The Prize

Here is the page I made to show off the Blue Plunger Award that Dylan won for his psychology project. Dylan wrote out the journaling part for me that explains what his project was. Stamping Up has a cool punch that makes it look like the paper was torn from a notebook. I bought the papers on my last shopping trip because I knew the blues would work well with the very blue plunger and then I could use browns to tone it all down.

Summer Hair Cut

An interesting Southern tradition is that every year after school's out young boys get their hair buzzed for the summer. Tim decided he would try it this year since he has so much hair and it grows so fast. Turns out, we both really like it.

For this layout I used a sketch my friend Sally made for me, SBSC143. I used Not Quite Navy for the background and some new pattern papers by Paper Studio that I bought on my last shopping trip with Judi. And I used a little ribbon for accent. The other pages I made this weekend are a secret until the next Virtual Scrapbooking Night on Splitcoast - but they turned out darling.

Mojo!

My mojo's back! I'm creating today, so I'll have some scrapbook pages to share with you this week. Stay tuned.

Creative Cooking

At least I'm being creative in the kitchen if I can't be creative at the scrap table. Tonight I made Mexican Egg Rolls. I got the idea from an appetizer at Chilis. I didn't have any corn in the house, so these aren't very colorful. But they were yummy.

Mexican Egg Rolls

1 lb ground beef, browned with onions and garlic

1 can black beans, drained

1 can green chilies

1 cup frozen corn

taco seasoning and/or lots of cumin and chili powder

2 cups grated cheese

I used 2 won ton wrappers for each egg roll and about 2 good spoonsful of filling. Makes 12. Spray with Pam and bake at 400 for 15 min. Serve with sour cream and salsa.

Who cares about scrapping when I can eat?

I made a new recipe for dinner last night. You can find the instructions here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/08/spicy_shrimp_yu/ . Oh man, it was so tasty. We just had shrimp and bread. But the shrimp would be good with some rice to soak up all the sauce. I think any leftovers would be great in some sort of cold salad. This was so simple and easy to make that I think it will become a staple at our house anytime shrimp goes on sale. I have also made the Pioneer Woman's bacon wrapped cracker appetizers and they were very good also. Be sure to check out all of her recipes and the rest of her blog.

Will I ever stamp or scrap again?

Seems like the forces of the world are against me ever getting anything creative done. This long holiday weekend when Tim was supposed to be riding in the mountains and I was supposed to be getting lots of scrapping done - we ended up making an unscheduled trip to KY. Tim's Mom is in the hospital with some heart problems. She got a pacemaker late last week and spent several days in CCU. She's in a regular room now and doing so much better.

We did take some time Sunday afternoon to drive up to Owensboro to see the kid. And, of course, I took more pictures that seem like they'll never get scrapped. Dylan did a project for psychology class using his dogs to test biocommunication. The teacher handed out awards for the projects. Dylan got a Blue Plunger for the best topic award. He's very proud of his blue plunger. He has one more week of school and is planning on working at Burger King this summer.

I guess this week I'll work on catching up on housework and laundry. Then this weekend I am going to scrap! Because my nieces have dance recital this weekend which means more pictures to scrap.

Mother's Day Cards

As usual, I was late getting my Mother's Day cards made and mailed. But they did finally get done. Everyone should have received theirs by now, so I'll share them with everyone else. A couple of weeks ago, my friend Judi and I went to a new stamp store in Matthews. I bought my first official unmounted stamp set. Unmounted stamps don't come on wood blocks, when you want to use one you mount it on a reusable acrylic block. The stamps are stored in a CD sized case. Which means they don't take up as much room so you can have more stamps. The set I bought is called Jolies Fleurs by Lizzie Anne Designs. They have been very easy to work with, so I think I see more unmounted stamp sets in the future.

I love the color of these cards - celery, coral and pink. I used a half circle punch to make the scallops and did some paper piercing along the bottom by the ribbon for interest. The large scallop circle is a punch my friend Donna has. I used the small hole punch in the scallops to make it lacy. A little ribbon finishes it off. And inside is stamped with Happy Mother's Day.

