Long time no blog!!! EEKS!!

Well here's to hoping I can get on track and catch up! I have several photos of cards I have made. Here they go:

This is a birthday card for my friend Gina, I put some tea in the jar for her. The stamp is latte bella but in my mind it's a tea cup. :) I just used the Marvi Uchida tag punches for all shapes.

My sister recently had a stroke :(` I made the card on left for her. Both cards come from MME, the Tres Jolie line. I need to get better at using the beautiful paper I buy! I buy it but keep it to look at it?? I know, stupid.  And my uncle died, so this is a card for my aunt:

Birthday card for my dear friend Marcia, also made her a jar and put tea in it as well. :) My daughter asked me if I'm the jar lady now. haha!

This card I made for my MIL but I don't love the way it came out, so it's still here....

I don't know what to do to make it better, any ideas? I love the Wisteria line by BG, but my hopes were bigger then the result. boo.

This is a card for a swap I'm doing. Very similar to the very top one, but I loved the color combo.

Thanks for looking and if you have any suggestions on photography or to make my cards 'pop' more, I'd love the constructive criticism. Stay warm!! (I'm in Colorado and it's freakin' freezing this week!!)

Altered (Salsa) Jar

I have followed my friend Rachels blog: http://www.lostintheattic.typepad.com/  for quite a while and always say, "I love that idea! I think I'll try it too!" Then.... life happens and I never do. Well, my dear friends birthday is today and I though of her last night and she loves tea and I thought this would be perfect for her! Some time ago, Rachel did a really cute project with her Friendship Tea in a cute tin:  http://todaysmama.com/2009/12/friendship-tea/. Here is my version:

Hope you like it and try it too! I uses Bazzil CS for the solid colors and Basic Grey Sultry line and the pattern is 'Dressy'. I'd label the ribbon but it was just balled up in my drawer and I have no idea where it came frome!

Baby Shower Card

 I am going today to a baby shower for one of our fellow cheer coaches. We all pitched in and got her a fold away sort of bed. Good for travel or somewhere that is not baby Karter's room. Anyway, her room is shades of pink and brown, so I thought I'd go with her room colors. For patterned paper, I used the Bittersweet line by Basic Grey. More specifically, vanilla fudge and truffle. Northwoods stamp for the inside sentiment. I also used 'baby carriage' by QuicKutz, but I don't recall the QuicKutz font for the 'Congrats' and used the Revolution as the die cutting machine. Added some bling and a button for decoration. I can't wait to give it to her!

Enjoy and thanks for looking!

New Toys!!

I got a gift card from Michael's and I get a little bored with some of their stuff but I did find the new fiskars Punch Anywhere products for 40% off! So I got the square one with the main body then a cirlcle and a circle scallop edge. I also found a cool stack of animal print paper in various colors! AND got some cool opaque white pens and Enamel Accents I had not seen in  black and white before! SCORE AT MICHAEL'S! :)

Now to put these puppies to work. I'll let you all know how it works and if it's a must have! Happy Hump Day!!

Tamales...My Trial and Error

Ok, so I thought, what could be so hard about making tamales? And why on earth does it take two days to make them (as in my mother in laws recipe)? I read the recipe and it sounded like maybe the two days allots for your roast to cool and prepare your chile and assemble on the next day. I still don't understand. What did I decide to do? I made my roast in the morning, it cooled I separated the stock and I thought what the heck? Why not just do it today? So, my impatient self said I can do this now.... right now. Why not, right?

My mother in law said you need to use the stock for the masa because if you don't have enough fat in the masa, the dough will stick to the corn husks. Well, in addition to the fatty stock, the recipe also calls for lard. And according to the pictures and tutorials I've seen, the masa should be a texture like a very thick cake batter or peanut butter. We could not get the masa to get to that texture, it was a little grainy and separating. I didn't want to add any more products to the dough and I was getting anxious so I said, "Let's just put them together now, k?" We did and I thought it was going ok, and they looked decent though I knew they'd be a little thick.

Now it's steaming time. First, we made them to large/long for the steamer I have so a lid was not covering them, and the process of steaming would be a bust. I found that my pressure cooker was a little deeper but the lid still would not close completely but I figured it was better than what I had them in before. I forgot about them for a while and the water had already evaporated so there I was adding more water. I think that is why they came out so dry and crumbly OR I didn't have enough fat in the dough to begin with. Either way, it was not a total waste of time, however a total waste of food as noone wanted to eat them. :(

I'll try again in a week or so but I'll need to make them smaller or get a deeper steemer! Enjoy the pics! They look better than they tasted. HAHA!!

2011 is Here...Change is a Comin'...

So, this New Year is the first in a while I have decided to make some resolutions. I normally don't because I never really commit. This year, there is a NEED to commit to some changes.

Here it goes:

• I MUST start working out more regularly.
• I WILL scrapbook at least a layout weekly.
• I love to make cards and WILL get better at sending out birthday, anniversary, get well, condolences or 'just because' cards.
• We, as a family need to become more aware of money. What goes in, what comes out, luxuries vs necessities. Must get personal finances in better shape.
• Roping in #5 into #1, must lose weight and inches. I'd love to be an inspiration to my daughters. And ultimately, healthy=happy.
• One very important thing I need to personally do is STOP procrastinating. I often put things off to the last minute and I stress myself out. This too, I believe will make me happier.

Well, here it goes! Wish me luck in 2011 to reach my goals and push myself in my personal challenges the the tough gets goin'. I'll blog weekly at least to post victories, challenges and anything in between! Here's to a Happy and Healthy NEW YEAR!!