My Favorite Things

Get Sketchy Blog

Hi there!  How was your Thanksgiving???  (Or for those of you outside the US, how was your Thursday?)  :)

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year.....family, fun, food, and maybe even a NAP after all of that food and fun!  LOL!  This year, we road tripped and spent part of the holiday with my side of the family at my sister's house which was great because it gave us lots of time with 'the babies' (my niece and nephew).  Ally (almost 2yrs old) was SO excited to see each family member walk thru the door at her house....SO cute!  We also got to spend some time in the evening with Bart's side of the family.  We have so much fun when we get together.....we laughed and laughed and laughed.  I just love that!  I hope that your day was in some way filled with family or fun or laughter or all of the above!  :)

Recently, I was invited to play along with the girls at the Get Sketchy Blog and create a card using their sketch #16.  Here's the sketch:

For my card, I used a bit of vintage book print and stamped a background pattern from Papertrey's First Fruits stamp set over the text.  The leaf image is also from First Fruits......I've always loved that background pattern and leaf.  The great sentiments I used are both from the new Big & Bold Wishes stamp set.  Love those sentiments!

I had so much fun making this card!  Thanks, Get Sketchy (& Bree), for having me!

Happy Friday, Dearies....may your weekend be a fun & restful one.  :)
 

{Sending You supplies}
Paper: pure poppy, dark chocolate, vintage cream, vintage book print
Stamps: Big & Bold Wishes, First Fruits
Ink: dark chocolate, pure poppy
Other: pure poppy vintage buttons, rustic jute button twine, dark chocolate luxe satin ribbon, Kaiser Scrapbook rhinestones, Fiskars upper crest punch
  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello there and to those of you that are reading in the US, Happy Thanksgiving!!  I have a couple of fun cards to share with you, the first of which describes what I'm feeling today......THANKFUL.  I have SO much to be thankful for and YOU are on that list!  I could go on and on about the things in my life that I can be thankful for....I'll bet we all could come up with a pretty long list if we thought about it for a bit, right?  Among the things that I'm most thankful for are my relationship with God, my hottie husband who shows me daily how much he loves me, my family, our friends, the freedom that we have in this country, our cozy home, our sweet doggie-boy, etc.  I really could go on and on.  

But for today, I just want to make sure that each of you, my dear readers, know how thankful I am for you!  I'm thankful that you stop by and share a bit of your day with me.  I'm thankful for the friendships that have developed with so many of you over time.  I'm thankful that some of you take time to leave me a note here at the blog-o.  I'm thankful that I've had the opportunity to get to 'know' so many of you, even if it's online only.....some of you are right here in my town and some of you are on another continent and to each of you, I want to say THANK YOU.  I pray that whether you're celebrating Thanksgiving today or not, that you would be able to take a few minutes today to reflect on the things in your life that you're most thankful for.   And if you feel like it, I'd love to hear what those things are!

 

So, now that I've gotten all mushy on you, I should tell you about today's cards!  :)  Mandy over at Limelight Papercrafts recently asked me to participate in one of their sketch challenges and I was happy to play along!  In fact, I got so carried away working with the goodies that Mandy sent me, that I made two cards using the sketch.

On the first card, I used a kraft note card from Jillibean Soup and some patterned papers and a stitched brad from Basic Grey's Nook & Pantry line.....are those papers pretty or what?  Ahhh......so cheery.  I stamped a leaf image from Papertrey's Turning a New Leaf stamp set on a butterfly that I die cut using my Bigz Beautiful Butterflies die from Stampin' Up!  Then, I attached the brad to the center and added some tiny pearls (Kaiser Scrapbook) to create a little butterfly trail.  I thought the sentiment, from Papertrey's First Fruits stamp set, was so perfect for today.....for conveying how I'm feeling.  Thankful.

