Living My Dream

Better Late Than Never

That has been my motto this entire Christmas Season. Everything seems to be getting done at the very last minute...including making our annual Gingerbread House! Usually it gets made the week before Christmas so it can be displayed during the holidays. But this year, it was done on New Year's Eve and it will promptly be thrown away! I was having fun playing with my new lens (a 50mm fixed 1.4) while the girls did their thing. These photos are all unedited, just cropped a bit. The color is much brighter indoors with this lens and I get to play with the exposure which is fun. I took most of these on the Av setting, lowering the f-stop to about... Read more →

A doggies point of view...

Today was Christmas. The tall grumpy lady that takes care of me got a new camera lens, so I tried to smile for her, but I just don't have it in me. Excuse the wrapping paper coming out of my mouth - I must have eaten it while burrowing through the trash trying to find some chocolate. I can smell it everywhere. And with all these presents, wouldn't you think at least one would be for me? NOPE! Santa sucks. All these humans do is eat, eat, eat. I just sit on the kitchen floor day and night waiting for someone to drop a morsel for me. And the racket they all make. The big guy who thinks he owns... Read more →

Christmas Table Decorations

Each month, the Love, Elsie DT has an assignment for her to post on her blog. This month, we were to make something for a Christmas gift. I ended up doing home decor instead all with the Noel line. I got so into this project - it was really fun! I started with napkin rings - you can cut a piece of wrapping paper roll, paper towell roll or even toilet paper roll (although wrapping paper is thicker, so it works the best) - then you cover it with the fabric paper and tie a ribbon around it. I made little place cards using embossed paper, a soft charm and a marker to write the name and add some doodles.... Read more →

This Made My Day!!!

Have you seen the new CK cover yet? I hadn't until Caroline from Maya Road sent me an email congratulating me on my project being on it and I didn't even know! I think CK wanted to surprise me and they really did! The heart book and box is Maya Road and the papers/embellishments are all Love, Elsie Betty. Thank you Amy Hummel for the picture! Merry Christmas! Suzy Read more →

The Spirit of Christmas RAK Winner(s)!!!

I want to thank all of you for your wonderful ideas about how to offer service during the holiday season. The thing that stood out to me the most were all the ideas of how to serve others in ways other then financial. So many of your ideas reminded me that sharing your time, kindness and love can lift others during this season. I loved the idea of bringing goodies to our local police station or fire station on Christmas Day as a way of saying thank you for their service. And there were such wonderful ideas about sending things to our miltary men to cheer them. I actually picked two winners - I just couldn't narrow it down further... Read more →

Our Christmas Card

Thank you to all of you who submitted ideas on my last thread - I will be picking a RAK winner in a few days, so feel free to keep adding comments if you want! Someone will be winning a scrapbook kit full of new KI products as well as other fun stuff to make a mini album OR you can send me your pictures and I will make it for you. I finally finished our Christmas Card. I wanted to use a family photo like I use every year, but we didn't seem to be getting it done and we are running out of time. So I just used some photos I had of each child and ordered a... Read more →

The Spirit of Christmas and a RAK

I love the holidays, but sometimes I find it hard to really focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I get so busy that it is hard to find the time to serve others in a meaningful way. My best Christmas EVER was the year I got to celebrate with several Cambodian girls from church. They didn't have anything and they were so appreciative for the little things I was able to do. Here is a picture of us that year and even though it was 20 years ago, I still remember each one of these girls so well: Yesterday, I had some alone time in my car and I was listening to the song Mary Did You Know. If... Read more →

Fun Class at Oasis

I usually don't like to teach because it stresses me out - I worry so much about every one being happy with the class. My class on Saturday went very well though which made me so happy! Every one seemed to like the project and they were all working at their own pace (I think I could have left and no one would have noticed - haha!). I love seeing the familiar faces of the women that come to most of my classes - here are some of them: This is Lia and Gemma. They became good friends by taking classes together. Gemma came in with this amazing tree project she made for Lia - what a gift! Each little... Read more →