Let The Good Times Roll...

The best part about moving to New Orleans? THE FOOD! This is a recipe that my family has been using for years. It is fast and easy. You can double, triple or even half it with no problem. You can make your own Cajun spice or use Zatarain's, Tony Chacheres or Emeril's.


I knew right away that I was going to use traditional Mardi Gras colors. I rarely work with colors from Bold Brights and never only those colors. The design came to me pretty quickly. I just cut one inch strips and arranged them in a hapahazard way behind the recipe.

But, I felt like it was just SO bright. I needed to tone it down a little and I thought a little texture might do the trick.I love my Big Shot and texturz plates to spice projects up! The harlequin design fit in nicely with the whole Mardi Gras theme and helped take the edge off of the solid bright colors. A couple of jeweled brads finishes off the page nicely .

SUPPLIES USED:

Lovely Lilac, Glorious Green and Yo Yo Yellow and Basic Black Card stock

Circle Circus Stamp Set

Circle and Square Ice Rhinestone Brads

Stampin' Up! Backgrounds 1 Texturz Plates

After a long break...

I am back! I have neglected this blog for the past 5 months as we wrapped up our California lives and moved half-way across the country to New Orleans. I am having fun getting re-acquainted with my new home. The history , the people and food and culture of this great city will keep me busy for the entire time we live here. I am also finding new inspirations for my crafting . My goal is to update this blog with new projects and ideas several times a week. Thanks for coming back.

I have always enjoyed swaps and none more than recipe swaps.This wonderful recipe for summer zucchini is one my Mom gave me this summer. It is delicious!

I love this new stamp set. The possibilities are endless. For this project, I inked the stamp with Summer Sun. and then sponged Garden Green onto the middle of the medallion. I punched out the middle with the a large circle punch and used dimensionals to add that to an image that I had stamped in Summer Sun on the white card stock. I added a little copper brad to complement the colors I was using.

This was a  quick and easy recipe card. Trying something similar on a regular card yields great results as well.

Supplies Used:

Garden Green Cardstock( 102584) and ink(102272)

Summer Sun Cardstock103124) and ink(100537)

Whisper White Cardstock(106529)

Copper Brads ( retired)

1 3/4 circle punch ( 112004)

To order supplies: http://www.mindyussery.stampinup.net/

A Blast From The Past

Do you remember the first workshop/club/class you ever did?? Mine was about two years ago. Though I had been stampin for several years, I remember being so nervous. I worried about my projects- were the impressive enough, were my cuts straight, were they too easy, too hard?? I have been cleaning up picture files and I came across the cards from my first club meeting. And you know what? I had nothing to worry about.

Stampin' Up! Pays it Forward!!

I recently asked Stampin' Up! for a donation to the local elementary school's fundraiser. I was blown away by the box that they sent. It was huge and just loaded with goodies. It was a value of about $500!Isn't Stampin' Up! great???I bought the containers and loaded them with all of the great goodies. The tote is a Stampin' extravaganza and is worth about $350. The tin is filled with items geared towards kids or a a class room and is worth about $150.00. I hope it makes the school a bit of money. I dont have kids there, but I teach a paper crafts class there as part of their enrichment program.

Isn't this a great way to use and showcase designer paper? This card features the Sale-A-Bration DSP that you can earn for FREE by spending just $50.

I love making acetate cards and I shared this with club this month. To make this card, we used :

4 Top Note die cuts of DSP
1 Top Note Die from bashful Blue ( cut in half)

We also used some SAB ribbon that was run through the Big Shot on the Top Note die. This makes the ribbon fit perfectly across the main image of the card. :) Toppped it off with a fun little button. Thanks for looking!

Valentine Class

We just had a Valentine Class last night. I always enjoy my time with my stampin' friends so much. We covered target mailboxes and made this cute little accordion card. The final version had dazzling Diamonds glitter and pop dot hearts in the middle oval. :) We used the Love You Much bundle. :)

A Valentine Treat

Hi all! I feel like I am finally back in the groove after the craziness of the Christmas season. It feels good to craft again. Don't forget that SAB starts tomorrow. I can't wait! Unbelievably, I have saved my fist order from the new catty for tomorrow. I don't know where I found the willpower, because it certainly isn't one of my strong points!I am really loving all the owls and birds, which brings me to today's post. Over at Splitcoast, I have been inspired by many different versions of these owls. I had to try them out fro my club swap. They were fun to make and I love how they turned out. It uses 2 large scallops from the Big Shot and several other circle punches. Isn't he cute?He is taped to a giant lollipop and I figure he will make a great scrapbook page element after the receiver eats the lolli. Hope you all get lots of crafting time this weekend. :)

First off, I must apologize for my 6 week absence. No great excuses... life has just gotten a bit in the way. I was catching up on all the blogs from my Splitcoast group and was glad to see I wasn't the only one who has been AWOL for a bit. I am very sorry for not keeping up with those of you who have been keeping up!

