Happy Holidays!

Oh, you better watch out, you better not cry,

you better not pout, I'm telling you why,

Santa Claus is coming to town!!!!!

And, we have a house elf!!!

And Blizzard here is keeping an eye on Chester and Pickle Pants to make sure that they are behaving themselves. He reports back to Santa each night and appears in a different place each morning! He came with a great story called "The Elf on the Shelf" - Wesley rec'd Blizzard for his Birthday on the 21st of November and both the boys are enjoying having him around. Chester thinks it was a great gift and reports that Pickle Pants has not been "as much of a pest" since Blizzard's arrival - lol!

We never know where he might end up next!

The boys and I fly down to Southern Ontario today to spend Christmas with my family where hubby will join us in a couple of days. I am not sure if I will be getting back on here to make another post until after the holidays - I am going to take a little time off. After Christmas, hubby and I have managed to plan a little getaway "sans children" - woo hoo!

Best wishes for a Happy Holiday and all the Best in 2011! Enjoy the festivities, however you celebrate! I look forward to visiting with you all again in the New Year!

Cheers,

Shanna & Blizzard, Hubby, Chester & Pickle Pants

Forever in my heart....

This card is for the family of my dear friend Ellena who lost her battle with Lymphoma back at the beginning of November. I lost my "zest" for blogging around that time and sort of disappeared from cyberspace for a bit. When I came back, I wasn't up to discussing the reasons why. It is still so difficult for me to believe that she is really gone - I think that is why it took me this long to make her family's card.
E had a thing for owls, so I just had to include them somewhere on the card. :)

Ellena was a dear friend and fellow scrapbooker. She was a Stampin Up Demonstrator - when I first met her years ago, I actually thought of her as "the competition" and treaded carefully since she was in "the business" first. Ha - no need really, we quickly became each others customers! And of course, in the stamping world we can never have enough - variety is the spice of life right?!?

Ellena or "E" as most of us called her, was always smiling - we shared so many great laughs together! She was kind and generous, always willing to participate in an event to benefit a charity - such as our Annual Stamping Pyjama party. Despite her failing health, she attended this year's event - we were so honored to have her there! She was a true fighter, right to the end - it was evident that her intent was to "live with cancer" rather than die from it and that is exactly what she did.

Though I am sorry that she is gone, I am a better woman to have known her and call her my friend, and for that I am fortunate and truly thankful. E - you will remain forever in my heart.

Hugs,
Shanna :)

p.s. I would like to enter this in the Paper Sundaes challenge this week which is to "cut it out".

What I used:
stamps: CTMH
papers: My Mind's Eye - Quite Contrary
Embellishments: twig, Bella Bling, ribbon

Ready for our Open House....

Well, almost....I've had the decorating done awhile now, all that is really left to do is the food prep and tidying.

Over at The Scrapbooking Cottage, Stacy shared photos of her Gingerbread themed kitchen last week. This inspired me to take photos of my decor. I decorate quite extensively each year, but often neglect to take any decent photos...

I enjoy collecting both snowmen and Santas, especially older or antique ones. Below are my what I'm calling my "Santa Cabinet" and the my "Snowman Cabinet".

Both are pieces are managed to acquire at our local store "'Twas the Month before Christmas".

This is my favorite store of all time,well except for my LSS, DAT'S! I have a naughty habit of finding a new piece of antique furniture, usually a cabinet, each year when I go into the store at the beginning of the Christmas season - even if I'm not exactly sure where it will end up! This year, it was my sister who acquired a beautiful and unique cabinet and took it home to Southern Ontario.

Leslie is the owner/operator and her husband is a talented carpenter. He recently did some custom-made nightstand/bookshelves for me for our bedroom and I just have to share!

This first shot is the BEFORE - I had Bob make this shelf for above the bed last year for us. I love it, especially the little drawers. It took me awhile to figure out what should go on either side. I had been asking friends and family when the visited what they thought, keeping in mind that we are desperate for book space - we love books! Well, I took all their suggestions into consideration and this it what I had Bob build for us!

I am thrilled with how it turned out! I haven't had a good chance to really organize our library quite yet, but that will be a great project for the New Year!

The right side of the bed and then the left - I am going to store quilts in the bottom half of the nightstand.

Best go work on that "to do" list....

Cheers,

Shanna :)

Peace and Joy

Hello! What a busy weekend and week it has been so far! The boys had Danderella's girls over for a big sleepover on Saturday night. We had a staff Christmas Dinner on Sunday night and a Cubs Christmas Party/Investiture on Monday night. In there somewhere I managed to baked Gingerbread cookies for Chester's class, make a few more cards and get almost all of my Christmas cards ready to go in the mail.

Whew....however, I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling this way! Here is one of the cards I snuck in on the weekend....

