Merry Christmas!

We are off to Spokane to visit my family for a week. We're looking forward to seeing everyone, and to some hopeful rest and relaxation! Hope you all have a blessed Christmas!

Here's our little table top tree!

Here's the old gate and picket fence Pete put up for me (he had originally just did the gate with our wedding photos...as an anniversary gift for me)...but I decided it would be a great place to display all our Christmas cards and photos this year! 

Some Femininity...

Here are some "feminine" birthday cards I made recently to sell at my parent's store (ok, not overly feminine by any means...that's just not how I roll, but meaning for gals, not guys:o))

Cupcake from My Mind's Eye

Blue patterned paper from My Mind's Eye

"Celebrate" die cut from My Mind's Eye

Stars are fussy cut from Echo Park's "Little Boy" paper

Fiskars border punch

Red baker's twine from Paper Trey Ink

"Happy Birthday" stamp from Paper Trey Ink

Photo corner punch from Stampin' Up!

Happy Day die cut from My MInd's Eye

"It's your day" sticker from Jillibean Soup

Birds fussy cut from Hobby Lobby patterned paper

Clouds fussy cut from Echo Park paper

Blue ribbon from Doodlebug

Cream rick rack from Close to My Heart

Blue polka dot scalloped die cut from Jillibean Soup

Yellow bird circle fussy cut from patterned paper (Cosmo Cricket)

Blue flower sticker from K & Co. 

Striped and Orange Dot  paper from Echo Park

"Happy Bird-Day Stamp" from A Muse Stamps

Multi colored polka dot paper from American Crafts

Pink polka dot paper from My Mind's Eye

Blue Star paper from Jillibean Soup

"Dream" die cut from Jillibean Soup

Cupcake sticker from Doodlebug

Two flower stickers and "happy birthday" stickers from Doodlebug

Multi polka dot paper from American Crafts

Blue polka dot from Authentique

Yellow paper from American Crafts (Amy Tangerine line)

Green paper from Authentique

Blue with green dot paper from K & Co.

Orange dot paper from Echo Park

Small butterfly sticker from K & Co.

Eggs...Finally!

As I shared in the spring HERE, we are backyard chicken owners...and our 3 chickens have started laying eggs. It took 6 months of waiting (actually not that long), but aren't they pretty? (and yummy too!)

All 3 girls are laying...(we get at least 2 eggs everyday). The green eggs are from the speckled Ameraucana and the brown ones are from the Rhode Island Red and the Black Sex Link.

Some Starry Thanks!

Here are a couple new thank you cards I recently made...

Yellow and Blue Patterned Paper-American Crafts (Amy Tangerine line)

Stars fussy cut from Echo Park "Little Boy" paper

"Thanks" stamp from Studio G/Hampton Art

Twine from PaperTrey Ink

Border Punch-Fiskars

Stars fussy cut from Echo Park "Little Boy" paper

Yellow patterned paper from American Crafts

All other patterned paper from Bella Blvd "Finally Fall" line

"Thanks" stamp from Studio G/Hampton Art

Twine from PaperTrey Ink

4 More Christmas Cards to Share...

As promised, here are a few more Christmas cards to share with you...these aren't quite as "cutesy"...but a bit more on the elegant side (I guess?). 

Each of these 4 cards are made with my "leftover" scraps from the Jillibean Soup "Christmas Eve Chowder" stuff I made for Craft Warehouse.

I would not have thought of using a butterfly on a Christmas card, but fellow design team member Andrea did that on one of the cards she created, and I loved it, so thought I would try it. I just wrapped the middle with some red twine. 

This one is super similar to the one I made for Craft Warehouse, but I love the simple design, and decided to make another one. This time I added tiny "bling" to the trees and stamped the sentiment (from Studio G/Hampton Arts).

This one is really similar to the card fellow CW Design Team member Gina Hanson created. I actually like her card more...but I decided to just let mine be:o). The sentiment stamp is from Studio G/Hampton Arts (can find it in Craft Warehouse's $1 bins right now!!!)

The ribbon on this one is from American Crafts.

