Friday, December 23, 2011

Ahhh! Were alive!

Really?!  The last post was in October?!  Wow.  

Well Champagne Press and our family survived the holidays!  Several sleepless nights and we made over 1,500 handmade Christmas cards!  I say we because hubby Ben aka the bitch was actually pretty helpful and pitched in a lot to get everything done.  Yay for Ben!  Who would have thought?!  

Now it's the day before Christmas, I was still shopping today and I can think of a million other things I would have liked to buy/make for friends and family but oh well - here we are - what can ya do?!  This month Michael turned 7 months, met Santa and somehow still continues to steal my heart more and more everyday.  Both Grandparents and Uncle Cody and Auntie Cara are here for Christmas - Godmother Bree is in town and I have never been happier.  Life is so good. 
Love my boys.

Love him. 


Monday, October 24, 2011

One Adorable Boy! A Boys Life.

 So we had a fun weekend!  Headed to Flagstaff to watch a former student cheer for NAU and chilled with Daddy and Mama all weekend.  I'm pretty sure I'm getting some teeth because I have a hard time napping during the day and am a drooling fool!!!

Me and my Pops! 

Monday Funday!  

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

L.O.V.E. Baby Boo turns 5 mo!

and Mom turns...  30!  Like Whoa!  
Gorgeous boy! 

He is loved!

Now I know why parents are insane.  Look at that face.  

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Christmas is Coming!

I really never knew I was such a Christmas person..   Yesterday my husband found a list of Christmas songs I had jotted down as a reminder to download.  (I didn't want to look like such a weirdo downloading them in September I guess).  But now I look even weirder because I made a list and hid it!

So now that I am a shop owner I guess it's socially acceptable to start gearing up for the holidays early - yay!  You know, the way the mall is decorated for the holidays in October and your magazine subscriptions are already sharing with you holiday recipes and gift ideas?  I am going to go crazy making holiday cards and tags.  Thanks to my Aunt Peg who got me lots of goodies at archivers for my upcoming birthday - here's my first one!  

Ornament Cards - soon to be seen at ChampagnePress.com!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Minnesota Visit

We headed to Minnesota and didn't look back!  It's always nice to leave reality to be welcomed by Grandparents and family eager to see baby Michael (and his mama).  It was a wonderful visit, saw lots of friends and family and also Daddy joined us for a long weekend!

Mama and Michael 

Grandpa was being loud - good thing Nana is protecting me! 

Such a stud!  A girft from Nayarah to Michael - thanks Naya!  

The lovely couple celebrating 35 years - Congratulations!  
We were so busy; a dinner at BonFire, shopping at Nordstroms, Archivers and lunch with Aunt Peg, time with Grandpa, snuggles with Grandma, bridesmaid dress shopping with the girls, sushi, and an anniversary dinner - table for 16!!  Before we left we had visits from Shane Michael's Godfather and Steph Shane's gorgeous girlfriend.  What a fun weekend!  

Friday, September 16, 2011

Etsy Finds for Gift Giving

Okay so I know today I was going to blog about my etsy finds for gifts..  Ummm...  How do you link pictures?!  I don't wanna go stealing pics from the web and posting them...  Usually when you copy an etsy URL into something the pic shows up... Boo!  I am technology challenged!

So here's just a few since the pics aren't pulling up with them.  
The first is a really cool herringbone iPad case.  http://www.etsy.com/listing/76581156/ipad-case-gray-herringbone
Beautiful floral coasters for maybe someone you're not sure what to get for. http://www.etsy.com/listing/78603051/flower-coasters-set-of-4-white
Bunny printed teas towels.  I know you're thinking teas towels?!  Click on this link and peek.  They are so beautiful!  http://www.etsy.com/listing/61519721/fuzzy-bunny-in-navy-hand-printed-flour
And lastly a pretty cool bracelet - http://www.etsy.com/listing/70936996/metal-head-combination-of-silver-nuggets

So that's no fun.  No one wants to go clicking away.  Learn how to use technology is pretty high on my list but somehow just never gets done.  So for a little eye candy here's another bloom.  I added lots more to my shop today!

www.champagnepress.com


Thursday, September 15, 2011

New Blooms

I hear etsy gets quite busy during the fall as the holidays approach and why not?  I would much rather buy someone a beautiful handmade gift rather than something store bought.  Don't get me wrong - Nordstrom's has a lot to offer; Joie blouses, Theory tees, True Religion jeans (yes I still heart True Religions), Juicy perfume, Frye boots - oh wait I was talking about gifts for other people right?  Well, anyway the point I am making is there is tons of gorgeous gifts to be gave for sale on etsy..  

Tomorrow I think my blog will be about some of my etsy faves.  It's gonna be hard to narrow them down.  Here are some of my new listings :)  Happy Thursday!     
I think this ones my fav... 

Oh wait - maybe this one!  Ha!  

