New Year, New Resolutions!

So, today is going to be my last post of 2009. Thank goodness. I have always loved the New Year because even though so many new years resolutions go undone or unfollowed through, I still feel like it's a new beginning. I have many New Years resolutions this year in a couple different areas of my life:

Family

• Every day my kids get bigger and bigger and more independent, it makes me sad, yet it makes me happy too. It means that Justin and I have done something right. Therefore, I am going to cherish every day with them and do something special with them to develop more family traditions that they will remember as they get older.
• I am determined to have family dinners at least 3 times a week. It's hard, but I think that it's important and it just takes a little bit of planning.
• I will also try to remember that my husbands needs to know how special he is to me also. I will try to make a larger effort to show him.

Work

• My dad always said, "All you have to do is what they ask of you." It's so true if you think about it. It will not only help you do your job, but also help you go above and beyond.
• I will make an effort to be grateful that I have a job, when so many other people don't.

Scrapbooking/Cardmaking

• Recently I have started making cards and I have found that I really enjoy it. So, I will continue to make cards and develop my cardmaking talents.
• I will also make a bigger effort to get my kids scrapbooks done and to scrap those cherised memories, not just the ones that I have pictures for, but the ones that really mean something.
• I am also going to make a HUGE effort to organize a design a craft room that is conducive to creativity.

Well, that's it for now. I'm sure that there will more as the year goes on, but all will encompass the loves of my life, my family.

One Last One...

Here is one last card that I whipped up for my hubby tonight. It's his last day at work for 2009 tomorrow and I wanted to make it a good one, so I am stuffing this in his briefcase tonight for him to open in the morning. Enjoy!

Simple Birthday Card

Here is another simple card that I did with the help of a Pagemaps card sketch. It's a birthday card. I used my Gypsy, mt Cricut Expressions, and my Martha Stewart Embossing Gun. Sorry it's not the best picture. My craft space is a huge mess right now, so trying to find room to take a picture is a little difficult!

Get Well Soon...

Here is a card that I did for my grandmother who is in the hospital tonight...please pray for her. She has a lot of fluid in her lungs and they think that she was in respiratory arrest.

It is also the card layout from the Mojo Monday Sketch Blog. I have been meaning to try one of their sketches for quite some time and when I saw this sketch I sat right down at lunch and planned it all out on my Gypsy...unfortunately the sentiment turned to Get Well Soon when my mom called in the afternoon to tell me about my grandma.

Hope you like it. Thanks for looking.

New Toys in Action

Hey Everyone! I am finally getting around to posting some of my work.

I was a very LUCKY, SPOILED, girl on Christmas. I usually don't ask for anything, just because I would rather the money be spent on the kids, but since everyone was going to get me something anyways I decided that for once I would actually tell them what I wanted. Well, what a surprise it was when I actually got everything I asked for including several things that I wasn't expecting.

I had jokingly asked my hubby for a Gypsy, not thinking that he would actually go out and spend the money and get me one, but low and behold, HE DID!

I also asked my mother-in-law for a Cuttlebug (been wanting one forever!) and an embossing heat gun. I got both! Couldn't believe it.

Also, got a ton of clothes and some gift cards, so nice! It was a wonderful Christmas without the gifts, but what a nice surprise. Anyway, without further ado here is a card that I made for my father-in-law whose b-day is in January. I used my Gypsy to plan out and cut the car and the "enjoy the ride" and I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the silver background paper. I also heat embossed the inside, however I don't have a picture of that. Hope you like it! Thanks for looking.

Stressful Scrapping Weekend

So, this weekend I am suppose to be working on finishing up the Scrapbooks that I am doing for my parents and grandmother for Christmas. However, fo some reason I have been having a really hard time getting motivated to finish them. I think that I have figured out why.

When it comes to scrapbooking, even though I do it as a creative outlet, I am a perfectionist! I have a problem. I like to be organized and since I seem to be horrible at it I get stressed out. With these scrapbooks I decided to do them so close to Christmas that I haven't spent as much time on them as I would have liked. Therefore, they are not exactly what I wanted them to be. So, I think that is discouraging me and makes me feel uncreative. And from there it is just a vicious cycle.

