Share Your Secrets...

Does anyone remember a book called the Silver Nutmeg?

I absolutely adored this book when I was little. I read it dozens of times, I'm sure.

I think LOST borrowed a few things from this book, but I can't find my copy (Mom - do you have it?) so I can't check, and it's out of print now, and so all the copies are $400. Maybe Steve Jobs loved it too and he will put it on Ibooks with all the beautiful illustrations it had.

The story was about sort of a mirror world a little girl finds under a pond. In the mirror world, things that were lost in the real world are found. I think this book was the first place I ever saw the word coriander - the whole thing was so exotic and mysterious and fun.

Anyway, this book was my random thought when I saw the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger because it features one of my fave complementary color schemes, and I just LOVE color "mirrors" on my cards. It's my go to design element. So imagine my delight when I saw this ...

Since a very retro book popped into my head I thought I should do a retro card. I got out one of my fave sets EVER and decided to make the mirrored colors the star of the show with a simple direct to paper swipe. Then I added a little glitter and some pearls to my sassy stamper and popped her up off the card. Stamps: Stampin' Fun for Everyone (retired) Ink: Tangerine Tango, Tempting Turquoise
Paper: Whisper White Accessories: Pearls, Glitter, Dimensionals

If you do have a secret mirror world under the pond out back, maybe you should share that secret with me - over STAMPING! :)

I won't tell a soul, I promise...

Bargello!

In another life, I did squillions of hours of needlepoint. I loved each one of those hours - needlepoint is so perfect and clean and relaxing. I'm not sure when I switched over to papercrafting but I if I had time for two hobbies, I'd definitely pick that one up again. I still have many an unframed piece I really need to dig out.

Today's tutorial at Splitcoast is one that's borrowed from needlepoint - it's the Bargello technique. It's really fun and easy and has that geometric precision all us needlecrafters love!

I decided to do my Bargello with black, white and blue. I used a combo of Prints Pack and Halloween DSP to make my strips, and after I had them put together, I cut the background with my Top Note die. The stamp set is Sip By Sip (retired) - I love that clean, retro, graphic look of that coffee pot. Looks like something June Cleaver would have. I'd love some turquoise blue coffee too. :)

Go check out her tutorial and make something sassy!

HI from a YELLY BIRD

The birds around here are really feeling their oats, lemme tell ya.

It's like a bird concert out back these days, with mockingbirds - those evil beasties - singing lead and our sweet cardinals on shoo-wop backup singer duty.

I like it when they're all going at once and you have to listen really hard to pick out a single song. They have so much to SAY!

I was inspired by Beate to do the color challenge today on Splitcoast - she said "come on - two blues??" - and what can I say to that??

So I did a super quickie card - paper piecing the eggs from Nature Walk in the challenge colors (Marina Mist, Baja Breeze and Certainly Celery) and making my bird scream HI with some little chipboard letters in ALL CAPS. Spring has sprung, my people. Go outside and listen to the birds yell about it.

Unredeemed Dreams

Having just been told by AT&T that there ARE NO MORE unlimited data plans for the Ipad, and that the City of Austin will give us NO MORE free parking on the weekends downtown, I've been thinking about space lately. Humans don't like limits - especially this human. Even if I don't use my whole data plan, I want to know I'll never hit a wall and miss that next kitten video. We are most creative and happy when we are free.

I went to hear the Soup Peddler speak at RISE a few weeks ago, and his session was in the incredibly beautiful Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. I was running late, as a result of trying to find one of those expensive parking spots downtown, but on the way in, I was arrested by these stunning quotes about Texas, chiseled into the walls of the rotunda.
My fellow Texans will feel this one in their hearts. We love our wide open spaces, and big sky. No limits.

I think one of the reasons I love this little papercrafting hobby is that it IS wide and deep, with no end of color and invention. Someone is always creating something around us that we can't wait to try. Each and every day - usually many, many times - I'm completely amazed by something new. Here's a tutorial I fell in love with this week, and here's another that about made me cry, it's so artistic and beautiful and blue.

None of us fear some artistic authority coming in and putting a stop to it all, or charging us extra just to access the talent of the people around us.

Since I'm lucky enough to get to say hi to the people who are new to Splitcoast every day, I meet all sorts of interesting people from all over the world. Some are new to stamping, and some are already incredible artists.