The New Bathroom

The bathroom is almost done. Tim is working on replacing the old weights in the windows. When he finished with that then he'll paint the window and door frames. The wainscoting and woodwork is a soft white and the top part of the wall is Koi Pond green. It turned out exactly like I pictured. Now that we have a new couch, we can move on to the living room and dinning room - maybe in the fall. This weekend we are going to take a break from working on the house and yard and head to the mountains and do some camping, hiking (me) and bike riding (Tim).

Home Improvement Day

Today we are busy working on the house. Tim is busy putting in base moulding in the bathroom. The house was built in 1930, so the walls are a little wavy. But he is doing a beautiful job. We ran out to Sherwin Williams this morning and bought paint for the top part of the wall. It is a soft green color called Koi Pond. It's a different shade of green than the towels we have so I might need new towels.

While we were out, we stopped by the local furniture store to look at sofas. We found one that we liked - and it was on sale! I'm sitting on it now. It's not as big as our old one - a little shorter and not as wide. It is a sleeper sofa to give us a little more room for guests. And it was made right here in North Carolina. Fitzie and Riley have checked it out already. The old futon we carried to the curb and the neighbors hauled it off pretty quickly.

The garden we put in last weekend is doing pretty well. No corn or beans have sprouted yet, and the watermelon and cantaloupes don't look too good. But everything else looks great. We also planted a lilac and hydrangea. We've had some good rain this week which has been nice. I still need to get some impatients to plant in the pot on the front porch.

After all this hard work, I'm sure we'll sleep well tonight. I did go to a crop last night so have a few more scrapbook pages to show you next week.

My Mojo is Back

On Tuesday morning I finished up the page that had been on my table for three or four weeks. These pictures are from when I was up in Michigan and had a chance to sit down and scrap with my nieces. I'm going to end up making three different pages with these photos - one page for me, One for Sarah's book and one for Sydney's book. When I started working on this page I picked some papers that matched the purplish color of Sydney's dress so the papers ended up being too dark and drab to enhance the story. I switch over to some lighter colors that would coordinate with the other colors in the photos. But I was using punch star shapes as an accent. When I went to look for some pattern papers to use, I only found paper with flowers. Then I realized I really needed to use punched flowers instead of stars. So after three weeks of changing colors and embellishments, I was finally loving it.

I just spent two days down in Myrtle Beach with some of my online scrapping friends. So Hopefully I can get a couple of pages scrapped to show everyone.

No Mojo

I've lost my scrapping mojo. I got lots of great pictures on my trip to Minneapolis but I haven't had time to scrap anything. I did sit down and stamp for a bit this morning to see if I could get the creative juices flowing. I have two cards in progress, so hopefully I'll have something to show you soon.
This weekend we go to Kentucky to see Dylan and Tim's family. Which means I'll come back with more photos to scrap. I got two of James Patterson's books from his Maximum Ride series at the library conference. I think Dylan will enjoy them. Maybe I can find enough mojo to make a few bookmarks for him.
It's a busy time at work. It's National Library Week, so I've been coordinating activities for that. Thursday night if Open Mic Poetry Night in celebration of National Poetry Month. Need to see if I can write something decent enough to read. Today is Library Worker Day, so please stop by your local library and say hi to the library workers there. I've got book club this morning. We will be discussing Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It is a beautifully written novel about the Nigerian - Biafra conflict of the 1960's. We should have a great discussion. I've spent some time this morning reading a few chapters and the beginning and end of the book to refresh my memory.
Other than that - the cats are well, the redone bathroom is great, and life is good.

I finally got some thank you cards made and ready to mail to my family who made my trip to Minnesota a great one. I had the best time seeing everyone. I got all my pictures printed so should get some scrapbook pages done soon.

