The Angel Chimes

I always loved the Angel Chimes at Christmastime. It just wouldn't be the same without them. They are pretty simple, but mesmerizing. I have Grandma's... and they were in mint condition, not a drop of wax or dirt on them. Only the patina gives them away as not being brand new. I could stare at them until the candles burned down to nothing, listening to the gentle ding-ding-ding-ding as the metal drops ring the bells... one of my favorite memories.

... and A~ feels the same way.

much love,

erin

Eat your vegetables!

I wanted to do a quick post on one of our favorite ways to eat our veggies. A~ really does a pretty good job of eating up beans, broccoli, and brussel sprouts.... but one of our first hits was this fritatta.

First you chop up some onion... however much you like... and saute it in an ovenproof skillet with a little butter. Once it's tender, add one small to medium shredded zucchini. I usually sprinkle it with a little salt and pepper. While that cooks, break six eggs into a bowl... you can do four or five eggs if you are feeding less people... or have less zucchini. Add milk, salt, and pepper and whisk well. Now the veggies should be throughly wilted so you can pour in the egg mixture. Cook until well set, lifting up the edge to let the uncooked egg run underneath. Sometimes mine sticks and won't let me lift... that's okay... just stir it around a bit while being sure there sufficient egg to "glue" everything back together. Sprinkle top with shredded cheese - cheddar or a mix is fine - and pop under the broiler. Be sure to wrap your pan handle with foil! When everything is fully cooked, the cheese is melted, and the top is golden it's ready. Cut into wedges and enjoy! I like to put chopped tomatoes on this... but A~ and Sergio add ketchup. Either way it's yummy!

much love,

erin

Happy Holidays!

We were lucky to get to open presents on Christmas Eve this year. I so prefer doing the Christmas thing with the candles lit and the tree sparkling... it just adds to the magic of the season.

On the way home from church, A~ crashed in the car. She was sound asleep as I carefully carried her inside and laid her down on our bed - coat and all. Then I tiptoed around to finish with the preparations... coookies on platters, candles, music, ... you know - the whole nine yards. I even snuck into my secret hiding place and stuffed the stockings and everything. My thought was... if we really, really, really needed help getting A~ to wake up, Santa would do the trick. I mean... what child isn't going to jump up once they hear that Santa has been there?

When Sergio got there, we added his presents to the pile and went to get Sleeping Beauty. It took a lot of effort... I didn't think we were going to manage it and almost gave up hope... but Papi worked his magic and we finally had consciousness... grumpy consciousness, but that was ok... the grumpy would fade with presents, right? I wanted a picture FIRST, and Sergio humored me on that one, ... before opening presents. Grumpy-puss was not amused. A~ had no intention of even looking at the camera, much less flashing a smile. This was not what A~ wanted to do... but see how well she fakes happy when there are presents involved? Thanks, honey... now you can go for the presents....

We truly are lucky parents. A~ loves anything wrapped in paper. She squeals, says thank you so much, gives everyone a hug, and moves on to the next item. A little present-unwrapping-machine! She is still asking me who got her this and who got her that. If she can't remember, she assumes that it's from Santa. Favorites this year... anything Hannah Montana, the Crayola Explosion Glow Board thingy... it's already seen a lot of use, and the Build-A-Bear kit. Santa brought a Hello Kitty cereal dispenser... I was lucky to get one of the last two at Target. A~ was so surprised... I mean how does Santa know what to get? I wonder.... ;-) It is pretty cool... and I'm sure that I will be posting about it later! :)

Christmas Day had A~ playing with her new booty while I worked on our feast: yummy glazed ham, creamy mashed potatoes (for Sergio), stuffing (for me - I *heart* Stove Top), salad with apple, goat cheese, and caramelized red onions, crescent rolls, brussel sprouts, and broccoli. Nothing fancy, but lots of comfort food. We thought about dessert, but I'm glad we skipped it... we were way too full!

After dinner and cleanup, we went to the Festival of Lights at Bull Run Park. It's a drive through option that takes about 20 minutes or so to drive through. They have a carnival at the end. We've never stopped before, but this year decided to try it out. I, or course, forgot the camera. Oh well... the cold probably would have zapped the batteries anyways. A~ had a blast even though it was quite cold. She rode a number of the rides and I got to tag along on some of them. Sergio doesn't like anything "spinny," so there weren't a lot of options for him, and nobody wanted to brave the ferris wheel with him. Poor guy! We did get him to try a funnel cake for the first time! A~ got me on the swings. I was really nervous, but I was more nervous for her to go alone... and when it started to tip I didn't think I'd be okay. I had to "talk" my way through the remainder of the ride and make jokes with A~ to keep myself calm. Way to go mommy! I hope I never have to do it again! :)

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday too!

much love,

erin

Finally finished!

