mention of snow!  LOL!

I can not believe that Christmas is almost here! Are you ready? I am!

Emily

December Daily: Day eighteen

Please scroll down for my Heartfelt Creations post!

Day eighteen-I included a photo of Max and his speech therapist.  He took her a gift, and I wanted to include her in our album, as she has done so very much for Max. 
About a year and a half ago, we found out our insurance would no longer pay for speech therapy, because Max has developmental disabilities and not a medical diagnosis.  I remember feeling so sad and angry, as I knew that without insurance our visits to Children's hospital were $200 a visit!  I did some research and found a private practice of speech pathologists.  At $40 a visit, this was a bit cheaper then our co-pay at Children's hospital.  I was elated!  After several months, I knew that it was a blessing.  Ms. Carey is AMAZING at her job, and did more with Max in a couple of months, then the speech therapist at Children's had done in several years.  Do not get me wrong...I LOVE Children's hospital, and they have been wonderful to us in so many ways.  The only thing I have ever been unhappy with was the speech and OT.  It just goes to show that sometimes something awful can really turn into something wonderful!
I also made some cookie cutter fudge for my hubby to pass out to his employees.  In the past, I use the metal cookie cutters, but the colored ones are quite festive.  I just matched my baker's twine to the color of the cookie cutter.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my album!

Emily

December Daily: Day Sixteen & Day Seventeen

Day sixteen-We traveled to a local farm to partake in their Christmas walk.  The walk, has tons of lights and scripture that walks you through the life of Jesus.  I love doing this with the boys, as it reminds us all what Christmas is all about.  Afterwards, we have cookies and cocoa in the barn and listen to carolers.  This is something they always look forward to.  It is simple. fun. and did I mention free?  Yep.  Not too many light displays like this are free anymore, so big bonus.

 Day Seventeen-We headed to Bass Pro to see Santa! Max and Luke were so excited, and big brother Will was a very good sport about it.  I don't think the Santa was as authentic looking this year, but Max and Luke didn't seem to care!  They had fun writing letters to Santa and sticking them in the mailbox, and doing all of the fun activities.  Of course, we had to go check out the waterfall and the fish and the turtles while we were there. :)

Thanks for stopping by! I will have a Heartfelt Creations card for you tomorrow.

Emily

December Daily: Day Fifteen and a card!

Day Fifteen-We went out to dinner with our neighbors to The Melting Pot.  We usually do this every year around the holidays.  I love The Melting Pot.  Always a fun atmosphere, and it is nice to be able to hang out for a few hours over the many courses they serve.  It gives you plenty of time to talk and laugh.  Now that I am looking at the photo of the layout and typing this, I realize I forgot to cover up the "25" with my "15"!  I have a circle all stamped and ready to go with the new date. Oh, well.  You get the idea...

I also wanted to share a quick and easy Christmas card I made using some of the "handmade holiday" papers from Simple Stories.  Love the homespun feel, and this card literally took a couple of minutes to put together.  Love that!

Thanks for stopping by!

Emily

December Daily: Days Thirteen & Fourteen

Day Thirteen: Not very exciting!  I spent most of the afternoon trying to finish up some Christmas cards.  I am not on the ball when it comes to cards this year.  Max made a card with me before he went to school.  He wouldn't let me get a photo of him holding it so I just took a pic of it on the table.  I also thought it would be cute to include the postage stamps for my cards this year. 

Day fourteen-wow. just unbelievable and heart wrenching.  A parent's worst nightmare.  So many emotions on this day.  The holidays are a happy, joyous time filled with tradition and "events".  I had some fun activities planned around baking with the boys on this Friday night.  I was so unsure as to how I was going to do my day fourteen.  I decided that I had to include something about the shooting that took place in Newtown, Connecticut.  I journaled about my feelings and how thankful I was to watch my boys walk safely off of their school bus.  It certainly was not something that I wanted to discuss with my six year olds, so we went on with our candy making plans as scheduled.  My oldest found me with tears in my eyes when he arrived home, so we talked about what happened.  I included a photo from facebook in one of the pockets as a remembrance to those victims and their families.
So what do you think?  When doing a December Daily album, do you include a horrific event such as this?  It certainly effected me greatly, so I thought it was an important thing to discuss in the album.  Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Emily

December Daily: 12-12-12

Please scroll down for my FWF post!

Day twelve!  Nothing momentous on this day.  The boys played games on the iPad and iPods, while Bill and I watched the 12-12-12 Sandy Relief concert on TV.  The concert was really quite awesome!  I stayed up well past midnight watching it.  I was excited to see Roger Waters perform, but I felt like the showstopper was The Who.  They were amazing! Check out Roger Daltrey's abs. Not too shabby for a 68 year old! I thought it would be fun to include a photo from the concert of them performing.

Thanks for stopping by!

Emily

December Daily: Day Eleven

Hello! I am moving right along and keeping up with my album.  On the eleventh, Luke had his den Christmas party.  Good times!  They made a couple of crafts, had a secret Santa gift exchange, and of course, ate lots of treats!  For this layout I used some papers from Authentique's Wonder collection.

Thanks for stopping by!

Emily

December Daily: Day Nine & Ten

Day nine-Grandma watched boys while Bill and I went out to dinner and finished some Christmas shopping.  I only took one photo this particular day, so it is nice to have the Simple Stories papers to just slide into the other spaces.  I did have to take multiple photos of the boys with Grandma, because someone (Will) kept making goofy faces and crossing their eyes!

