It's Friday!

This week has gone so fast - being a short one, thank goodness! I'm so looking forward to the weekend. I'm tired of dealing with stuff and trying to work along with everything else. We finally got our hot water heater fixed. So, I went to do a load of laundry last night - washing machine didn't work. This happened the other day and I checked the fuses because and couldn't get it to work, so called an electrician. It turned out it was a fuse - in a different fuse box that I didn't even know about and I've lived in this house for 10 years! So, now it's not working again and I called the electrician out again because there has to be some reason that the fuse is blowing. He's on his way to look at it now and I may have to replace the fuse box. Lovely - more stamping money down the drain!

So, here's the card I made last night instead of doing laundry. I used this week's sketch challenge and color challenge. And, I used my new crafty secrets A Bug's Life stamps. This little guy reminds me of Willy Wonka - the Gene Wilder version. I think it's the top hat. Anyway, I think he's so cute! I cheated a little and used close to cocoa for the card base because I didn't have enough paper of any of the colors. I used my cuttlebug to emboss the sage layer and then inked it with sage, too. I'm not sure who makes the dp - maybe my minds eye - I'm pretty sure I got it at hobby lobby. I haven't put a sentiment on yet. I will probably just put it inside the card because I kind of like the card the way it is.

Yawn, stretch

Ugh - I didn't sleep well last night! Kai didn't go to sleep until almost 10:00! He must have had a nap at daycare. I sit on the stairs and read until he goes to sleep. So, all of the lovely cards I was going to make last night will just have to stay in my head until later. I did want to make something for the TCPTUES09 challenge. So, I went into my craft room with the intention of making a simple card using the cat's pajamas stamps with the challenge colors: orange, yellow and white. Well, I looked at my small collections of CP stamps - having a pow wow, it's a western thing and mod, mod world. I thought that indians would go best with the earthy oranges and yellows. So, I started by stamping sprinkle, poochie and their teepees. Then I began working on the background. I colored poochie a river, and gave them a campgroun area. I wanted to add some rocky cliffs and then I decided to add a foreest across the river as well. All said, after sponging in the sky, I finished my "simple" card at around 11:40. Well, it takes me a while to unwind after working on my crafts, so I went into the living room and watched tv for a while. Then I went up to my room and read for a while - I'm reading Duma Key, by Stephen King right now, BTW and it's awesome! Finally at around 1:00, when I still wasn't feeling sleepy, I decided to take a hot bath. Well, that did it. So, I finally got to sleep, but I was tired this morning! Kai and I both slept until my alarm went off - which hardley ever happens.

Yeah! Good grades from another kid!

I posted my congratulatory/proud of you card I made for my son last week. This one is for my dd, who also did well in school this semester.

I used wild wasabi for the card base, then summer sun and pumpkin pie, with the paisley cuttlebug embossing folder (my first time using that one). I cut the scallopped circles with my nesties and inked them. I added dots to all ala Markie's mom. I hope that she's flattered by my use of the dots rather than offended - now that I've started doing it, it seems that a card doesn't look "done" without them!

I didn't really forget to post my menus last week, I just didn't do well sticking to the plan the week Kai was gone. I knew I wouldn't. I have a mental block when it comes to cooking for just 2 people. Don't ask why - I used to do it all the time when I was first married, before kids. Also, our hot water heater went out over the weekend and it's finally getting fixed today, so we can now wash all the dishes that are piling up in the kitchen. I have bribed Gage with the promise of getting his gameboy back for a day (he's grounded from it), so the kitchen should be nice and clean when I get home. Anyway, here's my menu starting this evening:

Wed. Enchilada Pie - kind of like a mexican lasagne. Thurs. Veal Schnitzel, fried potatoes with onion and crockpot corn. Fri. Burgers, baked beans, applesauce salad and chips. Sat. Eat out. Sun. Abbey's Lemon Cream Chicken, Pull-apart bread, broccoli. Mon. Crockpot BBQ Cola Chicken, Corn on the Cob, Strawberries. Tues. Kids' eat free - eat out. Wed. Italian Crescent Casserole. Thurs. Pork Tenderloin, Mashed Potatoes, broccoli. Fri. Broccoli Cheese Soup.

Back Again!

I had a wonderful time by myself this weekend! I got a lot done. Gage was bored on Friday, so what did he do?? He ate - I mean he ate about everything in the house! So, I made him this summer fun kit. When it's rainy, like it has been, he'll have something to do. It has a model car kit, puzzle books, a book mark, a waterbottle, a small can of pringles and a snack size baggie of chex mix. I told him that those were his snacks and if he wants something else, we have fruit.

This is my first time using this high hopes stamp. It was a lot of fun. I made the rainbow with a water color pen - not exactly art, but it's cute! I sponged the sky and used copics to color the image. I kept the mat and the card simple because there is so much detail in the image.

