It's #38!!!

Hasn't this month flown by? Here we are at the end of the year already!!!! Where did it go?

I am excited though what 2011 has in store for you and for me!!!!

Aren't you?

Well what a great way to end this year by showing you

Sketchabilities #38!!

Aren't you excited!!!

The sketch

My take

 

I did hidden journaling because i didn't want to take away from the page! The journaling is about how bad Dayv felt when we didn't actually cut our tree down but bought it from the grocery store lot.

I loved these colors and this sketch!

Go play along too!

And with that my dear friends my prayer is that you have a wonderful ending to 2010 and a great start to 2011!!! Be blessed friends!

Only One.

I can hardly believe that we've zipped by 2010.
Where did it go? Seriously? It flew. Straight by.
Didn't it?
I am glad to be heading into 2011.

I don't have any long list of resolutions.
Not this year.
I was laying in bed and the single most thing
that stood out and just came to me...
Just a word.
Sure I've gotten several words over the course
of the past couple of months. They are good words
too. Some I liked more than others, but this
word is necessary. Most certainly so.

Listen. 

That's it. That's my resolution.
To listen more, talk less.
To intently listen to others.
To not cut people off.
To listen before I speak.

While this might seem rather easy
for some, I can assure you
that as I laid there in my warm
and cozy bed, that the Lord
pointed out the areas where
this is most needed. Some of
those areas stung and hurt.
Others made me laugh. But you
can better believe that while
its just one single little word for
my resolution that it will take
all year to become a good
listener. In so many aspects.

I do hope that your New Year's is a safe one
and if you have a word, please share it and tell
me why your word is that word!

JBS Guest Star!!

Let me just share how giddy I was when I received an email from
Danielle Flanders!

She was writing to ask me if I would like to be a guest star for the month of December..

Can you believe that? I was floored. I mean Danielle has always said she loves my work, but honestly I thought she was just "being nice" type of thing. But I learned she really does like what I create and thinks I was worthy enough to join the other gals for the month of December on Jenni Bowlin!

Then I got an email from Doris Sander and I was pinching myself!

I got the cutest goodies in the mail and went to town!

So check me out!!! 

 

 

I am both flattered and honored to be a guest start for JBS!!!!

Thank you so much!

Getting Creative!!!

Ya know how I feel about sketches. They inspire me!

I really love allowing the creative juices flow bouncing off a particular sketch, so fun! 

o while I was sitting here the other day
I decided to see what Creative Scrappers were up too
and they have a new sketch, of course! It's sketch #136.
Totally in love!

The sketch

My take

Supplies: American Crafts, Glimmer Mist, Floss, Kaiser Kraft bling, CM corner rounder, Doodlebug, Echo Park Be Mine Collection, Zig black writer.

Ya know how I feel about Echo Park too. I simply *adore* that company SO much!!!

So when I got the new

Be Mine Collection I knew I had to use it for this sketch!
Hope you find inspiration from the sketch too!

Best Christmas prezzie ever!!!

Hi there!

Are you finding yourself getting back into the swing of things yet? 

I sure hope so!
It was back to work for me today and the store was completely dead! LOL. It was a family day today so we didn't think we'd see too many peeps coming in today! The good thing was that I got to do a lot of things I had been wanting to in the store while the barista was there working. So it all worked out!

I have to share with you the bestest prezzie I have ever gotten!!! This Christmas was amazing!
It's from both D&A. Alyssa made it, which touched my heart even more!

Take a gander at my "coupon" book!

 

 

I can't tell you enough how much I love my lil' family! When I opened this on Christmas Day I started to cry. Not because Dayv or Alyssa don't already help around the house, because they both do a lot. But because they wanted to show me how much they appreciate me. Isn't it just the coolest and cutest coupon book all rolled into one? My very favorite one? The one where I can take a Saturday and do what I want to do, whatever I want! Why might you be asking? Because little do they know we are going to go someplace and take photos of us!!!