Sometimes I envy the newbies, because I think - oh, how your crafty future is filled with unredeemed dreams...

Sometimes I feel like a newbie though. Like when I get crafty live on my Ustream channel with my friends. I make all the mistakes live on camera that my blog never reveals. I can't find things, and have to search for them in real time like last night, when my friend Leslie basically made me get out every punch I owned to find the one I finally used on the project. It's so fun, and I love sharing the real deal. We're messy, unorganized and easily entertained. We teach each other things. We can laugh at ourselves and each other. We make each other's art better. We give each other the crafty wantmonster in the worst way.

Try to think of yourselves not as imperfect little artists. Think of yourselves as the co-creators of unredeemed artistic dreams.

Thanks to my collaborators last night: Donna, Leslie, Christy and Mary Dawn, I created this little bag.
It was totally a group effort.

I adhered some Sweet Stitches fabric to a Multi-purpose Adhesive sheet and ran it through the Big Shot with the Fancy Favor die. I did the same with a piece of Crumb Cake. Why did I not stick the fabric to the cardstock before cutting them? Because that, my friends, is one of those unredeemed dreams! Now you know better! :)

I actually stamped the Pattern Pieces stamp on Whisper White and then colored it with direct-to-paper with Pixie Pink and Daffodil Delight for those accent pieces I punched. Then I stamped the dress form from Sew Suite, glittered it and stuck it on with a Sweet Stitches button. The fabric really makes it feel nice - way nicer than cardstock. I glued on the pom pom trim with Tombo Multi.

So thanks to my friends who helped me with this little bag and made me laugh! You are the source of many unredeemed crafty dreams!

TGIF.

Loveyameanitbye.

600 Pounds of Poop Later....

Yes. That's right. 600 pounds of poop. Cow poop, to be completely specific.

I took 12 50 pound bags of cow poop and spread their contents all over my flowerbeds yesterday.

After raking two leaf bags worth of stupid oak leaves out of those beds and weeding.

Every. Thing. On. My. Body. Hurts. Some places that hurt have bug bites.

But don't cry for me Argentina.... I have another far more important topic to discuss.

If you are part of the industry that makes "puncture proof" gardening gloves, I want you to scooch up REALLY close to your monitor right now. Yep - a little closer.

YOU ARE ALL A BUNCH OF LIARS!! If I could fling cow poop at you (I can't because I'm too sore) I so would. Or perhaps a fire ant. Or 20. Maybe the spider that bit me on my shin.

How can you even be allowed to sell this product? How have you not been struck by lightning?

Here's what we're going to do.

We are going to have a meeting. You are going to be wearing your product from head to toe. I will have just a lowly dewberry vine, which my yard is infested with, and two branches of my thorny salvia bush. I am going to press these all over you and you are going to talk to me about how great your product is and how it will keep me from getting mercilessy poked to death when I work in the yard.

Then you are most likely going to change careers.

Hmph. I am mad at you, in case you couldn't tell.

Luckily, the webcam didn't show my battle scars yesterday when I did a little live streaming of my stamping. I wanted to show a fun new variation on kissing, so I made a quick, simple card.

What's cool about this variation is I used two complementary colors instead of using a dry stamp for the "kiss". I inked up my monogram stamp in River Rock, inked up Bella Toile in Poppy Parade and then kissed...


I added some tinsel trim (retired) and crown bling, and the greeting is from Happy Everything (retired).

Fun, eh? Leslie liked it on the live crafty cam so much she made one and blogged it here. It's absolutely stunning on Ornate Blossom.

Give it a try! Show me if you do.

If you need me, I'll be poking dewberry vines into a glove rep!!

Feral Children on Spring Break!

It's Spring Break week here, and thankfully, it's coming to a close. The entire city changes during spring break and you really have to watch out for the ferals.

I came home the other day from the grocery store to find a tiny feral on a bike in my driveway. I paused to let him get out of the driveway so I could get in. He moved an inch, maybe. That's how I knew he was feral.

I squeeze around him in the driveway, and he stares at me until I get out. He points at my neighbor's house and he says "Who is your neighbor?" I say "huh?" He says "What is their name - how well do you know them?"

