My family is growing....

Please help me welcome Sarah Dedmon and Jennifer Meredith my Stampin' Up! family. Both ladies are planning to be hobby demonstrators, welcome aboard!

RAK for Micaela

Micaela got some mail last week, a little valentine from my friend Rhonda who is a former demo. Micaela was thrilled to get some mail, thanks Rhonda!

Card for a friend...

This is a card I made for a friend. I love Pink Passion, Gable Green and Black together. I made a similar card for swaps at convention last year. The flowers are from "Year After Year". I love the simplicity of this card... it's just layers, Basic Black ink, some ribbon, two markers and a single brad. I used the new French Dot Cuttlebug Embossing Folder for the background. I just love these dots, they remind me of Minky Dot fabric (which is something I have been looking at lately-- more on that in another post).
This card is heavy with five layers on the front plus the rhinestone brad and ribbon and two additional layers on the inside so it would probably take additional postage to mail it (I am sending it in a package so I will have the postal person weigh it and find out).

I love layers on the inside of cards, it was pretty necessary on this one because I also embossed on the back of the card. (otherwise the inside would be lumpy with the embossing on the flip side). The "created for you with love" sentiment is from the To/From Cuttlebug set. I love how it looks on the back of the card...

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Thanks for visiting and happy stamping....

MC2F

'Tis the season....

'Tis the season.... for Bridal Shows. Close your eyes and think of the wedding march.

I've been very busy with KA. I'm scheduled to be at a bridal show just about every weekend this spring! In the last couple of weeks I've done shows at Macy's and Dillard's. The Macy's one was huge with more than 400 brides in attendance, it was the largest show I had ever worked/attended. It was fun but very hectic and it took several days for my feet to recover!

This weekend I will be at The Great Bridal Expo at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Dallas. If you're getting married and in the area, please stop by!

Please join me....

Second Annual
Scrapbooking Retreat

Come spend 3 days scrapbooking & stamping with

me at the Creative Cottage in McKinney!

Invite a friend to come with you!

Mark your calendars
April 25-26-27

I have a few spots left

Check in
Friday, April 25th
at 12 noon

Depart
Sunday, April 27 by 6pm

$156.00 ($169.14 with tax)

Accommodations Snacks Meals included
(all money goes to Creative Cottage, I do not profit in any way)

Creative Cottage Retreat in McKinney

If you are interested please let me know.

Berry Bliss Love Book

Ta Da! It's done. I have been working on this book the last few days but it's been in my brain ever since I saw the Berry Bliss paper back in December. I have been wanting to do one of these Word Books for a while and finally I was able to put it all together-- the right season, right paper, and book.
This was alot of fun to put together and it came together quickly. I will be offering this as a class on Feb 7, 13 or 21 @ 7pm. If these dates don't work for you, please let me know and we'll work something out.

Cost of Class: $22.00
Kit Includes:
LOVE Chipboard Album by Bo Bunny
6 sheets of 12x12 Berry Bliss* Designer Paper
6 sheets of coordinating card stock
6 yards of assorted coordinating ribbon (gingham, wide & narrow grosgrain and double stitched
3 rings
Assorted chipboard (hearts, flowers, corners, etc)
Use my ink and stamps to personalize your book

*If Berry Bliss is not for you I am happy to substitute another SU Designer Paper, coordinating ribbon and card stock.

Bring:
Adhesive. (sticky strip or a glue stick for adhering the paper to chipboard)
Paper Snips
Basic Cutting Tools
Pictures

Reserve your spot today!

Embracing Life in Ruby Red....

It's been more than a week since I have posted. Not only am I under the weather but I have been on a rollercoaster with one of my best girlfriends (friend since 7th grade) who had to have breast surgery last week. Praise God, the two tumors removed were benign but it was a scary couple of weeks going through the process with her. I've had several friends and aquaintences go through similar experiences but never anyone so close to me. Marina and I have been friends since we were 13 (ironically our birthdays are two days apart -same hospital, same doctor delivered us) so this hit VERY close to home for me.

