Another Photo Shoot!

I've been keeping pretty busy this past week, but you know... tis' the season!

Hope that everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their family and friends. I know we did, despite the fact that there was something not quite right. I think we both realized (at the same time) on our drive to my brother's home for dinner. We were missing our Ava, who IS our blessing, but for whom we were feeling a terrible void because she wasn't going to be there with us to experience her first Thanksgiving meal. Would she have savored her first taste of the mashed pototoes? Or would she have gaged on them with every swallow, just like her mama did when I was a babe? Ughhh, to this day I still have trouble eating them! But, we both had a good cry and then we got on with the rest of our day, knowing that in the midst of not having her there with us physically, she was still very much a part of our celebration for Thanksgiving that day ... and she always will be!

Last Friday I had the opportunity to do another photo session for High School Senior portraits. It was a lot of fun for me, and I could see this as becoming quite the addicting stress "release" for me. I am by no means a professional when it comes to photography, but ever since I got my Nikon D40 last Christmas I've really been enjoying the process of learning the ropes.

It was pretty darn chilly on Friday, but we braved the elements to try and make some camera magic happen. For the most part, I think they all turned out really well. I hope the customer will be pleased with the end results, I'm anxious to see what he thinks about the pictures. I took 75 photos total, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites of the session here.

They're pretty good for a beginner, right? I'd like to know what you all think too!

Well, tomorrow is Friday, and the start of another weekend and the last month of the year 2007. Hard to believe. I'm sure most of you will have a lot of events coming up to prepare for. I still have a little bit more of the cookie baking to finish and I haven't even begun to do my Christmas shopping! I better get a move on ;) I did do my decorating the other day, and I'll try to post some pix real soon.

Have a great weekend!

Snow, Already?

I really wasn't prepared for this stuff already. This is what I woke up to today however...ughhh!

And can you see the tree off to the right hand side? It still has many beautiful Fall colored leaves on it. I don't mind the first snow of the season really. It's everything after that I don't like!

I just don't care for the fact that as soon as Winter makes it's appearance, it never seems to want to leave.

Anyway, the cookie baking has been coming along quite good. I took a little break today and didn't make any because I've been doing batches pretty consistently all week long and today I wanted a break. Today I focused on some scrapbooking! I did a layout that I thought would be perfect for a page call at Memory Makers, so I hope they think so too! Unfortunately I can't share it right now, as they like never before seen work.

I'm sure everyone is eagerly awaiting Thursday, for Thanksgiving. I know I'm really looking forward to it, and there's always so much wonderful food...too much food! My Dh and I will be going to my brother and sister-in-law's home for the day and she's preparing most of the meal. I am going to make a yummy Sweet Potato Casserole though so I thought I'd share the recipe for it with you all.

Kentucky Bourbon Sweet Potato Casserole

2(29 oz.)cans sweet potatoes

1/3 cup good quality bourbon

1 cup packed dark brown sugar, divided

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup pecan halves

1.5 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl mix potatoes, bourbon, 1/2 cup brown sugar, vanilla and salt. Spoon into a 13x9" baking pan.Combine remaining brown sugar,pecans, and butter; mix well. Sprinkle over potatoes evenly.Bake 25 minutes til top is browned.Serves 8.

Here's hoping that all of your Thanksgiving preparations are coming along smoothly! I hope you all have a Blessed Thanksgiving with your families and friends! God Bless!

Fa-La-La-La La...it All Starts!

Can you all see what's all in this picture above? It's all sinful really! But it's that time of the year, the big kick off to the Christmas holiday cookie baking begins today. I'm up to my neck in ingredients and it's time to get them going I guess.

My gram loves to make all types of cookies and then she makes up cookie platters to give to all her friends and family. It's getting harder and harder for her to do these now but she still really wants to do them, so I told her that I'd help her out more this year. I have scoped the net to find some newer recipes and I've found quite a few that I'll be trying for the first time. Did you know that Hershey's now has "Candy Cane Kisses" ? They are white chocolate with some red striping and candy cane bits. The company has a recipe using them called, "Candy Cane Blossoms", which is a take on the Peanut Butter Blossoms, only using a regular dough rolled in red or green sugar instead of the plain white sugar. They are really cute and colorful, and I'm excited to make those!

Before I go to get to mixing up some cookies, I wanted to share with you a page that I finished up last week for a blog challenge at Rusty Pickle. The challenge for the month of November is to create a page using 3 of their patterned papers and stamping in the page title.

