It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

... at A Cherry On Top, that is! I had SO much fun playing with my goodies from Pink Paislee's new Mistletoe and Co. line, thanks to ACOT. Check out my full reveal HERE!


And if that isn't enough excitement for you how about checking out the amazing set of December Challenges from the Creative Team?! You can see all the inspiration HERE!

And with those two articles published I am officially OFF for the month of December in anticipation for the arrival of our bundle of joy. Talk about the best Christmas present, ever! I will still be posting on the boards and scrapping when I have the energy but my next product reveal will be in January!

Stuff I Love Right Now

Despite running around like a chicken with my head cut off I have still found a little time to decompress and relax. Here are a few things I have been loving these days!

- Etsy.com for all the super duper adorable hand made baby swag! I could look at Baby Legs and knitted bear caps for hours.

- Our Best Bites for great, easy recipes and food inspiration. I love that I get new posts in my inbox and they are very down to earth. No Marthas on that food blog!

- The Bump... oh, wow. I mean, I know hormones rage during pregnancy but the sheer volume of cattiness on this message board is eye-popping. And very, very entertaining.

- Puzzle books. You know, like those ones you can buy at the airport or any place magazines are sold. I like to think that I am keeping my mind sharp but likely I just enjoy wasting time filling in letters and numbers.

- Our nursery! Ok, so we don't have carpet yet... or furniture... or wall art. Except a fantastic vinyl tree which looks perfect on our green walls. I am itching to get this room finished just so I can sit in it and adore it.

- The Graco Sweetpeace Soothing Center. Um, yes, our baby WILL have his own iPod to plug into this thing. It rocks. No, really... it rocks side to side AND back to front. It will save my sanity!

Bad, Bad Blogger!

I need to have my hand slapped. I have been horrible about blogging lately. It just seems like everything is going on at once (what with being 35 weeks pregnant and all...) and time is not my own! Since I last posted I have been to California for a wedding, had my baby shower, taken childbirth classes, and "handled" about a zillion setbacks in all of the house repairs/changes we have been trying to make before this baby arrives. It's been a little hard to catch my breath!

In the meantime... my favorite holiday, Halloween, came and went. We had some friends over for fun foods and handed out candy. I also had the chance to work with some awesome Basic Grey Eerie goodies courtesy of ACOT for my October reveal: check it out here.
I sent some fun goodies out for Halloween... who doesn't love candy in a can??

And we can't forget the monthly installment of challenges at A Cherry On Top!

And that leads me to the present. I thought it would be a *great* idea to revive my blog by taking Shimelle's "Blogging for Scrapbookers" class... RIGHT before having a baby. :-/ So hopefully I will be posting more frequently and with a tad more passion than I have in the past! Here's to a blogging adventure!

September Challenges!

Are you looking for a little scrap inspiration? Check out the newest set of monthly challenges over at A Cherry on Top. We have a bunch of new ones for September!

My September Theme Challenge: Friendship -

Time to crop 'till you drop!

Yup, it's that time of year again... time for yet another FAB crop over at A Cherry on Top! Games, challenges, Fast Scraps, bingo, and prizes/points all weekend long. Join me for a class on how to make a Kaisercraft mini shelf and albums on Saturday at noon or for Baby Bingo Saturday at 9pm.

Stock up on snacks, caffeine, and distractions for your family and come play with us!!

Latest ACOT Reveal

Oooh these papers were FUN to play with! Check out the goodness from the new October Afternoon Road Map line... I used it to scrap this layout and more for my latest A Cherry On Top reveal article (read it here!):

The Big Ultrasound!

I hardly slept Sunday night in anticipation of the big anatomy ultrasound Monday morning. We made a wise choice when we set the appointment for first thing in the morning because we were seen right away and getting scanned within minutes. So what do we find?

It's a BOY!!!

Ryan and I are very excited and can't wait to meet our little man. It is hard to believe we are halfway through this pregnancy already. And where has the summer gone?? We have been incredibly busy and have more responsibilities lined up but it helps the weeks pass. Before we know it December will be upon us and life will never be the same!