At this point, I'm baffled and really am concerned that he has rabies. I say "Are you looking for someone?" He says "I think I had a sleepover there, but I can't remember." I say "No, honey, you didn't have a sleepover there - she lives alone." He says "Well how about the next house?"

At this point I understand why his poor, exhausted mother told him to get outside and not come back until school started back up on Monday. He may have even been beyond feral. I considered running or just throwing brownies at him.

Suddenly, he realizes he's on the wrong block, and just shoots off, yelling that he was in the wrong place and knew where he was now.

You know it's way past normal boredom when you randomly roam the streets looking for anyone you may ever have spent time with. I should have made him weed my flowerbeds.

Oh - speaking of flowerbeds - today's Free For All Friday challenge was called "How Does Your Garden Grow?" Since I wasn't thinking quickly enough to corral the feral, it's not growing all that great right now, but I have hope! I decided to make a bright, happy peony, inspired by my latest Martha Stewart magazine.

Stamps: Pretty Peony (retired), Tiny Tags Paper: Whisper White Ink: Poppy Parade
Accessories: Framed Tulips Embossing Folder, Slot Punch, Mistletoe Ribbon (retired), White Ribbon, MFT Doily Die, Jewelry Tag Punch

Sassy eh?

Almost enough to motivate me to weed my flowerbeds this weekend.

Almost.

Stay away from the ferals and have a great weekend!

Sláinte!

An Irish man shows up in a pub one day and orders three pints of Guinness. He takes sips from each glass until they are empty and calls the bartender for three more. The bartender says, 'Sure it's up to yourself, but wouldn't you rather I was bringing them one at a time? Then they'll be fresh and cold.'

'Nah...' your man says, ' I'm preferrin' that ye bring 'em three at a time. You see, me and me two brothers would meet at a pub and drink and have good times. Now one is in Australia, the other in Canada and I'm here. We agreed before we split up that we'd drink to each other's honour this way.'

'Well,' says the bartender, 'that's a grand thing to do, all right. I'll bring the pints as you ask.'

Well, time goes on and your man's peculiar habit is known and accepted by all the pub regulars. One day though, he comes in and orders only two pints. A hush falls over the pub. Naturally, everyone figures something happened to one of the brothers. A group of the regulars corner the bartender and finally persuade him to find out what happened. With a heavy heart, the bartender brings the two pints and says, 'Here's your pints... and let me offer my sincerest condolences. What happened?'

The Irish man looks extremely puzzled for a moment, and then starts laughing.

'Oh, no, no, no! 'Tis nothing like that. You see, I've given up drinking for Lent...'

Stamps: Something to Celebrate, Bella Toile, Four Frames (sneak peek)
Ink: Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss Paper: Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss

Accessories: Decorative Label Punch, Gold Cord, Sponge Dauber, Pearls, Mini Glue Dots, Bone Folder

Since I'm Irish, I can get away with that!! :) Today's card was inspired by a Martha Stewart email where she creased her heart shapes to make shamrocks - I thought it really added something. So I stamped some Kiwi Kiss with the Bella Toile background and punched with my Heart to Heart Punch. Then I scored them and sprayed them with Smooch for that gold at the end of the rainbow look. The background I did with Julie's Delft Tile technique. So easy & pretty!

I hope everyone has a fun St. Patty's Day! Here are some of my fave Irish things.

My fave Irish food - soda bread
My fave book about Ireland - Trinity
My fave Irish object - my Waterford seahorse
My second fave Irish object - my shamrock Beleek luminaria
My fave Irish celebrity - Ronan Tynan
My fave Irish movie - the Secret of Roan Inish
My second fave Irish movie - the Commitments
My fave Irish lore - the banshee
My fave Irish golfer - Padraig Harrington
My fave Irish art - the limerick

My fave Irish trait - humor! So I leave you with this...

May those that love us, love us.
And those that don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if he doesn’t turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we’ll know them by their limping.

Sláinte!

Evil Cannibal Bunnies Market Their Friends!

I had my stamping class last weekend and we had some high old times with good springy stuff like bunnies and flowers. I decided to just do a spring mashup and stick my bunnies and my flowers on the same project - so there!!

I took a cute easel box design from Diana Gibbs and modified it to fit a delicious little tiny Lindt chocolate bunneh.

