Bye Bye 2007

hello 2008

I am sure i should be making some resolutions but they are always the same ones so I shall spare you.

We finished off the year here by going to the husbands family Christmas. Had a nice time. I promised you a look at the last gift card holder I made. Well, a few weeks before Christmas I decided I was going to make something to hold the gift card we were giving our niece. She is a special girl to us- and my husband's godchild (she is one of a set of triplets - the others are boys). I got her some hair bands and some earrings and a bookstore gift card. She's 11 and a reader and enjoys Nancy Drew. So I decided I'd start searching the antique stores in the area for an old Nancy Drew book. I have my own small collection of Nancy Drew (from my childhood) but I am not parting with mine just yet! I went up to The Old Lucketts Antique Store and had a wonderful time searching floor by floor and while I didn't come up with a Nancy - I did find a book that resembled a Nancy by the same author, Carolyn Keene. Then I set about making the book into a gift card holder. It didn't take that long to cut out the pages. I modpodged the pages together and it worked out great. The gift card as well as the hairbands and earrings all fit inside the book. My husband gave her the present and when she opened it he told her he was sure that she must have things she'd like to hide from those 5 brothers of hers - she made a huge smile.

We got home on Sunday afternoon and have been trying to catch up ever since.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to play with some of the things I received for Christmas. We shall see......

Happy New Year everyone!

almost christmas'd out

well it was a nice and quiet christmas around here.
for which i'm grateful
so much hubbub beforehand
we did something on Christmas Eve we've never done before - we went out for dinner! Now that was nice! Came home and dove into the Christmas cookies!
here are a few pics (i make a number of other cookies but you'll get the idea)

note the total destruction of the rainbow cakes. I had to have a discussion about proper choice of knives for cutting this particular creation with the family. i spend a lotta time making that particular one... i'd rather it not be hacked to bits.

By the way - the rainbow cookies - or really cakes - came to be part of our regular holiday fare a few years ago when I was finally able to find a recipe that tasted like a childhood memory of mine. It took years to find this recipe. When I was little. my grandfathr would go to a particular french bakery in NYC nearby where he and my grandmother lived on East 35th Street. My grandparents would come to visit every Sunday and they would often bring those cookies. Delectable cookies of all kinds but the favorite, hands down, for my sister, brother and myself was the Rainbow. These little cakes were not very large but there weren't that many in the lovely bakery box so my mother would cut each one up into 3 pieces and we'd each get a piece. Unbelieveably delicious. Three thin layers of colored cake. In between the layers was raspberry jam and the whole thing was topped off with chocolate. Yum doesn't even begin to describe the flavor. Anyway I finally found a recipe that I tweaked every so slightly and we've been in Rainbow heaven for the past maybe 5 years!

Anywho....
Christmas day came and went but we're still Christmas'ing it. We're off to the husbands family Christmas tomorrow in Delaware. I wrapped some more presents today and baked another round of sugar cookies. Then i set about decorating them - ze best part!

We always painted cookies as far back as I can remember. My mother would sit us down with paintbrushes, icing and food coloring and she'd let us have at it. I came upon the edible gold dust - used on the stars you see above - over 10 years ago in a cake decorating store. I take the "dust" and use lemon extract (like you'd use water and watercolor paints) and then paint on the cookies. You get the pretty gold as well as a light flavoring of the lemon and its really delicious.

I think its time to post this so I'll be off. We'll be back on Sunday and hopefully I'll get a moment to post another gift card holder I made. This one is definitely a little different - i hope our niece likes it. I'll let you know.....

some christmas music

for your listening pleasure

gift card christmas 2 - the sequel

okay first things first - my header magically appeared this morning - it had been cut off and I was saying a little prayer to the blogger gods they'd fix it and indeed they did. The picture is of moi at age 3 at Christmas time. Note the stockings in the background. (Yes, I still have mine.) Some of you may recognize this photo of me from an ATC I did a while back.

Okay. That's enough on that....

This morning I went to Greenberry's (the local coffee place) and met up with my good friend June.

(Lauren - there was a chocolate teacake in the vicinity.... I've been to Greenberry's a few times and never looked at the bakery items... why torture myself right? omigosh - June you should take a picture of that thing so Lauren can see it! )

We had a wonderful time catching up over coffee, didn't we June?

