Just For Fun and SOME GOOD NEWS

I found this on Lauren M's blog -- and thought I would try it. But then I thought about it and decided I had to enter two names because my name is technically Amanda but I often go by Mandy or Manda, so -- those of you who know me, you decide:

What Mandy Means

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated.

You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want.

You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way!


You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.

You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.

You have the classic "Type A" personality.


You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.

You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.

You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.


You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row.

You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace.

People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality.


You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in.

You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising.

You may miss out by not settling down, but you're too busy having fun to care.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

OR

What Amanda Means

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.

You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.

You have the classic "Type A" personality.


You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated.

You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want.

You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way!

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.

You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.

You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.


You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row.

You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace.

People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality.


You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.

You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.

You have the classic "Type A" personality.


You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated.

You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want.

You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way!

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.

You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.

You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.


You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row.

You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace.

People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

In hindsight, they both are VERY similar -- so I guess I am just me, and honestly, I think it is quite accurate. I *might* be a bit stubborn *giggles*

The good news of today is that my son is officially potty trained. On our trip to California and Disney, we had no accidents -- DS wore undies the whole trip! It feels so good to be done with diapers -- well at least until/if or when we get pregnant and have more . . . YAY!

QUESTION FOR ALL YOU READERS: We are working on figuring out a family reunion and I would like to know where you have had yours in the past, what are your favorite family reunion memories and what you like to do at a reunion?? Hoping you all have answers that will help me out! Thanks in advance for your input!

Disneyland Fun

We made it back. I had a fun weekend. We left at 6 pm Friday and drove to Anaheim, and then went to our hotel, and slept. We played all day Saturday and Sunday and part of Monday and then drove home and got in around 11:15 pm last night. Both kids managed to catch a cold, so they are both all icky today, but we are working on it. I took lots of pictures so I decided to add a slide show to this post to show them all off! ENJOY!

Get your own

My Funny Little Valentine Stampers

Yep, another family post -- but this one is cool because it combines family and stamping and you cannot beat that!!! E wanted to make some Valentines for her new friend Allyson that she has made in the past couple weeks. They play so well together and we have been getting together every Wednesday to play. This is E's first real best friend. Her friend brought her a Valentine yesterday and she was very excited. We decided to make treats and Valentines for two of her friends. The kids had never stamped before, this was their first time and I thought they did rather well. I am usually so protective of my stamp stuff, but I knew they would love it!!! They stamped with the bugs from SU "Bugs and Kisses" and a few random hearts from other sets I have. They used pixie pink, real red, and pink passion! I made sure to photo document it because as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Here she is learning to sponge the edges, and holding her treats when they were all done (we wrapped nuggets), and a picture of the inside of her card where she drew a picture of Minnie Mouse and wrote on it. I told her how to spell the words and she did all the letters by herself! SO CUTE!

J did really well with the stamping as well. Both of them had very very inky fingers at the end, but they had a blast. I think we stamped for about an hour start to finish.

I absolutely love how serious he is in these two pictures while he is stamping. He is bound and determined to get it perfect and master this stamping thing. This next picture is my little charmer holding the finished treat bags. Secondly, this is J's hand and the inside of his card. Too cute, I think he *may* have all the letters in his name on there somewhere. He was trying to at least. Hope you are having a marvelous Valentines Day!!! I {heart} and appreciate you all! Happy Valentines Day!

I Am Loved - HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EARLY!

I just went to the door and there was a box waiting for me (well a box and the same sales guy I turned away yesterday -- sheesh, why don't these people get it -- I told him why I did not want his service and he asked for my number to get more information -- I said no *roll eyes and how shocking*).

Anyway . . . My DH is way too good to me. This made me feel super loved and special. I love romantic gifts. They are sweet. I am not skilled in floral arranging yet, however, I think they still look pretty and they smell marvelous! THANK YOU SWEETIE! *kissy kissy* Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. I had never gotten flowers in a box before, so that was surprising and kind of weird to me -- but when I opened them I was excited because they are beautiful and all closed and very fresh.