You might be wondering why I'd pick that. Because for a couple of reasons. We need a new good family photo. We've never gone anywhere and actually took photos. D doesn't really like getting his picture taken, but since its my day and I can do what I want then he cannot give me the stink eye!!!! Not sure when I am going to cash in on this one, but I have it dancing around in my head! I might even get in contact with a local photographer and have them do it for us!!!! Sweet!

I think that my family loves me and I feel truly blessed by them!
I hope that you are blessed by family and friends like that too!

The day after.

Isn't it interesting how the holiday is gone in a flash? Just over. Like POOF! Our lives return to normal and most take a sigh of relief. I don't know why December is such a hairy-scary month, but it normally is for most. 

As you know our month was very interesting to say the least. Never had a Christmas like this before. Well that isn't true, we had it early one year because D was deploying. But this year we don't have excuses except our tree was dead. LOL.

The next day. Which happens to be today. And its back to life.
D is at work, 12 hours. A&I went to church, came home and took down our decorations. I know you guys must think I'm nuts but I was over it. Although it was a very blessed holiday and we truly loved every minute of it, it was just a strange one. So our mood was strange too and A&I decided to tackle it today while there was time. We also deep cleaned and put everything out in the garage for D to finish up! LOL. He's cleaning the garage out this next week to fix his man area anyway so it was perfect timing.  Now she's reading and I am sitting here in the den feeling a little lighter!

We had this freak sleet/hail/snow storm just a bit ago really weird cause now the sun is trying to come out! What a strange winter...

I thought I'd show you A&I on Xmas eve going to church {D had to work that night}. We hardly dress like this for church but I really wanted to do it this year. I had gotten this outfit last year and never wore it. It reminded me a lot of my mom, I love it!

Alyssa and I both decided that we like skirts so much better than dresses!
Sorry the photo is wonky. I tell ya eventually I am going to learn my camera much better, one of these days!

Well friends going to fold some laundry and enjoy the rest of this day! Hope your day is swell!

Merry Christmas 2010!

The Carney's would like to wish everyone a very merry and blessed Christmas this year!

Well actually.... {with days 21, 22, 23}

I do still scrap. LOL. 

I have been busy creating stuff for the NY {that would be New Year}

Here is a peek of that!

Baking Smaking with day 20

I remember I had this cookbook I had gotten for a gift from my great-grandmother whom we called Mom. She gave me all of my books when I was younger... Anyway. So I had this cookbook and I begged my mom to make something for dinner one night.

Day 19 and winner!!!

I just wanted to take a moment to thank each person that stopped by my blog for the blog hop!!! I truly enjoyed looking at everyone's blogs and getting to know you better!

Without further ado....
The winner for my RAK is...

LynneForsythe
Lynne please email me so that I can get your RAK out to you
carneys4christ@yahoo.com

Thank you again for everyone that stopped by and also had a chance to play along!!!


Isn't it funny how you work on something and sometimes you like it more than something else you did? I find myself moving along like that with my December Daily. 

It's been an interesting process to say the least! I have pages that I created that I love and others I am sitting here thinking what do I need to add because they need something... Oh! Frustrating to say the least...
Oh well..

Day 19

Every single year the very same thing happens. I do really good having all the wrapped presents under the tree, until D&A have put mine under the tree... Then I become like them and constantly am in a state of wondering what's in those lovely packages {Dayv is VERY bad about waiting} so we decided to open a present each today!!! What fun it was choosing just the right one! Alyssa opened up her green robe, I opened up my pink slippers, and Dayv opened up his fishing pole racks+gift card for Tackle Warehouse!!

And then we realized we needed to take down our tree! I know right.... That's pretty weird.
However our poor tree was becoming so dead we worried about fire safety and decided this evening to take it down! I didn't take photos though because to me that was a little depressing!!! But what a strange Christmas holiday we are having in the Carney household! So we turned on Bing, sang Christmas carols and took down our very dead tree. The clean up was massive since the tree was pretty much dead {we were so sad} but we finally managed to get it all finished. We just put the chair back in and now it looks like Santa is going to come sit there and pass out gifts! LOL. We opted not to put up our fake tree we have because it would have been the 3rd time decorating a tree {yes we decorated our real one 2 times because it fell over once} and we were pretty much over it. It is still very festive in our house, sans tree!

