In Summary - Human Pretzels and Lee Greenwood

I finally downloaded my pics from my camera today from Leadership. A lot of my live coverage pics were with my Iphone, so I know they won't be hitting National Geographic any time soon. I thought I'd share a few you haven't seen yet that are a little better quality.

First, Manager's reception. This is only the second time I've been, and it was wonderful. Don't worry if you didn't come to Leadership or qualify for this or anything else. I've been having fun for ten years - this is just a bonus, really. So keep having fun - it pays off :).

We got to see some incredible acrobats from China. I held my breath nearly the whole time because I truly couldn't believe what I was seeing. Here are some of the crazy antics. (I'm translating from Chinese.)

Oh hi - please bring me a chair - this tower I built out of chairs isn't tall enough to scare these demonstrators!

 I am not scary enough standing on a wobbly tower of chairs, I must do a handstand.

WAIT - BRING ME MORE CHAIRS. THERE IS ONE PERSON WHO HASN'T FAINTED.

 

 Please, bend yourself into a pretzel so that I may balance teacups on your feet and chin. 

Next, we really had an adventure, thanks to our friend Sue Farrant. She happened to get us tickets to the filming of the Extreme Home Makeover Christmas Special honoring the military. It was an incredible experience. We got to meet the veterans on the show, many of whom had terrible injuries. Very humbling. To begin the event, we had the privilege of having Lee Greenwood sing God Bless the USA 15 feet from us.  I can't even really describe how amazing that was.

He was very kind and gracious, too. What an amazing moment.

Then we got an absolutely unbelievable performance from these Australian tenors and got to see Paige and Ty.

 Here we are teaching them how to say y'all.

 Roger Clements spoke and signed a few baseballs for the auction benefiting Helping a Hero.

 If you want to do something charitable, this is a great organization, so be sure and check out their site. These brave young men and women deserve a roof over their heads.

Then we were off to stamp and be stamped! Here are some of the cute projects from main stage. I think most of the ones I picked are from Shelli's demo.

I didn't even want this set until I saw this cutie.

 Um. Adorable. I love zig zags. I love this paper. I love these colors together. I love this. Is that clear?

 CUTE feathers made from leaves.

 Thank goodness the edgelits are on their way to me as we speak. I need to make exactly this card!

 Love the rhinestone on the typewriter key.

 Framelits make the 3D hearts on this CAS number - LOVE it.

I will be posting from CHA in a few days and then I'll finally get to come home and STAMP!! I miss it! :)

Loveyameanitbye.

The White Peony and Pink Catnip

I went to New York a few years ago for a trade show. Trade shows can be crazy, and you're with people all the time, most of whom are selling you something, so it can be a bit overwhelming. I was also the only girl, which has its own disadvantages.

On the last day in town I was determined to do something without the herd of Y chromosomes, so I snuck off to the Russian Tea room for lunch. It was great, because aside from two extremely rich and somewhat drunk older ladies, the place was completely empty.

I couldn't pass up tea in the tea room, so I ordered something I've never had before - white peony tea. When it came, it was in a glass teacup, like those crazy Russians do :) and it had dark cherries at the bottom of the cup.

It was incredible. I wish I had thought to ask them what brand it was.

I guess they're not the only ones with white peony tea though, because imagine my surprise when it showed up in our Tea Shoppe set in the mini catalog!

I made this card with that set for the Leadership art contest. I didn't win. :( But I had so much fun making it!

I actually sprayed the stamp itself with Blushing Bride Smooch and then stamped it before it dried. So in the second picture you can see how shimmery it is.

I used other fun mini catalog goodies like the Doily Sizzlit, the Blushing Bride pleated ribbon, the striped embossing folder.

What a fun set. I saw an UBER cute tea gift set with this set that we are going to make at my February stamp class if you want to come!

Now speaking of pink - one of the most hilarious things in this AWESOME book I'm reading (Recommended in Carrie Cudney's Why Women Buy class) is the statement that "pink is not a strategy" in marketing.

She says that male ad executives view pink as "female catnip" and think that if they turn a product pink, that that is a new gender based marketing strategy. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Oh I love this book.

There are actually two books, so here they are again - one didn't show up in the reader version of my feed, so here is the one I'm reading now:

And here is the other one Carrie referenced - Marketing to Women.

I can't wait to read that one.

Female catnip!!

