Delicious or Disaster

What's the most elaborate, complicated meal you've ever cooked? Was it a triumph for the ages, or a colossal fiasco?

I'm not much of a cook and haven't often have a lot of people together family or otherwise to prepare a big meal, so I guess I'd have to say any of the Thanksgiving or Christmas meals that I've cooked. I'm a bit amazed by it, but I actually put out a pretty good spread when I do it. I really never had any instruction either. At some point it was something that needed to be done and I figured it out.
The only really fancy thing I cooked once was when I had a subscription to a little monthly Martha Stewart cooking magazine and I made Beef Burgunyione (I give up. I can't figure out how to spell this word). Really I did! And it turned out really good too! I also made a dish from one of those magazines that included chicken and artichoke hearts. Michael really liked it and I cooked it more than once. I liked it too, except for the artichoke hearts, so Michael had to eat all of those. He was not unhappy.

Christmas Countdown

Well folks, in only a few days the countdown to Christmas will begin. I made this tonight for Landon. He will paste a cotton ball on to each spot on Santa's beard and on Christmas day Santa's beard will be full and fluffy white. It turned out pretty cute, especially considering that I pulled it together really quickly. I think he'll have a good time with it?

Weekly Deals

It's Tuesday and I'm right on time this week to let you know the deals for the week. Yeah!

Alphabet Press Textured Impressions Embossing Folder Price: $7.95 $5.96 Argyle Textured Impressions Embossing Folder Price: $7.95 $5.96 Fancy Fan Textured Impressions Embossing Folder Price: $7.95 $5.96 Label Petite Curly Punch Price: $12.95 $9.71 Merry Monogram Stamp Brush Set - Digital Download Price: $9.95 $5.97 Rosette Designer Bigz Xl Die Price: $42.95 $32.21 Silver Sparkle Dazzling Details Price: $2.50 $1.88

If you see something you want to order---as usual you can give me a call or you can order yourself on line. Unless your order is $150 or more, please use the hostess code #AQS24YFT.

Advice Column

Today's challenge...............
Have you ever faced a difficult situation when you had to choose between sorting it out yourself, or asking someone else for an easy fix? What did you choose -- and would you make the same choice today?

I didn't have a situation where I got an easy fix (I think that's what I was hoping for), but I did have a situation where I sought advice.
I was having a problem with a gal from church and since I HATE confrontation of any kind, I was just kind of shutting down in her presence. It just felt like she was sucking the life right out of me and instead of dealing with the problem, I avoided it.
I sought advice from two different trusted people and instead of lifting the problem off my shoulders, they both said I needed to have a conversation with her and deal with it. UGH!! This was a conversation I did not want to have.

I must confess that I didn't  handle it immediately, but the next Sunday during a Bible study on prayer that we are having before church service, God stopped tapping me on the shoulder and instead chose to holler in my ear. The leader of the study talked on the fact that we are told in the Bible that if we come to the Lord with our offering with something between a brother, we should go and take care of the situation and then return with our offering to the Lord.
All right already!
I got up right in the middle of study and went immediately to go have a talk with her. It went so well! I had no idea what I was going to say, but the Lord stepped up for me (Big Surprise) and gave me the right words. The situation was completely and instantly solved. I'm so thankful , because I am around her quite a bit and having the bad feeling between us was SO uncomfortable.

So in answer to the question--I did try and get outside help, but they didn't let me get away with avoiding my problem, by basically saying "Put on your big girl pants and deal with it." In the past I literally would have just avoided the entire thing,and hurt her feelings by my attitude, acting in a less than Christian way. In the end, I'm so glad that I was forced into dealing with it. It gave me a boost to my confidence in what I am able to step up and do with the Lord's help and made my interactions with this person easy and comfortable.

December's On It's Way!!

December is nearly upon us so it's time to give you all the December class dates.

My Stampin' Up workshop is going to happen first this month since it is a Christmas stamp set. We will be working with Festival of Trees and the coordinating punch. They are bundle priced! I love these bundles which save us a bit of money.

The workshop will be at 6pm on Thursday December 4th. The fee is $10.

Then we'll skip a week and I will hold my monthly Card Class on ThursdayDecember 18th. The fee for this class is $20 and we make 7 or 8 things in class.

