From Everyone at Our House...

Wishing you a blessed Christmas and a joyous, peaceful 2011.

Family Fun in the Snow

Sometimes a picture really is worth 1000 words!

Believe in the Magic

When Jen, Nancy and Sue were here a few weeks ago, we had an interesting conversation about patterned paper. I was surprised that I'm not the only one who still loves most of the patterned paper I own - Jen and Sue admitted to the same thing. Even papers that I bought four, five years ago still appeal to me.

I think it's because I buy papers not because they are the latest trend, but because I really like them. I still want to use them, and would buy them again today. Are you the same?

Our discussion brought this layout to mind. It's one of the first non-CM pages I created with some of the first patterned papers I bought in late 2005, at my first-ever crop at the wonderful, welcoming Scrapping Nook.

I so loved Daisy D's, who made the blue paper. Isn't it lovely? I would still buy it today, wouldn't you? I miss Daisy D's.

The burgundy script paper is 7 Gypsies and is timelessness makes it so appealing. The Christmas embellishment was by Li'l Davis, miss them too. It says "Christmas - believe in the magic". The paper behind the photo is Basic Grey Sublime, so classic. The frame and photo corner are Rusty Pickle, before the days of Ranger Crackle Paint. The title is a mix of Basic Grey's original font, Doodlebug white on white and those MM felt alpha stickers when they first came out. I still love all of these products.

Our girls were only two years old in this photo, and this was probably the first exchange they had with Santa that they can remember. The journaling talks about how very excited Alicia was when Santa reached out and touched her cheek. She held her cheek and said in amazement "He touched my cheek!" over and over. So sweet; it was such a timeless moment. Five Christmases later, I'm so glad I captured it.

I hope you're having a great week!

Documenting December

Often when I'm documenting December in pictures, the photos I take don't have anything to do with Christmas.

I'm so much more conscious of the simple, everyday moments the kids experience when I'm watching them with my camera in hand. In 2010, I hoped to take a photo every day, and while I won't have 365 daily pics at the end of the year, I will have captured so many details of our life, like Alicia's love for Bear.

Documenting our family's life via words here and works of art through scrapbooking helps me to believe that what I see through the lens today will be remembered joyfully in the future by so many people who are important to us - most of all, our kids. The mistakes I make in capturing (ahem, or rather, not quite capturing) one day's shot adds knowledge that allows me to capture the next shot with more accuracy and aliveness. I am still learning, but I'm a better photographer today because of so much practice.

I loved Karen Grunberg's recent guest post on Shutter Sisters, entitled The Daily Practice. In it, she speaks about the value of daily photography practice. Take a moment and read it; it rings so true to me.

This is my third year of making daily December photos happen, and so far, so good - I'm 7 for 7! I love the feeling of daily photography as a habit. Hopefully 2011 will be the year that I make Project 365 a reality!

The View from Here

One thing I love about taking daily photos is how it forces you to really notice your surroundings. I drive down this road almost every day and have to admit, I often don't absorb how striking and unique the badlands are. Yesterday the sky looked so big and bright, the snow so brilliant as the sun's rays bounced off the hills. I just had to stop and grab my camera!
Speaking of brilliance, I was lucky enough to hang with my talented cousin Allison this weekend at her One of A Kind booth. Allison hates getting her photo taken, and I can't understand why - even exhausted on the final day of this show, doesn't she look amazing? Her soaps are wonderful; the smell in her booth is simply divine!

It seems like - along with a horrible sense of direction - we cousins definitely also inherited our grandmother's sense of creativity. See a page about our grandmother here.

In addition to Christmas shopping - the show rocked; I shopped 'til I dropped - I finished off another layout for Scrapalicious with WRMK's Be My Valentine line this weekend, and hope to have more to post later in the week. Yes, I had a very productive weekend.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend too! What did you do? Feel free to leave a comment; I love to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by!

Last December in Daily Photos

In writing my last post, I realized that while I did post a Christmas overview last year, I never did go back and post the slide show I mentioned creating with the daily photos I took. Since we're already in a Christmas mood at our house now, I guess there's no better time than the present for a peek at last Christmas.
Of course, I took far more than one photo a day last December. It's only December 2nd, and I've already taken more than one photo a day this year! So the slide show below summarizes our holiday season, but there are many more fun photos which will be (eventually) documented in our family's scrapbooks.

If you're not already in the holiday spirit, I hope that these images get you there! Click on any slide to view the show in a bigger window.

Deck the Halls

December is here and it's starting to feel like Christmas at our house. We've decorated the tree, hung the garland and started receiving Christmas cards already. I'm looking forward to documenting our December once again this year. Did you take a photo today? Christmas is definitely on its way!

If you are looking for ways to record your family's every day activities and celebrations this year, visit Ali Edwards' blog to see her wonderful December Daily album tradition, and Shimelle's website for her Journal Your Christmas class, as well as a great Christmas printable. Both are beautiful ways to remember this wonderful season with your family.