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Custom Orders

Browns and creams and whites 
The custom orders are coming in!  Wedding season, holidays are creeping into everyone's mind.  Wanted to share the custom box I created for my new customer Rose and another for my girl Brooke.  "Rose that's a very pretty name..."  5 bucks if you can name what movie that's from!  

Black and white and red and leopard!  Rawr! 

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Da-da-da-dahhh!!!

Love it! 
I'm so stoked about this new shop item.  Card boxes!  They will be made to order for my customers - this ones for my friend Rachel and she chose the colors to compliment her room where she's planning to keep her cards :)

Michael this Month

This month Michael has gotten so much stronger and loves to giggle and play.  He's using his jumperoo, and loves dancing and singing with us.  (Well, he doesn't sing or dance really but we do).  He's rolled over twice and babbles away.  New nicknames?  Hmm..  What don't I call him?  This month it's been Michael Booty, Booty Boy, Marvin, Pooty Head, Stinkeroonie, Roonie, and of course the staples - Boo, Buggy and Buddy.

Happy babe playing with his mama!  

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Paper and Lace


So I've made some invites as you know but this weekend I am finally beginning to list invite packages on my shop site.  I am in love with some of my creations.  Here's my fave!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Wedding Cards

My friend's Suzie and Macy were married this past weekend at the Montelucia resort in PV.  It was gorgeous, the bride was gorgeous (duh) and our cards were gorgeous!  Here's the latest projects for their wedding.  These cards are both listed in my etsy shop and are for sale for $5.  

Blank Inside 

Love this one!

And love the message.  The rest of the story is theirs to write I suppose!  


Little Loves

Our little love birds on their last few play dates.  This top pic was visiting the Copper Canyon Spiritline girls at their cheer practice.  There were so many ooh's and ahh's that the babes needed to hold hands for moral support.  Bridget is going to have lots of boys after her.  If Michael's smart he'll just play it cool for the next 20 years and then ask her to marry him!  Beautiful babes!  
Holding Hands?!  They grow up so fast!!! 

Clearly they are close in age - both really enjoy their hands this month! 

Baby B so close to rolling over!  (I think Michael weighs too much to roll) haha! 

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Top Five Reasons Why Marriage Rocks!

So you may not know but Ben is obsessed with "Top 5" lists, ranking things, recalling the best "10" of something, etc.  Well recently we had our baby Michael of course and right now were really happy.  While things are good, ha, I though I would just do a little Top 5 in honor of my crazy husband.

#5 You always have someone to watch a movie with.  If you're lucky they will pause it and explain what's going on every time you got ADD and stopped paying attention or send a text on your phone, etc.  If you're really lucky they will find this trait endearing and you will have a good laugh about it.  BEWARE though, no matter what this can become tiresome, so watch out sister!  Make sure you are always paying close attention to your man's mood reader.

#4 Your partner can add balance to a part of you that may be lacking.  For example, Ben does the budget, cooks and shares current events.  I change the diapers and contribute love and reason when he is acting "dooms-day-ish".

#3 Someone to bitch to.  This is a good thing.  You don't need to be complaining to everyone around you.  It's nice to have this one person to complain to and then it's gone!  Note --- This is different than someone to take it out on ;)

#2  It is so good being married with a baby.  I couldn't imagine doing it alone.  Probably the main reason being, no one cares as much as your significant other about how cute you think your baby is.  "Babe, you should have heard him laughing" "Ben, come look at the babe he's sticking his tongue out!"  "Hurry, he looks so cute right now!"  After having a baby, I have realized Ben CAN hear me when I am calling his name because if it concerns Michael he comes running...  Suspicious...

#1 The best reason to be married is you have someone to make plans with.  Plans for Friday, plans for your next vacation, business plans, life plans, and if you're doing it right, plans on HOW you will love each other forever!  Cheesy I know!


Right now we are loving being parents to Michael, we have all sorts of plans on how we are going to parent him and love him.  He has given us a new reason to be motivated everyday and our marriage is stronger from seeing the other person love a little baby so much.

Baby Shower Invitations

Baby Shower Invitation 

Each invite will have a different onsie :)  
So here's what's going on this week with Champagne Press.  I'm making baby shower invites for Brooke's friend Monica's shower - thanks Brookie!  I got a new cartridge for my cricut so I can cut onsies, rattlers, etc.  It's actually the "sampler" cartridge which is cool b/c it has lots of goodies on it!  New "thank you" stamps are on their way in the mail so I'll have to show those off soon!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

It sure doesn't feel like fall!




SO the trend on etsy right now is artists are gearing up for fall.  Pumpkins, costumes, orange, and brown, you get the idea.  It's kinda hard to get in that mode being that's it's still hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk.  I still burn my feet getting the mail with no shoes.  Here's my attempt at getting into "Fall".  Tonight maybe some halloween cards.  Michael's first halloween - what should he be?!  So excited to eat his candy , I mean, for him to get candy.  

More from the History Book...







