On The Road...Again

I still have sooooo many pictures from our trip last year and I have already scrapped enough to fill an entire album!!  Here is another layout to add to the stack.  I used the sketch from Creative Scrappers.  I decided to change it up bit, but was still inspired by the sketch.

Here is my take on it

Orange is my new favorite scrappy color.  And I was happy to be using up some left over odds and ends to decorate the little squares.  I love when I can throw away an empty package...that means there is more room for adding new scrappy stuff!!

I'm off to hit the craft table.  I have some serious inspiration going on!!

Blizzard Update

So the final count for snow fall for us was well over 2 feet!!  And with all the wind, some of the drifts were more than 3 feet!!  I was happy to have a snow day off from work too.  There was NO WAY I would have made it there.  Here are a few pics:

Here is how we started off the day.

And this is what the patio looked like at 1am when I finally gave up watching the snow.

This morning, the snow completely covered the back patio and everything on it.  The pile continued on over the toy box (which you can't even see anymore) and kept right on going to my neighbor's patio.

The snow had blown more than a foot up the sliding door.  Abbie was way too excited to go play in the snow...until we realized she didn't have any snow boots.  We decided my rain boots would have to work.  She looked really funny walking around in my boots.  She even lost them in the snow twice.

Tom did an awesome job shoveling.  He was out there for more than 3 hours with the shovel.

The snow drift on the van was so neat looking. 

A close up of the snow layers.

Climbing the snow pile at the end of the road was Abbie's favorite place to play today.  The snow was so deep in the front yard, she had to walk (and I use the word "walk" loosely) with a shovel to dig herself out with each step.

Almost done!!  The snow piled along side the driveway is taller than Tom in some areas.

So after several hours of snow fun and a very hot shower to warm up, the scrapping began.  I got 4 layouts done today.  Here's one of them:

I'm still finishing up the pics from cookie baking a few years ago.  It is still very much the Christmas season for me and I am just loving these pictures.

I definitely have to make my way into work tomorrow so no scrapping for me until Friday.  But I have a bunch of layouts to share with you this week.

Good Night!!

Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful...

Man, it is REALLY snowing out there!!  Check it out:

The swing seat on the back patio is almost completely covered in snow.  As I was taking these a few minutes ago, I looked down and I couldn't even recognize where the back step was.  The snow is a third of the way up the slider!!

I love to sit and watch it snow...especially when I'm inside!!

I'm sure we have a decent 12 inches already judging by the snow pile on the patio table and grill. 

Here is a shot of my neighborhood from my craft room on the second floor.

So what do you all do when it's snowing outside?  I have a long standing snowy tradition:

I always scrap when it's snowing out.  Some years I have good snowy scrapping seasons and other years are snow free.  This years is looking to be a good snowy one...I hope!!

I felt inspired to create a snowy layout.  These are pics from Pittsburgh last year.  I think icicles are just so amazing and beautiful.  There had been so much snow and ice in Pittsburgh so when we got there the icicles were HUGE and everywhere.  I had Tom pulling over several times to snaps pictures of them.

So I scrap...here is what Abbie was doing:

I got her Super Scribblenauts for Christmas so she was playing her game while I followed along in the guide to help her out when she was stuck.

And we can't forget about what Fatty does on snow days...because it's pretty different then what she normally does:

Sprawled out in front of the space heater, soaking up the warmth.  Oh no, wait, that IS what she does on a daily basis. 

Well, I'm off to bed.  Chances are there will be so much snow on the ground in the AM that I won't be heading off to work really early.  But I'm heading off to bed...just in case it mysteriously melts away while I'm sleeping.

Have a snowy scrappy day!!!

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone is enjoying as wonderful a Christmas as we are.  With decorations and lights on our tree (HOORAY!!), we spent two wonderful days with our family.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

New York City

I can't believe how much I still have to do.  We finally found lights for the tree so that needs to get finished this morning, I haven't wrapped a single gift, the kitchen is a mess but I still have more cooking to do and I need to sleep at some point...oh well, sleep will have to wait.
Last week we went to New York City for a show and spent the day visiting our favorite places and we even add a few new ones.  Prepare for many photos:

We wanted to catch a 7:34am train and Abbie was not happy to be up and ready at 6am.

Our first stop was the new Disney Store in Time Square.  Normally, I wouldn't go to Time Square.  Way too many people.  But Abbie really wanted to go so we made that our first stop.

Next, we ventured over to Chelsea Market.  Very cute collection of stores.  We stopped at a cookie store called Eleni's and got a sugar cookie.

Aren't these awesome!!!  So very cute.

Chelesa Market was all decked out for the Holidays with lights and decorations.  There was someone playing the cello too.  We sat and enjoyed the music with a cup of hot chocolate from Jacques Torres.

Val was heading out to Chelesa Market the following day.  I'm pretty sure she won't be going in here.

We headed to Stand in near Union Square for lunch. 

They have the most amazing burgers and milk shakes.  Yum!!

We had tickets to see Wintuk so we headed over to MSG after lunch.  It is such an amazing show!!

We had really great seats and I was able to get so many great pictures and even a few videos.  Shhhh...don't tell anyone!!

