A New Hobby….

Well… here is yet another “to-do” item I had on my list Tuesday while at My Studio.  I recently have just been in love with doing mixed-media art!!! 

 

This is a 5 X 7 canvas that I brushed some acrylic paint on. I used a piece of bubble wrap to add the dots to the right side with a shade darker blue.  My image is from Unity Stamps  which I used Memento ink on to stamp on some DP I found in my stash.  I added a punch to the corners and used my Copic markers to add a bit of a hand drawn border.  I am not sure what stamp the bird came from… it’s a clear set that I have from when I was taking my Soul Restoration class.  Again I used Memento ink to stamp it.

 

My flowers are from Prima’s pillar of wildflowers and I added  a Websters Page Sparkler to the middle. 

 

The metal tag is from Tim Holtz.  I added a bit of bling to the right upper corner. 

 

I think this would be awesome in a bathroom or even in a bedroom.  Just a place for a bit of serenity. 

 

I have more to show so stay tuned!!  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!! *smile*

 

I’m Vining… again! :-)

Today I had a clear list of what I wanted to accomplish at My Studio.  AND… I have to first tell you… I did it! I did it ALL!!  Everything I had planned… I completed and it feels so so good.  I sometimes get distracted (easy to do… I have SOO much there).. but I totally stuck with my plan and yayyyyy I did it!!!!  First on my list… Play with more vines!!!!  Yep… I grabbed Melanie Muenchinger’s last released set, “The Vine” and started stamping away!!!

 

I started with a card base of Pure Luxury Blue Raspberry card stock.  I layered on some Lemon drop after I ran it through my Vagabond using an embossing folder.  I stamped the vines twice using Memento Tuxedo Black and colored them with my Copic markers.  I “fussy cut” the vines and layered them on my card using Pop Dots.  I stamped the scripture on some Little Boy Blue card stock and using my Deckled Rectangles Nestabilities to cut it out.  I again used the same Nestie an cut out a piece using Crème de Menthe, again layering with Pop Dots.  I added some wrinkled ribbon and bow to the bottom and found a small cross charm I tied around it. 

 

Really LOVE this set!  Stay tuned to see what other items I had on my “to do” list at My Studio that I finished.   

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!!  *smile*

 

OH... MY... Goodness!!!

Wow... I mean... wow... No REALLY... WOW!!!!! Yesterday we took our daughter to Ottumwa's water park, "The Beach". On our way back... my husband told me of Goldie's. A restaurant in Prairie City, IA that he had taken his dad to for lunch one day. Apparently, his dad had found an ad in regards to this little diner, and had wanted to go try out their "Mingo" sandwich.

My father-in-law was very sick at the time and was on a very strict diet so my husband told him... "You can have whatever you want today!" (Sometimes you just have to let people do something that will make them happy. You know?) So off they went... to Goldie's.

When we pulled in, I saw it as just a small town ice cream shop. Nothing fancy... small... PACKED with people and definitely quaint! We parked (at the ONLY spot available in the lot) and headed in. Initially I thought, perhaps we should eat outside... they had picnic tables set out and a few people were sitting there, but upon looking inside (though it looked swamped!) we found one lone table in the corner. Regardless of the fact that it was "messy" and the tip still lay where the customers left it, we went inside and sat down.

A very sweet lady walked up... greeted us, cleaned the table and welcomed us. She handed us menus and my husband immediately told me about the "Mingo" sandwich. As I looked I read and saw... "tenderloin and sausage" sandwich. WHAT??? Ok... so here's the deal.... I am sooooooooo not a "mix my food" kind of gal!!! NOT!!! I stared at it a moment and said to my husband... "Seriously??? A tenderloin AND a sausage sandwich together???" He smiled and said... "I'm telling you... Pop LOVED it!" Well... he decided he was getting JUST the tenderloin sandwich and of course, my daughter wanted a cheeseburger. I looked again at the description and sighed. Yes... I HAD to find out more about this sandwich.

Once again the sweet lady walked up to us... smiled and asked if we were ready to order. *sigh* "Ok, first... tell me about this Mingo sandwich." I asked. She grinned and said.. "It's BIG!" Yes... but... that doesn't matter, I can certainly take a doggie bag home... I just can't imagine a tenderloin AND a sausage sandwich??? Together???? "LOTS of people LOVE it!", she says. *HUGE sigh* "OK... I'll have the Mingo!" My husband smiled at me.. KNOWING full well... me and "mixing" just is NOT normal.

