24 Olive Street

Halloween mini in progress...and some applesauce

Before we get into the holidays & I start working on my December Daily I really wanted to complete a project that's been on my scrappy to do list for quite a while now.

And thanks to Project Life I was able to pull this one together pretty quick.

It's not finished...yet. But at least I have photos and journaling cards in the album and I just need to find a couple more pictures that were from the pre-digital age.

I'm using the Project Life mini album in Midnight (purchased on Amazon) along with the Halloween mini kit (purchased at Hobby Lobby). After filling in 12 yrs worth of Halloween pics I discovered I probably should have bought 2 mini kits...so I'll be running back to Hobby Lobby this week to get that!

I just need to fill in some journaling and maybe some simple embellishments & this album will be done. It's already been really fun for us to look through the years of Halloween costumes!

And once that's finished (hopefully this weekend!) I'll share some more pics!

And one of the reasons why I haven't been blogging much in the last week...

Canning up lots and lots and lots of apples! I made up jars and jars of homemade applesauce and apple butter. Along with that I also made up 4 bags of apple pie and 4 bags of apple cobbler for the freezer. Now all I need to do is make up some pie crusts for the freezer and I'll be all set for Thanksgiving!

If you've ever canned or peeled a lot of apples & used one of the corer/slicer do-dads (a must have for sure!) then you know how you end up with those looooong noodle like slices of apple skin. Well, we had a little fun with the dogs...

What a nut! He slurped that thing up like it was spaghetti!! haha

Well, you know, as much as a dog can 'slurp'!

11.12.13

What a cool date. Bummed that we were running behind this morning & didn't get a chance to take a pic like the one I did last year when it was 12.12.12....

I realized this morning that I had no eggs. My pantry is barren. I haven't gone shopping in quite a while. So it was McD's for breakfast...and since we haven't done that in months I didn't feel too bad about it :)

Oh well, next year I can get one when it's 12.13.14. Or maybe I'll just take a pic tomorrow....ssshhhh, no one will know! haha

Last Saturday was the Monroe Street holiday open house and since I had some big pieces go on to new homes I took a few new pieces down to the store.

I painted this buffet in Chateau Grey & used clear wax on it. I love this paint color because it's more of an olive green than grey (or maybe a combo of both??). I love the color!

The guy I bought this buffet from was a super nice guy with a very heavy Italian accent (apparently he had just moved here recently). And he said he was suprised when I showed up to pick it up because he said he didn't think this was a piece of furniture that a 'younger' person would like. I said 'oh, I'm going to redo it and it'll look totally different!' But I got a kick out that :)

And I really wanted to keep this dresser that I painted in Provence with clear wax. I left the drawer fronts in the original wood color because I loved the design on the bottom drawer (that I realized after I took the picture is half covered!).

But since this little 'business' of mine is basically funding our Disney trip...I want to go to Disney more than I want to keep the dresser ;)

I also marked down several pieces in my booth...mostly smaller furniture pieces and my fall items.

Yesterday we headed out to the mall to do some Christmas shopping...well, Christmas shopping in the sense that I wanted to see what clothes fit my daughter (what sizes) and what else the kids wanted so I can let Santa know :)

We found these cool remote control helicopters...

I found some cool slippers & my daughter found lots of stuff at Aeropostle she liked (of course!)

I can imagine wearing those zebra slippers at my next scrapbook retreat :)

And the most favorite thing that I found at the Hallmark store...

It's a countdown to Christmas 'radio'. For every day it plays an old fashioned radio broadcast & music! And you can hook your iphone/ipod up to it! I seriously need it. I may heading back to the mall this week to get it...cause if I don't I know I'll regret it.

And I'm sure Addie & I will be heading back to the mall anyway this week for some shopping! I've probably mentioned it before but 2 of my kids have birthdays just after Christmas so I have to do the shopping for that as well. So I usually do all of the Christmas & birthday shopping before Christmas...because after Christmas there's just nothing left in the stores.

But for now I have some grocery shopping to do so we'll be able to eat again!!

holiday open house

Today's the day! If you're local to Spokane or the surrounding areas be sure to head down to Monroe Street for their holiday open house! All of us vendors over at Paint In My Hair have all been working on their booths and there's so much Christmas-y goodies & great sales!!! Most of us were at the shop last night setting up and there are so many great things to see!!!

Several vendors are having specials in their booths. All furniture in my booth is 10% off - today only. I have a couple great dressers along with some smaller pieces and a new bookshelf I just took there last night. I've also marke down all of my fall items.

Here's just a few things from my booth that I'm pretty excited about :)

I love this wreath! I took a lighted wreath, added some vintage ornaments, a few silver glitter swags, & the 'merry' sign. I really need to make one for myself now :)

The photos are a bit dark...it was about 9pm when I took them last night :)

I found this vintage punch bowl a while back. It has all of the cups along with the hangers for the bowl...and some vintage ornaments to dress it up!

