I'm a Model you know what I mean, and I do my little dance on the catwalk...

Ha! Not quite a model and not quite a catwalk!

Lucas and I were asked by the folks at the Hilton Head Island Concours d'Elegance & Motoring Festival to pose for a few pictures at their event. They are looking to reach out to a new market of 25-36 year olds to come to their motoring festival. We had a blast running around the gorgeous festival grounds at Honey Horn Plantation. Here are a few shots:

Christmas is Over!

The Christmas season has come to end but I still have another Christmas post I need to make. I heard Christmas music on the radio this morning so I guess I can still show you my homemade Christmas ornaments, right?

Here is a sampling of the ornaments I made for the PSA Essentials design team project:

Life has been totally hectic lately. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" has chosen our area for the next build and the company I work for has been selected to do all of the local PR/Marketing. It has been quite the whirlwind and I hope to update all of you at some point. The build will start on January 12. If you're in the area and want to get involved go to www.ExtremeMakeoverBeaufortCounty.com or http://www.facebook.com/pages/Extreme-Makeover-Home-Edition-Beaufort-County/132669823461136

Another Year, Another Birthday

My birthday has yet again come and gone. Another year older and hopefully another year wiser. In the past year I've really started to get my craft on and some of my birthday gifts reflected my new found hobby. Luke's mom, Anita (my future mother-in-law!), got me a gift certificate to Michael's craft store which might be the best gift ever! I've already used half of it on materials for my February PSA Essentials assignment. Another really thoughtful set of gifts came from Libby, who is the PSA Essentials Design Team Manager and an awesome friend. She got me a circle punch, scalloped scissors and rollout adhesive. Check out how excited I was when I opened it:

So excited to get to work on my crafts!

The Nail Polish Project

Two fridays ago, on November 19th, I went out to get a manicure with my girlfriends Ashley and Libby. Libby and I both decided to the new gel nail polish that is guaranteed to last 2 weeks. The manicure cost $10 more than a regular manicure and was a very different experience! After each nail polish coat we had to put our nails under the black light (UV?) for 2 minutes. After the final coat had set for 2 minutes, they wiped down your nails and they were 100% dry - no more leaving the nail salon with wet nails!

I was suspicious about how long the polish would stay on without chipping so I decided to document it. Overall, the polish is similar to having cement on your nails and feels very strong. Here is the progress (nail color is "Linkin Park After Dark" and I used the PSA Essentials Stamps for documenting):

I was really impressed with how these held up. They took a good beating during Thanksgiving and with some yardwork. Definitely recommend trying it out for yourself! Only downsides - your nails grow out fairly quickly in 2 weeks and you have to go back to the nail salon to get the polish removed.

2011 Calendar by Pinhole Press (Discount Code!)

My sister Kate was in town last week for Thanksgiving from upstate New York. We celebrated turkey day at our friends house and had a blast! The weather was just perfect at about 80 degrees which was a nice treat for Kate since it's starting to get chilly up north.

Anyway, while Kate was here she told me about this great company that she works for called Pinhole Press and all of their "beautifully simple photo products". I ordered a 2011 photo calendar and it comes on a high-end uncoated heavy paper stock. The cover is brown with the title of the calendar "2011 THE DELANOS" in white ink. I've always thought that glossy paper looked cheap and love the idea of having it with a matte finish instead.

Their other products would make perfect Christmas gifts. Everything from Brag Books to Photo Journals to Feed/Health Logs for new babies. Head over to the Pinhole Press website to look around. They have offered a discount of 10% off for any of your orders, just use the code PINHOLEPRESSVIP.

Pinhole Press - www.PinholePress.com

10% Off Code - PINHOLEPRESSVIP

The First Noel

The Christmas season is here and I am definitely feeling the spirit! Hopefully it won't fade out before Dec. 25! For my November assignment with the PSA Essentials Design Team, I had to design Christmas ornaments. As I was working on the ornaments I got the idea for a small banner that could fit across a my kitchen window. I dug up some old valentines day doily's that my mom had given which were red and in the shape of hearts. This is what I ended up with:

You Say Crostada...

I saw an episode of "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" with Anne Burrell on the Food Network a few months ago where she made a Swiss Chard & Ricotta Crostada. I had never made my own dough before and she made the whole process look very simple. So one Saturday morning, before we hit the beach with some friends, I prepped everything so that we could have the Crostada for lunch. I came up to the house earlier than the rest of the group to finish up the cooking. It was an amazing lunch! Even the cold leftovers were dee-lish.