Okay so on to the cards!

It's Gift Card Christmas 2- the sequel. Starring 2 gift card holders!

I made this gift card holder for June. It's a little tip of the hat to our love of "Monk" and his hating the word Joy at this time of year. (I used some Basic Grey Fruitcake paper and the Joy is from that adorable Purple Onion Holidoodle Sentiment Set) as well as some Hero Arts alpha stamps for the shmoy.

I also made another gift card holder for another friend but I had to wait til it was received so I could post it.

Here's the whole thing - IN REALITY its a library pocket dressed up in holiday paper masquerading as a gift card holder! (I used an old Deluxe Cuts template to create the library pocket. Come to think of it I used another Deluxe cuts template to make June's gc holder....Isn't it funny how you may not have used something in a long while and all of a sudden you pull it out and say wow... this is pretty darn cool? Why haven't i used this in sooo long?)

Then there is an insert that holds the gift card. I pulled out the Happy Holidays stamp form a StampinUp set and used white embossing powder on that. Found a holly and berry eyelet and set that in the center of the circle.

I used a coffee cup stamp I've got and versamarked that and used some white chalk to color it. And i got out the sewing machine and made the pockets.

After the coffee I came home and got started on my baking. I baked most of the afternoon and into the evening. How thoughtful those television folks were to put on "White Christmas" again so I could listen (and watch) while I was baking - dontcha think?

I'll be back tomorrow to show you all the goodies.

gift card christmas

yeah - around here it's the year of the gift card

i have bought non GC gifts for my immediate family (husband and kids) and a few for the husband's family gift exchange (which will take place on the 29th) but this year i've purchased a lot of gift cards. For a few reasons - mostly because i haven't a clue what to buy certain people! In my mind a gift card is a wonderful gift i'd love to receive (no guilt spending) so i'm thinkin some of the recipients wil be quite pleased (i have a few who ask for GC's to particular stores. It goes without saying i love these relatives !).

Of course I have guilt about all this GC'ing. As much as I love giving and receiving them, its still feels like cheating.

(yes, I'm nuts)

So to assuage some of that guilt i decided to make cute GC holders.

(heaven forbid i let myself totally off the hook, right?)

And while I was making the GC holders, I was also doing the latest Rick Rack challenge at Caardvarks ! (it's a two-fer folks!)

I used a Cuttlebug Snowflake embossing folder to create the pocket portion of the GC holder. I topped that with the Rick Rack. I stamped the HoHoHo (from Purple Onion Designs Holidoodle sentiment set ) in versamark and embossed that with white EP. I took some Making Memories snowflake charms that I had in my stash and punched a hole in the top of each. Then i cut out the little white tags using my Quickutz and used some of their rubons for the teeny tiny to: from:. I strung the charms and tags on a piece of bakers tiwne and then tied that to the rick rack. Finally, I stitched all around the blue to create a pocket to hold the GC.

I have to say I'm rather pleased with how they came out. I know the recipients will enjoy them as they are ones who appreciate such things as handmade GC holders.

An aside - i've been offline since yesterday early afternoon. My router decided to die and I finally arranged to get a new one sent to me just a few minutes ago (over the phone with a very nice technician). The joy of the broken router will be fully realized when my husband and daughter get home and realize my computer is their only way on the interet. I can see I will be off the computer a lot between now and when that router arrives. (Which probably is just as well seeing as I have a very long list of things to bake, presents to wrap etc. huh?) Anyway, I thought I'd quick post this and get on my way to do some more shopping and then hit the grocery store for a big shop. I have a very lengthy list - mostly consisting of baking supplies. If all goes well, I will be done with my shopping by tomorrow and then this house will turn into a bakery and wrapping emporium :-) Hope to check in sometime later......

snocapped christmas

so a long time ago an aunt (that would be me) took a nephew (that would be my oldest nephew - the first one who is now 31 and still totatlly has my heart) to the movies. We saw "Who framed Roger Rabbit". Now the important part of the excursion apparently was my introducing nephew to Snocaps. He never forgot the snocaps.

