Happy New Year TableScape

My KA friend Cindy in Baltimore is hosting a New Year's Eve party. She always comes up with the coolest tablescapes. Isn't this cool? Just a bunch of clocks. I love the elegant look!

Snow on Christmas Day

We're having a White Christmas! Thank you for reading my blog!

'T was the Night Before Christmas...

You know how much I love Mary Engelbreit! Well I finally added The Night Before Christmas to our collection. Micaela of course loves the story. The neat thing is that she is slowly learning to recognize Mary's work. I just find her illustrations so detailed and beautiful.

Christmas Book

I am just in love with these Natasha Wing Books. We are slowly building our collection to have all of her books. This one is The Night Before The Night Before Christmas. So sweet. I think you all will love it.

Gift Card Holders

The Teacher Appreciation Committee at one of our daughter's schools specifically suggested gift cards for the teachers for Christmas gifts. All of the gift cards from the children were mounted on a wreath and given to the teacher on the last day of class. I loved the idea because it certainly made the shopping easier! But, I couldn't just hand over the gift card stuck on the card from the store so this is what I came up with...


I love that Winter Woodland font! Here is what the inside looked like...


I used the Sissix Gift Card Holder die to cut out the Garden Green (SU) base. I dressed up the holders with some ribbon and a simple heart shaped rhinestone.


To personalize it, I added a die cut of each teachers monogram using the font from the new Winter Woodland Cricut cartridge. (Real Red & White card stock).


The teachers really seemed to love them!

Princess Crown Favor Box

Here's a cute little Princess Crown Favor Box I made using the new Sweet Treats for the Cricut. I cut it at 3 inches and it was a perfect size for filling with a small bag of sweets. I made the name plate by printing white card stock on computer and then punching out with scallopped oval punch from Stampin' Up!

Card Stock: Pink Passion Stampin' Up

Ribbon: Purple Lame

Rhinestones & Stickles.

Green Tip

Switching to CFL (compact flourescent lights) eliminates 300 lbs of CO2 a year. If everyone switches to CFL, that's like eliminating 7 million cars from the road.

Thanksgiving Book

Here is another Natasha Wing book. I have mentioned the Valentines Day and Easter ones previously. This Thanksgiving one is just as cute.

Getting Ready for Christmas

The old Collin County Courthouse now McKinney Performing Arts Center in our downtown square is getting all dressed up for Christmas.

Pretty Halloween Cookies

My friend Rhonda (mentioned here) hosted a Halloween Party for her little girl. She had a incredible food spread, everything was delicious and lovely. My favorite thing was her cookies. Don't these look picture perfect? Mine never look that good!

Thank you Rhonda for inviting us. Happy Halloween everybody!

Halloween Books

Just want to mention my usual Natasha Wing holiday book. Here's the one for Halloween. The Night before Halloween. It's super cute, just like all the others.

U2 Concert @ Cowboy Stadium

I had a very unexpected opportunity to attend the U2 concert at the brand new Cowboy Stadium this last week. It was pretty incredible to be there with 100,000 other people.

I won't bore you with a bunch of photos but here is one of my favorites, snapped with my phone.

Autumn in St. Louis

We just recently visited the in laws in St. Louis and I was mesmerized at the beautiful autumn colors. Here is on of my favorite snapshots.

Another Halloween Book

Ok, so I am obviously into seasonal books. We missed ordering this one from the school so I got it from Amazon. Room on the Broom is the most adorable one so far. We loved the Mary E book last week but the story in this one is adorable. I practically have the whole thing memorized because I have read it to Micaela over and over and over. She absolutely loves it (and so do I).

We rate this one 5 stars, get it-- you will love it too!

Tis the Season for demos

I haven't done alot of KA work lately. It's always fun to promote the things I heart!

Our Newest Halloween Book

October means it's time for Halloween Books. Here's a new one I just purchased by Mary Engelbreit. I have loved "Mary E" for ever! Many years ago when I was a recent college graduate I had the opportunity to work in her store in the Dallas Galleria. It was alot of fun working amongst her stuff. Now that Micaela is a little older I am going to start adding some of her books to our library.

