Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  I hope your year is off to a great start and your year brings good health and happy experiences.  Be safe.

Nuts

I tried a new recipe for glazed nuts to give as Christmas gifts.  Found the recipe online and you'll have to take my word for it--they were quite delicious.  I decided to put them back in the original can for presentation but wanted to spruce it up a bit.  I chose a die cut for the Merry Christmas text and added it to a red cardstock circle with some punched snowflakes.  The label is printed on my computer and I added some die cut pine and dimensional paint berries.  

More Signage

 Because I don't do much of the driving on road trips and I'm unable to do much while riding, that leaves watching the scenery and reading signs.  Between CO and OR there are a number of signs that put the imagination into gear.  I think we all want some bliss in our lives and here's the route to finding it when in UT.

On the other hand, this second sign conjures up some bad times for what may have been a large number of people.  It's on the top of the Blue Mountains south of Pendleton OR and it makes me think of a lot of suffering.  Hopefully in the end things worked out well for these people and they found a little of their own bliss.

I Wonder

I'm back to talking about boxes.  While this box from the liquor store has an interesting design, I'm wondering what chickens have to do with wine.  Sheep or cows I would understand because wine with cheese is a classic combination and one I grew up with.  But who has heard of wine and eggs? or chicken salad? or drumsticks?  I'll just have to wonder.  It will give me something to think about while I'm packing.

Graduation Time

I procrastinated a bit on this one but there was also the question of parking near the university.  I had decided to give the high school graduate a gift card from the bookstore so she could select what she wanted rather than me deciding for her.  She was coming for registration anyway.  So I arranged by phone for the gift card (the online service didn't work for some reason) and they said the cashier's would know it was purchased.  I needed some sort of presentation and came up with the idea of this origami box.  It started with an 8.5 inch square of paper which turned out to be just right for the little explanation I typed, rolled and secured with ribbon.  I added washi tape as ribbon, thinking it would make opening the box simpler.  The flower was cut electronically as was the leaf but I added a bit of dimension using a stylus.  I stamped the text but, shucks, had to cut that by hand.  I tucked it under the flower and added a few little pearls to match the pearl in the center of the flower.

A Few Minutes of Fame

 My husband and I were getting ready to run a few errands when I looked out our front door and saw the car for the local nbc new parked in front of the house.  Reporter Taylor Temby knocked on our door and asked if she could talk to us regarding our solar panels.  (They are quite obvious on our roof so she was certain we had some.)  We invited her into our home and a conversation turned into an interview on our back porch.  I'm not the solar expert in the family so the story only shows John but there are shots of our equipment and the house.  We were actually surprised that she included so much of what John said and were impressed at how well she put it together in such a short period of time.  If you would like to see John and Taylor in action, here's a link:

http://www.nbc11news.com/home/headlines/Energy-providers-offer-different-incentives-for-solar-201541841.html