Get a tree yet?

Do you kill your own tree for Christmas or buy it at the hardware store? Put up a plastic one complete with frosting and pine scent? Or simply use the biggest branch the last windstorm dropped in your backyard?

Pretty in pink?

You know you want to!

Whose house? I know!

But hey, no matter how you celebrate, everyone loves a freebie!  So here’s another time limited seasonal decor item thanks to mymemories.com.  Get it before Christmas Eve.

 http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_1

http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_2

http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_3

And here’s what you do with them…

3D Tree Tutorial

1. Print your file on cardstock. To create a 3 layered tree, you will need one base, one middle piece, and one top. Gather necessary supplies. (Recommended supplies: ruler, scissors, glue, bone folder with pointed tip) Be sure to set your margins as close to 0 as possible.

2. Using the bone folder score from the top tip down to each of the 3 corners. There should be 3 fold lines from the tip on each piece. Also, score the bottom triangle of the base.

3. Cut out all of your tree pieces.

4. Fold on the fold lines. Folds should all be folded in towards the white side of the paper.

5. For top and middle pieces, place glue on the flap and glue together to form a pyramid.

6. For the base piece, apply glue to both flaps.

7. Bring small triangle base up and glue in place.

8. Attach the side tab to the inside flap to form a pyramid.

9. Stack tree pieces, as desired. These trees can be made using 1, 2, or 3 layers per tree.

from: http://www.mymemories.com/craftables/tree

I’d love to see what ones folks actually make as I personally don’t have the time this Christmas…maybe next year?

Gee, do they still make wooden Christmas trees?

-Linus

Last minute decor freebie!

Looking for a quick decoration for Christmas?  Here you go:

http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_1

http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_2

 

http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_3

 

These are free downloads but the stars are only available ’til the 10th so get them NOW!  These 3D Stars are great to hang as decorations on stairs or shrink them down and use them to decorate your Christmas Tree.

The key to these stars is to make sure that you have a total of 10 cone shapes to put these together. You can mix and match the patterns, but you need 10 of the same size to get a finished 3D star.

 

“I love the stars.
Because they can’t say anything.
I love the stars.
Because they do not judge anyone.”
―    Natsuki Takaya

Get some balls this Christmas!

Got your attention didn’t I?

Anywho, I’m posting after a huge break from writing to help promote something near and dear to my heart.  My eldest sister and her husband make gorgeous blown glass Christmas ornaments.  They sell for $20 each and ALL proceeds go to support The Ride to Conquer Cancer.

 

Like my mom, my sister is a cancer survivor and her husband did the ride in her honour for the past two years.  Even better, she rode it last year.  When she received the word that she was cancer free, she signed up.  The training was brutal for someone fresh out of chemo but she endured.  We are all so proud of her effort and thrilled that she made it across the finishing line under her own steam!  And speaking of steam, here’s a look at what her hot air (and a lot of other heat) can produce!

 

I’m posting this on my blog as it also links into Facebook.  For friends and co-workers, I have a supply of these at my desk that I can carefully wrap in tissue paper, put into a hand stamped (by my big sis) box and drop off or send out to you.  They are truly great gifts and each one is unique.

 

Here’s a look at the artists as they work.

 

Cancer is a word, not a sentence.

– John Diamond

Fresh air and exercise

The May long weekend means the kick off to the camping season for us.  We joined several other families for a trip down to Deception Pass.  The girls spent most of the weekend on their bikes or scooters and I walked  with them around the loop more times than I can count.

They slept deeply.  H even fell off of her bed and stayed sound asleep as I put her back into her sleeping bag!  The weather wasn’t horrid, just not gorgeous – but it held off enough for the crew to gather around the 42 inch TV nestled under the trees for the Canucks games that came in via satellite.    Yes, we are rugged campers.  One family are practically survivalists as their trailer does NOT  have a microwave!

It took several shots to get one where all three of my monkeys were actually smiling AND looking at the camera.  They are pros at making goofy faces.

I’ve been challenged by my friend Marnie to get off my duff and create a digital page of the weekend – so keep your eyes open – one will be forthcoming.

