02.14.09
Posted in Art Journal, Main, Mind Wanderings, Sharing the Handmade Love at 11:35 pm by carrie
Ain’t that the truth :)
And a lovely “steamy” Valentine’s day story!
Cary Starbucks brews up ‘burning’ love
Starbucks wedding
Posted: Today at 2:30 p.m.
Wral news
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Cary, N.C. — It was love at first scald when a woman spilled hot coffee on a man at a Starbucks restaurant in Cary. One Valentine’s Day later, the accident-prone customers tied the knot in the same store.
Laura Strain came to the Starbucks, at 1217 Kildaire Farm Road, in March 2008 to treat herself to her first cup of coffee from the chain. Instead, she ended up spilling the coffee on a stranger, Allan Tortorice.
“He’s wearing my coffee, and I’m having a fit, because I was very concerned that hurt somebody, first of all,” Strain said. “He was all dressed up, and it (coffee) was everywhere. His jacket was open on his shirt, and he was sort of holding it so it didn’t burn him.”
The accidental encounter, though, started a romance between the two.
Strain gave her phone number to Tortorice, so he could contact her about dry cleaning and medical bills. Instead, Tortorice asked her out to dinner, and the romance steamed up from there.
“It’s what they call burning love,” Strain said.
On Feb. 14, a pastor married Strain and Tortorice at the same Starbucks store.
The bride wore a knee-length, white and pink dress and a hot pink shawl – for Valentine’s Day.
About 25 guests attended. Meanwhile, the store stayed open, customers ordered double mocha lattes, and the scent of brewing Colombian coffee filled the air.
That was a lot of puns… we do the drive-thru at that Starbucks all the time. Love it! Sweet story, too. In order to completely exhaust all puns, they should have changed his name to Joe.
Happy Heart Day! We celebrated with ice cream sundaes :)
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02.13.09
Posted in Art Journal, Main, Sharing the Handmade Love at 12:22 pm by carrie
And the *new* thing I’m doing… for every new art journal page I’m painting a tote bag to match :) This one is up in my etsy store for sale!
I’ll also take requests :)
Happy friday the 13th! hehe!
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01.02.09
Posted in Main, Sharing the Handmade Love at 4:58 pm by carrie
For Christmas, a few friends and family members got portraits of their pups!
Mr. Lucky
Flash
Tony
Brauzer
Sparkle Farkle aka Barkley
Bisky Biscuit
These were all done with acrylic on canvas… and with lots of love :)
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11.29.08
Posted in Main, Sharing the Handmade Love at 4:55 am by carrie
As a gift for our friends Mike and Rachel, who are getting married this weekend, I painted 20 bags with green flowers to match their invitation.
I love these canvas tote bags. There is a pocket on the side for a water bottle and they are deep and sturdy with a nice gusset. M+R are going to fill them with stuff for their guests who are attending their destination beach wedding in Mexico.
I’ll be painting more of these with different designs and sticking them on the website, soon. If you would like to purchase a plain bag for $7.50 + shipping, please let me know! I have 70 of them :)
Congrats to M+R, coming home a mister and missus. Yay! :)
Update…
A few pictures from their wedding…
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Posted in Main, Sharing the Handmade Love at 4:32 am by carrie
I have never attempted a Thanksgiving meal from start to finish. I somehow decided I was going to give it a try this year. With the help of the Barefoot Contessa, I think I sort of pulled it off :)
Tuesday Evening…
Pumpkin pie cheesecake with a gingersnap crust… cover and put in fridge (This is just the crust… I was in a zombie-like state when I finished it). Also, made cranberry sauce using orange juice and orange zest. I had no idea cranberry sauce was 90% sugar. Wow.
Wednesday Morning…
Inventory potatoes. Boil most of them and whip them up in the kitchenaid a la Martha and Snoop. I added 1 full stick of butter, 1/3 block of cream cheese, 2 whole roasted garlic, not cloves, the whole garlic (what’s the plural of garlic? I looked it up, it’s garlics!), a bit of milk and S+P. Put in fridge.
Chop up these herbs… add olive oil, salt and pepper and put it all over the turkey… below the skin and over the skin. I got a turkey breast with the skin on it. It was bigger than a breast… it could have been an ostrich… the butcher was really nice. I trust too much.
Prepare stuffing with apples, onions, butter, celery, S+P, Bread etc… Don’t add the liquid until tomorrow.
Bake yams… pull of skins. Put in fridge.
Make gravy. Great tip from Ina… keep the drippings from a roasted chicken frozen, make the gravy using that and put it in the fridge… all done the night before. Totally easy.
Thursday Schedule…
Anticipated Eating Time (AET): 6:00 pm
3:15 – Turkey into 325 degree oven for just under 2 hours
3:30 – Make table
4:00 – Take everything out of fridge so you know it is there
4:30 – Prepare yams by mashing, adding butter, sugar, cinnamon, egg & mini-mallows
4:45 – cut up veggies for salad, arrange in a nice plate and back into fridge. Also, dressing into little bowls
5:00 – Wash and prepare asparagus for roasting. Cover with olive oil, S+P. Put in pan or dish that can fit into your toaster oven (I love having this little oven, it’s so handy)
5:15 – Turkey out, check that it’s 165 degrees using button thermometer, cover with foil
5:16 – Turn up oven to 350
5:20 – Yams into oven. They will cook for 40 minutes
5:25 – Add 1 cup of chicken/vegetable stock or 1 egg and possibly some dried cranberries into the stuffing and mix it up.
