MERRY CHRISTMAS

We have had just over 2 feet of snow last night and today. It took us just over 3 hours to clear the driveway!!!! The snow came up to my knees before we cleared it!!!!! DS enjoyed being burried in it!!!!Here are a few pics for you.

I just took these pictures in the garden as the light was fading. I think these are the american version of Robins, a lot bigger than the english version (if anyone knows any different I would love to know).

Happy Wedding Anniversary

Today it is our 15th Wedding Anniversary. No plans as yet but I am sure dh has something up his sleeve!!!! I guess I will have to wait and see!

I have managed to send some christmas cards but I still have so many to send. I doubt I am going to get them done so I apologise to anyone who sent me one and did not receive one back, next year I will have more time and less stress to do them, but this month has been an absolute nightmare so sorry to anyone I have missed or fotgotten.

I managed to get a picture of one of the deer in the garden today, this is not the best pic in the world as I had to grab the camera and take it through the window which has a screen on it so quality is v poor but at least I managed to get a picture!!!! The other pics are from today too, the sky was such a beautiful colour against the snow I just had to take some pics.

House sold

Our house in England sold on Friday even though we have yet to see the money in our account its apparently floating in thin air somewhere. Things are stressful trying to find out what happened to it as the different time zones with bankers all over the world make communicating difficult.

DS1 turned 13 on Monday so he is now officially a teenager!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The boys have their very 1st skiing lesson tonight so keep a lookout for some pics and I will try and post some of the snow soon!!!!!

As for scrapping/crafting I have not been able to do any this week what with chasing solicitors, estate agents and bankers its been a very stressful week.

I have still not got around to doing my christmas cards, so if anyone from the UK is reading this then you will get one it just might be a little late. Jenny thanks I received yours and thanks for the stamped images too.

This photo of the sun rising over the bluffs was taken this morning it was taken from the kitchen window, at the time it was -15C so i took it through the glass of the window.

Here is another layout of Milly.

Oh Christmas Tree

Oh Christmas Tree

I forgot to mention......................................

In England we have always had an artificial tree. I found out that we could go and cut our own trees here so I did a bit of hunting and found a place about 15 minutes from home where you can cut your own. So off we went to cut our tree........

It took us absolutely ages to decide which tree to cut, we would find one thta we thought was the right one and then would just go and have a look at some more and then we would find another, we would then go back and try to compare it witht the other one and completely forget where it was, they all looked similiar! Anyway about 30/45 minutes later we decided on one.

We all had a go with the saw and it was surprisingly easy to cut!! I had this image in my mind of it taking us hours!!! I must have been thinking of a tree big enough to build a house!!!!! The boys carried it back to the car and we put it on top. It was a really fun thing to do and maybe it will be the start of a new tradition for our family that started here int he US.

Now, we normally don't put our tree up until after the 10 Dec as its DS1 birthday, I know not even december and here we are putting up a tree, well I am so glad we went out and cut it as the taller ones were in limited supply.

Cold

Its starting to get cold now it was about -9C this morning which is quite cold for an English girl!!!!!! and its gonna get colder!!!!

Last night we went to Kohls to get me a decent coat as my Tog24 coat I bought in the UK is about as much use as a chocolate fire guard. The cold just goes right through it. So I got a nice coat that has down in it and I am as snug as a bug in a rug!

Murphy and Milly

I was trying to get a picture of the two of them together and I am afraid this is the best I could do at the time, they just would not sit still long enough. Will try again another time.

Puppy Love

I did this layout yesterday. I cut the pink letters with my sizzix and painted them with acrylic paint. The red letters are left over chipboard alphas (waste not want not) that i punched holes in and again painted with red acyrlic. Lots of Primas, angel blossoms, heart brads.

I really love the photo I used in this layout and have enlarged it for dh to put on his desk at work.

I did this very quick layout for the challenge on the True Friends blog which can be found here. This is the first time I have ever done a layout in this size and I quite like it.This is also not my usual style so I am not sure if I like this layout or not and think it needs osmething else but wanted to post it on here anyway that way you get to see the good and the bad!!!!!!