I have had a holiday, and I’d like to take it up professionally.
Kylie Minogue

Contest entries

Hi all,

I’ve been a bad girl and haven’t posting in eons!  But as the snow gently drifts down, I’m suddenly feeling the need to post.

A while ago Stampin’ Up held an amazing contest for both demonstrators and customers alike.  The challenge was to use only My Digital Studio and SU downloads in order to create 2 scrapbook pages and a card.  I decided it was time to actual submit something.  well, I didn’t win but that’s okay.  I set a goal and achieved it and have some great work to show for it – if I may say so myself.    Now that the winners are chosen, I can go ahead and show you all what I made.

The first one is of K’s feet, well not her feet, but the cool shoes she picked out to wear when she started preschool this year.  We were down in Oregon and she was so excited about her sisters’ getting back-to-school shoes that she decided to find some for herself.  Turns out she has pretty good taste in shoes.

My second entry was designed around the colours and patterns of K’s purplish flowered pants.  We were at Fort Langley and I couldn’t tear the girls away from the adventure playground.

I didn’t have to do a card – the contest was quite flexible but I thought I’d push myself and submit the maximum.  So at the last-minute, almost literally, I threw a Christmas card together.  This evening, with the snow, can you pretend it’s still Christmastime when you look at it??

So that’s what I did!  If you like what you see, let me know.  I’m going to try to be a good girl and post more.  One of my girls has already told me that I’m on the naughty list for next year, so I have a lot to do to redeem myself before next Christmas!

 

 

Art has never been a popularity contest.
James Levine

Here a chick, there a chick

So what did you do for the last long weekend of the summer?  We went away in our RV.  The site was gorgeous – well treed, overlooking a pond, electric hook up and water when needed – all for the low, low price of NOTHING!

One of  my many sisters recently moved to the other side of the world, also known as Ryder Lake, just outside of Chilliwack.  As we hadn’t seen her place and felt it was too long a drive  just to drop in, we planned a trip.

Little did we know that the neighbours are just a few metres away and that they have livestock.  Two cows simply called Meat (they are not long for this world), 34 laying chickens and several dozen chicks.  The fluffy little ones arrived not long before we did.  The future is not bright for these chicks but such is the world and the food chain.  The girls were okay with the truth as we are not vegetarians and they have understood for a long time that they’ve been eating animals.  Regardless of your opinions on our food choices, you still might enjoy the digital scrapping I did of our weekend.

When we arrived home, K informed me that our house was boring!  Too bad we only have a dog, a cat and a fish tank to entertain them.  BTW, anyone have any eggs recipes?  We arrived home with 30 fresh eggs straight from the chickens’ butts.

Q. Why Did The Chicken Cross The Playground?
A. To Get To The Other Slide.

Row, row, row your boat

My husband is such a typical male.  He dreams of one day owning a boat – you know the kind – big, with a powerful motor.  So his mom and dad bought one for him last summer.  Not the one of his dreams as they are normal middle class people, not millionaires.  It fits in a box and lives and under the bench seat in our trailer.  There is a handy manual pump to blow it up and the plastic oars came complete with oar locks.  You can see a shot of it in my earlier post  Taking a break!.

Pete spent a lot of his summers as a kid on the water whether at his parents’ cabin or at summer camp.  He lifeguarded for a time in his teens and taught swimming so he still loves to get out on the water or get wet.  Two families with us brought a kayak each and Pete took the opportunity to take the girls out for a little ride.  H oddly enough melted down, even though she’s been kayaking before, and wouldn’t get in.  The other two loved it.

The highlight of all our beach trips were the salamanders.  Cleawox Lake was teeming with them.

Being near the sand dunes presented us with a great chance to try something new to us.  I bought each of the girls a sand disk and they tried riding them into the water.  S had a few good runs up on the higher dunes at the beach.  Our last day at Honeyman, we went back to Woahink Lake but to a different beach area and the girls played in the sand without a care as to how cold it was with the wind blowing off the lake.  And they finished off the visit to the lake by sitting on their sand disks and eating Cheesies – what a mess!

