Create With M.E.

A little bragging~From this proud mama

A little bragging to be done. I have had a couple of busy weeks here at home.  My youngest son had his first Military ball last week.  Here is a picture of us together.

This is the first time I think he almost looks like my son and not so much like his daddy's twin!  Although it's difficult to think of what he might have head of him, I am proud of him.

This weekend my oldest daughter graduated from the University of Illinois.  She starts a new job today before hopefully going to grad school soon.  Very proud of her too.

She has always, since she was a little girl, been a huge Illini fan so I am happy that it worked out in her life for her to go to the University.  Too brag a little she graduated with a 3.6 GPA!

Good Luck to both of you in your future endeavors.  Love, MOM  <3

A Half Century of Progress~The Birthday Queen

Today I turned 50 Years old.  Last week I had so much fun celebrating with my Stampin' Up! friends.  I wanted to share a few pictures today.

I got to wear the Birthday Queen Crown!

Can you tell we had fun?  I made each of the girls a coaster with our Summer Smooches Designer Series paper to take home with them as a party favor along with a purse from the new petite purse die available until the end of the month and also a punched flower.  Rita was picking her purse trying to decide which one she wanted because they were so CUTE!

Here is the purse stand so many cute ideas.

We had a candy "bar".  YUMMY! Just decorate your canning jars with a cute punched flower fill it with delicious candies and Yummy!

Here is a close up of the cute mixed bunch punched flowers in a little flower pot. A delicious peanut butter candy in the center!  So Cute!

Here's Nancy showing all her goodies off.  She picked matching gifts! 

What a great way to celebrate my birthday!  Thank you ladies for making it so special.

 

Enjoy!

M.E.

Tweeting~Makes M.E. a winner!

I teased a little last week about all my favorite things but did not reveal what really made this Leadership event my absolute favorite event EVER! 

When we got in our first general session in San Antonio one of the Corporate team announced that 2 people who tweeted and used the hashtag #myleadership would be picked to go backstage during the closing session on Friday.  I whip my phone out and start tweeting.  Yes this almost 50 year old has a twitter acct and knows how to use it!  Okay so I really don't use it much but for a chance to go backstage and see everything I am all over that.  The young (30 somethings) around me were like "M.E. you have a twitter acct?"  Yes, if I can do it you can too.  Several of them signed up on their phones or back in their rooms and are now tweeting.  I thought it was so funny!  Well, anyway Friday during one of my sessions I got a direct message from Stampin' Up! that said I won!  I was going backstage!!

I jumped up right in the class and high fived everyone at my table!  The other hundreds in the class probably thought I was nuts but I didn't care at that moment.  I think I care a little now...nope not really it was FUN!

Although I have met Shelli several times over the years I got to meet her again and visit with her.  Talk to Rich and Chad Roberts and get the grand tour from Chad Williams.  Here are a few pictures from behind the scenes.

Here is what I first saw when I went backstage.  All of my friends out front!

Shelli and I

 

The corporate team and M.E. and the other Winner Rose-Ellen (yep Mary Ellen and Rose Ellen were the winners that day!)

This is Mike, he heads up the prompters and cameras from backstage.  Why did I want my picture taken with him?  He made all 1350 of us Chocolates!  Not just a little chocolate.  3 big bars of different kinds of chocolates.  Delicious!  Mike was the "man"!

Here we are at the Green Room and inside Chad showed us how the cameras work.

Lastly here I am backstage tweeting! Chad Williams said when we asked can we take pictures and tweet or post to Facebook..."Duh, that is why you were our winners!" Okay he might not exactly said that but he did want us to tweet about our experiences which I was happy to oblige.

 

Lucky M.E.~Talent abounds!

I can feel it...here is comes....I feel some rambling comin' on.  I can remember way back about 7 years ago (insert wavy foggy flashback image) when I signed up to become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.  Oh wasn't that a HUGE decision for me.  I had never done any direct sales, didn't really ever WANT to do direct sales.  But this was different, this thing called Stampin' Up! it was creative, it allowed me to use my teaching background to teach women (mostly) the fine ART of rubber stamping.  Yes, I could use my love of all things creative and my gift of teaching and put them together to share my love of rubber stamping with others.  I'll do it! 

