TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2008

Catching up with the December Daily Album.

There are lots of photos of my pages, but little text

as the photos tell the stories.

THANK GOODNESS!

If you want to read any of the journaling...

just click on the picture.

ENJOY!

~~~~~~

Day #23

Day #24

Day #25

Day #26

Day #27

Day #28

Just a few pages left to share and I'm done!

It's a bittersweet feeling as I have loved creating this album

and loved rereading it even more.

I hope you'll give it a try next year...

you won't regret it!!

~~~~~~~

Today...

1. Clean up the workroom. Not an easy project.

2. Go to Chris and her family's house.

~~~~~~~

Make it a great day!

XOXO

Joni

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2008

Have you tried Shutterfly.com?

Here are 2 samples of Shutterfly products

from our Christmas celebration.

~~~~~~~

Wendy made Shutterfly Calendars for everyone.

I picked a generic page full of pictures of Wendy and Darin.

Each calendar was different... pictures specific to

that particular recipient

I love it... Thanks Wen!

I made each family on Boyd's side, a Shutterfly Album of

pictures and text about our 3 week vacation together

at Green Lake.

I chose this 2 page spread to show that you don't always

have to use photos of people.

This was a farm market that we went to about once a day

for fresh produce. It smelled like dill & fresh tomatoes.

This is a pic of Boyd's brother Dana in the lake.

The opposite photo is Boyd's dad climbing up the hill to the house.

It was a very steep hill and quite a climb.

His dad is 88 yrs. old!

I may not have little children at home, but...

I have big children!!
Kristin building a snowman with the help of nephew Henry.

Wendy and Darin with Henry and
their three snow people.
I love the lady's hair made out of evergreens.


Today Wendy and Darin are flying back to their home in Phoenix.
Kristin is flying from Chicago to Phoenix too,
to spend New Year's Eve with them
and other friends.
~~~~~~~
See you tomorrow!
XOXO
Joni

Saturday, December 27, 2008

I'm on OVERLOAD!!

So many stories to tell...

so many photos to share!

Where to begin?

~~~~~~

How about Christmas Eve?

Look at all of our snow!

There have been many years when we have prayed for

just a little snow for Christmas...

not this year!

It has snowed almost every day...

except today (the 27th) when we have

heavy fog.

~~~~~~~

Kristin (Chicago), Wendy, and Darin (Phoenix) arrived

late afternoon... safe and sound.

NOW... here's our new tradition.

My sweet husband timed their arrival with

'chocolate chip/toasted pecan cookies' coming out of the oven.
The house smelled sooooo good!!

A great way to set the tone of the evening.

Kristin gave me a wonderful Strega Nona book that

has the most fantastic, detailed pop-ups on every page.

I just love it ! And so did Darin!

The craftsmanship is unbelievable.

And yes... I do have all of the Strega Nona books by

Tomi de Paola

one of my favorite children's illustrators.

The book!



One of the pop-up pages.

And another!

And that's just the beginning.

More tomorrow or Monday.

