More is More

Today I had lunch with six girlfriends from church.  I took Lori’s advice from this post after deciding there was no way I was going to be able to host the Cookie Exchange Party of my dreams.  Instead I printed up the reading from Lori’s post along with a little note inviting some friends to join me at a favorite sandwich shop for lunch.  Despite the busy time of year, they all accepted the invite so I was excited!  I decided it would be fun to have a little party favor for each lady, but it would have to be something quick and easy since it’s Christmas crunch time.  Here’s what I came up with.

These are just the jumbo paper clips from Walmart with SU Felt Fusion flowers and Felt Flurries snowflakes attached to punched out cardstock circles with rhinestones brads.  There’s another punched circle on the back and the paper clip is sandwiched between the circles with E-6000 adhesive.

I put the 6 clips together last night in a very short amount of time, but of course this morning I decided they needed to be attached to *something*.  In my frenzied haste I went through about three different ideas for stand up place cards that just didn’t work.  I ended up with this little card – the clip slides through a hole punched with the slot punch and the oval is attched with foam tape to the front.  The sentiment is from a retired SU set.

I arrived at the sandwich place a few minutes early and put some tables together and set out decorative napkins from my stash in the pantry along with these little clips.  So even though we went out I got to play *hostess* just a bit.  I do love playing hostess!  So even if you don’t have the time or energy to cook a meal or clean your house or decorate for a party, you can still have time with friends.  Just pick a time and a place and type up a heartfelt note to invite them!

Lunch was a great break from the last minute Christmas frenzy (which at the moment feels like it’s going to kill me).  I still have just a few more gifts to shop for tomorrow as well as planning Christmas Eve dinner and going to the grocery store….aahhh and the wrapping, wrapping, wrapping.  I’m off to bed with plans to get at it all first thing in the morning.  Thanks for stopping by.

The first part of my trip to Texas was all GIRL time!  Left to right in this photo are Tex, me, Jess, Taylor, Lori, Jenn and Sharon.  This trip was the serendipity of intersecting vacations!  It went something like this – Curt and I were wanting to plan a vacation for October or November.  One of our options was a trip to DFW to visit Megan and Gary – we’ve been talking about doing this for 3 or 4 years.  At one point I had hoped to go to the Copic training in KC back in October to meet up with Lori and Sharon, but then that just wasn’t working out.  One day Lori mentioned that she might go visit Sharon in November and a little light went off over my head.  I asked Curt if he’d like to go to Texas and he said “SURE!” so I called Lori to see if she was really headed to Sharon’s.  WooHoo!  Then I remembered that Jess had been talking about visiting her parents in Dallas, so I called to see if she might be able to make her trip coincide with ours.  About that same time Lori talked to Jenn who said she’d either drive over or maybe hop a plane.  From there it took a little finagling around hunting season, a marathon, the SASI holiday release, a DH birthday, a wedding, and several other things, but we were finally able to make things coordinate.  Sharon was so gracious to invite us all to stay at her lovely home.  She truly was the hostess with the mostess!  And since Tex was just about 45 minutes away she was able to hang out with us as well.

Now the whole Taylor thing…well let me just say that’s just about the most surprised and dumbfounded I have EVER been!  I had mentioned the trip to Taylor at one point and said “you should come”, but she never really seemed interested and I knew full well how busy she was with TE/SASI so I didn’t push.  When she jumped out from behind a pillar at the DFW Airport you could have pushed me over with a feather!  That little sneak!  Oh and she actually brought cupcakes in adorable handmade boxes – how cool is that?!  No one knew about her coming except Sharon.

If you were reading my blog back in the Spring when I first got my perm you know how much I love Curls Rock products.  Well it was Lori and Jess that got me started on them.  Since Taylor has naturally curly hair we made her try them too so we could take a “Get Kinky at Sharon’s” photo.

Unfortunately my perm is getting a little worn out so it’s no match at the moment for my naturally curly friends! LOL!  I’ve already scheduled a root perm to fix that!

I got to spend Wednesday night through Friday night with the girls.  Friday afternoon Tex took us out to see her FAB studio (my pic there is blurry unfortunately) and to Hobby Lobby (my first time there) before going out to dinner where Curt met us when he got off his flight.  I’ll be back late with more about the *me and Curt* part of the trip – I need to take some more pictures.  Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my travels.  I really need to make myself a travel journal!

