Papers, Pens, Templates & more

More great layouts!!

No, not mine.  I've been running, running, running.  Ted's dad who lives with us has been in and out of the hospital (not one, but two...Phelps and Northern Westchester) and in and out of rehab (Bethel in Croton...very nice place).  Plus, Ted is getting ready for eye surgery (cataracts), and Ben and Rachel have just been keeping me busy.  But here is a sneak into some of the great stuff our friends in Iowa have done:

Unfortunately I don't know which designer did which designs, but very nice mix and match of patterns!!

(This one would be nice as an Easter Layout, right?)

So that's all from me.  Hope you're hanging in there and having a little more time for creative play than I seem to be having these days!!

Cheers m'dears!!

Cool Layouts

click here to see more Nice work, huh?

We've been doing a Design Team Challenge and the gals over at www.ScrapThatSmile.com have been busy at work!!

I on the other hand have been a slug!  Nothing new from me (or at least I don't remember...it's been a blur!)

And this is Peggy's submission (a little late but very impressive, no?)

So that's the scoop from me.  A little visual inspiration...Happy Jen???????

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Sorry, couldn't resist... Notice our front steps?  Or should I say there-lack-of?  Yup, we couldn't even open the door.  Had to go around to the side in order to get out and shovel.  Ted's car isn't even up the driveway yet (that should be a challenge considering it's a 1989 Chevy Station Wagon with rear-wheel drive.  Hmmm, what was I thinking?)

Rachel and I made the most of our snow day and had lunch with Mrs. Becker yesterday (she lives by herself, her kids and granddaughter are all grown.)  We brought over yummy homemade chicken soup and she made the tea.  And we finished it up with Fig Newtons.  It doesn't get much better than that!

So off to my sister's for cornedbeef sandwiches this afternoon.  Do we know how to have a good time or what?  (Plus I'm sure a little sledding as well.  That will be the highlight of the day!!).  Keep warm!

oh what fun

Do you just love this? This is what greeted me as soon as I walked into Cathy's amazing shop!

Like wow!  An homage to The Crafter's Workshop.  Too cool, huh?  I just want to jump into all of those delicious colors.  (I know , I never get bored of them!)

Here's one of me and Cathy.  She was certainly the hostess with the mostess!  Did I mention she has a cafe right in her store.  Oh baby!! I had one of those Strawberry Banana Smoothies.  Killer!!  (Don't worry Mandi, I'm still devoted to my tea and biscuits.)

So here are some of Cathy's amazing groupies!  A very talented bunch!!  (Check out Kat's layout in the bottom right corner, her niece was wearing a crown but it was slightly cut off.  So she used the White Unibal Signo Pen to draw it onto the layout and embellished the photo a bit.)

And here's a little shot of our Birthday Books that we made in the afternoon.  You ladies are totally awesome.  Thank you so much for putting up with me all day and making it such a great weekend.

See you soon!!

off to Maryland!!

Have you heard of this cute shop:

  Scrap-Masters in Bel Air Maryland.  It's a scrapbook store AND a cafe (oh let me see...paper, chocolate and coffee (AND TEA!!) hmm....yeah, I think I might like it!!)  Cathy has been amazing setting this whole gig up for me.  I'll be teaching a couple of classes and doing a book signing and generally having a really great time meeting lots of wonderful ladies!!

So I promise to have some great pictures of her wonderful store when I get back.

Oh, and Nancy Mattil is doing her all-day crop on Saturday March 31st.  She's promised me a table where I can sell some of our New templates (and old favorites) plus our delicious papers.  I will keep you posted as to the timing.  (It's the first day of spring break for us, so I might just have to sign up myself for the all-day crop.  hmmmmm!!)  Talk when I get back.....

A little baking therapy

First you start with this......

...and then you end with these!!

SCONES!!!!  Yes, armed with self-rising flour (compliments of King Arthur), I attempted Myra's recipe.  It was a little tricky at first (like if a stick of butter is 113 grams, then how many tablespoons makes up 100 grams.  I just sort of fudged it by guestimating 7/8ths of a stick.  Oh and me, the good little American, assumed that when she said bake at 200 degrees, she meant Fahrenheit....WRONG!)  Live and learn!!  So here's the recipe.  If life were truly good, I'd have some clotted cream (odd how we use the term "clotted" for not-so-appealing things here in the states...but oh my, imagine whipped cream just before it turns to butter and you have clotted cream.  A very good thing!!)

Myra's (English) Scones

1 cup of self-rising Flour

¼ cup of sugar

7 tablespoons of unsalted butter (Mayra uses 100 grams of margerine)

1 egg

a little milk (not even ¼ cup)

"Rub" the butter (margerine) into the flour, add sugar.  MIx in beaten egg and enough milk to make a soft dough.  Cut into mounds and put onto greased baking sheet.  Bake 10-15 minutes at 390 degrees F (200 degrees Celsius).

When Myra made these for us, she made very "poufy" ones, split them in half and had a nice layer of butter on them (ready to receive a dollop of homemade jam).

