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Saturday, June 25, 2011

Quick Update...

Well, this is what my stamp room looks like right now.... yikes!


Everything in our house was packed up on Friday - now we're hanging out here this weekend until the moving company comes Monday morning to load everything into the truck! We hit the road for Atlanta on Tuesday morning, and we'll be making a little vacation of it with a stop in Florida along the way.

Friday was also a special day - my son graduated from preschool! I can't believe Carter will be starting kindergarten soon, where has the time gone??


Thanks for sticking with me here while I'm without my stamps...!!

Take care,

Thursday, June 23, 2011

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #87

Hi there! Would you believe I stamped? To be honest, I can't. HA! Movers come on Friday and as of Wednesday night, I still haven't figured out what I'm letting them pack vs what I'm packing myself. Oops! (*Can anyone say PROCRASTINATION??*) But anyway, this week's Play Date Cafe colors were too lovely and the goodies from Stampendous too wonderful not to find some time to stamp!!


I was primarily inspired by the image in the lower left corner of Jax's fabby color story when making this card. I got out my beloved Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints and played with the background. Have I mentioned lately how much I adore those paints??? Well I do. I used a gorgeous Dragonfly Vine image from Stampendous, but sadly it's sooooo hard to get a decent photo of it. I embossed it in glitter EP and it just doesn't want to play nice with my camera! Here's a close-up, but still hard to see...


Jax's color story this week could also make for a fantastic July 4th card, I'm thinkin'!


A huge thanks to Stampendous for sponsoring this week's challenge!


Now head on over to the Play Date Cafe blog to check out what my teammates created with these colors, meet our guest designer, see last week's winner list and find out about this week's fabby prize!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

And the winner is...

A great big huge thanks to all of you who left fantastic packing & moving tips for me - I appreciate it so much!! I'm still in the thick of it - the movers arrive this Friday, yikes!

As for the goodies... I just used random.org and had something happen that I've never had happen before... it actually came back with #1! Which was Mary Dawn, yay! MD, I'll get your goodies in the mail to you asap.

Thanks everyone,

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Moving! Purging! GIVING STUFF AWAY!

Hi friends! I just realized that as of today I am only TEN DAYS away from having a moving company pack up my entire house!! EEEK! We've been planning this move for so long, it hasn't felt real. Now it feels VERY real. I need to start organizing and packing my stamp cave soon! And to help with that effort, I need to purge some things that won't be making the trip with me to Atlanta, like these...


Want this stuff??? If so, just leave me a comment and I'll put your name in the hat. If you've ever packed up and moved your crafting supplies in the past, I'd love to hear any tips you may have! I'll be pulling the winner on Sunday night, June 19, at 9pm CST.

And... as I mentioned, we are Atlanta-bound. Is anyone out there in the Atlanta area? I am looking for people to craft with! :-)

Trying not to panic or stress out in Texas,

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Guest Designing with All Things Unity!!

I'm so excited and honored to be spending June as a guest of the All Things Unity blog! Yay!! I whipped up this sweet little card for Dad for my first project...


The theme for ATU#33 is to Get Manly! Break out your Unity stamps and create a card for one of the guys in your life!


I don't own a ton of manly Unity stamps, but I thought this sweet dad & son image would make a great Father's Day card from Carter. I used a Unity woodgrain background as well - first I painted some green paint from Plaid on the cardstock, then covered the stamp itself with blue paint and stamped. Why paint, you ask? Because Plaid is sponsoring the challenge this week! These AWESOME goodies will go to the winner!!


So head on over to the All Things Unity blog and play along with us!! I cannot wait to see what you create! And a HUGE thanks to Sara for inviting me to join them this month!

Monday, June 6, 2011

Carter Getting Crafty - Children's Challenge #22

Yesterday Carter was hanging out in my room while I was stamping, and wanted to work on a project too. He mentioned wanting to make a card with bugs on it, and then he remembered the Children's Challenge Corner, which he had played in the past. So we hopped on over there for a look, and would you believe - the challenge this week is insects?!?! How crazy is that??? So of course Carter had to make a card!


I have a set of bug stamps that would have been perfect, but alas they are packed away. Instead, Carter chose to draw some bugs of his own. Which I have to admit, I prefer anyway. I love his drawings. :-) The spider he drew is of course the cutest spider I've ever seen - and how about that orange head on that ladybug (who has about a zillion legs) - love it!!

Here's my boy hard at work, sitting on the floor next to my desk...


And proud of his finished work.


Thank you to Emma, Anna, Ethan, Aaron and Owen for another fun challenge!


And thanks for stopping by today!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Follow the Recipe #13!

Today is the day Linda posts her Top Chef Quickfire for the Follow the Recipe challenge, and as usual, I am a bit late! Eep! Good thing Linda is the nicest stamper on the planet and puts up with me!! (I promise it will be better once we move, Linda! Really!!) Ok now that my apologies are out of the way, here's what I made:


Don't bicycles just equal happy summer?? In my book they do! And I've been wanting to play with my sweet little Three Bikes set from Hero Arts - I just love ALL of their bike stamps, yay! I used some cloud paper from American Crafts in the background, although I covered it quite a bit. But this card just makes me want to ride a bike on a sunshiny summer day!

You know who else likes riding her bike on a sunshiny day? My sweet little girl. She got her very first big girl bike this past week!


Look at her go!


For my card, I was inspired by several things from our fabby recipe from Jessica.


