Snowy Days

We got hit with quite a big snow storm this week.  It resulted in our first two delayed-start school days of the year AND a snow day this Friday.  I love when it snows this much (as long as I don't HAVE to go somewhere).  I love how cozy the house feels when the flakes fall for days on end and accumulate outside. I love how bright it is outside at night time.  And I love all the things that I get caught up on when I feel "trapped" inside.  {Although I haven't actually done any of those things yet, oops!}

The animals tend to kind of freak out when it snows this much.  Jack cries endlessly because he wants to go outside but won't step in the snow.  Charlotte finds any nook and cranny of sunshine and squeezes as much of her body into that nook as she possibly can.  I found her this morning with her nose smooshed against the wall...

The snow has stopped for now, the sun is shining and it is beautiful outside.  Now to just hope that the pass stays clear so we can go out of town tomorrow.

Obsessed with Pinterest

Have you heard of Pinterest?  I am absolutely obsessed with it and am convinced that anyone who tries it will love it as much as me. Basically it's a website that allows you to "pin" images from the internet and organize them however you'd like.  The visual thumbnails of pictures help you remember why you "pinned" it and then when you click on your pinned image it will take you to the original source from the Internet.  I am always finding cute things online and thinking "ooh, I have to remember that", yeah right!  This lets you remember.  

Some of the boards that I created pins for are stuff for school, scrapbooking, recipes, blog templates, gift ideas, and things I love.  I have found that seeing the "pins" is an inspiration and a reminder of things I'd like to do or get.  Here are some things I have tried thanks to pinterest....

This is the first project that I tried thanks to pinterest.  I had seen this project on Whipperberry before and had "oh, I need to remember that".  When I started using Pinterest this was one of the first things I pinned and it was like a reminder for me to do it.  I put our chalkboard menu on the inside of our pantry door.  Love it.

I made these peanut butter cookies with dulce de leche filling.  They were okay, not sure I'd make them again.

These cookies, however, made up for the mediocracy of the peanut butter cookies.  These salted caramel macaroons were quite possibly the best cookies I've ever had.  The caramel was just the right consistency and flavor and paired perfectly with the light fluffy texture of the cookies.  The cookie part was made with almond flour and egg white which makes them really airy.  De. Lish.  Us.

I tried this recipe of an egg inside some sourdough bread with avocado on top.  It pleasantly surprised me.  Definitely a keeper!

I saw someone else pin these babies and was so excited to get them.  I love using mechanical colored pencils that can be erased to make my lesson plan book look fun.  They are so, so hard to find though.  I love these ones from Barnes & Noble and the way they look like classic pencils.

This recipe of Chess Squares looked too delicious and way too EASY to pass up.  They're in the oven right now.

If you go to Pinterest you can see all the things I've pinned!

Here's to pinning!  And finding lots of great ideas that you inspire you to cook, try something new or get creative!

Baby Steps

I have slowly been learning how to use Photoshop on my computer.  I have the same go to tools that I use on pretty much every picture but often find myself looking at photographer's photos and wondering how they get their pics to look like that with just Photoshop.  I know many photographers use actions which are like little toolboxes with set edits they do often.  This weekend I was so excited to buy the new action sets from Wish Photography.  I had no idea how to go about using the actions so after one day of playing with them...this is what I've come up with.  I know with time I will get better at blending and making the editing less obvious.  I also know that I will never again be able to look at a picture of myself without editing a little with the Wish Make-Up Counter action :)

Here's my first try at the Make-Up Counter Actions

And here are some of the fun actions that I like so far...

I think I like Gumdrop the best with this pic.

11 for 11

In honor of the new year, 2011, I've made a list of 11 things that I'd like to do before the year is up.  Resolutions?  I suppose.  But I've never been too good at keeping those.  So these are just "things".




1. Eat healthier and exercise more


2. Take Charlotte on more walks (helps with #1 too)


3. Try new recipes instead of cooking the same things all the time


4. Take clothes out of my closet to get rid of every time I put new ones in.


5. Scrapbook more


6. Clean a little everyday so I don't end up with a disaster by week's end


7. Use my current scrapbook materials before buying new ones


8. Save money (#7 should help).


9. Go on mini trips to places I've never been (will not help with #8)


10. Wash my face/take my makeup off every night before bed.  This sounds so stupid but I need to get better at doing it.  Especially since I'm old now and I'm getting wrinkles.


11. I'd also love a year that does not require any hospital visits.  For me or anyone else I love.  I know this isn't some "thing" for me to do, but I thought it couldn't hurt to mention

Spare Time

It has been so nice to be on Christmas and to have spare time to do all the things I never have time to do.  I've read a few books, scrapbooked quite a lot and have been playing around with the blog and digital scrapbooking which are both new to me.  A few months ago Chris helped me switch the craft room around when we got the iMac and now I spend so, so much time in there.  I love it.  I've been going through a lot of my things and trying to re-organize the room to make it very accessible.  It's hard to part with stuff though.  I currently have about 38 stamps sets on sell on eBay.  Hopefully they'll all sell!

In the past couple days Chris and I finally hooked up my Christmas present from last year....a printer that will print up to 13 inches wide.  I was so excited to be able to try to print some scrapbook pages since I'd never tried digital scrapbooking.  My first try printing didn't quite go as planned...

Since then I've learned how to set up the settings correctly so the page doesn't get chopped off.  I'm a big fan of complete digital scrapbooking.  There's not enough depth and texture to the page.  I've done a few with large pictures printed directly onto the 12x12 paper and then the journaling which turned out cute.  I really like being able to use Memory Mixer to add the journaling directly to the page so it looks like I wrote right on there without having to actually use my own handwriting.  

I just noticed that both of these were of my dog...I swear I scrap more than just her.  That was just a coincidence.  :)

A New Year, A New Look

I've spent some time the last couple days changing the backgrounds on the blogs....this one and the one for my classroom.  I think this is my favorite thing about blogging honestly is playing with the little tags and backgrounds, making the headers and post dividers.  I a little OCD about it.  After a few frustration breaks I think I've got them both perfect.  Now I just wonder how long I'll be able to keep them this way...there are an awful lot of cute Valentine backgrounds :)

mrsfredricksonsclass.blogspot.com

Day 25: Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas despite the stress of recent developments.  We changed up the Christmas tradition and did a white elephant instead of a Christmas drawing and it was a lot of fun.  I think Chris and I scored pretty well with a $50 iTunes gift card and a $50 Palais de Jade gift certificate at the end.  Aunt Stacey ended up with an Incredible Hulk clock and a Lil' Wayne hoodie....courtesy of my dad :).  The best part of the night was the chicken...see the picture of Chris and my cousins Will and Kevin.  Yes, there's a story there.  Ah the chicken.  Well we hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and will have a fantastic and healthy New Year!  We are looking forward to my mom getting out of the hospital soon to finish up our Christmas traditions and to be able to include her.  

Although the 25 Days of December challenge has been a lot of fun, I'm looking forward to having a break from daily blogging.  I can't wait to change the background of the blog now that the holidays are over.  I'm obsessed with the backgrounds to choose from.  It'll have to wait until my paper is finished though...it's due tonight.  Uggh!  My last one of this class.  One more class to go!