Oh my!  What a weekend!  I said on Friday that I had a surprise for Curt and it was a doozy!  My friend Denise came up with the idea a couple of months ago to take our hubbies on a total surprise weekend – have their bags packed and just pile them in the car and go.  It worked out to be Curt’s birthday weekend so all the better!  There were five couples on the trip and we stayed at the Ayres Hotel in Laguna Woods which is just a 30-40 minute drive away from home.  It was so fun to see how each guy would react to the surprise!  The secret seriously almost killed me the last two weeks!

Curt took the goofy photo to the right by holding the camera up over our heads as the winds whipped around us on a bluff at Laguna Beach just after sunset.  We were walking on a beautiful path at the top of the bluff just at the base of the incredible Montage Resort.  If it weren’t so danged cold I could have stayed there for hours. At some point we want to drive down PCH to The Montage just to sit in the lounge facing the ocean and have a glass of wine.  Here’s the sunset we watched.

The entire weekend was such a blessing as we formed closer friendships with couples we’ve (for the most part) known less than a year.  Friendships are HUGE to me and the Lord was so gracious in His gift of this weekend.  Here’s 8 of the 10 of us in the hotel lobby.

Drew & Courtney, Pam & Joe, Dave & Denise, me & Curt.  We were so goofy all weekend – I swear we laughed almost non-stop the entire 2 days!

John and Lisa joined us at lunchtime on Saturday.  We ate at the Crow Bar in Corona del Mar and then followed that up by walking across the street to Sprinkles Cupcake Bakery where there was a line out the door!

Chocolate Peanutbutter, Dark Chocolate, Cinamon Sugar, Red Velvet.

Hmmm…I may have strayed off Nutrisystems a bit this weekend.  Friday night we ate dinner at PF Chang’s (super yummy) and walked around Irvine Spectrum where we also rode a merry-go-round and a ferris wheel (yep most of us are in our 40’s! LOL!).  Saturday night after the sunset we came back to the hotel to play a card game (where I think Courtney was making up the rules as we went along *snort*).  We were being so loud in the breakfast room that the hotel staff had to come close the doors.  What a hoot!

On Sunday (Curt’s birthday) we checked out of the hotel and made our way back up the coast to Long Beach to have a champpagne brunch with a group of old friends.  We ate at Khoury’s where we sat right on the marina in a glassed in patio with the perfect view of the water.   It was the perfect end to a FABULOUS weekend!  We’re both exhausted, but it’s another busy week around here!  Off to check the to-do list.

Hey be sure to check the SASI (Stamp A Sweet Impression) blog this week.  Yesterday (and each Sunday in the future) Taylor posted links to the Baker’s Dozen’s projects posted within the past week so you won’t miss anything.  On Tuesdays Taylor will post a creation of her own and on Wednesdays one of the Baker’s Dozen will have something to share.  You’ll want to be sure to subscribe to both the SASI blog and the TE Newsletter so you’ll always get the latest TE/SASI news and fun creations!

Hope you had a great weekend and if you didn’t you need to plan for one soon!  Thanks for stopping by!

No stamping  today, just a quick post to share a couple of photos from Tea yesterday.  I was back at the beloved Vintage Tea Leaf with a different group of friends.

Denise, Luann, me and Lisa.  These are all women from my church and I’m so enjoying building friendships with them.  We’ve only been at this church for a little over a year and I’ve been so blessed to meet these gals along with several others.  Sometimes it’s hard to take time out to do things like spend an entire afternoon at Tea, but friendships are really so important and the only way to build them and/or maintain them is to spend time developing them.  We had such a wonderful afternoon and I look forward to spending lots more time with these gals in the future – even if it’s just a sandwich at Subway!

Luann brought boas for everyone – how fun is that?

I just want to encourage each of you to call or e-mail a friend or a group of friends and schedule some time together – at tea, or stamping, or out for coffee or whatever.  If you don’t initiate it, who will?

My day yesterday made me think of the old Girl Scout song…I know it’s corny, but at the same time I’m seeing how true it is…

Make new friends

But keep the old

One is silver

And the other’s gold!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.  Join me tomorrow for the Friday TECC!

