Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do!

Hero Arts 2008 is here!

It has been pure craziness around here the past few days! The new Hero Arts arrived..............all 60 boxes of it! You should see the warehouse! I really need to take a picture sometime!

We spent Thursday and Friday unpacking and trying to figure out where to put everything.  We also started shipping the pre-orders (placed before December 13) for the 2008 catalogs.  Most shipped yesterday or today.  We haven't updated shipping on the orders yet so don't panic if you haven't heard from us yet.  You will.  If your catalog pre-order hasn't shipped yet it will ship on Monday!

The catalog is awesome! I know I say this every year but I really think it's Hero's best!  I love the "Take a vacation" stamps (hello, I am a travel agent, after all!) and I love all the birds! Love the birdcage!

                                                

My favorite stamp in the catalog is this one!

                                                    

                                 It's called Aww! Isn't it too cute?!

It's a pre-order stamp so it won't be ready to ship until the first part of January. I also love the pearl accents! They'll be a lot of fun to work with!

We've also got some new cool Valentine's Memory Box stamps coming really soon.

How much excitement can a girl handle anyway??? My husband asked what I wanted for Christmas! Are you kiddin'? Give me a gift certificate to my own store and I'll be good to go! I'm NOT kidding! The hard part is that I never buy anything from the store right away because I know you all want it! I'm willing to sacrifice in the name of stamping! LOL!

I'm so grateful my shoulder is doing well.  I don't know what I would do if I couldn't get your goodies out to you in a timely fashion.  My Mom is here from Indiana.  She came to "help" me while I recover from my surgery.  I actually put her on the payroll this week!  

Tomorrow night I'm singing in a Christmas choir by the Sacramento Temple.  I love singing Christmas songs and getting into the season! We end up singing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah ! That never gets old! What are you all doing to get into the spirit of the Season including Hanukkah, Christmas and New Years? I'd love to hear!

Blog Candy Winner !

Hello All!  I put the 11 people who commented on my blog (one of you put your comments twice so I only entered your name once and one of you entered your comments on the 2nd post so I added you!)

Here were the names:

1.  Linda C.   2.  Eloise   3.  Lori U  4.  Michelle   5.  Nancy   6.  Lisa   7.  Kersten   8.  Liisa   9.  Vicky  10.  Estivalia     11. Debbi

So I went to a random generator website and put in the numbers 1-11 and number 10 came up! Congratulations Estivalia.  Send me your address and I'll get your stamp off to you! Happy Haiku Stamping! 

Lahr's Fudge

Found this fudge recipe when surfing the internet a couple of weeks ago.  I tried it and not only was it easy but it was absolutely delicious! I'd take a picture but there's not much left! Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Lahr's fudge

4-1/2 c. sugar
12oz. can evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed)
1/4 lb. margarine
1 lb. Hershey bar (I've never seen a 1lb bar, so I use three and a half 5oz bars)
1 tsp. vanilla
12 oz. chocolate chips
16 reg. marshmallows
1 c. nuts (optional)

Combine sugar, margarine, and milk. Boil 7 minutes (count time after mixture begins to boil). Remove from heat. Add broken chocolate bar, chocolate chips and marshmallows, stirring until dissolved---do not heat while adding the chocolate. Add vanilla, nuts and pour into a large cookie sheet or jellyroll pan (with a lip on the edges) lined with buttered waxed paper. When firm, peel off waxed paper, cut into bars.

Marcia's Lost Card

Hello again everyone!  I couldn't find one of my swap buddies cards the other day when I uploaded all our cards but what's lost is now found! Yea! So without further ado............may I present Marcia's cute card! The stamp is Magenta and I'm guessing she stamped the snowflakes on acetate with Stazon.  I had to put a blue piece of cardstock behind it so you could see the snowflakes but the card itself is square and clear.  It's so cute.  The inside says " A wish from the Heart for a wonderful Christmas."  Too cute! Thanks for sharing Marcia!

Where have you been young lady?

Well hello everyone!

