I am sooooo lucky!!!

I received the absolute best Secret Sister swap package in the mail!!! My very sweet and wonderful SBS2 sister Becky sent me the greatest happy mail ever!! I was so excited to tear open the package and find all of these wonderful goodies! The stamp set is awesome and the paper is gorgeous! (Cannot wait to use that stuff!!!) She chose pink (my absolute favorite color ever!!) for the ribbon and there were a ton of vellum quotes in there! I really love those! Something about vellum is just so soft and sweet! The whole package is just screaming out Valentine's Day! The absolute best part of this package though was the card! It is sooooo pretty! I have shown it off all over the place! Thank you sooooooooooooo much, Becky! You ARE the greatest! I loved everything!! : ) You made my day!






Happy, happy New Year's Eve!!! Be back soon! : )

Hello and Merry After Christmas!!

I hope that everyone had a very wonderful and Merry holiday! We had a very nice Christmas! We woke up to the smell of baking ham (I cook a ham all night long Christmas Eve!) and we had our traditional morning breakfast of ham biscuits, cinnamon rolls and oj! There was wrapping paper flying everywhere and lots of love and laughter in the room! It truly warmed my heart to be spending the morning with my wonderful family! We had a giant dinner later in the day with our extended family which was nice as well. : )

Thought I would share a couple of Christmas projects that I made but haven't been able to share until post holiday! I made this cute coaster calendar for my step dad! It is full of Riley Moose from Hanna Stamps (LOVE those cute moose-y guys!) They are always telling me about the moose that wander into their yard, so I have spent most of the year collecting enough moose stamps to make this calendar! I stamped and then my youngest colored the moose and then we assembled the whole thing using my comb binder. The front and back covers are made from coasters and I used my Publisher program to make the little months!

This post is followed by a second one!

Calendar Part 2

Calendar Part 3

...and the last two!

Post #2 today!

I made my mom and step dad these notebooks with matching post it note holders! They ask for these cute little notebooks every year because they are so practical to have laying around! They normally get them 'undressed', so I thought it would be fun to dress them up this year! : ) I added the matching Post it Note Holder to each one and they became sets! This is how they came out! They live in Alaska so the deer and snowman were perfect!









Hope that you are able to be with your family this weekend and that things are going well for you! I am learning as I get older just how important that sort of thing can be! Enjoy your weekend! I will be back soon!

Big hug!

Here comes Santa Claus!

Good Friday morning! : ) I have a to do list that is longer than I am tall today, but I wanted to share a couple of things with you guys! How are you?! I hope that everyone is having a wonderful week and not stressing to awful much about the QUICKLY approaching holiday madness! I still have about a bazillion and two things to do, but I am trying to keep stress to a minimum! (mostly because I do not have time for it! ) Giggles and a grin!

I had my monthly demonstrator meeting last weekend and had such a nice time! The group of ladies that I meet with are so sweet and I just love getting together to bounce creative ideas off of one another! We had a great meeting full of excellent food, lots of laughs, tons of cookies (yummmm-o!!) and a super fun project! We made bracelets from SU!'s Build-a-Brad set and I just LOVED that project! (Thank you Kaye for a wonderful meeting!) I will share the bracelet that I made soon!

I wanted to do a little something for these sweet ladies to wish them all a Merry Christmas and so this is what I came up with! I saw this cute Santa face punch while blurfing one day and saved the idea! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE punch art and this was too cute! He was originally going to be an ornament, but I decided he needed to be 'more'! I cut my 8.5 X 11 paper in half and used a simple 2, 4, 6, 8 box pattern for the body and gave them all a little personality by adding the white trim and belt buckles! I bradded on a handle and filled these little guys with chocolate and boom...all done!! Soooo cute! I made a couple of extra ones to send to my folks too! : )
This is my Santa Box! How cute is he?!


Santa from the side!


I lined a few of them up for this picture! The rest waited in the house because it was windy out side! LOL


In keeping with the Santa face theme, this was my recipe card for the Cookie exchange we had! I made good ole' fashioned chocolate chip cookies! Eight dozen of them! They were yummy! Love those big guys!! We decided as a group that this would be our last recipe card exchange for a while! We made a ton of them and have quite a full little cookbook now! : )

I will be skipping the recipe due to my time budget today, but if any questions arise I will be happy to answer them! : ) I have several more things to post and will be back soon! Have a wonderful day! Ho! Ho! Ho!

Woman survives chocolate overdose!! *giggles!*

I am still here! I have been really crazy busy with life stuff and as much as I would like to blame my lack of blog faithfulness on the holidays, that would be a fib! I actually haven't even really gotten holiday started yet! **GASP!!** I am a procrastinator by nature, but I am really pushing the Christmas card stamped envelope this year! LOL I have made a few things and done a few little things here and there, but for the most part am just now starting to get it together! Quite honestly, I just don't think I am 'feeling' it this year. Don't get me wrong...not really in a Grinch sort of way! I LOVE Christmas! I am just having a tough time getting motivated this year!

