HAPPY NEW YEAR

I resolve:
To spend more quality time with family and friends.

Enjoy Life More

Quit Worrying

Get Organized

To rid myself of unnecessary clutter, especially mental clutter

Manage Financial Debt

Help Others More

Be More Patient

Lose 15 pounds

Learn how to be creative in everything I do


Black eyed peas & ham ...with some collard greens with spicy vinegar or cabbage and cornbread... That's what us southerners have on New Year's Day for good luck. What is the traditional food for New Year's day where you live? Don't forget the Rose Parade. :)

The last couple of years, since I have to work on New Year's Day, I make Hoppin John soup in the crock pot, to be waiting on me, when I get home. Then I make a big black skillet full of cornbread to serve along side. There are basic recipes found on the Internet for this soup, but I always tweak mine to fit my family's likes. My soup will consist of cubed ham, black-eyed peas, chopped onion, peppers and celery. Diced Tomatoes and chicken stock will be the base for the soup. And adding spices to taste. I also add rice, and Baby Spinach leaves. I know you are saying , yuck, But I'm sure not going to chance not having good luck, health and wealth next year :) Oh I forgot you need lots of real butter for the hot cornbread. Yes I know I said I had resolved to loosing 15 pounds. I just did not mention when that would actually happen. *wink*Again I wish happiness for everyone, because if you have that, the rest just follows behind.

January

I have 14 friends or family that are either celebrating birthdays or anniversaries in the month of January. I have 2 that are on the 2nd of January. I am showing you Marie's card today. She doesn't read my blog so it is safe to show it. Marie brought me the neatest gift by for Christmas. About 2 years ago we were at a mutual friends Birthday dinner at a local restaurant. We both started to sit our purses down, and we looked at each other at the same time and shook our heads no. Well she remembered that and bought me a pretty little thing, that you put on the edge of the table and hang your purse on it. It has the prettiest stone looking design on it. It meant so much because she remembered that day.


This card started out as a tag that I found as I was cleaning my craft room (really just moving stuff from one place to another). I found a scrap of coordinating DP and cut it in the same shape. I got some embossing powders from a special friend for Christmas so I decided it was the time to take that giant leap and try embossing. So this is the result. I punched out several different size flowers with my cricut then embossed some of them with the platinum and the others with the copper embossing powders. I rummaged through another drawer and found an acrylic M, the embossing didn't do as well on it, but I decided that it just gave the whole thing a vintage look. You think that will work? *wink* I attached the two flowers and the two layers of the card together with a brown brad along with a little sheer ribbon for accent. Attaching with the brad made it possible to open to the inside. I used the cricut to cut out the words Birthday Blessings. Thanks for spending a little piece of your Tuesday with me.

Emily

Emily with Great Nephew taken Spring of 05

All of you have seen the "In Memory of" on mine and Pat's blog. Today is the 3rd anniversary of Emily's disappearance. Her body was found on Jan. 7, 2006. I myself believe that today is the actual day of death. Since we know, no more today then we did 3 years ago, there can be no closure for her family and friends. Click on the link and Read more about her murder on either my blog or Pat's. There is also a reward set up for information. The more people that knows about this, the more chance that some day someone will come forward with important information. Please circulate it to your friends. Below is a copy of a post I made on a Virtual Memorial page. I may have already posted this, but excuse me if I did. We are still waiting for answers. Please keep her family and friends in your prayers and thoughts. They need closure and Emily deserves justice. Below the memorial is a picture of her on the right and her sister Dee on the left. Happier Days

Emily G. Anderson8 Jul 1956-29 Dec 2005

This is in memory of my very special friend Emily.
Emily went missing on December 29, 2005. Her body found on Jan. 7, 2006. But we are not sure of the actual date of her death. She had been shot multiple times.
Unfortunately, I only had her in my life for 5 years. But feel tremendously blessed with those years.
Those of us that Emily left behind will find it hard to meet another someone who will touch our lives in the way that she did. She loved everyone, for what she saw in them, and made us feel as if she was honored to be in our presence. When she walked in to the room, it would light up, just from her smile, she wouldn't have to speak, her smile is all you needed. She always put you first, always making you feel special. Bette Midler's song "Wind Beneath My Wings" describes the kind of person she was.
Her values were evident for all to see. She valued faith in the Lord, and loyalty to her family and friends. Emily loved to sing in the choir at her church.
Emily's legacy was not riches, possessions, or worldly goods of any kind. It is the way she lived and loved, the lives she touched, the promises she kept. Her legacy is the kind of friend she was.
I miss you Emily, and you now are the victor,not the victim. You are home, and your search is over.
I'll never forget you