Finally comes Paper Pumpkin Club. This is the problem one. It would normally be on Thursday the 25th, but since that's Christmas. It obviously won't work. If I were to skip to the next week, it would fall on New Year's Eve, so I've planned our club meeting for Monday December 29th. I hope that works for you all. 

Then there is also my extra workshop using the Noel Paper Pumpkin kit. That workshop is planned for the afternoon of December 13th at noon. The price for that workshop is $15 which includes all supplies. Just bring your regular tools and your favorite adhesive and we are going to make a whole pazzle (Yes, I just said pazzle) of great Christmas projects.

That's it for December. Hope I will get to see some of you.

Just contact me if you are interested in signing up for any of this fun.

For the time being, I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiiveng in a few days. I hope you are surrounded by family and friends and that your tummys get full of yummy, yummy food.

Tonna

Best Day Ever

My job today is to tell you my idea of a perfect day. What would I be doing?

That changes at different times in my life, but right now it would be spending the day with Landon.
That little boy never ceases to make everything in the world seem wonderful.
Maybe we would go someplace with Mom and Dad and of course Levi.
The day we all took off and went to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm was a really great day.
A couple of weeks ago I was over at their house for some reason and I got to go watch him drive the toy truck that his Aunties got together to uy him for his birthday.

 Just yesterday I talked with him on the phone and that was great too.
I love just to hear him call me Grandma. It's just the way he says it.
I guess you're getting the idea that I absolutely adore him.

Yup---That's my idea of the best day. Anything with Landon.

Noel Paper Pumpkin Workshop

Hello Everyone!!

The November Paper Pumpkin kit from November last year was SO cute, but I got started one month too late to take advantage of it. Well....As a demonstrator I have been able to get my hands on a bunch of those kits. I just love it! Do you remember me showing you the adorable little stars all stitched together in a string?

This is a picture of how the cards were supposed to be made with the kit, but I have lots of ideas on how to make them even cuter!

The kits are on their way and I am going to hold an additional Paper Pumpkin Club meeting to play with them. You do not have to be a member of my club to come and there is no obligation to join Paper Pumpkin. The price for the workshop will be $15 and will include all supplies except the stamp set, the accompaniying ink pad, and your personal adhesive and basic supplies. You will make several other projects in addition to the card made as the kit suggests. At the end of class there will be a drawing for the stamp set that was included in the original kit.

The class will be held on Saturday afternoon December 13th at noon.

The place will be announced as soon as I know how many people will be coming.

.

There are a limited number of spots for the workshop so sign up ASAP to grab a spot.

Tonna

Late, Late, Late!

I am crazy late posting the Weekly Deal this week, so these prices are only good through Monday evening. I promise ZI'll try harder to get these posted on Tuesdays.
If you find you want to take advantage of one of these bargains, Just contact me with your order. You may also place the order online through the Stampin' Up website. If you do, please add me as your demonstrator and use this month's Hostess Code AQS24YFT.
Don't forget to check out the Clearance Section. You can find even better deals there!

Weekly Deals

1" Square Punch Price: $15.95 $11.96 1/4" Circle Handheld Punch Price: $8.95 $6.71 Autumn Spice Digital Kit - Digital Download Price: $9.95 $5.97 Clear Oval Accent Bigz Die Price: $21.95 $16.46 Deco Labels Framelits Die Price: $24.95 $18.71 Early Espresso Cut & Ready Card Bases Price: $4.95 $3.71 Silver Basic Metal Buttons Price: $7.95 $5.96 Smoky Slate Stampin' Emboss Powder Price: $4.95 $3.71

Sound Track of My Life

Oh dear. Oh dear.

Today I am asked:

If your life were a movie, what would its soundtrack be like? What songs, instrumental pieces, and other sound effects would be featured on the official soundtrack album?

My life has been a crazy ride with a lot of good, but also bad. It's been a crazy ride and I think that any sound track would be something so crazy that you would not enjoy listening to it.
It might sound nice for a while, then become less so, and finally go horribly off course and out of tune at times of horrible decisions. Then as a consequence of those decisions, it would be quite unpleasant. Sometimes for quite a while. Right now it might not be sounding too bad, so you might want to just skip to this part of the sound track.
I hope for both of our sakes that I cam keep it sounding good.