During the process she appointed me to be the contact person for all our junior high and high school girlfriends. While I loved reconnecting with everyone, I hate that it took a life crisis for all of us to take time out of our busy lives as Moms and wives to sit down and catch up with each other. We have all vowed to get together more often, I can't wait to see everyone the next time I visit my hometown.

So that brings me to my card.... The name for this stamp set could not be more appropriate, "Embrace Life". This was one of the cards my ladies made during January's stamp club. It was inspired this card on SCS made by Renee1.

I stamped the flowers in Chocolate Chip craft ink and embossed with clear powder one Ginger Blossom DSP and Ruby Red card stock. I cut the flowers out and placed them on dimensionals. I used a ribbon knot for the center of the flowers. My stamp club members really seemed to love this card, even though it was a little time consuming.

One of our favorite books

Mimi gave Micaela this book her first Christmas and it has been a favorite ever since. You're My Little Love Bug by Heidi Weimer is absolutely adorable. You will love this!

I highly recommend this little musical book. It's got a cute little rhyming poem that you will memorize quickly and you will find yourself humming often.

Happy Heart Day

Here's one of the cards we did at Stamp Club this month.

The elephant is paper pieced using Almost Amethyst DSP. It's hard to tell but I used two different patterns. The body is in the stitched flower and the arms and ear are in the argyle pattern. Card stock colors are Pretty in Pink, Almost Amethyst and Whisper White. The background stamp is Polka Dot. I trimmed .5 inches on the card front to allow the front cover to slide under the scallops. I adhered a strip of DSP to the inside and then used the slit punch to create a scallop border, I added pink and white brads to dress up the scallops. The heart rhinestone was a last minute add on. I am so thrilled to finally use one of those little hearts, I've had a jar-full sitting on the shelf above my desk for close to a year waiting for just the right project!


Thanks for visiting!

Valentine Bundle

Purchase the Valentine's Day Bundle (item #111903) for just $33.40 and get Regal Rose wide grosgrain ribbon--FREE!

The Valentine's Day Bundle includes:

• Happy Heart Day stamp set $20.95


• Real Red wide grosgrain ribbon $7.95


• Medium cellophane bags $4.50


• Regal Rose wide grosgrain ribbon FREE!
  
  Valentine's Day Bundle
  $33.40

Read more about the promo HERE

Birthday RAKS

RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness)

Last week I had a birthday. It comes two weeks after Christmas like clock-work! I have two more years of being able to say I am 30-something, then I hit 40 (gulp). In my immediate family (Parents & brother) we celebrate big on birthdays in increments of 5, the ones in between we lay low. Hubby has adopted the policy, so my birthday was a pretty uneventful day except for the three wonderful RAKs I received.

From Kristin Homoly, my very first official customer when I started as a demonstrator and the hostess of my first workshop in March 2006, (and hopefully a future member of my downline) I received this card....

From Jean Ashburner- another one of my first customers and the first member of my stamp club, I received this card.....

And from my second recruit Tina Maxwell, I received this gorgeous fabric covered box for keepsake cards.

Thanks ladies, your thoughtfulness touches my heart!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Micaela and I did a little baking tonight. You know how much fun it is to bake with a 2.5 year old! We made Daddy's favorite, "Oatmeal Raisin" cookies. I have tried lots of different recipes and we like the Quaker Oats' "Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookie" recipe the best. I found the recipe on the bottom of the Quaker Oats lid and it's the only recipe I've used for the last several years. Try these out, I promise-- they will vanish!

You can access the recipe online by clicking here.

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from Quaker Oats

Ingredients:
1/2 pound (2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup raisins

Preparation:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.
2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Note: I add about 1 cup+ of chopped pecans.... I love pecans!

