Friday, December 22, 2006

Freebie New Year Kit


OK as promised, here is the mini kit for New Years that I promised last night. You know the drill, click on the image to get the download!

PLEASE, if you download, leave a little comment, it only takes two seconds and it's really appreciated. Comments or suggestions are great. I always welcome constructive criticism. :)

Some Freebies and a few other little tidbits

Good Friday to all of you! I am now just waiting for Charles' Language Arts teacher to give us a call so he can take his oral exam. I'm more nervous than he is. He was up till 6 this morning...... argh. He and his best friend (well he has two but this was the female one lol) made up yesterday after a fight they had last week so they were on the phone all night. I love her, she calls me Mom lol. So we had to fight to get him up this morning and I handed him the whole kit for the Semester for him to study. If he doesn't pass this with at least a B (he should really get an A) I am going to scream Bloody Blue murder. ANYWAY............

I stopped over at Digital Freebies this morning and grabbed their Friday Freebie. Very cute kit waiting over there for you. I don't plan on doing this all the time - giving you direction toward freebies - but I go to AmyW Scrap-A-Lot every morning and she gives out some great links. Stop over by her if you can she gives out links and freebies just about every day!
My store deal - well, we stopped over at CVS to pick up a couple of cards and milk etc. In their Hallmark section - every year - they have "Buy 3 Cards and get this XXXXX for free" Well this year they have the kissing dogs but we only needed 2 cards and it just isn't worth it for me right now to buy an extra one for no reason. ANYWAY what they did have was a Scrapbook for the Holidays which was $5.99 with ANY Hallmark purchase. Check it out:




It has 10 voice recordings available, 10 pages for scrapping and 10 pages to do your journaling. I thought it would be cool for this year to have and do a paperscrap for the holiday. I already have the pics of trimming the tree and setting up our village, last night I took these pics of Johnathan making a batch of the cookie batter for Christmas (There's a story about these cookies which I will tell you after the pics lol)




Of course the whole time I am taking these he's like "MOM!" but look at that face lol. He is just eating it up, the little ham. Sigh I LOVE MY BOYS! They make me crazy and want to rip my hair out sometimes but I don't know what I would do without them. They are both good people, kind, generous and VERY compassionate and PASSIONATE. Sometimes that can be a problem. Charles - my oldest - is just like me and when he sees something that's not right - he speaks up and will get right in the middle of it. I have a story about that too but let me give you the cookie story first lol.

I started making these cookies about 13 or 14 years ago. The batter is based on a Pillsbury recipe - which is the book that is in front of John in the pic. But instead of making them into regular flat cookie types I turned them into thumbprints and use Raspberry Jelly in the center. Another thing that makes them special is that they use cream cheese in the batter so the cookie is always soft and moist. They are awesome! (Even if I do say so myself lol) Anyway when we first moved down here to Florida in 1996 I made them for Christmas. We always have a full family gathering - 40 people and more. I made 6 dozen of these cookies, plus brownies, plus one of my sister-in-laws brought a bunch of pies and cakes etc. The cookies were gone 10 minutes after I put them on the table! So now 10 years later, our gatherings are a little smaller - usually between 25 and 30 people BUT I have to make at least 10 dozen cookies for everyone to get one. People get crazy and just start snatching them up. I only make them during the holidays. My brother-in-laws Mom (can you follow that? lol) get's her own tin for Christmas every year and she hides them in the back of her freezer and takes one or two out at a time and has them for a few months lol. She is like a grandmother to my kids - we aren't extended family we are all just family. So anyway, I spoke to my one sister-in-law the other day - Beth. The conversation went like this:

Beth - I don't know what I'm making yet but you guys are coming Monday right?

Me: Yep we'll be there and you know I will bring the desserts

Beth - Cookies right?

Me: Yep lol Cookies, Espresso Brownies, Cream Cheese Brownies .....

Beth: The jelly cookies right?

Me: LOL Yes the jelly cookies. Picture me showing up with no cookies! LOL

Beth: No, that would NOT be a good thing lol

So yeah, the cookies are on the list and John has already started making the batter for us and we will make more today and tomorrow so that we don't have to make all the batter on Sunday. We are also making chocolate chip cookies and three different kind of brownies. Usually by the time it's all said and done we will have made 4 or 5 batches of brownies and literally about 30 - 40 dozen cookies.

ACK! I am going to kill Charles. He just took his oral exam and got a freaking 60. ARGHHHHH. Thing is, I spoke to his teacher and she knows he knows it and with all of his other work he still comes out with an 87.50 for his final grade. If he would have gotten up and woke up AND studied this morning to review he could have had a high A instead of a high B. BIG SIGH.

OK this post is long so I am going to go. Will be back later with more stuff and my FREEBIE!

FREEBIE lol

OK I am feeling in the Holiday Spirit here so I did another freebie for you. This is actually just a QP I did to comemorate the 2007 ball in Time Square (I am a Native New Yorker afterall - I don't care if I have been living in Florida lol) Anyway I hope you like it, I did it in Black and White - obviously and it has Doves and Triangles because of the glass in the ball. This year they are adding the triangles and they have 3 dove like etchings in them (on them?) So if you want to snatch it up go ahead and click on the image!








I left it at 12 X 12 300 dpi and in png format so that it would be easier to fit the photos in. The center of each triangle is empty so you can just slide your photos in no problem. I have also done another mini kit for New Years, but I just finished it and Alex has already gone to bed so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Here's a sneak peek though:



There are four of these "Fireworks Flowers" in four different colors of course, as well as two papers you see here, balloons, a metal header, ribbon and a frame.

Well I gotta get to bed. Charles has an exam tomorrow with his teacher between 11 and 12 and I need to drill him in the morning to make sure he doesn't trip over something silly. He knows it but right now his head is on Christmas, Tenkaichi 2 and girls lol. Have a great night! (or morning as it is)