Another high hopes stamp - this little giraffe is So cute! The vines and leaves are from clear dollar stamps. The dp is summer days from SU, the mats are real red and the card base is bashful blue. I cased the layout from Pickle Tree at SCS. I thought it worked well for this image and if I want to add a sentiment at the bottom later, that would work, too.

We had some very stormy weather all weekend. I spent time on the phone with my parents, who had Kai, while they were in the basement, riding out a tornado. Luckily, they had no damage and no injuries. The worst of the storms, thankfully, missed them and us.

Gearing up

That's right - I'm gearing up for a 3 day weekend!!! Woo hoo! Tonight I'm taking Gage to his dad's for the weekend (he'll come back Sunday) and Kai's not coming home until Sunday either, which means I have ALL DAY Saturday as "no mommy time". Is it horrible that I'm so excited about that? LOL! Who needs a vacation when you can have "no mommy time" at home?? I threw in a load of laundry before I left so that I won't have to worry about anything on Saturday, I can just have fun!

I made this card for my friend, Christi's dd, who is graduating from 8th grade. Her school colors are maroon and gold (YUK), so I decided to just make a card I thought she would like. She likes brown and pink together, so I thought this cosmo cricket dp would be perfect - and it's so cute with the owl from CHF I give a hoot, don't you think? The base of the card is made with ruby red, topped with a mat of choc. chip. All of the other papers are from the cosmo cricket pack. I colored Mr. Owl with copics and gave him (ok, maybe little miss owl) stardust brown eyeliner. I used my ticket punch on all the corners and made dots with my white signa and brown su marker ala Markie's mom. I'm not sure what brand the brown and white ribbon is. I think it turned out to be a pretty cute card and I think Taylor will really like it.

Sometimes you're the bug!

This is just a really simple card I made this morning for my best friend. Cathie and I have been best friends since I moved to St. John, KS in 2nd grade. We've been through all of lifes changes in the last 29 years and we've always been there for each other. She's hit one of those little speed bumps in the road of life where life's littles issue seem to just keep coming at you all at once. So, I'm hoping this will cheer her up. She drove a light blue bug when we were in high school and this image brings back lots of good memories for me, so I hope they will for her as well.

I used pixie pink for the card base. It matched the pink flowers on the carolee's creations dp perfectly, unfortunately, once I got the image on there, you can't see any pink flowers - oh well, it's still looks fun! I colored the image with copics and stardust pens.

I got an amazing new ice cream maker. I love homemade ice cream, but we never made it because it makes such a mess and is such a pain. Well, I bought a cuisinart ice cream maker that doesn't require salt or ice. You simply freeze the ice cream bowl (I plan to just store it in the freezer, at least during the summer) add the ingredients and in 25-30 minutes you have awesome homemade ice cream! Last night we tried it out for the first time, we had vanilla with chopped up pieces of snickers in it. It was wonderful! I'll have to call Gage and remind him not to eat it all today, as it was meant to be for dessert.

Sorry :)

I've done it again - this time you're going to be humming the theme from "I Dream of Jeannie" all day! This time it's not my fault, blame Carole at http://motherslittlehelper.typepad.com/ she hosted the TCPTUES challenge and it was to make a card inspired by a tv sitcom.

Although I'm sure no one really wants to know how to make this card, I'll post the recipe. OK, first you stamp the rocket, mask it with post its and stamp poochie inside. Then you stamp Sprinkle. Next you cut a piece of so saffron for her braids and using creamy caramel marker and so saffron marker draw her braids. Use pretty in pink to cut out her hat (fez, whatever it's called) and real red to color the accents on it. Use so saffron to make her ponytail and accent with so saffron marker to resemble hair. Her scarf and pants were cut (many times, trying to get it right) out of pretty in pink and the pants are accented with real red for the belt. Her "bustier" is done with a small hole punch. The bottle is cut freehand out of pretty in pink and then decorated with brilliant blue and pink passion. The pink cloud is also cut freehand and the title written in black. I sponged the bg to look like cocoa beach and put ol' major "poochie" Nelson right up in the sky.

