Today’s sweet butterfly card is just what I needed to cling to what’s left of my summer.  Back to school/work for me in just over a week!

I get all giddy and girly when I play with vintage book paper things, like these butterflies.  I just adore them!  I did the centres with some bright and cheerful brads, and added some shine to their trails with a glittery gel pen.

This card’s from the sketch below – over at Unscripted Sketches.  Simple and pretty.  Thanks, ladies!

I played with another sewing project.  Baby’s first chequebook cover – modified from Prudent Baby.  I am oh-so-proud!

First off, I heart this fabric! 

So it’s important to note that my seams aren’t perfect.  I have a lot to learn, and have a hard time practicing.  This is my practice. 

In my effort to find a chequebook pattern, I quickly found that most were not the right size for my apparently “Canadian” chequebook.  It opens from the narrow left side, not from the top, and is pretty long (7 inches.. No snickers, please).

My front and lining pieces were both 7.5” x 7.5” and the pockets were 3.5” x 7.5”.  Some modification still needed ;-)  I’ll let you know!  I might even do a tutorial :o  (appropriate oohs and ahhs are welcome).

OK, I’m not going to point out all the imperfections ;-)  I’ll just try to make a better one for next time.  And hey, maybe I’ll add a fun little flower to it!

Check it out.. one of the pockets is a home for note paper, so I can make lists on the go!

 

Andrew is friends with a good friend of mine, so he had played at her wedding, even though it was an hour drive to the absolute middle of nowhere on a logging road paved of giant rocks.  What a nice guy!

His music’s awesome.  You should check out the latest music video, and request this song repeatedly on the radio!  I’m glad we’d purchased his CD at that wedding last year, so we were totally able to rock out ;-)

What a fun date!  Two great things put together – food and music.

To see others’ dates, head on over to the Project 52 section of Simply Modern Mom.

What could be more appropriate as an 80’s party favour than some candy that was around back then? NERDS! 

This was super easy to do.  I dressed the boxes up with a strip of scrapbook paper.  Next, I punched the 2 label shapes (Stampin’ Up!) out of bright cardstock and used some pop dots for dimension.  And of course, the “thank you” stamp (Stampendous).

I sliced them up, sprinkled on the secret ingredient (some amazing truffle salt I got in Seattle), added torn basil and mozzarella, and drizzled on some balsamic vinegar.

Oh man.. If I ever run out of that truffle salt, I’m not sure what I’ll do.  Thank goodness it can be purchased online!  And whatever will I do when I no longer have fresh basil on my deck?

Tomatoes with Mozzarella, Basil, and truffle

• 1/5 cups sliced tomatoes (any kind. locally grown are of course best)
• a pinch of 10% black truffle salt
• 1 oz mozzarella cheese, broken up
• a handful of basil, torn
• 1.5 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

Slice the tomatoes and lay them on your plate.
Sprinkle over the truffle salt
Throw on the basil leaves and the cheese
Drizzle the vinegar across everything
Let it melt in your mouth

Our trip in picture form, after the jump!  (keep in mind that my picture-taking skills are pretty poor, plus we had limited time and bad lighting!

When you’re done, check out others’ dates. Head on over to the Project 52 section of Simply Modern Mom.

Our Gourmet Food Tour was amazing.  I highly recommend doing one if you visit Seattle.  Check out Savour Seattle. 

The first stop was at Andaluca where we were served these duck cakes and…

Sangria – their own mulled spice version.  So very tasty.

We had the best pizza ever at Serious Pie

I feel in love with truffles at the sweetest little shop -  La Buona Tavola .  The owner was delightful and seemed to love what she does. I bought myself some black truffle oil and salt.  YUM.

We gawked at and tried not to touch the gum wall…

Nathan commented on how many places were called “Pike” something.  ‘Tis true. We tried some beer at Pike Brewing Company

Their Beer:

A cheese pairing.. not my favourite.. but I don’t do well with some strong cheeses.

We stopped at The Four Seasons restaurant – Art, and had their slider burger and a dry soda drink.  Different.. and the slider was pretty boring in my opinion.

There was also some delicious gelato and a risotto/wine stop.

We had dinner at the Space Needle Restaurant.  I’m glad we went up there, but the meal was nothing to write home about.  My fish was pretty tasty, but Nathan’s steak was a big plate of the blahs.

A lovely view, of course…

On our last day we popped in to see the architectural beauty that is their public library.  It’s pretty impressive!  Here’s a picture looking down from the 10th floor.