I stayed up last last night to finish the teacher gifts for A~'s Kindergarten teacher and teacher assistant. I got this idea from Michele on the Papertrey Ink design team... it's a dry erase board made from a picture frame! It works better than a real dry erase board and erases really, really well.

I pulled out some wintery papers I've had for a while and embellished them with stickers, felt, and a little bling. I thought about making them more Christmasy... but the winter season is longer than the holiday season... so winter won! I have to say, I need to make these every year... they are so cool and useful. I may need one myself! :)

A~ helped me wrap them up so that she can take them to school tomorrow. Next week is winter break - wow - how did that sneak up so fast???

More later...

much love,

erin

Follow that Star!

I am SO excited to finally have a star on the top of our Christmas tree. I've been searching for about 3 years for an acceptable topper. I thought about a bow like on Mom's tree... but decided to use that as a backup... I really wanted a star. And there are lots of stars out there, but too many of them are just plain tacky! I didn't want flashing lights or crazy colors or any of that jazz... just a pretty star with white lights. Actually I found two stars that I liked on the same day. The one I didn't buy was a little bigger and more 3-D, but I was afraid that it may be too heavy for my little artificial tree to handle. And althought I'm excited about this star... the little spring-shaped thing that's supposed to go on the top point of the tree is too short and caused that branch to bend in a very Charlie-Brown-Christmas-tree kind of way. Yikes! So I removed that and used a twist-tie from the packaging to secure it onto the tree at the base and the top just rests in place. As long as nobody bumps the tree, we are in business! :)



On another note, here is a recent layout. Wow! Remember those cheeks? What a cutie! I hand felted the butterfly and didn't think it would work out. It was the ugliest thing ever... but I kept fiddling with it and had the brilliant idea to fold it in half and work the felting needle into the body to make it more dimensional. And it actually worked and took the butterful from wonky to wonderful! Thank goodness! :)



I'm working on tons more... most is due on Monday to the scrapbook store, plus teacher gifts for school... only 12 days until Christmas and only 1 week until winter break at school! So next week you'll see some brand new layouts of past winters and Christmases... and hopefully the cool items I was able to pull off for A~'s teachers... I hope!

much love,
erin

Card Carrying Member

Well, we finally did it. I finally took A~ down to the local library and she is now the proud owner of her very own library card. (I have one now too!) She was quite proud... and the lady and the counter was very nice and quite patient as she slowly printed her name on the card. We spent almost an hour there looking at books and putting together puzzles. She had a great time... and she brought quite a few books home.... as you can see! We've got some reading to do!





much love,
erin

Turkeys - Now & Then

So A~ came home from school last week with a turkey made from a paper plate. Being the artistic diva that she is, she wanted to add to her turkey by jazzing it up with some plastic beads from her craft stash. I wasn't sure about them sticking... especially to the crayon-covered plate, so I convinced her to make some decorative "plumes" to accent her turkey feathers. We pulled out some metallic chenille stems, bent them around pencils to get a good spring-like shape, and worked the beads into place. Once they were done, I stapled them on and here is her work of art:


Working on A~'s turkey reminded me of the turkey I made quite a few years ago. I'm not actually sure when I made it... but I wrote my own poem on it! I am sure that I created it at Grandma's house in Houston, but that's all that I can remember. Mom sent it to me recently and I've been meaning to get to work on trying to preserve it. I took a picture first... (of course!) ... and then carefully removed the turkey from the backing. It's amazing how sticky that tape still was! I thought that I would remove the "feathers" and put it back together with glue dots... but it was holding together really well. Besides there were a lot of pieces and it would have taken forever. I don't know what possessed me to make it so detailed, with tiny strips folded over for the belly-feathers and long strips curled for the tail. I even cut little feet out of yellow paper and taped them on top of the brown paper back. It was definitely a masterpiece! I decided to cut out out the title and my poem, and mount them on acid free cardstock. Once it was in place I sprayed it with Archival Mist several times. Hopefully it will last for years to come!


Happy Turkey Day Everyone!
erin

We are PUMPED UP!

Or at least A~ is pumped up!

