Author: Lois Houston

I'm a sweet tea drinkin' southern gal who loves to cook, bake, crochet, and read. Check out my blog for posts about parenting, faith, books, crafts, planning, baking, cooking, and life in general.

I won! I can’t believe it!

I never win anything.  Never.  My brother is the winner in the family.  He was the sort of kid who wouldn't find a penny on the sidewalk, he'd find $20. I have never been the one with that kind of luck.  And it's ok with me, it's just how the world works.

HOWEVER, today I got a very pleasant surprise in my inbox.  I won a spot in one of Big Picture Scrapbooking's classes! How cool is that?129881298_91e75390cf_m  

I'll be taking "Reclaiming Your Time" and I can't wait to get started!

Want to join me in the class? Sign up today.  It's half price, and at $15, I'm sure it will be WELL worth the money.  If you're planning to take the class, let me know so we can keep up with our projects together!

Thank you, BPS!  What a nice Thanksgiving present! 🙂



http://www.flickr.com/photos/atelier_tee/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Today: 23 NOV 09

Outside my window… wet, drizzly, grey and gloomy.

I am thinking… about all of the things I need to do today.

I am thankful for… my children.

I am wearing… nightgown – no time to dress yet.

I am remembering…  last night's evening with good friends.

I am going… to enjoy my week with the family.

I am reading… The White Queen

I am hoping… to get some scrapbooking in this week. My challenge is 20 min each day.

On my mind…  Thanksgiving.

From the learning rooms… just finished Holidays in Hand with Jessica Sprague and a Blogging class with Shimelle.  Now to implement the things I learned!

Noticing that… my girls are reading so well these days.

From the kitchen… nothing. We will be eating out today.

Around the house… normal Monday-morning post-weekend clutter.

One of my favorite things… wet puppy kisses.


Sunday Scrappin’

Happy Sunday!

I hope that you are having a wonderful day!

Thanks for stopping by and please check out my Sunday Scrapping post on The Lady at Home.

I'll post another update tomorrow.

See ya!

RSS Feeds to your Inbox. Cool.

I love reading my list of blogs I've subscribed to. They are how I start my day – slowly kick-starting my brain with all the interesting tidbits from the writers.  Some are crafty. Some are political. Some are about faith. Some are just plain silly.  But all of them are cherished by me.

And now I'm really happy.

I have found this: Feed my Inbox.  It's a service that automatically sends your RSS feeds directly to your email. I don't have to hop from blog to blog, or use a reader service like Google (which I'm not too fond of). I can be lazy and just check my email each morning.

Feed my inbox

How cool is that?

Give it a try… let me know what you think.  All you have to do is add the link to the blog you read and your email address. It's easy peasy, as my girls would say.

Chocolatey Goodness from the Kitchen

Ang has been asking me for a chocolate cake with chocolate icing for about a week. 

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So, we decided to make one today.  

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She loves to help in the kitchen and I love teaching her about cooking and baking.  

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Today, she made the cake herself – all I did was break the eggs for her.

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Oh, and pour it in the pan.

But she got the best job of all, I think.

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Cleaning the bowl 🙂

I think it turned out pretty well, but we will have to taste and see.

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We put the icing on while it was warm so it would sink into the cake. More yummy goodness.

Creative Memories Tip: Saving Page Template in StoryBook Creator Plus

I am so excited.  Creative Memories posted on their blog today about how to save individual .page files as templates so that you can share page templates with people.  If you have downloaded any of my recent template posts, you know it was not just a single file to download. 

With this new information, it should mean easier creation of template files.  Which is good for me, but even better for you!  That means I'll be posting more templates here in the future for you to use with StoryBook Creator Plus! (yay!)

Here's a template for you – just because I'm so happy about the new process! (just click on the link to download)

Templates - Page 011

And, here is a page I made with the template:

Family Album 2009 - Page 010

Note: The text boxes are in the template, they just don't show up on the JPG of the template for some reason.

Also, if you want the top right photo to have a rounded corner like mine does, you will need to flatten the image once you drop your photo in the frame. Then you can round the corners.