And me up at the top…

Go visit Seattle.  It’s a wonderful city with something for everyone.  When you’re done, come visit Victoria!

A card? Say what? I have a paper crafting blog and I actually made a card?!? It was bound to happen at some point ;-)

I was given the sweetest clear set of cupcakes for my birthday, and today’s the first time I put them to use.  They’ve even been sitting on my desk this whole time.  I thought I’d add glitter, because it’s a cupcake.. and a birthday card.. and both just need glitter.  I also used one of my favourite techniques – paper piecing.

This card’s for this week’s sketch (#103) over at Clean and Simple Stamping (actually sketch shown below).  They’re the first blog I wanted to check when I was feeling like I needed a challenge and some inspiration.

Materials:

Cardstock: Amuse shimmer paper, and Basil Basics
Stamps: Stampendous cupcakes, and Hero Arts polka dots
Accessories: Glitter glue and some chunky clear glitter I had.  The ribbon’s from Amuse.  Oh, and some lovely vintage book paper :-)

The sketch:

This week’s date is an exceptional one.  We decided somewhat on a whim to celebrate our one year anniversary by going to Seattle for a few days.  What a fun city!  The last time we were here, we had pretty much no money.  We stayed in a scary, dirty hostel (ok, it wasn’t that bad), wandered around town eating on the cheap.  We wanted to have a second go at it and enjoy more of the city.. namely the amazing cuisine.

My view from my ferry seat – a very sleepy and computery Nathan

We headed out Monday morning without a pretty important item.. Nathan’s passport.  I’m pretty sure we’ve never managed to go anywhere without some kind of stress caused by that boy.  Good thing I left us plenty of time and thought of checking that he had his passport before we got to the ferry.

Finally on board the Victoria Clipper, we zoomed across the ocean.  This boat is seriously handy to have, cutting out many hours of travel if we had driven.  Now if only they had free Wi Fi!

I made my first leap of faith and booked our hotel through Hotwire to get a deal.  We ended up with a pretty nice room at the Sheraton.  I’m definitely a Hotwire convert now, and it’s kind of fun having the heart attack excitement of not knowing where you’re booking before you pay.

Night 1: Up the Space Needle to our backup plan for dinner.  We chose a yummy sounding Italian restaurant, which turned out amazing.  Such good food, wine, and a great waiter.  He got us both free desserts.. Now if only my tummy didn’t feel explodey.

The rest of our stay here is pretty booked up. We still need to get up the space needle, go on a gourmet food tour, and a Boeing tour – you should have seen how giddy Nathan got when I mentioned this as a possibility! To compensate, he’s going to enjoy some quality time with me wandering the Pike Place Market ;-)  We must love each other.

To see others’ dates, head on over to the Project 52 section of Simply Modern Mom.

I’m pretty excited, I have to admit.  I got my sewing machine a good month ago and haven’t done much other than a few stitches here and there, plus some hemming. I’ve had my eye on so many projects, but just haven’t gotten up the guts to try anything.  Until now.  Check it out!

It’s a real something, and it actually looks pretty cute!  What is it, you ask?  A tissue holder.  It fits those little travel packs of tissue oh-so perfectly.. and you know me, constantly needing tissues for my allergies, so this little lovely specimen now lives happily in my purse. 

I have to thank A Lemon Squeezy Home for her amazing tutorial for tissue pouches.   She really made it super easy.  All I had to do was go out and buy some ribbon and some heavyweight fusible interfacing.  I’m just so surprised at how easy everything was.  I don’t recommend using the type of ribbon I had though.  It wanted to bend like a willow branch. Not so fun.

Look, this baby’s even lined!

Too bad you don’t see the lining.. I guess it’s my little secret. Now I can’t wait to go and make 10 more of these! I’m like a proud little mommy.

Today’s Nathan’s and my one year wedding anniversary.  What does this mean?  Paper, apparently.  So maybe a hand-made card fits the bill ;-)  Or maybe a paper box filled with punched out hearts?  I’m not so sure he’ll go for that unless there’s candy mixed in.

To celebrate, we decided to use a gift certificate Nathan had for a nearby restaurant.  Only problem is that I got him to make the reservation for the wrong restaurant.  Oops. I guess this means a future delicious dinner!

All in all, a great evening with good food, good wine, and good company ;-)  And now I’m off with my family on the Sunshine Coast for the week.  Another super special anniversary date extravaganza coming next week!

To see others’ dates, head on over to the Project 52 section of Simply Modern Mom.