Stamping

Welcome

/ Jodi / 2 Comments

https://i0.wp.com/cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0251/1351/files/Welcome_large.jpg

I’ve been blogging a little over six months now here at lifeinbetween.me, and I can’t believe how much I am enjoying it and how much I am learning…

about blogging, writing, technology, but most of all about MYSELF!

I thought it high time I build a Welcome (Home) Page for those that may visit and wonder what this is all about here.

It was fun pulling photos and linking them with the posts that I thought summed up my blog and my lifeinbetween.

Check it out HERE, and let me know if you think I hit the highlights or if I missed something important or should do something different. I did it very late at night and kept falling asleep in the middle of working on it!  🙂

I would LOVE your feedback, comments, questions, whatever you’d like to say or share –  as I grow on this journey of blogging and the never-ending journey of self-discovery.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

Thanksgiving Reflections

/ Jodi / 14 Comments

thanksgiving 2014 group turkey shot

I hope everyone that celebrated yesterday had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
(It still blows my mind that people read my blog from all over the world, so there are places that don’t celebrate this American holiday!)

Today is a day of relaxing and reflecting for me – on an amazing day spent with this crazy coop of turkeys that I so adore!

thanksgiving place settings

My crafty and stampin’ friends might appreciate the table setting complete with hand-stamped fall wreath place settings :).

But…  as much as I love to dress up the table, decorate, and prepare creative dishes, I have to say – Thanksgiving is no time for breaking tradition!

turkey

No messin’ with the traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, canned jellied cranberry sauce (though Jill did cut them into adorable little stars that made them taste even better!), Pillsbury crescent rolls (or Nick would be seriously upset), pumpkin and apple pie.

desserts thanskgiving 2014

A couple veggies took on a little twist this year – like my new favorite Roasted Butternut Squash with Rosemary, and the amazing Brussells Sprouts with Chorizo and Almonds that Joyce and Rob brought (still need to get that recipe!), but I did get in a bit of trouble with Marty (and only Marty!) for not making that disgusting green bean casserole with (GAG!) cream of mushroom soup…

table

We toasted family and friends, and of course Oh Rob had a story for us!

rob at table

It just wouldn’t be the same if he didn’t!  (Love you Oh Rob!) 🙂

vino

and homemade Reflection Wine – for in wine there is life.

cheesey turkey

Colleen made this cute cheesey turkey – complete with brussells sprouts eyes straight from Jake’s garden, which was devoured immediately.

bacon wrapped blue cheese stuffed dates

I also made this super easy, but TO DIE FOR appetizer:  Bacon Wrapped Dates stuffed with Blue Cheese.  Every single person L O V E D them, so don’t judge by the interesting combination of ingredients!  I simply cut a slit in each date, removed the pit and replaced with a pinch of crumbled blue cheese, wrapped it in a half strip of bacon, jabbed with a toothpick to hold together and make for easy serving afterwards, and baked at 400 degrees F for about 30 minutes.  Even those that claimed to not like dates or not like blue cheese adored them!  Highly recommend these for your next get together – just saying.  🙂

finger prints

Sweet Jackie brought the most adorable gift.  A print of a tree and a frame, to which we each stamped a fingerprint or two and labeled with our name and something we are thankful for.

fingerprint tree

I already have it hanging right outside my dining room.  What an amazing memory I will always have of this day and these peeps I love.  Thank you so much, Jackie!

turkey wine bottles

And how cute are these?  Isn’t this a fun way to take wine as a hostess gift?  Dress them up for the holiday.  Jackie also made these adorable bottles of red and  white into boozy turkeys.  I LOVE THEM!

thanksgiving hostess gifts

Colleen and Jake brought me the most awesome smelling winter holiday candle – who doesn’t love a wonderful smelling candle – and Joyce and Rob brought a crock stuffed with bags of pistachios and a festive apron and hot mitt along with a Bountiful Blessings calendar with a note written on it saying, “Looking forward to spending more time together in the new year.”  Now isn’t that a great idea?!  Such creative peeps I hang out with – eh?

calendar

I share these for those looking for great ideas for hostess gifts around the holidays.  Wine, candles, nuts, aprons, calendars – all very appreciated gifts!

