Cover Reveal!! Forever By Design!

So here it is!! Finally, the cover of Forever by Design:) Worth the wait, don't you think!?!

Here is a little something to wet your appetite:)

They met by chance, and fell in love. But is it meant to be forever?

Callie and Justin are living their fairytale. They are so close to having the family they've always wanted when suddenly Callie finds herself fighting the insecurities that she’s been feeling all of her life. This time, the results could be deadly. Can Justin help heal her pain or will the stress drive them apart? Jay and Jane are trying to plan their future as they face the challenge of Tyler’s fight for the child he’s never known. Jolene becomes the pawn in a dangerous game until a tragic twist of fate forces Jane to finally confront the man she once loved.

Their fates are set, their lives intertwined and their happiness in jeopardy. Can they all finally find their happily ever after?

There's only one way to find out:) I know I plan to pick it up:)

Stay tuned! I am sure I'll be back with more on release day! Find out more about 

Elizabeth James

TAWS Blog Hop: Delicate Doilies

It's time for a new release blog hop from The Alley Way Stamps!!  If you started with me, head back to the TAWS blog so you can see all the fun previews and possibly win free stamps!  I so love this time of the month - there are three regular size sets and a mini that's free with a $40 purchase and they couldn't be more different from each other

Yesterday I gave you a sneak peek of a set called Bird Brain.  I put two of the wide-eyed, cute little birds on a branch.  So today I decided to go with the more elegant set - delicate doilies!  This card showcases the largest doily in the set.

The colors for this card are from Dynamic Duos.

Then I felt bad because there were so many other cute little doilies that I hadn't shown you - plus I hadn't even used a sentiment.  So I put together this card too.  Isn't it wonderful how just a few pretty doilies makes for a very easy, yet very elegant card?!

For this card, I used the CAS on Sunday sketch.

Next on the hop is Melissa!

There's always great give-aways at release time...here's the official stuff from The Alley Way Stamps:

TAWS Blog Hop!! Win all 3 sets!

One person will win ALL 3 NEW SETS!!  YEP!!

So if you want to be that person....

all you have to do is comment on the hop!

Here are the ways you can win.

You can pick and choose which ones you want to do...

but the more you comment, the more chances you have to win.

1. Comment on The Alley Way Stamps blog

2. Comment on the design team girls blog as you hop along

3. Post about it on Facebook or your blog

4. Like us on Facebook

(leave a separate comment for each that you do)

You have until March 30th at 9:00 PM TAWS time to leave them

This is a fun mini set that is yours FREE when you spent $40.00

or more during the month of MAY!!  Nothing to do but shop and

this little guy will be added to your package.

Our amazing DT lead Arielle really want a piggy bank and some coins,

I am so glad she did.  It inspired this cutie.

What do you think?

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Delicate Doilies
• Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake and Blushing Bride
• Ink: Stampin' Up Calypso Coral and Blushing Bride
• Accessories: jillibean Wood Hello Flags, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Stampin' Up twine, May Arts twine, misc gems colored with Copics

Sick kids and sewing progress or lack thereof

This is what it looks like in my sewing room today...GAH!
Seriously keeping it real...

Last Thursday the little man and I had a great day filled with turtles, tadpoles and salamanders!  He was great until the last hour or so he was not himself and then it happened...right before dinner...in the kitchen trashcan...GAH! Poor guy caught something more than cute pond creatures :o(

This was the last good shot and fun of the day!

It really puts a damper on things with sick ones in the house especially when then it travels to the other kids in the house...she was struck HARD!  The poor dear!

So since last Thursday I have been the keeper of the sickies...hoping they will be better tomorrow since I have so much to do and now not so much time left to do it all in!

I was able to start these on Sunday

Today I will be back and forth between my little loves and this room to try to take care of it all...we'll see how that works out ;o)

A Bird Brain Anniversary

Hallelujah!  I turned in my final Marketing paper last night.  This has been a very, very tough class.  It seemed no matter how hard I worked, the professor did not quite like what I did.  Sadly, new classes start right away today.  But I have already decided that since the marketing class almost destroyed my desire for a second college degree, I am only taking a half load this time so I can relax a little and find my enthusiasm again (and make cards more than a couple of times a week!)

Thank you to all of you who helped with my marketing survey - it's amazing how many people across the country absolutely agreed on the pros and cons of shopping at Michaels.  And thank you to all of you who have continued to leave comments on my rare posts even though I'm not making it over to your blogs.  I am definitely reading everybody's blogs - it's been my mid-day sanity break - but I just haven't found the time to comment.

I'm so glad that the pressure is off for now - because it's release week at The Alley Way Stamps.  Check out their blog - the last few days have had previews of everything from a Yeti to delicate doilies!

Today is just as fun.  The moment that I got these stamps, I knew what I was going to do.

I've been married for quite awhile.  And at some point in the marriage, with never-ending life changes, unemployment and too much employment, teenage boys behaving like teenage boys and now college courses - you start to realize that you have spent most of the marriage looking just like this...wide-eyed, shell-shocked and more than a little frazzled!


Guess what?  If you head over to The Alley Way Stamps blog - you have a chance to win this set!
Tomorrow is the full blog hop with fun prizes and sneak peeks of all the sets - so be sure to come back.  (Now I have to go decide whether I am in a Yeti mood or a doily mood for my blog hop card...hmmm?)

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Bird Brain (released May 1)
• Paper: Simple Stories Urban Traveler 6x6
• Ink: Memento black and Copics
• Accessories: Maya Road Wood Twigs, L'il Inkers Stitched Mat Rectangles

Cover Reveal! First, I love You...

Wow, So there it is! I promised I would wait until April 29, 2013. I did...Was it worth the wait!?! 

