A Kiss on the Chic

Happy Monday!

Christmas is over already?  Well, I refuse to believe that OR take down my decorations yet...

I know, I know... some of you may already have your decorations all neatly packed away for next year.  Well, I'm holding out... Can't I just leave them up all year?  I WANT to...  Seriously, I LOVE my house with all the Christmas trees and lights and red and green!  I know it wouldn't be as special if I left it up all year, but I can't part with it, just yet...

I mean, I haven't even had my "quiet time" here:

and I am soooo NOT taking down that beautiful tree until I do!  I need a night with NO LAUNDRY, NO DINNER TO CLEAN UP, and NO INTERUPTIONS so I can sit with my feet up, snuggled in that comfy blanket that is softer then anything I've ever felt and read a good book!  (o.k. maybe this tree may be up for another month or two?? :)-  Getting ready for CHA and making a TON of examples may hinder my plans...

Well, Christmas MAY be over, but my memories are NOT and I wanted to show you a few of my "memories" from this Christmas Season.  I am ALMOST done with my December daily,  I'm up to Day 24!!  So I thought I would share some days from that and from the last few days as well...  This may not be a "few" pictures so come along for a little photo "op"...

My December Daily:

I'm not done putting ribbon and such on the outside... 

But here's some of my FAV days inside the album:

 

 


 





 

 
  And the rest I'm still finishing up with the journaling, the embellishments and the days. I think I'm actually going to do this until the end of the month.  I'm not big up on what people do with there's?  Do you go to the 25th or the end of the month? 

I'm going to continue working on this today in between cleaning up the house and working on some CHA stuff.

Before I leave, I'll share some pictures from our two Christmas parties...  Christmas Day was just with our family and both sets of parents.  We had a nice day at home until Rebecca complained of a headache and then threw up!  I called my SIL and the doctor and we figured out she had her first MIGRAINE!  It was terrible and poor Rebecca had toast and a banana while we feasted... But she was a trooper and felt better after sleeping for a while and even came down stairs for family photos!  ( I begged her to get a dress on instead of her nightie :)-

 

Here they are before Rebecca had a headache... WAiting at the top of the stairs to come down...

Soooo excited Santa left a note!! (and ate part of the cookies and milk.... but the reindeer didn't like the carrots :)-  I forgot to pick them up out the front door... lol...

Such excitement to see daddy open the gift she got at the school boutique!

Rebecca opening her "7 Gypsies Spinner"... She was a little confused until...

  
This iPhone came out of it!!! We had told her this was her BIG present, so when she saw the 7 Gypsies thing, she was wondering if I had made it for her, since we were planning on doing that and would have totally been fine with that, but I think a little happier with a phone in the end... (we're still planning on doing the spinner together)

Isabella with ANOTHER Disney costume from Nana and Poppie!  But it made her day for sure!

 
 We "surprised" our budding photographer with a Nikon SLR camera that was from EVERYBODY!  She really has a talent and we wanted to see how far she can take it!  She even has friends and their families asking her to take their pictures down at the beach and other places!  I told her we need to sign up for some classes together so we can both learn more and then she can start earning some money taking pictures and editing them for people if she wants!

 
This was a HUGE surprise for me!  You know I've had many problems with my computer over the last couple years and my DEAR HUBBY decided to surprise me!!  He even put a decoy SPOON wrapped on top of this so I would think it was some cooking item from William Sonoma!

These pictures are dark, sorry... 

Then after all the presents and food, Rebecca came downstairs with a dress on and we took family photos by the tree:

Our three blessings!

My, how 20 years can seem like an instant!  I still can't believe we celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary this year!  I love this man more then the day I married him and I'm pretty sure he feels the same way...

 
 
 And here's our whole family on Christmas Day:

I had fun editing it on www.picnik.com , which is my new FAV website:

So from our home, to your home...

We HOPE you had a BLESSED Christmas and PRAY you enjoy a JOYOUS NEW YEAR!!!

Love to all,

Laura

P.S. Stay tuned next week... There are some VERY exciting things happening at A Kiss on the Chic in 2010!!

I'll also share some more pictures from the second Christmas party we had at our house...

 

Merry Christmas Bloggers!

I have been soooo blessed by all my blog friends since I started on this journey almost two years ago. 

I want to wish the warmest MERRY CHRISTMAS  to all of YOU!

May you have a JOYOUS day with your families and friends and may you be BLESSED in 2010!

Love to all,

Laura

December Daily...

Merry Christmas Eve to everyone!!

I am going to try and get my December Daily up to date today while Lance takes the girls Christmas Shopping... for ME! 

We didn't have a chance last weekend to do our annual shopping trip where the girls all buy for eachother and us so Lance is doing the last person on their list... me (because I was with them every time they went shopping :)

So I thought I would try to finish my December Daily:

I LOVE this album and really want to share this with family tomorrow and on Saturday when we have another Christmas family get together!  I'm only up to day 14 though so I am going to try and spead it up a little today!

I'll share the whole album on here this weekend if I get it done and it will be up on www.twopeasinabucket.com after I'm done as well.

