For Izabelle’s birthday yesterday, she picked out a special Rasberry Lemon Cupcake from Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe.

We purchased five additional flavors at Cocoa Bean, including: Strawberry Red Velvet and Cherry Chocolate Cheesecake (among others).

Izabelle’s mandatory 10th Birthday photo:

Today is another special person’s birthday…my Grandmother, Louise Crabree.

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In other news…

It’s starting to look a little “spooky” around these parts.

We’re getting ready for Izabelle’s Spooky Birthday Party next weekend.

Here’s a few photos of what now resides  inside our apothecary jars:

Have a fabulous day!

xoxo, Christie

I discovered this little card in a folder on my computer’s desktop.

Posting this card is somewhat serendipitous. The title, “I’m Late” is exactly right.

I’m late. I should have shared this little Hallowe’en in Wonderland Card awhile back.

I created this card to go along with the class I taught at Paradise Scrapbook Boutique last July.

Here’s a look at the inside of the card:

I’m already gearing up for Halloween.  Izabelle’s 10th Birthday is this month and she wants to have a “Spooky Party”.  It probably has something to do with all of the Halloween merchandise already hitting the shelves everywhere.

We’ve had a Halloween Birthday Party for Izabelle before, so I should be able to pull it off (fingers crossed).

Have you ever thrown a themed party before?  Do you have any fabulous ideas for me?

Have a fantastic Friday!

xoxo, Chrsitie

I’ve been asked to be on the Design Team for Scrap n’ Art Online Magazine!

I’m so excited – just had to share!

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I’m so behind on posting projects. Here’s a little somethin’ I created using the Heebie Jeebie collection by We R Memory Keepers:

Some detail photos:

The Paint and Spritz on the layout are by Shimmerz (of course).

The stitching on the layout was not done by me. The cardstock came this way!

Yay for We R Memory Keepers!

A simpler layout but fun to create.

Fall is in the air here in Idaho and to be honest, I’m ready for it!

Thanks for stopping by today.

xoxo, Christie

Graphic 45 has done it again!

New Release this July 2010:

“Fall down the rabbit hole to experience magic and wonder with Alice

and all of her eccentric friends deliciously attired in their holiday finest!”

I can’t wait!

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In other news:

I will be picking up my Mom from the hospital tomorrow.

Thank you for your prayers and well wishes.

After I get my Mom settled in a home…

I’ll be cleaning out the garage (again) with my hubby.

I read THIS BOOK yesterday, couldn’t put it down.

I love SUMMER!

Do you have any fun weekend plans?

Catch ya on the flip side!

xx, Christie

I love Autumn.  Autumn is my very favorite season.  The color, the cooler weather…sweaters and hot cocoa…lighting Pumpkin Spice scented candles. I just love this time of year.

This is the view through a couple of my windows this morning:

Doesn’t it make you want to snuggle up in a blanket with a warm cup of cocoa or cider?  Yep, me too.

My kids love this season because of Halloween.  Izabelle loves to dress up (the scarier the better) and Parker loves to Trick-or-Treat.

The kids and I decorated the house the first of the month.  I’ve been waiting for a brighter day to take some photos but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon. I went ahead and pulled out my little point-and-shoot anyway.

This is one of our Halloween Trees:

Last year I joined a charm making swap and ended up with over 50 charms.   The charms made perfect little Halloween Tree ornaments. Check out how cute they are:

Here are a couple of hand-blown glass pumpkin charms:

Izabelle’s favorite Halloween decoration, the potion jars:

A couple of simple garlands that I threw together:

And the last photo…a pumpkin bell.  This bell is usually hidden inside the fabric garland it’s tied to. I love it,  the little bell makes me smile every time I see it:

This is when I gave up taking photos. I decided to call my camera repair man and ask him: Exactly when am I getting my lens back? Of course, the answering machine picked up.

I miss my good camera.

Time to snuggle up with a cup of hot cocoa.

I always have leftover paper after creating layouts.  I love to make cards with leftovers…waste not, want not. right?

My leftover Pink Paislee Halloween paper was put to good use. I threw together some simple cards:

Mr. Ghost:

Trick or Treat:

Beware:

All Pink Paislee, all very simple, all fun to make.

I’m in love with the new Twilight Collection by, Pink Paislee!  It’s adorable, versatile and fun to use!  Karen of Paradise Scrapbook Boutique sent me these fun new papers and the embellishments to match (she’s so dang awesome).  In return, I created a class layout for her using the Twilight Collection.

The layout in this post is NOT the layout that I created for PSB…I’ll post about the PSB class layout in a bit (I’ll give Karen a chance to post the photos first).

But THIS post is about the layout I created with the same Collection.  I love the cute, matching press on transfers, bella brads and punch outs.  I had fun creating with this Pink Paislee line.

The cuteness begins!  Above is my little niece Kayla the Pumpkin Witch.  She does not like her photo taken so I had to sneak one in while taking a photo of “The Pumpkin”.

This next photo is of my kids with their cousin…I took a few and in all of them at least one of the kids was looking away…in this one it was Parker.

Here’s one of Parker the Astronaut, complete with Jet Pack.  Izabelle was a Werewolf but could not wear her scary face around the little ones.  If you’d like to see her scary costume click HERE.

Kayla and Parker caught in a Halloween hug.

This is one of my favorites…My friend Carrie’s little boy Kade the Pirate.  In this photo he was saying: “Walk the plank!”

I finished up my Halloween with my Sista’s at Paradise Scrapbook Boutique:

There’s nothing like a good swap, and Cyndy’s charm swap was no exception.  There is no way that I will be able to use all of these lovely charms by Halloween, so I thought, what better way to display them than to hang them on a Halloween tree?

My kids loved the idea and helped me hang them.  It’s kind of like a Christmas tree…but not.  I will say that after we were finished decorating the Halloween tree my kids wanted to watch the Nightmare Before Christmas.  Hmmmm…I still have the “This is Halloween” song stuck in my head.

I hope you have a lovely day,

Christie

Playing along with CANDID CARRIE.

My kids LOVE to read the I SPY books.  We own all of the I SPY books and even have an I SPY Treasure Hunt computer game.

Parker recently checked out a video from our local library.  The video was all about the I SPY books and how they are created.  The video runs for about 20 minutes.  Parker and Izabelle watched the I SPY video over and over and over and over again.  Did I mention that my kids LOVE everything I SPY?

Well, the kids took it to the next level.  Izabelle started an I SPY project and Parker helped a bit.  Izabelle made her very own I SPY scene along with a riddle.  OK, I helped a bit with the riddle, it’s not as easy as it would seem to come up with one…

Can you find everything in Izabelle’s riddle?

In honor of Candid Carrie’s Fx4, I give you Izabelle’s Spooky Spy:

I spy four skulls, a trunk and red wings.

Two spiders, a cage and four flying things.

I spy two pumpkins, a scarecrow, a “U”.

A white cat in danger and EYE OF NEWT.

Have a great weekend and don’t forget about my GIVEAWAY!  For details click HERE.