In 1995 I got the book Martha Stewarts Handmade Christmas and lo and behold - there is a recipe to make nonpareils. I decided I'd make them for nephew and he loved them. You gotta watch out sometimes when you do these things - traditions are born. (wink) So I have been making nonpareils every year at Christmas. And yesterday and today I made a bunch (you see he's not the only one who loves them. Now I need to make a lot for many family members). Sometimes I can find the white sugar beads and sometimes I cannot - no one ever complains although i prefer the look of the white ones myself (yes, I'm totally into tradition and the classic look of things).

They're very easy to make - 8 oz bittersweet chocolate melted in a double boiler. Stir in a 1/2 tsp of vegetable shortening. Spoon out maybe nickel sized rounds of chocolate onto parchment paper. Wait around 20 minutes and then sprinkle on the sugar beads. If you don't wait til the chocolate has cooled a little the sugar beads will melt.

Once the candies have hardened you can just peel them off the parchment paper and enjoy!

By the way - although i've looked at some of my regular rounds of favorite blogs I haven't commented much. I will get back to my regular schedule soon okay? Thanks!

part of the plan

Yesterday I was in the car and the song "Same Old Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg came on the radio and I got to thinking about him and how much I loved his music back in the day.

This morning I heard he died yesterday.
So here's my little tribute to Dan Fogelberg
This song (Part of the Plan) is part of the soundtrack of my college days. I used a quote from it in my college yearbook.
** edited to remove the music from auto playing so i could post more music in subsequent posts

A different color scheme and holiday movies

Here's a different color scheme for this card. The other day I posted a darker version - with a red bow in Jacqueline's hair. Yes, her name is Jacqueline and what i'm showing here is a portion of the actual stamp from Character Constructions. Here (in my mind) she is looking at herself in a mirror before she goes to a holiday party (the bow is quite festive in blue as well as red, n'est-ce pas?) Oh - the mirror is a actually a stamp from Purple Onion Designs called Vintage Ornate Frame - but to me - when I first saw it I thought it looked like a mirror we had in my home when I was growing up. (yeah... that's vintage alright).
I colored the frame using Windsor Newton gold ink. The background is also from Purple Onion Designs. Music is always playing when Jacqueline gets ready for a soiree you know. A little sponging and stippling in the background as well with distress inks.

Okay... now on to the movies! Holiday movies to be exact.
I adore Holiday movies. No holiday will be complete without me watching some, if not all, of the following:

1. It's a Wonderful Life (black and white please)
2. Miracle on 34th Street (original version with Edmund Gwenn, Natalie Wood, Maureen O'Hara)
3. Holiday Inn (Bing, Fred, Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale)
4. White Christmas (Bing, Danny, Rosemary and Vera)
5. Going My Way (Bing and Barry Fitzgerald)
6. The Bells of St. Mary's (Bing and Ingrid)
7. The Bishops Wife (with Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven)
8. Christmas in Connecticut (with Barbara Stanwyk, Dennis Morgan and Sidney Greenstreet)
9. Trading Places (with Eddie Murphy and Dan Ackroyd) - we laugh our heads off everytime we watch it so last year I bought us our own on dvd. You really must watch if you haven't seen it before.
10. A Christmas Carol - any version will do - old or new or animated (c'mon you know you love Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.... with the razzleberry dressing... !)
11. Desk Set (Hepburn and Tracy)

Two movies I just love are always hard to find:

1. Pocketful of Miracles (with Bette Davis and Glen Ford)
2. Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas - a Jim Henson creation - its just the sweetest movie

if anyone notices these are going to be on let me know! well if they are on a cable station I guess LOL! Okay so there you have it - and now I'd love to hear what are your favorite hoilday movies. I know I've got others but the first 11 are absolute musts for me. What do you watch?

Last night we went to see the play my daughter has been working on. For this one she did the scenery and was on the crew. It was Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods. What a great show it was too. Some very talented kids and some really great scenery!

A little less frazzle

No your eyes aren't deceiving you - my header (look up) is squashed - no, rather truncated. I can't even take credit - it's blogger. And I'm just waiting for the blogger people (sounds sorta like aliens doesn't it?) to figure it out. I'm not the only one. Initially I decided to switch out the original picture with another - sorta for the holidays - thinking if i uploaded a new photo it would fix the problem. Nah. didn't work. Even though it's annoying to look at I don't want to fix it - I want the aliens to see the problem so they can fix it.

