More is More

Last night I held my first Stampin’ Up! class of the year.  I was really looking forward to it even though I was not feeling well at all.  I’m so thankful Curt was still on vacation and feeling better so he could help clean house..without him I would have needed to cancel class.  I love my customers!  Everyone was so understanding about me being under the weather and not quite as organized as usual.  I think everyone still had a really good time – I hope so anyway!

We made the purse project I shared in my last post along with 3 cards using Double Time Stamping (or One Sheet Wonder).  Everyone started with a full sheet of Very Vanilla cardstock and created a page similar to this.    You can click on the thumbnail to see it larger.

We used the stamp sets A Beautiful Thing, Carte Postale and Itty Bitty Backgrounds with ink colors Almost Amethyst, Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red, Always Artichoke and Pumpkin Pie.  Then we cut the full sheet into quarters and further trimmed those pieces to make these cards:

I made 6 cards (plus a little sample for a technique reference card) from one full sheet.  In class everyone made 3 of the above cards and took the rest of the pieces home.  This is a great way to make a set of cards for a gift or to make up a number of birthday or thank you cards that you might need in a given month.

Last night was my turn to be hostess and since I wasn’t up to baking I served a choice of Root Beer Float or Hot Fudge Sundae…simple and yummy!  I was really spent by the end of class and it was so super sweet of several customers to stay and get everything cleaned up for me.  🙂

So today I spent all day in my jammies on the couch watching tv and looking through my SU catty.  At one point I saw a recipe by Giada De Laurentis for Pork Chops Stuffed with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Spinach (click here for recipe) that looked so yummy that I mentioned it to Curt later in the afternoon thinking I might even venture to try to make it sometime.  Well around 4:00 Curt announced that he was going to the grocery store.  “For what?” I asked.  “To get the stuff to make those pork chops you saw!”

Wow!  Is he a keeper or what?  He found the recipe on Foodtv.com and went to the store to get all the ingredients and then came home and made one of the MOST delicious dinners I have ever had!  I’m not even a fan of pork chops!  I highly recommend that recipe if you’d like to try something a little special…and it was even a part of a healthy cooking episode…using low fat cream cheese, low sodium chicken stock and limited olive oil.  I just gotta say – my hubby ROCKS!

I’m sure hoping we make it to church tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow is the last day of Curt’s vacation and it’s back to regular everyday schedule.  Hope you’re having a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by.

Happy New Year a little late!

Curt has been sick with a cold for a week and that same cold has been chasing me.  I thought I may have beaten it, but it hit full force last night…just in time for me to go back to work today after almost 2 weeks off.  Ugh.

Yesterday we had tickets to see the Craig Ferguson Show taped.  His show comes on after Letterman and we find him quite amusing.  We used to dvr the show so we could watch during dinner and  we attended a taping last year and really enjoyed it…so when we got an e-mail from the show saying they were starting up taping again (first time since the writer’s strike began) we jumped at the chance to go during our vaction.  Unfortunately after arriving on time and standing in line we found that they had overbooked the show and there was no room for us.  They offered us front row seats to come back today, but as I said, I need to work today…and I don’t think I would feel like going anyway.

So there we were stuck in Hollywood/L.A. right at rush hour.  If you know what traffic is like here, you know why we did NOT want to get on the freeway!  Instead we headed over to Universal City Walk (gotta love that new TomTom to get us there) for dinner and a movie.  Dinner was at Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Co. for a new experience for us.  Food was good, although I found the restaurant just a little too *themey* – like eating at a Disney attraction.  The movie was I am Legend starring Will Smith (who I love!).  I was worried it would be like Castaway with Tom  Hanks – some guy all alone – ugh I HATED that movie.  Well it was nothing like that!  It was SCARY!  It was probably the scariest movie I’ve seen in a theater in a really long time.  I don’t so scary.  It was well-written (with the exception of one thing that really bugs me – but I don’t want to ruin it for you), well-acted, good special effects….but it bordered on being almost too intense for me.  This is NOT a movie for kids IMO.  If you’ve seen the movie let me know what you thought of it.

 So with the combination of being sick and having seen that movie I has nightmares all night!  I guess I’m just a little grumpy this morning.

Tomorrow night I have my first Stampin’ Up! class of the new year and I’m really looking forward to it.  I already have the projects planned – just need to cut and prep everything.  Here’s one of the projects we’ll be making – a mini purse that can be used as a party favor or to hold a gift card or other small gift.

I got the idea for this from the door prize I won at the SCS dinner in Portland – it came from Shannon McMaster – thanks Shannon!  It starts with a mini white lunch bag.  I discovered that my bags were smaller than hers so I had to scale down my purse a bit from the sample I had. I cut the bag down to a height of 3″ and covered front and back with 2 layers of cardstock (Wild Wasabi and Not Quite Navy) and then designer paper (Porcelain Prints).  Ribbon is River Rock (for the handles) and Wasabi (around the front).  Stamp sets are Big Flowers and Little Flowers.  The Tab punch and Slot punch were used to make the handles.  This is a really fun little project with endless possibilities.

I’m off to work.  Thanks for stopping by!