For this card I used a color challenge on SCS to give me some inspiration - cameo coral, apricot appeal, mellow moss and creamy caramel. I used the Embrace Life stamp set and mellow moss ink for the leafy background and cameo coral ink on apricot and coral papers for the flowers. The while gel pen added a few accents. Since there are a few layers I didn't add any ribbon or hardware to make it more bulky for mailing. I'm pleased how they turned out and I think the colors are nice and soft for spring.

When I got back from Minnesota my tulips were up. Even with all the dreary rainy weather we've had, they've opened up beautifully. So this picture is for everyone who still has snow - spring is coming your way. Look quick because my tulips never last long - kids walking to and from school always manage to pick them.

I'm home!

I had a wonderful trip to Minnesota and Michigan. I got to see lots of family and had a great library conference. I came how with 23 free books! And I got to see enough snow for a lifetime - actually, the weather was very good while I was there. I flew in to Minneapolis on Good Friday and it was snowing. My Aunt Julie picked me up from the airport. I took a few pictures of the beautiful snow at her house. Most of this had melted by the time I left. I have lots of pictures to scrap from this trip. After I do laundry and go to the grocery store I can get started.

A Masculine Page

I took a challenge on SCS to make a masculine page using flowers. I started with this adorable picture of my brother Joe and his two girls, Sarah and Sydney. I printed the photo in black and white to make it more dramatic. The quote says: "There is only one way to lead a child down the right path... That is to go that way yourself". The flowers are gorgeous leather, I know you can't tell that from the photo. I used the colors ruby red, so saffron, old olive and chocolate chip. The stripped paper is from American Crafts, the leather flowers and rub ons are Making Memories - everything else is from Stampin Up!

Now I have to go pack my bags. I won't be able to take as many pair of shoes as I'd like because I have to pack sweaters and a coat so I don't freeze up in Minnesota and Michigan. I'm super excited about seeing everyone and getting more photos to scrap.

Life Takes Over...

... and you have no time to scrap. I've got a page laid out - adorable photo of my brother and his two girls holding hands. I want to use a quote on the page, but can't find what I want. I need to just give up on that idea and move on.

Things have been very hectic at work. Budget requests were due at the end of last week. I've got a bunch of fun things in my request so next year could be busy for me. We are also restructuring our technical services department in advance of searching for a new librarian. The new person will be Systems and Technical Librarian and I am no Acquisitions and Outreach Librarian. I'm excited about my new duties, but I have ALOT to learn.

I'm getting ready to leave on a trip this Friday. I got a grant to go to the Public Library Association meeting in Minneapolis. And it just so happens that I have family an friends there - how coincidental. I am so excited to get to see everyone, and the conference looks like it's going to be great to. While I'm gone Tim is going to remodel the bathroom. The new beadboard wainscotting is in the dinning room but the boxes of sink, vanity, toilet, fixtures and hardware are all in the study. He has instructions to take lots of photos so I can scrap it when I get back.

And that's life and why I have no new scrapbook pages or cards to show.

Birthday Wishes

This is my oldest niece a couple of years ago on her 6th birthday. You can't tell it from the photo, but her shirt has little blue flowers on it, which is where I got the colors for the layout - ballet blue, barely banana, and certainly celery. The title, "Birthday Wishes" is a stamp from the set For a Friend and I double mounted it to make it stand out. The ballon, present, and cake stamped images are done with Birthday Whimsy. I cut them out and mounted them on small squares to accent and ground them. I am going to do the journaling in the green strip in the middle of the page.

A New Recipe

We tried a new recipe last night. It was good for the cool windy day we had. I don't like green olives, but they give this dish great flavor. I also added a handful of frozen peas at the end.

Stewed Beef with Rice

1 small onion, chopped
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 T. canola oil
1 beef flank steak (3/4 pound), cut into small pieces
2/3 cup tomato sauce
2 tsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. dried oregano
dash pepper
2 T. slice pimento-stuffed olives (I used 1 small can)
2 cups hot cooked rice

In a large skillet, saute onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add beef; saute 2-3 minutes longer.
Stir in the tomato sauce, vinegar, oregano and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30-35 minutes or until meat is tender and sauce is thickened. Stir in olives. Serve with rice. Serves 2.

