Two of a Kind

Happy to have you stop by! :) I have a scrapbook page to share with you created with a new digital kit from Two Peas in a Bucket.

The kit is called 'The Bestiest'by new designer Lauren Reid. This kit is ideal for all your BFF projects and those folks you know who are joined at the hip like my husband and son! Christopher adores his dad and wants to be with him every second. These photos were taken on our annual trip to the pumpkin patch this year.

One of my favorite elements in the kit is the pair of birds I used as a template for hand stitching. Aren't they fun? You know what they say, birds of a feather flock together! :)

Well, today is the last day of November and last night I started putting the pages together for our December Daily! Yikes! Nothing like waiting until the last minute! I've wanted to create one of these holiday albums for years, but I always forget to prepare before December 1st and then it just doesn't get done. The Christmas before last I even bought a darling handmade mini album cover for our December Daily project and still didn't make it! So, this year, as busy as things are, I'm determined to create one!

I've decided to use October Afternoon's 'Very Merry'collection. I love the vintage feel and color palette of this line! I created the date circle in Print Master...an old program I've used for many years. To cut out the  date circles, I'm using my trusty Wizard die cut machine with Spellbinders dies.

Thank you for spending a little time on me old blog today! Tomorrow I have a free download for you and project sample! Hope you have a swell day! :) Kathy

Let it Snow & Giveaway

What a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend it has been! The tree is up and the decorations are set out. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here! And last night I managed to squeeze in a little crafting time and created this snowy card.

The snowflake and 'Let it Snow' sentiment are Papertrey Ink stamps from their Tiny Treasures Christmas collection.

Do you love the big glittered snowflake? My friend and I found a bag of them at my local Goodwill store on one of our recent outings. I was tickled pink to find them because I knew they would make great accents on my holiday projects!

I have enough of these snowflakes to sell in my Etsy shop if you would like some click here. I would also like to give away a set of three to one person who leaves a comment on this post. I will randomly draw a name from the comments left between now and Thursday, December 2nd. The winner will be announced this Friday, December 3rd! :)

Thanks for stopping in! I'll be back tomorrow with a scrapbook page share. Hope to 'see' you then! :) Kathy

I Miss You!

Oh boy has Thanksgiving weekend been fun and a whirlwind of activity! And as much fun as it's been, I'm looking forward to getting back to more routine days. I miss blogging and your comments, paper crafting and I even miss my regular diet! The pie and hot cocoa with homemade whipped cream has been heavenly, but if I were to keep this up, I would gain some serious weight! ;)

So how has your holiday weekend been? Did you begin decorating for Christmas? Did you do a little shopping? Have you been out of town? Are you looking forward to returning to home sweet home?

On Black Friday I had a friend over who helped decorate our Christmas tree. It was lovely to share our ornaments and stories behind them while sipping hot chocolate and eating leftovers. On Saturday we reversed the roles and I helped get her tree.

Here's one of our nutcrackers. Isn't he quite the handsome guy? I love his glasses and list of childrens' names. And what a lovely red outfit he's wearing! ;)

Today I will be finishing up the decorating and enjoying it all. Tomorrow I plan to be back with some crafty shares and I'll do some blog hopping to visit you and hear of your holiday. If you happen to stop by, leave me a comment, I would love to hear from you! I really do miss you all! :) Kathy 

Stuffed! And Recipe for Whipped Cream

Oh boy was Thanksgiving fun and delicious! How about yours? Do you feel stuffed like a turkey? I do and our fridge is packed with leftovers! Want to come help me eat them up? ;)

I didn't have a chance to pop in with a post yesterday because I was baking all sorts of yummy things. I made three deserts...pumpkin cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin pie! And I enjoyed every minute of it! I don't always like to cook everyday, but cooking Thanksgiving always makes me happy! And there's nothing like a Thanksgiving meal!

