Going Organic

On Tuesday I picked up my first basket of organically grown produce from MogoOrganic. I was so excited! I didn't have any idea what to expect. I wasn't disappointed! Look at all this great stuff!! Oh. My. Goodness!!! The lettuce variety was AWESOME! Chopped up the radishes for the salad. I'm here to tell you that there is nothing like the "heat" that comes from a garden-fresh radish! Know what I mean??? Green onions -- to die for! Sweet sweet strawberries!! Perky little yellow pixie zinnia. See her peeking out of the basket? Haven't tried the garlic scapes yet - they are just fun to look at! And then there was the kale. (I say "was" because it's gone now!) When Morgan (Mogo's Diva Gardener and Owner) was reviewing the contents with me, she came to the kale and I said, "What do I do with kale?" So she whipped the orange MogoOrganic Newsletter out of my basket and showed me the recipes she'd included for using the garlic scapes, basil and strawberries (for a cocktail!), and kale. She assured me that the recipe for the kale was The Best. So, I made it. While it looked like something that should be raked up in the yard come late October, it was So.Amazingly. Good. Crispy and kinda greenish-brown and just a little salty! Whoda thunk? Even my husband ate it --- and liked it! Alot! Can't wait to see what I get in my basket the next time! Only problem is, I have to wait 2 whole weeks!!!

My Cards for the Cards for Heroes program

Free slideshow created with Smilebox

Cards for Heroes

I had such warm fuzzies after putting together this box full of cards. Sending 200 handmade cards was my "pipe dream", so when the total came to 317 , I was thrilled. If you're not familiar with Operation Write Home, an organization that collects blank greeting cards for soldiers to send back to their friends and family, check out their website at http://www.operationwritehome.org/. This was so much fun. I couldn't stop making cards! Even though the event I held at the library wasn't well attended, people really came through with donations. There were 10 of us who pulled out all the stops and created the contents of this box. Wowza!!!! Thanks, Ladies!!!! A special shout out to Mary, who helped me sort and label them. Whew - that took a really long time. I was really happy with the way some of my cards came out, so I took pictures. I was going to post them here, but have decided to put them into an album instead. Stay tuned!

Valentine's

Okay, so let's just pretend that I have been blogging regularly since my last post. Maybe I have been and the posts have been mysteriously deleted. By aliens. Yep. That's what happened. I'm sure of it.

Anyway, I'm having a blast with a $1 pack of HEAVY cardstock stickers from Dollar General. And the best part? PURPLE FOIL accents!!! How much cooler can you get! And, it just so happened, that I had a scrap of purple foil gift wrap in EXACTLY the same color!! Scraps are good. Saving is good. Anyway, here are a couple of the Valentine's I've created. The inside of the lion card says "I want you to be my Valentine!" The inside of the giraffe card says "I'd STRETCH my neck out for you, Valentine!" I made each letter in STRETCH a different size so they s t r e t c h up. Clever, huh? Printed the text in purple to match the TOTALLY AWESOME purple foil accents. The hearts in the tree are red foil (more foil!!!) confetti. It may not show, but I stuck some foam pop dots under the lion, leaves and giraffe for a little extra dimension.

I've got a snake, alligator, elephant, monkey and turtle to play with yet! Stay tuned!

Happy New Year!!

How is it possible that I managed to totally ignore/abandon my blog for an entire month!! I'm so ashamed! I thought about new postings. Really! I did! Anyway, it's a new year. One filled with new hopes and new challenges. I've been working on the same resolutions since 2008 and have yet to accomplish them. Guess I'll hang on to them for one more year.

Here are some of the projects I was working on in December. The altered binder clips are soooo fun! Little works that have to make a BIG statement. Backyard Candle Co. in Washington, IA agreed to sell them for me. We had a good run in the fall. I haven't seen the results for Christmas/Winter yet. The post-it note holders were "freebie" gifts that I gave to all of the women at the family Christmas get togethers. I saw the idea at Memory Bound, a scrapbooking store in Ankeny, IA. (Such CLEVER gals there! They never cease to inspire me!)

E - I - E - I - O!

I'm so easily distracted! While in the middle of some Christmas projects, I ran across this piece of farm animal print paper from Reminisce. A light bulb came on! I shoved the current projects to the side and started working on this card. Easier said than done. First I had to find a simple barn template on the internet. My pattern was too large for a folded 12 x 12 page, so I had to make it in two pieces. Then I decided to paper piece the front. Okay, cute barn, but I still hadn't used the paper! It had to go on the inside. Writing will have to be done on the left side. Oh, well!! I'll probably not make another one of these cards, but this one is kinda cute.

Don't You Love It.....

......when you get an idea (this time at the last minute), you make it, and it turns out just the way you wanted?? I had one of those moments yesterday. Before going to Iowa City for the day, I decided to make a "team spirit tag" to hang from my purse. I knew there would be THOUSANDS of Hawkeye fans in town for the football game (we were going up for volleyball) and I wanted to see if my "experiment" would draw any comments. Well, (sigh) no comments, but I thought it looked dang cute hanging on my purse. Sooooo easy and sooooooo inexpensive!