Witch Great-Grandma?

Good morning, all! Hope everyone's happy & enjoying the beautiful fall weather!

I've been working on this project for a few days, and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out--so much fun seeing it emerge!

I wanted to do something with an old family picture--I have lots, love family history, and sometimes like to do things with the oldest pictures that give them a bit of life, know what I mean?

This is my great-great grandmother, Augusta Maria, who came here from Denmark when she was 16 years old. I love her dearly, although I never met her, but everyone who knew her said what a kind, gentle, and generous woman she was....So I know she won't be angry with me for turning her into a witch!

I'm really enjoying pleating paper projects, so that was my base, and I just kept going from there. I made a copy of an old family postcard, that was actually written by Augusta's daughter-in-law, my great-grandmother, Pauline.

The "Best Witches" sentiment and small witch image are from the fabulous Crafty Secret's "Halloween" Images & Journal Notes booklet.

I used lots of lace, ribbon, glitter, (of course!), and the bead trim--which I must say is a terrible beast to try & glue down! Almost gave me fits!!! I'm okay now...

I think I'll be doing more of these, as I had so much fun with it...."witch" grandmother will I choose next.....?!

I "Felt" the Need...

...to post this morning! How is everyone today?

This is not my favorite card that I've made. I probably wouldn't have posted it if not for the adorable creation my daughter, Sarah, made because of it. You had to see how exactly like the image it was!



(Love the image on this card, however--just don't like how I put the card together--oh, well! The image is from Crafty Secrets' "Halloween" Images & Journal Notes.)

Pretty amazing, isn't she? My Mom taught her how to needle felt a few years ago, and she REALLY caught the talent for it! Thought I'd post just a couple more of her things--couldn't find them all this morning, but here's just a bit. By the way, everything she makes is wired and will bend any way she wants them to. Smart kid.

Welcome Autumn!

Ahhhh! My favorite time of the year! I LOVE Autumn! Everything about it is just perfect...okay, most of it resides in my memory, due to the fact that I now live smack-dab in the center of California on the coast, but that's irrelevant!

I grew up in north-eastern Ohio, near Lake Erie, and fall was fabulous! I remember the smell of the dying leaves, the crisp, exciting chill in the air, the daylight fading a bit earlier, pumpkins, scarecrows & bales of hay on the front porches, warm, spicy smells coming from the kitchen, Halloween, Thanksgiving...oh, the memories!

This week, two of the Crafty Secrets challenges I regularly participate in both have Fall-related themes. On Paper Craft Planet, Darlene challenged us to use Fall colors in our cards. On Splitcoast, Marcy challenged us to use Fall as our inspiration. So here are my two cards...both have very similar colors, because when the right colors of cardstock are already on the table, why go looking for more?





For this card, I found this adorable image in Crafty Secret's "Seasonal" booklet. CS' "Earthy" dp, Chocolate Chip, Real Rust & More Mustard were my cs choices. Lots of lace & ribbon, and, of course, my glitter--gotta have it! This time I used this wonderful gold German glass glitter. Topped it off with some buttons & gold Stickles.

For this card, I used the same colors except for the card base--this time went with black. Again used the CS "Earthy" pad for this wonderful fall harlequin-type print. This sweet little girl image is from the "Halloween" Images & Journal Notes booklet--I love these booklets--so many choices! More gold glitter, ribbons & lace. This time I added some letter tiles from an old Scrabble game. (No one will even know they're missing.....!)

Since I've been waxing poetic about my favorite time of year, which is your favorite season? And why? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for visiting and enjoy this beautiful first day of Autumn...go bake something delicious!

You Take the Cupcake!

My daughter Annie's birthday party (a bit belated!) was on Friday night. She really wanted to decorate cupcakes with her friends, which they did--and they had a ball! My Mom had given me the gift of the beautiful silver cupcake rack, which we displayed them on, and they looked so beautiful, I had to take a few pictures:

Since I stayed up late with the girls (out of their way, of course!) I felt inspired to "cook up" a different kind of cupcake! I love the yummy vintageness of these Pink Persimmon stamps--they recently released a few with a cupcake-y theme, and they're just wonderful! Here's what I came up with:



The stamp sets I used are (all Pink Persimmon): Vintage Cupcake, Vintage Greetings, and Sweet Greetings. I used my new favorite Papertrey cardstock--white, Aqua Mist and Sweet Blush. Also used a cute polkadot print from Me & My Big Ideas, the Baby Girl stack. Used Brilliance Graphite Black and Rangers' Vintage Photo for my inks, and just embellised with lots of ribbon, pompom trim & rickrack. I glittered up the frosting and the cherry with Inkssentials' Glossy Accents and Dazzling Diamonds. Glittered-up the sides with my favorite silver glitter and a glue pen. I have some adorable glass bead flowers & leaves, which I used for decorating the cupcake, with a little crystal rhinestone in the center of the flower. That's about it! Kept me happy while staying up all night with some crazy girls!

Now to change the subject completely....!

My oldest daughter, Chelsea, is away at college right now--I miss her terribly! But, I know she's in a great place and very happy with her friends and working hard--so I wouldn't want it any other way. She looked at my blog the other day and commented that she felt like the missing child! Well, I couldn't let that happen, so here's a picture I took of Chelsea the last time I saw her before I left for home. You can see how happy she is with these other beautiful girls--a wonderful group--we're just missing one here, who I met later, but this is almost the entire group. My daughter is on the far right.


The other day, we decided to bake her favorite cookies for her & sent them off Tuesday morning. They arrived on Friday, and she called me to say how excited she was, etc. I hadn't been very good about sending her care packages last year, so I'm vowing to be better this year!

These cookies are just about our favorites ever, so I thought I'd share the recipe with all of you. It's supposed to be a variation of a Mrs. Fields' recipe, but who knows! I've changed it up a bit from the original recipe I received over 20 years ago, and here's how we make it:

1 lb. butter--NO margarine! And yes, one pound!!!
2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 Tbsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
6 cups flour
1 pkg. chocolate chips
1 pkg. butterscotch chips
1 pkg. white chocolate chips
A few handfuls of oatmeal--just shake a bunch in!

My family isn't big on nuts, but they'd be wonderful, too.

Cream the butter and sugar. Then, just add the rest, flour last. I usually end up having to mix it up with my hands because there's so much flour. Make good-sized balls--can put more than a dozen on a cookie sheet because these really don't spread--they end up nice, fat balls of goodness!

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. I always go with 8 minutes, and they're absolutely perfect! They stay soft on the inside for as long as they last--which won't be long!

Here's a picture of them--we only had 4 left when I took this, but here they are:

I did a big variation once, and they were delicious! Had a bunch of bananas WAY past their prime, and was about to toss them, when this idea popped into my mind, so I gave it a go, and it was so worth it! Here's what I changed:

5 small very ripe bananas
only 1/2 lb. butter
lots of oatmeal
1 large pkg. vanilla pudding--I used the non-instant kind
I just added a big bag of chocolate chips to this one--

Enjoy!