Thursday, December 9, 2010

I wish I were here...

Little Italy in New York City! Dan and I spent Thanksgiving there several years ago...
it was a little piece of heaven! 
Actually we loved all of NYC and there is nothing like being there for the holidays! 
Here we are the night before we left the city at Columbus Square! 
Awe... the food in that city was great! We tried to hit all the local diners for breakfast and we also liked finding all the restaurants that the "locals" were at too! 
If you have the chance to spend the holidays in NYC, or even go during the holidays then do it, the city is just beautiful all lit up for the Christmas season! 

Okay, so I'll just pretend I'm there... and while I'm pretending to be there I have some fun pictures to share with you all...
What do you see wrong with this picture (besides the all Hot Tamales)? That's right, my Miss Bella Blue is on my coffee table and she's not trying to get my candy she's trying to get in that brown basket b/c that's where all her "babies" are kept! This is the day of Christmas last year and we had to take away all the "babies" b/c our dogs were starting to fight over them. But Bella had other ideas! I love that picture!
This is me Christmas morning (excuse the no make-up) but my sweet hubby puts my favorite candy in my stocking every year! And I LOVE candy, even more than chocolate, Hot Tamales and Starburst Jelly Beans are my most favorite candies! (And, yes I'm in "footie" PJ's, those were our Christmas Eve PJ's.)
I just wanted to share a bit more about how we celebrate the holidays.

For the December 9th giveaway, I'm going to giveaway my entire "Sugar Cookie" paper collection!  I created this "sweet" Valentine line b/c my mom use to make us kids huge heart shaped sugar cookies, then we'd get to put the icing and candy decorations on them! The sugar cookies were huge, one cookie took the space of an entire cookie sheet! My mom would have them already baked when we'd get home from school, ready for us to decorate; I loved doing that with my mom! Sure wish I had some pictures from those cookie decorating days. Kinda miss those days too! 


(That's why the paper below called "Cookie Love" was created, I wanted a 
huge sugar cookie on one of my papers!)




Leave a comment on this blog post and you might be the lucky winner! 

For yesterday's winner I just HAD to pick:
Kilo0315 who said this... 
"Great layouts Ladies! And I should mention "Ain't Love The Sweetest Thing" by Larissa: my hubby was behind me while I was reading your blog and when he saw this LO he asked me "can you do something like that with our photo?". Wow, you really touched his heart :) I never though he pays attention to my hobby LOL Thanks!
I think we underestimate our hubby's thoughts about scrapbooking. My husband used to kinda "tease" about the hobby, then when I made an album for Henry (our kiddo) with all our family pictures, outings,  his school year and our family vacation for one entire year he thought it was the most wonderful thing for Henry! He loves to look at it once I'm done creating it and we give it to Henry every year on his birthday. So even if our partners grunt and spend entirely too little time looking at every last little detail we've created on a layout I think mostly they really like that we do this for our families! 
Have a great Thursday! -Nikki

 Don't forget to sign up for my free newsletter to the left of this blog to win the "Santa Bag" of Nikki Sivils products valued at over $100.00!! That winner will be picked on the 14th of December! 




82 comments:

Shannon Tompkins said...

I love this new Sugar Cookie line. The colors are so fun. My daughter is now 17 months and I think your sugar cookie memory should be a new tradition in our house. I think we will try it this year ... however, with me it might be Pillsbury sugar cookies .......

Ava Gavloski said...

cute colorful paper line. The tradition of the PJ's is shared by many families. Those PJ stories are so much fun.....
ava
cottagerca

Julie Tucker-Wolek said...

Awwwwwwwwww what cute pics Nikki!! Bella makes me giggle!!! And congrats to yesterday's winner! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

Tanya said...

Cute pics, thanks for sharing! One year I made GINORMOUS (like 12 inches)Christmas tree and gingerbread men cookie cut outs for the the kids and their friends to decorate, they loved it. Every year we make my hubby's great grandmothers special sugar cookie recipe. The kids never knew her, but we are able to share something from her. The Sugar Cookie collection is adorable!!

