HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Credits: "Hustle and Bustle," "White Christmas," and "Bing Crosby Christmas Alpha by Britt-ish Designs

Just want to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season! Here is a small gift from me to you! Enjoy!

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Weekend Update

After being snowed in on Friday we were very pleased to find our road had been plowed when we got up on Saturday. YAY! And the main roads weren't that bad. It was nice and sunny, which helped to melt some of the snow.

Melinda and I had plans to go to lunch and do some Christmas shopping, so it was a very good thing that the roads were cleared. We left about 11:00 to go to lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant in town, but swung by the post office first to get stamps for our Christmas cars, which we still haven't mailed out. Yikes! After that we went to lunch, which was very good as always. I had my usual: Cashew chicken with no vegetables and white rice. YUM! Melinda had the buffet.

After that we went shopping at the one store that is closing and found a few deals. Then we decided to go to Wal-mart and the grocery store. BIG MISTAKE!!! It seemed EVERYONE in town was out shopping. Traffic was all backed up everywhere. It was impossible to get anywhere. The lines in the stores were awful. We found what we wanted at Wal-mart pretty quickly then went to the grocery store. That place was a complete zoo!!! It took almost 30 minutes to check out. There were people with 2 and 3 carts full of stuff! The lines were all horrendous long. It was crazy. I've never seen it that bad. After that we decided to head home because it was getting late.

After dinner we decided to wrap presents. Melinda made a joke about the one scene in National Lampoon's vacation where the one old lady wraps up stuff she finds around her house so I grabbed her "Reaper: Season 1" DVD set that was sitting next to me and jokingly wrapped it and put it under the tree. This set off a hilarious chain of events that left us both with our sides hurting from laughing so much. Melinda found a bunch of movies she bought this year and wrapped them for herself. I then grabbed a bunch of the books I bought recently, but haven't read and wrapped those. From there it turned into finding things we didn't want to wrap for other people. For the past few Christmases Pat has done that. We found a few of the movies he gave us last year and are going those to our brother! Just passing them on. So Melinda got out a bunch of old VHS tapes that she has the DVDs of and we wrapped those to give to people. We were up to almost 2:00 am wrapping presents. It was tons of fun!

This morning we got up early and made muffins! YUM! After that we went through all the DVDs and VHSs to find movies we no longer wanted. We ended up purging a bunch of movies that we never watch. So our family and friends are going to be getting lots of random movies! We used the ugliest paper we could find to wrap them.

The best part of our wrapping extravaganza are the tags! It got boring writing our names or Santa on the tags. So we started writing down the names of the people on the music channel we were listening to as we were wrapping. So we have gifts under our tree from Paul Anka, Bing Crosby, and the Funky Bunch. LOL On some of the other tags we put the names of the characters in the movies along with quotes. There is one gift from the Joker who asks "why so serious?" I am so looking forward to Christmas now!

Hopefully tomorrow morning we can both get out of the driveway to go to work. There were 30-40 MPH winds all day today, which created huge drifts in the driveway. We shoveled a path to get out, so hopefully it won't have blown back across.

That's all for now. I have more scrapbook layouts to post, but will try to get those posted in the next few days.

Later!
Melissa

Snow, snow, and more snow!

Last night we got hit with a HUGE storm! There was at least a foot of snow on the road. I left for work, but it was quickly clear that the roads were worse than they looked. I only made it three miles down the road before I decided to turn back. It wasn't worth going into a ditch or getting into an accident. So I called in and stayed home today. Melinda made it work, but it took her three times as long as normal. It continued to snow until about 3:00 pm. I took a few photos when I went out to get the mail.

There is a road out there somewhere - The view from the computer room while it was still snowing.



I think my car is under there somewhere



Our road - isn't it lovely?







We've got mail! - Somehow the mailperson was able to deliver our mail despite the mountains of snow in front of the mailbox.