SNORT!!

Hope you're having a great week! :)

Loveyameanitbye.

Why She Buys

I'm baaaackkkk......

Leadership was a BLAST! We had some amazing classes in addition to all the stampy inspiration.

I think my favorite class was Carrie Cudney's "Why Women Buy." It was a really cool exploration of how marketing messages are tuned to men or to women successfully. She pulled a ton of information from this book, which I will be buying today:

It had these great stories in it about the differences between men and women when it comes to shopping - including a HILARIOUS map of a man's trip to the mall to buy a shirt at the Gap and that same trip with a woman. The woman goes into every store - the last one is the Gap. She spends $800. He walks in, goes to the Gap, buys the shirt, and leaves.

But all the information about the psychology of a female buyer is AMAZING and I highly recommend it. I can't wait to get it on my Kindle.

I thought that I would share a real picture of one of my Make & Takes at Regionals instead of an Iphone pic. This card was SO easy and fun to make!!

To make the flower, we used the largest of the shapes from the Triple Blossom punch - I adhered the first one flat, and then curved the second one with my bone folder. The center was stamped in Calypso Coral - it's the polka dotted kite from Send me Soaring, then we punched hearts from it with the itty bitty heart punch. The DSP is from the Sweet Shop suite.

Cute, eh?

I'll be back with more tomorrow! :)

Thanks for hanging out with me during Leadership. I had so much fun meeting and hanging out with a lot of you. Can't wait to see you again!

2012 Leadership Live Coverage begins NOW

If you came here for live Leadership coverage, you're in the right place! Watch as our adventures in South Central Texas unfold!

With Apologies To Lionel Richie...

But today it's ...

Once

Twice

 Three times a thank you....

I needed to make a bunch of thank you cards for some very special peeps this week and I wanted to keep them simple and pretty flat for mailing. I was falling asleep one night and came up with this simple punch design. I used the Welcome Neighbor Designer Series Paper Pad, the Full Heart Punch, the Small Heart Punch and the greeting from All Holidays. 

Now, in addition to 80 thank you cards, I have 80 teeny hearts ready to use on something else!

Loveyameanitbye.

BC (Before Cedar) and AC (After Cedar)

It's cedar season.

For those of you not living in Central Texas, I will translate.

We are all dying.

Go on without us. Encase our state in cement so that these trees can't follow you out. Refer to time as BC (Before Cedar) and AC (After Cedar) in the history books.

Tell stories about us so people will know how we lived during the non cedar infested months.

Show them this video and let them know we did our best, but no one could defeat this monster.

We gave our all. Every last sneeze was sneezed bravely.

We all have little survival tricks to get us through February and this madness. I alternate between fizzy water, things with hot chiles in them and hot tea to try to keep my throat from closing completely.

Who doesn't love tea, even if they can't taste it?? This is my favorite tea.

And this is my favorite tea stamp!! This set is from the new Occasions Mini and it's gorgeous! Everything a sneezing tea lover could want in a stamp set! I paired it with some lace trim to give that doily feel and made a teabag tag with the tag punch - cute, eh?

 

Stamps: Tea Shoppe  

Ink: Whisper White, Island Indigo, Basic Black  

Paper: Everyday Enchantment DSP (Sale-a-Bration), Crumb Cake, Island Indigo  

Accessories: Victoria Lace, Tag Punch, Pool Party Twine, White Embossing Powder, Dimensionals

Now in the fizzy water part of my remedy, I prefer LaCroix - the grapefruit is my fave. I got hooked on this when I did the 3Day walk in Dallas and they were a sponsor. No calories, no sweetener, just fizz and a faint grapefruit flavor. It's my fave water.

For the hot chile part, I like soup the best. I made the most fantastic soup last night - and I know I say that every time I make soup, but seriously - this was Soup Nazi quality soup. I promised I would blog the recipe, so here it is:

Pumpkin Peanut Soup     

• 1 tablespoon corn oil
• 2 TBS butter
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 medium orange or yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 poblano pepper, diced
• 1 jalapeno, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp-ish salt - more to taste
• 1 clove garlic, minced (optional - I didn’t add any)
• 1 TBS peeled and grated fresh ginger (I like to grate mine after it’s frozen)
• 1 can Libby’s pumpkin - 15-ish oz can
• 6 cups chicken broth (I used CM Organics)
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can Hunts tomato puree
• 2/3 cup Peter Pan peanut butter

Heat the oil and butter in a large soup pot over a medium-high heat. Add the onions and peppers and and cook, stirring until the vegetables soften and the onions are translucent and squishy. Add the cayenne, black pepper, garlic and ginger and cook for 1 minute more. Stir in the pumpkin broth, and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, about 20 minutes.
   
