More Easy Christmas

The picture really washes out the green of this card. Its a very pretty, deep olive green. PTI, of course, called ripe avocado. The lighter green is spring moss, the red is pure poppy stitched ribbon. The stamp is from their holiday tag set. I ran the green through my swiss dot cuttlebug folder. Ya know, that folder... I searched for eons before I finally found one to buy. I bought it and then never used it. Does that ever happen to you?

Easy Peasy

Doesnt get much easier than this! The card base I picked up at BigLots... its by Marcella by K and it came in a package of 12 or so cards for a buck! Love me some Big Lots. I stamped in encore silver using PTI's snowflake serenade. I went back and added some hero arts bling to the snowflakes. Thats it. You could easily crank out 40 of these puppies.

Things I Thought I would never have to say....

This is Part Deux. The original can be found here. I hadn't really thought about this in awhile but then yesterday I had to tell my son that you should not try to dive in the bathtub. And that got me thinking: What other completely obvious things have I had to point out recently?
1. Do not throw used toilet paper in the trash can, flush it down the toilet with the rest of your business. (son)
2. Do not leave your clipped toenails on the dining room table. (daughter)
3. Do not wipe your snotty nose on my jacket. (both)
4. Cheese Its are not the same thing as cereal. (son)
5. Putting water on your hair is not the same thing as combing it. (daughter)
6. If you see 50 dead ant in the bathtub (yes we have an ant problem) you should not ignore them and proceed to fill the tub anyway. (daughter)
7. Just because the cat licks you does not mean you should lick the cat. (son)
8. Your Christmas sweater does not go with camouflage shorts. (daughter)
9. The kitchen bar is not a balance beam. (son)
10. Glue sticks and chap sticks are not the same thing. (son)

Have anything to add?

More Christmas

Stuff: CS: pure poppy, ripe avocado, stampers select all by PTI. Stamps: Christmas Tags by PTI. Star from Wise Owl set Ink: pure poppy, ripe avocado Stickles and Inkissintials white gel pen.

Sorry for the bad picture... the light was not cooperating.

It's looking alot like Christmas on my craft table...

I have been a Christmas card making machine lately! So many cards, so little time. I have to tell you I love, love, love that new pure poppy PTI paper. It is gorgeous and it goes so well with many of the other colors. Here I have it with some Kraft. I used versamark ink and white embossing powder, the stamps are PTI rustic snowflake and the sentiment is from PTI snowman set (cant remember the name off hand). The ribbon is PTI as well. I dont think I have made two of the same Christmas card yet... all are variations on a theme. Do you mass produce one kind or do you mix it up?

*******

I hope you got out and rocked the vote yesterday. Remember if you don't vote, you can't complain and whining is so much fun! My husband voted absentee and I went out yesterday. Mr. Iamderby and I are on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Although we both go to the middle quite frequently. I was pleased with the presidential election but had my heart broken over a couple of propositions here in Cali. Our children were hilarious. My dd was an ardent Hillary supporter (the girl thing) but then shifted all her support to Obama after the primary. I thought she might jump on the Sarah Palin band wagon (the girl thing), but she held fast for Obama. My son however (keep in mind he is 5) was all about McCain. He kept saying Obama was going to jack up his taxes. (I think he must have overheard that somewhere). It didnt matter that he had no clue what taxes were. So last night my girl was happy and my boy was sad. I found it funny that they both were so in to it!

Oooooh Homemade Tags!!!

Arent these cute? I have to say I have never made homemade Christmas tags before. Lets face it, as much as I act like I am Martha Stewart, I am not! My house is thrashed on a regular basis- hey I live with two kids and several onery cats. When the house isnt thrashed it certainly isnt up to Martha's standards. I can cook, really well actually, but I dont do it every night. My Christmas wrapping papers don't all coordinate with each other, half the time I cant find a bow. The tree is decorated with a hodgepodge of ornaments from my childhood and more that I collected as I got older. I digress. The point was I usually buy a pile of sticker tags at Target on December 26th and then use them the next year. Not this year folks! This year I am putting these gorgeous handmade tags on my gifts. Even if my gifts are wrapped in newspaper.