I shared some pictures on Facebook of a little "Christmas Cookies - gone bad" photo shoot that is too funny and maybe relatable to you as well.  You see, the girls were fighting over who got to crack the EGGS, and after the fact I wanted to re-create if for a future LO, so I staged it...  Well, at first they were cool about it, until Isabella got mad again and well, I have to admit, I caused another fight... not such a good "mom" momment there but it was hard not to laugh...

It started off totally staged, but cute...

still staged...

now it has turned...

and this is NOT staged...so sorry Isabella, mom didn't mean to make you sad again...

I think Rebecca is getting a little to much JOY out of this... :)-

Well, I'm going to enjoy a couple hours to myself while the kids go shopping with daddy!

Have a WONDERFUL Christmas Eve with your family and friends!

Hugs to all,

Laura

Love, Tuesday...

December 22nd?  well,  there goes thinking I had it "all together" THIS time...  My oldest just informed me we are "sooooo behind, mom!"

So ya, maybe the Christmas cards are not done yet, we haven't made cookies yet, we have a couple presents to buy and I have NO idea what we are cooking for Christmas dinner...  I have good reasons why.   I've spent more time with the Family, we've had more FUN together and I've been at the kids "beck and call" for the last couple weeks. (can you get me this, I need this, make this, take me here, etc. etc....)  So you may not see my Christmas card until AFTER Christmas, the cookies will still be warm when you get your box of them (tomorrow night if you live in by us) and if there's a few LESS presents under the tree, does it really matter??  I don't think so.  I'm not even stressing about the food on Christmas...  My mom bought a ham and I'll take care of the rest since my MIL just had back surgery and won't be bringing anything if she can make it at all.  I'm totally in the mood to do something "out of the box" like Mexican or Italian this year... is that totally crazy??

This second day of Christmas Vacation we are going to clean up the house a bit,  I'm going to TRY to get some of the Christmas cards sent out, Victoria has singing lessons and then a hair appointment to FIX the DISASTER that was done to her hair yesterday...  She wanted to change from a blond to a brunette... So she had brown put in her hair and kept some of the blond highlights.  Well, it ended up being one big BEIGE...  She even showed the lady pictures of Miley Cyrus' hair with the brown and some blond highlights and the brown that was agreed upon, did NOT show up in her hair... She says it looks like she has GREY hair! (not really though )  So we have to now go back and get most likely an all-over brown, so all that $$ (her hard earned $$)was wasted trying to get this new "look" and now we're going to have to just do a one color process to fix it.  The joys of teenage girl drama!!! :)- 

Oh, before I forget, the "webisode" is now up!  She had computer problems and told me it wouldn't be LIVE until Saturday and I forgot to mention that.  So you can go see it here:

http://www.virtueradionetwork.com/Cropped.htm

I have to admit, I haven't watched it yet... I've seen a preview but I really, really don't like my voice when it's recorded...  My mom says you can hear Scarlet in the background snoring!!! lol...  They did a great job putting this together though and it's a great project if you want to go check it out!  I may have to get over my dislike for my voice though because she'd like to do more of these with me and/or some on-line classes.

This past weekend we had some fun looking at lights and I thought I'd share some pictures with you.

Saturday night we had our annual "Christmas Lights Car Party"  We get in our PJ's, wrap up with blankets and go around town and look at the Christmas lights.  Lance always prints out a map of the top winners in the area and we take our Garmin with us and off we go!  Well, this year we wanted to go on a special "ride" through one of the vineyards.  You see, last year we saw this one winery that had a horse drawn carriage ride through their wine groves!  It looked really cute and we got there a little to late.  So this year we went there first!  Got out of the car,  the girls in their PJ's, and Lance went inside to see about the ride while we waited outside:

The girls were too embarrassed to go inside...

But... we found out it was going to be at $40 for all of us for a 10 minute or less ride through pretty much darkness and a few lights... Is that crazy or what??  So we decided to pass (and spend 1/4 of that on hot cocoa later ...) but here's a few more pictures from their pretty front porch area:

Then we headed to the homes that won top honors and these were FREE... lol

Take a look at this one:

And it even had a "REAL" Santa!!!

Isabella wouldn't get near him so daddy had to be a buffer...

Then all the girls...

Then Santa said he was feeling all alone so Lance had to be silly!

a cute decoration on their lawn..

Then the next house had a "REAL" Mickey and Minnie:

Can you believe how much these people get into this??  I mean come on... I asked some of these home owners how long it takes for them to set all this up and one of them said 2 1/2 weeks and the other said over 5 WEEKS!!  wow, that's committed...

Here's Isabella with Minnie, her FAV Character at Disneyland!

This is more from that house.  This guy even had a MOVIE screen and showed a movie on it of the Nativity. 

Here's the girls in the car

And now getting out of the car to go get some hot cocoa at:

 Coffee Bean is so much better then Starbucks...

I think Isabella is having FUN, don't you?  lol...  We gave them all their PJ's after dinner that night so they could wear them...  We usually wait until Christmas Eve, but this year we did it a few days earlier...

So that was our night with the girls looking at lights...

