It's Almost Thanksgiving!

I know I have a couple of people who peek in from time to time that are not in the US. {Tomorrow is a national day of gratitude.} And on a personal level it always involves the cooking and eating of too much food... We're not going to go the traditional Turkey route though, Roasted one a couple of weeks ago and then we did a "Turkey day" luncheon at work today. Tim's oldest brother deep fried a turkey all morning and that was the first time we had eaten it that way. the Pea nutty taste was OK, I was a little surprised and alot relieved that it was just moist and not greasy when it had been mentioned to me ahead of time that Joe wanted to deep fry the turkey this year i was thinking "oooh ( yuck! shh! ;) )" But, it was really good. so, tomorrow we will bake a Ham. (and hopefully find some quite time to create) So for the rest of this year i only have one class left to teach I came up with the idea last summer and its called "the 12 tags of Christmas" Funny thing right after i started making the tag proto types i started seeing tag swaps for Christmas packages left and right so that was like oh no maybe thats too dumb, but so far so good they have people who have reserved their spots for the class at the store already. I am feeling really stressed about the upcoming holidays. more then usual i guess. In the past i have spent a considerable amount of time and energy and money trying to make sure that the gifts we gave either really reflected the person receiving it or that we assumed they would really enjoy it. No assembly line gifts ever. and this year. Nada. do not have a single gift done, bought wrapped or anything. Christmas cards are partially done. (the ones that are done are ok to mail out but there are not enough cards done) I say to Tim on a regular basis, what do you want to do for Christmas? whats the plan? he says Christmas has been canceled. ha! could you just imagine the relief if that was really true? So, the next few weeks are going to be less and less posts as the free time goes into baking and making and wrapping and such... This is starting to feel like reading the run down on the local news where they list crime after crime after crime... With that thought in mind, James is enjoying his time off he had no school today and then has the next 4 days off in a row. he recovered from his flu bug really quick and managed to give it to me. I am thinking i don't have to worry about a flu shot now... :) Our dog still has a little bit of an ear infection but, shes getting better too. The cat thinks he's a dog and is getting quite chubby eating the large breed iams dog food. { oh yeah the dog likes the kitten chow better too} My guess is it probably doesn't really matter as long as they are eating something. Tim is hoping to get a few more pheasant to break his previous bird count record. ( he's real close) and the season ends Friday... So he will go out at the crack of dawn and hope to get lucky. Me I'm hoping the snow they have predicted for us doesn't amount to much so that the roads will be not too bad on black friday morning... ( got a couple of places i think i want to go to) including the fairgrounds for a really large craft fair. I have been kicking around the idea of doing craft fairs next year with handmade gifts but, at this point i don't know how well it would go over, so far the bazaars that Alice and I have gone to have not had any kind of a paper crafter or party plan consultant at them ( seen all the other party plan and then some though) The lady who owns the store where i teach has suggested to me that I could bring in cards to her store and she would sell them in there for me... ( but she has not mentioned how much this will cost me) so i have not done anything with that yet. Seen some totally cute reproduction post card spinning holders in the pottery barn catalog that would be cute to display cards in but... still thinking about this. OK this is long enough of an update right? More later, Me

Alcohol Inks Backgrounds Card Class

hmm, first post on the new blog... seems to have two of each photo in it. not sure how this will publish but, these are cards made from a sheet of alcohol ink background that they will do in a class at the store next Tuesday night. the card above they will also make a vellum envelope for it and it will have toggle ties punched from the background sheet also. Stamp above is an Emmerson from American Art stamps.

Not sure that i have mentioned this but, by the end of September i had intended to stop teaching at the store with the October class. Not because i don't like teaching ( which i do ) but, mostly because the store had no policy's in writing about people paying for their class spot in advance and you know asking me to make so many packets and telling me there were so many people then having no one at all come to the last class in Sept. was like what? there is a story there but. the gist of it is, when i was doing the October class ( which was sold out) the store owner put me on the spot right in front of all of these ladies with oh what are you going to teach us next at the next one and i said i don't have a next class. i think its better that i just make samples for the store and if you get three people who really want to know how its done then maybe we can plan a class... that shocked her i think she expected me to keep making these classes and packets for nothing and having the not sold packets stacked up was not very funny to me. ( not when i could have used the money on things i wanted for my self) So, now the store has a policy that if they want in a class they have to pay for their spot 2 days ahead of time. and she also sells the packets that don't sell in the store. so i am at least getting the money back out of them when they don't sell. The store now has in stock every color of alcohol ink (the ones Tim Holtz uses) sold by the bottle. so i have done an altered stampendous clear can ( inked the metal lid and bottom) a few cards. and these cards on the blog post today are for the class then a few extra cards that i think i posted at 2P's a couple of weeks ago...

This one the sentiment is Hero arts, the brads are lasting impressions and the leaf is from Impression Obsession.

they are not really fancy and i surprised my self that i don't own a single thing (or stamp) that says happy Thanksgiving or the word Thanksgiving at all...

This one the oval at the bottom was punched out then the sentiment is over stamped on that then there is gold leafing on the edges and it is re-inserted to the place where the oval was punched and its up on pop-dots. The thank you is from Hero Arts and the wreath is personal stamp exchange.

The December class is " the 12 days of Christmas" so they are not cards but, i have 13 or 14 done for her to pick 12 out of them for the class and will go down there later when they open to do that.

It snowed here last night again, not enough to do much more then make everything white and roads slippery.

James is getting better he had a 24 hour stomach thing the other day and had to come home from school with that. & Slick had to go to the vet ( she has an ear infection) its still duck and pheasant season here and she you know dives in and swims with her head under the water...

The whole week has felt like just one thing after another so, I'm looking forward to having the time to just play today. Tim finished the bakers rack to hold stamps for me last weekend and if the sun comes out i will try to take some better photos of it.

More later,