I'm Still Here!

Wow, I can not believe it has been over 4 months since I have posted here! As you all know, "life happens" and sometimes priorities change. I have had some busy months where I have had to concentrate on family issues, mostly relating to the health of one of my kids. So, I am afraid my blog has taken a back seat. The funny thing is I really did not think anyone would notice. But, then I got word that many of you actually DO check on me and were disappointed in my lack of posting. Well, first of all I am sorry. But second of all... I never realized!! I was really shocked to learn I had so many "fans" ;-) I am so flattered and thank you so much for your interest! So, I think I will not wait until New Years to start on what should be my New Year's Resolution: To pay more attention to keeping this blog up!

I hope I can live up to my expectations of being more attentive here. I also hope that you who have left me comments will continue to do so, and those who have not yet will be so kind as to jot a few words down for me as well. I LOVE comments! :-)
And hopefully I will get this blog in shape enough that those who are not yet among my "followers" will decide to be added!

Anyway, given that Christmas is less than a week away, The pic I have chosen to share with you is of the treats we made for my daughter's classroom the other day: Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods with candy sprinkles. They are so easy, kids love to make them, and everyone seems to enjoy them.
All you do is buy the Wilton Candy Melts at Michael's. I am sure many other places sell them, too, but that's where I get them. They look like discs and come in lots of different colors. In a pinch, I have used Tollhouse Morsels, but the chocolate re-melts easily and gets messy. The Wilton Candy Melts will stay hardened pretty well. I know this because on Friday it was well in the 80's here and we had no problem :-) Anyway, just follow the directions to melt them in the microwave. Spoon the coating over about 2/3rds or so of a pretzel rod. Then kind of shake off the excess and, over a bowl or plate, sprinkle the candy pieces until well covered. Then just place on wax paper. I put them in the fridge until I am ready to transport them. Then put them in a pretty box or container (they will look much better than here on the old cookie sheet, lol!) and there you have it! Easy peezy!!

Well, having said all I just said, please keep in mind that it is just a few days until Christmas, so honestly I can't say for sure when I will post next. But I do plan on doing it again soon. Certainly not months from now!

Thanks for taking the time to look. I am sure you are super busy, too! Merry Christmas!!

More Notecard CASEing

Since posting the last CASEd cards I did, I decided I should also post some other notecards I CASEd. This card was made by Sherri Barron, and can be seen on her blog here

 

I really loved the card (I love that Bella Rose dsp, too!) and this was another one of those great classic cards that you could just switch colors and patterns around and easily get another great card. So, that is just what I did. I used the new Razzleberry Lemonade dsp from Stampin' Up! on all three of them.

 

 

 

I hope you like my variations of this wonderful card and that you may be inspired to make some for yourself. Thanks so much, Sherri, for letting me share your wonderful work!

CASEing

Don't you just love this card?

Well, I have finally found some time to get back to card making!
This beautiful card is one that I CASEd. For those of you who are not familiar with the term, CASE stands for "Copy And Share with Everyone". I spend a lot of time on the SplitCoastStampers website and it is where I find much inspiration. Once in a while (okay, more often than that, lol), I will come across a card that I just absolutely love and I end up CASEing it. That is just what I did over the weekend.
Now, when I do CASE, I like to give credit where credit is due. I have never put any card up on this blog that I did not design myself. But I really want to share this with you, so I contacted the designer of the card, Kirsten Kennedy. She couldn't have been nicer and gave me the go ahead to show off her lovely work. So, here is my copy of Kirsten's (aka KKID on SplitCoast) card.
All I did differently was change the sentiment stamp, and I did not round the corners, as Kirsten did. Other than that, it's the same. I just love it.
If you want to see Kirsten's original, visit her blog here

So then I decided that with such a great layout, I could make all kinds of cards by just changing the papers, ribbons and sentiments.
There is some new designer series paper from Stampin' Up! called Cottage Wall. Each pack has 2 each of 6 sheets, with double sided designs. I made three more cards using the Cottage wall papers and thought that these would make nice teacher's gifts. I plan on packaging two of each card for a six card set. With three different sentiments, I think this gives a nice card assortment.





