Getting Back to Normal - Almost....


Hello everyone!  I hope you have all enjoyed a lovely Christmas - we certainly have at our house.  Today is our first steps back toward normal life.  Aaron and Crissie have returned home and Ian is looking at the calendar to determine his date to return to Atlanta.   Bethany is excited to start teaching second grade full-time after the new year... and Doug and I are ready for life to settle down again.  Personally I am ready to spend a little less time in the kitchen, though we have had some wonderful meals over the last week.

Yesterday we had our two final salutes to the Christmas season.  The "kids" and I spent some time frosting our cutout sugar cookies and the gateau bon bons (though we had eaten half of the bon bons unfrosted).  For those of you who are new to the blog since last Christmas, my children take Christmas cookies to a whole new level and do not know how to do a traditional frosted cookie. 


If the cookies in the photo above look boringly normal that is because I frosted them!  My cookies were, for the most part, very traditional looking.  Of course they drew rolling of the eyes a disappointed glances from my offspring!!  LOL

The cookies below are a better example of my kids' cookies.  The cookies in this photo were frosted by my future daughter-in-law, Crissie.  I thought she did a nice job on her Hulk figure, the "traditional" snowman, her Jesus angle, and her fun fish and trees.

Here is a peek at my creative three:  Bethany, Aaron, and Ian (yes, Ian grew a beard since Thanksgiving!). 

Below are a few of Aaron's cookies:  Spiderman badge, pirate snowman, angry tree, and hangman cane.  He also had a great Ninja Turtle that was not photographed.


In the photo below Crissie is working hard while Bethany is hardly working! 

After our cookie afternoon, we had a wonderful dinner - Doug grilled out for us!  After dinner we were joined by our friends the Garlands' for sodas, Christmas cookies, and card games!  So now we are going to get back to normal... Or at least our household version of normal!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I will be back soon with another post.



Weekend of Family Fun


Hello everyone!  Today I have no project to share with you - just news of the weekend and a public service announcement:  Bitten By The Bug 2 is on holiday break this week so there will not be a weekly challenge.  I think the design team is recovering from too much weekend fun - I know I am.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  I had an absolutely fabulous weekend - a quiet Thanksgiving day with Doug and Bethany (and Duncan the wonder dog!), which lead to a fun Friday.  Ian as well as Aaron & Crissie (and their two dogs!!) came home on Friday.  Aaron & Crissie spent Wednesday, Thursday, and part of Friday with Crissie's mom, then we had them until Sunday late afternoon.  Friday night we played card games late into the night while teasing one another and having a great time.


Saturday brought Ferrando's pizza for lunch, an afternoon photo shoot for Aaron and Crissie, and bowling.  Saturday evening was spent with finger foods, football, music, an outdoor fire, and more fun card games.... And of course lots more teasing.


The couple photos featured here are Crissie's favorite of the 20 or so photos I took of she and Aaron.  In my usual style, I just followed them around the yard with my camera.  I really like the photo at the top of the page, and the others too, including the floating heads above!

Now for the next two photos:



As Doug and I were wearing down on Saturday night, the younger generation was ready to go find Karaoke or other fun in downtown Aiken.  As they started to leave, Bethany and Aaron compared hats.  Bethany then realized she had a second furry hat that Crissie could borrow.  Now why Crissie would want to borrow this hat is beyond me - clearly not a fashion statement that I appreciated.... Though they assured me that they were a hit in downtown Aiken!

As they were departing Ian came in wearing his Cubs hat.  He earned extra points for a normal hat!!  But the hat assortment required documenting!!  Anyway, now you understand why I have no project to share with you today... Too much family fun!!




Count Your Blessings Gratitude Challenge with BBTB2


Hello everyone.  Happy Bitten by the Bug 2 Monday - and happy Thanksgiving week here in the States.  This week's BBTB2 challenge is perfect for this week - Gratitude.  The assignment was to craft a project about something for which you are grateful, or in some way features gratitude.

