Sweet Blog Award!

I received this DELICIOUS looking blog award from my best pal Annmaree! Thanks so much ... your awefully sweet yourself! :)

I am to give you 7 random facts about myself and pass it on to other bloggers.

7 Facts:

1. I enjoy going to the dentist for my regular cleaning
2. I am trying to eat healthier (more organic/natural foods)
3. I would love to lose 10 pounds
4. I wish I was more organized
5. I am a HUGE planner .... wish I could be more spontaneous sometimes
6. I tend to procrastinate alot
7. I enjoy making others happy

Now to pass this award onto others! If anyone reading this would like it for their blog please feel free to take it!

Pretty Peony!

Picked this at my mom and dads house awhile ago .... isn't it gorgeous?
I just love flowers! :)

Decoupage Father's Day Card

I made this for my FIL and there is a joke behind the bird. He has these doves on his wire fence at his house and I told him they were pretty (I had never seen them in that spot before)....thinking they were real of course. He is always playing jokes on me so he went along with it and didn't say anything different. Finally someone told me they were fake!! So he teased me pretty good...then I asked my 3 year old nephew about them and he even knew they were fake!! LMAO! Boy did I sure feel dumb! Later on I got a text with him and the dove and he called it his pet Sally! Figured this card would be perfect for him and on the inside I asked him if it was a nice picture of his pet Sally! :P LOL!

Challenges:
Crafty Calendar - Things with wings
Crafty Sentiments - Father's Day
Crazy 4 Challenges - Masculine
Creative Inspirations - Father's Day
Cupcake Craft - Boy oh boy
Delightful Sketches - Anything goes
Polka Doodles - Something for dad
Southern Girls - Anything goes
SSDS - Father's Day

Corner Bookmark

Challenges:
Crafty Catz - Bookmarks
Stamp Something - Punched (the two center pieces were cut with nesties)
Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Goes
TIP: The center design is all one stamp...try coloring the rubber with water-based markers if you want more than one color and stamp it out. Great way to be more precise with smaller designs since inkpads tend to overlap colors.

Green Beans With Spaetzle!

Courtesy of my husbands Aunt Linda! When I make it I change up the recipe a bit to make it a little lower in fat and calories but I will give you the original recipe and you can customize to your liking!

2 (10oz.) packages of green beans or 1 pound of fresh green beans
4 slices bacon
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup spaetzle
salt and pepper to taste or any other seasoning you like!

Cook green beans til tender crisp. Sed aside. Fry bacon to desired crispness and remove. Leave about 4 tablespoons of bacon drippings in pan. Saute the onions in the bacon drippings. At this time in a separate pot starting boiling your spaetzle per package directions. When finished add the drained spaetzle to the sauteed onions and then add your bacon (crumbled). Add the green beans and butter. Heat over low til butter melts and green beans are heated through. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste! ENJOY!

-Stacie

Pulley Card!

My mom asked me to make a graduation card for the next door neighbor so once again I used the school colors AND I went outside of my comfort zone this time and decided to venture out and make something different....a pulley card! I saw the idea over on my blogging pal Curt's blog. It was sooooooo fun to make and the recipient and her friends thought it was cool! :)




The silver dots are those viva decor pens again...LOVE THEM!
The ribbon is a rub-on by American Crafts.
The chipboard is from the Basic Grey "Obsure" pack (I have a tip I'm going to share below under challenges about that item) and I covered it with crackle paint.
Added a few dew drops.........and I bet your wondering how I did her name right?
Well, I used this awesome new metal stamp set by Melody Ross that I won from my blogging pal Dawn. All I had to do was spritz the chipboard with water, align the punch where I wanted it and tapped it with a hammer! I think your supposed to use a rubber mallet but I only have a hammer and I figured you can't hurt metal! Then I colored in the letters with a black marker! Doesn't it have a neat effect?! I just fell in love with it! *thanks again Dawn!*

Challenges:
Stamp Something - Punched (chipboard, rounded corners on pieces that pull out, ribbon hole)
Stamptacular Sunday - Dads OR Grads...you must use a stamp (I used a metal stamp and also the word "congrats" is a clear stamp)
Top Tip Tuesday - More than 1 fold
I also have a TIP! If you don't have the exact shape of chipboard you need try looking for something similar and changing it up. For example, the chipboard piece I used was actually a surfboard!! I just used my corner rounder and nipped off each end until it was the same on both ends! :)

Edited: I was too late for Top Tip Tuesday but I will leave this up so everyone can read the tip!

Stress Reduction Kit!