Now, I am lucky enough to have a wonderful husband who not only is letting me take all tomorrow to work on them, while he is cleaning out all of our kids toys and rooms to get ready for Christmas, but he is also always there with words of encouragment. When I was done on my work last night he said told me that the work I had done was beautiful and that everyone was just going to think that they were terrfic. How lucky am I? I try to always remember that!

Anyway, I think that I will feel better after Christmas when they have opened them and they like them, or dislike them, however I think I know my family and I have to remember that they will love them because I made them.

I Can't Believe I Won!

I can't believe it, but I won something! I followed the Rusty Pickle blog hop this last weekend and I won a great Rusty Pickly Mini book from the Tidbits of T blog, just for commenting! Check out Kristi's blog here: Tidbits of T. It's great for inspiration! Can't wait to see my kit!

Creative Weekend

So, I am hoping that it is going to be a really creative weekend. Unfortunately, my little girl was sick yesterday, so i got nothing done last night, but she seems to be feeling better this morning. Yesterday throughout the day I decided that I would follow the Rusty Pickle Blog Hop. I found so many inspirational things that I am going to try and I recommend that if you are looking for some inspiration yourself that you check it out. (I am in no way associated with Rusty Pickle) I also took a look at their new designs and I am LOVING Disco Christmas, check it out!

101 Things To Do in 1001 Days

So, I saw posted on someone else's blog a challenge for 101 Things To Do in 1001 Days. It's from a website called Day Zero. It allows you to make a list of up to 101 things to do in 1001 days. You can add as little or as many as you want. You can check them off as you go and it will tell you what percentage you have completed and how many days you have left, it's about 2.75 years total. I thought that it was such a cute idea that I went right over and decided to make my list. I am going to post it here and if anyone thinks it's a great idea too and want to participate with me then leave me a comment and let me know where I can see your list! I start today!

My List:
1. Make a list of 100 things that make me happy
2. Keep my car clean for a whole month
3. Sing karaoke at a bar
4. Go ice skating
5. Attend a rally for a cause I really care about
6. Take a cooking class
7. Go to a concert
8. Have a garage sale
9. Volunteer
10. Make a will
11. Learn to golf
12. Go to an opera
13. Take a Yoga class
14. Get a passport
15. Read the Bible
16. Make a new friend
17. Go to a wine tasting
18. Donate
19. Have a spa day
20. Learn to ski
21. Reconnect with an old friend
22. Visit New York City
23. Complete a puzzle
24. Make a budget
25. Build a snowman with my kids
26. Pay for someone else's food befind me at the drive-thru
27. Renovate the bathroom
28. Creat a scrapbook for this project
29. Attend a live taping of a show
30. Cut my hair short again
31. Do a needlepoint picture
32. Move Hayden to a big boy bed
33. Visit the DIA
34. Have a scrapbook layout published
35. Adpot a family at Christmas
36. Put all my scrapbooks layouts in albums
37. Reach my goal weight of 130
38. Make a daily agenda for the kids
39. Make an Apple Pie from scratch
40. Do something nice for my husband every day for a month to make him feel special
41. Keep up with the laundry for a week
42. Keep up with the laundry for a month
43. Keep up with the laundry for 3 months
44. Stick to a budget for the whole month
45. Catch my kids scrapbooks up
46. Potty train Leah
47. Get Hayden potty trained at night
48. Get all of our debt credit cards paid off
49. Pay off 3/4 of the debt to my parents
50. Paint our bedroom
51. Reach 25 followers on my blog
52. Create a workout routine
53. Stick to a workout routine for a month
54. Clean and organize our closets and dressers
55. Take the kids to the Detroit Science Center
56. Spend a day with each child on their own once a month for 6 months
57. Find a better way to organize the kitchen
58. Plan and execute a redo of my dream scrapspace
59. Organize our file cabinet
60. Do my hair and makeup for 6 days a week for a month
61. Take the kids to a pottery store to create something
62. Take a picture of each item on this list
63. Complete this project
64. Surprise Justin with a date night
65. Get a manicure and pedicure
66. Recruit 5 people to do this with me
67. Visit my grandfathers grave
68. Make a list of 20 books I would like to read
69. Read the 20 books on my list
70. Make all of my Christmas cards
71. Finish Justin's parents scrapbook
72. Eat no sweets for a week
73. Write to 10 people that I love and tell them why they make me smile
74. Send a gift to a veteran/soldier serving
75. Make 50 homemade birthday cards
76. Have Thanksgiving at my house
77. Send my Goddaughter a gift/card for evert holiday one year
78. Send flowers to someone for  no reason
79. Have $20,000 in our savings account by the end of this
80. Babysit for Peyton or Avery once a month if they need me
81. Teach my kids to save
82. Start giving my kids a small allowance
83. Plane an herb/vegetable in the backyard
84. Watch a sunrise/sunset at the beach
85. Make cupcakes and decorate them glamourously
86. Save up for a designer purse
87. Read a book to the kids everynight for a month
88. Start my Master's program back up again
89. Start seeing a therapist again
90. Get a picture taken of the whole family, both side
91. Have a party with NO KIDS
92. Become a stay at home mom
93. Put my Rogaine on my hair everyday for a month
94. Buy Photoshop software
95. Get a good picture of myself
96. Make the garage Justin's space
97. Get "The Mitchell Family" T-shirts
98. Participate in a card/tag swap
99. Make a custom family recipe book
100. Find makeup that works with my skin tone
101. Inventory entertainment items