Bright Side

Well girls....no matter what else happens this month at least we're not turkeys.
Okay---I am a bit of a turkey.

Crazy Relatives

Today my challenge read:

We all have that one eccentric relative who always says and does the strangest things. In your family, who's that person, and what is it that earned him/her that reputation?

Okay, I have to be honest. It's probably me. If you were to ask my girls, they would say it's DEFINITELY me.It only gets worse as I get older. Megan and Mikey especially are always  getting a laugh out of something I've said or done. I will see them look at each other with that look and start cracking up. I usually have no idea what I have done or said, but I amuse them often. My memory (or lack of it) is also a cause for a laugh. Here's what I hear a lot---"Awkward!"

What can I say---Somebody needs to keep 'em laughin'.

The Good Ol' Days

Today I am asked...


Is there a period in your own personal life that you think of as the good old days? Tell us a story about those innocent and/or exciting times (or lack thereof).

I would have to choose my last year of high school. I was so done with school that I was a total goof off. I ditched school for the very first time and I ditched A LOT. (My mom is not here to see this confession thank goodness). I was usually accompanied by best friend Carol. She eventually got caught. I did not. What we did most often was head to the beach to work on our tan before summer. We had a lot of fun.

Yes---We looked just like this!

I only wish I had a bit more knowledge and self confidence as I left high school and headed into my twenties. I'm afraid my that was not a good time for me. I made an awful lot of bad decisions. I wish I would have stayed close to my faith and known that I was worthy of being treated with respect. Who knows what kind of relationship I would have ended up in and what kind of love I would have found. I can't feel too badly though. With a different direction, I wouldn't have the same family or my fantastic grand children.

I have to say---Now that I'm thinking more about it, and with Halloween just passing, I don't think Halloween will ever be as fun as it used to be when I was a kid. We didn't worry about being abducted or getting a razor blade in our candy, we just went for it. We'd take off with our friends and a pillow case and run all through the entire neighborhood. It was great.  

Everything about the way we played when we were kids was better I think. I grew up in Southern California, so bad weather was not a concern, and we were outdoors with our friends, not inside with a video game. We rode our bikes, played hide and seek, kick the can, and stayed outside until we were called in for dinner. I can even remember going outside and playing with my brothers in the rain. We got soaked to the skin and had a blast. I could go on and on. Our play as kids was totally different back in the day and I think the kids today are the poorer for it.

Sorry guys :(

Let Me Tell You A Thing Or Two

My challenge today reads...
Present-day you meets 10-years-ago you for coffee. Share with your younger self the most challenging thing, the most rewarding thing, and the most fun thing they have to look forward to.

First of all, I'd ask her what in the world she is doing drinking coffee! We both hate it!
"Waitress---Two iced teas please!"
Okay, now we can talk. The most challenging thing you will face is coming up in the next few years. You will be living all alone with only your future dog Peek-A-Boo for company and it will be tough on you. You will battle loneliness big time, but don't give up. You do get through it. Although you will not like it, after a while, it gets just a little bit easier. I can't tell you if it ends with a new fellow in your life, cause in my time zone, you are still alone. Never know what God's got around the next corner! Anyway--Hang in there, keep busy and don't rely on the TV too much for company. oooh--I forgot to mention that Megan will get married to Mikey (Of course) and they will have to move away to Las Vegas for a time. It nearly kills you, but learn adn grow from it. They'll be gone for two years, but they do come back. Whew!
The most rewarding thing you have to look forward to are the ways in which God will be using you. You will join a new church (Horrible story that turns out really good). You will find your place in that church and begin to serve. For instance--You will be on the worship team! Don't be frightened. Just get up there and worship the same way you do when your worshiping in your seat. All will be fine and you will come to love it. During the next several years you will also volunteer in a veteran's food bank, a crisis pregnancy center, and you will be in charge of a program at your church to feed lunch to low income children for the summer while they are out of school.
In addition to the challenges and rewards you will also add three grandchildren to your family. First Tracy will have a girl (I know, can you believe it!) named Matilda.Yes--you finally get to be a grandma. It's the best!  She is eight now. Unfortunately you don't see her too often. Then Megan will have a boy. You will wonder how in the world you will relate to a boy, but he will completely steal your heart. His name is Landon and he is now two years old. Then there is eight week old Levi---Another boy for Megan. You will just love watching her be a mom to those boys. She's very hard on herself (No surprise there), but she is a really good mom. You will be so proud! Anyway, at this point, I would have to say that you are going to have the most fun by being around Landon. He is a complete nut and will crack you up on a consistent basis. Just watching him play and run or listening to him chatter will bring you an enormous amount of joy. Any time spent with him turns out to be fun time.