We went this weekend and got our tree! That was fun! That is actually one of my favorite parts of the holidays! We go to a local tree farm and pick out the world's most perfect tree (We do that every year! Good trick, huh?!) My oldest son was able to come with us so that was especially nice! (seems like he works all the time now) We had a great time! We came home and ate mini eclairs and cheese and crackers while we decorated the tree and started to decorate the house, but only got midway through. My youngest is under the weather and just didn't have the ooomph to get all the way through. Our plan is to get everything up, out and lit over the course of this week!

Thought I would share some photos from our day with you!


Here are my girls! Aren't they adorable! : )


This is our perfect tree eating my son! Augh! LOL



My oldest two! : )




Everyone watches as Daniel does the hard part! : )


We all scrunched in while my oldest took the picture with an outstretched arm! Too funny! I sure love these guys! : )


Hope that you have a wonderful holiday day today!

Big hug! : )

A box to house your goodies!

Hello! How are you today?! Hope everyone is having a wonderful Thursday! : ) I wanted to share this adorable house box with you! You can find the pattern here. It is from Score-Pals new ezine! I had so much fun making this cute little house gift! It is a slender box perfect to hold candy bars or hot chocolate packets or tea! I am toying with the idea of making homemade chocolate dipped pretzel rods and think this would be the perfect gift box for them!! What do you think?!

This little box went together in no time! I used the SU! hostess level 3 set Window Dressing. The cute little snowmen were the perfect addition to the snow-y scene outside the window! I stamped snowflakes on the outside and added a Stickles glitter center to each one! The snow is chunky glitter from Martha Stewart. I was super excited when I spied this in the store, but was a little disappointed with it once I used it. It was not quite as chunky as I hoped it would be, but is still pretty! : )

Think I will play around with this template and see what kind of fun changes I can make! I think a pink house would be cute!

I spent quite a while playing with my blog colors and style the other night. I settled on this all green for the holidays, but think I want to make some bigger changes in the future. What do you think of the all green background?!

I have a bazillion things to do today, but wanted to stop by and say hello! I will be back soon!:)

Have a wonderful day!



Recipe:
Paper: SU! Baja Breeze and Whisper White and generic patterned paper
Stamps: SU! Window Dressing
Ink: SU! Basic Black, Bold Bright markers
Extra: Chunky glitter, silver brads, Baby blue ribbon, Sparkle gem and snowflake punch

Awwwww! Thanks Catherine!!

**2nd Post today! Please scroll all the way down! : )

I am all warm and fuzzy! Guess why?! I just received my very first blog award ever from my very sweet, wonderful SBS2 Sister, Catherine!! She is such a warm, nice, funny person! We have become friends on line and I feel so lucky to have her! Great big hug, Catherine!! Thank you! I love visiting your blog and seeing all of your wonderful creations! You're the best! : )



I am supposed to pass this award on to 10 folks that have super blogs and so I choose:

Catherine (Because I love your blog too!)
Crissy
Lynn
Lori A
Bonnie
Tracy
Becky
Kristi
Roxy
Hannah (my daughter who just discovered how to blog!)

You are supposed to acknowledge this award and pass it on to 10 folks too! : )

Have a great day!

Help!! I cannot stop making stockings!!

LOL Hello! So, I have to be honest! When I first saw this pattern I thought it was cute, but I had NO idea how addictive it would be! This is another stocking made from Lauren's Timeless Templates pattern! I am in love with this pattern! I plan to make a ton of these things for Christmas (don't worry! I will not bore you with all of them!! Just a few more! Giggles!!) How can you possibly go wrong?! They are just too cute and will hold all kinds of fun stuff! This one is for hubby's ex step dad! He is still a very welcome part of the family despite the title! He is one of those impossible to shop for guys though so this was the perfect solution for him! I will fill it to the brim with candy for the big day and I am done! : )

I ran the pieces through my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder and did some faux stitching on the heel and toe. I cut out an embossed image (also from a Cuttlebug embossing folder) and punched out a snowflake and added red behind it to make it stand out. I added the green dots and pop dotted it up from the stocking! I added the punched out snowflake on the top cuff of the stocking and used my white gel pen to add polka dots as trim! The two sparkle gems came from Target's Dollar spot and add that little extra sparkle!

Have a great day! Be back soon!




Recipe:
Paper: SU! Whisper White, Handsome Hunter and Real Red
Stamps: SU! Whimsical Alphabet (retired)
Extra: Cuttlebug folders, snowflake punch, white gel pen, stickles, pop dots and sparkle gems

A few things to share!

Good morning! I hope that you had a wonderful Turkey Day and that you were able to squeeze the people that you love! We spent the day with Hubby's family. I really like those crazy people! I come from a very small family (I am an only child!) and his family is ginourmous, so in the beginning after I adjusted to the shock I decided I enjoy having a large family! (Guess that explains my having four kids!)