Someone sent us snow! LOL



Winter wonderland - The field next to our house. I love the lighting in this shot.



Melinda finally made it home despite getting stuck at one point on our road. The guy who plows our driveway for us came and got it all plowed out, which was good. Of course its all blowing and drifting now. We have a bunch of errands to run tomorrow, so hopefully they can plow the road a bit before then.

I did get some work done on a few scrapbooking layouts. Britt released a really cool new template back today, "Inspired by Kate."

I was able to scrap a page with it:

Group Shot - A photo of mine, Melinda's and Pat's feet at Navy Pier in Chicago in September 2005.



That's all for now! Gotta get back to work on the layout I'm working on of the Christmas walk from last weekend. :)

Later!
Melissa

Weekend Update

The weekends always seem so short. On Saturday Melinda and I went to the Christmas walk at Dow Gardens. The last time we went in 2005 there weren't a lot of people, but it was packed on Saturday! It was beautiful! Though with the amount of people there it was difficult to take your time to really appreciate the beauty. Will try to post some photos tomorrow.

Friday Britt released a super cute Christmas kit called "Hustle and Bustle." And if you purchase it before Friday you can a really cute bonus alpha.



Here are two layouts I scrapped with it.

My First Christmas



We've got Spirit! - Melinda and I at the home opener for the Saginaw Spirit in 2004.



Britt also released "Hang In There: Version 2" this week and I scrapped a layout with it.

Winter Stroll - Melinda and I walked to American Girl Place in Chicago in January and it was a chilly walk, but fun.



Thursday night I did the Speed Scrap at ScrapMatters. It was definitely a challenge, but lots of fun. I love how my layout turned out.

The Turning Point - High Water Mark monument at Gettysburg National Military Park. Photo from April 2007.



Erica released a super cute kit last week called, "Josh of the Jungle" which I just had to get because of the cute little monkeys. I used it for this layout of the monkeys at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.



That's all for tonight! Gott go work on a few layouts for some challenges at ScrapMatters.

Later!
Melissa

New Scrapbook Layouts

I finally have a chance to post some new scrapbooking layouts. YAY! This is going to be a long post, so sit back and enjoy! :) The first one is one of my favorites. :)

Santa Paws - Those are a few of the photos of Draco and Cassie from the other night when we dressed them up as Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Aren't they cute? :) They weren't too happy, but they didn't kill us! LOL







So Thankful 4 U - Melinda and I are so thankful for Cassie. She is such a sweet kitten and a joy.



You Gotta Have Friends - This was a template challenge at SM to scrap about something your grateful for and I am so grateful for my friends. I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends.



Scalloped Corn - One of my favorite holiday dishes is an old family recipe for Scalloped Corn. This was for the recipe challenge at ScrapMatters.



Silly Kitten - A roadmap to scrap challenge at ScrapMatters. I used photos of Cassie laying on the cablebox. She can't lay on it anymore with the new TV and stand.



My Birthday Buddy - Another Tuesday template challenge at ScrapMatters to scrap about a special relationship. I scrapped about my Great-Uncle Bob who shares the same birthday as me. We've corresponded with each other since I was 10.



Remembering Anya - The Tuesday template challenge about a special relationship had me thinking about the relationship Melinda had with Anya. I found these pictures and knew I had to scrap them. Though there wasn't enough room on the layout to include all of the stories and memories I have of Anya.







Playtime - I have tried to scrap these photos a few times before, but have never been happy with the result. I used them to create a quick page for the December Quick Page exchange at ScrapMatters. I love the bottom photo. The expression on my face is priceless.



Smile - Later on Friday Cassie curled up on my lap and was sleeping so sweetly. I luckily had the camera next to me and was able to get some really cute shots. This is my favorite. I love how it looks like she is smiling. She slept on my lap for almost 2 hours. And this was after we dressed her up as Mrs. Claus so she still loves us! :) LOL



Christmas Traditions - This was the layout I did for Saturday night's Speed Scrap at ScrapMatters. I almost gave up on it when we had to include song lyrics for the journaling, but Melinda put on her Christmas CD and we found one that worked. I'm pleased with how it turned out.