Saturday Challenge & Other Ramblings

Whew! It's over. Now just just think it is another 364 days till Christmas. Better get started on those next years gifts. That way you won't have to sit up past 12 in the morning for two days before Christmas. Yes that is what I did. Awhile back I showed you the beginnings of a Birthday book that I was making for my Mother. I think I had 2 or 3 pages completed. I'm sure you all know how many months in a year, and how many birthdays can occur in that period of time. I procrastinated and it bit me back. I had to find the pictures of whomever birthday it was, reprint a copy of it, then arrange it on the opposite page of that month. In between the month pages were blank pages, that I filled with Family pictures. My Mother is having some problems with memory loss, so I thought this would help. But, I should not have waited till the last minute. I hope this entry qualifies for Pat's challenge. This double layout page( and many more) was made for the album after Pat posted the challenge. The album contains 8 x 8 pages, is spiral bound, and has pockets on the opposite page of each month of the year page. So I had to make sure that I did not hinder the ability to store cards in the pockets, by gluing the pictures on at the wrong place. I also made her cards to keep in the pockets, so she wouldn't have to worry about always having one on hand to send out. (I forgot to put them in the pockets so I had to wrap them separate.) The first picture will be my entry for the challenge. The second, is a picture of how I recovered the original blah looking album front (I forgot to take a before picture). The third picture is he picture of the inside of the back cover. My grand-daughter will kill me for this one. *wink*. Thank you for looking.

The Reason

Luke 2:1-20 :: King James Version (KJV)
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria). And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.


Merry Christmas, from me and my family to all of you.

I DID IT I DID IT !!!!!!

I know it comes easy to most you, but I am VERY ribbon challenged. Here is a new tip for me that I found while looking around this afternoon. Allee at this link http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/386028, had posted it back in 06, I think it was, so most of you probably already know about it. I knew how to make the plain ribbon with out the loops using this technique, but not a ribbon that had the loops on it. This is as good as learning some new things on how to use my Cricut. I did not follow her directions exactly, but the result was the same on front and back as hers was. When I started it, I just did what I thought was the way she said, but after rereading when I was getting ready to post this, I realized I did it differently, and it seems to me that it wasn't as tight a fit as doing it the other way. This little bow, I put on a picture that is going in my Mom's Christmas present. (I'll share that later) Yes I know I am still not done with it, and it is the day before the day before Christmas. But it is 1:40 AM I'm doing the best I can do :). This was the first bow I made, so I know I can only improve with practice, but I was pleased. Sounds like it doesn't take much to please me does it? Please visit her blog she has so many, many pretties to share. Now to bed.

Saturday Night Challenge

Well I must have a 24 hour bug or something, but will post my "weak" entry for Pat's Challenge. I haven't missed one yet, and didn't want to start missing now. Will be back on track later.

5 days yikes

My immediate family is getting together to celebrate Christmas on Sun. the 21st. That means I have 5 days to finish 4 cookbooks, an album, and all the baking and candy making, oh and shopping and wrapping. Did I mention the tree? You heard me right. This is the 2 time in 40 years of married life that I do not have a tree up. Don't ask me why, because I don't know why. I am lucky to be as far along in the game as I am. For some reason this person that was always finished by the end of October, and raring to go, is really just procrastinating this year. I don't even have my out of town packages packed up, let alone shipped. Oh well as they say, there is always next year.

Here is a picture of a little band I made to go on some flavored coffee. I will be giving this as a hostess gift.

The snowflake is a foam one and you can not see it, but it is covered in stickles. The center of it is a snowflake brad. The paper is scrap off top of my desk. The flavor of coffee, I have no ideal, I covered it up before looking to see. I know it is S&D brand. :) Isn't it neat how a 5 minute trick makes something look so much nicer to give. Thanks for listening to my ramblings.

SURPRISE!!!

