debby visser

My Christmas Tree

Finally finding a few minutes - while waiting for stckles to dry - to get to this post about my tree.

We decided to buy a fake tree this year.  There were more pros than cons.

The Pros:

1 -  the tree will come prelit with strands that keep working even if one is burnt out.

2 - I can put it up WAY sooner

3 - no needles to constantly clean up

4 - no drooping branches - that drove me crazy, they would droop after a week

5 - no watering

6 - no surprise bugs

7 - less of a fire hazard

8 - we will save money in the long run

The Cons:

1 - no more family tree getting traditon

2 - no more fresh smelling pine smell

3 - now we have something else to store

I am very happy with our decision.  I bought the tree from Rona, it was the best deal, had the most tips, most lights for the least amount of money.  The green stuff covers almost all exposed wires or plastic.  I love that if I need a branch somewhere I just bend and move and viola, a branch.  And the best part is no more fighting with lights year after year.  They are on the tree and go from the inside all the way to the outside, nice and beautifully spaced.  I love it.

So here are some pictures (excuse the bad photos, I am still trying to figure out how to get great 'light' shots)

Here it is with only the lights, my angel and red bead strings

Here it is with most of the decorations (the white balls have been moved in more)

And here are some of my favourite decorations

And these are some angels we learned how to make at my M.O.M.S. group.  I came home, made 14 and used my red, white and silver theme.  I didn't get a great picture of them on the tree.

Sigh, yes we have wood panelling in our home.  As I have shared before, we have a very old home, and have not done a ton of renovations; yet.  Since this picture, the little table and cactus has been move.  My tree skirt I found at the second hand store, still with tags on, for $3.00!  and it fits perfectly under my tree.  And my carpet is not blue, it is an ugly green.  lol

Thanks for stopping by!  I have more to share, but will save it for another day.  I think those stickles might be dry, so off to finish my advent calender.  (yes late, lol)

Hope you share some of your decorations!  And if you do, leave a comment with a link to your blog or photos.  I just might do a draw at the end of December for some free 'made by me' stuff!!!

debby
   
  
 
 
 

Cover Girl

My big news:

My design has been chosen for the front COVER OF CANADIAN SCRAPBOOKER!!!  The spring 2010 issue!

I am beyond excited and can't believe they chose little ole me!!

It is not my picture, we are given a picture and the journaling to work with, but the products and design are up to us.  So it is not me or my kids, just my scrapbooking design.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing my news with me!!

We are off to continue the hunt for a great pre-lit fake Christmas tree.

(oh and I might try and convince hubby to stop at few second hand stores, LOVE those places!)

:)

Kreative Blogger........

Ahh Jillian you are too sweet!!!

Jillian, my fellow Inspired Scrapper design team member, has nominated me for this award!

Once the award is accepted, the nominee has to do the following:

•Thank the sender for nominating you.

•make sure you link to the person who nominated you.

•Copy the logo onto your blog

•List seven interesting things about yourself.

•Nominate Seven Kreative Bloggers

•Post links to their Blogs

•Leave a comment for each letting them know of their nomination.

Okay so 7 interesting things..............(am I interesting enough?  lol)

1 - I have 4 children and each of them has a different colour of hair.  And yes I gave birth to each one of them, (a mom never forgets that!! lol)

2 - I do not like seafood, the occasional prawn or shrimp drowned in garlic butter is okay, but otherwise I eat nothing that comes out of the ocean or lakes!!

3 - I had my belly button pierced, no idea if a ring will still go in, I took it out during one of my pregnancies.

4 - I belong to a monthly scrapbook group called 'Hotties', this group has grown into some of my very bestest of friends and we see each other *almost* daily.

5 - When I grow up I want to be a Grandma!!

6 - When I was little I ran into a door handle and had to have stitches, you can still see the scar today.

7 - Before scrapbooking I used to cross stitch,  hmmm I should bring that stuff out again!

Okay and now for 7 creative bloggers:

Corry -  Just Being Me

 Kari - oslupdate

Cari - me and my thoughts

Kathy - Kat's Stampin and Scrap Pad

Renee - Budda Blog

Connie - Every day's an Adventure

Leigh - to the full

*I have some big news to share tomorrow!!!* :)

Christmas Tree which one?

Every year we go out as a family and get a real Christmas tree from the farm.  It has been a tradition for the past 9 years. 

