Chunky Monkey

I scream! You scream! We all scream for Ice Cream!!!

Who doesn't love ice cream? My favorite is plain ole vanilla with sliced banana's, a little chocolate syrup drizzled and a few chopped walnuts. I hardly ever eat it but occasionally get a craving.

My Handyman and I had the craving. I decided to be bold and try something new. Ok! I'm probably the last person on earth to try Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream! I was laughing at all of their names! They're some pretty creative dudes! Cake Batter, Berried Treasure, Chubby Hubby, Fossil Fuel, Karamel Sutra, Phish Food, Turtle Soup. Then I spotted it! Chunky Monkey!



Banana ice cream with fudge chunks and walnuts! It sat in the freezer for two days before I had any. OMG! What a delight it was! I might have to try Chubby Hubby next!



EnJOY!

Pretty in Pink

When my died... He had this huge Christmas Cactus. It was too big to move so I gave it my Aunt; but I was able to bring a start home with me. I planted the little leaf and its grown a little bit. After 11 years it now has about 3 branches. Nothing too exciting. It has never flowered. Just sits in it's little pot and I water it every couple of weeks.

Look what I noticed yesterday!



Its not Christmas! Its Just Spring! But that's ok! Its a beautiful Pink color and it makes me smile and think about my Dad. Love you Dad!



EnJOY!

Tulip Girl

This card has all kinds of layers and products. I love detailed cards but don't usually take the time to create them. Sunday I made a couple and really enjoyed it. When I seen this stamp at Cornish Heritage Farms I had to get it! You know me and tulips!



The background layer is stamped with CHF aged music scrapblock.
I then added a piece of Basic Grey - Porcelain. I wrapped it with Chocolate dotted ribbon.

The cute little CHF Tulip girl was stamped with black stazon ink and colored with Twinkling H20's .
I added a little bling with Fruit Punch Stickles.



I painted some CTMH Fresh Shapes dimensional elements with Tim Holtz crackle paint; tattered rose and shabby shutters. To finish it off I layered some CTMH Just blooms. CS- Chocolate and Sweet Leaf.



EnJOY!

Target Practice

We went out to the desert this weekend for target practice. It was a cool blustery day!



We looked for evidence to make sure it's OK to shoot. We're pretty close to the National Birds of Prey Area and have to be careful where we shoot. There were tons of Raptors flying around. Its nesting season and they were hungry.



Little critters were scurrying everywhere. My handyman set up a box so that we could sight in the 22 rifle. We were going to practice on little critters.



Most of them live in these little holes underground which are every couple of feet.



Some of them have the luxury of Condo living; or maybe this Family just has 21 kids.



I know! I know! They're cute little critters but they're also rodents. These little whistle pigs are everywhere. Thousands per acre. They're about the size of a tree squirrel.



It was a little chilly for the critters. They were hiding in their cozy little homes. So we didn't have much luck. We did practice shooting at the box, though. We'll go again in a couple of weeks when the sun is a little warmer.




EnJOY!

Protection

The word for today's scripture challenge is Protection..



With all the things going on today, I need protection. I need God's ever loving arms wrapped around me.

John 3:16

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

What better protection than knowing that if we believe we shall have everlasting life!

I will print this out on HP presentation paper, mount it on a 4x4 coaster and add a little ribbon and bling to complete.

Products: Designer Digitals, PSE7, Font- Pea Kathy.

EnJOY!

Just Be One

I went to a Woman's Conference last night with Scissorbella. The speaker was Christine Caine from Hillsong church in Australia. It was awesome. She taught me that Many of us make great efforts to act like a "Christian", but how many of us actually realize what it means to be one? Too many times we see faith as an external behavior modification program. If we just stop (fill in the blank), then we'll be good Christians. Instead, we need to see faith and our witness to those around us stemming from an internal heart transformation, living from the inside out and not the outside in.

Christine has written a book 'Stop Acting Like a Christian and Just Be One. '

We are to serve our generation. We do what we want out of passion. We are Christ's GPS system.

Matthew 22 37-39
³⁷Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

³⁸This is the first and great commandment.

³⁹And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Last night was the Dove awards. Awards for Christian Music. One of my favorite Artists, Brandon Heath recieved the Male volcalist award and Song of the Year award.

Its one of my favorites. Give me Your Eyes. Click on the link to watch the video!

EnJOY!
Michelle

Topsy Turvy!

Have you heard of these crazy thing? Topsy Turvy. Well... We planted a Celebration Tomato and a Roma tomato in them. Its will be interesting..



We ended up buying a couple pieces of iron at the Restore store. It a place where people donate extra building materials from projects and the proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity. My Handyman worked out a little aggression and pounded the iron into the ground and wrapped a couple of clamps around to stabilize the hook. I love fresh tomatoes and really miss my garden. Now that the tree's are getting bigger I don't have much area that gets full sunlight all day long. I hope this works!!



Looks how pretty and green the grass is getting. Thats because My Handyman had cabin fever and fertilized in February!! He's already mowed about 5 times.

EnJOY!

The Big Cheese

My Handyman likes to enter sweepstakes on line. He's a pro at it! We get several packages a week of prizes. Mostly T shirts and coupons for free products but he has also won some very nice prizes. A couple of years ago he won a trip to Saint Martin. It had all kinds of extras with it.. (click on the labels below to read about the trip) . He's won professional cookware, golf clubs, fishing poles, gift cards etc..... Its a great way for him to de-stress for a few minutes each day and he gets rewarded for it.