A few minutes later... here comes the food. I looked at it and just thought.. "Ok, here goes nothing." I cut the sandwich in half and took a deep breath. I looked at the sandwich and looked for a point where I would get a bite of the tenderloin AND the sausage. I sunk my teeth in... took a bite and looked up at my husband as I closed my mouth and watched him smile... waiting... I believe I chewed once and (as he says) my eyes bulged out and I heard him say.. "Well... how is it?". My mouth full I mumbled... "OH MY GAWD!!!" And he laughed... "That's what HE said!!!!" He giggled and I mumbled once again.. "OH MY GAWD!!!" Shaking my head.. "yes"... I finally swallowed and once again.. "OH MY GAWD!! This is AWESOME!!" LOL

Yes... I IMMEDIATELY fell in love with the Mingo sandwich!!! It WAS a big sandwich but I had NEVER tasted anything quite like it before!! I am truly in love!!! Bite after bite, I truly felt I was in heaven! My husband, eating his sandwich, kept smiling and every now and then giggled again.. "Your eyes bulge with EVERY bite." he said. HA!

Our waitress came by and smiles.. "Well... what do you think?" Me... "OH MY GAWD!!! This is awesome!!" She laughs as did my husband. I'm hooked!

I only ate half the sandwich and FOR SURE, I took the remainder home! But... we aren't done yet! Time for dessert! Oh yes... I HAD to have dessert. It's an ice cream shop for goodness sake... you HAVE to have ice cream!

I settled on a turtle sundae. Ice cream... hot fudge... caramel sauce and pecans. Sounds great. Oh and look... there isn't a SMALL on the menu! Ok... so every ice cream item is either served as a medium or a large. Fine... I'll take the medium. Hubby orders an apple pie sundae... our daughter a brownie sundae.

It takes a bit... not sure why.. but it does. Then... here she comes. She sets my sundae in front of me. My eyes settle on how HUGE a serving it is and that the ice cream looks like it's going to topple over the side of the dish. THEN... I see the MONSTER pecans heaped all over it! So... without politely waiting for everyone to get their dish... I take my first bite of just the ice cream. Again my husband watches with a smile.... "Oh my gawd!!! Wow... this is sooooooooo much better than DQ ice cream!!" I push my spoon in and this time I grab up the pecans... some fudge and some caramel. Eyes bulge once again! The fudge, the caramel... thick... hot... AND soooo chewy! This is just insane! A 1st class sandwich and THEN... THIS???? Wow!

My husband's sundae arrives with LOADS of apple pie goop on it and a comparable amount of ice cream... WITH the same droop exploding over the side as mine did. Hee Hee

Finally, my daughter's brownie sundae came.  She too ordered a medium.  It seemed like forever for hers to arrive, and we couldn't figure out why.  Then... finally it came.  It had a HUGE brownie in the middle that appeared to be home made.  (Seriously ok..  A HUGE piece) of brownie in the dish... FROSTED!... and on BOTH ends... a HUGE amount of ice cream. LOADED with hot fudge and.. nuts everywhere! No way will she eat all this... NO WAY!!! She digs in and honestly... I do not think she even finished 1/3 of it!! Of course we ALL had to take a taste of each other's sundaes and hers was no exception. It was heaven as well! She looks at me.. looks at dad and says... "Can I take this with me?" LOL Uhhh no... we have a half hour drive to get home still. If you're full now... no way can you eat it in the car without it melting everywhere before we arrive. LOL She has to leave MOST of the sundae behind.

I don't remember a time when I've been to a restaurant, ice cream shop or any type of establishment such as this that I actually grabbed my phone and called someone to say... "OH MY GAWD.. You HAVE to come eat here!" LOL LOL

It was truly an awesome experience and I know I've NEVER felt this way about a food establishment before! MAJOR kudos to Goldies!!! MAJOR kudos to my father-in-law (he is not with us any longer and I soooo wish I could tell him... "Wow.. you REALLY hit a home run with this place. Thank you!"... and MAJOR kudos to my awesome husband for sharing this experience with us.