Stuff: Ink, cardstock, and stamps by Papertreyink. Punched out with a marvy scallop punch.

Gym Attire

On Saturday I hit the gym to try and work off the 5 lbs of candy that I have consumed. I got there late and missed the spin class... I wasn't terribly sad because Michele was the instructor. The only other class being offered was Zumba. I like to watch and laugh at them from the spin room... they look so funny dancing around... but I wasn't about to put myself in there. I have two left feet and no rhythm at all. So I headed upstairs to my friend the elliptical. I like the elliptical about as much as I like having my teeth pulled but it is better than the treadmill and stairmaster. Anyway I hop onto the elliptical and put on my headphones and try to psych myself up for a good workout. So I am cruising along, minding my own business, staring at the elliptical in front of me when suddenly I feel sick. Why? Because a man hopped on the very empty elliptical I had been staring at. This man was not in shape, which is fine-neither am I- thats why we are here. However he was wearing shiny spandex running pants and a tucked in tank top. Now folks, if you need to lose 50 lbs you should be at the gym. You should wear something comfortable. You should not wear shiny spandex pants that hug every ripple and dimple of fat. If you are a man and your stomach is 5x larger than your legs you should not wear spandex and you should definitely not tuck in your wife beater. And if you dont follow those rules than please, I beg of you do not bend over and display the very large rip in the crotch of your pants. I think I went a little blind. And then all through the rest of my work out I had to watch this crazy man jiggling in shiny pants with his underwear hanging out. I guess it could have been worse, he could have NOT been wearing underwear.

More Wise Owl

I made this little guy for my hubby's birthday. I love that new PTI cardstock, OceanTides. Its just lovely with the brown.

Stuff: All stuff by PTI. Ocean tides ribbon, ink and cardstock. Chocolate ribbon ink and cardstock. Vanilla cardstock. Wise owls and birthday basics stamps.
I used copics to color.

Happy Halloween... in pictures

I made these.
I wore this... I am Dr. Elle Tron... nuclear physicist

We carved jack-o-lanterns

We decorated. They went candy begging.

Happy Halloween!!

You Don't Mind If I Go Over Ten Minutes?

YUP, thats what she said. This was after she had nearly killed us for the better part of an hour. She sweetly said, "oh we are not done, you dont mind if we go over ten minutes?" And then, the incredible thing is that everyone said NO! I was screaming Yes, yes I mind! But I was breathing so hard my vocal cords weren't working. And also every cell in my body was focused on not falling off the bike.

Time to Parade Out Some Christmasy Cards

Everything here is by PTI with the exception of the patterned paper. The PP is by MM. I bought a big stack of it last year and now I am trying to use it up. This card has stamps from PTI's made of snow and rustic snowflake.

Want Some Candy

Go this way and help Denise celebrate her blogaversary!

PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop

Its blog hop time! Hop on over to PTI to check all the details! This month's challenge was to use polka dots. I broke out PTI's polka dot basics to stamp the chocolate polka dots. I then stamped on the coordinating polka dot outline with versamark and embossed it with hero arts seafoam embossing powder. I tied on a chocolate swiss dot ribbon. I then used PTI's wise owl stamps to make the owl. He is stamped in chocolate and ocean tides. I colored him with copics and cut him out with my fingertip craft knife. He is popped up on chocolate and oceantides cardstock.

31 Things

I ripped this off from Lisa, who is a sweetheart but has an invite only blog. I wish you could all see the gorgeous pictures she has of her children playing in the fall leaves. Makes me want to pack up my kids and go get some pictures.

31 Things
1. Where is your cell phone? Probably in my purse, I am not addicted to it though so I leave it all over.
2. Where is your significant other? Bed
3. Your hair color? Mouse brown... but I have lovely highlights done every 6 weeks.
4. Your mother? A survivor
5. Your father? Retired cop
6. Your favorite thing? My crafting stuff and my computer... if I had to pick only one I am not sure which way I would go.
7. Your dream last night? I dont dream... I sleep in a haze of benedryl.
8. Your dream/goal? To give my kids the best life possible.
9. The room you're in? Kitchen
10. Your hobby? making stuff
11. Your fear? Dying before my children are grown, losing somebody I love.
12. Where do you want to be in six years? Hopefully a bigger house with my family and hopefully my daughter will be a lovely teenager unlike myself.
13. Where were you last night? Professional Development- bleh.
14. What you’re not? Skinny (an oh how I wish I was!)
15. One of your wish list items? Stamps and more stamps
16. Where you grew up? CA
17. The last thing you did? ate breakfast
18. What are you wearing? work clothes
19. Your TV? Is currently playing Phineaus and ferb
20. Your pet? getting on my last nerve
21. Your computer? MacBook
22. Your mood? Tired but happy
23. Missing someone?no not really
24. Your car? Sadly i drive a minivan and its filthy.
25. Something you’re not wearing? a nose ring?
26. Favorite store? just one? Macys
27. Your summer? My favorite time of the year! no work.
28. Love someone? yep
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When is the last time you laughed? this morning when cole was pretending to be darthvader
31. Last time you cried? dont know

Oh hey! Your still here? I didnt think anybody really read these things! Well I am glad you stuck around! If you scroll a little lower you will see the Jelly Star cookie recipe that I got requests for. Tomorrow we will be back to cards! Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to my honey! He is 37 today! So hard for me to believe. We met when he was 21 and I was 20.... and have pretty much been together ever since. Back when we met 37 was positively ancient... I guess not so much now!

When Spin Instructors Get Sick...

Today is Monday which means its a spin day. I have got a choice of classes since I dont work on Mondays. I can go at 8am and be killed by the previously blogged about, Michele. I can got at 9:30 and be toppled by Jen...race day and core work. Or I can cruise in at 3:45 and take it easy with Charlotte. Charlotte was one who got me hooked on spin. I bumbled into her class one day when I was sick of the elliptical machine but still had enough sense to know that I could not do step. Charlotte is lovely. She obviously has very good genes. She is tall, blonde, Swedish, and incredibly thin and gorgeous. She looks lovely in sweats and she looks lovely sweaty. These are two things no one will ever say about me. I have gifts but these are not them! Now one of the things I love best about Charlotte is she is not fanatical about exercise. Oh sure she tries to be... but really I can see that deep down she is not wed to exercise. When she goes to Sweden for the summer she doesnt exercise at all. So I know that secretly, she is not in love with exercise. I guess what I am saying is Charlotte's class is pretty easy for me. I mean, I dont feel like I am dying in there usually. Not that I dont feel challenged, I do, however I dont feel that death is eminent like I do in Michele'e class.

So anyway, I wander into Charlotte's class. She is there! Yay, no sub! I get on the bike, start to warm up... other regulars come in (let it be known 99.9 % of them are in better shape than me and clearly adore exercise). Music starts. Charlotte is not getting on her bike. what?

"Hi Guys! I am sick, I have a cold coming on. So I am just going to walk you through this and coach you today," she says.
What?, I am thinking, 'What on Earth is she doing?'
Let me tell you, I wish I had never found out. Coaching from the floor means she turns into that crazed lady from Biggest Loser. You know, the trainer? Yep, sweet Charlotte took on a whole new personality. She knows all our names too. She got right up near your face. And then yelled, "Michele (my name)!!! YOU CAN DO BETTER! TURN THE KNOB! PEDDLE FASTER!! YOU CAN DO THIS!! GO! GO! GO!"

This went on the entire class. I have never worked so hard in my life. I was dripping sweat. My legs feel like jello. The second class ended I slid off my bike and ran for the door... luckily all that sweat hid my tears of pain!