I can remember when my big brown box arrived on my doorstep.  It was like Christmas looking at everything in that box.  I remember inside was a magazine which featured some of the demonstrators in the company and as I paged through that magazine full of wonderful ideas and inspirational demonstrators I stopped on a page of a family from Mahomet.  Hey that's right by me!  The featured demonstrator was Kim Peck, hey I knew that name.  Why did I know that name? My new upline told me that her upline (all new terminology to me at the time) was a lady named Kim Peck from Mahomet.  AH yes, that's right.  As I read her story I was inspired and then realized I think, shearly by luck, I was born into a great group.  Kim was a top demonstrator in the company 7 years ago and still is and I was going to learn from her. 

Well, my upline Meg Loven, who really at the time was a new acquaintance of mine, also has been inspired by Kim and she also is one of the top demonstrators in the company and although we live in a rural area of central Illinois and our group is quite large I still run into many, many women who have never heard of Stampin' Up! <gasp>  So why are you rambling about this M.E.?  Because today I am sharing a card that I am doing in my Forget Me Not card keeper class this week and it comes from one of the many talented women that we have in our group.  Everytime a mini catalog comes out our group of demonstrators (now from all over the country) does a swap.  We each pick a stamp set and create a card and share them with other demonstrators. 

Todays card is a modification of this card by Tracy McCrae a talented demonstrator in our group.

Here is my version.  My modifications are few.  This card featured the Stamp Set Elements of Style from the Summer Mini Catalog. I changed one of the colors from Close to Cocoa to Bravo Burgundy.  (sometimes you have to use what you got ;-) I have the beautiful new smooch spray but not enough for this size class.  I can sometimes have upwards of 25 women come of the course of 2 days and I would have run out of spray fast when they are each making 2 of each card.  But I do love that spray!! 

I also eliminated the ribbon although I really loved the ribbon in Tracy's original design.  Just coming back after surgery I was going for simple but elegant designs when I put this card together a few days ago.  Now that I am feeling better every day I might add that ribbon back in before tonights class if I am feeling especially peppy! (you'll just have to wait and see girls) 

The Quest for the Perfect Oatmeal Raisin Cookie~Reviews varied

Since I posted about the Perfect Chocolate Chip cookie a few days ago here I have had requests to find the perfect Oatmeal cookie.  I have up to this point been very happy with the recipe on the top of the Quaker Oats container for "Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies".  I usually changed the raisins to Craisins because that is what my husband likes but my biggest complaint is they are kinda thin and often break even though they are very delicious. 

So while searching online I found a blog called the smittenkitchen and thick, chewy oatmeal raisin cookies.  While these cookies were good the reviews in my home were varied.  Don't get me wrong no one in the family took a bite and spit it out or put the cookie down and most ate more than one. LOL  My husband gave them a thumbs up which meant the most to me because this is his favorite cookie hands down. My concern was although it was good and thick and chewy it didn't have that melt in your mouth taste that the vanishing cookies have.  So my plan is to combine the best of both and see What I can come up with next week during another spare minute.  The trick I learned with these cookies is that you need to chill the dough before baking.  That helps the cookie hold it's form.  So I am going to keep with my craisins and try chilling the dough and see what happens.

But in the mean time here's what they look like they do look yummy don't they?  Come on over...I'll save you one!

Girl Scouts~They LOVE Papercrafts!

I told you I had plans to visit the local Girl Scout troup Friday.  Well, we had a lot of fun making some great projects!  I wanted to share some pictures today of the girls working dilligently on their crafts.  I think I even saw a few tongues sticking out as they worked so hard to make their projects just the way they wanted them to be. 

Here is a little of what they were working on Click on the photo below to take you to last weeks post for more on these projects.

You will notice the moms jumped right in also and had just as much fun making projects and taking them home!