So have you seen Mama Mia yet???  If not, then grab some girlfriends and go this weekend!  I went with two friends and we laughed like crazy.  I think I’d like to see it again.  My advice to you, is not to think about it or wonder if anyone you know wants to go or to worry that everyone is too busy.  Here’s what you do:

1. Check the movie listings and find a time and place that would work for you – maybe an early evening show on a week night or even a Saturday afternoon matinee.
2. Send out an e-mail to ALL of your friends (even people you think would be too busy to go) telling them the time and place and asking if they’d like to join you.
3. Enjoy the movie with friends. 

When it comes to spending time with friends and having a good laugh I say JUST DO IT!!!

It’s Friday and time for another one of Taylor’s fun sketch challenges (cupcakes not required).  Be sure to play along with us and post a link over on Taylor’s blog for a chance to be her featured stamper or to win prizes.  Get all the deets at Taylored Expressions.

My card this week is bold and simple.

A 4.25″ square Taken with Teal base is layered with dp from the Junkitz Salsa 6×6 pad and the main image is a .99 Imaginisce stamp from eclectic Paperie colored with Copics and highlighted with stickles.  I totally CASEd the idea for the sentiment from Lana (see her card here).  She mentioned that since her name is unusual she never finds personalized stuff with her name and when I read that I said *I KNOW!* (a la Monica Geller).  Although my name is not terribly unusual, the spelling is (no *e*!!) and as a kid I could never find anything with my name on it so I still LOVE personalized items.  The JustRite Monogram stamper is perfect for this!

Speaking of the Just Rite Stamper, have you checked out the Product Focus Review on SCS?  I was thrilled to be on the team this month and have the opportunity to write a review.  You can check it out here.

It’s time to check out what the rest of the Cupcake Crew has cooked up – let’s blog hop:

Ana Wohlfahrt: Ink A Stamp

Stephanie Hargis: Steph’s Stampin’ Stuff

Vicki Chrisman: This Art that makes me Happy

Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper

Lynn Mercurio: Stamperosity

Here’s TECC27 – and yes the circle is supposed to be cut off at the bottom.  I had to call Taylor and ask her while she was out enjoying som yummy cheesecake.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend.  I’m looking forward to going to see the taping of Million Dollar Password with Regis Philbin on Saturday.  Two of the girls at work today had never heard of the game show Password.  Oh my word, did that ever make me feel old!  Password was one of my favorites and I even had the at-home-edition.  Any other Password fans out there?

Thanks for stopping by!

Warning:

the following is a rambling NSR post ’cause sometimes I just have stuff to say.

I love going to tea and have for many years.  It’s not the tea I love (although it’s nice enough) it’s the experience.  Sitting in a beautiful tea room and being served pretty and tasty food in dainty morsels that still fills you up…and most importantly relaxing with friends.  I hadn’t been to tea in about a year, until this past week when I got to go twice.  How cool is that?

Last Sunday I went to Vintage Tea Leaf with PACT (my women’s prayer group).  Each year we get together to go to tea to celebrate all of our birthdays.  We each buy a special birthday gift for one other member of the group.

Vintage Tea Leaf is my all-time favorite tea room.  It has mostly traditional English Victorian style and one of my favorite things is the large selection of beautiful china teacups where Beverly invites you to choose one to sip from for the afternoon.  We had yummy moist scones and a wide variety of tea sandwiches along with three different pots of tea.

Vintage Tea Leaf is located in Long Beach and the tea we selected – 2 scones and your choice of 4 pair of tea sandwiches along with unlimited pots of tea – was $20 an average fair price.

Then on Friday I was asked to go to tea with two girlfriends I hadn’t seen much of in awhile.  We decided to try a fairly new tea room called Paris in a Cup. It has a Parisian Salon feel and the decor is absolutely beautiful!  Their menu is just slightly more varied than most tea rooms and includes coffees along with the hot and iced tea choices.

The scones were small, but wonderful.  They had vanilla cream and orange chocolate scones the day we were there.  Those of you who know me, know my ban on chocolate touching or being mixed with fruit so I requested two vanilla and they accomodated me.  Kim and Judy said the orange chocolate was quite yummy and I looked the other way.

Paris in a Cup is a tea room I will definitely go back to.  It is located in Old Towne Orange amongst all the boutiques and antiques shops and is a little more expensive than VTL.  We choose to have scones, tea sandwiches (we were served 3 as opposed to the 8 at VTL), a small cup of soup, and cookies (the cookies were the only disappointing part) for $23.  Although it doesn’t sound like a lot of food we were all quite full when we finished.

