Monday, May 3, 2010

Stamp and Create Product Spotlight and some exciting news!

Welcome to Monday! I've got some excitng news to share with you! Lacey with Stamp and Create invited me to be a Guest designer for her for the month of May and June! As I totally love Lacey, and her service is beyond fabulous, and I buy tons of product from her, I totally jumped at the chance to work with her and her fabulous design team! Every Monday at Stamp and Create, Lacey has a Product Spotlight of the week, in which she highlites a certain product that will be on sale for the week. On top of that, she has a challenge on the first Monday of every month. That's today! :)

The product spotlight this week is the Wags 'n Whiskers stamps that are illustrated by Crissy Armstrong, and they're on sale for 25% off!!! And for the challenge...Lacey is asking you to use ribbon/lace/fibers. And of course I think if you know me, that's a pretty easy challenge as I use ribbon on almost every card I make. I get lots of comments on the bows I make, so if you want to use the same kind of ribbon that I use, you can get it from Stamp and Create. But if you're not interested in the silk ribbon, Lacey has tons of gorgeous ribbons and lace and fibers to choose from.

Also used from Stamp and Create are Prima Flowers, Nestabilities, Stickles, and teddy bear charm. We'd love it if you'd visit the Stamp and Create blog for all the details of the challenge, and then grab your paper and glue to play along with the challenge! That's it for today! Thanks so much for stopping by to see me today and hope to see you back again soon. Don't forget about the sneak peeks and blog hop for the new release of Wags n' Whiskers this week!!! Sneak peeks start on Wednesday! Hugs!!

Curried Carrot Soup with Pan Toasted Cornbread Croutons

Gluten free vegan carrot soup recipe
Easy {slow cooker} carrot soup topped with cornbread croutons.

What I love about slow cookers? The obvious. It's a no-brainer. (Such an odd expression. I mean, if I had no brain would I care about soup?) Wait. Are zombies no-brainers? If so, I can relate. Totally. I've been feeling zombie-ish again, assaulted by the second wave of pollinating hostile trees here in my hip little hamlet of Santa Monica by the sea. Excuse me while I honk.

The dreaded oak. My nemesis.

In spite of hopeful neti pot usage I am brainless once again. Shambling. Screwing up paintings. Too tipsy for kettlebells (I visualize my zombie-pitiful grip during a swing, letting the kettlebell fly out my fifth floor aprtment window like a missile and knocking out some poor soul in the street below; if you read about a kettlebell incident in the news, I swear I'm innocent).

And craving comfort food in a big way.

That is, easy comfort food. Not complicated comfort food. Who wants to stand at a stove right before dinnertime, chopping and stirring and simmering, when you can chop and toss in the morning and let a Crockpot do the work for you? Zip. Boom. Bonjour! The slow cooker must have been invented by a woman, right? Or maybe a zombie who had better things to do than sauté.

Free time. It's a gift.

Ask any zombie.


Continue reading

Sunday, May 2, 2010

♥ Announcement! ♥


hello there everyonee~
I hope everyone's doing GREAT!
I just wanted to let you know that I will be lacking in blog posting for about 2months because I'm on my long holiday.
I will be at my home-country Indonesia & Thailand -- Jakarta & Bangkok^^
I will probably post some food porns and shopping hauls but probably not any reviews at the moment.


For the new followers that I haven't follow back yet, don't worry I will follow you back as soon as I'm back on track!^^
For those who left me some feedbacks and comments, don't worry I will return back your love as soon as I can!^^
and For all of my blog friends, I will catch up with your blog posts when I'm back so I will still be your readers~~ :]


I WILL BE BACK WITH MY GIVEAWAY~~ so stay tuned..


love.love ♥♥

No BBTB2 Post For Me This Week


Hello bloggers.  I know that I told you that I expected to be back to crafting today and anticipated that I would have a project to post (BBTB2), but I am afraid that laundry and jet lag defeated me.  I will get back in the groove this week, but it is taking longer than I expected.  Sorry about that.

(Taking in the dancing fountains).

In the meantime, just like I am doing on Busy with the Cricky Cake, I am going to be lame and entertain you with some of the Vegas/Grand Canyon photos.  I will add that I ordered 300+ prints today from trip photos.  I see lots and lots of scrapping in my future!


Look!  It's me with young Elvis.  And then I went to Paris and to the top of the Eiffle Tower.


Dh and I at Mather Point.

Magnolia-licious Design Team Sketch challenge for May

This card is now sold.
Hi everyone! I'm a little late in getting my design team challenge card posted this month. WHEW! What a weekend it has been. I feel like I'm running around like a mad woman. LOL! Hope you're enjoying your weekend! The sun is shining so pretty here today! Sorry I've been such a bad blogger! I'll hopefully get caught up in the next couple of days!!

This month, the sketch challenge is from the amazingly talented Becca! The sketch is posted over at the Magnolia-licious Highlites blog, and I hope you join us and play along for a chance to win a stamp from Diana at Magnolia-licious! I finally inked up this adorable stamp, #263 Princess Tilda that I received from Magnolia-licious. Isn't she beautiful! I was inspired to color her this way by the AMAZING Dena, when I saw her fabulous creation for Just Magnolia. This girl has some serious talent! So anyway, I cased her coloring of Princess Tilda with all the fabulous stickles, even though mine doesn't even compare to hers.