Enjoy!

The Beach

I did two scrapbook layouts today - one page for Sydney and one page for Sarah. I'll share the Sydney page today and the Sarah page latter in the week. Need to dig out some Hannah and Matthew pictures to work on next.

I took the colors from the pictures - close to cocoa for the background as the sand, groovy guava paper and purely pomegrante ribbon for her cute pink and orange Dora swimsuit, and buckaroo blue for the water. I stamped images from the stamp set Shore Thing, cut them out and put them on a tag as an accent. The title is from chipboard letters. I really love how this turned out - very simple to show the cute photos.

Another Trick or Treat

Last week I shared with you a Halloween layout for my youngest niece who was Tinkerbell. This week I want to share with you the layout of my oldest niece who was a singer for Halloween. She's a very creative little girl and she decorated the shoes she wore as part of her costume. The layout came from Darcy's VSBN challenge on splitcoaststampers.com. I used some bright Basic Grey papers, a chipboard flower and some of the new SU rubons to coordinated with the big orange and purple flowers of her outfit.

Birthday Bowling League

Every year for our friend Ben's birthday we go bowling. It's a ritual that we all look forward to every year. It will be so sad when Ben is too old to go bowling with us. Usually we bowl boys against girls, but this year we were a small group so we all bowled on one team. Karen was the overall winner this year - beating Ann and Steve. I scored higher than Tim for once.

This first page I made for a challenge on SCS. We had to take a test to see what color crayon I was and then scrap a page with that color and the color opposite on the color wheel. I was a yellow crayon so I had to scrap a page with yellow and purple. Thankfully this great bowling paper had both colors in it. I've used it for the last two years and I'm all out of it - need to go shoping for bowling paper.

After we bowl we go back to the house for presents and cake. This year Ben had a yummy Boston Cream Pie - and 10 candles. He got lots of great presents too.

The pages for this second layout were made by my online friend Sally for a swap we participated in. They were perfect for a 10 year-ols birthday.

Displaying Scrapbook pages

I just want to make sure you all know that I have the best husband in the world. I was showing him some wooden scrapbook page holders that were for sale online. They were only 20 something dollars, but he decided he could make one for me. We went to Lowes and found some pieces of polar ( the online version is made of plywood) and a dowl rod for about 7 dollars. In a couple of hours he made me a fabulous wooden frame to hang my scrapbook pages for display. And he even made one for a friend.

The page I'm displaying here is one I made this weekend. My youngest niece was Tinkerbell for Halloween this past year. The title says "Pixie's Just Want to Have Fun". The chipboard flower is covered in purple with silver, celery, and purple ribbon knots and rhinestones at it's center.

Freddy's First Scrapbook Page

Sally on SCS posted a great sketch challenge that I used for this page. "Play Hard Sleep Hard" -That's our Freddy boy. He loves playing with the feather balls, and once he starts playing the other cats join him. The background is soft sky and I used a stip of old olive and really rust and two cute patterned papers. The I scattered old olive felt flowers across the page. One of the flowers has a paw print brad in the center. And that is Freddy's first scrapbook page. I'm sure there will be lots more.

Some Scrabook Pages from the Summer

If you'll remember, this past August, I took a trip down to Myrtle Beach to meet up with some of my online friends from splitcoaststampers.com. I finally got around to scrapping that weekend.

The first set of pages is four of us, Donna, Darcy, Andrea and I, all scrapping on Donna's kitchen table. We had the best time sharing our supplies and being creative. Donna's oldest son, Duncan, actually took the group picture of us because we couldn't get the camera timer to work.

The second set of pages is of Myrtle Beach State Park. Donna, Darcy, and the boys and I went to the beach for the morning. A thunderstorm was coming up across the ocean and it made the water full of beautiful shades of blue. And I didn't even get sunburned while we were there. It's a beuatiful state park in the middle of an overcrowded beach town.

