New Year's Survey (A bit late...)

I know this is a bit late but I've been having issues logging onto Blogger since I updated my blog...still working on updates as well...but I did write out the answers on New Year's Day and had the best intentions of getting this up on here so here it is...better late than never.

I love doing these because it gives me a chance to look back on the past year and also to look forward to the next one. I also can see how I am growing and changing as a person which is fun too. :)

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1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before? Saw the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis, visited the Indiana Dunes, swam in Lake Michigan, became a substitute teacher, and I am sure many more but these are the big ones that I remember.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I know I made some last year but I can't remember what they were...bad me! :),
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My friend Anna had her sweet baby girl, Kinsley. :)
4. Did anyone close to you die? No
5. What countries did you visit? None...but this will change in 2011. Israel here I come! :)
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010? A classroom teaching job and maybe a new car....or a boy. :)
7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? I can't say that one particular date is etched in my memory...many of the days bring good memories, and a few not so happy memories as well.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Hmmm...this one is deep. I would say surviving a whole year without being a teacher....it was a lot more difficult that I thought it would be, but I made it none-the-less.
9. What was your biggest failure? Not trusting God's perfect plan in every area of my life.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? A pretty bad case of strep throat...ended up at the doctor for that one.
11. What was the best thing you bought? My new zoom lens for my camera. :) (Although technically a Christmas present I am paying for half of it.)
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My sister Renee who spent about half the year on her own while her husband Zach is in Iraq with the Air Guard. She has been so strong and amazing through all of it and I truly admire her for it. :)
13. What person most touched your life this past year? My parents...they have been a never-ending well of support for me and are always there to lift me up and encourage me when I stumble.
14. Where did most of your money go? Scrapbooking supplies, of course. :
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? my church's young adult group, Threefold, on Thursday nights....it truly is the best part of my week!
16. What song will always remind you of 2010? Jesus Saves by Jeremy Camp
17. Compared to this time last year, you are: Ready for change.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Spent more time in the Word, learning about Jesus. :)
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Worried about my future...it is so much more worthwhile to lay it in God's hands.
20. How did you spend Christmas? Surrounded by family to celebrate the birth of my Savior.
21. Did you fall in love in 2010? no...but this is a goal for 2011.
22. Best movie of 2011? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: part 1 - Hands down the best, most true-to-the-book movie so far...totally can't wait for part 2 this summer!
23. What was your favorite TV program? Way too many to name....NCIS and NCIS:Los Angeles were awesome as usual. And I started watching a few new programs as well: Criminal Minds, Gray's Anatomy, and Hawaii 5-0. :)
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? I lost a friendship with a friend who is still super-dear to my heart but we haven't talked in almost a year...hoping to change this in 2011.

25. What was the best book you read? Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen....loved it! :)
26. What was your greatest musical discovery? Franchesca Battestelli....an amazing Christian artist...so many of her songs just totally speak to me about where I am in life right now and are totally encouraging!
27. What did you want and get? A new zoom lens for my camera....I have wanted it for years and I finally got it and LOVE it!
28. What did you want and not get? To go back to Disney for the holidays. I will get there eventually!
29. What was your favorite holiday? Thanksgiving...it was so sweet and laid back and just a time to be with family and be thankful for all that God has given me.
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 28 and had an amazing dinner with my family at Halls' Gas House. :)
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? A full time teaching job so I didn't have to work weekends. :)
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? Comfortable jeans and a fun, fashionable top...and slippers at home! :)
33. What kept you sane? My family and friends
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Not really any...I guess I don't follow celebs.
35. What political issue stirred you the most? I guess the elections because I actually paid some attention to the different candidates.
36. Who did you miss? My brother in law Zach since he has been in Iraq...so ready for him to come home!
37. Who was the best new person you met? So many....Andre, Jen, Evin, Kara, Stasha, Lauren, and I could go on and on!
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010: Fully Rely on God!

Christmas Wishes For One and All

Just wanted to stop by and wish you all a very Merry Christmas!  May the day be filled with lots of joy, laughter, good food, family, and friends. Don't forget to take some picutes to help you remember this time in your life and all the little memories that you make throughout the day. I know I will.  :)  These snapshots I take are little glimpses into my life and how I chose to celebrate this amazing, wonderful, special holiday that we call Christmas.

 "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

"Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

(Luke 2:11, 14)

In that spirit, I wanted to share the Christmas cards I made this year. There were so many great stamps that came out this year and I had so many ideas rolling around in my head that I decided that instead of making the same card over and over and over again, I would make lots of different designs and only make about a dozen of each. So that is what I did.

