A winner and OWOH starts

****Just happened upon your blog! By reading some of your posts, could your present be a Sizzix or CriCutter (I think that's the name??!!) Anyway, it was fun reading your post - I could feel your excitement. I'm a new follower - I also like raising chickens (although at the moment I am chickless!) Here is the winner of the guessing game today!!!***** 
Yepper I got me a cricut expression cutter!~  and have been playin all day with this cute bug!!

Please send me your addy and I will pop your prez in the mail asap!!
TY!!

Ok also almost forgot to post about ONE WORLD ONE HEART!!  This is the 5th and final year for this amazing and fun blog hop!!  I have been in it for 3 years and have met some wonderful bloggin friends on here!!  SOOOOOOOOOOOO now I have to figure out what I will make for this event!  Last year I sent out a pendant, some paper rosettes and also an altered framed captured fairy so with this being the last year I gotta come up with something extra special!! Will post asap!!

You can figure this out someone will definitely recieve a pkg of mixed things cut with my little bug too!! LOL   It is aquamarine my birthstone color~~ YEAH!! that is kind of cool!! 
Have a great night!!
HUGS
Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Mondays color challenge and a present!!

Oh my goodness!!  I got something yesterday (THANKS MOM)!!!!   anyways it is goin to have my busy busy and I think it will open a whole new line of creative tresures for me!!  I have wanted this for so long but never broke down and bought it.    Now that I have it I have sooooooooooo many thing running thru my head!  there are endless things to create and I think this is goin to be a wise investment!!  I even got the same color of this a my birthstone!!!  SO THE FIRST PERSON TO GUESS WHAT IT IS AND LEAVE THE COMMENT ON TODAY"S POST WINS A LITTLE PREZZIE FROM ME!!!  
And today's color challenge over at CR84FN::::  brown, red and tourquoise.

I cut layers of flowers out from a vintage hymnal and painted each one with barn red paint.   Antiqued and distressed each petal then layered them with lots of foam dots inbetween layers so they POP off the card.

Thinking of you is cut out of some aqua color paper that I distressed with my beloved TIM HOLTZ distressing ink in walnut.

A couple of flourishes are stamped in black and added to the backround.  Tourquoise and brown dotted grograin ribbom. 

A close up of my flower

AND the things I will play with this afternoon and MAKE aRt JeWelRy!!  I took apart one of the old royal typewriters I bought in sept at the flea market.  I love these and I just know the ideas I have for them welllllllllllllllllllllllllll...........................I wont want to sell the jewelry I make!! LOL 

Here's the card!~!~

I hope and pray Old Man Winter is not too hard on the US as I see the whole country is having this winter storm!!  They are callin for 14-25 inches here!! WOO HOO!~! snowmobiles may have to go out this week!! YEAH!! YIPPEE!! YEEE HAWWWWWWW!!*****  when u live in Michigan you just gotta love snow!! ** and we do!!   TAKE CARE, BE SAFE, and STAY WARM!!

Talk more soon!

HUGS

Darlene

 ~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Another TERRIFIC Thursday!!

I am so so so SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!  Not only did I get to the kitchen early today and made fresh baguette bread loaves but I also had enough time to watch Julia/Julie movie with my friend Susan (LOVED it by the way)  ANDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD then got home and finished a project up I started yesterday!!!  I swear if I just didnt need sleep I could be even more dangerous!!!  LOL   back to the movie!! OMGOODNESS GRACIOUS!! what a movie!~  As a kid  I would watch her show over and over and everyday!! Loved that lady and always wanted to meet her!  And this movie makes me even more sad to find out she was such a lovely soul!! Well we are kindred spirits!!
Meryl Streep you were fantastic!!!  she fit the role just perfect!! 
Ok so NO I am not wanting to do every recipe from my beloved bakin sister Julia but there is a book called the crust and crumb that Susan and I want desperately to make every bread in it!! So next week I am makin that my mission that we create a new bread each week!!  ( will keep yall updated on how that works out)  It is perfect timing for this adventure since we only have market once a week I can DO IT!!
On to the project for today!!  I was so insprired by Melissa at lilybeanpapier with her wonderful pin cusions I decided to do one my primitively altered kind of way!!  My mom and I have been buyin up pretty fibers and assorted yarns for scarves but I thought these were perfect for my pinkeep.   I also have a super stash of pretty dresses I buy from thrift stores (NOT to wear silly) to cut up since the fabric is wonderful and you get alot of recycled treasures made from one dress!!  So this light sage piece was left from a dress and it was just enough to make a nice rectangle pin keep.   I used some teadyed muslin for the back. 

Here's the pretty pink/green/white and tan loopy kind of fiber yarn and a super light green alpaca wool yarn I used.

I just started randomly sewing on the fibers to the fabric.  So fun to just sit and do it with no pattern!! Yepper I live on the WILD SIDE sometimes!! 

 LOL

You can see here I also added in a bit of purplish fun fibers.

Dont forget if yall are makin one for yourself to leave a section unsewn for turnin and stuffin!

I crocheted a flower with the multi colored fibers and hand sewn that on with a little button center.

It still needed a bit of that "farmgirl" bling of mine so I strung up a few glass beads.  again with reckless abandonment! LOL and added them to hang under the flower.

This also has some lavender buds and a touch of lavender essential oil inside so it smells divine!! 

Made some coconut macaroons today these still have to have their little bums dipped in chocolate

The egg bread bakin in oven

My braided egg breads fresh out of ovens!!

Had to bring one home for supper tonight.  HAD so because when hubby finds out we have no eggs in our fridge he will at least beable to have some in the EGG BREAD!! LOL!! this recipe takes 2 1/2 dozen eggs so I used our eggs for it.

Well it is only in the 20s outside and snowing!! YEAH!! love it!!  I am now off to my studio to create art!! I got in some of the new TIM HOLTZ stamps and cannot wait to make something with them!!  Oh I dream about his creations too!~~not just bakin!~ no wonder why I wake up early and excited to create something!!  LOL

  I hope yall have a blessed night and I will be back soon!!

HUGS

 ~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Tues projects

HELLO AGAIN!! 
I had some errands to run so left early so I could be home early and CREATE!!  I have been working in my studio and havin a blast!!!  and of cource Mr. Boopie Woopie Boo is in the chair next to me with one of his bears.

So with the color challenge card done over at CR84FN  I decided I am in love with lavender, pink and kraft colors and well wanted to alter something!  I bought a box full of these old bingo cards and used that as my backround..  Added a heart shaped paper doily, some old vintagey trim I had in my stash and a touch of cappacino twine from Vintage Street Market,  a kraft paper layered flower I made, some Vintage Market Street's white millanery flowers, some Martha Stewart pink glitter and some layered distressed My Mind's Eye papers I came up with this valentine insprired hanging card.  I also had some of these cute silver double heart charms laying in a drawer so added one of them and a couple of pink stones and then added a beaded charm to the bottom corner.  

And now that the surprise will soon be discovered I thought I would add the pic of my altered valentines I sent out to a few of my P&R craftin sistrs~

We had a valentine swap and instead of using all papers I decided to yepper you guessed it  ALTER!! a wood sign!!  I am pleased with the way it turned out and since we are all primitive lovers I thought it fit right in and you would hang it on a valentine tree, or from a cupboard door, or set it on a shelf for feb.

The banner was just just cut from chipboard scraps then I decoupaged pp on after cutting with my scalloped edgs scissors, distressed and stamped with JUST RITE alpha letters to spell LOVE.

I also made a layered paper flower using old pages from a hymnal book and aged them up a bit too.  Foam pieces are inbetween the layers to make them stand out more and the center is something I scanned and printed on kraft cardstock paper.  An old vintage milk cap!!  I bought several at an estate sale so scanned em and can make art with them!! YIPPEE!! love when old things meet new and become a treasure!!    

I had some plain grey tickets so wrote on each Happy Valentines Day on them and also added  ~~

I used some brown chalk ink to stamp out flourishes around the edges and also added some vintage old newspaper pieces behind the ticket and a metal snap and some red and white bakers twine.  All in all I think they are gonna like it at least I hope so!!  They went in the mail today and are their happy little way to my friends!!

I am now off to work on some new altered jewelry pieces I have floatin around in my head!~  LOL i have a vision and want to work on it before it disappears and something else comes to my head!~  LOL

hope yall have a happy happy tues!~

I will try to be back soon, tomorrow is bread makin day and also my friends and I are having a movie afternoon!! Watching Julie Julia, I know what kind of baker am I!!??  I got it for a xmas gift and havent had a chance to watch so tomorrow it is!! YEAH!~~ 

HUGS

Darlene

It' MONDAY! another CR84FN card

HEY YALL!!! It's monday and that means another great color challenge over at CR84FN!!! and this weeks colors are great!!
Lavender, Light Pink and Kraft!! 

I cut some vintage sheet music out of an old book and made the layered paper flower, then sprayed it with a generouse coating of glimmer mist in cherry, distressed a bit with TIM HOLTZ distressing ink in walnut and then tipped each petal with black ink.

Stampabilities Happy Birthday is the stamp I used and then sewn around the lavender piece of pp.   White chalk was used around the edges of the lavender to soften it up a bit.  I love the MY MINDS EYE flowery pink paper on the backround.  

 My shortbread hearts all dipped and topped with some red white and pink nonpariels.  Love those candies!!

These cookies are for sale you can get any amount you would like I will put them in a clear bag with tag.  They are .60 cents each plus travelin expenses.  And I will do a chicken scratch dozen for you (That means 15 instead of 12)

 Real sweet cream butter, pure mexican vanilla and powdered sugar and flour are the ingredients in these.

These guys are just flowers cut out and dipped in white candy coating, then topped with the little valentines nonpariels.  TOO CUTE!! these also are for sale and are .60 cents each plus traveling.

