Meet Gertie 2

 

Hello Sweet Blog friends. Today I have the day to myself. Whoa, I better not say that too loud. Seems when I do something always comes up. I have some cleaning to do but after that I think I will craft, I’m jonesing for my copics, I look forward to an artful afternoon. And.. some baking too. This last week I baked lots of goodies for a bake sale, check out some of the goodies:

Not the best photo but I had to use a camera phone. And here is a batch I never shared on my blog.. I made these for my niece Selena a few months back.

Well Gertie, my super old stand mixer started to complain. she wanted to retire for some time now. She’s equipped to do 10 speeds but now only does about 4/5. She’s as cute as a button but you see that covered sheet cake above? It was almost too much batter for her little hopper, she spit some out at me. She’s a hand mixer too but, that is so much more work! and she uses beaters which is a pain for whipping. Here she is:

Well needless to say she had her wish granted, and she will retire. I don’t like dubbing names, but I am sure my new mixer can fill in those tired old shoes. Meet Gertie 2

Beau-ti-ful ehh? She’s a 5 quart series and I can’t wait to try her out. I’ve been wanting to try a few recipes, and I am sure my family is going to love trying all the new creations, and bigger batches Gertie 2 can help momma make! I am just so happy to be better equipped.

~ Angela

Beauty simple and pure

 

I need something familiar, something to cling on to. My blog is always a work in progress. Try as I may to keep up with it, life often gets in the way. I had plans this weekend to be a crafty momma. Had some of my Favorite things (copics & Ink) ready to be used.. But it seems that when I make such plans, they often fall through. I lost a family Saturday AM, It was a shock to say the least. Unexpected and this young man  was so full of life. If I said I was exhausted that would be an understatement. Today I took my aunt dinner, I wanted to make sure she was eating. It’s a hard thing to understand why people unexpectedly leave us. No lesson to be learned except how to deal with masking grief, and being strong for the people who need you most. I just wanted to share some pictures that calm me. I hope you can enjoy my eclectic array of photos today and I hope you find calmness in them too.

The backyard of my grandmother in-law, We decided to spend a couple of nights with her this week. The one below was taken last week at a beach close by our house. Who doesn’t love finding sand dollars? Seriously!

My Son Loves Parrots, he went bonkers at the county fair when he realized he could hold them

He was totally over the moon in this photo, and his face just lights me up.

Thank you for sticking around and listening to me blabber, It’s been wonderful having an outlet to my creative side and sometimes just to vent. One last not so random thought.. Contrary to common belief that states we are born with nothing, I find this utterly untrue. We are born with the innate ability to love and be loved. It’s comforting to know that when my cousin was born he was embraced and loved by many, he was surrounded by the same people who will bury him. The love this time is so much greater, because to know him was truly to love him. RIP Hector Nava, Jr.

Till next time friends,

Angela

Fun to share

Hi friends, I hope your summer is spectacular so far. I have been keeping busy with the kids; I have to to say this summer has been a great one for us. In the beginning of summer we made a list of all the things we wanted to do; we called it our summer bucket list. We have been making progress in scratching things off; it’s been ridiculously fun. Today the kids and I are going to the water park, and later this week the county fair. It’s fun to share time with my favorite little people and that one special big person too, on his days off.

I haven’t done any challenges or card making in a while, and I totally miss it. I have been doing small things here and there; more out of necessity than just because. Hopefully this week I will have some free time to make some card. I wanted to share a couple things I’ve made, hopefully it inspires you to try something new.

First up is this banner I made for my daughter’s 1st holy communion. I used a retired Stampin Up pennant banner XL die, I just can’t tell you how perfect this is for any occasion and I plan on using it allot more in the near future. My daughter hung the banner in her room after the party; this made mama very happy.

A close up:  and not sure if you could make out the image but I bought this image from mo’s and I colored them sepia tones http://www.mosdigitalpencil.com/products/Joy.html

Here are the cookie’s I made for my little angry bird. He loves everything angry birds so I surprised him with these. It was harder than I anticipated, but what fun would it be if there was no challenge?

