Sending Hugs and Kisses

My sweet friend Emily posted a 5 product challenge over at Studio Calico this week and I had a chance to play along... Patterned Paper, Studio Calico Metal & Die Cuts, QuicKutz Embroidery Floss, DMC Paint, Making Memories and Ranger The challenge was to use one sheet of Patterned Paper, Paint, Twine or Embroidery Floss, Metal and letter stickers... cardstock and journaling with pen or computer are freebies! The metal on my layout comes from QuicKutz adhesive metal sheets, they are really easy to cut and you can bend and shape them to add dimension to your layout. I used them with the Eliza font for the title and painted over the holly shape for my leaves & berries. I can see a lot more layouts in my future using this fun product! I hope you are having a great week and if you join in on the challenge be sure to post your layout over at Studio Calico!

I am so darn excited! I was chosen as a QuicKutz Ambassador yesterday! What does that mean? It means that I get to share my love of QuicKutz with the masses... or at least the general scrapping public here in Colorado and on the message boards! Truthfully, I was really shocked to get the call, they had over a thousand people apply and they only chose 8, those are some seriously small odds so I feel very honored! Congratulations to the other Ambassadors, I can't wait to start this adventure with you all!

I'm late in posting this due to lots of progress with our bathrooms! I can't wait for everything to be finished so I can show you the before and after photos! In the meantime I'll post this yummy recipe for you to enjoy! Tomato & Mozzarella Tart - recipe courtesy of the American's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed 1 large egg, beaten 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated 2 medium plum tomatoes sliced 3/4" thick 1/2 tsp of salt 1 cup of low moisture mozzarella, shredded 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil 1 garlic clove, minced 2 tbs fresh basil, minced Move your oven rack to the lower third of the oven and preheat to 425degrees (f). Line a rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper. Combine olive oil and garlic in a small bowl and set aside. Place your pastry sheet in the middle of the sheet pan and brush with the beaten egg. Now begin to form the tart shell by folding over the long edges by 1/2 in, brush with egg and repeat with the shorter edg...

Well, nothing much is happening here as far as construction goes. The downstairs bath is still torn apart and the upstairs isn't much better. We've been getting bids to re-do the beautiful pink one on our main floor but they are much higher than we expected. If you see me asking for drywall advice you'll know that we have decided to do it ourselves. In the meanitime I though I would show you a few of the items we are thinking of using in the main bathroom... I can't decide which one of these I like better... What do you have in your bathroom that you love?

Sadly we lost a Studio Calico friend, Alisa, last month. Emily came up with the idea of making ATC cards out of her message board posts, that will be made into a ATC Spinner filled with love and advice for the two young daughters, step-sons and husband she leaves behind. These are the cards I've made using her goals for the year... Alisa's passing has made me remember to be grateful for each day and to be more present in the moment. Treasure today, Houston

We had the best time on our horseback ride in Yosemite and it's been fun to hear Coley describe it to his grandparent's on the phone! I wanted to capture his version of the trip so I had him tell me about it and used his words as the journaling. It reads: "We went on a really fun horseback ride in Yosemite to Mirror Lake. Edith was my mule and she was very well behaved, sometimes she tried to eat but not all the time. My Mom's mule, Oliver, thought it was an all you can eat buffet. My Dad's mule was named Twitch. The Corral Boss, Katie, said that Edith could probably do the trail with her eyes shut,. Edith was very tall and I was nervous at first but I felt better after the Katie took me walking around the corral on Edith. We saw a rattlesnake, that was in a swampy part, just laying there, and luckily he didn't rattle with his tail... it was sort of scary and when we came across it I patted Edith softly on the neck so she wouldn't look at it. There w...

Just a picture post today, I wanted to share with you the magic of Yosemite Valley waking up! Have a great weekend.