Dana Tatar said...

I LOVE sugar cookies AND this collection! I'm so happy to see the purple! I'm looking foward to baking and decorating some sugar cookies for Santa with my girls later this month. Thanks for the chance to win!

Jessica Dewan said...

Absolutely LOVE this sweetly delicious collection! Sugar cookie decorating is so much fun to :D

suey04 said...

Your Suger Cookie line is awesome!!!! I love the hot tamales too ! they are my favorite!!!!!

Debbie said...

I love how your collections come to be from personal moments or things in your life! I love the new Sugar Cookie collection. Makes me think about the suagr cookies we make every Christmas, from a recipe my mom found 50+ years ago. The tradition has carried on since she first found it.

Dorlene said...

I think we don't always understand what a treasure we create with out scrapbooking. My son who thinks I'm addicted has made comments that make me realize that his scrapbooks are indeed a treasure. Makes it all worth while :0) Glad I found your blog. Thanks for the inspiration.

Carmen G said...

Love the Sugar Cookie line! When my kids were young we made sugar cookies for every holiday. Now that they are grown we only make them at Christmas.

ShoppingTamii said...

LOVE all the Hot Tamales. They are one of my favs, finished off a bag last night, and the empty bag was sitting there...then my son grabbed the bag, and I laughed as he figured out it was empty...then my daughter did the exact same thing! How dare mom eat candy and not share ;)

Liane said...

This Sugar Cookie line is fantastic... what a great way to capture the tradition so many families share of baking/decorating sugar cookies for the holidays!

arlsmom aka Lynda said...

Oh Miss Bella sure is cute... what a wonderful memory about the heart shaped cookies you have... we make cookies each holiday season...the girls look forward to doing the sprinkles...amazing how the older they are getting the more "thin" the layer of sugar is...may be better "dump control" over the bottles of colored sprinkles...some years you could barely pick up a cookie they were so heavy with sugar...fun stuff!

Sandra said...

What a lovely paper line! So sweet and colourful!! My son and I love to spend some hours in the kitchen to bake and decorate the worlds' sweetest cookies, and they just get better every time :P!!

Jennifer Reynard said...

Wow, you absolutely don't need any makeup! How lucky that you can look
so gorgeous first thing in the morning and so cute in those P.J.'s!!

April said...

Love your pics!

This line is SUPER cute! I can imagine all the yummy layouts and cards I could create with it. :)

Thanks for the chance to wion!
- April W

Mary Ellyn said...

I love NYC too - especially during the Holidays. There is nothing else like it, the sights, the smells, the sounds - wish I could go back.

Love your sugar cookie collection!

Anonymous said...

What a sweet sugar cookie line!!!!!
I know I could make great LO's of my daughter with this paper. She also is very sweet :))

Stacy said...

I sooo love your pictures of the pups!! They are always so cute! What a YUMMY collection! Totally loving the colors and the design. Fabulous job on this one Nikki!

A Sarasota said...

such cute photos! thanks for sharing them!!!

Karen said...

We visited NYC this summer and had a BLAST!! It was so fun - I can't imagine how great it would be during the holidays!

I always do sugar cookies with my kids for Christmas - we love getting out all the sprinkles and the different colored icings. Some of them we "ice" in melted chocolate - mmmm - the best of both worlds!!

Love this paper line - it is adorable!

floridagirl said...

I love the Sugar Cookies Line - wow - so cute. Your stories are so touching - they really make me feel sentimental - this Holiday will be so very different for our family - so many changes. 2 of my sons are away this year, and my daughter will be coming home from College for the very first time (I miss her so much), and I have my 18 month old grandson to share the Holiday with (I am his foster parent now). So going from empty nest to babies in the house again sure will be different - but also magical. I am enjoying sharing the magic of the season with Tyler - he is so special!!