I used some of the same colors - really rust and cool carribean - and pattern papers from the same group to tie the two pages together.

Lovely Yellow Daffodils

I wanted to share a photo of some of my daffodils. I really need to get out and plant more next year.

I took this picture on February 5th. Last year I took pictures of daffodils on January 14th. This little bunch has a few more blossoms now and I also have a couple of clumps by the front walkway. The camillia tree has also blossomed and so has the lenten rose. I'm sure the tulips won't be up for awhile yet.

I cut all of my lovely daffodils for ceterpieces for my Best Books 2007 Tea at work. They were beautiful in some simple glass vases on top of white table cloths. And they have lasted all week. A few more have popped up in the yard, so I still have some to look at our the front window.

A Made up Recipe

The other evening Tim and I picked up this 3 quart round covered casserole dish at the grocery store. The store has been offering these nice baking dishes as a premium. Earlier, I picked up a 8x8 dish in red. They also have a 13x9 dish, a 3.5 quaert oval covered casserole and a 1 quart coverd casserole that I have my eye on. Hopefully there will be some left after the promotion and I can get a couple more pieces on sale. After all, everyone needs more baking dishes - right.

So, I was itching to use my new covered casserole dish. But what to make in it? Hmmm - somehow I ended up with a bunch of cans of white beans in the pantry that really needed to be used. So I spent some time looking at recipes on foodtv.com and came up with something of my own using ingredients I had or could easily get at our local grocery store. I really would have liked lamb, but I'd have to get that in Charlotte. I bought a few things - like spicey chicken sausage and bacon at the grocery store and a nice loaf of crusty bread - and Tim and I made dinner together. And we have plenty left over for lunches this week.

Here's what I came up with:

White Bean Cassoulet

Four cans of white beans, drained, in a 3 qt. covered casserole.
Add 1 tablespoon chopped garlic and 1 bay leaf.
Cook 5 slices of bacon. Drain and crumble into beans.
Sauté diced onion and chopped carrot in bacon grease, add to beans.
Slice 4 links of spicy chicken sausage and sauté until brown. Add to beans.
Add 1 cup of chicken broth.
Cover and bake at 350 degree for 1 hour.

Serve with grated parmesan cheese and crusty bread.

Happy Day After Valentines Day

I have to show you the cards I made for Dylan and Tim because I just love how they turned out.

It was hard to make a valentine for a 16 year-old boy and not make something pink and mushy - but I did it. This turned out great - blue and brown and red. I had some great red and cream pattern paper that I'd been saving for something. I used the elephant and the saying from the Wild About You stamp set and a heart from another little set. I liked how this turned out so much that I made basically the same card for an upcoming birthday for someone who will be 10! It's our little friend Ben's birthday this weekend. On'y Ben's card has the elephant holding a present instead of a heart.

I have a small collection of martini stamps to use for cards and scrapbook pages for Tim. The man loves martinis. The colors here are green, blue, red and brown. And I used another piece of the red and cream pattern paper I have. I used a card sketch from Beate over on SCS, and it was perfect for this little stamp. I added some olive colored eyelets at the bottom for accent. Inside is the most adorable sentiment - "Giving you Olive my love" - isn't that perfect? I think so.

I hope everyone had a great valentines day.

Happy Valentines Day

I wanted to post the valentine cards I made. I didn't get them in the mail until Tuesday, so they are going to be late.

For the two oldest girls - Sara and Hannah - I made similar elephant cards. Very pink, with some fun patterned paper and some Stickles on the flower for bling.

The two youngest - Sydney and Matthew - got similar cards, only they got a cute frog. They also got some Stickles glitter for bling. But thier frogs also got googlie eyes. I hope the eyes make it through the mail becuase it is so darn cute.

I'll show you Tim and Dylan's cards tomorrow. Hope you have a good Valentines Day.

Minneapolis in March!

