Independence Day Banner

Hey all -

Soon we will be firing up the barbeque, swimming in the pool, and watching fireworks with family and friends.  Summer seems to be a time when all our friends come to visit.  To make the house look as welcoming and festive as possible Craftologist Espy and I created this banner. (Some people call it a bunting and still others, a garland). No matter what you call it, making this is very simple.  Don't be afraid to add more shapes and colors to yours.  I know the next one I make will also have fabric rectangles and stars! 

I will be posting the directions for this banner on the Craftology Studio blog.  So if you are in need of specific directions go there.  Kits are available at the Craftology Studio Etsy Shop.

Create the world of your dreams.

Mini Bucket Tote

Today at the studio Espy deigned a mini bucket tote. It is great because it can sit flat on your table.  It won't fall over and dump everything out.  Kits will soon be available at the Craftology Studio Etsy shop.  The western print fabric is already available at the shop.    Hope this inspires.

Love the Red White and Blue

Well I have finally taken the photos of my Fourth of July mini-book.   I hope you like it.  Some of the paper I used is from the Rusty Pickle Bottle Rocket line which is on sale.  I also used my some of the trims (buttons, crocheted heart, ric-rack, ruffled elastic, stars) that will soon be available at the Craftology Studio Etsy shop.  The blue flower was colored using Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist. The base of the book is chip board and I cut paper to fit.  The letters are from K&Company.  Hope this inspires your own Independence Day. 

Next post:  Independence Day Banner.

Yee Ha!

Here is a sneak peek of some of the western and juvenile print fabrics that will be available at the Craftology Studio Etsy Store.  I am having so much fun with all the fabrics and trims.  

I am a born city girl.  But somewhere along the way I fell in love with the country.  So I decided to start with a western theme.

I can hardly wait to share everything with you.  But I have to be patient - so for now I can give you these little previews.  Enjoy.

Studio Day

Today was great. I spent the whole day at the Craftology Studio sorting and taking inventory. There are so many treasures. It seems that when I move things to their new homes, something adorable is uncovered. I am uncovering things about myself too. Like my desire to overwork. It is well-balanced by one of my partner's ability to take breaks. I keep her working; she keeps me from working every minute. But now, I am home and I can work all night. So tonight I will be playing with my "Love the red, white and blue." goodies. I will show you the result tomorrow on the Craftology Studio blog.

Hope your dreams come true.

Angela

Passport and Ticket holder Vintage Cowgirl Pattern

Here is the passport and ticket holder I made for Jody. We were swap partners in the the Vintage cowgirl swap put on by Sweet Goodness Swaps. Jody travels internationally all the time. I thought she might like to have her hands free to take off her shoes as she goes through security. This handy holder carries your passport, id and ticket.

I made this with some of the fabric that I will be putting in my new etsy shop. Most of the fabrics are 100% pre-washed cotton and many have vintage prints like this. So keep checking back for the grand opening giveaway.

Sweet Goodness Swap & Craftology Studio

Today I worked on a gift for my swap partner. She travels internationally quite often. I made her a passport, identification card and ticket holder. It is great. You wear it around your neck and it leaves your hands free while you take off your shoes and put all your luggage through the screening process. It was really easy to make as it is a very simple design. I will be posting the instructions to make it next week on the Craftology Studio blog. I am so excited about Craftology Studio. I will tell you all about it soon.

SEI and CSN Shelf Giveaway

You know I love SEI so go check out the giveaway from SEI and CSN. CSN Stores has everything from speaker stands to home decor to cookware. Also SEI is having a sale on album kits for $15. This is a whole kit not just an album so check it out.

SEI DOLLAR SALE - Cards, Paper, Embellishments

Check out the dollar sale going on at SEI. There are some great deals.

Crafty Carnival is Hosting a Card Swap

Check out the card swap at Crafty Carnival. The swap is open til April 9, 2010. You are sure to get cards back if you send them Yay! She will even allow your children to send a card or two to swap. Fun! Thanks for hosting this great swap.

Snapfish's 10th Birthday

Check out the deals that Snapfish has this week for it's 10th birthday. A new deal everyday.

Favorite Flowers, a Giveaway and Easter Buckets.

These are the first roses of the year - Double Delight from my garden. I just love their fragrance. I like it so much I use the Moroccan Rose line from the Body Shop. If you know of a great rose fragrance let me know. I am always looking to try something new.

Speaking of flowers check out the giveaway that Janel is having at Run with Scissors. She is celebrating her 500th follower. Hooray Janel.