Wwwwwizaaad

Everytime I see this stamp from doodle factory's fairy tale, I hear the word from that Alltel commercial "Wwwwwizaaad". LOL. I made this card for my 13 year old whiz kid, who made good grades despite many absences due to illness and numerous dr. apts and the fact that he hasn't felt well all semester. I was so tired last night after the seminar I went to yesterday, and I brought back sandwiches from Nuway (a great local restaurant in the town where I had the seminar) and ate too much. But, with no interruptions from the little guy - who's still at Grandma and Papa's I felt like I had to stamp. So, I made this little wizard. Then I couldn't figure out what to do with him. Usually, I pick my paper first then color my image to "go with" the paper. This time I just started coloring. And, I knew I wanted a little image to go in the corner over there, but didn't know WHAT I wanted. I thought about the frog from this set, but he was a little big and I know I have a small frog, but I couldn't remember what set he was from - guess my next project should be indexing my stamps. So, I left him, sat down to watch tv, thinking something might come to me and promptly fell aslep. Well, Wasabi thought it was playtime at about 5:30 this morning. I ignored it for a while, but couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up and decided to make something with this little guy. I remembered this cauldron from a set of 2 stamps I got for a $ at michael's and decided to use it as the accent in the corner. Then I chose the turquoise card base and colored the bubbling mess in the cauldron with a turquoise stardust pen. I made a black mat, and the brilliant blue swirly cuttlebugged background. I was wishing I had some silver ribbon, but had to settle for grey. Lastly, I added the little amuse eye candy stars. I was going to add a sentiment that said "congrat's whiz kid". But, I kind of liked it without the sentiment and I figured my 13-year old would think that was goofy anyway, so I left it off.

Happy Monday Morning!

My son says "Guess what? Chicken Butt!", so when I saw these stamps I had to get them. I love this DP by My minds Eye. The colors go great with SU cardstock colors. I chose certainly celery - inked with old olive, blue bayou and real red to go with it this time. I made the scallop circle with my nesties and popped the chicken's beak and waddle with small dimensionals and her "bootay" with thicker dimesionals from Hobby Lobby, so it "Sticks up" just a little more.

This card was made with Brilliant Blue, Summer Sun and Danny O DP. I sponged the edges of the cardstock with the same color ink. The Duck is from Clear Dollar Stamps Cute Critters set, the pom poms are from Clear Dollar Accessory Fun set and the skirt was handcut by me! I used silver hodgepodge hardware and inked the edges of the oval punch sentiment. I add the blue ribbon and it took me from wanting to toss this card in the trash to actually thinking it's pretty cute.

I have to go to a seminar for work this afternoon. The good news about this is that Kai went to my mom and dad's for the whole week. Because I wasn't going to be back in time to pick him up this evening and his school is closed on Friday. So, while I will miss him, I have the house all clean and it might just stay that way, so I can play!

TGIF!

Before I get to the cards I made last night, I want to call your attention to my new slide show. It shows pictures of my stampin' room. I'll start with the photo of my desk (the big black one with the hutch). I got my desk last year at office max. I keep my 8 1/2 x 11 paper in the slots of the hutch. My primas, hodgepodge hardware and punch boxes are on the shelf above. Going from left to right on my desk, is a 8x8 paper holder, two x boxes, which hold my copics, a little tower of drawers which hold my craft spot (each set fits perfectly in one drawer), water color pens, blending pens, etc, and all my sakura pens. The CD's will be moved - they are just the ones that won't fit in the cabinet of the hutch. The green boxes I got at Tuesday mornings. They hold new paper that I don't want to forget I have, tutorials I plan to use soon, all of my scissors, 6x6 pads, my cutting mats, embellishments and photos to be scrapped. Around the corner is a turning caddy I got at target. It holds my prisma pencils and craft knives. The little bin next to it is my storage for clear stamps. And, then of course, my stamp pad caddy.

Now going back to the left of my desk, is my cubes. The file drawer holds 12x12 paper (and it's clear full). I will use the 4 drawer set for cd cases of stamps. The 2 drawer cubes house my cricket cartridges, paper and scraps I use in the cricket machine. Just a sidenote - I've found that for the disney cartridges, which have tiny little parts, it's best to just use a pack of cheap cardstock that I got at hobby lobby. SU cardstock tends to tear. On top of the cubes is my cricket and my tv. The cube shelf houses various embellsihments and stuff for different projects. On top are sets of drawers that hold individual stamps, embossing supplies, sharpies, etc.

The next picture (sorry, it's a little blurry, it looked fine on the camera, I'll try to redo it this weekend) is of my ribbon storage and my photo bookshelf, which holds my bg stamps. The green chair is for either Kai or Wasabi, whoever is in there with me at the time.

My tall shelf hold albums, diecut supplies, Kai's bank :), and the big jar that I used to keep my ribbon in that now holds various junk. My black table is my diecutting station and just a clean space I can go to if I need the space. Gage sometimes sits there and does his homework while I play. The bookshelf next to it holds my personal filing system (for financial stuff etc), a spice rack of embellishments and various other things. The black shelf above it has foam stamps in the baskets and alphabet soup embellishments from KI.

The last photo is of my ribbon bulletin board. It has a window box feature that holds my chalks and my eyelets and brads. The round thing on the wall is an altered pizza pan with magnetic containers stuck to it. The frame is also a magnetic sheet. That's Kai laying on the floor in the hallway, waiting for me to hurry up and finish taking these photos so he can come in and mess up my room!
I made this card for my ex-husband's grandma. She loves birds. It was inspired by melissa1872, at SCS. I used pomegranite with basic grey papers and the bird and sentiment from pun fun. The bird was colored with copics.