Blend the soup in the pot with a stick blender. Then add peanut butter, stirring until blended, and heat on low until the peanut butter is blended and melted. Garnish with crushed honey roasted peanuts or salted peanuts.
       
This was insanely delicious - and even better left over. If you don't like spicy food - leave out the jalapeno and the cayenne.


Completely amazing.


If you need me, just walk towards the sound of the sneezing.


Loveyameanitbye. Achoo. Bless me.

Like Peas and Carrots

I'm always making fun of all the Y chromosome types in my life for incessantly memorizing and reciting every single line from every single movie they've ever seen.

It's maddening. You'll be going along having a normal conversation, and suddenly, someone will say something a little odd, a little too enthusiastically, in their "I'm quoting a movie now" voice.

Then they smirk at each other and the assembled crowd. Unless it's one of six movies, I don't know the movie, I don't care what movie it is, and odds are I either fell asleep, started stamping or playing Angry Birds about ten minutes into said movie. I certainly have not memorized any dialogue. And I don't feel like less of a human because I don't recognize a line from Hot Tub Time Machine or the Goonies.

However, this ability comes with the chromosome, so they can't help it. We have to just empathize with their struggle with their genetic disorders.

There are only six movies worth quoting. Actually, if you can't quote these movies, there might be something wrong with your chromosomes!

They are, in no particular order:

• Gone With The Wind
• The Cowboys
• Die Hard
• Christmas Vacation
• Elf
• Forrest Gump

Of these, Forrest Gump is one of the most fun, because it comes with a VOICE. There's no one who can't do this voice.

My two favorite lines from the movie are: "Sometimes, I guess, there just aren't enough rocks." That one always knocks the wind out of me.

The other is "Me and Jenn-ay goes together like peas and carrots."


I don't know where that saying came from, but despite the fact that no one really likes peas, carrots or peas and carrots, it stands tall as one of the most charming phrases on EARTH.

Things like peas and carrots find their spiritual home on stamps I think! Suddenly, they are as sweet as they sound....

I rustled up some peas and carrots for the Sweet 'n Sassy blog hop going on today!

 They were kind enough to let me play along with the big girls today - their Design Divas, and so I whipped up a yummy treat.

Stamps: You & Me Ink: Memento Paper: Bazzill, SU Crumb Cake  
Accessories: SU Ribbon, ShinHan Touch Twin Markers: GY48, GY47, YR23, YR24, Fancy Favor Die, Tasteful Trim Die

I used the adorable You & Me stamp set for a little treat bag I cut with the Fancy Favor die and Crumb Cake cardstock. I stamped the veggies on a Crumb Cake tag, and then stamped them again on white, colored and paper pieced it. Before I stamped, I actually cut the greeting off the stamp so I could use it anywhere or stamp just the images by themselves.

This little bag is perfect for treats you tie in a bag, like, say... CHOCOLATE CARROTS! For "peas" I used green (mint) Hershey Kisses.

I used the Tasteful Trim die to dress up the side

Now look at those cuties and try to tell me you don't love peas and carrots!!! I double dog dare you.

Ready to hop along and see some other goodies?

Take a look at the rest of the Design Divas fun creations for some serious wow-age.

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Blog

Taylor Usry
Bridget Finlay

Monika Davis

Jessica Fick

Dina Kowal

Giovana Smith

Kim Schofield

Amber Hillman

Kim Singdahlsen

Holly McMillen

Mary Faus

Cathy McCauley
Lydia Fiedler << You are here :)

Korin Sutherland

Thanks for coming by! Feel free to leave your favorite movie quote in the comments!

Loveyameanitbye.

Forget the Groundhog - Does Your Bunny Cast a Shadow?

Can you BELIEVE it's almost time for the groundhog?

Also, don't you think it's funny that little cranky Phil is one of our country's most unifying events? It's really sweet and simple and charming.

It's also a little crazy.