This year, that may stop.  Hubby and I are considering a fake tree.  Reasons why:

- less mess

- I can put it up earlier

- less worry about fires

- Some come with lights already, oh no more tangled mess or searching for which light is burnt out

- after the first few years, it will be cheaper

But I will miss the family outing, I will miss the smell and look of a real one.

Oh what do you do and why?

I already have tons of my decorations up and would love to get the tree up as well.  That is the biggest motivator for me right now!

And hubby found that if we buy it on-line through Rona, we will get double the air miles and free delivery!  That sounds good too!

I have been very busy making Christmas crafts and I need to get my advent calendar done!!  I bought the new Kaiser Crafts one from Jayme at Scrapbook Fanatics and LOVE it!  I will share my finished one as soon as I am done.

For now I will share this layout of my cute cute Jaxon.  The papers are Kaiser Craft as well and perfect for boys!!

Rainy Rainy days make great Scrapbook days!

I love the rain for this reason most.  I can stay inside and scrapbook and not feel guilty!

Here in the Lower Mainland, we get tons of rain, heavy rain, rain that comes at you sideways and even rain that comes back at you from the ground. 

The second reason I love rain, is it is soothing, listening to it while sitting by the fire with a cup of cocoa................aaahhh lovely!

(Now by the time April comes, I will be done with this glorious rain, but for now I will enjoy it :) )

Danny's birthday party was a great success.  I think the best part was the socker poppers.  I found these things at Walmart, $2.00 each!!  So instead of a goodie bag, I bought these for each of the kids and a few extras for any adults that wanted to play.  The kids loved them and played outside for long time - thankfully it stopped raining for this (yes I love rain, but not to play in!!)

I am away this weekend at a retreat, and I so can't wait!  I love this retreat, it is in Hope and is so relaxed.

I will be revealing all the things I have been making for sale, including my layouts.  Here is one, it will cost $6.00, the kits come with only the supplies you need to create the layout as shown.  You won't have any leftovers really.  All the die cuts are pre-cut as well as the papers.  The kit will include instructions and a photo.  You will need; your own photos, a black ink pad for distressing, your adhesives and a black journal pen.

As always thanks for stopping by!

Debby
 
 

He's 8, how did that happen!

My middle son Danny is 8years old.  Seriously how did that happen!

It seems just yesterday that he was toddling around.  Man they grow so fast!

Today he is a SOLID chunk of a boy.  He play tackle football, loves animals and dinosaurs and is the most happy go lucky boy I know.  Seriously, he is just happy to be and he loves himself.  We found that out at his teacher meeting.  They had a questionair to fill out about themselves and one of the questions was 'Do you have a goal for yourself this year, maybe you want to change something or improve something about yourself?'

His answer (which totally cracked hubby and I up):

No I am good, I like me just the way I am.  But thanks for asking.

Seriously that is what he wrote!!  Oh goodness I love that boy!

Today we have tons of family and friends coming over for his birthday party.  Shall be a great day of celebrating our dear boy.

Sesame Streets 40th Anniversary

Did you know that today is Sesame Streets 40th Anniversary!!

I found this out through google (I am not that smart, lol).

I thought that was pretty cool!  I remember watching this as a child and today my kids still watch it.  We were trying to figure out who were the first main characters.  I think it was Bert and Ernie, Big Bird, Snuffy, Oscar the grouch, and Grover.  And for the life of me, I can't remember the people's names?

I even had the Fisher Price Sesame Street play set.  LOVED that!  Sure wish I had taken care of it and had it today for my kids!

I thought I had a 'free' day at home today.  Kids rode their bikes to school, and there is no Kindergarten today, so I was thinking I didn't have to go anywhere.  But then I remembered there is Karate tonight and parent teacher interm report meetings.  Oh well, I can stay home all day at least.

I hope to be really 'scrappy' today!  I want to make some new things, and finish putting the kits together for next weekend.

Here is a sneaky peaky of some of the things I have been creating for sale;

I am having so much making these things.  And even if they dont' sell, I will have a great bunch of embellishments on hand!

Have a great day and as always, thanks for stopping by!

(oh and no new me yet, lol)

Need a knew me...

I think I need a new 'me' picture!  That one, to the left, is old and boring!  So that will be my challenge.  hhmm wonder if I can get it done this week?