Then, on Sunday night we went to look at the lights in Naples with my girlfriends from High School and our hubbys:

 We went to my friend Steph's parents house and then got on their duffy boat and cruised around all the canals of Naples in Long Beach.  It was beautiful and a perfect night too.  I was the only one in a jacket because it was not even cold.

We crashed a friends house, Ann, and had a nice time chatting with her family on their front porch that looks out to the canals.  This is a really fun area to come and walk through during the Holidays if you live close enough...

 Some of the guys chatting away...

Sarah & Natalie... I've know these girls since we were babies in the church nursery!!  They are such beautiful women now with wonderful families and great FUN to be around too! (and they're cousins)

Steph, Missy and Ann.  Sorry girls, this one's a little blurry...  I've known Missy since Kindergarten!  I won't tell you how long that is though... :)  And Steph is the one I had dinner with in Chicago a couple months ago and forgot to take a picture with...

Then after we were done chatting at Ann's house, we had to climb down the ladder back to the boat!  Now I had high heeled boots on, so I guess Lance thought it was funny to take pictures of me looking stupid...

 
after I got down and on to the dock, the boys thought it was funny to jump up and down to make the dock rock back and forth.  Makes me look like I'm drunk... Thanks babe for capturing that... :)-

Here's a picture of the boys on the boat... Got you back...

Well, now I need to go figure out what cookies to start making...

I tell you, I had a PLAN why I didn't want to make them earlier...  Victoria thinks I'm waiting to long and it's too late, but I didn't WANT to make them earlier.  If there are cookies in the house, I EAT them... So I figured the later I wait, the less temptation I have.  Am I right??  I think so.  I don't know about you, but this Christmas Season I am NOT in shape and sooo NEED to get in shape so I'm trying to avoid as much food in the house as I can...

I'm still in my PJ's so I better go get the day started...

Have a WONDERFUL day getting ready for Christmas!  Don't stress, have FUN and ENJOY this time with your FAMILY!

Hugs to all,

Laura

a little delay...

I'm sure most of you are running around like a chicken today (Like ME :)- but I wanted to come on here real quick and update you on a few things before I head out to the girls Christmas parties at school...

First, if you've been waiting and waiting to see my video Guest Design Spot on CROPPED!, well it will have to wait until Saturday now.  I did see a bit of a preview of it but the full video has been delayed until Saturday due to computer problems they are having.  I'm sorry I got you all excited (*mom*) but things like this happen and I hope you'll go check it out this weekend when you have some time!

Another thing I wanted to mention is that I now have this sign up for sale:

It's in the "Chic Boutique" page on the left side!

Oh, a quick mention on a movie that you HAVE to see...

Here's the trailer of it:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khtBvQdxta4&feature=channel

It is such a WONDERFUL movie and if you can, take your kids, take your whole family and see this over the Holidays!  It will move you, make you think and make you smile!  Lance & I saw it last night and today, Victoria's whole school is going to the movie theater and seeing it! 

I've been busy this week making some TOP SECRET things for Clear Scraps and I really have a hard time NOT showing these to you!  I like to SHARE people... My whole LOVE of this art form is in my motto:  Design, Create, TEACH...which I should also have SHARE in there... So it's REALLY hard for me to make something and keep quite about it...  But, I MUST. So for now just know I'm having LOTS of FUN coming up with some things for CHA, AND the new packaging for Clear Scraps products!!

What I can share are some more pictures!

This week the girls had their Christmas Program at school and this year, Rebecca and Isabella were in the same concert!  (Yeah for not having 3 this year :)

So here's our little ANGEL and CHOIR GIRL:

Isabella was an Angel and Rebecca was a Caroler all bundled up...

Here's Isabella before the concert.  This time she wasn't too nervous b/c she didn't have a solo.  Did I ever tell you about the Veteran's Day program?  oh boy... that was a disaster!  She WANTED a solo, GOT a solo and then DIDN'T want the solo, went ONSTAGE CRYING, turned her BACK to the audience, WALKED OFF the stage, mommy consolled her, then WANTED TO GO BACK ONSTAGE and SING HER SOLO!!!  She literally wanted to TALK to the director and ask her if she could go BACK ON WHILE the song was going!  I obviously told her it was TOO LATE and Rebecca ended up stepping in for her and doing her solo!  And Isabella was MAD that she didn't do it and for DAYS after, she asked if she'd ever be able to do that solo on stage!!!  I thought this would scar her for life, but she was happy to perform at this one... but she sure didn't ask for a solo this time... lol...

Here's Rebecca on stage.  This was actually a really good program (I'm not the best at sitting through these all the time :).  This one has a great message about how we are taking CHRIST out of Christmas and cities all over our country don't want to have anything about JESUS anymore.  Hello?? That's what we celebrate Christmas... Jesus' Birthday!!!  So it was talking about how we can celebrate ALL of the Holidays at this time of year and should not EXCLUDE the story of a baby being born in  a manger, just because it's not politically correct to say JESUS anymore...

O.k. off my soapbox, here's more pictures:

Rebecca had a speaking part and here she is with the "Mayor" of the town not wanting to have a Nativity because he may not get re-elected if he upsets some voters in his town...

There's our little angel at the top!  Gotta love it... 

The mayor finally lets them do their Christmas program... Isabella's really getting into it now! 