Then I can't lie... AT 8pm we had Christmas!!! LOL. I know we are horrible people but we just really felt like having it so we did! We still have some prezzie's to open up on Xmas Day, but the bulk of it was opened on last night... I actually feel horrible admitting that because it seems so wrong, but our December has been wonky already so we figured to just go for it!! LOL. I didn't take photos of us opening all of our gifts though because it was night and we were busy opening them!!!

Thankful this past week for

1. Another 3 day weekend.
2. Clean clothes.
3. Time well spent with a dear friend who is far away on the phone. She thinks I helped her, but in truth she spoke volumes to me. I appreciate her.
4. Eating good wholesome foods.
5.  The excitement of Christmas.
6. Answered prayers.
7. How much D&I are learning reading through Psalms.
8. Vacation from Homeschooling.
9. Organization and planning. It helps me stay sane.
10. My December Daily. It is nothing what I thought it would be, but everything it should be!

Friends, I truly hope that your week is going great! Be blessed.

Day 18.

Hi there! How are you today friends? Good I hope!

I am good.

It is finally snowing!!!!
I have to have a white Christmas... I really do!

I just ordered this

Seriously. Don't wait to order yours! Just go out and buy it, you know you like it too!
I can't wait to get it in the mail!!! Of course I am still enjoying the holiday season but a girl that likes girlie stuff can't resist!!!

Day 18

A photo of D&A right before he took her to the ATM to get out money. She is going to the mall with her BFF for the first time by herself! I wanted to document the relationship that D&A have and how special that is.

Well folks since A is at the mall, its snowing hard, D is making us a homemade pizza, I see Mr. Carney and I having some quality time today!
I hope that you have some quality time with your loved one's too! Enjoy!

So Close!

It's Friday friends and here I sit. That's right, I have another 3 day weekend and I couldn't be more excited about it! I slept until 7am! Can you believe that!! It felt SO good too! Got instantly in my pj's, started school with Alyssa, and then I set about to scrap. Just have one errand to run, grocery shop. Then I am going to clean my space today too because it needs it, but you can bet this day will be filled with relaxing all. day. long! Ah....

How about you? What are you doing today and this weekend? I am really hoping the 10 day weather forecast is correct and we'll get snow every single day til Christmas!! I love a white Christmas.  It makes it feel all wintery! And it's almost time! I can hardly believe that we are almost at the 25th! Can you believe it?  Are you ready? Excited? Stressed?

Well I've got a couple more DD's to share!! This week was a little harder for me doing them daily. So I made notes and took photos and came back to them last night and today. I was being a tad hard on myself because I wasn't doing them daily, but I figured that if I made notes and took the photos for the day and then scrapped them I was doing good. I had been doing them daily, but like I said this week just was busy and hard. But... Here they are!

Day 14.

This day held Alyssa's homeschool Christmas band concert. Such sweet music was played from these kids! I love watching Alyssa play. I truly find such enjoyment and I am so proud of her for wanting to continue to play. She loves her instrument! I made a pocket with
a clear American Crafts photo sleeve and cut it to fit the program paper and my journaling too. I liked how it came out!




 Day 15.

 

This day is probably the funniest to me!  Just because it was late. D&I were tired and yet we went out and did the last bit of shopping we needed to do for Alyssa! The photos of us are horrible! But I wanted to document the day anyway.




  Day 16.

Ah! Ice skating. Can I tell you I have perma-grin when I ice skate? I feel like a little kid let go in a candy shop! I love to ice skate! I wanted us to go rather early on in the day so that there weren't a lot of people and its a good thing we did because about 3pm, tons of kids started showing up! So we skated for almost 3 hours that day! It was freezing out, but worth every single minute! We also went to see Chronicles of Narnia {Voyage of the Dawn Treader}  that night too. I didn't have photos
from that day, but the journaling is there
and we kept the stubs for both activities too!
What a really fun day!


Day 17.