I love using RP stuff in my scrapbooking, so this was an easy, fun challenge.

Title: She's Call Waiting

Supplies used -
Cardstock: Bazzill.
Patterned paper: Rusty Pickle (Girlfriend-Doodles, Fair Verona-Fair Verona, and Fair Verona-Hope).
Stamps: Rusty Pickle, Kari Alphabet (SMP04) and Fair Verona (SMP56).
Alpha Stickers: Rusty Pickle, Chocolate Bunnies Alphas.
Ink: Stampin' Up.
Chipboard scallop circle: Making Memories.

The photos are of my niece, Lera waiting for her Prom Date to arrive.

Journaling reads -
"BLAB...BLAB...BLAB...
BLAH...BLAH...BLAH...

Seems like she has nothing better to do while waiting for her Prom Date! {May 5, 2007}."

I'll tell ya, she's attached to that cell phone of hers like 24/7. I think I'm glad that I never had a cell while I was growing up. But I guess maybe it's better than driving your parents crazy with a busy phone line!

Okay, I really must go. I need to get to baking... Have a great day... and week!

Food and Smiles!

Who doesn't love food and finding new recipes? I won't deny... I love my food toooo much! I also enjoy cooking, especially when I know WHAT to make. So finding new recipes is always very helpful. Daniela was this week's Blog Host over at CreativeXpress, and she posted a challenge to her blog to share a favorite recipe. She shared a recipe and photos for an Apple Pie that sounds delish, so be sure to check out her blog if ya luv ya some Apple Pie! For me, I love the tastes and smells of this season... nothing like the taste of a piece of Cream cheese Pumpkin Roll, or a fresh baked dozen of Cinnamon Pecan Rolls, or even a kettle of homemade Beef Vegetable Soup! And yea, um, I can already smell that Thankgiving meal cooking!

Well, last night I was craving something warm and somewhat spicy to munch on... I wasn't in the mood for anything sweet. So as I was thinking of what to make, Buffalo Wing Dip quickly popped into my brain. I don't know if many of you have tried this before, but if you enjoy chicken wings, I'm sure you would really like this too. This is something I usually associate with summer because I like to make it to take to picnics and gatherings, but last night I was really in the mood for some, and hey, the color of it looks pretty fall-ish anyway!


Ingredients:
* 2 (8 oz.) PKGS. Cream Cheese

* (16 oz.) Bottle of Ranch or Blue Cheese Dressing

* 1 Cup Frank's Hot Sauce (or any other brand will do)

* 2 to 4 Cups Chicken in the can

* 2 to 4 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions: Add ingredients all together (but reserving about a cup of the shredded Cheddar Cheese). Mix together well in a larger bowl. Place the mixture into a 9"x13" pan and top off with the reserved cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serve with Tortilla Chips, Pita Chips or crackers. Enjoy!

By the way, you can easily cut all the ingredients in half to make a smaller portion of this recipe. That's what I did last night!

Well, before I go, I wanted to pass on a smile to someone! Earlier in the week, my good friend, Mireille, nominated me with this, "You Make Me Smile" Award! How very sweet of you, Mir, cause you know that made my day! You have been such a kind and understanding friend to me now since 2005, and from day #1... but why do you have to live sooo far away?
Now it's my chance to return the smile...

I'd like to present this award to my super talented friend, Allison. She has been so caring and understanding... and her posts and messages always make me smile! Allison is one "real", cool chick!

Smile... it's make the world a better place!

Been Tagged AGAIN, and a Card To Show...

Tagged yet again for the week, by my friend Peggy. I used to hate to play tag back in elementary school! I'm jus' sayin'. But this set of questions wasn't too awfully painful to answer at least. So here's my replies:

*4 JOBS THAT I'VE HAD

- Dishwasher at a Nursing Home

- Waitress

- Preschool Teacher

- Scrapbook Department Manager for A.C Moore

*4 MOVIES THAT I CAN WATCH OVER AND OVER

- Fast Times at Ridgemont High

- Pay It Forward

- Step Mom

- Ladder 49

*4 TV SHOWS THAT I WATCH

- Grey's Anatomy

- Biggest Loser

- Ghost Whisperer

- Brothers and Sisters

*4 PLACES I HAVE LIVED

- Gettysburg, PA

- Milton, PA

- Morehead, KY

- Atoona, PA

*4 FAVORITE FOODS

- Alice Springs Chicken (Aussie Chicken) from Outback Steakhouse

- Pizza (esp. Pizza Hut Meatlover's Pan or Papa John's Sausage and mushroom)

- Spinach Artichoke Dip with Chips (Applebee's is the best)

- My homemade chicken enchiladas

*4 FAVORITE COLORS

- GREEN

- PINK

- ROBIN EGG BLUE

- BROWN

*4 PLACES I WOULD LOVE TO BE NOW

- Driving along the East Coast New Englad States for Autumn site-seeing

- The Oregon Coast ( Would love to check it out...never been there!)