Here is a look at a little Easter bucket I made for my daughter. I have to make one more for my son. I will do his in blue. I am sure the Easter bunny will have fun filling these. I made these at a class taught by Liz at Scrapilicious Life. We made them out of a 28oz can. So easy just cover with paper. They are much less expensive than the baskets at the store.

Hope you have a happy Easter.

Oh, if anyone can tell me how to put buttons on my blog that would be great! Someone did the first one for me.

Rings for Spring

I had planned on showing you two rings that I made but it appears that my camera has finally taken it's last shot. I am not too disappointed about my camera. I have wanted a new one for the past 5 years. But I am disappointed that I can only show you one ring. This one is for my happy mail partner. The other is for my daughter's roommate at college. I plan to make more soon, but first I have to go downtown to get the supplies.

The two rings are both made with lamp glass floral cube shaped beads. This one has a garnet, Swarovski crystals in aqua and iridescent and some turquoise glass beads as well. the ring itself is made from copper and sterling silver.

I will be making more so tell me your favorite stones or colors so I can make one just for you.

Comfort Food

My lovely daughter came home for spring break. I was looking forward to lazy days a the beach and laughter filled minutes as we indulged in manicures, movies and whatever struck our fancy. I was not expecting her to come home exhausted and sick. So after a consultation with a doctor or two. She spent the week sleeping and recovering from acute collegiate syndrome which is also known as burning the candle at both ends.

I feel like we put her back together with orange plastic medicine bottles, kisses, and paste and she left today feeling somewhat better. My husband felt as if he missed her visit, the outrageous questions, the interesting and crazy stories that can only come from the college experience.

So to comfort my husband, I made her specialty. Here it is - Pizza - topped with

• Classico pesto - it comes in a jar


• feta


• water soft mozzarella


• quatro frommagio


• fresh garlic


• thinly sliced fresh tomato

It was mostly gone before I could photograph it. So I think it did the trick. I do make my own pizza dough. If you do not have a favorite recipe of your own let me know and I will post mine for you.

I also wanted to thank Melissa at Honey Bee Buzz for the very cute and useful dishcloth. I won in a giveaway on her blog. Melissa and Tiffany share this blog. It is great if you are interested in making easy craft projects at home. Have fun checking it out.

Baked Pasta with Tomatoes Shrimp and Feta

I adapted this recipe from one I found on Food Network more garlic, dill and feta, less onion. Feel free to tweak this to your taste.

You will need:

1-2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 cup onion diced 3 cloves garlic minced
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes (Muir Glen)
1-2 Tbs fresh dill finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley finely chopped.
2 lbs raw shrimp salt and pepper to taste
4 oz Feta cheese crumbled
8 oz uncooked angel hair pasta

Start by putting a large pot of lightly salted water to boil and preparing the pasta according to the package directions, set aside but keep warm. Preheat your oven to 425. Heat olive oil in a 12-inch oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant. Add onion and saute until softened about 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute an additional minute. Do not let the garlic brown as it will become bitter. Add the two cans of diced tomatoes and bring to a boil turn down the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes or until thickened.


Remove from heat and stir in shrimp, dill and parsley. Transfer to a bowl and place prepared pasta in the skillet. Return the shrimp tomato mixture back in the skillet over the pasta. Top with crumbled feta and bake for 12-15 minutes until shrimp is cooked through and feta is melted.

I was running late on dinner so I baked the shrimp tomato mixture without the pasta tonight. So that is a choice too. I simply poured the mixture over the pasta. If you do this it is very important that you keep your pasta hot, or time it right, because the pasta tends to cool very quickly.


Hope you enjoy.

Baked Pasta with Tomatoes and Feta Coming Soon

The recipe for Baked Pasta with Tomatoes and Feta will be posted on Saturday. If you came over from Angela's My Year Without Spending I promise to put the recipe up Saturday morning as I will make it for dinner Friday night. I was looking for the tomatoes at the market yesterday and I did not find them. So please be patient. In the meantime, check out this great recipe from My Scrapalicious Life. My good friend makes this and I have made it too. It is really very Yummy.

See you Saturday.

Down the Rabbit Hole

http://www.iwebneed.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Watch-Alice-in-Wonderland-Movie-Tim-Burton.jpg

I was a lucky girl this month and had the opportunity to be a special guest at the Ultimate Fan Event for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I was running out the door for a trip downtown to the flower and garment districts when the phone rang. I stopped to answer it and twas lucky for me that I did. As it turned out, my sister was calling to invite me to tag along with her for this star studded event.