Grocery shopping. I used to like it but now I don't know, I could think of a thousand different things I'd rather be doing. But it has to be done and we really needed it! Plus, we had to get our Christmas dinner as well as the cookies we are going to make for our neighbors too! Yummy and fun all rolled into one!


So as we are gearing up closer to Christmas Day, I really hope that you have enjoyed the season thus far and are almost if not completely finished with your shopping for your friends and family alike!

A Frosty Reveal with #37

It's time for #37!!!

I bet your excited, probably as much as I am!!!
Brought to you by Sketchabilities!!!

The sketch

My layout

 

 

 

I am still using Echo Park. Seriously. I am in love with it, can you tell? LOL.

And  because its been busy snowing since the middle of November I am seriously in love with snowflake punches too!!!

Hope you are inspired so...

Go, play, and feel all frosty too when you play along!

God's Fingerprints Blog Hop!!

CLOSED!!!
I have picked the winner and will announce it tomorrow on my blog and My Paper Treehouse's blog! Be on the lookout for that!!
Thank you for leaving love!


We are celebrating at My Paper Treehouse by having this...
You should have come from Nicole Brenna's Blog.

There is tons of information, so make sure you read everything!!! LOL.

Each of the DT members have a wonderful story to share with you about what God has done and is doing in their lives.. These are God's fingerprints! I want to share God's fingerprints with you about what God is doing in my life right now.
Friendship.
That's right! The Lord is showing me what it is like to be his best friend and He mine.
Here is my layout that shows that.

Journaling:
The Lord wants my all-n-all. Right now that means he wants me to learn to rely on him completely and utterly by being best friends with him. Yes, I truly do love our Lord with all of my heart, but I am flesh. And my flesh desired a kindred spirit here on earth for the past 4 years and although he has brought women in and out of my life, I have never found that woman that would stick and be a forever friend. When we first got back to the states, I longed to have the deep meaningful friendships I had in England and I simply didn't find that until a while later and that wasn't very fruitful. And here I am 4 years later in the same boat. The Lord spoke to me then and I didn't listen and he is speaking to me now, and I am. He wants me to focus on learning how to be best friends with him. He wants me to come to him in times of trouble, when I want to gossip, or just plain have girl-talk too. Even though I have been walking with the Lord for 10 years now, I don't believe he's ever been my best friend. So now here I am and he's been patiently waiting for me to get to this point in my life where not only would I continue to give him myself, but my all-n-all. I am like a child.. Just like you. Where we must lean upon our Lord first and foremost in our lives. I am warmed by the fact that even though I've pushed him away to have earthly girlie friendships that he has allowed, he is still standing there with his hand out, ready to grab a hold of me and lead me in this season of my life. I have been seeking him with things I would normally talk about with my friends. I have been studying the word on friendships and how Jesus was a friend. I want to soak up all that there is to learn through this season. 
I am ready.

Blog information!!

When: December 15th-December 19th

Challenge: As you stop by each of the DT's blogs, you will find elements that you will need to add to for the challenge to have a complete layout in the end!
Time: You have until Sunday December 19th 11:59pm PST to finish your creation and link it up to My Paper Treehouse blog.

Where:  My Paper Treehouse

Who: All who want to play!
Surprise: There is a HUGE surprise on My Paper Treehouse blog on Monday December 20th so please check back for that on the blog!

RAK's: You can win RAK's from the many of the DT members plus a grand prize!
 Here is the RAK I am giving away to one blessed person!!!!!!

 {remember you must post a comment to each blog in order to be eligible for any RAK's or prizes!!  
One blessed person will get all of this from me! It's all from American Crafts!}

Grand prize: 

To win the Artful Delights prize you must comment on all of the blogs along the hop in order to be eligible! On top of this fabulous prize, Artful Delights will custom order you any scrappy items you would like to have for no additional charge!!!! What a great deal!!!!


Here is my layout completed example with all the elements needed.

Here is the element you need to add to your layout: chipboard.

Next hop stop is Tabitha Jones' blog.
 
Don't forget you need to leave a comment on each blog and collect the different elements for the challenge layout and to win a RAK from any DT member or the grand prize!!!
Also remember to have fun and be blessed, because that is what its all about!