I also replenished my flower clips & added some new clips as well. Those seem to be pretty popular. I love 'em cause you can put them in your hair or on a hairband but you can also clip them on a bag, purse, whatever you want to dress up.

My favorite is this old sled. And on it is a wreath made with red chevron burlap ribbon.

So be sure to head down to Monroe Street today! It'll be sure to get you in the Christmas mood!!

window shopping

The Christmas season...my favorite time of year :)

When we saw this Addie yelled "MEE MEE!!!!" She loves Mickey & Minnie for sure :)

It's sometimes hard to stay on budget when you see something so cute!

Willpower, willpower, willpower...

Scoping out things for a certain little 2yr old's list for Santa.

...and for myself ;)

I better see some Ghiradelli in my stocking this Christmas! haha

Olivia wants a karaoke machine for Christmas so we've been doing lots of reasearch online.

Vintage Mickey & Minnie mouse wrapping paper, bags & other goodies??!!

Yes please! I got one roll. I'm sure I'll be back for more.

I need more wrapping paper like I need a hole in the head. But it's just so cute!!

Prank gift boxes?? Too funny!!!

I really wanted to get a couple but $10 (for 2) is a lot to spend on something I'll only be able to use once...cause after the first time the 'surprise' won't be a surprise anymore!

There's not too many Christmas DVD's that we don't have. Thinking Muppet Christmas Carol might be the new one for this year.

Scoping out things I can make for myself. Shhhh...don't tell ;)

Burlap poinsettas are definitely a project I could tackle!

I love these boots. Maybe Santa could bring me these for Christmas in a size 9. He reads my blog sometimes ya know!

I just hope he uses my redcard so he saves 5% ;)

And lastly, this is how we do our shopping...

Relaxed, leg up, popcorn in hand!

Is there any other way to shop??!

cruisin'

I have a quick layout to share today. A very simple layout. It's one I did while at the scrapbook retreat a few weeks ago. I mostly worked on Project Life pages but took a little bit of time to complete a few layouts.

This is a super simple way to create a layout with a really good photo that you want to showcase - simply enlarge it to 12x12, add some embellishing & journaling, and you're done! (I did back the photo with cardstock to give it a little more stability)

Many places offer 12x12 photos. I got this one at Costco but I have to say I wasn't super thrilled with it...the photo is darker than my original. I've seen other people using them for enlargements and they've been happy with them so maybe it's just my local store that's not so great. I have been happy with Persnickity Prints so lately I've been ordering online with them.

That's it for today!

Project Life 2013 // week 24&26

I thought I'd share a few Project Life pages from this summer when we were first out for summer vacation. I deviated a little bit on these pages using a PL kit from Noel Mignon this time. The colors worked perfectly with my photos, not to mention also matching with the title card used for week 24 (from the Seafoam kit).

Goes to show you can mix & match with your pages from different kits (as I sometimes do).

I also added some journaling & Ali Edwards brushes to my photos.

Week 24

I used pocket page design A on the left, design F on the right.

Week 26

This is another one of those weeks where I added an extra insert for our Silverwood photos. Left side is design A, right side is actually an American Crafts page protector that's similar to design C that I simply cut in half lengthwise (so I would have 3 photo sleeves instead of 6).

Left side has design A with that insert on top, right side is also design A.

the day after

I love Halloween but man, I'm always so exhausted afterward!

Late night on the 30th finishing up costumes, getting things ready for class parties, making treats, whew...

And what's great about when it's all over...there's still the Thanksgiving & Christmas seasons to look forward to!

I didn't get any decorating done (boo!) but I did manage to get my Jack Skellington cupcakes made. I used my favorite cake & frosting recipe along with Wilton black icing (which, as far as black icings go, tasted pretty good). I was not about to try & make black icing...I end up putting so much coloring in it that it tastes nasty :( To make the smaller lines I actually piped some into a ziploc baggie & snipped a corner off.

In hindsight I should probably have not put Ben's pumpkin in the porch...2 days in the sun and the small parts in his design dried up. Oh well...

For my kids' parties at school Addie & I dressed up as Dorothy & the scarecrow (her costume from last year). She loved my makeup :)

After school it was time to get ready for trick or treating!!

This year we had Katniss Everdeen (after the games :) ), a zombie Jedi, Jessie, Rick Grimes & a walker.

Addie had so much fun trick or treating. I love this age...the age when they really start to figure out what Halloween is all about :)

Every house she went to she kept saying over and over again "Di Dou!!" (thank you), "I see you! Bye!!"

Oh man, so stinkin' cute!

And now...time to start getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas!!!