This On the Fly card, was made for my brother in law. It is a gift card holder. I stamped the mellow moss cardstock with the fishing lure using bayou blue ink. The image is stamped in chocolate chip and handsome hunter. I colored the guy with copics and the water with a watercolor pen and cool carribean ink. I colored them and the trees with an embossing marker and embossed them. Next I used a brayer with close to cocoa for the shore and a combination of bashful blue and not quite navy for the sky. The image is mounted on creamy caramel cardstock. Inside, I made my own coin envelope out of not quite navy and stamped and embossed fish in mellow moss.

This card was a play on the TCPTues07 sketch. I decided to try it on a circle card. I used dream street dp and blue and green bazzill. The brads are hodgepodge hardware. The cowboy is from cat's pajama's Having a Pow Wow set. I colored him with copics.

Sorry, for such a long post today - what with all of the photos, plus the description of my room. If you have any questions, just leave them in the comment section!

WOW!

OK - Tracy at starvingartistamps.com took me at my word and used ALL my cards made with their stamps! You can see them posted here (scroll down, my name is Nancy French): http://www.starvingartistampsgallery.blogspot.com/

Kai took a nap at preschool yesterday - he's got a cold and has been doing that lately. So, I didn't get him to bed until about 9:30. I was tired, so I didn't get any projects made last night - did some organizing, but both the boys thought they needed to be in there with me, so I had to kind of work around them. Kai was playing with some blocks that I gave him from a couple of stamp sets and Gage was doing some make up work from art class. I still have some more reorganizing to do, hopefully I'll get it done tonight. If not, definitely over the weekend and will post pictures of my room by Monday.

I got some new stamps from clear dollar stamps - so cute! I have so many things I want to do running around in my head. I wish I could have taken the day off! I have a card in mind for the TCPTues challenge and another one using starvingartiststamps. Guess they'll have to wait until tonight.

What's for dinner Wednesday

WOW!! Last night was productive. I finished unmounting my stamps!!! Yeah! I can fit almost all of them in the cabinet of my desk hutch. Tonight I will work on organizing since I have 3 newly empty shelves and then I hope to post pictures of my craft room on here in the next week. But, for now here's the card I made last night. My friend Christie went to the zoo with her family for mother's day. She let her son pick out a tube of snakes for Kai. So, this is their "Thanksssss" note. I was trying to incorporate the TCPTues07 challenge (sketch) and the color challenge at SCS, which was Pumpkin Pie, Soft Sky and Ruby Red. I realized about halfway through that I was working with Bashful Blue and Real Red and I was using a high hopes stamp instead of a Cat's PJ's stamp! Oh, well. I like how it turned out anyway.

I colored the snake with copics and sponged him a bashful blue sky. I cut him out using my nestabilities then made him a mat (SU summer days dp)and a scallopped mat (real red) and stamped that with a stamp from SU Basic Backgrounds using white craft ink. The background is SU summer days dp and the dots on the corners are summer days stickers. The base of the card is pumpkin pie. I know I kind of described it backwards, but that's kind of how I "built" it!

I had two messages from Tracy at starvingartiststamps.com (they make those fabulous fairy tale stamps that I've been using lately, not to mention some other really cute stamps) asking if she could post a couple of my cards in her gallery. I wrote her back and told her that she could use any of my cards anytime she wanted! It just made my day!

Incidently, things have calmed down with my daughter for now. We are still concerned about her, but the situation seems to have been diffused. We are working on a permanent solution to the problem, so thank you for any who sent up prayers for us!

Oh - almost forgot to post this weeks menu. I made it up so quick this morning - there are two new recipes I'm trying and some very basic old stand bys. Kai will be staying at my mom and dad's next week because I have a seminar for work and his school is closed on Friday, so it's just me and Gage. I didn't plan anything for a couple of days, because I figured we'd either have leftovers or eat out, since it's only the two of us.

Sun: Abby's Lemon Cream Chicken, Caesar Salad, pull apart herb bread

Mon: Enchilada Pie

Tues: leftovers, frozen or eat out

Wed: Crockpot BBQ Cola Chicken, mashed pot., and corn

Thurs: leftovers, frozen or eat out

Fri: Hamburgers, Baked Beans, Chips

Sat: Brats, baked beans, Chips

Sorry...

No projects to post today. I had a pretty rough day yesterday. We are having some personal issues involving my 15 year old daughter. If you pray, please add us to your prayers.

Monday Monday

"Monday, Monday, so good to me Monday mornin', it was all I hoped it would be". Ok, I'm laughing at all of you, because I know you're going to have that song running through your head ALL day today!!