That is what I found when I got home from a really rough day of work. A nice surprise. It will probably stay out all year, even though it is Christmas themed. It is a handcrafted ornament. It came from a new friend that I have made through the blog. She posted it on her blog several days ago and mentioned she had made it for a friend. I had no ideal that friend was me. She also had ESP and knew that I was feeling sad. That's what friends do. I know everyone is saying shut up and tell us who this person is and what did she send. :) Here is the link to her blog and you can see for yourself. Please leave a comment and tell her what a nice person she is. And let me tell you, the camera does not do the ornament justice.

Thank You Robyn for making my day. That was truly a RAK.



Here are some little bags I cut out with the Cricut. I needed little gifts for the post woman, hair dresser etc. One set has homemade butter mints, the other a perfect fit little box of chocolates and the others have Hershey Kisses and Ferrero Rochers.

Sunday Night

Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend. I went today and got I guess 75% of my shopping completed, then about 25 percent wrapped and ready to give. The countdown is on. I really hate to be stressed out. I tell myself every year it isn't going to happen but it does. I also made some necklaces today and while I had my beading mess out, I made these 4 little wine glass i.d.'s. These will identify your glass ,while at party you sit your drink down. Well it is back to wrapping. Talk later.

Chuckle & Challenge

I had to chuckle at myself. I went to post here, and when I went to sign on, I couldn't remember my password. I didn't think it had been that long since I posted. But maybe it has.

Pat made everyone happy this week according to the comments to her Saturday night challenge. We were to make a birthday card. We all commented that we had Dec. birthdays, so this one came in handy. A couple of weeks ago Robyn used a transparency to print her family's photo on and then put it on a flameless candle. We talked about transparencies and she explained how easy it was to work with. So I picked up a pkg of the transparencies. I have had my Cricut for quite awhile, and I have let it intimidate me also. So I used Pat's challenge to work with both these things.

This 1st photo is of the front of the card. I used the Cricut to cut out the cupcake and the numeral 3. I placed it on the green dot paper and then adhered that to the blue. I then put those layers on the front of the card

This is the inside of the card. I placed another blue piece of solid paper on the left hand side. I will write Natalie a personal note on that. It covers up the glue dots on the back side of the front. On the right hand side of the inside I glued a piece of pink scalloped card stock and placed the Happy Birthday sticker up high enough that when the card is closed the Happy Birthday shows through to the front. I will let my husband write a note to Nat on that side. Well I can not get the text between the two pictures so I will explain the last picture here. :( On the back of the card, I just added some more stickers to cover up the glue dots . Then I added the pink ribbon to the side and it is complete. Don't forget to go to Robyn's blog and look at all the "pretties" she has created. Thanks for letting me share.

I hope you have lots of time

I hope you have lots of time when you open this post. I'm afraid it will be a long one.

Pat gave us a challenge this week to use something recycled to make an album. She mentioned we would have lots of Thanksgiving pictures, so I used them. I had been going through old files and things at work and was getting ready to trash some old file folders, when that light came on, and I knew not to trash that gold mine. *wink*. I used the old file folders for the front, back, and inside pages. I used the excess scraps that was leftover from the fall projects that had not found their way back home yet. The cover symbolizes what I think Thanksgiving is all about. This next picture shows the little leaf buttons that I found in my stash of goodies. I just threaded them onto the rings. Well I had to ream the shank out a little with a bead reamer to enlarge the opening in the shank, so it would be large enough. The back side of the cover is the definition the dictionary gives. The next picture is of my sister and I getting things sit up at the fellowship hall before our families arrived. We were sharing memories about the ones that were no longer with us. I won't bore you with all the pages, but the next ones is showing the tables set up and the picture of the little treats I made for everyone. Everyone knows what happens after we eat all that food, you can tell in the next picture that nap time is almost there. In the next picture is my niece Jennifer Lynn (my namesake) and her husband Randy. Above the picture it says gratitude, family and blessings. I will now skip to the last pages of which is my favorite. As we were going home from our Thanksgiving we were in awe of the beautiful sunset, that the Lord blessed us with. What a awesome reminder of all that we are thankful for. This shot was taken between Blowing Rock and Lenoir. I am going to add another one for you to see that did not make its way into the album. Thanks Pat for the challenge. If you hadn't given us this one, these pictures may not have made it into a special book.

Getting ready for Christmas

A couple of post back I did a spin off of Robyn's coupon organizer. Here are two more little items to go in the set, that I am sending to a friend. Now I have come up with something for presentation of all 3 items together. We did get some snow and sleet on Monday, but the ground was to wet and warm for any accumulation. But the flakes at times were so big and pretty.
The first photo is the Christmas Planner that I showed earlier. The next two are holders for little tea bags and hot cocoa.