For me this was such an easy assignment.  As most of you have gathered, I adore my family.  I am thankful for them every single day.  My husband (of 31 years this week!) is a wonderful warm and loving man with whom I feel blessed to be sharing my life.  My adult children are each so unique in personality and so unique in their expressions of love.  I am so blessed to have had these three children!  And I am so grateful for my future daughter-in-law (though I do not think of her as "future" but as my d-i-l).  Crissie is smart, funny, kind-hearted, and most of all, she adores my son!  How could I not be grateful for Aaron's brilliant choice in a life mate?   And even though Crissie is missing from the family photo above, she is very much a part of our family.



I mixed several elements and ideas in creating this layout.  I began with a family photo - one I hope to replace with a Thanksgiving FULL family photo later this week - and I built around the idea of Gratitude.  I began by selecting background and matting cardstock.  Once I had gathered all of my cardstock layers,using the Thanksgiving cartridge, I cut the phrase Count your Blessings in dark brown cardstock.  I set that aside.




I used the small phrase "A Grateful Heart" and stamped the edges of the orange matting.  I added ribbon to the corner of the photo and to the upper right corner of the layout. 


Two cartridges were used to create my floral displays - Art Philosophy (still my favorite cartridge) and Something To Remember - A Cricut Circle cartridge.  I cut two leaf arcs from Something to Remember and positioned them at opposite corners of the photo.  Using Art Philosophy, six flowers were cut in three different sizes. 






Thank you for stopping by Busy with the Cricky today.  I hope you will join us in the weekly challenge at Bitten by the Bug 2.  Please add your photo into the Mr. Linky space under this week's post!


Wedding Gift and Card with Silhouette Cameo



Hello everyone!  A couple of weekends ago my family attended the wedding of family friends - The wedding of Dane and Megan.  Dane has been friends with my older son since 3rd grade!  I took the traditional gifting method and shopped from Dane and Megan's Williams Sonoma registry.  However, for my son Aaron, I created another vinyl home decor project!

I used an 11x11 square matte platter and black vinyl.  With my Silhouette Cameo I cut the split W and their names - Dane & Megan - as well their wedding date.  I felt horrid because I forgot to include the plate stand that I had purchased for the platter.




I also used my Cameo to create a wedding card.  I welded a wedding dress, tux jacket and a rectangle together to create this very pretty card.  After sizing and welding the pieces together, I cut the base card in white cardstock.  I then trimmed away the excess wedding dress (the bottom of the dress). 


Next I cut the dinner jacket, shirt & tie, and the wedding dress again.  I also cut the wedding dress highlights in vellum.  I used an embossing folder on the wedding dress before adding the vellum highlights.  I finished the dress with liquid pearl accents at the neckline and small dots of stickles in the embossed flowers.  On the tux, I used gray liquid pearls on the buttons. 




On the inside of the card where the back is visible over the top of the dress, I stamped Congratulations Mr. & Mrs.  I also added a small flourish stamp in the lower right inside of the card.   I really liked this elegant wedding card and hope to make it again.


Thanks for stopping by Busy with the Cricky today and viewing my wedding gift/wedding card projects. I will be back tomorrow with another new project to share!



Photo Shoot For My Daughter


Hello everyone!  I do have projects to share with you, but today instead of paper crafting, I am sharing my daughter, Bethany.  Bethany and I had a photo shoot in our yard yesterday afternoon in an attempt to get photos for personalized graduation announcements.  


Bethany will be graduating from the University of South Carolina, Aiken with a BA in Early Childhood Education on December 12.  Last month she shared the traditional Josten's college graduation announcements with her dad and I.  She hated them.  Bethany wanted something much more creative, fun, personal.  She wanted for the announcements to reflect her personality.


She has a friend who is a professional photographer, but in another state.  Bethany was having difficulty finding a weekend to visit the friend.... She is a bit busy now that she is student teaching!!  So she decided to settle for a mom photo shoot!

She wore two different outfits for our photo shoot, but in all of our favorite photographs she is in her casual outfit.  I think I just like these colors on her better!

I went to various on-line announcement sites yesterday afternoon/evening researching graduation announcements.  I ended up taking a few photos of Bethany's favorite works of art in her bedroom and mixed those photos with selected shots from our photo shoot and created fun, creative, personalized graduation announcements and thank you cards!! 


Thanks for stopping by today and reading my graduation announcement post!  I will be back with real paper crafting tomorrow and Friday!!!