The Finale!

Today they are having their gift exchange (a book) and party so I need to go get ready and be the "scrapbook mom" for Isabella's class!

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!  Enjoy this time with your family!  Go out there and enjoy the lights, parades, NATIVITIES, and celebrate the Birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ! 

Hugs,

Laura

Love, Tuesday...

10 days until Christmas!!! Wow, is life just buzzing by you too?  I'm AMAZED at how fast these days are going by me and THIS year I thought I was READY for the Holidays... Ya right...

We had an eventful weekend and I'm still recovering from all the fun!  Friday I took Rebecca and Isabella to my mom's for the weekend and then did a little shopping at South Coast Plaza!!  Wow, is that mall GREAT!  I forgot how cool it is, especially at Christmas time with all the kids areas done up to the nines and then all the fancy shops to boot!  I don't really go into all those stores Like Gucci and Prada and what have you, but it's fun to walk by them! ;)  I did get some things taken care of for the work party the next night, like getting some coffee pods for our new coffee maker:

This is a www.Nespresso.com machine and I'm in {LOVE} with this baby!!!  The pods for it you have to order online or you can go to one of there "cafes" and this one happened to be at SCP in Bloomingdales!  So I guess I did walk into one of those fancy stores after all! lol...  But it was sooo worth it!

Now, we've had this type of Krups coffee maker for 20 YEARS:

The normal kind that makes coffee AND espresso if you want.  O.k. I'll be honest, even though I NEVER, NEVER, NEVER got the hang of making the espresso OR foaming the milk on the side... I really didn't want to get rid of it! (well, technically we didn't... its in the pantry now :) I just wasn't ready to go to the single cup coffee maker...

Boy, was I STUPID.  This new coffee maker is SOOOOO EASY, SOOOO CONVENIENT, and SOOOOO GOOD!  I mean, BETTER THEN STARBUCKS GOOD!  AND, at roughly 50CENTS a cup, you can't beat it!!  Yes, the machine was around $300 but you figure you'll be saving money pretty quickly by getting your coffee at home instead of $3 or $4 at Starbucks every day or so...(ya, I'll admit my addiction AND Lance's)  We got this new machine the day after Thanksgiving and I was hesitant to use it.  In fact, I waited about a week to finally use it because I didn't know what to do.  Well, Lance showed me and it was a no brainer... Put the little pod in, push the button and VIOLA' you have a cup of espresso!  Now do you want a latte??  or Cappacino??  NO PROBLEM, put the milk in the other thing and push the button and there ya go, whatever your little heart desires!

It was a HUGE hit at Lance's work party on Saturday and I thought it may be a hassle with lots of people, ya know, why not have one big pot...  well this was AWESOME b/c those you wanted decaf could have decaf, those who wanted regular, had regular, and so on and so on.... Now they all want one for the office!

Speaking of the party, we had a great time, we worked our little toochies off to get it all done in time, but it was and they all seemed to have a great time too!

Here's some pictures from that night:

Here's one of the ladies passing out some wonderful
Hors d'œuvre's .

some of the happy guests!  (lol Mike, you were sure in a good mood! ;)  He reads my blog but never admits to it, so Hi Mike!

Uncle Stan and Patty.  This is Lance's Uncle and his wife Patty, who invested in the start up of this company and has been a huge help with support and prayers for the blessing of this business.  We appreciate all of it Uncle Stan!

Some of the top Sales people, Chris and Greg.  They are such great people and Lance LOVES how hard you two work for Prosites!! 

Some more happy party goers...  Eric, the one of the left is in a Rock Band and is leaving us next month to go on tour for a year!  Good luck Eric, we will miss you but know this is a dream opportunity and we wish you all the success in the world!  You can find out more about Eric's band, War Stories, on iTunes and you should check out these songs:

"Because I Love You" or "What does God See" 

Great songs and a great guy!!

And we have a NEW little Prosite baby on the way!  This couple is happily carrying a little future Prositer!!  Congratulations to YOU, you're a GREAT couple and we wish you all the health and happiness in the World!!

This is one of our newest "go-getters" at Prosites!  Meagan is also newly MARRIED!!  She even said this is their first Post-Wedding picture together!!  Turned out really cute, if I don't say so myself!!  You're a real shining star already Meagan and I know Lance is happy to have you around, getting everyone organized AND in shape!  (She's organized a lunch hour power walk and I might even be joining in soon! :)

Here's us by the tree too!  I forgot to take everyone's photo by the tree AND the group picture, but I did get this one taken of us by Lance's best bud, Kip!  Thanks Kip for making us look good!  The only think you missed in this picture is to show my "Go-Go" boots!  ( I wore those for Lance's benefit :)

Not to fear, Lance made sure to get one! hehehe...

 
  Here's the bar tender in the front room.  You can kind of see my boots in this picture with me and the camera bouncing off the mirror. lol... 

Some more of the yummy food...

