Gracie's Christmas List

I'm still having trouble uploading pictures... there may be a change in my blogging future. I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, here's Gracie's Christmas list:
a bike, babies, and fireworks


Wait?? What? Fireworks?? Yikes! I think there's a little Sackett in her!

Christmas Celebrations in Edmonton

We went to the Christmas Tree Lighting on Saturday night, and it was fantastic! There were a ton of people, but there were lots of things to do and the show was really family oriented and fun.

We didn't know there was skating, so Gracie boot-slid around the rink (but honestly, the ice was not ready for skaters, yet, so nobody wore skates).

Gracie got a Christmas tree painted on her face,

Hugged a giant dog,

Played in the snow,

And watched the fireworks.

She got to see Santa (he was far away, but she knew what the red suit meant)

and saw the tree light up.

The fireworks were really good

and the tree was beautiful!

Fun family outing!

Christmas Mini Album, TM November Kit

Here's another project I made with my November kit from Treasured Memories. Again, it was Pink Paislee's City Sidewalks line and it is a really nice, subtle vintage Christmas line.

Yes, these are pictures from two years ago.... I get to things eventually.

This is a neat concept for a mini album, in my opinion, it's basically a cover with an accordian album set inside, but it's attached at the middle of the accordian fold, so it opens in both directions.

 This is a picture of the inside of the cover, which also opens to the left and right. The above picture is with the right side closed and below, with both inside covers open.

Here's the first section of the accordian fold,

The second section,

and the third.

 Folding it back up.

This is the accordian fold section all opened up. 

If you'd like to make a mini album like this, I made it following Katherine McElvain's guide here.

City Sidewalks, Treasured Memories November Project

I had a lot of fun making this project for Treasured Memories! They gave me the City Sidewalks collection from Pink Paislee, which was full of great little, old-fashioned die-cuts and pretty, Christmas-y colours.

I used it to make a wall-hanging that combines some IKEA frames, a door knob, some glitter and flowers and burlap, and some great wooden plaques that my brother made me.

The best part is that I made it so I can change it up for each season. I'll leave the 'so blessed' plaque, because we really are blessed, but the other three pieces will be changed up as I see fit (or possibly as I get around to it).

The little plaque with the hanger can be changed to hang something else. I'll just clip something new on with the cute alligator clips.

The large frame in the middle can be changed just by slipping in a new 12 x 12 sheet of paper, with a new saying and some decorations.

And the picture can be replaced to match.

Keeping this in mind, I went neutral with the frame and the decorations that would be remaining.

I'm happy with how it turned out. Hope you like it!

Snow Fun

My little girl is a snow baby. She loves it outside!

Shovelling snow.  She's a big help. 

Usually, she pushes it off the driveway, but occasionally, she goes on a rampage and starts throwing snow back on. Between her 'help' and Bailey ploughing through the snowbanks, knocking snow everywhere, it usually takes me a little longer than planned.

  Luckily, this was a few weeks ago, before the big dump of snow we just got. It was easy shovelling on this day and much warmer.

Gracie loves playing in the snow. She does a belly flop into a snowbank and giggles like crazy, spitting out mouthfuls of snow. 

She likes to play with Bailey, too. She wades out into a snowbank and then calls for help and he comes pouncing through to her, kicking up snow everywhere. He bumps her with his nose, and then pounces back, while she kills herself laughing.

Here's a video of her having a snowball fight with Bailey. She hasn't quite got the concept, and Bailey was totally preoccupied at the time, but she thought it was hilarious and I like that it wears them both out!

Fun with Dad

Here are a few pictures I grabbed off Brad's phone. 

This girl likes dress-up! Almost everyday she goes into her trunk of clothes and gets ready for a party or a dance show, or a performance. 

She even convinces her dad to play.

 She's learning to skate. Brad's teaching her. We got her some new blades for her birthday, and she's getting pretty good. We need to get her a real helmet, though, her bike helmet looks a little goofy...

No, this might make you laugh, because she really doesn't move, but Brad's starting with the basics with her. This is balancing on skates:

Fall Blessings

In this frigid, wintry weather, I thought I'd show some old photos of fall and what it's supposed to look like....

Another layout using mostly American Crafts. These pictures were from our trip to Ottawa last fall.

And a real oldie, this is a layout featuring pictures from when we were expecting Gracie. Yep, that's three years old, or so... We had so many weddings that summer, I was in the same maternity dress over and over, and apparently, Brad wore the same shirt, too, out of solidarity, I assume.

Hope you're not trapped under snow. 

Pumpkin Carving

Okay, it's late. We did this before Halloween.... but here's the pictures:

The goop,

The stencil poking,

 The finished result! Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man

and Lightning McQueen