25 Days of Sketches - Day 7

I hope your weekends were wonderful and warmer than mine. It's a whopping 16 degrees today, when the kids left it was 2 degrees, so quite the warm up. Outside of the cold, it was a busy weekend, but lots of celebrating. First, we had an indoor soccer game on Friday with a win for my 9 y.o. son against a girl's team, who played hard, but looked a little younger and less experienced than my son's team. Gives 9 y.o. boys some practice at being gracious winners. Saturday morning my 11 y.o. had his soccer game against another team from his club that is ranked just above my son's team. They and a 2-1 lead and in the last few minutes the other team tied it. But my son's team held the tie. Then at 11 am we headed over to my 11 y.o.'s basketball tournament. They had won their first game Thursday night, won their 11 am game and played again at 5:30 pm for the championship and WON! He was so excited - they all were. It was so fun to watch. My son got to bring home the trophy for safe keeping until today's school meeting. I managed with this crazy schedule to enjoy a quick coffee between games with my parents, get garlands up my staircase and, with the help of my older sons, wrestle the tree upstairs and set it up in the living room. Sunday was a totally "down" day. Church with my boys because we were at the tournament (DH and daughter went Saturday night), then home for a nice breakfast with the kids - DH was working at a local gun show all day Saturday and Sunday -- and sort of just puttered around doing little things. Nice after the crazy, but happy, Saturday. Closed out Sunday with some time spent in peace and quiet that evening. The three older kids, DH and I all sat in the family room and enjoy some D.E.A.R. time (drop everything and read). Each of us reading our own thing and just the quiet of it was . . . ahhhh. I am currently going through all the links from last week so that I can get a winner -- hopefully I'll finish that up today. Anyway, here's today's sketch and a sample. Thank you to Bessie, not only for the great sketch but the layout example as well.

Remember pick any three sketches from this week to create three separate layouts. Link them under the correct posts by Saturday evening to be eligible for a Cookie Jar Treat. Do all 25 sketches and become eligible for a Christmas Cookie Treat. Hope your week is off to a great start!

25 Days of Sketches - Day 6

Short and sweet since it's Sunday. This is the beginning sketch for this week. Choose three from this week, create layouts and add a link to the associated post by next Saturday evening to be eligible for a Cookie Jar Treat. Remember completing all 25 by the evening of December 28th will make you eligible for a Christmas Cookie Treat. Today's sketch is from 52 Sketches . . .52 Weeks

The hideous cold will keep us all tucked in today -- hope you enjoy a cozy Sunday, too.

25 Days of Sketches - Day 5

Sorry, sorry, sorry. I know this sketch is going up extremely late. I blame it on being utterly exhausted last night, up early for an 8:30 soccer game and, from there, going to a basketball game at 11; we still have one more game tonight at 5:30 for the championship. The sketch for today never crossed my mind until I started reading all the posts and thought "Dangit!" (well, it was a tad more colorful than that, but we'll keep in G-rated.) Anyway -- here's today's sketch, provided by our own Amy Crockett -- Thank you Amy! You can enjoy Amy's great blog here.

A couple reminders -- your three layouts from any three of the sketches posted for the week, are due tonight, linked up under the various posts. An AS kit will get you an extra entry. Do all 25 sketches and get in on a Christmas Cookie Treat -- which I have dropped a hint or two for. Have you seen? Do you have a guess?

I'm off to run around like a mad woman, while the 1 yo is sleeping, to get something accomplished for today. Anything.

25 Days of Sketches - Day 4

Ooo, it's going to be a sweltering day here today -- 33 degrees! WooHoo, break out the flip-flops and tanks. Sheesh, but after a few days of low-teen temperatures, it actually will feel nice. At least it's kept the snow we got a couple days ago around and it's so sparkly white. With the sub-freezing temperatures, everything is coated in a fine frost. With the sun coming up it's glittery, like little diamonds stuck all over. The downside is I don't go out when it's this cold, so Matthew (the 1 y.o.) and I get a tad stir crazy. The upside, at least this time, was I pulled up a fair amount of my decorations -- the little knick-knacky kind; the tree and garlands are still downstairs. I tamed the store room, schweet! I also spent the entire day cutting out hundreds of 1 x 16" strips of paper for my son's colonial/Native American day, some sort of weaving they are doing. It wasn't time spent all in one sitting, but I've never been so glad to finish cutting paper! Now, Linda R has a question -- "I know we have to post 3 LOs' by Sat each week. But, for the "all 25" challenge, can we go back and catch up, just so they are all posted by the 28th?" Hmm, good question. I will say yes, as long as all 25 are linked up to the various posts by the 28th you will be eligible for a Christmas Cookie. Our sketch today comes from our very own Bessie! Thanks Bessie. :)