And the annual "gift exchange" in full gear...  The gift exchange isn't really an "exchange" b/c Prosites provides all the gifts (think Laura buying and wrapping :)- and then we play the game where you have a number and pick a gift and then you can steal the gift a couple times before it's frozen.  They were GREAT gifts as this one can attest and quite a few were stolen, which makes it a FUN little game night too!  We scored the William Sonoma ice-cream maker and this:

  
It's a Oreo Cookie MOLD that came with the cake mix, the peppermint "snow" and other little goodies, PLUS the Ice-Cream Maker too!  I think this is going to be our Happy Birthday Jesus Cake this year!  We usually make a pound cake with peppermint ice-cream in the middle, but this year, I think we might have to make it from scratch with out own ice-cream!!  Lance first stole the COACH purse (yes you heard right ;) then someone stole it from him and he got this next.  Way to go hubby, thinking of your wife first and then kids 2nd!! (the kids are beyond thrilled with this score!)  And Veronica and Scott, so sorry... we'll have you over for some delicious ice-cream, I promise! ;)-

So, it was a wonderful evening and I know eveyrone enjoyed themselves!  It's gotten a little too big for our house now, so we're going to have to find a bigger place to hold the next Christmas party.  (or we could get a bigger house??... no, actually then that means I have to CLEAN a bigger house...)

Then on Sunday, after everything was cleaned up and back to normal, we went out to dinner at a VERY special place:

This happens to be the place where Lance proposed to me almost 21 YEARS AGO TO THE DAY!!   What's funny is, we didn't even realize it was kind of an anniversary of sorts until we were almost there!  We obviously knew it was a special place b/c of the proposal, but as we were driving up there, we realized it was at Christmas time that he asked me to marry him here, and that was 21 years ago almost to the day!  So it was so nice to be back there and relive that a little...  It's a beautiful restaurant in Orange overlooking the Valley below.  If you ever get a chance to go there, be sure to have some time to sit outside by one of the firepits and enjoy the night view!  We didn't have time that night because we had tickets to see...

Andrea Bocelli!!

Yes, I think I told her a few months ago one of the ladies who reads my blog emailed me and asked me if I knew that Andrea Bocelli was going to be in concert here in December.  I said "NO" and quickly went online to do a search.  Well, they were going on sale THAT DAY!!  I quickly IM'd Lance and asked him if we could go to see him  and buy tickets and you know what he said...

"I JUST GOT TICKETS BABE!!"

Yup, he's a keeper for sure! So that was on Sunday night and it was truely AMAZING!  I mean, there is talent and then there is GOD GIVEN TALENT... And this man has it!  It was also amazing for use because we saw him just this August here:





In his hometown of Lajatico, Italy.  And then to see him in OUR state, it was magical!  It not only brought back memories of our trip to Italy this Summer, but it was truely magical to hear him LIVE again and realize again, how he is really one of the most talented singers on the planet! 

I took a few pictures at the concert (wasn't suppossed to) but I can't seem to get them off the coolpix camera we took... oh...I just got a couple:

Here we took this one of ourselves before the concert started.  We look a little tired, don't we??  But we had great seats.  We were on the floor in the front row of the second section, so it was nice to have no-one right in front of us and we could strech our legs a little.  The only problem is I have long legs like my dad so I had to constantly pull them in when people walked by...

Definately tired and not so good hair-do either, but I wanted to show you the stage behind me...  I LOVE that he always has a FULL Orchestra, it adds so much more to the concert!  

Here's a few I grabbed off the internet:

and this is the BEST I've ever heard the Lord's Prayer.  I found this off of YouTube and it's amateur, but it's worth listenting too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auvvivKzdCY

This was a very special concert, not only because it brought back memories of our trip to Tuscany this Summer to see him there, but also because he was HERE and he spoke ENGLISH and sang songs in English AND because David Foster was there and I'm a huge fan of his work as well.  I also LOVE the full orchestra and choir and think it adds so much more to a concert.  It was a night to remember for sure!

Go check out the youtube video if you have a few minutes, it's well worth it!  It's an amatuer video, but captures the amazing talent of this man!

O.k a couple more things before I go get some things done:

1. My class at PaperTales is tomorrow!  you can sign up by calling them today if you still want to make it!

OR

if you can't make it... I will have the class kit available on THIS blog tomorrow!  So you'll just go to the "Chic Boutique" on the left side under Kit Club and purchase it here:

It will be $27.00 and if you want them for gifts, just send me an email and I can send that out ASAP to you!

O.k. the other thing is the Guest Design spot...  The video they filmed her last week should be live by tonight.  She had computer problems and had to start all over on her computer this week and told me she wouldn't have the video up until this evening.  So I haven't watched it yet, and I'm a little hesitant to watch it at all ;)- but you can see it here by tonight:

http://www.virtueradionetwork.com/Cropped.htm

I'm not sure I want any comments...lol... (* Ty *) but you hopefully will like the project!
 

O.k. I need to get white shoes for my little ANGEL for tonights concert at school, so I have to run...

Hugs to all,

Laura

TGIF...