Of course, after I made it I thought - wait - why would a chocolate bunny sit happily up on top of a box with a chocolate bunny inside it saying "Happy Easter! Eat my friend!"??? That doesn't make any dang sense - what kind of an evil bunny IS this anyway???

But it's too late now. Cannibal bunny is already created and has started his rampage, so I have to show him to you! I hope you're not too scared of him.



The modifications I made for Cannibal Bunny are as follows: 4x4 piece of Pretty in Pink cardstock, scored at 1" on each side, a 2x7 strip of Springtime Vintage DSP, scored at 2, 3, 5 and 6 if you want to - I didn't - I just wrapped it snugly around the box and adhered it. Be sure not to stick it to the box - it's just a sleeve the little box slides into. Then there's a 2x4.5" piece of card stock, scored at 2" and 3". The rest of the instructions are just like Diana's.

I got the little victims at my grocery store and they come in a little strip with 5 or six bunnies per package. I let the other bunnies get away safely on the underground bunny railroad.

I had a fabulous adventure this weekend for the start of South by Southwest! My friend Cindy has a sketchbook in The Sketchbook Project, which is traveling around the country right now and arrived in Austin in time for the SXSW kickoff.

I am humbled and floored that she used Sassy Maddie in the book so I had to go take a peek!


Her story in the sketchbook is called the Ring, and it is incredible. Truly a page turner, and her message at the end made us all misty!

And then to turn to the end and see my furry little sassy butt Maddie was just amazing!



What an amazing world we stampers live in. Friends in far flung corners of the world connected by a little paper, ink, a small black cat..

You need to go to her incredible blog and see her beautiful stampy creations and her full sketchbook. I won't spoil the ending for you.. :)

Thank you Cindy - you squeezed our hearts!

So I hope all of you keep your bunnies safe from the cannibal bunny this week, and if the Sketchbook Project is coming to your town - go see it! The books are incredible!

Sake To Me!

It's been a crazy few days. Friday, I gave a RISE Session on Social Media to 25 of the most interesting people I've ever met. Austin is such a fascinating town. I'm fairly certain the solution to most of the world's problems could be found by assembling a group of casually dressed, Ipad bearing A-towners in a coffee shop.

Saturday, we headed into the thick of the SXSW crowd for something I will show you tomorrow. Somehow there was a milagro and I secured a parking spot SMACK in the middle of Congress Avenue on the busiest Saturday of the year, too. It may sound mundane, but that's like the Nobel Prize of Austin life

Sunday, I attended the BLoungeATX (Blogger's Lounge) event, which I could do every day. Blogging doesn't have to be a solitary pursuit - it can be a fun group event with mini corn dogs and giant televisions displaying your Twitter feeds - INSANE nerd fun, and I got lots of blogging done.

Then it was on to the Texas Sake Company special winter batch tasting that my sister won on Facebook. The owner taught us so much about the process of making sake - walking us all the way through from rice in the fields to a yummy glass of his delicious Lone Star State born and bred brew. He made a winery tour in Napa seem boring by comparison and was a fantastic host.

After all that, I had time for just one card before some couchfest. Lori picked this week's cyber-stamping assignment as a sketch challenge with MFT's Getting Sketchy #10. Gorgeous. Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful (retired) Paper: Paisley Petals, Whisper White

Accessories: Rhinestone flower, Modern Label Punch, Pear Pizazz Seam binding

As usual, I stretched a bit - using a circle instead of a rectangle for the main shape, and a flower instead of a heart at the bottom. I had these beautiful little sparkly flowers that were a gift from a stampy friend that were dying to come out and play. I feel like sticking some on my car.

The paper is a sneak peek - Paisley Petals - from a promotion that starts April 1. *tease*. Lynn - I can hear you calling me that, you know! :)

Of course this time Saturday, it was an hour earlier. That's disturbing. What if you add up all our lost hours - what could we all have done with that time?

And who is responsible for Monday coming an hour earlier than it should have, eh?

What the Caterpillar Calls the End of the World...

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly.. -Richard Bach

I adore Richard Bach. He wrote one of my favorite books of my childhood, Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I loved anthropomorphic books like this and Pagoo. Having been a Dr. Doolittle type all my life, I know that life is precious, and all little creatures have feelings and personalities and different forms of expression that we should recognize and try to understand.

