24 Olive Street

December Daily 2013 // days 3-10

I am cruising along on getting my December Daily for this year finished. I have pictures printed through the 20th so I'm hoping to have it done by this weekend so I can then focus on finishing last year's book & Project Life for 2013. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to use for next year's Project Life...if I'm going to stick with one of Becky Higgins' kits or use the Studio Calico kits (or maybe both). We'll see.

So onto my December Daily.

Day 3

Not much going on around here so included a photo of one of our pups getting festive :) and our Christmas card for this year mounted on a piece of the patterned paper from the kit.

Day 4

Buddy the Elf arrived with a Elf on the Shelf ornament. I added some of that red pom pom fringe along the edge of the page protector.

Day 5

Finishing up some sports along with a photo of one of our favorite neighborhood houses decorated up for the holidays. We always drive by this house a few times during December.

For the journaling I used some patterned paper and that thin gold washi tape for the lines of my journaling.

Day 6 (left side)

Buddy the Elf having a tea party with Snoopy (and a 2 yr old having a difficult time not picking him up! hehe).

Day 7 (right side)

Watching Polar Express. I switched this photo to black and white because the colors in the photo were a bit distracting.

The 'joy' letters were put on a page protector cut down to fit in that space, stitched & then I added the stars on both sides from my Noel Mignon kit.

Day 8

Christmas cookies, gifts for the giving tree at church and a toddler thoroughly enjoying the Christmas lights outside.

You can see the 'joy' from the reverse side...I had to move one of the stars when I realized it would be smack in the middle of Addie's forehead!

Throughout my album some of the photos aren't the best quality, usually because they were taken with my phone or at night (or both). I still include these because quite honestly they are sometimes the best at conveying the story :)

Day 9

Journey to the North Pole Cruise. I didn't feel the need to do a ton of journaling on this so I simply added some text to the large photo on the right.

Day 10

I didn't have a photo to enlarge for the backside of the one I used for the previous day. So I simply added a piece of the patterned paper, used the thin gold washi tape to outline of a few of the words, then added the thicker washi tape strips for my journaling.

I'll be back soon with more pages!!

So fun to see this book coming together!

scenes from Christmas

Popcorn & cranberry garland & candy cane treats (thank you Pinterest!)

One very excited 2 yr old :)

Waiting in the van while hubby & son scope out seats in church

(making a toddler sit in church an extra 45 min before Mass starts makes for a very crabby toddler...waiting the van is much better!)

Lots of snuggles on Christmas Eve

(and a little one that did not want to go to sleep!)

Lots of singing...karaoke style!

This had us cracking up!!! hehe

RC helicopters for the boys

One of my favorite gifts that I've wanted for-ever!!

My very own huge Toblerone. Thank you Santa!!!

Tucker in a rawhide-induced coma (in case you didn't know, Santa brings treats to doggies, too!)

Marshmallow guns = FUN!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday filled with joy...and maybe a few fun presents :)

Buddy the Elf // 2013

Buddy arrived at our house on December 3rd (along with an Elf on the Shelf ornament). And since then he's gotten into some fun Christmas spirit around our house :)

He doesn't really do naughty stuff like some of the elves I've seen around the web...he just likes to have a little fun (usually with treats or decorations we have around the house!)

Hey Buddy...no fair getting into my favorite candy!!

One night we left out a scarf and boots for Buddy. The next day we found him on one of our wreaths in the window...on the outside of the window!! It took a while for the kids to find him that morning! I guess he liked the new scarf :)

Buddy likes to try & decorate...but he's not very good at it!

...and sometimes he gets a bit tangled up!

Finding him on a zip line was a fun surprise for the kids one morning.

And they just couldn't figure out how he was hanging there!

One morning we found him taking a nap in the bathroom.

Needless to say that bathroom was off limits for the day per my son. Cause that would just be weird! haha

And my personal favorite this year so far...

Buddy had a snowball fight with Buzz, Woody & Jessie last night :)

Now I've seen other elves doing this & they pulled out some 'snow' (powdered sugar) and mini snowballs (mini marshmallows) but I guess Buddy knows me well enough to know that I wouldn't appreciate the mess ;)

Buddy has a few more days with us & then it's back to the North Pole!

holiday cruise

Last night we headed over to Couer d'Alene, ID to go on the "Journey to the North Pole" cruise. I had found - excuse me, my husband found! - a great deal on groupon (for 1/2 off!).

Addie has been a little sick since Sunday night but we already had reservations (you know how that goes!) and she managed to make it through alright.

It was very cold. We spent part of the ride at the top of the boat and part inside. The lights were pretty neat. The Grinch was at the dock with all of his holiday grumpiness ;)

The only bummer was that since this was the first time we did this we didn't know that when we got to the "North Pole" we were supposed to head to the front of the boat to hear Santa and his elf do their little thing & read off the names of all the kids who were on the nice list...my kids made it :)

(Got this photo of Santa as the boat was pulling away.)

You would think that some of the adults could have moved toward the back so the kids could see. I mean, that is one of the main parts of the cruise.

Despite that it was still a fun cruise filled with Christmas lights and hot chocolate :)

After we headed over to Texas Roadhouse...since, for some reason, Spokane doesn't have one??!! Still trying to figure that one out!

Their Christmas decorations cracked me up...