Here's our healthy little boy:

July Article at ACOT

Oooh... boy did I love working with the new Collage Press line called Sweet Shoppe for my July reveal article at A Cherry on Top! This was my kind of paper! Check out the whole article here.

Shower the People You Love

Last weekend was my best friend's wedding shower and I, as the Maid of Honor, worked hard to give her and her fiance a Mexican themed party to remember. The bridesmaids and I only had three weeks to plan this shindig but the end result was beautiful and everyone had a great time.

I made a heck of a lot of decorations, including many many paper flowers. The favors were margarita glasses to toast the couple and we served up some Mexican classics (rice and beans) alongside Spanish tapas (chorizo) and some modern appetizers (carne asada pizza). Naturally I made cupcakes too! Two dozen each of Lime Cupcakesand Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes.

It's a fiesta!

Mmmm.... foooooooood:


Margarita glass favors:

The Beginnings of a Nursery

It turns out one could probably lose years of one's life looking at the options for baby bedding. From basic solid sheets to the full custom bedding decked out crib there are thousands of choices in a huge range of prices. Yikes!

We definitely plan on finding out the gender of this baby (6 days!) but I am not really into the all pink or all blue explosion for our baby's nursery. Luckily that actually helped us narrow down our choices for decor because SO much of what is out there is uber girly or screams "little boy". I'm a big fan of great design without breaking the bank and I felt it was important to make practical choices without sacrificing style. Given that we eventually want two kids I decided all our furniture and major gear should be gender neutral so it can go the distance.

I ended up stumbling upon this Carter's bedding:

It is totally adorable and made putting the rest of the room together super easy. We will be painting the walls the green color to match and putting in a beige carpeting. The glider is a chocolate brown wide courderoy and the furniture is a medium wood.

It was just coincidence that the scrapbook paper I last used for a reveal at A Cherry On Top happened to have some of the same colors. I had a blast making these three pieces of wall art:


More nursery updates to come after we paint and get the carpeting!

Oh my...

So, I've been bad. Really bad. I am guilty of abandoning my blog.

But no more! I vow to be better about my updates (at least until the next lull...) and keep you all better informed of my goings on.

So where the heck have I been?? Well, I have been a wee bit busy creating a new human! Ryan and I are totally thrilled that I am pregnant with our first baby and due in December. That means I am 20 weeks on Friday... halfway done!

Along with pregnancy comes a lot of reading, nesting, appointments, and exhaustion. My scrap mojo has somewhat gone on a vacation and all I want to do is fuss over the nursery and preparations for the little bean.

On top of that, my best friend is getting married in a month and I am her Maid of Honor (no Matrons here, thankyouverymuch!) AND she is also pregnant... seven weeks behind me. I think this may be the busiest summer in history.

So, to review:

- Sorry for not posting, blog followers... I'll be better!
- There's a bun in the oven!
- I've been busy. But "good" busy.

And the winner is...

::drum roll::

ctaylor0312!

Your name was ceremoniously pulled out of a hat! Congrats on winning the calendar layouts kit! Please PM me your full address at ACOT and I will get it in the mail to you!

Thanks to all of you for signing up as followers! I will be having more RAKs in the future. And if you are interested in the calendar kit shoot me a PM!

Win a Calendar Layouts Kit!

I just happen to have a few kits left from a recent class on calendar layouts! If you would be interested in winning a kit that includes all the supplies and instructions needed to complete these two calendar layouts (using your own photos, of course) listen up! :-)



So what do you have to do?

Simply:
1) leave me a comment and
2) become a "follower" of my blog!

I will draw a name in one week on Monday, March 30th.

If you are interested in buying a kit please PM me as "ScrapGoo" on acherryontop.com

SEI Reveal at A Cherry On Top

SEI was cool enough to send some of us at A Cherry On Top some goodies from their newest lines. We had an SEI reveal week and I got to play with the Mimosa line. It was refreshing to scrap with such bright colors after all the winter greys. Here is my favorite page from my reveal (which you can read here):

Croptopia - Mystic, CT

I will be in Mystic, CT all weekend teaching classes for Croptopia Getaways. Hopefully this will become a regular thing for me so check them out here if you are in the New England area or the Carolinas.

