Magnolia Mini World from Magnolia-licious!!

Hi everyone! I sure hope you're having a wonderful start to the weekend! I so enjoy Friday nights! It holds all the promise of a wonderful weekend ahead. And tonight it's Fajitas and Margaritas night! YUMMY!!! And I'm ready to eat right now! LOL! My beautiful daughter Nicki is in there cooking away while I upload these pictures to my blog, bless her heart. And it smells heavenly!! ooo...and now she's mixing me a Margarita! Does it get any better?? LOL! I just hope as this post goes on that I don't start having typos. I am a true lightweight when it comes to drinking alcohol! LMBO! And this is a long post! Anyway, here is a collection of fun things I made for Diana at Magnolia-licious to take to CHA with her. I'm not going this year, but I have already planned on going next January and I can't wait. Anyway, let me explain what I've got here.

This first project is a 3" x 3" note card holder. Just click HERE for the instructions from the Scor Pal projects site.  Oh my goodness do I love this! I will be making LOTS of these, and the Mini Magnolias are perfect with this size. The box holds four cards and four envelopes with plenty of room to spare. I made it with my brand new Scor Pal (thanks so much Diana!!!)  I used Magnolia Christmas paper, Bazzill cardstock, and Nestabilities.  #3059 Mini Star Tilda is colored with Copic markers on Xpress It Blending card.  The card file doesn't have an envelope in the instructions, so I just constructed one. The card is 3" x 3" square. To make the envelope for it, cut a piece of cardstock 6 1/8" square. Line the diagonal points of your cardstock on the 5 3/4" groove on your Scor Pal, then score down the 7 3/8" groove (the little black down arrow). Rotate your cardstock around until you've scored all four sides. Fold up and secure with Scor Tape. Your card will fit in it perfectly! I used #741 Mini sentiment on the envelope.

This is a beautiful frame ornament I got on sale after Christmas. I colored #3015 Mini Sparkling Tilda with Copics, cut it out wih Nestabilities and put it in the frame. Very simple and yet makes a very striking ornament!

This is another Scor Pal project which you can find right HERE.  I used some Basig Grey papers and edged it with a Martha Stewart heart border punch. #3060 Secret Tilda is stamped on Xpress It card and colored with Copics and then cut out with Nestabilities. I used a Martha Stewart border punch to make the paper lace around the center of it, and then used a MS heart punch on each panel around.

Here's another Scor Pal project, a Hershey Kisses holder. So simple and so cute! A simple glue dot on both ends holds the Kisses in place. Click HERE for instructions.  I used #3060 Secret Tilda for this one too. She's stamped, colored, and then cut out with heart Nestabilities.

I had a spool of twine from PTI, and when I used the last of it, I had this empty wooden spool that just begged to be made into an orament. I just wrapped some cardstock and some Graphic 45 paper aound the center, cut out the pieces to cover the top and bottom with Nestabilities, and then Scor Taped it onto the spool. I then stamped #224 Mini Lazy Summer Day Tilda twice and cut them out with Nestabilities, then glued those onto the spool (on both sides so it didn't matter how it hung). I added some red roses and branches on top, Oh, the red and white striped twine is also from PTI.

And then the following are some tags I colored up for Diana as well. I love this Magnolia Doohickey tag die and have already gotten my money's worth from this die. A little tip about getting the tag out from the die after you've cut it....I use my QuicKutz Quicker Poker Picker Upper. It works like a charm to pull the tag right out of the die without doing any damage at all.

So anyway, I apologize for the long length of this post, and I thank you if you've held out this long! :)  Be sure and visit Magnolia-licious for all your Magnolia needs! Diana is the exclusive distributor of the Magnolia Minis! If you haven't tried them yet, you're in for a real treat! Thanks so much for stopping by to see me, and hope to see you back again on Monday for the Magnolia-licious Design Team Monthly Blog hop! Enjoy your weekend! Hugs!

Quinoa Salad with Roasted Beets, Chick Peas and Orange

Vegan quinoa salad with roasted beets, oranges and chick peas.

I sat down to write a post about a quinoa recipe. A vegan salad perfect for detox - the post holiday process of weaning ourselves off sugar and inflammatory foods. A recipe to encourage a fresh, clean start to the new year. Healthy food for a healthy body. Tasty inspiration for the soul. But writing about quinoa salad today seems trivial in the face of the weekend violence that took place in Arizona. I am heartsick. Profoundly saddened. Aching for every victim lost to us forever, and every victim wounded. I feel an almost physical pain imagining what their families, collective friends and colleagues are going through.

Then I thought about the word detox. And it hit me.

We need to detox not only from the sugary indulgences of our collective holiday sweet tooth, but from the dulling, insidious power of toxic language and inflammatory rhetoric that has gripped public discourse by the throat these past few years, infecting all media, from political talk shows to social networking. I see it everywhere.