"Merry Christmas Holly"

This is my favorite card of all the cards I made this year. To create the holly piece, I first stamped the Hero Arts Classic Holly cling stamp onto a 3.5 x 3.5 inch square of Bazzill cardstock with VersaFine Onyx Black Ink. I heat embossed the image with clear embossing powder. I then made my own watercolor paints with Ranger Distress inks and Perfect Pearls Perfect Pearl powder mixed with water.  I used  Bundled Sage, Forest Moss, and Tumbled Glass Distress inks. I then inked up my favorite background stamp, the Friend Definition from Hero Arts with Pumice Stone Distress ink and inked over the entire image. I finished off the piece by distressing around the edge of it using the Tonic Edge Distresser and a bit of Pumice Stone ink. I also added a red cardstock border and a stamped sentiment to the card to finish it off.

"Warmest Wishes House"

This is another one of my favorites. I really loved this set of holiday houses by Hero Arts. I stamped and head embossed this house in gold and then colored it in with my Copic markers, I then cut the the house out and I also diecut 2 pieces with the Tim Holtz Alterations Ornamental Die. I drew a snow slope on one and cut out the bottom piece. I then added glitter to my 'slope' with white paint and set it aside to dry. I heat embossed the pine tree from the same house set with a metallic green embossing powder from American Crafts and the 'Warmest Wishes' from a holiday sentiment set from Hero Arts. I then used Tumbled Glass Distress ink and my inking tool to color the background of the full diecut piece and stamped small snowflakes from the house set with the Tumbled Glass ink. I finally pop dotted the glittery snow piece to my card and tucked the house in behind the slope. I finished the card by running my gold leafing pen around the edge of the blue piece to give the piece some extra shine and adding Frosted Lace Stickles to the snow peaks of the house.

Well it is getting super late so I will be back later this weekend to share more of my Christmas cards.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Janeen

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Hello all my blog friends and readers.  It has been a whirlwind of a month around here between the decorating, the holiday crafting, the festive events, and lots of time spent with the family. I have enjoyed it so much this year and there is still more to come in the next few weeks. I so can't wait...

So I thought I would pop on here and share a few of my holiday going-ons this season with you.

My young adult group at Pathway held an "everything cliche" Christmas party last week. We wore tacky christmas sweaters, had a white elephant gift exchange, and enjoyed all the fun festive foods that this season brings. The above pictures are from the tacky Christmas sweater contest. I ended up winning first place with my twinkling lighted sweater and they just had to turn off all the lights to admire it. :) 

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This was the Manheim Steamroller concert that I went to with my family at the Embassy. It was a lot of fun seeing how they create all the different sounds that go into their music and it was a very festive and fun concert. :)

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This weekend we also had our family Christmas parties....I got to see a ton of my aunts, uncles, and cousins and catch up with them. It is one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. :)

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Lots and lots of decorating...the tree, cookies, our outside lights....gotta love all the festive trimmings that you see this time of year.

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I have also been busily working on my Christmas cards this year. I will try to get some pictures of them tomorrow and get them up on the blog to share with you all. :)

Until then....Merry Christmas,

Janeen

100 Books

Have you read more than six of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.
Here is my list...

The ones in Bold are ones I have read.


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings -Tolkein
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (most of it...in high school English)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahamn
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossein

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

That makes 19 that I have read....there are a few on the list that I would really like to read. Maybe I will start reading one this week. :)

Thankful for....

Okay this is Monday and Tuesday's post because yesterday was just plain crazy....subbed all day in Kendallville (first grade) and then came home for an hour before running off to Archiver's for the evening shift.

Monday - I am thankful for my two jobs...even though they exhaust me sometimes. :)

Tuesday - I am thankful for all my amazing, fabulous friends who are always there for me and who I can spend hours with just chatting everything under the sun. :)

A Week of Thankfulness

This week, with Thanksgiving just around the corner, I thought I would share what I am thankful for on my blog.  God is so good and I want to take the time to reflect on all that he has given me.

One of the things that I am most thankful for is my church family through Pathway Community Church. Whether it be my small group gals led by Tammy, or the super-cool Threefold group that I meet with on Thursday nights, or simply all the friends I have made  through the church, they have all impacted my life in such huge and tremendous ways.  I would not be who I am or where I am without them and this is a shout out to all of them, whereever they are, that I am truly blessed to consider them my friends!

Popping in...

to say that I have not been feeling very well this weekend, hence the lack of posts.  Will try to be back tomorow with something crafty to share. :)