Quite yummy.  I might make them for snack  for Rachel's class so that she can show everyone what she ate when she was in the UK.

Thank you Myra.  Next I'll have to try your "Cream Cake".  I'll keep you posted.

Do you miss your store?

That's something people ask when they haven't seen me in awhile.  Do I miss my store?  It's a good question.

It's bittersweet.  Like when I was at Mandi's shop, I got to ring up at the cash register while she taught her class and the guys went out for coffee.  It was fun.  Being in my shop and helping people find cool stuff was fun.  Seeing all of the cool stuff come in on the big brown truck was fun.  Watching people learn amazing stuff that they wouldn't have tried otherwise was fun (and rewarding).  Cleaning the bathroom...not so fun.

Saturday morning I got to Target at 8am sharp (that's when they open on Saturdays in case ya' didn't know.)  Whilst mosey-ing thru the aisles (actually looking for items on my friend's bridal registry), a smiling face started to approach me.  It took awhile for me to put it together, but her "Smith College" sweatshirt tipped me off (she met her partner there and I remember helping them find paper for their wedding invitations.)  It was such a nice reunion.  She caught me up on her new job, their family, their sweet neighbors (who I had heard all about), stuff.  I could barely say good-bye when we finally hugged and pushed our carts in different directions.

That's what I miss about the store.  Keeping up with everyone's world.  The good, the bad, the wonderful, the sad, the maddening and the insane.  LIFE!

Yeah.  But I do love my weekends.  :)

oh, and Myra, if you're reading this...I found self-rising flour today and am going to try your scones recipe...will keep you (and everyone else) posted.

it's 5:15 am

And it's time for a little holiday recap:  (Grab a cuppa tea and have a sit...)

Yes indeed, that is the actual Eastern Standard Time, yet I am still on UK time.  Now of course if we were in jolly old England right now it would be time for a spot of tea...which lucky for me I finally unpacked my little present from Val (and luckily as well, during my last trip to the UK waaaaaay back in 1987, I did indeed purchase a tea infuser (ball thingy)).  So thank goodness I will finally have a "proper" cuppa tea this morning albeit the sun isn't even up yet.  So just to discuss "tea" for a minute...I think up to this point in my life, tea was something we drank with lemon and honey when we were sick.  I of course kept a few boxes on hand for those strange dinner guests and quilting friends who wanted tea after dinner (I was never sure why).  Afterall, coffee, good coffee, was far better than any silly tea.

Boy was I wrong!  There's is something wonderful and civilised about tea.  People actually stop and drink their tea.  They pause.  They don't gulp it down like we do coffee, they savour it.

How cool is it to have an entire meal named for a drink?  "We had tea", or "we stopped for tea", or "what did you have for tea?"

So nice.  And a "Cream Tea", well, that sounds just wonderful as is, but what it really is, is a meal with scones with clotted cream (think heavy whipping cream whipped almost to butter) and lots of wonderful jams (or is it jellies?)

And speaking of clotted cream and other wonderful things, Mandi brought us to a little place that she went to as a child.  Highnam's Dairy.  The icecream is made in town, then the clotted cream is dolloped right on top of the icecream cone.  It then "freezes" (sort of) into a mound on top.  Wow!

Oh and notice, this is one picture where Ben is actually not scowling!  Oh and notice too, how beautifully coiffed Rachel's hair is (thanks to Catherine) and how protective Catherine is of Rachel (her little charge for the week)!  And of course Drew, who is always a good sport!!  Thanks Andrew, you are the best!!!!!

mmmm. just took another sip of my tea....

  Also on this sunny beautiful day, we wandered over to Cheddar.  Yes, the Cheddar, like where that amazing cheese was first made and sold!  I do like cheese, so that was no real stretch for me, but oh-my-goodness, was this incredible!!  We watched the whole process, how it goes from "curds and whey" to having the retin added, to making bricks of cheese, letting it ripen and so forth.  THEN, not only do they sell their own cheese (yes, we had such a lovely cheese and crackers dinner that night) but they let you taste each and every cheese before you buy it! Always a good thing in my book!!

I forgot where I took this picture (I think Cheddar).  Look!  They're serving my new favorite British side dish....Mushy Peas!!!  You see why I love this place??

Oh, and lest I forget, we were in the UK for "Pancake Day" which I believe is the start of the lenten season.  I unfortunately opted out for pancakes (shoulda') but instead had fish and chips (the ones we had from "Papa's" in Weston were so much better!)

Then we were off to Wells (where there was none other than "Wells Castle").  Very nice cathedral.  Amazing actually.  Here are some shots of the stonework.... and some of the interior stained glass... there was even a chapel with the chapel.  And the way the light came through these windows was ethereal.  I wish I had taken more photos.  The individual seats (pews) each had their own special family crests embroidered on them, with individual little reading lights.  Very posh.  Quite gert lush, 'it was!

From there we wandered into the town of Wells which we happened to catch on a market day.