Hiya! Day 13

Hello there!
How was your Monday? I sure hope good. We were very slow today in the store. I don't know if it was because it was extremely foggy out or the fact that it was Monday. Normally our Monday's are slow anyway so it wasn't so bad.

And I am working out again straight after work. I was rushing home to be with Alyssa and help her through school but she is eating lunch when I get home as well as I didn't have it in me to go to the gym later. So today was my first day back after 2 weeks. I know.. A total slacker. I just didn't feel like going, so I didn't. I did legs and lower body today and worked out hard on one of the newer machines {interesting machine}. I feel good and have more energy today too. And of course, I realized how much junk had been seeping back into my life again, so Saturday I started to watch what I was putting in my mouth again and only putting in good things. I feel better already!

Okay enough babbling.. 

Here is my day 13.

One of the things I simply love about winter is

eating soup. I love finding new recipes and plopping it all into my crock with the wonderful smells all day long! This soup is a veggie Lentil soup. Totally yummy!!!

Ingredients:

2 cup lentils

4 cups water

8 cups veggie stalk {broth}

1 diced onion

3 diced celery stalks

2 chopped carrots

1 minced garlic gloves

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp oregano

1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes

Directions:

Stir everything together in crock. Cook for 8-10 hours.

Suggestions:

I added some cumin which made it tastier I think. I soaked lentils overnight even though the lentils bag says you do not need too. I find doing this helps with gas and also to make the beans softer. Also, I like to eat soup with saltines {wheat} and vegan butter. I know that might sound weird, but we love it! This way its a lot lighter of a lunch/dinner. This soup made enough to eat off of for days!!!

Hope your staying warm too!

Thankful. Decemeber Daily's 10-12

Ya know what? We have SO much to be thankful for in our lives! Truly, truly I feel so blessed.

I hope that you do as well. In fact, I hope that your life is blessed greatly!

I am thankful for this week..

1. Things when they don't go as expected because they go as they should. I cherish that, even if it doesn't fit what my thoughts on it were.

2. Forgiveness.

3. Creativity that puts a smile of people's face.

4. My hot glue gun.

5. The extra hours at work. Even though I am over working so much, I am thankful I have a job and even more thankful we are going back to "normal" shifts.

6. Recipes.

7. Texting between D&I, because sometimes we are so busy that its a blessing to have texting!

8. A messy house that no one will ever see. It makes me feel sane and real!

9. Moments of nothing. Simply nothing.

10.  The feeling of being overwhelmed. It's an odd thankfulness, but its true. Because that means I need to lay it at the Lord's feet whatever it is and let go of it because life isn't meant to always be feeling overwhelmed. Let the Lord carry your burdens, I do!

My December Daily is coming along nicely. I normally have the entire page finished but by the time I do, there is no light to take the photo which is why it seems I am behind! LOL. 

Day 10.
I *heart* this photo of Kira!

The work party was fun! The caramel brulee was interesting {Dayv ended up making it but it wasn't him} it tasted good, but was a little thick. I liked it though! Good job D! He made the beans too because I got a little delayed at work, only to come home and rush around. All of the food was great, everyone's prezzies were great and it was a nice night.

Work was work on Saturday. I must prefer not working on the weekends at all. I felt like I haven't had a break in so long. But I am looking ahead already to Friday because I have off. Ah... December 17th sounds much sweeter already!

Also our Christmas tree is already dying! We are all so sad about this and trying to save the tree! Our tree was very frozen the day we got it and now that we've experienced having the tree day and tree from heck, we have learned a few things...

Day 11

If you have gotten to know me over the years, you know I LOVE pj's. Simply love them. I am in them probably all the time and this day was no exception!!!!


Day 12

After church I knew I wanted to take a few family photos. I had this long journaling to go with it, but decided today the photo said it all. This is us. Just laughing so hard we 

can barely contain ourselves. This is my family. I love them more than life itself...

I hope your December Daily's {if you are doing one} are bringing you as much joy as they are me! If not, I do hope you are finding joy in this busy yet beautiful holiday!!!