Making A Home

Visiting Relatives

Earlier this month I had a little getaway.  I visited my "sister", Jo, who lives about an hour and a half South of us.  Although rainy, the drive was relaxing.  Brian sent me off with a hug, a kiss, and a mocha, and I was so looking forward to a relaxing couple of days away scrapbooking, hanging out, and... teaching Jo digital scrapbooking!

She and her husband adopted our kids' older sisters - they are family.  Unfortunately, she refused to let me take any pictures of her while I was there.  Since we were just hanging out and scrapbooking, I think she was feeling too casual to be photo worthy, but I assure you, she was lovely as always.

Here are her two girls.  Look a bit like my kiddos, huh?

And their older son, Kole.  I hadn't seen him in over a year and he is now 15 and taller than me - what a shock that was!

I had to include a shot of the lovely room they'd made up for me - they are always terrific hosts.  This is Sharon's room, and they'd decorated the room with fresh flowers and set out a basket of extra warm blankets.  In some years past, there have been little baskets of soaps and things - there are always extra touches that are thoughtful and welcoming! 

The mid-week weekend was over all too soon, as usual, but we are already looking forward to next time... and planning on me perhaps bringing Hallie along this time for a true "girls' weekend!"

National Scrapbooking Day

Coming soon, to my FAVORITE scrapbooking store...

Click here to learn more!

It looks like they've even got some fun things for us digital gals!  I can't wait to see what these new "Memory Mixer Digital Kits" are! 

DigiCrop

I held my first Digi-crop last night. I invited some friends that I knew were dabbling (or more) in digital scrapbooking to come hang out and swap tips.  Let's just say the turnout was pretty small... just one friend came, and not until very late in the evening.  Oh well.  It was still fun, and I had the pleasure of helping Stephani through the process of using her first "quickpage" template. I shall try again next month!

I am absolutely in love with templates.  You wouldn't see me TOUCH a template in paper scrapbooking (sorry, Diane!), but in digital, it's so quick and versatile.  I'm getting in the habit when my scrapbooking magazines come in the mail (or sometimes when I see a layout I like online), that I'll take a few minutes to make a layered PSD template of the layout so I can use it for pages in the future.  Here's one I made last night (see page 34 of this month's Simple Scrapbooks Magazine):

And one of the pages I made from it:  "Sam... Just Being Sam"

Wanna play with the template?  Click here to download!

New Release

OK fellow digi-scrappers... They've finally released the new free kit at Shabby Princess.  (The first new one since I switched to digital!)  Cute stuff!

Click here to go to Shabby Princess and download it.

Ctrl-G

I was scrapbooking at my friend Renee's house last night.  Appetizers, desserts, great ladies, and uninterrupted scrapbooking time - sounds like the recipe for fun!  Four of us brought laptops (well, 3 1/2 - Renee used hers briefly, but mostly worked with paper.)

Trina asked me about using templates, which I had just started trying.  (Somehow I've become the resident expert on digital scrapbooking... I still don't feel like I know much, but must be consistently staying just a week ahead of the rest of my scrapping friends!)  I showed her how I was doing it, but it was very time consuming, and she said she'd read somewhere about just "dropping and merging"... which sparked a memory of a new technique I'd learned for recoloring grayscale objects.  And what do you know - it worked for this too! 

Open a template, drag your patterned paper or photo onto your layout (in the layers screen, put it just above the part you want to replace.)   With the patterned paper or photo selected, hit "Ctrl-G" and it will cut out your paper to the exact shape you wanted.  You can then drag it around in the layout window and the shape will remain, but you can choose which part of the photo or paper you want showing through that "window".  When you have it how you want it, right click on that piece in the layers list and choose "merge down" to finalize it.  Repeat with each piece until your page is done.  This one's a little busy, but I was being too lazy to go get my USB drive with my digital scrapbooking stuff on it... so I just used a set I had on my computer - "Bella" from the Shabby Shoppe.  I did the whole thing in less than 5 minutes, not counting the swirl, which took me about 30 minutes to figure out how to change into pink glitter.  :)

As of this morning, I have secured a babysitter for our MOPS scrapbooking night this month.  (My sweet cousin Kylee, who my kids adore.  Brian's new schedule overlaps scrapbooking, and I'm just not willing to give that up if I don't have to!)  I'll come armed with a heavy duty extension cord, ready to play. :)

A Couple More...

Pages, that is.  Not kits.

I did these at our monthly scrapbooking night, last Friday. 

Last month, I was the only one with a laptop at scrapbooking, doing digital layouts.  This month, Merriann brought hers, too.  Next month, I know Stephani will be bringing hers. 

Ha ha ha... Soon we shall take over the world!

Hey, Look!

I've been playing.

