Cozy Christmas Cross Stitch

I finished one of my small Christmas cross stitch projects, Cozy Christmas Wishes. I tend to give away all my cross stitches as gifts and don't have any to bring out during the holidays. So, this year I am working on several little Christmas projects to decorate my home for the holidays. I'm thinking about framing this is in dark red frame. I haven't decided if I should go out and buy a frame or paint one of the many miscellaneous frames I have stashed in my craft room. I was hoping to find a "country washed out" wooden frame for this. I'll post a new photo of this cross stitch once it gets framed.

Hubby's Christmas Cross Stitch Gift

It's been long enough for my loving hubby to have misplaced this blog's link ... so, I feel quite comfortable showing you all the Christmas gift I'm working on for him.

I started out with one pattern and then modified it a bit (something I seem to do a lot these days). I decided not to add the "USA" in red, white, and blue at the bottom. I wanted to make it a bit more personal for my husband. Upon return from Dessert Storm, he was assigned to the HMX-1, the designation for the Presidential Helicopter Squadron. So, in place of the "USA" at the bottom, I decided to add a helicopter (still work in progress). I'm also going to add 2 gold stars at the top -- one to the left of "USMC" and then one to the right. I will post the completed project soon.

Below are some photos of this cross stitch:

A closer look:

Halloween Cards

Well, I finally made myself sit down last night to make some Halloween cards for the kids (Blake, Brooke, Brianna, and Braylee). I love to stamp, but find so little time to do all my crafting!!! Where does the time go?

For the outside of this card, I used Martha Stewart's "batty" punch for the bottom of the card and I found this awesome package of Halloween cardstock at Michaels.

For the inside, I used Martha Stewart's Halloween Alphabets to spell out each child's name, as well as Michael's $1 "happy HALLOWEEN" stamp. Since I found the cardstock to be a bit busy on the outside, I decided to glue the punched out bats inside, which I think goes quite well with the blood dripping alphabets.

I hope the kids like this year's cards!!! If you missed last year's cards, scroll down (a bit) and you'll run into a photo of them.

My Cross Stitching Projects

I created this cross stitch by taking several pieces of different patterns to come up with this unique design. I still feel like it's missing something and am in the midst of coming up with a saying to stitch in cursive under this design.

A closer look ...

Here's another cross stitch project that I'm in the finishing stage of (I need to take a better picture of this so that the snowflakes under "January" can be seen better) ...

I'm also working on a Christmas gift cross stitch for my darling hubby, which unfortunately I cannot post at this time (he pops in every now and then to leave me messages!). It's almost done and then I move on to my next cross stitch Christmas project for my staff at work.

Speaking of my staff ... they surprised me with this beautiful bouquet of flowers for "Boss's Day."

It's been a while ...

I know, I know ... it's been a while (ok, quite a while) that I've posted here. So much has been going on I really don't even know where to start ... so I won't for now (boring stuff, really!). What I do want to do is show you all my lastest cards I made this past weekend. Valaree's (my brother's girlfriend) beautiful daughters are celebrating their birthdays this month. I'm so sad that I don't have them closer to me to be able to celebrate in person with the whole family. However, I do send them my love and birthday wishes ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIANNA AND BRAYLEE!!!!

I made the card below for Ms. Brianna:

Below is the card I made for Ms. Braylee:

I love Halloween (who doesn't, right?)!! Every Halloween, I take advantage of this holiday to show my boss how I really feel about him (in fun, mind you!). Below is a picture of this year's poster I made and hung up in my office. I thought he enjoyed last year's but he was totally speechless this year and truly enjoyed what I came up with. I submitted this photo to this year's Photo Contest at work.

Below is last year's ...

I promise to get back into posting to keep in touch with all of you, my loves ones!

Hugs and kisses to all, Pammy

Pumpkin Cake

Well, it's that time of year when I truly enjoy cooking and baking with pumpkin! Below is one of my favorite recipes for my Pumpkin Cake that I made over the weekend. Cinnamon and spice add a treasure of goodness to this harvest treat!!! Enjoy :o)













Pumpkin Cake

Cake:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup oil
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
4 eggs
1 cup of raisins
1 cup of walnuts, chopped

Frosting:

2 cups powder sugar
1/3 cup margarine or butter, softened
1 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Handful of chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 15x10-inch pan. In large bowl, blend all cake ingredients (except the raisins and walnuts) at low speed until moistened. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Add raisins and walnuts and gently fold into cake batter. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. In small bowl, combine frosting ingredients; beat until smooth. Spread over cooled cake. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts. Refrigerate leftover.

More cards

As I was going through my pictures of cards that I made, I found these two that I truly enjoyed making.

The card below is the Christmas card I made last year. I used Stampin Up's "Sassy & Seasonal" stamp set. It's such a diva card!!!


The card below is one that I made for my friend Margaret's birthday. Take a close look at the purse. Margaret's favorite purse is Dooney & Burke!!! I used Stampin Up's "Totally Cool" stamp set for this card.

September 2007 - Office Swap

Sorry it's been so long that I've blogged. I'm finally back to work after 6 long weeks of recuperating after my surgery. I am so glad to be back at work with my lovely staff. The first week back, we scheduled a card making session during our lunch break, at which point we decided to do another swap. Below is a picture of the card I made for the swap.

Caribbean Cruise, 2007

Marty and I had the pleasure of cruising with our dearest friends, Tom, Pam, and Peter in the Caribbean this past February. We were fortunate to meet new friends on this cruise, Dan and Laura from Jersey, as well as Chad and Karen from Valley Forge, PA. Can I say ... FUN! We had such a blast enjoying the sun, food, drinks, dancing, musicals, drinks (can we say "Mojitooooos!!"), laughing, sightseeing, meeting new friends, drinking (only the best of wines), and just letting loose and relaxing. It was so enjoyable, that we have already booked another Alaskan cruise with our cruising buddies coming up in August 2008. Here are a few photos of our fun-filled Caribbean cruise.

Our cruise liner, Celebrity's' "Millennium."

Marty and I sunning by the pool on the Promenade Deck.

Me, tendering out to one of our outings.

Me posing from one of the forts in San Juan.

A scenic view of San Juan.

A gorgeous view of the waters of San Juan.

A beautiful view of the walls surrounding old San Juan.

A lookout over the beautiful waters of San Juan.

Of course, as you all know, I always find my Starbucks ...

no matter where I go!!!

Marty and Tom, playing with their cannons!

Tom, enjoying this photo shoot!

Downtown Nassau.

Marty posing with his new girlfriend!

Me getting a little frisky with my new friend (and he likes it -- thumbs up!).

A lighthouse sitting across from a restaurant's outside dining deck in Nassau.

America's Cup Racing yacht passing through as we were dinning at a restaurant's deck in Nassau.

Marty (the Marine) enjoying target shooting in the Dominican Republic.

Me learning the target shooting game.

Tom reloading to continue his target shooting.

Dan (Army man) taking his target shooting very serious.

Laura, the Jersey Gal, learning the target shooting game, as well.

Marty posing with the 1907 bottle of Champagne found on the Olympic (the Titanic's sister ship) in the Baltic sea.

Peter posing with a 1954 Petrus wine valued at $7,000.00.

Peter posing with one of his favorite bottles of wine.

Ding, ding, ding ... time for this princess to go "dancing" ... yup, had a bit too many glasses of wine with the devine dinner in the Wine Room.