Happy Birthday to my sweet little boy Ace!

I know these pictures aren't great- they're from my camera phone- but I tried for 30 min to get a pic of him not covering his eyes...

I can't believe 3 years ago, I was laying in a hospital bed, holding my little baby for the first time. I know every parent says this but really... where did the time go? I am thankful that I can look back at pictures and see where it's gone. I always smile remembering all the fun we've had and it's amazing to me how much he's grown. Not just physically, but intellectually too. He wants to do everything for himself, including using a knife to spread the butter on his corn (well, it was a steak knife- so I had to intervene a little). He has an opinion about everything (where did he get that?). He says some really hilarious things and loves to get his morning coffee (aka hot chocolate or vanilla steamer)just like his mama. He's anxious to start decorating for Christmas and his new favorite song is Feliz Navidad- which he pronounces Felly Nah be dah be dah... Funny Boy! Happy Birthday Baby!

Just a quick view of my entryway with my new Thankful blocks. Hope you take time to remember everything you are thankful for this holiday season!

Here’s my first shot at vintage scrapping. I don’t know if it’s truly vintage style or not, but in my mind it is.

I started working on my Coffee Cup Mini Book from Wilna Furstenberg's tutorial that appeared on Ali Edward's blog back on October 19th.

I thought I would make it easier on myself by opening the pages in Photoshop Elements and replace the pics and print all at once. It worked well. But then I forgot to print, of course- So I printed them this weekend and embellished them. Yesterday Dee scored us a dozen white tall cups from Starbucks and I started working on the cup portion of the tutorial when I got home. I finally got the colors to look the way I wanted after ruining 2 cups. I don't suggest spraying Ranger Color Wash directly onto the cup. Way too dark (learned on cup #1). Cup #2 was a dark brown glimmery mess from multiple layers of glimmer mist and a little color wash. Cup #3 turned out the best! I sprayed my stream color wash onto a piece of cardboard and used a baby wipe to pick up the color and paint it onto the cup. Looks great! Oh also, in the steps where it says to use a hot glue gun to glue the cardboard into the cup, I tried that and either my "low heat" glue gun wasn't the best idea, or I just didn't glue it down fast enough. I ended up using Zip Dry and it worked perfectly! Only other thing I forgot was to do was cut out the circle on the front of the cup and replace it with a picture. I'll do it later! Ok going to get to work now (Yes I'm actually at work- updating my personal blog... oops!) but once I'm done with the book- I will post it here! It's turning out A-MAZ-ING!

One more thing before I go- Wilna is teaching another version of this book on her DIY Holiday class and it's actually TODAY's class! It's a Holiday version with the Starbucks RED cups! SOO CUTE. Go sign up now if you haven't already! www.kaylaaimee.com

I'm ready to be in the *Holiday* mood! I just signed up for Kayla Aimee & Wilna Furstenberg's "A DIY Holiday" class that starts THIS SUNDAY! It looks so cute from the website pictures!!! Check it out for yourself: http://kaylaaimee.com/. It's only $20 and has all kinds of classes- more than 25 actually! Kayla Aimee already posted a free lesson "Paperback trees" which I remember making as a child, but they never looked this pretty!
You take the classes from the comfort of your own home, online, when you have time. How perfect is that! You can just cozy up to your computer with a warm cup of tea and your scrapping supplies and away you go. My family better be ready for some hand made gifts this year.

CKC (Creating Keepsakes Convention) Seattle was SOOO MUCH FUN! This was my 2nd year attending and it is so worth the money! Classes range from $15-45 and you basically determine how many classes you take so it can be as cheap or expensive as you want. I spent $180 on classes & 2 crops ($26/ea). The classes teach you new techniques, get your hands on new product, and leave you inspired. If you've never been, I highly recommend it! They have over 15 locations across the US.

This year, we took my car. We- being myself (of course), MaryJo, Kristen and Amanda. We all packed pretty light knowing we'd all be shopping and having class projects to bring home. The car wasn't too full on the way up. It was comfortable. We left Thursday morning and headed straight for Scrapbook Nook in Kent, WA. It's my favorite scrapbook store of all time! They have a huge 5000 sq ft store, amazing current products and and there are so many projects on display you don't know which one to put in your basket first!

Thursday night the four of us were at dinner at the Cheesecake Factory **YUMMY** and we got a text from our good friend Kelley. She was sad, and lonely. The text said something to the effect of "Dear CKC, why must you be so far, so expensive, and take all of my friends away". We giggled about it and then a lighbulb went off! Hey, it's Thursday, my husband Garrick is driving up Saturday, we have an extra wristband for the vendor shopping ($9.00 savings) and we have extra room in our hotel room & car to bring her home. We texted her back and told her all she'd need to do was to buy a ticket for the Saturday night crop! She was IN! YEAH!

Around noon on Saturday, Kelley arrived at the convention ready and armed with cash to shop! We all had lunch together (in between classes) and although the Saturday night crop was sold out, Kelley managed to score a ticket- EVEN BETTER!

We all did a lot of shopping, and I mean A LOT! Remember when I said my car wasn't too full, well... I couldn't really see out the window on the way home! With 5 suitcases, 2 rolling totes, 4 backpacks and even more shopping bags, it was a tight squeeze! Here's proof! This is my car...
Well, we can't wait for next November for the convention again! Yippee! I better start saving now- Maybe I should give up my daily latte habit... Nah! :)

My 5 year old niece Emma was given a homework assignment to make a scrapbook page. I'm the scrapper of the family so I was asked if I would mind helping. Of course not! I packed up about 2/3 of my scrapbook stuff. I had no idea what she was going to want to do. I had in my mind some cool ideas but then I had to remember it was her art. My husband laughed and tried to remind me that it was for kindergarten not for an adult. Well, I did end up leaving one of my totes in the car but figured I could go get it if needed (I didn't need it). Emma's dad gave me a surprised look when he saw how much I was bringing in. Hey, you never know I told him! And yes, we did look through most of what I brought.

Also altered this puzzle piece. Mystic Paper in Mesa, AZ had an altered puzzle piece swap recently. I didn't participate but wish I would have. I do have my own puzzle though. It's a 5 ft floor puzzle with 45 pieces. Probably way to many pieces to imagine doing myself, but maybe my friends and my followers - would like to alter one for me to add to my collection. I think at least for now, I'd like to alter each piece individually and then put it together to see how it looks with every piece being so different. I can only imagine what it'll look like. If I weren't so tired, I'd probably go do another piece. Well, for now- here's my 1st of 45 pieces of my puzzle. But let me know if you want to do a piece for me! Thanks! :)