My Poor Neglected Blog

I've had good intentions of hopping on here every day but somehow it just never happened.  Even with my shopping all completed really early, I still had a very busy month.  I did manage to stay somewhat current on my December Daily (yay!) but there never seemed to be time to photograph for blog updates. I will share a few of my pages after the first of the year.

Also on my plate this month.... I created and mailed out handmade Christmas cards, made all of the gifts for my local girlfriends, put together goodie bags for my first graders, created cards for teachers and school staff, baked more cookies than we can possibly consume, and attended LOTS of holiday parties.

Right now we're enjoying a nice visit with my brother and his family.  This weekend Meg and I will head to Tampa to spend the weekend with the rest of my family.  She starts back to school on the 4th of January so things should be slowing down soon.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday and I'll "see" you after the start of 2012.

Chore Lists

Is anyone here a list maker?  I certainly am.  I live by my lists and even joke that I have "lists for my lists".  One time I actually put "make a list" as the first thing on my list just so I could have the satisfaction of crossing it off.  (It's an illness, I know.)

I keep a bound notebook for all of my lists which include lists for errands, lists for craft projects, lists for scrapbook pages I want to create, lists for home improvement projects and of course, lists for those dreaded cleaning/organizing projects.  I add and cross off as I go but somehow for every one thing I accomplish, I find two more to do.  Why is that?  When a list page fills I start another, carrying over those things that never seem to get done.  You know the ones, the ones you procrastinate the most.  The ones you hate but also the ones that, when done, give you the most satisfaction.  Well, that leads me to today.

I have ceramic tile in three bathrooms and my laundry room.  I used to be so good about keeping my grout squeaky clean but in the year and a half since my shoulder injury, it's just not been physically possible.  It's that one chore that "been on the list" and carried over day after day after day.  Well, no longer.  :) I spent my morning bleaching, scrubbing, mopping, (lather, rinse, repeating) all four rooms and am happy to say they look great.  Unfortunately I don't think any amount of ginger is going to help my aching joints.  My thumbs, shoulder and the "hitch in my giddyup" are already screaming.  It looks like I'm be helping myself to my daughter's prescription medicine for a few days.

But isn't this pretty?  It just makes me smile!  (Yes, I know...the "illness" coming out in me again.)

Now if I could only get my family to step over all grout lines for the next few months.  (You know, the ole "don't step on a crack or you'll break your mother's back" saying from when we were kids.)  Think they'll buy it?

DD Continued

Another rainy day here so it was the perfect day to catch up on my daily pages.  Here are a few more to share.

DAY 5

DAY 6

How it looks in the book with a little filler page ....

DAY 7

DAY 8

with the filler pages...

The red envelope is being saved for a story about the visit by the tooth fairy on the night of the 7th.

I have pages 9 and 10 done but will save them for another day.  Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

More December pages

I'd hoped to be able to share the next set of pages with you but my day is quickly slipping away.  I don't have time to scan the pages in so I'll share some photographs that I took a few days ago.  This is how the book looks with the embellished transparency filler pages.
 

Days 5 - 7 are complete.  I'll share them tomorrow.  I hope to work on Days 8-10 tomorrow.   I was able to get all of my Christmas cards finished this morning so they're set to be mailed early this week.  Right now I need to make a trip to the grocery store and whip up something for an outdoor holiday party later this afternoon.  It's been a raining for two days now,  my girlfriend's house is an island at the moment, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that the next couple of hours are dry ones.  If not, I just might have to show up in my Dexter boots.  :-)

December Daily

Following a concept started by Ali Edwards I have been busy creating my December Daily Album.  If I'm not mistaken I believe this is the third year I've made one.  (Missed 2009...bad year, remember?)  Because I  love the easy casualness of documenting our everyday lives around the holidays, this is one of my most favorite projects to do.  

Today I'm going to share the first few completed pages.  My album is an 8.5 x 8.5 two ring binder made my American Crafts.  My photo pages are in page protectors but I have decorated filler pages out of Hambly transparencies. Here's the first few pages photographed within my book.

I pre-printed red cardstock with the black frame and numbers in November so that my daily pages would be ready to go.  Here are days 1-4.

