Valentines Card #1

It is only three days before Christmas and I am already designing my Valentines day cards... I know I am so crazy... :) Let me know what you think..

Here is my modified Tammy project. I ran out of tins and Frankie said let's use CD cases. So thanks for the great Gift Card holder project tammy.

When you run out of tins and are determined to do Tammy's project anyway.

Christmas Gifts

So today is Saturday December 19th and other than my husband's stocking stuffers I am completely done with Christmas preparations. Done Shopping, cooking, and wrapping too!!!! Because of the snow I may be off of work for the rest of break as well we will see. Here are the gifts that I gave for the teachers and Frankie's co-workers. I baked for two weeks straight. These containers had:

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Peanut Butter Fudge

Chex Mix

Turtles

Sugar Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies

White Chocolate Macadamenia Nut Cookies

Carmel Corn

I always say every year that I am going to have a better plan but next year I am going to have a better plan. Might even make myself a little calendar starting in November.

I ended up making snowflake ornaments for my co-workers and put them in a tin that we did at Stamp Club this month but I forgot to take pictures of this so i am going to try and steal one from one of the girls when we are back from break to see if I can photograph it. Thanks Tammy for the excellent Idea. My next post I will show you how I modified it when I ran out of tins. Thanks Frankie for that idea.

New York City

Hello from the Big Apple or should I say New Jersey.... We came up to New Jersey yesterday and took the train into the city... OMgosh.... how wet and cold was it... We took my friend Brenda and her two kids into New York City. I can't believe how many people can be in the same place at the same time rain or shine.

I think everyone had a good time. We went to Rockafeller center, Toys R Us, and the American Girl Store. We were right in the middle of Times Square too!!!! More pics later or check out my FB page.

Random Germany Pictures

Here is one of the awesome houses in Rothenburg Od Tauber. Th architechture was just amazing... It is hard to believe that these buildings have lasted since medieval times.

Faith has a blog

If you all look to the side... Faith has a new blog.... It's lovely... I am excited for her.

Swiss Alps

Here are some of the views of the Swiss Alps.. It was so majestic there. The water was so clear that you could see the duck's feet as they paddled around in the water.

Where we were was so quiet. This place was so peaceful. I am glad that we started our trip in Southern Germany. We were able to see some of Germany's greatest sights.

We missed Munich so next time I think that we are going to have to fly into Munich and stay at Edelweiss and go through Garmisch.

I am hoping that we will be able to come back here. If you have the opportunity you should take the time and see Germany. The castles that we visited inspired me to read more about the history of this country and learn more about their culture and possibly even take up German. I am going to look into it. I believe that my Father's side of the family is from Germany I will be interested in learning more about this part of our heritage.

Magdeburg

Hey there all!!!! Sorry that I haven't posted in days now!!!! We finally have internet access again yeah!!!!

What a trip we have had. I can't begin to tell you what amazing sites we have seen but I will try and share some sights with you that we have seen along the way. When I get home over the next few weeks or so I will try and blog all of our vacation here in Germany!

I will tell you that it has been quite a let down Magdeburg. If you are thinking of visiting Germany then you should definately see Southern Germany and Bavaria. It is so beautiful there.

This picture is one of Tammy and I in Fussen... We finally got to see the Swiss Alps this morning when the fog lifted. God's majesty is completely amazing!

Tammy and I got here to Magdeburg with Frankie around 6 pm tonight after a very long drive from Fussen. We are planning to go to Berlin tomorrow and then to Eisenach on Saturday and then home to you my darling daughter on Sunday. I can't believe how quickly this trip has gone.

First night castle....

Here is the castle that we stayed the first night. Here is me enjoying my morning cup of coffee.

The wood work was amazing. You could smell how old it was... This trip has been a lot of fun so far.

Tricia and Tammy in Germany

Here we are on the start of our trip to Germany...... There was excitement and tears....

These are the pics of the Autobahn and just like everyone says they sure do drive fast. Tammy was driving 180 km per hour and people were whizzing by like she was standing still it was so crazy I couldn't even believe it!!!!!!!!

Bye Bye CSM see you next week !!!!!

To all:

Have a great week!!!!!! Auf Wiedersehen.

Balloon Festival

I have been horrible about blogging... Sorry about that. For those of you who don't know we will be going to Germany a week from today :) Oh my goodness I am so excited:) So as you can imagine things have been very crazy around here.

Somehow Tammy and I managed to get away to go to a Balloon Festival the weekend before last. It was rainy and the weather ddn't let the Balloon Festival go but she and I managed to carve a little fun out of the day anyway. Here we are a farm in upper Virginia. Needless to say she and I made some friends that day:)

Belvedere Plantation #2

Here is the barn on the farm and the kids ready to start the fun.

Belvedere Plantation

This Saturday Brenda, Makayla, Aiden, Faith and I went to Belvedere Plantation http://www.belvedereplantation.com/. We had such a great time. There were so many things to do and see. Here is where we began our journey at Pumpkin Mountain. There was this huge hill you walk up and then slide down the inside.

Me and My girl Tammy

Apple Picking Weekend

Last weekend when we went apple picking we made it an expedition. I researched the apple orchards in the area and found Market-Miller Orchards. When we decided on going to this particular orchard since it was two hours from the house we mapped the fun local things to see and do along the way.

We went to the Route 11 potato chip factory and saw where they made the chips. You have to call ahead and see if they are actually frying the chips that day in order to watch production.

