55 Days Until Christmas

Happy Halloween Readers!!  Tomorrow I'll share some pictures of the boys' in their costumes.  We are heading to visit with my husband's parents and my grandparents so they can see the kids in the costumes, then going to a friend's house for pizza and trick or treating.  I hope whatever you are doing you have a fun and safe Halloween!  Here were the Halloween projects we made in my stamp club in September.

So....55 days until Christmas.  Can you stand it?  I have a start on my Christmas shopping, I have ideas for gifts I haven't bought yet, and I have some crafty projects planned.  I thought that maybe you all may benefit from some of my favorite gift ideas out there, and some that I even plan on implementing. I'm not going to say which are which because I know there are several of my friends and family members that read my blog and may be recipients of these gifts.

Thank you for stopping in today! See you tomorrow :)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year 30% OFF

Had to pop in quick and tell you about the My Digital Studio sale that's going on right now.  Downloads, books, cards, prints are all on sale for 30% off.  Remember, you can get a FREE 30 day trial of My Digital Studio in my store here  That plus a couple of the adorable holiday downloads on sale as well as print products and you could whip up Pinterest worthy holiday cards in no time!  I am also available to create your digital Christmas cards for you--message me if you are interested.  Have a great day out there!

Simple Birthday Wishes

Hey Readers!

Guess what day it is......  :)  Happy Wednesday everyone.  My kids are getting SO excited for Halloween--how about all of you?  I was really bummed to learn that It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown is on ON Halloween AT 7pm!  We will have to miss it and I love watching that on TV each year.  Even though the boys have it on DVD, it's just not the same as having to wait until it is on TV. Those of us who grew up without the instant gratification of everything we have seen on TV or in the movie theaters on DVD know what I'm saying.

Anyways, here is a clean and simple birthday card.  It's a great way to use up scraps of paper and ribbon and still send an adorable card.  I used the Modern Medley DSP and Coastal Cabana ribbon and cardstock.  The Happy Birthday sentiment is stamped in Stazon ink, and punched out with the artisan punch on Calypso Coral card stock.  

Thanks for stopping in today!  I hope you have a good one.  

Miss You

Good Morning!

Today my post is dedicated to my sister and my adorable niece Miss B.  They live about 3 hours away from us, and even though that isn't horribly far away, and we still get to see each other real often, it still is too far to have dinner together, or meet for a Saturday morning good coffee and shopping date.  Here's a picture of my beautiful sister Emily and my niece B (note the cute hat B is wearing....her Auntie got that for her :) )

Here is a little card I designed with them in mind.  I remember being a mom with a newborn at home and how you sometimes just needed a little pick me up to get out of the day in day out of keeping up with a house and a new baby.  (even though I loved that, too, when my kids were small)  So, at my girls' weekend I made a couple of these cute little cards.  Again the set is For the Birds.  I hope you enjoy it.  

I hope I've inspired you to send a friend or loved one some fun mail today!  A little handwritten note in a card goes a long way to brighten someone's day!  Thanks for stopping in--tomorrow, a birthday card.

Clean and Simple 264

Good Morning Friends!

I'm not exactly sure how we are at Monday again already, but I had a fabulously fun, family filled weekend.  I love doing little things that my boys will grow up remembering as traditions! (More about that at the bottom of the post)

Here is today's Clean and Simple 264 sketch challenge:

 Here is my take.  It's not the best picture due to it being night time right now and I wanted to be sure to share this with you in the AM :)  I will be sure to take another picture in the softer sunlight so you can really see all the beautiful and soft textures and colors on this card.  It looks very hunters' club chic don't you think?

If you read my blog over the weekend at all, you'll know that we had a weekend surrounding pumpkin carving and the Halloween Spooktacular.  So much fun.  The pumpkin carving party has been a tradition at my Gram and Bup's house every year for as long as I can remember.  It's so much fun to now have my husband and boys able to join in, too.  Here's a few pictures of the day.  I think it's so funny that Bup always says that this is the year he's retiring from pumpkin carving.  (You'll note that he is in the pictures working hard at either carving something or picking out the pumpkin seeds for us to roast)  My Gram must have said 5 or 6 times how happy she was to see all of the kids set to the task of carving a pumpkin, and how much she missed those in our family who live out of town and couldn't be there today.  I hope you enjoy them.  Have a great start to your week!

Gram supervising and Bup carving

Bup sorting seeds and my husband Mitch carving Batman in to Jack's pumpkin

Alex carving his pumpkin jail as Auntie Laurie and Uncle Steve look on

My Gram and Bup's front porch-so many happy memories in this house

Alex offering some tips to my cousin Joe and my Aunt Laurie catching it on camera

Alex carving pumpkin jail and Bup "not" carving a pumpkin

Jack playing Legos with the other boys (Jack is on the right)

Back home with the finished products 

Thank You

Happy Sunday All!