The reason I showed you the bottom of the cocoa holder was becuse of the ribbon that is holding the cocoa pkg in. When you untie the ribbon and pull it out, the pkg of cocoa comes out with it. I know the picture is bad. but I didn't know any other way to show it to you. It's way to early to even be thinking let alone posting :) so if there is a lot of errors, please excuse me.

It is Back to Work For ME

Well it is back to work for me today. I was blessed with a 4 day weekend. Boy did I need it. I have cleaned and made cards, and cleaned some more, and ate, and made more cards, and ate some more, and made a couple of Christmas Stocking Stuffers, and on and on.

The day after Thanksgiving was my older sister Rita's birthday. Here is the card and gift box I made for her. I posted the necklace earlier, I think, that I made for her present, but will post it again. She likes Dragonflies, so I chose that for the theme of her gift and card. Thanks for looking and Happy Monday to everyone.

The dragonfly was orginally on a key chain. I moved it to a longer chain and used the little blings that they us on manicures to add some color to it. Sorry about the quality of the pictures. My camera is very old.

Happy Thanksgiving and Harvest Blessings

I want to wish all my faithful "lookers" and all my newly found friends on this blog a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING. We will have to do about an hours driving to get to my Mom's and lunch is at 1:00, so I did most of my prepping of food last night. I made two pumpkin pies and a chocolate snickers cake. It looks and smells wonderful. I also baked a turkey breast and a whole turkey. And of course I made two 9 x13 pans of dressing. I will make the gravy once I get to Moms. Here is a photo of some little favors for all the family members to take home with them. Just a memento of the day. Everyone slow down and enjoy the day!

Ions ago I worked in a daycare and I was in charge of 13 -2 year old children. (What memories, I have there. These little ones are grown with families of their own now. A few I still keep in contact with their mothers. As MS would say "It's a good thing".) But every Thanksgiving there is a little ditty that keeps going through my head all these years later, so I will close today with Blessings To All of You, and this little ditty. I hope you smile. Just imagine a room full of 2 year children singing this.

The turkey is a funny bird

It's head goes bobble-bobble;

And all he knows is just one word...

And that is GOBBLE-GOBBLE.

Pat's Challenge

I know Pat gave us extra two days to turn our challenges in, but I got to work on it this weekend. I like to do that when possible, because a lot of times after working, I am so zonked out, I can't be very creative.
Here are the rules for this weeks challenge:

"A few days ago Robyn posted her version of a previous Challenge entry by Shelia. I loved it and thought that was such a neat idea! So tonight's challenge is to pick a previous submission to one of the Saturday Night Challenges and rework it to your own style. Fun, huh?"

Back in October, when Pat had her Grand Opening, I did the challenge for her. Robyn submitted this wonderful organizer for grocery coupons. I turned her ideal into a Christmas Planner. This will be a early Christmas present for a friend. I will try to get it in the mail this week so she can use it the next couple of weeks. Thanks Pat for the challenge and Robyn for the inspiration.


Robyn used the tops of little lunch sacks to make pockets for her grocery coupons. I followed her lead but used white bags instead. I also covered the front of each little sack, to dress them up, and make them a little sturdier. The snowflakes I punched out of vellum, then just added some glitter for sparkle. I made 4 compartments. One for receipts, one for the list, to do, and one for people's sizes. I went overboard with the snowflake theme, but it was easier then getting up and finding other stuff. I used my cricut to cut the book plate that framed "Christmas Planner". I fastened the pockets to the cover with the snowflake brads. I used ribbon to cover the back of the brads on the back of the holder and added the ribbon also to the raw edge where the top tucks down to close it. I added some colored paper clips to a couple of the pockets for easy access.