I am so excited! I heard today that I got a Career Enrichment grant from the state library to attend the Public Library Association convention in Minneapoils in March. My wonderful Aunt Julie has agreed to let me, and my librarian Aunt Jean, sleep on her floor and the grant will cover my air fare, food and conference registration. How cool is a "free" trip to see my family and college friends - and go to a library conference. All in March. In Minneapolis. My poor southern blood is going to freeze to death - but it will be so worthwhile. I purchased my ticket this afternoon and I will be arriving in the frozen north on Good Friday, March 21st and leaving on Saturday, March 29th. The actual conference is on the 25th-29th, so I will have plenty of time to visit with everyone. I will miss Tim and the cats, but Julie has a kitty who I hope she'll share with me.

The Kitty Chaise

It's a cute cat post today. We've been buying these corrogated cardboard cat scratching boxes. Every now and then we sprinkle a little cat nap on it and the cats love it. And it does help save our furniture from scratching. This weekend we found the Cat Chaise in Target. It's made of the same corrogated cardboard, but it has curved ends. I've caught all the boys curled up and napping on it. The Cat Chaise - good for napping, lounging, biting and scraching. You notice there's no picure of Fizie on it? She's too refined for such things. But she's not above rolling aroud in some cat nip if it's on the floor.

Sympathy Cards

Thankfully I don't need any sympathy cards at the moment, but it's always good to have some on hand. Tim left this morning to go watch some of his riding friends RUN up and down Crowder's Mountain. I'm using my morning to make some cards for my stash. I took a look at some of the card challenges posted on Splitcoaststampers for inspiration, and I found the inspiration challenge (IC113) and the card sketch challenge (SC161) for this week. The card I made has very little stamping on it - just the sentiment, which I also embossed in white. I used a flower and a rhinestone brad from the Pretties set and some white ribbon. I chose the colors of kraft, barely banana and bashful blue from the inspiration challegne.

Tim's First Trophy

This is a page I made of the first 12-hour race Tim was in. He rode 12 hours, by himself. part way through the race his bike broke and I had to take him my bike for parts. He had to ride a couple of laps with a no rear shock, then spend about 30 minutes or more making the rear shock from my bike fit onto his bike. And he still won second place! This race is called The Cowbell, so now I have a cute little cowbell sitting on the fireplace mantle. Did you notice the cute little cows I stamped on the page? They are from the Very Punny SU stamp set. In these pictures he is hearing his really ugly fish head jersey, so I pulled the colors from the page from the shirt - yellow, rust and black. I added a little ribbon, but no bows because this is a manly page.

Soccer Girl and Combine Boy

I love scrapping my three beautiful nieces and one stinking cute nephew. My SIL in MI kindly sent me two CD's of pictures of the girls. I found this adorable picture of my youngest niece in her soccer uniform. I love the orange jersey with the pink soccer ball. K, if you could email me some information about this picture, then I can finish up the journaling. I used barely banana, pumpkin pie and pretty in pink solid papers and some Basic Grey pattern paper. The ribbon along the left side is something my Mom sent me. For accents there are some prima flowers and one stamped soccer ball.

My parents are also good about sending me pictures and memorabilia. This next page is my nephew - I think this is Christmas 2006 and he got a combine. So if anyone else remembers anything else about this let me know so I can finish up the journaling on this one too. The base of this page is two pieces of Basic Grey Christmas papers. The journaling box is soft sky and ruby red. The little ornaments are from the Ornassortment set and are stamped on soft sky, ruby red, river rock and wild wasabi.

And No Snow

Tim and I waited all day Saturday for the 4-6 inches of snow we were supposed to get. It rained all day. The few flakes we saw were too wet to stick around. I did make a few cards. One is a wedding card for a friend of mine who got married in Little Rock this weekend (I'll post the card after I get it mailed). The others are some simple thank you cards.

Since we were preparing for a snow day, Tim made a loaf of bread in the bread maker. The house smelled wonderful. And I made a pot of soup. I tried a new recipe, and it's a keeper.

