Christmas at last!

Well, Christmas finally came to our house - Son and DIL couldn't get kids until yesterday a.m. and in order for them to have some time just as a family after eating with her folks, we opted to postpone ours until today. I think everyone was pretty happy with their gifts - Son got two bench grinders, so what more could a guy ask for - lol! After a substantial breakfast, we packed up and hooked up trailers to go sledding and snowmobiling. Didn't get to go up on our favorite place, but had a good substitute. Think everyone had a lot of fun, judging from the size of the smiles.

Other than blowing out the main belt on my snowmobile - fortunately it was while DH and Son were loading it to come home - the "Cats" ran great! DH and I both pulled kids on sleds while the others trekked up the hill. One grandson got a face full of mud when he ran into a big bush and got dumped, but other than that, things were smooth sailing - literally! I can hardly wait until we can get into deeper snow and groomed trails - that's when it really gets fun!

Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season! Tomorrow is play day in the rubber room!!

Well, the tree is up and decorated, the village is done and only have one gift card and a couple of other quick cards to do. No packages wrapped, but that's next! Then clean house and maybe I''ll be ready! We won't be having Christmas until the 26th as our son and DIL won't get their respective children until 10:00 Christmas a.m. and will be going to her parents' house for dinner. We will go to daughter's house for dinner, but Fri. a.m. it's apt to be a bedlam! Everybody will gather early for breakfast - pancakes, eggs and bacon, hash browns - ummmm! After opening gifts, we will get get ourselves together and head for the largest table top mountain in the world for a fun day of sledding and snowmobiling! We are fortunate to live within about 30 minutes of the top of Grand Mesa and while it is called a table top, there are still lots of good sledding hills. We will pull our 21 foot camper up there so everyone will be able to come in out of the cold, plus having cocoa and coffee on hand to warm up with!

Between the decorating (Hubby did the tree, thank heavens!), getting the village set up, we had to take time to do some planning for this Friday. My hubby had purchased a motorcycle this fall and while I'll ride with him, I'm still not entirely comfortable (gravity works, you know, and those leans going around corners are big temptations for gravity in my opinion - LOL). I told DH not too long ago that I was much more comfortable riding a snowmobile than a motorcycle, so........... To make a long story short, he found not one but two Arctic Cat snowmobiles and the trailer for sale in the paper for a bargain price. They run great, the couple just had to give them up because she's on oxygen 24/7 and can't get out in the cold, so.....! We had hoped to make a trial run before Friday, but that is questionable!

I have gotten some stamping done - finished up all but two cards yesterday afternoon - and made a couple more gift card holders following the Technique Junkies technique in the December issue. These are so quick and easy to make! I've enclosed photos of one of them, since I made them essentially alike, as well as my daughter's birthday gift card. I used A Wish for Peace on Night of Navy for the one with the burnt edges technique from the TJ newsletter. For the other one, I used Garden Silhouettes on a TJ background I had done previously (don't remember what it was now!)

I'm also showing a photo of how our house is decorated for Christmas on the outside. Our daughter works for a landscaping company that also offers Christmas lighting, so being good parents, we had them do our house. The blue and white lights off to the right are the gazebo. Makes for a very festive sight! As you can see, it was snowing the night I took the picture and other than a couple of flurries, we've had none since! I don't know about you, but I love white Christmases, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Weatherman says 70% chance of precip through Christmas Day, so we'll have to see! Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas to all of you!

Just 10 days away!

It doesn't seem possible that Christmas is only 10 days away. As usual, I'm running late and haven't mailed any gifts, although I am mainly giving gift cards to family away from here, so that won't be quite such a problem! I did make one card of a different design that I had posted earlier, mainly because the person had seen the card at a workshop I help, so wanted something different for her! This one was quite simple, using Whisper White and Handsome Hunter paper, painting with the new Shimmerz, then adding flocking to the tree and roof top. The stamps are from Stampin' Up's "A Wish for Peace" and "Snow Swirled".

While we aren't suffering from the intense cold eastern Colorado is getting, we are having very low temps. We woke up to about 2-4" of the white stuff yesterday morning, so it does look a little more like Christmas. We did get the tree up yesterday, but haven't done any decorating! I have a village I put out every year and since DH and I always eat at our computers and we most likely won't have any family here to eat over the holidays, I'm going to set it up on the table! It will be the most room I've ever had to put it up - but then I bought two more buildings this year, so it will be needed! I do have some folding tables we can set up in the living room should everyone end up here to eat a meal! Right now, the table is full of poinsettias I had gotten for our church, but the services were called off yesterday, so............ Also have a Christmas gift basket to finish decorating before it goes to the church.

So now, it's back to decorating, working on Christmas cards and gifts and trying to stay warm in general. Hope all is going well with you!

