Its 11-11-11

Thank you Beverly at Be Glorious for a wonderful blogging opportunity.
A great day for those who get into dates, I for one probably would not have noticed except for the fact that it seems that everybody is talking about it.  I worked with a nurses aide a few years ago that really wanted to have her first baby on 6-7-08 but she ended up having him on 6-8-08 and was so happy that his last number rhymed with his name Nate.  But in honor of the date, I decided to go with 11 of my favorite photos from 2011.  It has been a busy year, Camping in Colorado, and California we live in Utah.  Trips to Disneyland x2( if you count next weeks trip), Las Vegas and China, knee surgery again and with that a visit from Mom which was great.
 Also today in the United States it is Veterans day and I want to honor four of the very special men in my family that have served our country.  I am not the worlds biggest patriotic person but I do think that these men and the service they have given are special.  3 of them served in WWII and are some of the greatest men I knew save for my father and husband, and my cousin who is still serving in the Navy to all of you and my friend Destiny and her husband who were in Yugoslavia thank you!

Sunset at Mesa Verde, Colorado

Rachel and her Gramie.

My parents and brother taking in the sun? Oregon coast.

Old building with sunflowers in the fog, California

Rachel on the Oregon coast

Abby in the river camping, I did not get many photos of her face this year.  A challenge I will take on for next year for sure.

Brittany in the river camping

Three wise men, statues in Xi'an China

Kai a self portrait

Disney California Adventure

 

City wall Xi'an, lantern festival

These may not be my best photos of the year but they do the best job of telling a story to me when I look at them.

Next in this blog event is 11 things I want to accomplish in 2011
1. Finish my Ethics class
2. Start the next class in my Masters program
3. See the Ocean (take an Oregon girl away from the beach for too long and she gets home sick)
4. Spend more time having fun with the kids
5. Cook more meals at home, we have become lazy and eat out way to often
6. Mail Brittany's presents to China
7. Send off Rachel's application for her passport, and take her to pick up her drivers permit
8. Decorate the house for Christmas this is one I am looking forward too
9. Fold the laundry when it is first dry, I have a terrible habit of letting the clean clothes pile up on the dryer.
10. Spend more time crafting
11. Spend less time on the computer.

11 things I have learned in 2011
1. Durango Colorado is not as close as it looks on a map
2. I enjoyed visiting China it was something I was not really looking forward to, now I can not wait to go back
3. Third time might be a charm for my right knee but I am not going to test that theory
4. Rachel le wee is a good driver but she still makes me nervous
5. 3 dogs is more work than 2
6. If you do not see the humor in things you will go crazy, i.e. Kai outside in 32 degree weather without pants, and the following visit from the city police.
7.  There is a thing as too much work
8.  The kids seem to need me more as they get older even if they do not seem to think they do.
9. I take much better photos of things than people, but that the people mean the most
10. I still love living in Utah
11. Family camping trips are stressful, but when I look back all I remember is the fun parts.

Thank you Beverly for this opportunity for a special post in honor of this once in a lifetime day.

10 on the 10th

10 little things I am loving this month
1. These planners from Erin Condren, got one for my self and one as a Christmas present they are so cute and appear very sturdy too, love the extra gift tags that came with them also.  Planners

2. Project Life I really want to get this for 2012, with only 2 full years with the three youngest at home I really feel the need to do this. http://www.beckyhiggins.com/products/

3. The Bo Bunny Father Christmas Paper, I have all the paper I need for this Christmas but I still find myself drooling over this paper. Bo Bunny Father Christmas

4. These stamps by Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday, can not wait for them to get here so that I can use them in my Journal Your Christmas album. December Daily Stamps

5. My Washi tape order from here Cute Tape  It came Tuesday and I just love it and have used it so far to cover some hearts for my JYC album that I have been prepping the last couple of days.  This is the set I got but there is so much here to chose from I am afraid that I could go crazy shopping here.

6. Disneyland ok so it is not small but we are going in a week and I can not wait to play in the sun for a few days, no work, no chores just time to enjoy being with the kids and playing.