Wedding Hurricane



Hello everyone.  I have been a bit busy this week and have been ignoring the blog world.  I am currently in Spartanburg, SC at Scrapbook Creations for a Breast Cancer weekend crop. I am joining my friends Jan, Susan, Bonnie, and Peggy for a weekend of de-stressing, girlfriend time, and cropping for a worthy cause.

Last night, while packing scrapping supplies and clothing, I took time to create this hurricane.  My older son, Aaron, is attending the wedding of one of his college roommates, Michael, and needed a nice gift.  Aaron and  Crissie will be spending the night at my house en route to the wedding.  I left the finished hurricane, it's box, a gift bag with lots of tissue AND a wedding card waiting for he and Crissie to take to the wedding with them.  I hope they like the hurricane as much as Doug and I.




I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the vinyl for this project.  I used a split letter alphabet, the letter M, and a basic font from my computer. 




In addition to Michael and Christie's names, I added "est. 2012" as they will be married on 9/22/12. 




Here is one final peek at the front of the hurricane.  The hurricane is 8 inches tall so the "M" was cut at four inches tall.  When I added the gap in the middle for Michael and Christie's names, the design filled most of the hurricane side.



I am hoping to have a restorative weekend here in Spartanburg but also to complete a lot of projects to share with you over then next couple of weeks.

Thanks for stopping by today and viewing my wedding gift project!

Downton Abby Layout with the Cameo


Hello everyone.  Remember back in March when I shared the photos of my Downton Abbey Birthday Get-together with the girls?  My blog post was actually about the great moustaches and treat cones that I had made for our Downton marathon, which you can read here.  Well, fast forward to yesterday....

I finally made time to sit down and scrap my Downton B-day photos!!!  I used my Silhouette to cut the embellishments and letters used on the layout.   Have I mentioned that I ADORE my Silhouette Cameo?  I honestly cannot believe I took so long to begin using it.  I am completely hooked and could only be happier if I discovered that I could use the Cameo and my Expression 2 at the same time (technically I should be able to do this, but I have not actually tried).


I found a great cut at the silhouette store - the "Nice stache" cut pictured above.  I also found the fun film strip during the same silhouette store shopping trip.  I had some of the moustache photos printed in wallet size and they *just* fit the frames in the strip!  How perfect were those cuts for this page?
 

On another trip to the silhouette store (I do like browsing there!) I found these three vintage women - Perfect for Downton Abbey.  Those who watch the show on PBS know that there are three adult daughters in the show.  I have named the women in the cut after the characters: the woman with her hand on her hip as Lady Mary, the defensive posed woman in the middle is Lady Edith, and Lady Sybil is on the right - looking to her future beyond Downton Abbey.  I "had" to add the three women to the page.

I used several flourish cuts to embellish the page, as well as a really pretty font to cut my title phrase:  Downton Abbey Night.


I hand trimmed a photo of the popcorn cones and added it to right-hand page.  After I took the photographs I went back and found one of our moustaches and added it to the right hand page, beside the 5 x 7 inch photo, over the swirls. 

My friends and I had decided that for scrapbookers, we needed to be better about documenting our time together.  Well ladies, I am making a start!!!


Thanks for stopping by today and viewing my Downton/Birthday layout.  I will be back tomorrow as I have more new projects to share with you....

Home Again and Party Award


Hello everyone!  I am back home - sweet - home again after our visit to the Smoky Mountains and beautiful Waynesville, NC!   Doug and I spent a few days at the Waynesville Country Club and Spa relaxing and re-energizing. 

Before I share the highlights of our time away, I have to share some fun news!!!  I love the PBS show Downton Abbey.  One of the blogs that I follow regularly is called DOWNTON ABBEY COOKS, and is owned by Pamela, who is married to Lord D!!  Pamela is a wonderful inspiration for all things Edwardian and shares recipes, customs, etc. from the Downton Abbey (and Titanic) time period. 

Pamela ran a contest offering prizes for the two best Titanic Parties and I am thrilled to report that I am her first winner (which you can read about further along in Pamela's regular Tea Tuesday post)!!!!   I will be receiving a copy of the new book, Wentworth Hall!!!  Thank you, Pam - I am thrilled!!!

