Happy Holidays!

Just wanted to wish you all a safe and very Merry Christmas! 

I don't know about you but we are starting our celebrating tonight...having friends over for some holiday cheer and games...then to the MIL's tomorrow......HOME on Christmas day (yeeees...finally staying home for a change) ....then over to my sisters on Monday. I can already feel my pants getting much tighter!!

XOXO Inky Hugs............................................Anne 

Just back from NYC

Just wanted to share some photo's from our recent weekend trip to New Jersey and NYC. We had a FABULOUS time!! Another wonderful company Christmas party and a day in the big apple.

Here are a few shots from the Christmas party.....lots of dancing...drinks....and great food!

                                              (click on any of the pictures to see them larger) 

                                                                  Me and the hubby

                                                              Denny, Dana, and me

                                                   My hubby Tim and the lovely ladies!

We went down to the 911 Memorial first thing the following morning. It was so wonderful to actually see the new building going up and the grounds were really beautiful. FYI- you have to reserve tickets in advance to get into the grounds......see here. 

                                                    Yup....shed many tears while I was there.

                      Hope to go back next year and see the actual museum once it is open.

 Took the subway uptown and finally got to see the ice skating rink at Rockafeller Center! The huge tree was lit up so beautifully and it was crowded I tell ya- we were squished in there like sardines! Waited in line about 20 minutes to go potty.......NYC you need more public restrooms for sure!!

 We went and saw the "Christmas Spectacular" show at Radio city Music Hall- it was WONDERFUL and those Rockettes have the best high kicking legs!

    I can't even recall what church this was.....maybe St. Peter's........but it sure was beautiful!

We walked a ton......stopped in here and there and just looked at everything....did some serious Christmas shopping at the Lego's store for our 7 year old....and drank lots of Starbucks coffee and loved the famous NY pizza!It was so nice to see everything all decorated for Christmas....and all those college kids dressed up like Santa were everywhere again- it really got you in the mood!

 We love NYC and hope to go visit one of the museums and Central Park next year. One day just isn't enough!

Now I'm off to go check out the Hero Arts blog hop as I missed it all while we were gone. I can't wait to see all the new rubbah and just itching to order up some new goodies for 2012. Look out bank account....you're about to take a serious hit!

Inky Hugs............................Anne

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Wishing you all a blessed day filled with lots of wonderful food and good times. We are staying home and having just a few guests come over.....nothing too fancy- just the way I like it! We will probably get our Christmas tree up over the weekend....and  I may squeeze in a little crafty time too....haven't played with ink and paper in ages!








Inky Hugs............................................Anne

A card and a recipe to share

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in ages.....just been very busy and had very little mojo the last month. My father in law was here visiting for 3 weeks (he's back home now) and I've had some out of town work as well.

I was rummaging around my craft drawers the other day and came across this fun image a friend had sent me......(this is  soooo embarrassing) .......years ago! Why the heck I never used it on a card before....I don't know- but I was in the mood to make a winter card.




I love how the image is covered in tiny clear microbeads- it sparkles so much and has fabulous texture!

I'm not sure how my friend got the microbeads to stick......maybe she sent it through a Xyron or possibly sprayed it with some sort of adhesive? I would love to figure this out...... and will probably play around with this over the next week or so myself.........if I come up with a wonderful way to get the beads to stick I'll let you all know how I did it!


Speaking of snow- it's snowing here for the first time this season!! Not sure if I'm ready for this or not......I've been really enjoying NO SNOW. It's not even the snow so much that is a pain in the rear- it's the fact that just getting around from place to place is so much more difficult.....and you have to have mittens....and a hat.....and boots.....and a window scraper........ugggh!

I do plan on taking my 7 year old skiing for the first time this winter- have to expose them  to all sorts of winter fun! I haven't skied in years......with my luck I'll probably break my ankle or something stupid like that. Once the lakes get frozen enough we will be out there ice fishing too- love to catch me some crappies!

Now for the recipe.......

This is my mom's fabulous turkey stuffing recipe. It's so moist and delicious and easy to make. Way better than anything out of a box!

                      Sausage Stuffing

1 loaf of wheat bread (sliced or unsliced)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 pound breakfast sausage (I love Jimmy Dean- sage flavor)
1 tsp garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Tear the bread into small pieces and put into a large bowl. Pour water into the bowl- enough to completely soak into all the bread. If you get too much water in.....just squeeze out the excess. Brown the sausage with onion and celery and garlic. Cool the meat mixture and then mix in the bread- then stuff into your turkey! You can also just bake it in a casserole dish at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Feel free to use more than one kind of bread if you like- sometimes I add a bit of pumpernickel or rye bread if I have it on hand. The sausage makes it really moist- I just love it with gravy poured all over it!!

I have been trying to exercise extreme patience lately too. I won a $50.00 shopping spree at Hero Arts a few weeks ago......and I'm waiting for the new 2012 release to actually go shopping....in the mean time I still go look over all the stamps-inks-paper and make an ever changing wish list. I hope the release is soon, I can't wait much longer!!


Thanks for stopping bye and I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends or family!!


Inky Hugs...............................Anne

Color Q challenge #106- Spooky colors!

Hi everyone! I had to play along in this weeks Color Q color challenge - I can't resit using these great colors to make one last Halloween card.

I grabbed a Doodlebug gray and black card base I picked up at Archivers a while back and thought to myself "Hmmm.....I think I'll do a spider web card for this!"
I got out my favorite spider web stamp by Hero Arts and embossed it in clear powder- then to give the web some depth I used my Copic cool gray marker (C-3) to go around all the sections. Then I rummaged though my goodie box of Halloween items and found this big bat die cut a friend has sent my last year. I was really looking for a big old spider (swore I had some of these)...but found none. I die cut a circle for the moon- got out my distress inks in wild honey and spiced marmalade and edged up the moon. Used another Hero Arts stamp for the sentiment. A pretty quick and easy card to mass produce.





I don't know about you but I still have to get a few more Halloween cards addressed and  in the mail by this Monday......or I'll get too busy and they will be  forgotten or just be terribly late.......I hate sending cards out late!

Products Used:

Just thought I would ask...............what are your kids dressing up for this year for  Halloween? My seven year old boy is going to be the same as last year.......the "Grim Reaper"....unless he changes his mind at the last minute- which could very well happen.


Thanks for dropping by and hope you all have a great day and are enjoying fall! 





  Inky Hugs................................Anne