If we do this again next year I'm definitely going to try and do it a bit earlier in the season...when it's not quite so cold!

Today we're going to hang out at home, eat some Christmas cookies & finish up some projects...including Christmas decorations, a vanity I'm painting and my December Daily :)

decorating

I promise, Copper's not sad. That's just his normal 'forlorn' look. haha We've always said from the day we got him that he has such an old, distinguished looking face. As soon as I snapped this, I took the garland off and he got an ice cube or 2...my dogs' favorite treat :)

I've been slowly but surely getting the house decorated for Christmas. It's been a slow process this year...sometimes I find myself overwhelmed with everything that has to be done (school, housework, decorating, shopping, sports, etc).

The tree is decorated...no tree skirt or star on top yet (need to trim that top branch) but it is decorated nonetheless!

Buddy the Elf arrived the other day, along with an Elf on the Shelf ornament :) You can go here to check out my post about this whole 'elf' thing.

Our elf doesn't really get into michief but he does find himself doing some silly things...like having a tea party with Snoopy or hanging out on the front window wreath...on the outside! hehe

I've pulled out some much loved Christmas toys/decorations that Addie has had so much fun playing with :)

Addie & I enjoyed a newly cleaned basement/craft room...and so did the doggies :)

They always have to be under foot when I'm crafting. Always. I swear, they're like 2 huge puppies! haha

We've had some frigid temps the last week which has made it difficult to get some of the outside decorations done. I normally use stakes to hold some lights in the ground around the border of my flower beds but the ground is frozen so that's a no go :( Normally I like to get this stuff done before Dec 1st but sometimes it just doesn't happen. Oh, and I tripped in the garage & got a huge goose egg on my knee. The things I do to get this house decorated! haha But it's getting there!

Photo quality - bad

Photo content - awesome :)

Addie came downstairs after her bath & noticed some of the lights I had worked on. It was so adorable to hear the excitement in her voice..."Yook daddy!! Ih Soopy!!" (I bought a new Snoopy inflateable for our yard...one of her favorites and my all time favorites!)

I also did manage to whip up the 1st batch of Christmas cookies...

...but not after buying one of my favorite non-homemade Christmas cookies.

As much as I love homemade, I have to buy these at least once during the Christmas season :)

And we've made homemade hot chocolate multiple times & watched countless Christmas shows & movies. It's definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

December Daily 2013 // days 1&2

I love that so far I've been keeping up with my December Daily album. The true 'test' will be if I'm still caught up a week from now!

I'm keeping things fairly simple which, for me, is the key to staying caught up. I also love these albums & the divided pockets...very easy for adding photos & journaling!

So on to the first few pages.

I made a cover page for the inside of my album with a few journaling cards. I also added one of those cute gold chipboard stickers which is actually adhered to a piece of page protector I cut up (got that idea from Ali Edwards!). Then I added those fun sequins & sewed up the top.

I love adding these to mini-albums...I love being able to see through to the next pages!

This page is pretty simple...journaling cards on the left and patterned paper on the right (to back my photo on the next page).

Day 1 we went to cut down our Christmas tree so this day will have a 3 page spread. I printed out a photo of our Christmas tree on patterned paper and I love how it turned out (got the idea here). Makes the photo look a bit vintag-y :)

Left side is the rest of Day 1, right side is Day 2. For Day 2 I added an Ali Edwards brush to the photo along with a few of the accents in the SC kit. The "02" journaling card is from last month's SC Project Life kit.

I've already printed out my photos for Days 3-6 so I can get them in my album this weekend!

December Daily 2013 // cover

Hello December Daily!

Hello documenting Christmas, decorating, baking, wrapping, shopping, believing, celebrating, family!

If you're not familiar with the December Daily concept you can go here to read more.

This year I'm working with the Studio Calico December Daily kit and the Noel Mignon Ribbon Candy Project Life kit, along with some goodies that I've pulled out of my own stash. After doing this for several years I have discovered that my favorite album size to work with is the 6x8 which is one of the reasons I went ahead and purchased the SC kit (last year I used the Simple Stories album in the same size). I should also mention that I did not finish last year's album so I'll probably be sprinkling in some posts of that album as well :)

So for the cover I took my inspiration from Ali Edwards and painted it in Martha Stewart Crafts Summer Linen. I only painted the front & I'll probably end up putting some patterned paper on the inside cover. But for now I left it plain. Then I painted a few of the stars with a gold Sharpie (after adhering the chipboard accents).

I painted the "25" chipboard with Krylon gold glitter blast & attached it to the cover with 2 brads. I didn't have any gold brads so I colored silver ones with my gold Sharpie (worked like a charm!).

To finish it off I added the gold ribbon along the edge of the album. I may also add a red ribbon when I'm finished but we'll see.

I'll be back soon with the first few pages of my album!

thankful

Thankful for laid back holidays. No rushing around, just hanging at home, cooking in my pjs (for half the day anyway), enjoying the parade, hearing Addie's excitement as the Snoopy & Buzz Lightyear floats came on the tv.

Thankful for having the time to hang out with my family, even if most days it involves a bit of bickering between some (sibling stuff) and tantrums (toddler stuff).

Thankful for my pups who make me smile. This was Copper's first turkey day with us and he discovered our tradition of 'gravy in the food bowl' for dinner :)

Thankful for so many things this year. Now bring on December!!!