Aren't they just the cutest?! Working so hard it was so sweet to hear them say who they were giving what to.  I really enjoyed being with them and I even got some HUGS when it was done.  I mean really what more can a person NEED?!  

Crimped Flower~How To...

I just got back from a long weekend away and am back blogging.  My weekend away was not stamping related. <GASP>  I spent the weekend with 50 of the greatest folks (other than stamping folks that is!) in a house 2 hours north of here at an instructors bootcamp or IBC as we call it.  I am a member of the RWVA and an Instructor in training for the appleseed project. ( www.appleseedinfo.org or www.rwva.org ) I went with my husband who is an instructor and 2 of our 4 kids who are also instructors in training.  We all wanted to go but this weekend was the last deer hunting weekend in Illinois and if you don't know it we own a Deer Processing facility so 2 of the kids, who drew the short straw, stayed home to check in deer and yes the cooler is FULL! 

I just have to say as much as I LOVE those folks, and I do, the sleeping was a little less than enjoyable.  Imagine 35 of us in a cold basement on cots.  2 of us, in the basement, were women (me and my daughter) 32 were men...snoring men.  Enough said I was happy to sleep in my own bed last night with only 1 snoring man. ;-) 

Well, lets get on to the stamping project which I am just about positive why you are here....RIGHT?

This is a card we did at this months Forget-Me-Not card keeper class.  I just love the colors on this card.  Not something I would have usually gone for but I followed the colors in the sweet pea paper pack which is where the flower came from.  The colors in case you can't tell are Taken with Teal, Barely Banana, Rose Red and Old Olive.  Take some time this week to put them together and see if you don't like them too. 

You want to know how the flower is made?  Take a 1" x 12" piece of Designer Series Paper.  Punch it with your border of choice.  This flower is made using the eyelet border punch.  Then run it through your crimper 3 or 4 times to really soften it up.  It will look like this.  This is the back of my patterned piece which is easier to see the crimping on. 

 
Next I punched out a 1 3/4" circle with my circle punch from coordinating cardstock.   Then I took that circle and drew on the back of the 12 x 12 sheet of sticky sheet paper.  I trace it and cut it out with my paper snips because the sticky sheet paper has a thick plastic covering that can not be punched with a regular hand punch but it can be cut with the big shot.  So if you have the circle bigshot die and need to cut multiples you can cut it from that.  ( *side note: Dont' have the sticky sheets? cover your circle with sticky strip, same results just a few seconds more work) 

Attach the sticky sheet paper to the cardstock circle.  Peel off the red liner paper and starting from the outside of the circle starting in about 1/4" gently gathering periodically spiral to the center.  I told my stamping gals that depending on how tight you spiral your paper, if you have a center open with sticky paper exposed you just press on your button.  If you spiraled your paper all the way to the center use a mini glue dot to attach your button.  Both look great and both are right, remember there are no mistakes in stamping! 

Finish it off by punching a 5 petal flower from any coordinating green cardstock or Designer Series Paper as in this example.  Cut off 2 of the petals together and adhere them where you started your flower so you can not see the cut end.  Voila' you are done!  Attach the flower to your project with either glue dots or SNAIL adhesive both work great.  Try it and then let me know how much you LOVE it too!
  

My BFF~How lucky I am!

I told you yesterday that when I went to AZ there was one friend I hadn't seen in 3 or 4 years and it was my BFF, at least that is what you would have called us when we met 35 years ago if that had been a term way back then!  Now I am dating myself but we were 12 when we met just starting 7th grade and we were inseperable.  We went through Jr. High and HIgh School, doing everything together.  Were in each others weddings, then we grew up and Lynn moved to Arizona and we lost touch. <GASP>  I had fun reminding her and laughing about how I always had lived vicariously through her activities. If Lynn went out for Volleyball so did I but she always made the team (she's 5ft 10 or something like that)I NEVER did.  If Lynn went out for Pom Pons so did I but she made the squad, I didn't.  When Lynn wanted to play summer softball I did too but was always in right field praying the ball didn't come my way.  But then I remembered I was very active in Drum Corps from age 12 till 20 and she wasn't so it's not quite and sad as I make it sound, I did have a life!  LOL

