Three things I love.

This adorable face.  More than that, the beautiful heart.

This ceramic Christmas tree my mom made many years ago.  My brother and I always loved when she would put it up each year and we'd get to put the little plastic bulbs on it.  Mom gave it to my family this year, and we're very honored and happy to have it in our home.

This family.  Family time with them.

We played CLUE Mysteries for the first time tonight.  Though it isn't the traditional CLUE game, the kids really enjoyed it and it was so fun to have a few minutes to play a board game as a family.

Project Life and why it is perfect for me

I'm all excited about memory keeping again, thanks to Project Life!  I've kind of run the gamut with pictures and recording moments and memories, as far as doing it creatively versus just getting them down in the books.  

I love taking pictures.  Sometimes I like to do it just for the artsy-ness off it, and get excited about a really nicely composed shot.  Sometimes I am excited about a blurry picture that looks terrible but is the only one I have that captures a special moment.  

I do like to do crafts.  Scrapbooking is really fun and rewarding for me.  But, trying to scrapbook the 100 pictures (on average) I print each month would just be frustrating because I would never feel close to keeping up.  

It's all about balance.  (I am still figuring this out in life, so please stand by while I have this epiphany.)

I do pretty well with keeping my photos organized and archived.  Each month I save them all to DVD and upload and print my favorites.  I blog regularly, so stories are saved to go along with photos too.  

But, I believe there should be a place for printed photos to go along with memorabilia and stories too.  That is the part that has become overwhelming for me as our lives get fuller.  A few weeks ago, I really started to pay attention to the thought of doing Project Life.  I've known about it, but never thought it was right for me until now.  Now, I am so excited and on a roll with it!  I purchased a few supplies and in the past few days I have put over 4 months of 2011 photos, stories, and memories in a great album the kids are excited to look through!

I'm still a messy crafter...

But, I'm loving the format and the process!

Thank you, Becky Higgins!

Heirloom Antiques

My parents have had various boxes of my "stuff" in their house for years, waiting for me to bring them to my house 1 or 2 at a time when we visit.  Mom and Dad brought one particularly special box to me when they visited for Christmas.  

I cried as I unpacked these treasures today and put them on the shelves in our den.  Several of these were my grandma's, which makes them so very special to me.  

I've wanted to collect milk glass for years, but haven't frequented antique stores to find more than a couple pieces.  Even though not every one of these is milk glass, I love how they look together.  The green and white ones are two seperate pieces of Fenton Ware that I stacked.  

What a wonderful gift...