My clubs just started a new round and we met this past week. I LOVE my clubs. They are a great group of ladies and so fun to craft with. Here are two of the items we made:

Love this sentiment for Valentine's Day! Isnt it perfect? I think the color scheme has a great masculine look. This is a matchbook type fold and when you open it up , there is a scrumptious Ghiradelli chocolate inside!
I had a TON of these perfect little calendars to use up, so I decided this would be a perfect and quick project. This is a 4x4 chipboard and there is a magnet on the back so you can keep it on the fridge. These also look great in a small easel for your desktop. This is a Level 2 hostess set that I am just in love with. I have quite the collecttion of roosters in my dining room and I have been waiting for SU to come out with a realistic Rooster set.

I plan to post something at the end of the week as well. See ya soon.....

Dream Home Outdoor Pics

Isn't this part of the DR gorgeous? I love it...Check out the fingerprints on the window. The way the sun was setting highlighted this so much! They need some Windex. I will even do the windows if I could just hang out in there for a while. :)
Some more goodies that come with the house. Missing was the GMC Acadia that the winner will also receive.


See the doggy water bowl in the garage? The guide said that the garages here are not attached because of a fire/bldg codes in Sonoma for houses over a certain sq footage.


I love this driveway. Looks like an old carriage path. The plants are inedible strawberry plants.
There will be enough grapes here to produce two cases of wine.



BIG outdoor table.
This is the view from the back of the house. See how close the neighbors are? This is very typical for California living. This development does not allow hard fencing. The fences are wire with wooden posts and there are various plantings that make up the actual fence.


This is a view from the backyard into the side street



the kitchen garden.


Doggy Dream Home. very cute, but unpainted inside.

Dream Home 2009 Master Suite pics...

The closet! Love it. I could be so organized. Check out the clearance stickers. They were on quite a few of the items and clearly visible. I think they are Koh;'s stickers. :)


View from the master bath


This even puts my Mom's bathroom to shame. WOW!
I did not get any pics of the amazing bedroom. Oh, the wall color and that bed was amazing. unfortunately, the camera was dying. :(

Dream Home Pics continued....

This is how the washer and dryer open. They seem to have a small capacity...

This little guy is hiding in a drawer in the kids room closet. I love sock monkeys. :)

We got a kick out of this. It was in the guest room closet. I wish I could hav epoeeked in every closet and drawer. There are lots of goodies hidden away.


Another favorite room... this guest room is breathtaking. I want to sleep in here! :)
See these glinting spots?There is some sort of sparkle to this counter top. It is not weird 70's! I promise. It is very subtle. Almost looks like diamond dust.....It is really cool in person.

Love this subway tile and the fixtures in the guest bath. DD claimed it for herself.

The stairwell...
I was determined to get a picture of that white hand. :)
This downstairs powder room was not opened, but the man in front of me opened it. Notice the paper towels and a piece of paper on the back of the toilet. LOL

Looking outside from the kitchen table.\

More to follow.....

HGTV Dream Home 2009

Crafters-I have to hijack my own blog for a moment and post some pictures of this year's HGTV Dream Home in Sonoma, Ca. My daughter and I went and had a wonderful time. I have been entering these contests since the beginning, so she has the bug just as badly as I do. :) For the past two year's my brother worked for one of the sponsoring companies, so we could not enter. We are so happy that he left that job! :)I will get some new Stampin stuff up this weekend... I promise.

Every year the Dream Home seems to be built in a place that we have lived. This time, it was built just 30 minutes away. We feel so lucky to have finally gotten to tour one in person and on the first day, no less!We have always loved Sonoma. They could not have picked a better place.
( Well, the 2007 in Tyler, Texas ( my hometown area) was pretty amazing!)

Our shuttle driver and tour guide were great. Shared lots of info with us. Our tour only had 6 people and it was a perfect sized group. After you check out the pictures, be sure and head to www.hgtv.com to enter for a chance to win!

We started in the lobby of the amazing Ledson Hotel. WOW!
Our carriage awaits.....

The entryway had a big, black scuff on the ceiling that I noticed right away. I did not worry about it for too long! LOLThe First room you see is the family room. It isnt as far to the family room from the front door as it seemed on the HGTV special:

To the left is a formal LR. All in blues. I don't care for blue, but I love this room. What a soothing place to sit and read. I was trying to read all the titles of the books that I could, but it was too hard. LOLThis is in the corner. The bowl is full of Hershey Kisses.
To the right might be my fave room. The Dining Room. It has a sitting area and terra cotta colored walls.

This has to be my favorite accessory in the entire house. A grapegathering bucket.....
A close-up of the tablescape...

The kitchen is a dream. What a joy it would be to cook in there for family and friends . Two of everything! 2 dishwashers, 2 fridges, 2 pantry's, 2 wine coolers, etc.

The cleverly hidden dishwasher....
One of the two pantry's:

This is getting pretty picture heavy. I will start another post with the office and outside and then we will head upstairs. It may be tomorrow before I can get to it though.... See ya soon.