Anyone ever have a day where you need one of these kits? May I just say dealing with customer service can make me cringe so bad sometimes! Why must people be so incompetent? It should not take 3 phone calls and an e-mail to get results for one missing item...it is not rocket science!! Okay, I feel better now...but my head hurts! LMAO!

Hope someone gets a good chuckle out of this! :P

Star Grad Card!

This is the last of the 3 commissioned grad cards. As some of you might have noticed I kept the same color scheme on all of them. That is because all three girls graduated from the same place and I thought it would be neat to use the college colors!



Challenges:
Paper Sundaes - Let's Get Sentimental!
Stamp Something - Punched (Used a star border punch)

They Sky's The Limit!

This is the second of the 3 commissioned graduation cards. I am very happy with how this turned out! :) Normally when I use white ink it doesn't show up very well but I think I found one I really like...it is by colorbox! I would love to try the one from PTI but I'm waiting to place a big order with them hopefully sometime in the future! Finally bought some of that baker's twine I keep seeing and this one has a metallic strip in it...very cool! Bought a collection of different metallic ones from Pizzaz Aplenty....that shop is amazing!



Grad Cap and Scroll are from Creative Clear Stamps
Cloud and Sentiments are from PCD

Challenges:
Paper Sundaes - Let's Get Sentimental
Stampalot Challenge - Inspiration from picture (I used the clouds)

Graduation Birdie!

I was commissioned to make three graduation cards for a lady in town. Here is the first of those three.



Digi is a freebie from Doodle Pantry
The hat and scroll stamps are singles I think from Creative Clear Stamps...I did not see them in the store but maybe they are discontinued?
The 2011 is from my JustRite Stampers
Pearl dots are made by using a Viva Decor Pearl Pen (I love these!)

Challenges:
CPS - I flipped the sketch a bit as my panels go from left to right instead of up and down.
Crafty Calendar - Things with wings
Delicious Doodles - Texture (ribbon, pearls)
Doodle Pantry Challenge #13 - Any of their images and papercrafting materials
EtsyInspired - Inspired by the images HERE
Stamp Something - Digi

Tasty Tuesday Reveal Plus Winner!!!!!

Really enjoyed the guesses you left .... nobody got it right but you did get entered into the drawing just for guessing! I won't keep you in suspense...the winner is...............................ANNMAREE (Emu)!!! Congrats!!
Send me an e-mail!

The recipe is actually Persimmon Bread! *see previous post for picture*
Very delicious and I used all sorts of dried fruit and nuts!
Here is the recipe by James Beard -
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2005/11/persimmon-bread/

Mine looks darker but who cares as long as it tastes good right?!

ENJOY!

Whoops...Late Tasty Tuesday...plus other news!

Hey everyone! So sorry about the late post....I got so excited about going on vacation this week that I nearly forgot about Tasty Tuesday!! Hubby and I are leaving today for Indiana Dunes/Chicago and we won't be back til Sunday so I won't be posting anything til next week. I was wanting to leave this morning but hubby had to go to a meeting so the trip is delayed just until lunch so that isn't too terrible I guess. Tomorrow is our 4 year anniversary!! WOOT WOOT! I can't believe how fast it has gone by but I guess as the saying goes....time flys when your having fun! :)

To make up for almost forgetting about the recipe this week I thought I would have another guessing game and the winner will get a little RAK from my stash!! Does that make up for my mistake? Do you all enjoy these guessing games? Anything in particular you like to see in the RAK if you win...ribbon, stickers, stamped images, etc.????

Anyone can enter....all you have to do is make a guess! A winner will be picked next week and announced when I post the recipe. Let the games begin!! LOL!

Thinking Of You

Digi: Dustin Pike

*The button is a brighter red than what you see in the picture...bad lighting!*

I haven't had alot of time to color recently with my schedule so I printed off this pre-colored image by Dustin Pike. Isn't that bug so cute? Then I added a rub-on to the sign he is holding. Cut out a sun with a die in my Cuttlebug and added a button. To finish it off I used my MS punch to make the fence out of white paper and then distressed it with my Tim Holtz ink. I hope my blogging pal has already received this in the mail! :)

Challenges:
Allsorts - Things with wings
Aud Sentiments - Card for a male
Charisma - Male card
Pennys Challenge - Here comes summer (bugs and sunshine!)
Stamp Something - Must have a sentiment

Fresh Picked From The Garden!!

First berry of the season....already picked and eaten! Completely organic and oh so yummy!!!!! :)

Where Have I Been?

