:: Gift to Me - Luxe Design ::

:: Just after my birthday and before Christmas I got myself this beauty ::

:: I had been wanting to get something that had my boys names on it and had special meaning, but I had yet to find the perfect thing....but when I saw this company at one of the trade shows my Mom does, I had to have one! ::

:: My open circle says "love, inspire, bless, protect" then I have an oval that says "Paul" and then two small circles, on for Jacob "J" and one for Cole "C" ~ I added a few fun things to it too, a heart with wings and a clear crystal ::

:: I love that I can add or take away as my mood pleases, I also love that they are two local girls taking their passion into their own hands! ::

:: They have made necklaces for some pretty funky stars, you can see all the fancy schmancy stars necklaces here ::

:: You're special too, so treat yourself every once in a while! ::

* * *

:: I'm off to get something done today {yes, I know it's 8:20 pm} but I was feeling under the weather all day and now I finally feel like I can get something done without two toddlers underfoot! ::

:: Meatloaf Anyone? ::

:: I grew up in a home that didn't know meatloaf {right mom?} at least if we had meatloaf I don't remember it! ::

:: I can actually say that I didn't even know what was in meatloaf until maybe 3 or 4 years ago ::

:: Until now, my girlfriend introduced me to this recipe {to switch it up you could also try one of these} last Winter and I have held on to it and used it on nights like last night where I didn't feel like doing anything, let alone making dinner! ::

:: But within a few short minutes {like 10} I had rice in the rice cooker, organic corn and peas ready to be cooked & mini meatloaves in the oven baking away...making our home smell like all the comforts of home ::

:: When Paul walked in the door at 6:20pm he was surprised to smell the lovely aroma that filled our walls. You see I had called him at 5:00pm asking him what he felt like for dinner "he responded, well I don't have time to think about that, I'm at work" HA! A lot of help he is! He should have said, "well take the night off Shawna and I'll pick up a Pizza from Costco", but he didn't. So I needed inspiration as I was feeling less than inspired. So I opened my cupboard door to find a box of stuffing, voila, dinner = done ::

:: Boys bathed and one boy fed and in bed, this is what we sat down to for dinner ::


:: Not bad for 10 minutes and maybe $10 worth of food {the boys had fresh bread and butter with their meal as well}, but I didn't have time to take a picture of that as they were already well into eating ::

:: Oh, FYI ::

:: The recipe says to put the mixture into 8 baking cups but I don't know who has an 8 cup cupcake pan, so I split it into 12 cups, and they are ample serving sizes, also I bake mine for 40 minutes instead of 30, I love that they get a crunchy bottom instead of soft ::

:: And just so you know if you don't go here to find recipes on those night where you are like me and less than inspired to cook...you should, you can enter in your ingredients and they'll give you a few recipes that meet your criteria ::

:: Oh and keep your eyes peeled for the stuffing on sale, before Thanksgiving & Christmas they usually come on sale @ Superstore and Extra foods for a mere $0.97 - now I don't know about you but that makes one cheap meal! ::

:: Happy Cooking {most of the time!} ::

:: Kitchen Scale ::

:: Take a look at this beauty ::

:: This was my Christmas gift from the boys this year ::

:: Funny thing about this gift is I actually bought it for myself on a trip to Lynden WA with my Mom back in November while looking for plates for my plate wall...I couldn't justify buying it "just because", so I bought it and gave it to Paul and told him to bring it out at Christmas and put it under the Christmas tree. He did and I was delighted that the boys bought me such a perfect gift {insert laugh here}! ::

:: Wasn't that nice of them, um, er, me? ::

:: Save the Date ::

:: Hey Y'all, I just wanted to send you out a quick invite to Women's Wednesday this month. We're having Brenda Wollenberg {Registered Nutritional Health Practitioner} joining us ::

:: I've heard she's amazing and what a better way to start of the new year by creating a new you! ::



:: So mark you calendars, Wednesday January 21/09 @ CLA Langley Campus 7.30 pm ::

:: Even if you don't attend CLA, come on out...it's gonna be tons of fun and you just might learn something too! Oh and remember to bring $2 for a specialty drink from the cafe! ::

xo,*S

:: Journal - You do ::

:: If you are a friend of mine on facebook, you will know that I was looking for a super cute cheap day planner for 2009 yesterday ::

:: Paul and I usually get our planners in a two pack from Costco for the whopping price of $8 {for both}, well just before Christmas we checked our local Costco for our planners and they were all out, so we were heading into 2009 with no planners which = no plan! Oh, No! ::

:: When we were in the states the other day we found some super cute planners by Stephen Covey {I think} at Target, however $25 for an item that gets thrown in my purse, on the floor of the car, stepped on and gets a good splash of coffee by the 4th day of it's life with me was not worth $25 no matter how cute! ::

:: Paul checked out a Costco on the other side of the bridge and found our planners, plain 'ol Brownline planners for a steal at $8, he bought them and brought home mine that looked just like my last years one {sans the cowgirl boot} ::

:: I was still drooling over the super cute Stephen Covey ones ::

:: So I decided to jazz mine up a bit, here's what it looks like now ::

:: All I did was reinforce the front & back covers with diaper box cardboard & a hot glue gun. Then I went downstairs and dug around in my wrapping paper till I came up with something cute, grabbed some black ribbon and my tape gun and we were in business ::

:: I covered the cardboard covered front and back with a piece of wrapping paper and glue gunned it in place. Once the paper was in place I covered it in pieces of clear packing tape to seal the paper, it's not the best option...I would have or should have gone to pick up some clear sticky tack but I was too lazy. I then took the ribbon and tied a knot in it {just for that decor flair} and proceeded to glue it to the unfinished trim. And there it was, my cute, very me, very cheap 2009 planner ::

