An Umbrella for my Muse

Thienly's Adventure Umbrella SVG

The elements were against us, the school work piled up, the laundry didn't get done and the viruses were doing their best to destroy my opportunity in meeting one of my Muse's. The one, the only Thienly! Yes that over achiever at Mod Paperie was coming to Cali and she agreed to meet me. 

It was pouring all night, it poured as we got into the car... I held my breath as we made our way down to California Adventure to meet her and her family, knowing how we Californian's don't deal well with WET surfaces. My hubby and I told each other that it was alright, that if we didn't get along well we could find a reason to leave. You know- have an escape route...COME ON, You know you've been there! I KNOW she felt the same way.

I know I looked terrible but we had just went on that ridiculous ferris wheel from Hell...plus I just look terrible.

However, I am so very happy to report that I saw her happy smiling face and all apprehension fizzled to the wet concrete below our feet.  She's as adorable and kind as she seems to be. In Fact- HER WHOLE FAMILY is amazing! We all instantly felt at ease, I loved them immediately,  I never knew that was possible. That "escape route" was unnecessary, in fact we didn't part til my little family REALLY HAD to go. My children are still crying about leaving their new friends, and everyday since, they've talked about their new friends in Canada as they shine their nails and puff up. 

We all know how talented Thienly is, but did you know her Mamasita is a cracklackin' seamstress too?! And guess what? She made me a purse....(shining fingernails....), yes I have a Chi purse! It is the coolest bag on the block! I'm waiting for her to sign the adoption papers...I asked her to adopt me, is that wrong?

Here's a picture of me and my special bag...It's ALL MINE.MINE I say....sorry erase erase.

Have you ever thought of someone you met and after a while you realize your lips hurts because you've been smiling since you began thinking of them? Let me tell you my cheeks haven't stopped hurting, I've been thinking alot :o)

So, in honor of our rainy adventure I lifted an idea from "Much ado about nothing", Of COURSE her umbrella's are WAY cuter, but I had to try. Check out her blog to see how adorable they really are, I did mine at 11:00 pm and was wobbly from all the smiling I've been doing.

->Thienly's Umbrella SVG <-

Baby Love

I love babies....I really do. It is that lovely time of life when they only need you for you, they don't yell, they smell so wonderful, and did I mention they don't yell yet?

I made this little card for my hairdresser extraordinaire and his wife. They've since had the little angel, and through the miracle of facebook I've gotten to see her little face, and what a face it is! It just makes you want to buy little pink and purple frilly babygirl things.

I used the 

STICKLES because I can

Cloud 9 collection

Cutie Patootie collection(banner)

Sweet Birthday 

SVG cards & envelopes B

 from Lettering Delights

Catch their link on the sidebar 

And check them out on facebook, freebies!

Red Velvet Monsters EVERYWHERE!

Red Velvet monster cupcakes for my little monsters(yes it's pink buttercream but Southerners please don't worry-I figured it out.

Go to Lettering Delights and look for Monster Love

I did it again, I volunteered before REALLY knowing the full extent of trying to make cupcakes from scratch, and to attempt red velvet cupcakes, really shows my lack of brain cells. You see, you people who aren't from the South cannot possibly understand the opinions and emotion, behind those two words RED VELVET. You see a West Coastie such as myself, would think that buttercream goes wonderfully with these luscious little crumbly pieces of heaven, and a West Coastie would try it, and then watch her 8 year old girl blanche by the sweetness, and quickly decide "YES perhaps those Southern folk may be right!" I know I know I can hear the people in the Souther states cursing at me but please stop! I acquiesce to your superiority on the know of what goes on this cake...I had to stop at the nuts, we just wouldn't want little Johnny swelling up like a tick on a labrador,  now do we? But I'm happy to report that I used CREAM CHEESE FROSTING, and apple cider vinegar, vegetable oil and REAL vanilla extract in the cake. I followed Paula Deans recipe mostly fyi, but used apple cider vinegar and lots of red food coloring.

For those of you who think it's chocolate cake- aaaaaaaaaaaa wrong! It's just hard to explain.

I used the graphics from "Lettering Delights Monster Love", my little helper aka the talking girl sat there and cut these out, without complaining and then glued them to the toothpicks, she makes me so verklempt! The boy child did for a few minutes, then promptly decided to chase the dog around the house because apparently that trumps actually doing anything that would help Mom. Fyi peeps Lettering Delights is having a ridiculously MONSTROUS sale right now, including some freebies int the Monster Love Bundle. Don't worry you can use it all year long, it's just adorable! Click on the link at the right of my page, then search out Monster Love...you won't be disappointed. 

Here is the recipe for Red Velvet Cake that I used

2 1/2 Cups Cake Flour (we can't get WhiteLily here in SO CAL)

1 1/2 Cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

1 1/2 Cups vegetable oil (I'd cut this down if your not going to eat them right away, because they are moist,if not OILY)

1 Cup Buttermilk (room temperature)

2 large eggs (room temperature)

2 Tablespoons of red food coloring

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix your dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. In a large bowl mix your liquids, and mix with a hand mixer. (My kitchenaid didn't work right for either the cake nor the frosting The hand mixer is the best, so don't fight it).  Slowly add your dry ingredients to your liquid mixture until smooth and RED! I filled about 18 fullsize cupcake tins 2/3 to 7/8 full,(I really can't tell you how many of the minis but more than 3 dozen) I like them to come over the top. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes (about 15 minutes for the mini cupcakes) or until your toothpick comes out clean...COOOOOOL thoroughly

Cream Cheese frosting - USE your hand mixer, why fight it.