 

As for my second card, it's lots more Basic Grey papers from the same 6x6 Nook & Pantry paper pad as well as another one of their stitched brads.  Those things are so cool!  This time, I put a big brad in the center of a flower that I punched out with my Marvy extra jumbo flower punch.  The ribbon on this card is Papertrey's ocean tides classic grosgrain......is that a great color match or what?  And the sentiment stamps are from the Giga Guide Lines set.

The girls at Limelight would love it if you'd play along with their sketch this week!  Besides using the sketch, they're focusing on patterned paper and they've even got a prize to give away so be sure to check it out!  

Thanks so much, to Mandy and the Limelight girls for including me this week!  I had so much fun!

Have a wonderful, wonderful day, Sweet Friends!

{THANKFUL supplies}
Paper: Jillibean soup note card, Basic Grey Nook & Pantry patterned papers, Papertrey vintage cream
Stamps: Turning a New Leaf, First Fruits
Ink: dark chocolate
Other: Basic Grey Nook & Pantry stitched brad, Kaiser Scrapbook pearls, EK Success diamond lace punch, SU! Bigz Beautiful Butterflies die, corner chomper

{Birthday Wishes supplies}
Paper: Jillibean soup note card, Basic Grey Nook & Pantry patterned papers, Papertrey rustic cream
Stamps: Giga Guide Lines
Ink: dark chocolate
Other: ocean tides classic grosgrain ribbon, Marvy extra jumbo flower punch, Fiskars apron lace punch, Kaiser Scrapbook pearls, corner chomper, sewing machine/thread

Starry Birthday Card

 

Hi there, Dearies!  I have a starry little birthday card to share with you today.  Technically, I suppose you could even use this card for other special occasions too.  I paired some stars and a sentiment from the Star Prints stamp set with a background pattern stamp from Background Basics: Diamonds, some In Bloom patterned paper and a bit of vintage book print.  Such a fun little hodge-podgy card.  :)  

I love those great big rhinestones too....

And just a little sneakie peek at some of the embellies coming soon to my Etsy Shop.  Scrunchy little pom pom flowers with ribbon leaves.  FUN, right??  :)

Have a goodie,

{It's Your Day supplies}
Paper: vintage cream, in bloom patterned paper, raspberry fizz, vintage book print
Stamps: Star Prints, Background Basics: Diamonds
Ink: raspberry fizz, summer sunrise
Other: summer sunrise classic grosgrain ribbon, x-large star punch, SU! scallop edge punch, Kaiser Scrapbook rhinestones  

 
 

 

Pom Pom Flowers

 

Howdy!  I have a totally fun project to share with you today!  Wendy Smedley had the cutest paper flower arrangement posted on her blog the other day including a tutorial for how to make these cute little flowers on a stick, that you could put in your flower arrangement.  I loved the flowers so much, but decided to leave off the stick part and just make them flat to use on my cards and now I am in LOOOOOOVE with these little poof-ball flowers!!  Aren't they FUN?!

I made my flowers out of vintage book print (a book I bought at a thrift store) and stamped Polka Dot Basics II and Damask Designs on a couple of the layers in my flowers to give them a little pop of color.  The pattern stamped across the bottom of the card is one of my favorites from Background Basics: Diamonds and the sentiment is from Signature Greetings.  SUCH a fun and simple card!  Give these flowers a try....I bet you'll love them too!  And if you love 'em but don't want to make them yourself, not to worry.  I'm planning on making oodles for my Etsy Shop because I love 'em so much, so keep an eye out if you're interested!  :)

Hope you're having a great week.  As Thanksgiving quickly approaches here in the US, I'm looking forward to spending the holiday with both sides of our family.  Can't wait!  Are you getting ready for the holiday festivities at your house?

