ABC's Album

I came across this little album in my son's room the other day. I was doing some tidying up for him. He does have his "chores" to get done in there, but he is a typical teenager and gets lazy about things...as well as fine details tend to elude him. Lol 

He has built in shelves in his closet for a lot of his games and other items. On one shelf with a few other books was this photo album from long ago days that he and I had worked on together. It was so fun to look through it and it sure brought back such memories.

The cover of the album is in denim and it measures probably about 7x7 or 8x8. Back in my big scrapbooking days I went to regular workshops that my Creative Memories consultant at the time would hold. It was always a great time to get a lot of work done in current albums or get a project done. Many times I would complete gift albums, that I would be working on for a relative or a friend, during those workshops.

Well during on of the workshops I came across this little album for sale, along with a set of border papers and letter stickers and the idea to do this ABC album. So during that workshop I completed the pages by doing the border papers you see on the sides, as well as the letter stickers for each letter of the alphabet and using whatever stickers I had handy to fill in some things that fit that letter on each page. Then I brought it home to my son who was about 4 to 5 at the time and we filled in the pages together. We spent time cutting pictures out of catalogs and going through more of my sticker arsenal at home.

Then for YEARS after we would go through this book and read it, just like we would any bed time or other story book. My son just loved pointing out each thing on the page, talk about what it was and what letter it started with, and often even where he remembered we had found that picture.

Oh, I have such precious memories of that time with him. He was our only child for 5 and 1/2 years until his sister came along - so he used to get a lot of undivided attention from me. 

I'm particularly fond of J. I love that my son wanted to put the photo of Jesus on this page. Also, that we found a photo of a jalapeno and my son thought it was so cool that it started with the letter "j" and not an "h"!  And I was obviously desperate with the stickers I had at the workshop, before I brought the book home, as I put some stickers of candy and popcorn to get "junk food" on the page. Also, I put a trumpet and called it "joyful noise".  Lol!

I also love the "K page" as I remember my son loving the sneezy kleenex box photo....and that when I put the ball sticker down I drew a foot to "kick".  Quite the artist as you can see. ::snicker::

The final page in this album was this one with the photo of Aaron and  Mary Engelbreit stickers of "The Prince of Whatever's Left". 

I was so touched to find that he's still held on to that album after all these years. And when I paged through it I found this on the very back (& I don't remember it being there), but a few years later (when he could write better) he must have written this note. As I put at the top when I edited this photo and added it - it gets me right in the heart. 

Thanks for going down memory lane with me! I thought this would be fun to share as an idea to work on something similar for your own child, or even grandchild. It's such a fun project to work on together and I think because they help do the work it becomes extra special to them. 

Happy Homemaker Monday

Happy Labor Day Monday (to my friends that celebrate it).  It's been a lovely weekend and so nice that it's extra long by having this as a free day. I don't have my MIL today as my FIL is off from work. We've been having fun this weekend running errands, accomplishing tasks around the house, and watching movies as a family. We had friends over Friday night and did a fun pizza night and sat around our fire table and gabbed the night away while the kiddos played. All & all one of those great kinds of weekends. 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

Just beautiful! Bright sunny skies - hardly a cloud in sight. It's in the low 70's and feels heavenly. It was SO hot and sticky muggy yesterday (80's but about 90% humidity) - but it finally rained and stormed last night so the air feels wonderful today.

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

I wasn't that hungry so shared part of a cherry pop tart with Ruby (sshhhh) and some coffee. The rest of my crew had waffles.

  AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW:

Watching right out my office window as my daughter rides bikes and plays with her friend that slept over last night. Ruby is running around and my hubby is working in our garage.

RIGHT NOW I AM:

Sitting in my nice sunny office as I type this and listen to pretty music on pandora. I don't need to worry about groceries as my hubby and I knocked out some errands this weekend.  Realizing it's going to be a nice quiet week. My daughter doesn't have any soccer games this week and my son is going to be away with his school class on a trip to the boundary waters camping all week. 

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE:

My daughter and her friend will have some clean up as they've been having quite a lot of fun around here. Legos all over her room. They slept downstairs in the media room so will need to haul up bedding etc. And there are several toys and art items all over the living room floor. Dishes are good and I just put in more laundry. I also scrubbed up the camping roll-up mattresses for my son and nephew that will be camping this week.  I cleaned them well and febreezed them and now they're drying out in the sunshine.

