Hello, December

Has it really been 13 days since my last post? Well I have to change that.

I went to a beautiful wedding over the weekend, my 7th wedding for 2011 (the 8th was at the same time/day and I wasn't able to attend).  Wow! What a year!! I actually used the 8mm app on my iPhone 4 to do the videography for the wedding. I am working on the editing now and it looks amazing so far. Here are a few of my favorite snapshots from the event. I didn't take as many as I would've liked because of the videography duties....but I got some good ones nonetheless.

I have been really busy getting ready for Christmas.

My favorite thing this week...is wearing this gingerbread apron around school...because I get TONS of hugs!!

 That is all for now. More later.

A rant about new years...

Dear New Year's Eve 2010,

I'm not into 'low key'....

I want hustle and bustle.
I want romance.
I want super ridiculous fun.
I want surprises.
I want drama and suspense.
I want laughing and games.
I want sex appeal, from the guys and the girls...suit up, put on your best dresses.
I want noisemakers and partyhats.
I want champagne, the kind that sprays the entire room.
I want to be surrounded by my favorite people.
I want to get my rocks off.
I want this to be the hap-hap-happiest night of the year.
Entertain me.

Please don't be the biggest flop' of the year, as far as holidays go.

Your ever-loving-girl,
NellieMae

White Christmas

Happy Christmas Eve!

Just spent the evening rushing from family to family, trying to get as much 'Christmas' time in with each one and tomorrow will be more of the same.

Now I am home. In my penguin pjs. Watching an old movie, White Christmas. I am enjoying all of the vintage style of this movie...not to mention the singing and the dancing--wow! I can't believe I've never seen it before.

 Look at those legs--wowzers!

The snow has missed us this year...so I won't be waking up to a white Christmas this year. At least I have the movie. ;-)

Those first five photos on facebook...

I may not have mentioned it yet...but I set up a photo booth at the Christmas party. And made these black and white signs for people to hold. The backdrop was a striped sheet and red ribbons. The photos look better in black and white because of the yellow-ish lighting in the room.

Anyway...I don't know if you have noticed it, but on Facebook...there are five photos of the most recently tagged of you at the top of your profile page. Color Me Katie had a great idea to customize them. And I thought it was a fabulous idea!!

And I thought you might like to see the pictures too!!

Happy Wednesday! I am FINALLY on break...well...I will be after 1:00 today!

Merry Christmas an eye chart!

Check out this cool eye chart.
You can customize it to make it your own!!

Living in my Christmas Room {2}

This is my favorite time of year. My living room has been 'Buddy-the-Elf-ed'....the ceiling covered in paper chains, paper snowflakes and white twinkling lights. Its not quite as covered as the ceiling in the store that he re-made over night...but its really pretty!

Been spending lots of time watching Christmas movies, drinking hot tea, and playing scrabble with a fire going. It great having all my favorite people over to play games and eat snacks...like nachos...This is my favorite time of year!

Christmas Traditions-YUM!

My family has a tradition of making Christmas candy every year. Traditions are my favorite, especially YUMMY ones!! The first Saturday in December we mad candy for this year--it is hard to stay away from all the sweets.

Happy Hump Day!

Christmas Party Extravaganza!!!

Annual Christmas party is tonight. 

Plans have been in the works for weeks. 

I set up a photo booth in my spare bedroom, this is the backdrop, I am super excited about it, can you tell?

(Yes, I was wearing penguin jammies when I tested it out!)

I have tons of awesome props available for my guests to take pictures in front of the camera--reindeer ears, santa hats, bows, lights, ugly sweaters, signs with things like 'naughty' 'nice' 'grinch' and 'Merry Christmas' printed on them so that people can hold them up.

I hope everyone is as excited as I am!!

The theme is 'Saturday Night Live' so I hope my friends are working on some amazing skits!

I'll share more photos soon!!

Its starting to look a lot like Christmas!

The weeks leading up to Christmas are always my favorite. Sometimes they can be stressful, but I actually enjoy preparing for Christmas more than Christmas Eve/Day....it seems like the actual holiday is so packed with family and running from one family event to another, sometimes its hard to relax and enjoy the day.

Last year I started putting pictures on my tree, but I actually remember one year, I made stockings for my family with pictures glued on them. Photos are an important part of my holiday, I enjoy looking at them and thinking about my family and friends.

Happy December 1st!

This photo was taken Christmas morning last December. I remember waking up to a beautiful new fallen snow!

I was so excited that I grabbed my Holga and ran outside to take pictures.

 

I hope we get lots more snow this year, it makes for great lomography!

I am so happy that it is December 1st.

I am on top of things this year.

I mean like REALLY on top of things.

My Christmas cards went in the mail yesterday. That's right, I hand-stamped and made each one (over 60), added a photo, hand-addressed the envelopes, and had them ready to be mailed weeks ago. 

The cards for my co-workers are ready to be distributed too!

My Christmas candy recipes are printed, most of the ingredients are already purchased and I am ready for a fun day of treat making this Saturday. 

