Bye Bye October...Hello Christmas Rush!

It happens every year so I should know by now to expect it, but the day after Halloween seems to mark the pre-Christmas craziness! And I have jumped right in...I am taking 2 Christmas prep classes @ BPS...Giving Well 2008 which is almost over, and Cut the Crazy out of Christmas which has just started. I have lots of fun project ideas under my belt and am now in the process of creating a customized Christmas planner so I am well on my way to getting organized! I know I know...I say every year that this year will be different, this year I will be organized, but I really have a feeling that this year I will make inroads to that goal!

Today I also had a Creative Memories booth at the first of three trade/Christmas shows this month. It was great - I got to meet a lot of other moms that have home based businesses and made a good amount of sales and contacts. A lot of people were really interested in Digital Scrapbooking, Photocards and Storybooks/Photobooks. This is really where my focus has been lately, so it was fun to initiate some digital newbies! And, I picked up a couple of Christmas gifts as well. I met a wonderful lady named Roxanne who sells personalized children's music CD's so I picked up 2 - Elmo singing songs about Grayson and Barney singins songs about Sam! Love them! We had a great chat about online commerce and it really got me thinking about about additions to my business, especially on my personal website. I have a few ideas that I am putting into place and will post when they are up and running.

In the creativity department, I finished up and submitted this layout to the Just Cre8 challenge which was to use a rebus on your LO. Mine uses letters and pictures for the title; "You Love To Read".

"You Love To Read" 12 x 12 LO by Noreen Smith. Paperbilities cardstock, Stampin Up letter strip, unknown patterned paper strip and brads. Century Gothic font.

I cannot believe the talent in this group of contestants and am really enjoying seeing their work. This weeks challenge is to design a LO based on one of three ads posted on the site. It's due Wednesday, so I better get working!

And, I can't resist posting pics of my pumpkins. Literally! Grayson was a pumpkin for Halloween and was oh-so-sweet! Sammy got to wear a Winnie the Pooh outfit, but was pretty unimpressed with the whole deal this year! (Next year I'm sure he will kick _ss!)

Here they are just before all the Halloween festivities began. They are getting to be good friends. Man I love these 2!!!

We went to a local mall for Halloween activities during the afternoon with our good friends Wendy, Amy and Sean and got to make slime and trick or treat with lots of other little ones. Here they are - the Pumpkin, Princess and Pirate!

Then in the evening I took Grayson around to a few neighbours.

Although he has been out Trick or Treating before, this was the first year he was really into it. He kept saying, "Just one more house Mom, just one more!" It was fine weather (17 degrees during the day) so I didn't mind being out walking around. (*I remember Halloweening when I was a kid and it always seemed to be so cold...you had to choose a costume that either had lots of layers or could go over your coat so you could keep warm!) Anyway, he had such a good time and what a candy stash he ended up with! He couldn't believe it! It was a really great day!

SO...onto the next holiday! Good luck getting organized...I'll post my planner once it is in the works!

Happy Scrapping

Noreen