ON TODAY'S TO DO LIST:

Once my daughter cleans up I'll vacuum a bit. I want to give the kiddos' bathroom a good scrubbing as I picked up some new bathroom rugs for in there too. Need to change some sheets and do more laundry. My hubby put down new flooring in our garages and is now putting back base board and will eventually paint both garages -walls and base. They're attached to the house and used a lot and both garages were looking pretty beat up - so he's tidying them up like new. Then later we plan on some fun time which may include a pontoon ride. Yay!

CURRENTLY READING:

Still reading through Fall cookbooks for inspiration. I need to finish the biography I received from Annie's guitar teacher and then I have a line up of books I'm determined to read this Fall! 

ON THE TV TODAY:

We have a lot of catching up to do on America's Got Talent we have taped. I have some cooking shows taped too. Ghost Hunters is back on and my son and I like that - so have the first one for the season taped.

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

MONDAY: leftover tacos  TUESDAY: breakfast for dinner  WEDNESDAY: broccoli cheese soup, muffins and fruit  THURSDAY: rigatoni pasta with sauce and sweet Italian sausage, dinner rolls and green salad FRIDAY: maybe out for dinner

WHAT I AM CREATING AT THE MOMENT:

Still working on my daughter's baby book and school years album. Finishing up a cross stitch with my daughter. Have some other cross stitch projects lined up. My Mom and I plan to finally get going on her heritage album with Fall calming things down and we're back to a routine.

NEW RECIPE I WANT TO TRY THIS WEEK:

Not sure about a new recipe - but may share an old favorite later in the week.

TIP OF THE WEEK:

I always keep some bandaids in my purse. I even have a little holder for them. I tease that my daughter is "calamity jane" - and that's why I started. But they are nice to have for a bad hang nail, or sometimes I'll get a blister on my foot from some shoes.  Since I have my MIL often too - they've come in handy for her needs as well.

FROM THE CAMERA:

This is the church I attend. We often go on Saturday evenings as it works better for our schedule than Sundays. It's a beautiful and sacred place to me. 

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

I'm linking with Sandra from Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.

Five on Friday:Signs of Fall

It's so fun to be back to our 5 on Friday - thanks Amy! Now that it's September the Fall signs seem to be everywhere around my northwoods these days. Some very obvious ones too - like geese flying over every day and chillier nights. Here are a few more sure signs of Fall to me:

ONE

No more regular walks to the park with my daughter and her friends so they could play on the playground. We tried to pack a lot more of that in during the final days of August - but now that she's in school I walk with Ruby.  And during our walks this is more and more what I'm seeing, yep the changing color of the leaves has begun!

TWO

Celebrating our son's birthday is always a sign of Fall to me. His birthday is in late August so it's usually one of the last "events" of our summer (although this year we also did the Mn State fair). He actually let me capture a few photos too. So you can see the final results of the sporty birthday bunting I made for him - although the big cookie wasn't strong enough to hold the 2nd post so I had to improvise and put it in a glass. He loved the cake with his favorite team's colors (notice his hat). I love the photo of his sister giving him candle blowing out advice. Lol  It's extra frightening as we're now talking about driver's permits. Pray for me!

THREE

The nights have been coming earlier and earlier. It gets dark about an hour or more earlier than it did during the summer already. This was a photo I captured of a beautiful full moon at a party a friend of ours had just a week or so ago. They have a lovely property out in the country and even have horses and chickens! (notice the horse below the moon)

FOUR

I've been getting back to my scrapbooking better and my daughter and I are even finally finishing up her "girls rule" cross stitch. We started it this summer, but it quickly got thrown aside for bike rides and trampoline time. She is back to being interested in it - so that's a sure sign of Fall!

FIVE

And back-to-school has officially happened as of this week - the surest sign of all it's Fall! 

I'm linking with Amy of Love Made My Home for Five on Friday.

Caramel Apple Salad

Happy Thursday...or should I say almost Friday...or better yet, almost Labor Day weekend! Today I thought I'd share this yummy recipe that is perfect for late summer/early Fall. It's wonderful as a side dish or even a dessert, and it'd be perfect for this coming weekend's festivities.