Be sure and check out Jen Lowe's "Eight Nights of Lights", starting December 21, on her blog, http://jen-lowe-designs.blogspot.com/. Jen always comes up with different ideas so it ought to be really a lot of fun!

Made a quick card the other day for a former classmate who has now lost both parents just this year. Her mother had been my speech teacher in high school as well.

No snow on this side of the mountain - yet - just hope we have some in time for Christmas. Western Colorado is dry, even compared to eastern Colorado. They've had some snow over there the past couple of weeks, but nothing other than a little rain over Thanksgiving here. Doesn't help one to get in the holiday spirit very much - I have started my cards, but haven't done any decorating. I have a rather large village that is always a challenge to set up because of space and our lack thereof!

Last night was the Christmas parade. The theme was "Through the Eyes of a Child" and the nearly 50 entries were very appropriate. Nearly all of them had large generators and were literally covered with lights. It was one of the prettiest I've seen in a long time! And wouldn't you know, I forgot my camera! Hope you are all getting in the holiday spirit!

Another Colorado Sunset

Here's one more that I missed getting downloaded. It's the most intense of the bunch!

Colorado Sunsets

One of the blessings of living in God's country is the incredible sunrises and sunsets that we are privileged to see. Tonight was no exception. Even though the old saying is, "Red at night, sailer's delight", there are supposed to be rain showers in the forecast for tomorrow. I'm not holding my breath, tho, since this area is known for its lack of moisture. I was totally shocked, last spring, to find out that this immediate area of western Colorado gets less moisture than Tucson, AZ!! Who'da thunk it! Anyhow, here's a couple of views of the sunset this evening. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Even though I should have been working on another project, I had picked up gift cards for two of my grandchildren, so decided to try the gift card holder featured in the current issue of Technique Junkies, published bi-monthly by Pat Huntoon. These are really fun and easy to make! The one with the elves was made using Stampin' Up's Holiday Lineups set and the striped paper on the other one was some I picked up at Hobby Lobby or Michael's. I painted the elves with Twinklin' H2O's. Have one more to make for DH as he's getting a gift card for tools for Christmas - there is no way I'm going to try to buy tools for him!

I forgot to add earlier that the stamps used on the three previous cards were also from Stampin' Up - from a set called Snow Swirled which is in the current catalog. It is such a versatile set that can be used several different ways. I always use Stampin' Up papers and inks.

My Stampin' Up workshop, held last Sat. afternoon, was a great success! There were only three ladies, all good friends, but we had lots of fun stamping and playing. They made two cards and a gift bag based on Becca's tutorial on her Becca Stamps and Scraps blog. Thanks for the tutorial, Becca! We were so busy having fun that I didn't get any photos of the gals, but will next time - promise! The green and white card with Seasons Greetings was like one of the ones the ladies did. I am posting a scan of some cards I've done - the one of the tree embossed in white I have to credit Mary Jo Williams. When she posted her beautiful card, I knew I had to CASE it and it will probably be my main Christmas card. I send or give out about 65 each year, so they have to be fairly simple and quick!

We're getting ready for Turkey Day - since our kids will all be gone, we will join my cousin and her husband and maybe some other friends to eat out and then back to the house to play Spinners, which is a game with dominoes. Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

P.S. Have you ever seen a cat sleep in such an odd position - my neck would break! Meet Buglet, one of the oddest cats I've evern known!

Two months ago, I started renovating what I call my rubber room. Not only is it where I stamp, but it is also my little bit of sanity - or insanity, whatever the case may be! It turned out to be much more of an ordeal than either I or DH ever imagined! My original idea was to paint the paneling which, as you can see, is fairly dark. The room had originally been the garage but a former owner had enclosed it and hung drywall for a start. Somewhere along the way, someone added the paneling, but not in the usual way - they glued it to the drywall, which meant that wherever the glue was, it either stuck to the drywall or tore it! Replacing the drywall was out of the question, so with DH's help, I learned to texture since repairing the drywall only caused puckering!

Long story made short - the texturing is all done, the room completely repainted (including a ceiling that hadn't seen fresh paint in over twenty years!) and even new carpeting. Considering the original carpeting was rust shag - does that tell you anything?! Now I'm having the fun and games of sorting, arranging and trying to figure out where I'm going to put what! The creative juices have been simmering, wanting to boil over, but I've been very patient. What is the old joke with the vulture saying,"Patience, my ***, I'm gonna kill somebody!" Kinda my sentiments, too! Especially with the living room and the spare bedroom filled to overflowing with the contents of my rubber room! Thank God I have such a patient and understanding DH!

I do finally have a path all the way around my work table and since I have a Stampin Up workshop here at the house this weekend and I still have my projects to do...........! Hope you enjoy my occasional posting!