I made this wall hanging for my mom's stamping area and gave it to her for mother's day. I used bazzill for the blue and the green papers and the dp is lily kate. The stamps are MFT Serenity Now and Twisted Sentiments. It says: "Give me a minute, I'm having a stampgasm". The twisted sentiment are absolutely hilarious - check them out at my favorite things.
Well, a happy late mother's day to all of you mommys out there! I had a pretty darn good mother's day. My boys made me breakfast - when Gage got up Kai told me I had to go back to bed so that they could bring me breakfast. OK - I'm all happy for someone to make me breakfast, but what is the deal with breakfast in bed? I don't want to eat in my bed! We had eggs, bacon and waffles (at the table). My mom came down and she gave me a very pretty card and $$$ from her, dad and the kids. I think I'll buy some more nestabilities (although I should buy new tennis shoes). She liked her gift from us as well. We went shopping and didn't even buy anything, just had a nice afternoon together. We were just getting ready to fix dinner when Christie called and asked if we wanted to go out to eat with them. So, we went to Carlos for dinner - no dishes for me (thank goodness because my back was hurting!).

I got a lot of stamps unmounted this weekend - I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, that means that I didn't get much done around the house. I tried to do laundry and when I turned on the washing machine, nothing happened. So, I tried plugging in my embossing gun - it didn't work either. I tried changing the fuse and that didn't work, so I called an electrician to come out today. Our house is over 100 years old and not all of the outlets work. So, I suspect that may be the problem. At any rate, hopefully I can get my house cleaned up (really just needs vacuumed), get the laundry caught up, finish unmounting my stamps and make some fun things to post here!

A day late....

Well, I'm a stamper, so I'm always at least a dollar short! I got way into my diorama on Wednesday night and didn't get the Divine Design Challenge done for upload on the 8th, but here it is - I got to it last night. I LOVE these colors together - they are just so happy! And, the little turtles - they are why I bought this set, they're happy, too. I would love to have H&M stamps turtle, too...but as I said - I am a dollar short these days! LOL!

For this card I stamped the turtles to look like they are just swimming around each other having fun. I colored them with copics and then went over them with an embossing marker. I embossed them and then used my brayer to lay down cool carribean. I layered that with some tempting turquoise and sponged my new blue bayou ink (which was way darker than I expected it to be, but I thought it looked great once I got the oval onto the black bg). I used liquid aplique to make the bubbles in the water. For the background, I traced the oval onto black paper and cut around it with scallopped scissors (I really do need the oval nestabilities) then accented the scallops with white signo dots. The base of the card is taken with teal, then only orange, inked with only orange and summer sun inked with summer sun and only orange. I hand wrote the verse on only orange, inked with only orange and then taken with teal and accented the corners with black dots.

I had a request for a couple of recipes, so here they are. This recipe is a favorite of my kids'. My ex-husband's grandmother, Marie, who is such an amazing grandma gave me this recipe:

Boil one cup of water. Add a small box of strawberry or cherry jello and stir to dissolve. Add one and half cups of applesauce then refridgerate to set.

________________________________________________________

Italian Chicken Casserole

2 T. olive oil

1 c. onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 c. chicken, cooked and chopped

2 (14 1/2 oz) cans diced tomatoes

1 c. whipping cream

1 (3 oz. pkg.) cream cheese, softened

2 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 (8 oz.) pkg. angel hair pasta, cooked

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, lightly spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with nonstick spray. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over med-high heat. Add onion and garlic; cook 3 minutes or until tender (I used jarred minced garlic, so I just toss it in and then add the other ingredients). Stir in the chicken, tomatoes and cream. Bring to a boil over a med- high heat; reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, or until slightly thickened.

Add cream cheese and 1 cup mozzarella; cook, stirring constantly until cheese are melted. Add pasta, tossing gently to coat.

Spoon into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese, bake 30 minutes.

Diorama card

This is my diorama card for the try a new technique challenge. I knew immediately that I wanted to use the castle for this one. Then I remembered seeing my friend Christie and her kid at walmart the other day. Jace's sister Taylor asked if I thought he looked cute in pink. He did - Jace loves pink, and his dad thinks pink is for girls. So, that's why I decided to show them a REAL man that wears pink!

So, let me take you through the steps of making this card. First I made it Tuesday night, screwed it up and trashed the whole thing except for the images. Then I started again last night. Last night I changed the back panel from certainly celery to white gp carstock. I colored the grass with copics then used pretty in pink craft for the flowers and embossed them (I know they're kind of hard to see in the picture). I used a scallop punch and sponged a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Next I adhered my castle so that it was situated in the window. The white cardstock and the lovely lilac is cut 8.5x 5 and the pretty in pink is cut 6.5x5. The white and lilac are scored two inches in from the edges and the pretty in pink is scored one inch in from the edges. While changing from my cutting blade to my scoring blade, I cut myself pretty good on the thumb. So, I took a little break to look for a bandaid. Well, I have kids, so the bandaids were all gone. So, I took a longer than anticipated break and held toilet paper on the cut until it finally quit bleeding. Next I cut the circle window out of the lilac and pink cardstock using my nestabilities and cuttlebug. For those of you who don't know - when you're cranking the handle and it has some tension in it, if you let go, the handle spins backwards. I found this out when it slipped and hit the knuckle of my index finger! OUCH! Then I used my cuttlebug and the swirl embossing folder to emboss the pink panel. I attached the dragon and then attached the pink panel to the white panel (the right way this time). Finally, I attached the knight, the mushrooms and the clouds to the lilac panel and attached it to the rest of the card. I really hope you all enjoyed this diorama project because it is the last one I will ever do!!!