I will be teaching a class on my Pink Paislee Home, Sweet Home hanging frames and another where we'll be creating January and February calendar layouts.

Wish me luck!

Love is in the Air!

Or at least it WAS. Valentine's Day plans got rearranged this year due to me being sick all week and us worrying that going away for the weekend would be a wasted trip. As it turned out I felt better by the weekend but it was salvaged by getting a chance to see a good friend in town from London and then a massive steak dinner later in the evening. Ryan was a sweetheart and bought me roses.

The next weekend was another fabulous A Cherry On Top crop weekend and the Creative Team kept the ladies busy with challenges, fast scraps, bingo, and games galore. I used the opportunity to scrap my roses for a challenge example to use poetry on a layout:

Red Velvet Cupcakes

It has been quite a while since I have made and posted cupcakes here but Valentine's Day was the perfect excuse to get back to baking. And what better Valentine cupcake to bake than Red Velvet? If you have issues with using food coloring there are recipes out there using beet juice but I am just too lazy to mess with that and there was enough cocoa in this recipe to counter the weird food coloring taste. Although, they did have a funny aftertaste when they were still warm. It went away at room temp and colder.

These were firm and dense and I urge you to watch the oven carefully when you are nearing the end of the baking time. They easily could become dry and you should err on the side of pulling them out a bit early. I topped mine with cream cheese frosting (a classic pairing) and they were quickly consumed!

Check out that deep red color!


Red Velvet Cupcakes
(courtesy of allrecipes.com)

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk (or just add regular milk to 1 T. of vinegar till you get a cup and let stand 5 minutes)
  
• 1 fluid ounce red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 12 cup muffin pans or line with 20 paper baking cups.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, buttermilk, red food coloring and vanilla. Stir in the baking soda and vinegar. Combine the flour, cocoa powder and salt; stir into the batter just until blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pan set over a wire rack. When cool, frost with desired frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
(you'll probably use about 3/4 of this)

- 6oz. of softened cream cheese
- 1/2 c. softened butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 1/2 - 4 3/4 cups of confectioners' sugar

Combine the first three ingredients and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency.

1,2,... CHA CHA CHA!

Holy smokes, where did the time go?? It feels like I was just getting ready to head to sunny California for the annual winter CHA show and now we are already back in the frozen tundra dealing with snow and reality. Why is vacation time so much faster than regular time?

The show was a blast. I had such a great time meeting some of the ACOT gals and seeing all the amazing new products. I can't wait to get my hands on new Pink Paislee, Jillibean Soup (new company!), Maya Road, and of course some new American Crafts Thickers! The make and takes were fun too... check out this adorable Love banner I did at the Melissa Frances booth:

We had a few days of fun with the ACOT gals and got silly... ask me about biffing it on the show floor or my string of unaturally colored bar drinks. ;-) Here is the crew in one of many group photos:

Ryan and I also got a few days to hit the sights of Cali. We went to Hollywood, Huntington Beach, and the San Diego Zoo. Fun times! See you again next year, Anaheim!

Hey, cool!

The fabulous Angela gave me the Fabby Blog Award and apparently I need to list my top five addictions and the five peeps I want to award so here we go:

Top Five Current Addictions:
1. Cupcakes (duh)
2. magazines
3. breakfast cereal
4. American Crafts Thickers
5. Animal Crossing

And the Fabby Blog Award goes to...
1. Shanns
2. Sus
3. Tristann
4. Amy
5. Tracy

I don't do resolutions...

It is a new year and Ryan and I rang it in verrrrrrry quietly. We were hit with more snow and decided to stay in. I had read that the manner in which you ring in the new year is symbolic of how the year will go and by that logic we will be having an uneventful 2009... fine by me!

I don't really DO resolutions... I prefer to think that any day is a good day to decide to change something and the hype of January first is more of a social peer pressure than anything else. That being said, I go have some goals for the year. One should always have goals!

One of those goals is to spend more time scrapping and less time putzing around with my scrap supplies. :-) So here we are with evidence of my dedication to that goal: