the.amanda.sewell

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 balan...

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

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...

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 r...

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.

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 shimm...

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 lov...

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!

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 ...

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 in...

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 ...

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 bu...

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 abo...