Thanks so much Kristen, for sharing your wonderful card and giving me the inspiration I needed to get back into my studio and making some gifts. Summer will be over far too soon and I know I will be glad to have these card sets all ready for my kid's teachers!

What A Day!

 

Today was a crazy day! It started out just fine. But later, as I was sitting at my computer reading the sad news of the passing of Farrah Fawcett, the day just kept going down hill. I suddenly heard that awful (loud) sound of glass breaking and instantly I was filled with fear as I sprang from my chair to see what had happened. With three of my kids at home I was in panic mode as I darted through the house to make sure all of them were okay. I heard my 16 year old son yelling from up in his bedroom and when I got there I found him holding his hand with the other one and saying "I'm SO sorry!". I then saw the window behind him shattered and with big shards of glass sticking out every which way, and lots of glass on the computer desk and all around. I yelled to my other kids to stay away and to get the dogs out. I quickly checked out my son's hand and then called the doctor. They were all out to lunch but got a nurse on the phone who told me she'd contact the doctor. They soon called me back and said to go to a walk in emergency clinic or a hospital. I chose the (closer) clinic. Well, off we went and to skip all the details I will tell you that we really got out light! The doctor seemed equally as surprised as I as we reaized how minor the injuries were compared to how really bad they could have been.

Shortly after getting him patched up, I got a call on my cell phone and learned that Michael Jackson had just died. What a shock! So much sadness in Hollywood in the last day: Ed McMahon's death just yesterday; Farrah's this morning, and now this.

When we got home I had this strange reminder of Michael Jackson: as I looked at my son's bandaged hand it reminded me of the one white glove Michael Jackson was so well known to wear. To be sure, his had "fingers", but somehow this struck me as an odd reminder of a very talented, hugely famed pop star. Despite all the craziness in this man's life and all the ugly accusations and wild stories, he was one heck of an entertainer. I will never forget when my husband and I went to see him on his "Bad Tour" in 1987 (or was it '88?). What a show! We had 4th row seats on the floor of the Hartford Civic Center and it was quite possibly the best concert I have ever been to. At one point (and we have looked back and laughed at this many times) he got on to this platform of sorts- kind of like an "arm" that moved out over the crowd and performed. He ended up directly over our heads. He was so close to us that he actually was sweating ON us! I remember not knowing weather to be totally grossed out or thinking it was somehow cool that I got his sweat on me, lol! Oh, the memories of life when I was young, haha! Anyway, those are concert memories I will never forget. Amazing that at only 50 years old he has died. But what an imprint he left on the music/ entertainment world!

So, as I wrap up this day, I can only hope that there is much less to "report" about tomorrow. I will wish for a somewhat uneventful day- unless it is just filled with lots of fun and good times. It's Summer; the kids are thrilled to be out of school and the weather report is for a lovely day. Here's to making it a good one!

My Silver "Diamond In The Rough"

Well would you look at this nasty looking old thing I found! I was cleaning out some cabinets and came across an old platter my mother had given me many years ago. I had shoved it in the back of a big upper kitchen cabinet and forgotten all about it for years!

But as I was pulling things out for a garage sale I am getting ready to have I came across it. Hmmm.... this brings back memories, I thought, as I recalled the many times I witnessed my Dad carving the Sunday dinner on this platter. But it looked so bad that I actually thought for a moment that I should just chuck it!
But after thinking about it a little more, I decided to get out the silver polish and see if there was any sense in trying to clean it. I really didn't have much hope, but after a bit of silver polish and a lot of elbow grease, I started to see some amazing results!
Lo and behold, the end result was stunning! And despite all of the scratches from all the years of use, it is sill quite pretty, I think. I showed it to my hubby who was astonished. He could not believe this was the same piece. He said he saw the old relic in the laundry room (I was adding it to the junk pile I have out there destined for the garage sale) and figured it was, understandably, going to be trashed. 