And maybe while they're at it they can put my wreath back together! Yes... that's the wreath I posted the other day. What happened you ask? Yesterday morning I was looking out the front door. I stopped to look because the sun was shining in and it looked like it was going to be a lovely day (which it was). I was walking away from the door when I heard a strange noise - I went back to the door and opened it to find my wreath had completely come apart and dropped in pieces to the floor! I should have prefaced this all by saying my front door gets morning sun. Even in the winter, on a sunny day, the front hallway is warmed considerably by said sun. Also we have a glass storm door. The wreath was on the actual front door - sandwiched between the two doors. The sun melted the hot glue and voila - wreath in pieces. I guess it hadn't happened sooner because we have had so many miserable dark and cold days since I put the wreath up! Anyway, I picked up all the pieces and went downstairs to the storage room and pulled out a previous years wreath.

Can't decide if I'm going to reassemble this one.

Anyway. Ze 12 days are definitely in full swing. I've shopped 2 days in a row. I still have some serious shopping left to do but I've made progress.

While I was out wandering about I got to thinking about in years past I would be absolutely crazed with lists and shopping and trying to find certain gifts. My first introduction to Ebay years ago was due to the fact certain Pokemon items my daughter desired were just plain not available in stores. I can remember my absolute joy in finding particular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle items that my son was hoping to find under the tree. This year no one has any "must have" items. I have no scathingly brilliant present ideas - I usually get one brainstorm of an idea for a gift for someone (last year's was my husbands Photo-opoly game). I did pick up 4 blankets yesterday - more like 'throws' - because it's sort of a joke around here. Stealing blankets. This time of year it's cold in the house and when we watch tv at night we all like to wrap ourselves up in a blanket. There are two blankets for this purpose which are constantly being stolen from the last user and can be found where the current user is watching tv. I decided enough with those 2 ratty-need-to-be-replaced blankets. Now everyone will have their own blanket (and woe to anyone snitching someone elses blanket!) But - blankets... not a big Kodak moment on Christmas morning you know what I mean?

So like I said I was wandering about in a store yesterday and having these thoughts and realized time has definitely marched on. But really it's not so bad - I'm not totally crazed. I know it will all get done. I'll bake cookies next week and wrap presents and I won't be so frazzled and need to stay up all Christmas Eve (which was practically a tradition - one that left theee darkest circles under my eyes and a crabby attitude along with them). And maybe I'll even get to wrap those presents just the way I'd like to instead of just getting them done. And we're already planning which movie(s) we'll go see over Christmas when we're all together. And that's the part I'm looking forward to most - the all together part.

I hope your holidays are leaving you feeling a little less frazzled.

ze 12 days

Yes, life has been a little hectic so I haven't been posting. I've done a little lookin at others blogs but I just couldn't fool with all this posting stuff until now.

I did indeed have a lovely time over the weekend with my girlfriends. Here's a pic of me (I cropped them out as they'd bonk me one for putting a picture of them out on the net) - note the glasses of wine. We had a few. Nuff said on that. We went to a nice little restaurant in Old Town Alexandria. If you're not familiar with Northern Virginia - well you oughta be! Old Town Alexandria is very historical - very much like Leesburg - and quite pretty all decked out for the holidays. I would love to go back and do some shopping ... which brings me to ze 12 days.

That's all I've got. I hadn't done any shopping really until today.

