Pink Cat Studio Sneak Peeks, Day 3

Here are the two new stamp sets from Pink Cat Studio. Tell me they are not adorable! I dare you! If you missed the sneak peeks that the Design Team featured the past two days, you can scroll down to see my cards, as well as the links to the other Team members. All of the creations are wonderful!

Enjoy!

Blog Candy Winner!

Thanks to all who entered! Jen, I'm headed to your blog to leave a comment - be sure to get back to me soon! If I don't hear from you in 36 hours, I'll pick a new winner.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

My mom celebrated her birthday on Monday, so we had her over for some cake and showered her with birthday gifts!

Here she is with her gift from Henry. I helped him pick it out. ;o) He looks very pleased with my decision though!



Great-Grandma and Jack watched from the chair:

Here's mom with the bottoms to the jammies that hubby and I bought her. My mom lives in jammies when she's home, and it's hilarious, because she is so particular about them. They have to be two pieces, and those two pieces have to coordinate. She would not be caught in a red top with purple bottoms. Me? I wear whatever I grab first. Her? Not so much! You can see the coordinating tank top over her knee there. She loved them!

And here's mom with the birthday cake I made for her. One of the moms I chat with online suggested Paula Deen's Butterscotch Delight, but mentioned that she'd also seen it made with Oreos, so I combined a few recipes to make this Oreo Delight:

Does it look yummy? Because IT WAS! Holy man... you have no idea. It was soooooooo good! Quite possibly the best tasting dessert I've ever tasted in my entire life!

Here is the (combined) recipe I used:

Oreo Delight

1 (20 ounce) package chocolate sandwich cookies
1/2 cup butter

Crush cookies into bite size pieces. Reserve 1 cup for top. Melt butter and mix with rest of cookies. Press into 9x13 pan.

8 oz. Cream Cheese, at room temp
1 cup Powdered Sugar

Beat these together in a bowl.

3 cups Heavy Cream
3/4 cup Sugar

Whip these together until it forms stiff peaks.

2 - 3.4 oz packages Chocolate Fudge Instant Pudding Mix
3 cups Milk

Prepare pudding according to package directions using the 3 cups of milk. Fold 1 cup of whipped cream into cream cheese mix and spread over crust. Spread the pudding over that layer, and cover the whole thing with the rest of the whipped cream. Sprinkle the top with the reserved crushed Oreos. Chill overnight.

I have to tell you, it is NOT like me to go through this much effort for a recipe. I am the kind of person who will usually only try recipes if they include 3 or less ingredients and 2 steps. I found the Cool Whip variation of this recipe on allrecipes.com, and there was a day when I would have just made that.... but now I know why people go through the extra effort. If my mother's words ever came back to me, it was while tasting this recipe because it's totally true: you get out of it, what you put into it. Although I'm sure it's much easier, I'd lay money on the fact that the Cool Whip version doesn't taste nearly as good as this does!

If you decide to try it, leave a comment here and let me know how you liked it!

Wednesday Weigh-In #10

***Scroll down for my Pink Cat Studio sneak peeks!***

***Don't forget I have BLOG CANDY up for grabs, HERE!***

Another Wednesday, another weigh in! How is everyone doing? I lost 6/10 of a pound this week. It's not much, but I'll take it. I'm proud of myself for basically being on this plateau for almost three weeks and not giving up! There have been so many times in the past when I've hit a plateau and then just called it quits out of frustration. So far, so good though. I decided yesterday that I need to do something else to help me get past this little speed bump, so today I started counting calories. I'm giving myself 1800 calories/day, which is the number recommended by The Biggest Loser book that I'm reading. It's 4:11, and I've used up 1148 so far. 1800 calories seems like a lot, but it's not. LOL. I mean, I'll survive, but I'm pretty sure I was eating more than that before, which could be why I stopped losing. Doh!

So, we'll see how this goes. I'd like to stick with it for a week and see what results it brings. I just want to make sure I lose these last 9.4 lbs before the season (and consequently the Pound for Pound challenge) ends in early May. It's definitley doable, but I need to stay on top of it so the time doesn't get away from me and I'm crashing on an all-watermelon diet on April 25th. LOL. Ok, so I would never actually do an all-watermelon diet, but you know what I mean!

How has this week been for you? How close are you to the goal you set for this challenge? Do you think you'll make it?

Pink Cat Studio Sneak Peeks, Day 2

***Don't forget I have BLOG CANDY up for grabs, HERE!***

Are you loving all of these Sweet Pea baby stamps? I am! I just think the clean lines of the drawing are so cute... and so easy to color!

When I started this one, I pictured it as a pocket card... and that's pretty much what it is, except that after I was done with it I realized there really was no place to write a message. LOL. Whoops! The seed packet is held in place with one mini-glue dot, so I guess the message has to go on the back. Oh well! :o)

Be sure to check the other Design Team blogs for more super cute sneak peeks!

Becky Carafa
Janna Hull
Jodi Ann Lee
Lauren Meader
Lise Roy
Maria Bell
Mariska van der Veer
Nikki Fairbairn
Sparkle Smith - March Guest Designer
Vicki Garrett

If you're wondering about the Wednesday Weigh In post, I'll get it up later today.