Holiday Cheer

It is hard for me to believe that next Thursday is Thanksgiving. It will soon be 2009. Time is passing way to fast. I am working on Christmas gifts. I really don't know what you would call this thing I made. :) I have bought several bottles of Scuppernong Cider. It is made not to far from where I live. Scuppernongs are a bronze colored grape. They are delicious right off the vine. I felt like I needed to dress the bottle up a little more then just tying a ribbon around it. I cut a 4 x 8 strip of patterned Christmas paper, then used my oval punch about 3/4 inch from the top. Then from the bottom of the punch I scored about 1/2 inch down and folded both scored lines. It fits right over the neck of the bottle. I used the cricut to cut the snowflakes out and adhered MS fine glitter to them. After gluing them on, I added little silver dots to the center of each snowflake. I added one more snowflake that I cut out of red paper with MS glitter on it to the edge of the tag. To that snowflake I put a little silver heart in the center. I faux stitched around the white layer with "Holiday cheer" printed on it. Since I did not have any red ribbon that didn't clash with the red reindeer, I decided to pick up the green in the paper. I punched hole in end of tag threaded a ribbon through it, and tied it on to the bottle neck. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Supplies used: Reindeer patterned paper Basic Grey I think

Striped Christmas paper by Daisy D's

Snowflake Cricut (Accent Essentials Cartridge)

Glitter Martha Stewart

Ribbon from stash

Pat's Challenge

Hope everyone made it through Monday unscathed. It was a typical one where I work. I work for a company that does service work, and everything always tear up on the weekends. And of course, I was one of the weekend victims. My water heater had to be replaced this morning. But still have a leak because of the pressure on the line or something, so till the plumbers can come back tomorrow, we have had to turn it off. I am not a happy camper.

Pat's challenge this past Saturday was to do a layout and at least one stamp on it somewhere. I am making my mother for Christmas a month by month reminder book. The months were already in there and the pockets made. I will recover the cover, and do each month as I have this one. My mother is getting forgetful, so I hope this will help her on this hard journey she is facing. The people that have birthdays in that certain month, I am putting their pictures on the page that faces it. I put some homemade cards in the pocket, and will get some postage stamps later and put in it. On the left hand layout are the photos and I use stamps for two sentiments, and also the October stamp on the tab. Over on the date page, I wrote their names on the right date, and tried to use balloons and other things to symbolize what the occasion is. On October 31st, I used a stamp to recognize Halloween. Thanks Pat for challenging me to get started on this Christmas present. When I get the whole book completed I will show it too.

Monday again

It's Monday again, and just be in the high 40's today. I know some of you would welcome that high. I worked all weekend, but not as much playing as I would have liked to have done. Saturday from 10:30 am till 7:30 pm, my sister from Boone, and my niece, Ashley and I went Christmas shopping for my mother. She isn't able to do all that walking now. Now talk about power shopping, we bought a total of 26 gifts and that was just leaving off 3 names. I was really proud of ourselves. We even stopped and had an leisurely lunch. The first picture is of the 29 gift tags I made on Friday to have ready for Saturday. The three of us have not been together in a long time. We had a wonderful time The pictures did not turn out very good. The lights were terrible. Thanks for stopping by and looking.

Pat's Note Card Holder Challenge

This week Pat had us make a note card holder. At the beginning of the week I showed you several note cards that I put together for a stocking stuffer. The recipient of this little gift is a teacher and I am sure she will have plenty of use for these. Julie also likes the color orange, so I made the dominant color on the holder, orange. I had made a card-a-lope for a birthday card While I was making it, I realized I could make two pockets, by using 2 envelopes. This easily accommodates 5 cards and 5 envelopes. Next time I will use stiffer paper, the envelopes that I used were a little flimsy.

The firs t thing I did was to cut off one flap of one of the envelopes, then put glue on the flap of the other one and slide it down into the pocket of the 2nd envelope. That makes the two pockets.

I was lucky that I had some envelopes that were already lined. The next step was to put a ribbon on the folder to use as a closure. I used red sticky tape to attach it firmly to the back of the holder and then brought both ends to the front.

I put 5 note cards in one side and 5 matching envelopes, that I monogrammed with a J on the envelope flaps.Then it was time to embellish the front. I cut up one of the extra unused note cards. I used one side of the card as the background, found a scrap of turquoise, then cut the border out of the extra card along with the J monogram that was on it. I used a bling to dot the I with.

I used a glaze pen to color in the J, let it dry and tied the ribbon to close the holder. I hope you may be able to use this ideal in your gift giving this holiday season. As I mentioned before, the only thing different I would have done, is used stiffer envelopes. Thanks for stopping by today and thanks to Pat at One Little Spark The Shop for the challenge.

Supplies used: Monogrammed note cards by G Squared, ribbon by American Crafts Elements and an orange Sakura Glaze pen.