Thus Ends Saga of Agave

Several of you asked me how "your plant" is doing. It's not doing at all. The stalk fell over about a week ago, after leaning for a couple of weeks. I drove by and it had been morphed into a mutant artichoke or strange looking giant green pinecone. They cut all the leaves off. Sure looks funny next to the aloe vera plants. Click on the pic and see it close up. I don't know if it will ever come back from this "hair cut," but will let you know. Some of you have said an agave plant dies after it blooms. I'll let you know.



Thanks for caring.

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New from Down Under!

My Aussy Buddy made me a gorgeous card using the Fifth Avenue rose and the WOW technique where you watercolor with reinkers after spritzing with water. I had embossed some of them onto shimmery CS and sent them Down Under. I got this lovely card back along with some stamped images from Build a Roo that I will play with some day.

Thanks, Miss Tracy!

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((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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Blog Candy!

Kerin over at Stamps, Paper, Glitter has some cool blog candy. I get entered twice if I post a link in my blog, so here it is: http://www.kerinstamps.com/stampin_with_kerin/ . Lots of cool stuff to win.

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((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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July Stamp Club

Well, I tried to add this in to the middle and can't figure out how to move it where I want. This is one of Gale's thinking of you swaps.

Monday night we had our July stamp club meeting and our treasury suffered as no one forgot their name tag (25 cent fine) and everyone brought an exchange card (another 25 cent fine)! Seven of us chose to participate in our sympathy card/thinking of you swap, too.

Our exchange card theme this month was "Buttons Galore" and we sure did have a bunch of them, starting with Therese's dress form and button quilt. Therese said this was the first time she ever tried sewing on a card. Perfect addition!

This is Tange's swap card using scalloped ovals, the dotted swiss Cuttlebug embossing folder and a retired, but not forgotten, Elegant Greeting from SU. Elegant it surely is.

This is Tange's button card using SU's current Pick a Petal stamps. I got this in the exchange and I can use it as a sample! Woo hooooo! Tange also stuck some Warm Words on this oversized card.

Tange did the project this month, a cute little explosion gift box held together with a lid and a belly band. This is Pam's almost completed project. She'll finish glueing the lid down and add a jewel or something to top.

Here's Pam very patriotic button card. She said the flowers were made from punches.

Pam made her thinking of you swaps from SU's retired Au Chocolat designer paper and the always useful Sincere Salutations for the greeting.

Neva's swap used buttons and flowers and stitching.

This is Neva's button exchange card. Love how she made her stems out of ribbon! Inside this card it says "We don't remember dates, we remember moments." Love it.

Lona did all her swaps different, but this one stood out with its gorgeous peacock feather. I was in such a hurry when I was taking pics of all the cards, I didn't even notice the Asian lady was laying down! Thank goodness for Photo Shop and I could rotate the pic to proper orientation. My basket sure looks funny sideways, though!

This is another of Lona's swaps. Lovely sentiment for the front and the punched out dragonflies just finish it off.

When I saw Lona last week, she showed me her "button" swap and I razzed her that it didn't have any buttons on it. She said she didn't have any buttons, but had some jewels in the corners and was going to call them buttons! Whatever, I said. Soooooo, lookee what she made instead! A darling little dress! Those faux buttons are punched out 1/2" circles with linen or something thread sewn on. [This is the only pic that didn't have true colors. My new camera did a pretty good job on all the rest, no more of that occasional orangey cast, but this little dress is lavender, not blue. The jewel in the bow and the threads came out right, but the rest is too blue. If that's all I have to complain about with my new camera, I should shut up!]

This is my swap card using SU's new Autumn Days, embossed on copper CS with black EP, layered with glossy black CS and mounted on the new In Color Dusty Durango. I made black brads by dipping silver brads in black EP after heating them in a candle. Russel's contribution to this card was the suggestion I do the pheasant's neck with the white gel pen.

Here's my completed project. I need to tack the corners down better and add a pearl or something on top, but it's all done.

Here's my button exchange card using Primas and black buttons mounted on Whisper White, glossy black and the new In Color Melon Mambo. I "threaded" my buttons with thin strips of CS. Retired greeting from Soft Summer is on scalloped oval on top of wide oval, a suggestion from my Ozzy Buddy. If I'd had enough of the one kind of Primas, all three flowers would have been the same and this would've looked like some mutant poodle! LOL

This is one of Jeannie's swaps. Of the six, all different, this was my fave. Jeannie is the queen of embossing!

Here's Jeannie's button exchange card. There's a teeny, tiny flower button in middle of the flower. Jeannie found this Irish Blessing at Stampfest so she could do an Irish card for her boss, who had been to Ireland with his wife and brought Jeannie back some Irish linens. You can click on any of the pics to enlarge them so you can read the verse.

Holly made this button card, using the button as the body of her art doll stamp. She sewed on her focal layer, too. That's three stitched cards this month! I detect a trend, but I'm not hauling my Bernina out!

Gale made this paneled button card with DSP and waxy flax.

This is where I wanted to put the third of Gale's cards, but oh, well. Instead, here is Gale's second swap card, using lovely designer papers.

We had a guest last night. When Holly invited Connie, Holly told her the theme was buttons, so Connie brought an exchange card. "Seize the cupcake!" Love it. Her button is the cherry on top.

Here we are. I wonder who the whale in the red top is and why Therese is pointing at Holly who looks guilty of something? Trish of Priceless is a doll to let us have our meetings in her great room. After years of the hard metal chairs at Griffins, cramped around one table or two, Trish's cushy adjustable chairs are great. And I had my own little fan! Woo hoooo! There were ten of us there and we managed to bring in all these cards!