A Card-Making Weekend & Some Cute Christmas Cards

This long Thanksgiving weekend, I have been on a card-making mission to re-stock my parent's jewelry store with the handmade cards I sell there...my mom called me a few weeks ago, and said they were running really low on some (which is awesome because it means they're selling!:o))...and so I made a bunch. 

Since Christmas is just around the corner....here's some "cute" Christmas card inspiration for you...

Everything here is Doodlebug (the paper and sticker are from the new Santa's Workshop collection), except the stamp (which is Studio G/Hampton Arts)

Red and blue paper and elf sticker are from Doodlebug's Santa's Workshop collection

Green paper is from Authentique

Stamp is from Studio G/Hampton Arts

Paper, sticker and green ribbon from Doodlebug (older collection)

Patterned Paper is from My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas Collection

Penguin is fussy cut from Jillibean Christmas Eve Chowder paper

Ribbon is from Doodlebug

Stamp is from Studio G/Hampton Arts

*Tomorrow I'll have 4 more Christmas cards to show you*

Our Thanksgiving

Pete's mom always come over for Thanksgiving...and in the past we've done various things (sometimes maybe a bit unconventional..soup anyone?;o)), but never as full-blown or "fancy" of a dinner as we did yesterday. Because Pete and I went to our friend Denece's cooking class last month (she is such an awesome cook!) and she showed us some easy, yummy side dishes, we decided we could do it this year. So yesterday Pete (the head chef) and I (the sous chef) slaved away in the kitchen all morning and afternoon long and made: Turkey (in a crockpot (thanks for the suggestion Mom!!)...and it was fabulous...so moist and yummy!!! See recipe below), dressing with sausage, apples and cranberries, cranberry sauce, sweet potato biscuits, garlic mashed potatoes and gravy and pumpkin cake. 

Carol (Pete's mom) provided the cute "turkey" place cards...

(stamps and dies by Paper Trey Ink--she's a Paper Trey junkie:o))

I added our names using my Cricut machine.

SLOW COOKER TURKEY 

(using 6 lb turkey breast--perfect for small family)

Layer bottom of crockpot with 3 cut up celery stalks, one diced sweet yellow onion, 1/4 cup chicken broth and 1/2 Tbsp minced garlic. Rinse turkey and pat dry. Cut off any excess skin, but leave skin covering the breast. Rub 1 packet dry onion soup mix all over the outside of turkey and under the skin. Put in crockpot. Drizzle with 1 Tbsp melted butter. Cover. Cook on high for 1 hour...then on low for 7 hours. 

A Couple Christmas Multi-Photo Layouts

Here are two more of the layouts that I made at the retreat (again, quite a few photos on these too). I obviously have a thing for kraft paper;o).

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Both of these were made with Echo Park's new Christmas line. 

The alphas are Thickers from American Crafts.

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And some close-ups...

A Couple Multi-Photo Layouts

As promised, I wanted to share a couple more layouts I finished at the retreat that each had quite a few photos on them. Although I prefer making layouts with 1-3 photos, there are just some occasions where you have more photos than that. 

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These photos were from Ellie's (last year's) preschool field trip to the Farmstead Pumpkin patch. I love the look of banners, and with this many photos decided to keep it nice and simple with a bunch of hand-cut banners at the bottom. I really like using foam mounting tape behind plain old stickers (these were from the dollar bin at Target) to give them dimension. The cute little pumpkin is a "doodle pop" from Doodlebug's Halloween collection. 

(DOUBLE CLICK ON PHOTO TO VIEW LARGER)

While we're not big Halloween fans, we do help out at our school's Trunk R Treat event (these photos were from last year too), and so I was able to use a few more "pieces" from Doodlebug's Halloween collection (they make Halloween "cute", which is right up my alley:)). I used my the "Cuttin' Up" Cricut cartridge to make the title letters. 


Also...I have to admit that this is the first time in a very long time (other than the very first 6x6 baby scrapbook I made when Ellie was born) that I have used my own handwriting on my pages. I just never liked how my handwriting looked...I always thought the computer fonts looked so much better and more professional. BUT I didn't have a computer at the retreat, and I really wanted to complete the pages I was doing...so I bit the bullet, and just did it. Do I absolutely love it? No, but it looks better than I thought it would, and it was very liberating, and I think Ellie will appreciate having some pages that have my handwriting on them, making them a bit more personal.

