The Best Day of the Year

Every year at Christmas time my friend from high school days sends us the best Christmas present ever...a box of homemade shortbread. It's not just average shortbread...you see, it's very different. It has something in it that makes my entire family look forward to the month of December. There's something about it that, oh along about mid-December, challenges each of us to race to the mailbox to see if it arrived that day. The shortbread has a strange effect on, well...me, in particular. It causes me to find hiding places so I don't have to share it! (Yeah, that's darn desperate but true.) The shortbread also makes me tell a little lie..."Hey mom, did Bonnie's shortbread come today?" "No, honey, I don't recall there being a box in the mail." All the while the coveted box of shortbread is hidden in a small ice chest in the laundry room....and one piece is missing.

Receiving Bonnie's box of shortbread means that Christmas is officially here! And you'll be happy to know that guilt got the better of me and I brought the box out of hiding and shared it with the fam. I even went so far as to pull two pieces out, wrap them up, and send them to our son in Washington state. I'm feeling good about that one!

We spent the day baking yesterday...our favorite treats to bake at Christmas are Chocolate Mint-filled Cookies, Hamburger cookies, Shortbread Lemon Bars (these are yummy!), and Carmel Corn. Instead of just walking a couple of miles today, I walked and went to the gym...the reasons are obvious!

Tomorrow I'll share my favorite movies to watch at Christmas time. Until then!
Laurie

Grateful Today...

I'm thankful for some special things today!

1. Babysitting my darling little grandson for a couple of hours. Even more greatful that his Great Aunt Cindy was here so we teamed the effort and it was, well...efforless and pure joy!


2. Cindy...you are amazing, not only in your giving spirit but your ability to help me tackle projects that would otherwise be too overwhelming for me to go alone. We cleaned out a closet and bedroom that haven't been cleaned out for years and years! What tomorrow??

3. For my precious devotion book, Streams In The Desert. Each morning I wrap the day in prayer and this devotion book always seems to speak to me very specifically for that day.

4. The girls went out for dinner this evening (to Yamatani's, aka Yummytummies) so I didn't have to cook. I had a lazy dinner that was good, just boring. Oh, and I'm extra grateful for Julianne, my cute neice from Arizona who I love to tease.

5. Lastly, I am grateful that there was still some Cookie Dough ice cream and whipped cream at the end of the day.


See you soon!

Laurie

Pumpkin Pie Dilemna

So, it's a great day! Thanksgiving is always a fun time around the Warta household. Especially when dessert follows a rather overabundance of just too many good foods. What to do when you only have one VERY LARGE (like 80 oz. large) can of pumpkin but need only one or two pumpkin pies? You make a game out of it! You see, stores in our area were out of the smaller cans but we found one ginormous can at Smart and Final. Rather than risk NO pumpkin dessert of any kind, we opted for the giant can. As it was sitting obnoxiously around the kitchen waiting to be used today, we decided to make a game out of the can of pumpkin. Hide the can (with $1 attached) and whoever found the can (and $1) got to hide it again. If it wasn't found by time to make the dessert, we'll, we'd be out of luck for anything pumpkin! The girls in this household have some pretty creative thinking processes going on. They used a wooden duck to disguise the oversized can, I slipped the can in a large, empty apple barrell, someone else set it right by the phone among some candy so it wasn't easily spotted there. Eventually, the large can of pumpkin was made into 3 delectable, wonderful, memorable desserts! Just in time to settle down tummys full of turkey!

Our family always has great fun, lots of laughter, and pure entertainment. Plus, our new little grandson gave plenty of reasons for Grammy had to hold him. It was a day of constant giggles, laughter unending, time spent raking leaves, and of course, plenty of hands in the kitchen. It's all about making memories, isn't?

I trust your was a day of reflection and thanksgiving for a bounty of blessings.
Until next time~
Laurie

November Stampaganza!

We still don't have a little grandbaby...maybe tonight?! Nah...I want another good night's sleep! Okay, that's incredibly selfish since I'm not the one who is 9 months pregnant. We are all anxiously awaiting this little guy's arrival and I'm pretty sure it will be very soon. Tomorrow is my daughter's due date. I figure I'm pretty much out of time for getting things caught up before his arrival. Ah well...it's all good.

Speaking of tomorrow, it's November 3rd and we have a new special you'll definately want to take advantage of. Our Stampaganza is amazing! Purchase 2 My Acrylic stamp sets at regular price and get one free. How's that for a great bargain to kick off the holiday season? Do your shopping from the catalog or online. Be sure to e-mail me with any questions, too.



















D1377, Around The Block is a hefty set of 26 stamps. Piece by piece you can build your dream gingerbread card! Or, design a simple "Welcome Neighbor" card and add a set of gift tags if someone is just moving into your neighborhood this holiday season.

One more reminder...be sure to order your favorite products in order to take advantage of the Stampaganza special!

Until next time...when we really have a new grandbaby!

Christmas Spirit

So... ya know how I signal the beginning of the holiday season? I start listening to Christmas music music NOW! In case you didn't notice, it's October 31st... Yeah, it's early - some might say insanely early - but I say why not? Time flies way too fast and before you know it, Christmas arrives and I haven't watched my favorite holiday movies (Grinch, Polar Express, The Santa Clause, among the many) nor have I listened to all of my favorite Christmas music. To be totally honest, I put in a Christmas CD yesterday so this year, hey, I'm ahead of the game.

This beautiful cardinal card is one my ladies made in a recent card workshop. I've always loved cardinals so I couldn't resist creating something festive with Season of Splendor (item # D1326). It's a two-step stamping set meaning you stamp the outline image with first generation ink then fill in with the matching solid image in a lighter ink which we in the stamping world call "second generation." In case you're not sure about the whole "generation" stamping technique, let me explain...

To stamp with first generation ink, simply ink your image and stamp directly onto your cardstock. To stamp with second generation ink, simply ink your stamp, stamp once on scratch paper then, without reinking, stamp onto cardstock. With second generation ink, the image is lighter, therefore, it acts sort of like a "coloring in" of your image. Cool, huh?

The paper I used for this card is X7115C Jingle. The plaid is created by inking and stamping the edge of a long acrylic block. (That's one of my favorite methods for creating plaids.) The red striped paper is folded accordian-style, without any particular method to my madness. (Ribbon candy inspired that type of folding:)

Any day now I will be a grandma......whoa, holy cow, that sounds......hmmm......I'm not sure how that sounds! I figured I don't feel like a grandma because I still have a 15 (almost 16) year old. But, we are so excited for our little guy to enter the world. He's sure taking his sweet little time in arriving and he's making his mommy very uncomfortable. His Auntie Jessica is growing a bit impatient, too!

I get an extra hour of sleep tonight so I'm off to enjoy that. See you next time.

How To Live Life

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather than to skid in sideways, champagne in one hand, chocolate covered strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO-HOO - What a Ride!"
~Unknown


What a way to live!

October Stamp of the Month

Have you seen our stamp sets for the upcoming holidays yet? If not, you're missing out on some crazy-cute sets! For example, take the October Stamp of the Month set, as shown below. It's whimsical and just plain crazy-cute!




There's another great set on pg. 52 of the Fall/Winter 09 Idea Book...the one I'm talking about is item # C1378 Heartfelt Christmas. But don't stop there...browse through the holiday stamp sets and let your mind go creative on you!

Until next time~