And Jill handmade all of us these adorable turkey t-shirts.  Is she amazing or what?!!  And look how cute they all look.

hendy

They even had turkey feathers on the back!

turkey backs

It was wonderful to SKYPE with Julie, who if you look really close at the iPad Jackie is holding, is also wearing a turkey shirt that Jill sent ahead of time.  🙂  We only missed connecting with Jayme :(.

thanksgiving 2014 group turkey shot

We ended the evening with board games, including Cards Against Humanity…

cards against humanity

and laughed until our cheeks hurt!

cards rob jill

We were even fortunate enough to have Marty’s 91 year-old Aunt Francie with us, who is such a good sport.

Marty and Aunt Francie

I am simply stuffed with thankfulness and reflecting on my many blessings.

Wishing you all the same!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

White Christmas Shaker Card

/ Jodi / 14 Comments

White Christmas Shaker Card

It’s the day after Thanksgiving…

What a wonderful day we had sharing with family and friends.  I hope all of you that celebrated did also.  We are STUFFED to the gills with turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie, and we have lots of leftovers to continue the feast for at least a few more days.  I hope to share some more about that later, but for now I wanted to share another Christmas card I made, since we are now in full fledged Christmas season!

I made this SU White Christmas Shaker card after Linda Heller from Where the Rubber Hits the Road was kind enough to send me some SU shaker frames (from our #FreebieFriday random drawing contest).  For this card, I cut and pieced two of them together to create a larger shaker to contain this scene that is reminiscent of this time of year – getting the annual Christmas tree.  I stamped it all in Memento Black Ink and then colored in with SU Stampin’ Write Markers.  I filled it with some sequins, wrapped it with SU DSP and sponged the edges to vintage it up a bit.  Finishing touches were a linen thread bow and brown metal brad.

The SUO Challenge SUO#110 this week is “Marker Fun,” and this one was fun with markers, so I am sharing there.

I know just who this card is going to, and I hope they have as much fun shakin’ it as I did coloring it!

White Christmas Shaker Card

Cheers & Thankful Holiday Hugs,

Jodi

 

Thanksgiving Crack Snack Mix

/ Jodi / 7 Comments

Are you looking for a simple little way to give a little Thanksgiving gift to a co-worker or neighbor, as a hostess gift, something for your friendly delivery person or grocery clerk or……  (whoever you are looking to give a little gesture of Thanksgiving to)?

thanksgiving crack snack mixI came up with a quick Thanksgiving Crack Snack Mix.    Easy Peasy Stuff Here!

Just grab a bag of Mini Pretzels, Bugels, Cheez It Crackers, Peanuts, Candy Corn, and Reese’s Pieces.  Mix it all together in a huge bowl (and if you want to get fancier 🙂 – drizzle some white or milk chocolate or dark chocolate over it – I did not this time).

thanksgiving crack snack mix bowlYou can then package it up in cute jars or bags, dress it up with a cute tag and a bow, and a sweet little treat is created.

thanksgiving crack snack mix 2

Easy, thoughtful, homemade, and yummy!

Hope your Thanksgiving is STUFFED with HAPPINESS!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

Joyful Christmas (& ‘Smart Ass’ Trivia Answers)

/ Jodi / 10 Comments

Joyful Christmas FMS163

It’s a Christmas Card TGIF Post.

And heck – before you know it, I’ll be mailing these cards out!

I love when I come across a sketch challenge, and it just speaks to me and a design comes so easily.

Such is the case with this week’s Freshly Made Sketches Challenge FMS#163.  I just loved the design.

FMS163Whatchya think?

