Making Gallons of Limeade

Today I’m making lots and lots of limeade for an organization my mom works for. She’s a therapist/counselor for a company that does a lot of good work for people in need within the community; and, every year their company hosts’ a Thanksgiving dinner for all the families. Each year the workers (including my mother) make the entire dinner and every year my sister and I usually help with something. So, this time around my mom asked me to make the limeade I'd created for my blog a while back (You can click here for the recipe). This drink is seriously delicious—I even served myself a cup because I had to insure it was perfect, hehe—just an excuse to have a sip.

 I ended up getting 6 gallons of limeade out of 20 limes! 

 Zesting limes...

Whoa, so good right? If you'd like to give this recipe a try go ahead and click this link. Happy Friday! 

Card of the Week--Robot Love Note

 As you may know, I've been obsessed with making 3 x 3 cards, envelopes, and stickers. So today I thought it would be cool if I made my card of the week a ‘mini’. I’m so happy with this little card. I've been working so much with Thanksgiving and Christmas themed items that I wanted to go in a completely different direction for this card—to maintain some balance in my mind, hehe.

 You may have noticed that I love to use this super cute border stamp a lot. I love it because it adds so much cuteness to anything I’m using it on. Plus, it can add that modern edge to a card or even make the piece look vintage. I'm also using my trusty Lawn Fawn stamps for the mini hearts and the text bubble. These stamp sets are so cute--and the robot set is 'Blips and Beeps' by TPC studio. 

 I can’t stop using my Xyron, sticker maker. It’s too much fun makin' envelope seals. 

There you have it! My card of the week. I think I'm going to give this one to my boyfriend. I'm sure he'll be surprised :-D 

D.I.Y. How to make 3 x 3 Note cards, with Matching Envelopes, and Envelope Seals

 It’s been awhile since my last D.I.Y. and I thought I’d make something really easy and super cute.  Plus I might just be looking for a reason to put my new Martha Stewart scoring board to use. I’m always trying to get people I know into crafting; and, I’m secretly kind of hoping I can convert some of my readers (who aren't already crafters) into crafters too, hehe. So, back to the project—I’m making some 3 x 3 mini note cards; and, I’m also showing everyone how they can make matching envelopes, and matching envelope seals. This would be something you can make as thank you cards, or anything really. If you don’t have all the tools and stamps that I have it’s fine, maybe you can cut out some of your favorite phrases and pictures, and adhere those to a piece of scratch paper. If you need to you can go old school and simply use a ruler, scissors, and X-acto knife to cut everything out.

Since this D.I.Y. has a lot of steps I made a video for you! I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to like it and leave a comment! Have a great Monday! P.S. I used a lot of transitions to make the video a bearable length because  I tend to branch off into off the topic subjects and my videos end up being like 30 minutes—so you’ll notice a lot of cuts. I tried to control myself this time, haha. I kept thinking in my head while filming, “Don’t go off topic, don’t go off topic, just say what you need to say”, LOL. I’m rambling now…as per usual. 

Lawnscaping Challenge #45

Today I made this card so I could enter into the Lawnscaping Challenge, which is sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. This time around they asked us to use something we haven't used in a while--to make our cards--and it's been such a long time since I've made a card using ribbon, so I thought I'd use that for this particular challenge. I always love playing along with their challenges because they help you think outside of the box. They tell you want they want to see and we have to do our best to impress! 

I don't mean to brag but I really love this card. I'm in love with the colors I chose to make it. The different shades of pastel make it look so elegant. I'm thinking of turning it into a Wedding invitation too--but I'll have to think about what I'll write on the inside. Hmmm, decisions. 

Thank you for stopping by! Also, stay tuned for a video tutorial! It's uploading to Youtube as we speak and I can't wait to share it with you. 

Modcloth Wishlist

Dress//Scarf//Shoes//Earrings//Coat//Bag//Necklace//Tights

Yay, its Friday! I’m so happy that the clouds are hovering over us in L.A.—it’s a break most of us have been hoping for because this summer was brutal. Anyhow, I so wish I could just take my debit card and virtually swipe, swipe, swipe away to buy all these pretty things! First of all, this dress is so beautiful to me and it's kind of my entire personality wrapped into one dress. I’m not sure yet if I’d wear all of these things at one time—but I’d definitely like to own each piece. I think that necklace is something I most have right away; and, actually…I’m thinking about buying it for myself after I post this. I’m also in love with the kitty cat earrings. They remind me of our house cat Sienna—I’ll post a few pictures of her below to introduce her to you all. I can’t believe I haven’t even blogged about her yet. She’s the most beautiful furry thing I’ve ever seen, and I love her because she lets me hold her like a baby, LOL. Happy Friday everyone and here is Sienna!