{Hope Your Day is Fabulous supplies}
Paper: kraft, bitty box basics, vintage book print
Stamps: Signature Greetings, Background Basics: Diamonds, Polka Dot Basics II, Damask Designs
Ink: dark chocolate, vintage cream, berry sorbet
Other: berry sorbet saddle stitch ribbon, SU! scallop circle punch, Marvy extra jumbo scallop circle punch, Making Memories brads

Peachy Keen

Hi-ya Peeps.....I have a happy little Thank You card to share with you today!  I have been back at it, making more embellies so I thought I'd show you a couple of them paired up on a card today.  I punched out the flowers with my Marvy flower punches and on the smallest (cream) flower, I stamped a Giga Guide Lines medallion.  Then I balled them all up, unfolded them a bit and stitched the layers together with a sweet blush button.  The small scalloped circle is one that I punched out with my Marvy extra jumbo scalloped circle punch (the yellow punch) and stamped some Polka Dot Basics II on it before adding a threaded button to the center of it.  

I couldn't resist using the "Thank You" sentiment from the Big & Bold Wishes set to finish off my card!  

 

I love this soft and sweet color combo of Papertrey's sweet blush, melon berry, kraft & vintage cream.  So girly!  

I made up several sheets of these embellies and put them in my Etsy shop last night.  There are just a few left in case any of you are interested and for some of you, this color combo may not be your cup of tea, so hang tight....there are lots more embellies to come.  :)

Have a FABULOUS day, my friends!
 

{Thank You supplies}
Paper: melon berry, kraft, vintage cream, bitty box basics
Stamps: Big & Bold Wishes, Giga Guide Lines, Polka Dot Basics II
Ink: sweet blush
Other: melon berry classic grosgrain ribbon, sweet blush vintage buttons, rustic cream button twine, extra jumbo scalloped circle punch, flower punches-extra jumbo, mega, giga; Fiskars apron lace punch

 

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #19

 

Hello there!!  Happy Weekend....

Several of you clever girlies had the same idea for the next Color Challenge that we did when Nichole was here visiting this week........to use the Pioneer Woman t-shirts that we were given at her cookbook signing, as our inspiration!!  The colors in the shirts are so pretty together and I know it may seem like a lot of colors for some of you to work into one card, but hopefully your creative juices will get to flowing and you'll come up with something adorable and have some fun while you're at it!  

Nichole and I had so much fun when we stayed up until the wee hours paper-crafting one night while she was here and we have BOTH created cards to share with you using these colors!!  How fun is that?!  And, here's something else to look forward to....not only did we both make cards for this challenge, but we've got cards made and ready for Color Challenge #20 as well!  YAY!  

 

All righty, here are the colors for this week's challenge......that's me in the photo, wearing the t-shirt and holding Papertrey's card stock up next to the shirt so you can see how well the colors coordinate!  Are you ready to get started??  I can't wait to see what you do with P-Dub's t-shirt colors this week!!  (Thanks, Ree, for the inspiration.....and for the t-shirt!)

ETA: I will be using Papertrey's colors -- raspberry fizz, dark chocolate, spring moss, aqua mist & lavender moon, however as always, you can feel free to use whatever brand of supplies you have on hand.  You just want to be sure that your colors are as close of a match to those in the challenge, as you can get.  And for this challenge, you can feel free to add in a bit of white or cream if you need to, but the bulk of the card should feature these 5 color challenge colors.  Have fun!!  :)

Color Challenge deets:

Create a card or other project, upload a photo of your card to your blog or online gallery & then come back here to post the link to your photo in the Mister Linky box below.  Don't leave your links in the comments section but feel free to leave me a comment after you've posted your link in Mister Linky.  You know I love hearing from you!

Also, be sure that the link you're posting is the direct link to your card!  Please don't leave your blog's url, but rather, the link to your specific post that shows us your card. 

Feel free to use the graphic I've created above, however you DON'T want to copy and paste the image!  Just SAVE the image to your computer and then upload the image to your blog post, as though it is a photo from your own computer.  Make sense?

Don't have a blog but still want to participate??  Don't worry!  You don't have to have a blog!  You are more than welcome to upload your card to an online gallery of your choice  (i.e. www.splitcoaststampers.com,  www.papertreyink.com,  www.twopeasinabucket.com, etc.) and then use the url for your photo in your gallery as the link that you post in Mister Linky.