  • Colors – red, blue, and yellow
  • Color Mediums – stamp ink
  • Embellishments – twine/hemp rope, buttons
  • Tools – distress tools
  • Techniques – distressing
  • Theme – summer
Have you ever played the Follow the Recipe challenge? It's easy peasy, here's a rundown of the rules, copied from Linda's blog:
  1. Use any of the ingredients (themes, colors, techniques, shapes, etc.) in Jessica's recipe to make your project. Just pick a few ingredients and then add your own spices to cook up something uniquely yours.
  2. Add your project using the InLinz (froggy) button and join the party.
  3. Be sure to list your recipe or tell us what ingredient you used from the sample recipe.
  4. Don't forget to link back to this post or include the "I Followed the Recipe" button on your blog (see the side bar to the right).
I hope you'll play along with us this week! There's still a few days to get in on the action! Entries are accepted until Thursday June 9 at 8pm CST. Visit the challenge here!

Happy Stamping!


  • Stamps: LP202 Three Bikes, CL492 Typewriter Letters from Hero Arts
  • Paper: SU Yoyo Yellow, American Crafts (clouds) & Jillibean Soup (red)
  • Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
  • Accessories: staples, button, twine, scissors for distressing edges

Just for fun - our Irish dinner!

On Friday Joel and I had a rare kid-free night out at a place we'd never been - The Emerald Restaurant. It's a tiny little Irish restaurant, run by the sweetest family. Joel and I got to relive a little bit of our trip to Ireland back in 2005, when I was pregnant with Carter. Actually, here's a little known fact - Carter's middle name is Sean. We wanted him to have an Irish middle name, since he traveled there "with" us. :-)

The restaurant may make actual Irish people groan - the decorations were rather stereotypical with shamrocks and leprechauns and whatnot, but it was fun nonetheless. I mean just look at it, isn't it cute?


The restaurant is in a house that was built quite far from downtown Austin back in the 1920s. The family turned it into a restaurant in 1984. The interior is small and cozy, with wood beams on the ceilings and creaky floors and everything. And Irish lace. LOTS of Irish lace!

We were sitting near the harp. Would you believe we heard him play a little Metallica? ON A HARP?


Dinner was something else - the owner brought out a **ginormous** tray of food and divided it tableside onto our plates. Here's the description of our dinner from their website:

You will start out with a basket of Irish Soda Bread and strawberry butter which is followed by our creamy Irish Potato Soup. Then a fresh Garden House Salad which has our Homemade Irish Red Dressing upon it. Then your server will present your Chateaubriand Beef Tenderloin to you and your guest which is accompanied by an assortment of fresh vegetables. For your desert, you will have our Irish Whiskey Cake.

And our Chateaubriand course. Just one plate was enough for two!


Dessert was a super moist and super sweet whiskey cake.


Look how they packaged up the leftovers, too sweet!


This isn't a place we'd probably ever go more than once, it was quite expensive and we only tried it thanks to a Groupon. But it was fun to visit, and to reminisce about our trip. If you're at all curious, I did a scrapbook about our trip a while back which can be viewed here.

And before I go - a photo of me from 2005, at one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, the Cliffs of Moher, on the western coast of Ireland. **sigh**


I'm secretly hoping the next time I eat an "authentic" Irish dinner, it's in the dining room of my friend Heather's house! Hmm, I wonder if she knows that... hee hee

Thanks for stopping by today. (and humoring me!) :-)

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #84

Sweet Ruby came up with a really pretty color story this week for the Play Date Cafe Challenge! I pulled out some Hero Arts goodness to play with it...


I used my favorite CG134 Large Flower (aka the big ass flower, heh!) and colored it in with Copics. I couldn't resist adding Stickles and beads!

Here's Ruby's color story. So pretty!


This week's fabby sponsor at the Cafe is Mark's Finest Papers!


Be sure and stop by the Play Date Cafe site for all the contest details, and to see what my wonderful teammates came up with! They are so mega-talented, I love them to pieces!

Thanks for stopping by today!


  • Stamps: CG134 Large Flower, CG286 Three Leaves, CL489 Yummy Treats from Hero Arts
  • Paper: SU gray, GP white, My Mind's Eye DP
  • Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
  • Accessories: Star Dust Stickles, pink beads, machine stitching

What's Cookin' Wednesday - Banana Muffins!

Remember when I used to post recipes on Wednesdays? Thought it was about time I post another one! But first, a card...


I thought this Wee Henry Cuppie digi image from Hambo Stamps was perfect, because the recipe I'm about to post is one that Carter and I whipped up together yesterday afternoon! It's so much fun cooking with my kids, they get so excited about the simplest things. Like "I get to dump the flour into the bowl?? WOOHOO!!". Wouldn't it be nice to still find such joy in the little things?

Speaking of joyful things - today the new Hambo Stamps design team, aka the Bacon Bits, are being introduced on Monica's blog. AND, they have their debut on the Hambo Hoedown, sharing some *adorable* new digi images. Make sure & check it out! My card today's fits this week's Hoedown challenge too - I used a button!

And now on to the recipe - this is one I doctored to make a bit more healthy. Next time I make them I'm going to try subbing the refined sugar with honey - do you ever bake with honey? Do you have any other suggestions to up the health-factor in these muffins? The kids love them as-is, and they are the pickiest eaters on the planet so I have to be a little careful. But maybe I'll add some sort of veggie puree next time too. Maybe sweet potato! :-)



BANANA MUFFINS
---------------------
1 c wheat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 c sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 c unsweetened applesauce

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease muffin pan.


In medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In separate bowl combine banana, sugar, egg, vanilla, applesauce and cinnamon. Mix well. Slowly add dry mixture to banana mixture. Mix well.


Scoop batter into prepared muffin pan. Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool.


Makes 12 muffins.


I plugged this recipe into My Fitness Pal, and it says each muffin has 84 calories, 1g fat, 19g carbs and 2g protein.


Happy stamping, AND baking! :-)

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