Last weekend we went to a birthday party at Pump It Up. They have two rooms of giant inflatable slides, bouncers, and obstacle courses. The kids loved it and the parent's enjoyed it too! My favorite was the obstacle course... I felt like a Marine climbing up hills, diving through inflatable "fences" and rolling across the finish line! By the time we got to the pizza and cake everyone was all sweaty and worn out. A~ is dying to have her party there next year! :)

much love,

erin

Old Photos, New Layouts

I worked on a couple of layouts last weekend using older photos. First was this shot of me and Mamasan. As you can see, I haven't done the journaling... in part because I don't remember the photo being taken and I'm not sure how old I am in the picture. We are definitely at Mamasan's house... and maybe I'm one and a half or two years old? Anyone who can help, please chime in! :)

I also put together this layout using a photo that I took in 1982 with my little 110 camera. It's not a great shot... Grandpa frying fish back in the old shed, but it's one of the only pictures that I took of him. And the memory of that catfish is so special, I decided to immortalize it with a layout. We would always request a fish fry when we visited Texas. Grandpa would pull catfish out of the freezer from his fishing trips, get them ready, fry them up, and watch us enjoy every bite. There were never leftovers... we would eat every morsel! It was simple and wonderful!

enjoy!
erin

A quick hello...

I am so far behind here! Yikes! Fall is just full of things to do. It's a good thing that the rain we've had for the last couple of days knocked just about all the leaves right off the trees. Now I can get some raking done without worrying that I won't make any progress!

Here are a couple of shots of what we've been up to...

First - new a slightly new do... a little bit shorter and, supposedly, more trendy...at least according to Jennifer, my stylist. I am also sporting a very cool Miley Cyrus sticker courtesy of A~!

Then the annual pumpkin contest at work. We all pitched in and did a fantastic job on this incredible take on Cinderella's coach.

Finally, Dorothy (me) and my little princess on Halloween. We were already pretty frozen here and A~ said that her bucket was too full for any more... thank goodness!


More later!
erin

Fall Weekends and Hayrides

This weekend was the Fall Festival at the Reston Town Center. We went and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather. We got there right as it started, which was good in some ways... but then it seemed to take forever for the time for the store-to-store Trick or Treating to come. I don’t think it was as fun as last year... but it was still well worth the $5 donation to get in. Last year we looked at the line for face painting, but it was so long we didn’t dare attempt it. This time we arrived just after it began and jumped into the short line right away. The face painters are wonderful. Very talented and quick. It’s a good thing too as they were mobbed the entire event. Also last year we missed out on the hay rides because of the lines and we able to make it on easy peasy this year.... right after the face painting. The giant Belgium horses were going a pretty good clip... making me a little nervous sitting on that slippery hay! I’m such a chicken! Here is me and A~ before the horses took off. You can see the incredible face painting... really made my little princess stand out!

A~ made me a collage Saturday morning. She glued bits of ribbon on to make the flower petals. Turned out very cute. It is now adorning the guest room door.

Before I go... here’s a layout I made for the October wall over at Scrapbooks Plus. This is Sergio and A~ on the hayride at Cox’s Farm about a month ago. We just love hayrides!


much love,
erin

So Far Behind

It seems that I am always behind. Sometimes it's just a little bit... other times it's bunches and bunches! :) I took the Shimelle class about home months ago... it's in the blog history and I'm afraid to look to see exactly how long ago it was. I've downloaded all the class handouts and read some of them. However, not a single portion has been completed. How sad!

This month's Design Team papers from Scrapbooks Plus were warm and cozy... so I thought that I'd make myself a home mini-book to featured some of the things I like about our first home. It's semi-inspired by the Shimelle class... and one day I'll get around to reading the handouts and doing the assignments... I guess it's my take on the theme having read the class description! lol :)




















I still need to add the journaling... but, as you know, I'm a bit behind! ;-)

much love,
erin

The Color Purple

There's something to be said for a favorite color. Right now A~'s favorite color is purple. Well, actually, if you ask her what her favorite color is she will say, "purple, pink, orange, and red." Apparently one favorite is just not sufficient!

I recently tried a new recipe for a quick and easy version of Chicken Marsala. I didn't have any Marsala wine... so I used some red wine instead... it's only a little bit, so it won't make a different, right? Well, it smelled good and it tasted good... but it was totally purple. When A~ asked what we were having for dinner I told her, "We're having purple chicken." Luckily she bought it... and she ate it... and she actually asked for more! (Way to go, Mom!)


To continue on the theme.... last weekend we went to Disney on Ice and got this cute purple, flower hat with our cotton candy. (She also got a purple t-shirt with all the little fairys on it, but I don't have a picture yet. I thought the green Tinkerbell shirt was cuter, but she had to have the purple... and it was cheaper too! What luck!)


More later...

much love,
erin

Firsts

Now that school has started, I can say honestly say that I feel a whole new level of stress and relief. Stress that there are extra calendars to keep up with, stress about new deadlines, and stress that bedtime is earlier than even and I need to make the most of the time I have with A~ in the evening. On the other hand, there is relief. Relief that A~ likes school, relief that she's adjusting just fine - even without the daycare experience, and relief that she is willing to take a quick bath every night instead of the extra long ones that we used to indulge in (this could be due to my mommy creativity and the development of the "car wash" bath... it involves sudsing up two mesh scrubbies and bathing my little girl as though she is going through a car wash... complete with sound effects, of course!).