For all two of you who have been wondering where I've been...(and thanks for calling me young lady!) I'm here with an update!

My shoulder/arm surgery was last week and went really well! We went from a 6-12 month recovery time to 6-8 week recovery time! Woohoo! Apparently the MRI lied! I have to tell you a couple of funny things........one, when I was being prepped to go in the O.R. the nurse came over with a rubberstamp and stamped my shoulder with the big word "Yes"! See, even when I'm not at home stamping or shipping our gorgeous stamps to you I'm still stampin! Dang, I wish I had a picture of that!

The other funny thing was when the surgeon came to the recovery room and was talking to my husband and I.......he told me that he wasn't going to give me a sling for my arm because he wanted me moving it right away.  I called him a "weanie."  My husband leaned over and whispered something like, "Honey, you really shouldn't call your surgeon a weanie."  Let's just say that I was under the influence of something or another when I did that, okay?  I love my surgeon. 

The day before my surgery I had my swap cards due! I was really happy with how cute my card turned out.

I used Laughter and Merriment from Hero Arts and some Meadow Notecards from Memory Box.  The ribbon is some of that cool adhesive backed ribbon from DCWV.  And the stars......I drew them freehand and did shrinky dink! I loved doing that! 

I thought our swap cards were exceptional this time! Check them out in the side bar!

Hope you all had a swell Thanksgiving! We did.  It was  quick trip to Sebastopol where my in-laws live.  We took two cars because both of my teenagers had to work the day after Thanksgiving (Lauren at Old Navy and Erik at the Peach Pit) so we came home late Thanksgiving night.  Check the side bar for photos! Erik made green bean casserole (he's learning to cook in a teen survival class in high school) and I made my famous Lemon Cake.  Has anyone else made it? I'd love to hear your comments.

For those of you who are here for Stampin' Treasures news here ya go!

Hero Arts 2008!

Be sure to order your Hero Arts 2008 catalog now so that you'll have it before Christmas! We ordered a certain amount to arrive here December 15 and we still have some left! Be sure to get on the list! You'll love it! 

Also check out some of the stamps that will released mid-December, along with some great sample cards! The travel agent in me loves the Travel Journal ClearDesign set!

Restocked:

• Hero Arts ClearDesign Monogram Letters and Numbers. Hero Arts is starting to sell out of these so what you see on my site is all I have left! Grab 'em now before they're gone forever!   

Sale: (You're gonna love this!)

• All Savvy stamps, notecards and paper flowers are 25% off!  We're closing out our Savvy line so we have room in our warehouse for other new goodies!

• Hero Arts Super Sale - we're overstocked on a bunch of Hero Arts stamps.  Check out the deals - 25 to 75% off!

New goodies:

• Uniball pens now in gold and silver! You love your white Uniball pen! You'll love your silver and gold pens too!

• Stickles - need I say more? I love my Stickles and always have a bottle nearby!

• Memory Box 6x6 cardstock and notecards/envelope sets. Everyone loves Memory Box papers and stamps! Here's your chance to get their cardstock! Check out their delightful Christmas and holiday cardstocks!

• Watercolor paper and watercolor postcards

• New gel pens in fun metallic colors

• The Score-it Mini - I love how quickly I can score a bunch of cards with my Score-it! And it's portable! Take it with you anywhere!

As a reward for reading this very, very long email......here's my Blog Candy offering!

• I have found a very much in demand, discontinued Hero Arts stamp that I'm willing to give to one of my readers! All you have to do is this...... add a comment to my blog and tell me what your favorite stamp line is (Hero Arts, Lockhart, Memory Box, etc.) and we'll do a random drawing on December 12 for ...............are you ready?????????????

A Haiku Bunny stamp from Hero Arts! It's unused, in pristine condition and ready to ship! I'll even ship it internationally, if you're the winner! But you gotta make a comment, okay?

Oh, BTW, I haven't heard from the winner of our last Blog Candy! Edie, are you out there? Email me so I can send you your cards!

Happy Holidays!