5:26 – Preheat a toaster oven to 400 degrees
5:28 – Gravy from fridge into small sauce pan, heat up slowly on low. Add some cream to thin it out
5:30 – Mashed Potatoes (covered) and Stuffing (uncovered) into oven with the yams at 350. Both will cook up for 30 minutes. To be safe, take the potatoes out 15 minutes in and stir them.
5:35 – Asparagus into toaster oven
5:45 – Ice into ice bucket, drinks out on the table. Pies out onto servers.
6:00 – everything out of their ovens! Turn the toaster oven onto broil…hopefully the yams will fit in there because for 1-2 minutes they’ll be in there to make the marshmallows toasty. Watch it, they will start smoking! You can also use a creme brulee torch or butane lighter (one of the large ones with a flame that actually makes a noise).
So, this is what it all looked like when it came together….
And, the yam casserole. I made another the next night since we didn’t have leftovers because it was gone immediately. It was SO good. I was never a fan of the yam until moving here to North Carolina. After tasting the sweet fluffy goodness that is a sweet potato casserole… I am hooked. Toasted marshmallows are so pretty.
The asparagus was cooked down to almost nothing, but it was really tasty. The store-bought apple pie was pretty good… the pumpkin cheesecake I made… well… it had a creamy, tasty center then a tough-as-leather crust. I’m not a food engineer, but I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to work. I’m thinking heat had something to do with it.
Besides eating, how did you celebrate Thanksgiving? What are you thankful for?
I’m thankful for our dog Meg… and that she lets me put bows on her.
I’m also grateful that her armadillo toy hasn’t sprung to life those times I’ve stepped on it in the dark and squealed. Thank you squeaky ‘dillo.
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11.23.08
Posted in Main, Sharing the Handmade Love at 3:13 am by carrie
My workspace needed more pizazz.
Lots of color planning & layout debating later… Welcome to my colorful office…
Rosettes waiting to be painted
I got a tissue pom-pom kit from Michael’s (Martha) for Halloween… it only had black and silver, so I added the brown and green
I really love the pom-poms :)
Garland made out of rosettes and little hand-painted pennant triangles
Computer desk…
Work table… for making messes
Another garland over the jewelry cabinet
Finished jewelry & Shipping area…
Now it’s ready for impulsive creating!
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11.12.08
Posted in Main, Sharing the Handmade Love at 3:09 pm by carrie
I rarely take things out of my own store… but…I may have to steal this one…
sooooo cute.
I have one in blue, too… eeek! :)
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11.11.08
Posted in Main, Sharing the Handmade Love at 2:18 am by carrie
We are lucky to have lots of gift cards. Problem is we forget which ones we have and that they exist. Also, the little pouch they are hanging out in keeps falling over spilling cards everywhere, mixing up the spent ones with the good ones.
Inspired by a sweet little coupon book that R gave me, I made this one out of vellum envelopes and packing tape. I *heart* packing tape.
Gift Card Holder Project
I have to admit, I’ve never made a bound book and I’m not great with paper craft, but I gave this a shot anyway… there isn’t any “real” measurements involved… it’s definitely figure-it-out-as-you-go.
First, I made 10 little pockets that were 2 3/4″ x 3 3/4″ using regular 5″ x 7″ vellum envelopes and cutting them all up.
Take one pocket and add a long strip of tape on each side, about 7″ long, cover that tape with more tape so there isn’t any exposed tape, I call this a “tape sandwich”.
Then, I added another pocket (make sure the openings are on top!) about 1/8″ – 3/8″ away from the first pocket. Tape it on both sides so it’s really attached well. You’re adding pockets with gussets in-between… it’ll make more sense below:
Keep adding pockets until you run out. Then fold the longer piece of leftover sandwich tape over and tape it together. It will become a large back pocket. At the end of this step I also made a bottom to my little accordion envelope using sandwiched tape and lots of tape up the sides.
Then you add little tabs. There are about 20 pockets so I made sure the bigger pockets got labels for the cards we get a lot of… like Borders, the Gap and Starbucks. Customize it so your favorites are easy to get to.
I then made a box for the outside using vellum paper and… you guessed it, tape. I have no idea what the measurements are, and your little accordion envelope may be bigger or smaller than mine, so make your little outside box according to your measurements. I covered the box in flowers, swirls, a birdie, a squirrel and an acorn with an “!” symbolizing… “Loot!” yay! :) I also added ribbon along the outside to tie the entire box closed… I think next time I’ll use velcro for quick-opening action… but the ribbons add a sweet touch. Make sure you cover the outside with a ton of tape… it’s what makes it strong and the top flap bendy without tearing.
Slide your accordion envelope into the box…
And tie shut! Viola :) All those cards are now housed in a file folder made of tape and love. Next, I’m going to make a little folder for those rewards cards that every retail store feels the need to hand out.
I’m trying to get into clipping coupons and be aware of any and all rewards programs… at least now I’ll know where everything is and feel inspired to keep track of it all and save some money! :)
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