Hooray, the weekend is HERE!  This week has been filled to the brim with activities and things to do and now I'm getting ready for Lance's work party tomorrow night!  We have a TON to do still to get the house ready and all the presents wrapped and food taken care of but I'm looking forward to a "grown up" weekend...  The kids are all going to be away and the dog is being boarded, (she likes to jump up to get petted but Lance is afraid she will ruin peoples pants or nylons, what a thoughtful guy :)

So you're probably wondering how the filming went at my house yesterday???   It was kinda strange, I have to say...  I'm fine when I can talk about a project or tell you how to make it because that's what I do when I teach a class.  So it's really the part that's the "fluff stuff" that I have a hard time with!  I feel weird just talking about myself, especially when I know certain family members are going to laugh there heads off when they watch this "webisode"... ( *cough *TY *cough *) So I hesitate to even share where you can watch this, but I know some of you will want to know how to make the project, so here goes:

You can go to this website on December 15th and it will be LIVE:

http://www.virtueradionetwork.com/Cropped.htm

I met the owner yesterday and she is SOOOO nice and made me feel totally at home (ya, I know I WAS at home ;) and really helped me with what to say, where to stand or what to do in the "fluff" part and has a very inspirational website that I'm excited to be the Guest Designer for this month!!  So go check out Virtue Radio Network, there's a TON of great stuff on there!!

I didn't take any pictures, darn it, but my friend Cindy came by and helped out with everything too, so THANKS Cindy!  Oh I also can say THANK YOU to Miss Michelle at Paper Tales!  You may not know it, but Cindy asked where they had heard about me and she said Paper Tales!!!  Gotta love that!

Speaking of Paper Tales,  this class:

This class is going to be next Wednesday, the 16th at 10:30am at Paper Tales!  So come on by and take the class with me if you have time!  I'm not sure how many spots are left, I haven't had a chance to check, but you can call 619-222-2510 and sign up!

And... speaking of "classes", I've been thinking of doing some On-line classes and was wondering what you ladies would think of that?  I really don't know much about places like "Big Picture" or other places people go to for scrapbooking classes, but I'm thinking this next year I'd like to start teaching some on-line classes or offering a DVD or some sort of video to go along with my kits.  Let me know what you think ladies, I'd LOVE to get some input...

Oh, I took some pictures of my scrap room yesterday AFTER the film shoot and wanted to show you them!  I don't think I've ever really showed you my scrap room and this was the cleanest it will ever be! lol...

Now I wanted to have this be part of the webisode yesterday, but we ran out of time and she said she'd like to come back and maybe do this another time.  But as most of you know, my "scrap room" is really my laundry room AND little miss Scarlet's room.  So I don't have a very big space but it works and that's what I like about showing you it.  You really CAN take ANY space and make it work!  I know my sister Dawn has a little tiny upstairs loft as your scrap room at it's ADORABLE!  I LOVE her space and she has made it work for her even though it's small too.  By the way Dawn, you need to take pictures of your scrap room and share them, because you have really done an amazing job with that space!!

So here's a few pictures I took of my Scrap Room:

Another thing about my space is, it was VERY cheap...  It may not be all fancy but it's workable and cost next to nothing.  I use a 6' folding table as my desk, not my FAV part of the room but it works for now...  I have a tall dresser next to the table that was my Aunt's and she gave it to me when she moved.  I love it because it looks "shabby chic" and it holds all my chipboard, my rub-ons, and misc. embellishments.  Then I got two metal racks that I think are bakers racks and they hold some bins with more stuff.  I also got all the organizational trays and shelfs at Ikea and I've been collecting the letter L for the last couple years. (good Christmas gift Ty, I forgot about that one ;) 

Here's the other reason I love my space... little miss Scarlet!  See her on her Zebra bed?  She keeps me company and LOVES it when I'm in this room with her!  She can be anywhere else in the house, but when I come in here and sit down, she comes in here and takes a nap!  I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that I have a SINK!  It's next to the beige paper trays, almost out of the shot...  I've tried to move my scrap space to a different room, but every time I think about it, I realize I have the perfect space for what I do.  I LOVE to use paints and inks and glitter and all the messy stuff in my art and to have all those cabinets FULL of my supplies AND a sink, it's just really PERFECT!

A close-up of my table.  You can see the project we filmed and the one that I made while we did the shoot.  YOu can also see some of my other work all around the room.

My December Daily album that I need to get caught up on this weekend!  I'll share some pictures next week...

And this is my "tip of the day" ...

I think it's a GREAT idea and even sent it in to CK Magazine, but never heard anything back...

It's one of those shoe organizers for the back of the door, but I use it for my GIANT chipboard letters!  I have a spot for every letter and it's the easiest way I've found to keep them organized!!

And last but not least,

I've mentioned that my hubby kicked me out of the office right?  Well, I'm really fine with it, (sob, sob ;)- because it was too manly for me anyway, but I've reclaimed the "butler's pantry" as my office.  (It's a small space off of the kitchen that the home builder called the butler's pantry, not my choice for a name :) So here's a picture of my new "office":

It's not really an "office" but it works and I actually like my little space!  I don't know how well it's going to work when I have the kits going again, but for now, it's cute and I love it!  I still have the guest bedroom FULL of kit stuff and will have to make that command central... hehehe...

Oh, I forgot one more picture... It's my new CHALKBOARD!!

