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 Friday, December 07, 2007
Annual Chistmas Card
Having a background in graphic design, you'd think I'd be an all digital scrapper. I think all those years of sitting in front of the computer burned me out and the dimensional quality of traditional scrapbooking is such a nice change. I still have a digital side to me though, I like to incorporate some digi elements every now and then on my layouts ... a title that is created in Photoshop and printed onto transparency or some handdrawn art that I've scanned and printed out to include on my layouts. But, I have yet to do an all digital layout. So, I did an all digi Christmas card! I love they way it turned out and it still has the dimensional look that I love so much about paper crafting. Merry Christmas to all of you! Amy  Paper, cardboard, raffia, tags and ghost letters: scrapartist.com
Friday, December 07, 2007 10:52:39 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) 
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Thursday, December 06, 2007
It's here! It's here!
Soooo exciting! The first issue of Memory Makers 2008 is HERE!!!!!
Love, Tracy Austin
Thursday, December 06, 2007 3:11:14 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, December 05, 2007
A Laakkonen family tradition.
...truffles. Yummm. Every Christmas, we make dozen and dozens of these to give to family, relatives, and to hoard in the far reaches of the refrigerator where no one will find them. ;) We make at least 5 different varieties every year, and everyone loves to help out--especially when it comes to licking out the bowl. Yeah, they're not fooling anyone. ;) I have officially become the head dipper of the family. No, not dip. Dipper. As in, I coat those babies with melted chocolate. It's all in the wrist, people. ;) I altered this Prima tin to send truffles in, and then saw that Iris had the same idea I did. BTW, yours is totally gorgeous, Iris, and I love how you are using yours. :) Here is my version of that lovely, multi-purpose tin.  And, of course, this post would not be complete without sharing one of our family's favorite truffle recipes--Oreo Truffles. My siblings (quite literally) fight over these. Come to think of it, these are also the ones that get hidden in the far reaches of our refrigerator by some unknown person... ;) Without further ado--Oreo Truffles. And if you've never made truffles before, relax. They really are quite easy.
Oreo Truffle Recipe
1 pkg Oreo cookies, crushed (set 6 aside for topping)
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
3 T powdered sugar
1 package -24 oz-Almond Bark-(white) or other dipping chocolate
Miniature liners (foil or paper)
Combine first three ingredients. Refrigerate until dough is firm.
Roll into 1 inch balls (use a melon baller for accuracy). Set balls on
wax-paper lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for an hour. Melt white
chocolate using a double boiler or microwave. Dip each ball into white
chocolate (use a Wilton dipping spoon for professional results.) Tap
off extra white chocolate. Set truffles on wax paper. Garnish with
crushed Oreo pieces. If dough gets too soft for dipping simply return
to the refrigerator for a few minutes. Once truffles are set up, slip
each into a miniature liner. Yield: about 3 dozenOh, here's a handy little tip: I find it easier to dip the truffles if you freeze, rather than refrigerate, them after you roll them into balls. (Another tip...beware of people who suddenly become your friend while you're dipping these lovelies. They are after the truffles. Hee hee.) Merry Christmas! Brittany
Wednesday, December 05, 2007 4:27:57 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Who Am I? and What's Happening to Me?
So, there's something y'all might not know about me...
I am a multi-tasker. I literally cannot do one thing at a time. Ever.
While sometimes this is a good quality, allowing me to get lots of stuff done on busy days; at other times, it is rather annoying to me and to others around me (hi husband o'mine! ;) LOL)
One thing that has been bugging me lately is that I can't just watch tv. I always need to do something *while* I sit on the couch. Usually, I choose randomly surfing the internet, but that gets old after a while & seems to annoy the hubbie more than anything. So I decided I wanted to try a little...
Hand-sewing.
Shocking, I know. ;) I've never thought of myself as someone who would do this. Just seems so maternal & adult somehow...something my grandma does that is just beyond my womanly capabilities. Much like her cooking...I can try, but its never as good as hers, kwim? Not to mention the whole "sitting still" factor, which many would tell you is NOT my strong suit. ;)
I'm not quite sure if what I did qualifies as embroidery or just stitching or what, but I love it! :) I decided last night was my "jump into something new with both feet" night, even though I didn't have a pattern or a clue what I was doing. Before this, I've only hand-stitched a simplistic border onto a layout! Not that this is fancy...FAR from it...but it was fun and I think its pretty cute! (I might be biased though! LOL)
What do y'all think? And can anybody point me & everyone else in the direction of other hand-stitching (embroidery?) sites/blogs/etsy shops that are "can't miss"?