Yesterday (and the day before) was spent packing up my Mom's things and putting her on a plane to Arizona to visit my sister. Packing your own bags is one thing. Packing someone else's bags (for an extended stay) is an entirely different matter. However, I did it. The next obstacle to overcome was the delights of Dulles Airport. (I still find it annoying that Dulles is called Washington Dulles International Airport. Just so everyone knows, Dulles is sitting in Virginia okay... I'm just saying.) We'd booked a flight for my mom during the week hoping to avoid as much as possible of the crappola that comes with airports, especially near the holidays. And really, considering it was a 5:35 flight and the place was crawling with people it's amazing how well we did. Mostly due to an angel, in the form of woman, who arrived with the wheelchair we requested for my mother. The woman was an airport employee like none I've ever met. We've had others whose job it was to bring the wheelchair and escort my mom to the plane but not one of these previous individuals ever seemed to care we were even around (until it came time to get a tip of course....). This woman, who by the way was 62 years old and previously from Afghanistan, showed more caring and kindness in the short time we had the pleasure of her company than many people would even consider giving. She whisked us through hundreds of people in lines and through security (even helping me put my mothers shoes back on after we did the security check), brought us to the gate (I got a gate pass). She left us and then reappeared because she found out our gate changed to another concourse, brought us to that gate and waited with us. She got my mother moved to a better seat and then when I had to say goodbye she brought my mother onto the plane, got her seated and belted in, got her a pillow and blanket and made sure the flight attendants knew my mothers limitations.

So in case you're feeling a little jaded by the holidays already, it is so very nice to know there really are angels out there keeping watch.

Okay, this is getting a little long. But heck - I've been gone for days, right? My little "ze 12 days" illustration at the top of this epic post is the result of playing with my stamps last night. That's my Lizziebelle alphabet stamps and some other Purple Onion designs stamps I love. (colored with mostly prismas but the star is painted with Windsor Newton gold ink).

I love the song "The 12 days of Christmas". I know some people find it annoying but not me. My favorite rendition comes from this album - a must in my household. Holiday Sing Along with Mitch. This is the album my parents put on the stereo on Christmas morning when I was a little girl. When we heard the music playing, it was our signal we could come down the stairs and see what Santa had brought us. My parents album is long gone and when I was first married I made it a mission to find the album - it took years but I finally did. Yes, I'm as sentimental as they come.

Okay one last thing I made and then I'll leave you for the evening. I made this last week and decided it really needed some stitching so I did that this afternoon. All the stamps are Purple Onion Designs except the woman's image which is Character Constructions.

christmas angels and best girlfriends

yesterday i told you about the supplies i unearthed to make my wreath. today i'm going to show you an ornament i made last year right after Christmas. I made about 7 of these I think. They were intended to be little thank you's to my husbands family for helping me with the gift i gave my husband last year. (I gave him a game - Photo Opoly -it's sort of a personalized Monopoly game. My husbands family is all about board games so they were happy to assist - giving me photos that I used to assemble the game). For some reason I never sent them out - i wish i could remember why. I'll probably just give them to them this year at the annual family Christmas gathering. I really liked how they came out - little glass slide ornaments (using foil tape) with some Michaels berry pics to adorn the top.

Today i'm going to lunch with some very old girlfriends. Well -they're not old (cos they're my age and I ain't old!) but our friendship is - I've known one of them over 30 years (one of my college girlfriends) and the other two over 25 years. I'm so looking forward to this lunch - they're very special to me and I'm just so happy we're all able to get together. When we get together - well it's like no time has passed and we just all jump right in like old times. Maybe i'll even get a picture or 2 (you know i will - it's the suzy in me!)

merry christmas caard, a wreath and not knowing any better

so i decided to go backwards (not an unfamiliar place for me) and do the caardvarks challenge for day one (today will be day 7). I think it came out kinda cute (although the ribbon scanned up a little crooked). the sentiment is Purple Onion embossed with versamark and white EP. And the die is from Quickutz (proper white berries here miss amy!)

Yesterday I decided to do a little project that's been waiting around for a year. Yeah, a year. I'd bought some Christmas picks at Michael's after Christmas - they were 90% off or something like that. Normally I'm not buying after Christmas (like a lot of you smart folk out there) but these were so pretty - my favorite colors - particularly the wedgewoody blue - here's a picture. There's also a pale green and silver. I thought now wouldn't that make a pretty wreath? Yeah it would. I bought a wreath form and grabbed a bag of glue sticks and then didn't make the wreath. I noticed those picks sitting up in my closet yesterday and didn't fight the feeling. Went right to work. It was fun and very satisfying to just make something and hang it right up on the door. Here's my wreath -

This is the extent of my

Christmas decorating thus far but I've got a little bit of time.

