More cards and another recipe

I played with some more balloon shapes and arrangements this evening.  This time I used some retired card stock - Concord Crush, Peach Parfait, Lucky Limeade, Not Quite Navy and Poppy Parade.

I found the easiest way to tie the strings and anchor them was to take another piece of twine and lay it under the balloon strings. Using a small piece of tape, anchor the ends below where you want to tie them.  Tie the loose piece of twine around the balloon strings and make a bow.  Remove the tape and use a mini glue dot to anchor the bow on the card front.

I added heart balloons to some for anniversary cards.  Something different.

Another anniversary card.  I used the Decorative Label punch for the tab with the sentiment.

On a couple of the cards I used a white gel pen to draw the strings for the balloons rather than using the twine. 

Made these yummy veggies for supper tonight.   Roasted Squash - zucchini, yellow squash, sweet red pepper and green onions.  Topped with basil and mozzarella cheese.

Everyone else had spaghetti with the meatballs but I put some of the sauce on the roasted squash and had my meatballs on the side.   Very good!  Didn't miss the spaghetti or the carbs :-)   The only bad thing was everyone liked the squash and there were not many leftovers.   We will definitely have this again.

Happy Balloons

I made some birthday cards today and loved making the balloons using the small oval punch and a foot from the owl punch.

Aren't they cute?  I made 65 balloons (for 13 cards) using scraps of Wild Wasabi, So Saffron, Calypso Coral, Marina Mist and Wisteria Wonder. 

I had fun trying different arrangements for the balloons. 

The backgroind is embossed with the Cloudy Day folder.   

Some had Baja Breeze as the background color. 

I used some retired DSP for the bottom of the card. 

Some had Bashful Blue as the background. I have used up most of that retired paper. 

I used the candy dots to add an accent to the sentiment. 

Just can't get enough of the balloons. 

I have a couple more ideas for balloons. Can't wait to try them this week :-) 

Creating cards and a new recipe

We recently visited friends in Louisiana and they have a bluebird house in their front yard.  They have bluebirds and several beautiful eggs in the birdhouse. They have already watched one set of egg hatch and the baby birds grow and leave the nest and are excited to watch this set. 

This inspired me to make some bluebird cards when I got back home.  I cased a card I saw on another blog - but don't know whose. If it was yours, thanks! 

I used some retired DSP and chose coordinating colors for my cardstock. 

Another one 

This one got two wing tips. I punched too many so put one flat on the background card stock before gluing the bird down, then using a dimensional put the second on do just a little bit tilted from the first one.

And I was creative in the kitchen tonight. Started out with a Tuscan Chicken recipe then noticed I still had some chipotle chilis in adobo sauce in the frig so decided to make something southwestern. I used 2 chilis and it was a little hot so will probably only use 1 the next time. 

I call it Southwestern Chicken with Salsa Jam. I served it with creamy broccoli slaw (to cool off the taste buds ) and vinegar cucumbers. 

Hexagon Hive Case

In card making , when you find a card you like you CASE it (copy avd share everything).  This week I have been casing a card received from my sister for my birthday. 

I just loved the hexagon give cutout with the contrasting hexagons layered in it. And the petite flowers!   So here are my cards - 

Blushing Bride hexagon hive with Pear Pizzazz hexagons. 

Baja Blue hive with Riding Hood Red and Pear Pizzazz hexagons. A few Blushing flowers scattered around. 

Pear Pizzazz give with Baja Breeze and Island Indigo hexagons 

Pear Pizzazz hive with Blushing Bride and Riding Hood Red hexagons. 

There is no end to the possibilities. Thanks Jane for inspiring me!  

Love Love Love

Finally getting some cards made.  Starting to run low on some - especially anniversary cards. 

Also have lots of new toys to play with. 

It's kind of hard having my office in my craft room. I have to pick up the office stuff if I want to make cards and then put all the card stuff away so I can work. At least on weekends I can leave it out longer. 

 I got out some retired DSP and cut out the word 'LOVE' using my new Letter thinlits. It was so easy. I did have to save the center of the O and add it after mounting the DSP to the cardstock. 

For this one I cut the paper so the border was on the narrow edge. I layered the two pieces of DSP together and cut the letters out of both with one run through the Big Shot. 

This piece of DSP was smaller but worked perfectly with the curve layout. 

So in a matter of about 20 minutes I had 3 cards plus ...

These letters let to use on more cards. Reminds me of a Beatles song.  The letters look yellow here but that's just the way the laugh hits them. They are the orange DSP design. 

What other words would you spell on a card? 

God is good! Life is good!