That's really the perfect combination of things, if you think about it. Unifying, simple, sweet, charming and crazy. Actually, if you have children, you should tell them those are the things they should look for in a spouse!!

Well, in honor of the upcoming groundhog event, I thought I should do a little tutorial on creating realistic shadows for those of us who don't consider ourselves illustrators.

Basically, it's a tutorial on cheating. Heh.

I used my FAVE bunneh stamp ever - an ancient retired set - Hello Spring. I think this was on my very first ever Stampin' Up! order way back in 2001. Sheesh. I am old. Anyway, I used it with the no line coloring method to make him fuzzier. Because who doesn't love a fuzzy bunny?

Then, I used my cheaty method to make his shadow. I'm pretty sure his shadow means six years of sunshine. Or that's what I hope, anyway.

Stamps: Hello Spring (retired) Ink: None Paper: Whisper White, Retired SU DSP Accessories: ShinHan Touch Twin Markers: BR134, BR107, WG 0.5, Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon (retired)

Want to see it on video? I thought so! :) If you don't see a video player below, just click 

here for the Reflections and Shadows Tutorial Video

How about that? Easy, eh?

I decided to do a new thing with the blue list too just to share my fun finds every week - check it out below! :)

Oh - and are you ready for my live Leadership coverage? Just two weeks till it starts! Be sure and stay tuned!

Next Year's Words...

Happy New Year!!

I, of course, am not awake right now, but you may be, and if so, I hope you are having a happy, loud, quiet, festive or peaceful New Year's Eve - whichever of those you like!

I saw a great quote on Twitter tonight. (via @ken_homer)

For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice. ~ T.S. Eliot

Isn't that the truth? 

Remember - we didn't have Pinterest before 2011.

We won't have Steve Jobs in 2012.

We are going to be amazed and delighted and touched this year in ways we can't imagine, I'm sure.

After all, the internet has more LOLcats for us, there are crafts we've never done, apps that haven't been invented yet, and all those recipes we haven't tried.

I hope your New Year is filled with wonder and joy and peace. 

And LOLcats. :)

This little kitty is a free digi (go get it!) from Sweet 'n Sassy stamps, who decided to set the tone for the New Year with generosity, humor and fun.

It doesn't get much sweeter than that!

Loveyameanitseeyouin2012.

If You Like It, Then You Better Make a Ring Out Of It!

Aah vacation. As it draws to a close, it's just now getting to the point where I can do some fun stuff. 

The first three days I spent shoveling out my craftastrophe. What's funny is it doesn't really look that different. But I spent most of the time on the closet. I threw away three huge garbage bags full of old class notes from conventions past, some old cards that were ugly and I was never going to mail to anyone, and a whole lot of random scraps of things or half finished projects that weren't worth starting. 

After I got rid of the trash, I had a lot of stuff that was brand new or gently used that needed to go. I boxed these up in flat rate boxes (35 pounds across three boxes!) and mailed them off to friends. That felt good. 

I did so much of this that I'm actually sore from squatting in front of shelves peering at ill advised purchases from bygone years. I have lots more to go but it's a start! 

My goal for 2012 is to have exactly HALF of the possessions I have now. I only want to keep things I really love and use. The rest should go to people whole will love what I'm not using. 

I've also decided if I win the lottery I will build a large, one-story home with NO closets, NO drawers and NO attic. Everything will have to live in the space it's used in, so things will have to be useful and artfully displayed. So put THAT in your hat and smoke it. 

So today was the first day I've gotten to the point where I could be crafty. And it was SO fun!!

I used a tutorial I saw earlier in the year to make fake faceted jewels from floral stones!!

LOOK how sparkly and fun they are!! Here's the white one. 

SQUEE!!!

And you KNOW I did a blue one!!!

Don't they just make you happy????

Okay - here's what you do. I started with this fried marbles tutorial on Craftster. However, I tried it with her temperatures three times and it didn't work. So after a lot of failed experimentation, this is what I did.

• Start with these flat bottomed marbles. 
• Preheat your oven to 500.
• Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 
• Fill a stainless steel bowl with ice water - lots of ice.
• Spread stones out on parchment paper in a single layer. 
• Bake for 20 minutes, and when finished, take the cookie sheet and dump the marbles directly and immediately into the ice water, where they will make a satisfying sizzle and crack. Leave them there about 15-20 minutes and dump them out onto a paper towel. 

