Happy Friday!! It's time for another post of my favorites for the week, and this week it's been all about the December Daily album.

If you don't know what a December Daily album is, check it out over on Ali Edwards' blog. This is the third year in a row that she's documenting hers as she makes it, and her albums from 2007 and 2008 are definitely worth checking out.

This week Ali posted her foundation pages for her album in posts here and here. So gorgeous!

Of course, I'm not the only one following along with this project this year. I mentioned earlier in the week that I loved Megan Turnidge's album, which can be found in this post on her blog. Isn't that layered mini album just the cutest?!?

Alissa Fast is posting pages from her previous December albums each day on her blog. Catch the first day's post here.

Shimelle Laine, whose Journal Your Christmas online class was the springboard for Ali's first December Daily album is hosting her class again this year. I am so totally taking it. I usually don't write a lot on my scrapbook pages, so maybe this will get me moving more in that direction.

If you're in more of a Christmas card kind of mood, Kristina Werner is posting cardmaking video tutorials for 25 days on her blog. Check out the first one here.

If you're not quite in the Christmas spirit yet, then try this adorable felt fall garland featured on ScrapScene.

Or maybe these posh looking fabric flowers from the Creating Keepsakes blog.

And, last but certainly not least, check out the "What is Metering" post on Pioneer Woman photography. She also has another great series- "What the Heck is an Aperture"- that explains the basics of using all those settings on your camera.

Have a great weekend!

Geeky Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving is I think my favorite part of Halloween. Not that I'm very good at it, but I love the finished product. Last year we only had one pumpkin (Darren carved it) because I decided to try to make a Halloween gingerbread house instead. It didn't turn out very well. :) The gingerbread house, I mean- the pumpkin was awesome!

This year I decided to actually carve my own pumpkin. I had designs picked out for two, so I went to work on an Apple logo while Darren took on the task of the 1Up Mushroom.

I was very pleased with how they turned out! And since mine was such a simple design, I really didn't have too much trouble with it.

I was a little disappointed that we only had about 30 trick or treaters, but the kids who did come liked the pumpkins- we could hear them talking about them as they came up the front steps. :)

I went low-key for a costume this year. I had wanted to go all-out and get a full Jedi rig, but with the knee still a little messed up, I just wasn't feeling it. So I settled for some comfy scrubs and borrowing a stethoscope from Darren. I added the witch hat later (Mom and Dad bought it for me last year) and joked that I was a "Witch Doctor." :)

While searching the web for a good 1Up picture to turn into a template, I came across this awesome shirt on ThinkGeek. I NEED one of these to wear to work!

December Daily: Gathering

I finally finished gathering my supplies for my December Daily album! I had originally thought that I wanted to mix it all up, but then after seeing this post by Megan Turnidge I decided to do something a little more unified. This year I'm using the K&Company Peppermint Twist paper pad (I bought this last year and had it in the stash) along with some Bazzill Bling cardstock (and a good amount of Kraft thrown in, of course!) and a few odds an ends bits of vellum and transparency. The peppermint twist paper is just gorgeous, and several of the sheets are accented with glitter, embossing, or foil. And who can resist those cute Santa faces?

I love this paper because while it uses some traditional Christmas colors it also throws in a lot of non-traditional colors. My album last year was very heavy on reds and greens. This year my album will still have those colors, but I intend to throw in a lot more teal and some pink as well.

I still plan on adding other papers in with this- some cool papers from journaling notebooks, envelopes, and divided page protectors. I've had zero time for scrapbooking the last couple of weeks, so just getting these supplies together (I did it a piece here and there when I had a free 60 seconds) was a major accomplishment. Needless to say, I haven't started on the construction yet!

The embellishments are mostly silver, but another cool thing about this paper pad is that it includes some decorative punch outs. I plan on combining these with some glitter and pop-dots to make many of the embellishments for my pages.

I'm looking forward to getting the chance to start putting this together! For now I'm working on cranking out some party decorations with the Wishblade- more on that later!