I am such a lucky mom and wife. I am lucky to be surrounded by such beauty. This was my favorite picture that I took today -- how precious!!! Happy Valentines Day to you all! Be sure to remember to let those you love know that they are loved!!!

Potty Training Continues . . .

So far DS has only had one accident each day for the past two days and so far today we are clean and dry . . . *crosses fingers, toes, eyes, etc . . . * Just thought I would report really fast.

SC163 - Technically it is Wednesday . . .

I am up way too late again . . . but I just wanted to do the sketch challenge and I really wanted to play with my new MFT stamp set (Eggstra Special Easter). I seriously am infatuated with the bunny in this set. He is so cute! His ears are so big!!! Anyway, lucky for me, Shelly posted the sketch early, which is awesome since I am having guests tomorrow and SO will not have time tomorrow morning to play . . .

Here is my card for today. I am excited about the fresh colors and I actually like the sketch. I used my cuttlebug on it too, which is like amazing since I always forget I even have it. Haha! I chose the close to cocoa and the blush blossom and then I needed something to go with it, so I went to the color picker page (see my sidebar) and it offered bashful blue and soft sky in different combinations with those two aforementioned colors, so I decided to try it and I love it! I found the ribbon, by cosmocricket in my ribbon jar and it matched so nicely! The card is so shimmery in reality. I will have to take a picture in the morning when the lighting is better. I would go on, but I really need to go clean up my kitchen because unfortunately the house elves are not going to magically do it for me *giggles -- I wish*

Stamps: MFT Eggstra Special Easter, SU Linen background Paper: SEI Morning Meadow - breeze, blush blossom, soft sky, close to cocoa, whisper white, soft sky Ink: Close to Cocoa, Timber Brown Staz On, Blush Blossom classic ink Accessories: Cosmo Cricket Ribbons, soft sky brads, Sewing machine, glue dots, cuttlebug and swirls embossing folder, aquapainter
Techniques: Watercoloring, sketch challenge

Hero Arts Huggy Chick (CC153)

Is this not the cutest little chick? It came from this gorgeous Hero Arts set that I just had to have. I think it is just perfect for spring. I picked it up at the Creative Quest in Glendale when I was there a week or so ago. I think it might be older, but oh well, I am in love nonetheless.

What do you think of this photo? I took it with my new camera that I got for my birthday. I love how much sharper it is. YAY! I am so excited about it. DH got me a Nikon Coolpix s51. I really wanted a small camera that I could easily fit in a pocket or purse and this one is it. Oh and he even got it for me in this great Magenta Pink color -- I am so lucky!

I used my cuttlebug to add dots to the green background piece. I then added dot details with a white gelly roll pen. I sewed the kraft and other layers on to the white card base. Image was watercolored using my aquapainter and the lids of the ink pads. I added chocolate brads in the corners because it just needed something. I love these colors, I think they are super together! The kraft tones down the brightness of the green and turquoise! Awesome! The layout was inkspired by Lauren's Saturday Sketch (from a couple Saturdays ago). I saved it and just barely got to it now. YAY!

Stamps: Hero Arts Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, Whisper White, Kraft Ink: Timber Brown Staz On, Tempting Turquoise Classic, Only Orange Classic Accessories: Turquoise Polka dot ribbon, brown brads, Cuttlebug, Techniques: Watercoloring

Other exciting news of the day -- DS only had one accident yesterday (we are potty training again -- hope it works this time) and one accident today -- but he has been going on his own today really well and he even did a couple poops today! WOOHOO! *Silly things mommies celebrate eh* We are headed to Disneyland this weekend, for my DH's birthday, so I would be really happy if we could get him going on the potty consistently by then . . . but we will bring just in case clothes. Should be fun!!!