I always tell her, "You're fat, and I love it".

Shopping--Fashion + Crafts

I know I usually only have a ‘Card of the week’ post on Wednesdays but today I’m just so excited about some new things I bought over the weekend and I really wanted to show them to you. I’ll also still post my ‘Card of the week’ post later on in the day—I still need to create my weekly card in order to keep my sanity, hehe. I usually don’t go shopping for new shoes, clothes, and other fashion accessories that often because, to be honest, I always spend my money on new crafting tools. I’m addicted to stamps, paper, and other nerdy things. So, I bought these super, super cute black and white chevron flats from Forever21—I also picked up a couple new pairs of earrings. Aren’t they so cute? 

Then when I was at the craft store I found this sticker maker and I couldn't leave the store without it. I've seen this mini machine in a couple of crafting videos and I've always wanted to give it a try. It’s so easy, all you do is take the paper shape you’d like to convert into a sticker, insert it through the top, pull the sticker tab, and you've got yourself a sticker! You can leave it on the plastic or remove it and use it right away. I’m so in love with this that I’m thinking of purchasing the bigger one (I wanted the smaller one first to check out the quality).  The first stickers I made where these faux lace envelope seals for the Thanksgiving invitations I made for our family dinner this year. My theme for Thanksgiving is going to be browns, olive greens, and white lace! I’m so excited. 

Next is this awesome Hello Kitty washi tape. As you know I love washi tape and when I found this at Michaels I had to stop myself from buying all of them—I had to contain myself—because they had four different types! So I just bought the cutest one. I can’t wait to use this. 

I also found the new line of Christmas stamps by Martha Stewart, and even though I don’t need more stamps I bought them anyway. Bad me, but they’re an investment right? Well, that’s the excuse I use when convincing myself to buy them. I do love buying her stamps though because they are kind of one of a kind. The stamps and craft punches she comes out with only come out once, and never come out again. So, I always try to get her new stamps. I hate when I’m too late and I find myself buying them on Ebay for 3 times more than I could have gotten them in the first place, hehe. 

Oh! Next is this awesome black ink. When I had craft day at my friend Yang’s house she introduced me to this dye ink pad (which is perfect for use with acrylic stamps) and I absolutely love it and recommend it. If you remember about a month or two ago I spoke about how I didn't like acrylic stamps because of the poor quality image I’d get when stamping…well I found out it’s because I was use the wrong type of ink. So after finding that out I rushed over to ebay and bought one for myself. It was funny because as soon as I got it in the mail, I ripped the package open and started using all my acrylic stamps that I hid away because I thought I’d never get a good image out of them, haha, and when I saw how great this ink was working I was so thrilled. It’s so embarrassing how excited I get over this stuff. I’m such a craft dweeb. 

My New Merchandise for Christmas 2012

Hi! I just wanted to share a couple pictures of my new Christmas 2012 items that are now available in my shop. I’m super excited about the variety of designs I have to offer in my shop this year—last year I had an OK amount of things—I don’t think I was as prepared for Christmas last year, as I am this year. I even bought some new Martha Stewart Christmas stamps yesterday and I’m debating whether I should save those stamps for next years’ Christmas merchandise or if I should just make stuff with them right now. Decisions’, decisions’—maybe I’ll just wait and see how my current merchandise sells. If they do great then perhaps I’ll create a few new designs. 

I also wanted to give this coupon code to all my wonderful blog readers! If you’d like to buy handmade cards, tags, and cupcake toppers this year for Christmas I have the following coupon code—in case you liked anything from my shop! UBLOGFRIENDS is the coupon code you can enter when checking out to receive 15% off of your entire order.

Also, if you have any custom ideas for tags, cards, or anything else—let me know I love working on custom items :-D

Thanks for stopping by & have a great Monday!