Beef Barley Soup

1/2 lb. ground beef

2 1/2 cups cold water

1 can diced tomatoes

3/4 cup sliced carrots

3/4 cup sliced mushrooms (or 1 can)

1/2 cup quick-cooking barely, uncooked (I used regular)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 lb. (8oz) velveeta, cut up (I used 2 cans of condensed cheese soup)

Brown the meat; drain. Stir in water, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms, barley, garlic and oregano.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover. Simmer 10 min. or until barely is tender.

Add velveeta; stir until melted.

I added the soup at the same time as the other ingredients and adjusted cooking time for the barley.

Snow

We woke up Wednesday morning to a little snow. It rained the rest of the day, so the snow melted quickly. The forecasts say we should get more snow today.

What I did last Saturday

Last Saturday I packed up all my (and my friend Judi's) scrapping supplies in the Forrester and we went to an all day crop. We had a blast. I only got 7 pages completed - I was hoping to do more - but I had to eat and visit with people. In the process of having all of this scrapping fun, I hurt my back. Probably had something to do with lifting a bazillion tons of supplies into the car and dragging it into the event center and then all back home again. I still need to take pictures of the pages I did so I can share them with you. I have a goal of 20 pages this month, so I need to get scrapping.

Birthday cards

Last Sunday I had some time to sit down and make some birthday cards. I was able to make all the cards I need for January with a few extra.

I used the same design for some big girl birthday cards and little girl birthday cards. I used an older set, Love Ya Bunches, because I love the saying - Happy bird-day to you. Isn't that cute? The first card is turquoise and old olive to match the ribbon with a splash of purely pomegranate. The second card is real red with turquoise and celery.

I also made a few guy cards - enough to get me through the year. I used my newest stamp set, Winds of Grace and manly colors of sage shadow, chocolate chip, close to cocoa and bordering blue. Now I need to make a bunch of boy cards - for little boys and teen boys.

Today I've been busy creating page kits so I am ready for an all day crop on Saturday. My friend Judi and I will be scrapping from 9am to 8pm. I am so excited to get some scrapping done.

For the New Year

Last week when I was at Target I picked up a couple of journals that I've covered. Both of them have a hot pink binding so I picked pattern papers to go with the binding. The large one will be my journal for the year. I think it still needs some embellishments - just don't know what yet. The smaller one will be for the books I've read. It should hold 2 years worth of books. I like to keep the title, author, copyright date, and date I've read the book along with a few notes on what the book was about. I also keep some lists of books to read, books to buy as gifts, books that have won awards, and books my book clubs are reading.

Cards

I got most of my Christmas cards sent out on Monday. I had the day off so I headed to the PO on their busiest day of the year. The line wasn't too long and the clerk was cheerful. I had to put extra postage on some of them, so I hope they all got to everyone all right. I have a few stragglers left to send out but I'm out of stamps at the moment.

I made two designs this year since I didn't have enough of the wild wasabi green paper to do them all in green. I used a new SU stamp set, Season of Joy, for both designs. The white card is made with some great linen texture paper that Tim brought home. I love making our cards every year so I hope everyone enjoys receiving them.

I also made a few gift tags to put on the few presents I have to wrap. I just used some scraps of card stock and the Season of Joy set and Ornassortment set from last years cards.

A New Holiday Tradition

Last year I found a easy microwave recipe for peanut brittle and have added making peanut brittle as my newest holiday tradition. I will confess that I tried making a batch on Sunday after I made the peanut clusters, but I burned it. Burnt sugar can sure stink up a house. I was off on Monday and did the last of my Christmas shopping and candy making. The bad part about having this yummy stuff in the house is that Tim just doesn't eat it and it's too cold and dark out to do much walking.

Peanut Brittle

1-1/2 cups of peanuts

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup white corn syrup

1/8 tsp. salt

1 tsp. butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

In a large microwave proof dish, stir peanuts, sugar, corn syrup and salt. Cook 8 minutes on high. Stir well after 4 minutes. (Be sure to keep an eye on it.)