:: Now that I've got a planner I can plan out 2009 ~ Here's to a fabulous year! ::

xo, *Shawna

:: Women's Wednesday - Rejoice ::

:: A week before Christmas we hosted our Christmas Women's event @ CLA called "Rejoice". It was so much fun to plan and see our ideas and vision come to life right before our eyes. I think we may have bitten off more than we could chew {we're all about the details}, but almost everything went off without a hitch ::

:: We spent the whole day setting up the decor and making sure each seat was just right, we had a great group of women {& men} helping us make our vision a reality. We could not have done it without the help of everyone around us ::

:: Each woman received an ornament as a gift they said "rejoice", "peace" & "joy" ::


:: That chandelier hanging from the ceiling is what I was working on that day back in December when I was vacant from my blog. I was in my freezing cold garage trying to get it finished. The room pulled together amazingly well and showcased the speaker, the food, the music, the season and most of all the reason we celebrate ::

:: We had an amazing speaker Mrs. Helen Burns from VCC and we also had an amazing pianist, Lonnie Delisle - I had an amazing night and hope all of our guests did too. Helen spoke an amazing word about one moment in time and it was just perfect and so God ::

:: Here we are hosting the evening. Once we finished a long day of setting up we headed to Lisa's house to get ready. After an hour of changing, make-uping, pinning and spraying...off we went back to the church, through the snow in our 3" heels! ::

:: It was a delightful night full of love, laughter and rejoicing in the spirit ::

:: Thank you to all who made it out, you made our night! ::

:: While you're waiting ::

:: Like you have nothing more to do then wait for my blog post to come {ah, ha ha ha}! ::

:: Okay, so anyway, I read multiple {like 300} and one of my favorites is by Nester, her blog is called Nesting Place and I love her sense of style. She wrote a post about enjoying your home and I love love love what she said, it really spoke to me {on the deep level that home decor can only do!} and I thought I should share it with y'all ::

:: Hope you enjoyed her post as much as I did and if you do stop by and read it, tell her so...we all love comments! ::

:: Now go read it & enjoy your home! ::

:: Coming Soon ::

:: I've been doing a lot of thinking lately {as in the past 5 days} and so I will be posting soon about that and our Women's Wednesday event from December, so stay tuned! ::

:: Here's a sneak peek ::

:: Project 2009 ::

:: Okay, so I have had so many lingering projects that I have procrastinated on and pushed to the side and this desk has been one of those projects ::

:: We got this desk from the free section on craigslist {back in March}, it's stained oak {in forest green} and it came with a shelving unit that sits on top, we put the shelving unit in storage for now but the desk is the perfect size for the spare room in the basement, and the perfect place to put all of my paper craft items ::

:: So yesterday I attacked the forest green exterior and started priming and painting! ::

:: Before ::

:: After {without flash & with flash} ::

:: I may distress the edges of it, but for now it looks fresh and so much better to me! The chair that it's paired with is my Papa's office chair, it's one of my most favorite items! ::

:: Here is a view from the entrance into the room...currently the room still has Christmas decor that I'm sorting through, but soon enough it'll be back in order ::

:: Christmas 2008 ::

:: We had a great, jam packed filled holiday we went non-stop from the 17th through to the 27th, it was fabulous but exhausting all at the same time! ::

:: We enjoyed doing our Gingerbread decorating night with the Bakers, however WE decorated, the houses not the kids - I think we were all too tired to entertain the kids helping out, so we saved bringing out the kits until the kids were fast asleep. It was a great plan and we had fun doing it...hopefully next year the kids will be old enough to really get in on the action! ::

:: We hosted our annual Friends Christmas Party as our friends that usually host it were too busy with their 1 day old baby, Chase. We had a great time with our friends from the bible study that Paul and I met at, we are an ever expanding group with quite a few babies now and we have managed to couple up a few of our singles so hopefully we'll be enjoying a few weddings this year! ::

:: We got up bright and early on Christmas day to start the day off with stockings and gifts, just the four of us. It was great to enjoy seeing the boys "ooohhhh" and "ahhh" over their gifts no matter how small they were. This time was truly coveted and we were blessed to have it ::



:: We experienced quite the snowfall here this Christmas it made for a very brutal drive but so beautiful if you were stuck inside {the top left picture is taken on Christmas
Eve from Jacob's bedroom window} ::

:: We packed up Christmas at our house and headed out to Paul's Parents Place for Christmas morning brunch. We had a great time enjoying family time, great food and gifts, lots and lots of gifts! I can't wait until there are 4 little babes running around {Paul's sister is due with her second babe in May 2009} ::

:: Since the snow had just fallen we decided to hit the local park and do some sledding, it was crazy to trek through the snow to the hill, but so much fun! Jacob loved it but Cole, not so much! He cried every time someone went down the hill! ::

:: Mid afternoon we headed to My Parent's Place for dinner. We again had a great time catching up with my brothers and their wives as well as my niece Denay. The dinner was a amazing and we enjoyed watching everyone open their gifts. My poor boys were pooped from the long day, but they did so good and were knocked right out by the time we were heading home! ::



:: We also enjoyed a game night with Jamie & her family as well as the Baker Clan..we had a great night playing pictionary but the boys won, have they not learned anything!?!?! It was a rough way to start 2009 boys! Hopefully you've learned ;) ::

:: That's about it for Christmas posts around here, however I am going to post some of my loot from Christmas, I know there is more to the season than gifts, but oooohhh, you should see my boots!!! Okay, so for the goods stay tuned, maybe not today though, I've got laundry to fold, chili to make and I also need to get ready to go on a date with my Paul to the United States for the afternoon/evening! So now that I wrote all that out, I probably won't be back until tomorrow! Have a great day y'all, we're expecting more snow again, I love it! ::