Queen of Halloween is adorable. Mary's illustrations are wonderful and Micaela loved the paper doll in the back. We highly recommend it!

Pumpkin Treat Holder

My friend and sideline Mary Gardina made this adorable pumpkin treat holder. Isn't it adorable!

Mister Turkey

Here's a the swap I made for my upline's group meeting tonight.

Punches Used: Wide Oval, Scallopped Oval, Large Oval, Small Oval, 1" cirlce, Scallopped Circle.

Card stock colors: Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, More Mustal, Pumpkin Pie.

Original idea was from Rebecca Williams, posted here. Thanks for stopping by....

Princess Stuff

So busy these days, finally I had a little time to craft...
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Here are some goody bags I made for a friend who was hosting a Princess party for her daughter. The 'take out' boxes were purchased, I just made the tags and added the monogram letter for each of the girl's first names. Daughter helped by pressing the buttons on the electronic die cutting machine for the monogram letters & tag layers. She had the most fun cranking the handle on the Sissix for crown. As it turned out, these matched the place where the party was held perfectly! (honestly, that was unplanned).

This is the card we made for the birthday girl. The card base is Pink Passion by SU. The glittered and embossed card stock is from a stack. The FIVE was done with an electronic die cutting machine using the short stack and shadow feature.

This is the inside of the card opened flat-- lots of layers. Used Basic Black and White Glossy for the layers and then more Pink Passion & Basic Black for the design. I meant to take a picture before daughter wrote inside but we got in a hurry and I forgot. Side note, we are working with her on her penmanship, I think she writes pretty good for a four year old.


Thanks for stopping by....

Ribs

My parents gave hubby a custom made wood burning grill/smoker. These are his inaugural ribs from last night. Yummy!

I just happened to have the perfect garden flag for the occassion in my stash. This flag was brand new, probably bought it before I even met him.

Hope you are having a great summer!

Dessert Tonight

We're having a few people over for dinner tonight. I've already made the dessert. I am usually not this far ahead.

This is Super EASY!. Line up ice cream sandwiches side by side in a glass dish. Spread fudge icecream topping over sandwiches. Add another layer of sandwiches. Top with whipped cream and drizzle with fudge and caramel. Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by!

Another ton of cards for Tricia

Grab your sunglasses these cards are bright! Here's a sampling of some of the cards I made for my sister in law. I made 6-10 of each. I have to admit that I totally cheated on this batch, they are all plain cards that I embelished.

These first two are from a DCWV box purchased at Michael's. All I did was add the ribbon and flower with the personalization in the center to the first one and the other the matted circle to the second one. The flower was done with the Flower Layers Sissix die and the 1 1/2 and 1 3/8 circle punches. The satin cocoa ribbon matches well IRL.

The next card two cards were totally pre-made, I just added the matted T with dimensionals. The T's were made using the Alphalicious cartridge on the Cricut. The Thinking of You cards came from Dollar Tree if you can believe it and the next one from Michael's.All these cards were easy peasy, I really debated about posting them here but I figured someone might be inspired to go buy some plain cards at the store and just embellish. Thanks for stopping by....

And there was light....

We just got new light fixtures installed in our foyer and stair way. I am SO happy to replace the original dinky ones. More more thing OFF the Honey Do List. :)

Happy Birthday Delaney!

This card was long over due! Delaney turned 1 back in April but we had not gotten together. Made this with the Cricut Alphalicious cartridge, it is 5.25 inches square. And, very similar to the cards I've been making for Micaela's friends that are turning 4. The butterfly embellishment is actually made of wood. Looking back at this, I probably should have made the top layer of the 1, cameo coral instead.

Here's the card open.
Thanks for stopping by......

Gardening Tip: Use Mulch

Use mulch in your garden. A layer of mulch helps soil hold moisture, so you water less. Organic mulches break down over time and enrich the soil. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. We've purchased quite a few truckloads for our yard and I am really weeding less! Plus, we're not having to water as often because it reduces the evaporation

The cities of McKinney, Plano, Richardson, Allen and Frisco have a partnership with Texas Pure Products in Plano, residents receive discount on bulk products. We highly recommend them.