Well technically it's not new.  I got this in August when Lance and I went to go see "Legally Blond" in L.A.  I just had Cindy help frame it for me yesterday and we hung it up right  before Judith came from Cropped!  It's really just a poster that has that chalkboard paint on it with this really cool frame!  I LOVE IT!  I can't remember what store I got it at, Cindy asked and I think I have a picture of the store back on this blog in August if you want to find out.  I think it's one of those paper stores like Papyrus of something...

O.k. last thing before I go to work...

the RAK Winner this week is:

Harriett H.!

Congratulations Harriett!  Send me your address and I'll get the PRIZE sent out to you!

Have a GREAT WEEKEND everyone!!  Enjoy this Christmas Season with your family and friends!!

Hugs,

Laura

Guest Design shoot, TOMORROW!!

O.k. I'm close to freaking out point...  I have SO MUCH TO DO before they come tomorrow to shoot the "webisode"!!

I've been trying to get some things done and now have to clean up my scrap room and the rest of the house late tonight.  I forgot to come on here yesterday and show you the promo they did for the Guest Design spot, so go check it out here if you have a minute:

http://www.virtueradionetwork.com/Cropped.htm

I'm so excited and nervous all at the same time.  I just answered a whole bunch of questions and she's going to send me a script at some point to go over...

So say a little prayer for me tonight... and ignore the double chin in the video... if I had a few weeks notice, it might have been gone! lol... 

Oh, here's the paper mache house and church I talked about a while ago.  I finally took some time to make these last night b/c I want them in my glass domes my mom got at a flea market!  The green one is a church and the red one is a cabin...

There are in the family room inside of these domes:

you can check out more close-up pictures of these on: www.twopeasinabucket.com I just put them up in the member gallery!  And if you wanted these, I think there's still some left in the kit section of the blog...

Have a good night and I'll blog again on Friday to announce the winner of the RAK and let you know how tomorrow went!

hugs,

Laura  
 

Happy Monday!

I hope all of you had a WONDERFUL weekend in the start of this Christmas Season!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this time of year and even though it's super duper busy at this time, I try to enjoy ALL OF IT!  This past weekend, we kicked off the Season with a Christmas Tea!  We do this every year with my mother-in-law and my cousin Cheryl and we change the location of the tea every year as well.  So this year, we picked a place close by our house and it was a wonderful afternoon tea with family! Next year I've decided to have the tea at MY HOUSE!  Yes, I want to have it and have lots of friends and family, so you're ALL invited!!

Here's some pictures that captured the tea:

Here's Nana with the girls in front of the tree at the teahouse.

We all got candy canes with our teacups and one of the flavors of tea we had WAS Candy Cane!!

Nana always gets little gifts for us, Isabella enjoyed hers a lot!

 
They don't look that happy?  I guess they are tired of my camera... We're supposed to be having FUN girls!!

Here's Isabella's pink "tea"...

Rebecca testing out the tea... I think it may have been a little hot. lol...

Here's the first course.  We had THREE courses and I have to say, the scones were the last and BEST course! 

My little Rebecca is growing up before my eyes!  She's not my "little girl" anymore and I'm so proud of how beautiful (inside and out) she is!  I just pray that we can keep the sweetness there as she journey's into "teenage" life soon...

Here's "Auntie" Cheryl with Isabella!  She is such a GREAT cousin, so we call her Auntie...  We LOVE you Cheryl!  (she reads my blog but never comments ;)

 Then after the tea is was COLD but we decided to show them a little cheese shop we frequent... a little too often...  I decided to get some of our FAV cheese, bread and salami and make that dinner that night with the girls!  It's one of our favorite dinners I must say... (mom likes it b/c it's EASY) and we watched Survivor as we enjoyed our gourmet cheeses and meats!  Is anyone thinking this Survivor is one of the BEST EVER?  I couldn't STAND Russell at the beginning and I still have a Love/Hate relationship with him, but I have to tell you, he cracks me up now and he's so evil, but you have to hand it to that guy for staying around this long! He deserves to win for that... I just don't know if his own "people" are going to turn on him now... did you see the preview for next week?

O.k. back to REAL Reality...

So we got our cheese and then Victoria, the budding photographer, wanted to go by our "spot" where we took photos in Aug/Sept. by a brick building and she wanted to take some pictures so she could edit them and put them in her growing portfolio.  Remember these from the Fall:

She took these and now she wanted to take some more at the same spot.  The only problem it was a cloudy and dark day, so they didn't come out as good.  But here's what she took of us:

I like the angle on this one...

We forgot to take the big flash with us and these aren't edited by her yet.  But I have to say, Cheryl and I thought Victoria had the "photographers stance."  She keep angling her body to work with the subject and she'd move all around, up and down.. It was pretty cool to watch her!

You could really tell that victoria was having fun and that's just half of it.  Then she LOVES getting home and putting them on their computer and editing them.  I think she may have a future in this...

Thank you Victoria, you got my good angle again!  Gotta love her for that!  This picture hasn't even been edited yet!  I can't WAIT to see how good she makes me look!

oh, I just got a HUGE Clear Scraps box on my doorstep!  Gotta wrap this up so I can go take a look inside at the TOP SECRET CHA stuff!