Enjoy the day!

Pink Cat Studio Sneak Peeks, Day 1

***Don't forget I have BLOG CANDY up for grabs, HERE!***

Today is day one of Pink Cat Studio's March sneak peeks. This month, PCS is releasing a new line of stamps for this little babe named Sweet Pea. Isn't that baby adorable?! Above you see the baby as a "she" with her cute little strawberry hat and matching diaper. Below you see Sweet Pea as a "he" with his bear face hat and bottle. I love that the stamps are separated in such a way that the baby can be made either male or female, and the accessories in this set are just adorable. They are also big enough to cut out easily, which is a major bonus if you ask me!



Melissa also has a little contest going at the moment. Find all the details, and enter on the Pink Cat Studio blog >>HERE<<. Check back tomorrow for another day of sneak peeks! You'll be glad you did. And while you're at it, click over to see what the other Design Team girls have come up with: Becky Carafa
Janna Hull
Jodi Ann Lee
Lauren Meader
Lise Roy
Maria Bell
Mariska van der Veer
Nikki Fairbairn
Sparkle Smith - March Guest Designer
Vicki Garrett

April Is A Promise

**Don't forget I have BLOG CANDY up for grabs! Enter HERE!***

Ok, show of hands... who subscribes to Papercraft Magazine? Did you happen to see this super cute card in there this month? ACK! I did! And I loved it so much I had to case it! So yeah, this is a shameless case. The only thing I changed was adding the canvas background stamp to the blue, and using a sentiment rather than just the word "hello".

This sentiment is from the His Eye Is On The Sparrow set by Sweet n' Sassy Stamps. Y'all know how much I love that set! Really though, any of the SNSS sentiments would work with this design. It's totally versatile!

Here are a few close-ups. This one is of the sentiment:

I thought that was perfect for the apple tree, no?

And here are the "apples":

The green at the top and bottom of the card is all raised up with dimensionals.

What do you think? Don't you just want to case it yourself? lol! :)

Nekkid Bebe!

When it's time for a bath, we've always undressed Henry in his bedroom and then let him streak down the hall to the bathroom yelling, "Nekkid Bebe!" as he goes. Today he had a little accident (explosive diaper - damn antibiotics!), so I had to strip him mid-day. He really could have used a bath then and there, but I didn't have anywhere to put Jack that he would have been content, so I had to do the best I could with cleaning him up. Anyhow, after I put his diaper on, I went to get him some clean clothes and he ran after me shouting, "Nekkid Bebe!" over and over. tee hee. :)

I had to grab my camera and snap a few pictures.

BLOG CANDY!!

** $25 BLOG CANDY Gift Certificate Give Away! Scroll down for details!**

First, I have to share this sketch challenge that my fellow i {heart} papers design team member, Kendra threw down for all of us DT members. Here is her sketch:





And here is my interpretation:

The card base is SU's So Saffron, topped with this Anna's Bananas paper that I LOVE. The Easter basket is a stamp in the Spring Fling set that I've used a few times before, and I prettied it up a little with some stickles on the eggs and a cute little pink beaded daisy. I also used my scalloped circle Nestabilities to cut out the semi-circle. I think I said the same thing the last time I used it, but I love that this soft paper has a little black in it. I just think it's such a cool touch.

NOW! On to my BLOG CANDY!

Do you love all of the CUTE i {heart} papers products I've been using? Well, you're in luck! I have a gift certificate up for grabs! Kate (owner) is sponsoring this giveaway for a $10 gift certificate to her store. And because I love you all so much, and appreciate all of your wonderful comments, I'm going to add $15 to it myself, so that means you have the chance to win a $25 i {heart} papers gift certificate!!! WOOOOT!

SO!! How do you win?? Here's the scoop:

1. Visit the i {heart} papers website, and check out all of the fabulous papers, stamps, and embellishments. Then come back here, and leave a comment on this post telling me what you would spend the $25 on if you win (you can change your mind later, and use it however you like, I'm just curious to know what your favorites are!).

2. Spread the word! If you have a blog, please post a link back to this info so as many people as possible can have a shot at this. I'd love to see 100+ entries!

3. Make sure that your comment includes a link back to your blog or an email address or some other way for me to contact you. If you are chosen as the winner, and do not make contact within 36 hours, another winner will be chosen.

Edited to add: A winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday, March 25.

GOOD LUCK!!

Wednesday Weigh-In #9

How is everyone doing this week? I apologize for the late post. The day just totally got away from me. I've been on a cleaning kick lately, and have been spending all of my free time cleaning the house. It's unusual - trust me!

About the weight, well, I stayed the same this week... which is fine with me! Better than gaining! :) I had a few bad days over the weekend, but I'm ok with that!

I'm going to keep this short and sweet so I can get to bed before 1am, but let me know how you're doing.

Is anyone watcing The Biggest Loser? Some of those girls are pushing 100 lbs already! I totally know losing 100 lbs in 10 weeks at home is unrealistic, but could you imagine what it would be like to weigh 100 lbs less today - March 18 - than you did at Christmas? That's about 10 weeks ago... I can't even wrap my head around how amazing that must feel for them.