Here's our wonderful pumpkin pie! It's not looking quite so picturesque this morning! ;) I made homemade whipped cream too! Oh it's so heavenly! For those of you who haven't made whipped cream before and think it's difficult...it's not!  Just whip a pint of heavy whipping cream until it starts to become thick. Then add a 1/2 cup sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract and whip some more until you start getting some peaks. It's oh so good and can be used on so many things like hot cocoa, fresh fruit....straight spoonfuls! ;)

Well, I'm off to pack away the Thanksgiving pilgrims and pumpkins and unpack the Christmas decorations. You can be sure I'll have some photos to share with you!  Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful and that your black Friday is fabulous whatever it is you do today! :) Kathy

Twas the Day Before Thanksgiving...

...and all through the house, I was running around like a little mouse.  Making my lists and checking them twice, baking enough pie so everyone will have a slice. :) Okay, so poetry is not my strong suit! ;)

Today I'm making final preparations for tomorrow's big feast. I'm so excited! Thought I'd pop in and show you the wine glass initial tags I made for the martini glasses. They match the place cards I made the other day that you can see here.

We're having pomegranate martinis, a recipe of Oprah Winfrey's from 2005. They are so good that we make them almost every holiday. Love the red color and bit of bubbly from the sparkling water!

I'd also like to show you my son's place mat turkey he made at school. I think it'll look perfect at the table!

I think it's so sweet when children write what they are thankful for! Melts my heart!

On Friday, after we've stuffed ourselves like a Thanksgiving bird, we'll put up the tree and holiday decorations. It usually takes the better part of the Thanksgiving weekend and a lot of cocoa to finish!

Last weekend while hunting for treasures at my favorite antique stores, I found some beautiful vintage mercury glass ornaments. They came from Revival, SuzAnne's Antiques and Two Old Birds. We have a small silver tinsel tree that I bet they'll look fabulous on!

Well, I better run and attend to setting the table and checking my lists....again! ;) I may pop in tomorrow with some pictures of the food if time permits. I always make the cranberries and deserts first so I may tease you with something sweet and naughty! ;) Wishing you all the best tomorrow! Enjoy! :) Kathy

Shabby 25th Christmas Card

It's the Monday of Thanksgiving week and I wonder how many of you are taking off today or tomorrow for Thanksgiving? Perhaps you left this weekend already? If you are staying at home, like I am, hosting Thanksgiving, maybe you will have some time in between preparations to blog hop and craft? Yesterday I had a little crafty time and created this Christmas card.

The doily is actually a vintage find from one of my favorite local Antique stores, SuzAnne's! The gorgeous glittered patterned paper is new from My Mind's Eye. It's part of their new Lost and Found line. Oh is it ever fabulous! So fabulous that I want to buy several more sheets!

The chipboard numbers are American Craft Tinsel Thickers. I altered them by adding some silver glitter from Martha Stewart...she makes the best glitter!

That adorable tag with the young couple is from K & Company, part of last year's Christmas collection. And the little sentiment tag is old, old Making Memories.

Well, I'm off to do some cleaning. Shoot, it can't all be fun and games, right? Before I go however, I'd like to give a big Happy Birthday wish to my best gal pal Audrey! She's turning the 45 today! She thinks that's old, but I keep telling her it's just a number, right?!?!

Here's Miss Pettit on one of our recent junk hunts. She's gorgeous, huh? I think 45 looks great on her! Anyway, some of you know Audrey....and if you would like to wish her a Happy Birthday, visit her blog here. :)

That's it for today. I think I'll have to come back before Thanksgiving to post something fallish! Have a great week everyone and if I don't chat with you before the big feast...ENJOY! :) Kathy

Thanksgiving Place Cards

Hi! Happy Friday! I didn't think I'd be back already with another post before Thanksgiving. But then yesterday I started making some place cards for our Thanksgiving table and thought maybe you might enjoy seeing them?

While I was perusing some of my favorite blogs I ran across a card that gave me the idea for this design. Darn it, I forgot which blog I was inspired by! I would have loved to give that person a shout out!