A few years ago he entered a Grilled Cheese recipe contest. He Entered his recipe "Grandma Sarica's Italian Grilled Cheese. " Its kind of a funny story. He was reminiscing about his Grandma and the fabulous Italian food she cooked for him when he was a kid. He pretty much made up the recipe as he typed it on the entry form.. A few weeks later he got a call that he had won one of the top spots. He was speechless. We got calls from local news and TV stations wanting an interview. It doesn't take much to get this town hopping! I couldn't stop laughing! He had never even cooked the sandwich.. let alone give an interview and tell the sappy story about it.. He grilled it for us that weekend and it was really good! You've gotta give it a try.. He gave in and had an interview with the local paper.

Grandma Sarica's Italian Grilled Cheese
8 Slices of Italian Bread
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons olive tapenade
2 Tablespoons oil packed sun dried tomatoes,
drained and finely chopped.
6 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, coarsely crumbled.
4 pepperoncini, thinly sliced
1/4 Cup olive oil

Butter one side of each slice of bread. Place 4 slices buttered side down on your work surface. Spread the tapenade on the bread and sprinkle with sundreid tomatoes and peperoncini. Distribute the cheese. Top with remaining 4 slices of bread. Buttered side up.
Place the olive oil in a large Teflon coated non-stick skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is warm, about 2 minutes, place the sandwiches in the skillet (in batches if necessary) Cover, and cook for 2 minutes, or until the under side of the bread is golden . Remove the cover, turn the sandwiches, and cook another 1-2 minutes. Cut in half and serve. Makes 4 sandwiches.



EnJOY!

Noteworthy

I'm doing a card swap - We all love to receive good mail! You all know that tulips are one of my favorite flowers. I had to create a card using them!



Products used: Tim Holtz- Flights of Fancy. Digi - Tulips. SU CS. Making Memories- Noteworthy. Twinkling H20's. Water pen. Ivory ribbon. Button.



Why does my pink button look orange? To learn more about Good Mail - Click on the button on the Right Sidebar. Its there.. I promise. Keep looking. I love being carded!

When I was pulling weeds Saturday I accidentally broke off a tulip! OH NO! Its ok! Really! Its surviving in its own special cup in my Kitchen. Isn't it a beauty?




EnJOY!

Twinkle, Twinkle

I love Twinkling H20's! I paint alot of my stamped cards using this product! I found out in February the company is going out of business. It makes me sad.. They were having a 40% off sale to reduce inventory. Well... They got so many orders they had to restart manufacturing and produce more product. I finally got my order over the weekend. I am so excited!!!!! They're little cakes of twinkling paint. I use my water brush to wet them and paint my projects.



LuminArt Inc has a list to print out to inventory colors. I created a swatch of all the colors that I have. That's because I'm such an organized queen!



EnJOY!

Rebirthing

Spring! I love it! Even the word sounds fun! Its a time of renewal. A rebirthing, when everything comes back to life. An awakening. I love when the Earth wakes up from a long winter. It makes me want to go out and rejoice in the wonder of creation. I love the warmth of the sun. Saturday I worked in the yard, pulling out the dead of winter and trimming the rose bushes. I found alot of renewal....

The bleeding hearts are growing fast! I can hardly wait for the blooms!



The Peonies are starting to show their pretty little sprouts.



And Best of all!!! The tulips! They're my favorite!!






Turn off the music player above and listen to Skillet!



EnJOY!

Love at First Sight

Well... Here is the finished product! I love my new floors! WOW! It's so different! My carpet was pretty light and the house looks so different with the darker antique cherry floors! Its wonderful!



Its kinda funny but then again not... My poor pooch won't step his feet on the floors! He hates them. The first night he came into the house and slid a little and ran back to my craft room which still has carpet. I couldn't get him out of there. I'm not kidding! It took me almost two hours to get him out. I tried bribing him with treats. Nope! That didn't fool him. I got his leash and my tennis shoes and tried to trick him into thinking we were going to go on a walk. He got all excited and was jumping until he hit the edge of the carpet and on came the brakes; to a screeching halt! He backed up to the corner under the table and wouldn't come out. The Handyman and I were not happy with Tanner or with each other! Not a pretty sight. Tanner was freaking out.. Shivering and hyperventilating.. I finally sat down with him.. calmed him down.. put his leash on and quickly dragged him around the corner to the tile entry and out the front door and back through the garage to the back yard... He hasn't been inside the house since Thursday..

I went to Lowes and bought a rug for the laundry room... I coaxed him into the house Saturday and he stayed on the rug, shaking like crazy.. I finally let him back outside. It's the weirdest thing. I guess its just going to take time for him to get used to them.

I'm glad it didn't take me that long to get used to them.. I fell in love at first sight!





We have a few more things to put back together and then I will again have a house of order.

EnJOY!

Lamb

The newest "His Holy Name Challenge" over at Faith Sisters, is the word Lamb. I chose Revelations 17:14.



I print these on HP presentation paper, mount on 6x6 cardstock and add a little bit of hybrid embellishing before adding to my book.

Products used: PSE7, Designs by Krista, Font- Love Letter TW, Lucinda Calligraphy.

EnJOY!

Spring Time in the Rockies

Sunday was a beautiful day! Not only did we move all of the furniture out.... We enjoyed a beautiful sunny day.... Too bad it only lasted one day!

Here are my beautiful daffodils that are now in full bloom.



I found this cute little nest in my tree. Its the cozy home of two little yellow finches.



This is the view of the mountains from my back yard! Look! Still snow!! The snow pack is good this year because of all the spring Snow. More expected! UGH!!! Mother Nature needs a bonk on the head! I'm tired of her games!



My Grandson Carter even had fun running around the yard playing!



EnJOY!
Michelle