Okay so now back to NC!!! :-)

The photo below is my poor attempt to share the country club with you while missing the cars in the parking lot!  Sorry.  The Country Club opened in 1926 and has grown and expanded through the years.  Doug says the golf course is great.  He kept talking about having never seen such a well protected par 3!!!  I, of course, loved the spa!  They country club teams with Biltmore Spa to provide on-site services and actually has packages for "while he is golfing". 

I liked the mountain setting, but the rooms were a bit dated... My way of saying that if you are going to get a fabulous room, stay someplace else.  If you are going to enjoy the golfing, the spa, the dinning and the tap room, you will have a nice trip


Our room had a cute little balcony that overlooked the golf course and the mountains!  How is this for a good morning view?


Or this?


Or this?


While in the area in addition to doing some antiquing and shopping, we visited lake Junaluska.  We love the walking path that surrounds the lake!

And what did we eat in our trip?  Well, I forgot to photograph all of the food but the first night we dined at the CC and I had shrimp and grits.  They were quite yummy!


Doug had a southwestern pulled pork wrap with mango salsa and a side of cheese grits.  The grits were fabulous!  (For you non-southerners, think Polenta!).


On Monday we visited City Bakery on Main Street.  For 60 years or so the bakery on Main Street was called Whitman's Bakery.  It was started by Doug's grandfather, DeWitt Whitman.  His sons Charles and Fred took over from him.  Finally Fred retired and his daughter Linda ran the bakery for a number of years, and added a sandwich shop. 

A couple of years ago Linda was ready to retire and enjoy her grandchildren so the bakery was sold, along with the name, to a different family.  The town was unhappy with the new owners and the poor quality of the products.  The locals did not support the bakery and the tourist season could not keep them in business year around so they ended up selling also.  They sold to an established bakery family out of Asheville, NC - the owners of The City Bakery.

To wrap up this long story (!), we visited the bakery on Monday and are PLEASED to report that things are heading back in the right direction!!  The baked goods are once again home baked and wonderful tasting, the sandwiches are back to their former standards also.  We introduced ourselves to the owners and wished them well - it is sad to no longer see Whitman's Bakery but it was a pleasure to see another family will carry on and offer high quality, great tasting food in the same location!!!


Above is my lunch plate at City Bakery - Turkey, Brie and Chutney sandwich with a side salad.  Below, enjoying a lemon cookie!


Doug had the Key Lime pie for dessert and had nothing but wonderful things to say about the taste and texture!!!


In addition to everything else we did, we did spend some time with Doug's aunt Ruth and Uncle Jimmy, who retired back to the Waynesville area.  We spent part of an afternoon visiting with them and then they took us out for a BBQ Rib dinner.  I don't want to think of the number of calories I ingested - but the dinner was quite yummy!!




Titanic Tuesday - Errrr... Monday - An Early Wrap Up


Hello Everyone - happy Monday.  I know that I am a day early but I just could not wait to share the details of our Titanic Party with you.... Well that and I was too tired on Sunday to complete my Bitten by the Bug 2 project - Sorry Donna and Carole!

Our Titanic Party was a huge success!  We had 17 friends who shared in our Titanic garden party.  We had three dinner tables, two tables of six and one table of five.  I would have preferred it if we could have had one long table that held everyone, but my stash of garden furniture was not quite that extensive!



 Above, my friend Marcie, my daughter Bethany and my friend Kimberly model some perfect period looks!  Marcie and Andrea (pictured later in this post) truly stole the show with their historic costumes.  I should have had prizes for the best period look costume!!

Now for the party details:
I completed all of my shopping on Friday and devoted Saturday to cooking and decorating.  I had previously completed my Cricut Projects - the invitations went out weeks ago, the cones were fill and wrapped, the menus were ready and I finished the place cards on Friday.  My daughter was a Godsend and helped me with the cooking and decorating details all day long!


I used linen cut work table clothes and hem stitched dinner napkins.  I used black and gold chargers - alternating at every-other place setting.  I used white dinner plates that looked great on the chargers.




I used glass beaded napkin rings and along with the napkin I placed a menu on each charger.  As discussed in a previous post, the menu cards were created with the Cricut machine and two cartridges:  Straight from the Nest and New England Shore.  We did not use salad forks as I had decided against a salad course.  I used the salad forks inside for appetizers.... And speaking of the appetizers, they were to die for!!!  I was sooo pleased with how they turned out.  My daughter Bethany made the sausage stuffed mushrooms and the guests RAVED!


