Cute little heinies

Before I get to the boys' cute little hind-ends, I just have to show off how cute the front is ;-P Henry is just now sitting up pretty well...he roly polies plenty, but he can sit for several minutes & grab things by his toes before it happens!


Now for the rear. I've been working on various diaper covers & here are a few! I made this one from a recycled sweater from Goodwill & have a pantless version in the works still.
Here's Joey in his wildman diaper cover made from fleece from the remanants rack at Hancock's.
...and my new favorite fleece cover...here Henry models the camo longies I made. SO CUTE! I did make shoes to match, but I forgot to take pictures of him wearing them today & I'm NOT wakin' him up just to show off my sewing skills to the world tonight...ya'll can wait until my next post :O)

So flippin' cute...I just can't get enough of him! I'll post more later when I've finished a few more!

Chocolate & Playtime

I was finally able to do some stamping tonight! Hurray! I worked on a swap card that probably should've been sent already, but Lucy's escapades in my stamproom had sent my creativity into hiding (and my embossing powder into the carpet!). I had to rethink what I knew I wanted to do with this set, but I'm pretty happy with the result:

I used just Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip for the colors (no matter what the picture may depict). I used the Bella Rose paper for the polka dotted piece & sponged like a madwoman with my Chocolate Chip. I love all the ideas I see layering punches, so I layered the large oval punch over the 1 3/8" circle and the scallop circle punch. I just love the Bella Blossoms set!

Now for the playtime part of the post. We spent a little over three hours today at a park in Benicia because I needed to break up our time together a bit after battling a stubborn three-year old all day yesterday. The kids played and played and played! They had so much fun & were busy for the whole time...Lucy, of course, "wasn't sleepy" for her nap after all that playing. Yeah, right!

Here she is, passed out on the couch while studying the back of the new movie that her daddy had brought home for her tonight. She slept like this for nearly an hour! Hilarious!



She is so cute when she's asleep, huh? Ha! She's cute all of the time...she just argues less in her sleep! :O)

The best waffles...EVER (quite possibly!)

What have we been up to since the last post? Camping trip, working on the homebirth book for my midwife, sewing, more stamping with that cute Upsy Daisy set, and this morning? Waffles!!

I LOVE this recipe! I got it from a Taste of Home mini recipe book that the grocery store was selling at the check-out a month or two ago. It had "kid" recipes, which I figure probably have universal appeal, so I bought it. This little book has *tons* of good things inside, but my favorite is WAFFLES. This morning as I made my millionth batch of waffles since buying the book, I figured I should share my recipe with everyone who likes waffles but doesn't care for the effort of *making* breakfast in the mornings! Here goes!

Cottage Cheese Waffles

1 cup cottage cheese, undrained
6 eggs
1/4 cup oil (I use olive, but vegetable oil would be fine too)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt

In a blender, combine the cottage cheese, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Cover and process until well combined. Add flour and salt; process until smooth. Bake in your waffle iron...Voila!

Seriously...does it get any easier? I love that I can do the whole thing in my blender...not even a dirty bowl when I'm done and not a dirty spoon or even a scoop needed! This is my idea of waffle heaven, and then look at all the protein in these puppies!

Alright, I'll move on from my waffle fetish...next post will have some stamping pictures! Maybe I'll get my film developed from camping (I misplaced my digital camera that weekend!) & can show you my grubby, happy cherubs! :O)

Some new stamping from this week

I have to admit that I love this new set! I love the Upsy Daisy set & I am extra excited because I got it *on sale*! Isn't that a woman's favorite thing to do? So here's something I did with it: I used Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, and Tempting Turquoise for my colors throughout. The woohoo colors on the daisy image was accomplished using my very refined finger eraser method. ;-P I inked the whole stamp with Kiwi Kiss & then used my finger to rub off the ink from the flowers.I used a sponge dauber to color the flowers with Tempting Turquoise & then went along the edges of them with Pacific Point. I did the same with the greeting. I used my cuttlebug Stylized Flowers background for embossing. A little glitter finished things off!
The one above was a birthday card for my future brother-in-law. I used all retired stamps on it using only black ink for the images. I brayered with my retired November spectrum pad onto the kraft cardstock. For extra oomph, I punched & threaded some natural hemp through.
Yeah, another Upsy Daisy card. Using Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze, and Chocolate Chip. Simple & yet so cute!! Love this set!


...and another...This one I kept extra simple since it was a bit more of a serious occasion, but cute nonetheless, huh?
I *really* can't get enough, can I? Here's how to get this cute card:

You can see it took me some practice to get it just the way I liked it :O) I ended up going with the bottom left one after all my hair-brained ideas fizzled.
Here's how I masked each frame so that I could use the big daisy image without getting interference from the other daisies. My mask was cut from cardstock vellum & I actually cut inside the frame's line so that when I stamped, it wouldn't go over the line of the frame & left it looking neater. See?
...here's what you do with ribbon scraps when you're stamping & bothered by mundane details like hair!
I cut around the frame with my scissors & then stuck it onto some Basic Gray cardstock before using the Curly Label punch to punch the whole thing out. I then punched it again in the front of the card & actually mounted the punched image *through* the window so that it lines up when the card is closed and is inside for the recipient to have happy little something when they open the card.

Family stuff

Before I can catch anyone up with our family's trip to the city last weekend, I have to show off Lucy & Joey's newest bit of excitement: BUNKBEDS...or unkbeds as Lucy told me.

Joey had been getting out of his bed & hoisting a 36+ pound boy over the side of his crib at 3 in the morning (repeatedly) was just about killing me! Luckily my friend wanted to get rid of their bunkbeds now...he sleeps on the bottom & has gotten out a few times since Saturday night, but it's so much easier just to holler, "Go back to bed! ...NOW!" & have him take himself to his own bed. They're thrilled. They've definitely learned a few tricks of bunkbeds:
1. Never jump on the top bunk, you'll knock your noggin on the ceiling & wind up flattened on the bed!
2. Never jump (while standing) on the bottom bunk, you'll knock your noggin on the top bunk & wind up flattened on the bottom bed!
3. Don't fall over the edge of the top; hitting the floor isn't as much fun as it sounds. (Although Joey figured out how to do it twice before he finally realized that we hadn't installed the safety net feature. LOL!)
...and here are a few shots from the IBEW Local 6 picnic we went to at Sigmund Grove last weekend...

Joey & Lucy in the bounce house. Pretty typical. Joey's on the floor wondering how to really enjoy this while Lucy's going like the Energizer Bunny in the background!

Here's the "scary" clown that Lucy wouldn't even talk to!
The fairy princess lured her in, though, with promises of a crown.
All dolled up!
And then Joey was convinced to get a star painted on his cheek...so serious!
He has no idea where he's going, but I think he'll get there fast!

Here's Lucy & her pit crew.
And this is how Henry got around during the day...poor guy got a sunburn from it, but he had a good time getting it!
...finally we were tired & had to go home...the trolley was no where to be found, so Gene pushed the stroller up the hill...guess what was at the top when we got there? Yeah, good timing Mr. Trolleydriver!

Scallops and more!

Today it's all about scallops! I have had a chance to goof around a bit with the new scallop edge punch in the catalog & I LOVE IT!

Of course, you can make scalloped edges, but you can also make rick rack, too! Just you wait...it's pretty cool! Here's a sample of both:

I used the new Bella Rose paper, Pink Pirouette textured cardstock, Kiwi Kiss cardstock, scallop circle punch, Heard from the Heart (on sale!) & Chocolate Chip ink. Of course, I added some dazzling diamonds to the cut out rose (from the paper) to spruce it up a bit! Now for the punching stuff... It's easy to see how you can easily make a scalloped edge:

This punch is so cool! You don't even have to use it upside down to line up the scallops to make the rick rack! Check it out! I just lined up the "peaks" with the "valleys" of the original scallop using the printed scallops on the punch.
You can see the start of some rick rack:
Here's a done strip, pictured next to regular scalloped edged cardstock so that you can see better how they compare.