What's for dinner Wednesday!

No craft item to show today. I attempted a diorama card last night. Mistake #1, instead of printing the directions with pictures I just wrote them down, Mistake #2, I talked on the phone to my dd while trying to make the card, Mistake #3, I just didn't plan well. So, my card was a bust. I put it together wrong using that pink sticky tape and you know that tape doesn't unstick! So, I will have to try again. I can reuse the images that I colored at least! So, if you want to check out some of my past projects, you can visit my gallery athttp://splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=48694

This is a play on the Monday Menu plans I've seen on other blogs. I do my menus on Wednesday when the new sales ad comes in the newspaper. Here is next week's menu:

Saturday: Brats, baked beans, chips, Carrots, fruit

Sunday: Mother's day - not sure what we're doing for lunch - I suggested grilling, so we may have leftovers from lunch or we may just go out to dinner - I ain't cookin' it's my day!

Monday: Gage's night to cook - meatloaf, mashed pot., corn and rolls

Tuesday: Huntington chicken, caesar salad (Bag extra for Thurs), broccoli, rolls

Wednesday: Pork Loin, Marie's applesauce jello salad, multigrain mini loaves

Thursday: Italian Chicken Casserole, Caesar Salad, breadsticks

Friday: Ruebens, Chips, Carrots, Fruit

Caught up!

I discovered the Devine Design Challenge to make something with a bible verse on it every month this month. So, I was 4 months behind (we post on the 8th). So,I'm caught up for this challenge anyway and now I'm ready for May.

For Job 12:10 "In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.", I wanted to include both "creature" and "mankind". I had these rubbernecker stamps that had yet to see ink. So, I inked 'em up. I stamped the cabin on certainly celery prints dp and finished out the hillside. Then I mounted that on almost amethyst print dp. I pulled out my trusty color wheel and found cc and aa listed with cameo coral, so that's what I used for the card and to mat my verse. The cabin and the moose were stamped on GP cardstock, colored with copics then cut out and adhered to the card.

For Phillipians 4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.", I used MFT's Serenity Now stamp. I stamped in on GP cardstock and colored it with copics (I really love my copics). The card base is done with bashful blue. The background is delight in life dp. The verse is inked in so saffron and cameo coral then matted on so saffron. The stickers are from the delight in life pack, as well.

Gage had speech therapy yesterday. He has asthma and in the last couple of years has had some real issues with sinus problems. He had sinus surgery a year ago in Jan. and had his tonsils removed, too. That helped for about six months and since Sept. the poor kid just hasn't felt well. After several rounds of antibiotics, which never totally worked, we were referred back to his ENT. He determined that it wasn't a sinus problem and sent us to an allergist. After finding no allergies, he sent us to a pumonologist (yeah, we're REALLY tired of doctors). They did some tests and determined that he has a vocal chord disfuntion wherein his vocal cords close up and make him feel like he can't breathe. So, he has to drink LOTS of water and had to go to speech therapy to learn some breathing excercises. I really hope this helps him. I'm so tired of him feeling sick all the time.

We didn't get done with therapy until almost 6, so we went and picked up Kai and headed home. I picked the chicken last night, but totally forgot about the stock until I went in the kitchen this morning and realized it was still sitting on the counter. It's not a really big deal since we don't eat soups much in the summer, but it would have kept in the freezer until we needed it - I was so mad at myself. I didn't get my lunch made this morning, so I'll either have to hurry home and try to throw something together or get something and bring it back to the office.

I'm a little discouraged because I didn't get much done last night. I did get the two bible verses made, picked the chicken and did some laundry. But, I need to make my lemon bars and blueberry bread (maybe tonight as it's errand night and all I have to do is recheck a few books, which I can do online). I'm also planing to make some chicken salad and some bread. I'd also like to get some more stamps unmounted, but I don't see that happening! Well, someday I'll get it all done and it might even stay that way for a day or so!

Happy Monday!

I made this card last night for one of the attorney's in my office. The inside says: "Look who's turning 50!". I used sketch challenge # 174 for the layout. I sat for a long time trying to decide if I should use design paper (and if so, which one) or just make my own using the "who" stamp. After considering and rejecting a lot of color combos, I decided to use both! So, I made the card out of real red. I stamped "who" on so saffron with cool carribean. I inked the so saffron with so saffron, marigold morning and pumpkin pie, then matted it with my mind's eye dp. Then I matted the two different my minds eye dp with old olive, inked with old olive. I cut the ovals with my colluzzle. The owl and the branch are colored with copics. The owls eyes and the hat pom pom are popped up on dimensionals. I really liked the way it turned out - thank goodness because after all those rejected color combos and decision making time it took me over an hour and a half!