This is my new Valentine's Day Digital Scrapbooking Kit.  I made every piece using PSE. The paper, the eyelets, the ribbons, even the staple... all from scratch.  It was time consuming, but not as hard as I thought.  This opens up tons of new possibilities for me.  If I don't have a piece I want for a page, chances are I can probably come up with something close enough.

And... here's a page I made with my homemade kit!  (Thanks to Renee for the fun photos!)

Digital scrapbooking is good.  :)   **Updated: (And so easy to change a name if you journal the wrong kid!)**

Where have I been?

My mom's been complaining about the lack of blog updates.  Says she wants to know what's going on around here.  Nothing newsworthy, really.  I've been working on a lot of projects, but either I have no photos, or they aren't finished, or it's just not the right time to reveal them.  So I'll give you a quick synopsis and a sneak peak.

Today...

  It's snowing!  I've been waiting for the snow, and even though it kept us home from church today (bummer), it's nice to se the layer of white I've been hoping for.  Hallie looks so LITTLE in this top picture.  Some days I can't beleive she's only four - she often acts and talks and thinks so much older.  On other days, the thought of her turning five already this next summer is unfathomable.

Last Tuesday I hosted a Tastefully Simple party.  I'd been to one at a friend's house last month and it was really fun - just sitting around taste-testing yummy breads and dips and things.  So, partly because it was so much fun, and partly because it's good for me... I did it, too.  By "good for me", it comes back to that house thing again.  I'm working hard on my hospitality this year... stepping out to invite people to my home more often.  The party was a big step.  Prior to that, I'd only hosted one sales party before - when my sister-in-law was selling Partylite... and then, just because I love her and thought I should.

Earlier this week, I was working on this project...

Which you'll see more of next week.  (This is just a sneak preview.)

Friday... The kids made Funny Face Pizzas.  We signed them up for a kids' cooking club, so they get a new cookbook and some plastic cooking tools each month.  This month was "Pizza and Pasta".  Since Fridays are our pizza days anyway, they've been cooking every Friday (with Brian).  Last week they made Calzones.  And since the book is Pizza AND Pasta... they've also been cooking pasta on Wednesdays.  Lasagna, homemade ravioli, macaroni and cheese.  And I get two nights a week off from cooking!  Of course, my dear husband's TIMING on making dinner doesn't always work out so well.  Everything seems to take longer than he expects it to.  I serve dinner at 5.  My family serves their meals closer to 7!  :)

 

 

Ah... That's Better!

It occurred to me Friday night at Scrapbooking

as I was building pages, but waiting several minutes between each step for the computer to do what it was supposed to do, that perhaps some extra memory would do my computer well.  Saturday morning I started researching whether this was something I could do myself or if I'd have to pay someone to do it (no disrespect to professionals in all fields, but I hate paying more for labor than for the parts.)  As it turns out, this was easier than I thought.  Just pop off the back, pull out the old 512 MB and slide in two gleaming new 1GB Memory sticks.

   

You wouldn't believe how much better my laptop is running.  It's not an old machine (bought it just this last Spring, on sale for under $400), but I've thought it was slow from the first day, and I blame Windows Vista.  My research yesterday morning made it clear that if you're running Vista it's wise to max out your memory capacity, and I must agree.  I found 1G memory sticks at Best Buy - normally $100 on sale fo $29.99.  I called the store and they had 12 in stock, but by the time Brian got there after work (about 45 minutes later), they were gone, just because it was such a great deal.  We were able to secure two at the Burlington store by buying them online, and took a trip down there to pick them up when Brian got home.

Because it's SO much quicker, I've been willing to try new techniques in digital scrapbooking.  Although these are not my favorite pages, consider this a learning process as I discover what CAN be done with this program.  In this next one, the rounded corners and word made from a photo were new techniques for me.)  I'm more willing to take the time to try new things when it's instantaneous because if I don't like it and I want to "undo", I didn't sacrifice an hour.  Some pages are from Friday night, some from last night.

And as an added bonus in this digital adventure, remember the mini-books I'm making for my kids?  (See "Scrapbooks to Go".)  When I finish a page for the family album, I can quickly convert it to a 4x6 page, then print it for 19 cents and it's ready to go in the little albums, too!

Sigh.  Now that my computer is cooperating... I think I'm officially hooked.

Getting Ready

I am deep in the throws of getting ready for the new year.  There is cleaning, organizing, filing, planning, editing my blog book and so much more to be done.  Here's a digital Christmas page I made yesterday... when I wasn't doing all of those other things I SHOULD be doing.

I went to Treasury of Memories (local scrapbooking store) last night to get my pages printed.  Sam's Cubscout album is completely caught up, and I have this one Christmas layout done... now I just need to fill in between Easter and Christmas.  Luckily, scrapbooking night is tomorrow!

