december daily inspiration

I am one of those folks that like to peruse the internet for hours looking for crafting inspiration.  It's a curse.  I end up getting sucked in and find it really hard to actually get to crafting.  So it's no surprise that I searched Pinterest for some December Daily inspiration.

Here are a few of my favorites:
[If you click on their names, you will be directed to their blog page that the image was taken from.]

Amy Tangerine --  the use of bright colors for a Winter album is so unusual and she pulled it off perfectly.

Deborah Ruiz -- all the texture and layering in this album is so pretty.

Daniela Dobson -- loving all the kraft paper and machine stitching she used here.

 Jenni Hufford -- the different shaped pages and all the layering is just lovely.

 Marcy Penner -- I love how the pages are so simple and the colors are so muted and clean.

Nicole @ Reaves, party of four -- loving all the tags, envelopes and other inserts she used to fill up her album.

Nicole @ Seriously... brains -- the different sized papers and the eclectic feeling of her album is so lovely.

Ali Edwards -- this is where it all started!


Do you have any December Daily favorites?

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prepping for december daily

Recently I have been prepping for December Daily with Ali Edwards.  This is my first year partaking in this project, and perhaps I chose a wrong year to start (with a move coming up), but (a) I didn't know that this move was coming up this quickly when I decided I was going to do this, and (2) I feel that it is still an important project, moving or not.  I've been back and forth about going digital or traditional.  Earlier this week I had resigned to the fact that I would probably have to go digital with all my scrapbooking supplies packed away.  Then I decided against it and figured I could just pack up what I might need for my December Daily project in it's own little container and keep it accessible during the move and settling. 

Last night I printed out all of my foundation pages using Ali Edwards' 2011 December Daily Overlays.  I printed out the red version on Lily White Bazzill cardstock.

Today I worked on adding some patterned paper to the bottom section and figuring out what types of dividers and inserts I want to add to the album.

 

I ended up going with white vellum for the dividers.  I wanted to use various transparencies, but I couldn't get my hot little hands on any.  Since I have a pretty good amount of vellum in my stash, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to use some up.

The number tags I ordered for the dividers haven't come yet, so I improvised.  I bought several different digital number elements (Musical Strips: Numbers by Katie Pertiet; For the Love of Circle Numbers by Ali Edwards -- I recolored these to match the Pink Paislee Snow Day papers; and Carded Monograms in Red by Katie Pertiet.), printed them out on cardstock, and viola:  I have lots of new numbers for my dividers!  I also used a Jillibean Soup number tag and some American Craft Thickers for my numbers.

When I have better lighting to take better photos, I will show you all the foundation pages along with their dividers and inserts. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope to see you again soon!

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moving

Our new home is almost complete, however, there is no firm move in date.  That's perfectly fine with with me... I'm just happy we're finally moving!  Those that know me, know that I have been wanting to move for quite awhile now.

It's incredibly difficult to live so far away from civilization.  We currently live almost an hour away from anything worthwhile.  Right now we drive at least twice a week to do activities and we make every trip into a day trip and try to schedule everything on these two days.  Because of this, these days turn into very long days and often times we leave at 10:00 am and don't return home until after 7:00 pm at the earliest.

Our new home is only about 15 minutes away from everything we need.  It's only about 7 miles, but with the twisty roads, it takes a little more time. 

To say I'm happy about this move is an understatement. 

For now I have had to put my Etsy shoppe in vacation mode and plan to start it up again in January.  We should be moved in and maybe settled enough by then.

I plan on posting to my blog during this transition... it's always fun to keep others' updated with photos of our family adventures.  Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon!

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so very thankful...

Our oak and pine trees

THANKFUL to have found a knowledgeable Speech Language Pathologist near home.  Well semi-near home... about 50 minutes away, which around here is about as close as you can get. 

THANKFUL that the kids don't have to leave home to go to school.  If they had to take a 1.5 hour bus ride to and from (3 hours total on a bus!) school each day plus 7 hours in school, there's no way we would be able to fit in speech therapy, kung fu, horseback riding, and music lessons.  Homeschool is cool!

THANKFUL that we got an appointment with an autism specialist.  Even though it is still a couple of months away, I didn't think we would ever find a specialist even remotely close enough to drive to.

THANKFUL that Matthew has found an extra curricular activity (besides swimming) that he is excited about.  He very rarely gets excited about things that don't involve Legos or video games -- so this is a huge break through for him.

THANKFUL that Fall is truly here (although it feels more like Winter).  Leaves' colors are changing and pine needles are falling.  Also a time to start fires in our fireplace.  Ahhhh....

Our first fire of the Season

Thank you so much for stopping by here today. Hope to see you again soon!

