Groceries From God!

In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.

~Psalm 37:19

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

~Isaiah 55:1
These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things.
~Psalm 104:27-28

My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips
my mouth will praise you.
~Psalm 63:5

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

~Psalm 34:8

Baby Audrey's Album

I have mentioned that my sister was expecting her first baby! My mom was here for a visit in November, and planned to be at my sister's in time for the Christmas Eve due date. It would have been ever so smart {and organized} of me to have my gift for baby Audrey ready for my mother to take with her when she went home. That would have been a great plan. Instead, this was the scene at my house the Monday night before Christmas.

It occurred to me, just days before Christmas, that I should make my sister a baby album! I didn't think she had a baby book yet, and I was pretty sure she wouldn't suddenly start scrapbooking.

I decided I would make her a predecorated scrapbook, ready for her to simply add photos and stories. I have completed similar projects for some of my custom album clients in the past.

{click on images to enlarge}

So at 9pm on December 21st, I pulled out my papers and supplies, came up with a quick plan, and spent the next three hours making a scrapbook.

I had a Baby Album Kit from which I borrowed some pre-printed pages for journaling.

I kept the color scheme focused on the color pink. Since I love pink and green together, I favored that combination throughout the album.

Usually when I am completing a project for a client, I am very careful to take their tastes, style, and preferences into consideration. Since this project was a surprise, I wasn't sure what my sister's preferences would be. I hoped she wouldn't mind pink!

This album will not hold every last picture of baby Audrey's first year. It will have to be a "best of the best" album.

After the pre-printed intro pages, I decorated a two-page spread for each month of the coming year. Depending on the size of the printed photos, each page will hold 2-5 photos, for a total of 4-10 per two page spread. For new, first-time parents, I know that is hardly any photos at all!

I also included plenty of journaling boxes. Of course, with a scrapbook, my sister can write anywhere on the page, and say as much as she wants about her sweet baby girl.

I always love making baby books. But this one was so extra-special. I have prayed for a long time that my sister and her husband would have a child. As I worked on these pages, I got to pray for Audrey, her life, and the lives of her parents.

This was definitely a "use-what-you-have" project. I pulled papers, mats and embellishments from a variety of kits. One thing I like about special projects, as opposed to general family albums, is the way a theme can be carried throughout the book to unify the design. Here, the theme rests heavily on the color scheme.

The large photo mats on the page can be used for journal boxes, or to perfectly mat 4x6 photos. However, their placement on the pages doesn't require that they are even used as photo mats. Photos can be placed anywhere on the page... two photos can overlap one mat, if desired. No rules!

These are quick, easy layouts that can be used for any type of album page. Switch out the papers and change up the colors, and these ideas could be used for sports, holidays, or vacation photos. These are simple pages that will {hopefully} put the focus on the pictures, not the layout.

Many of the page layouts I used were borrowed from one of the handouts I share with the ladies who attend my workshops. Easy ideas for getting pages done helps the process go more quickly, and helps those who don't feel creative have more confidence in their results. I try to take the stress out of scrapbooking!

Pre-cut mats, journaling boxes, Calendar Month Stickers and other fun embellishments also make it quick and easy to complete cute pages!

I knew my sister was due at Christmas, so it worked really well for this album to start with January and end with December. But, if the baby was due in April, I could have done an album that spanned from April of this year to March of next.

I added a couple more pre-printed pages after all the months, since that made sense to me.

And just in case the Audrey wasn't born until January, we have a few extra pages at the end, plus a first birthday page. I can tell I was losing steam... it was almost midnight when I finished these last pages. But I finished the album in three hours! It was in the mail on Tuesday, December 22nd. And it arrived on my sister's doorstep, all the way across the country, in time for Christmas! {I won't talk about how much postage I had to pay...}

And, right on time, Audrey also arrived on Christmas Eve! My new niece was born at 9:47 a.m.! And her baby album was waiting when she came home from the hospital on Christmas Day. I can't wait to meet her!

Happy New Year!

Everyone needs a new calendar to start the New Year, right? This was a quick gift I whipped together a few days before Christmas: calendar pages for Gil & my mom!

Several years ago, I gave Gil, my mom, and my in-laws a CM PicFolio Minutes album with scrapbooked calendar layouts inside. This little 6x7 album has a great feature in that it converts to an easle album for a nice desk-top display. It holds 4x6 photos, along with a nice mat around them. I love to give it as gifts!


StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 has a really cool "Insert Calendar" feature that I played with for this project! Making the 4x6 pages for the 12 months, plus adding in additional photos to fill up the 24-page album took less than an hour! (First, I selected all the photos I might want to use from my CM Memory Manager program & with one click, easily imported them into StoryBook Creator.)

So it was no extra effort to make a different first page for Gil's calendar! I like the quote on this monument: "God forges us on an anvil of adversity for a purpose known only to Him. That is the way He prepares us for life." It kind of applies to the last few years of our life! The rest of the pages were fun to make, too.