My Christmas party is planned. The invites are already sent out. I'm preparing some of the treats this Saturday (a week in advance). I just need to finalize my costume (that's right, it is themed-- SNL Christmas!) and prepare a few more menu items. 

I ordered my gift for the gift exchange today so as soon as it comes I can wrap it and be ready.

Oh, and I need to put a few more decorations up.  

I want to make some more paper chains, but I have a few in the works.

The Christmas tree has been up for a couple of weeks already. 

I even added a mini-tree with vintage ornaments on the porch this year. 

The lights are on the house. 

Most of my gifts are wrapped and under the tree. (not all, but most)

I have a few more hand-made gifts to start/finish but I am excited about my progress. 

I am burning all of our old VHS home movies, from when we were little, on to DVDs for my brother. 

I created a photo book for the ladies in my family.

I want to sew an apron for my student teacher to wish her well in the future. Her birthday and graduation are in a couple of weeks. 

I plan to make my mom a photo memorabilia box. 

My December Daily is ready today!! YIPPEEE! I prepared the main album weeks ago, just need to start taking pictures and journaling. 

Today's blog post will be part of that journaling.

It feels nice to look at my list of things that are done. 

I'm going to be selective this year about what I do/don't do. 

I'm going to take time to savor family traditions. And maybe make a few new ones.

I'm going to spend more time gazing at the tree. 

I'm going to eat fewer 'junk' snacks and focus really enjoying the 'seasonal' ones that are only around once a year....like fudge...and maybe some eggnog.

I'm going to (hopefully) drive around and look at lights.

I'm going to tape more videos.

I'm going to enjoy.

And savor.

And read. 

I am currently reading Bill Bryson, At Home: A Short History of Private Life.

And swim.

Scuba classes started last night...working towards certification.

And keep the stress out of Christmas Eve, everyone celebrates at the same time, its hard to visit everyone that day!

I am so happy that it is December. 

I hope to be a better blogger this month, it will help my December Daily if I am vigilant with my journaling.

Bring on the holidays!! I am ready!

December Daily 2009 {in progress}

A couple of things about my December Daily.



1. I get all of my photos printed in about 2 batches...I don't know how people work on it every day. They must use a lot of ink on their home printer or make a lot of trips to the developer.



2. Not every picture is from the exact day that matches the journaling and I am okay with that, as long as they are from December.




3. I type all my journaling in Word....a paragraph a day, maybe a story or two...then I print out LOTS of days at once and assemble with the pictures. (I don't have a lot of handwriting in this ablum....I may need to add some.) Some people may not like the look of a typed document on top of a patterned paper, and I suppose I could use transparencies for some stuff, but it really doesn't bother me to have a block of journaling....I keep it consistent throughout the book.



4. I assemble the papers way in advance so they may not match the pictures perfectly and I am okay with that. I don't have a theme this year, but I like the idea of using one thing over and over...or going with a color scheme...May have to do that next year!




5. I used a lot of HAMBLY overlays this year--YAY!!




6. I decided to go with a 3-ring album, it is awesome for moving and removing pages.


7. Stitching! Aaaaaaw yeah....Something totally new for me this year!



Also, I like to print off important blog posts to help tell the story from this month.

8. I still need to add some big numbers on most of the pages. I bought a sheet of numbers 1-25 and I can't find them anywhere....

I had to improvise here...Loving this leg lamp with a '4' inside it....totally random and perfect to tell the story of my 'A Christmas Story' crop!!


9. Some of my journaling is blurred out. I had some horrible family stuff happen this month and it is private. I am sure you understand....If I hadn't assembled this book way in advance, my family trama probably would've discouraged me from even making this book. But. I had to finish it.


10. I will continue to journal and take pictures through January 3rd, as I am still on vacation and I would like to include New Year's.

11. I printed all of my photo collages onto cardstock so that I can include more pictures:



As you can see, I didn't put this in order of what happened each day...I didn't assemble it with what happened each day either. I created the book months ago, journaled every day, took tons of pictures, made photo collages and then I put it all together with stitching, stamping and stickers.

I am ready to put this December behind me. Woke up to a beautiful snowfall on Christmas morning, it was a glorious bright, white enchanting snowfall...but this December definitely wasn't one of my favorites.

I wish I could say that it has been great....

On paper, in this beautiful album, in the pictures, it looks like the perfect twinkling December.

I did my best to give back to the students at my school, to create some handmade gifts for people who would sincerely appreciate them, to spend quality time with my friends and family.

I feel like I am doing everything I can to live a good life, to make good, healthy choices. I suppose that is all I can do....give my best effort...

My parents will not change, cannot change and do not have any desire to live a healthy, sober, happy life.
It really does suck.

But dealing with all of this is part of my daily struggle, even in December.

And for what it is worth, I must document the good, the bad and the ugly. It makes it easier. To say it out loud. To understand. To deal. To reflect and to look ahead to the future.

So, thanks for reading...your comments really do matter to me. Happy New Year!

I am working on what my one little word for 2010 will be....What's yours?