Challenge ends Friday, November 27 at 9pm CST.

A Pioneer Weekend - The Other Stuff

 

Hello there.....one more post for you today.  This one is totally dedicated to my dear friend, Nichole, and will give you a glimpse at all of the other fun things we did while she was here visiting for a few days.  Oh, how I love this girl.  Who knew a few years ago, how much we'd have in common and how close we'd become?  I certainly never would have guessed it but I'm so, so thankful that the Lord saw fit to bring this girl into my life because she's become so dear to me.  She's such a great mom, a loving wife and a HARD worker, so my goal when she came to visit was to make sure that she got to rest, relax and have FUN!  And since she & David and Bart & I are all such foodies, taking her to some of our favorite restaurants was at the top of the list of things to do as well.

When she planned her trip to come here, it was scheduled around the fact that The Pioneer Woman (Ree Drummond) was going to be here doing some book signings on her new cookbook tour on Monday.  Sunday night after we picked Nichole up at the airport, we headed straight for our favorite Mexican restaurant and then we stopped for gelato on the way home.  Mmm, mmmm, good!

Monday morning when we got up, our first order of business was our first appointment with The Pioneer Woman.  After that, Nichole and I headed to a few stores that I thought she might enjoy.  First up, Dean & Deluca.

It was SO fun to see her taking in all of the sights and flavors in this gourmet foods store.  Here she is in front of the honey selection.....being a tea drinker, she was just about in heaven!  :)

After Dean & Deluca, we stopped in at Crate & Barrel for a bit of a browse and then we headed to lunch at Andre's.  I've told you about Andre's before.

 

Andre's is a chic little Swiss confiserie where you can purchase all sorts of Swiss confections but they also have a great little tearoom with a very European feel about it.  I just love it there.  The menu is very limited but changes daily.  On this day, we both opted for the cheese pie, creamed spinach (a first for me), and a tasty green salad.  So good.

 

Here is Nichole as she selects a tea bag for some hot tea to go with her lunch.   

 

I, on the other hand, couldn't resist the Mocha.  I can never resist the Mocha.  Isn't it just beautiful?  And it's every bit as tasty, too.  

 

This is one of the fancy little pastries that we had for dessert.  A pastry is included with the purchase of your meal, and they bring out a tray for you to choose from that has about a half dozen different little treats.....each one as beautiful as the next.  When we left Andre's, we stopped in at Archivers -- a must see for a paper-crafter who doesn't have this store in her own town.  

 

That same night, we had another Pioneer Woman book-signing event to attend but Bart went with us to that one.  I know.....he's a gem, right?  He wasn't the ONLY guy there.  Marlboro Man and P-dub's boys were in attendance as well!  :)

Before we walked across the street to the book-signing, we walked around the Plaza for a bit, stopping in at Anthropologie, Paper Source and the Better Cheddar and then we went to McCormick & Schmick's for a fabulous seafood dinner.  For you foodies out there, we had grilled salmon with a spinach orzo......oh my stars, I could have eaten buckets of that orzo.  Buckets.  It was just that good.

After dinner, we went to our second appointment with The Pioneer Woman and while we were sitting in the auditorium waiting for our turn to meet Ree, Bart suggested that we stop at the Cheesecake Factory for some cheesecake on the way home.  Can you see why I love this man???  (Seriously, it's a darn good thing we don't eat like this all the time!!)

 

We selected slices of cheesecake to take home to have with coffee/tea while we stayed up late chatting.

The next morning we slept a bit later and then did some blogging after breakfast.  Bart came home early that day and he took us to Oklahoma Joe's for some of our favorite KC BBQ.  

 

After lunch, we hit the road for a little road trip to Atchison, Kansas where we visited Nell Hill's and then on the way home, we stopped in at the Briarcliff Nell Hill's store as well as Urban Arts & Crafts.  Here are some shots in the Atchison Nell Hill's store.