I saw a great story about some Lassie-style dolphins that saved a Doberman's life in Florida a few weeks ago - you can read about it here. Dolphins clearly have empathy, feel stress and have an understanding of danger to another species, sweet little animals.

If you've been watching the news this week, you've probably felt that same empathy and stress and fear and desire to help. The world gets smaller at moments like this and reminds us how little we are.

But it also reminds of how generous and kind and strong people can be. I'm sure in the coming days we will hear stories that will amaze us.

When I saw Eva's butterfly challenge, I thought - now here's a great artistic coincidence... There's no image better suited to illustrate hope than our little winged, transformy friends!
So I took out a Japanese book I found last year at Half Price Books, and rubbed Ballet Blue ink onto my Beautiful Wings Embosslit and zipped it through the Big Shot. I actually did two pages at the same time since they are so much thinner than cardstock, so now I have tons of pretty, printy butterflies. I love how each of the butterflies has a different pattern embossed on it.

I brayered another page with Summer Sun Ink for the background, and made the greeting with the sneak peek set - Four Frames - and the Decorative Label Punch. The greeting is from Voeux mignons.

I hope our friends in Japan can feel the butterfly effect of the thoughts and prayers of millions of people on our side of the Pacific.

Chinatown and the Demise of Artistic Suspense

Remember that sketch on Saturday Night Live where Will Farrell has VOICE IMMODULATION DISORDER and he YELLS all the time?

Well I have cinemanarcolepsy sleep immodulation disorder. I cannot sit down to watch a movie (or a show longer than half an hour, with the exception of LOST or a Modern Family marathon) without sinking into a deep coma. I am completely binary - I'm either on or I'm off. 100 miles an hour or stopped.

I've seen the first 30 minutes of a TON of movies, including Chinatown, which I watched for the first time this weekend. I didn't really think the part I saw was that great, but before I drifted off I did notice something.

Back in the old days, before all you little chickens were born, 80% of the suspense in murder mystery films and thrillers came from the dim, red glow of a dark room, and the agonizingly slow photo developing process, which inevitably ended with a dramatic revelation of THE clue that solved it all.

It added quite a bit of time to these movies, and tons of anxiety and anticipation. What is the equivalent now? CSI has some fun stuff, but it's all instantaneous.

I was thinking that you could build in some funny suspense in a romantic comedy with some of our modern toys. It would go something like this.

Worried girl obsessively checks love interest's Facebook status. One day, she sees this...
Dramatic music plays while we wait for her browser to finish loading his status... Closeup of her face, her hand on the mouse, her paused game of Bejeweled.

Well, maybe it just doesn't have the same feel.

I guess I'm just old school. So I thought I'd bring you an old school card that reminds me of another fun movie technique - that one they used in Raiders of the Lost Ark - where they would show a little fake plane flying over a map with a bright red line showing you where the plane was going. So sweet and retro.


I actually made this card for a VSN challenge for the soot stamping technique.

Well, I'm not really cut out for that technique, even though I had a ton of fun trying. I set my paper on fire more than once, made my room stinky and then I didn't get enough "soot" to make the stamping part work - it was really faint.

So I stamped the plane from Plane & Simple in black on vellum paper and stuck it over my major fail. :) Then I stamped the sassy-frass map image from Travel Log (from an upcoming catalog - we got it at Leadership) in Poppy Parade on Very Vanilla, and stuck that on some Newsprint paper and then a Poppy Parade card base. Do you not LOVE that font that says Itinerary? I wish I had a bunch more greetings in that style.

So what are you little chickens up to anyway? I'm thinking of having some giveaways while I try to clear out some of my stash before it falls on me and kills me. Maybe an Easter card contest? Whaddaya think?

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do?

There are several unique days on the calendar each year in the city of Austin.

There's Eeyore's Birthday, for example, celebrated for nearly half a century here in town in a uniquely Austin way.

Then there's Spamarama, the smell of which haunts me to this day.

And today, there's the Texas Warrant Roundup. This is the day when the po-po come and get you for any outstanding warrants, rounding up THOUSANDS of scofflaws for their failure to appear.

