We baked and decorated . . .

One Friday after school we rolled out gingerbread men and decorated them. It is amazing how Chandler and Cooper get so totally involved with a cooking and decorating project.

Christmas Card Tradition continues . . .

It has been such a busy time the last several weeks trying to finish photoshop class, shopping, decorating the house and finalizing the traditional Christmas card. Plus dealing with a sickness that doesn't want to go away. But, here is our card for 2009! The picture was taken at our family vacation in Newport Beach.

Christmas Stockings

Carter, Cash and Chelsea spent some time here during Thanksgiving and one evening Cash and Tatum enjoyed looking over the Christmas stockings.



By the time the evening was over Cash and Tatum named each name on the individual stockings. It was so fun to hear Cash and Carter tell Cody in a phone conversation what their individual stocking looked liked. I laughed when Cash said his had "candy corn" on his. (meaning of course:candy canes)

Busy past weeks

Oh I am so glad everything that has happened in the past month is over. I can now sit and enjoy my time. We had two garage sales, I had a bad case of some kind of flu, photoshop assignment no. 3 due, Alvin home for two weeks for fall break, appointments, Gretchen's house warming party, inside of house painted, my sister's birthday, my brother's birthday, and yes, my birthday too. What a hectic few weeks. Now, time for new things - Christmas shopping (mostly done), wrapping the presents, cleaning the house from neglect the previous month and hoping to get all this done so I can enjoy time with Chelsea, Carter and Cash when they arrive next week for a 12 day visit. Things always get done don't they?

No. 4 photoshop assignment was to design a CD cover using three different images with a title of "Spaces in Between." I was so confused at first (not unusual) so I asked everyone for suggestions. A railroad track was suggested and I went with that. The three images I used are below. You can find stock photography on the web; some you have to buy but others you can get for free. I have yet to spend any money on prints I just search for free ones. I like what I did. Here it is.

The 3rd assignment . . .

Restoring old photos has taken much of my time the last several weeks. The teacher really drags assignments out I think but I have decided the others in the class may not have as much time as I do so I am careful not to get my assignments done too soon. Anyway, the restoring process is very time consuming and tedious work. I at first didn't like it but as I do more I find I like it better. Here is one of my completed restorations. This picture is my great grandmother.

Before:


After:

Halloween Cupcakes!

Alvin had a potluck at school this evening in his ceramics class and he usually goes to Costco and buys that very chocolately layer cake with chocolate frosting and then shaved chocolate on top. It has kinda gotten "old" with everybody because nobody eats it so he brings it home for us to eat. Way too much chocolate for me and I do like chocolate. So, today I made pumpkin cupcakes from scratch with cream cheese frosting for his potluck. A much more healthy dessert and fun to make. They turned out rather cute I think.

More photoshop . . .

My second photoshop assignment was to make a poster that advertises a public service event or cause. I was confused and most defnitely had no idea what I wanted to do. Then, I went to a site on the web that lists all the events celebrated throughout the world by month. So, looking at the month of October first I quickly saw "Global Handwashing Day" on October 15. That sounded good to me because I do endorse everyone washing their hands at least a million of times in a day. There are also sites you can go to to download stock photography and that is where I found all of my pictures. It was a fun project and I am proud of my finished assignment.