December Daily 2013- Days 1-8

I have pretty much finished up my December Daily for this last year. It took me much longer than I expected, mostly due to the need to print photos. I think for this next year I'm going to want to invest in a small photo printer to make the process a little bit easier. I quickly feel behind without it, and the motivation to finish it waned after the holidays passed. I tried to keep it super simple this year, as I knew it was going to be a challenging month (and it ended up being even more challenging than I had thought!) I still have a couple of photos to order, and a bit of journaling to add, but I think it's about time I shared some of it. So I thought I'd put up the first eight days! I'll have more posts later throughout the year, and maybe even a few sneak peeks of my 2014 album (yes, I've already started, when inspiration strikes who am I to say no?)

The Front Cover

Front inside Cover and title page

Day 1: Putting up the Christmas Tree and Picked out our ornament for the year

Day 2: Jack Decorated the Windows

Day 3: First snow storm of the year

Day 4: Made chex mix, and put together our Gingerbread Houses

Need to write out my chex mix recipe still!

Day 5: Ryan complains about the cold

Day 6: Lunch out with my mom

Day 7: Gingerbread house decorating and playing in the snow

Day 8: Ryan Gave the Prayer in church

 So there you have it, the first eight days in my album. Look for more soon!

December Daily: Day 3

Another day past, and another one that I am on the ball! I've got yesterday's December daily page all made! They might not be the most beautiful pages, but they are serving their purpose of getting the info down and recorded!

Here is Day 3!

 This is the spread. I attached today's photo to the back of the one from the previous day, and then journaled about a new tradition we are starting around our house, and how my husband surprised me with an early Christmas gift for it.

A friend talked about how one of her friend's family would set the table with all the nice dishes on the first of December and eat every meal together as a family at the beautifully set table throughout the month. I loved the idea, so I got out some nice glasses and dishes and set my beautiful table. The only thing missing was nice silverware. I didn't have a matching set at all, so I set it with some shiny plastic ones from the dollar store. When I told my husband about it he decided to give me one of my gifts early.

He had purchased me a beautiful set of silverware as a gift! And so I could enjoy them with my new tradition he gave them to me early. They really make the table look even better!

 Here you can see the journaling from the previous day poking through. I thought it would be fun to take these photographs on the table, since that is what I am talking about.

 A little more of a close up. Love the glittery letters I used!

And a very close-up of the photo! Even in the picture you can tell how wonderfully shiny and beautiful they are! He said he spent hours trying to find just the right pattern for me! How sweet is that?

So there you have it! Day three down! This week is going to be a difficult one to find stories, since we are pretty much sticking around the house. Next week should be more interesting, with a Holiday party, my birthday, and a few fun excursions planned! I am looking forward to getting to the more interesting stuff, but little things like this are great too!

December Daily: Day 1 & 2

Sometime soon I am going to track down my adobe suite and put it on this computer. So tired of sub par pictures! Need some editing done to them!

With that said, let's talk about December Daily some more! So excited for this project this year! I was planning on waiting until this weekend and getting all my pictures printed at Walgreens, but decided I would try printing some photos from my brother printer. the quality was WAY better than i had been expecting (it's not a photo printer, so I was not expecting much). The best part is, I have a printer app on my phone that allows me to print my instagram and other photos straight to my printer from my phone! So easy!! So I printed off a few pictures quickly and threw together the first few days.

 Here is the beginning. Added a calendar to the inside front cover, plus my fabulous divider for the beginning of December. Still am so in love with these!

 Day one. I went out to breakfast with my Aunt and Cousin and then went shopping for my FREE sweater from Old Navy and Crowdtap (more to come on that, writing up a review for the blog!). I printed off a picture of the sweater I chose and cut it down to fit the space. Journaled a little about the day on a printable card I found here. I added some fun green letter stickers to spell out "Fabulous". It was pretty quick and easy!

 Day two. Just realized this one needs a number somewhere. Will have to add that. Anyway, lots of journaling here. Wrote about our trip to the new trader Joes that just opened, and visiting with my friend Maryann!

 Here is a close-up of the picture I printed. This was us waiting in line! It wrapped all the way down the aisle! Pretty long for a grocery store!

 Pretty simple start. I think I want to go back and make an introduction page of some sort. I think i will use the picture of the Christmas tree Dominic took on Instagram.If you want to follow along with our December Daily fun you can follow us on Instagram!Just click on the little button below!

December Daily- We are Ready to Rock

Over the last few weeks I have been working on setting up my December Daily Album for this year. I've already shown you my Foundation pages, and the first Draft of my cover. Now it's time to dig into the fun stuff I have put inside! I've also got some pictures of the supplies I have gathered to use throughout the month, and a fun idea for getting the whole Family involved in December Daily.

I apologize in advance for the less than stellar pictures. I am still trying to figure out the best settings on the camera I own, and my computer with my editing software is being buggy today, so these are SOOC (or Straight out of camera for you folks who don't deal with camera terminology).

Let's start off with my updated cover. I added a glue rub-on tree which I then glittered. I added some rhinestones for ornaments, and a chipboard star for the top. I also altered the back a little, just extended the washi tape to cover the entire spine on the back. I failed to get a picture of it though. My boys are loving looking through it already and are super excited to get started this weekend!

I gathered a bunch of supplies together to make the recording and embellishing more easy. These are going to be set on my kitchen counter near the table so I can quickly get some recording done without pulling out any additional supplies. The red utensil container has a few ink pads, a couple smash stamps, 9 rolls of washi tape, several adhesives, rhinestones, glitter, a rub-on applicator, and various pens.

I also gathered together stickers, journaling cards, die-cuts, rub-ons, envelopes, extra page protectors, etc. These I put in a cute tin I found at Ikea, I put little cards in that separate each catagorey for easy access.I also have a small paper cutter and a 3-hole punch that I have adjusted to punch holes that fit in the album.

