Serious Play

December 22-24

So, now that the last few days have been quieter, I have been busy finishing my December Daily album.

December 22 I was making stocking stuffers for my mom and sister! I also had the girls do their Christmas Wish List...

...digitally!

Dec 23 I featured my stunning Amarylis...

Dec 24 I featured snippets of our Christmas Eve in the baseball card sleeves...

 ...and the backside too - and yes, that is Sean playing with our nephew's remote control monster truck (and teasing the dog with it)!

 

We are on our way out of town for New Years, so December 25th will have to wait until our return!

Happy New Year to you all!

A Backstrom Christmas 09

So, as I work to complete the rest of my December Daily pages, I quickly put together this snapshot of our past couple of days...

Hope your holiday was joyful!

Merry Christmas

So, I will be away from my computer for a few days as I gather with family, therefore, I will not be posting for a few days. So I leave you with this...

 

Blessings to all!

December 19 - 21

So, I am loving the break from work and preparing for Christmas. Our renos are coming along. Our families are making plans to gather. We are out skating and seeing holiday movies. And I am trying to capture it all!

December 19...

The little blue square has a hinge which allows it to open and there is a message behind it!

December 20...

December 21...

My girls went over to my sister's house for the day to allow me some free time to get some things done around here. I was able to wrap gifts without prying eyes!

I will continue to keep up with my pages throughout the holidays, however, I most likely will not be posting for a few days.

Merry Christmas to you all!   

December 17 & 18

So, here are two more pages of my December Daily album.

Firstly, on December 17th, I was feeling so inspired by Ali Edwards and her idea for this album, that I decided to do a page dedicated to her and her blog! Ali's blog is one that I visit every day for inspiration and insight into how to create simple meaningful albums. Today, I paid tribute to her in my DD album. Thank you, Ali. I love this project and will continue to do it year after year, as long as I am able. Just think, in 10 years, when my girls have left home and have families of their own, how fun it will be to sit down with these Christmas albums and reminisce (and laugh at the style of our clothes and the look of our cars!)

The 18th was a special day. It was our 16th anniversary! For the past few years, we have traveled out to
Canmore, to a quaint little inn called The Georgetown Inn. Just the two of us. For a couple of days. Last year it was so cold, we both had to buy new boots just to walk down Main Street and do some shopping! Unfortunately this year, Sean's shift at the Fire Hall spans the entire weekend, so we cannot get away. However, we went out for a fabulous supper and made memories anyway!

Because there was so much going on today, I had to add another page to document it all! I added a page protector that has 4x6 pockets and cut it down to just two. I tucked in the story of the day along with a pic of the gift that I received...on the back are photos of the four of us at the restaurant.

Typically, my scrapbooking is of events in our lives. I remember struggling a bit with last year's DD album because we did not do something fantastic every day. However, this year, I have tried to tell the story beyond what is happening, what I am thinking, what is meaningful, what are the traditions that we keep and why. There are still pages that I don't 'love' in this album, but I think that I am getting better at telling the stories and not just about the events.

December 15 & 16

So, I am ready to post two more days of my December Daily album! I am so enjoying this process of documenting the days leading up to Christmas.

December 15 is all about Christmas cups from Starbucks! We drink a lot of Starbucks drinks and so we had a growing collection of red cups. Ashley came up with this brilliant idea to string them together for a garland. I love it! I think this will become another of our Christmas traditions year after year.

We also thought it fitting to do a Christmas pic with the Starbucks cups. I was able to convert the pic to sepia and then erase over the cups to turn them back into their rich red color. This is the photo that we are using to send with our Christmas cards.

 

December 16 is Christmas letters to my girls. 

I saw this idea on Ali Edwards' blog of writing letters to the kids. So, I attached some envelopes and typed up the letters and tucked them inside.

 

So, there are two more days completed. Sure feels good.

December 14

So, Christmas is fast approaching and the gifts are not yet wrapped. Actually, there is no place to put the gifts this year since I only have a mini tree on my landing. I am afraid that if I did try to arrange them under the tree, they would get crushed by workers or covered in dust from our reno! However, I made gift tags with a new stamp set from Stampin' Up and prettied up a package for my co-worker. The girls wrapped the little gifts for their teachers (chocolates!). I am starting to get in the Christmas spirit despite not being able to decorate!

I must admit that I love all the prep that goes into Christmas. I always enjoy working with paper, but at Christmas, I am working with paper as gifts for the people I love. This year, I am making 2010 calendars for my friends. I bought a calendar kit from Andrea Victoria at Designer Digitals. 

I designed the front cover myself. While surfing other websites I had seen this idea of using a picture/plate stand for holding a calendar and decided to try it. I like it! So I made up a bunch of these to give away! 

Did I mention that I love Christmas?

Dec 9-13

So, I have been busy this weekend catching up on my December Daily pages. It has been a little tricky for two reasons. Firstly, my craft room has been converted into our TV room/living room/dining room/present wrapping room/ only safe place for my mini tree room...you get the point! I barely have elbow room to move in here, let alone spread out to be creative. Secondly, I am low on photo paper and ink and it is too stinking cold outside to venture out to buy more! Every time I print now, I hold my breath that there is enough ink and paper to do just one more DD page!

Anyway, here is page 9...

I loved the right hand page too much to cover it with anything, so I left it as is. I found this cute snowflake ribbon at my local scrapbook store and it seemed to fit great on this page.

Here is page 10...

Jessica went to her first High School dance on Thursday. We found a beautiful dress for her at RW & Co. She is becoming so grown up. It is exciting, but difficult as a mom to know that the day is coming when my little girls will leave home...but until then, we sure are enjoying them.

And day 11...

 

The right hand page here is a chipboard file folder shaped page. I had planned to cover the whole thing with a photo and this one is just some Christmas decorating. There is a whole room in my school that is my responsibility and so I was the one that got to decorate it! Since I am unable to decorate in my own home due to our renovations, I took on this task with pleasure!

Here is day 12...

Sean was at work that night, so us three girls sat and watched this movie together. We had seen Julie & Julia in the theatre this past summer when we were in Chase, BC. Ashley loves to cook, so I knew that I wanted to get her the Julia Child cookbook. I had been waiting for the movie to come out on DVD and I finally got my hands on it this week.

And finally day 13...

I got tired of waiting for warmer weather so that we could go out to take a family Christmas photo. I have been limited to weekends because by the time we all get home from work it is dark but it has been so cold. Anyway, the other day I decided to just embrace the moment, tack up a sheet on the wall (to cover the drywall dust and ceiling stucco drips) and assemble my family in our empty living room. The lighting worked in my favor for a while and I snapped as many shots as I could. The results were enough to make me smile. What do you think?

It has been a few days since I reported on our reno, so tomorrow I will have some more updates to share!
   

December 6, 7 & 8

So, here is day 6...

And day 7...

Here is day 8...

...and day 9 & 10 are on their way!

If you would like to see what these pages looked like before I added the photos and words, check this and this out.   

December 4 & 5

So, there was a terrible, terrible storm here on Friday. It turned out to be only Jess & I home in the evening, so we watched movies, did some crafting (she taught me how to crochet roses for a garland we are making) and snacked on comfort food...rice, chocolate and more chocolate! 

  On Saturday night, we continued crafting. This time we were making snowflakes out of white felt and then decorating them with silver glitter. We are going to string them on a garland when we have enough of them! We found a template online for the snowflakes and I sprayed over them to get the pattern on the felt, then we snipped and glittered away! This page is one of the business card holder pages - just perfect for little memories and ephemera!

Tomorrow I will post Dec. 6 & 7!