Here is the Blurb...

About the Book:

If Mario Puzo and Jane Austen crossed the time-space continuum and mated, FIRST, I LOVE YOU would be their literary baby.

Imagine being a detective with a mobster for a father, or a mobster with a straight arrow, good cop for a son. This is a relationship that is tricky on its best day. Add in some well-meaning meddling from a mob princess sister, an arrogant DEA agent, and gangsters running a human trafficking ring and you have a recipe for a book that refuses to follow the rules. Told from the perspective and point of view of each the six main characters this is the first novel in a trilogy about love, loyalty, revenge and redemption.

Omaha Detective Tommy Gates has kept his gangster father at arm’s length his whole life. Mickey Downey has spent the better part of the last two decades trying to find ways to get back the son he lost through Witness Protection. Now Tommy has taken an opportunity to work on a Federal Human Trafficking Joint Task Force in Chicago where his father lives. Tommy’s sister Kiki and his mother Mary see this as an opportunity to build a relationship between the two. Tommy’s new DEA partner James Hoffman sees it as an opportunity to gain leverage over Mickey Downey. Tommy’s other partner, FBI Agent Ginny Sommers wants to keep Tommy’s family as far from the case as possible. When Kiki and James join forces, sparks fly and it sets fire to a maelstrom of unexpected consequences for everyone involved.

One part Godfather, two parts Emma and a dash of Casablanca mixed together, FIRST, I LOVE YOU isn’t a detective novel, a gangster novel, a mystery, a romance or a family saga. It’s a little of all of the above.

FIRST, I LOVE YOU is available in print and digital format at all major eBook retailers.

I don't know about you, but it sounds like a great read to me:) I

can't wait...

Now a little info. on the author...

Author Bio:

Genevieve Dewey is the author of The Downey Trilogy (First, I Love You & Second of All) and the short stories Bird Day Battalion & V-Day Aversion. She is a wife, mother, sister, friend and Anthropologist. She was raised mostly in Nebraska, partly in Arizona. She has a Master’s in Anthropology and worked as an Applied Anthropologist for years (even ran her own research company for a while) before deciding to be a stay at home mom. She loves passionate (rational) debates, reading, and libraries… oh, and Chicago and high-heels and chocolate and target practice and gangster flicks and anything with the FBI in it and run-on sentences. She lives in Nebraska with her three brilliantly diabolical children and one incredibly funny husband.

You can find Gen online at: http://www.genevievedewey.com/

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So there you have it...I was provided with a couple of excerpts also...but this post is kind of long:) perhaps if I am invited to a blog tour I will share those also...I will just say that they were a lot of fun...I will be buying this one!!

So as always...

Happy Birthday

Last week over on the Heidi Swapp blog we were celebrating Heidi's upcoming birthday.  Here is the card I made for her, can't go past yellow and pink. The yellow is from her new Serendipity line...sigh just gorgeous. I added in a Greatest View Flair to complete it!

Lemon Meringue Fool

I made a really delicious Lemon Dream Cake for my Mom's birthday a few weeks ago.  In fact, if lemon is your thing and you like super easy cake recipes, I would highly recommend it. This particular lemon cake called for lemon pie filling, but I was unable to find any so I substituted lemon curd instead.  After making the cake I had a good amount of lemon curd leftover and I had no idea what to do with it. Well, actually that's a little bit of a lie.  Eating the remaining lemon curd by the spoonful crossed my mind several times, but it hardly felt like justice for something so delicious.  So I kept hunting for recipes.  Then I remembered this recipe from Nigella.

When I daydream about desserts I tend to think of cakes, pies, cookies, and brownies.  This is a shame in many ways, but mostly because I always forget how much I love a light, creamy, fruity dessert like this fool.  A fool is also a cinch to make and goes together so quickly.  A little lemon curd mixed with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice then folded into some whipped heavy cream and you're pretty much all set.  Crumble some store-bought cookies into the mix, if you'd like, or eat it as is.  It's a very pretty dessert and can be very elegant if served in a martini or parfait glass. Everyone in my house really enjoyed this one. 

Lemon Meringue Fool

Adapted from Nigella Kitchen

by Nigella Lawson

Serves 2 or 4

2/3 cup good-qualit store-bought lemon curd, plus a little extra to decorate

1-2 teaspoons lemon juice, or limoncello if you have it

1 cup heavy cream

4 small meringue cookies (store-bought is fine)*

lemon zest, to serve

*Note: I couldn't find meringue cookies so I used shortbread cookies instead.

Grate the zest of one lemon, reserving the zest for the garnish.  With the remaining lemon, squeeze one to two teaspoons of lemon juice into a medium-sized bowl.  Add the lemon curd to the lemon juice and stir.  If this mixture feels too thick add a little more lemon juice.  

Pour the heavy cream into another bowl and whisk until just thick.  It should hold to its shape, but not be so thickly whipped that it looks dry; it will thicken more as you fold in the lemon curd.

Drizzle half the lemon curd mixture over the cream and fold in with a rubber spatula, then do the same with the remaining half.  You don't want it all folded in completely, whipped cream rippled with lemon is what you're looking for.

If you have the meringue cookies, go ahead and crumble them with your fingers into the fool, and gently fold most of this into the mix.  Spoon it into 4 small martini glasses (or fill 2 large goblets) and decorate with some lemon zest curls and a drizzle of lemon curd, scraped out of the bottom of the bowl it was mixed in, or spooned out of the jar.  If you have any thin, crisp cookies put them on the table for serving. 

Potluck Week at IHCC (Sharing the recipes of Nigella Lawson, Mark Bittman, Giada De Laurentiis, Jamie Oliver, Tessa Kiros, Rick Bayless, and Yotam Ottolenghi)