I broke out some of my beloved Papertrey stamps, the 'Friendship Jar Fall Fillers' for these adorable pumpkins. The blue patterned paper is old Pink Paislee from my stash bin and the orange leaf print is new fall Bella Blvd. Oh, the jute is also from Papertrey and I have to tell you, it's the best! It's not as stiff and thick as others I've used so it's perfect for paper crafting!

Are any of you traveling today or over the weekend to be with family or friends for the Thanksgiving? I wish all you travelers a safe and enjoyable trip. Those of us who are hosting, are excited that you are on your way and we'll have a wonderful meal waiting for you! :) Kathy

Pretty as a Picture

Hi! Can you believe it...next Thursday is Thanksgiving?!?! Are you traveling or hosting? I'm hosting Thanksgiving here at our home and looking forward to cooking all our traditional favorites like pumpkin pie! It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie! ;) And isn't it funny how the hours and hours of cooking and planning end in 15 minutes of eating! ;) That part always cracks me up...how little time it takes to eat in comparison to prepare!

Well, today I have a hybrid scrapbook page to share with you. The kit I used is called 'Snap Out of It' by Polka Dot Pixels and it's perfect for shutterbugs!

I hand stitched the title using an element from the kit as a pattern.

I love the film strip frame included in this kit that allows you to make your photo look like a large negative!

And check out these vintage Kodak accents! Very cool indeed! And look at the price...$5 to $35 for a camera! ;)

I hid my journaling on a tag. I wrote about taking lots of photos of our activities and everyday moments. This particular picture was taken at a real pumpkin patch last month where you can pick your own organic pumpkins. ;)

Well, tomorrow is Friday, the Friday before Thanksgiving week so I would image that blog readers and writers alike will be spending less time on the computer. I'll pop in if time permits and I have something worth sharing. In case I get busy with preparations and festivities, I would like to wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving! :) Kathy

A Yummy Post

Hi! I have a yummy share for you today!!! As many of you know, I've been on a quest to broaden our dinner menu horizons by making a new recipe once or twice a week. It's not easy pleasing everyone around the table and if you have a picky eater like my husband, it can be down right tricky! Well, maybe picky is a little harsh...maybe we should call him selective! There, that sounds better, doesn't it? ;)

So, I asked my 'selective' husband to get involved by picking out some recipes he's interested in trying. I was surprised to see he picked about a dozen with the first being Farfalle with Sausage, Tomatoes and Cream. Sound good? It was delicious and super easy so I thought it worthy of passing onto you!

This recipe comes from Epicurious a partner of bon appetit that was rated four our of four forks!

Here's the ingredients...not too many. My iPad is right in the middle because I wanted to mention a great app for cooks called Paprika. My husband discovered it...an awesome program designed to store all your recipes. You can rate your recipes, sort them and create your shopping list! I love it! And no need to print recipes anymore since you can have your iPad/recipe on the kitchen counter while you cook!

In about 20 minutes cooking time, this is the dish I served. The recipe calls for a 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes with puree so you could get away without making an additional vegetable, but I like to get the family to eat as many veggies as possible so I made some peas. I bet some broccoli tossed in just before you serve this dish would be delicious too!

So that's my share for today. I hope this pasta dish sounds delicious and that give it a try. If you do, let me know what you and the family thinks. Thanks for dropping by and have yourself a splendid day! :)

Vintage Christmas & Free Download

I had a great time blog hopping yesterday! I wish there were more hours in the day to see all the great blogs out there. I apologize if I missed yours. I saw so many lovely and festive Christmas projects and a lot were vintage style which inspired me to create this card.

I scanned an antique 1914 Christmas post card I bought over the summer while antiquing in Selma, N.C. for this card. I adore birds so this post card called out to me!

I used a liquid glue pen to go over the snowy branches and then sprinkled with glitter. If you can't see it very well, click on the picture to bring up a larger copy. All the papers and embellishments I used are from my stash...some oldies, but goodies!

