It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around this house.

I keep adding to the pile of presents under the tree.

I’m the boss. I’m in charge of getting everything organized in this house. Indie, on the other hand, is a lazy little thing. This is her idea of decorating.

This is actually our first holiday season in our own house. The three of us, Me & Little Sunshine, and our cat.

We’re going to spend Christmas Eve with my mom and dad. I’m excited to wake her up early and show her what Santa’s brought.

She’s Santa’s little friend. Every time we’ve gone to see him, she would not leave him alone!

My boyfriend will be gone from the 26th to the 1st. He’s going to Florida. My daughter will be with her dad during those days as well. I’m almost, and yes I said ALMOST, ready for some peaceful days to get things done around here!

Some Decorating

Here’s my little helper. We set up two Christmas Trees yesterday. Mine and my mom’s.

 

I don’t know if you can tell from the photos, but my little princess is sick. She’s been running a fever and having a horrible cough ever since she came home from her dad’s after Thanksgiving.

I should be at work today, training at my new job. But I had to call in because I had nowhere to take her today. I really hope she’s better by tomorrow.

Warning, Readers: Digital Scrapbooking is an Addiction

I have been “digitally” scrapbooking for about a month now.

And I’ll call it a sickness. An addiction.  Seriously – it has entered my mind in the oddest times. I’ll be trying to fall asleep and I keep getting hit with ideas for the cookbook that I’m building for Theron. Or as I’m in the shower, I’ll be talking to Theron about letters or ducks or something, and suddenly the perfect page layout hits me.

This all started when I opened an email from Target and found a coupon code for a free Shutterfly photobook.

I know, I know. I’m a professional photographer, I have access to a better printer than Shutterfly, but still I went ahead and build the free book using the Halloween template they provided. I paced around for a week, anxiously await its arrival. Well maybe I’m exaggerating there.

So the baby arrived. My first impression upon its arrival was not so good, but then I found myself looking it through over, and over, and over, and over. And I still find myself looking it through over, and over, and over.

I shared a peek with my aunts over dinner for my birthday. And she asked for a copy. It was $18 to have a second copy mailed, and this one would have cost that too if I hadn’t had a coupon code.

While I was ordering hers, I started to create another one just for fun. I was looking through all their templates and saw one called “Print your digital scrapbook.” In my head, I went, “Huh?” and checked out.

Basically, I could create a file in Photoshop, sized for the page I wanted, at 300dpi & in RGB color – just as I would an album for a photo client or whatnot. And they’d print it.

And then – though I don’t know how, almost as if I was being pointed there by more than just chance – I found Jessica Sprague’s site, and the LilyPad, PickleBerryPop. They all have tutorials, embellishments, borders, pre-made layouts, and everything to get started with digital scrapbooking.

I have always loved scrapbooking. But ever since Little Miss Sunshine was born, I haven’t had time to do anything with it. Her brand new “baby book” scrapbook is still sitting – untouched – in my dresser drawer. By now I’ve forgotten when she took her first steps, ate her first food, pooped in the tub for the first time, and so on.

If I’d know about digital scrapbooking back then, I’d have whipped something up in Photoshop in 20 minutes for each page. Ugh.

At least I know now. I’m excited to scrap about this upcoming holiday season.

If you think digital scrapbooking may interest you, check out those sites I listed earlier. Pickleberrypop offers an awesome startup pack for FREE, and you can try and see if you like it.

But trust me, you’ll like it.

It’s an addiction.

Here Come The Holidays

As of today, Christmas is a little over a month away.

Around my home, I consider it that we celebrate “the holidays” rather than Christmas. We’re a non-religious household, so we don’t put emphasis on it being Christ’s birthday. (As you’re probably aware, it’s also common discussion that it isn’t Jesus’s birthday afterall, but I don’t know where I stand upon that issue.)

Although she’s barely two, we already discuss Jesus/Christ, we discuss Hanukkah, and we discuss Kwanzaa. We’ve discussed the pagan origins of the Christmas Tree.

When I was a small child, I always thought that Happy Holidays meant “Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.” I look back, embarrassed at how ignorant I was.  I never want my child/children to not know anything.

Around our home, we’re not focusing on gift-receiving, cookies, and candy.

I have enrolled in Jessica Sprague’s Holidays in Hand course to help me focus on staying sane and organized during the holidays. And as our first assignment, we were to write our goals and values.

This is what I’ve come up with as values.

1. Family
2. Togetherness
3. Love
4. Fun
5. Tradition
6. Peace
7. Good food (I know, selfish one here!)
8. Sharing
9. Making others happy
10. Learning
11. Magic & Wonder
12. Memories

And this is what I really want to do this holiday season.