So Disney and Mr. Burton treated my sister and me to a concert with Kerli, Never Shout Never, Metro Station and 3oh3! It was great fun and even though the sound system was wonky, I had fun listening to all the bands and shook my money maker with the rest of the crowd. I even sang along to the new Alice inspired songs soon to be released on the CD.

It was surreal to see the people in costumes inspired by the film. Aspiring professionals put time and skill into their costumes for a chance to get into the 3D sneak-peek preview, and for a very select few, the chance to meet the two time Oscar winning costume designer, Colleen Atwood, and hopefully make a connection with her - which can be a miracle in this impregnable City of Angels, where who you know means everything.

After the concert there were video feeds of short interviews with the cast. Everyone, including the handsome Mr. Depp. was in attendance. Finally, Tim Burton came out onstage and introduced the cast. Anne Hathaway was introduced first and came out radiating youth and beauty. Johnny Depp was introduced last and the infatuated crowd heaved and swooned towards the stage.

Special guests were then invited to the El Capitan theatre for a 3D sneak-peek of the new trailer. With the costumed participants earning special recognition, the front seats in the house and a few winning $50 gift certificates to Hot Topic, a co-sponsor of the event.

Mr. Burton came on stage and proclaimed to the crowd that he would be previewing the entire film much to every audience member's delight and pleasure. Mr Depp's appearance onstage was met with a tremendous roar from the crowd. His remarks however charming they may have been were lost in the thundering of shouts and the downpour of applause from the crowd. Depp blew two kisses to the crowd before stepping backstage and each adoring young fan felt that they had been acknowledged personally.

The film was well done and is entertaining for audience members of all ages. The 3D effects are not of the same vibrancy of Avatar but the audience was ducking and weaving as teacups whizzed past with insane accuracy. Underland is an amazing world and it is hard to remember that all of this is computer generated imagery. The performance by Mia Wasikowska brings to life an older Alice one who has accepted the world around her and yet still understands as does Burton, Disney and other innovators that believing in the impossible makes everything possible. Burton's look into the world of Underland is as invigorating to the Alice canon as any modern retelling can hope to be.

A true friend is a priceless treasure -

I love Bo Bunny and SEI scrapbook materials. Recently they came out with a line called Lucky Me. The stickers that go with this line are positive statements. Just reading them makes me happy! Here is the garland I created. If I were going to gift this garland I would make it a little longer. I would also include a bag of gold coin candy secured with a shamrock. I will be making these goody bags for some of my friends and I will post a photograph of them and the cards I make to go with them soon.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. So for my two favorite Valentines I made a yummy apple pie. I started with the recipe from Mad Hungry a fun straightforward, book with many tasty recipes. I decided to try using honey in place of the sugar and my pie turned out quite delicious. There were no complaints from the my men. Here is my result. I used 4 Fuji, 2 Golden Delicious and 2 Granny Smith apples. Use whatever combination appeals to you. Just remember Granny Smith apples tend to lose a lot of their juices.This is a great recipe so even if you are a novice pie baker it is going to come out looking fantastic.

I also made a Valentine or two. I used some paper that I found at the local scrapbook store and was able to make two or three from half a sheet. I still have some left for my album. The heart is cut from a sheet of music from a vintage piano music book. It was really hard for me to tear the page out. However my friend bought if for just that purpose. Since I tore it out of her book I have started cutting up my books with poetry in them and putting small stanzas in my scrapbooks. I love it.

I will be going over to my scrapbook store and picking up the Lucky Me line by Bo Bunny and creating a Lucky garland for St. Patty's Day. I will post it by Sunday so you will have plenty of time to get it finished too.

Cheers -

Get Well Soon Goodies

Today I made a small get well gift for a friend - just to let her know I was thinking of her. Most of these things I had in my house. I was able to put together something thoughtful for next to nothing.

In her Get Well goodie bag I placed.

• Tea 2-3 bags of my favorites: Organic Throat Coat, organic green tea and chamomile tea
• Emer'gen-C 2-3 pouches in different flavors
• Cough Drops - 2 handfuls
• Kleenex - small pocket pack
• Homemade Cookies - oatmeal raisin. I casually asked to make sure she was not suffering from stomach distress before I included them.

Since laughter is the best medicine I also included:

• a previously viewed comedy DVD I bought from Blockbuster for $3.99

I wrapped this up in a clear cellophane bag and tied it with a turquoise ribbon from my stash. I also included a handmade "Get Well Soon" card.

Hope this idea helps you take care of the special people in your life who are under the weather.