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halloween at our house

Halloween weekend for us started on Saturday as we got ready for the Illumination of the Jack-O-Lanterns in a local Gold Rush Town near us.  It's a fun little "contest" for kids to carve their gourds and bring them to the town square to win awards.

For some odd reason, my kids don't believe in drawing on their pumpkins before carving, so after cleaning the pulp out of the pumpkins, they got directly to cutting out their gourds. 

Saturday evening we brought the finished products to the town square to be judged.  (It's not really judged per se -- there were more than 20 awards to be handed out and no child was intended to feel left out.)

Anberly's jack was a dragon that was mistaken for a bat at the contest.  She won the Most Haunted Award.  (Sorry about the blurry photo... no tripod.)

Matthew's jack was Jack.  Teehee... Jack Skellington that is.  He added his own little touches to make it more Matthew-esque.

The rest of the weekend I furiously worked on their costumes to get them completed.  Anberly's costume was nearly done by the weekend, except for the sleeves on her jacket and her top-hat.  The sleeves were completed on Sunday and the hat was not completed until moments before going out the door to trick-or-treat.  Whew!

She was (what we called) a Steampunk Chick.

Matthew's costume was started and completed on Halloween day.  I was actually fairly impressed with myself!

He was a Black Hand Assassin from the game Elder Scrolls IV:  Oblivion.  This costume was really last minute... he kept changing his mind about what he wanted to be and only on the Tuesday before did he finally settle on this. 

We all had a lot of fun this Halloween.  Much more fun than last.  I am so happy to have had this experience with my children.

Thanks you so much for stopping by!  My plan is to update next time with a Project Life post and maybe a shoppe update so I hope to see you again soon. 
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letter to matthew

 10/28/2011

Dear Matthew,

My mama heart swelled with pride today as I witnessed something that I was afraid would not happen anytime soon. 

Today, we took you to a new-to-us Martial Arts Studio since we were all entirely unhappy with the previous one.  I was incredibly apprehensive as we waited for the class to begin.  I think you were a bit nervous as well – you tried to keep yourself busy by playing on my iTouch.

When your class started and I had to send you “to the mat” by yourself with new teachers and peers you’ve never met, I started to get very anxious.  I was expecting you to put up your protective shell, keep to yourself, and do your own thing.  But what I saw took me by surprise and made me so proud of you! 

You jumped right in with everyone else and started participating in all the activities.  You welcomed others’ help.  You even played a game that you usually hate:  Dodge Ball.  At the end of the class, other kids stopped what they were doing just so they could say “Bye” to you.  After climbing into the car, I stood at your door and asked you what you thought of this new place.  You said, “I love it!”  And I love that you love it. 

Love,

Mama

friday food files: halloween edition

Welcome to the Halloween Edition of F r i d a y  F o o d  F i l e s.  With Halloween coming up in just a few short days,  I have been busy preparing costumes for the kidlets.  This year I am making them from scratch and have only gotten one about 1/2 way done -- it has proven to be difficult.  It may even prove to be the death of me.  Yikes!  Luckily, the other costume looks to be reasonably easy.  Yay!   So let's hope that I live through making the first costume so I can move onto the next. 

Halloween is one of my favorite Holidays.  It ranks right up there with Christmas.  In fact, I was just talking to my mom about how the people that make Holidays into "official" Holidays (you know, to give businesses an excuse to close and give kids the day off from school) really should decide to include Halloween on their list.  And perhaps the day after Halloween as well so we could all recover from our candy hangovers. 

Warning:  As I was looking through my photos to put this post together, I realized that I have quite a few cupcake links.  That's OK, though... cupcakes are always good. 

Jack Skellington cupcakes (source:  Kempenfelt Cakes)

Mummy dogs (source:  Our Best Bites)

Candy Corn sugar cookies (source:  Kathie Cooks)

Dexter Blood Slide suckers (source:  Instructables)

Tentacle Pot Pies (source:  The Family Kitchen)

Strawberry Ghosts (source:  Taste of Home)

Ghostly Pizzas (source:  My Recipes)

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars (source:  The Girl Who Ate Everything)

Jello Blood Worms (source:  The Idea Room)

Pizza Mummies (source:  Family Fun)

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars (source:  My Recipes)

Halloween Oreo Cookies (source:  Gingerbread Bagels)

Candy Corn Cupcakes (source:  The Sugar Turntable)

Earwax Appetizers (source:  Quick Dish)

Well, those are some of my favorite Halloween party foods.  Will you be finding yourself at a Halloween party this year?  Are you throwing a Halloween party this year?  Planning on any interesting foods? 