1. To slow down and focus. Savor the moments. Life is so precious.
2. Spend lots of time with my family – both extended and the ones I see daily.
3. Spend time with them actually doing things with them.
4. Focus on family & holiday traditions.
5. Learn. Teach Little Miss Sunshine about traditions. Memorize them so I don’t have to look them up next year.
6. Stay clean & uncluttered.
7. Be organized & not stressed.

And that leads me to these seven goals for this Holiday Season.

1. Create great memories for myself and my family.
2. Capture these memories with my camera & scrapbooks, to preserve the moments for years to come.
3. Keep some magic & wonder with the kiddo. Discuss Santa. Let her believe, and wonder.
4. Connect with all of my family. Send cards. Connect with friends too.
5. Learn Christmas music with my daughter. Play it repeatedly when we drive places.
6. Spend time on baking & crafts. It makes me feel better, and gives me a sense of accomplishment.
7. Touch somebody’s heart. Make somebody’s day. I haven’t decided what to do here, but I know that it will be perfect.

Welcome to the family, Indie

Ten days ago, Little Miss Sunshine & I adopted a new family member.

Her name is Indie and she has spent almost all of her life in a small cage. What a way to live life, right? Sure, she would receive attention in the mornings and usually in the afternoons, but there’s only so much time and love to go around.

We decided that it was our part in the world to bring this furry friend into our family, which also allows the shelter we got her from to add one more kitten. And hopefully that means saving at least one cat’s life.

Indie is beautiful. It was very exciting to watch her first sightings of the television and bathtub, her first reaction to the refrigerator’s rumble and the telephone’s ring, and her first chase of a laser beam and empty toilet paper roll.

Indie is a sweetheart. She loves her new home. Her favorite place to hang out with me is on my desk. She also loves to hide behind the couch, behind the recliner, on the bottom bookshelf, on top of Missy’s toy kitchen, on the tv stand’s shelf, and in the shoe rack. She also likes to crawl under my bed and attack my toes as I fold and hang my laundry.

I do not believe in declawing, for many reasons that maybe I’ll blog about in another entry, so I’ve spared her from that pain, suffering, and helplessness by purchasing Soft Paws Nail Caps. Here is a picture of her modeling her set and sitting in her favorite spot- right in my way on my desk.

The soft caps are such a great product. They’re soft and rubbery, and you glue on just like the fake nail sets I used to wear when I was a kid. I have used them before with a previous kitten and I’m probably one of their many lifetime customers. I totally recommend them for all cat owners.

Does your family have room for a cat or kitten? There are so many animals in the shelter today. So many, in fact, that most shelters are even turning animals away. Many of these animals that cannot get into the shelter are killed, often  violently and inhumanely. Many of those that are in the shelter are facing death as you read this.

We saved Indie from her cage and possible death sentence. But although we have lots of love to share, we have only so much room and only so much money. This is where you can come in. Please visit your local shelter and see what you can do. Even if providing a home to a puppy or kitty isn’t in your agenda, they are always in need of donations and volunteers.

Ghosts!

I got this idea from the October 2009 issue of Working Mother magazine. My Little Monster and I made ghost magnets for our refrigerator! My Little Monster helped by marking a couple with teeth marks and her little fingerprints.

We did these in October, but as I was packing them away until next season I thought maybe I should take a picture! We made 15 of them, which pretty much covers the freezer door.

What you need to make yours just like this:

• Black and white foam sheets (from local craftstore)
• Magnets (craft stores, WalMart, etc)
• Googley eyes (craft stores, WalMart, etc)
• Craft glue (I use Instant Krazy Glue Craft with precision tip)
• Razor knife or scissors

-Draw ghosts on white foam. Cut out with razor knife.
-”Trace” ghosts on black foam, but do these 1/8″ larger to allow for the border. Cut out with razor knife.
-Glue white ghost shape on top of black ghost shape.
-Draw mouths, noses, bow ties, whatever, on black foam. You can also use colors for this! Maybe next year we’ll add color and personality to our ghosts. Cut out with razor knife. Glue in place.
- Add googley eyes with glue.
- Add magnets with glue or adhesive backing.
-Let dry, and then hang to refrigerator!

Dan-D Farms

This is Part Two of last weekend’s trip to the pumpkin patches along Highway 14 between Knoxville and Chariton. You can view my post about Pierce’s Pumpkin Patch here.

We first found the Iowa Beach, which was part of a grain bin with corn. The kids played around in it like it was the funnest sand they’d ever been in. And my daughter had a heyday with it, because I don’t allow her to play in actual sand!

What an awesome idea. We need one of these at my parents’ farm!

Missy and A. just had a blast! I think they’d have been satisfied just playing in the corn and calling it a day.

But of course, we had to go through the corn maze.