So my card did double duty today as this was the sketch over at scrap-friendzy!! NOW I am off to work in my studio we have an artist market to get ready for so am gonna make some jewelry for that and probably some cards too!!

Have a Magnifisent monady!!!

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

CR84FN challenge card

I got home early today and just HAD to work in my studio a bit!!  So here's there challenge colors for this week.  RED BROWN AND KRAFT colors.  Stop on by there and see all the inspiration they already have 50 cards sent in!! 
I made a red altered paper layered flower and using a love dictionary stamp cut the letters out on ivory cardstock paper. 

Using my Martha Stewart scallop punch I did a border on red cardstock and also added a bit of cappacino bakers twine. 

And since last week I did all baby boy cards thought I would put together some baby girl ones.  This one I added a tiny silver charm to the tag, I bought these for my altered baby scrapbooks and they are so danged cute, a pair of little feet embossed on the charm. 

A bit of ivory sheer riboon and ABC blocks and that was this one.

I dont have the rest done yet so will post them later in the week.

Have a great night!!

HUGS

Darlene

I love the brown patterened handwritten paper on the backround!!  ~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Whats up wed?

HEY YALL!!  We are midway now til the weekend! WOO HOO! so what's up on this fine wed?    I have to say baking this week I havent done any of my scrappin!! and now I am really behind at scrap-friendzy, goodness 4 days worth of pages/cards now!!  I gotta get my schedule tuned in better!  LOL  It was nice to bake all day yesterday though, I did some shortbread hearts, they have to be decorated yet, maybe a dip in 1/2 milk choc and the other 1/2 white and top with a few pretty sprinkles.

This shortbread recipe was posted in dec and it is just my absolute favo to do!! SO yummy, I have to make 2 huge batches one for markets and one for hubby!! he takes  a little bag of em to work and snacks all day, those and my soft n chewy peanut butter are his favos!! 

I dug thru one of my grandma Rose's old country farmhouse cookbooks, it was from 1960 and had some wonderful sounding recipes so my quest is to do a couple each week.  This week so far I made the quick olive bread.  I will share this recipe with ya it really is yummy and who doesnt love quick breads.  It has sauteed onions in it, I used red and candy sweet grown locally and also chopped kalamato black olives.  The texture is a bit cource and a little dry so I am thinkin maybe bump up the sour cream that is in it?  Will try it again and then post the revised recipe.

AHHHHHHHHH my favo cake, this is my cream cheese filled crumb cakes.  This is a fabo recipe and has been made lots and lots here.   I add fresh fruit to it too and blueberries are the best although triple berries are good in this too, red raspberry, blueberry and blackblack berries are yummy!!!   This is similar to the packaged crumb topped cakes but I like to add extra extra cream cheese filling in them.!!   I never met a chocolate or cream cheese I didnt like!!!LOL

Andddddddddd for my furry kids I dipped a box of small milk bones for them to enjoy and of cource added the valentines sprinkles for fun!!  They are so cute I did some up for markets too.  And packaged up they look adorable.  and the boys love em!!

I also made up some flower shaped shortbread then dipped in white choc and of cource topped with those pretty little red white and pink nonpariels.  Love them!!  and they come in so many colors now!!

These actually were made just for the hubbo!  His bday was monday and I made him a cheesecake and these cookies for a treat.  He so deserves alot I dont know where I would be without him.  He is a wonderful man, hubby, my best friend, my boys daddy, and really my true soul mate!! I know gettin a bit sentimental here but I really do love this guy with all my heart!! 

I hope the weather isnt being too rough on yall, we actually are having normal jan weather, cold and snowy and well coooooooooooooooooooooold is it!!  4 degrees tonight is expected, it has been in the teens at night and about 30 during the day.  Snow for this afternoon and tomorrow and fri and sat.

I do have market tomorrow, a meeting tomorrow night, market fri, market sat, dinner with the inlaws maybe sat night and to visit with the grandparents sunday.  WHEWWWW I may have to wait til next week to get back in my studio to scrap and create!!  I so miss it!! maybe I need to get up extra early and work in there,,,,,,,,,,, nay!! this time of year it is too toooooo nice not to have to get up 4-5 am!!  I sleep in til almost 6 these days and so lovin my sleep.  My boys and hubby all snuggled up like little bugs in rugs in our bed is priceless!!  Each of the boys has a pillow and blankie on our big bed but Barney has to be curled up next to his mommy!  LOVE IT!

hope yall have a wonderful wed and be safe out there in the weather!!

HUGS

Darlene

{{PS I just have to add this comment!!  DAVE PRICE I so miss you on the early show!!!  cbs changed their early show staff and we are in withdrawl!! the show is NOT the same without HARRY SMITH, DAVE PRICE and MAGGIE RODRIGUES!! WE MISS YOU ALL!!  the news just isnt the same and this house is sad without them to start the day!! ok I am done complaining!! }}

ALLEGAN MARKET THURS

BRONSON WITNER MARKET KALAMAZOO FRIDAY

GLENN WINTER MARKET SATURDAY

Stop on by!~~

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~