A lovely wedding

This weekend we drove to Shreveport to attend the wedding of my friend's daughter. It's hard to believe I have a friend (sorta my age) that has a daughter old enough to get married. My friend M'Lissa and I met in 1991 when I was still in college. We only lived in the same city for less than a year but have kept in touch and remained very close friends ever since then. Her daughter was 4 at the time, yesterday she was a beautiful bride. Time flies when your watching a beautiful young lady grow up.


Isn't she lovely....
Here is the card I made. I tried to match her colors and I think I got pretty close...

Hope your weekend was wonderful, thanks for stopping by....

4th of July decor

Here's a quick snapshot of our front porch all dressed for Independence Day. Hope you have a fabulous day! We are headed to the town square to watch the parade.

Alphalicious Birthday

Here's a simple card and decorated gift bag I made for one of Micaela's little friends Haley. Micaela and Haley have known each other since they were just a few months old and they attend preschool at the church school together.

First of all I have to say that I did not have my head on straight when I started to make this stuff. I meant for the card & bag to match but did not make sure the gift which was two Fancy Nancy Books fit in the Purple and Pink gift bag first! I discovered this 15 minutes before we were leaving for the party. In a state of panic I decorated another "larger" pink & green gift bag instead. I hope Little Haley can forgive us for our mismatched gift.

This card is 5 1/2 inches square. I made it using the Alphalicious Cricut Cartridge using the crest card feature . The cricut actually cuts out the frame and the letter to size for you. I used some Lovely Lilac cardstock on the inside so the cut out would show through.

I did double layers on the inside. The "4" was also done with the Alphalicious cartridge using the Short Stack & Short Stack Shadow features. The Celebrate & Happy Birthday sentiments were stamped in Lovely Lilac and fairy is a painted wood embellishment I picked up at JoAnn. The clear rhinestones on the front were adhered with glue dots.

The Non-Matching gift bag was decorated with a simple H monogram in Pink Passion & Gable Green-- the H was done with the Short Stack & Short Stack Shadow feature on the Alphalicous cartridge.

Thanks for stopping by, Happy Birthday Haley!

CASEing Tulips

This is one of the other cards from my June Stamp Club. This is almost a complete CASE of this card by Flowerbug's Inkspot. The only things I changed were stitched ribbon and the green background paper. This card seems so summery to me, my ladies really liked it. The tulips were done with the Wide Oval Punch and the 5 Petal Flower Punch, see the tutorial when you click on the Flowerbug's link.

Father's Day

Here's a picture of my two favorite people. This was Sunday morning before we headed out for breakfast and church.

Afterwards we came home and napped because we had tickets to see the local baseball team the Frisco Rough Riders play a double header. This baseball park is just 10 miles from our house and we had never been there (we usually go to see the major leagues teams play the "Texas Rangers" more than an hour away). We arrived a little early so Micaela got to watch the stadium fill up with people. It was HOT (like over 100 degrees) and we learned the seats behind home plate aren't shaded until about 7!Hope your Father's Day is wonderful!

Traveling Texas!

Well since the last post on June 6th, just 10 days ago, we've made two family trips to San Antonio and I made a business trip to Houston. I've seen more of the Texas Interstates this month, than I have in a while. All three trips were fast & furious, and I am glad that the next two weekends we'll actually be home.

We had a great time in San Antonio visiting with my parents. We stayed at the Hilton Palacio del Rio which is right in the heart of the San Antonio River Walk. Micaela's favorite part of the hotel was the rooftop pool, here she is fearlessly diving to Daddy!

While in Houston I stopped by a scrapbook store that I had not visited in more than 6 years, the Lone Star Scrapbook Company. I was so glad it was still open, (so many privately owned scrapbook stores don't make it). They were loaded with great paper, wonderful accessories and tools. I had to restrain myself but I did purchase a couple of Quik Kutz embossing Folders and some specialty Texas 12x12 paper. If you are ever traveling North on I45 out of Houston, they are right on the service road off The Woodlands exit-- stop, you won't regret it!

That's the last ten days, we'll go back to regular programming. Thanks for stopping by!