I've included a copy of my antique post card for you to download and create a project with. If you have a chance to use it, I would LOVE to see what you make with it!

Now I'd like to share a picture with you. Although we have all started making our Christmas cards and projects, it's still fall and I came across this gorgeous tree while I was out and about last Saturday.

I was about to pull into the drive through at Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts for a shake, when this tree caught my eye! Wow! I stopped the car, rolled down the window and leaned across my friend in the passenger's seat to snap this photo! ;) Oh how I wish I could transplant this beauty in my own yard! Isn't it glorious? Bright yellow with orange/red edges! It's all about enjoying the little things, right? Hope you enjoy my photo and if you still have some turning trees in your area...be sure to enjoy them before the leaves fall.

Thanks for spending a bit of your day with me! I really love having you here! And I adore comments too! I'll be back tomorrow with something else to share with you! :) Kathy

State Fair

Hey, how was your weekend? If you stopped by on Saturday you might have noticed that I was planning a day of treasure hunting. It was a lot of fun! Found some new places, went to a couple thrift shops and scored some cool things in which I'll show you after my scrapbook page share.

These photos are from the N.C. State Fair that hubby and I went to last month. I used a new digital kit 'Be Happy'by Hazel Olive Designs. These vintage animal cards are perfect for my theme!

I just got this twine/jute from Papertrey Ink. It's fabulous! It's just the right thickness. I've had some in the past that's just to thick and hard to work with!

I added a few die cuts and stitching to the page. I like the country feel and the way it turned out. A pretty simple one that I enjoyed creating....just love paper crafts! :)

Okay, if you like thrift shopping and collecting vintage items and antiques, keep reading. If that's not your cup of tea, go ahead and continue on to the next blog. ;)

Have you been to your local thrift shop recently? It's amazing what you can find! These places are always hit or miss and worth some chuckles! Audrey and I had a great time visiting two Goodwill locations and scored some awesome things like this apple jar for $4.99. It looks rather tiny in this photo but it's actually about 7-8 inches tall. It's a great piece to display during autumn when apples are plentiful!

I found a set of these snowflake cookie/snack trays with cups. Each tray was $1.49 and each cup was .29! Pretty cool find! I will have to serve some tea and cookies with this set next month!

Now this was my best score! It's a Lenox salt and pepper set with leaf dish...so pretty and detailed. It's brand new, was in the box unopened with a Macy's bar code on the bottom. Just $2.99! Sweet! I adore the detail and happy glow on Santa's face!

Well, I found a few other goodies at the antique stores we visited, but I'll share those items another day so I don't keep you too long or bore you to tears with dozens of photos! ;) I'm so happy you dropped by! I hope you too had a great weekend. I'll try and do some blog hopping so I can see what all you have been up to and see if you have some crafty shares to inspire my crafting for today! Until tomorrow, have yourself a great Monday! :)

Snow Day and a Winner

Hi! No, today's not a snow day in North Carolina, but there will be one before too long. I do, however, have a Snow Day scrapbook page to share with you.

Here's my little guy last January enjoying a bit of newly fallen snow. Well, these photos were taken as soon he got outside and he hadn't warmed up to the cold yet! ;)

For this page, I used a brand new digital kit available exclusively at Two Peas in a Bucket called 'Frozen' by Polka Dot Pixels. Cool kit! Pun intended! :)

For the stitching, I used a couple elements from the kit for the large snowflake and page title.

In addition to the stitching, I added a couple crochet snowflakes, buttons and scalloped borders.

Love the look on Christopher's face in the top photo! Brr! :)

Now for the winner of yesterday's cards from my last SEI Lifestyle blog post. Strobels is the winner! Congratulations! Thank you for being a part of my special guest blogger week. I hope you enjoy the cards!

Before I run, I want to share one more thing...a very sweet card I received in the mail this week.