- Australia / Papua New Guinea ( DH's homeland)

- Greece ( It always looks fabulous in photos)

*4 NAMES I LIKE, BUT WOULD NOT NAME MY CHILDREN

- Delilah

- Christina

- Simon

- Harrison

and the 4 fabulous people I'd like to tag today are:

Suzanne

Melissa A.

Stacy

and Jen

Okay, now I'll leave you with a quick card creation that I made today. I got to play with some of the new fabulous stamps by the Kim Hughes collection for Cornish Heritage Farms.

The set I used here are the KH- 5004FUM Fall Silhouettes. Just beautiful images... and the ink really applies to the stamps well. A lot of other unmounted stamps that I've used in the past do not stamp a good quality impression, but these really DO! By the way, I used ColorBox Fluid Chalk inks (Autumn Pastels Petal Point) for this.

Other supplies used include -

Fall theme buttons: Jesse James

Patterned paper: BasicGrey (Mellow)

Velvet ribbon trim: Flair Designs

Fiber: Unknown

Tiny Tales quote: My Mind's Eye

Soft Spoken Woven Fabric embellishment: Me & My BIG Ideas!

Staples - Pounce Wheel tool - Sunflower design paper edgers (Fiskars) - Green crystals (Darice).

Thanks for taking the time to look! Hope you all have a fun weekend ahead... ENJOY!

The Weekend has Been a Special One!

This has surely been a wonderful weekend! Yesterday I had the chance to partake in our hospital's 1st Annual Walk and Service for Rememberance & Hope to Share Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support. I know this will become an event that I will look forward to now each and every October. Mugi was dissappointed that he had to work and couldn't join me, but regardless, I knew right where his heart was. He texted me a message assuring me that his heart was walking right along with Ava and I! My sister-in-law Wendy, and my niece Lera, also came along with me for the walk. Wendy and my brother also lost their infant son Isaac, 14 years ago when he was born silently due to the cord wrapped around his neck. Suffice it to say, our family has had enough grief, but we all know now that we have commonalities in this suffering, and in an odd way... we have been able to really help each other more . We don't have to grieve alone. So, I asked Wendy and Lera to walk along with me and they were more than happy to come along.

There was also a balloon release at the park during the service. We each got a balloon to release and we could sign messages onto them before letting them loose. I signed one for Ava, and Lera signed one for her brother, Isaac.

Now, onto today! Sunday... October 21, 2007. Seven years ago today, Mugi and I got hitched to each other! And to tell you the honest truth, I wouldn't want it any other way! I love this man... he's my EVERYTHING!

I can still remember the summer of 97' when we met. I had taken a break from my regular job as a Preschool Teacher. I was just getting burnt out and I desperately needed a distraction, so I took a few months leave from the Daycare and took a postition teaching Arts and Crafts to a Summer Camp ( I know... how different could THAT be?) But, I would be out in nature enjoying the great out-doors, and hey... maybe, just maybe I would meet the "Love of My Life"! Man, did I ever! I will forever be thankful that I found my distraction!

Last night Mugi brought me home another lovely dozen of roses and a nice mushy card! After he gets home from work we'll be going out for dinner to celebrate and I'm thinking and hoping that it's an "Outback" kinda night! But, I don't really care where we go. All I know is that I'm happy not to have to cook! Now that's a wife's response for ya! ;)

Okay... before I close this entry up for the weekend, and possibly the week (depending on how boring life is this week), I'll let you all know that I've been TAGGED by my good buddy Mireille !

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself (on your blog, we all want to know them).

3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

4. Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Soooo, here's 7 random facts about me... and they aren't really fascinating, believe me!

1. I DISLIKE answering questions about myself! (Lol!)

2. I like to eat hamburgers, but I loathe meatloaf!

3. I tend to stay up late at night (or until early in the morning, if that's the way you consider it), and then I like sleeping in! But I know I should train myself differently!

