Say hello to my Lil' Friends

How cute are these guys!

Grasshopper Pie

I haven't been baking or cooking as much as I would like lately. Time, budget, waistline, these are cooking killers. So I made a GRASSHOPPER PIE to get back into the swing of things. No recipe.. used an Arrowhead Mills chocolate cookie crust that was .50 at BARGAINICA. Here is what I put in the filling: 2 cups whipped cream, 2 cups Marshmallow creme, 1/4 cup creme de cacao and 1 tsp peppermint extract. I can't believe I had no creme de menthe in the house. What kind of joint doesn't have creme de menthe? Anyhow, whipped that up and put it in the crust, sprinkles some chocolate shavings on the top, stuck in the fridge and there it is.

Holiday Knitting Project

My Yarn arrived today! Yey! This should keep me busy while we drive, sit & wait throughout the upcoming HOLIDAZE. I am going to attempt to make this lovely sweater from the Rowan Calmer Collection using Rowan All Seasons Cotton in the colour - Native.

lotus flower pop-up card

Pu-erh

My favourite new tea drink is Pu-erh. Here is the Amazon.com order. I first tried the one on the right, Pu-erh ginger. I thought I would give the Tuo Cha a try and it is delicious too. I also got some from the Aberdeen Centre in Richmond that tastes much like the Tuo Cha.

Die cuts & imagination

I made this valentine for Neil. He really liked it. I did the first 2 hearts with Quickutz heart dies but the rest I had to keep drawing freehand and cutting out. I wish they sold sets of graduated sizes of one shape. I wrote them and I'm sure they are going to start doing that now. I also requested wings or feathers to make wings. We will see.

The Pieced de restitance

How is this for a beautiful Valentine's present.. Jen (daughter) made this pin in a jewelry class. I am the proud owner of her first piece!

Valentine's & Orchids

Wow, all the pretty roses in the store but who needs them when you have orchids blooming like mad at home. Neil worked on Valentine's Day so we didn't do anything special. The night before I brought home a pizza and we exchanged gifts & cards. It was cozy & nice. We'll have a great steak meal or something on the weekend and call it our Valentine's meal. I do want to talk about some new craft items that I am having lots of fun with and they are both MAKING MEMORIES brand. They make some pretty nice prodoucts. I used the MAKING MEMORIES ' TAG MAKER' to make heart shaped vellum tags and then the MAKING MEMORIES 'INSTANT SETTER' to make eyelet holes in order to sandwich the 2 together and make light covers. They turned out great. It was hard to get a night time picture but there was this almost earie glow. The light set I used was an L.E.D. set and that, combined with the vellum made them so neat.

What have I been up to lately?

Let's see, lots of knitting and sewing. I have been making a lot of the cherry stone pillows and knitting stitch markers. I made a couple of lovely FIMO BIRTHDAY CAKES for a friend's daughters birthday party at Build a Bear. Every kid's bear got a slice of cake and the birthday girl got a whole cake, actually 2 of them and a slice.