Happy Day after Thanksgiving!

Did you have a great day yesterday? We sure did! Well, another year has passed and I have yet to roast a whole turkey! That's right, I've never been in charge of the big bird.

Ever.

in my life.

15+ years as wife and chief cook.

:)

Tim smoked our turkey again this year...and it was delicious! (His choice, I was actually up for trying my hand at the roasting this year.) He's really perfecting his technique. It was actually done about 5 hours before we had everything else ready and all our guests assembled for the big meal. Tim read up and discovered that you could keep it warm and juicy by wrapping it up and keeping it in a cooler. We left the thermometers in so as to monitor safe temps and it all worked great. Mmm good! We had a very enjoyable evening with great friends. And now we have lots of leftovers! I do LOVE smoked poultry for all sorts of recipes. Can't wait to use this stuff!

I had this great picture of the little girl digging into her big turkey drumstick, but unfortunately the file is corrupt. Bummer. Here's a photo collage of the kids playing in puddles the other day. We had massively heavy rain for about 24 hours and with all the leaves blowing off the trees too, the drains got clogged...great huge puddles to jump in while the cold rain came pouring down!

Know what else the passing of Thanksgiving means in our family? Time to pull together Christmas lists! As I was browsing through Black Friday on-line stuff last night, I was thinking we really should start doing this before Thanksgiving. But many in this family of ours are procrastinators (oh, yes, definitely me included!) and I find that unlikely to happen. But it really would have been great to know who my secret sibling is for gifts this year and what he or she is pining for. Or maybe she's Pinning for something this year!

Well, without further ado...I'm going to start posting stuff I find on here and my Pinterest board.

Pinned things on my All I want for Christmas board --

• Anything from Williams-Sonoma. Yep, you could just walk in there and buy me anything and I'm pretty sure I'll be thrilled with it. All sorts of fun, that store is!
• New cozy slippers. My beloved ATM ones pretty much fell apart from daily use for several years. I wear about size 6 usually.
• I want a food processor. Not sure which size. Seems like lots of recipes recommend using them though.
• Well, lots of cooking gadgets on my list...I think I'm gonna need a new kitchen too. Need more storage!
• I need a flash diffuser for my camera. Haven't done any research as to which one I want though.
• A good tripod for our myriad of photography and videography equipment is definitely in order! Again...no research yet.
• More stuff coming soon...as soon as I think of it!

*Christmas list image credits: Kate Teague "Berry Days", Bella Gypsy "Talk Like A Pirate" red alpha, Shawna Clingerman "Frolic" plaid alpha

It's Fall!

November? already? The year is flying by. Obviously I haven't spent any time on my blog. Three kids, job, crazy house, all those other distractions in computerland. (You know the ones...facebook, pinterest, a million cool blogs to read.) Well, I hope to get back here soon and share some fun creations as well as a few pics of my family. Until then....enjoy the beauty of the season!

Summer Vacation Bliss!

Well, we made it. We went on a wonderfully long and relaxing vacation to Texas. We visited family, friends and sealife too! I have literally 1000+ new photos to get through and figure out which ones I want to scrap. I did a fun little digi layout while on the road. The kids were LOVING the Texas heat and the opportunity for water play around every corner! It was all such a good time. I'll be back with some highlights of the journey soon!

Spring in the PNW - finally!

Hi there...been a while I guess! I'm back and excited to report that here in the Pacific NW spring has sprung, at least for a few days! Yes, it is finally not just sunny but warmer too! I just love the idea of not needing a coat at all, not worrying about whether my toes will be cold, wearing flip flops all the time! Yay! My boys are outside happily playing on our new playset and I'm in here listening to their chatter while I'm not cleaning the house! (Don't tell the Mr., ok?)

Other new exciting news...I've been selected for a digital scrapbook designer's Creative Team! I'm looking forward to a great time helping to show off Jeanelle Paige Designs kits! My first assignment was to use her new Cluster Essentials kit which she designed for recoloring and putting together clusters of embellishments. It's very cute! I think my favorites in the kit are the butterfly and vine swirl which works perfectly as a rub-on. What do you think? You can find all her stuff exclusively at A Cherry on Top.

That's all I've got for now. I should be back soon!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

It would be Dr. Seuss' birthday today, if he were still living. We like our Dr. Seuss around this house...A litte One Fish, Two Fish anyone? How about The Fox in Socks? I love a good tongue twister at bedtime!

This past January, my daughter picked a Dr. Seuss character to adorn her birthday cake. Actually, this is the second of her 7 birthdays that she's picked this obscure but fun Seussical creature...the Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz. She's on the last page of the Dr. Seuss ABC book. It took me a while, but I ended up pretty impressed with my icing rendition. Here she is in all her buttercream glory!

As for the 7 year old? She said "Mom" (and then a very dramatic pause that I took for complete disappointment) "It's awesome! But her hair is too short." Oh well...never said I was a hair stylist!

I wanna win some stuff!

I haven't blogged in so long! After Thanksgiving we all plunged into the Christmas preparations of shopping, decorating and gifting. We had a wonderful lazy holiday here. No travelling and no visitors. It's never happened before and Tim and I really were able to recharge with all the nothing-to-do and hanging out at home without expectations. You might have thought that I would spend the time cooking, cleaning or organizing, but no...it was all relax and enjoy time together.

Confession: I signed up for a "post more often on your blog" challenge over on my favorite scrapbooking website, A Cherry on Top. The challenge started two weeks ago...and this is the first time I've got a post added! I'll have to work on that.

Oh yeah, the winning stuff part. Things are heating up in the scrapbooking world this 2nd half of January. The big product show, CHA, is coming up and all the companies are revealing their new products. Or at least tempting us with sneak peaks and snipits of their products.

Maya Road makes some really cute stuff. They are definitely one of the go-to companies for incredible chipboard shapes and 3D fun. In today's post on their blog, Day 2 of their reveal, they've got some adorable stuff! My favorites are the sun, clouds and rainbow chip pieces.

Hopefully this little post will help me win and I'll have some of those in my stash soon and then onto my pages about the kiddos! I mean there's no one who loves rainbows more than my sweet little girl!