Food Lion, Ukrops and Good Foods Grocery.

I live in the country. Away from most means of civilization. The closest supermarket (that's worth going too) is a half hour away. This is a brand-spanking new Food Lion that's been around for about a year. Before that, it was an hour's drive into suburban Richmond, VA for anything that resembled a supermarket. I was skeptical that I'd find anything that I could eat at Food Lion besides homegrown fruits and veggies. I was looking for something fast and microwaveable. I didn't have the time to cook because in my line of work (the EMS kind, that is) you never know if your going to have time to cook a meal before someone needs you to jump into the ambulance and save there ass. So I was looking for "convenience" foods. After spending an hour (yes, an hour!) in the veggie/fruit/organic section, I came away with bagged salad, Newman's Own Ranch Dressing (score, it's Gluten free and not overpriced!), and fresh Strawberries. So to say that I was grumpy (and made everyone grumpy around me) was an understatment. It's not there fault, I'm just going through the steps of grieving (my loss being something I've had a Love/Hate relationship with for the past 30 yrs). So I knew that, even though Salad and fruit are healthy for me, I couldn't live off them alone.

The next day I ventured to Ukrops, a locally owned and operated supermarket in the Richmond area (although it will soon be owned by Harris Teeter). I had about 45 minutes before I need to be at work, so the plan was to get in/out as quick as possible and get my butt to work.

So this is what I found:
Amy's Black Bean Enchilada
Puffins Peanut Butter Cereal
Ener-G Crisp Pretzels (which by far are the BEST gluten free pretzels I've ever tried. Fan-freakin-tastic!!!!!!!!!)
Almond Nut-Thins, Cheddar Cheese Flavor
Lundberg Sea Salt Rice Chips
Miguel's Fully Loaded Tortilla Chips

For lunch that day I had a nice salad topped with Bleu Cheese and Ranch Dressing. (Completely yummy!) followed by a desert of fresh strawberries. I work twelve hour shifts so I also ate dinner at work and enjoyed my Enchilada. Unlike most of the GF food I've tried, it had, first and foremost, taste! Always an important aspect when eating. It also smelled good. Also important in eating since you smell, before you taste. After microwaving it for the allotted time, I took it out and dug in. (Now imagine doing this in front of three people who've been listening to you talk about "your new diet" for the past 10 hours, so essentially, I felt like a lion being watched at the zoo). It was good. Fresh, full of flavor and perfectly cooked. Onions, Zucchini, Black Beans, Rice, Tofu. All rolled up together in a nice burrito, and covered with a nice brown sauce that was just spicy enough. Throughout the day, I snacked on my Ener-G Gluten Free pretzels (as previously stated, by far the BEST gluten free pretzels available and salty!)

First week on the GF diet.

So let me just start by saying that I was diagnosed with Celiac's Sprue around the same time I was told that I was pregnant with my first child. I sortof looked at my doctor, snickered and went on my merry way. I looked it up online and thought "well I guess I'll try to not eat bread." I'm a big bread eater, so this was easier said than done. I did the whole "I'll try not to eat bread thing" for about two weeks and gave up, failing miserably.

Fast forward six (almost seven) years (yes, it took me that long to get it into my stubborn head that this is something I need to DEAL WITH!), I'm thirty years old with two kids, a full-time job, a house, a husband and a rather time consuming hobby. I'm exhausted. I can't sleep, even when I'm exahusted. My hair is falling out in clumps. My stomach hurts. My bones ache. I can barely walk up stairs my knees hurt so much. I have yucky bathrooms experiences (which I won't go into), and I lose a tooth. It's disturbing. I shouldn't be this way. I have a long life ahead of me and I'm essentially poisoning myself with all the gluten rich food I've been eating over the years. So I made a resolution to stop doing it. Stop poisoning myself. Start eating better and healthier. That's the plan. We'll see how it goes. I have a support system in place and I"m going to do it this time.