I have always been of the attitude that any time you attend a function at someone's house you should always take along a little hostess gift to say thank you! Well, our Thanksgiving hostess happens to be as big of a chocolate fiend as I am so it only makes sense to offer her the goods! ;) Now in my opinion, chocolate happens to be a wonderful gift (and not only because you can sneak a piece or two before putting everything all together!). The only thing better than chocolate is a cute container to hold all of that goodness! So, this is what our Thanksgiving hostess received yesterday:

I paper pieced the scarecrow's overalls on and sponged the sun, sky and grass on around him! I added the sun using a post it note, a circle punch and masking it! The light streak on the photo is not actually on the card! A fun hostess gift! : )

*************************************************************************************

I have a couple of things to share today and I meant to post this all day long yesterday, but the day just kept getting away from me! I also made a second Christmas stocking (this one is for my mom) using Lauren's cute template! I love this color combo! It is so 'her'! I went back and fourth about whether to put 'mom' on it or her name and then her name won because I rummaged up this cute chipboard 'C'! I am pretty excited because I am on a mission to get her Christmas box sent out early this year! Now to figure out what to stuff it with...! : )




Recipe:
Stamps: Lily and Billy's Winter set
Paper: SU! Baja Breeze, Blue Bayou (retired), Whisper White and Pink Pirouette
Ink: SU! Rose Red and Ballet Blue
Extras: Gold Stickles, Round spiral punch, Sparkle gem, White Gel pen and white feather boa

*************************************************************************************

We have a whole other Thanksgiving to go to this evening and I have a ton of things to try to get accomplished around the house today! I hope that you have a wonderful day! : ) Be back soon!

Stocking Stuffer!

Hello! Are your stockings all stuffed and hanging by the chimney with care?! Well, it is inevitable! Christmas is around the corner and it is time to start thinking about all the goodies that go with it! My wonderful mom and her wonderful hubby live in Alaska which is about a bajillion miles away from me. Every year I say I am going to get their Christmas box out early and this year I am determined to do so! MOM...IF YOU ARE READING THIS >>>STOP NOW!!! TURN AWAY AND READ NO FURTHER!!!!!! YOU WILL SPOIL A SURPRISE!!! If you are not my mom then feel free to read on! : )

I saw this adorable stocking pattern on Lauren's blog! She has a new line of templates that are so much fun and totally versatile! I used her stocking template to create this cute project! Now I must say that it is sooo much cuter in person than in the photo! In fact, looking at the photo it kind of resembles a muppet with that wild strip of feathery floof-i-ness, but in person it really is adorable!! I stamped the sock part and the toe and heel with snowflakes from the Lily and Billy Winter stamp set from Pink Cat Studios. Then I gave the center of each one a gold sparkle with Stickles. I faux stitched on the toe and heel and added the strip of feather stuff to the top! It will eventually wind up holding some chocolates! I plan on making one for my mom in more 'girlie' colors and one for their pooch (filled with dog bones of course!)

Ok, off to the grocery store! Hope that you have a wonderful night! Be back soon!



Recipe:
Paper: SU! Riding Hood Red and Kiwi Kiss
Ink: SU! Cranberry Crisp and Old Olive
Stamps: Lily and Billy Winter Stamps and generic alphabet set
Extras: Stickles, White Gel Pen, Sparkle bling gems, White Feather Boa and Round Spiral Punch

Pre-holiday gift! (and a fun challenge!)

Hello! Good Sunday morning! This weekend is just flying by!! This week has flown by and now that I think about it this whole dang year has flown by too! Thanksgiving is this coming week?! How in the world did we get here so quickly? Seems like we were just ringing in the new year and it will be time to do it again soon! LOL

So with all this talk of the holidays I thought I better get my butt in gear and start getting organized! Cathrine of Paper Garden is hosting a fun challenge!! I wanted to play along, but decided to make my gift a pre holiday gift! It is an organizer that I made for myself (big grin...but it would definitely make a great gift!) to help me keep everything in one place! We traditionally have 3 Thanksgivings, 3 Christmas celebrations and a New Year's celebration of some sort. There are cards to make/send, things to buy, menus to make, hostess gifts to prepare, presents to buy and wrap, yummy food to bake and since the list goes on and on I thought it would be helpful to consolidate all that info! There is a place in the book to make menus and their corresponding shopping lists, a place for times, a place to list Christmas cards (sent and received), a place to list gift ideas and how much money was spent per person, a pocket to hold all the receipts, a place for notes, a blank page to jot down creative 'blueprints', a few pages for general to do lists and...well I guess you get the idea!

I used a hodge podge of materials and stamps to make this book! The cover uses adorable stamps from Paper Garden. I used my Scor-Pal to make a grid pattern on both the front and back covers and added some stickle covered pink snowflakes. I added a ton of ribbon to the outside edges to add that festive feel and then I finished by using my book binder to bind the whole thing together! I am including a picture of the front and a couple of pages from the inside. Fun, fun!!

I am kind of a wing ding about being organized so I am hoping this silly little book will help me maintain some level of sanity this season...fa la la la la la la la laaaaa! :)

We are off to town today! Have a wonderful day!! Be back soon!