Just because I could, here's a rainbow I pictured last week during one of our morning storms. Composition sucks (high tension lines!), but a rainbow is a rainbow. My old camera would have filtered it out.

That's all for this month's meeting. See you all next month. Exchange theme will be teapots and/or teacups.

Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment. If you don't have a google account, just do an anonymous comment, but sign your first name and I'll know who you are. Feedback is good!

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((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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Holly's Workshop

Well, I wanted this card at the end, but I can't figure out how to move it, so here it is at the beginning. The cardstock is Dusty Durango, black glossy and brushed copper. I embossed the sentiment (from Kind & Caring Thoughts), weeds/flowers and pheasant from Autumn Days in black on the copper CS. I tried to do the black grosgrain ribbon in a kind of remembrance bow. I demoed this card, sorta kinda, on brushed gold, using Basic Black CS instead of glossy and turned it on its side and put rubbon border along the bottom. This is my original design.

Holly hosted a lovely workshop on July 7 and we made a couple of nice make and takes. The first one is uses the new Autumn Days stamp set, Whisper White, Soft Suede and Crushed Curry cardstocks and Dusty Durango and Soft Suede inks. I CASE'd this card directly off of Splitcoast at http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1393998. Having problems with links again, but if if doesn't work, you can copy and paste to look at my inspiration. We stamped the pheasant and fussy cut him out, not bothering with his feet, then stamped just his feet on the card face before attaching rest of him with dimensionals. Russel suggested that the pheasant would be more lifelike if he had a white neck like a real pheasant, so we took the Signo white gel pen to his neck. A very simple guy card.

Our second make and take was also lifted right off of Splitcoast. http://splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1385528. Instead of tearing the Chocolate Chip layer, we punched a border with the eyelet border punch. We also used Dusty Durango for the base and the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

That's Holly at head of table with her guests. Pam is showing her make and take.

Thanks for stopping by.

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((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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Agave Plant, Last Time

The agave plant down the block from our house has a bad case of the leans. The homeowners have propped it up with boards and tied it (on the back) to another tree to keep it from falling over.

If I move around to the other side to take pic, it almost looks straight!

I think this will be the last pic unless it does something spectacular. Flowers have done about as much as they're going to and the lower ones are kind of dying. At least it was interesting watching this most unusual plant. You can click on a pic to enlarge it for more detail.

Thanks for stopping by. Will have workshop pics in a couple days and stamp club next Monday.

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((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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Omelets!

Well, we got a new camera and I just had to play with it this a.m. while I made ham and cheese omelets. A couple of friends have been asking me for pics so they would see how I do it, so here they are. I have to say that I learned this technique from The Frugal Gourmet show on PBS many, many moons ago. Jeff something. He got in trouble with young boys and vanished from TV. I still learned a lot from his shows, especially how to make omelets.

First up, hashbrowns nicely browned in a sautee pan.

Gather your fillings. I had Russel shred extra cheddar cheese last night, just for breakfast. Ham is sliced ham from a deli (two pieces per omelet) and cheese on the right is Amish butter cheese, sliced off the brick. Yummy, soft, buttery cheese.

Heat a different sautee pan (I have a non-stick one just for omelets) and run a small pat of butter around the bottom and up the sides. There's not enough butter to pool anywhere and keeps omelet from sticking.

Break two or three eggs into a bowl, add just a bit of water, maybe a teaspoon at most, and beat well with a fork. If I'm making more than one omelet, I transfer first batch to a cup. Have had as many as 6 cups of beaten egg ready for my assembly line when we have had company. With butter sizzling, but not smoking, dump beaten egg into hot pan.

Carefully tip pan and with a fork (being careful not to scratch the pan!), pull egg toward middle, continuing to tip and roll pan so that unset egg fills in the edges where you've pulled egg toward middle. Keep tilting and rolling pan until egg has set enough that it doesn't run any more when you tilt the pan.

Season to taste with whatever you like. I use Alpine Touch and fresh ground pepper. There's enough salt in the ham and butter for us.

Turn pan so handle is to your right. Start layering in your fillings in front half of pan. First, shredded cheddar.

Then add ham. I fold slices over. You can use leftover cubed ham, whatever you want. Browned sausage also works. I had deli ham, so that's what I used.

Then add second cheese. I had the butter cheese, but a slice of provolone broken in half and layered on top is also great. If you want to get fancy like the Frug, toss in some sour cream or cream cheese, too.

Let cook a bit more, at least until cheddar is all melted and egg is completely set. No runny eggs at our house! Prepare plate with hashbrowns and toast on right side of plate. You're going to pick up plate on left, empty side. If you're making more than a couple omelets or you are in a cold climate, keep plates with hashbrowns and toast in warm oven till ready to plate the omelets.

This is part that amazed my BIL one morning as he sat next to stove watching me cook. I picked up the plate in my left hand and the omelet pan in my right. He asked if I wasn't going to flip the omelet over to close it? I told him to be patient and watch. I tilted omelet pan, matching the round side of the pan with the round side of the plate.

I slipped the omelet out of the pan onto left side of plate, tilting pan more and more until right side of omelet flopped over onto the left side. Taaaa daaaaaa! BIL was amazed.

Butter cheese will melt as soon as omelet closes over itself. This one is kind of ragged, but I was trying to take pictures and cook at the same time. Russel finally came and helped me and these pics are the best of the pics he and I took of our two omelets.

Enjoy your omelets!

Thanks for stopping by!

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((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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