I adore this card! I received it from Lin of Sending Hugs. She recently won a giveaway I had for some vintage ladybug pins and sent this lovely card to thank me for them. Such a thoughtful gesture that made my day! Funny thing is, Lin just recently started coming to my blog and didn't know how much I love birds and the 'enjoy the little things' quote!

Here's Lin's card on my Thanksgiving table. I've mentioned on another blog post how I use cards that people give me and those that I make to decorate our home. I think Lin's card looks perfect on the table! If you see this post Lin....thank you! :)

Well, I'm off today on a big adventure, a treasure hunt for vintage goodies. My gal pal Audrey and I are going to hit the road in search of new antique/junk stores we haven't been to yet. I'll bring the camera and hopefully I'll have some fun stories and pictures to share with you!

Have a super day! Thanks for spending a little bit of it here on my blog!!!! I'll try to be back tomorrow for another page share. I have the page done, but I need to photograph it and.....hopefully my grand adventure Saturday doesn't spill into Sunday! ;) Kathy

Last Post for SEI & Giveaway

Happy Friday everyone! Woot woot! Don't you just love Fridays? The entire weekend is ahead of us full of possibility for all sorts of activities! I'm thinking of going on an antique hunt tomorrow? I don't have anything in particular I'd be looking for. Just looking is most of the fun! And then it's exciting to find a little treasure! What will you do over the weekend?

So, today's my last guest blogging post at SEI Lifestyle. What a cool week it's been sharing all the projects I created with the Moonrise collection! You know you really like a line when you've made as many pages, cards and tags as I have and you haven't gotten tired of it! Anyway, on my last day I have a couple cards posted at SEI and a giveaway for you!

Here's a sneaky peek of the cards. If you would like to win them, leave a comment on my blog anytime throughout today. Tomorrow I will draw a winner from the comments and announce the winner! Simple! Also, you want to go see the cards at SEI Lifestyle and check out their giveaway today! They didn't tell me what they are giving away, but if it's some of their Moonrise collection...woot woot! Great stuff!

Well, this concludes my week of guest blogging. I've really had a great time of it and thank all of you who have been visiting my blog and SEI Lifestyle to see the posts and leave comments. Without you, it wouldn't be any fun! My posts would just be floating out there in cyberspace somewhere! ;)

I have a crafty page share for you tomorrow so I hope you can join me . Until then, have yourself a fabulous Friday! :) Kathy

Crafting and Decorating

Hey! Glad you're here! I'm guest blogging this week over at SEI Lifestyle and today I have a crafty post for you with some ideas on how to use your projects as home decor! Here's a peek at the project I posted over at SEI.

Can you tell what it is? A card? A scrapbook page? Hmmmm.  Go take a look see! :)

I have a winner to announce from yesterday's post. I said that I would give away the two cards I created for that post to a person who left comments on both the SEI Lifestyle blog and my blog. A lot of people left comments on one or the other, but not both. That would have been me! Oops! Anyway, the person who read it right, Penny Pastor, from One of a Kind Albums, won the cards! Congratulations Penny! I'll let you in on a little secret...I plan to give away another prize on Friday's post so you all have another chance! Hope to see you then! Kathy :)

Another Day at SEI Lifestyle & Giveaway

I'm really enjoying guest blogging over at SEI Lifestyle this week! Thanks to all of who have been dropping by to say hello and to take a look at my projects and the new Moonrise line!

Some technical difficulties prevented my scheduled post from uploading onto the SEI Lifestyle blog yesterday, but all has been straightened out and we're back on track! :) I'd like to take a moment here to show you the page I created for that post. For further details about the page click here.

For today's SEI Lifestyle post, I created a couple of cards. Here are some peeks for you. I hope you have a few moments to go look at them.

SEI has made it so easy for me to create great projects! What a terrific line Moonrise is to work with!

Now for a giveaway! I thought it would be fun to give one of you these two cards! Just leave a comment today on this post and then go see the cards and comment at SEI Lifestyle. I will randomly select one of you to receive them! Winner will be announced on my blog tomorrow, Thursday, 11/11/2010. :) Kathy