I can remember when we first got a computer and had internet (how long ago was that?!) I tried to look her up but didn't have luck.  She finally found ME and called me right after she had her daughter who is almost 9 now.  We've been in touch ever since and last time she came back to Illinois she came for a visit.  It was only for a day and I was so SAD when that day ended.  It's funny how you can reconnect with someone after years and years of being apart and it's like the days melt into no time at all.  I am sad right now just thinking about it.  It brings tears to my eyes.  I wish she lived closer or we could see each other more often.  I guess I will have to plan another trip out to see her.  My real hope is that next years leadership conference is in Vegas (I have faith it will be, yet at this point it hasn't been announced) because she said she would come over and meet me! 

As soon as they announced last year that we were going to Phoenix I was texting her setting up a visit, we have both been so excited waiting for this trip to happen.  I went out a few days early and spent 2 days with her and her wonderful family.  Here are a few pictures from our short visit.   The first one is of Lynn's hubby Keith.  She is so blessed, from what I saw Keith is a keeper!  He had to show me on the first night how to fly an airplane on Wii Sports Resort.  It's a game my kids have been wanting (they have the motion controlers but no game to play it with) so I think I am going to buy it today because it was fun!  See I am such a sucker, teach me how to play and I will get you anything you want!  Ha Ha.  I think my hubby would even enjoy this game if you could ever get him to stop working that is.

I think that is the only picture we got that wasn't a posed picture!  Yikes!  Here is me and my BFF Lynn out in front of her house.  She has this huge cactus in front, we don't have cactus in Illinois so she was telling me about how they had to have a permit to move it to prove that they hadn't gone into the dessert and dug it up....I mean seriously?!  I guess we have trees aplenty in Illinois you don't think about that stuff.  It's huge look at some of these pics.

 

Then of course we had to pretend we were touching it.  I mean really can you get near a cactus without just wondering if you could touch it?!  I can't!  Well, I didn't either.  Lynn said it will hurt ya.  I saw scratches on Keith from hanging Christmas lights on them.  Yep they decorate them just like we do Christmas trees.  Ok all of you from dessert areas reading this probably think I am wacko but here in the midwest we don't get to experience that.  I did kinda miss the grass though while I was gone although when I got home it was under a deep blanket of snow and still is! Ya all don't have GRASS!  No running outside barefoot in the....rock! Ha Ha

This next picture is for my daughter Hannah.  She is 19 and she can not take a picture without making this pose somewhere in the bunch.  I bet I have 100 pictures of her doing this(now known as her trademark pose)....so here's to you Hannah!  I am not going to post them but I took pictures of Lynn's whole family doing the pose and sent it to her on  my phone while I was gone.  She responded back "Hey you aren't in the picture but GREAT POSE!"  That's my daughter.

Oh did I mention the mouth must be gapping open too!  Ha Ha  What a POSE!

Lastly I can't post without a shout out to my favorite gal Megan or as she is known in the volleyball world Mag-Neat-o!   She is almost 9 and almost 5ft tall (you can see Lynn is tall) and really a little adult.  I just fell more in love with her while I was there it was so hard to say goodbye as we dropped her off at school.  I hope I get to see her again before she's all grown up!  sigh

Dont' you think she looks like Dakota Fanning did a few years ago?!  Lynn said one of the many times they went to Disney the Disney photographers thought she was!  Being an only child she is so mature.  We read Junie B Jones together every night before she went to sleep.  She came in and woke me up every morning. It was so great!  She made my time with her family so special.  I miss you Megan!

Ok gotta go wipe my tears.  Until next time..... 

Happy Birthday to my Baby~and Honoring Veterans today!

Today is my youngest daughters birthday.  She is 11 today and so grown up already.  When did that happen?  Sigh kids just grow up before our eyes and if we aren't careful we will look back and miss it!  So take some time today to just look at your kids and spend time with them! 

