THE QUEEN OF QUIRK

hello 2012

Wow. We're almost a week into the new year and I haven't been around at all lately.I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. We had an absolute blast. It's been nonstop fun for almost 2 months and I think my brain is ready to settle down to a less hectic routine. LOL

Well, the 7 weeks of houseguests is at an end and I'm ready to get back to my normal routine. It's sad and strange, though, to walk around my house and have so few people here. There aren't as many coats hanging by the front door and the extra chairs at the dining room table have found their way back to the kitchen. I don't get to hear my sweet niece's laughter every day and I miss my brother and sister in law terribly. I think having an empty house is going to take some getting used to. :(

On a bright note, though, I have actually been keeping up with my projects and scrapping over the holidays. Shutterfly had an amazing offer for 101 free prints so I printed all my December Daily photos through them and am just waiting to get my hands on them to get my album put together. I chose a really fun red spiral album with black pages. It looks really different but I am loving it.

Also, I'm working on a Project Life album. I am soooo excited about it. My amazing friend, Liz, convinced me to do one this year and so I've been gathering supplies for that as well. It's amazing how much I am looking forward to paper scrapping. At first I thought I would be overwhelmed with trying to design and digiscrap and paper scrap but it seems to be balancing out very nicely.

Now all I have to do is carve out a little nook somewhere where I can have all my Project Life stuff in one place and then I think I'll be good to go.

I love the New Year! The possibilities always seem endless! :)

our halloween

...was so much fun! In the past we never dressed up with the kiddos but for the past couple of years we have been and it's been so much more fun! I've re-connected with my obsession with costumes and we have so much fun getting into character! :)

Lara was so proud of her Hermione costume. She really looked the part, too! Mia is either a witch or a cat every. single. year. It's too funny. And Norah...Norah is a princess. Naturally. I am a huge dork but, in my defense, I'm not as huge a dork as my husband.

It's pretty awesome to go shopping with the Swedish Chef, though. Especially as he hums and "bork"s the entire time.

I hope you had a fantastically spooky Halloween!

christmas 2010 recap :)

We got some really sweet photos during Christmas and I wanted to share them here. :)

Found Lara reading " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" to her sisters. :)

Our gingerbread community.

Christmas morning

Opening the big gift from Santa.

Our first puppet show.
Since Christmas we've just been alternating between relaxing and purging this house of things we don't need. I mean...seriously. I had 3 whisks and over a dozen pans just in the kitchen. And we had enough candy in the pantry to host Halloween for a small town. So, we've been busy busy. I have a mountain of ironing to do today. :) I hope you're having a fantastic Tuesday!

reindeer games inspiration

So excited to share these lovely layouts by the Jessica Sprague creative team (and also 1 by me) using my new kit, Reindeer Games. :)

by me:

by mindy:

by renee:

Thanks so much for stopping by! :) I hope you're having a great Tuesday! :)

recap: halloween 09

Before 2009 is officially over, I want to recap some of the things I failed to blog since October.

Words will be minimal as I'll be letting the photos take center stage. :)

Colin and I decided to dress up this year with the kidlets. I will not embarrass myself any more than necessary so I am leaving out my photo. I will, however, show off my family. Lara and Mia were witches and Norah went as Supergirl.

Colin dressed up as a luchador. You can read more about them here. I will let his photo speak for itself though. 

Needless to say we were on the receiving end of a lot of strange looks. The girls were thrilled that we were all dressing up as a family and we had a lot of fun. Next year, though, we want to throw a proper Halloween party and get all our friends to dress up as well.

And, of course, that means that I get to plan a party and bake ridiculously cute Halloween treats. :) Yum.

the countdown

Hey there.

How are you?

You doing good?

Not too stressed?

That's nice.

Good for you.

For me...well...

Let's just say I'm getting reaaaally good at treading water. ;)

Ok, so things have been insane around here. You can probably guess that, though, from the lack of posting for however many weeks it's been. I still need to update on Halloween, Mia's birthday, and our time here in Frankfurt.

I can't just right now, though. I'm focusing 100% of my time to Songbird Avenue and I have so much work to get done before Thanksgiving. Then we are having Thanksgiving at a friend's house and then we get the keys to our house the next day and need to start moving out of the apartment. Then we get to move in on Saturday and start painting. THEN our stuff arrives on Monday morning. THEN we have 3 days to get settled before our house guests arrive. :)

As soon as we get our stuff delivered (including all the lovely cords that go with our cameras) I will update this thing properly. Until then, though, the blog is going to have to be a little patient.

