VIEW FROM MY WINDOW THIS AM

LOVELY SNOW TODAY - HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!

I woke up to a beautiful view outside my window this am. It was snowing. How lovely! Nice to have this on a day I have off with no place to go but to snuggle in at home! Oh, and to craft today also!

REMARKABLE LOVE BLOG TOUR STARTS THIS THURSDAY

DON'T MISS OUT!
REMARKABLE THINGS ARE HAPPENING

Make sure you are right here on Thursday for a 3 day REMARKABLE BLOG TOUR. I have some great things planned for you with lots of love in store. The Remarkable Stampers under the guidance of the REMARKBLE Janet Wakeland will be right here to share all NEW SU! The new Occasions mini catalog and the Sale-a-bration catalogs are coming out next Tuesday and we want you to be prepared so that you have your lists ready to go.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTINA!

My sister Christina Deyo has a birthday today. Many of you know her from her job as a top television producer at the Martha Stewart Show. I want to wish her the best birthday ever. She is also a happy wife and mother to 5 girls. Check out her blog - it is really good! We celebrated in NJ. This is one of the gifts I gave her. When I was on my RAD weekend, Jan took us to Boyd's Bears near Gettysburg. I fell in love with this Boyd's Bear - Nanette - named after Thomas Kincade's (the famous painter of light) lovely wife. This is a collectors edition bear and I know Christina really liked it. She is a collector of bears and dolls.
Although I gave Christina a different card, I wanted to show you all a birthday card I made. This one uses the brand new Occasions Mini Stamp set available January 5th. This set is called Something Sweet and uses the Sweet Centers cups. I love this new set. I love the gumballs and I love the gumball machine. There are some other adorable stamps in the set too. And guess what? You can purchase this set in the clear mount for easy placement of the parts off the gumball machine. Notice I also used the new SU! perfect polka dots embossing folder for the Big Shot. This is going to be a hot seller and it is priced right at only $7.95 USD.
The removable tag is from the Two Tags die for the Big Shot. This is probably the most versatile die made. If you don't have it, put it on your to purchase list. Sale-a-bration starts January 5th and you definitely want this one so you can earn FREE goodies! The ribbon is BRAND NEW SATIN RIBBON. You WANT this too! The ribbons come in so many different colors. In the sweet treat cup you could put actual gum balls or candy! This way the recipient has some cool treat they can easily remove and still save their card or even reuse the card! And you know what? You can mail this also. SU! has special padded envelopes for mailing!
On the inside of the card, I stamped a few gumballs. On the tag and on the inside I also added crystal effects to give a lacquered look that I just love. The sentiment is oh so Brand New as well and a MUST HAVE STAMP SET - called Well-Scripted. If you haven't gotten your new Occasions Mini catalog yet, it should arrive shortly in the mail, or watch for a link here on my website as soon as the mini goes live on January 5th. And let me just warn you that it is a huge fully filled mini catalog with lots of new punches and dies and stamps and ribbons and embellishments. Fortunately you will have until April 30th to purchase it all.

In the meantime, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTINA!

CHRISTMAS TEA

We had the Most Wonderful Christmas Tea at Gypsy's in Westminster, Md. Arleen Graham, Myself, and Sandi Haertig shared a lovely afternoon together. The TEA was amazing and the friendship sharing even greater. Both Sandi and Arleen are SU! demonstrators. Arleen is a sideline of mine in Remarkables and Sandi is in another line but I have adopted her on occasion as one of my directs. Look how lovely the table is all decorated for CHRISTMAS.

This is Kaitlyn our server. She was so delightful. She brought us our server and she brought us this delicious tiered tray of goodies.
Each level has petit fours sandwiches, fruit, or deserts. The sandwiches were incredibly good.
This is a close up. The bread with the flavored cream cheese was really good.
The top level had little mini chocolate cheesecakes, peppermint bark and these adorable gingerbread men.
My favorite were these gingerbread men. So cute.