I am also less than a week away from finishing my committment to bake all my bread for the year!  I stuck to it pretty well - we probably bought about 5 loaves for the whole year, and a pack or two of buns.  I think I'll continue making one loaf a week, just because it's fun and yummy and healthier - but I really am glad the year is almost over.  It was kind of a pain having to plan ahead by 3 hours when we wanted sandwiches for lunch.  A few of the recipes I found this year that I will definitely continue to make periodically:  1)Outdoor Rolls - I use these for my cheeseteaks (like we are having tonight) and pulled pork sandwiches.  2) Soft Dinner Rolls - these are WONDERFUL, so light and tasty.  3) Hotdog buns - I won't make them all from scratch, but the recipe I found is really good and will make a nice treat now and then.  4) Pizza dough - this is just my mom's old recipe, which I love the flavor of, but was very soft and thin.  By throwing the ingredients in the bread machine and letting it rise, then making it on a preheated pizza stone, it changed the consitency but kept the great flavor.  5) Wheat Bread - just a good basic sandwich bread.  6) Bagels - I only made them a few times, but they were so much fresher than buying them at the grocery store and so much cheaper than buying them at the Bagelry (a local bagel shop).  I never did get around to making English Muffins... I should still try that before the year is done.

One thing I need to get back to is menu planning and budgeting.  A couple of friends have asked how we keep our food budget down, so I'm going to try to outline some of the costs when I remember what I paid for things.  So here we go:

Thursday: Philly Cheesesteaks, Steak Fries, Carrots  (Approximate cost for meal:  $6 or $1.50 per person - this would be less when we have room in the freezer for a Cash and Carry pack of fries, or make our own, which we've done some weeks, too... but we're low on potatoes right now.)

Friday: Pizza - Sauce is homemade (about $0.50), crust is homemade (aboug $0.25), cheese bought in bulk (about $1), toppings bought in large packages, less than $1), so the total cost: $2.75 (or less).  Throw in a head of romaine for a salad for $1, some homemade dressing, and we have a full meal for less than $1 per person.  Beat that, Little Ceasars!

Saturday: Whole Chicken, cooked in the crockpot ($1.79), Stuffing (boxed - on sale for $0.69), Corn (frozen, bought in large package - about $0.30)  Total meal: $2.78, or $0.70 per person... oh, but wait... we'll only eat about half of the chicken... so tomorrow's meal...

Sunday: I bought these "stacks" things a couple of years ago and haven't been able to throw them away because they intrigue me - they make meals into these cute little stacks like in fancy restaurants.

 

So Sundays are "Stack" days for a while, until I decide if I love it or hate it.  This week, chicken and rice stacks, with leftover chicken from yesterday, cooking the rice ($0.20) with water and chicken base ($0.10), layering with broccoli (0.50 - my mom, grandma and I buy the big packs at warehouse clubs and split them).  Total meal cost... that's right... $0.80, or 20 cents per person!

Monday: Flank Steak (this one's a splurge - about $4.50), Beefy Rice ($0.40), Sauteed Asian Veggies ($1.50), Total: $6.40, or $1.60 per person. 

Tuesday: Spaghetti ($1) with Browned Butter ($0.25) and Mizithra Cheese. ($1.75).  Salad ($1) with Creamy Pesto Dressing ($2.50- but will last most of the week for lunches, too).  Total: $6.50, or $1.63 per person.

Wednesday:  Turkey Noodle Soup (I made the broth/veggie base with my turkey bones after Thanksgiving, since this is technically "leftovers", I'm calling it free.  I'll add the noodles to it when I'm cooking it up ($0.50).  Soft White Dinner Rolls ($0.50) with butter ($0.50).  Total: $1.50 or $0.38 per person.

Thursday:  Peanut Satay Chicken (this is a freezer meal... got the chicken on sale... a high estimate would be about $2.)  Rice ($0.20), Frozen Veggies ($0.50) Total: $2.70 or $0.68.

Friday: Pizza, Salad (See above - $4 or $1 per person)

Saturday: Meatloaf ($2.50), Mashed Potatoes ($1.25), Peas ($0.25).  Total Meal: $4.00, or $1 per person.

Sunday: Meatloaf Stacks - yes, I'm basically using leftovers from the day before, minus the peas, but adding in a Sweet Tomato Relish (like a sweet, non-spicy salsa - about $1.50.)  Total per person: $0.38.

OK, that's 11 days of dinners for $39.93, some were cheap, some were more expensive than we usually do, so it's probably a fairly accurate average.  Multiply by 3 for a month of dinners = $120.  Throw in breakfast and lunch, and we can probably spend less than $200 a month for JUST food - obviously there are other expenses, like pets and cleaners and... scrapbooking supplies.  :)

Hope you all had a great Christmas with your families!  There will be more Christmas photos to come, no doubt, in the coming days.