This was my first time ever decorating a sugar cookie, so I tried to not be so hard on myself. I got a ton of instruction from http://karenscookieblog.com/  And I also googled (is that a real verb?) lol Anyhow I hope you had fun looking and that you will be inspired to try new things this summer too. Until next time ~ Angela

A baby is a gift from above

Hi blog friends. I am back with a card that I made for my son’s karate instructor & wife. She is expecting a little boy! Little boys bring so much joy they are little characters especially when they reach 3-4 years. They are just so funny. I have fond memories of my son making up laugh hysterically with funny things he’d do or say. He’d say things like Blockmuster instead of blockbuster and Yakum instead of napkin. He has just brought so much joy into our little family and I know this new little guys will do the same for the Sharma’s. They are bananas for Monkey’s (last Halloween they dressed up as giant banana’s and their first born was a little circus monkey) Cutest costumes ever. So I had to use this cute Magnolia Image I bought recently, I think her name is Sally the monkey but today she has traded in her pink for blue in honor of a new baby boy that will soon be born. 

Here’s a side view. I tried to give it a 3-D effect and used super light ink, because of this the image was a bit of a challenge to work with. I added some dimension to the image using the crown and the binky as well as sticking the arm and sign in an outward position. I think next time I have a better way of achieving this look.  The Monkey is suppose to be hanging from a pocket, the pocket is going to be stuffed with a gift card like this.

I would like to enter my card in these challenges:

Magnolia-licious   Mac Make-up pallet color inspiration

Totally Tilda   Oh Baby

Magnolia stamp lovers Square shaped card

ATS Blog  Inspiration Ferris Wheel of colors

Bunny Zoe Anything goes    

In the mood

One of my favorite colors is purple. When I went on Facebook earlier today and saw 7kids was doing a purple challenge, I could not resist posting this card and sharing it with you all. And hey why not I just might get picked as a top 3 or even win some blog candy. Yummers!! Love me some candy.

I am really pleased with the way this card turned out. I loved adding the glossy accents on the window, and even put some bling on Tilda. I’m not much of a jewelry girl myself, and I just realized I don’t like shopping either. LOL so I am vicariously living through Tilda today. I’d rather spend extra cash and time on traveling or things that make me happy, like crafting, cooking or baking, sitting on the beach watching the hubby & kids surf or even blogging. And so here is my card.

Here’s another view

I used basic grey papers and stock ribbon, copic markers, glossy accents and bling. Sentiment is from MFT.  I’d like to enter my card in the challenges below.

Challenges are:

All that Scraps – Anything goes

7Kids – Purple

Thanks for looking ~ Angela

It’s been a while

Hi blogging friends. I know I have been missing in action. I can’t tell you how much I miss my crafting. I have been keeping busy in the kitchen lately. I go through phases of how I will spend my spare free time. Lately it’s been unique ethnic foods with my own spin. Lately I have been working on putting together the little details for my daughters first communion that is coming up at the end of the month. As I make things I will be sure to post them okay. Really I will. So first up is the chocolate dipped Oreo's that I will put in a clear bag and I am still looking for tags.  I know I can make these I just have to find the right image. I am pretty sure I already have one in mind. I got the plastic molds with the crosses from e-bay. You just fill then with melted chocolate set your cookie in and wha-la! what do you think?

I was trying different types of chocolate but think I will go with the easy melting bits that are pre colored. It was a time saver and made the job a cinch. The top cookie is using Ghirardelli chocolate it was too rich and the cookie had no shine it was pretty flat looking and the chocolate set in a hard rock like manner. (not very easy to bite into). The one on the bottom left was made using the easy chocolate melting chips in pink and brown. (I got those from Michael’s)  You could see it looks allot nicer, the taste was decent. (very sweet)  and the one on the right is using Nestle chocolate chips, the problem here was the chocolate got cold too quickly and clumped making it difficult to pour in the molds. I have to make about 40 of these and the molds allow me to make 12-16 at a time. Hoping I can get the job done quickly I want to make them the night before the party so they taste fresh. Ok friends thanks for reading and see you soon. ~Angela

All dogs go to heaven

Hi Friends. I am so happy to be back (well sort of) I feel like a total visitor to my own blog, how sad is that? But you know the ole saying one must apply themselves while in school.

Unfortunately, a family member of ours had the dreadful task of putting their  beloved doggie down. He’s been sick for so long but I can't imagine that would make the decision any easier.

At least they know he is no longer suffering. I went to the card store looking for a suitable card but none seemed special enough, I knew I had to break out the supplies and get busy.

Boy this was harder than I imagined because I hadn't crafted in a while. My coloring has really suffered. My copics seemed mad at me for the neglect and acted out by being down right uncooperative. ugh..

I guess this can only mean I need to pick them up and use them more often

Ok so these are the challenges I’d like to enter:

DTC    Pink or red

DP2   Bingo/ Gems. ribbons. flowers (row 1 across)

 

Stamp is found at mo’s digital pencil, flowers: wild orchid, All paper is SU. Thanks for stopping by.. ~Angela