I am so glad I decided to put a little work into it. (Okay- maybe more than just a "little" work, lol!) In any event, it sure was worth it. I love how it turned out! Makes me want to see what other "junk" might be lurking in the backs of my cupboards ;-)

Floral Surprise

 

The other day as I came walking up to my front door, I decided to take a peek at the side of the house to see if we had any more roses blooming. I was pleasantly surprised- but not by roses- by these beauties! Aren't they gorgeous? My dear friend Claudia's husband Joe planted some bulbs for us last year and I totally forgot about them. OMW- what a lovely surprise.!

Thanks, Joe! I am so glad your green thumb touched my yard. I love these!

Happy Birthday To ME!

Well, I guess turning the "Big Five- Oh!" is not so bad after all! :-) At least it wasn't for me. I admit, I have had a couple of birthdays that bothered me a bit: and it's funny to look back and remember that 30 was one of them! Yet, I had no trouble at all with 40. But approaching 50 was kind of giving me the creeps, until the day actually came. That's when all the good things happened to remind me of just how very blessed I am and to be thankful that I am the age I am. (After all, think of the alternative!)

First I received two dozen long stemmed roses from my wonderful hubby. They are gorgeous!
And just a short time later, the doorbell rang and it was the florist delivering this absolutely beautiful arrangement of flowers from our dear friends Gail and Bill (who just happen to be our daughter Katie's in-laws). These are so, so pretty and so unusual. The colors are lovely! I was so touched by their thoughtfulness! They are surrounded by some of the many gorgeous birthday cards I received- almost ALL hand made! This little nook in my kitchen is such a bright spot now!
And I was totally spoiled by receiving way too many awesome, fun, thoughtful and wonderful presents! Here I am opening an autographed CD by Mandisa, from my son John. Sitting next to me is my dear, precious friend Sue chatting with my hubby. Don't know why he looks so serious, lol- we had an awesome, super fun night!
And would you check this out! This is the amazing card that Sue made me. It is so cool in real life. She is SO talented! I cherish every card she has ever made me. They are all so beautiful!

And finally, my beautiful cake: made by my favorite bakery, of course. I was just going to have flowers on it, but they came up with the Easter Egg idea since my birthday was just the day before Easter. It turned out really pretty, too. It was soooooo yummy. I won't even tell you how much I had of it today ;-)

Anyway- I did have a great birthday. I was surrounded by "most" of my family- my hubby and all of our kids were here, except poor Bobby was up in bed. He came home from work early due to being sick :-( That was a bummer, but I knew he would have been down with us if he could have been. Katie and William were here- tired as ever (they work too hard!) but they were so sweet to spend the evening with us. And having Sue and her hubby Ron here really made it special. You can not ask for more wonderful friends then them! 

And to top it off, when I came downstairs this morning sweet Caroline announced to me that I am not old. She said that I will not officially be old until I am 80. At 75, she said, I will start getting kind of old, but won't really be old for another five years after that. So, I have 30 years to go! Whew! I guess I was sweating it for nothin'! :-)

 

HAPPY EASTER!

Remember when I showed you my "Red Bread"? Well, I told to then to wait until Easter... and this was why! Isn't this just too much? Challah is my favorite bread, and what my bakery does to it is hilarious. But you don't really get the "full effect" until you actually cut into it. Until then you can not really appreciate the artistry here:
So what do you think? Have you ever seen anything like this? I think this is so silly, but so fun! 

My dear friend Debbi said just today that "Easter challah is an oxymoron" and of course, she's right. But whatever.... I still can't resist it. Now, I have to admit- last month when they had green challah bread for St. Patrick's Day, it was just a bit too much for me. I think it made me think too much of mold. Kinda gross. But, this I love. 

Anyway, I just wanted to post this before Easter day was actually over. I hope all of you who are celebrating His resurrection had a wonderful and truly blessed holy day! He is risen! He is risen indeed! 

Having Our Cake And Eating It, Too!

 

So what cold be better than chocolate cake? How about chocolate cake and stamping?!

I am sorry I have not posted in far too long, but life has been a bit on the hectic side. I've had a lot more on my plate (and I don't just mean the cake plate!) than I care to deal with, but sprinkled in between lots of "life's garbage" has also been lots of wonderful fun! I hope that I will soon find some time to share with you some pics and stories of recent trips to Disneyland- where we experienced some honest to goodness "Disney Magic" and good times! 