I'm going to go ahead and enter this in Sparkle's Christmas Card challenge though I'm cheating a little since this one will be used this year rather than go in the stash for next year. The challenge this week is to use an angel on your card, but any Christmas/Holiday cards qualify for the challenge.

I was so happy to get my cards to the post-office this afternoon - all 41 of them! I will be hand-delivering more than usual this year since we are going to Southern Ontario for Christmas. I also sent two parcel and two others are not quite ready - those are on the to do list!

Despite the fact that I had 90 cards already done for Christmas, I am finding that I need a few more so here is the other one I put together quickly on the weekend. I picked up this adorable Echo Park (lovin' Echo park) paper at DAT'S and have been itching to put together a simple (no coloring) card with it. I love all the bright colors, aren't they just the cutest?

So, how many more sleeps? I really am looking forward to Christmas, we haven't been "home" to Southern Ontario for Christmas since Chester was a baby eight years ago! Wishing you a productive week of crossing items off the list - because the more items that are crossed off, the fewer you have to do as the big day approaches right?

Cheers,

Shanna :)

Believe.....

Life has been "happening" - the only way to explain my absence. Anyhow, you just have to read my journalling on this one to understand why I had to pull over and write down what Chester said to me one day while driving.........



Our conversation:

Chester: Mom, when I grow up I'm going to be a very special worker. I'm never going to see you guys!
Mom: Why?
Chester: I'm gonna be Santa!

So, I've been carrying around this layout in my head for forever. I am so glad to finally make it happen! I've hung this one up in my shadow box frame in my scrapspace since it's appropriate for the current season. I finally took down the summer layouts that were in there. I like to change them every few months when I get a new layout or two done.

Happy Friday!
Shanna :)

p.s. Thanks Donna for suggesting adding the stitching - I had difficulty finishing this layout since the top right corner was too bare but I couldn't figure out what to put there. All you have to do is ask a friend and voila, problem solved!

Trees and a Big Thank You!

The challenge this week at Raise the Bar is to use trees. Hooray, I can play along with a challenge - it's been so long since I've done. I would also like to enter this in the Wee Memories challenge which is to take Inspiration from Christmas Music - my inspiration came from "Oh Christmas Tree" of course! :)

I just love this paper from Little Yellow Bicycle that I picked up from DAT'S awhile back, but I have trouble using paper like this in a scrapbook layout, so I decided to turn it into a card. I just love the music notes in the background. Of course, I used the awesome matching buttons and some tiny beads that I mooched off of Donna for ornaments on the tree. These days I buy almost anything with music on it - I'm a little obsessed. Maybe it's because I finally decided to take some music lessons. My eldest, Chester has been taking piano for two years now, and I love listening to him play. Last spring, I spoke to his teacher to see if she would consider taking me on as an adult student with zero experience. I started my lessons in September and am thoroughly enjoying it! I have managed to learn enough so far to pay several basic Christmas songs! I always wanted to try piano as a child, but my family didn't have a piano and did not have the means to acquire one. So here I am learning at thirty-something. It has been so fun!


I want to send a big shout out to the team over at Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenges. I suddenly stopped posting for them and have yet to provide an explanation. I had almost come to the end of my DT term when some major stressors hit and they gave me permission to bow out gracefully a few weeks early. I am thankful that they understood that life had to come first as I had some important things to attend to. I had a fabulous time being on Sparkle's Christmas Challenge Design Team and am so thankful for the opportuntiy and also for the fact that I have 90 - count 'em - ninety Christmas Cards ready to go. All we have to do is finish the signing (my boys sign them all) and finish addressing. I am so grateful to be ahead of the game and hope to do the same for next year! To the girls on the team, thanks for a great time! I'll be playing along come the new year as I hope to keep up with you all as much as possible.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Shanna :)

Vintage Christmas Fleamarket finds

Check out the vintage Christmas stuff Pickle Pants and I found at a fundraiser sale. I'm lovin this vintage stuff. I think I'm going to frame the card - it wasn't even signed!

The music box in this cute little ornament still works and plays the sweetest little tune! It looks adorable in my antique cabinet.....

I do have a card to share and another layout too. It's a matter of editing photos and typing up my post.

I hosted our CNIB staff party this afternoon - I'm thrilled as now all my decorating is finished and I am ready (except for the food of course) for our annual Christamas Open House in two weeks time! I love having motivation to get rid of clutter and get the house looking good, especially at this time of year! My boys have a birthday party tomorrow then we have the Parade of Lights tomorrow evening and Homework Club on Sunday - somewhere in there, we will try to get more Christmas cards addressed and evelopes stuffed. I have our family letter written, but have to get it typed up and printed. Here's hoping you have a fantastic weekend!

Shanna :)