So long 2011, Hello 2012

2011 was a good year, 2011 was a bad year.

Mostly good, as all of my family is healthy, we have a safe, comfortable home and I started my blog!

The bad is that I lost my full time job in September and though I have not found a new one, we are able to still live comfortably and I have enjoyed a bit of a work break after 32+ years of working.
I have looked for work but have not found anything yet.

The following 12 photos are snippets of our lives this past year. Not necessarily the best or worst, but a bit of something from each month.

January

New Years Day, 2011. All around the table for dinner. Bill is not wearing a shirt as he had surgery (shoulder replacement) just 3 days before. 

February

Snow, snow, snow!! It seldom snows here in Occidental, so flakes that last a bit on the table are something to get excited about :)

March

Nothing much going on this month but I did craft this Lucky Day wall hanging from 

my vintage supplies. 

April

My hubby and I went to Petaluma to check out the spring Antique fair and sale. Found  a few treasures, but it is always fun to see the value of things I already own! 

May

Scrapping with some friends on the Russian River. A beautiful spot to craft, chat and relax. 

June

Family reunion time! My hubby's family celebrates with a reunion here on the ranch every year, but my family, not so often. We should though, because we had a great time!

July

We had lots of fun activities going on in July, but I think Henry and I enjoyed a Giants game at AT&T park the most. Especially as the Giants won!

August
August was a quiet month, I worked a lot. But we did take time to help Aunt Joanne celebrate her birthday. Happy Birthday Joanne! 

September

Since my job ended in September and I had been working a lot the last few months I decided I needed a real vacation. So I went up to my sister's in Oregon for a week to shop and play. 

October

I was off work just about three weeks when my old employer called me and asked if I could go to Boulder, CO and help out for a week. A free trip to Colorado, sure!

November

My friend Jenny was expecting a baby and our friend Heather and I hosted a shower for her with all our scrappy, crafty friends sharing in Jenny's joy. Jenny was due on Jan 2nd, but her sweet Isabel could not wait that long and she arrived on December 15th, a healthy bundle of JOY! 

December
December is always a busy month, with all the holiday activities, decorations and baking. One of my favorite things to do is bake goodies to share with friends and family.
One of my favorites is decorating sugar cookies with my boys.

Right now there is less than three hours until 2012. I hope the new year brings
everyone good health and happiness.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Baby Frenzy

OK, I posted this last night and somehow I deleted it. So here goes again! 

On November 20th my friend Heather and I hosted a baby shower for our friend Jenny. She is expecting a baby girl sometime around January 1st or 2nd. All of the guests were scrappy or crafty friends of Jenny. Her Mom Janet and mom in law Pat, also came. 

Since Jenny is having a girl we could use lots of pink! Since I am the mom of three boys, I have not had much chance to use pink in my mommy years. It was a fun change of pace! 

I made this banner for a shower decoration and a gift for Jenny for baby Isabel's room. 

The garland is made from about 5" size paper hearts sewn together and stuffed with tissue to make them puffy. I added a crepe paper rosette, a scalloped circle and a glass glittered chipboard letter to spell Isabel. The small hearts at the ends are the same except I added a little resin rose.

The hearts were all tied together with silk seam binding bows. I love how it turned out. 

The bouquet below is made up of similar hearts. Each heart had a guests initial on it and we used them as favors for the shower. We attached them to skewers for the bouquet, but the guests could take them off and hang the heart or use it for an ornament. 

Heather made the cute pink cupcakes and added pretty pearls and toppers to welcome baby Isabel. 

The party table all ready for guests. 

 We served appetizers to start and a dinner after. We used no paper goods for the shower except for a few napkins. I enjoyed getting out some of my pretty dishes, serve ware and linens. 

I found this little wooden ironing board while on vacation in Oregon in September. I thought it would be fun to use as decor for the shower. I had one like this when I was small. The card below the ironing board was the invitation I sent out for the shower. The little boot vase holding the pink roses was a vase my mother in law received when my hubby was born, in 1950. And a little glittered crown is what every little girl needs. 

Our guest of honor Jenny with me and Heather. 

My shower gift to Jenny was this little doll bed and dolly. 

The little bed started out as a simple doll bed set from Ikea. Cute but very gender neutral. Since the baby will be a girl, I could not resist painting it pink and sewing new pretty pink linens. 

And sewing a baby girl doll with curly blond hair, like Jenny!

I hope Isabel enjoys her dolly & bed. 

It was so much fun to plan and co-host the shower for Jenny. I enjoyed every minute of it! 

Jenny has wanted a baby for a long time and I know she and her hubby Jim will be great parents! 

And I can't wait to meet Isabel! 

Let me know if you would like more details on the paper crafts or sewing projects!

November Daily Thankfulness

November 7th.

Today I am thankful for being able to spend some time with my friend Heather working on 

"baby shower" projects our friend Jenny. 

We are hosting a shower for Jenny in a couple of weeks and needed to get together to plan and work on favors and such. The photo above is just a "sneak peek" of the shower decorations, since Jenny reads my blog, I can't share all the decorations until the shower. 

Jenny has been wanting a baby for a long time and we are all excited for her and her hubby Jimmy to welcome Isabel Dorothy when she arrives around Jan 1st or 2nd. 

(Or when Isabel decides it is time to arrive! )

A Creative Mess

This last week was I busy with my sons graduation from 8th grade. I helped to decorate the gym for the kids Tropical beach Party after the ceremony. Lots of planning and work by lots of parents went into making it special for the kids. I remember when I graduated from 8th grade, it was just the last day of school and the next day was the first day of summer vacation. We had no ceremony or party after!

To raise money for the grad party they raffled off baskets and I made up a Card Crafting basket to donate. I added stamps, inks, a couple of card magazines, card blanks and colored pencils. I also went thru all my stash and cut up cardstock and pattern papers in card front size. I added some ribbons and embellishments. It was a success!

Since the kids wanted a tropical themed party we decorated the gym with bamboo and plants. I made this banner from my Life's a Beach cartridge. Sharks are the schools mascot, so I cut this cute guy and added him to the banner.

  

I took two of our patio umbrellas and tables and plastic outdoor chairs to keep with the outdoor theme. With all the plants, including two lighted palm trees, it really looked great.

A reminder to all, don't offer your plastic chairs if you have not seen them lately! 3+ hours in the evening the night before are not fun hours when you have to power wash the chairs in the cold! But they are already clean now for family reunion in 3 weeks :)

But after making the banner and putting together the basket my scrap table ended it looking like a hurricane blew through it. I needed to clean it up, but I decided to make a few cards from the scraps.

The card basket papers left me lots of 1" paper strips in a rainbow of colors. I ddin't want to just throw them away so I made a couple of rainbowed hued cards.

Both blues and reds.

To add to the mess I made this card for a friends daughter who graduated from high school on Friday.

Now it is Sunday and hopefully I can find some time to find the top of my desk!