I STAMPED!!

I know-it seems impossible but it's true! I cleared off a little bit of my messy stamping table and actually stamped something! Now these are thank you cards so if you're expecting a thank you from us, and don't want to see your card, just wait a week or two or three. I only have 2 to share right now. I'm experimenting with a new way of doing this so let me know if you hate it. I'm trying to make my blog dialup friendly considering that I'm on dialup and regularly complain about blogs taking too long to load. So the small pic is here and then if you want to see it bigger, click on it (hold the shift key while you click if you want it to open in a new window-apparently the practice of making things open in new windows automatically is annoying so I'll quit doing it).

This first one uses the Vases in Vogue set and I used my copics to color it. I'm not very skilled with copics yet but they're fun anyway-you know, because they cost so much. The ribbon is from Stampin' Up-it's pink velvety kind. Oh and the knot-I was tying some ugly knots before and I found a nice tuturial at splitcoast stampers (you can see the link in my links list) on how to tie a nice looking knot. Anyway, the scallop punch is from marvy and the scallop punch stamp is from Gina K. The cardstock and patterned paper are both from Stampin' Up.


The next one uses the new So Many Scallops set I just preordered from the Sale-a-bration catalog (I'm impatient, obviously). I stamped it with brilliance coral ink. The flower background is from Fun Fillers (I think) and the 'thank you' is from Vases in Vogue; both were stamped using Close to Cocoa classic ink (I sponged a little pigment ink on the edges of the brown square). The cardstock is all from Stampin' Up as is the patterned paper. I'm not exactly sure who made the ribbon. I sewed on the ends of the patterned paper using my little Hello Kitty sewing machine. The button is from Oriental Trading. I copied this sketch almost exactly from a Stampin' Up demo magazine. My mojo is temporarily gone right now so I just copy.

A Jelly Roll that you can't eat

In the quilting world, a jelly roll is a set of fabric strips, usually 2-1/2 inches wide by 44 inches. Moda makes jelly rolls but I'm not sure if other fabric companies do. I know some quilt shops make their own jelly rolls for sale. Anyway Moda's jelly rolls consist of all of the fabrics in a certain line. One strip of each. Usually there are 40 strips in a jelly roll and they look like this (this happens to be a picture of the jelly roll I'm about to post about).

OK blogger just lost my entire post after the picture. I am not happy. I'll try to remember what all I posted.

OK I was never planning to make anything from a jelly roll because I prewash all of my fabric. You cannot prewash strips-they'll fray too much. So if I was going to use a jelly roll, I would have to use all new unwashed fabric. Well I came across a sale and you know the rest. I bought a jelly roll (just like the picture above) at 40% off. I found a pattern in Quilt magazine that uses one jelly roll to make a lap quilt. It looked easy enough. Thursday night I sorted the colors (took maybe 20 minutes) and Friday I made the entire top-in one day. ONE DAY!! I've never made anything this big in one day! And it turned out very cute, if I do say so myself. The pattern calls for a border but I think this is big enough without one. It's about 50 x 60 inches. Plus I'm too cheap to buy fabric for the border. I have to buy for the backing and binding as it is. Anyway this is the pic of the top (if you look closely at the far right side, you might see a hand sticking out. That is the hand of Sammy's new American Girl doll, which is called Sarah. Sara. One of those.)

I'm going to order some fabric for the binding and backing and when it's all done, I'll post it again. I'm almost afraid to quilt it for fear of ruining it. And I really hope those red centers don't bleed when I wash it.

Happy New Year!!

Well it's 2008, finally. One of my resolutions is to clean and organize my craft room. I need to paint my desk, sewing desk and chairs so I might try to get that done soon. I really want it to be nice and neat and for me to want to spend time in there. Right now I get in there and just look around frantically because it's such a mess I don't know what to do next. Coincidentally, The Scrapbook Site is having an organizing challenge. I'm hoping that it will motivate me to really get organized. For now I'm going to show a picture of my very messy space. Actually it has been messier but right now it isn't looking too great. Just one pic though-I don't want people to get scared. I do want to say, though, that no matter what I do my spot will always look cluttered because I have too much stuff. And I'm keeping it all. But I think it could look a LOT better.

It's over-finally!!

Christmas, that is. The big holiday is over and the living room is full of toys and empty boxes. Today I'm throwing out all the empty boxes and throwing the toys in the kids' rooms so we can walk around again. Here is what everyone got:
Steve got a tool set, back massager thing that sits in a chair, calendar, jeans and socks (he's not easy to buy for). I got a cd, brain age (I have no nintendo ds but hey, that's a minor detail. I just use the kids' ds units), cricut cartridge (cuttin' up), 3 books, 2 applique books and we got a gift card and some money from his brother to share (but I probably won't share). Jenny got an American Girl doll, hawaiian doll outfit, cooking mama 2 ds game, build a bear ds game, 3 books, jibbitz, sweatshirt, discovery channel living with tigers dvd, American Girl get better set (has all the supplies for the injured American girl doll), 3 die cast Disney cars, American Girl hair care set, and bunch of gift cards and cash. Sammy got an American Girl doll, Littlest Pet Shop Biggest Littlest Pet Shop, 3 littlest pet shop toys in her stocking, 3 books, puppy bowl dvd, mario party ds game, jibbitz, sweatshirt, American Girl doll ballet outfit, LPS (littlest pet shop) Whirl Around Playground and Leapin' Lagoon, and bunch of gift cards and cash. Jake got a Science Lab kit complete with personalized lab coat, remote control helicopter (this is really fun), tshirt, 3 books, mario party ds game, mario kart ds game, Discovery Channel Chased By Sea Monsters dvd, jibbitz, 3 die cast Disney cars, Monopoly and Sorry Express, Nintendo Monopoly, and bunch of gift cards and cash. The family got the first season of Meerkat Manor and a set of Discovery Channel "best of" dvds. Santa is sending a Wii for the whole family but it is going to be about a week late. That means we get to listen to a whole week of "IS IT HERE YET???" Daisy (the puppy) got a bratty cat seen here:

and the cat got a pouch of tuna fish (much better than a toy, for him).
I think everyone made out pretty good this year. Santa even left this picture of Rudolph for the kids:

The cricut (cricket)

I bought a new cricut at walmart on black friday. I always thought I would never get one since I have the craft robo. I never use the craft robo though. My computer isn't in my scrap room and when I'm in there scrapping, someone else is on the computer. I never wanted to kick someone off only to take an hour or more trying to find the file I wanted to cut, figure out size, placement, etc, dig out the machine, cut (usually took a couple of tries because the settings needed adjusting), etc. So when I read that the cricut was going to be cheap (compared to full price) at walmart I jumped on it. It came with two cartridges and I thought-oh that's plenty for now. WRONG. I ended up ordering (at very good prices) several cartridges. The cricut is SO easy to use and fast too! I don't mind having only the cartridge shapes/letters to choose from because, frankly, I'm better with less to choose from. It would take me forever to pick something to cut with the craft robo-in fact I would just give up sometimes and not bother to use it at all. So anyway we've been cricutting a lot of stuff but nothing had been scanned. Sammy made this card today for her dance teacher using the paper dolls cartridge. It has glitter on it but the scanner makes the glitter look funny. It is cute in real life and Sammy is so excited to give it to her teacher.

Switched emails

I switched my yahoo groups that were on my other gmail account to my stampsandstitches account. This way I'll be logged in all the time (except the occasional logout by google) and it will be easier to log in to blog. I do have to keep logging in to blog but it's not as slow when I'm logged into gmail. Hopefully this will keep me blogging more often.

Also here's a recipe that is Sammy's favorite. She would eat this every day if I let her.

Easy Chicken A'La King

this is the lower fat version. I will post the original version but not today.

2 tbs butter (I use smart balance buttery spread)
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 large can chicken (about 12 oz) or the same amt of leftover cut up chicken
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1 small can mushrooms cut up (optional)
1 small jar pimientos (optional)
rice or toast or biscuits or whatever you want underneath the sauce

Melt butter and cook onion in it until it's done. Put milk in a shaker cup and add flour. Shake for about 30 seconds. I have to time myself because I was actually shaking it for about 5 seconds and wondering why it wasn't all mixed. You have to shake it for a long time (to me, 30 seconds is a 'long time'). Add some of the chicken broth if necessary, to make it easier to shake up. Add flour mixture and chicken broth to the onion/butter in the pan, stirring with a whisk to avoid lumps. Keep stirring and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for a minute or two, stirring constantly. Add cooked chicken, peas and mushrooms and stir. Heat through. Stir in pimientos (or don't-I don't use them). Serve over rice or toast or biscuits or whatever. We use rice and call it "chicken-rice-peas" or just CRP when we're too lazy to say the whole name.

Daisy update

I'm blogging twice in the same day! I get extra credit for that! Anyway update on Daisy. Last week we weighed her and she was 27 lbs. Wow they really grow like weeds! When we got her, on August 27th, she weighed a mere 10 lbs. She has lost her 'puppy look'. She has one week left of obedience class and I suspect she'll be getting a big fat F when she graduates. Well to be fair she is the only puppy in the class and all those other dogs just get her all riled up. She pulls horribly during the heeling part. She is terrible about sitting when we stop. However she is very good at the sit/stay and down/stay as long as it isn't for too much time. At home she does much better. She is made to sit for everything-feeding, letting out, throwing a toy, everything. Petting is something she doesn't get much of because she bites too much. She is teething, complete with bleeding gums, so I guess that's why. It's very annoying. We just try to keep her busy chasing toys and chewing on them instead of us. She will be 5 months old next sunday so I know we have a long time before she's out of that chewing-on-people stage. She got a brand spankin' new doghouse yesterday-it looks like an igloo and is supposed to be very warm. She seems to like it a lot. Here are a couple of pictures. The first is just the face shot. The second she's carrying one of her beloved squeaky stuffies. She LOVES to squeak her toys.






She is getting a couple teaspoons of pumpkin in her food every day and doesn't go through a whole can in a week-so I have been on the hunt for low-fat pumpkin bread and muffin recipes and will try to post them as I try them out. I will have at least a cup or so each week to use up. Thank goodness pumpkin is healthy. Who would have ever guessed it's good for dogs and that they like it so much.