Spring Cupcakes

We had our first BBQ of the season over at the Butler's on Saturday. Jodi did up some tasty ribs, Kim put together some kabobs, then everyone else filled in the rest with salads, slaw, beans and corn bread.

The last time I was in Barnes and Noble, I picked up this great cookbook, Crazy About Cupcakes ('cause if you know me, you know I am!). I had only tried one recipe so far (banana cupcakes, which were de-lish), and I was itching to give something else a try.

So, for the BBQ I made these lemon cupcakes, with a fresh strawberry cream cheese frosting. As it turned out, I really liked the frosting, but not all that much on the lemon cupcakes. I will say, using the frosting as a fruit dip with the remaining strawberries did turn out later to be a big winner though!

Miss Kennedy

Fred and Christy had a concert in Spokane this last weekend, so on their way, they dropped off Kennedy and Truman at Auntie Billie's house. Billie brought her over to Mom and Dad's for dinner on Friday night and I was able to get a couple cute shots of that sweet pea! She's such a good girl, I could just eat her up!

Happy Administrative Professional's Day!

Happy Day to all of you Administrative Professionals out there!

So in our office now there are eight of us Administrative Professional types. Although none of them work for me, I wanted to show my appreciation of them, and let them know how much I enjoy working with them.

First I made each one of them a 3x3 card. Then I made little cupcake boxes, each one decorated slightly different. I filled them with a notepad/pen set with their initial, a cupcake magnet, a pack of decorative alligator clips (all from Micheal's dollar bins!), and their little card.

It was a lot of work, but I had so much fun making these. I hope they liked them! :)

Queen For A Day

Next week is my niece Rachel's 13th birthday. She's very much a girly-girl, so I wanted to make some kind of card that reflected that. I thought the princess (or queen) theme was a pretty good fit for her. I hope she likes it.

This is my take on a card I found by Enfys that inspired me - or that I scraplifted - you choose! :) You can check her version out here...

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhESHw2CjbljdQG5AqG__OsYRcebuQYa2b9IBl12rnv64M5poQ-RRdb2K6Las04nxQZPJL0pRbwhJwTcFHvDvve_X9IbVsMcU2WzIqYTuESKThoLkNOZK3hY6YdxM3xXnorFdtpSQPr2CE/s1600-h/ENFYS.JPG

Another Easter Come and Gone

Even though Easter is a thing of the past, I just had to post two other cards I did. I'm not quite ready to pack away my Easter decorations yet either. Their colors are so bright, ushering in Spring, I'm simply not done enjoying them yet! Soon though, I'm sure. Can you believe that today is the 105th day of the year? That's nearly 1/3 of the year already gone. But no dwelling on what's not to be...what about what's just around the coner? More sunny days, warmer nights, fresh cut grass and barbeques! Yeah!

Signs of Spring

Finally it seems the weather has taken a bit of turn, and is headed right for Spring. We may take a few steps forward, followed by one step back for awhile...it's all part of that April-Showers-Bring-May-Flowers thing. But it's ok, as long as we are ultimately moving toward sunshine and warmth!

We have a wee little Cherry Blossom tree outside our office that has just been itching to bloom. For the last few days we have watched as it has finally felt brave enough to release its pretty pink blossoms. Every time I pass by a window, it makes me smile, seeing it so delicately dressed in shades of blush and bashful :) As I headed for the car tonight I just had to stop and take a photo, because unfortunately before we know it, they will be a thing of the past.

Shop 'Til You Drop...

Friday was the last day of Brittany's Spring Break, so Billie, Brittany and I wrapped up the week with a girl's shopping excursion. We told ourselves that we were doing our part to 'stimulate the economy'! We each found a few treasures, but I think the best find was Brittany's new Fergalicious sandals!! She'll be stylin' all summer in those things. All that shopping can wear a girl out though. Brittany just couldn't keep her eyes open on the way home...but we all know she does love a good nap, whenever and wherever.

April Fools?

What in the world? Is it April Fools? I was driving home from work, only to look in my rear-view mirror and see Jump Off Joe was covered in snow tonight...yes tonight...April 1st! Hey Spring...come out, come out wherever you are!! (Sorry about the picture quality, it was quickly snapped from my car.)

Easter Eggstravaganza

Here are my first two Easter cards...just getting started. I bought this {My Minds Eye} Bloom & Grow Paper Kit that I thought would be perfect. Nice and springy, but without going into those cliche' 'Easter' colors of mint green and lilac...not that there's anythng wrong with that :) I was just looking for something different. This is also my first card using my very first A Muse stamps that arrived the other day...got this one on clearance!

Fourth of July

This is a layout I worked on at the Friday night scrap. I got it all set up the way I wanted it, then finished it off today with some Cricut lettering and the journaling block.

It seems awful 'symmetrical', but overall I really like the way it turned out. I tried out my new Marvy square punch, which made it very easy to use a lot of photos in just one layout. And, I think summer, and Fourth of July more specifically, just inherently offers a great color palette. I found that this {My Minds Eye} Confetti Parade Collection was exactly what I was looking for to complete this.

Portland Trip

Here are a coule layouts that I did at a scrap I went to in the fall. They sat around the scrap room through the holidays, waiting for the finishing touches and some journaling. Please excuse the photos, they are a bit muted, as I'm am just figuring out all the bells and whistles on my NEW camera that just arrived yesterday :)

This was a girls trip to Portland for Billie's birthday, and our second round of tatoos (excluding Kim of course!).

Goin' Scrappin'

Today is a scrapbookin' kind of day! First, Mom and I headed down to Hermiston to check out their two scrapbook stores...just to see if I could find any new treasures. I wandered, and touched, and felt my way all through the stores, while Mom humored me and tagged along. Now, I'm heading out to a night scrap at the fire station. Time to pack up the scrap room and head out. Hopefully there will be some posting tomorrow of at least a page or two!

Love You With A Cherry On Top

Yesterday was my niece Kendra's birthday, and this is the card I made to send her. I found both the cherry ribbon and stamp in the dollar bin at Michael's (my favorite place to hang out lately), so I knew I wanted to do something with a cherry. But, I searched through my inspiration photos and found one that did in fact inspire me...so I can't take all the credit for this. Check out Sharon Caudle's very cute version in her gallery on Hallmark Scrapbook:

http://www.hallmarkscrapbook.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=414&si=cherry

Pink and Green Birthday

One of the gals in my office was having a birthday, and I needed a quick card to give her. I put this one together before heading out the door to work on the morning of her birthday. I cheated a bit, using a note card, and just embellishing with paper, ribbon, flowers and buttons, and then stamped Happy Birthday on the inside.

I have been buying up all different sizes of note cards at Michaels in their dollar bin, mostly for the envelopes. Even without the note cards, you can't beat 8 colored envelopes for a buck! Then, the other day I struck pay dirt...they were on clearance, and were marked down to .50 each. This particular pack happened to be monogramed, but I just covered it up with my embellishments. I just might have to make some more of these to have on hand!

Love Never Fails...

I can't believe it has been over a month since my last post. Where in the world did it go? In the blink of an eye, nearly one quarter of the year has come and gone!

One of the gals that I work with, Darcie, is getting married in May. Two other gals in my office and I took her to lunch the other day as a sort of mini bridal shower. This was the card I whipped out the night before to give her. Not really a traditional bridal card as you might think, but I thought it was quite light and Springy.