Crazy Heart

And this ain't no place for the weary kind
This ain't no place to lose your mind
This ain't no place to fall behind
Pick up your crazy heart and give it one more try
      – song by Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett

 

One peek at this card and you can see why it call it my "Crazy Heart" card. 'It's crazy busy! Well, that, and I do love that movie with Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

 

 

Now who in their crazy mind would combine tulle and frilly swirls with a barbed wire heart? Well, darlin's if you've ever been to a Texas rodeo (and everyone should at least once), you'll see women's western wear is a combination of denim and rhinestones; leather and lace. It's rough and rowdy meets powder puff and pearls. I love it. I can't quite carry it off myself; I look more like the rodeo clown. I wish I could, though, because I think it's crazy sexy.

 

You know I love all things Texas, if only because I get to bring out my Texas twang vernacular. So I'm crazy-heart excited that my sweet friend Jimmye Sue Mitchell of Texana Designs fame invited me to be a part of her inaugural design team! Yee Haw!! I get to hang out with gal pals Libby Hickson, Karen Hall Lambert, Jilda Bolton, Janet Bradshaw, and Joyce Meyer. And today I have my first "official" design team card for you using two Texana Design stamps.

 

Oh, and this rodeo is just getting started. Come back tomorrow for another Texana Designs announcement (you'll be glad you did). Be sure to head over to the Texana Blog and become a follower! And if you really want to be the queen of the rodeo, go ahead and "LIKE" the Texana Facebook page! I'll see you there.

 

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Tiddely Poms from 2011

   If you want to make a song more hummy,
   add a few tiddely poms.
      ~ Winnie the Pooh

Every year I choose a word or phrase to be my motto for the coming year. Two years ago it was "Vigor and Vim in 2010," which turned out to be a bad motto because the year had a little too much vigor. Last year, I decided to choose a slightly less ambitious motto, one of just gentle, simple joys rounded out with a fair measure of silliness. Tiddely Pom – just makes you giggle. For 2012 I'm listening to Buddha: "A single drop of water fills a bucket" and focusing on small steps toward sustainable change. Not the most sexy motto, but Buddha will be proud.

Another Catered Crop tradition is my annual review of some of my favorite projects. If you click on any of the pictures, it will take you to the original post for all the details. So here's my review of the Tiddely Poms from 2011.

January – One More Cookie Puhlease! Any card that honors the cookie has to be great, right?! I had fun embroidering felt cookies to go with the card.

 

February – Dog Gone It. I made this to send to my daughter while she was in Costa Rica. My scheme was to make her miss her puppy back home and hurry back to us. Just bein' a Mom, ya know.

Maryse Carrier Thinking of You

 

March – Be My Baby Bumble Bee. I had a blast with this one. The card included a detachable hair clip, bookmark, luggage tag, and embellished clip. This is one of my favorite Claire Keay images, so I used it more than once in 2011.

 

April – Oh Boy Animal Magnetism. I love that these bottle caps can be removed from the card and do double time as refrigerator magnets. They're udderly perfect for showing off pictures and creations from the little guys.

DeNami Design Farm Animals


May – Western Swinging Paper Purses. I took one of Becky Robert's fabulous Tres Chic handbag tutorials and turned it into a tooled leather saddlebag. It was my version of Western Swing.

 

June – Proper Kitchen Attire. This embellished kitchen soap bottle, thank you card and decorated clothespin won me my first gig as a guest designer with My Favorite Things. The honor of hanging out with that amazing design team for a month makes this definitely one of my favs for 2011.

 

July – Perfect Pinwheels. Cupcakes and pinwheels . . . need I say more?

 

August – Beachy Keen. I had as much fun writing the blog post as I did making the card. For this card I came up with the top ten most embarrassing parent moments in honor of my Dad's black socks with shorts.

 

September – Bargain Hunting. This crazy busy card paid homage to all the sights and sounds of one of America's oldest and largest flea markets.

 

October – A Cup of Tea. I just love how the colors and patterns came together for this little window card. It was fun to make.

 

November – Rhinestone Cowgirls. It was a blast to partner with my daughter for this  card. She designed the sentiment so I could offer it as a free download. And, check out that paper boot – Texas stylin'.

Cowboy Paper Boot

 

December – Vintage Popcorn. All my fun antique treasuring hunting in 2011 paid off with these vintage jello molds. They were perfect for giving popcorn balls.

 

I hope you've enjoyed Catered Crop 2011 revisited. It's always an adventure for me to do this because I get to see how my craft has evolved (or not) over the year.

If you're a blogger, there are several parties this weekend to link up your favorite top ten: Karin Martin's A Year in Review Blog Hop; Kellie Winnell's Top 10 Crafty Creations for 2011; Operation Write Home's Top Ten Hop; and this fun thread at Splitcoast Stampers, Your Own Favorites of 2011.

If you do write a year in review, please be sure to leave me a comment so I can follow along. Of course, don't forget to link up your favorite 2011 Holiday Card with us here at the Catered Crop Recipe Swap.

I'm looking forward to seeing all your creations in 2012. I have all kinds of craziness planned so hang on, we're just getting warm.

TexMas Chili Surprise

Chili represents your three stages of matter:
solid, liquid, and eventually gas.
   ~ Roseanne, May 1992, spoken by character Dan Conner

 

Wha ha ha . . . I AM the master of disguising gifts.

I love tormenting my brother. That's what younger sisters do, right? Since I'm in Texas and he's in Indiana, I sent him a can of nice Texas Red, Roadhouse chili with beans, "great over rice." What else could he possible need? Better than socks, right?

But, when he popped open the can, it had a few surprises, like gin, Hershey Kisses, and some dinero for his next big adventure.

I had to get this in the mail last weekend, but, before I did, I took a few quick pictures for you all to show you how to russel up some good TexMas chili surprise.

First, you'll need to round up a smooth-edge can opener. You can find them just about anywhere (Pampered Chef; Williams and Sonoma; Bed, Bath and Beyond; even Sears) or just Google "smooth-edge can opener."

Turn up your speakers and grab a seat in the Catered Crop Theater for my how-to video – Western silent-movie style.

 

 

In keeping with our family Christmas traditions, my TexMas Chili Surprise included a poem.

 

 

You can have this little poem as a free download. Just click here {Canned Chili Surprise} and then right click and save it.

Merry TexMas Brother!

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