Happy Birthday Dad!

To the most wonderful Dad in the world, a very happy birthday to you! Wishing you a year full of chamber concerts, great genealogy finds, travel to new places, fast running, tons o' time with family and desserts a plenty.

Ten on Tuesday (Thanksgiving Version)

My whole family was together for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time. Here are the highlights.

1) The day started with a scare when my brother and niece took a trip to the ER. Thankfully, everyone is ok.

2) The food. Oh my, the food. Mom made an out of this world cranberry relish. My sister and brother-in-law made a delicious turkey, stuffing, corn, green beans, and gravy. Also, a tasty corn souffle and pumpkin pancakes. Not all in the same meal.

3) We played a lot of Uno, 500 and some old fashioned telephone.

4) My youngest niece loved playing with her cousins' Pretty Ponies.

5) M wrote and directed a fairytale movie and edited it in iMovie. I can't wait to see the final version.

6) We enjoyed turkey induced naps.

7) There was quite a collection of desserts. Pumpkin pie, apple pie, french silk pie, chocolate birthday cake, and ginger snap cookies. I rolled myself home.

8) The kids played on the Wii. A loved the bowling. This picture cracks me up.

9) We celebrated my Dad's 70th birthday. We invited his brother, sister-in-law and sister to dinner and it was a surprise. What fun!

10) We gave my Dad a box full of 70 memories. All of us, including his siblings, wrote memories we had of him. I love this type of gift. After the kids were in bed, we popped open a bottle of champagne and Dad read through all of them. Each one sparked a neat conversation or an "Oh, yeah, I remember that." A whole new memory is made.

On The Nightstand

Here's what on my nightstand these days.

The Handmade Marketplace: How to Sell Your Crafts Locally, Globally and Online by Kari Chapin: I'm contemplating my next steps professionally and thinking about taking my creativity to the next level and this book has been great in laying out all the steps you need to take. I love that there are numerous contributors sharing their personal experiences. Hearing how other's have started their creative businesses has been very helpful.

Mess: The Manual of Accidents and Mistakes by Keri Smith: I got this book for my birthday. It's a great book to stretch your creativity. I'm not someone who likes to make a mess. I always color inside the lines. But this book requires you to make a mess and to stop thinking so much. Just create.

The Good Fight by Walter Mondale: Getting this book is a good story. I volunteered at the Jimmy Carter Habitat Work Project in October and Mr. Mondale was there and we shook hands. A very cool moment. A couple days later my parents saw him speak and stayed afterwards to buy his book and have it autographed for me. Mr. Mondale wrote, "Thanks for helping Habitat." Also very cool. My parent's planned to give it to me as a Christmas gift, but since it's been a bit of a rough time for me lately, they gave it to me a bit early to brighten my spirits. This was such a wonderful surprise. It's Mr. Mondale's autobiography and I'm learning so much about Minnesota politics starting back in the 60s.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett: I haven't started this book yet, but I've heard wonderful things about it. My Mom said it's excellent and when I picked it up at the book store and was continuing to browse several people commented what a great book it is. Looking forward to getting into this one.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Highlights of mine coming later this week.

I'm Thankful For...

It's been awhile since I've had a chance to participate in the American Crafts challenge. But I made some time, because I've been missing participating. The challenge is to create a page about what you are thankful for. I love these type of pages. I love taking the time to reflect on what I'm thankful for at any given time.

The journaling comes from a post I wrote a few weeks ago. You can see it here. The photo is from a time we spent at a park on a beautiful November day. I wanted to try and see if I could still hang from a bar and amazingly I could! My niece can hang hands free. Now that's really amazing. A good day.

I used a couple of papers from an old school collection of American Crafts, Moda Bella. The papers are so pretty and I love the hot pink color. The rest is from the Dear Lizzy collections. An all time favorite. And that yellow ribbon. Swoon.

Supplies used: American Crafts: Paper: Moda Bella, Dear Lizzy Spring, Thickers: Dear Lizzy Fantastic, Bliss, Ribbon: Butter and Dear Lizzy Leafy, Remarks: Correspond

Ten on Tuesday

1) Freezing rain! Ugh. It and snow are potentially going to screw up family togetherness.

2) I saw Tiempo Libre at the Ordway. They performed a Bach inspired Cha-cha. Awesome. I wish I had had a dancing partner. It was hard to sit in my seat.

3) I am so excited for pumpkin pie, stuffing, gravy and pumpkin pancakes. Not necessarily in that order.

4) I haven't taken any pictures in a long time. What the heck is wrong with me?! I need to remedy this at Thanksgiving.

5) My family is giving me Ali Edwards' class at Big Picture Scrapbooking, Yesterday and Today for Christmas. I can't wait until it starts.

6) A very cool Holiday Card Series is going on over at Kristina's blog. She has a new video everyday making a new card.

7) There are so many movies I want to see; Morning Glory, Love and Other Drugs (love Jake Gyllenhaal) and The Next Three Days. Maybe we'll get to one this holiday weekend.

8) We're celebrating my Dad's 70th birthday this weekend. Very exciting!

9) It's only November and I'm already wishing I could go somewhere with clear blue skies, a sandy beach and a scorching sun.

10) Wishing everyone a delicious and happy holiday.

It's Not Cute, It's Scary!

A quick post today to share a recent layout I made of my niece from Halloween. It's a simple page, using Crate Paper, Jillibean Soup, American Crafts and Echo Park. My go to products lately.

Journaling reads: On Halloween, you made ghosts out of white cardstock. You decided to line the driveway with them. Your Mom, Grandma and I kept saying how cute they were and you said,"It's not cute, it's scary!" Yes, scary. (But cute too.) 2010.

Have a great Wednesday.

Ten on Tuesday

1) Snow! We had our first snowfall on Saturday. A good day to snuggle up.

2) I enjoyed seeing The Sound of Music as a play. I love the movie. Love it. "The hills are alive with the sound of music. La, la, la, la." Ok, I'll stop.

3) Have you tried vanilla Oreos? You should. Yum. Where have these been all my life?! Being the nerd I am, I looked up when they were introduced and it was around 2004, so I guess I haven't been missing out for too long.

4) I transferred all the birthdays and other events into my new 2011 planner. Utterly satisfying.

5) I turned my heat on for the first time yesterday. Time to hunker down and hibernate. I'm not really a winter person, but every year I try to be more wintery, and it never works. I'm really good at hibernating though.

6) I can't believe November is half over. That Thanksgiving is in about a week. And Christmas is shortly thereafter. Since I'm trying to find a new job and it's encompassing my every thought these days, I need to make a special effort to enjoy the holidays.

7) I've been working on an October album. During the month, I collected tickets, menus, and pamphlets that I'm including. I will share once it's finished. Hopefully, in time to start my December Daily.

8) My oldest niece is so sweet. She saw a pamphlet at church titled, "Grieving the loss of a job," and she picked it up for me. On the front it says, take one--and take heart; give one and give hope. She said she wanted to give me hope. Seriously, I held back tears. It was really touching.

9) I think this blog post is such a neat idea. Bloggers sharing what they're thankful for.

10) I love this little book.