Still working on it . . .

I was trying a new template the other day on my blog and I lost some of my widget lists, so I am working on figuring out how to get those back -- I might end up just having to recreate them all *sigh* Sometimes I wish I was more savvy! Anyway, just wanted to peek in and let you all know what was happening with my blog since it seems all out of control and a mess.

I will be back stamping soon. This week is a busy one -- Monday - headed to a friends for the evening, Tuesday - scrapbooking in the morning at a friends, Wednesday - friends coming over to play with my kids at our house, Thursday - FREE DAY/laundry catch up and packing day, Friday - playgroup in the park and then driving to California for a Disney weekend. We decided to get annual passes for Disney and since DH's birthday is this weekend, we are off to play!

Bloggers Challenge #33 (My first EVER)

I joined a new yahoo group which issues a challenge to bloggers every Friday. I am really excited to be a part of this group because of all the super talented people in it. It should be fun! Everyone has been so welcoming to me this week on the group and I appreciate it! This week for my first challenge, it was a color challenge: old olive, taken with teal, pumpkin pie, and rose red. Those were for sure not typical colors for me to use at all -- so bright! (Sorry my photo is not perfect on the colors -- it is late at night and the unnatural light is harder to get the colors right with.) I decided to make an attempt at last weeks sketch challenge (SC161), although in the end, I deviated a little from the actual sketch to make it work for me. I used some of my pre-stamped Bella images that I had gotten in a swap -- this time, huggybellas. Sentiment is by River City Rubber Works. Image was colored with prismacolor pencils and crayola colored pencils and blended with gamsol and stumps. Image and sentiment are both popped up using foam tape.

I will probably be MIA tomorrow. It is my birthday and I will be playing and enjoying my family! I cannot believe I am getting so old -- really freaks me out because I certainly still feel young. LOL! Anyway . . .

In case you have some extra time and feel like checking out what other bloggers on this groups member list have been up to, please click on their links from the sidebar. ENJOY!

My Favorite Things Release Party and My Favorite Guest Designer Contest

Last night I stayed up way too late playing online with the gals over in the MFT forum on SCS. It was a lot of fun! Silly girls. My Favorite Things released 3 new sets last night. One is a punchy sentiment set -- kind of naughty, kind of super funny! They also released a yoga set and a fun Easter set with the most adorable bunnies! I love it a lot!

Here is my entry for the guest designer contest. I really wanted to do something original but something that I would be able to give to a friend this spring. I saw this idea in Making Memories - A Season of Joy! Of course it was a Christmas box in that one though. I have been wanting to make one and thought it would be perfect for this guest designer contest. *crossing my fingers that it will be well received* I am really excited about how it turned out -- so springy!!!

I covered both the top and bottom with tempting turquoise paper. Over that I used some Doodlebug DP. I sponged all the edges of the tempting turquoise with ink of the same color. It added some richness and depth. I did not have grommets for the front, so I made my own fake grommets using circles. I think they worked. The hardest part by far was trying to cut the box in half straight. I did not want to wake M up to ask him where the electric hand saw was, so I ended up using my bread cutting electric knife *giggles* I popped up butterflies and coated them with stickles. The whole project looks so shiny and fun in real life. Centers of the blue flowers are a small circle coated with diamond stickles. Ribbon is a gift from texasjodylynn. It is so pretty! If you have not joined one of her ribbon shares you are missing out. Box is held together at the back with two small silver hinges and brads.

Hope you like it! Everyone let me know what you think!!!

