Rachel's Polymier Clay Projects

Rachel has been busy all weekend making polymer clay charms. She's using the Sculpey brand, it's really soft and great for beginners.

 She made this adorable dessert necklace.

These are the other food items she made; waffle, hamburger, sushi, pumpkin pie & pizza. Unfortunately, white and translucent clay looks the same before baked. She accidently mixed them up so the cheese on the pizza didn't turn out quite right, but it's still great. 

Have a great week!

More Advent Calendar & Xmas Cards Progress

Hi there! Yesterday we celebrated my side of the family's Thanksgiving holiday at my nephew's house, Brian with his wife Kacia. They hosted for 20+ people. What a wonderful dinner we had, playing with the kids, dogs, and eating yummy food. 

Today, Rachel & I went out to hit the Black Friday weekend sale. We went to Joann's & Borders. I love the Jill Schwartz Vintage Groove charms. Here's what I picked up today. I can't wait to put together a necklace with these items!

I also made three more tags for my advent calendar. It's coming along, only 17 more tags to make.

And here's a little bit more of my xmas card pieces. I picked up these tags about a year ago from My Daughter's Wish, a scrapbook store in Pleasant Hill. They've since closed, but I never used these tags until this year. I'm also using some buttons on my xmas card, you'll see how soon.

Tonight I brought up about seven boxes of xmas decorations from my rumpus room downstairs, getting the house ready for Christmas. So much to do, so little time!
Rachel has also been busy with her latest art media, polymer clay. She's been making dessert and food items. Tomorrow I'll post her wonderful creations.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving holiday!  I've been baking all morning and have just finished 5 desserts for tonight's dinner at my brother in-law's house.  First up is the traditional pumpkin pie:

Then comes the macadamia nut banana cream pie. However, I haven't put the top cream on yet. That comes right before I serve it.

3rd is an apple tart.

The kids helped me make the snickerdoodles - Chris's favorite cookie.

Then, of course, I made chocolate chip cookies, my favorite.

I also wanted to share a few crafty things.  Here's my pins for the advent calendar.  Using the Martha Stewart circle punch on different papers and stamps.

 Here are 3 more tags for the advent calendar.

 Last night I put together a few collage cards to use on some future project.  I wanted to use my new stamp, tart girl.  She's the pink one with the teapot crown on her head. 

And finally, a peek at my xmas card in progress...my paper bag got a roof.

Once again have a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday.

Catherine Moore Themed - Christmas Card Exchange

As some of you know, I make my Christmas cards every year and try to do something special.  I've started working on them and decided to make a few extra to trade.  I'm using one of the Catherine Moore stamps (http://www.characterconstructions.com/) which I always love and thought it would be fun to trade one of your handmade Christmas cards - also using a Catherine Moore stamp.  I have about 5 extras and if you are interested in trading, send me an email. First come first trade!  If you've received a Christmas card from me already in the past, no worries, you're on my list.

Periodically, I'll show you bits and pieces of my card.  Once I send them out, I'll post my finished card.  Here's the start of my xmas card.  I used the Tim Holtz stamp, Royal Script, on a paper bag.

I'm also working on the Junk Drawer Advent Calendar from Paula Cheney.  Paula is on the 7-Gypsies design team (http://www.2gypsygirls.com/)  and she came up with a great advent calendar a year ago.  I bought a starter kit on etsy and didn't work on it until this year.  I won't have all 25 tags done by Dec. 1st, but that's okay - it'll be fun to work on during the month of December.  Here are my first two tags.  I still need to hang a eiffle tower charm at the bottom of the beads, under the glittered star.

Rachel has been busy making her felties again.  I haven't posted her creations in awhile, but she's made these all in the past week.  From the top going clockwise: fox, squid, rabbit, panda, popsicle, lamb & in center mouse.

Italian Cookies & Confections Class

On Saturday, my dear friend Ellen and I took an Italian Cookie Class at Dragers, in Danville. The teacher was Maria Capdeville...formerly a pastry chief at Chez Pansise. It was a hands on cooking class. This was our event to celebrate our birthdays this year - it was a great idea Ellen!

Mascarppone Truffles

Panforte

Biscotti al Limoncello

Lemony Semolina Cookies

Lemon Cream Sandwich Cookies

 We had a dinner at San Ramon at Pasta Primavera...yummy!

Sunday, I made a quick trip to Addison's Endpapers sale. Here's what I picked up...nice little treasures.

Lisa Guerin Birthday Class For My 2 Sisters

This Sunday we celebrated two of my sister’s birthdays with a private class from Lisa Guerin held at my sister Lana's house. Lisa is from San Clemente and is often seen in the Stampington magazines for her fabulous work. We were thrilled to be able to take a class from her.


We all had a great time creating, eating, laughing and catching up. We had several projects planned for the day, but we got so carried away with the first project, that we didn’t have time to work on the others. Plus we had to take time out for eating and opening gifts. The good part is we get to work on the other projects at home - Lisa left us with kits to do an Alice in Wonderland Theatre and a cute yard stick project, so I'll be making those shortly – I can hardly wait!

We alI loved our finished project. What an enjoyable day to stay in-doors (since it rained all day) with my 5 sisters and Lisa. Thanks Lana for hosting! Your home was the perfect venue for our celebration.
 
I also wanted to share the items I made for the birthday girls.  I made three necklaces, two of which are copied from Antropologie (the left and right one) and one vintage piece (center) I made up.

These are the bday cards I made my sisters. They're a little more like mini pictures than cards I suppose.

  

Company Sample Sale 4th Qtr 2010

Our last company sample sale of the year.  I was so disappointed that I didn't get selected to work the sample sale (first time in 4 yrs), so I attended as a regular shopper.  I arrived at the warehouse at 6:45am and waited patiently until 9am for the gates to open.  I arrived extra early to get a good parking space - it's well worth it, so you don't have to carry your items very far.  This is the opening gate.

 At the peak of the day, this aisle was full of about 400 people - just imagine.

Inside The Warehouse At The End Of The Day

 Here are my finds - not as great as previous sales, but still worth going.  My favorite purchase was the three tier wire rack - love it!



Giants Celebration!

I'm not a sports fan, but you can't help but get excited about the Giants winning the World Series!  Since I work in San Francisco, a bunch of us at the office went to watch the parade.  It was so exciting to be a part of it.  I was thrilled to get a quick shot of Timmy Lincecum - the only player I know, but I did get a shot of Willie Mayes and Willie McCovey too.

Willie Mayes

Willie McCovey

Timmy