Cute Vinyl Christmas Gift Part One and Two....

You know during the Christmas Season, you are running around checking your list trying to get the best Christmas gift for your husband, wife, children, mom, dad, grandchildren.  When you are all done, you are exhausted like you just ran a marathon, more fluids!  Then as you are sitting back, drooling, you remember, Oh my I forgot the presents for ______!  That my friend, is my definition of Christmas.  The ones forgotten are usually a simple gifts for gift exchange for work, or for the mailman, butcher, doctor, babysitter, book club members, bunko girls, red hats, librarian, teacher, I can go on can't I? 

I have figured out the perfect gifts!!!

I have posted about the incredible machine called Silhouette.  With this puppy, I can make cute Christmas items for about two bucks.  (You can't count the $300.00 it cost to buy this puppy)  Then I could add to it as I want, if I want..  Take a look at this beauty.....

I bought a mixing bowl at the Dollar Tree:

(See the plate underneath it, yep that turned out to be a gift as well).

Came up with the saying "I love Pancakes" putting  on my computer Silhouette software font called "Black Boys on Mopeds"  serious, can't or won't make that one up.  That font is free along with like a gazillion other ones.

Then I put my red (my very FAVORITE color, I LOVE it)  vinyl paper in it and printed. Viola!

Transferred it to my mixing bowl and filled it with red foil shreds (Oh that was a mistake, boy was that messy!!!! But it really looked good, it is like wearing a pair of really high heels, they kill your feet, but you look Fabulous!). I decided to put a red spatula in it, then came up with the great idea to put a bottle of syrup and a box of pancake mix along with it.

 

I then wrapped it in clear basket wrap, again Dollar Tree and for a gift like this was a total of under $10.00!  That is you don't buy pure maple syrup, if you do add about $8.00 to it.  

I had done another one and replaced  Pancakes for Waffles and just added a waffle mix.  You could put "Cookies" and then do a cookie mix in a jar, Cakes then put a cake mix with frosting in it, See the possibilities???

Now you say, you don't own this incredible machine, no worries, go to a craft store and buy vinyl lettering and do it yourself, So easy to do, so personal and you did it yourself! 

Second one..

Bought a plate at the Dollar Tree:

BORING!!!!

Then I took my handy dandy machine and printed on red vinyl again:

And came up with this phrase:

This is going to one of my girlfriends who is a lawyer.  Perfect!

The second one:

Ohhh I love this one too!  I took a cookie, broke it in half and taped it down to the plate.  It is precious, then I took a dozen cookies and put them into a Christmas baggie along with a plate stand and put that in a Dollar Tree Christmas bag. 

This is the one that I am bringing to my family gathering as one of my Christmas exchange gift as with the mixing bowl. 

Again, don't have the machine, go to your craft store, but different vinyl lettering and you can make these cute  and very personal gifts.

Humm,,, maybe I should be selling these, Naw, it is so much more fun to spend money than make it.

Have a great weekend and get out there and do these!  Send over pictures of your work I and everyone else would love to see what you did.

One Scary Site...Horse with no Rider...

It truly was a scary site..

Remember I live very rural.

Let me set the scene...Yesterday late afternoon around 4PM.  We had just come home from an incredible afternoon attending the Tamale Festival down in Indio (that will be my next post.)  We had just loaded up our booty (lots of tamales) in our truck and was headed home.  It was raining and had for the past hour or so.  As we turned the bend, Andy says, "Look, I see a horse running over there".  He was pointing to a meadow which a home owner does keep his horses over there but the horse was runinng  too far and I knew the cowboy had moved his horses to another facility down the hill for the winter.

As we passed the horse, we both realized at the same time that this horse had a saddle on it but no rider!  Andy flipped a U turn immediately, then we watched as the horse started running towards the road!  Andy starts blowing the horn and incredibly the horse starts running parallel to the road!  I roll down my window, stretch halfway out of the truck and grab her reins.  I don't even remember getting out of the truck.  Boy, she was terrified!  Eyes wide open, mouth foaming, open wounds, man oh man, this is not good.  I was talking to her, calming her down, walking her around looking around at the vast area getting sick to my stomach, knowing she has a rider out there somewhere.  It's cold, damp, raining with snow, and to top it off, it was getting dark. 