Hello Kitty Birthday Party

A little background.........my little girl loves Hello Kitty! So much that we've had two hello kitty parties for her and she's only three. We'll probably have another one for her next year...but we'll see when the time comes.
A little autograph book that I made using my bind it all and some zutter covers and paper.
The pages of the autograph book were made with Bazzill paper that I just cut to fit the covers. I Then used my Tombow Aqua Mono Adhesive to adhere some glittery paper to the covers. For those of you who have never used the Bind-it-All before, it's best to put the paper on the covers BEFORE punching the holes. So after punching all my holes, I slipped the binding in and tightened.

This was made using (IMHO) the best scrapbooking machine in the WORLD! The Cricut Expression. I've very proud of my craftyness for this little project. This idea stemmed from a LO that I did last year for my son's book. I used two Cricut Carts for this one, Cuttin' Up (the background feature) and the Hello Kitty Font cart. I then used various flowers (from my humongous flower collection) to decorate. Rhinestones, Stickles and ribbon finished this project up! The paper is Bazzill...

The first was made using the Hello Kitty Font cart, it's the example that's made in the book. I put toothpicks on the back and then stuck them into the cupcakes.

Stuff done at the Memories Galore VIP party.

Projects done at Memories Galore VIP Party.
This was a totally cool layout. Done with Leave it to Weave and a punch called a "Tisket a Tasket", It was nifty. The cs is Bazzill.

This was made using flower soft. We stamped the image and then glued one color, and then the other. It's cool. I got some and can't wait to use it.

A mini photo album that we made using Dots paper, the Crop a dile and some adhesive.

This is a cool flower made using two sheets of card stock glued together, and then cut out with the Sizzix. The middle is glue and beads and on the back is a pin so that you can wear it on clothing. Coolio!

This was a cute gift bag that was made using a QuikCut die, a gift bag and the Xyron 150.

This was made using Alcohol inks and really shiny paper. It was fun playing with Alcohol inks as I found out that I was using them incorrectly. I can't wait to play with them again now that I have the right supplies!!

Disney Autograph Book

This is a Disney Autograph book made using the Cricut, various cricut carts, the Bind it All and Stickles. In addition to various other products. It was part of a swap, and many talented people contributed to make this a wonderful book that I can't wait to use at Disney.

SU Demonstrators Card Swap January and February

I signed up for an SU Demo Card swap using items that are only sold by SU!

There is no theme. The only rules are that all items used must be current SU!

The first card I made was Valentine's Themed.

Stamps used: All Holidays, Baroque Borders

Ink: Purely Pom, Versamark

Paper: Purely Pom, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Valentine's DSP

Accessories: Pink Pirouette Ribbon, Circle Punch, Corner Rounder, Triple Heart Punch, Silver EP, Heat Tool

February's card! Just in time for St. Patty's.

Stamps: Pinch Proof

Paper: Old Olive CS. Old Olive DSP, Certainly Celery

Ink: Old Olive, Really Rust

Accessories: Scallop Circle Punch, Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Earth Elements Buttons, Popdots.

I'm waiting for my Easter Stamps to start on March's.

Two new Abbi pages

This is yet another Abbi page. I had so much fun working on her pages!! This page was made with Stampin Up' products. I think that it turned out nicely.

Abbi's new pages: This is a picture of her from about 3 months old. I love this Black and White picture of my baby girl. The background paper is Bazzill Basic Black and the border is Bazzill Black Tie. I used a double slide punch to weave the ribbon through. The picture is also matted in Black Tie. The quote is from DCWV love booklet. I then used a white gel pen to do a little journaling. I Love this Simple page that was the brain child of Shannon from work. She suggested the scheme and it came together very nicely!

Abbi's new page. This is the newest pages that I've made for my little girls book. She's 2 1/2 so I'm a little far behind as this is her hospital picture. The background paper is Heidi Swap or Heidi Grace, I can't really remember. The picture is matted in Bazzill purple paper (you probably can't see that part) and then framed with glittery paper that I bought from M's. The border is Bazzill and Bazzill bling. The butterflies were cut out with a CM Spring Cutter. The font is "A" Storybook from Cricut, and the "bbigail" is Calligraphy from Cricut. They were outlined in a White gel pen.

Supplies: HeidiSwap from Michaels. Bazzill and Bazzill paper, Calligraphy and Storybook Cricut carts, White gel pen, Glitter paper from Michaels, CM Spring Cutter.