Although...............

Christmas is over, I still have a few things I wanted to share. I have been out of town a bit so didn't get to these things until now. The card I made for my daughter, she dearly loved! It was the only one I got made this year, what with the Annual Christmas Tea Party and then leaving town so soon after. I even tried out the new pine cone die from Tim Holtz. It makes the cutest pine cones. Not bad for my first try. I will making some more of these for the 12 Tags of Christmas which I started yesterday. Almost have my first one done. I will try to post it later today. I also tried my hand at the little tree TH made out of the rosette die. It is just the cutest thing, LOVE IT! Enjoy, Hugs, ~Jody

So have you seen the TH Trinket Box........

they are just the cutest things. It's about 6" x 8" and has three latches on it. One on each of the two sides and one on the top where the handle is.

And then when you open it, both sides come down to reveal these little trays that can hold all your ideology findings and some other stuff too, lol!

Then when you pull out the trays, they stairstep out and you have four little trays to fill up too! And then there is the bottom, which is the full width of the whole case, so, you like have a big space down there, as well!

There was so much space, I had to go get more stuff, lol!!! Just love this little thing, it is so compact and it fits perfectly on my shelf between all my inks and stains. YEAH!!! Maybe you should put this on your Christmas list, hugh? Hope you get everything you want! Hugs, ~Jody

Ok, now we're talking..............................

Have you been following Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas? I have but so far had not been too impressed. The first one was great but it went downhill from there for me. Liked the snowman one too but it was basically the same color as the first one. I guess I'm in to colorful things, lol! Anyway, I really like the vintage look too, so that would probably explain why I REALLY like Tag #7. I will be doing most of the tags, maybe all of them but I had a few other things to get finished up first before I started on these. I am trying to not leave any loose ends this Christmas season. Too many times I get started on something and SOMETHING ELSE catches my eye and I end up leaving some of those ideas behind (and a trail of items too). Hopefully this coming weekend, I will be free to start doing tags. Hope you are having a joyous Christmas season. Hugs, ~Jody

Just a peek.....................

at some of the decorations for the Annual Christmas Tea Party. I have all the tags done and the menu is planned, just need to do a little grocery shopping. I will be putting up my house decorations today and getting that all ready. It's getting kind of exciting around here, lol!! Love, Love, Love the Christmas season! Hope your holiday festivities are in full swing and you are loving every minute of it! Merry Christmas! Hugs, ~Jody

Black Friday haul.......

WooHoo, hit the big one this morning, lol! My LSS had a fantastic sale, 40% off EVERYTHING IN THE STORE, from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. I was able to get the remainder of the Tim Holtz ink pads that I didn't have and most of the reinkers, plus some stains and some stamps and some texture fades and a new slick mat. I had so much fun! Over $300 worth of stuff for less than $200 including tax, YEE HAW! Come on 12 Tags of Christmas, I'm ready!!! Oh and I forgot, the cutest thing of all, the new Trinket Case, so adorable. It's alot smaller than I had invisioned so I was glad for that. It fits perfectly on my shelf. A huge bargain at $21. Anyway, now to find a place for all of it in my craft room, how exciting!!! Hope you had a great Black Friday as well! Let the Christmas season begin!!! Merry Christmas, Hugs, ~Jody

Gobble, Gobble said our turkey today.....

Here's a poem that my mother wrote years ago. It has been around my family ever since I can remember. The turkey picture here is one I made this afternoon after reading Tim Holtz's blog this morning. That guy is so creative. I thought my little "Quirky Turkey" turned out pretty good for the first try. I will set him on my table tomorrow for conversation, ha! It's made out of Tim's rosette die and some paper from his 'lost & found' paper pack. I used some scrap canvas and colored him with fired red brick ink and gathered twigs ink. It turned out so darling!!!

TURKEY TALK

“Gobble Gobble”, said our turkey today, instead of November I wish it was May. Yesterday I was King of the Coop, today is the day I get put in the soup. They fed me well and I’ve enjoyed the year, but suddenly I wish I wasn’t even here. They will have goodies like cranberries and pies and homemade rolls of considerable size. There will be vegetables and sweet potatoes too; they’re looking forward to seeing you. Meanwhile here as I strut through the yard, what I am seeing is really hard. A hatchet is raised and his steps are fierce, and suddenly my legs are in reverse. As you know reverse is not full speed ahead and I must shift gears or I am dead. I take a step forward and slip right in it and wonder just why in the world I did it. I find myself wishing I could sidestep his gait, and as he dreams of roast turkey I’ll wait. Till he slips and falls and loses the hatchet, I’ll make a quick turn and try to catch it. Then I’ll turn on him with a breath of gust and he’ll find himself down facing the dust. This turkey will run as fast as I can and he will be dreaming of Hickory Smoked ham.

