How is that for a cutie pie? This is my nephew's little boy and is he cute!!
We have a low key Halloween at our house. We don't get any trick or treaters at our door so I don't even buy candy or turn my lights on! Halloween used to be one of my favorite holidays. I would go all out with decorating the house when my kids were little - inside and out. But now ... not so much. Plus I don't have to sacrifice my diet by eating all the candy that Ashley and Jeff would bring home. Ashley doesn't like chocolate so Sonny, Jeff and I would get all that goodness. I can close my eyes and picture them coming home from trick or treating in their cute outfits and dumping their buckets out on the floor and then bargaining with each other and trading candy. When they went to bed, Sonny and I had the job of testing the candy to make sure it was ok for them to eat!!
This year I did make a cute Halloween picture that I framed and have sitting in my kitchen. I used paper, punches, stickers, embellishments, etc. that I found in my stash.
This was one of my favorite squares - candy corn made from the Pennant die.
Frankenstein looks pretty scary too - a little punch art and a black Sharpie helped.
CONGRATULATIONS to the Boston Red Sox for winning the World Series tonight! We have friends that are really happy about now.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Today was not a great day for me! I am hoping tomorrow is much better. I started off with not being able to sleep well last night which is unusual for me. I had to get up pretty early this morning to go to the Soup Kitchen. We were scheduled to make taco salad today, a pretty easy meal or so I thought. The local Chipolte restaurant had donated the meat so we put it in pans to heat up - it was already cooked so that was not a problem. They were supposed to have the rest of the ingredients for us for the salad - cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream, salsa, chips, etc. Well, the guy in charge couldn't remember what I had told him I was making so they didn't have anything taken out for us. We were ok with lettuce and tomatoes - had plenty to cut up. But the cheese and sour cream was frozen. The cheese was actually an off-brand Velveeta type cheese - not cheddar that we could grate. So we rigged up a double boiler and eventually got the cheese to melt. The salsa they brought me consisted of 2 cans of salsa and 2 jars of marinara sauce! I don't think so! They tried to tell me it would be fine. I was not putting marinara sauce in my salsa not to mention only 2 cans for approximately 150 people????? So I rummaged around and found a box full of cans of Rotel tomatoes that I added to the salsa along with some plain tomatoes. The sour cream ended up, after it melted, being the consistency of a thin cream. Then there was the matter of the chips. I was told a couple of weeks ago that they had large taco shells. My plan was to just break them up in the salad. Turns out what they called taco shells was actually flatbread. Unbelievable! So we took several packages and cut them up into strips, put a little cooking oil on them and salt and baked them. They were ok. Just as we were getting ready to serve, they brought us two boxes full of Dorito chips! Much better! We served about 135 people today and they all seemed to like the meal. I don't think those people at the Soup Kitchen have ever been to Texas and had a real Tex-Mex Taco Salad. It was nothing like we made today!
Remember I told you about the new montly kit that SU is offering? Well if you haven't joined Paper Pumpkin yet and wanna get a closer look first .... No worries - you can give Paper Pumpkin a try for one month with the Try It kit! It's now available for order.
Here's the Try It kit info:
•$16.95 -plus shipping. (Item #132600).
•Includes stamps, a clear block, ink, paper, and accessories.
•It's all cut, measured, and ready-with instructions included.
Try it - I know you'll want Paper Pumpkin to visit your doorstep every month!
Tuesday was Digital Download Day - one of my favorite days! Get in touch with your inner awesomeness this week with our latest downloads.
Check out the Made to Be Awesome Framable. Download it. Print it. Frame it.
If you've ever asked yourself what does, "LOL, BRB, IMO, or YNK" mean, then check out the FTW Stamp Brush Set. (You'll thank us later when you actually understand what your favorite teenagers are saying.) I have to admit, I didn't know a lot of them!!
And, once you've caught up with all the lingo, use the Seriously Teen Kit to document teen life-epic style.
As part of Stampin' Up's 25-year anniversary celebration, they are bringing back
some of our favorite stamp images from the last quarter century and
combining them into 12 sets, which will be released - one set per month - during
2013. Even better, along with some great classic images, each "Best of"
set will also include a never-before-seen image!
All Best of stamp sets will include 3-5 images, including a never-before seen image, and will be priced at $14.95.
While SU is releasing just one Best of stamp set per
month (with a new theme each month), all of the Best of sets will be
available until March 31, 2014.
A new flyer will be released every month for each new Best of set.
All Best of stamp sets are available in Clear-Mount only.
And that's not all ..... As a special incentive to collect the Best of stamps, starting in
February SU is including a collector's card and 25-year proof of
purchase sticker with every Best of set. Collect six stickers, and send
it in to redeem a FREE set of your choice valued up to $14.95! Free sets
must be redeemed no later than April 30, 2014.
This past week was Leadership and Stampin' Up announced a couple of key things. One being a kit for a guy. They introduced the new, very manly stamping kit: the Dude, You're Welcome! kit.
Guys don't always have the easiest time expressing themselves, but with the Dude, You're Welcome! kit, they'll have
Four wood-mount stamps (double-mounted) with the perfect sentiment for every occasion
Twelve 4" x 6" postcards in four different (manly) colors
Twelve gray envelopes
A Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad
An instructional guide (for the most novice stamper!)
Basically, the kit includes everything a dude needs to create the
perfect manly card that any woman would adore, all packaged in an
appropriately masculine box.
Check out the video:
Did you love the way he casually tosses aside the instructions?
Fortunately, this set doesn’t really need instructions for the man in
your life to make you a great heartfelt card. Order one of these sets for the man in your life. He may not say so,
but he’ll appreciate it and out of curiosity, he’ll use it! (And, maybe
if you’re really nice, he’ll let you use it, too!) And you’re better
half isn’t the only one who would benefit from this easy and fun set:
suggest it to the other men you know, too!
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That's not all the news!! Stampin' Up has had a great response so far to their experiment with single stamps.
So much so that they are making ten more never-before-seen images
available as single stamps available through March 31, 2013. And boy, are they cute ones!
Stampin' Up is now joining a lot of other companies who offer a monthly kit!! How fun!! The products will be delivered straight to your door!
It's so easy to get started. Simply sign up for the program starting TODAY (Monday) by visiting www.mypaperpumpkin.com
and click Get it. Every month a new, surprise project kit arrives at
your doorstep. Just think of the anticipation of creating a fun project
to pin, showoff, and share with your friends and family-every month!
Of course, you'll want to know more. So here's the nitty gritty:
Each month SU sends you a unique, surprise kit with a project-cards,
journals, décor, and more! (They've even color-coordinated, measured, and
cut everything for you!)
Each kit includes stamps, ink, paper, and accessories-everything but adhesive.
Each kit gives you a 30-minute creativity escape.
They will ship your Paper Pumpkin on or around the 15th of the month.
You need to sign up for a kit by the 10th of the month to get that
month's kit. If you sign up on the 11th of the month, your first kit
will come the next month. (Let's say you sign up on May 10th, we'll send
your kit around May 15th. If you sign up on May 11th, we'll send your
first kit around June 15th.)
A Paper Pumpkin membership is $19.95 per month (and shipping is
included!)
There's no commitment, you can cancel your monthly Paper Pumpkin at anytime. You can also skip a month if you want.
Starting in early March, they will offer a Try-It kit if you'd like to try Paper Pumpkin for one month.
The Welcome Kit is the very first Paper Pumpkin you will receive in your
first month of membership. The Welcome Kit includes a free gift-a clear
acrylic block!