This salad is light and fluffy. It's salty and sweet. It's smooth yet crunchy. I could go on and on. Lol! It's just really yummy and it's all the flavors of a caramel apple from the fair all together in one wonderful salad.

First of all, take a 3&1/2 oz. package of instant butterscotch pudding mix and pour into a large bowl. Then take 8 oz. of crushed pineapple, and 8 oz. of cool whipped topping and dump them in too. Mix all together well.

Then take 3 c. of apple that's been diced. The recipe called for that much anyway, but I didn't measure. I had large apples and I think I ended up using about 1 and 1/2 of them. It really depends on how large or small you dice them I did mine in bite sized chunks and not really finely diced. I think it's best to kind of eyeball how much you think looks right.

Fold in the apples.

Then take a cup each of mini marshmallows and honey roasted peanuts and add them to the salad.

Mix them in well. They really add the yummyness to this dish - especially the peanuts give it the more authentic taste of eating caramel apples and great crunch. So good!

Once everything is mixed you can either eat right away or keep chilled in the refrigerator until you're ready for it. This is a recipe I found in the Gooseberry Patch Fall, Family & Friends Cookbook. I've had different "taffy apple" or "caramel apple" salads before that have snickers candy bars cut up in them and they are yummy too, but I think I like this one even better. I highly recommend it - and it's a fun way to make a different kind of "fruit salad". Enjoy!

Wednesday Wonder

Minnesota State Fair

Sea of people! The day before there had been over 180,000 people visiting - was probably close to the same number the day we were there as you can tell from this photo. If you look off in the distance that's ALL people! 

We had such fun taking our recent road trip to the Minnesota State Fair with some friends of ours and their kiddos too. We all loved everything (rides, food, exhibits etc). But I think Annie loved playing the games and winning prizes the most! It was the perfect way to wrap up summer and get ready to jump into back-to-school week! 

My hubby and I also enjoyed the rest and the fire pit back at the hotel. Here's a little video of Annie and our friends' little girl on the kiddie coaster:

Shaped Punch for Scrapbook Titles

Hello to All! Happy September!! 

I've been missing you. We did have a wonderful trip out-of-town to a neighboring state fair right before back to school. It was so much fun - rides, games, but especially great food!! Naughty things like cheese curds, fresh roasted corn on the cob dunked in melted butter, fresh squeezed lemonade, and fried apple pie with cinnamon ice cream. Naughty....but SO NICE!! 

Then today started back-to-school for my 4th grader and I stayed and helped out for the PTA for a while. Tomorrow my 9th grader jumps back in to the school pool! So busy days lately, and I need to get around and say hi to everyone. Of course there's a soccer game tonight (my son this time). So I will get my post done now and hopefully be able to visit everyone later. 

For a scrapbook/craft related post today I thought I would share one of my favorite tools! The shaped punch. I have many different kinds, but here's a photo of a few of them. I love them for many crafts...but especially to do a title for a scrapbook page.

I have many layouts where I have used these shapes in various ways to a create a title. I took a few quick photos out of some albums I had handy to show you the idea.  In this snorkeling layout I just used tan cardstock to punch out circles and then added these adorable "under the sea" letter stickers. Notice the arrows showing the cute seashell and starfish.

Next is a page from when we went to a Minnesota Wild hockey game. I used a golden cardstock and punched it out with the larger square shape. And then used a cream color to cut out with the smaller side of the square punch. I then overlapped the smaller cream color over the gold and added dark green letter stickers for my title - as their colors are red, yellow, cream and gold.

On this page from my nephew's birthday party I used the hexagon punch and then added these cute round "wet" look stickers - as he had a pool party. But I could have easily used a smaller side of the round punch to get lighter blue circles to put over the dark blue hexagon. It's fun to mix and match and just be creative. These punches are all ones I purchased long ago through my Creative Memories consultant. I know the company has changed a bit and I'm not sure if they still offer them, but I have also seen many punches like these in my local craft stores. 

If you haven't used one - they're pretty easy and here I turned over my hexagon punch to show you from the underside of the punch. Just slip your cardstock or paper in the slot where the shape cut out is and then push down on the shape until it cuts and "punches out" the cardstock piece. Very easy and again - so versatile and fun to use for many different crafting purposes.