Now onto the 'not knowing any better' thing. Have you been following along on Tim Holtz's blog this week? There's a link on your right in case you haven't. I've been visiting every day and today's entry made me laugh to myself. Tim was talking about his technique for the day - embossing with dye ink. Well - way back when I first started stamping - I guess about 15 years ago - I just sorta jumped in. My sister had sent me a few stamps and some embossing stuff and I hadn't a clue what to do with them other than use the insert instructions with the embossing pens she sent. I didn't even have a heat gun okay? No one told me you can't emboss with dye ink so I didn't know any better and I did. Yes you can emboss with dye inks - really. You just gotta be fast! It wasn't until years later - I'm talking maybe 5 years I'm in a stamp store and an employee tells me this - you can't emboss with dye ink. I thought to myself well gee I have been but I guess you know better 'cos here you are working in the stamp store! Of course it's easier to emboss using pigment inks - and especially Versmark - probably one of my all time favorite stamping products. But sometimes it's pretty funny how you can learn something better on your own - not knowing any better cos there are no rules then right? Have a wonderful Friday kids!

Comfort and Joy

okay so I always want to try one of these challenges that go on - i see all the lovely things and I want to play too. I just never seem to be able to get on it fast enough. Always another project. Lauren has been posting things for the challenges at Caardvarks and I decided - I'm playin this time! (Challenge #5)I don't know if I'm thoroughly thrilled but I like it - and that's all that counts. And I even used some of my shtuff - things I hoard like these Making Memories poinsettias. I used my cute little punch from StampinUp! that creates the scallops so nicely and I used my brandy new Holidoodle set from Purple Onion Designs (the comfort and joy sentiment). I picked the 'comfort and joy' sentiment cos the paper is all about candy canes and hot cocoa - that's comfort and joy to me! Oh yeah... the paper is Frances Meyer. Isn't it cute? I used it on another little project but I need to wait to post that one!

Btw - it snowed all day here in the burg on Wednesday. Although very pretty and in keeping with the holiday it really messed up the daughter's day. She spent 2-1/2 hours on the bus in the morning trying to get to school. Missed a test too. Then they let them out at 2pm and she didn't get home til almost 4pm. Stinks huh? As for me - I shoveled the driveway twice in an attempt to ward off lots of ice in my driveway tomorrow morning. We shall see if it made a difference in the morning.

Damask: take two

I wish i knew how to get rid of the black background on my little scan of this stocking but you still get the idea I guess. That's the wonderful damask stamp from Purple Onion Designs again. I used what I had leftover from stamping that whole sheet of cardstock with the Damask stamp to cut out this stocking. (it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....). I stamped the Noel using more Purple Onion stamps - the Great Circus alpha - and clear embossed it. Then I added some more of that german scrap i i used the other day -but this time I didn't change the color with ep.

Guess what it's doing outside here in Virginia?

YUP - it's snowing! Yeah, it's lookin a lot more like Christmas now!

Between this and that

I haven't gotten on here to post anything new. Matter of fact, I put the postcards from home on hold cos I needed to get various and sundry other things done. I hated doing that - but after 71postcards I don't think it's too bad to take a short break, do you?

Today, I'll be taking these cards to the post office and sending them on their way. Finally. I will say right up front I didn't come up with this card all on my own. I saw a version of it on Splitcoaststampers. I don't remember whose card it was so I can give credit however when I saw that card I thought it was pretty and it looked like something I'd make. I changed the sentiment and used an American Crafts Glitter marker for the berries. (which may be mistletoe really, right Amy? but i think it looks equally as nice with red berries. I don't think we have to be botanically correct for Christmas do we Joan? ;-)) I think I mentioned previously I had run out of grosgrain ribbon and switched over to some satin ribbon. I almost like the satin better.

I've made a few things over the past few days with my new damask stamp from Purple Onion Designs. I am in love with this stamp. I started off by just stamping it all over a sheet of cardstock and embossing with clear EP. Doesn't it look just like fabric?

I used a piece of that to make this card. I had a scrap of some polished stone technique cardstock leftover on which I stamped the angel. I added some german scrap that I embossed with gold EP to make it match up better with the polished stone. well gee it's getting late and I gotta get moving for the day. I'll be back to show you something else i made with my faux fabric