-Marva Smith (1964)

I got off work early today so came home and made my cherry pie for tomorrow. I had to cover it with a towel so I would stay out of it, IT LOOKS SO GOOD!!! Is it disrespectful to serve a pie that has one piece missing already?? (LOL) Ok, ok, I won't if I can keep my mouth from watering. I enjoyed a glass of homemade White Sangria while I was making the pie. Maybe I'll just have another one of those instead.

I wasn't going to go shopping on Friday either, that is until I received an email from my local scrapbooking store saying EVERYTHING will be 40% off from 9:30-11 a.m. Friday morning. YOWSER, how can you pass that up. They are have all the newest Tim Holtz stuff too! Even changed a doctor appt. for that, lol!

So...........................really just wanted to say I hope you have a truly grand Thanksgiving Day celebration with your loved ones. Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

Hugs,

~Jody

It's Almost Turkey Day!!!

I have been working on some Thanksgiving Day cards for a week or so now. They are turning out very good, I think. I used the Olivia paper pack from CTMH and some raffia. Made some colored stick pens out of some ordinary ones that I had with alcohol inks. And, I made some little leaves out of Tim Holtz's leaf die and some shrink film. I colored them with alcohol inks before I shrunk them and they turned out so cool looking and the size was perfect. Then I colored some ribbon with vintage photo distress stain and inked the inside of the card with Sunset ink from CTMH! I colored the inside stamp with a water blender and some distress inks. The sentiment I printed on the computer and then punched it out with a cricut die/embosser folder. A couple more and they will be ready to put in the mail. Are you staying home and cooking? Or are you off to grandma's house this year? I will be home cooking. Have some family coming and a friend. I think I have every thing except just when I think I do, I think of something else I want. Still need to get the celery for the stuffing but then I should be done. Whatever you do for Thanksgiving, please remember the reason for the season. We should be very thankful for all the things that we do have! Hugs, ~Jody

On to the Next Tea Party!

Which I will be hosting. Here is a photo of the invitations that I gave out yesterday. I really like that new stamp set by CTMH. It is called Captured Moments (C1423). It has a winter scene (this one), a fall scene with leaves blowing about and a halloween one. Very cool! The little tag was from a CTMH set of long ago. I white embossed the snowflakes and winter scene on the front of the card and blue embossed the tag. On the inside was a white embossed snowman. They turned out pretty cute, I thought! Now to find a tree that will fit in my tiny living room! Hope you have a great weekend, Hugs, ~Jody

November Tea Party

Had a lovely tea party yesterday at Gloria R.'s. She certainly does a fantastic job of setting the mood. The decorations were very fall festive and the food was really good too, YUM! I will a little slow in getting out the camera though so only have photos of the bunch of us before every one left. Will have to wait for Beth to get her pictures up-loaded and sent around, so I'll show you those next year, lol, she's about six months behind! Anyway, we had a great time and waddled out like little piggies with leftover desserts in hand!

5th Annual Black Hat Society Tea Party

Yesterday we had our monthly tea party. It was at Kathy's Milk n'Honey Tea Room in Tampa. There were 10 in attendance including myself and we had a great time. The food was very good and the company even better. What a great group of gals. We even got to see Hazel again. She hasn't been around for over a year, so it was good to see her. Everyone wore their black hats, there were some pretty spectacular ones there. Here's a photo of us all. This was a self portrait kinda of thing, and where we had to set the camera didn't leave much space for us to all stand and have our hats on at the same time. Most of the hats were witches hats so they stood up and covered most of the lovely faces, lol, so some took theirs off. We had lots of goodies, like half heart and eye balls skewers and mummy wrapped scones, cat/pumpkin oreo cookies and some bloody finger things, don't remember what she called those. And the table was set to perfectly match everything else. It was all very lovely, had a great time! Hope you had a lovely Halloween weekend as well!!! Hugs, ~Jody

Having a Wicked Halloween.........................

