What's on My Kitchen Counter

Hello Friends. I am off today so I used this morning to catch up one of my favorite challenges - Global Design Project. There is lovely sketch with still a bit more time to get it in -   Global Design Project (#GDP374) .   I flipped the sketch since I like my cards tall. I  had a piece of cardboard from a present so I cut it down, painted on some snow, stamped the tree from SU! Snow Front and a greeting from SU! Petal Palette. These are some older sets, but still much loved.  The embossing folder is also an older SU! folder - one of my all time favorites.  Happy New Year - it is almost here! Hugz,  Nancy

Hello friends.  I hope you had a wonderful Holiday! It is T-day over at Elizabeth's Blog so sharing a drink first.  Happy T-day to the gang and everyone who visits.  After a recent youth wrestling match in Opelika, Alabama, we decided to try a local restaurant called Zazu Gastropub .  They boost of using fresh local foods and of having the best hamburger around.  The pimento cheese burger was good,but I should have had them cook it just a bit longer.  They also have tons of cool beers.  I tried the Moody Tongue Porter - soooo good.  The boys placed high in the match so we were celebrating and happy.  Christmas was a hit this year.  Seemed that everyone got things they wanted, we had lots of precious family time, and only a tiny bit of drama.  We opted for Italian this year so the prep wasn't as time consuming. We did a fun charcueterie tray for during the day.  In between the fun, I read five books from Thursday night to last night while watching several Harry Potter Marathons

Happy T-day friends.  Since it is Tuesday, we are celebrating T-day at Elizabeth's Blog - The Altered Book Lover .  Celebrants just need something to do with a drink of any kind and everyone is welcome.  I will start off with my drink at the Aquarium Restaurant in Nashville. The drink was wonderful, and we got to keep the glass. You can see my daughter's drink in the background.  We were lucky my daughter made reservations because the wait was over 2 hours (someone said 4 hours when we were walking up).  My Grandson loved this place.  They had a giant aquarium that took up most of the restaurant - it was like one you see in Atlanta with sharks and stingrays and all kinds of beautiful and interesting fish. The food was ok, but this place is about the fish and the atmosphere really - that is what you are paying for.  Here is a look inside - I barely remembered to take a picture because my Grandson was up and down and so excited.  He could name almost all the fish - he is a smart

 Hello friends. I haven't been posting because we have been traveling a lot lately for wresting tournaments and memory building with the Grandkids.  This last week, we went to Franklin, Tennessee for the 37th Annual Dickens of a Christmas Festival.   It was the best street festival I have ever been too - I am so going back next year if at all possible.  A few weeks ago, we went to a Wrestling Tournament in Orange Beach, Alabama.  The condo we stayed in was immediately next door to the Flora-Bama bar which is a very famous bar located in Florida and Alabama (right on the line).  My husband, one of my daughters, and my Son-in-law, decided to go over to the bar one night while the rest of us stayed in and watched Christmas movies.  We decided to send them a list of things to do while at the bar (a scavenger hunt).  They had to send us pictures after they completed each item and they needed to include them in the picture (or one of them).  We did this mainly to entertain us, but they

Hello friends and Happy T-day! I have been traveling a lot lately so I haven't been able to post or create much.  The travel has been for work and for fun.  Last week we did two trips - one to the mountains (Tullahoma, Tennessee for Thanksgiving) and one to the beach (Orange Beach, Alabama for the Grandsons' Wrestling matches).  Lots of fun places, great food and drink, fabulous snacks, entertainment, and family time. Now it is time for diet season so we can survive all the yummy Christmas eating.   When we arrived at the airbnb in Tennesse, this is what was on the kitchen counter (you know how I love kitchen counters - lol). The Watersedge chocolates were so wonderful we ended up going to the candy store and buying more.  Seriously, this was some of the best chocolate I have ever had.  They make everything there and it is high quality.  I will be shipping some as Christmas presents as they ship.  I included the link if you want to check them out. Some of my favorite things we

Hello friends. Happy T-day to those who celebrate it!   My ticket to T-day over at Elizabeth's blog is a lovely trip to the Ozan Winery and Vineyard which is about 40 miles from our house in Central Alabama.  We each had a flight to see which bottle to order.  Alex liked the blueberry and I liked the Apple, so we couldn't split a bottle.  We ended up each having a glass of our favorite.  The flight glasses look bigger here than they actually were, and we did not drink the ones we didn't like (I only liked the apple).  The vineyard was bare of leaves already and most everyone was sitting inside, but we wanted to be outside and pretend we were in another world. LOL. We split a snack box of cheese, meat, fruit, and crackers. It was really good and we stayed about an hour.  Then we returned to the real world.... Hugz and thanks for visiting! Nancy

Hello friends. Today I have an art journal page inspired by THIS watercolor video shared by Kia for the Splitcoaststamper.com water color challenge AND Elizabeth's and Bleubeard's **Art*Journal*Journey* theme Collage Fodder or Food and Drink or Both.   I miss everyone at AJJ so I am glad I had some time to play in this challenge.  I could not find my pencil so I outlined the acorns and leaves with a light paint on watecolor paper. I was too lazy to go back and watch the leaves portion of the video so mine are a bit big and a bit crazy, comparatively. I like them so it all works out.  The base page is all collage fodder from Taperology   I am addicted to the pretty stuff in that store and someone sent me a package of papers.  Wish I knew who.....I would give them a big hug.  Isn't that Alice Cooper ticket fun?  There was even a faux Beatles ticket in the package. I layered the papers with Gesso and a bit of TH Vintage Photo DOX. Thanks to Kia, Elizabeth, and Bleubeard for t