4. I am a "PK"...aka, a Preacher's Kid!

5. Flashback to the 80's... first concert I ever went to see was ( ohhh my), Debbie Gibson!

6. I almost failed Algebra II in High School. I hate math! I would stay almost every day after school to get extra help and instruction, and I still got D's and F's on my tests.

7. Right now I have an insane addiction for Spinach Artichoke Dip... esp. from Applebee's! I seriously could eat this stuff all the time.

Okay, enough randomness about me! I've now tagged and linked 7 other lucky peeps and they are:

Shellie

Cari

Robyn

Allison S

Kim Hughes

Wendy Malichio

lpscraps

Enjoy the rest of your day! :D

We all have hobbies and talents!

My hobby of choice is Scrapbooking... duh! But I must say that my brother has a wonderfully interesting hobby for himself, and he's so very talented at it too. Even with my Art degree, I know I could never venture into Decoy Carving. He's been an avid duck decoy carver/painter for nearly 6 years and he just gets better and better. He also carves other wild-life as well, and his work can be seen on his own web site for, Wood Wizard Decoy & Art Works. He enters many competitions and has had numerous winning pieces, and has even had his work diplayed in museums.

One of my favorite things to do in October is to attend a tiny community festival in Alexandria, PA each year. The festival is called, Hartslog Day, and there are many arts and crafts stands lined up along the street with artisians selling their beautiful work. I had attended Hartslog for a few years and told my brother Jim, that he should have a display of his ducks set up at the festival. I finally convinced him after about 2 years of nagging and he applied and was accepted. So this past Saturday was Hartslog Day and it was the 4th year for him to be involved in selling at the event. Here's a picture of his display from the day...

He couldn't attend this year though because he was selected to teach at a carving competition in Maryland, so my sister-in-law, and 2 of their friends set up for the festival, and I went along and helped a little too. All in all it was a wonderful day! He sold pretty many ducks (along with a few woodpeckers, a pufin and a rainbow trout and a bass). The weather was thee perfect Autumn day with the crisp nip in the air, just the way I like it. There was also plenty of great festival food to indulge in. I had a slice of my favorite pumpkin cream cheese roll and the ever so yummy, smothered cheese fries!

Not much else has been going on this week here with me. I've been pretty laid back with almost zero motivation... don't know why though. Yesterday Mugi had some training that he had to attend for his work and it was in Mount Pocono which is about 2 and 1/2 hours from here. He asked me to go along with him for the ride and I did... hoping there would be a nice scrapbook shop closeby. I'll just say that I sure got my share of Wal-Mart, as I walked around that place for over 2 hours! The area of Mount Pocono leaves little to be desired for me. I spent the rest of the time waiting for him in the car, looking through my scrap mags. I wish I would have Googled the area before leaving... there may have been some place close that I could have driven to. Ohhh well.

I did get a little bit of a scrap fix in the mail though. I'd been wanting the BasicGrey "Periphery", ever since it debuted, so I finally ordered the collection plus chipboard and I also ordered a bit of "Mellow" for good measure.

Then I got another super package that was sent by a sweet, sweet internet scrap-friend, Amy Tara Koeppel. More BasicGrey! She sent me a bunch of "Obscure" to play with.

Now I have lots of new goodies to use if only I could get myself some new Mo-jo!

One Chaotic Night!

Our weekend that was supposed to be all about good, fun things, ended on quite a sour note late last night (Sunday).

To begin, Mugi and I went to Altoona for the weekend for our friends Jonathan and Tanya's beautiful Fall wedding, which unfortunately was lacking the chilly Fall weather! It was a terrific evening though and they make the cutest lil' couple! We are so happy for them, and very fortunate to have them both as such good friends. Here's their photo...






















and here is their wedding cake, which was quite clever I think. It consisted of several layers of individual cupcakes!

Cute, huh?! I think October is just the perfect month to get married... that's when I did!

Ok, then on Sunday our church had a "Homecoming" celebration and a special catered lunch. We attended all that with my parents and then relaxed pretty much the rest of day. We had gotten tickets for the "MercyMe" concert at the Bryce Jorden Center in State College for the evening. We left mom and dad's at around 4:30 to grab a bite quick at McDonalds and then headed to the 6:00 concert. The concert was fabulous! MercyMe has always been a favorite group of ours and we've wanted to see them live for awhile now. They also had these guys, "Monk & Neagle" open for them. Neither of us heard of any of their songs before last night, and we were pleasantly surprised...they gave a wonderful accoustic performance that we enjoyed so much that we had to pick up their new cd, "The Twenty-First Time". Such an amazingly spiritually uplifting couple of hours, and it was definitely much needed quality time for both Mugi and I.