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! Hello bloggers, just popping in to show you the cards/tags I made to give to the tea ladies at the Halloween Tea Party today. I cut the tags with my Expression and the ABC Plantin' Schoolbook cartridge at 3 1/4". Was able to get three out of an 8 x 11 sheet of cardstock. The witchy-poo was embossed with black and the stamp is from Close to My Heart set #S1108 Wicked, as is the swirls down the side. The swirls are stamped with Tim Holtz's new Seedless Preserves distress ink, LOVE THIS NEW COLOR!!! Had a bit of a time getting hold of the new seasonal series ink pads but determination prevailed, lol! I knew I wanted to use them on these tags so had to have them SOON! They are delicious colors, can't wait to see what colors he has in his Christmas series. They should be coming out soon! Anyway, back to the tag, I green embossed the "wicked halloween" stamp on purple cardstock and then cut it out with Spellbinders Labels Fourteen. It was a bit big so I moved it up a little bit and cut the bottom of it off. Worked perfectly!! Then punched a hole through it and the tag and added a black brad. The purple sign sways on the tag so I added a "boo" underneath, cuz you know someone is going to look under there, LOL!!! The little glitter pieces: spiders, pumpkins, cats and boos I got at Walmart a couple of weeks ago in their halloween section for a buck a pack. There were 40 pieces in each package, half of each one, What a Deal! Can't wait to get them to the party, speaking of which I'd better get a move on or I'll miss the party. Hope you have a great weekend!! Happy All Hallow's Eve everyone!!! Hugs, ~Jody

Panel #4 and the finished product

Good Evening bloggers. I have finally finished the fourth and last panel of my Halloween Door Decor. I just love how it turned out. It even fit perfectly across the front of my door. This fourth panel depicts a "haunted house" theme. The house is, of course, Tim Holtz's and the background paper is his too. The pumpkin was a button, the skeleton was an earring I found in a .50 bin at an antique festival I went to yesterday. The shiny black cat was a Wal-mart find, came with some orange 'boo's, 20 of each in the same pack for $1. The exclamation point I made with the other letters on my cricut and the token with the memo pen is TH. The purple 'scary' was in my stash from years gone by. Here's the whole thing put together and hanging on my front door. It fit there so perfectly. Now I can look at it each time I come home. You can click on the photo and it will get bigger. That way you can see all the different dimensions. I found a little skeleton bracelet at either Joann's or Michael's so I took it apart and added a skeleton face to my shelf. Thought he looked pretty good up there. I actually had some black flowers that I was going to put in a pot outside the little house , still might. Hope you enjoy my little halloween treasure. I'm sure it will adorn my front door for a long time. Happy Halloween!!! Hugs, ~Jody

Panel #3

Good Evening bloggers. I have finished Panel #3 of the Halloween 'door decor'. This one predicts 'a spooky night'. A couple of TH embellishments and his tree, of course, some Michael's $1 ribbon and some purple glitter. The moon is a Spellbinders circle and the 'spooky night' is a stamp that I embossed with green embossing powder. Sure made up cute. Am getting excited to get it done so I can put it on my door. The cat and the black bat were buttons I had in my stash from last year. I just snipped the little thingy off the back. I gave the cat some glowing green eyes and the bat some orange ones. Pretty cool hugh!!! On to the last one, can hardly wait! Hope you have a great evening! Hugs, ~Jody

Craft Room Rennovations

Have been doing a bit of rennovating in my craft room over the weekend. I had this computer armoir in here on the west wall. It's nice with lots of storage but the monitor always seemed like it was setting in a tunnel in the dark, or I was looking down a tunnel in the dark, or something like that, lol! Anyway, I was tired of it so I unloaded it and took it out. I had to put plastic lids under the corners to even get it to budge, it weighs a ton. I did manage to get it out of the room and down the hall way and out in to the living room by myself. Took me about a half hour, lol! All last week, Michael's had their white cube storage thingy's, can't remember the name of them, on sale for 50% off. One day they even had an additional 20% off sale items so I loaded up on the storage cubes. I ended up with eight. I put them all together, a couple each night and when the weekend rolled around and I got that armoir out of here, I placed all the cubes as I thought I would like them and then I measured the top. I went to Home Depot and bought a piece of plywood and had them cut it to the exact dimensions. Took it home, sanded it a bit, painted it white and put a couple of coats of polyurethane on it and stuck it over the top. It turned out pretty cool. Now for the shelves!!! I had them cut the extra wood into shelving and I will hang that above the desk, hopefully on both sides. I love how it opened up the room quite a bit and looks so much brighter with white against white walls. Now I can add my own splash of color. Hope you have a great day, Hugs, ~Jody

How about...............

