It's Bar B Que Time!

Hello and happy Saturday! I am thrilled to report that I survived the week, and I have no plans for the weekend (for the first time in a while!). So, that leaves me plenty of time to stamp and play with my latest obsession: our new O-Grill! Have you seen this cool little grill?


















It's little, but for two of us, it's perfect! It also inspired my Square Challenge Card.

















I know, I know, the colors are different than our grill, but to me, grills are always in red and black. The stamps are of course by A Muse, the patterned paper too, the red cardstock is by Bazzill, and the base is a Licorice Memory Box card.

I hope to be back on Monday with lots more cards. Have a great weekend!

Better Late Than Never!

Here's a card I made for Tracy's Sketch Challenge this week. I based it more on her sample card than on the actual sketch, but I think it qualifies. Better late than never!

















I made the 4.25 inch square card base out of a piece of Bazzill cardstock. The patterned paper is by October Afternoon--I'm starting to really like this company! The star was punched out with a ginormous punch from Paper Shapers, and edged with gold Stickles. The image and sentiment are both by A Muse, and the ribbon is from the SF Flower Market.

Have a great day!

Gettin' Back on the Horse. . .

Well, it never fails. Just when I get into a good rhythm of making cards and doing daily posts, something happens. In this case, it was the stomach flu, provided by my mom.

On the flight back from her worldly adventures, she started feeling ill and ended up throwing up the last two hours of the flight. . . and in the airporter bus. . .and in my car on the way home. I couldn't IMAGINE how awful that must've been, away from home and a familiar bed and surrounded by strangers.

But within two days, I was sick too. After that, it was a lot of 7Up and bland foods and not a lot of stamping. I did manage to make one card with the newest A Muse release.
















I love this little snorkel guy, and I have a bunch of ideas for him, but this is a simple start. The patterned paper is by Cosmo Cricket and it's all over blogs right now for summer. I love the circles, and I tried to replicate them in his circular shape and in the round tag. Here's a close-up:















I did color the starfish with Spica Clear, but it's always so tough to photograph the sparkle.

All right, off to face the rest of the week. I hope to be posting more regularly now, especially because there are some good challenges up on the A Muse blog.

Hope to see you soon!

Blog-Inspired Baking. . .

Well, it's not all fun and cards around here. Sometimes I like to mix it up and do other crafty/creative things, like baking. Here are a couple of recipes I picked up around Blogland.

I've been following Posie Gets Cozy for a couple of years now, and her photography always amazes me. From simple pictures of food to life in Portland, Oregon, she's a great source of ideas and inspiration.

I was particularly motivated by the pictures in this post to try out the Cherry Clafoutis. The recipe is listed in the post, and I used about 2 cups of cherries for mine. It was really easy to make and turned out pretty much how I expected it would, except that the crust looks bread-like more than custard. Nonetheless, cutting it open revealed a gooey texture that fit Alicia's description. Here's a terrible picture of my Cherry Clafoutis to prove it:















My other project was a bit more artistic than actual baking. Have you seen Bakerella's blog? My, that lady can decorate cupcakes like I've never seen! I have a laundry list of things I want to try off her blog, but I figured I'd better begin with the basics and tried out her Cupcake Pops. She was actually featured on the Martha Stewart show to demonstrate how she made them, can you believe it? Amazing.

Well, these were a little more time-consuming than I had anticipated. I suppose it didn't help that I started them at 8pm on a Sunday night, but between the baking of the cake, the cooling of the cake, the chilling of the "dough," the forming of cupcakes and the dipping in chocolate, it took four solid hours, plus overnight for hardening.

I'll be honest, I tried to use supplies that I already had at home (including sorting out Christmas sprinkles to get colors I like!), so they're not perfect. But, they're a start.


















After making them, I have a newfound appreciation for Bakerella's talents. As you can see, my pops (which were stickless) came out lumpy and imperfect. I think I'll have to go through a few more rounds before baking them up for friends and co-workers. A super-cute idea though.