The concert ended at around 9:30 and we didn't get home til about 10:30. Then at around 11:00, the phone rang and I got one of those calls that you NEVER want to get! My grandmother called to tell me that my sister-in-law Wendy had just notified her that my 17 year old niece, Lera was just in a bad car accident and was being life-flighted to Geisinger Medical Center. My heart jumped out of my body. Mugi and I quick threw on some comfortable clothes and before heading out the door to get to the hospital I gave my parents a call to let them know. We didn't know any of the details of the accident...didn't know if she was alone or had others with her...didn't know if other cars were involved...didn't know her condition...nothing! All I know is that having to be "life-flighted" didn't sound like the best of scenarios, and all that my mind was preparing for was the worst. But I prayed hard from the moment I hung the phone up! I prayed like I never prayed before. I could not lose my only precious niece!

God graciously answered our prayers last night! Our Lera is banged up and bruised, but she is alive! She sustained no life-threatening injuries...and miraculously no broken bones! The reason why she was life-flighted was in case she had internal injuries or bleeding, for which there were none! Her car was the only one involved in the accident and she was driving alone, thankfully, because there was much damage to the back righthand side (doesn't look as though anyone could've survived if they had been in that back seat). It happened because she admits to driving too fast on a back road that she wasn't real familiar with. She took a turn quickly, lost control and hit a tree. She's a very lucky girl, and we are so blessed that she's still with us!
Please keep my niece in your continued thoughts and prayers. She's going to be stiff and sore for some time yet, and she will need all of our families support to bring her through this event as she emotionally heals! Thanks... and Glory to Our God!

Some Fancy Pants Just walked In My House!

What a fab mail day! I heard my doorbell ring earlier and I wasn't looking too swift with my bed-head and all, so I didn't go to answer the door right away. But when I did I was so stoked to see that the package left was full of yummy "fancy pants" goodness! A few weeks ago I found out that my favorite layout using their products which I entered into the fancy pants first blog challenge placed in the "Top 5". So today I got my winnings... all the new Botanicals papers, rub-ons, die-cuts, and ribbons. They also sent some of the Sassy buttons and posies from the Fashion Sense collection, and 2 of the fun new over-lays. Can not wait to get a chance to dive into this stuff. I just love everything that this company comes out with. In case you haven't been over to the fancy pants blog, here's my winning page...

The journaling wasn't included over on the blog, so here it is if you are interested in the story of,

"Opal and Garnets"...

"After coming home from the hospital without Ava in my arms, I knew I wanted to find a special remembrance ring to wear. I wanted it to include gemstones representing the month of October (Opal), for when she was born, and for the month of January (Garnet), for when she was expected. I really thought that I'd have to get this ring specially created, as those two stones are not commonly found set together in jewelry. It was about a week after her birth and I was at the mall on my first shopping outing, in what seemed like forever, with mom and gram. I was browsing the jewelry counter in at Bon-Ton, when to my surprise - there it was... the most perfect Opal and Garnet ring!

I felt as though an angel (our Ava), was sending me a message in disguise to let me know that everything would be fine. And it will - might just take eternity."


Well, I'm soon outta here for the weekend cause we have some fun plans...a wedding to attend on Saturday and a concert to see on Sunday! Hope everyone else has a great one too!

Heaven's Having a Birthday Party!

"To touch and to feel the memory of your smallness fills my heart with the blessing & reality of you".

Yes, today our lil' Miss Ava Noel is celebrating her first Birthday celebration up there in Heaven, and I'm sure she's flaunting those wings of hers! At least that's what I'm imagining.

I'm feeling pretty good right now. I'm sitting here thinking about her and looking at her pictures, and for right now I'm smiling. I'm not crying... I've already done plenty of that these last few days and I want this day to be a happy one... it's Ava's day!

It's been a tough week for sure. We have been recounting the arrival of Ava, and missing her immensely! We have had the challenge of being bombarded with heavy emotions this week and we have been having second, third and fourth thoughts about whether or not we should even try again to bring another child into our lives. Mugi and I are BOTH scared, but we are both strong too, and our strength combined overpowers the fear we have. So today is a GREAT day... it's a day of reflection, and a day for resolution!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, baby girl!!! Mama and Daddy miss you and love you!