Merry Christmas

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Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!!

Merry & Bright

Since Friday, I've gotten a much better handle on all my holiday to-dos, and although I can't say I've finished wrapping all my gifts, I guess for me, it wouldn't be Christmas without a few last minute items still left on my list!

Country Living

Over the next few days, I'm looking forward to spending quality time with my family and enjoying our holiday traditions, both new and old. For those of you celebrating Christmas tomorrow, I hope your day is very very merry one!

Merry Christmas!!!

I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas filled with love and family and joy!!! 

The photo above is a copy of our Christmas card insert, the 2009 Christmas Newsletter.  If you are interested it should enlarge when "clicked" on.

Joyous Noel!!!!

Christmas Cookies and a marriage proposal (yay!)

These cookies were involved in a marriage proposal. I'm going to apologize right away because the details are a little sketchy. You see, they come from my husband and he doesn't have the gift of memorizing the minute details of love stories like I do. ♥

You still want to hear about it, though, right?

Here's the deal...I sent hubby (Mr. E) with cookies to give to his friends. He "home" offices, so his "home" is often Starbucks where he's befriended other home-officers. Mr. E gave some cookies to his friend John and a little while later, John's girlfriend Kathy arrived.



John and Kathy (along with the cookies) went to another table. A few minutes later, John announced to the store, "SHE SAID YES!"

{How cute are they?!?!?}

Anyway...somehow John worked the cookies into the proposal. According to Mr. E, John said, something along the lines of, "Would you like to have ornaments like these on a tree of our own?" (See that cookie in his hand?!?)

I strongly suspect the details are a little different from my 3rd hand account, so John, Kathy...care to elaborate?!?

In the meantime, help me wish John & Kathy CONGRATULATIONS, BEST WISHES and HAPPILY EVER AFTER!

A marriage cannot go wrong when it begins with baked goods....I should know my engagement ring was in a loaf of bread. ♥

For details on how to make these cookies, click here!

Chocolate Quinoa Brownies- Gluten-Free and Vegan

Vegan gluten-free brownies made with quinoa flakes.

Your stubborn and chocolate obsessed gluten-free goddess has been working overtime. In between shooting photographs of the holiday lights and skaters in Santa Monica and battling the return of the flu I fought off some weeks ago (I believe in recycling, Darling, but this is a wee bit ridiculous) I have been utterly possessed. Haunted by the ghost of chocolate brownies. Vegan chocolate brownies, to be exact (because I've already served up the best egg-based gluten-free brownie I can think of, so if you haven't tried my Dark Chocolate Brownie recipe or the Chocolate Brownie made with pecan meal, Darling- Go!).

Baking failures do not sit pretty with yours truly. Especially when I am achy and voiceless and my head feels like a giant damp wad of gluten-free dough with too much xanthan gum added (you gluten-free bakers know exactly what I'm talking about). I feel like the goddess of sticky, thick and dull. And there ain't no cure. Except maybe a hot toddy. Or three.

Lucky for me I have a husband who likes to bake. A husband who says (as his brittle, grumpy hot-flashing wife is muttering expletives and scraping another gooey not-in-a-good-way gluten-free vegan brownie failure into the perky polka dotted trash can), So. 

How can we make this work?

For a split second I panic and think, He's over it. He's finally tired of living gluten-free. Living without baguettes and bagels and croissants out of love, a sense of duty, or comradeship and support. 

He's done. Finished. He's out the door, no looking back.

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Papertake Weekly - Thank you cards

Hi friends!! I sure hope you're done with all of your hustling and bustling, and that you're now able to relax a little and enjoy the holidays! Today over at Papertake Weekly, Dawny is asking us to make a thank you card. I'm hoping you'll need to come up with lots of thank you cards after the holidays! *smile* For this one, I used one of the brand new Tildas from the winter club kit. I have no idea even what her name is yet, but I think she's as cute as a button! Watch for her at Magnolia-licious. I'm sure Diana will have her up for preorder soon.

I paired her up with some awesome paper from Graphic 45 and Bazzill cardstock. She's colored with Copic markers and then cut out and double popped for dimension. The word circle is a fantasic digital stamp from The Cutting Cafe and it's a $.99 cent special!!! I love the font on it! Please join us at PTW with your Thank You cards and maybe you'll get lucky and win!! Good luck!

I think this is probably the last post you'll be seeing from me before Christmas. So I'd like to take a moment to wish each of you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a safe, happy, and healthy New Year! I so appreciate your visits and support over the past year. You are appreciated more than you will ever know. God bless you and your families, and Merry Christmas!!!! Lots of love!

Buried in Cookies, Gift Wrap, Ribbon & Bows, and Other Signs of the Season

I have been missing from my blog for several days now.  I just popped out from under the gift wrap, with flour on my face, to wish you all a Merry Christmas!!!  I did manage to complete one last project before closing up my scraproom for the holidays. 

My lovely next door neighbor is creating a cookbook for her son.  She purchased a one inch ring bound notebook at a local office supply store which fits 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch paper to use as the recipe book.  This is the type of notebook she purchased.  She plans to print two recipes per page, using the landscape view, then cut the sheet in half and place in the notebook with divider tabs.  She wisely purchased a presentation style notebook with an plastic cover for sliding in a cover sheet and spine label.



This is where I came in.  My neighbor graciously allowed me to create the cover for her cookbook.  I had such fun with this.  I actually designed two covers, but went with a more traditional look, which my neighbor loved!  The file required only two cartridges, A Child's Year and Winter Woodlands.  I will add the cut file to the downloadable cut files on the left side of the blog, just in case anyone else is interested.  Though I will say that this is a very basic cut file. The cut file title is Mom's Recipes for Chris.

Once again, I wish each of you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!