Stamps: My Favorite Things Bundles of Bouquets Paper: Pink Passion, Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Only Orange, 1580 All Aflutter by Doodlebug Designs Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip, Only Orange, Pixie Pink, Lavendar Lace, Gable Green Accessories: sponges, Aquapainter, tempting turquoise buttons, diamond stickles, prima flowers Forever Flowers No. 3 - Seduction, glue dots, redline tape, silver hinges, silver screw brads, photo cube block (cardboard block cut in half to create box), satin ribbon, white grosgrain by SU!, small circle punch, 1 3/8 inch circle punch, pink scalloped circle, blue marvy circle punch

I am headed to Tucson today! I have never been before. Should be fun! Hopefully I will get some stamping time in tonight, but it will totally depend on how tired I am because 3:30 am is for sure not my usual bedtime and I am feeling it this morning!!

What's For Dinner Wednesday - Chicken Fajitas

So I really had a craving for chicken fajitas. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and it sounded too yummy so I just had to try it! Hope you like it!!!

Sombrero Chicken

Ingredients
8 bacon strips
1 green bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch wide strips
1 onion, cut into strips
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
3 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch strips
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons dry fajita seasoning
1 large ripe tomato, chopped
10 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Fry bacon strips in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Keeping the bacon and drippings in the pan, add the bell pepper, onion, and half the cilantro. Stir and cook for 1 minute. Season the chicken with garlic powder and fajita seasoning and stir into the pan. Cook mixture until chicken is no longer pink in the middle, about 20 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and sprinkle the remaining cilantro, tomato, and Monterey Jack cheese over the top of the chicken mixture. Cover and let sit until cheese melts, about 3 minutes.

Bubble Baths, Barbie Houses and Other Birthday Excitement

E turned 5 years old today! I cannot believe I have a 5 year old. She is too precious and makes me smile everyday (smile and pull my hair out *wink*). To celebrate, we decided to just have a family birthday party this year because we just moved and have not made a ton of new friends in our new area yet, and it is too far to drive for our friends where we used to live. E wanted to have a Tinkerbell party, so we made Tink cupcakes and we had Tink plates for her. We spent the morning relaxing and watching cartoons while M put together the new Cozy Country Doll House by Imaginarium that we got for E. She was so excited and was helping him put it together. I worked on E's birthday cupcakes while they worked on the house together. It was relaxing and slow paced.

After the doll house was together, we got the kids ready for the day by giving them a bubble bath in the big tub in mommy and daddy's room. They love it in our tub. They love how the jets make lots and lots of bubbles. It is so cute to watch them giggling and splashing and having a blast. They are SO messy in the tub, but it is worth it to see their cute smiles. I could not help but take a couple pictures they were just so cute! *okay enough mommy bragging*

E decided she wanted to have cupcakes and chicken strips for dinner. Weird choice, but I decided we could get some chicken from KFC -- we got that and E wanted cheese and we had E's yummy cupcakes and she got to open some presents.

Here E contemplated her wish before blowing out the candles.


Eating cupcakes and the whole cupcake display.


Hanging out after eating cupcakes, Dad reading what it said on the Giselle box, and E excited as she opens up a Giselle doll from Enchanted.

Swooshing By

How did it get to be Friday and where did the month of January go, that is what I want to know . . . Seriously it seems like it has just zoomed by. I must be getting old. I have been working on some stuff, but I cannot post them yet. Also, E's birthday is tomorrow, so I need to clean and bake some cupcakes (watch for those to be posted on this blog) -- oh and did I mention that it is Superbowl Sunday this weekend? We will be watching it here at home, but it has been interesting living in the valley with it here. I drove in that area yesterday and there was so much traffic and we got to see the GOODYEAR blimp - pretty fun! I was actually on my way to Hobby Lobby -- hadn't been there in awhile so that was fun!!!

Oh and the new Hanna Stamps set - Domestic Goddess - is available on the site now . . . so if you want it -- go get it! It is totally cute, I have another card to show you that I made with it -- but I will get to that later today!

So this post is a post to brag about how adorable my sister is. She is talented too! Seriously!!! I am really excited for her -- her voice is really taking off -- voice lessons really do pay off. This is her singing "Gimme Gimme" from Thoroughly Modern Millie at college in Canada. Tell me what you think?