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! : )

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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

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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!

A project from Regionals!

This was a project that we made at Regional's this past weekend! It is so simple, but I really like the way it came out! It opens up to reveal 3 little gift cards and their envelopes! I love this color combo! I thought these would make sweet little Christmas gifts! It folds up nice and neat and ties with a bow! Too cute! I wasn't crazy about this set until I played with it, but now I see lots of possibilities!!







Recipe:
Paper: SU! Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze and Pink Pirouette (plain and textured)
Stamps: Best Wishes and More
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Extras: Scallop Border Punch, Felt Fusion Flowers, Metal Gift Tag, Silver Brads, Chocolate Chip ribbon and envelopes

Ooooooooooh preeeeetty!!!!

Good morning!!! Look what I woke up to this morning!!! I figure I must be about 7 because I was so excited I could barely contain myself!! I love snow! I don't really love being out in it as much as watching it from the warmth of my house with a gigantic cup of hot chocolate and a monster pot of soup on the stove! Something about watching the snow fall is just so comforting and mesmerizing! The first year we moved here it snowed like 3 feet!! I was totally beside myself with excitement, but that year must have been a fluke. It has snowed less and less every year and last year...nothing! Here it is though not even Thanksgiving and lookie!!! *bouncing around a little bit!!* Any how, just thought I would share! I will be back later with some stamped goodness!

Have a wonderful day! : )

Turkey Sweet potato and a moonlit deer...fa la la la la la la la la!!!

Hello! : ) I only have time for a quickie post, but wanted to share my recipe card and the fun card we made at my demonstrator's meeting!

Each month we each make a new recipe card to add to our cook book collection! This month's theme was a holiday recipe! I chose sweet potatoes because how can you go wrong with sweet potatoes! LOL I added the cute turkey that is made from all punches (love that little guy!). I used colors that make me feel all Thanksgiving-y! (yes, that is a word!). This was a fun recipe card to make! : )

The next photo is of a card we made at the meeting, but that we learned to make at regionals. I LOVE this card! It is so simple to make, but comes out looking so darn polished! The deer is from SU!'s Winter Post and that crazy moon is made using the masking technique. We punched out a circle using the 1 1/4" circle punch and laid the post it note minus it's circle on a piece of whisper white card stock. We sponge daubered with More Mustard inside the circle and then peeled up the post it note leaving behind a perfect yellow moon! We stamped the deer over the moon and then we laid the punched out circle over the moon and sponged some blue sky on. We laid a torn piece of paper over the bottom to keep it white and sponged the edge of the tear making a nice dark line where the night sky meets the snow! Then we added a line of sparkle to the edge of the snow! Added a sentiment and there you are! So pretty! This is one of those cards that I wouldn't mind mass producing!

Ok, sorry about the lack of recipe, but I am about to be late for soccer! Hope that you have a wonderful evening! Be back soon!

Christmas Card Swap!

Good morning! : )

It is time for my monthly Stampin Up! demonstrator's meeting! I love getting together with these sweet ladies every month! It is nice to spend time with people that understand your hobby and appreciate what you create! : ) It is also fun to have that creative 'push' each month to complete the challenges. This month the challenge was to create a Christmas card. This was super hard for me because I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that Christmas is soooo close! It always seems to sneak up on me, but this year...man oh man!! It has come quicker than ever and will be here in no time at all!

Anyhow, I took out tons and tons of supplies! I tried making wreaths, lovely decorated trees and even played with my favorite snowman stamps! Nothing was clicking so I decided to try a more simple approach! I punched out circles with my 1 1/4" circle punch and used my word window punch to make ornament toppers and hooks! I added a touch of detail with a marker and my trusty white gel pen! I used my gold paint marker from Pilot to outline the base for the ornaments and used my scalloped border punch to add scallops to the edge of the ornament base. I stamped the sentiment from SU!'s Snow Swirled and they were done! Olny took two hours to make these 6 simple cards! LOL

I am off to work on the second half of our swap and will be back soon to share that! Hope that your weekend is a wonderful one!





Recipe:
Paper: Su! Kiwi Kiss, Handsome Hunter, Riding Hood Red and Very Vanilla
Stamps: SU! Snow Swirled
Ink: SU! Handsome Hunter
Extras: Gold Pilot pen, White gel Pen, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Word Window Punch and Scallop Border Punch

A basket for you!

I fell absolutely in love with Mel's adorable basket pattern and couldn't wait to make one! Mel is amazingly talented and if you haven't checked out her blog you should (run, go now!!!!) She is full of really great ideas and I have learned so much from her! Hiya Mel!! : ) She is one of my sweet SBS2 sisters!

I downloaded this template from Mel's blog and covered it with one of my favorite printed papers from Mike's! I love these flowers! I tied an Old Olive ribbon around the handle and made a little tag for the bottom to give it a little flair of interesting! I stamped the sentiment and the flower from Stampin Up!'s Fresh Cut Notes set and bent out the petals a little bit. I added some pink sparkle and there you go! I filled it with a clear baggie full of peppermint patties and tied that with a pink ribbon! It went together very quickly and has limitless possibilities for gift giving!

Speaking of which...Christmas is going to be here before we know it! I am soooooo NOT ready!! It is time to start getting holiday organized! I am working on a project to help me do just that! I will be posting that as soon as it is finished! : )

Hope that you have a wonderful day! : ) Be back soon!

Thankful for...

Yesterday at my home school meeting we did a turkey craft because that is what you do at a Thanksgiving party! I brought some of my Stampin Up! punches and a stack of construction paper and this is what came of it! After 23 kids made their own turkeys they filled out a paper with some of the things they were thankful for! I have included a picture of my turkey example and my youngest daughter's Thankful turkey page!