Ya' know how at Whole Foods or any of those other shee-shee places have very cute jars of faux hand packed condiments?  Well I'm here to tell ya' that this was the real thing!!  Yes, those are real jars, with a real person's handwriting, with real hand covered caps.  Yum, yum, yum!  (We bought a few olives to go along with our cheese and crackers.)  The boys indulged in a sausage and fried onions on a roll thing.  Quite the sandwich (wish I had a photo!!)

Had to put this photo in.  Note to self - face Rachel AWAY from direct sunlight....

So fast forward to Sunday.  The day we all went home.  Very sad, sad day!! 

this is actually taken in the car heading over to the airport....as are the next few.... and here this one taken outside Mike and Mandi's house:

one of our wonderful hosts:

and the kids....Yes, I know.  BEN!!!!!!  He's going to be very sorry he was such a goofball for these photos!!

So here's one final photo.  I took this one the day before we left.  There's Rachel, attached to Catherine.  There's Ben, goofing around (totally for Catherine's benefit and Andrew's humour) and good ole' Andrew in the middle, just happy to be part of the antics!!

It was so sad to say goodbye.  I mean really, really sad.  Poor Andrew had a few tears even before the "goodbyes", I tried hard not to think about it and just kept chattering to Mandi the whole time, Ben had the "sniffles" once we were in the plane and Rachel kept saying (for days and days) "I miss Cafferine".  I got a bit teary eyed again after I read Mandi's blog and her take on the week.  There were a lot of "oh  yeah, I remember we did that".  It's fun to see how other people perceive a string of events that you experienced too. 

Anyway, we're home (and did I mention we had a snowstorm?  Yup, and a 2-hour delay for school the day after we came back.)  Sheesh!  Give us moms a break!!  We've got a zillion orders to get out for all of our Doodling Templates and Flourishes Papers.  Thank you to everyone who is patiently waiting.  Suzanne and the crew were busy, busy picking and packing and shipping whilst we were gone, but now we've brought in the big guns.....TED!  Hang on to your bippies 'cause we're goin' for a ride!!!  (That's at least what my Poppie used to say...not sure what a bippie is, but I'm sure it's not obscene 'cause he was as proper a gentleman as they come.)

I'll leave you with this one photo of my grandpa (Poppie).  He died just last year, soon after his 101st birthday (this was taken at his 100th birthday).  He had stopped driving and playing golf at about 97, but still kept up his Bridge game.  He was a lot of fun.  He really enjoyed being around "kids"  (as in, anyone younger than 70).  Here's something funny, we used to say that he looked kinda' like Mayor Dinkins but more handsome.   Whadya' think?

Anyway, onward and upward....off to make my second cuppa tea.

bad food, good times

...and all the watered-down beer you can drink!!

so Ted had this idea that we should go to a "Schnitzel" restaurant with Stanley.  It was a buffet (which in theory should be good, right?  WRONG!)  there were several choices of "meat"(and I use that term loosely!!), and each type of "meat" was more awful than the next.  but hey!  the beer was ever-flowing.  And all this for 17 euros!

but it wasn't all bad, we actually had an amazing lunch at this little bakery shop.  there were all sorts of interesting little "sandwiches" which they'd put in a little convection pizza oven.  I had the sandwich all the way on the left bottom.  It was called the "Broodje Italie" (Italian Bread i think that's how it translated.)  It had mozzarella cheese, tomato, pesto, a sweet tomato paste and another cheese.  wow it was good.  Ted had one with ham and pineapple and cheese, and Stanley had something with Sausage.  very YUM!

Ted wanted to go to this bread shop.  pretty cool, huh?

oh and here is my "raison d'être"..."pur"chocolate.....

Hagel slag!  As a joke, Stanley brought this over last September when he stayed with us (because I like DARK chocolate so much).  It was a joke because it's something the kids eat over their bread and butter (they shake those little chocolate sprinkles on top of the soft butter).  Well, needless to say, those were gone before he even left, so I needed to get more for the trip home.

And this nice little dish was something we had on our way home from the airport in a cute town called Enkhuizen (pronounced eng-HOW-zen).  this was a "country ham omelet". 

So, I guess we haven't had such hard times with the food thing.  Just tonight...and I'm sure Ted will have a hard time living this one down - poor guy.  We're back to the UK tomorrow morning and then home on Sunday.

Hoy!  (not sure what that means or how to spell it, but people say it a lot around here!!!) -jaime

hello from Borne!

[edited Friday night...pictures added!]

Here is a photo of Petra and Henk at  Petra's shop just outside of the Amsterdam airport.  Very cool shop!!  Really good stuff. Henk also a distributor, which will make it a bit easier for our European Union friends!!  (Henk is quite commited to good service and to offering unique products to the paper arts world!)  

We're off to see Stanley's boat that he renovated from the inside out (this has been ongoing for as long as I've known him...or just about).

the kids are over at Mike and Mandi's (wreaking havoc on the streets of Weston-super-Mare I'm sure).

cheers,  Jaime

Very nice store isn't it?  it also has a great workshop area in the back and great light (as you can see!!)