...Staci :)
Tuesday, December 04, 2007 8:04:21 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Not a thing to waste
If there is one thing I love about scrapbook products (aside from the actual product ofcourse) is that they come in very pretty packages! Here is a tin can holding some gorgeous Prima flowers which was included in the December kit of Badgirls. I am now using it as a box for my hair accessories. It's on my vanity table now and I'm really enjoying it, both for its beauty and functionality.  Iris
Tuesday, December 04, 2007 7:13:10 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Sunday, December 02, 2007
Our Christmas Tradition
Well... at least one of them! Every year we count down to Christmas with books. The kids unwrap one book a day every night in December up to Christmas Eve. We started doing this about 5 years ago. I had seen the idea in a magazine and desperately wanted to try it, so I went out to the used book store and bought enough books to fill every night (when added to some Christmas books we had already aquired). Now we have more than enough books so we can rotate different books in each year instead of having the exact same 24. I'm always on the lookout for new books during the after Christmas sales. The kids LOVE it. We didn't do it last year since we moved over Christmas. But the kids started asking about a month ago if we could for sure do it again this year. We started last night with the same book we always start with... a simple big board book of the navity story with puzzle piece people. I keep thinking that the kids are too old for it, but they know it is always the first book and look forward to seeing it again. From there we alternate nights.... Clara started out and she picks from the books wrapped in red and Alex is the odd nights, picking a book wrapped in blue. We had to resort to this plan after they year that Alex was not at all pleased to unwrap Barbie in the Nutcracker as his pick. He'll gladly listen to it if Clara picks it... but it is not acceptable as one of his picks... LOL! Then on Christmas Eve they unwrap 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. It is so much fun to take time out of each evening to sit and read together by the tree. Who knows how much longer they'll enjoy this tradition... I hope we still have at least a couple more years left.  Have a great week!!! Tracie
Sunday, December 02, 2007 9:31:58 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Does anyone have any advice?
It is really exciting to have purchased our first home. We took possession of the keys a little under a week ago and are now in the throws of trying to move our stuff into the new place. A terrible time of year to be trying to do this sort of thing, I know, but we didn't really have a choice...
Anyway, when it comes to my scrapbooking gear, I have no idea how to get it into the new place in an orderly fashion. How do you get it from looking like this - (my exact current mess)
into something that looks like this -
This amazing space belongs to Robyn Werlichs (MM) and I don't know if any of you have seen it before, but I am in LURVE!!
Funnily enough we have a wall almost this exact same colour in the new place - but I think setting up a scraproom in the guest bathroom might be a bit odd!!
Anyway..alll advice welcome..
Amelia
Sunday, December 02, 2007 7:32:39 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Saturday, December 01, 2007
Let the cookie baking begin...
This is a wonderful time of year for my daughters.... they LOVE baking cookies and I'm so happy that they have two favorites that I make and eagerly await for the warming of the oven. I thought I would share a few of my cookie recipes with you.  Chewie Chocolate Christmas Cookies (Terri's Favorite)
1 pkg. devils food cake mix (18.25 oz.)
1 small pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. Crisco
2 large eggs
1 tbls water
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Combine 1st 5 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring until smooth.
Shape dough into 1 in. balls and roll in powdered sugar. Place 2 in.
apart on lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 for 10 min. Remove
from oven.Cool 10 min. on cookie sheets. Place on wire racks to cool
completely.  Pecan Sandies with a chocolate center (Ansley's Favorite)
1 c. butter
4 tbls powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 tbls cold water
2 c flour
1 c finely chopped pecans
Brach’s Chocolate Stars
Red and Green Sugar
Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla and water. Stir in flour and
then nuts. Form a ball with cookie mixture and place a chocolate star
in the center, make sure the chocolate is completely wrapped with the
cookie mixture. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 400 for 9 min. or
until lightly browned, immediately roll in powdered sugar while cookies
are still warm. Enjoy,
Lisa M. Pace
Saturday, December 01, 2007 1:02:38 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, November 30, 2007
mini-album fun
i don't really consider myself a mini-album person. i always look at really gorgeous ones by other people (especially the ones from the other masters' on this blog!) and am always blown away and intimidated. but sometimes it's fun to get out of your comfort zone and play with a mini.
(made with the december studio calico kit)
it was really fun playing with the sheerness for these maya road sheer albums. cool stuff!
if you want, you can see the rest of the album here.
-- caroline
Friday, November 30, 2007 6:27:39 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, November 29, 2007
Spooked...part 2??
Okay...so there really isn't a part two. No new evidence came to light...but...I am going to go ahead and give this explanation: It was...let's say... an Opossum. They have padded feet, right? I couldn't have heard it scurry up in the attic above our bedroom, right? Because they're sneaky and stealthy creatures...it's in their nature. So that is why I couldn't hear it:) Yes. Good.
The door HAD to be left open. There is just no possible way for the door to have opened on its own (see video link below;). So...this little critter was after the cat food, found it couldn't get into the container and slithered itself back through the opening of the door. In doing so...closed it and leaving it ajar?? Right? That's plausible. And the second sound I heard was it slithering through the door:) Yep...I'm going with that:D That settles my nerves.