Today I have one of the projects I made at my crafting staycation.  You may remember me talking about the weekend I had planned with some of my girlfriends I met through my older son when he started school.  We took over my in-law's beautiful B&B for the weekend.  It was great.  If you are ever in the Duluth area and need a place to stay, give my father in law Alan a call.  They own a beautiful Victorian home and he cooks a mean breakfast!

I worked mainly on building up a stash of cards for me.  I hadn't decided on my digital Christmas gifts yet, and I like to have a stash of cards for all occasions ready to go.  Here is probably my favorite one I got done at this weekend:

I love the stamp set For the Birds.  This is a set full of useful greetings as well as adorable birds that are cute whether you just stamp them in ink or color them in.  They also work really well stamped on some of your favorite designer series paper, cut out, and paper pieced on to your card.  Thanks to the Chalk Talk and Apothecary framelits, this card came together in a snap.  I used some of the Witches' Brew Halloween washi tape and a snip of the Cameo Coral Chevron Ribbon for accent.  I can never seem to have enough thank you and birthday cards on hand. 

This afternoon we are headed to my Grandma and Grandpa's house for our traditional pumpkin carving party.  We have been doing this for as long as I can remember and it's something we look forward to each year.  I'm not sure if my Gram or the kids are more excited.  We'll be having pizza and carving pumpkins this afternoon, and then we'll get to admire our creations lit on our porch tonight.

Speaking of carved pumpkins--last night my husband and I took our boys to Glensheen's Halloween Spooktacular.  Glensheen is a beautiful manor home here on the shores of Lake Superior that was donated by the Congdon family to the University of Minnesota Duluth.  All furnishings and family artifacts were left with the home as well, so it's a walk back in time to the early 1900's.  It's a really fun tour and they host seasonal family events throughout the year.  This year they had over 1000 pumpkins carved lighting up the grounds.  Here are a couple pictures from that event--it was fun! Thanks for stopping in today!  Have a good rest of your weekend.

Saturday Recipe Share

Happy Saturday!

BRRRR it's getting cold here in the Northwoods.  So tonight, we are feeding our family this delicious recipe.  The Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pot Roast.  

Do you read the Pioneer Woman's blog or watch her show on Food Network?  If you don't, you should.  She almost always makes me laugh out loud she is so funny!  Not to mention, every recipe I have ever made of hers is DELICIOUS and almost always makes my family ask for seconds or thirds even.  (Her sloppy Joe recipe is Alex's favorite)

On New Year's Day in my husband's family, it was always their tradition to have French Onion Soup at his grandparents' house.  We have taken that tradition in our own house, and I have found that Ree's French Onion Soup is top notch.  We like to use good crusty French bread for the croutons and then melt bubbly Gruyere cheese on top.  MMMMMM!  

Night out/in with your girlfriends planned soon?  Try this for an appetizer, brought it the last time my Mom, sister and I had a girls' weekend and it's a keeper.  Olive Cheese Bread is almost like pizza, but better.

There is something for everyone on her blog--check it out!  I was thinking some of these recipes in a cute digital book would be a nice gift for Christmas.  Like this 10x5 Easel Cookbook on My Digital Studio--all your favorites in a handy stand up flip book!!  Thanks for checking in today :)

Holy New Products Batman

Hey All!

Today I thought I'd take the time (while building up my stash of creations) to share with you some of the FANTASTIC deals that Stampin' Up! has going on right now.  It's their 25th anniversary and they are going CRAZY with new items, sales, and extra perks and benefits for their hostesses and demonstrators.

Here's just a taste of what's going on here!  You can check it out by clicking on the Stampin' Up box in the upper right hand corner.  Let me know if you have any questions :)

LOVE all of these new items!  I also love that you can get a pack of pre cut cards in Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Real Red, and Pool Party.  20 cards for 4.95.  It's going to make holiday cards, birthdays and thank yous SO easy!  Stock up now, they are only available until 12/31.

Thanks for stopping in today!  Hope your Friday is a good one.  :)

Helloooooooo??? Anybody There?

Hi Readers!

I hope there are still some of you who are checking in from time to time hoping I'm still here.  I'm so sorry for my spotty posting in October!  The month kicked off, as you may have read, with my internet connection going haywire.  It's back, thankfully, and *fingers crossed*, no problems.  I got over that hurdle and thought HOORAY!  I will get back on track for my plans to create, post, and inspire.  WHAM!!  I got socked with a migraine that took me out for almost an entire week.  I mean, a migraine so bad I sincerely thought I was having an aneurysm and went in to the ER.  Left after a spinal tap with word that it was not an aneurysm, but that I should definitely follow up with my primary physician.  So, I went in to my doctor's office a couple days later and she ordered an MRI because my symptoms were so different than any other headache I've ever had before.  (Scary!!)  So, I went to the MRI and I am happy to report it came back normal.  Things go in 3's right?  I'm hoping that I'm back to "normal" and can create and inspire again.

Here are a couple of things I have created.  Forgive the cell phone pictures!

There are the very few things I have created lately--I have several things on my desk top that I want to get to.  Thanks for hanging in with me.  Please leave me a comment and let me know you are still out there!!  What kinds of things are you creating for the holidays?