Cowchipper said...

really like the SC line. Each yr about Christmas time or any big Holiday my mom would pull out her HRM red clear cookie cutters and we would make cookies. to this day @ age 44, with a 5yo girl, we do the same thing. this weekend we are making gingerbread cookies with that set of HRM cutters I still use!

Anonymous said...

I really like this sugar cookie line. I can scrapbook all my cookie making pictures for everyone to see. Love making cookies and EATING them as much as I scrapbook!

Becky Atkinson said...

I love the sugar line, my dd and I are making Christmas sugar cookies this weekend but what a lovely memory, I sure hope that when my dd is grown with a family of her own she remembers cooking and crafting traditions with mom.

EstherT said...

Sweet (literally) traditions! What a nice memory of your Mom. I'm looking forward to baking with my oldest son - he's in grade Primary and I got my first letter from him this week.

"From Jon
To Mommy
I like it wan you ask for my to gat the ingreetins!"

Translation - I like it when you ask me to get the ingredients! I guess it's a sweet hint! ;)

Margie said...

Oh, what a sweet line! I love it!!

Corina said...

WOW, i love the colors and it would look great with my weddingphoto's, my husband and i were married on Valentine's day....

Kelly Massman said...

Sweet collection! and love the photos!

MJ said...

very nice sugar cookie line!! I mention to my daughter (5 years old) about the sugar cookie line, she came very fast where is it? where is it? i showed her and she said mom the colors and the heart are very nice, but i thought were real LOL it's because she loves sugar cookies :)
thanks for the chance to win.
MJ

Kim said...

Pick me, Pick me!!!!!! LOL! What a sweet line Nikki!!!!!

Erica Marshall said...

This line is gorgeous! My hubby often "teases" me too about my hobby (or as he calls it, obsession) but he will readily admit that it means a lot to him that I preserve these memories for our family and children and for those that want to remember us after we're gone! Thanks Nikki, for sharing your great talent and inspiration with us!

Dee said...

Wow...Such "happy" paper, LOL, if there is such a thing. Well, to me there is. When you look at these colors and designs, I don't see how you can't think happy thoughts. Great for scrapping happy times.

Manders said...

How sweet and the colors so cute

Mieke said...

Ooooooooooooohhhhhhhh Nikki, this is soooo sweet, love those colors!!! I always love to read your stories on the blog!
hugs

Mary Jean said...

What a great paper line! Every year my family has a cookie exchange This would be perfect for it. Your pupper is so cute! My pups are a little bigger than yours....6 goldens...but I to have to hide their "rickies" away every once in a while. LOL...years ago hardees had these little stuffed animals...one of them had ricky on his shirt...now...gosh I bet close to 17 years later we still call all toys rickies!

labsuper said...

Now I'm hungry!

Charity said...

Beautiful new line. Thanks for sharing the story behind it. That's something I've tried to do with my oldest (he's 3). We decorated heart sugar cookies for his daddy last valentines. They weren't huge, but he had SO much fun playing with the icing.

Thanks for the great giveaway.

Anonymous said...

I love your Sugar Cookie line! My Mom used to always make cut-out cookies for all the Holidays, this is our 8th Christmas without her, how I miss all her loving & pride that she put into making a Wonderful Christmas for all of us!! This year my son, DIL & my 16 month old grandson have moved to Las Vegas, so I don't get to share Christmas with them, I miss them so much. Thanks for another Great opportunity for a giveaway!! Merry Christmas to you & yours!!

wendipooh13 said...

oh my gosh I am SUCH a Hot Tamales fan!!!!!! I love them... they are perfect to eat, esp when scrappin cuz there is no mess on your hands!!!!! and your lil doggie on the table is too cute

Noreen Johnson said...

Love to use the sugar cookie line in my scrapbooks! It will make my layouts yummy!

Thebug415 said...

Silly dog on the table...lol. And Hot Tamales! Wooo! This line is so wonderful!