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.

George Bernard Shaw

Lighthouse day

As mentioned previously, our girls absolutely love lighthouses.  We tried to get to Newport one afternoon to see the lighthouses nearby but when we stopped for a late lunch at Flashbacks but the service was soooo slow that it took 20 minutes to order and then 45 minutes to get our food.   As I had a super exciting date with the other moms to do laundry in Florence that evening, we had to turn back and plan for another day out.

On our way to Yaquina Bay we saw a rather disturbing sight – at least for those of us who RV.

What a mess!  And on the door of the house – a No Smoking sign.  So onward we went to again encounter an unnerving sight.

Yup, someone managed to destroy the guard rail and drive off the side of the hill.  It’s a heck of a long way down to the beach but we couldn’t tell how far off-road the vehicle went.  Regardless, it’s a pretty freaky thing to see when you’re terrified of heights!  The road to Newport reminds me of the Sea To Sky highway – loads of curves and way to steep for my comfort level.

Any who, onto the lighthouses.  At Yaquina Bay they had a video running about the history behind the site and H was totally freaked out by a ghost story they told and wouldn’t leave my side until we left the building.

After a quick, windy picnic we made our way to the lighthouse at Yaquina Head.  The interpretive centre was quite neat and the girls had fun playing old-fashioned games and colouring as well.  Instead of hiking up to the lighthouse itself, we took the chance that there would be parking available.  This next shot is the view from our parking spot.

This lighthouse is Oregon’s tallest but your have to be 42 inches tall to climb it.  So I stayed behind with K who refused to stand properly against the measuring stick so she wasn’t allowed up.

Fortunately the weather was gorgeous that day so the view went on forever!

 

The sea pronounces something, over and over, in a hoarse whisper;

I cannot quite make it out.

~Annie Dillard

Dog days of summer

Summer is winding down, just a few short days until the girls are back in school – fortunately they are all excited about it.  We had a great time in Oregon not only camping but doing some tax-free back-to-school shopping.  New shoes, shorts, dresses with matching socks and brand new glow-in-the-dark pink skeleton pajamas.  The girls were given a set of the jammies a couple of Christmases ago, but as they just keep growing (should I stop feeding them to keep them little?) and have all made holes in the knees due to excessive wear, I bought each of them a new set.

Pete bought himself more cool graphic tees but I only bought a pair of shorts and a shirt.  I can shop for hours for stuff for the girls but absolutely despise shopping for me!  So our first night, spent in the WalMart parking lot at Wood Village was cheaper for us than the other families we were with – just groceries for us.

Our trip was with 4 other families so there were 9 grown-ups and 11 kids altogether – oh, yeah 3 dogs too!

 

 

 

The dogs all get along quite well although it took Echo a few times to clue in that she really shouldn’t eat Molly’s food unless she wants to see directly down Molly’s throat!  Cute but not so bright.

All the kids had an absolute blast whether it was playing at the beaches or looking at lighthouses.  Our girls developed a love for lighthouses last summer when we visited the Umpqua River lighthouse.  Our family visited 3 more this year.  The other families came with us to the Heceta Head lighthouse just outside of Florence.  As we were staying at the Jessie M. Honeyman State Park, it was fairly close.  That same day we had all headed to the Sea Lion Caves where we expected to be gagging from the stench.  I guess that fact that it was overcast, cool, windy and that the sea lions were all outside made for a surprisingly fresh air experience!

 

 

I’ll try to post more vacation photos in the next few days but now I really should start thinking about get my photos printed and my scrapping started!

 

” Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time”

Edwin P. Whipple

Taking a break!

We are off today to the Oregon dunes again.  Last year was a blast and hopefully this summer’s trip is just as great.  I’ll leave you with a few images from our previous trip.  Now to go load up the truck!!

 

Umpqua River Lighthouse

 

Beach at Honeyman

 

Miller boys jumping the dunes

 

A vacation frequently means that the family goes away for a rest,

accompanied by a mother who sees that the others get it.

Marcelene Cox