Lack of sleep, work events, a craft retreat, and lots of grandkid activities have kept me away the last few weeks, but I miss hanging out with the T-day gang and all the rest of you faithful friends. I saw where Elizabeth posted the scary skeleton house in her T-day post so here is a picture of the Fall Ball team two of my grandsons play on.  This was at a haunted baseball tournament.  Yes, cemetery is spelled wrong. My daughter asked me to do the sign in the back, and I was copying something I saw on Pinterest and didn't even notice the spelling.  This is the Stephen King spelling - way spookier.  Aren't they a great looking team?   I also need my ticket to T-day even if I am a bit late. This was very hoppy and very interesting. I would buy it again.  I have been doing a lot of watercoloring. The first one and the last one were done using tutorials.  I made a lot of mistakes, but I love how they came out. #2, #3, and #4 have DRS Design Sentiments (or pieces of them). Thanks fo

Hello friends.  Sharing my current reading list along with my morning coffee in my favorite mug.  Three books are missing as I have started them and left them in various places like my car, hubby's truck, and the bedroom.  I almost have the 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear done - it is fun and whimsical and very strange.  I started T he Visitors yesterday.  It was recommended by my sweet friend, Jayne.  Not sure what it is totally about yet, but right now the main character is in Cairo in the 1920's when archeologists were hunting for the tomb of Tutankhamun. Very interesting. I finished Love and Other Words Sunday night - I stayed up late to finish it which I rarely do.  I think it is my favorite book I have read this year.  I loved the characters.  Not sure I have ever read or known people who were more soulmates than those two.  It is going to be the book I recomend to every one for a long time.  My daughter is always amazed that I read multiple books at the same time. I

Yay! We had the first few stirrings of fall yesterday.  Don't get me wrong, it was still hot enough for heat stroke here in Central Alabma, but we felt a few breezes and the mornings were tolerable.  I have been waiting for this since May!  Looks like we may actually have a day or two in the 70s this week. Praise the Lord! To celebrate I bought this super fun Mummy cup at the grocery store yesterday.  Isn't it adorable?  I have a mummy loving grandson that is going to flip over this.   I bought myself a few fun fall items at the grocery store too.  Pumpkin ale and pumpkin spice creamer.  These are my tickets to Elizabeth's T-day party where we share some drink related fun every week (everyone is welcome - you just need something about drinks in your post - can even be one of your favorite movies with a drink of any kind in it).  Happy T-day friends! In celebration of fall, I also painted up this lovely card.  I followed THIS fabulous tutorial on YouTube.  After an early m

Hello friends. Our local rural grocery had some super fun beer so, of course, I bought it even though it was horribly expensive.  Seriously, who can pass up beer made from moon pies? The beer is made by Naked River Brewing Co. out of Chattanooga, Tn. It is 8.5% alcohol (probably part of why it is so expensive), and the can says it is actually made with fresh baked moon pies in collaboration with the Chattanooga Bakery (where the original moonpies became famous).  I could not pass it up.  It was awesome!  I will buy it again if I ever find it again.  Our grocery usually only buys a few of the fun beers and when they are gone, they are gone.... This is my ticket to Elizabeth's T-day party where we all share something related to a drink (of any kind and in any media).  I am a day late, but yesterday was a birthday day in our family so we had to do some party prep to try and make it special - so hard to do birthdays during football and fall ball seasons.   Some art from this week.  Th

Happy T-day friends!   The wine of the week for me was The Uprising.  Such a fun name.  It was pretty good - I would buy it again if it comes back on sale.  Isn't the label fun? I am having a glass of it right now while watching a wine themed movie on Hallmark called Paris, Wine and Romance.  Such a sweet movie, and how wonderful to see the glimpes of Paris.  I want to try her pinot wine they are all chatting about in the movie.  Wish it was a true story.  I am not normally a Hallmark movie fan, but I am totally enjoying this sappy happy treat.  The wine and the movie are my ticket so I can hang out with the T-day gang at Elizabeth's.  Art for the week. Today's technique and CAS challenges on Splitcoaststampers.com were about back to school and lots of ink colors. The sentiment is from Riley & Co and the ruler is from DRS Designs. The ink was applied using reinkers applied directly to a sponge - fun technique.  Played with some new to me dies from Spellbinders. I waterc

Hello friends! Happy T-day to the T -day gang over at Elizabeth's blog where we share some type of drink in our posts.  After the Cousin match up which you can read about HERE if you missed it, Alex and I headed to the Mexican restaurant.  We ordered Corona Lights to go with our chips and salsa and shared the new Texas Surprize dish (shrimp, chicken, steak and veggies over rice and topped with cheese dip - yum, yum).  We split it but I ended up with enough for lunch the next day too. I forgot to get a picture of that - it was late and we were tired and hot.  I was able to make some fun art over the long weekend.   This one was for two Splitcoaststamper.com challenges - I had been playing around with 3-D ice cream sandwiches and made this fun card for my sweet but stressed daughter.   This was for the CAS challenge on Splitcoaststampers.com - we were to come up with a fun frame of some kind.  I used leftovers from my next creation to make the frame. Stamps are from Stampendous and