GIFT USING NEW CLEAR MOUNTS

During the earlier part of December I was invited to take part in a RAD weekend. RAD stands for REMARKABLY ACHIEVING DEMONSTRATORS. This is a weekend that Janet Wakeland - my upline - sponsors for her top demonstrators. I was so honored to be a part of it. She spoils us rotten and we just create for 4 days. I put together a gift for Janet and wrapped it up as you see above. Janet loves purple so that is the main color I used. This year for Christmas her theme was purple and shades of olive and certainly celery.
This was the card I made for her. I used elegant eggplant, old olive, and whisper white card stock by SU! I stamped the Christmas punch snowflake design on the card and tried out the new stamps from the Occasions Mini catalog coming out Jan. 5th 2010 called tiny tags. It has a coordinating punch that is so cute. It was at the top of my list for what to buy in this mini. I also used the new edge punch that is really fabulous because it coordinates with a great corner punch too! The ribbon is striped old olive grosgrain.
This is another view of the great wrapping paper, ribbon and card. Janet loved this gift. The paper sparkled a little bit too.
These are some of the new clear mount stamps by SU! Janet pre ordered all of the new SU! clear mount stamps in the new Occasions mini catalog by SU! that are coming out in just a few short days. We got to play with them and let me tell you I'm really hooked. What I like about them is the easy storage and the great way they stamp. These are true red rubber stamps but they mount to clear blocks. You can see a little easier where you are stamping your image. They are less expensive than wood mount but really great for people like me who have tons of stamps they don't get rid of when they retire.
They come in these great CD cases. Here is a sneak peek of some of the stamps coming out! You should be receiving your mini catalogs soon if you are one of my mailing customers. If you aren't watch for the mini to be posted on my blog on January 5th. I promise I will have lots of samples with these new stamps! And since they come out during SALE-A-BRATION, you will have the opportunity to purchase them and then earn some product for FREE! Everyone earns something great during this fabulous time of the year!

WHAT A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS !!!

Oh how I love the expression JP has on his face while opening up his Christmas gifts! So precious! This gift was actually for Luigi, but JP's look was just the best - almost as if it were his own gift he was receiving! JP did receive some great presents and Christmas is not even over yet. He still needs to receive his Christmas gifts and the rest of his Birthday gifts from his Aunt and Uncle in Pa and from his aunt/uncles and cousins and grandparents in NJ.

(by the way, the photo layout above is another SU! My Digital Studio creation by me!)

AND NOW WHAT DID I GET FOR CHRISTMAS....

We had the most wonderful Christmas day! My husband makes sure I get some good presents. After all, I am on Santa's good list! lol! Every year, I receive the most thoughtful gifts....including some non-Republican things from my conservative dh. You'll notice I got the special edition of LOST with the DHARMA initiative clues box. Can't wait for Feb. to get here so I can see my favorite all time show. I also received a box set of all of the Twilight books (not shown here) that I will try to keep in Mint condition. I've read each one but now want to go back and re-read. I also have some good movies in this pile and since I never did see the end of Gray's Anatomy or Ugly Betty - they are in the pile also. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that dh got me these pearls I'm wearing from Smyth's jewelers. They are absolutely gorgeous! Real pearls! I'm astonished! Speaking of pearls, I still have to show you the SU! goodies Santa gave me. I had a double Christmas when I received my brand new SU! I will be showing you lots of those over the coming weeks as we prepare for SU! 's biggest sale of the year- SALE-A-BRATION! Today I'm off to Christmas Tea with my friends and co-demonstrators - Arleen and Sandi. I'll have to tell you all about that when I get back. For now....Happy Boxing Day to all Canadians, and Happy day after Christmas to all!

HE'S BEEN HERE!

Let me wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! We went to the Christmas Eve mass for Nativity at the State Fairgrounds and it was incredible. There was an amazing choir and we all lit candles and sang Silent Night. I really felt the Peace of Christ amongst all! Here is our Christmas Tree. I just love Christmas Eve at night. Later I'll try to upload my iPhone photo of JP with his candle lit at Church.
OK, we have evidence that Santa came. I went into the next room and then all of a sudden heard a clatter. I went back to check but didn't see anyone. Santa must have been here in a flash. He left behind some evidence. I sure hope he doesn't need these!
My goodness, Santa did leave evidence. Here are his footprints. We even have reindeer footprints in our house. Santa sure did leave some sacks of gifts. I heard him and when I went in to see what was happening, he got out of here in a flash.

SANTA I'VE BEEN GOOD

Despite eating your cookies, I've been a very good doggy!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I just want to wish all of you A Very Merry Christmas. I hope you will have a great day with family and friends. I created this with My Digital Studio by SU! pictured left to right are Linda Kincaid, Pat Nuckels, Sandi Haertig and me!

AHH! IT'S CHRISTMAS!

I COULD DREAM OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS
BUT DREAMING OF STAMPIN UP!
IS WAY BETTER!

Tomorrow morning when I awake, my SU! presents should be under my tree. Santa knows me. For 7 years since I have been a SU! demonstrator, the man in red has known what I love. He knows I've worked hard all year, and there should be plenty of SU! product to play with! Actually, I didn't need to dream of the white Christmas...
here in Baltimore it is a WHITE CHRISTMAS!

Have a great Christmas Everyone! and a Big Thanks to Linda Kincaid for doing all of the photos for the countdown to Christmas! It sure did make it all fun!