I also used some of the gorgeous chandelier glass garland from Diana. LOVE it!! It adds so much to a project! The papers are Nitwits, the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, and the punched borders and twigs are courtesy of Martha Stewart punches.

The silk ribbon is from Stamp and Create and a dream to work with the Bow Easy! The flowers make the card too bulky for an envelope, so I created an envelope box for presentation of it. Please be sure and visit Magnolia-licious Hightlites blog to see all the STUNNING creations by the rest of the design team, and then please grab your Magnolia stamps and join us in the challenge. You just might win a prize! Thanks so much for stopping by to see me today, and hope to see you back again soon! Hugs!
This card set is for sale HERE if you are interested. Thanks again!!!

Three Sweet P's (a giveaway)

Sweet P #1:

Pink Polka Dot Martini Glasses (that you can WIN!)

{How CUTE are these?!?!? For martinis, dessert, ICE CREAM?!? *swoon*}


Sweet P #2:

Pampered Chef! These martini glasses are from The Pampered Chef's Help Whip Cancer campaign. In May, when you purchase any product from their Whip Cancer collection, they donate $1 to the American Cancer Society.

I love that this takes place in May, just in time for Mother's Day! (I lost my mom to cancer 10 years ago.) Since 2000, The Pampered Chef has raised nearly $8 MILLION for the American Cancer Society.


Sweet P #3:

*Pink* Lemon Angel Cake

The recipe comes from The Pampered Chef, and you guys, it is delicious!!! It would be perfect for a baby or bridal shower, Mother's Day or a neighborhood cookout. It's a really light cake with a sweet and tart lemon glaze. Mmmmm....

{Because it's Angel Food cake, I can somehow convince myself it's ok to have 2 pieces at one sitting.}

Pink Lemon Angel Cake
(adapted from the Pampered Chef)

pink gel paste food coloring (or 5 drops liquid red coloring)
1 box Angel Food cake mix
3 lemons
2 c. powdered sugar
2 c. Cool Whip
raspberry sauce (for frozen raspberries in syrup, thawed...I couldn't find those)

Preheat oven to 350. Whisk together a drop or 2 of pink gel food coloring in the amount of water called for on the box of cake mix.

Follow the instructions on the box for mixing the cake. Pour into a 13 x 9" pan and bake for 25-30 minutes until the cake is golden on the top and slightly sunken in the middle.

Invert pan into a cooling rack and let it cool (upside down) for about 1 & 1/2 hours.

Zest the lemons. Juice lemons to equal 1/3 c. lemon juice. Whisk the zest, juice and powdered sugar until smooth.

Flip cake back to right-side up. Poke holes in the cake with a fork, about 1 & 1/2 inches deep and 1/2 inch apart.

Pour glaze over the cake and spread across evenly. Let the glaze set for 30 minutes.

Cut cake and serve with raspberry sauce (or thawed raspberries in syrup) and top with whipped topping. To be extra fancy, transfer whipped topping to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. :)

{Of course, this cake would be just as good without the pink coloring, but the pink does make it fun!}


The giveaway:


  • To enter, tell a story about your mom (or someone who has been a mother figure to you) in the comments. (I'm really looking forward to your stories!)
  • For an additional entry, tweet the following: "Pink Polka Dot Martini Glasses giveaway from The Pampered Chef & @bakeat350tweets #WhipCancer http://ow.ly/1FWTC "
    ...and leave a separate comment letting me know you tweeted. :)
Giveaway ends May 9th at 8pm Central.

{I was not compensated by The Pampered Chef for this post...I just wanted to spread the word about their Help Whip Cancer campaign and I wanted one of you guys to have those darling glasses!!! Good luck!}

Saturday, May 1, 2010

We Have A Winner - And Life

Thank you to everyone who posted a comment and entered to win the Mother's Day Cartridge Blog Candy.  The winner is:

Gloria Westerman said...
"This does make me happy.....so adorable and creative.....I love it....would also love to win your need a home cartridge....I promise to give it a good home too.....lol thank for the chance...became a follower too..."

I am so happy that Gloria plans to give the cartridge a good home. LOLs

So onto LIFE - I must apologize for the Mother's Day card post that went half of the day with only photos.  I have been on vacation for the last week.  I had pre-scheduled all of the posts for both of my blogs during the time that I was away, but I obviously forgot to do more than add photos to that post.  Oops!

"My friend Kathy" and her wonderful husband and my wonderful husband and I have spent the last week in Las Vegas!  We did make a 16 hour day excursion to see the Grand Canyon - and it was indeed GRAND!!!  I am sure you will see some of the photos in up-coming scrap pages. 

Oh and while in Vegas Kathy and I each got married again - to George!!


I may be a bit slow getting back into my regular schedule, but I will try to complete the BBTB2 project this week.