The Art of Chinese Dumplings!

The ART of Chinese Dumplings!

Our Chinese family treated us to a demonstration of how to make Chinese dumplings extraordinaire!

Preparing to start

Choosing oils and flavors and tools.

                                                      Only the finest ingredients for the filling!

Ready to start!

Washing the leaves.

Chopping and preparing filling ingredients for mixing.

Teamwork!

Filling.  Molding and Shaping

Ready for boiling!

Beautifully lined up like bonnets on a millinery shelf.  Thank you so much for a delicious taste of China!

Visions of Sugar Plums...

 Two tables set in anticipation of a wonderful time of visiting with family and friends

 Turkey and Dressing, cranberries and lemon tarts were on the menu.

 Everyone arrived safe and happy.  Prayers of thanksgiving were offered above. 

A delicious meal was served.

Wise men came from the east.

And love was shared.

Gifts, hugs, thanks you's, good conversation and fun times were exchanged! And a good time was had by all!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Kiwi is a Pretty Bird!

A little different post today.  Hello, Please meet Kiwi our pet cockatiel.  Kiwi is a friendly bird who likes to talk, and play games. Kiwi also wears a bird diaper (orange) otherwise known as a flight suit. 

This perky little cockatiel stamp reminded me of Kiwi.  I created this cardfront several years ago with an unmounted rubber stamp.  I do not know the manufacturer's name to give them credit.  However, the palm frond is from Stampscapes.

  Kiwi loves his owners and when they aren't around, he enjoys sitting on something that they own!

 Kiwi loves to play games.  His favorite game is pick up.  He finds a little box and claims it as his toy. 

 Then he nudges and slides it off of the table so that his human friend can fetch it for him.  

 He has us very well trained!

Cute Gift Bag Topper!

My friend and I made this cute gift bag topper for her daughter's birthday!  The purple base is12 x 12 cardstock folded in half with a small rectangle cut out with a craft knife to make room for the handles then punched with a Martha Stewart floral vine deep edge punch.   The braid is punched with a Martha Stewart punch called linked trim.  It is laced with a strip of purple carstock.  The beautiful paper pattern is TPC Studio Spring Stained Glass.  The paper has a beautiful shimmer to it.  The flower and tag are die cut with Spellbinders dies. The tag is labels 3 and the flower is a custom die by Heartfelt Creations called Posey Patch Die.  This set also has custom stamps to match at Heartfelt Creations.The stamp used on the tag is also from TPC Studio and is called Coffee Cafe. It is embossed in brown on glossy green cardstock cut with Nestabilities label 3.  The topper is then placed over a kraft gift bag after the gift has been placed in it.  It not only is beautiful packaging, but also serves to close the top of the bag and prevent peaking in the tissue paper!!  Happy Birthday Lauren!

More AMAC Box Storage for Scrapbook and Card Embellishments

 Amac boxes make great storage for embellishments.    

BEFORE

You can see what you  have, arrange it by color and stack them.  However, as they accumulated, they seemed a little crowded and cluttered and it was still hard to move them around to find the embellishment that I was looking for. I was still challenged to see what was on the shelf as I had so many little containers all in the way of each other. 

 They held a nice variety of embellishments.

I decided to use a little velcro and make use of the unused space on the shelf.

AFTER:  That's Better!