At that time, a car pulled up and asked if she was our horse we told him no and he said he was going to start looking for the rider in the area that he first saw the horse running.  What a sinking feeling I had.  Across the street, there is  a rental riding stables and we walked her over there and put her into a corral to further check her out.  For the most part, she was pretty good, but the saddle, oh the leather on the side of the saddle was gone.  I thought I was going to throw up!  

About 45 minutes later, here comes the car with the rider in it!!!  He wasn't your cowboy type, actually looked like he should have gotten off a Harley, not a horse.  Black pants, black jacket, black shoes and a black and white bandanna on his head.  He got out of the car limping and gave many many thanks to the driver.  I am sorry now that I didn't get the driver's name.  I yelled out to him as he was driving off "We make a great team!"

The rider said "Man, I thought I was going to die today, it terrified me!"   He was shaking horribly. I was pretty sure he had a consussion and when I asked if I could take him to the hospital, he said no, he just wanted to get back to the house.  Unfortunately, he didn't know where the house was!!!  He had been visiting his girlfriend who just moved out there and he lived in LA.  He just wanted to take the horse for a "quick ride" along Pacific Crest Trail (that is going to be a future post). He was going up a narrow trail and the horse slid in the mud and starting falling to the left down a cliff!  He fell backwards and she caught herself before a drop he said of over 300 feet!  She took off and there he was all by himself.

He was completely lost.  So Andy started asking him specific questions and all the rider could say is the house he is staying at is a log cabin, WOW, we are in trouble!  There are log cabins EVERYWHERE!!!  So we got in the truck and started driving in the direction of the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail).  He said it was past a blue house (WHUUUT!)  I sat in the back and kept praying and praying hard..  We only had about 15 minutes before it was totally dark and now the snow and rain was coming down HARD!

We took one dirt road, needless to say it all dirt road here.  He said this is the road where she lived at and we turned around and went back to the corral.

He looked her over and got on.  She was so calm, what a good girl...and Andy and I followed him all the way home, to make sure he was ok.  As we turned the truck around to leave, the rider yelled out, "Thank you so much man, I love you two and I thank God you were there"!

Come to think of it now, we never got his name either.

When it was all said and done and we were just pulling up to the garage, that is when I lost it and started crying and couldn't stop.  Why?  To know that person was out there by himself and had no clue where he was.  For the horse, who was terrified to be without his rider and not know where he was running, just to run to get safe.   That people, out of the blue, stopped and helped, without knowing what was in front of them.


I truly believed in my heart that God put us there right then and there for that man, along with the other driver.  There are angles in our lives and yesterday the three of us were that man's angel.

I am happy to say that his story had a happy ending versus what it could have been.  I still woke up this morning with the fear what could have happened...What a blessing.

Now to go eat a tamale!

Bunny Tracks

I haven't been able to write this week and for that I apologize.  There has been craziness all around and I will think that it has been crazy at your home too.

We went from crazy cold to down right beautiful here this past week.  In one day the temperature raised over 50 degrees!  In the morning it was 9 yes I said 9 and then all the up to 59!  WOW!!

I wanted to post a picture of bunny tracks for no other reason than they looked cute.  You will find from time to time I post bunny tracks in the snow.  I had taken a picture the other night of bunny tracks with an indention of his bunny tail.  But taking a picture in the snow is difficult because of it being white.  The camera has a very difficult seeing pure white.


With all we have to do it is just nice to take a second and not have to think and just enjoy.

Here is one I took that the little guy came all the up to my door:

Awwwee...

He wanted in....well this week the weather is beautiful until the next storm is supposed to hit on Sunday, but for now I will enjoy the warmth, it is getting up to 58 today, break out the shorts!

Happy Thanksgiving! Here is a present or two! Because I love you!

Boy oh boy I bet everyone is running around getting ready for Thanksgiving Day this week.

 Are you having the feast at your house?  Are you going over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house? 

Well I have something I think would be lovely to either give to your guests at their place setting or for your hostess.

I got this from The Graphic Fairy here.  I am putting it into a frame, It was a dollar at the Dollar Tree.

Or, the other day I was looking at another blog I love called Craftily Ever After.  She had the cutest faux burlap with the definition of Thanksgiving.  I fell instantly in love with this.  Wouldn't this be great to again, have these framed (Dollar Tree again) and sitting at the place setting for your guests or wouldn't it be the perfect hostess gift?