Anonymous said...

what a great idea for a line! I love it! I always made sugar cookies with my mom as a kid..I loved cutting out the cookies and putting the icing and sprinkles on! thanks for the walk down memory lane on this one
-Tammy

cindy said...

I love sugar cookies in paper or as food! :D

Anonymous said...

Lovely pics of your Christmas! I love the same candies...and chewy sprees! Hope this holiday is as wonderful as all those past...

Anonymous said...

Love your papers!

Judy said...

I love your new Sugar Cookie line of papers. They look almost good enough to eat. LOL

Bonita Baksh said...

wow, I love this line! great colors, perfect to scrap pictures of my daughter helping me with our cookies this year! It's become a tradition for us to bake cookies for santa every year, and she only makes him heart shaped ones!

Gordon said...

What a sweet line to celebrate life's tastiest moments! Pick me me me!

Jean said...

Such cute colors! We have made sugar cookies since the kids were little. I have cutters for every holiday and we would always take them to daycare/school. I will probably make some for when the kids come home from college/grad school:)

Sandy said...

Each Christmas, I ask my husband and 2 kids what they would baked for the holidays. My son ALWAYS says sugar cookies. When I was little, my mom decorated ALL the cookies so they would be "perfect", so it's an extra special time for me to watch my son decorate the sugar cookies however he wants! We had lots of fun & giggles last night decorating some pretty crazy-looking santas and snowmen.We took lots of photos (lots of icing on the camera, too!). I would love to win your beautiful Sugar Cookie line of paper to scrapbook this great time!

Michelle Deibler said...

I love the Sugar Cookie line!! I have the most perfect picture of my daughter that I could scrap with this line!! We have a tradition of making homemade sugar cookies for Santa together each year.

Anonymous said...

how cute are these colors in this sugar cookie line. how cute your lil one on the coffee table....lol mischievous.
thnx for the opportunity to win!

lynda in calif

Heather said...

Great pics! Bella is a hoot! Love the sugar cookie line and the story behind it!

Dina M said...

I love sugar cookies and this line is so cute!!!! I may have to make some to decorate with my girls this year!

Kristi said...

well miss nikki...you must choose me today as I LOVE the sugar cookie and this line makes me hungry! Plus the best birthday present ever would be winning this. I love that my mom and I used to do all this baking at Christmas together. So many great memories. And I wish I looked that good with no makeup...ou even looked good when you were ill!

Brenda said...

I think the Sugar Cookie line is my favorite one our your paper lines. Thanks for sharing the Christmas traditions and the pictures.

mimisimon said...

Super cute paper line! NYC - hope to visit there some day.

Janet's Joy said...

I wish I had pictures of my kids baking cookies with me too! Guess I'll have to wait to do this once the grandkids come along.

Unknown said...

LOL at Bella. What a sweet line you have created

Anonymous said...

Love the Sugar Cookie papers! I sure will be buying it.. Love the colors and everything about it.

Ashley L.

Unknown said...

Awww, I love the story of your cookie memories. My great-grandmother always kept home-made cookie dough "ice-box cookies" in her fridge - and as soon as we got to her house, we would start decorating and baking cookies. Great memories!
hugs,
Gini

Marla said...

Wow what a delish paper collection. I love the colors and theme. I could definitely use this one!!

Lisa crutchfield said...

What great pics!! Thanks for the chance to win a great pack!!

Embley Veronica said...

You have fantastic taste in candy! I love hot tamales *and* starburst jellybeans! Mmmmm!

Anonymous said...

I love your sugar cookie line. So far I have not been able to find it at a store keep looking and hope to find it soon or better yet win this give away. Thanks, Sandy from Missouri

Lisa crutchfield said...

Great line!! Thanks for the chance to win!!

Lorilovestampin said...

I just love the gute Sugar Cookie paper. I too have a tradition of baking cookies. Not sure where the recipe originated but it has been a tradition for lots and lots of years. Happy Holidays to you and your family!!