I am really excited that Thanksgiving is coming! It happens to be one of my very favorite holidays! : )

Ok, well I am off to the grocery store to gather some dinner! I hope that you all have a wonderful night! Be back soon!

My SBS2 Challenge card!

One of my very wonderful SBS2 sisters *Hi Lori!!!* posted a fun challenge for us! The challenge was to make a card with either Election Day or Veteran's Day in mind as the theme. I went the obvious route and used red, white and blue as my color scheme. I used the set Fresh Cut Notes from Stampin Up! and stamped the thank you sentiment first in white multiple times and then stamped over it in Brilliant Blue. It gave it a nice shadow-y effect. I colored the focal image in half blue and half red with markers and used a blender pen where they met to bleed them into each other. I added some red sparkle, but wanted to keep it simple. I am pleased with the way it turned out! I am late in posting this due to...well losing my mind a little I guess! LOL Getting older...gotta love it! : )

I am also happy to say that 201 posts after I started this blog I have finally figured out how to make the picture display after the post! Yeah, I am a dork! LOL Pardon the poor lighting. It has been raining all day here and the natural light is hiding behind the clouds.

I will be back in a little bit with a second post! Thank you, Lori for this great challenge! : )

Happy early Thanksgiving and some birthday love!

Hello! I had the best day today! My home school group had an early Thanksgiving celebration. Everyone brought food and we did a couple of crafts! It was really nice! : ) There are so many really wonderful folks in our group and for that I am feeling very thankful!

One of my friends had a bday yesterday and I wanted to make her a little something! She is the kind of person that really appreciates a handmade gift because she takes into consideration the time and love that goes into it!

I kept it simple and purple (her favorite color!)! I altered an empty almond container using purple as the primary color and I happy-ied ( a very technical term!) it all up with a cheery birthday cow! I used dsp from SU!' s Bella Rose and Parisian collections and the adorable animals from the Fun Farm Set! This set is so darn cute! Farm critters all ready to have a giant birthday party!! How could you possibly go wrong! LOL I wrapped it with a pretty pink ribbon and filled it with candy! Happy birthday, Treva!!! Big hug!

I am also including a photo that I took from our deck a few days ago! We live in the Blue Ridge Mountains and this is our beautiful view in the middle of fall! The sky was all angry right before a rain shower and I thought the contrast was truly striking!

Well, my boys went out tonight so I have some time to myself to play so I am off to stamp! I will be back in the morning to share! : )

Hope that you all have a wonderful evening!

Recipe:
Paper: SU dsp Bella Rose and Parisian, Orchid Opulence and Pale Plum
Stamps: Fun Farm Set
Ink: Basic Black and Bold Brights markers
Extras: Pink Ribbon, Prima flowers, white gel pen and Sparkle bling

My fur baby and a little rant!

Ok, so we have this dog...! We have 5 dogs actually! (We are animal people!) I know you are not supposed to pick favorites between your kids, but one of our dogs happens to be a favorite for both hubby and I! Her name is Zoe. She is the biggest pain in the tushie ever! She is by far one of the strangest animals we have ever adopted into our family! This dog has two modes...sound absolutely asleep and full out, wide open major spazoid!! She is either sound asleep or bouncing and racing in circles!! She is the biggest baby ever! We suspect she has Jack Russell in her along with Dalmation! We adopted her when she was just a few months old and she has wagged her way into our hearts! She is the biggest baby ever! She sucks her own paw to go to sleep and her favorite toy is a roll of masking tape! (not just our tape either...she steals tape from our neighbors!!!) She is a very sweet baby though! Big chocolate brown eyes and a pink belly with big black polka dots! I joke with hubby that every time she gets into trouble that she grows a new spot...she has become very spotty! LOL

Anyhow...about a week ago we noticed a lump under her chin. It swelled up and then decreased in size so we though maybe it was a bee sting. Then when we came home Sunday night after being away for the weekend it was back and was the size of a golf ball and very hard. So, needless to say I took her to the vet yesterday afternoon and the vet we saw was awful!!! She had the worst bed side manner of any vet I have ever met! While examining Zoe she hurt her and so Zoe reared up and tried to get away from her and she yelled for her nurse to get a muzzle. She told me that since she was aggressive and tried to bite both her and her aide in the face that she would have to be muzzled. She NEVER even snapped at them!! She was rude and careless and wound up leading me to believe that Zoe needed emergency surgery. She told me the swelling could continue and that nothing I could do would really help. She said the surgery to remove her saliva duct needed to be looked into ASAP and that she would refer me to the college in our area for further evaluation. She said the swelling could start to impede her breathing and eating and offered me no advice for intermediate treatment and then she charged me for giving me nothing more than a hard time. She treated me like I was an unfit puppy mommy! Now let me ask you...if I didn't care about my animal would I have even brought her in?! Sheesh! I was pretty dang mad!

We made another appointment with a decent vet for this morning. She says that she believes there is something stuck in her salivary gland area causing the swelling and that it would probably abscess and hopefully expel the irritating culprit. So our little doggie is on a full course of anti biotics and gets warm compresses on the area for a while and is under lots of supervision. If it doesn't heal on it's own we may have to consider surgery, but for the time being we are just to watch her. She offered lots of advice and options and was wonderful to our furbaby. It was a much better experience than yesterday's visit with the vet from ****.

I haven't gotten much stamping in due to the running around with the pooch, but am hopeful to create some tonight. : ) I have included a photo of Zoe!

Be back soon! Hope that you have a great night!