Becky Higgins Project 365

I'm guessing by now most of you have heard of Becky Higgins kit of the month, Project 365. It seems to be the buzz on all the message boards with EVERYONE lining up to purchase the kit when it goes on sale Jan 1st. The January issue of Creating Keepsakes dedicated a few pages to the kit with idea's and suggestions to complete the project.

I really like the concept of documenting a year with a picture a day. This will condition me to carry my camera around at all times. There have been countless times in the past I could of just knocked myself for not having it and missing an opportunity. Maybe, too, this will polish my photography skills, gosh knows I need it.

It is a BIG commitment but a challenge I'm up for. I decided not to purchase the kit, at $39.95 plus $11 and change for shipping I felt I had enough stash and scraps to do my version. The picture above shows the sketch I'm choosing to use for each week in the year. I've started my week on the first of the year instead of Becky's suggestions to start it on the weekend before. I will store my layouts in a 12 X 12, 3 ring naked binder (or two). Also I've decided to do 3 1/2 X 5" sized pictures so if I chose to embellish I'll have room.

I'd love to know if any of you are starting this project and what plans you have if you're not buying the kit. Becky has started a blog specifically for this project. I'm excited to start.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Good morning all. I hope everyone is enjoying a relaxing Christmas Day with family. I'm not sure if you can tell by my picture but this is how I spent my Christmas.

My whole family lives in Michigan and I'm in Texas so holidays are sometimes bittersweet for me. This Christmas my hubby came up with an ingenious idea...Hook up the webcam with the microphone and I could then celebrate Christmas with my family via the internet. This is why I married this guy! My son hooked up his laptop in Michigan and hubby hooked up mine in Texas and WALA...Christmas!

Although the reception and sound perhaps wasn't the best, I enjoyed every minute of it. I was able to watch everyone open the gifts I sent for them. I was able to watch my 2 year old grandson do what 2 year old do on Christmas eve and that was a real treat. The picture is one I took of the computer monitor while we were celebrating ;-)

This is the first Christmas I was able to "spend" with my family in about 8 years. It turned out to be the "bestest" Christmas for me!

Advent Calendar

I am so lucky to belong to the Yahoo Group, Kerrville Croppers. This group is filled with extraordinary ladies. And talented? Oh yeah!

One of our ladies, Sally Davidson, held a class at her church to make this Advent Calendar. Now Sally is VERY talented, check out her blog at
http://sallydavidson.blogspot.com/ or take a peek at her talent here http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5169079 Sally put a ton of work into this class, she cut all the papers to size and brought each and every embellishment for us to use. She outdid herself. There were a total of 12 ladies in Sally's class and I didn't see anyone disappointed with thier end result! Sally you rock! I am so happy with my Advent calendar.

Another Completed Project

I'm so excited that I've accomplished so much this holiday season. This is a cookbook I made for my mother-in-law as a gift. I used a 9x9 BoBunny naked album and went to town. Please see the slideshow towards the bottom of this page. The envelopes in between the pages hold recipe cards or recipe clippings. On some pages I placed pictures and on other pages I added pockets to hold more recipes. Boy, I hope she likes it.

Christmas Cards

First of all I want to give credit where credit is due. The adorable giraffe card was lifted from GinaKDesigns.com. I frequent her blog (and store, that is where I bought the giraffe stamp set) and I'm always amazed at the talent and inspiration I find there.

The Angel and Christmas tree cards were mostly my design though I used the same sketch from GinaKDesigns. Both of these stamp sets are from The Angel Company. Lastly for the Ho Ho Ho card I used stamps from a huge set that my darling sister Sue bought for me from Costco (thanks sis, love you).

I'm back off to my crop room to put some finishing touches on a BEAUTIFUL Advent calendar. I took a class from Sally Davidson to make the calendar (she is extremely talented) and I can't wait to post a picture of it. Hope ya'll are busy crafting too!

Ho Ho Ho

I decided at the last minute to make my Christmas cards. I spent ALL day Friday and Saturday in my craft room (it was terrible but I had to do it LOL) and was thrilled to finish all 30 cards. I will blog one of each design so you can see them better. Heck, what else do you have to do besides read blogs today? Now, to do the notes inside the Christmas cards and the addressing, that's the harder job.