Now...before you think I'm horrible for sending my daughter into the attic to help me inspect...blush...That girl loves the attic (that is one reason we keep the door shut...it keeps her out of it;) and I KNEW there wasn't anything in there (my hubby inspected it that night). So she was a willing participant in this adventure. Plus...she had no idea about the hoopla the night before and I never plan on telling her;) Uh...cough cough...note my reaction when she asks if she can actually go INTO the "small" (crawl) space. Shudder. lol I am such a pansy;)
http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a369/TracyAustin/?action=view¤t=DSCF0780.flv
And...as you can hear in the video...there is major construction going on across the street.
(A water main broke flooding the street and we were without water for 2 days...lovely.) Well...they were working till 10pm last night to get our water back on. Once they FINALLY turned off the roar of the water pump, around 9pm, it made an eerie noise that spooked my girls out of bed. My daughter came in whining that she heard a scary noise and when she turned around she saw a "'dark figure' walking down the hall and thought it was me but *sniffles* it wasn't." She actually used the words dark figure:S Ugh ugh DOUBLE ugh!!!!! (Probably learned that word from Scooby Doo.) I could NOT believe the "coincidence" in my daughter coming up with THIS of all nights! :S:S:S:S She has never said anything like this before. :S I just chalked it up to her being frightened and her imagination got the best of her.
SURPRISINGLY...I slept last night. I didn't go to bed till 11pm and I was EXHAUSTED. I only got spooked once around 4am and saw my cat sleeping in the middle of the hall at the foot of the stairs to the attic:S She never sleeps there! So...I took that as more evidence that it was an animal that came in. She must have sensed it and with that I was able to fall back asleep.
You know...one of the reasons I didn't want to move into this house was because the homes are nearly 80 years old and have so much "history"...blush. I was concerned it would be too spooky:S Surprisingly I have felt so safe and comfortable in this house since the day we moved in. (Not always the case with some of our homes:S:S) A comment like "Mommy, I saw a dark figure," would have characteristically kept me up for WEEKS!!! But, I just don't get an eerie, spooky feeling in this home. So I am hoping this is the end of our "adventure". Water is back on. Construction should hopefully seise soon. And all this will be good for a story to record on a scrapbook page one day...Once we move from this home;)
Sorry if I spooked anyone else...I can easily get myself worked up! *blush*
Love, Tracy Austin
Thursday, November 29, 2007 12:20:16 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Random Acts of Kindness...
Its that time of year. It seems that half of the population gets all lovey dovey for the holidays, the other half gets grumpy. I try to do RAK's all year long, but at this time of year, doing a little extra just seems appropriate. And honestly, it can be easy and only take a second or something more involved. The point is just to help make the day more smile-filled for someone. :) What's your favorite RAK? I could certainly use some more ideas! LOL :)
One of my fave easy ones is to buy the grocery store cashier a candy bar for a little treat. Another fave is to "say what you think". I have a girlfriend that introduced me to this theory. Basically, work on viewing the world positively & everytime you think "her haircut looks so cute" or "she looks like she's having so much fun with her kids" or whatever other random thing comes to mind...Say It. Tell people the good things that you observe about them. :) Everyone likes to be complimented!
And you're probably wondering what that picture has to do with RAK's? We were the lucky recipients of a RAK a week ago. We were taking pics out in a country field, when we realized the homeowner was coming down the long drive, looking directly at us. She watched for a bit and then came over (we were several acres away) and asked if the kids would like to have their pic taken with her baby goats. The kids were crazy-excited. Parent-mode kicked in and we were cautious, but she ended up being the nicest lady. The kids had a ball hanging out with the goat herd. The lady taught Lilli how to hold a baby & then Lilli taught Declan (see pic). It was so sweet and such a great spontaneous RAK! The kids are still talking about the Great Goat Adventure a week later! :)
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 12:37:25 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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A sleepless night
We have a cat. Her name is Girlie Girl (it came with the cat). Her food and litter supplies are on the third level of the house that leads to the attic.
The stairs to the third level are right outside our bedroom door. Sitting on one of the stairs is her food in a plastic tub. At some time around two this morning...I heard the food get knocked over and it startled me awake. I cursed the stupid cat and layed back down. Shortly thereafter, a noise...I couldn't quite place it...but it got me to sit straight up...and there... at the end of the bed was my CAT sleeping in our bed. Start panic attack!
All I have to do is touch the husband and say I hear a noise and he leaps out of bed from a dead sleep....gotta love one of those;) His instinct is intruder...my first instinct is ghost *blush*. I check on the girls...he comes back upstairs and I told him what the noise was. So...we head upstairs...gulp...and sure enough...the food container was knocked down...and the attic door was AJAR...not open...just ajar...*shudder*...worse yet...husband is now spooked and tells me to hush *double shudder*. He goes in and says he hears something...*panic*. Comes out saying..."That's strange. The crawl space door was open." Me...*Speechless* Him...he is off to bed. *gulp!*
So...we're lying there in the dark, eyes wide open. I pipe up, "Troy. I know what the second sound was. It was the sound of a door against carpet as if it were opening or closing." Silence. My husband gets back up...me quickly following his footsteps and he barracades the attic door with some boxes. lol
I did divulge my fear of dead people, right? *blush*
Love, Tracy Austin *yawn*
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 9:45:52 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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