After tea we walked around and shopped a bit and I purchased a vintage tea towel in the colors I hope to re-do my kitchen in.  It will be a great inspiration piece.  As if all of this didn’t make for a nice enough day, I returned home to see flowers left on my front porch with a very sweet note from an out-of-state friend.

Another one of the lilys has opened up since I took this photo.  I was just blown away by this thoughtfulness.

While at tea on Friday talk turned to shoes (and afterall what would a tea be without some discussion of shoes or fashion).  My friend Judy was telling us about some red shoes she had found at an awesome discount store.  Well, wouldn’t you know that I have been looking for red shoes and what she described sounded perfect.   Today Curt and I needed to go to Costco and I talked him into taking me to find this shoe store first.  It was a HUGE store and I think Curt started to quake in his boots when we walked in the door.  It was the kind of store I could spend all day in.  I promised to hurry and he was such a trooper.  He went down every aisle with me to help me scout out what I was looking for.  I never did find the shoes Judy told me about, but no worries, I ended up with super cute red shoes just the same.

Check out these adorable low healed red sandals by Guess!  There’s just nothing better than a pair of new red shoes!  Oh and in the background is the vintage tea towel I mentioned earlier – so pretty!  I’m excited because I got a new Liz & Co. skirt and top outfit about a week ago and I even bought jewelry to match.  Now I have the shoes.  I can’t remember the last time I had a whole new outfit including jewelry and shoes.  I’ll be stylin’ for church tomorrow – not that that’s what it’s all about, but it doesn’t hurt!  LOL!  I’ve been missing my best friend Ruth (she lives in WA now).  No one shops like Ruth!  Since she moved (oh and since I’ve put on weight) I just have a harder time pulling together whole outfits with all the accessories.  So Ruth…know that I bought these shoes with you in mind.

For anyone still reading – thanks for indulging my ramblings and I hope you’ll make reservations to go to tea with some girl friends really soon!  Don’t forget tomorrow (Sunday) is the last day of new challenges being posted for DTGD.  Then you’ll have another week or two toplay and catch up.

Thanks for stopping by.

Jami

I’m finally back to share some pics from the wedding on Saturday.  Curt pulled the Model T in the backyard that morning and we decorated it with white tulle, ribbon and silk flowers.  He did an awesome job helping me.  I made a big “Just Married” sign, but unfortunately didn’t get any good pictures of it.

It was already 90 degrees in the shade that morning and it was over 100 at the outdoor reception after the wedding…but everyone was so happy for Donovan and Heather that it just didn’t matter.  Everyone was so crowded around the car as Curt drove off with them I had a hard time getting any good shots…

For their wedding gift we decided to go with something non-traditional since they plan to eventually be overseas missionaries and didn’t want a lot of fancy stuff.  We got them gift certificates to two of our favorite restaurants.  I picked up menus too.  The dilemma then became how to wrap them.  I ended up making a folio out of 12×12 cardstock.  I had been told the wedding colors were turquoise and navy so that’s the color scheme I used.  There must have been a miscommunication somewhere because the wedding was actually teal rather than turquoise, but the gift turned out cute I thought – especially considering I made the folio and card about an hour before I had to be at the church.

I wrapped the folio in some tulle (left over from the car) and then made a simple little 3×3 card to attach.

And now it’s time for an ENABLER ALERT!  There’s just so much news to share!

First – be sure to head over to Taylored Expressions to see Taylor’s newest kit offering.  It’s so stinkin’ adorable!  I had the opportunity to see the cards in person and they are even cuter IRL!

Second – Have you seen Kittie’s new line of Rubbernecker stamps called “Cause a Scene”?  They are so cool and I am so happy for Kittie and this wonderful accomplishment.  Check out the details on her blog!  You too can make Kittie Cards now!

Third – I got this news from Debbie Olson’s blog – so you’ve all probably seen it already – just in case you haven’t been over there yet I thought you’d want to know about the big Inque Boutique sale this weekend – 20% off your entire order.  You can see Debbie’s post for the details.

Fourth and FORMOST – the new Elzybells UK on-line shop has opened.  I have a cart going and am just waiting for a friend (you know who you are) to get back to me with her final list.  Shipping charges are not as bad as I had anticipated and if you share an order with some friends it’s even better.  I’m so anxious to get some of these larger images in my hands to play with!  You must go check them out – CUTE CUTE CUTE!!!

Happy Shopping and thanks for stopping by.