~~~~~

Today I am trying to get my December Daily album

caught up.

~~~~~

Wendy and Darin are on their way to Iowa to visit his family.

Kristin's off having coffee with a high school friend.

Boyd is in a snowsuit of-sorts looking at some land for a client

(he's a Geologist).

And I am in my new Christmas jammies.

Holiday Love to you all!

XOXO

Joni

WEDNESDAY,DECEMBER 24,2008

Merry Christmas Eve Day!

A quick post to keep my 'almost every day' promise

of posting in December.

Day #22

Gabby-the-cat loves our Christmas tree.

She loves to crawl underneath to the back where she can

see everyone in the room, but no one can bother her.

She's been so good with all of the Christmas decor

that I gave her a crown.

I was looking through tons of pictures that haven't been

scanned for my files.

I was in search of photos,

at least one,

of my girls in their beautiful wool coats that

my mother bought them each year at Marshall Fields.

I could only find one photo of a winter coat of-sorts.

It was a wool cape that we had bought Kristin in Germany.

I documented this because I was always hoping there

were photos of the coats... and spent a good part

of the morning looking for one.

Sassy sent me all these charms to add to my December album

or

hang from one of the binder rings.

They are so darling, darling, darling!

Thanks again Sassy!

I love them all!

And... Here's ELOISE!!

"Jingle
Jingle
Jingle
here
Jingle
there
Jingle
Christmas
everywhere!

Oooooooooooooo!
I absolutely LOVE Christmas!"
~Kay Thompson



Christmas Love,
Joni

MONDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2008

Day #21 & #22

My friend Chris called late Saturday afternoon after a

day of wrapping presents for her 3 little boys

and suggested (begged) dinner out without husbands.

Who am I to say "no" to that!

We had sooooo much fun talking 'girl stuff'

and laughing.

We made a quick stop at Target after dinner and filled up a cart.

So typical of Target... for some reason everything looks

soooooo appealing and ends up in your cart.

I found this book their and it's a perfect pre Christmas read.

It's just plain silly and makes me laugh.

There are 3 novellas in it and I started with the middle one.

"The Dangers of Candy Canes"

by Laura Levine

A wealthy suburbanite takes a lethal tumble off his roof

while installing a giant candy cane. Now it's up to Jaine

Austen to sift through a list of scheming neighbors with

dirty secrets in their stockings to expose a murderer...

(The book includes 10 scrumptious recipes)

This was a Freebie applique paper (digital) from scrapgirls.com

Just go to their website and sign up for their newsletter.

It comes every day and there are lots of freebies, tips,

and inspiration.

~~~~~
I added some digi snowmen, some photos of a few snowmen

ornaments, and 2 pics of my friend Chris's boys making

snowmen.

It took 2 days but our tree is up, lights replaced, and ornaments hung.

Now we just have to sit back and enjoy it!

That's the best part.

Eloise said,

"I have a dog that looks like a cat.

His name is Weenie.

Sometimes I put sunglasses on him.

Then I have to scratch his back with a wire hanger.

I have a turtle.

His name is Skipperdee.

He eats raisins and wears sneakers."

~Kay Thompson

XOXO

Joni

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2008

A short post today as I'm off to battle the shopping scene.

It should be nasty on a Saturday...

but 'what's a girl to do' when her husband says,

"Let's go shopping and get a bite to eat!"

I'll arm myself with my camera and take a few goofy photos

for tomorrow's album and blog.

~~~~~~~

Day #20

More... SNOW!!!

Why not? That's all we know these days!

Captured and documented for the album.

A peek at our back yard...

I was looking at our hutch this morning and realized that

I have dishes that are red, white, red & white, red snowflakes,

red plaid, red striped... and I'm ashamed to say... more.

Luuuuurve RED... if you haven't guessed!

I decided to document that for my album.

Sassy requested, "More Eloise, please!"

Said,

"I put a large cabbage leaf on my head

when I have a headache.

It makes a very good hat.

My mother knows Coco Chanel."

~ Kay Thompson

Soooooo... when you've got a pre-holiday

headache... get out a cabbage leaf!

Tee-hee

XOXO

Joni

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2008

It's Friday and my album is current!

Yea!!!!

~~~~~

The problem with Blogger is that you have to load your

photos backwards and I forgot.

So...

Day #19

This is a 2 page spread made with one digital layout.

1/3 is on the left side

and

2/3 are on the right side.

I saw the idea of cutting a photo apart on Ali Edward's blog

The photos are of some of my favorite ornaments.


I want to take photos of all of the old ornaments
and put them in a mini album
with the story behind each one.


Day #18
I did a 6x6 photo of one of my favorite ornaments.
It's tiny... about an inch tall.
But it has so many wonderful memories
connected with it.
I tried to capture those thoughts in my journaling
on the photo.


I also wanted to document the amount of time
I'm spending on the computer these days.
The photo is of my screen with my blog site on it.


Day #17
I've shared about my love for ELOISE on my site
but it was something else I wanted to document.

This little guy sits on my desk and we make

occasional eye-contact while I'm on the computer,

I bought this pixie from etsy.com last year.

He's beautifully made of felted wool.

Make this a great weekend!

XOXO

Joni

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