Card Making

As some of you know I am a card making kinda gal. I make ALL my Christmas, all 125 every year. I also have done a lot of wedding invitations, birthday invitations, and just misc. cards through out the year. I usually say I am going to send out 4th of July cards, but never have. This is the first year that I actually was able to get them done, have the pictures printed and mail them off.

I took red and blue cardstock and traced a star shape. The red star is actually the card, it opens and is attached only by two points of the star. The white stars where my patterns.

On the little blue star I used a stamp with fireworks on it and covered the star with the fireworks in silver ink. I used a pop up dot to adhere it.

On the inside of the card I used another blue star and wrote my message on it. Around the star I used Crystal Effects with white glitter to make it sparkle.

In every card I send out I ALWAYS put a picture in it of our family or just the kids. This year I just did the kids in there matching 4th of July shirts from Old Navy.

I hope everyone has a great 4th.

Enjoy the gifts...

Hello all you trusty followers! Some of you may not know this, but I am a Gold Canyon Candle Demonstrator and a Passion Party Consultant. The summer is a great time to jazz up your LOVE life. So I am calling all you ladies out there...Plan a girls night, serve some appetizers, and let's get together. Candles are a great way to set the mood and we can all use a little "SPICE" in the bedroom. The first three followers to book your GIRLS NIGHT will get a goody bag to start your evening off right. Feel free to share this information with others...anyone can WIN!!



Your Passion Party Consultant
and Gold Canyon Demonstrator

Play time

During the week I watch a little boy named Alex for three days. Morgan and him LOVE to play together with all the toys. Alex also LOVES to gives hugs.

Tasty Treat Tuesday

Berry Bliss Cake

This is a recipe that my Mother in-law makes for us. It is also a great 4th of July dish to serve if you are having a get together.

What you need:

1 pkg. (3.4oz) Jell-o Vanilla flavor instant pudding

3/4 cup cold milk

1 1/2 cups thawed cool whip, divided

2 cups mixed raspberries and sliced strawberries

1/4 cup blackberries (you can also use blueberries)

1 pkg. (10.75oz) frozen pound cake, cut into 3 layers

1/4 cup orange juice

Make it:

Beat pudding mix and milk with whisk 2 min. Stir in 1 cup cool whip. Combine berries; reserve 1/2 cup. Brush cake layers with juice; stack on plate, filling each layer with half each of remaining berries and pudding mixture. Top with remaining cool whip and reserved berries.

Refrigerate 4 hours and serve.

The weekend...

This past week Zach was away with his grandparents in Payson. How lucky he has been this summer. His first week of summer was spent in Colorado with my parents, then he came back and spent his second week in Prescott with Shawn's parents. He was home for two weeks, and left again to Payson with his other grandparents. Now we get him home for this week and he will leave again for church camp on July 5th and be gone for another week. What a busy kid he has been this summer.

Morgan and I always have fun on the weekends playing with Daddy. Morgan gets so excited when Shawn gets home...too bad he doesn't like pictures, so here is one of my little Princess and me.
I have been teaching Morgan to blow kisses, we were in the store the other day and Shawn told her that he loved her and she looked at him a blew him a kiss for the first time. Here she is blowing you a kiss too.

On Sunday a dear friend of mine came over for breakfast. Chersti and I taught first grade together last year in Winslow, AZ. She and her husband lived in the same area as Shawn and I so we were able to carpool to work everyday. Now Chersti has received a new job in Tennessee so she is headed out East. Her husband will be shortly behind her as he gets to retire in January. I will miss you Chersti, but now we have a new place to travel and visit to.

More of Morgan posing for the camera while riding her pink horse from Grandma. This was one of Morgan's Christmas gifts from my mom and Morgan is finally interested in playing with it.

Show us a room Monday...Today's pick is The Loft

This week I have decided to show our loft. We have quite a big loft and it is a place that we enjoy being. Half of our loft is decorated with a sports theme. My husband is a BIG hockey fan. He loves the Coyotes, but is from Detroit, so his LOVES the Red Wings too. We both LOVE football, I am a Denver fan and Shawn is a Cardinals fan. I enjoy basketball, The Suns, but Shawn does not and we both enjoy watching the D-backs.

Shawn's pride and joy, well one of them, is his BIG tv. He LOVES to play video games with Zach and his uncle and we LOVE watching movies up here.

The other part of our loft is dedicated to the play area for Miss Morgan and also my scrapbooking area. I have SO much stuff for scrapbooking that I decided to put it under my table out here so it is near me...but did not want all the totes visible, so I put a flip flop table cloth on the table and that also helps not to get the table dirty from glue and markers when I am working.

I have my two degree's displayed here. I received my Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education in May 2005 and then I went on to get my Master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction in September of 2006. I truly enjoyed my 3 years of teaching and hope that one day I will go back...not until Morgan is older though.

More of the play area.

More hockey pictures.

The last part of the loft is our two HUGE Love Sacs. When we moved a few years ago we had a really big loft in that house too, so we decided to buy a couple of Love Sacs. At the time I was excited about it, now that we have moved twice since we bought them, they are becoming a BIG pain, but they are VERY comfortable to lay in.

Tasty Treat Tuesday

Today I have decided to share a recipe for all the mommy's who make their little ones food. It is called Pasta Risotto.

1/2 cup orzo or other small pasta shapes
1 small carrot, peeled and diced
1 small zucchini, diced
1/2 cup chopped broccoli florets
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese

Put the pasta in a saucepan together with the carrot, cover generously with boiling water, and cook for 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and the broccoli and continue to cook for about 7 minutes. Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the drained pasta and vegetables, and toss with the butter and cheddar cheese until the cheese has melted.

This is suitable for freezing.