I am sooo upset with my Day 3 photos.  They all turned out horrible.  This was the best that I had and I had to turn it to b/w just to be able to use it.

I finally took the plunge and purchased a DSLR camera.  (A Canon T3i)   Hopefully my days of horrible photos will soon be over.  I've only played around with it in auto mode but it's already made such a wonderful difference.  And the shutter speed?  Incredible!  Loving it so much already.

I have my photos for Days 5-7 (taken with my new camera!) and hopefully will find some time tomorrow to work on them.  I'll also try to get some photographs of the smaller insert pages that I have sandwiched in between these main pages.  They really add to the overall feel of the album. And while each page is fairly simple, it can be a bit overwhelming to try to stay caught up.  Of course it would be easier if I hadn't decided to hand make all of my Christmas cards this year (a first) as well as take on some other Christmas crafty gifts for friends but it's all good.  I love doing this sort of stuff!

The Weather Outside Is Frightful....

NOT! 

Unless of course you call having the AC kick on in early December frightful. Our early mornings and evenings here in south Florida are pleasant but our daytime hours have been unseasonably hot.   I guess that's the price you pay to live in paradise.

These photos are for my dear friend Catherine who yesterday had to deal with 12 degree temps and snow flurries.

I may be complaining but I'll take 81 over 12 any day.  Just so you know...you will probably see these photos again as they are going into yesterday's page for my December Daily album.  The first four days of December are complete but I haven't had a chance to scan them in yet.  Hopefully I can share some tomorrow.  Til then, stay cool!!!  (or should I say "stay warm"?)  :)


Oh....and my thanks to both Mel and Catherine who are now playing Words with me.  :)  (You should both start games with each other now!)

Lynne????  Karen???

Words with Friends - strike that....Family

Any fellow Words with Friends addicts out there?  Jay got me hooked on the game last year right after he got his IPhone and we've played almost daily every since.  (With him living out of town, it's a great way for Mom {me} to know he's ok without it looking like I'm checking up on him. *wink*)

Words is an app that's based on the board game Scrabble.  You download the app, make a screen name for yourself and then invite friends (who have done the same) to play with you.  It's become so addicting that Randy and I will play each other on our "I Devices" even while sitting on the same couch.  Sometimes we have 10 or more games going and will ping each other back and forth, question words, laugh, boast etc,.....all from three feet away.  Meg will play from her IPhone on occasion but usually gives up before she finishes a game.

My mother has always loved Scrabble so it was a game we played alot as kids. When we all showed up with "I Devices" over Thanksgiving it wasn't long before she was interested and soon hooked.  (We brought three Iphones and an Ipad, my brother showed up with 2 Iphones and an Ipad and my niece and nephew each had their IPod Touches.)

Mom started out playing all of my current games which included about 8 with Randy and several more with Jay.  My youngest nephew wanted to play so I gave him Meg's Iphone.  My brother then had me download the app onto his Ipad so Mom could play on that as well.  Of course by now my sister's kids wanted in on the action so they started games on their Ipods.  I wish I had a photo of my mom sitting at the kitchen table with two Ipads in front of her playing more than two dozen games.  Everyone kept her very, very busy.  We knew it was bedtime when we'd run down the power on all of the devices.  :)

I didn't want Mom to go into withdrawals when we all left (with our devices in tow) so I downloaded a Scrabble app for her on her Kindle.  Playing a computer isn't quite the same fun as playing your family but she was enjoying it.  My brother (or maybe it's my SIL) has continued with the games this week, which has been a lot of fun.  They were so inspired that their family got out their Scrabble game last Sunday night.  I hope he doesn't mind me sharing but he totally had me laughing my butt off.  This is the photo he sent me with a request for help....

I didn't see it in time to assist but thought it was hilarious nontheless. Ahh...gotta love technology!

A bit more on Words before I sign off.   If anyone wants to play with me, I'm JB,FL2 on both Words and Hanging with Friends and I'd love me some fresh blood.  :)  Just promise me you aren't this person....

 conceptualizing

...although I now see that even this record seems to have been broken.  

Made me feel pretty darned small.