 

 

Bart found a cozy chair to hang out in.....but he didn't sit for long because he had photographer duty.  He's such a great sport.  :)

 

He snapped this one of us in one of the cozy rooms at Nell Hill's.  After all of the shopping, we headed for some Kansas City steak at Hereford House and when we were done with dinner, we went home to relax for awhile followed by a little late-night paper crafting.  :)  

Bart was such a dear to play photographer once again before he headed for bed and left us in the studio for some crafty time.    It was getting late and I think we were getting a little loopy.....Nichole suggested we take "Senior Portraits"!  Now I have to interject that this is usually Mish's suggestion when we're all together.  Mish always suggests that we strike some super silly senior portrait pose for the camera and boy, we've laughed until we cried over some past Senior Portrait moments!  So the following are our Pioneer Weekend Senior Portrait photos!  LOL!

(Yes, those are my glasses that Nichole decided to use in her Senior Portrait....she looks so studious, don't you think???)

And this?  This is my ridiculously cheesy Senior Portrait photo.  Emphasis on ridiculous.  And cheesy.  Oh my goodness, we were laughing so hard.  I have to say that these past few days with one of my best friends in the world was such a treat.  We didn't have any work we had to do.  We didn't have anything on the agenda other than fun.  I will remember so many moments about this weekend for years to come......so many snapshots in my mind of quiet, cozy chats over coffee/tea, so much laughter, so much inspiration.  This was definitely a weekend to remember!

 

Spending time with this girl is just good for my soul.  There's just nothing like having a friend that 'gets you'.....a friend that likes her brownies the same way you do and her steak cooked the same way as you.  A friend who can quote Anne of Green Gables with you and who can make you laugh till you almost wet your pants!  

I'm so, SO glad you got to come visit, Nichole.  You're a peach and I can't wait till we can get together again!

 

A Pioneer Weekend - Cookbook Signing #2

 

Hi there,

I'm back today with my account of what Nichole and I have officially dubbed "The Pioneer Weekend".  My sweet friend Nichole came to visit us from Tennessee for a couple of days so that she could go with me to the two cookbook signings with Ree Drummond (aka The Pioneer Woman), who just released a new (#1 bestselling!) cookbook, which is beautiful by the way!  Ree was doing two events here in Kansas City Monday and we were fortunate enough to get tickets to go to both events.  

I told you about the morning cookbook signing, and now, I've got lots of pictures to share from the evening event.  It was held on the Plaza and Ree spoke for a bit before the book signing, answering readers' questions about life on the ranch, cooking, etc.  She was warm, engaging, funny and she even did her Ethel Merman impersonation!!!  Hilarious......and SO good!  Haha!

 

After she spoke, the event sponsors gave away a few door prizes and then Ree began signing cookbooks for the 500-600 (?) people that were in attendance.  Here's what she looked like at the signing table.......classy, elegant and SO down-to-earth.  (And she had great hair!)  :)  

The event coordinators were only allowing 50 people at a time to get in the line to get their cookbooks signed and we were placed in order based on the number on our tickets, which meant that we were going to have to wait for quite awhile before it was our turn.  We were sitting in a big auditorium filled with people, so we settled in for some people watching and chatting.  We were pretty entertained to see the unofficial line that formed around by Marlboro Man (Ree's husband).....hundreds of women lined up to get The Pioneer Woman's chaps-wearing husband's autograph and to get their picture taken with him.  

 

While Marlboro Man was signing autographs, he was also *trying* to keep an eye on their "punks", as P-dub calls them......their two little boys.  If we were entertained by the mob around Marlboro Man, we were reeeeally entertained by The Punks.  Notice the UFC fighting gloves?  LOL!  (I think someone might have brought those as a gift for them.)  It gets better....just wait.  ;)

 

Here, they decided to commandeer the microphone on the podium.  Just look at the look of glee on big brother's face.  They proceeded to make all sorts of little boy noises in the mic.  Haha!

 

Later on, when they had to quit playing with the microphone, they decided to have a UFC match over in the corner.  I couldn't resist taking pictures......they were cracking me up!  Just look....

