Happy New Year!

I've been pretty non-existent around here lately. First off, I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! The holidays tend to be chaotic enough, but we made it even a little more chaotic this year. The Saturday before Christmas I brought home a new dog...meet Brinkley!

Brinkley is a Golden Retriever, estimated to be 3 years old. To make a very long story short, a friend of mine saw some people turn Brinkley in to the humane society. She wanted another dog, but they currently have a house full and her husband said no lol. My dad was looking for a dog so I started inquiring about this guy for him. Well, Brinkley wasn't enjoying the shelter life at all and was terrified of the people there and hid in the back of his cage. His outcome wasn't looking too good, and I refused to let anything bad happen to him. After a week I was finally allowed to see him. He had fleas and is terribly under weight. He was a little timid at first, but after a while he warmed up to me. I called my husband, he told me to bring him home and so that's what I did (after taking my dogs down to meet him).

He is fitting in well and that timid dog that I brought home is now an energetic maniac lol! He joins Bella (a 5 year old boxer/german shepherd mix who I rescued when she was 10 months old) and Jack, our 2 1/2 year old Golden Retriever.Between Brinkley and the holidays, our house has been nothing but chaotic over the past almost two weeks!

I finally got back to scrapping and making some files (my mats were beyond repair so I had to make some new ones this week!). Today I'm going to share a file I made for one of my Christmas pages, but it could be used for so much more. Here's a screenshot of the file--I have cut it and it cuts really well, but I forgot to take a picture of it before I glued it on my layout! The edges cut very smooth, even though they look a little jagged in the screenshot.

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Finally! A few spare moments!

Things have been so hectic around here lately! Being sick and off work (and pretty much unable to function) for a few days really set me back. I've been trying to catch up on everything and just have been so busy! I found this site a while back (http://alliebrownslayouts.blogspot.com/) that has some really awesome blog layouts so I decided to update mine for the Christmas season! I just love the colors--the red and turquoise is such a beautiful color combination!

I finally started my Christmas shopping (yes, started) on Saturday...I spent about 8 hours at the mall and toy store trying to find the perfect gifts. For some reason it has been a real struggle this year to find gifts for those on my list. I managed to finish purchasing gifts for a few people and actually started wrapping them last night. I refuse to spend Christmas Eve frantically wrapping presents while watching the clock so I have enough time to get ready and make it to church and still look presentable. Bella loves to open presents so all of the ones that are wrapped are up on the dining room table (it's a pub table, so it's higher than normal) far out of her reach. Anyone else have pets who just love to open presents?

Today I'm posting a file that I think I was insane to do in the first place. I won't lie to you, this is a file that takes quite a bit of time to cut and assemble. I made it for a paper piecing swap that I was in. I really wanted a winterish/Christmasy house and I wasn't able to find one that I liked. So I found a coloring page and went from there. I love the end result and think I may actually cut one bigger so that I can decorate it and frame it. You can have a lot of fun with this file and can customize it how you like. I put some Stickles on the trees to make it look a little more snowy. Please note that the wreaths I used to decorate the house are not included in this file...I cut those from someone else's file and so I can't include them.

Okay, enough rambling! HERE is a link to the file...and here is a picture of the cut file. Sorry that the picture isn't the greatest--I used my camera phone and while it does a decent job, it isn't the best!

Please leave a comment if you download...little things like that really brighten my day :) Enjoy the file!
This freebie has expired. It will be available soon at Cutters Market.

'Tis the Season

I have been sick almost all week, so I didn't get a chance to work on any new files. I have some that I need to test cut and then I'll be back with some more pictures and another freebie! I'm hoping to get them cut tonight or tomorrow morning...

I seem to be stuck in a Christmas theme at the moment (which is crazy, because I have no desire at all to get my house decorated for Christmas! Usually it's finished by now!), but if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know! :) It might help me break out of this Christmas cycle!