7.  The anticipation of starting this class at Jessica Sprague.  The projects look beautiful and I think that both Heidi Swapp and Jessica Sprague are wonderful teachers. 

8. My new camera  I finally decided that it was time to get a DSRL now I can take good pictures.  Not great but better although I still find myself reaching for my phone more than the big camera which goes to prove that the best camera is the one that you have with you.  I got mine from QVC but you can find it here  too. Canon T3 

9. These pinwheels I made for Brittany's 25 days of Christmas box.  They use paper from last winter by Echo Park but I am loving the non traditional Christmas colors.

10.  These Dala horse ornaments from World Market, we used to have 2 little and 2 big ones when I was a child that came out every Christmas they were always one of my favorite Christmas decorations.  I was very excited when I found these.

well until next month, I hope that you enjoy 10 of my favorite things this 10th of November.  Here is a link to Shimelle's blog where you can find many more 10 on the 10th lists. Shimelle's Blog

Getting Started JYC 2011

I always have the best intentions of doing a December Daily/Journal Your Christmas Album.  I have made albums before, I have half way finished albums before and I have skipped it all together before also.  But this year I really wanted to do something that was prepared in advance and would be easy to use every day.  I work 12 hour night shifts so on the days I work just getting a photo and a bit of journaling done is all I can manage so I knew that I had better get going, plus what a better way to avoid writing an Ethics Paper for my Masters Class or cleaning house right.  So I went shopping, I shopped Etsy, I shopped 2peasinabucket.com I shopped A Cherry on Top, I shopped Technique Tuesday and I shopped my stash.  I looked at Ali Edwards foundation pages and I wished I lived in the UK so that I could have gotten the lovely kit put together by Shimelle in full.  In the end I ended up with a stack of patterned paper that was almost an inch thick.  So I had to edit thanks to Skype and my bbf I got the stack of pretty papers down to about 30 sheets.  Then I needed so inspiration so I read posts on 2peas in a bucket, and the 2010 forum for JYC, I watched Youtube videos and I came up with a plan.  I already had the album I started last year, never got further then than the front cover and even it was not finished, so I finished it.  It came with 6 8x8 chipboard pages, I also have 6 6x6 chipboard pages, and in my stash I found some 8x8 divided page protectors.  So that is what I am going with.  As of this morning I have finished the first 2 pages and the cover of the album, except for the numbers since I am still waiting for my 2011 stamps to come from Technique Tuesday.
So here is my beginning to JYC 2011.  I will use the tags for photos or journaling when the time comes and the date will go on the circles that look pretty empty right now.

Washi Tape

I have fallen in love with this stuff and found the cutest set for my Journal Your Christmas Project this year.
Cute Washi Tape
I wish I could just post a picture of it but since I am at work it will not let me.  Anyway I can not wait for it to come so I can get to work on my December/Christmas Album.  The kids are almost grown and I really want to document this year with all of the littles still home.

Thankful Thoughts-Thanks Ali Edwards

I came across these on Ali Edwards blog this evening and thought what a great idea, random thankful thoughts. I thought I might be a little more purposeful with mine and try and do one a week till the end of the year and post them on Fridays, as these tend to be a busy day around our house and not much time for crafting is available.
My first thankful thought is of my Mom, she is my rock. The person that taught me to be who I am. She is there when I need her and also knows how to give enough space that I never feel crowded or overwhelmed by her attentions. She believes in me, for which I am truly thankful. She is a great Grandma to my kids, teaching them things that I would never think of but that are truly important in life, like how to garden and sew a hem. She has instilled in my my life long love of reading and learning for which I am grateful for.

On another note I would love to share a link to my daughters blog, she is living and working in China for the second year as an elementary school teacher and I am so proud of her.
Brittany's Blog
Here is a picture of Brittany standing on the Great Wall of China in Dandong, during my Feb. 2011 visit.