 

Getting ready to kick big brother....

 

"Put up yer dukes."  He's also got sharpie marks on his cheek, though I'm not sure if he put them there himself, or if big brother helped him with that!  :)

 

 

It was about now that the hollering started.  :)  So funny, these Punks!  And so darn cute!!!  They might be little but they're fiesty!

 

 

Here we are....me, Ree and Nichole.  She couldn't have been nicer and I'm so thrilled that we got the chance to meet her.  

 

In the above photo, I'm sure she was telling me something terribly witty and charming but I was just trying to avoid saying something totally dorky.  Not sure I succeeded!  

One other really fun surprise that evening was that Ree brought "The Pioneer Woman" t-shirts for everyone in attendance at the evening event!!!  How sweet is that?  Nichole and I did our best to model the t-shirts for you....

Aren't those cute shirts??  Thank you SO much, Ree.....for coming to Kansas City, for doing both book signing events, for bringing some of your crew with you -- they kept us entertained while we waited (hee!) and for bringing us these fun t-shirts.  We're so grateful!

And lastly, in true Pioneer Woman fashion, I leave you with 'the butt shot' so that you can see what these cute shirts said on the back of them.

P.S.  Stay tuned for more on the other fun things Nichole and I did while she was in town for our "Pioneer Weekend"!  That post is coming later this evening.

The Pioneer Woman and Mishie

Good morning!!  I just wanted to take a minute to pop back in with a second post this morning to share a bit about our day yesterday!  Nichole is still here visiting from Tennessee.  When she decided to come, she planned her trip around the fact that The Pioneer Woman was to be here yesterday on her book tour (she just released a cookbook that is already a #1 Bestseller), and we didn't want to miss out on meeting her!!  As it turned out, there were two events here in Kansas City yesterday -- a mid-day event and an evening event last night.  Nichole and I knew that we wanted to attend both (I have LOTS more pictures to share with you!!) and when we were planning things, I called Mishie to tell her that P-Dub was gonna be here.  Well, Mish decided that she'd drive 'to town' for the day so that she could attend the mid-day event with us too!  We were all so excited to not only get to spend the day together, but to also get to meet Ree Drummond together too!  

The problem came when Mish woke up yesterday morning only to realize that they had really bad icy road conditions out in the country where they live, so she decided she couldn't make the trip.  It was going to be too dangerous.  We were soooo sad that Mish couldn't come, so when Nichole and I were getting ready to go, I joked that we should somehow take Mishie's picture with us and put her in all of the photos with us.  I was JOKING.  Nichole, however, thought it was a smashing idea!  LOL!  Soooo......I found a picture of Mish that I didn't think she'd kill me for using, blew it up, printed it out in black and white on card stock and we adhered it to a dowel rod so that she could pose in all of the photos with us!  Hahahaha!!

The above photo shows where the first Pioneer Woman event of the day was to be held.....a little Western wear shop that honestly, I didn't know existed.  We drove out to the event, stood in line to get our tickets and our pre-ordered cookbooks and then we waited to meet the guest of honor.

 

Here's Ree signing a cookbook for one of the ladies in front of us.  Isn't she so pretty?  She is a total gem and we were so thrilled to meet her!  And she's funny in real life too!  ;)  She was a total sport about taking a picture with our 'stick friend'!  (and I think Mishie really looks like she's enjoying herself here too, right?!)

 

Like I said earlier, there was also an evening event that Ree spoke at -- she answered questions from readers and then it was followed by another book signing.  Between all of us, we had 4 cookbooks for her to sign, so we were able to get two of them at the morning event and 2 at the evening event.  I have lots of pictures from the evening event to share with you including a few of Marlboro Man (Ree's hubs) and her Punks (her little boys).....I'll share those photos soon.  But for today, I wanted to show you what else "Mishie" got to do on her big day out!  LOL!

 

Here, we stopped in at Dean & Deluca.  (more pics later)  Here's me, "Mishie" and Nichole.  I think Mish would have sampled some of the gourmet foods with us.  She didn't eat much yesterday morning though.  