Here's one last photo of the photographer:

I'm not such a bad photographer either...

O.k. I am going to go finish up cleaning my "studio"... Which is a joke since it's my laundry room, but they are coming here on Thursday to FILM and I'm not sure where they want to film for the "webisode" so I'm going to make sure they have lots of options!

Before I go, I want to do another RAK!!

I haven't had many comments on here lately from you ladies, so I think I'll get you to leave a comment today! ;)-

Just leave a comment on THIS post and tell me what you have for Christmas morning breakfast!  I'm trying to come up with something different this year, so this will get the ideas flowing! hehehe...

I'll announce the RAK winner on Friday!

Go enjoy the Holidays, TODAY!

Hugs,

Laura

P.S.  I just posted the "Just Be" album on www.twopeasinabucket.com if you want to go see every page... and vote... :)-
 

Do you ever USE people??

Ya, I know.... it's a horrible thing.  But I have to admit I use this person a LOT...

Remember her?  The one of the left... It's Isabella's teacher, Miss Wright.  I am telling you, when I USE her name around this house, a little girl I know SHAPES UP QUICK!!  So I want to know... be honest... do you use your kids teacher as a behavior modification tool? hehehe...

Because this morning, Isabella was nothing but sour grapes and that's not all that uncommon unfortunately.  So I told her while she "wasn't" eating her breakfast that I was going to tell her teacher that she wasn't making good choices! Now mind you, this wasn't JUSTY because of not eating her breakfast... she is a sour grape a LOT, like half of the day...  I'm listenting to Dr. Laura, talking to friends and moms, thinking of things to do and really, the only thing right now is threatening to tell her TEACHER she's not behaving!  So, I'm using her all I can! lol... 

Oh and Isabella has until Monday morning to make some better choices and then I'm telling her teacher one of two things...

1. "I am soooo proud of Isabella Miss Wright, she has been making such GREAT choices all weekend and has had so much JOY in her heart"

or

2. "Isabella has been making some bad choices this weekend and I think we need to think of some things we can do to have a better attitude and  turn that frown UPSIDE DOWN!! ;)-"

And one more thing... I don't understand... why is she an ANGEL at school?

Any help from YOU wise mothers would also be GREAT!!

O.k. now that's off my chest, I have some things to SHOW YOU and SHARE with YOU!!!

I have some VERY exciting news so stay until the end...

But 1st, here's some pictures from the FINALLY finished "Just Be" album!  I made this with the November "Fly Home" kit and the all the BEAUTIFUL Melody Ross Artsy Urban goodies and 7 Gypsies and Maya Road in the kit as well!  I know it took me a while to get it done but here's a a sampling:

Well, that was a pain.  My computer froze on me 3 times doing that!

Speaking of my computers... I had a guy at my DH's office working on my computer remotely yesterday for about 4 hours so HOPEFULLY I shouldn't be having the send/recieve error anymore!  I'm so sorry... I really can't STAND it that I don't know if YOU are getting my emails AND wondering  if YOU are trying to email ME and I don't even know???  So please don't give up on me... I'm working to get my emails running smoothly!

O.k. back to pictures...

I told you I'm doing my December Daily that is inspired by Ali Edwards and I have a few pictures to show!  I heard about this album Ali does last year and started one for December 2008.  This year I forgot all about it until a few days before December and got inspired again to make my own!  I had been buying up some Making Memories goodies that they came out with a couple months ago and since I'm a HUGE fan of MM's, I am using mostly there products for my album.  So here's a look at the cover and the first few pages:

I'm going to journal on the left side this weekend...

So we finally got the tree decorated on Wednesday night! We had a LOT of fun as you can see and I feel so good that things are up and looking GREAT in the house! Here's a few pictures that didn't make it into the album from that night...

Ty and Dawn, this one was for you... ;)-

Here I am showing her lance & I's very first ornament!  It's over 20 years old now...

It's of us on our wedding day in a heart...

being goofy, as usual...

O.k. I'm WAY behind schedule today so I have to run.

The one bit of news I'll leave you with is that I've been asked to be a Guest Designer on a website and they are coming here next week to FILM a "webisode"!!!

I'll give you more details and when and where to watch it!!

Enjoy this Christmas Weekend!!!

Hugs,

Laura

 

Love, Tuesday...

Here's what I'm LOVING today:

MORE STOCKINGS!!!

This one right above I designed... It's hard to tell but the vintage belt buckle has the word JOY in chipboard letters!  It's not attached so you can change it to any word or name you like... 

So, my mom has 13 more stockings for sale and I posted them all on Etsy so go check them out!  I will be taking a couple down today because some friends ended up wanting them.  But there are a LOT to choose from so have fun shopping!  I also put up the LAST "Fly Home" kit on there so you can get that too if you wanted it. 

I'm off to do some shopping for my hubby's Christmas Party at our house next week and trying to wait until my dentist appt. tomorrow for this jaw/tooth problem I've been having...

Oh, I have a LOT of friends on Facebook from my Kit Club but I would sure like more of you on there!  I'm on FB every day and it's SO MUCH FUN.  So please join me over there if you are on FB, we'd all LOVE to chat with you on there!!

hugs,

Laura