Now on to some of the things I have already added. I love adding in all kinds of memorabilia from throughout the month, but some things come from earlier and fit with what I want in my album, so I include those too!

I took one of our Christmas Cards and cut it in half (removed the back) I then punched it with my hole punch and insrted it into the album. On the other side of it there was a big blank space so I added a little die cut that says 'Seasons Greetings" and a handwritten note that says "Our Christmas Card". Looking back I wish I had picked a Christmas card that was horizontal rather than vertical so it would have looked better in the album. Oh well, there is always next year!

The other thing I have put in is Ryan's "Letter to Santa" He drew a picture of what he says is "Lego guys", because that is what he wants for Christmas. if only I had known that BEFORE I finished my Christmas shopping for him. Jack had one as well, but he spilt milk on it, so I am going to have him do another one later this month.

 Now on to the fun stuff!! This is mostly just for looking at, so I won't talk to much about them. If you have a question leave it in the comments and I will try to answer it. These first pictures are all of dividers I made for throughout the album.

And then there are some fun little inserts. There are more of these, but I only photographed a few. Many of them are on the backs of envelopes, so there will be little pockets to put things in throughout the album.

I also have a little notebook that my Mother-in-law sent me a few months back that I am going to keep with me while we are out and about throughout December so I can jot down anything that I want to remember to put in the album.

You'll notice I didn't put any numbers on my pages. I want t be able to move the little inserts around wherever they fit best. The foundation pages I have each have the date, and i have some numbers I have cut to add if I feel like it.

So there you have it, all the basic elements of my December Daily Album for 2012! I think this is the most on the ball with this I have been in a while! So proud I have gotten this far with it!

To make this project more of a family affair I have made a fun list of random things to take pictures of throughout December. It's about 100 items long, so there are some pretty obscure things in there! Every day each family member has to take a picture of at least one thing on the list. I purchased a cheap digital camera for my boys to use (It was free! Just had to pay $2 for shipping! Score!). I imported the list into my "Cozi" App on my new smartphone so that we can check things off the list wherever we may be. Not all the pictures will make it int the album, but some will, and it will be a fun was to get the whole family involved in the project!

DIY Graphic Christmas Canvases

Today I want to talk about these cute little canvases I made yesterday. They are so simple, easy, and cheap! I'm going with a color scheme of red, green, gold, silver, and glittery this year for our decor, and they make such lovely additions!

Here's what you need:


2 Canvases- One 12x12, One 8.5 x 11 (I love the bulk value canvases at Micheal's)
Red glitter Chipboard letters ( I used these)
1 chipboard Ampersand in a contrasting color
1 flat glittery ornament (I found mine at Dollar Tree)
Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks


1. Decide on what two phrases/word you would like on your canvases, make sure you have enough of every letter you need (I forgot this step and ended up having to turn another letter into an "r" to finish merry & bright). I suggest one long one, and one short. For example Love & Joy + Noel, Jingle Bells & Snow, etc. You will likely have enough letters left to make a few more words (I am going to make a Santa and Snow one as soon as I can get out to Dollar tree for more ornaments).

2. Arrange the letters on the two canvases to your liking. I found it helped me to draw a light pencil line to line up my letters. Remember to leave space for your ornament on one of the canvases.

3. Once you have you letters arranged how you would like remove one at a time, place hot glue on the back and replace it in the same position. Do the same with your ornament. Allow to dry. Erase any pencil marks that may be on your canvases.

It's really that simple! it took me less than 5 minutes to do both of mine, and I love them. They are so graphic and simple! And I already had all the items I needed on hand, other than the ornament. I can't wait to do the other two!

Sweater Pillow DIY

A few days ago a sad thing happened. My very favorite sweater (and pretty much my only sweater at this point) decided to get a teeny tiny hold in it. Normally I would keep wearing it, but this hole happened to be right in the chest area, and showed my wonderful purple bra off to the world (I only have one bra right now too, boy do I need to go shopping!). I love this sweater, mostly because it is 3/4 sleeve. I genuinely hate long sleeves, and always roll them up, so this saves me a step! After much sadness I decided the sweater could no longer be worn and decided to throw it out.
Before I had even gotten it over my head I decided that it might be perfectly useable in some other way, and my mind decided that it should be made into a comfy cozy pillow cover so I can keep feeling it's warmth.

A few days later I tracked down some thread, a needle, and some scissors and went to work. I cut all the way across the sweater just under the arm pits so I had a tube top like thing. I also cut off the sleeves for use in a let project. Not sure what yet, but we will figure something out! I then turned it inside out and hand stitched the entirety of one side.
This would probably have gone faster if I had used my machine, but my white bobbin was missing and I did not have an empty one. So I sat and stitched while enjoying a nice glass of water and watching an episode of Pretty Little Liars.
I then turned it right side out, inserted the pillow, and carefully hand stitched all along the other side of the pillow.
It took about an hour altogether, but now I have a soft warm pillow perfect for the Holidays and cold weather.
Since it went so well, I grabbed a pillow whose cover had gone missing, and some green damask pattern fabric I had bought for Halloween and made up another little pillow.
They now both grace my favorite little red chair from Ikea (which needs a cleaning badly!). I imagine it will be the perfect little spot for sipping some Hot Cocoa this holiday season as I admire my Christmas tree and wait for my husband to get home late at night. It sure put me in a holiday mood, so I got out a garland that never made it into the Christmas storage and put it up as well. So now my house is slowly on it's transformation to a Holiday haven.

So What Do you think I should do with the Sleeves? I am thinking either some type of vase cover, or making them into rice bags. Any other suggestions out there?