I would do a 3x5 for the place setting and a 8x10 for a hostess gift.  

You are more than welcome to copy and keep these wonderful little gifts from our home to yours.  I have mine printed out in Pacasa and do four to a page.  So no fuss no muss!  Easy Breezy!

Please have a safe and beautiful day and I am thankful to have you as my friend.

Trying new things stretching the mind and patience.

I love the blog world! I love meeting people and only wished they lived closer.   I love exploring people's blogs.  It is almost like peeking in their windows, now STOP being gross, I meant that in a good way.

Ok let's put it this way, it like going over to a new friends home and visiting.  That sounds better.

I have met a new blogger named Colleen and here is her blog here.. 



I ran into her blog from being somewhere else and I fell head over heels with the Halloween blocks she designed.  I have to tell ya what she does is pretty amazing. 

It is digitally manipulating pictures and the great product really got my attention.

So, I contacted her and asked her to help me.  Wow!  Was she wonderful!  The information was spot on, however, it is not the teacher's fault it is the students.  I couldn't grasp the soft ware called Gimp, which is free to download and use.  I have another software called paint.net which is also free to download and use. 

That is why I haven't been blogging this past week except for the past 24 hours.  It has consumed me totally.  I walked out of my office yesterday when Andy got home and when he saw me his eyes were huge and only said "Oh my".  Stop it, just because I haven't showered, still in sweats and a t-shirt, and had HIS  shoes on because I did tear myself away just enough to check on the chickens.  Don't we all deserve a day to look like that?  (I think I frightened him).

Getting back to my story.

Anyway, I haven't been able to accomplish anything with this yet and I have learned that I am learning everything of what NOT to do with this program.

Colleen, I love you and are thankful in my life, now if only I have have you do my projects.....hum....

See, I am still working on Halloween!  Get over it, Christmas is here!

If anyone is familiar with either one of these programs, please share, I think once I get it, it will be incredible!

Have a great Sunday!

Explosion!!!

Didn't expect it, didn't think it could happen.  Heard through the years that this was possible.  But it did take me by surprise and shock, especially when it hit me upside the back of the head!

What is it, you ask?  Biscuit dough!  It EXPLODED!!!  B-O-O-M!  Andy went to open a can of biscuits and I was heading towards the refrigerator and the can blew up!  It hit me upside the head, went ALL over the kitchen!  Andy just stood there, I think in total shock, wow is all he could say...

I started laughing so hard that when I grabbed my camera, which had dough on it.  I couldn't stop the camera shots from being blurry!  It even reached to the top of the ceiling fan in the eating area!  B-o-o-m!

It's also was on the wall, the pantry, did I say in my hair? Andy's hair?  Altitude, I tell ya.  Messy, but what fun once I got over the B-O-O-M! 

You have to laugh or life will just make you mad all the time!  And no, we didn't make biscuits after that!

What a way to start the day!

Pilgrim Hats! OOOOHHH How cute!!!

I made these hats today for the kids at the kindergarten class.  They came out GORGEOUS!!!  Sooo easy to make, wanna know how to do this, well it is soooo easy and I enjoyed it so much that I was sad when it was over. (Did I mention it was sooo easy)
I can’t wait until tomorrow, please say a prayer that I don’t  destroy them like my graduation hats did, see older post in June of 09 Here. Bad Bad and really bad.

Here are the instructions:

1. One cup vanilla frosting(I guess you could use yellow frosting but I liked being in charge of how the color yellow would come out)
2. 7 drops of yellow food coloring(Dollar store for a dollar)
3. 32 miniature Reese’s (I freeze the cups prior to using them, it makes taking the wrapper off easier)
4. 1 pkg 11.5 oz fudge-striped cookies (Dollar Store for a dollar)
5. I used little sprinkles that I found in Michaels for the buckle

Mix the frosting and food coloring together.  Take out the cookies, lay them correctly with the chocolate  side up. 

 
Dip the cup into the frosting, don’t be stingy.  Press the cup on to the cookie so the frosting smooshes out the sides.
Then put the leaves or something small of the side for a buckle as YOUR DONE! 
These were so much fun!  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!  
Let me know about how much fun you had making yours!