I had a pretty productive weekend. I got this card made, unmounted a half of a shelf of stamps (I have 3 shelves in all), got Kai's room cleaned (with his help), got the house cleaned several times (that old adage about cleaning the house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling snow while it's still snowing is true), made my killer brownies, did laundry, went shopping and went to dinner with a friend sans children! My friend Christi and I both have 4 year olds and older children, so we try to get out by ourselves once in a while and leave the siblings to babysit the little kids. I call it "boys night". I ususally let Gage get Chinese takeout and get Kai McDonald's (right next door to the Chinese place - how convenient is that??) and rent a movie from red box.

My menu plan, did not work out as planned, of course. Friday night, Gage was asleep at dinnertime (he and Kai both have colds) so, Kai and I had pizza rolls and carrot sticks. Saturday was the day Christi called to see if I wanted to go out to dinner, so boys night that night. Last night we had the fajita chicken. Gage doesn't like fajitas, but I always assumed it was because he doesn't like "raw" tortillas. But, he was griping about not liking fajita meat, so then Kai started saying he wasn't eating it either. Well, I fix dinner and that's what you eat at my house if you want to eat. So, they tried it and you know what?? They loved it! I forgot all about the chicken I was going to make in the crockpot, so I had Gage put it in the crockpot this morning. He said he cut it a little bit when he was cutting off the packaging so it's now an Emo chicken! LOL!! Maybe I should change the name of the recipe. So, we're having chicken tonight, which will be better anyway, since Gage doesn't feel well and probably won't want to make meatloaf tonight.

Oh - one more thing! I was going to share a tip with all of you that I found somewhere in cyberspace - if I could remember where, I'd definitely give credit. When I fold my laundry, I take an entire outfit - undies, socks, shirt and shorts (or jeans) fold them and put them into a gallon size baggie. I put them in a small basket and Kai can put his own clothes away without unfolding them. He can also just go grab one in the morning and get dressed by himself. This has worked really well for me. I bought one box of baggies and I just reuse them over and over.

As promised - crockpot sticky chicken recipe

I went to the grocery store last night and spent an ungodly amount of money, considering the only meat I bought was a bag of chicken breasts and a package of brats. So, I HAVE to be careful about taking my lunch to work now. My friend Christi was going to have her nails done with her daughters, so I took her 4 year old son Jace, Kai's buddy, shopping with me. Believe it or not, I spent so long getting all the things on my list that I was just finishing up when Christi called and said they were done!

On the up side - I checked my bank account this morning and my tax credit had been deposited. So, for those of you still waiting - keep the faith. They are coming!

I promised to post my chicken recipe, so here it is:

Crockpot Roast Sticky Chicken

4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 whole chicken

Combine all the spices to make a rub. Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Rub the mix all over the outside and the inside of chicken. Place breast side up in crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours.

Now, I was skeptical the first time I made this about having no liquid in the crockpot, but the chicken makes it's own stock and it is amazing! It's a little too strong-flavored for me to use for chicken and noodles, but is wonderful to use in making soups! The first night we fix this, we have roast chicken. But, since it's a whole chicken and there are just the three of us (one who doesn't eat half the time) there is lots of leftover chicken. This is my favorite part of this recipe. I use it to make chicken salad, chicken enchiladas, garlic chicken pizza, chicken manicotti, huntington chicken, chicken crescent squares or chicken dip (like buffalo chicken dip - yum). The other thing I love about making it this way, is that it makes it so easy to pick the chicken - it is just FALLING off the bone.

So - on to crafting. Since I spent so long at the grocery store last night I didn't get anything made. In fact, after I got Kai to bed, I crashed in my big ol' chair and didn't even get all of the groceries put away. I try to store most stuff (dry goods) in containers to keep it fresh and save space, so it takes some effort to get stuff put away. Right now it's waiting for me on my island and I'll get it put away tonight after work - I'll have to if I want any room to make dinner!

But, anyway, I thought I'd post this card. The powers that be at starvingartiststamps.com emailed me and asked if they could post this in their gallery. I gave permission. When I checked this morning it wasn't up yet, but I thought I'd show it off here.

I stamped the background scene on Georgia Pacific cardstock and colored it with copics, except the sky which is sponged with bashful blue. The cow was also stamped on GP and colored with copics then raised up with dimensionals. The sentiment is from Las Vegas Stamps. If you can't read it, it says "Deja moo - the feeling that you've heard this bull before". I just loved the sentiment matched with that look on the cows face! I can't remember where I got the cow spot ribbon. But, the dp is western sky from SU and the cardstock used is ruby red and basic black. I love to do cartoony scenes like this.