Okay, I'm off to move furniture to make room for the tree, pack up some kits and try to get the garlands in the hall way. Coffee first, though.

Enjoy your day ladies!

25 Days of Sketches - Day 3

First, Rebecca had a question: "can we use one page of a 2 page sketch to make a 1 pager?" Good question -- hmmm . . . I will say yes because this challenge, in a time of looming chaos, is about taking time for ourselves and completeing some pages while we do it.

Okay, so for today's sketch we have one from Julie Bonner of 52 Sketches...52 Weeks. Julie has some amazing sketches and her design team is also incredible, so if you need some inspiration, pop on over there. Julie also announced that she'll be taking a break in 2010, which made me very sad, but she has a wonderful archive of sketches and she'll still post one, once a month, on her personal blog.

Remember to be eligible for a week-end Cookie Jar Treat you need to choose three different sketches from the week and have links of the completed layouts by Saturday evening of that week. See the first post of 25 Days. . . for all the details.

Did I get any of the boxes unloaded yesterday? No. Did I bring up any decorations? No -- unless you count two wreaths -- one for the door and one for the family room. Did I get inventory righted? Mmm, sort of made a small dent. So I move on and try again today. Stay tuned . . .

25 Days of Sketches - Day 2

Today's sketch comes from Page Maps by Becky Fleck. Becky's work is also found on Recipe Cards in the monthly kits.

Remember to be eligible for a Cookie Jar Treat at the end of this week, you need to choose three of the sketches to work with and upload a layout for each one. Be sure to link your layouts under the appropriate sketch. If you use an Apron Strings kit, you'll get another entry. If you do all 25 Days you're eligible for a Christmas Cookie Treat. Short and sweet for today. I have several boxes to unpack for January kits, a lot of inventory to square away -- I was sort of a tornado going through it last night pulling some orders -- and I'm hoping to haul up some decorations. The Arctic blast we're expecting for the next few days should be the ticket to getting in the decorating mood.

Welcome to the 25 Days of Sketches

Hurray, it's December. And Boo, it's December. On the one hand great holiday festivities are coming up, joy and excitement are in the air, my kids are full of anticipation -- Abbott the Elf arrived this morning dragging with him a Lego Advent Calendar. Abbott should have come after breakfast because I couldn't get the boys to stop perusing the box picking out all the "where's waldo" Lego things. I digress; and Boo, because it's the end of yet another year. Seriously, where does the time go? I could have sworn I was just sitting in the basement trying to cool off! But here we are none the less, with a super fun challenge for the next 25 Days! Even with the holidays approaching this challenge is set up to help you get some quiet time and complete some pages while you're at it -- fast. Here are the rules:

1. A sketch will be posted each day until the 25th
2. Pick and choose at least three sketches from the week, complete a layout from each daily sketch and be eligible to win a Cookie Jar Treat
3. Each week's worth of layouts are due by Saturday evening to be in that week's Treat drawing
4. Provide a link to your completed layout under the appropriate sketch
5. Use an Apron Strings kit and earn an extra entry for that layout (please note what kit you used)
6. Since the 25th sketch falls on Christmas, obviously, that week's layouts will be due by Monday morning, the 28th
7. Complete all 25 Sketches and be eligible for a Special Christmas Cookie Treat -- mmm and it's a goodie! Fancy that.
8. As hostess of the challenge, I reserve the right to add a dollop or sprinkle to any challenge :), but the base, the Sketch, will remain the same.

Questions? Please post them in the comment section and I'll address them.

Without further ado, the 1st Day of Sketches (sketch provided by Nuts About Sketches):

Enjoy everyone! I can't wait to see what, and how much, is created!