And it frightens me.


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Sneak peek day two for Wags 'n Whiskers!

Happy Saturday everyone! Today is day two for sneak peeks over at Wags 'n Whiskers! The new release are of gorgeous Pin Ups!!! And I think they make the most fun cards for guys for Valentine's Day which is right around the corner! For todays card, I am featuring the beautiful new Pin Up called Magali.  She's colored with Copic markers and then cut out with Nesties.

The various hearts are cut out with heart shaped Nesties and edged with some Chestnut Roan chalk ink, and all the panels are machine stitched. The little tag peaking out from behing the image panel was made using a Mangolia Doohickey die. And of course that beautiful ribbon is 100% silk from May Arts. You can find all the gorgeous colors in stock over at Stamp and Create.  Please be sure to visit the Wags 'n Whiskers challenge blog to check out the rest of the gorgeous designs by the design team! Thanks for stopping by to see met today, and hope to see you back on Monday for the Wags 'n Whiskers blog hop to celebrate the new release of these gorgeous Pin Ups! Until then, enjoy your weekend! Hugs!

Detox Green Soup Recipe with Broccoli, Spinach and Ginger

Detoxing from your holiday sugar fest? Try this vegan green soup with ginger.

I'm not perfect. Goddess knows. Especially during the long pale days of Winter. When I am a slug. Motivation is tricky to summon. I loll on the couch with my iPad and expend as few calories as possible, doing nothing more than watching House Hunters International as I read through your ever delightful comments. I scoop guacamole with homemade pecan crackers and conjure recipes for detox green soup as I follow tall young Cincinnatians ducking into tiny Italian kitchens the size of my corner sofa, daunted by the lack of plumbing but in love with the sun baked view of a tangled vineyard through open shutters. I mute the unintentionally absurd commercial for Cialis, trying to imagine why any woman over the age of fifty would even want to deal with 24-hour tumescence before I realize I have eaten a giant avocado.

All by my self.

I don't beat myself up. I know the bottom line. I didn't just fall off the turnip truck. I am not naive. Perfection is unattainable. No matter what the ad men tell you. And it's not perfection I seek. Though, in full transparency, I used to nurture an inclination toward seeking perfection in my long ago first marriage, but the wrecking ball named irony hit too hard to ignore. Turns out my first husband preferred someone decidedly not perfect. Someone sporting shiny green eye shadow and prone to dancing drunk with married men at Chamber of Commerce Christmas parties.

The thing about perfection is that no one cares. And neither does your soul. In fact, your soul loves to throw a monkey headlong into your perfect plan. You know the monkey I'm talking about. The monkey who misses deadlines and loses car keys and eats an entire bowl of guacamole in one sitting (or laying down, as the case may be). So much for resolutions and diet strategies. Monkey WIN!

But just in case you're serious about cleansing those fat little liver cells and whittling away your holiday pie roll, I did make a detox soup. And yes, it was green. And cruciferously abundant in vegan veggie wonderfulness. It made us feel happy. And well fed. Quite virtuous. But not perfect.

Because perfection, Darling, is overrated.


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Warm Winter Birthday Wishes

Happy Wednesday everyone.  We are halfway through the first week of 2011.  I bet all of you teachers out there are counting the hours until Friday afternoon after two weeks off.  My son's school district scheduled a teacher work day on Monday to help them transition back to school.  He was thankful for the transition day.

We have two family birthdays in January, my mom and my daughter.  Their birthdays are one week apart - Bethany was late and my mom was annoyed that Bethany refused to be born on her birthday.  I wanted her to come by Christmas so I had not sympathy for mom's annoyance!!

Anyway, this is mom's birthday card.  Inside the card, which I forgot to photograph, reads Warm Winter Birthday Wishes!  I used Bazzill cardstock and Echo Park cardstock; Spellbinder's Snowflake Pendant 2010, Label #14, Lacey Circles, and regular circles dies; JustRite stamps and Popcorn the Bear stamps; Stampin' Up ink and ribbon to create this card.  Oh, and a Spellbinder's embossing plate. 

I wanted a winter themed card that was both feminine and fun and I believe that this card met those goals.  I used Bazzill shimmer cardstock and Spellbinder's Snowflake Pendant  dies to cut the adorable pink snowflakes.  I used a pink ink to stamp the circle and lacey spellbinder dies with JustRite stamps.  Again, going for feminine with all of the pink, yet fun with the embossing and less formal stamps.

I had trouble finding a Happy Birthday stamp for the front of the card.  I am not sure where I stashed all of my birthday stamps.  I finally used a Popcorn the Bear "Happy Birthday" stamp.

I should be back tomorrow with another Spellbinder based project.