Some will crack better than others. They are SO fun!! I made a squillion of them. 

Then, take some of this glue and glue them to these ring blanks. 

VOILA!! Ring bling!! 

How fun is THAT?

And for a few Christmas gifts, I bought these stacking espresso cups and some candle making supplies - a little hot pot (nice because it's easy to pour the wax out of), wicks and some unscented wax and I filled the cups with wax. When they were cool, I added a circle of stamped tissue paper and heated it with my heat gun to melt it into the candle. The stamp is the retired background stamp - Musical score. Aren't they sassy?

Now after I gave them away I was left with the holder the cups came in:

What ever shall I do with it? Got any ideas? Lay em on me, stringbean!! :)

Loveyameanitbye.

Forever Praise We...

You know how people (who don't have/like animals) always tell you that the reason your pets like you is because you feed them? That all of the purring and snuggling and tail wagging is designed to get you to give them some pet chow?

Well of course you know I don't believe THAT. I know they love us.

And I also know that not everything that motivates behavior on this earth is food or shelter or some other primitive need.

I know that some things exist solely to give us joy.

One of the ways I know this is because I heard this on the way home on Christmas Eve.

Now listen to that and then tell me that that gift she has serves some utilitarian purpose. I won't believe you.

That is a gift  meant purely to enhance the joy of humans on earth.

And does it ever.

Joy is good. The sense of lightness and fun we all share for a few weeks at the holidays is really a treasure. I hope you are enjoying it, no matter what you're doing, or where you're doing it.

In addition to the joy, I always think on Christmas of our brave men and women who won't spend this Christmas at home, and their families getting through the holidays without them. Today on the radio, a General said "remember the empty chair."

So in honor of both human joy and the empty chair, here is one of my favorite Christmas songs on my Ipod, but with a very special twist :) Welcome home to the troops headed our way, and God bless all the rest.

(click here if you don't see a video player)

This Christmas I decided my card should be merry and bright! You know by now that I love to make monochromatic, sort of subdued Christmas cards, but I decided to step out a bit this year into something splashier. More joyful.

To make them, I used my Aqua Painter and Poppy Parade, Summer Sun and Tempting Turquoise reinkers and painted stripes around four sides of Naturals White cardstock and punched that out with the ornament punch. I got 20 of these per sheet for a total of 8 sheets of cardstock. Then I cut 1/8" strips of silver glimmer paper. This was a wee bit more than half a sheet total. Then 80 sheets of Whisper White, the stamped greeting from Peaceful Season and the music from Nature's Pace and voila! 160 handmade cards for $19.75 in consumables - or .12 a card!

Add the joy of making handmade cards and what do you get?

Priceless.

I hope your Christmas is joyful. And filled with pie. :)

Loveyameanitbye.

It's Just a Little Primitive

I've been having fun looking at some of the primitive Christmas decorations on Pinterest. Besides just being beautiful and simple, I have been surprised at how many of them can be made with things you already have.

Pinterest is definitely a DIY-ers dream.

Were I not a procrastinator, I would have been able to make many more of the beautiful, simple things I pinned this season.

But one of them really grabbed me and I had to try it since I had all the stuff.

The original pin is here, and this is my version.

You knew I had to make Mary blue, didn't you?

The circle behind them is shimmery white cardstock, and it's hanging with white twine. The star is cut with the Stars #2 die from Silver Glimmer paper. I painted them with Apple Barrel Paints. There are a bunch of different shapes of old fashioned clothespins you can find in bulk, like these.

I love the simplicity of the symbols. So sweet.

I hope you're in that phase of the holidays where you are enjoying some of your hard work and preparation!

This afternoon, we are kicking off a week of Christmas vacation with the second annual wrapping party at my sister's. We provide wrapping paper, tape, bows, ribbon, tables, music and food, a DIY tag craft table and assistance for the neighbors so that everyone can wrap presents in a relaxing setting where they don't have to hide gifts from the kids or do it after everyone is in bed. It's a really, fun, festive little thing we started last year and everyone loved it, so it's year two!
 
I guess I should go prep the tags, eh?

A gift without a tag is just downright primitive. :)

Oh  - speaking of primitive, how about the instinct to soothe a crying baby? Even cats have it. This video is amazing - shared by my friend Karol. If you don't see a video player, click here to watch.

Loveyameanitbye.