Of everything you have coming your way, being a grandma is going to be something you just love, but the best of everything is your deepening relationship with the Lord. How I wish you and I could go back and have a long chat with nineteen year old us to let her know what's really important so that she could be wiser about some of the foolish and disastrous decisions she will be making. We can't do that though, so we both just have to hold on to what's the best and most important in our lives and plow through the rest. Lean on the Lord. He's FAR more capable of handing your "Stuff" and He wants to carry those burdens.

Hang in there Sweetie! We DO make it through to a better place!

By Hand

Today my challenge is to write about the best gift I have ever received that was not store bought, but handmade by the giver.

For the answer to this one I am going to go back all the way to the time I was pregnant with Tracy. I was sick all of the time during that pregnancy  and my mom did absolutely everything in her power to brighten my days. Although she did not sew before or after, she made maternity clothes for me. It was the sweetest thing. She even made me a dress that was a bit of a challenge. It had little covered buttons and everything. It was such a selfless thing for her to do. She did not enjoy sewing at all. Then once Tracy was born, she went on to be the world's best grandma. Unfortunately cancer took her from us shortly after Megan was born so she was cheated out if having a Grandma Betty. It has been nearly 30 years since we lost her, but there is still an empty hole in the part of my heart she occupied. She was only 56 years old. I miss her so much and I miss all the wonderful things we didn't get to share. Scrapbooking and card making for instance. She would have loved it and Boy, we would have had a blast doing it together. I opened my own retail store a few years after her death, so she missed that as well.

She would have been so proud of me. I miss you Mom, and  love you so much. I hope you're saving the a
 heavenly mansion up there that's right next door to yours 

Card Class

Look at what we made in card class tonight.

I love papercrafting!!

Random Thoughts

The challenge for today told me to write on anything for ten minutes.

Lucky you!
I'm going to write about some random thoughts that went through my crazy head.
Just today as I was driving to the church for worship team practice I was thinking about the fact that we got a bit of rain. From there my thoughts went to Noah's ark and from there I started thinking about when the rain receded leaving some as oceans, rivers, lakes and such. Then I thought---I wonder how come some parts became fresh water and some salt water.
Hmmm....

There you have it. Random thoughts.

Frosty

Some if you made these with me in class last year.I had some for sale in my booths ($4.50) during the shows I did. I ran out and had to take orders. I  just finished a few for a customer and thought I'd post a picture here for those who didn't see them last year. I think they're so cute!
I make an ornament for all the kids every year and this is what I gave them last year. I have ideas for a few more super cute things I'm going to make with the votive candles----Just haven't gotten there yet.
I'll post pictures when they are done.

Weekly Deals

   

1/2" Circle Punch Price: $5.95 $4.46	7/8" Circle Scallop Punch Price: $12.95 $9.71	Blushing Bride 3/4" Chevron Ribbon Price: $8.95 $6.71	Brights Designer Buttons Price: $7.95 $5.96
Daffodil Delight 1/2" Ribbon Seam Binding Price: $6.95 $5.21	Window Frames Collection Framelits Die Price: $26.95 $20.21	Wonderfall Kit - Digital Download Price: $7.95 $4.77       There you have it. Your deals for this week. If you would like to place an order, you can contact me or place your order on line on the website. Please include me as your demonstrator and use the  hostess code #AQS24YFT

Oil and Water

This was my challenge today...

"Of the people who are close to you, who is the person most unlike you? What makes it possible for you to get along?"

How rude to post things you don't like about someone! Besides, I try to see the good in all and try to get along with  everyone. I mean after all--I certainly have enough faults of my own that others have to deal with. There's also the fact that some people say that what you really dislike about someone else is probably something in yourself that you don't see. Just in case that's true, I certainly don't want to be outed on my very own blog.

So, bottom line---I'm totally passing on this one.