I have been doing some Christmas browsing during my lunches with Norah. It's all about the multi-tasking right now. :) Thought I'd share some of what I found.

 

For most book lovers, there is a little wanna-be librarian living in our hearts. I know I sure have one. She has horn rimmed cat-eye glasses and a cardigan twinset in every color. ;) The personal library kit is perfect for someone like me. Heck, I would buy it just for the stamp alone! 

You didn't really think this post was going to be about what I'm getting other people right? hahaha

Anthropologie just revealed their new holiday decor and I have to say I am in love with the ornaments...

 

And the tree skirts. Makes me want to redo mine...

This calendar is gorgeous. If it wasn't so expensive, it'd be a perfect teacher gift. I think we may be going more "low key" this year. Probably some of our homemade sugar cookies we always do. :)

Well, folks, that's about as much of a break as I can allow myself right now. Need to egt back to work. Songbird's new marketing director will be crackin' the whip if I don't! ;)

I hope you have a lovely day! See you in a couple of weeks!

lurve

Seems a bit early for Valentine's Day stuff, but since the stores had the goodness out way before New Year's...maybe I'm late? :) Not sure of that, but what I am sure of is how much I love this new paper pack! I tend to stray a bit from traditional themes...and I'm not a very mushy person. So, for someone like me, Valentine's Day is a bit over the top. This is my take on all the other lovey-dovey mushy stuff out there. :) Just a playful jab at the holiday. Get it? Jab? :)

And since I like to go all out for teachers and friends and such, I thought it'd be neat to make some printable goodies for everyone. I just adore these and I can't wait to pass them out. There are 2 bag toppers (1 without a photo spot), a candy pocket, a tag, and of course some goodies to make your own labels and cards. The elements in this pack are completely different from the ones included in the paper pack.

Here's a better gander at the cute stuff I whipped up with the printables pack.

Next up is a little dose of spring. January, flat out, is dreary around here. There are crocuses and daffodils emerging all over my garden and I want to encourage them with a little bit of sunshine. I think we could all use a bit of that right now! :)

You can purchase all the kits here:

LOVE TAP

LOVE TAP PRINTABLES

PUNCH BUGGY

And all those Hershey kisses are gone..they didn't stand a chance. ;) Happy Thursday!

happy new year!

Welcome, 2008!

I can't believe it's already here! I celebrated in high fashion by getting myself in bed at 10:30! We had quite a few neighborhood fireworks go off at midnight, though, and the older girls watched them from their window.

We've also pushed back the January Songbird Avenue debut until tomorrow. So, be sure to check that out! I'm off to finish up a bunch of projects I had on hold during the holiday rush. I wish you all a happy new year!

merry christmas!

Merry Christmas and to all and to all a good night!

I hope you all are having a wonderful night! We had an amazing Christmas and I wish the same for you and your families.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Love, Jan :)

3 more sleeps

The girls are so excited and antsy about Christmas. Lara asked for a bag of bows tonight at the store and I really and truly believe that it was a ruse...to get to take out all the presents and spot the ones that had her name on them. :) A good one, though.

Christmas always brings back memories of my own childhood. Memories of 5 a.m. breakfasts of eggs and bacon and strong coffee. My strongest memories are of seeing my daddy in his PJs, waiting for all of us to finally roll out of bed. And I remember getting presents from Santa long after I stopped believing. But there is something magical in those packages addressed to you from a fictional jolly man written in your father's handwriting. I was always surprised and I believe that is the heart of my Christmas. When you take away all the commercialism, the simple joy of witnessing happiness manifested in those you love...that is the joy of the holiday season for me. This is always bittersweet for me...recalling these memories. After all these years, we've grown somewhat accustomed to the lonely holidays simple festivities. But what I wouldn't give to be down in southeast Texas, with my whole family, celebrating family and rejoicing in each other's company.

To all my friends and loved ones, know that I love you and miss you. Things just aren't the same without you here.

From one of my favorite Snow Patrol songs:

I find the map and draw a straight line
Over rivers, farms, and state lines
The distance from 'A' to where you'd be
It's only finger-lengths that I see
I touch the place where I'd find your face
My finger's in creases of distant dark places

If I don't post again before Christmas, know that you are in my heart and I hope you are happy and joyous this holiday season.