We drove down skyline drive. I have heard that it is just amazing when you drive it during the peak of leaf changing season here. They were just starting to turn. Tammy and I will be going back on the 16th of this month and am hoping to see a better turn of the leaves.

Then we drove to this covered bridge. It is the longest covered bridge in Virginia. All in all this was a really great trip. I remember traveling ever summer with my family growing up and I have such great memories of Grand Mesa Colorado and am hoping that Frankie and I are building those memories for Faith.

Apple picking last weekend!!!

So Frankie took Faith and I apple picking for our anniversary last weekend. Here is a collection on some of the pictures that we took. This is using my Stampin Up! program.

We had a really great time.

What makes a good dad?

What makes a good dad? I don’t know but if you ever met my husband Frank you would definitely know that he is a top contender for Father of the Year. These pictures are of him sitting out on the deck on a lazy Sunday morning with our Daughter Faith. What is he doing??? Painting her fingernails. I thank God every day that he brought Frank to us. I couldn’t ask for a better father for my daughter let alone a husband for me.

Frankie and I will be celebrating 9 years of marriage on Friday. On September 13th we celebrated 10 years of being together. I can’t imagine what happened to all the time that has just flown by. We are blessed to have found one another and still thank Lori and Tony for helping seal the deal. With some gentle prodding from our friends we were able to meet and make something out of it all and I am so glad that we did.

Swap for this month's stamp club.

At stamp club this month the title of the swap was Halloween Treat Containers. Here is my take on it. I used the Halloween definition in the EAT DRINK AND BE SCARY stamp set for the scallop circle, after punching it out I edged using basic black. Then I adhered the black 1 3/8” circle and used the Stampin dimensional to pop up the pumpkin cut with the 1”circle punch. Behind this “tag” is a 1” x 12” strip folded in a fan back and forth fashion and adhered in a circle and attached with a Stampin Dimensional onto a 1” strip of designer series paper. The bucket they are adhered to can be found at your local discount store. The supplies are as follows and all from Stampin UP!
Paper:
Pumpkin Pie
Glossy White
Basic Black

Ink:
Pumpkin Pie
Basic Black

Punches:
Scallop circle
1 3/8” circle
1” circ
Stampin Dimensionals

Stamp Set:
Eat Drink and be scary

Designer Series Paper:
Chills and Thrills

Butterfly mobile

When Tammy and I were at convention we saw this beautiful butterfly mobil that inspired me.

A couple of weekends ago I made this one for my tenant who is fixing to have a baby any day now. It was difficult to figure out at first but once we got rolling on it we had fun. I used Stampin up Candy Lane paper, dazzling diamonds glitter, Stampin Up's exclusive butterfly Sizzix die, crystal effects, and their on board chip board. The string we used was from a craft store used primarily for bead work but it worked great for this project as well.

It's a cat's life for me.

Hang on to your hats I am actually posting today. I have a couple. Sorry it has taken so long. We are just getting back into the swing of school and life in general after the summer is over.

I was sitting here yesterday admiring the view from my window when my youngest cat Rudy popped into the window and it got me thinking. How nice would it to be a cat. After snapping these shots I decided it's a cat's life for me.

Birthday Card

Good Morning! It has been crazy around here with Back to School and trying out all of the exciting things that we learned at convention.





I am dabbling with a new style of working with my cards and scrapbook pages using some of the new things available in the market today.



Here I have used So Saffron, Cranberry Crisp, and Very Vanilla Paper (Stampin UP!)
as well as so saffron ribbon. The chipboard is from one of my many Stampin Up! sets I have and the ink I have used is Cranberry Crisp.

The other technique that I have used is with a new spray product that I obtained at my local scrapbook store here in Fredericksburg, VA.

Inside I simply stamped Fabulous Friend from the Really Retro stamp set from Stampin UP! I am still learning the technique of using the sprays and masks. Tammy and I saw this at the scrapbook store last weekend and loved it. We figured out how to make masks using the sizzix machine. I will show you more on that later.

Gotta run to work. Have a great day.

Tammy's Inspiration

I ripped off Tammy's idea with her Skull but made a Christmas Card one instead. I loved being able to use the flower idea that we saw at Convention. With Tammy's prodding I did quite a bit of crafting this weekend and this was one that I did.

This is the Stamp that Tammy gave me. There is a clear embossing coat over the top of it.

A hard day's work

Here are the pictures of my hard work today.....Sorry the last one is sideways... I am having so many troubles uploading tonight. One of the ladies at work asked me to make her a fall wreath after she saw the picture of the Halloween Wreath that I finished. This one took me about 5 hours however I was doing laundry and playing WII resort with Frankie while doing this.

I am going to go onto the webisite that I listed on the previous blog and see how much money it will cost me. :) Saw a super cute tree stamp set that I would like to have. Tell me what you think of the Wreath.

New Decor Elements have arrived

So I received my pre-order from the mini in the mail this week and this is a Level 1 hostess set for Decor Elements. I was so excited. I had the perfect place for these and that was the jars I had just waiting to be labeled.

If you have a party of 150.00 or more you can recieve these for your house too aren't they too cute??????

Thinking of you..

I was asked to do a thinking of you card for a co-worker to send so I made this card and the envelope.

So then I had this great idea how I am going to package cards that I will sell... I am going to have a speciality stamp made that says Created By: Triciasserendipity!!!! I will package them like this: