I love new stamps sets!    This one is a 4th of July set, but I think it also works great as a birthday set too!

I tried a new technique this weekend and made a flower pot card.    Lots of work and many lessons learned! I hope I can do better when I try it again.

One last flower card.   I love elegant cards, so this one was fun to make.

Happy Memorial Day to all.

What's I've been up to this past week...

My Stampin' Up demonstrator, Denise, was kind enough to give me this stamp set at our last meeting.  I love it!

Love, love, LOVE the butterflies!

I have a stamp set that is designed to use buttons as part of the image and I finally got around to making the cherries.   So cute!

Denise also gave me a pack of paper that included this sheet with trees and clouds.   I thought it worked great with another stamp from the button set.

I had no Father's Day stamps so I found this one at Hobby Lobby.    I think it made a nice elegant card.

All I can say is YUM!    One of the ladies at my stampers group made this a few months ago and I fell in love with it.   She gave me the recipe and Jason and I tried it out today.   It is so light and refreshing, perfect for the summer heat!

Here's the recipe:
Fruit Salsa
Ingredients:
1 c. finely chopped strawberries
1 medium orange, peeled and finely chopped
2 lg. or 3 small kiwi, peeled and finely chopped
1 8oz. can crush pineapple, drained
1/4 c. thinly sliced green onions
1/4 c. finely chopped yellow or green bell pepper
1 T. lime juice
1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced

Combine all ingredients and chill for 6 hours.  Serve with cinnamon crisps.

Cinnamon Crisps:  Cut 12 8-inch tortillas into 8 wedges.   Spread wedges on a baking pan and brush with melted butter.   Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.   Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until crisp.

I finally got around to making cards this weekend.  Here are a couple of them:

I know, it has been a while...   Many things have been going on down this way, but nothing really to report.    The garden is growing.   My class is finished.   I still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up.    Still missing our boy.  

I think trying to divide myself into too many blogs got to be too much so I'm going to go back to posting just on this one.    If you don't like recipes, ignore those posts.  The pictures of cards bore you, scroll down.    Unfortunately, my life isn't exciting enough to fill up 3 different blogs.    I wish I could be posting pictures of an 21-month old, but that isn't going to happen, at least not anytime soon.    If anyone has an extra $30K just sitting around and would like to donate it to our baby fund, we accept cash, checks, or credit cards.  

Now for some pictures:

The apple tree has two apples on it this year.   Last year we had one and it ended up staying about this size.   We are curious if these will grow into real apples...  

Jason picked these two last night.  We only planted one zucchini and one squash plant, but both are doing good so far.   Hopefully we'll have a squash to show next week.

Here's our dinner from tonight.   I was in a lazy mood and didn't work on making it all pretty, but it was tasty. The burgers were lean meat (beef for me, chicken for Jason) with some pepper jack cheese, avocado, and tomato on whole wheat buns.   The potatoes were a lighter version of Pioneer Woman's crash hot potatoes.

Please be sure to go vote in the Pepsi Refresh Everything contest.   Both SMA charities are in the top 10, but have to do better than that in order to win any money.    

There is another chance to help win $250,000 for SMA research through the Pepsi Refresh Everything campaign.   Be sure to vote every day if you can!   Just click HERE to vote!  You can either vote through your Facebook account or create an account with your email address.   You will be voting for Sophia's Cure; to read more about Sophia and her amazing family, you can visit their website at http://sophiascure.com/sophiascure/index.asp

There is also a chance for $25,000 and you can vote for that HERE.    It is the same contest, just a different category.   This vote will be for Stop SMA and you can learn more about them at http://www.stopsma.org/ 

You have up to 10 votes, so you are able to vote for both organizations each and every day in May!  

Be sure to check back and vote every day!!!!!!!!   We need this money so any help is appreciated!    

Thanks!!!!!!!