Next weekend I am heading to another weekend retreat.  I just love retreat season!  Lots of friends, scrapbooking, good times, memories ............... ahhh

I am going up on Thursday and I am only teaching 2 classes, so there should be lots of time to socialize and relax!!  This is one of the classes; Christmas Cards

I wanted to share that I am trying something knew. As I scrapbook and create a layout/project, I am putting together 'kits' of that exact layout/project and selling them.  The kits will contain only the products you need to complete the page 'as shown', instructions and a picture of the finished layout/project.  I will pre-cut the papers, pre-stamp the images, and use tools on materials you may not have. 
This will allow you to have finished projects with minimal tools and effort.
And the great part is the cost.  Each layout/project will be individually priced, but I can tell you single page layouts will be anywhere from $3.00 - $9.00 depending on how much product was used.  Very reasonable in my opinion. 
And I am also dabbling in creating little embellishments packets for sale as well.  (If you look at the picture above, the little brown flowers with book paper backing, on the music card, are some of the embellishments I am putting together)

The retreat I am attending next weekend, will be my first 'reveal'.  Depending on how it goes over will help me decide on if I make a serious go with this idea or not.

The reason I am doing this, is I love to create, I love to play and don't want to quit.  BUT I am feeling a little worried lately.  I scrapbook so much I am starting to feel I am leaving my children a burden, and not cherished memories.  As it sits right now, I have over 40 albums of scrapbook pages, and that does not include mini albums and altered projects!!  I would switch to just making cards, but it breaks my heart to think people throw them away!

So that is what is knew with me and my scrapbooking. 

WOW I blogged 2 days in a row!!  Amazing!!  LOL!!

As always, thanks for stopping by. 

Where to begin

Where to begin. 

Hmmm

Last weekend was the BC Crops 4 Kids in Abbotsford.  It was an excellent event, again this year.  I met new people, caught up with old friends and found out I don't blog often enough. lol  Many people asked me, 'when are you going to update?'.  Or I heard, 'I lurk on your site all the time'.

I felt great at first that people found me interesting enough to visit and KNOW that I hadn't updated and WANTED me to update.  Then I felt bad, hhmm I am a terrible blogger!

So here I am ready to blog and no idea where to start!  What to share!  What will be interesting! 

I guess I will just start with last night; Halloween.  Hubby went to a football game, so just the kids and I went trick or treating.  I was SO glad it did not rain!  It wasn't even all the cold.  There were not alot of trick or treaters in area this year, people were saying they were only getting around 10 - 15 little guy.  We only did a small circle and came home.  We don't NEED all that candy! lol

I haven't uploaded the pictures of the kids from last night, but here they are from a few days ago.  Dressing up around here is an almost everyday thing.  And getting a nice picture of my 3 boys is next to impossible.  They are almost always wrestling. sigh!

Check out 'The Inspired Scrapper' for some awesome Halloween projects.

As always, thanks for stopping by!  And as I told some of my 'confessed stalkers' (teehee), if I don't update, email me and remind me!

I promise next update will contain something scrapy!

debby
 
 

They are back!

So the kids are back in school, yah!!

I am not one of those Moms that gets emotional when her babies leave the for day, for 5 days in a row for almost 10 months!!!  Not even when her last of 4 goes.  Nope this Mom celebrates!!!  woohoo!!!

Yes my youngest is off to kindergarten this year.  While I am not looking forward to the back and forth to school all day, I am looking forward to going grocery shopping by myself, I am looking forward to going into a store and not hearing 'can I get' 'can I have......, I am looking forward to being able to try on clothes in a store! and I am looking forward to 2.5 hours of uninterrupted scrapbooking time!!  woohoo!

AND I am looking forward to volunteering in the class for all my boys, maybe even going on a field trip or 2!!!

aahhh!

This weekend is our garage sale, I am so looking forward to getting rid of all this stuff!!  Amazes me what we have in this house!  Like I did not know we had 5 TV's!  Yes 5!!!  who needs 5 TV's for goodness sake!  And we have 3 VCR's!  We don't even watch VCR's anymore!  Gosh are we the kings of clutter or what!!

And I have finally hooked up the scanner - okay I finally found it and remembered that I need it! lol

I scanned all the baby photos I have of me, which are very few and have been fixing them and will print them off for a little book I am creating.

Here is a photo of me, it was either chewed by an animal or a baby, no idea which! lol  But I spent the afternoon fixing this one up.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I think I am pretty cute, eh?! lol

Thanks for stopping by!

Debby