Well, we can't live on French desserts and cupcakes, so I guess I'd better get out of the kitchen and let my husband get to cooking some real food. I hope to be back tomorrow with a new card to share. Have a great day!

Yum!

Hi, and welcome to a lazy Wednesday. For being June, it sure isn't looking like it around here. It was overcast and drizzly yesterday and this morning, it actually rained. Where's my summer weather, June?! I hope you're talking to August and September and giving me a credit for some later summer days.

Anyway, I made this card while I was THINKING about summer. This background paper by Doodlebug was just killing me with its cuteness, so I had to make something with it, and quick! Here's what I came up with.

















The ice cream stamp is an oldie but goodie by Hero Arts. It was one of my first stamps when I really got into stamping, and I'm not even sure that they carry it anymore. Anyway, the colors in this picture are a little wonky, but the cardstock colors are all a little lighter in real life.

All right, off to go find coffee. I was up later than I should've been last night playing trivia at a local pub. I learned a lot though. Did you know that the angriest country in Europe is Great Britain? Or that the average age of a combat soldier in Vietnam was 19? Or that it takes 600 grapes to make a botle of wine? Neither did I, until last night. And now we know!

Have a great day!

Sending You Sunshine

Good afternoon! Did you have a good Monday night?

Monday nights are going out nights for me. My husband and his best friend have had a long-standing tradition of Monday Movie Nights. Every Monday, they do dinner and then go see a movie. I tag along most weeks, although I don't always see the movie. This week, we had dinner at an old-school Italian restaurant in Corte Madera and then saw the new Pixar movie, Up.

Up was cute, but the content was a little bit more adult than I expected. Without giving too much away, there was some death (that almost made my husband cry), and some pretty mean creatures. I don't know if I would take a child to it, but as a twenty-something viewer, it was pretty enjoyable. I'd give it an 8 out of 10 stamps. (I figure my ratings should be appropriate to my hobbies!)

Anyway, on to today's card. This card is reflective of an unfortunate trend in my world lately. Last week, a former co-worker passed away from colon cancer, and just yesterday, I heard that the Dean of Students at my former high school passed away from pancreatic cancer. So, it seems that sympathy cards are in my future.













I started by laying down the uninked long grass stamp about an inch above the bottom of my white cardstock. With it there, I eyeballed where the biggest gaps were in the grass, and stamped my purple flowers. Then (because I'm crazy), I stamped the flowers again on post-its, cut all six of the tiny things out and masked the ones on my cardstock. I stamped the grass stamp, and voila! The tiny butterfly and sentiment are also by A Muse. I made a little trail for him by dotting with my Copic Multi-liner.

Have a great day, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Aloha!

Hello there! Can you believe it's June already?

Well, after another three days off, I'd like to say that I'll be happy to be going back to work. . .but I'm not. There is something so nice about having free time all day to do anything. I guess I'll have to keep buying lottery tickets, eh? ;)

We tried two new burger joints (Mike's at the Crossroads and Flipper's). I love love loved Mike's, Flipper's was okay. We also walked Toby every day this weekend, three miles a day.

On Sunday, we went out for sushi in San Francisco and checked out the SF Museum of Modern Art. The main exhibit was a Georgia O'Keeffe/Ansel Adams show, but my personal favorite was a smaller exhibit featuring work by Robert Frank. He made a cross-country trek in the 1950s and turned the black and white photos he took into the book "The Americans." It was completely inspiring.

Anyway, I did manage to get some stamping in on Saturday. With a relaxing weekend underway, I was reminded of the feeling you get on vacation, and that brought me to my Hawaiian shirt stamp by Karen Lockhart. This is my second Karen Lockhart stamp and the first big one (the other one I own is three cupcakes and doesn't take much coloring). Oh, I loved coloring this one though! Check it out:















There's surfboards, palm trees, coconuts and flowers to color. Love it! The patterned paper across the bottom is by Memory Box, and the sentiment is by A Muse. I think they go pretty well together. So well in fact, that I made a second card.















I thought I'd mix it up with a completely different color scheme, and I like it! This stamp has so many coloring opportunities.

All right, time to get settled into "the grind." Have a great day!