All of the place cards matched - I used Cricut's Straight from the Nest cartridge along with an oval punch and New England Shore to craft the place cards.  The red circle behind the ship's wheel were throw away negative areas from another cut!  Can you say RECYCLE???



My crystal matched on all tables as I am fortunate enough to have 18 of each stem type.  I also have 18+ place settings of silver.



For centerpieces I used black lanterns (keeping with my black, gold, white and a touch of red colors) filled with red candles and white baby's breath.  I also used two silver mint julep cups at each table, filled with white roses, red alstroemeria, and white baby breaths.


Our dinner was plated and served by our two waitresses - Bethany and her friend Britney.  They were fabulous and I cannot say enough about how much help they were to me.  They plated and served the food, filled drinks, removed plates, and served dessert.  Between courses they cleaned dishes, loaded the dishwasher, hand washed the silver and crystal, and then they returned to collect dessert dishes!  They were amazing!!! 


Following appetizers and cocktail hour inside, dinner was served outside.  I named our dinner menu "TITANIC SOUTHERN FUSION".  We had three items from the original Titanic menus and some fun southern traditional food.   Our dinner course consisted of Roasted Beef Tenderloin, Shrimp and Grits, Roasted Rosemary potatoes, Green Beans and bread & butter. 

I forgot to photograph dessert but our Eton Mess with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream was a HUGE hit!


Our sweet, sweet next door neighbors, Tom and Penny.


There I am carrying my own dinner plate as Bethany signals to Britney on where to place the second to last dinner.


Guests chatting as dinner was served.


Our wonderful neighbors Paul and Andrea.  They rocked the historic look!


Paul chatting with Bill, the engine room worker!!!  How cute is that?



Courtney, who lives across the street, chatting with Tom and Penny.



Bethany, Doug, and I - getting ready for dinner.



Kathy, Marcie - who by far had the best costume, Beth, Suzanne - who also looked adorable, and Pat.



Kimberly had a fabulous costume.  She dined with Doug (not pictured), Wendell & Kim (who later in the evening confessed that they wished that they had dressed in period clothing), and Bill and Ruth, who said they were representing the steerage passengers.



Our neighbor table - Thanks Paul and Andrea for sharing your photographs with us!!  Oh and there is Britney standing in the background ready to assist!!


We had one fun photo opportunity for our party guests.  I found the 1997 Titanic movie poster and purchased it at six feet tall!  I mounted the poster to foam board and cut out the faces.  Below Beth and Kim pose as Jack and Rose!


As we dined the sun set and we had a lovely South Carolina spring evening with temperatures in the mid sixties.  Doug lit the fire pit and we were all comfortable.


Center pieces!


The girly table after dark.  The star field behind them is our ten foot umbrella covered with white lights!


Back indoors - lanterns and flowers. 


Our beverages consisted of punch, mixed drinks, sodas, beer, dinner wine and water.

 

And as I stated in a previous post, every guest went home with a treat cone - filled with dark chocolates, caramel filled chocolates and white chocolates.  I had intended to make divinity to fill the cones - small icebergs! - but the weather leading up to the party was too damp.  So we switched gears and went with wonderful chocolates!



Our evening wrapped up five hours after the first guest arrived.  Doug and I had a wonderful time and we hope that our guests did also.  I have received two calls and a lovely email message from some of those who wanted to thank us and let us know that they enjoyed the party and amount of detail and work we put into the effort.

My friends Marcie and Andrea were spot on with their costumes as were Kimberly, Paul and Bill & Ruth.  I loved Tom and Penny's look as well.  Suzanne was adorable and I was so thrilled that she made such an effort especially as she had been away all week before the party.   Our invitation did read "cruise casual" (or period costume) and Pat, Beth, and Courtney were the picture of Cruise Casual - Fab job ladies! - as were others who attended and chose not to dress in period clothing.  Doug and I had a wonderful time and feel like we were right to suggest period clothing and details, especially as they mixed so well with our southern spring time charm.


Thanks for making your way through this lengthy post and for following along on the Titanic Tuesday posts!