A quick simple layout...and a lesson learned

A couple weeks ago, I got to go to an awesome Scrapbook Retreat in Cascade, Idaho. It was so much fun, and despite the fact that I had just taken a bad fall and fractured my tailbone and the doctor said I probably shouldn't go...I still went, and I'm so glad I did! (my tailbone is healing just fine despite the trip and I got quite a bit of scrapbooking done---I'm now caught up till the end of LAST year).  

Here is one I was able to get done that came together very quickly...

A  Lesson Learned from this Layout:

I've had this photo of Ellie and Loretta sitting in my photo stash for over a year now, and didn't really know how I wanted to use it because although it represents her first day of preschool last year, it didn't really "exude" that moment...so I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to journal. Then, during the retreat when I was going through my stash of embellishments, I found this "wish" rub-on...and the journaling just flowed from that. Thus, I learned that just because a photo is from a particular moment or occasion, you don't have to necessarily scrapbook it or journal it that way. 

NEXT UP--Many multi-photo layouts! In the next few days, I will be sharing the other layouts I completed during the retreat...all of them have multiple photos on them. 

Two Super Quick Cards...

My stepdad called me the other day and said that he needed me to make him a sympathy card to send to a customer, so within 20 minutes, I whipped up these two cards (so he could have a choice between masculine and feminine). I've basically done the tree one before (just a little different), but the butterfly one is new. 

I really like the way they turned out for how quick they were to make...and well, I guess I just like the look of simple cards too!

Craft Warehouse "Crate Paper" Assignment

This is my third assignment for the Craft Warehouse Design Team. This time we used Crate Paper's Farmhouse Collection...a really cute fall line. Here's the layout I made...

it was a great way to showcase a few of the photos from our recent trip to one of the local apple orchards. 

Then we also needed to make a plaque using some vinyl lettering. My friend Erica gave me the awesome idea to use the lettering as a stencil and try a crackle technique on the plaque. 

I started out by painting the plain wooden plaque a cream color (with Delta Ceramacoat Acrylic Paint). Then I used the vinyl "HOME" lettering that Craft Warehouse sent me. Next I applied the Delta Crackle Medium, and then a coat of brown acrylic paint. After it dried I pulled up the vinyl letter and viola....

I've never done crackling before, but it was easy, and I'm really happy with the way the plaque turned out.

Again...all the papers, die cuts, stickers, buttons and brads are from Crate Paper. I had never made these cute simple flowers before, but I just used varied sizes of circles, scrunched them up for some dimension and layered them (on couple of the pieces I cut out a few notches). So easy and so cute...now I can't wait to try this on cards and layouts. The leaves were also hand cut from the patterned paper and scrunched. 

Harvest and Halloween Fun!

It's been a few weeks since I've posted...and we've been pretty busy and life's been a little crazy.

Here are a  few photo highlights....

A couple weeks ago (wow, has that much time passed already?) I volunteered to be a chaperone on Ellie's preschool field trip to the Pumpkin Patch, and was in charge of this sweet trio of girls...Aviyanah (Avi for short), Ellie and Tillie. Check out those cute little pumpniks (that's what we call little pumpkins!).

Last Tuesday night, my friend Steph (far right) hosted a very fun "Witches Hat" party for a group of her friends...which basically meant we had to wear a witches hat (or a pirates hat?:o)) and she fed us some yummy food, and we got to visit! It was really fun...oh yeah, except for the fact that I look D-U-M ;o) in hats (as can be verified in the above photo---ugh!). Oh well...isn't Steph's little red poodle Jack the cutest thing ever (he's actually "posing").  

See these cool finger cookies Steph she made us...they were actually quite (freakishly!) delicious (the red fingernail is an almond sliver YUM YUM!!). 