I have to tell you this funny story. I was driving to work this morning like I do every morning down this long stretch of road that has recently become a construction zone, uuuggghhhhhhh, and the signs say will be for the next 2 years, UUUUGGGHHHHHHHH! Anyway, I was following this person, don't know if it was a man or a woman driving, but it was a burgundy colored mid size car. On the back of the vehicle was this bumper sticker at about trunk level and it said......... how about a nice cup of shut the f___ up!!! OMG, I laughed so hard. Some people think I'm such a hard ass but let me tell ya, I have nothin' on the person that owns THAT car. I took a picture of it with my superior Wal-mart track phone and sent it to my home email address but guess what ??? it didn't make the trip. Not sure where it ended up but I certainly hope I don't know the person who received it. LOL Not sure you could have read it anyway, the light was awful, etc. So, ya, that was my funny start to my day! The sun was shining, the music was good and it turned out to be a terrific day. Hope yours was just as enjoyable! Hugs, ~Jody

God's Creations

Look what I found growing in my backyard yesterday? I got a slip of this plant from an old friend a year or so ago. He said to just put it in a pot with some dirt and leave it where it can get some sun and rain water and forget about it. Well that's exactly what I did. I have moved it from the last place I lived and moved it around my backyard a couple of times making way for other plants and such but when I went out yesterday morning to do a little gardening there it was in all it's glory. Isn't it beautiful!! I don't even know what kind of plant it is but it sure is pretty. I hope it gets some more blooms on it. Hope you have a great day, Hugs, ~Jody

September Tea Party

We had our tea party for the month yesterday and was alot of fun. We went to the Milk n'Honey Tea Room on Busch Blvd. in Tampa. One of our tea ladies actually owns this tea room so she was glad to see us all come to her place. She hasn't been able to go to our monthly teas as much since she purchased the tea room, she has had to work on those Saturdays at her own tea room, lol! Anyway, we had some delightful sandwiches. And the scones were Pina Colata And the desserts were delictable!! Kathy, the tea room owner, (top left) has a little dress up room in the back for the kids and lots of hats hanging on the walls so we each chose a hat to wear and had a group picture taken. My daughter is a waitress there and she was the one taking the pictures and she was talking to me while she was taking the pictures so the look on my face is kinda funny but it was a fun picture, lol!!! We had a great time!

Newest Creation

Good Evening Bloggers! I took a little break from the Halloween banner this weekend and made a really cool necklace and earring set. I needed something to do while I sat in front of the TV and watched all the 9/11 shows over the weekend. I did take time out for a football game in which the Steelers got spanked but this is what I came up with. I purchased this pendant and the four smaller pieces at Michael's in Rockledge, I think, while I was over there for Christmas last year. They were on the clearance rack so I got them for a song and they are PURPLE, well sorta lavender anyway, my favorite color. I have hem-hawed around all year trying to find just the right color combinations to go with it and finally settled on some that I already had. I did find a couple other beads at Michael's the other day that kinda matched so I mixed them all together and VOILA'. It turned out way pretty, I think. A bit to fancy to wear to work probably but it will work nicely for the next tea party, doncha think? Here's a couple of close-ups so you can get the full picture. I am very pleased with the outcome and can't wait to wear it. I have a cream colored dress that it will go nicely with and the tea party for September is next weekend, I better get that baby dry cleaned tomorrow!!! Hope you have a great evening, Hugs, ~Jody

09.11.01 ten years later 09.11.11

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Hugs and Prayers going out to all those directly affected by the events of that dreadful day. We will never forget!