Stir in butter and vanilla. Microwave on high 2 more minutes.

Add baking soda and quickly stir until light and foamy.

Immediately pour onto a lightly greased sheet and spread out thinly. When cool, break into small pieces.

Now it's Christmas

I made peanut clusters today. It's a traditional family holiday treat at the Holles house. Mom usually sends me some, but this year she is taking it easy. I called her this morning to see if she had Grandma Holles' "official" recipe. We decided it's 2 parts chocolate chips to 1 part butterscotch chips. I have all of Grandma's recipes in a box, and I'll have to dig out the recipe and see if we got it right.

I used 1 package semisweet chips and half a package of butterscotch chips, which I melted in the microwave. Then I added most of a jar of dry roasted peanuts - Tim managed to eat some of the peanuts. I think Grandma used Spanish peanuts in hers, but I don't like them. I made one large sheet of clusters. I even have Grandma's large old jelly roll pans. Lots of good memories with peanut clusters.

And now it feels like Christmas. And yes, there will be a scrapbook page to come.

What's the temperture you ask?

Well, it was 80 degrees out yesterday. Last night we slept with the bedroom window open - which wasn't great for my sinuses. It doesn't seem right to have the Albemarle Christmas parade when it's 80 degrees, but they did. I didn't go to the parade, I went over to my friend Judi's house instead. I wasn't very inspired to stamp so I worked on this pine cone Christmas ornament. It's a fussy little project, and I probably won't make any more. The base is a 3 inch Styrofoam ball. Pieces of pattern paper are cut 1 inch by 2 inches and folded into triangles and then attached with straight pins (a thimble is a must). I'm happy with how it turned out. And now there is an ornament hanging on our tree.

Happy Anniversary

Today Tim and I are celebrating our 14th anniversary. I have to say, they've been 14 great years, and I wouldn't have wanted to do them without him. Tim isn't a big sweets eater, but he does love cheesecake so this morning I made one. I got the recipe from the Keebler Ready Crust label.

Fluffy Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie

2 pkg. (8oz ea.) cream cheese, softened

2/3 c. sugar

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

2 eggs

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin

1 extra serving size graham cracker pie crust

Beat ingredients together until smooth. Pour into crust. bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Cool for one hour on wire rack. Refrigerate at least 3 hours.

I also made the card for him this morning. I think I need some more masculine stamp sets. I used the Big Pieces and Little Pieces stamps sets and the Rough Edges Alphabet to stamp the greeting. The paper colors are True Thyme, Close to Cocoa, Marigold Morning and Very Vanilla, and the ink colors are Basic Brown and True Thyme. It's a very simple card accented with a silver metal tag and brad and some True Thyme ribbon.

Happy Anniversary Honey!

'Tis the Season

It's early Sunday morning and I'm up, laying on the couch looking at the Christmas tree. I guess I've caught up on my sleep from our trip to South Dakota for Thanksgiving week. I put the tree up yesterday afternoon while Tim was outside painting one of his bikes. Tree stands must require a Y chromosome for assembly because I just couldn't get the thing together without Tim coming in to give assistance. This year we just put light on, no ornaments, and it is sitting in the corner by the fireplace and front window so people can see the lights from the street. We had to run to Lowes to get a new string of lights. I found a tree skirt on sale while I was there. It is made of felt, so it coordinates with the stocking my Mom made us - only it's not as nice as the stockings. Riley and Tarzan enjoy playing under the tree. I still need to decorate the mantle, but the stockings are hung. We also need to put the lighted garland on the front porch, but I do have the wreath hanging outside.

I've been busy making my Christmas cards. I had to make two styles this year because I didn't have enough green paper to make enough cards of one style. I'm almost done, I have some cutting to do and stamping the envelopes. Then I have a few gifts that I would like to make.

I hope everyone else is having a good holiday season.