It always is promoted in advance like a rock concert, to give the criminals fair warning. And on Warrant Roundup Day, if it falls during a weekday, receptionists all over town summon people to the lobby of their workplace to tell them an officer is here to see them. I've seen five or more in various workplaces and it's always quite the scandal, even if the warrant is for something as boring as unpaid parking tickets.

Oh hang on - someone's at the door....

heh. Not really.

I'm innocent.

Speaking of innocent, we had a fun challenge during VSN to make a card representing our first love of an object or a toy we had when we were little.

I chose Ferd, the bear. Ferd was my little white bear, with a tiny music box inside him that you could wind up and it would play Brahm's Lullaby. He was the best bear, and because of that, he was not white for very long. I've never seen another little bear so sweet and I wish I had him still.

I made a card for little Ferd, and I gave him a little friend, because a bear as sweet as Ferd should have another little bear that is his best bear buddy in the whole world and he can tell all his secrets to.
I'm on a bit of a white card streak lately for some reason. Perhaps because I found a box of white cardstock already cut into card size for a project long forgotten. But it's perfect for my little white bear and his little soul-mate.

The bears are from a LONG retired and very sweet set called Bear Necessities and the greeting is from Blowing Kisses. I scored three lines into the bottom of the card which you can barely see here, and added a strip I embossed with the square lattice folder. And although my little Ferd wasn't glittery, I did add some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to their fur here.

Now I'm off to unearth my desk and get some things done.

If you don't leave me a comment, I suppose I'll have to assume that you have been arrested for your outstanding warrant! Let me know what your bail is - I hope they take stamps...

Loveyameanitbye

Independence!

Today, the humble (kidding - I meant chosen ones) citizens of the Great Republic of Texas celebrate our Independence! We whisper tales of Davy Crockett and reflect on the great sacrifices at the Alamo as we sip Prickly Pear margaritas, eat BBQ and generally brag about things, including the fact that New Mexico is only its own state as the result of some sort of clerical error that we are all still mad about.

Texas Independence Day is also always a little sad for me, as it is the day that the soulless combination of China and the American pet food industry killed my little Spotty cat. :( I miss her still, and that transgression is, and will be, as long as I breathe, unforgiven.

So for little Spotty cat, I bring to you a public service announcement today, because a pet food recall posted yesterday caught my eye. Here is where you can go to see all current pet food recalls.

No one cares about your animals as much as you do, and least of all most pet food companies. I did about six months worth of research after her death which I will summarize for you.

• Don't believe claims of organic, all-natural or human-grade food unless you verify it yourself. I found most of this to be marketing at best, and an extremely unladylike word at worst.
  
• Understand that all the vitamins that are used for both pets and humans in the US come from China.
• If a company's CEO will not speak to people with concerns about what goes into their food, they do not deserve your money and they certainly don't deserve a furry little life.

Through my research I found a great company that produces actual human grade, small batch cat food, and I have spoken personally with the CEO and owner, who is a vet and owns tons of her own animals, including horses. She described to me in detail all of the safety and testing measures they use, and the source and quality of all of their ingredients. So her food is what I've always fed my tiny balls of furry trouble, so I'm happy to share my find with you. The company is called Life's Abundance, and I recommend you watch the video on this page.

RIP little Spot.

Now on to furry balls of trouble.

One of the Virtual Stamp Night Challenges was to make a card representing a dream. Since my desk was home to Maddie during the entire event, who rudely slept and did not lift a paw to help me clean or Photoshop my images, I thought I would make a card about one of HER dreams.

I love it when they fall asleep and start frantically running or making little eating motions. I'd love to see what's going on in there. It cracks me up. So here's what I think they are dreaming...
I used my Sassy Maddie Stamp, of course, and a Picture Show rat/mouse stamp that I've had forever and just think is hilarious. Believe it or not, I used the heart from Sweetheart and a marker to stamp and punch the Be Mine out. I was too unorganized to find another stamp set that says Be Mine! Surely I have one though, right??

I think Splotchy dreams about yogurt and grape popsicles. Little nutter.

Now speaking of challenges, we have a pretty cool challenge happening on Splitcoast right now. All you have to do is stamp to win an insanely cool prize too.

Can you handle it? If so, click here, and good luck winning $500 worth of goodies!