Ayudame, Ayudame

So, this is not exactly scrapbooking talk, but I just had to tell this story, mostly so that I remember it when I got to scrap it!

Usually, every morning when the kids and I get up I wrap them up in blankets on the couch, so that they can watch Disney Channel and be nice and warm. Well, this morning was no different. I wrapped them up nice and tight and they watched TV for a little while. At one point Leah, my daughter decided that she wanted to get down off of the couch and preceeded to attempt it. However, she was so wrapped up she was having a difficult time and got stuck, to which she looked at me and said..."Mom, ayudame, ayudame!" Which means help me in Spanish!

Now, this might be normal for an older child, or of course one that actually speaks Spanish, however she is 2 and the only Spanish that she hears, or should I say has learned, is from Dora the Explorer! She is actually hearing and comprehending another language from a cartoon!

I thought that this was not only funny, but amazing at the same time! It made me realize just how much they absorb at these young ages and that I should cherish every moment and memory!

Win a Gypsy from Custom Crops

Just wanted to let everyone know about this great site and an even better chance to a new Gypsy from Custom Crops. Just visit The Gypsy Spot and follow them. A great website if you have Gypsy or you are wanting one...like me!

Merry Christmas

I am really starting to get into the spirit of Christmas. I know taht it is a little early, but I just can't help it. I think that the Christmas music and the fact that my two little ones keep asking me if Christmas is tomorrow is definetly helping it along. Anyway, I am planning on starting Christmas shopping today or tomorrow so that I can get everything done. I am also going to start to make some little gifts and cards. I have really gotten into card making lately and am really liking it. I will post some soon.

New Stuff

So today I decided to purchase a couple of new things for my Cricut and I am so excited! I bought Design Studio, Jukebox, and two cartridges, New Arrival and Graphically Speaking. I also preordered a new case for my cartridge overlays and booklets. I did 3 day shipping so hopefully they will be here by the end of next week. I got a really good deal on them too. I would like to give a free shoutout to Custom Crops. They have awesome deals on everything Cricut related and otherwise.

I am also excited to annouce that my brother and his girlfriend are going to have a little baby girl, Peyton Joyce (PJ for short). So, I will be doing another 8x8 album for her. I have also started a Rainforest Album that I will post when done.

Avery's Book

So here is the premade scrapbook that I made for my neice, Avery. It took me quite a long time, but I also didn't work on it everyday either. I would love to know what everyone thinks of it.

Premade Scrapbooks

I recently started making premade scrapbooks when my sister-in-law got pregnant with my neice. I enjoyed doing it so much that I decided to do it for my brothers little baby who is due in March. Since, I love it so much, I decided that if this one goes well and I am able to do it in a decent amount of time and with a decent amount of funds I am going to try and eventually sell them if I have anyone interested. This would be a dream for me, so I am going to post the first one that I made and as I make the one for my brother I will post those pages. So, please check back in the next few days for the Baby Girl one and let me know what you think! Thanks!