Haven't posted in a while - and boy! do I have news.   I am making a career move - after 32 years at Memorial Hospital, I have accepted a job as Interface Engineer with a company that makes medical devices.  I will work from home 95% of the time - love it!
It will be very different - and at least in the beginning I will probably really  miss my office mates with no one to talk to during the day.  Buddy may get tired of hearing me talking to myself.
My last day at Memorial is May 16 and I start the new job on May 19.   I'm excited for the new opportunity but a little scared.  Currently I am the 'go-to' person for so many questions and after May 19, I will be the one with the questions :-)  But that is good and I will learn and grow.  My experiences at Memorial will be a good basis to build on.

Other things - we had a great Easter (except Tom worked and missed out on our festivities)  I made brunch for the family and we had a little egg hunt for the granddaughter. She was a little apprehensive of the cold, wet eggs but she really loves plastic ones.

                                           

She looked so pretty in her Easter dress

                                       

We wore her out :-)

                              

Grandpa did get to see her last week.  She loves books and will look at the same one over and over. The Monster at the End of This Book is one of her favorites.  She seems to favor the color blue and stares at Grover on every page.

                                      

Have made some pretty decent meals lately too.   At the end of the 12 week challenge, I came in 2nd place.  Won some money!   I was within 2 pounds of my goal so I signed up for a second 12 week period but this time I am doing maintenance.   I've bounced up and down a little but so far have stayed within 5 pounds of my initial weight.  I can't be more than 2 pounds over my initial weight to get my money back at the end of the 12 weeks - so need to get serious again.   Going through the job interviews made me hungry - I am a stress-eater and it doesn't matter what I put in my mouth, I just have to put something in it :-)

                            

The other night I made White Lasagne  It was so good!  The fresh asparagus and mushrooms really make a difference.  The Ragu sauce is very good and Walmart had them on sale this week so I got a couple more jars.

                            

Tonight we had grilled steaks, corn on the cob, Kale Salad and French bread.   My husband is not a big fan of raw kale.  He doesn't mind some in soup but not raw in a salad.   I told him he would love this salad and wish he had more.    He did like it and said the kale was not so strong tasting.   I made the dressing using yellow onions today since that is what I had so it was not 'pink' lemonade dressing.   It is such a good, fresh tasting dressing.   

Tonight, my daughters and I saw a community theater production of Willy Wonka.  It was fun.  A friend from church and her son had parts in the play and a couple friends from church sat behind us.  They have upcoming productions of Annie and Meet Me In St Louis.  What fun!

Busy Saturday

I've been busy today - but I love it :-). Started by going through all our VHS tapes to gather home videos so I could get them put on DVD. Dropped them off at Walgreens and they are on their way to     the company that will upload them online and I can edit, name, rearrange etc. then I can choose what to put on DVDs. 

They had a 20% off coupon so figured I would just bite the bullet and do them all. Had 10 tapes but some don't have a lot of footage on them. Hope they work okay.  It was sort of scary sending them away because I don't have copies :-( but they weren't much good as they are. 

Then spent the afternoon getting ready for Easter. 

Yesterday I washed up a bunch of the plastics eggs. DD#2 had used them at work for the kiddos to play with. They loved them but some wound up in their mouths do thought it might be a good idea to give them a nice soapy bath.  And yes! There are some camouflage ones on the bunch :-) 

When I got out the mugs that I use for dying eggs, I dropped the tin and a couple of the mugs broke. These are the cups that my mom used and I have had them got at least 20 years myself. When we had the dye in them we found another one had cracks in the bottom and was leaking. So down to 3 cups. 

So I took these 3 out of my collection to use for the years to come. The one on the left shows the bones on the x-Ray when hot liquid is poured in. Won't that be fun?  

Some of the eggs had a natural stripe when we dyed them. Kind of neat. 

Some we made stripes by dying the egg then wrapping a wide rubber band around the egg and placing it in a darker dye. And one I dipped half way in one color then the other end in a second color leaving a white stripe

DD#2 made her favorites by wrapping tightly in a paper towel and dropping small amounts of the dye solution onto the paper towel. The circles are from the pattern in the towels. 

My mom always took a little bacon grease on a rag and polished the eggs. I don't have a jar of bacon grease so I used a little bit of olive oil. It sure makes them shine. 

While going through my mugs I found some I thought I should have out - these are ones that Tom and I had from before we were married.

I thought these were nice for spring. 

Forgot I had these. I should have these out all summer long. 

The one is from 1982 and has the statistics on the back. 

After some prep work for tomorrow, I threw together this dinner. Shrimp tacos with tangy lime dressing, spicy black beans and fresh pineapple. 

Now it's time to put together some Easter baskets. I love holidays - especially since DD#1's family will be worshipping with us tomorrow. Just wish DH did not have to work.   

Easter blessings everyone!  Remember the reason for Easter - the One who died that we might have eternal life. He rose again and ascended into Heaven.  Some day he will return and gather his children.