A New Purse to start the New Year

So I am a collector of purses – not expensive purses but ones that you find at Kohl’s or JCPenney. And when I say collector I am mean at one time I had 20 different purses in my closet and use to come home every couple of weeks with a new one. But I am finally at a place in my life where I am ready to commit to one purse (Can you hear my hubby jumping up and down for joy??)

So I called my oldest daughter who is a collector of Coach purses and asked her to go with me out to the Coach outlet store cause I was ready to commit to a purse.

So out we went to the Coach outlet and I did find one that I liked very much and met my list of requirements in a purse.  But I gulped when I figured out this purse was going to cost me $175.  And that was after a 20% discount coupon.

So after much debating I decided to look around at some of the other stores in the outlet mall before making a final decision.

So we looked at Saks 5th Ave and then headed over to Nine West.  And when I walked in I found the purse that I was looking for.  It met all of my requirements and the price was right…$49.99 plus another 30% off.  I think that I will be happy with this purse for a long time to come…

So introducing Big Red



Isn’t she gorgeous???

And to make it even better I have been looking for a pair of black boots for the winter and they had exactly what I was looking for. On sale no less for $29.99 so I bought them in brown too.  So a new purse and 2 pairs of boots for way less then 1 purse at Coach.

What a successful shopping trip.

Thanks for stopping by…
C

Jazzing things up…

With a new year comes a new date book for my purse.  I happened to be in Target the other day and found this one. 



Now I love the inside of it but the outside is boring (sorry I don’t have a pic of it) so I decided to try adding some ribbon to the outside to dress it up a bit.



But still rather boring and then I had the great idea of adding vinyl to it using my cricut.  So I grabbed some of the Cotton white vinyl and Black vinyl that I had and my brand new Stamping Solutions cartridge and came up with this.



Still boring so I decided to add some more vinyl.
Here is my new improved date book for 2011.



Love it so much better then the old boring plain cover.  Plus now I have a one of a kind datebook.
And the other nice thing is if I get bored with my cover during the year, the vinyl comes off pretty easy and I can add new designs.

Thanks for stopping by…
C

A fun new year has begun…

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season.  I know that my family and I sure did. 
But now that the gloomy month of January has started
I am so glad that I have new toys to play with.

Like these…



Yep that’s right, Kendall and Chuck bought me a set of 12 Copic markers for Christmas. I was so excited.
I spent the Monday after Christmas figuring out what other colors that I needed to fill my in little set.
And the nice thing is that my parents sent me money for Christmas and so I spent it on these…



24 more Copic markers along with this ink pad that is suppose to be the best to use with the markers.



And yeah Friday my new pens came in the mail, just in time for a long weekend.
So Sunday I spent the day in the Scrap Studio playing with my new pens and watching Youtube videos on how to use them.  I love them and after watching a few videos, here is my practice sheet.



And this little guy came out so good. 



I have a lot more practice to do before I am as good as some of the projects that I’ve seen using these pens but that’s what make it fun and I have the whole gloomy month of January to play with them.

Oh and here is my Copic pens chart.  I downloaded it off the internet so that I could keep track of the pens that I have and still need to buy.



I am glad that my Birthday is in Feb.

Thanks for stopping by…
C

Merry Christmas to you and yours

Merry Christmas to you and yours

Baking Day 2010

Baking Day is a tradition that was started years ago by my mom when my sisters and I were growing up.  And as we grew up we included our daughters (and sons some times). Early on my oldest sister made us all matching aprons including the little ones and I still have that apron. I wore it up until last year when Kendall made Amanda and I new aprons for our Baking Day.  At one point there were 13 of us baking at one time at my parents house.  It got to be such a big day that my parents bought an extra oven that my Dad would hook up for that one day every year. None of the husband were allowed to come around till later in the day and then they became our cookie testers.  It was a long day but at the end of it we would all good home with some really good cookies and some really great memories.  We don't get to do this day on such a large scale anymore, both of my sisters have moved out of state and parents have moved away too.  But all of us keep the tradition alive in our own way.  My sister and nieces have their own baking day, just like the girls and I do and my other sister has been busy baking in TN. And each year when I get down the cook book that those recipes are in I think of all of the good times that I've had baking with my family. And look forward to all of the Baking Days that are to come - hopefully with my own grand kids some day.

Our Baking Day started when the girls got here at 9am to start the day. It was another wonderful and successful day that ended at about 6pm.  We made all of the family favorites and a few new ones too.

Here are a few pictures of the day:

I hope that you are enjoying your family traditions as much as we are.

Thanks for stopping by...
C

Love the smell of Gingerbread

Awww nothing says Christmas more then the smell of warm Gingerbread.  And over the weekend our neighbor, who was a professional chef, was experimenting with different gingerbread recipes and brought over a couple of sample for us to decide which one was better for gifts he is making.

So after he teased us with the samples I knew I had to make some gingerbread cookies so I got this out to try.

This with a little butter and water was all I needed and I had it whipped up in about 5 minutes.  Then into the frig for 30 minutes.

Then I got hubby to help me cut them out with me.  He is such a good helper and puts up with me now that the girls don't live at home anymore.

We used my new mini Christmas cookie cutters that I got in a swap over on 2Peas.  I thought they would be just the right size for mini gingerbread cookies.  Just a couple of bites.

And here is the finished product. 

They came out so cute and tiny.  Just right!!

Tomorrow is our annual Baking Day so I will have lots of yummy cookies next week to share.  Until then

Thanks for stopping by...

C