Here are all the new In Colors in rick rack glory! These really are lovely new colors! I've loved the In Colors each year, but this year's *whole* set of colors grabbed me right away...Baja Breeze is growing on me. In year's past some of the colors took awhile before they were *really* exciting to me - shockingly Groovy Guava, one of my favorites, was the last one that I really started to like & use (isn't that funny?).
Here's another card using the Bella Rose paper, Pink Pirouette textured cardstock, Chocolate Chip cardstock, Robin Hood Red trim & Heard from the Heart in Chocolate Chip.
In non-scallop news...I actually did something else in my stamp room. :O) I have been trying to clear out some of my old stamp sets & just couldn't part with my OLD Bees & Blossoms set, so I decided I *had* to use it or I'd have to lose it in the sale since I just shouldn't have stuff I don't use, right? (I guess that's why I've got sets hidden away so that I'm not reminded of that so frequently!)

Anyway, this is a perfect example of why I love my stamp-a-ma-jig! I don't know how people stamped that honeycomb in 1997 (when the set first came out) before the SAMJ came to be! Those old positioners were a pain to use, so I was glad to whip out my friendly little SAMJ. I needed something extra to finish the honeycomb, so I inked up the bee from the greeting & stamped him all over in Night of Navy & then just made little dotted "trails" with the marker when they were all stamped so that the honeycomb didn't look so plain. Then I popped the card into a book for my friend & mailed it off today...gotta love 3X3 cards, huh?
...here's a total cheater card! I didn't even stamp on it. *blush* I cut & punched to make the onesie layout & then just used a leftover self-adhesive die cut from last year's Simply Scrappin' kit for the front. I think it was cute even if my stamps did feel a bit left out! I used Baja Breeze for the onesie & Not Quite Navy for the cardstock trims around the neck & legs.

New & updated list of stamps looking for homes...yours, maybe?

I posted my list on a much bigger site to get a few more gone & I thought I'd post a more concise & updated list here now that some have left my house. HURRAY!!!! (Since I just ordered more, we need to make room around here, you know?)

The highlighted ones are spoken for & the ones that have been taken are gone from the list now.

$5 each:

Day-to-Day Flexible Phrases
Fabulous Four
Borders Mini
It's a Date
Festive Four
Build a Blossom
Watercolor Minis
Perfect Ending
Wee Watercolors
Say It Simply
Around & About
Letter Perfect Backgrounds
Best Blossoms
Big Blossom
Alphadot Numbers
By Design
A Little Love
Send a Celebration
Much Appreciated
Hearts & Clovers
Burst into Bloom
Flower Filled
Friendship Blooms
On the Spot
Holiday Basics
Fun Phrases
Fresh Flowers
Delight in Life
Sparkling Season
Glorious Garlands
Event Full
All I Have Seen
Love Without End
Very Punny


$10 sets:

Cheery Chat
Looks Like Spring
All Through the Year
For a Friend
Favorite Greetings
Eat Cake
Watercolor Minis (NEW)
Hearts & Posies (NEW)
Mini Mates
Ornamental Elements
Loving Hearts
Bold Shapes
A Greeting for All Reasons
Flower Garden
Quick Cards
Something to Celebrate
Phrase Starters
Sweet of You
Tag Time
Take Shape
Bloomin' Wonderful
Simply Circles
Perfect Party
Sketch It
Holiday Spirit
Flower Factory
Phrase Starters II
Simple Shapes
Painted Garden
Sketch an Event
Pansy (large *old* DD one)
Sketch a Party
Great Shapes
Season's Sketches
Stipple Celebrations
All Natural


$15 for these:

Tidy Alphabet
All Around Alphabet
Contemporary Alphabet
Alphadots
Year After Year
Classic Caps Alphabet
What Could Be Better
Outrageous Alphabet