Servings: ABOUT 4 DOZEN

Card & Gift for a Little Princess

Micaela was invited to a Princess Birthday Party a few weeks ago. She was excited because she got to wear her fluffy pink dress and sparkly-glittery pink shoes. It was so fun to see a bunch of 3 year old princesses all dressed up, they were all so cute!

The Birthday Princess' Mommy specifically requested no gifts but we could not go empty handed. I found this great book at the book store, "Count my Blessings 1 to 10" by Jeane Cabral and illustrated by Dubravka Kolanovic. The pages of the book are glossy chipboard and it includes magnetic characters that the children place on each page as you read easy rhymes that remind them of the wonderful blessings they have and enjoy every day. Micaela absolutely loves it, it's one of her favorites. I highly recommend it, you can find it at Amazon here.

Here's the card I made for the Birthday Princess.

Recipe: Pretty in Pink and Whisper White Card Stocks. Embossed tiara using Versamark and Detail Silver Embossing Powder. Used Pretty in Pink and Barely Banana markers to color. Dry embossed scroll & happy birthday sentiment using Cuttlebug embossing folders.

Back in the Saddle Again....

Alright- bear with me... close your eyes and imagine listening to "Back in the Saddle Again" by Gene Autry playing in the background. Ok, I am not into classic cowboy songs but "Back in the Saddle Again" was on "When Harry Met Sally" movie from 1989 which I watched more than a thousand times when I was in college. I kept hearing that song in my head as I was planning and thinking about this.... my 'come back' post.

You have no idea how much I have missed blogging. December is now a blur and I am so glad the new year is here. This was a very unplanned break. I am sorry for not posting, life got very hectic in December for our family. This was hubby's first Christmas in management at UPS and I had NO idea he'd work such long horrible hours, then our daughter was sick with bronchitis (two visits to doctor) and had to miss school, in between I kept visiting stores for KA, then I got sick, then Christmas came and then we took a little trip over New Years so my online time was limited to zilch!

Nonetheless, I am 'back in the saddle again' and I had to make a card to fit the theme.

I used the cowboy from Bronc Buster, the paislies are from Wanted and the striped designer paper is from Ginger Blossoms. Cardstock colors are Chocolate Chip, Ruby Read and River Rock. The cowboy and the paislies were stamped in Chocolate Chip craft ink and heat embossed with clear powder. The edges of the River Rock piece were inked on the edge with Ruby Red classic ink and then sponged with Creamy Caramel classic ink, the Ruby Red piece was also inked with Chocolate Chip classic ink. I dusted off my sewing machine and stiched the paper designer paper on, using a wide zig zag stitch. I love to sew on scrapbook pages but I seldom do it on cards. I matted a peice of River Rock with Ruby Red for the inside since you can't really write on Chocolate Chip. I used Hodge Podge Hardware brads in the corners to finish it off.

Be assured I am back and loaded with new ideas. A special thanks to those of you who wrote asking if I was okay--

Happy 2008 and thanks for stopping by!

Building A Display...

This weekend I had to go to our Great Indoors store to redo their displays. This was a big task because TGI has ALOT of merchandise.


Here is the picture before...


And After....

Thanks for stopping by.........

Holiday Recipe Flip Book

This past Sunday my friends Kristi, Rhonda and I took a class at our local Recollections scrapbooking store. This store is going out of business at the end of the year and I think every woman in the area is mourning. We made this Holiday Recipe Flip Book. It was so fun to get together with girlfriends and just be crafty with someone else doing the prepwork.

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I think I am going to remove the "recipe" stickers off the bottom and stamp the word instead. I plan on duplicating this idea with new designer paper from the Spring & Summer Catalog next year.

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There were a total of ten recipes and each one was a 6x6 scrapbook page. The 6x6 pages were attached to a blank paper covered frame with rings.

Retired Accessory List

Retired wheels and accessories are available while supplies last, so make sure you place your orders no later than January 1.

You can access the list by clicking here.