1 pound of cream cheese

2 stick of butter (I used salted- this is major sweet, it can handle it)

4 Cups of sifted confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

pecans(didn't use but will next time for family), fresh strawberries sliced to half moon.

Beat your cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth, then begin adding your confectioners sugar on low speed, if you use a high speed it'll look like a box of powdered sugar vomited all over you and your kitchen-don't ask me how I know this, you'll make me cry. After is is combined turn up that mixer on high and mix til light an fluffy- this does take some time, so make a margarita to make the time pass happily.

I really don't have to tell you how to frost them, but remember that if kids enter the picture, you will have a 1/3 of what you started out with and the dog will have lost all of his hair because he's been chased and made to wear underwear....don't ask me about that either.

Here endeth the lesson...

A ribbon, a ribbon, my kingdom for a ribbon

Have you noticed I don't use alot of ribbon on my projects? There is a perfectly good reason for it...I haven't a clue as to what ribbon I have, where it is, or any other detail I might need to know.

 I'm not a big New Years resolution person, because basically I disappoint myself on a daily basis, so why make a big announcement and show all how really lame I am? Wasn't it Mark Twain who said "Better for people to think you're an idiot than to speak and remove all doubt."? I've tried to remind myself of this before I speak, at times it works. Other times, I hear it after my lips start moving, as my brain screams "Shut up! Shut up! Doh! Now you've done it." However, this year, I decided I would make ONE resolution and I would make it work.  I said to myself, "Myself- what do you really enjoy?" Myself thought for a few seconds "Chocolate!", I said to Myself  "NO, you idiot, not food. Doing...what do you enjoy doing?" Myself then replied "Eating Chocolate!" So I smacked Myself upside the head, I said calmly, "What do you like to do...NOT eating, not watching yourself eat chocolate, and doing nothing doesn't count." I watched Myself think, and I stopped Myself from saying "sleeping" then I observed a lightbulb flicker in MY head. Crafting, cutting things with my Cricut, making Svg's (well I kind of like that when it's not annoying), "Crafting!" I heard myself say. 


The question is what was missing from my crafting, other than talent...? Ribbon! Yes maybe if I had ribbon on a project, I might actually look like I had a talent. IF I could find it...so that is why I posted this blog, I copied the ideas of many other great minds on so many things why not this? As you can see, it worked!

My "Scrubby" put the shelves on the wall, and I had asked him to help me with the dowels, but a  look of such intense pain crossed his face, I just gave up. Apparently missing the play-off football games is physically painful to some.( I just like watching them huddle and run, because they look so cute, but apparently he really enjoys the whole game thing.) I dragged out my saw and little dremel tool, got to sanding the guides on the dowels edge. And Voila! Now I can see it all! I'm hoping the talent thing will come along soon. But I will settle for chocolate.

Here is the link to the original post SVG link below

Here is a link to a -> Valentine gift card envelope  <-with Ribbon, I previously posted it but it is worth it considering that most men won't shop until tomorrow! Now what you can do is cut it out decorate and give it to your hubby as you hand him the keys and a map to your nearest craft store, I plan to do this tomorrow morning.

Operation Write Home - Bee's for our Heroes

A crafter, Jan, used my vintage bees in cards she made for OWH or Operation Write Home. 

The fact that someone downloaded and USED in a craft project alone, is exciting but then you add the fact that she used them to send to My nations Heroes....I am on cloud NINE.

Thank you Jan, God Bless.

Here are her cards....

Link Original Blog post with Vintage Bee Svg  link

Aren't you impressed?! I am! 

Bees and Birthdays

This is my take on the "Sweet Birthday" SVG set from Lettering Delights. 

I used bright boyish colors instead of the pastels, and I used "MS Word" to Print and color  the title and various Fours

Do you think the word Four and Fore kind of mean the same thing? What I mean is do you think that they have the same ALARM factor, like you better look out here IT comes!?

I used the svg's from lettering delights, I can't seem to figure out how to put their link IN my blog but click on the button on the bottom of the blog if your curious about their products, they have some lovely SVG's and graphics that you can use your regular printer with and the end product is fantastic. I used the Sweet Birthday Svg set, I used more" boy like" colors, and alot of them, he's FOUR, in case you didn't catch that in the card. My little ones loved the cards just as much as the presents, so I used BIG color, my cuttlebug and, of course, my STICKLES!

VintageBee1 SVG

VintageBees- Bee2SVG

As for my Bee SVG. I did something that I wasn't very happy with doing, but I thought if I could clean this thing up it sure would make a nice cut file. I downloaded a bee svg file from wikipedia. In it's original form it would've taken a year to cut and destroyed my Cricut in the process, I cleaned it up and got rid of the lines that were unneccessary. I then enhanced it with my little schwoopies, I used path effect editor to do this. My daughter aka my little helper decided that the schwoopies was the way it needed to BEE. 

I was chatting with my evil twin and since I haven't delivered the goods on her blasted tea dispenser, at least I could make something that reminded me of her. I AM going to make her a card, I just get so nervous to make them for adults (kids are easier-we know their normal skill level is just a tad above me)  because as we all know, I have this EOC handicap and insecurities galore. What would take a normal crafty person one hour, I take 2 days. You see some people can make simple lines ART, and we all know I'm not in that group.
Just click on the caption under the picture to get your SVG of my Bee. Remember you will need to use your layers window or it will not cut correctly. 

Below is the list of  Lettering Delights products I used:

Sweet Birthday Svg set
Card & Envelope E (you will need your 12 X 24 matte for the envelope
Summer Popsicles Alphabet (use your printer)

Lettering Delights Link

                      

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