Spinning My Wheels

So the last time I wrote about spin class I was whining about the 8 am chick. You will recall that I said I would not be going to that class again. The instructor’s name is Michele. She is very nice… as a person, but then class starts and I start to feel all kinds of hateful towards her. Anyway I do my best to avoid her class because clearly I am not in good enough shape yet. I need a few more classes and a few less snickers bars before I go there again.

On Friday I was headed to Kevin’s class. Kevin is a big huge guy with lots of muscles. He is really into motivational stuff. His class is hard, no doubt about that, but frankly he doesn’t scare me like Michele. I get to class, I am actually early! (That’s because the kids were left at home with their father.) I get on the bike, start warming up. I am in my happy place, all pleased with myself that I came to class. The door opens, I look up. Who is it? You guessed it! “Hi Everybody! Thanks for coming! I am Michele and I am subbing for Kevin! Are you ready to work??!! We have loads of hills and sprints coming up! You will love it!”

Can I tell you I felt tears forming in my eyes? Only my pride kept me on that bike. I wanted to leave so bad! But I didn’t. I stayed and was slowly tortured in every way possible. I did more sprints than I have ever done before. I thought I might completely pass out. I drank ALL my water. The only thing I hate worse than exercise is drinking water.

I watched the clock, praying to God that 4:30 (the end of class) would come quickly. It seemed to go on forever. Finally we are within 5 minutes. I am dripping in sweat. I probably lost 5 pounds in water weight. (Yeah I am sure I put it back on already.) I am ready to cool down and head out… and then perky Michele says, “ OMG! Is this class only 45 minutes?” Yes!!!! We all scream. “ Oh,” she says, “ I thought it was an hour, we are going to go over at least 5 or 10 minutes. I am so sorry is that ok?”
NO!!!! I want to scream. But I don’t, again the pride thing. All the other crazy exercise folk are saying no problem, lets go the full hour. These folks are insane.

I made it. Just barely. But I walked out on my own two feet. When I got home I fell on to the couch and begged my son to bring me a chocolate. Yes there is a reason I cant lose this weight.

Jelly Stars

Jelly Stars

This is my best “fancy” cookie recipe. Everyone loves these… of course that means they are a pain in the butt to make. I only make them at Christmas but I usually make 4 or 5 batches. Last year I made 8 batches. Never again! The recipe was in Good Housekeeping about 15 years ago. Thank goodness I wrote it down because I have never run across it again.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 ¼ cup sugar
2 eggs (separated)
2 tsp vanilla (real!!)
3 cups flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup raspberry jam (I always use Knott’s)

Beat the butter with 1 cup of sugar until blended. Increase speed to high and beat for 3 minutes. Add yolks and vanilla. Gradually add flour, baking powder, and salt. Shape the dough into two balls, wrap in plastic and chill at least one hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough out between 2 sheets of waxed paper. Do not add flour. You must use the wax paper. Cut out cookies (I use star cutters). You need to sizes of cutters. Cut out 2 big cookies and then use the small cutter to cut out the middle of the second cookie. This will give you a top and a bottom. Brush cookies with beaten egg white (I have been known to skip this when crunched for time.) and sprinkle with sugar. Bake 10 to 12 minutes… they should not really brown. You want them pale. When they are cool spread the bottom cookies with jam and top with the cut out cookie.

Christmas Card

I made this as part of a Christmas card set. I am trying to use up some Making Memories patterned paper that I picked up last year on clearance. I am famous for buying lots of stuff I don’t need. I really do love this patterned paper though.
Stuff: Rustic snowflake stamps by PTI. PTI cardstock in kraft and pure poppy. White ink by versamagic. Ribbon from American Crafts. Unknown jewels.

Happy Fall

I have been busily working on Fall cards and Christmas cards. Its finally cold enough that I feel in the mood to work on those things. I have a hard time thinking fall when its 90 outside!
Stuff: PTI stamps: Out on a Limb Additions, Take a Bough, Limitless Labels. PTI cardstock: vintage vanilla, PTI ribbon: dark chocolate satin. Dew drops ink: gold, pumpkin spice, coffee, copper