Speaking of cows, my boss came in yesterday and said "knock knock". I, of course, said "who's there". To which he replied "Interrupting cow". Then when I started to say "interrupting cow who", he interrupted me with "MOO!". I had actually heard this joke before, it was Emma and Gage's absolute fave when they were little. But, I still think it's funny. A word of caution thought - if you share this joke with your kids you'll be hearing it for a LONG time, with variations using different animals! LOL! Anyway, hope you all have a great day!

New blog!

OK - because of issues at my previous blog with posting pictures I have decided to make my home here at blogger. This blog will be about the everyday life of a stampin, workin', tryin' to save money, love to cook mom.
The boys (esp. Gage) were being so loud last night! I took some much needed therapy time and made two bible verse cards for the divine design challenge at splitcoaststampers.com. I just discovered this challenge and it started in Jan. So, these are my Jan. and Feb. cards. We post for the challenge on the 8th of every month, so I will have to try to get caught up this week.

This cute little knight is from doodle factory's fairy tale set. His little lion shield made me think of david in the lion's den, but then I came across this verse and decided to use it.
I stamped the knight on Georgia Pacific cardstock and colored him with copics. I used real red, basic black and marigold morning cardstock for the card. I inked the edges of the real red with real red ink. I inked the edges of the marigold morning layer and the sentiment with marigold morning and then pumpkin pie. Adding the pumpkin pie really seemed to add alot of pop. Finally, I finished with dots ala markie's mom from splitcoast. Since I copied her style one time and used the little dots, I find it hard not to finish off a card this way!

This cute little girl is the gorilla from high hopes. I used her because of her strength - added a heart and her soul - well, just look at that happy smile! I had a lot of fun doing this - I really like this little gorilla.
I stamped her on Georgia Pacific cardstock and colored her with warm grey copics. I added the ground with copics and a stamp from stampin' up's watercolor mini's. I sponged on the sky using a scrap of a scallop oval, to look like clouds. Then I cut her out with my circle cutter and leveled off the bottom. I made the real red layer the same way. Then I adhered them both to wild wasabi (my absolute fave color, btw) and used my scallop scissors to finish off the circle. Next I mounted the verse on real red and wild wasabi and stuck it all down on this purple bazzill (sorry, I don't know all the bazzill color names) and drew a border with my black pen.

So, there's my stampin' part of the blog for the day. Now on to the money savin' part. I have been going absolutely crazy spending money lately on stamps. I rounded out my copic collection with the last two sets I needed, bought a set of nestabilities and numerous new stamps. Plus, I bought supplies to unmount my stamps so I would have more room in my craft room. I haven't gotten to this project yet, but hope to do it this weekend. At any rate, I have been way too careless about spending money lately. So, I am putting myself on a spending freeze. My friend Dina is in the same boat, so we're going to do it together and I will have someone to be accountable to for my actions. I did a spending freeze last year about this time after a similar binge and I lasted firm (meaning no spending on anything unnecessary) for a couple of months. I didn't spend much on extras after that until around Novemeber. So, hopefully this will help me get under control again. My plan is to start brown bagging to the office more often. I need to get to the store. I've had a very hectic week and haven't had a chance yet, so haven't brown bagged yet, but have been trying to eat cheaper anyway. I do have a grocery list made and my menus made up for the up coming week. That's another way I save money - I menu plan, so I will post my menus here when I make them on Wednesday. Here are this weeks:

Thursday: Foreman Grill Brats, chips, corn on the cob (brought to me, by my wonderful dad), pineapple and baked beans

Friday: Fajita Pizza

Saturday: Crockpot Sticky Roast Chicken, sweet potatoes, rolls

Sunday: Huntington Chicken (with leftover roast chicken)

Monday: Gage's night to cook - Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli

Tuesday: Biscuits and ham gravy, fruit

Wednesday: Chimichangas

Thursday: Schnitzel, fried potatoes, crock pot corn

Friday: Crock pot Cola BBQ Chicken, corn on the cob, strawberries

Baking (These are various things I will bake on the weekend or throughout the week for breakfasts, snacks and desserts): Blueberry bread, Lemon bars, killer brownies, rasin bread and wheat bread.

Breakfasts: Blueberry bread, eggs, bacon, toast, yogurt, omelet (ham and cheese), leftover biscuits and gravy from Tuesday's dinner and cinnamon rolls.

Lunches: ham salad sandwich, fajitas (fix extra on Friday), chicken salad (from leftover roast chicken), leftover Huntington Chicken and meat loaf sandwich.

Whew - this was a LONG entry, what with 2 stampin' projects to post and my menus. If you want recipes for any of the dishes listed just leave me a comment and I'll try to get them posted. I'm going to try to get the Sticky Chicken recipe posted this week, just because it's super easy, simple, delicious and you can make a million things from it.