 

Here she is, laughing with Nichole at Crate & Barrel.  I think she's contemplating a Christmas ornament purchase at the moment.  (Meanwhile, the Crate & Barrel ladies are looking at Nichole and I like we're off her rockers!)

 

And here are the three of us at lunch.  We went to Andre's where Nichole and I both ordered the cheese pie.  I'm sure Mish would have loved the cheese pie too.  She was kind of quiet at lunch, but I think it's just because she was having so much fun!  *wink*  This was also the first time I've ever been with Mish at Archivers when she didn't buy something!  LOL!

In all seriousness, we had a great day and I'll share lots more later, but we just wanted to let Mishie know how much we missed her on our adventures and that we were thinking about her all day.  It wasn't the same without her!

Nichole and I have more fun planned for today including a bit of studio time so I'd better run.  

Take care, Peeps and have a great day!

Sweet Mail....and other random musings

 

I told you all not long ago that I recently got a Post Office box so that I'd have an address that I could share with you all, because I frequently get requests for my address.  So far, in my post office box, I've received 2 pieces of junk mail, 1 coupon for a free Chipotle burrito (yay!), this beautiful card by Heather Ruwe and the gifts and card in the photo below, from Rachel Sztonyk!  SO sweet of these girls to send me cards and treats.  I wanted them both to know how much I appreciated them and how much fun I had trying to figure out what to do with the key that showed up in my post office box, telling me that I had a package in one of the post office lockers!  (Who knew the post office had lockers?!)  LOL!  Thank you both, Rachel and Heather!

 

I also wanted to tell you to check out THIS CARD and THIS CARD by Mary Vogel.  She made both using my new Vintage Ornaments stamp set.  WOWWWWW!  SO pretty!

I also wanted to thank each of you (including my dear neighbor -- thanks, Pam!) that have let me know that a version of (the Australian cookie....er....biscuit!) Tim Tams are distributed by Pepperidge Farms in the US and are sold at Target.  Bart brought home a package of the Classic Dark variety and I now say that there's no need to bother with any of the other varieties of Tim Tams.  Classic Dark are the only way to go.  :)  They are delish!  And for the record, what we call cookies here in the US, the Aussies call biscuits.  But Aussies....if cookies are biscuits, then what do you call the 'biscuits' that we eat for breakfast with gravy???  :)

Next topic.....(I told you this was a random post!).....I mentioned awhile back that my sweet, hottie hubs bought me a Pandora bracelet for my birthday back in June.  He got me a beautiful purple Murano glass bead (his favorite sports team wears purple!  HAHA!!) and a few silver beads (I'm a total silver girl.  No gold here unless it's white gold.) and my sis & bil gave me a dark green bead too.  Well, since then, I've been a good little girl and haven't bought myself any additional beads for my bracelet.  That's all about to change though!!!  Check out THESE BEAUTIES!!!

 

They're wood beads!!  OH, aren't they just gorgeous??  You KNOW how much I love brown.  I wear it.  I use it on cards.  Brown is my black, I always say, so these beads would go with so much that I wear!  Bartley and I were at the mall the other day so we popped in to the Pandora store and saw these for the first time.  They're SO pretty in real life and that soft yellow one.......perfection.  In real life, it's soft and buttery enough to be fairly neutral.  It looks awesome paired with a couple of the browns.  I'm sorry to ramble on and on about jewelry but goodness, these were just too fun to not chat about!  :)

And lastly today in this long list of randomness, I wanted to let you International readers know that I have lowered the international shipping charges in my Etsy Shop by quite a bit.  I was under the impression that my packages would be heavier than they are, so I was pleasantly surprised when shipping a package to Italy last week, that the shipping was much lower than I thought it would be!  SO, if my earlier shipping charges scared you away, you might check them out again. 

And stay tuned to my Etsy Shop because I've got lots more fun embellies coming soon!!  :)  

Toodles!