I must give credit for the inspiration, though, to Cathy Zielske's template on Designer Digitals. I love the clean lines she has in her designs! So, if you are not a StoryBook Creator Plus user, but you like this design, go get her template!

Oh, and if you like the paper and embellishments, it's all from DigiChick – Brown Eyed Girl.

Holidays in Hand

I'm participating in a free class offered by Jessica Sprague called Holidays in Hand.  It's about refocusing on what matters most during the holidays. I 've never taken a class of hers before, so I'm looking forward to seeing how things compare to other sites I've used. 

I'm also looking forward to doing some scrapbooking about the holidays this year. Usually, I am so busy with other things, I just take a hiatus from scrapbooking completely until after January 1st.  This means I have very few pictures from the past few years of Christmases.  I've been more focused on being "in the moment" than on taking pictures.  This is good, but I am noticing the gap in the family storybooks now.

So, I'm hoping this class will teach me how to balance both – being in the moment and capturing the family traditions that make this holiday season so special.

Our first assignment was to capture and document our holiday values and goals.  So, here's mine:

Values:

Family – Togetherness – Happiness – Gratitude – Fun – Friends – Faith

(the alliteration was purely coincidental, but I like it!)

Goals for this holiday season:

  • Focus on the celebration of Christ's birth, not on the commercialization of Christmas
  • Focus on spending time with friends and family, not racing from one event to the other
  • Focus on relationships, people, and making memories, not things
  • Try to spend 20-30 minutes a day capturing my thoughts and memories while they are fresh
  • Take more pictures
  • Less focus on PERFECT, more focus on GOOD ENOUGH

What about you?

Have you ever given any thought to your goals for a holiday?  Share them with me in the comments section. I'd love to see what yours are.

If you have to ask… (Notes from the Landlord Chronicles)

We have a couple rental properties.  Over the years, this has provided us with a little (very little) extra income and an endless source of things to shake our head at and/or laugh at.  I thought I'd share one or two with you from time to time… some are just too good to keep to myself.

Today, I got a call from a young woman who was calling about one of the town homes we have for rent. She and a friend had driven by and seen the sign and were very interested in potentially renting the place.  After going through the usual spiel about bedrooms, bathrooms, rent and deposit she asked if we had a pet policy. 

"Yes, we allow pets," I said.  "We have a non-refundable pet deposit, but we allow pets."

"Oh, good," She said.

<pause>

"Um, do you have a size limit on your pet policy?" She asked.

<huh? size? what?>

"What do you mean," I asked.  "How big are your pets? What are they?"

<as I'm having visions of ponies walking up the staircase in the townhouse>

"Well," she answers, "they're pretty big dogs."

"They?"

"Yeah, we have two of them."

At which point I proceeded to point out all of the reasons why our place was not the right one for her.

Note to future potential tenants:  If you have to ask if we have a Size Policy for Pets, the answer is pretty much guaranteed to be YES, we do.

sigh.

Today: 16 Nov 09

Outside my window… beautiful sunshine, sleeping puppies, and lots of leaves.

I am thinking… about how close the holidays are and how not ready for them I am.

I am thankful for… the love and support of my mom.

I am wearing… jeans and a shirt and the ever-present slippers.

I am remembering… my brother's visit this past summer. what fun it was.

I am going… to get my Christmas list started today.

I am reading… The White Queen

I am hoping… to get some scrapbooking in this week. My challenge is 20 min each day.

On my mind… bills, finances, nothing much fun.

From the learning rooms… blogging class by Shimelle.

Noticing that… I need to find a more positive attitude this week.

From the kitchen… chicken or pork chops

Around the house… normal Monday-morning post-weekend clutter.

One of my favorite things… sleeping in.

From my picture journal…IMGP1496_edited-1

Sunday Scrappin’

Happy Sunday, y'all!

Check out my Sunday Scrappin' post over at The Lady at Home.  I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Until then, here's a picture of the view off my back deck.

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I love livin' in a tree house. (and where did the "g's" go off all my words? gracious. too much time with my southern belle friends this week)