As many of you know, I have a major addiction to one of the local bakeries near here and spend a great deal of time there. It has gotten to the point where I am not only on a first name basis with the employees, but to where I think they plan what they will bake around my eating habits. They reach for my favorites before I even ask. I suspect they will start slicing my bread as soon as they see me parking my car in the lot before long, lol. 

Anyway, on the morning of a recent Stampin' Up! workshop I was to have, I decided to buy a cake for our get together. I knew the "hostess" would be bringing something (as they always do) but I figured "what the heck?"- I'm in the mood for cake and I'm sure they'll like it, too. It doesn't have to be a birthday celebration to eat cake right? Besides- it's always someone's birthday, haha! So, I got this yummy chocolate cake with cream cheese filling for our workshop. Well, can you believe the hostess forgot to bring something for us to eat? Hahaha- now I  will never second guess my instincts- buying a cake on a whim can never be a bad idea!

Anyway, I just thought this picture would be appreciated by all others like me who like to "have thier cake and stamp while eating it" too! :-)

GRACE

 

I did another Scripture challenge. This time the study was on "Grace". It was interesting that I found these very words in the Bible in more than one place, and reading the verses they were surrounded by gave these words new meaning. 

Here is what my study Bible says about 1 Corinthians 1:3: 

Grace is God's free gift of salvation given to us in Christ. Receiving it brings us peace (see Romans 5:1). In a world of noise, confusion, and relentless pressures, people long for peace. Many give up the search, thinking it impossible to find, but true peace of heart and mind is available to us through faith in Jesus Christ.

What an awesome message of Grace for this week! I have been blessed by these words, and hope you will be, too!

Thanks for visiting :-)

Items used for my 6x6 "Grace" page:

Card Stock: SU! Chocolate Chip; Bordering Blue; So Saffron

Designer series paper: SU! Bella Birds

Accessories: SU! Chocolate wide satin ribbon; Bazzill Wings Bitty Blossoms flowers in Brown and French Vanilla; Dress It Up Swarovski crystals by Jesse James; Martha Stewart scallop lace edge punch

Finding Beauty In The Word

 

After doing the "His Holy Name" challenge on SCS, I decided I might like to do Patter's Scripture challenge as well. I picked "Beauty" (the word for week three) and although the intention was to look at our own beauty as well as the beauty of our heart, I ended up going off the path a bit. I came upon this verse from Hosea 14:6 

"His branches shall spread;

His beauty shall be like an olive tree,

And his fragrance like Lebanon."

(NKJV)

So I went to my other Bible that I use a lot ( life application study Bible, NIV) and looked up that passage, and here is what it said about it:

"When our will is weak, when our thinking is confused, and when our conscience is burdened with a load of guilt, we must remember that God cares for us continually; his compassion never fails. When friends and family desert us, when co-workers don't understand us, and when we are tired of being good, God's compassion never fails. When we can't see the way or seem to hear God's voice, and we lack courage to go on, God's compassion never fails. When our shortcomings and our awareness of our sins overcome us, God's compassion never fails." 

So, although I did not end up reflecting on  "my own beauty",  I certainly found beauty in The Word. I was truly blessed by this study, as I feel God spoke to me the words He wanted me to hear. And that alone, is beautiful!

I hope you may see the beauty in this verse as well, and be blessed by God's word.

Thanks for stopping by!

Items I used for this 6x6 page:

Paper: SU! Always Artichoke: SU! Brushed Gold c/s; designer papers by K&Company; handmade paper by Darice

Accessories: Pearl ribbon strand; brass corner findings; Cross sticker by Jolee's Boutique

Parisian Bluebird

I LOVE the new Parisian Specialty textured paper from Stampin' Up! The colors are so very pretty and the texture and thickness are so great for layering. I also love the Friends 24~7 stamp set. Together, this is what I came up with. I had wanted to make these for the SCS DORK/PSF Spring swap I am doing, but I didn't have enough of the paper :-( I did come up with a similar card using other papers and colors which I will post at swap time.