Gigantic BRAK from Carole Davids for Micaela

As some of you might have noticed, our daughter Micaela wears a bow pretty much 24/7. I started this when she was an infant and now she knows that we can't leave the house unless she's got a bow on her head.

Well, I was absolutely floored when I opened a box from Carole Davids, one of my readers in Evansville, Indiana this past week. I could not believe the GORGEOUS hair bows, clippies and embellished socks she sent our daughter Micaela. There were five bows, five clippies (technical term) and five pairs of beaded & furry socks.

Check out the slide show below to see each one up close. I love the school house ribbon she used on several of the bows, the little Christmas tree clippy is so darn cute I want to use it to embellish a card and I love the jingling of the bead & button socks.

Carole had emailed me about Micaela's school uniform colors (which are Navy & Red) a few weeks ago so I had a hunch she was going to send Micaela something but this was more than I could have imagined.

I will be taking pictures of Micaela wearing everthing in the coming days but I wanted to post a public thank you as soon as I could.

Thank you CAROLE!

Carole does craft shows in the Evansville area, please write me if you are interested in her information.

BRAK: Blog Random Act of Kindness

BRAK from Carole Davids

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RAK from Mary Gardina

Mary Gardina is one of my local sidelines. We started out as demonstrators at the exact same time. Mary is a fabulous stamper, her stuff is GORGEOUS! We tell her she needs to start set up a gallery on SCS, blog and apply for Stampin' Up!'s Artisan Award.

Anyway, Mary needed to borrow some Jumbo Eyelets a couple of weeks ago. I happened to have a brand new box. I am so glad I was able to help out because look what she gave me as a Thank You!

Isn't this totally adorable. It has a magnet on the back so I can put it on the fridge. She even wrapped it cute.

Thank you Mary!

More Holiday Cookies...

A couple of weeks ago I received my Kraft Foods Food & Family magazine in the mail. After finally getting a chance to read it, I marked about 10 recipes to try. Last week when I had a little time, I decided to make the Mint Thins found on page 6.

Basically it's Ritz crackers dipped in mint chocolate and sprinkled with crushed peppermint candy. The simplicity of the recipe really captured my attention. I thought well, "if these taste like the Girl Scout Thin Mints, I could have Thin Mints year round" so I decided to try them out.

Makes: 3 doz.

1 pkg. (8 squares) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract
1 sleeve RITZ Crackers (36 crackers)
1 peppermint candy cane (6 inch), crushed

MICROWAVE chocolate in small microwaveable bowl as directed on package. Stir until completely melted. Blend in extract.

DIP crackers in melted chocolate, completely coating crackers with chocolate. Carefully scrape off excess chocolate. Place on waxed paper-covered baking sheets; sprinkle with crushed candy.

REFRIGERATE 30 min. or until chocolate is firm.

Very simple!

Well these are pretty good but a little more time consuming than I expected. Getting the chocolate to "perfectly" cover the cracker is something I still need to perfect. When I started I had my handy little assistant Micaela helping but I quickly figured out that melted chocolate and two year olds don't mix. As you can see, mine don't look as perfect as the ones in the magazine but they did taste pretty good. I recommend crushing your peppermints in a food processor. (I used my KitchenAid Food Processor). Although the large chunks of peppermint look good on the chocolate covered cracker (see Kraft's picture), I think it's more pleasant in your mouth without the chunks--- just MHO.

After I made the chocolate batch I decided to try some with White Chocolate. I was trying to create a swirled effect with red food coloring but I got carried away swirling and ended up with pink chocolate! In the end, the pink chocolate mint thins were preferred by my in house food critique (AKA hubby).

I hope you will take the time to try these.

You can subscribe to the Kraft Food & Family magazine by clicking here.

You can access all of the recipes found in the Holiday 2007 issue by clicking here.

Thanks for stopping by, happy baking or 'dipping'!

