walk with us

We have a winner!

Last night after I got home from work, but before I left for the staff party, I did a quick Random.org pick for the winner:

The winner was:

Jessica, I've sent your name and address to Jodi. She'll be shipping it to you soon!

make a wish

On Thanksgiving Day, all Chesney wanted to know was if we had the wishbone yet. When my mom and I found it, we called for Ches, who called for her cousin Liv, and they came running.

Olivia wished for $100 and 100 Webkinz. Ches kept her wish private. Let the games begin.

It was a bit slippery.

Eventually, Chesney was the victor.

Don't you love the look of eternal hopefulness on my dog's face?

On the way home from Grammy's, Ches told us that she had wished for everyone to have a good Thanksgiving.

Wish granted.

Recipe: Kiah's Deviled Eggs

So it has become tradition for Mykiah to make deviled eggs when my family gets together. For Thanksgiving, these weren't served with dinner, but were a treat that evening when people were putting together turkey sandwiches. Or, you know, eating Rice Chex. Kathy.

So here's the girl making her specialty, using my mom's recipe:

Kiah's Deviled Eggs

6 eggs
2 tbsp mayo
1 ½ tsp grated onion (or dehydrated onion flakes)
1 ½ tsp sweet pickle relish
½ tsp spicy mustard
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp pepper

Hard boil eggs. Cool. Peel and cut eggs in half.

Remove yolk from eggs and put into a medium bowl. Mix yolk with the above ingredients (well, except the eggs).

Here's what that looks like, premixing.

Spoon mixture back into the eggs. Serve cold.

My mom actually has a cool Pampered Chef deviled egg server (that I bought her for a gift... cuz I'm cool like that). Here's how they look before I get ahold of them:

It's funny. I never ate eggs until I was pregnant with Brady. Now I'm picky about my eggs, but I definitely crave them at times. These eggs are totally cravable.

Download in printable form here: Download Kiahsdeviledeggs

a princess waits

Freebie: Welcome Christmas

Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. The other would be... vacation. Yup, vacation is almost as good as Christmas, if not better.

Anyway, I love the decorations, the yummies, the giving of gifts. I am especially excited about all the fun this year with my journal project.

I sat down to create a Christmas themed kit last month, and I really love how it turned out. I love the bright, happy colors, the fun elements, the whole feel of the kit.

I hope you like it, too.

Most of my 2010 kits will be more in this style. Lots of bright colors and doodleish elements. I'm looking forward to sharing them.

For today, enjoy "Welcome Christmas" (the title comes from the song the Who village sings in The Grinch That Stole Christmas). May all your Christmases be bright.

Download Welcome Christmas here.

So This is Christmas Journal, the preparation & a giveaway

I've decided that the only way I'm going to be able to share this journal adventure I'm taking with you is to be a week behind in sharing my daily entries. There's just no way I can daily photograph and post. I could try, but I'd fail and I hate fail.

So next week I'll be here on Friday to share with you what I did Dec. 1-4. Today, I'd like to share with you the journal I created.

The concept of my album went through several forms. When it came down to it, what I wanted to do was this:

 

I bought this altered Little Golden Book from a wonderful Etsy seller, This Handmade Life. She takes these wonderful books, coil binds them, and adds a bunch of blank journal paper after the actual story.

I ended up having to remove the original story and a bunch of the extra paper just to try to fit in the essentials for my journal. I used a bunch of different supplies, and just had fun enjoying the process of creating this album. I added the stickers and labelmaker strips to the front. Chesney was in charge of tying the ribbon to the coils.

Then I got all funky. Here's a sneak peek into the inside of my journal:

 

 



I can't even say how much I am looking forward to taking this journal, adding my words, bits of memorabilia, and photos, and making it the start of a new tradition.

I'd love to share my new tradition with one of my readers. I will be giving away an identical upcycled journal to one lucky reader. That's right... one of you will get your very own "Frosty the Snowman" book, shipped directly from This Handmade Life. To enter your name in the giveaway, simply leave a comment here telling me which is your favorite journal from Jodi's shop. Be sure to get your entry in by noon PST on Friday. I'll be doing the drawing Friday night sometime, and the winner will be announced Saturday morning. Good luck!

Freebie: Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving, wherever you may be.

I put this together to decorate my blog, but decided that I'd make it so you can download it, too. Enjoy!

 

To download, click here.

Last night it occurred to me that not all of my readers celebrate Thanksgiving (hello, everyone in South America and Asia!). Of course, those readers also may not speak English, but just in case they do, I wanted to make a piece of word art that could be used for more than just Thanksgiving. This is the quote that spoke to me:

Download here.

Have a blessed day.

Memories of Thanksgiving past

This is the first time in four years that my family will not be going to Branson to celebrate Thanksgiving.

I'm a little sad.

We had some great times there.

However, we can have a lot of fun over New Year's this year. We are staying here for Thanksgiving.

I'm OK with it.

Most of the time.

On the one hand, I don't have to worry about where we will eat Thanksgiving dinner. I don't have to battle Branson's Black Friday traffic. I just have to sit back and relax and have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, and hey, all my shopping is done so I don't need to even go out on Black Friday.

It's definitely going to be better than the year my mom scheduled my tonsilectomy for the Monday before Thanksgiving. In retrospect, I'm glad I had it done, but that was not a fun Thanksgiving.

My son was sick most of last week, with what is probably H1N1 at this point. Just hoping it's not a Swine Flu Thanksgiving.

Enjoy yours. Make some memories.

My favorite Christmas kits

Thought I'd make a little list of my favorite digital scrapbooking Christmas kits. I might need it for future reference.

1. Little Joys by Zoe Pearn

This kit has been my inspiration for our entire holidays this year. It's marked down for clearance, too. I love it so much, I had the papers printed so I can use them for the cover of my "So This is Christmas" album.

2. Merry and Bright by Gina Cabrera/Digital Design Essentials

Just a bright and happy kit.

3. Christmas Market by Shabby Miss Jenn

I love the pop of the blue in this kit. I'm all about popping blues.

4. Colorful Christmas by Mindy Terasawa

Just happy, isn't it? I don't think I have this in digital, but I did by the paper version (by My Mind's Eye) for my journal.

We officially started the holiday season this weekend. I ran to the store to get some dog food, came home with a new Christmas tree, and found the rest of my family watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Yup, it's started.

alone with mom time

Lately, Mykiah has been complaining discussing the fact that she and I never go out together, just the two of us.

I decided she was right (although it's so much more logical to ignore her when she's using that 13 year old voice), and so last weekend, we set off to spend some time together.

It was a really fun day for both of us. First, we met my mom at a craft show, which was borderline insane. Pushing and shoving just to see what was for sale. Standing on the floor of an arena, and Mykiah talking about how it was almost like being on stage.

I had a $40 budget for myself and that's exactly what I spent. Some smelly jelly, some pupper treats, some soup mixes. That's what craft shows are made of.

After lunch at Chili's, we hit the mall, just the two of us. Mykiah had received a text earlier that let us know that Penneys had jeans for $11. That was our first stop, but she only wanted one pair because perhaps there was something better out there.

Off we set to walk the whole mall. We had a productive stop at Payless Shoes, but we ended up right back at Penneys to get another pair of jeans before heading back to home and reality.

Just in case you need it, here's your reminder that even those teenage kids who act like they don't' need you any longer... need you. Take some time to get to know them again, just the two of you.

Then crank the stereo really loud during "Fireflies" and rock out.