Penne Pasta with Proscuitto Sause

I don't normally post about food but this recipe has been a favorite of mine for a loooong time now. I got the it from the Regis and Kathy Lee show back in 1983, I think and I just love it. I don't make it alot because it is dripping in butter and cream but it came to mind while I was in the grocery store last night so I bought all the ingredients so I could make it tonight. I also got ALL the CORRECT ingredients on the first try from memory, that's saying alot for me, lol! Maybe I have made this a few times. Garlic bread goes well with it. Here's the recipe if you are interested: 8 oz. Penne Pasta (I used Rotini tonight so any pasta will do) 4 oz. Proscuitto (ham) cut in strips (the proscuitto at my store only comes in 3 oz. packages and it was plenty for me) 3 T. Butter 1 Small Onion diced 2 Small Tomatoes diced 4 T. Parmesan cheese 1 Cup Heavy Cream (I used whipping cream because they didn't have a small heavy cream and I didn't want left-overs of this, lol) 1/2 Cup Peas (I used frozen ones because I will eat the rest of the bag) Ground Black Pepper Saute ham in butter and onions. Add tomatoes, peas, cream & pepper in that order stirring after each addition. Simmer until thickened. Add parmesan cheese and mix thoroughly. Makes 4 small servings. YUM!!!! Enjoy, ~Jody (NOTE: my apologies for the way this recipe is showing up on the blog. I actually typed it out in normal recipe form and it looks correct on my draft however, when I publish the post it all runs together. I have tried many MANY times to figure out what I am doing wrong with this but to no avail so I guess you'll just have to muddle through. If anyone knows what I am doing wrong, please feel free to leave me a comment on how to fix this, it makes me crazy, UGHHHHH!)

Sneak Peek #3

Good Evening Bloggers, have been putting the finishing touches on panel #2. Sooooo cool!!! I just love the new tokens and adornments that Tim Holtz has out. I was able to pick those up at my LSS last weekend as well as the new Christmas ones too. This panel turned out just as well, if not better, than the first one. The spider webs were embossed with black and the fuzzy orange thread around the outside came in a halloween scrapbook paper pack that I got for free at one of the 'garage sales' that Scraporium has. A lady had it on her table for sale and when I picked it up and looked at it she said oh that's been used, you can just have it! Worked for me, the thread matches the black that my daughter gave me and there is enough to use it two times and I have four panels, all together. I'm thinkin' two orange and two black, whatcha think??? Anyway, here's panel #2 Thanks for stopping by! I'll be working on panel #3 this weekend and I'm sure I'll have to make a trip to Whimsodoodle. They are calling my name and it's only Thursday, lol!!! Hugs, ~Jody

Sneak Peek #2

Ok, so I've spent most of the day in my craft room playing with my new "door decor" today. I have to admit, it is turning out really cute. See what you think of the first panel? The little black caldron I made out of sculpey clay, ha! Even had a handle made out of wire and brown sculpey clay. The little shelf is just a piece of trim molding from the miniatures department and all the bottles were from a piece of scrapbooking paper I scanned and then printed on cardstock and cut each one out. I popped them up with different size pop dots so they would look 3 dimensional. How cute is that???? The eye hook holding the 'W-wicked' token is from Home Depot. The "B" I cut with my cricut and covered it with glitter and then hair spray so the glitter wouldn't get all over. It kinda works! The feathery trim is some yarn my daughter had that she said was to hard to crochet with so she gave it to me. It looks just perfect on there, I thought! On to panel #2.......................... Yesterday, I was invited to Jimmie B's to hear the band "GreenFlash" play. If you don't know of Jimmie B's, it's a beach bar in St. Petersburg. A cool little place to catch some rays, have a couple of cocktails and listen to some really good 'ol tunes. And there's Ms. Barbara jamming to the music. She's the one that invited me. Her husband is Marty, the one in the baby blue shirt. It was a great time. Thanks for the invite Barbara!!! On the way over there, a draw bridge had gone up at John's Pass to let a big boat through. It was cool to see. It's not something that you see every day, at least I don't, so here's a few shots of it. And then we were on our way! Hope your Labor Day weekend is going great!!! Hugs, ~Jody

Sneak Peek

Good Morning bloggers, I have caught the Halloween bug already this year. Seems a bit early but that's ok, it will give me plenty of time to put together my new 'door decor', ha! I ordered some of the chipboard banner pieces from CTMH, actually I ordered two sets. They come in packs of 8 and we, meaning my younger sister and I, were going to split the one package and then we would each have 12. We WERE going to make another set of Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas this year but she's mad at me for voicing my opinion on some things, actually pissed off would be more like it. (My family prefers sugar coating everything, me, not so much! I tend to call them like I see them, which, as history could tell, hasn't gone over well with them!) Anyway, don't look like that will be happening now, SOOOOO, I am going to use the left over 4 pieces and make a Halloween banner for my door. I have started so here's a look at the beginning stages. I have a pretty good arsenal of Halloween stuff all the way from Tim Holtz to CTMH to Crafty Secrets, etc. I have chosen inspiration from several different places, too many to mention names, so Thank You all for your inspiration. I'll let you know what it looks like as I go along. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all have a safe and wonderful Labor Day Weekend, Hugs, ~Jody