It's really fun that is snows at the end of the show.

No trip to NYC is complete without a trip to Portrait Bug.  They are a cute little scrapping store and portrait studio.  I did a little shopping...but just a little.  The backpack was starting to get heavy.

Abbie wanted to see the tree at Rockerfeller Center.  We had someone take our picture and it came out really nice.  Sometimes you just don't know.

 

Abbie the trumpeting angel!!

A trip to the Lego was in order.  But it was super crowded. 

We headed over to Macys to get this years ornament at Holiday Lane.  Abbie loves to ride the wooden escalator so we start at the top and work our way down.

Aren't the ornaments on the ceiling really cool??

Last but not least, Crumbs.  We have tried about 8 different cupcake shops in NYC.  Butter Cup Lane and Crumbs are tied as our favorites.  This trip, we stopped at Crumbs.

We were extremely tired from our very long day, but it was worth every second.

Cake Pops

I have been cooking and baking way more than scrapping lately.  Val is in culinary school and she reads the most amazing food blogs.  I decided to start following a bunch of them to help get me out of my food rut.  I have tried so many recipes that I can't fit another thing into my freezer.  They have all been successful...for the most part anyway.

This weekend I wanted to try out a dessert for Christmas...Cake Pops.  I have seen them on various blogs with various ways of making them.  Some use crushed Oreos as their base (I'm not a fan of Oreos so this wasn't too exciting for me), some use boxed cake mix with frosting as the binding agent, but I wanted to be more adventurous than that.  That's when I found this recipe.  Dark Chocolate Cake.  If I was going to venture into something new, why not go all the way and make the cake from scratch.  I'm so glad I did.  It has to be the best chocolate cake I have ever had!!  Super moist and rich.  I then used her Cake Pop recipe, you can find it here. 

Let me walk you through my adventure:

First I needed to spend a large amount of money on supplies

After I made the cake I crumbled it up and mixed it with the butter, cream cheese and sugar.  I put half of the mixture in the freezer for Christmas and the other half in the fridge to chill over night.  Then Abbie and I rolled them into balls and cut them into fun little shapes.

After chillin' in the fridge again, I stuck the sticks in and started dipping.  FYI...the mittens didn't make it.  They were too thin and they fell apart.  Abbie and I ate them anyway so they didn't feel like their life's goal wasn't accomplished.

I dipped them in the chocolate and Abbie decorated them with sprinkles and small edible stars.  The snowmen were a good idea in my head, but they didn't turn out that great.  Again, we ate them anyway!!

Here is a better view of my sad looking snowmen.

The Christmas trees were my favorite.  I'm sure I'll make more of them this weekend.  Isn't that an awesome dishwasher???  I need to plan my pics and the background better, don't ya think??

Another failed idea...Santa hat.

So there you have it.  One of the many cooking adventures from this weekend.  Don't worry, I'll be back to scrappin soon...I hope!!

Oh...Christmas Tree

So we went on the hunt for a Christmas tree on Saturday and found a wonderful Fraser Fir...she's full, fragrant and ready to be adornded with our families favorite and most memorable ornaments.  Except  there is one problem.  All but two strings of lights from last year won't work.  Tom spent two hours driving around from store to store looking for lights with none in sight.  While I wanted to show you the before and after pictures of our wonderfully decorated tree, I only have the before.  And the after just may not have any lights this year.  But isn't she a beauty:

We have been buying our trees from the same church for the last 8 years.  A few years ago I had this lovely vision of us going to the farm as a family, cutting down our tree and having a wonderful time.  Instead, the farm was a hike from the parking lot, it was muddy, the trees were supremely expensive, even though we were doing all the work and there weren't any pretty full trees.  So now we do one stop shopping!!

Abbie and I were looking through some albums from when she was younger and we found this layout from 8 years ago.  Check it out:

Wow!!  So much fun to see how my style has changed!!  Wish me luck as we hunt for lights!!!

The Winners

I'm not a big gambler...I'm not even a small gambler.  Heck, I was in Las Vegas twice and didn't even play a slot machine either time.  But I was happy to go to Atlantic City with Shannon and Holly this past January and hit the slots...with my ten bucks!!  I hate to throw away money that could be spent on scrappy paper.

I have no idea what is needed to win at these crazy slot machines with their fancy pictures and lines being drawn across the screen.  All I know is that I put more money in than I get out.  But this night I hit the JACKPOT!!  For me anyway...I won $22.40!!  That's a lot for me and I was happy to take that happy little ticket to the window and cash it out.  The lady behind the desk just about laughed me too.

(Sorry about the yellow carpet, I am working on getting a photo editing program in the next few weeks so I can crop my pics.)

I used my new favorite color, orange, with some browns and teal.  Some of the papers I used were Bazzill, Basic Grey Basics, The Girls Paperie and I don't know what the others are.  The Bingo card is from So Sophie, the bling in the corner is Prima, the caption sticker and rub ons are from Pink Paislee, the border sticker across the bottoms is from Basic Grey and I used a Fiskars punch.

That's all for now folks...try and stay warm out there!!