Day Ten-was all about Max! He had his kindergarten Christmas concert.  So, so sweet!  I used Instagram to play around with the photos at the actual concert. I like how they turned out.  I am still not so sure about the journal square. I think it needs something-maybe ribbon, or something silvery? I may add onto that later, although, I seriously doubt it! HA! I will probably just keep trucking along. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Emily

December Daily: Day Seven & Day Eight

Day seven of my December Daily-Max and Luke took their Taekwondo exam. Max received his gold belt and Luke received his orange belt.  They were so very cute!  Our neighbor girl across the street also received her gold belt. I just love the photo of the three of them.  I got some cool action shots, but once again, hard to see behind the page protectors!

Day eight-my birthday!  I turned 38, and celebrated with my favorite guys.  They made me homemade pizza, and took me to get my favorite ice cream in the whole wide world-chocolate coconut almond chip. YUMMY!  Bill took this photo of us. It turned out so cute, but his thumb was in the way. I just added the "8" over it!  I also fished the receipt out of the bottom of my purse and used some of the pamphlets and gift card holders from the store.

Thanks for stopping by!

Emily

December Daily: Day Five & Day Six

I am almost caught up on my album now! HOORAY! I am still not happy with my photos of the completed album pages.  I just love the convenience of the pockets, but the glare from the page protectors is annoying!  They look better IRL.
On December 5th, we actually had a night of NO ACTIVITIES! It is a rarity, so I made one of the boys' favorite meals.  Bill and I had some of our favorite "cheap" merlot and we all cuddled up and watched "Elf".

I have continued the tradition of celebrating St. Nicholas Day with my boys.  It makes me smile, because they are way more impressed with the huge, juicy apples and oranges St. Nick brings, rather than the candy and the gift!  When Will was little he used to go on and on about how St. Nicholas found the biggest, best pieces of fruit.  Every year, it is a challenge to find the best produce to put in their stockings.  This year, Bill found the biggest oranges I have ever seen.  The boys were super impressed with them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Emily

December Daily: Day Three & Day Four

Hello! Today I can share day 3 and Day 4 with you all.  Day three shows photos of some of the Christmas decor in my dining room.  I LOVE Christmas and decorating.  This year I put up three trees, but I actually own five.  I am still reluctant to pull out some of my things.  Maybe next year when Max and Luke are seven...

Day 4 is all about our beloved Christmas books.  My boys have always looked forward to a Christmas story before bed.  This year I wrapped them all up and put them under the tree.  Each night, they take turns unwrapping a book.  It has been fun to see them try and guess which is their favorite.  After they open a book, I put them in a big basket so that they can look at them and we can read them some more!  They think it is fun to unwrap a "gift" each night, and it doesn't cost a thing, as they are books that have been in our collection for quite some time.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Emily

December Daily: Day Two

Day two is done! I am on a roll (no pun intended)! Will had a football skating party at a local roller rink.  They ordered pizza, and also had their awards ceremony.  Will was super unsteady at first, but he was a trooper and kept trying!  He was much improved by the end of the evening.  I took a photo of a pair of skates and used Instagram to make it look a bit more retro.  I love that instagram photos are perfect for the 4x4 pockets in this album!  I also included a "motion" type photo of will zooming past me in the lower left corner.  The stamped sentiments are from Unity, and the letters and numbers are from a few The Stamps Of Life sets.

I bought a new printer last night! I think it will make printing out photos a lot easier, and it is an "air" printer, so I can print from my iphone! HOORAY!

Thanks for stopping by!

Emily

December Daily: Cover and Day 1

Here it is! My December Daily album ready to go.  I went with a Simple Stories album this year.  I like the different pockets and sizes that are available.  I thought it may make it a little easier, and less stressful.  So far, so good!  I bought the Homemade Holiday papers, but am realizing that there are some events that I may not want to use Christmas themed papers or colors for.  No worries...I can mix it up, and the leftovers can be used on cards.

 Here is day one!  Will had his big FLL tournament which was an all day event.  Grandma watched Max and Luke and took them out to lunch and to see Rise Of The Guardians, which they loved.  I left a space next to the journaling about the movie, so that I can add some of the ticket stubs.  They are currently in Grandma's purse!
I am finding that with the page protectors, it is very hard to get a decent photo of the layouts.  Because there are multiple pockets, it is not like I can just photograph the layout first.  Something I will think about for next year.  I am off to buy another ink cartridge for my printer today.  I was going to wait and just have my photographs developed each week and pick them up and add them into the album, but that is just not as much fun!  So...I will continue to print them at home, even though it is rather costly!

Thanks for stopping by,

Emily

December Daily-Day 19

Not much to talk about this day.  Luke found my old Game Boy. Yes...it was mine and I was obsessed with it about ten years ago! LOL! He has had a lot of fun trying to defeat Frogger's Journey.  I was never able to beat this game, so it has been fun helping him with it.  I love to watch his face when he is playing. Cracks me up!

 Thanks for taking a peek!

Emily

December Daily-Day 18

Today was all about football.  Will made the playoffs in fantasy football so we were keeping track of scores all day on the computer.  The Bengals even pulled off a win! Bonus!!!!

 I thought this striped paper from MME, was cute for a football layout!  I also love these football stamps from Our Craft Lounge.  It is probably my favorite football themed stamp set.

I am working like crazy to try to get this album caught up!  I know I will get behind again after this weekend with all of the festivities.

Thanks for stopping by,

Emily