Purely Celebrating!

This is such a fun card! I was able to use textured paper, vellum, the rhinestone eyelets and Designer Series paper. This card will not be a part of the Just Celebrate class, but I wanted to give you a sneek peek as to what will be posted in the next day or two. Stay tuned...I think it's gonna be great!

Pinewood Derby

Blaine has spent a long time planning out his car, cutting it and sanding it. He and Matt strategically put the weights where they thought they should go.

He did very well! He took first in his age group and 3rd overall. It was cool. The troop has a new track this year and it not only recorded the times, but the place.

It's a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong day. I almost can't take it with the sugared up kids and the noise, but I'm okay.

Blaine's friend, Jimmy, did well this year, too. Go Jimmy!!!

Oh no. I'm not Kidding

It's not supposed to stop snowing here until Sunday morning. I haven't seen the boys since breakfast ( I can visually see them, they just haven't been inside). We have about 24" on the ground with a steady fall.

Each year, we get a good storm like this one, but I have never seen this much snow in a long time, maybe since I lived in Idaho.

It's crazy!

Playing Catch-up

I made several cards last week, but didn't want to post them until I used them. May sound strange, but I hate a ruined surprise.

I made this card using a cool fold that takes off the bottom 1" of your long-fold card. I have so much retired DS paper, so I used it to make several birthday cards. I had a few ideas for a shoebox swap we had at church. This is the one I ended up using. It's made with Big Bold Birthday.

I'm never quite sure how I feel about using the coluzzle, but I grabbed this idea from Kristina Werner. She always has great ideas. Again, I used the Big Bold Birthday set.

This card...I don't know, but it's a tri-fold card. You fold down the center of a long-fold and then at 2 3/4" from each end. I used the Many Thoughts stamp set.

I'm preping for my March 20th class. If you're interested in attending, I'd love to have you. There are still spots left. I have two classes being offered. See my SU! website for details.

Hanging out with the D family

Last Friday, we were able to go with our friends the "D's" (I'll do that in case they don't want their name plastered on my ever-so-popular blog). We had a lot of fun. Blaine and Will are classmates and it was fun hanging out with this great family. They are such good people and we always enjoy their company no matter what we do.

The boys were super excited, however, because they were able to go to a Cav's game and they had a ton of fun and laughed. That's what matters the most to me, fun and laughter. The "D's" have a younger son, Benjamin, that if he would let me, I'd squeeze like a stuffed animal. He is a super funny kid.

Spicy Sausage Sauce

This is a household favorite and I thought I would share it with you. If you don't like to use Italian Sausage, you can also substitute turkey sausage and my mom likes to use the bulk sausage versus the links.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound spicy Italian sausage links
1 tablespoon thinly sliced garlic
2 serrano chilies
1 cup lightly packed, torn fresh basil leaves
1 (28 oz.) whole tomatoes, pureed with their juices
Gray salt (whatever that is)
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add the sausages and enough water to come about half way up the sausages. Cover, reduce the heat to medium low, and cook until done, about 10 min. Remove the lid and allow the water to evaporate. The sausages will then fry in their oil when water evaporates. Remove the sausages from the saucepan and drain them on paper towels. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the saucepan. Add the sliced garlic and chilies and cook until the garlic begins to brown, about 1 min., stirring occasionally. Add the basil and cook for 15 seconds, then add the tomato puree. Simmer the mixture for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Cut the sausage links in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces, creating half-moons. Return the sausages to the saucepan and heat through.

This is a spicy recipe, so if you're bothered by spicy, you may want to omit the serrano peppers or at least one of them. I cook them separate for Matt because Blaine, Ethan and I won't eat spicy foods. I like to be able to taste my food.

Me and Mr. Jones

I found this picture of me and my brother while I was cleaning my craft room. It was taken on the 12th of September, 1981 at Rodger Williams Park. We were celebrating my cousin Sariah's birthday. I love how all the pictures of me during my childhood are so scary. I really must have had some bad days! But my brother, Donny, looks so cute. My maiden name was Jones, thus the title of this post. The picture I took of this page is terrible, but I was inspired by a Stampin' Up! "demo it" scrapbook page and so I ran with it with this page. I used the new rub-on's which are really easy and fun to use. The DS paper is from the new mini catalog along with the rub-on's. I would love to tell you what they are, but I'd have to run downstairs and I should be working out right now, so I won't. Sorry. By the way, the 6x6 page is not crooked, it's because of the way the picture was taken.
I must add, too that my cousin gave me a blog banner that I had up for about a month (see above picture). I forgot to thank her for that. I'm sorry Sariah. Thank you for the great blog banner you had made for me. I change things around a lot, so don't take offense that I took down your design.

The birthday card I made is a tester. I was just playing around last night. I want to tell you, however, because you may not be able to see, but on the whisper white card stock, I stamped-off in soft sky some balloons. The whisper white by itself was plain.

I really like the colors here. I saw a diaper bag at church yesterday and these were the colors they had in them. Actually the chocolate chip was the dominating color in the bag, but I didn't want the recipient of this card to feel dark and sad on their birthday. Hey, birthdays can hurt.