Who'd a thunk a sandwich could inspire soooo much writing! LOL

A Summertime Wish…

Happy Friday everyone!!! My FAVORITE day of the week is normally because I know the weekend is near but today… today a “mini-vacation” is starting!!! Yayyy!!!  Since my son went with my mother-in-law on a FOUR WEEK trip to Alaska (they drove)… we decided it wasn’t quite fair that our daughter was missing out on some “alone time” with us having fun!!  So today, we are starting out at a new (to us) water park we just heard about that is only 1 1/2 hours away!!  AND.. the best part???? It only cost…. are you ready for this… FIVE DOLLARS to get in!!!  What the heck?? They have a wave pool, lazy river, several water slides, kiddie area, etc. and it’s ONLY $5??? Wow!!  And again… 1 1/2 hours away??!!!  We’d be silly NOT to check it out!  As I mentioned yesterday, we have had such hot hot days and this will be just a perfect little get away for us AND her!  She doesn’t know yet… we are planning on just taking off… having hear wear her swim suit, of course, and ending up there!  And, since my husband drives to Illinois and back every night… he took a different route the other day (filling in for someone) and found yet another water park we didn’t know about.  That one is less than an hour away!  So, we are getting wet and staying cool the next three days!

 

Which brings me to my card.  I had made this a while back and when I looked at it again it REALLY hit me that WOW, that bright yellow just SCREAMS summer!!!  Seems I’ve seen nothing but yellow lately (you know… the sun scorching down on us and all.. hee hee).  My card was created using Theresa Momber’s newest set, “Whimsical Wishes”. 

 

My card begins with Pure Luxury Wild Dandelion.  I layered in some black and another layer of Wild Dandelion that I ran through my Vagabond using the Dotted Swiss Cuttlebug embossing folder.  I stamped the larger flower from Theresa’s set in Memento ink and colored with my Copic markers.  In the middle of the flower I placed one of the Raindrop Eyelets and then one of the tiny dots in the set as well.  I cut out my image with my Labels 14 Nestabilitie and added a bit of twine around it after sponging on some Memento Dandelion ink. 

 

I hope you have a fabulous weekend planned and you don’t get TO much sun! 

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!! *smile*

 

Purple Vines?? YAYYYYY!!!

Oh yessss!!! If you know me, you HAD to know I’d put Melanie Muenchinger’s “The Vine” in purple!!! Of course I did!!! 

 

I started with Pure Luxury Vibrant Violet card stock. I layered on some Lovely Lavender which I stamped my vine on using Vivid, Purple ink.  I stamped the double flower image using Memento Tuxedo Black and some of the smaller vines in the Vivid Purple. I used my Circle Nestabilities to cut out.   I stamped the side shot flowers and more of the double flower image and leaves separately and cut them out and mounted them with Pop Dots.  I colored all the images with my Copic markers.

 

At the top I added some purple satin ribbon and lace I found in my stash.  I continued with the sentiment in Purple ink as well. 

 

I hope you are having a great summer!! It is soooo hot here and honestly, sitting with my laptop ON my lap desk is even hot!!  We have had 98+ temperatures and the index has been well over 100*.  I can’t remember it being this hot… for this long… in a while.  So, stay cool… eat light… and try to stay in the A/C as much as possible.  And remember… drink LOTS of water!!! Do I sound like a mother yet??? LOL  I am a bit concerned about everyone since my father ended up in the  hospital Saturday night having his heart checked again.  He woke up not feeling well… ended up passing out on the floor and was out for a couple hours!!  Since he’s had a small heart attack and a stint put in a couple years ago, they obviously are checking his heart.  Nothing was found, thank God for that, but he IS wearing a heart monitor for 48 hours to just check out how things are going.  He did a bit of running around to supply stores we buy from etc., but I could tell the heat was getting to him.  So please, please, watch yourself in this heat.

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!! *smile*

 

The Vine…

Today I finally got some more time to create a few more cards using Melanie Muenchinger’s latest stamp set, “The Vine”.  I LOVE this set and haven’t had much time to play with it yet because I’ve been busy working on my Brave Girls Club, Soul Restoration 2 Class projects.  But today… I go to get inky again!! 

 

My card begins with Pure Luxury Ocean Mist.  I used my Classic Scalloped Border Petites Nestabilities along the bottom front of my card.  I stamped the fine on White and used a border punch on it.  My vine leaves were colored with Copic markers.  I stamped my sentiment again on White and used my Scalloped Square Nesties to cut it out.  A bit of wrinkled ribbon to the top and a buttoned bow.    My sentiment was stamped with Memento Bahama Blue.  I used Pop Dots to attach my scalloped square nestie. 

 

I hope you have a great day and thanks ever so much for stopping by!  *smile*