{my beautiful cousin}

Yesterday was Morgan's birthday. Morgan is my gorgeous cousin who lives in Phoenix. I mailed her present and had a really fun chat on the phone yesterday, and I've been thinking about her a lot today. I miss her so much. I wish she lived here.


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See! I told you she was beautiful. :)  Love you Morgan!!

Today has been seriously crazy!! I spent all morning making pies (ok frozen pies and banana cream pie, so nothing that required baking talent). Then we went to my new little niece's baby blessing. Then we had to rush back to nursery to play with 15 little ones for 2 hours. It was INSANE!

Then we came home, changed, I made some whip cream for my pies, and we went to Josh's brother's house for the Leavitt Family 2nd Thanksgiving. I love this tradition. Instead of trying to rotate/share/go back and forth on Thanksgiving Day, we decided to just get together the Sunday after and have our own Thanksgiving. It's so nice, no one has to rush off or go anywhere. I always look forward to it. It's awesome.

But yeah - I'm EXHAUSTED! It's been quite a day.

Ok - one little plug, then I'm hitting the couch to watch the Amazing Race. I'm hosting the "Saturday Special" at ScrapMatters this week and I think its a lot of fun!!! Make sure to go check it out. It's all about 2-Pagers! Here's mine:


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Ok - two more LOs I did this weekend real quick and then I'm outta there!!


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That's it!! Peace.

{BLACK FRIDAY, BLOG TRAIN, BIG SALE, GRAB BAG}

Hello and Happy Black Friday one and all! If you're currently riding the ScrapMatters Black Friday Blog Train - HELLO! And welcome to Utah! If you're NOT on the train - PLEASE HOP ON!! There was only one stop before this, so back track to Andilynn Designs blog real quick and you'll be back on track.

ANYWAY - here you are at my stop and I'm super excited to give you my gift. As many of you know, ScrapMatters is having a huge Black Friday sale this weekend, and when you spend $10 or more you get this AWESOME collab. kit "Comfort & Joy". And here's what I scrapped with it.



We have had this Christmas tradition ever since I can remember!  As the journaling says, "this is how Christmas morning goes: We all wake up at 7 am & go into Mom & Dad’s room. We wake them up (they get up painfully slow) and Dad goes out to make sure Santa came. He’ll yell back for us to get lined up once he’s ready. We line up youngest to oldest & when Dad says its ok to come on out, we all rush into the living room."

and


And as my Blog Train gift to you is two 12x12 Quick Pages I made of my pages!!



DOWNLOAD THIS FREEBIE HERE.

Enjoy! And you will NOT believe the plethora of other amazing goodies you'll find along this blog train! Have fun cruising 'round the world and picking up your gifts! Your next stop is with Heather at JOYrevisted.

(Please keep in mind that we are an international train, so if one of the stops doesn't have their gift up yet, just be patient! The freebies will all be active and available for plenty of time! I also believe that Andrea is posting all 33 Blog Train stops on the SM Team Blog.)

OK - there is soooo much to talk about today! What's next . . . oooh I know! My grab bag!

"Britt-ish Designs Black Friday Grab Bag"


I went a little overboard on this grab bag and stuffed it with SIX all new products! I promise you're not going to be disappointed with this (or ANY of the grab bags at SM for that matter).

Let me show you a few LOs that my CT and I scrapped with items from my grab bag!!

{LO by me}


{LOs by Kate}



{LOs by Jess}



{LOs by Erica}



{LO by Emily}


{LO by Kelsy}


{LO by Denise}


{LOs by Melissa}



I know, I know - you can probably guess at everything in the Grab Bag now that you've seen the Britt Girls' LOs, but OH WELL!!

I ALSO have a new mini-kit in the store today!! It should make scrapping all your awesome Thanksgiving pics from yesterday a SNAP!

"Thanks Indeed"



My awesome friend and Britt Girl, Erica, scrapped this adorable LO with it!



And now, its time for the SHOW OFFS! Just a short slideshow today!! I'm sure everyone was off busy having a wonderful holiday with their families.

 

Special thanks to all my Show Offs! You'll all be getting my "Thanks Indeed Mini-Kit" as your gift this week! Watch your email inboxes. And please let me know if you don't get it this morning. I usually send the email right after I post this post. I don't know why but last week like HALF of my Show Offs didn't get their gift emails for some weird reason. So - yeah - just email me if you don't get your gift.

Hey - remember my new collab. kit with Molly DeCrow that I released last week - "Very Merry"?



Well . . . its on sale this weekend of course, AND Molly has a new free add-on for it on her blog today!! So go grab that. My add-on freebie is still active if you haven't downloaded it yet, you can get it at this post.

And I think that's it for me today.  Wow!  This is a LONG post!!!  But its a big day!  I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful and lovely.  If you braved the stores this morning, I hope the deals you found were rockin' (I am NOT a fan of real life Black Friday shopping).  Online is so much more my speed.  So - go enjoy the sale at SM!  Have a fun Black Friday.  And HORRAY the Holiday season has officially begun!!

{we've been elfed!}

So I remember seeing a few people's "elf" videos last holiday season, but this year the videos really improved!! I made this one for us, and I about die laughing every time I watch it. I think I've watched it 10 times now. Somehow Josh got put in the girl's role and . . . well just watch it!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hope that made you smile!!

So guess what!! We're having a hug Black Friday celebration at ScrapMatters!!



I just finished my grab bag last night and I went a little nuts on it!! It's PACKED to the brim with new products. I can't WAIT to release it!!!

We are really excited about our Black Friday blog train too. You won't BELIEVE the stash of treats you'll pick up along the train. It's incredible.

Ok - so I need some help. I REALLY want to decorate my living room but I'm sort of at a loss. A) with Christmas right around the corner we have no money to decorate. And B) I have paneling on 2 of my walls! And as renters there's nothing we can do about that.  So . . . how do I decorate around my paneling?? I've been thinking of doing a brown, white and light blue color scheme (I really wanted lime green and brown but Josh put his foot down and said no to the lime green! haha).  But do like retro style, so our old retro house should lend itself to our style.  Right?  haha

So - here's my room. HELP! What does it need? Send pictures, links to great decorating ideas, stuff like that!!

We're hoping to find an amazing deal on a flat screen this holiday season, which would also give us an excuse to buy this awesome entertainment center from Ikea we've been eyeing (sorry I can't find it online to show you). So, hopefully that's what the wall with the TV on it will turn into someday in the not too distant future. But we'll see. . .



But our weirdo off center fireplace is a problem. The mantel super skinny & therefore hard to decorate. And then there is the issue of lighting. Right now the lighting set up is sort of a joke!!

And here's our new couch. Isn't it so pretty?!



And my office area - where I live - right behind the couch area.



We both love our paper lamp, but this is a horrible place for it. Where should it go??

And this big cool retro wall box thing and a big empty wall is just to the left of the TV wall.



I was thinking of doing this on this big empty wall. But I'm not positive. There is also one other good place for this but its in the dining room area.

Ok so HELP!! I know there are plenty of you out there more talented in the interior design arena than me!! Christmas decorations are going up this weekend, so I can probably stand to have it this way + Christmas stuff until the new year when I have some money for real decorating. But I still need help!!

Ok - that's enough blabbing from me for today. Can't wait to see what you guys come up with!!

Peace out.

{{{hugs}}}

I was thinking about things that make me feel good, and HUGS popped into my head right away.  A hug feels so good!  Hugs are definitely a blessing in my life.


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These are my adorable cousins from our Bear Lake trip this past summer.  Aren't they adorable?!

Ok so - speed scraps this week:

- Tuesday (11/25) 10am Mountain Time &
- Friday (11/28) 7pm Mountain Time (BLACK FRIDAY NIGHT SPEED SCRAP! woohoo)

Mark your calendars!!

One more LO to share today. This is a fun place at California Adventure where you can go in and learn to draw a character in like 20 minutes or less. It's awesome and so fun!! We usually go more than once.


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I'm not sure I love this LO, but I seriously did NOT know what else to do with it.  I dunno.

Hope you all had a great weekend. Our weekend was good. We went on a date on Friday. We saw "Quantum of Solace" and then went out to dinner. Happy Sumo! mmmmm "Quantum of Solace" was good. I liked "Casino Royale" much better, but still, the new one was entertaining.

Saturday was just a cleaning, relaxing, and a little bit of work day. We watched one of my favorite movies "A Knight's Tale". Josh had never seen it, so I was excited to watch it with him. Gosh I love that movie.

And then today I made a really yummy dessert, went to church, chased 2 and 3 year olds around for 2 hours and then had dinner (and my yummy dessert) with my whole family at my mom and dad's house. We do it every Sunday and I love it.

Anyway - I'm dead tired now. So, off to bed. See ya!

{Christmas is coming!}

Yessirree!  The best season of the year is quickly nearing!  Can you believe its November 21st?!  This month is FLYING by! I am excited by all the Christmas tunes I hear on commercials and the holiday displays popping up in stores. Christmas is coming! Woo hoo!!

Speaking of the holiday season . . . I've got my first holiday themed kit of the year out today!! Molly DeCrow (DeCrow Designs) and I have teamed up to created this very cool MEGA-KIT!

"Very Merry"



This kit is enormous and so fun and unique! I LOVE the colors, the funky elements, and did you notice it comes with THREE ALPHAS?!! Yes - THREE!

And when you purchase "Very Merry" before the end of November you'll get this awesome set of printable gift tags that Molly and I created automatically included in your purchase!

AND at the end of this post you'll find an add-on freebie  to "Very Merry", so make sure you read all the way to the end!

Take a look at what my team and I scrapped with this huge kit!

{LO by me}

(full credits here)

{LO by Jess}


{LO by Ashley}


{LOs by Melissa}



{LO by Kate}


{LO by Erica}


{LO by Emily}


{LO by Kelsy}


{LO by Paige}


{LO by Denise}

proving that you can even use this kit for non-holiday pages!!

Aren't the Britt Girls awesome?!  Thanks so much ladies!

I also have my FIRST EVER set of brushes in the store today!!

"Funky Stems Brush Set"



I've included both the .abr brush set and the .png files for each brush. The .abr brush set only works in Photoshop CS and later versions and I think Photoshop Elements 5.0 and higher. However, if you find the .abr files aren't compatible with your program, you can VERY easily make the included .png files into brushes that work for earlier version.

Here's all you have to do:
1) Open the PNG file.
2) Select All.
3) Click Edit > Define Brush Preset

4) In the box that pops up, rename the brush or just click ok. The brush will automatically show up in your brush palette.

Easy right? If you have any questions feel free to email me and I'll do my best to help you out!!

Here are a few LOs using my new brushes!!

{LO by me}

(full credits here)

{LO by Denise}

Using "Very Merry". She used the snowflake brush as a clipping mask and made cool stem embellishments.

{LO by Erica}

also using "Very Merry". She flipped the brushes upside down for a funky snowing effect!

{LO by Melissa}

Using the new "Very Merry" kit. She added FLAIR to the stems and made a funky stem element bunch! COOL HUH?

Thanks again to my wonderful Britt Girls for these awesome LOs!!

So . . . are you ready to see some Show Offs?! Let's do it!

 

Thanks so much to all the Show Offs! You're all getting my new "Funky Stems Brush Set"! Watch your inboxes for your gift. I can't wait to see who shows off next week!

If you've made it all the way to the end of this post, you DEFINITELY deserve this add-on freebie! Just a few more things to make "Very Merry" even bigger!!



Download your freebie HERE!  

Hope this post brought a little holiday spirit to your Friday morning! Have a fantastic weekend!! See you 'round!