The first day went really smoothly for her... and luckily we survived too. Here are some shots of her waiting for the bus, walking into school (yes, we drove to school to watch her), and running off the bus to give Papi a big hug.







Other firsts... I scrapped a picture from Bolivia. I tend to hold onto these, as well as other vacation pictures, because I'm not sure if I want to keep them separate from the day to day pics or not. This layout is Sergio's mom with A~ the first time that we visited... so A~ is 2 years old in the photo. There is a lot of flocking on the layout... since that is the technique this month over at ScrapGoods. :)



much love,
erin

Can you believe....

Can you believe it? As I'm writing this at the computer, I'm wearing my fuzzy robe! What is wrong with this picture? A~ is in her sock-monkey robe too! And it's only Labor Day? Wrong I tell you, just wrong!

Later, when Sergio gets up, we have some cookin' out to do and a present for the birthday boy. We may set up the waterslide again and enjoy it before it's too late.... thankfully it is supposed to be hot later on despite the chilly start!

Last week Sergio picked up some back to school jeans for A~. When we tried them on, she promptly announced that she looked just like Hanna Montana. She really is too funny! Here's our starlet photo shoot:

Also, here is my last layout for the SG Telephone Scraplift... you basically get a layout and use it as your inspiration. I really like this one... very simple with lots of white space, but not at all plain.

Supplies: patterned paper is Rusty Pickle (painted with Inkabilities), cardstock from Bazzil, ribbon from Walmart, thickers from American Crafts - colored with an American Crafts marker that I also used for the outlining, Maya Road journaling sheer painted with Inkabilities, part of an American Crafts plastic "&" that I cut down to leave only the flourish, Slick Writer from American Crafts, flower from Making Memories, brad from Scrapgoods, and bling from Scrapgoods, Scraptivity, and a swap (I think?). Wow for a simple layout... there sure is a large supply list! :)

Have a great holiday!

much love,
erin

TGIF!

How nice that it's Friday! And the Friday of a holiday weekend seems even sweeter than a normal Friday. Ahhhh....

Today we went to the open house at school. After the welcome and introductions, we all went to find A~'s classroom. All the K-level bus riders got a bus-shaped tag for their backpacks with their name, their teacher's name, and their bus number. It's something new to help the drivers, teachers, and helpers get everyone in and out easily. While the parents stayed in the class, the students got a little tour and some activity with one of the specialists. In our case that was the music teacher. A~ was practically at the front of the line, but she wouldn't go anywhere without making sure from us that it was ok. It was too cute to here her calling "Papi, Papi" loudly to make sure that it was ok. She must be listening to our be-careful-to-stranger stories. (We've been practicing!) A~ was fine throughout the morning, and luckily Mom and Dad survived as well. Now we just have to make it through Tuesday! It'll be interesting to say the least. I'm sure that I'll be snapping pictures of her getting ready in the morning, packing her lunch, showing off her new backpack, getting on and off of the bus. etc. So get ready!

Here are a few of my more recent projects:

take care,
erin

PS. These were my last 2 entries for the Crop Til You Drop contest at ScrapGoods. I ended up coming in third! Yeah!

Fairground Fun

Last week... the same day as A~'s five year check up... we made our first visit to the Prince William County Fair. It's a good-sized fair with a large Midway...and it was Dollar Day and was pretty packed. Some of the lines were really long and it was hard to explain that to a five year old who had a bad day and too many shots. We checked out most of it... although didn't see all the animals and none of the home arts buildings. A~, of course, wanted to go on as many rides as possible... which is why we went on Dollar Day in the first place. That way if it didn't turn out so fun, we didn't really invest a lot in it.

The highlights...

• A~ dressed as a princess in the play that anyone could take part in. They filmed it and had DVD's available for purchase. I am STILL hearing about how I didn't buy one from you know who! :)
• The funnel cake... which A~ called "fungal" cake (not quite as appetizing!) the entire night. Five dollar each, and SO worth it! Yum!
• The rides... any of them... she enjoyed everything she went on! Me, not so much. I still don't know how I managed to climb to the top of that slide on the little metal staircase. The entire way up I was leaning to the right and clutching the slide itself... not the little skinny railing - no way! Let's go back to the carousel, honey.. please?!
• A~ wanted to play the games... and most had a good chance of at least someone winning. After one loss though, she had me play... and what do you know - I won! Way to go, Mommy!

Here are the pics! Enjoy!

much love,

erin