Even though it was so. freaking. muddy.

My mom and her sister agree that we will have to come back next year. Maybe even make this corn maze a family tradition.

Going places with the family is super fun and it seems we don’t do it enough. It seems they live soooo far away!

But for me, I just love when I can go places and take my camera!

I let my aunt snap a photo of Missy and I. She’d taken one of us at Pierce’s Halloween shop, but I’d left the camera on Manual and didn’t tell her she’d have to meter it. So it was just a black screen with a little bit of light coming through the door behind us. It seems I have so few pictures of the two of us.

After getting lost in the maze (and actually having to call and ask for help getting out!) we went to play on the weirdest slide I’ve ever seen.

The slide was made of PVC pipes that would roll as you went down.

I won’t lie – I thought it was scary! I don’t see how these little kids actually liked it!

But my daughter loved it and was up for repeat trips, although I wasn’t too enthusiastic about it.

I am glad I have great Halloween memories from this year, and even photos to show for it.

Tonight we’re child-free and will be heading to a local haunted house for a little scare.

Pierce’s Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday, my family stopped by two pumpkin patches located between Chariton, IA (home of HyVee) and Knoxville, IA (home of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame).

First we stopped at Pierce’s Pumpkin Patch.

It is a beautiful little pumpkin patch. I’d expected to see pumpkins still on the vine, but I was told that they’d been picked a long time ago. Most that could fit in displays were at arm’s reach, rather than on the ground.

The place was completely beautiful. Leaves covered the ground.

There were some awesome photo opportunities.

My daughter and my cousin’s daughter were great sports. I had quite a bit of trouble actually getting my daughter to look at me with the camera, though.

My aunts decided to play silly down by the pond, and stand under a little arch they’d set up to have a wedding last September. He said it was his fourth wedding there. I bet it’s a beautiful place for a fall wedding. Too bad it’s so far away from home. Or that there’s not a wedding in my near future, haha.

We picked out a pumpkin and browsed through their Halloween shop.

Then we walked around and discovered that they had made a maze out of hay bales! The owner warned us that the ghosts were wandering around in there.

Scary!

But wandering through, we learned that he’d warned us of goats, not ghosts.

They had donkeys, chickens, and turkeys in there, too!

Did you know that the goats could climb right up on top of the hay bales? We thought it was awesome.

Honestly, I had a great time at Pierce’s Pumpkin Patch and home to return in the next year or two.

I will soon post (and include pictures!) about our second stop – Dan-D Farms!

Oh, A Pumpkin

My pumpkin & I helped with a fundraiser last night. Our local recreational committee (of which I was elected as an officer, despite my already full schedule) hosted a Halloween party for the local children.

I dressed as a punk, and my daughter dressed as a punkin.

We both wore tutus.

I bought hers on Etsy from ForeverChild. It is beautifully handmade. I didn’t find a single error in its craftsmanship and I 100% recommend her tutus.

Mine was cheap-o teenage “rocker” fluff from Claire’s. I didn’t get any pictures of myself.

I did take a few pictures of my darling punkin though.

The day was miserable yesterday. It was 33 degrees when I left for work that morning, and it rained all stinkin day. The gravel roads were like pudding, the potholes felt like bowling balls, and I just wanted to stay home and get cozy in front of the fireplace.

But we went to the party and helped out. It was a blast. She actually got THIRD PLACE in the costume judging.

I felt horrible about keeping the poor girl out so late. It was 9:30 before we were home and in bed. And then I had to work this morning at 7, so her slumber was cut short. And that is probably why she’s asleep now.

Poor exhausted child.

I’m exhausted myself, though. But I’m getting ready to bake supper. We’re doing turkey and gravy. The pre-cooked Hormel microwaveable kind.

Big Puppies

Snapped a couple of shots of Missy playing with the puppies. Well, the puppies were playing with her. She’s so excited about puppies and dogs. She’s such a pet lover. I’m afraid to wait & see what kinds of pets she’ll beg me for when she gets a bit older.

We actually used to have a dog named Missy. (I call my daughter Missy on my blog to protect her privacy, as she’s my Little Miss Sunshine.) The dog Missy, my parents got her when I was still a little girl. She was very calm and very shy.

At the time they got her, she was a companion to another beagle we owned, named Mike. Mike lived on our farm for probably 7-8 years, even though he often had been really sick. Ever since Mike died, Missy acted depressed. I really felt sorry for her.

She, unfortunately, died of old age between the time these fifteen new puppies were conceived and the time they were born. Yes, my parents’ farm provided a home to three beagles at once. (That’s nothing compared to the seventeen that it “homed” after these puppies were born, though, haha!) This is a photo I took of Missy this spring. You can tell just by looking at her that she was getting old.