Joyful Christmas FMS163

I’ve been itching to use my SU Joyful Christmas Poinsettia stamp (from last year) and also dying to do some water coloring.  I wanted to do something different, and water coloring on newspaper print DSP was just the ticket to feed my creative Christmas card crazies for this week.  🙂

For this card done on SU Crumb Cake with Under the Tree Specialty DSP Paper, I heat embossed the poinsettia in white on the newsprint DSP, and then used my Koi Watercolors to paint it – not worrying about “staying in the lines.”  A couple of pearl embellishments and a cheery pop of festive red with a cherry cobbler sheer linen bow finished it off.

I love it when an idea comes together easily.  🙂

So – anyone that follows my blog regularly is just dying to know the answers to yesterday’s Smart Ass Trivia questions – right?  (Even though most of you “Smart Asses” figured them out already)  🙂

Well – How long did it take you to figure out the “What Am I” is a Tea Bag?

And the “Where Am I?”  Well, that is the River Thames.

Wishing you all a joyous weekend!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

 

 

Thanks & Giving

/ Jodi / 11 Comments

Neat and Tangled Thanks and Giving

‘Nuff Said….

(This card was created for The Paper Players Clean & Simple Thank You Challenge #PP222)

Cheers & Thankful Hugs,

Jodi

New Birthday Balls

/ Jodi / 25 Comments

I have to admit.  I love a good theme.
Party that is.

birhtdaygiphy

Birthday, holiday, any ole’ special occasion.

You would think I’ve had my fix raising my two sons, celebrating birthdays, creating Halloween costumes, being homeroom mom every elementary school year.

But nooooo – my boys are in their twenties, hubby in his fifties, and I’m still “theme”ing it up when I can.  They always harass me about it, but “I’ll betcha a nickel,” (as Pap used to say) they would be disappointed if I didn’t….

So when Marty said all he’d like for his birthday this year is some new RED felt for a beautiful gently-used pool table Nick helped him find on Craig’s list for the “man cave,” I couldn’t resist going with it.

The kids came over one evening while Marty was at a meeting and did an amazing job re-felting the table from an ordinary green to an extraordinary burgundy red.  (and saving me $300+ labor to boot!)

pool table red felt

Going with the theme, the boys bought Marty some beautiful new balls (which we had fun with all evening) 🙂 and some other pool table accessories.

pool balls

Of course I made a pool ball cake…

pool balls cake 1

…which consisted of RED velvet cupcakes (they don’t make red felt cake mix) decorated as stripes and solids (even if not the exact colors and numbers to match as was pointed out to me – and THEY give ME a hard time about my themes!?!) with white Necco wafers I numbered with black icing.

And you don’t want to know how many rolls of those things I had to go through to get 15 whites – that were NOT broken!?! 🙂 I now have a pint jar full of all the other colors if anybody has any creative ideas for using these little disks of hard sugar that pretty much taste like nothing.  (C’mon Jill – I know you’ve got something in you!!)

And by the way – no need to purchase all the different colors of sugar.  Did you know you can simply add a couple drops of food coloring to a scoop of sugar in a jar, shake, and Voila! – colored sugar!

pool balls cake

And, of course,  I had to make a little card to go along with the theme too.

pool table cake

I got lucky and won ONE game of pool….

and ZERO games of “Smart Ass” – but we sure had a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday Merv!

Cheers & Hugs & Lots of Love,
Gert

Vintage Wondrous Wreath

/ Jodi / 15 Comments

I’m on a vintage kick now since The Paper Players Challenge got me wound up last week (when I made this card that Claire kindly picked as her “Cut Above” – thanks Claire! 🙂 )

It’s been a busy week, so I was excited to wake up on my own at 4:30am on Thursday to get an hour or so in for stamping and crafting before starting the day.