RAK from Denise Sullivan

Isn't this card gorgeous? Denise Sullivan is my Upline. I let her borrow my Holy Triptych stamp set and she enclosed the card she made with the set. Thank you Denise!

Holiday Snowball Cookies by Nestle Toll House

These cookies are really good! We had alot of fun baking. Micaela had fun "helping", she loves to see the KitchenAid mixer in action! When she was younger she would cry while sitting in her high chair because she wanted to watch it run-- Our little story even made it on a KA employee website. Anyway, she loves to be in the kitchen and this recipe was perfect because we had to make balls out of the cookie dough. She's had alot of practice making balls because she plays with PlayDoh often. The biggest challenge was keeping her from picking out the morsels!

I used:

• KitchenAid Stand Mixer to mix the ingredients
• KitchenAid Food Processor to finely chop the pecans
• Reynolds Parchment Paper on my cookie sheets (makes cleanup a snap)

You can view the recipe online here

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® SWIRLED™ Holiday Morsels
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts
Powdered sugar

Directions:PREHEAT oven to 375° F. BEAT butter, 3/4 cup sugar, vanilla extract and salt in large mixer bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in flour. Stir in morsels and nuts. Shape level tablespoons of dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place on ungreased baking sheets. BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies are set and lightly browned. Remove from oven. Sift powdered sugar over hot cookies on baking sheets. Cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar, if desired. Store in airtight containers.

Pictures of my little baker, below....

My little baker

I am back...

What a busy few weeks we've had! After being in the valley for a week, two days after we arrived, my parents and brother were in town for a convention in Fort Worth and at the same time my long time friend M'Lissa was in town from Shreveport for the weekend as was another girlfriend from high school plus I had several KA events. S0, last night as I went to bed, I thought tomorrow (meaning today) would be the first calm day we've had in a few weeks. I didn't need to be anywhere, Micaela didn't have school, no company, absolutely no agenda. My plan was to hang the Christmas lights in the front porch and bushes, do some stamping and maybe even some baking. Well, it didn't quite turn out that way....

I woke up with my left eye sealed closed (pink eye). Needless to say, it was a very rough morning. The first thing I did was remove my extended wear contacts and put on my glasses. I don't wear my glasses very often so it takes a while for my eyes to adjust (everything seems curved to me-- so I tend to do everything slow). I think I've washed my hands 1000 times today because I don't want anyone else to get it. Micaela kept asking if I was crying. I finally put a gauze patch on my left eye so I wouldn't be wiping off so much. Then Micaela thought I looked like a pirate. When DH got home after noon, I was still in my pj's, wearing the patch with my glasses and I hadn't even brushed my hair! Yesterday we celebrated our 41st month anniversary so when he walked in the door, I told him, "this is what happens to wives after 41 months!" ha ha!

I was able to get a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. I waited for almost 30 min in the waiting room, saw the doc for less than 5 minutes, got charged my $30 co-pay and was sent on mt merry way with a prescription. I went straight to the pharmacy and was told there was an hour wait. So I wandered over the grocery store nearby to kill some time. While I looked around I saw this little pad of recipes by the Nestle Toll House stuff. After reading all the recipes, I decided the Holiday Snowball Cookies with Holiday Swirled Morsels looked kinda fun so I bought the morsels and headed back to the pharmacy to get my prescription. The line was long and finally after another 15-20 minutes I got to the front. I gave the attendant my name, she got my prescription and says "it's $25". I figured they had not entered in our insurance info so I give her the card again and expected the amount to decrease by say ten dollars. Nope, the attendant tells me "the $25 price is with insurance, otherwise it would be $75"! So I pay and go.

I got home 3 hours after I left, go to use the drops and I am shocked at the size of the bottle. It's teeny weeny. I mean teeny weeny, it's like a fourth of the size of a reinker! I think there is more saliva in my mouth than what is in the bottle! So that was my day...

After dinner I was determined to bake the cookie recipe from Nestle.... See the post above for details.