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what I have been doing. Hopefully there will be more stamping going on in my studio later today!

Items used to make this card:

Stamps: SU! Friends 24~7

Ink: Chocolate Chip; Close To Cocoa; Baja Breeze

Paper: Baja Breeze; Kraft; PTI White c/s; Parisian Breeze specialty papers

Accessories: Marvy circle and scallop circle punches; Baja Breeze double stitched ribbon; paper piercing tool and mat pack; Aqua painter; Watercolor Wonder crayons; Accents & Elements Flower Fusion Too; brads (unknown); Robin's nest dew drops; lots of dimensionals and glue dots!

Righteous

(Click on photo to enlarge for detail.)

As you may know, I spend a great deal of my waking hours on Splitcoaststampers! Well, over the past few weeks I have been lurking on one of the many wonderful threads I have recently come across. This one is called "His Holy Name". It is a challenge thread and it is awesome! You do a study and follow it up with your inspired creation in reflection of that study.

Yesterday I decided to take the plunge and give it a try. The word to study was "Righteous". I started by going to Biblegateway and finding verses with the word "righteous" in them. I love Psalms, so I zeroed in on that area of the Bible. I read many and got out my Bible and did some reading of them there. I eventually chose a verse that particularly spoke to me: Psalm 145:17 "The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works".
Then I spent the evening trying to come up with a page. Well, I guess I am not over my recent square card kick, lol, because the "page" ended up being a square card! Anyway, here it is. I hope you like it. I was so blessed by doing this little "study" and am looking forward to doing more of them.

Items used in my "Righteous" card:
PTI Everyday Blessings 6x6 paper pack; PTI Aqua Mist card stock; SU! Brushed Gold card stock. PTI Aqua Mist twill ribbon; SU! Pretties Kit (for white stemmed flower and pearls); Prima flower embellishments; brass "R" and bird embellishments.

It's Swap Time!

Okay, will somebody please remind me next time I sign up for three swaps in a relatively close period of time that it is not a good idea for me? I always think the dates sound far off at the time, and that there will "only" be so many to make, and that it will be fun. Well, yeah- fun to receive, but in the end the stress is always more than I bargain for. I am not usually real good about deadlines as they often sneak up on me. So... I stress out until I get them done. But this time, I was able to figure out a card that I can at least use for two different swaps, so I am real happy about that. Sure- I am sick of making this card now, but hey- I got two swaps completed! 

The first swap is due next Monday night at my Stampin' Up! local demonstrator's meeting. It's a great group of gals who all got connected through SplitCoastStampers. It has been way too many months since I have seen them and I am really looking forward to getting together with them. Our swap theme this month is "the new catty"! I only got my first order delivered yesterday afternoon, so all I had to work with before then was the Rustic Rooster hostess set I pre-ordered. I just hope they don't mind that I used an old background stamp with it. It just worked so well with the card! 

The next swap is going for my Stampin' Up! workshop club. This group gets together every other month. And to keep everybody stamping in between workshops as well as to get lots of great ideas from each other, we do swap cards. I also accept any extras the ladies make to donate to the Troops. We have a theme each time, and this time we are making "masculine" based cards. It's always a challenge, it seems, to come up with card ideas for the guys! So, this time we chose to do them for anyone of "the male gender"- be it a baby, child or adult. As long as it is for a male. Now, it's not that I couldn't send this card to a woman, but I hope you agree that this qualifies as being a "masculine" card. 

So, now 2 out of 3 swaps are done!

On to my Easter/ Spring cards :-)

Items used for my Rooster Card:

SU! Stamps: Rustic Rooster; Chicken Wire BG

C/S: Black, Very Vanilla, Riding Hood Red, So Saffron, Close To Cocoa

Ink: Basic Brown

Accessories: circle punches; black gingham ribbon; paper piercer tool and mat pack; sponge; Glassy Glaze Enamel embossing powder; Versamark

It Never HAILS In California?