Chris Dring said...

Love all the great colors and patterns in your Sugar Cookie line. That picture of you in the footie PJ's is awesome!! Thanks for the chance to win! Merry Christmas!

Wanda said...

LOVE the sugar cookie line!!!!I LIKE your pictures ans your dog is so cute!!!
best regards,
Wanda

Joni Parker said...

Is this a new line?? OMG...I've not seen this one...?? I LOVE LOVE LOVE this!!! GIMME SOME SUGAR COOKIES BABY!!!!

Merri Lynn said...

I too remember fondly decorating cut out sugar cookies--mainly at Christmas, but a few Valentine's too. Great paper line.

Olessya K said...

Thanks for picking my comment, Nikki!
As my husband commented on my winning "See? I can be useful sometimes".
Your Sugar Cookie line is so yummy, I just want to taste it :)

Nitasha said...

Your footie PJ's are cute! It reminds me of a Christmas Story! I just love that movie- Ralphie is so cute! Anyway...thanks so much for yet another chance to win one of your awesome lines- love that each name has a meaning! Happy Holidays!

Michelle H. said...

Love the picure of bella and you in your PJS!!
How very fun we also share stockings and add our favorite candies too!
Love this collection and the story behind creating this collection!!
Our dd will be 6 in a couple weeks and ever since she was two we also decorate cookies and brownie and with hearts!!
I have them all on picture and its such a fun thing she looks forward to each year.
Thanks for another Beautiful collection and the beautiful story behind it!!
TFS!!

Angela L. said...

I have to constantly put up with my hubby's teasing and complaining about my love/addiction of paper. What's worse is about 4 years ago during a Patriot's football game on TV he put it into my son's head that scrappin' was poison and if he got near any of my supplies, he'd break out into hives. Yes, it started out as a joke but since then, I've had not one but TWO men (even if one is just 16 yrs old) giving me grief about having too much of "this & that" and telling me that my scrap stuff takes up too much space! I've gotten really good at just giving them the blank look and acting like I'm really hearing what they say.... Besides that, deep down inside, I chuckle because for the past 2 years, my son has come to me asking for me to make (so far to date:) 3 Birthday cards; 1 Valentine card & 4 Just Because cards so they he can give them to whatever girlfriend that he has at the time! Oh Yeah, Score ONE for me!!! Anyways, I'm thinking that I really need to win this adorable collection, just so they can gripe about me taking MORE space, lol! Thanks for sharing wonderful lil' tidbits about yourself, your family, your cute doggies with us and also for the very fun prizes!

Auntie Ang said...

Childhood if sometimes we could go back and know what we do now!...
My mom and dad use to buy is new jammies each xmas we would open them on xmas eve with slippers and wake up with them was a tradition and I have to say I loved it.. love ur stories I've read and that combo would be a niece combo lol
The Holidays embrace them as u never know which is your last hugs to all and a merry xmas...

Anonymous said...

Awww! That's so sweet! I can just picture you as a little kid all excited to decorate your cookie. :-D Sounds like you have a very sweet and supportive hubby. Mine pretends not to be interested cuz he doesn't think it's "manly" to be into scrapbooking, but you can tell he's intrigued. lol

maricha said...

This is one cute edible collection!, we have had a tradition in our house since my oldest was a toddler, he is now 15, we make cookies and truffles as a family in Christmas shapes,decorate them,bag them in cellophane and the kids make cards and we go round on christmas eve and bring cookies and truffles in big baskets to all the people that have helped us during the year in various ways!,and part of the excitement of delivering all the treats is driving around town looking at all the houses and lights! my kids (4 of them ) love this and look forward to it every Christmas!

Chrisd said...

What fun that great Sugar Cookie line is for papercrafting! As a transplanted NY-er I too, miss Christmas in NYC!Hugs from Michigan.

smahrty said...

sugar cookie looks awesome! love the cutie pj's.

mandi said...

Love the papers

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