(I know – very strange – but it is that  [er ahem] ‘vintage’ here-she-goes-again phase of life where I am waking every night around 3 or 4am and often can’t get back to sleep…. )
You know – like everything else these days – I blame it on the meh eh eh eh eh menopause (sung to the tune of “Blame it on the Alcohol”).

Wondrous Wreath Hello Doily PP221 jlm

This week is a Color Challenge (PP221)  at The Paper Players to use Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, and Mossy Meadow to create any type of card.  Well the colors lead perfectly into Christmas, and Christmas leads perfectly into Vintage, and Vintage leads perfect into Hello Doily (again) and Stampin Up’s Wondrous Wreath!  I also discovered that Just Add Ink has a Texture Challenge (JAI#240), so I thought I would play along with that too since my card certainly has a lot of “texture” to it with embossing, die cut, brad, bow, and layers.  🙂

pp221C

With some Pinterest inspiration I discovered from Maggie Patterson @ I Love Papercrafts, I created this version:

Wondrous Wreath Hello Doily PP221 jlm 2

For my stampin’ friends:  To make this card, I started with SU Very Vanilla for the Card Base, then added SU Typeset Specialty Designer Series Paper (DSP) framed in black and sponged on the edges to vintage up, along with curling up a bit.  The wreath and bow are stamped with Mossy Meadow and Cherry Cobbler on Very Vanilla also, then die cut out.  The doily was done by stamping SU Hello Doily with Versa Mark on vellum paper, then sprinkled with white embossing powder and heat embossed.  I fussy-cut it out – a bit tedious, but love the results.  I also sponged with brown around the edges of this faux doily to vintage it up (as well as every other piece on this card). The banner and Joy sentiment were done with the SU Under the Tree Specialty DSP.  Topped it all off with an Antique Brad and linen thread bow, and Voila – another Christmas card ready for someone special – because I kinda love this one…. especially considering it was done on one cup of coffee and even before the sun came up 🙂 .

Wondrous Wreath Hello Doily PP221 jlm

Have a wonderful Friday and weekend!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

 

Vintage

/ Jodi / 28 Comments

I couldn’t wait to make a card for The Paper Players Challenge (PP220) this week!  The theme is Vintage, and I love making vingtagy cards!

vintage

I needed a thank you note for a special someone for something special, so I couldn’t wait to start vintaging up a card.  (Do you like the vintage adjective and verb I [ahem] created?!)

And the SUOChallenge (SUO109) is to make a Thank You card, so I am submitting this card for that challenge too.  Bonus – a twofer! 🙂

vintage2

Stampin Up’s Hello Doily and Dress Up Framelits seemed the perfect start. I had seen some great inspiration on Pinterest done by Lyssa Griffin Zwolanek and Cheryl Garratt  that gave me bits and pieces to create my final Vintage Thank You Card.  I used the distressing tool to rough up the edges and sponged with crumb cake and and soft suede brown inks.   I used SU Flowering Flourishes to stamp onto the dress form.  A little lace, an antique-look button, some linen thread and lots of little pearls all added embellishment to finish up the vintageness.  Finally, the sentiment is from SU Petite Pairs.

vintage3

Whadayathink???

Girly girly – eh?

I kinda love it.  Hope my special someone does too :).

vintage4Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

Making Christmas Cards

/ Jodi / 33 Comments

I can’t believe it will be November in a few days!  Christmas is going to sneak up on me this year – I just know it! I best get busy on some Christmas cards!

ornamental pine christmas pp219

I made two last evening, both using The Paper Players Sketch Challenge #219 as my inspiration.

pp219

I can’t decide which one to enter into the challenge….

ornamental pine christmas pp219 2

For both of these cards, I used the Stampin’ Up Ornamental Pine stamp set with various Christmasy DSP and heat embossed the sentiment with gold onto vellum.

So two more done, and……
….how many ever more I make….. left to go!

That’s how we roll
at
Life in between 🙂

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

PS I’d love to hear which one you like better. Will you leave a comment and let me know?