Always Give Thanks!

Phew! Can you believe another Thanksgiving has already come & gone? I can't! I love this holiday because even though I thank the Lord everyday for all of our blessings, and I try to be grateful even in the hard times, I think about how blessed my family has been throughout all of these years. Even when we were down & out,  (& trust me, we've been pretty down & out at times, but who hasn't?) we were still okay. Sometimes the Lord will use the storms in our lives to bring us to a better place, sometimes better than where we started from. Isnt that awesome? He is awesome! I thank Him everyday for letting me spend another day on earth with my boys. They are so funny and so amazing! But. Getting them to take a cute picture with their ole mom is like pullin teeth. I just wanted ONE... But it was either the timing was off, or there was a glare, or a bubble,

Orrrr the tryptophan kicked in.....

                                          Okay, maybe not there, but defenitely here-

We were soooo full from so many treats!

My moms amazing pumpkin roll is always a hit,

I could seriously just sit, with a spoon, and eat, an entire bowl of that filling, it's just yummy creamy fluffy goodness... 

Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and now it's Christmas all the way baby!

Give thanks to the Lord,

for He is good!

      His faithful love endures forever!

1 Chronicles 16:34

Tree Stand

Sooo the manly men returned from their hunting escapade this weekend, the first hunting trip ever for the boys! The anticipation this week was treacherous for them. They came home with so many exciting stories! You can tell Beeb was right at home in his tree stand..

I just wish he had a little personality.... How funny is it when kids catch onto cameras, they just think of the funniest pictures to take? Beeb adores his new digital camera he got for his birthday, and some of the pix  are actually really good! I am so proud of him! Honestly, I dont know where he gets it....

Ummmmmmm........

Happy Sunday!

What a beautiful sunny (yet chilly) day! Ok so my blog break is over, I am ready to be faithful in my daily postings. I hate when work gets in the way of fun things, but sometimes ya gotta do whatcha gotta do, right? So here are my pieces to send in for the Red Lead Holiday Garland Swap. The requirements were to use one of their 3 chipboard pieces and one of their new Christmas stamps. I love stars, so I saw those & knew immediately that I wanted to use them! Then, I just used my "cup of cheer" stamp that I used for the card swap to get the Merry Christmas, and voila. Too fun! How sad is it that I just learned heat embossing? I have been missing out!

Some other products I used include;
-Christmas Collage sheet, Holly Sprigs, Red Jingle Bells (Red Lead)
-Tinsel (Stampin Up)
-vintage sheet music & book paper
-Distress Ink (Tim Holtz/Ranger)
-doilies, glittery holly sprig, ribbon, white snowy glitter, red bakers twine(craft supply)
-Gold Star German Scrap, lady collage snippet- Art Chix Studio

Now, its time to grab something warm to sip & curl up in my snuggy. Night!

Holiday Card Swap

Hey there! Sorry I haven't been a very good blogger lately, still workin crazy hours but I promise I will have a bunch of scrappy goodness goin on soon!

Sooo, I wanted to share a peek at the cards I made for my Red Lead Holiday Card Swap. We had to create 3 cards to send in, and then you'll receive some back. How much fun is that? I love getting Christmas cards in the mail, but receiving hand made artsy ones is even better! You have to join through Red Leads Yahoo Group, which I've never done before, but since then I've already joined some other ones because I think it's just too fun!

So about these cards.... You had to use one of Red Leads new Christmas stamps, & being a java junky I chose this one, it's just too perfect. I am also crazy lately about the vintage type of  font like the one Merry Christmas is in, so I wanted to make it stand out by heat embossing it in an old pewter type powder (with a little silvery glitter added in of course). I tried to capture that in the second shot, but Im not sure if you can tell or not... Here's some of the other ingreds. that were used:
-Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding & Silver Tinsel- Stampin UP
-Christmas Pattern Paper- Making Memories & Basic Grey
-Distress Inks, Tiny Attacher, Blending Tool- Tim Holtz & Ranger
-Green Tulle used for ruffle- Michaels
-Crackle Stamp on the edge of tag- Tattered Angels
-Glitter- Martha Stewart

Im not usually a card-type-a-girl, but I must say I had fun making these. I hope they like them! Have an amazing Friday!