O' Canada - This was the layout I created for one of the DIS challenges. Its about the Canadian pavillon at EPCOT.



Pinocchio's Village Haus - Another DIS challenge, this was dealt with food at Disney. I scrapped when we had lunch there in 2007. The food was excellent. Though I've heard they no longer have the paninni, which makes me sad.



Character Magic - This was for the challenge I'm hosting this week. The challenge was to use this really cute mini-kit that Britt made. I used photos from our 2005 of me and Pluto out front at the Magic Kingdom



Bubba Gump Shrimp - This was for a speed scrap at ScrapMatters. Melinda and I love Bubba Gump's. Its usually our first stop in Chicago. The one in Orlando is really good as well!



Minute Man National Historical Park - This was for a roadmap to scrap challenge at ScrapMatters. This is the intro page for the Minute Man park in Concord, MA.







Silent Sentries - This one was for another template challenge at ScrapMatters. I scrapped a few of my favorite monuments at Gettysburg.



Virginia State Monument - The Virginia State Monument at Gettysburg. This was the first Confederate monument built at Gettysburg.







Beauty - For a word-up challenge at ScrapMatters that was to make your own wordart. I used photos from the Lincoln Park Conservatory in Chicago, IL.



The Freedom Trail - This was for a Saturday special challenge at ScrapMatters to scrap a two page layout. I used this opportunity to create the intro page for the Freedom Trail in Boston. I was happy how it turned out because the paper layout I did for this is one of my favorites.







I think that is all of them! I said it was going to be a long post! That's all for now.

Later!
Melissa

Friday Scrapbook Post

This week Britt released a cute little alpha called, "Little Vixen"



Here is what I scrapped with it:

Draco the Reindeer - Isn't Draco soooo cute as a reindeer? He really doesn't like the antlers, but he looks so cute.



We took a bunch of photos of Cassie and Draco dressed up as Mr. and Mrs. Claus tonight. I will try to post those tomorrow. They were not happy kittens, but they were adorable.

Melinda and I watched "Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" tonight. It was OK, but I think I liked the first one better. I will probably watch it as least once more before making deciding if I like it or not. Melinda is counting down the days until "The Dark Knight" comes out. She took Tuesday off of work so she could stay home and watch it over and over and over. She's just a bit obsessed! ;) LOL

I have no real plans for this weekend. Its supposed to be cold and snowy so it will be a good weekend to stay home and scrap. The goal for tomorrow is to post all the layouts I haven't had time to post yet. Plus there is a night time speed scrap at ScrapMatters. I'm looking forward to that.

That's all for now. Later!
Melissa

Belated Black Friday layouts

I've been a bad blogger, but last week was crazy with the holiday. Pat came up last Saturday for his birthday and stayed until after Thanksgiving and it was nice to spend time with him. We all had Thanksgiving dinner at Mom and Dad's house. After dinner we watched some DVDs and then played some board games. I won the "Amazing Race" board game and Melinda totally kicked both of our butts at Simpsons Life. We put our Christmas tree and outside lights. I love Christmas lights!!!

Now onto the Scrapbooking layouts. :) Britt released a super awesome, jam-packed Grab Bag for Black Friday. Here is what I scrapped with it:

Christmas Kitty - I love these photos of Isis from 2005. It was a pain in the butt to get them, but they turned out awesome. She's such a cutie! :)



Christmas Card - I also created this Christmas card with photos from our Disneyland trip.



ScrapMatters had a super fun Speed Scrap on Black Friday and here is what I created:

Gift of Friendship - Melinda and I with our best friends.



The Daily Download is back at ScrapMatters! Check out this fabulous kit:



I have more layouts to post, but its late and will post those another day.

Later!
Melissa