My Sweet Stampin Spot

A Hundred Years from Now

Flipping through the radio channels one day in my van this week I stopped to listen to Garrison Keillor. My dad got me started listening to Prairie Home Companion and now I stop when I hear his voice. I was really struck by a poem he read. You can read or listen to it on The Writer's Almanac website, but here is the poem. 

A Hundred Years from Now

by David Shumate

I'm sorry I won't be around a hundred years from now. I'd like to
see how it all turns out. What language most of you are speaking.
What country is swaggering across the globe. I'm curious to know
if your medicines cure what ails us now. And how intelligent your
children are as they parachute down through the womb. Have
you invented new vegetables? Have you trained spiders to do your
bidding? Have baseball and opera merged into one melodic sport?
A hundred years....My grandfather lived almost that long. The
doctor who came to the farmhouse to deliver him arrived in a
horse-drawn carriage. Do you still have horses?

No Layer Birthday

This week's SUO Challenge is to create a card with No Layers! I am a clean and simple girl, but I find myself generally having 1 layer. So to truly do a no layer card took some restraint.  I'm loving all the watercolor themes lately so I wanted to try my hand at that. I played around with several coloring techniques and finally ended up with a usable card ;)

I placed drops of 3 colors of ink (Melon Mambo, Real Red, Calypso Coral) on the Stampin Up C acrylic block and with a light hand blended them together with my aquapainter. I worked my way from right to left stamping the block. For the 3rd pass I added a bit of rubbing alcohol with my aquapainter to get it wet enough to stamp again. This ended up giving the colors a bit more definition and "bubble" effect. 

Again with a birthday card since we have so many in the family this quarter. I wanted a candle image but couldn't find a current one. I ended up pulling out one of my oldest stamp sets - Perfect Party. This set came in my Starter Kit way back when. I only have a handful of retired stamps and this is one of them. The top edge is torn to add to the watercolor vibe of the card. I painted a stripe of color on the inside of the card for contrast. 

Supplies: Naturals Ivory cardstock, Real Red, Calypso Coral and Melon Mambo reinkers, Stazon Black ink, Aquapainter, Sassy Salutations and Perfect Party stamp sets, Simply Rhinestones, Acrylic Block C - all by Stampin Up. 

Weekend Baking

A couple of months ago I started the Artisan Bread in a Day method of bread baking. I have my lovely buckets of gooey dough in the fridge and when I'm ready for freshly baked loaf I just pull off a piece and bake :YUM: Our big meal this weekend was a turkey dinner thanks to me stashing the post-thanksgiving sale turkey in the freezer. So of course we had to have some fresh bread for that. 

 

 

 

Today I got a craving for cookies. I go to cookie is always chocolate chip, but I opted to go for a slightly healthier cocoa oatmeal raisin. Due to my son's egg allergy, I either use vegan, egg free or susbstitute traditional recipes. This one is from my well loved Bakin' Without Eggs cookbook by Rosemarie Emro. I've been tweaking it slightly as the cookie is not a chewy cookie and is fairly crumbly. 

Want to know the secret to making yourself not gorge on the cookies once you've made them? Just forget to add the sugar <smacks head> I was so focused on my changes that I completely missed adding the brown sugar. I did get the white sugar added so they're not completely horrible. I salvaged them by drizzling with a powdered sugar glaze. 

 

School Spirit

Hello again friends! After quite the long hiatus, I am finally resurrecting my long neglected blog. I was derailed by lack of computer, time and a relocation. I am finally settled in my new town - well as much as I can be for now. We endured a whole house remodel and 4 moves in 3 months last year. We all survived intact with only a few scars ;) 

I've changed the look of my blog a bit to reflect what I hope to do as I move forward. Previously my blog was dedicated solely to my Stampin Up business. Since I'm very much into food as a creative outlet, I've decided to add the occassional post about food. My time spent as a volunteer for Kids with Food Allergies has allowed me to help teach others how to be creative in the kitchen when faced with new challenges. My son was diagnosed with food allergies over a decade ago so I'm not new to the rodeo. I hope you like what you see and want to come back and keep tabs on my little corner of the world. 

Today's project is for my daughter's school auction. Her class is doing a school spirit theme. The colors are black and gold. I found a clearance keychain that had a few silver and black baubles on it. Perfect for my purposes. I was able to tear it all down and use a few of the pieces while adding some amber gold accents and the Stampin Up bottle cap. I sealed the paper insert (words blurred for privacy) with a layer of Crystal Effects. I may have to go back and pick up a few more as I suspect some teachers and other staff may want one.