I know I haven't posted much on here lately other than the Tasty Tuesday recipes but I will eventually post some crafty goodness soon! My schedule has been crazy busy with the end of school, house stuff and getting ready for vacation!! I won't bore you with all the details but I will share some updated pictures of the house we are building for those that are interested in taking a peek! :)

Need to de-stash??

Check out this swap you can join HERE!

Tasty Tuesday With Some History!

When I was younger I used to attend several family gatherings on my mom's side and someone always made a Sugar Cream Pie which tasted so good! I had never made one of these before thinking they might be hard to make, but a lady I used to work with gave me a recipe for a quick and easy version and this is how it turned out! OH SO GOOD!!



Click HERE for a little history lesson on how this pie came to be!

Click HERE for the easy recipe!

Enjoy and I would love to know if anyone else has made one of these!!

-Stacie

Mother's Day

As promised here are some pics of my weekend getaway over Mother's Day weekend with my mom and sister.

This is our cabin at Brown County State Park.

This is one of the overlooks....so pretty!!

We ran into some high water in the area....can you believe it?! On the other side of the main road water was up to almost the top of a telephone poll! There were several roads like this and some people had canoes so they could park at the end of the road and canoe home! I couldn't imagine!

Here we are at one of the local wineries (Oliver Winery)...such a beautiful place! They have flowers, some stone scultures that look like stonehenge (you can see one in the background) and even a picnic area out back! They sell cheese, crackers, sausage, etc. so you could go for a meal or snack! It ended up being graduation weekend also so places were crazy busy so needless to say we did our tasting...bought our wine and booked it out of there for our dinner reservation!

Mom and I loosening up our muscles in the hot jacuzzi...I love those things!!

Our cute matching butterfly socks! Thought it made an interesting picture! :)
Can you guess which feet belong to which person?? LOL!

A wild turkey...this one is a male also called a Tom. It was the best pic I could take as the turkey was starting to run pretty quick!

In front of where we had Mother's Day brunch.

A nest of baby birdies spotted while shopping in town.

The next two pics are crafty goodies I bought on sale during National Scrapbook Day! Underneath the map in the first picture there are two clear packs of Prima paper. If you spend a certain amount you get to pick something out of a box and I got to pick two things. I was NOT walking away from that gorgeous Prima paper....24 double sided sheets FREE!


In town there was a local leather shop where they hand make items and they had these bags of scrap leather for sale so I had to snag the one that had all the pretty colors! Then in one of the baskets there was only one grab bag of hardware so I picked it up too and I couldn't believe some of the pieces! Some are very intricate...hopefully you can click the pic to enlarge and you can see them. Some are just plain but I still think they will come in handy for something crafty!


Well, I better stop there....don't want to bore you too bad with all my pictures! I get a bit carried away at times.
Hope you enjoyed looking at my travels!

-Stacie

A Cool Tasty Tuesday!

While browsing the internet trying to come up with another unique way to use up frozen strawberries leftover from my garden last year I ran across a recipe for frozen strawberry pie. Let me just say it turned out fantastic but you must be patient because after making it you must put it in the freezer to harden. Then before you eat it sit it out 15 minutes to thaw a little. I am not good about letting things sit out before eating because I need instant gratification so we just chiseled away a piece with a fork (you can see the lines in the pic!) LOL!



Click HERE for the recipe from Taste Of Home!

Enjoy!

Goodies in the mail!

I am so happy blogger is back up and running....it sure caused some big trouble the last two days! I think some of my comments got deleted so don't forget to check out my DT card for the No! No! Challenge going on at Stamping Vacation (the post before this one). There is also a competition amongst the DT and I need your help!! Pretty please with cherry on top! :)

Now for the goodies I have gotten in the mail lately.

Rosalee won the giveaway I had for sending a card for Aunt Jeanne. She sent me this goodie package as a thank you. That was sooooooooo sweet and I love it all! THANKS AGAIN!!



This is a package I won from Dawn! Aren't those flowers GORGEOUS? I just love the metal stamps too! I even bought something over Mother's Day weekend I can use them on...will show you that in the future! THANKS DEAR!



The next two photos are from my pal Merry! She made that BEAUTIFUL Bukuro bag (even in my fav color!) and filled it with the bling, ribbon, BIG flowers, a magnet from her travels and those fun magnetic clips! Also a wonderful Easter card with fun eggs on it!


This is a runner she picked up while in Greece! I can't tell you how much I LOVE it! Matches my decor PERFECTLY!! Certainly an item to cherish in my new home! :)
BIG THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!!!



Okay, I'm off to do some house shopping....actually more like browsing cause I doubt we buy anything today! Getting ideas for the new bath and kitchen!
-Stacie