Ellie's school sponsored a Trunk R Treat in the school parking lot, so the kids could come "trick or treat "at all the trunks and then go play games too. With much help from our incredibly talented and artistic friend Annie we made even cooler modifications to our last year's design of the  "MONSTER TRUCK" and ended up with this monstrosity this year!! We ended up winning the BEST DECORATED TRUNK award too (pretty cool!)

And this cute litte "Hindian " is Ellie wearing the cute outfit my mom bought her back from a recent trip to India (a new, probably not very politically correct word I made up when I was trying to explain to someone that she was an Indian-but Hindu (as in not a native American)). It was a slip of the tongue, but actually kind describes her well...Hindian...it might catch on? or not? The fact that the top didn't exactly fit her the best (a bit "bunchy" in places) and that we couldn't figure out the floppy pants (still don't know what those were all about---they had the hugest waist ever and nothing to secure them with---because what we thought was a belt was super short, so we used it in her hair instead:o)) Ingenious right?;o)) So though definitely not perfect in costume with capri leggings and flip flops and unique "headpiece", she still made a mighty cute little something:o).  Way cuter than I ever was as a ghost or a hobo (which I truly think was all I ever was in my 10 or so years of trick or treating;o)).

Well....anyway, I hope you all had a happy harvest, happy fall, Happy Halloween, or whatever you called it. Though personally not a fan of some of the evil, gore and scariness that goes along with Halloween, I  definitely appreciate the family fun aspect of this cooler, beautiful autumn season....such as pumpkin patches, corn mazes, hay rides, harvest carnivals, apple cider and hot cocoa, carving pumpkins, decorating with the beautiful white ghost pumpkins, and ummm, I've been known to enjoy candy too. Hope you had a chance to enjoy a few of those things also:o)))).

Apple Yumminess!

Ok, so speaking of apples (see last post), I found a new recipe that is super yummy! 

(It comes from another one of Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen murder mysteries...I love those books!). Our neighbor Courtney and I made them on Monday night, and we all loved them! (Pete even had the brilliant idea to try putting a little caramel sauce over them, and that made them even better!)

APPLE ORCHARD BARS

-Prehat oven to 375 degrees-rack in middle position-

1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

2 beaten eggs (beat them with a fork in a glass)

1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal (not the quick-cooking kind)

1 cup peeled and chopped apple (I used a little more)

2 cups flaked coconut

1-1/2 cups flour (not sifted)

Melt butter, add the sugars and stir. Add baking soda, salt, baking powder, vanilla, cinnamon, and beaten eggs. Mix well. Then add chopped apple and 1-1/2 cups flaked coconut (reserve 1/2 cup for on top). Add the flour and mix it all thoroughly.

Grease a 9x13" cake pan. Spoon the dough in and smooth it with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle the 1/2 cup coconut you reserved evenly on top.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until slightly browned on top.

Let cool and cut into bars like brownies. ENJOY!

Ok, yeah, yeah...we'd already eaten almost half the pan when I thought to take a photo...but this way you can see "inside":o)

Apple Pickin'

A group of us from church were supposed to go out apple picking last Thursday, but because of rain and cold, most of us backed out. I was super disappointed because I love apple picking (and I really wanted to get some photos for my next scrapbook design team assignment:o))...and Sunday was a beautiful day here in Boise, so I talked Pete into going apple picking that evening. We trekked out to Emmett (about 45 minutes away) to Tyler's Rocky Point Orchard and picked ourselves about 15 lbs of DELICIOUS apples...seriously delicious, as in old-fashioned red delicious and gold delicious (and only had to pay $6--what a BARGAIN!)

We also tried our hand at taking some family photos (via the camera's self-timer)!  We had a great time, and now I have a lot of apples to use up (I will soon be making lots of apple pie filling to freeze, and maybe some homemade apple sauce). 

This is the little orchard we went to.

Yeah, for clarification, he was making that face on purpose...:o)

Ellie power-lifting our bucket of apples.

The two kinds of apples we picked.

What a good little picker (and stretcher)!

YUM-MO!

Pete's idea of apple humor;o)

The only good family photo we got (meaning, the only one where Ellie's eyes weren't closed or hugely open and Pete wasn't sticking his tongue out)

(Red) DEEEE-Licious!