Such a fun, fun project, don't you think???! I love that it took mere minutes to create, and that I could easily order as many sets as I wanted. In the past, I have taken a bit more time and added Bible verses to each 4x6 page, as well. This year I wasn't as organized, but it is still a fun, fast, and easy gift!

Happy New Year!!!

(PicFolio Minutes albums are available here, and in other colors, while supplies last, here.)

Goodbye 2009...

As I wrote my Christmas letter this year, it was a time to reflect on all our blessings. I do my best to be encouraging, to look to the future with hope, and trust in the goodness of God. But I would be lying if I said I was without fear or always full of faith. I can fall into despair and depression just like anyone else. Sometimes I feel like I have so little to give to others, and that my family certainly gets my worst. If I were more godly, I would be sweeter, more patient, and more cheerful. I think we all go through times where we feel like we are not seeing or feeling the Lord with us. Our faith is a choice, especially during such times.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at church Sunday morning. Just as the service was beginning and the worship music started, I had to pray to the Lord to give me a worshipful attitude because I was feeling nothing. A minute later, a family moved into our pew, causing us all to make room.... and when I looked, it was the family of Ellie Potvin, a little girl who has been battling cancer for the last year and a half. Ellie had to stay home and away from germs, but her parents and twin sister were sitting next to us. It was a sudden a reminder to me of how blessed I am. So very blessed. No matter what I think I lack, I have so much for which to be thankful. Amy, Ellie's mom, is trying to be strong and hold everyone together. But as I hugged her after the service and told her I am praying for them, she just dissolved into tears in my arms.

We have taken meals to the Potvin family a number of times in the last year, my kids going with me. The Potvins have welcomed us into their home, people they don't even know, with warmth and grace and joy, introducing their 5 puppies to the kids. Once, when we dropped off dinner, no one was home and we had to leave it in the cooler on the porch. As we headed to our van, my kids skipped down the porch steps and on ahead.... and it was as if I felt a sudden, hard blow to my chest, watching my three, healthy children skip away, knowing that the mother in that home had a child who was gravely ill. It was indeed humbling.

Just this week, the Potvins learned that Ellie, who turned 8 at the end of October, has been given just 4 weeks. Ellie is about to undergo aggressive chemo and many, many prayers are going up for her healing. I cannot imagine what that family is going through. But I can see how the Lord has used this situation to bring them all into His embrace. It is His strength that carries them.

When I pull myself out of my self-centered focus, I see so many needs, so much to pray for. My heart breaks for the Potvins, and for many others who have had a tougher 2009 than I have. I feel helpless. All I can do is pray. So I pray...

• For Ellie Potvin, her parents Tim & Amy, and twin sister Grace
• For my sweet, godly friend who is struggling to balance homeschooling four children with caring for her aging mother as she falls deeper and deeper into alzheimers
• For a friend who tragically lost her sister, and is now raising her young niece and nephew along with her two young children
• For a family we love and adore who are being ripped apart by infidelity
• For a family whose husband and father is fighting cancer
• For friends who are waiting and hoping for children to join their families
• For those who are in constant pain
• For those who in financial distress and seeking employment
• For so many other needs

Something that encourages me in dark times came to me during our Good Friday service in 2008. As I sat through that service, the reality of what the disciples saw and felt suddenly hit me in a fresh and powerful way. For them, it was a time of disappointment, disallusionment, grief, despair, and darkness. All their hope seemed for nothing. But in that darkness, God was doing His greatest work of all: securing our salvation through Christ Jesus. So when I am in a dark time, I try to remember that even if I am not seeing the Lord at work, He IS there, He is working, and He is GOOD. The resurrection is coming! Blessings to you in 2010.

Our Baby Boy is 13!!!

It seems like just yesterday that I was holding my new baby boy, the answer to my prayers, and marveling over this beautiful child that the Lord had blessed Gil and I with. We have watched Zachary grow through the years into a responsible, trustworthy, brilliant young man. We are so proud of him! We are so thankful for him! Happy Birthday Zac!!! We love you SO much!!!

Pecan Tarts

Long ago, I found little mini-muffin pans at a store for a dollar each! I snapped up six of them. While I use them to make mini-muffins, mini-quiche, and to sort my vitamins, my favorite thing to use them for is to bake Pecan Tarts! These are a Christmas cookie tradition in our house.


The recipe is pretty simple, but they do take a bit of time. They are very much worth the extra effort, though! All you need is:

• pie dough, enough for a double-crust pie (this will make about 4 dozen)
• pecans, about 1.5 cups
• just 1/3 of a recipe of pecan pie filling (I follow the recipe on the back of the corn syrup bottle, dividing everything by 3)
• mini muffin tins
• a just-the-right-size cookie cutter is very helpful, mine is just under 3" wide
  

First, make pie dough and chill, unless you are using store-bought dough. Next, mix up the pecan pie filling, using just 1/3 of each ingredient (I'll give you my measurements at the end!). I mix this little amount in a measuring cup to make it easy to fill the shells later.