Today we were challenged to make kits out of paper we had based on background colors and then to create layouts that contained no trapped white space with these paper kits.  I must say it was hard to find papers with white backgrounds in my stash.  I seem to have a lot of them that are based on cream colored backgrounds.  I did find that I had more brights than I thought I did which is a good thing as far as I am concerned because brights make me happy.  It might be fall outside but that does not mean that I need to scrap with only browns and oranges right?
Here are my three sets of patterned papers, and the layouts I did with them.  I decided to not use any card stock at all for these layouts, mostly because I am lazy and I did not want to go out into the garage and find any.

Bountiful Baskets

I know that this is something that I should have posted in July when we were getting these wonderful weekly packages of produce from bountiful baskets but I never did get around to it.
I really enjoy fresh produce, having grown up on a mini farm in Oregon I am sure that I did not know that peas can frozen from the store until I was in High School My mom was a great gardener and all of our meals always contained fresh or freshly canned fruits and veggies that we had grown ourselves.
Well as an adult I have never had the land to go the veggies that my mom did but I did discover a wonderful way to get fresh fruits and seasonal vegetables into the house on a weekly basis. Bountiful Baskets is a great food co-op that provides the best of the best on a weekly basis. My only problem with them has been that the pick up is on Saturday mornings and it is hard to get there after a 12 hour night shift, but I do try to get a basket on the weeks that I am not working.
Why you ask am I posting about this today, well there was an email from them in my inbox today that said this
"Dear Amber,

We suggested on Facebook tonight that it might be fun to connect a few families with a dietitian to help them use their Bountiful Basket to give their diet an overhaul to meet their health goals. The families and dietitians will all blog about their experiences so the rest of us can learn some new tricks and hopefully get healthier and more motivated as we watch their success. Hundreds of families responded that they would love to do this. We realized we needed a better way to select who would be the lucky families!

If you are interested please follow the link, and fill out the survey. We hope to get this going by November.

Best,
Sally & Tanya"
and it really got me thinking what a great opportunity this would be for all of us. Rachel as an average teenager could use some healthy eating tips, Abby and I could both use to eat better and loose some weight and as a pre-diabetic it is very important for me to do so, and I would love to be able to have a dietician work with Kai and see what part diet plays in his autism.
I know that it is a long shot that I would be one of the chosen families but this is something that has gotten me very excited.
Here are a couple of pictures I took of one of our wonderful baskets this summer.

Pretty Paper Party

I have more pretty patterned paper than I know what to do with, so I thank one of my favorite online if not my favorite online teachers Shimelle for offering this class. I really look forward to using up some of my stash and getting some nice layouts and cards done. I have been really bad about scrapbooking this year but that does not mean that I have stopped collecting. Here are a few pics of my patterned paper stash that I took for the first challenge of this course.

Explore and perfection

I of course could not blog yesterday about perfection because that would have been what I should have been doing for this class, but I did make a post in class and it seems to me that it sums up my feelings about perfection perfectly. So here it is and those of you that are in Shimelle's class that have read it I am sorry for the fact that you are reading the same thing twice.

Was thinking on perfect all day, never got to my photo because I could not get the perfect shot, never got to the blog because I did not have the perfect words. Never got to a scrapbook page because there was not the perfect paper. But in reality I know that nothing man made is ever perfect, we are good, we are even great but we are not perfect and I rarely strive to be. Just ask my kids I am far from the perfect mom or the perfect cook or housekeeper. But on the way out the door looking over my not so perfect yard thinking I needed to weed badly there was a beautiful perfect flower, not any flower mind you but a thistle and in its tenacious hold to be where it should not be I did realize and think that nature is pretty perfect after all.

How do I do this from my iPad

I love this thing and am hoping that it will help me with my studies, for those of you that do not know I went back to school April 1st to get my masters in nursing leadership and management.  I also want to keep my blog current to help me remember my time in school the first time around 20 years ago seems like such a blur, maybe that is because I had 2 small children and all I did was be a mom and a student.  This time around I am still a mom but also have a full time job that I love.  Abby my youngest is now home schooled so I am hoping that we can get some time to study together.

This is Bri in China when I visited her in Feb, we are hoping that I can take the girls there in October for the National Day holiday.
Ok well enough rambling I am going to go back to work/studying and hope that this works and I can start blogging again.