It was Thanksgiving yesterday a first for us. We had Turkey for the first time in about 8 years! for some reason we just went off turkey and started having beef for our christmas dinners instead. So we thought we would try it again and we liked it. Apart from DS2 who had been ill since Wednesday night, some sort of stomach bug so he has been sick a few times!

I managed to do a little bit of shopping in the Black Friday sales (these are a bit like the sales on boxing day in the UK) it was the busiest I have ever seen it here, the car parks were nearly full for a change! and I had to stand in a very long queue for the till (translated: I had to stand in line to get to the check out!!!!!!).

Hi to the people that read this blog but don't comment you know who you are !!!!!!

Here is a sneak peak of a layout I have nearly finished, just need to put some finishing touches on it then I am done.

THIS AND THAT

Since putting on the counter I have had over a hundred people visit my blog in less than a couple of days. There was me thinking that only about 10 people had ever visited it since I started blogging just over a few months ago!!! I was very wrong, I am surpised at the amount of people dropping by, so if you are reading this please take a little time to post a comment as it would be nice to see where you come from and what you think and then maybe I could even tag you.

I am hoping that the sale of our house in the UK sells soon as then there won't be the worry of paying two mortgages at the same time and I can look forward to not worrying about how we are going to pay for christmas.

Anyway I must get going as I still have bread to bake, washing, ironing and a whole loads of other things to do. If any of you have any good chocolate chip cookie dough recipes like the toll house cookie dough you can buy in the store I would love for you to send me it as its nice to bake from scratch occasionally.

SPEED

10 Things I love about You

Pink and Green

This layout opens up like a garden to reveal journalling and some extra pictures on the inside. I love the colour combination of pink and green.

Some more layouts

Not much going on here, but I did do some scrapping today, one was a double layout for the Disney Album that I gave myself this year to finish and another one of Milly.

We are going out for dinner tonight at a new friends house so that should be fun. I should be getting ready so will have to go hope you all have a good weekend.

How cute is this?

I took some photos last weekend and just got them printed, I played around with a couple and made them black and white this has to be my favourite though.

Counter Added

I have finally just added a counter to my blog, so now I can see how many people are checking me out!!! I have found that not everyone leaves a comment when they have a look so wanted to know how many people have peaked at it!!!!!!

Random Pics

A little mini book

My first Layout of Milly

My first layout of Milly.

Pink, pink and more Pink. It is great to be able to do some layouts in pink that aren't just about me!!!! Thats the good thing about having a female dog!!!! Maybe thats why i wanted a girl dog!!!!!!!!!!!!! shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhsh dont tell dh that LOL

Tin

I decorated this tin a couple of weeks ago, a fun project that i plan doing more of. I havent decided what to put in it yet maybe:
Cards, recipes, birthdays, addresses the list is endless.!!!!!!!!!!!!

My two gorgeous sons. I love this paper I think its called Kelly Pannicci.
I used my basic grey letters as a template and cut them out by hand.

Scrapbook Layouts and other things.

Here are some of my latest projects that I just got round to putting on my blog.


The layout is of me and my eldest son on the beach in Hornsea, East Yorkshire, England we used to go here nearly every weekend in the summer.























The word HOME is MDF letters bought from Joannes that I covered in wild asparagus papers and then embellished with a few blossoms and charms. It goes well with the new house and I will certainly be making more of these. Infact I even got our son decorating some for his school assignment, he had loads of fun sanding and painting the letters and did a fantastic job.



The flower chipboard album is something I did at a class.

I

Milly

Here are some more photos of Milly, Its been so long since I did any scrapping but these pictures have certainly inspired me to scrap. Does anyone have any good suggestions for a title?

Karlotta on UK Scrappers has a blog A True Friend especially for scrapping about your pets. So I am going to check out the latest challenge and see if I can get my mojo back and join in.

Here she is

Well here is the little cutie!!!
We have named her Milly.

Motherly Love

As promised here is a pic of the puppies we looked at. It was a litter of 3 boys and 3 girls, in the pic are just the girls. One of those puppies will be ours by the end of this evening. I am so excited. We have already chosen a name and are going to call her Milly.

Autumn Beauty

Here is a pic of the beautiful autumn colours taken on 18th and another on the 22nd october.