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you next time! 

P.S.  Please excuse my absence lately.  I'm buried under a pile of fabric! 

new friday feature

Those that know me know that besides my family and scrapbooking, food is one of my favorite things!  All food.  Except okra. 

I've decided to add a new feature here called  F r i d a y  F o o d  F i l e s.  Every Friday I will be sharing either my favorite recipes with you, sharing new foods that I found throughout the previous week, or sharing food related products and ideas.  

Source: the-girl-who-ate-everything.com

I made this earlier this week and it was a huge hit!  The only change I made was omitting the blue cheese because hubby is not a fan of it.  But i have two teenagers visiting this week, plus my two wee ones, and all of us loved it!  It was a lot of prep work, but well worth it.  

Source: nancycreative.wordpress.com

Source: tasteofhome.com

Source: ohsheglows.com

I'm going to try this dish very soon as it is definitely a healthier alternative than my normal breakfast of pastries and coffee.  

Have you found any new recipes this week that you'd love to try?  Do you have any tried and true recipes you'd like me to share here?  Let me know!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you next time!

blackboard labels + a winner

Oh, these are so fun and I've dreamed of these for so long!  Blackboard Labels.  Yup!

 

Blackboard Labels have got to be the way to go!  Especially with Halloween coming up since it's the perfect color.  In true blackboard form you can write on these with chalk and erase them just like any other blackboard.  You can also stamp on them or write on them with white ink and wipe them off with a damp cloth if need be.

There are so many things you can do with these babies!  Here are a couple of examples:

On this gift tag that I made, I added one of my Chocolate Chip Cookie Paper Embellishments.  Perfect!

Look how gorgeous she looks as a place for a sentiment on a card... LOVE!

I picture these hanging off of all my glass jars and bottles in my pantry.  And since they are "blackboard", they can be re-used over and over.

Right now, these are the only shape I have in the shoppe, but I plan on introducing at least one more shape very soon.

Now on to the winner of my giveway for the Paper Issues Blog Hop!  Drum roll please...

Tracy Suzanne at Cotton Pickin Cute!

Tracy, please send your snail mail info to whimsicaltwist@yahoo.com (whimsicaltwist [at] yahoo [dot] com) and I will get your package out in the mail this week!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon!

hoppity hop hop

Welcome to the last leg of the Paper Issues Altered Items Blog Hop! You should be joining me now from Christina's blog. If you came here through another venue or just stopped by my blog because you like me (::wink::), perhaps you'd like to join in on the fun of the blog hop! If so, please begin on the Paper Issues blog: HERE.  There are a lot of prized to be had along the way!

Over the past week and a half I have been working on this beautiful shadowbox using Graphic 45's Hallowe'en in Wonderland paper collection and a whole lot of Tim Holtz yumminess.

Could Alice be any cuter than she is here with her witch hat and broom?  She is standing among the Queen of Heart's roses before they got painted red.

The Cheshire Cat glows!  I love that about him! 

This shadowbox will be offered up in my shoppe for sale soon, so stay tuned! 

In the meantime, you can shop at the Paper Issues Etsy shop. Cassie is offering a coupon for 25% off your entire purchase through Sunday, so swing by.  Just enter the code HOP25 at checkout to get your discount. 

Now I know I mentioned prizes earlier, so let's get to it!

Shown above is the prize I am offering.  Included is:

• Echo Park's The Apothecary Emporium 8 x 8 paper pad
• My Mind's Eye Lime Twist twine - 20 yards
• Studio Calico stamp
• Pink Paisley Mistables
• Two packs of Owl Carnival Tickets (from my shoppe)
• Three extra large shipping tags (coming soon - from my shoppe)
• Three small shipping tags (coming soon - from my shoppe)
• Two Corky Cloud Die Cuts (coming soon - from my shoppe)

Several of these items are coming soon to my shoppe, so the winner will get these exclusive not-yet released notions from Whimsies Cottage!


There are multiple ways you can be entered to win this prize.  And you will get ONE entry for each one of these that you do:

• Follow my blog and leave me a comment here letting me know
• "Like" my Facebook page and leave me a comment here letting me know
• Add my Etsy shoppe to your favorites on Etsy and leave me comment here letting me know
• Tell a friend to do any of these and get an entry for each referral -- let me know your friends name and if they do any of the above, you will get one entry for each of your friend's entries

Now for another surprise!  I am also offering a coupon code for my Etsy shoppe!  You can get 25% off your entire purchase now through Sunday just by entering the coupon code FALLHOP at checkout.  How great is that?

So there you have it!  Thanks again for hopping along with us at Paper Issues!  Wasn't it fun?

See you next time!

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