Now for the fun! Roll out about half of the pie dough and cut into circles that will fit into your mini muffin pans. My cookie cutter has a nice scallop that make my little tarts look so cute! I also use this little wooden tamper tool I got from Pampered Chef several years ago. It makes the process of getting the dough to sit just right in the pan so much easier.

After all the pie dough is in the pans, put about a teaspoon or less in the bottom of each shell. (You will have filling left over.) I find that tipping the measuring cup slightly, but using a spoon to push a little bit of the liquid filling over the edge into the pie shell works well for me. Spooning into the shells can be messy. And pouring the filling will probably result in way too much. So helping it over the edge with a spoon gives more control over how much goes into the pie shell.

Place 2-3 pecan halves in each shell (more if your pans are bigger than mine). Bake for about 15 minutes at 375 degrees. Keep close watch on them so they don't burn! You do want them to be nicely browned.

Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Then take the Pecan Tarts out of the pans and let them cool further on the wire rack.

If too much filling was used, the little pies may be stuck to the pan, seemingly forever. I have had this happen, and ended up turning all my cute little pies into crumbs trying to get them out. But, I have since figured out a trick... place each pan in the freezer for about 10 minutes, then the tarts should pop out just fine.

Don't they look good? Each one is about two bites, and not as sweet as traditional pecan pie. These are supposed to go with me tonight to a cookie exchange! If they make it there, I will have to make another recipe of them before Christmas. We love them!

Here is the recipe measurements for the filling:

• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. melted butter
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Plus:

• 1 1/2 cups pecans
• 1 recipe of pie dough

My Christmas Tour!

I am so not ready for Christmas.... this is going to be a wild week of preparation around here. I have cards to design & order & address, baking to do, gifts to buy, presents to wrap, packages to mail, and more! BUT I have been enjoying our decorations for two weeks, now. My husband and children insist upon having our tree up Thanksgiving weekend. So far this Christmas season I have been a total "Mary" and just basking in the glow of the Christmas tree lights! This week, however, I am going to have to kick into "Martha" mode and tackle the Christmas To Do List! In the meantime, come on in... I will show you around!

Here is our Christmas tree in the family room. I use our formal living room as my office area and part of my workshop, so all of our life happens in this family room and the kitchen! I cannot capture the beauty and magic of our Christmas decor in photographs... but really, they are so lovely in person! (And if you click on the image below, it will enlarge, and you can see one of my favorite things, there on the wall. It is a Mary Engelbreit pie plate that says "Bless this Home". It was a gift from my sweet friend Robin from Colorado... one of my best friends ever!!! I get to think of her everytime I see it!)

I always start my tree decorating with white lights, white beads and white bows. (I have actually tied the same bows on my tree every year for 20 years!) I then add a lot of dark red and some gold ball ornaments. After those basics are completed, out come the assorted ornaments. This year, I let the kids complete the tree decorating. Since we have enough ornaments for two trees, it is quite full of pretty pretties. Many are very bunched together, on top of each other, even. But, you know what? I love it! It is so not perfect, but it is our best tree ever. And I love that the kids made it that way.

When my mother retired, she became a quilter. For my birthday in 2000 her 8th quilt was this beautiful tree skirt she made for me (I love that she labels all her quilts!). I am proud to have it under my tree. And, we do see it for much of the Christmas season... especially these last few, leaner years!

Here is a peek at a few of my favorite ornaments. This one is my very, very favorite, and is from my childhood tree. My mother said it was a gift from my German babysitter, Frau Grau, when I was three years old! We were living in Germany at the time, and my brother was a baby. It is a teeny, tiny Nativity. We always loved that a little tree light would fit into the little hole in the back to have light fall on baby Jesus! Yes, this ornament is almost as old as I am.

I found these little papa and mama bear dolls at a sweet little shop one year, long ago. I have always loved them. I put them in a prominent spot to signify Gil & I. Right next to them, is an ornament commemorating our first Christmas together! I met Gil on New Year's Eve 1995... In 1996 we had our first date, got married, celebrated our first Christmas, and then on December 28th, welcomed Zachary into the world! It was a very good year.

We rearranged the family room to make room for the tree. The kitchen table is over to the right, in front of that window.

And here is a view from the kitchen! I just love my Nesterfied garland on the mantle! I used the same garland last year, too!

Again, I cannot even begin to capture it's beauty, but it is two garlands put together, with white lights and other greenery stuffed in. I have fake poinsettias and feathers in the two corners. I love adding bows, too!

This year, I took other relics from my childhood and added them to the garland... I have these old cookie cutters that are so beautiful. Last year I had the bright idea to use them as ornaments on our tree. But this year I thought it would be more fun to highlight the collection all in one place and put them on the garland!

Here is my last stop on the tour today... a happy little corner of my kitchen counter! I am just loving that in addition to celebrating Christ and His glorious birth, Christmas is an opportunity to reflect on family memories. Merry Christmas!

I am so excited to particpate in The Nester's Christmas Tour of homes! Click on her button above to see more "tour" homes and Christmas ideas.