11 years ago we picked Veterans day to have Abby induced.  One reason was because there was no school that day which would give us the WHOLE day to devote to her.  The other reason is she was due during first shotgun season but that's a story for another day. Well, those times of no school have already gone by the wayside as in our school district we have school now on this special day. I'm not saying it's bad because I understand why they did it.  This way the kids are learning and honoring the vets instead of home playing video games not really "getting it".  

I am on my way to the school now to honor some local Veterans with the annual school program.  I am looking forward to it and need to be running out the door now so I will finish this post up when I get home.

The program was wonderful as usual but I was disappointed to find out the schools had 2 programs today!  The grade school actually had one this morning and then the High Schools was this afternoon.  The one I would have enjoyed more was this morning and I had no clue.  Oh well I will know next time to try to be more informed.

When I got home from the program I finished frosting Abby's birthday cake.  I think it turned out beautifully.  I  used my sister Sharon's basic Chocolate Cake recipe.  It's a total winner and so delicious.  I frosted it with chocolate buttercream frosting made from scratch of course.  What do you think? Doesn't it look scrumptious?!

I also wanted to make the Crispix mix I talked about the other day because I had a few people ask me for the recipe and I wanted to show you how yummy it looks right out of the oven.  Here it is and the recipe I promised you, give it a try and let me know what you think. 

I had a couple of friends stop by the other day on their way home from Harry & David.  They had just been shopping for snack mixes by some odd coincedence and I had this sitting out on the counter and they said it beat anything they had tried and purchased and couldn't wait to get the recipe and make some.  My husband even scooped up a big bowl and sent it home for the 30 minute car ride they had.  My friend Sherry called me on the way home to say Thank you again but said the only problem was my husband Chuck didn't give them enough for the 3 of them to make it all the way home! LOL

 

Crispix Mix from the kitchen of Sharon Letzter (my sis)

3/4 Cup of Butter

3/4 Cup of Brown Sugar

6 Cups of Crispix

1 Cup of Pretzels

1Cup of Pecans

Cook Butter and Brown sugar in a sauce pan on the stove bring it to a boil and boil for 1 minute.  Pour over the Cereal, Pretzel, Pecan mix and toss.  Put in a 13 x 9 pan and Bake in a 350 degree oven for 6 minutes.  Stir and bake for 6 more minutes.  Cool and Enjoy!

I really promise to be back with some creative projects soon.  Until then enjoy these recipes and leave a comment below and let me know if you made them and liked them.
  

Stampin' Up!~I love the friends I have made!!

We had SO much fun at last weeks Events!  First I held my first of two Christmas Stamp-A-Stacks and then I had my monthly Forget-Me-Not card keeper class.  We had a full house at both!  We are lucky enough to meet at the local Pizza joint so we get yummy pizza during the evening and since they do not serve dessert I was able to bring in my own Pumpkin Roll which was well received!  Last Friday was my second Christmas Card class and it was a much smaller group so I even had time to "play" a little.  FUN! FUN!

Here are a few pictures from this week...Here's Elaine, Brenda, Dianne and Michelle stamping away!

Here's Sherry doesn't she look Stampin' Happy?!!  She's taking time to put just the right sentiment inside her Christmas Cards.  She even brought a friend with her from California.  It was so nice to meet her and she is very talented and is lucky enough to have a great demonstrator in the LA area.

Here's Deana and Angie.  Deana shared a little story about why she feels compelled to stick her tongue out during pics sometimes....Deana I felt compelled to show it! ;-) They were having fun with the Big Shot!

Here's Michelle and Becky putting the final touches on their Christmas Cards.

Here's most of the group stamping, I couldn't fit them all in the picture

Then Monday I hosted my last Forget me Not keeper Class for the year.  We had a huge crowd and had a lot of fun.  Here are a couple of pictures of the group.

I just look at these pictures and think friends!  I love meeting and making friends and I know that if it weren't for Stampin' Up! I might not have any of these friends!  Sigh that makes me sad. 

Well, nothing "creative" to share today but I wanted to show you my friends!  My life would be much less fulfilled without my friends! 

Thank you for this opportunity Stampin' Up! Thank you!