This will make 32 uh 30 of them because you just have to eat two of them, because it just looks so nice. 

 Let me know what you think about this cute idea!

Foto Friday....Low Cloud..

Whew!  I say that a lot.  But the stress is all finished and taken are of.  My sister LOVED her present.  She cried.  I cried.  I am so very blessed to have her as my sister and have always been proud to have her as my  sister from the first day she was born.  

It doesn't matter how much money you have to spend or to owe.  If you make something for someone that is true to their heart, you will always hit the mark, I promise.

Today's Foto Friday I have for you  is a low cloud between the mountains.  This is what I woke up today.  What a great welcome home present.

Everybody have a great weekend.  Now off to get another cup of coffee....

Finally Done with my Sister's Birthday Present....

Well I am D-O-N-E!!!

I love the artwork on the blogs as you can tell.  That is why I haven't been blogging like I should.

I have put down a blog called tatertotsandjello blog a while ago.  Jen has become my muse.

There are over 125 people that have submitted their subway art on her blog.  Some are just amazing, I couldn't wait to try it!

I did a smaller one for one of my sisters back in September.  Then I came up with the bright idea to do a huge project (uh, 4  feet by two feet) for my little sister that just went to Europe for the first time and celebrated a milestone birthday.

There were so many, many and many more layers to this "little" gift.  I first had to get specific words from her and told her  that was her assignment while she was on vacation.  Not knowing what it is, she probably thinks I am crazy, well, a little more crazy then usual.

I cannot tell you how excited I am to a) to have it done b) to have it turn out EXACTLY how I wanted it to.

Where is the picutre you ask?  Hang on I want to tell you about it before I post it.

I wanted it to look antiqued.  What I was looking for when I was designing this is a story of the two of them in Paris when they came across the painting:

(Here is my story of this painting).

Bill and June were walking into antique shops in the cold, damp, autumn day in Paris.  Not knowing what they are looking for.  What fun it  is to actually hunt for treasure and not knowing what it is, is the best part of antiquing!

They walk into the shop quickly to escape the fine mist of rain falling.  Inside was warm with the smell of coffee just being brewed.  A tiny lady late in her late 70's welcomed them and invited them in and asked if they would like a cup of coffee to warm them up.  Thankfully, they accepted and sat down while quickly looking over the place.

The lady said her name was Rose and this had been her shop over the past 60 years and had been handed down in the family for over 100 years before her.  She said that very rarely does someone come in and not find a "treasure" for themselves.   She then asked what they were looking for and they said in unison "We won't know until we find it".  They chatted about the history of the shop and the surrounding area and it had  been saved from the Germans during World War II.  Rose said "They knew this shop was special".

Then Bill got up and started looking around in the jewelery cases and books on the shelves.  June had finished her coffee and joined in the search.

In the back of the shop had many paintings leaned up against the bookshelves, a little dusty but nothing a good cleaning wouldn't fix.  June started going through them one by one.  Bill had made the remark that the pictures were quite large and getting them home would be a challenge.  She laughed a little almost deciding to stop then when she flipped the next picture, there is was!

"What"? She screamed, "how in the world could this be"!  She yelled for Bill to come over and said to him,  "Look at this,  I, I, I,  can't breath" !  She held on to his arm while she pointed at the picture. 

He studied her for a moment then his eyes went to the picture.  "What the..." he said letting his words trail off.

This painting  was words of  their trip and it was the very words of the events that were memorable to them and even had Gordon Ramsey's restaurant where they had dinner just a couple of nights ago!

Bill went to the shop owner and asked "Where did you get this picture"?  Rose told him very calmly that this picture had been in the shop every since she was a little girl. 

"Why?" She asked.

Rubbing his chin, he tells Rose about the picture and what each word means. 

"Then this is what you are looking for" she smiling slightly.

June then let's out another scream.! Oh my God!,   When she turned the painting over it said "Happy Birthday,  Love Jeanine and Andy.   

Sometimes in life there aren't answers to all questions and somethings just don't need answers.  They are there because they are supposed to be there, just waiting for the moment.

I hope your present is as special to you and it was for me to make it for you.  I love you and always will.




(This is to be read by my sister before she see the gift )


So here is the painting that was done in her honor of her birthday and trip:

Whew!  Who wants a tutorial?  Say it and I will make it so!!!