Grandma's Cookies

These are the easiest cookies ever! The reason we called them Grandma's Cookies is that when we were kids, my one Grandma always had them at the ready when we visited. She made them up in large batches and froze them. They are so so good when they are cold! They don't have to be stored in the fridge or freezer, but they are really good that way! I made the stick kind for the boys to take to their classmates. I hope they like them as much as we do!

Grandma's Cookies (Ritz cookies)

ritz crackers (round or sticks)

peanut butter

almond bark (baking chocolate or whatever it's called)

sprinkles (optional)

Make ritz crackers into peanut butter sandwiches. Melt chocolate (I use half white and have regular squares). Once melted, drop cracker sandwiches in one at a time and cover them with chocolate. Use tongs and place chocolate covered sandwich on wax paper. I usually place mine in the freezer to speed the 'setting' time of the chocolate. Then they are ready to eat!

Whew! I have been having issues this morning and this thing has NOT been letting me load pictures! Anyway, it finally worked so here's my card for the day. I made this last night for my stamp camp this week. I am not totally happy with it, of course! I loved rohla's version but didn't have the paper to do hers. I altered it a bunch to make it work with the stuff I had. I can't ever get that 'happy' to stamp straight. I must have it mounted crooked. And yes, I could get out my stamp-a-ma-jig. I do love that thing, but I just didn't feel like doing that extra step last night.

I've got all the cards done for camp and here's a group photo. For some reason I feel like this is a lame camp. Not sure why. I like most of the cards, but I feel like one is lame. Maybe I'll have time to come up with something different before tomorrow night. I stayed up until midnight getting all the cardstock cut so I am ready. Now I just have to get the boys to help me straighten up the house.....we'll see how that goes! Of course, my vacuum punked out on me so I can't vacuum now. I plan to shop for a new one tomorrow. And it will be bagless! I hate that it gets hard to find the right size bags the older your model gets. I mean, just because I took care of my appliance and it's still running - I can't find bags anymore! So annoying.

Blood....

I hate to give blood. I don't like shots, but especially now that I get regular allergy shots, I can deal with them. But the whole taking blood out of your body thing.....it's awful.

I had to give blood today for a ton of bloodwork that the rheumatalogist requested. I won't know the results until my next appointment. It was not fun though. The phlebotomist says "Wow, you must be one special lady!" as she lines up empty tube after empty tube for all the different tests. "I hope you have enough blood!" Sheesh! Like I wasn't already feeling freaked about it.

After she did at least 10 tubes worth, yikes!, she asked if I had eaten yet today. Um...no, they told me not to. So she told me to make sure I ate right after this. Well, DUH! I mean, for those of you that know me, I have to eat first thing in the morning.....or I am totally cranky. I had already promised myself a nice bacon and egg (no cheese cause American cheese is nasty) McGriddle once I got finished. I love those things! I never let myself have them and it'll probably make me sick later (all that greasy stuff just doesn't process well for me) but man, was it GOOD!

Can you believe she didn't offer me a cracker or some OJ?!? Oh well. I just hope they got all they needed and that I don't have to do that for a few more years. You'll never catch me at a blood drive. Sitting there letting them suck the life out of you into some tube. Blech! I just can't stand it. I focus on some point in the room and make myself breathe.

Ok, I should be finishing my stamp camp cards right now....

Color Challenge 91 and more...

So I was working on some cards for my stamp camp this week. I had picked up some of the Basic Grey Fruitcake papers a while back and decided to pull my colors for the color challenge from them. Here is the color challenge for this week! I think this is the first time I have done faux stitching in any color besides white! I think I also accidentally fit the sketch challenge from last week too, lol! It's not my favorite card, but I am extremely limited on my Christmas stamp set choices. I am cheating this year and sending a photo card. So I didn't buy any Christmas stamp sets. Well, the ladies from my class requested a Christmas themed class this month so I had to make due with what I have. I think this is also the first time I have used the Hodgepodge Hardware in a class!

This is another card for stamp camp this week. I did another version of this card last month and just decided to tweak it for camp. I had used black cardstock to stamp the greeting on last time, but I didn't want to do that for class. The drying time for white craft ink is too much for class. So I used a white card base. I cannot remember the last time I used a white base for a card! I am usually a layer freak. I am obsessed with piercing the little holes in the scallops from that punch. Then using the white gel pen to 'highlight' those piercings. I just think it is too cute. I really hope this card doesn't look too simple.

wow....I think I am obsessed with paper piercing and paisley. Almost all my cards use both! But seriously, don't they just work for everything?!?! Ok, I'll have to finish up the other 3 class cards tomorrow cause it's late. Night!

Confession Time....

So I felt the need to confess something. It has been brought to my attention how organized and neat my stampin space is. Well.....it's just not true, lol! It's usually a disorganized mess. I am afraid my photos were a bit misleading. If you'll notice, some of them have cream walls instead of green. That means they were taken over a year ago. Probably the last time my stamp room was clean, in fact. So I just wanted to get that off my chest. No, I am not that neat of a stamper! In fact, right now, you can't even see the tables cause they are covered with junk. Ok, I feel better now.

Also, I wanted to show off my closet. This used to be a regular closet that had just one rack towards the top for hangers. Matthew put shelves in over Labor Day this year, you know.....cause he needed to do some labor. So now I've got my mailing center shelf, my finished projects shelf, my alterables shelf, and then some 'other stuff' shelves. I love it and it really has helped me get more organized. LOL! Seriously, it has helped the mess in here. Those of you that have been in my stamp room are laughing your butts off right now....but it is better. Honest.

Special Card

So I got an email that asked Matthew and I to write out something special for our Home Group leaders from this fall at Church. She suggested cream and gold themed stuff and said it could be a scroll style or a card or whatever. Well, of course I had to make a card! I didn't have much time so I reached for the roses in winter! I used vanilla cardstock and tried to stick to soft shades so the vanilla and the gold would still be the focus. I stamped linen in the background in caramel ink, then did almost amethyst roses on top. I used sage shadow for the leaves. I topped it off with some cream organdy ribbon and gold cord. I went around both vanilla layers with gold zig paint pen. This was different for me, I never use gold! I am much more a silver person. Anyway, I am pretty happy with the results, considering I did it at 11:30pm last night. My grandparents will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary later this month, I may have to elaborate on this idea for them.

On a side note, bummer that Nebraska lost to OU last night. Cotton Bowl here we come, GO BIG RED!

Sketch Challenge 100

Well, it is a cause for celebration - this week was sketch challenge 100! I just got a chance to do mine last night. I think this card took FOREVER! I have no idea why, it isn't a hard card. For some reason, it just wasn't happening for me. I chose this paper and then I couldn't find a way to make it work with the sketch. So I came up with this after a little help from Matthew. I am still not wild about it, but it's done! I used the Basic Grey Fruitcake line of paper, I absolutely love everything by them. I tried using a touch of pink from the snowman scarves, but it looked awful. I ended up with that simple 'be merry' panel instead of stamping the words at the bottom right, like I had planned. Oh well, by the time I finished I was just glad to be finished. I know that some people will ask why I don't like it or insist nothing is wrong with it...and nothing is wrong with it, it's just not what I had envisioned when I started. But hey, it's all about trial and error, right?

So I hope you are staying warm...it's a cold front down here in TX. Our heat is kicking on! (that is a rarity down here, lol!) We are enjoying our light dusting of snow - which Andy believes is the First Texas Snow Ever!