Monday, August 15, 2011

Roasted Red Pepper & Basil Alfredo Lasagna

This is basically done in four parts (Cooking the vegetables, making the sauce, making the pasta, and assembly & baking). I would recommend cooking the vegetables and making the sauce beforehand which would make the “day of” much easier.

First you should sauté the peppers, onions, and garlic. For this recipe which fed two people, I used two green onions, 1 red pepper, and 4 cloves of garlic. You can increase on that scale or add in other things you may like (Eggplant, zucchini, or tomatoes). Feel free to cook them all together as a mixture or cook them separate if you want each layer to be something different. Like I said, less stressful if you cook them the day before and just throw them in a plastic container.

Next is the sauce. Feel free to use already made tomato or alfredo sauce but if you want to use the sauce I made, here is the recipe.

¼ stick of butter
1 cup of half and half
2 minced tbsp of garlic
Salt & pepper to taste

Sweat the garlic in the butter until it becomes translucent (Medium low) and then add the half & half and salt & pepper. Turn up the heat to medium and let simmer until sauce starts to thicken. To speed up the process or if it isn’t thickening you can add a couple tablespoons of flour and stir until there aren’t any lumps. Taste it to make sure it’s seasoned properly and then you can store this away too.

On the day of you need to make the pasta. Feel free again to use store bought lasagna noodles but I did mine custom sized so I had to make mine by hand. Here is that recipe.

In a food processor combine two eggs, ½ tsp of salt, ½ tsp of pepper, 1 tbsp of vegetable/olive oil, and 1 tbsp of water. Let this spin for about 5-10 seconds and then slowly add in 1 ½-2 cups of flour until the mixture starts to create one ball of dough. If it doesn’t stick together that’s ok. As you empty out the pieces of the mixture you can work the rest by hand until it looks like an unrolled pizza dough except much denser. Flour your cutting board or counter and roll out the pasta until it’s as thin as lasagna noodles. Remember I only cooked for two people so you might have to do a couple batches of the pasta if you are feeding more people.

I baked in soufflĂ© dishes so I just used the tops of the bowls as a cookie cutter and cut out as many pieces of pasta as I could (This is the same process to make raviolis too). At this point you can start assembling everything. The only other two things you need is some basil and any type of cheese you like (I mixed parmesan and mozzarella…no ricotta because you are already using a cream sauce). Here is the layering that I used (Pretend it’s a picture using words):

Top with cheese
Layer of sauce
Layer of pasta
Layer of cheese
Layer of vegetable
Layer of sauce
Layer of pasta
Layer of cheese
Layer of vegetable
Layer of basil
Layer of sauce
Layer of pasta
Layer of cheese
Layer of vegetable
Layer of sauce
Layer of pasta
Layer of cheese
Layer of either the vegetable mixture or individual vegetable (I used peppers)
Layer of pasta
Spread thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the dish/pan

Note: It’s up to you if you want more layers or you want to cut some out.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and put the lasagna in for 20 minutes. When 20 minutes is up I like to turn the broiler on high and watch it closely until the cheese on top starts to brown and then pull it out of the oven. Let it cool and you are ready to eat. I haven’t made this with store bought noodles so you may have to let it cook for a normal lasagna time. It really is worth doing the individual sizes because then you don’t have a lasagna pan to clean. Good luck.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Hawaiian Shower

40 Invites 
Paper Banner


One of the many thank yous (they're all different!) 
So here's what I've been working on, thank for ordering Donna!  She's hosting a wedding shower so I have made for her invites, thank you's for the bride, a banner for decor and also a scrapbook for the bride to remember her beautiful shower.  The couple is honeymooning in Hawaii hence, the Hawaiian themed paper products.  It was so fun to make!

Friday, August 12, 2011

Kicking off my Man's Recipes




Okay so Ben aka "the bitch" has a lot going on so I thought I would start this for him...  He is a fantastic cook, I would starve without him, literally... I would starve without him...  If you know him on facebook you have seen many of his creations but it's time we move it to our blog.  Hopefully I can get him adding his recipes (everything is from scratch) and most of these he made up as he went..  Here are a few tantalizing pics to get you excited!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

"Winding Down"

For some this is hard to do...  I would venture to say it's tough for most people.  Last night my husband pointed out that I hadn't stopped doing stuff.  He wanted me to sit down and watch a movie with him - awe cute!  He wants to spend time with me!

Well after getting defensive, telling him all the things I didn't have time to do that day, and him replying something like "fine we'll just live separate lives from now until eternity" (maybe I'm over- exaggerating slightly) We separated -  He went to the computer I read my book.  Knowing I was going to be the one to end the stand off I eventually found him on the couch, told him I love spending time with him and we watched a movie.  He made me shrimp cocktail (one of my faves) and like usual I fell asleep before the movie ended.  A move that would normally piss off my man.  Last night I guess he was giving me a break ;)

How do you relax?  Wind down from a long day of tasks?

Michael at 11 Weeks!