Crazy Day! We had rain yesterday and were happy to hear the forecast that the storm would soon be moving out. It was not "supposed" to rain today, but as my husband was leaving for work it started to pour. Then, about 10 minutes later, we heard a noise very rarely heard here: hail! I think this was only the second time I have seen hail here in Southern California in the last 10 years. I called my daughter to quickly come down and look outside, since this was such an unusual sight. She was not sure what to make of it- and actually thought it was snow (she's grown up here- how would she know, lol?!).

This top photo is of the concrete out by our back patio.
This is the black back door mat
Want to sit out back and have an iced tea with me? LOL!
The dog's water dish- with a flower petal that was blown nearby.
Have a seat, haha!

Now the sun returns!
Here's what came out of the rain gutter.
I have never seen this on my windshield in So Cal!

So, today I was planning on posting a card I made for a swap I am in. Actually I may use it for two swaps. I needed to make a card using new SU! catty stamps, and I also need to make a card for a "masculine" theme. This one should work for both. I'll try to post it later today.... after we dry out and I warm up. It's only in the low 50's! I need to crank up the heat!!

Hope you all are having nicer weather than the crazy hail storm we saw here today! :-)

Red Bread

Can you believe this? Have you ever seen anything like this?
Yesterday, St. Valentine's Day, I went in to my favorite bakery to pick up some freshly baked bread. I thought you all would get a kick out of seeing what I came home with.

Our usual favorite- challah, (a braided, Jewish egg bread) was not looking "usual" at all! In honor of Valentine's Day, the bakers used red food coloring to color it red, lol! I know it doesn't change the taste at all, but it is a bit strange. I originally wanted 2 loaves of their delicious "egg colored" bread, but since they only had one loaf left, I took one of the red loaves as well. You should have seen the look on my kid's faces when they saw their favorite bread decked out for the holiday!

Now.... just wait until Easter. What they do with their bread for that day is really over the top! ;-)

4th And Last (I think!)....

Here it is- my final square card in my series of four cards. Every card was basically made from the same layout and all using the Basic Grey "Perhaps" paper pad. I love this paper!
The difference in this one, however, is that I used a new ink that my friend Daisy gave me. It is from Ranger, called Archival Ink in Jet Black. Thank you so much, Daisy- I love it!! It didn't take as long to dry as I had anticipated and I didn't need to heat set it. I love how sharp it looks and so truly black! And another great feature: it cleaned right up off my stamp with no problem using SU! stamp cleaner. This is wonderful ink and I plan on using it a lot! If you want a great place to buy it, you can get it from Daisy's online store, eclecticPaperie. She has lots and lots of great products and her customer service is wonderful. The Basic Grey paper I used on this card, along with the crystal Stickles are also from eP.
So what do you think? Are you tired of my square cards yet? Hehe, I think I am about ready to move on to something a little different now. Hmmmm..... what will it be?

(You can click on the photo of the card to see the details up close.)
Here is a list of what I used to create this card:
Paper: SU! Going Grey and Brushed Silver; PTI white; Basic Grey "Perhaps"
Ink: Archival Ink- Jet Black from Ranger
Accessories: Marvy scalloped oval punches; Pearls from SU! Pretties Kit; Brides silver flowers from Michael's; Swarovsky crystals for centers of flowers; lace ribbon- unknown; silver wheelbarrow embellishment finding- unknown

Friendship Garden

I guess I really am on a square shaped card kick. This is the 3rd card of 4 I have made in my "series".
As you can see, it is much like the last card. Yet, they are so different. Amazing how one can lead to the next.
So here are my 3 cards- each made with paper from the same little paper pack, all the same size and shape, and all using sentiment stamps as the main image. But I am so pleased with their individuality. Soon, I will post the 4th (and possibly last) card if the series.

Items used in the "Friendship Garden" card are:
Paper: SU! Going Gray, Brushed Silver, Pink Pirouette; PTI White; Basic Gray "Perhaps"
Ink: Versamark with SU! silver embossing powder
Ribbon: from Michael's "Sheer Creations"
Accessories: Robin's Nest pearls; Prima green and pink flowers; SU! Pretties kit; scalloped oval punches by Marvy
Stamp: "Our Friendship" by Penny Black