I decided to give it a try one more time for dinner tonight. I prepped the dough last night and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight:

When I got home from work today, I sauteed the swiss chard, leeks and other ingredients:

Then I combined the ingredients with the ricotta, parmesan cheese, eggs and a pinch of cayenne and put it onto the rolled out dough:

Bake for 45 minutes and enjoy! Comes out golden brown with a perfect crust:

All credit goes to Anne Burrell. For the recipe, click here.

Office Christmas Card

Expectations are set a little higher for creativity when you work at an advertising agency. The annual Christmas card is always a fun one to get to work on. Over the years we've done all sorts of great cards. One of my favorites was when we had each graphic artist design a card and then we sent our clients a gift box with all of the cards for them to use themselves.


Another year we sent a card with a link to our website where they could create a custom elf (Elf Yourself) and last year we designed 10 different desktops to load onto your computer. This year we've decided to compile all of the creative designs that we have done for our clients over the years and make a collage. Check out the first draft I saw this morning (really rough draft printed on the laser printer):



Design credit goes to our Art Director, Stephen Crawford.

Visit from Mom

In addition to my crafting projects, I've recently been working on some video editing. And when my mom made her bi-annual trip to visit Luke and I on Hilton Head Island last Saturday, I had one project I had to finish up before she got here.

When I was home last June, we were visiting my Grandma King to celebrate her 89th birthday (she also mentioned that she was celebrating her 70th year living in her house - crazy, I know). As we talked about all of her years in the house she mentioned that she had 8mm video's that my Grandpa had taken when the kids were young. I decided to take the film reels home and convert them to video for her. Coincidentally, my boss's father had recently found his 8mm projector and let me borrow it. That, a white sheet, and a Flip Video was all I needed.

Going through the videos was like going back in time. My mom, her brothers, and her sisters were very active kids. There were videos of them skiing, swimming, canoeing, ice skating, hunting, fishing, playing tennis, and golfing! There were lots of holiday gatherings like Thanksgiving 1959, Christmas 1962, and the Girl Scout Round-Up. And the one I enjoyed most, which I have attached here, is of my parents wedding. Even though it's a little shaky and moves fast, I still love watching it!

Leaf Placecards

In obligation of my PSA Essential Design Team duties, I had to work on a few projects for Thanksgiving. Autumn was the main inspiration for the leaf placecards. How gorgeous would these look on a fully decorated Thanksgiving dinner table?

Pumpkin Carving

So yeah, Halloween was 3 days ago, but I still want to post these pics because I'm pretty proud of myself. This design was level "expert" in the halloween kit! It's not quite perfect but still looks scary.

First Roast Chicken!

So I've done a few turkeys for special occasions, but when I came across this recipe by the Barefoot Contessa today on foodnetwork.com I knew it would be... wait for it... chicken tonight! :)

I love to find great base recipes online and make little (or sometimes big) changes. In this case I just cut up some carrots that I had in the fridge and added them to the roast. After simmering in the lemon garlic for an hour and a half they were perfectly sweet and amazing. A terrific snack while my fiance carved the chicken!

Bottom line, I'm so proud of myself for creating an amazing dinner by following a few steps and not being afraid to try something I hadn't done before. Sure, cleaning the chicken and removing the 'giblets' was a bit unpleasant, but the result was well worth it :)

Thanksgiving Design: Final Table Setting

The finished tree is anchored with a Ball Jar stuffed with rocks, colored wood filings and some of the leftover acorns. Each place setting has a place card with the persons first initials. The place cards mirror the design of the accordion folded ornaments to tie it all together. Here are some final images:

Thanksgiving Design: Paper Ornaments

Since the reason I'm creating the Thanksgiving Tree and Placecards is for a design team project with PSA Essentials I had to incorporate a PSA Peel & Stick stamp. These stamps are very versatile and the line has TONS of to choose from. I chose the Hello Kitty line with the kitty dressed up as a Pilgrim and tied the design in with the gold glitter on the acorn ornaments. This is my favorite part of the tree by far.

My Idea has been Realized!

I've been working on the invitations for my wedding (date is finally set! May 21, 2011) and want to do a really long label on the RSVP envelope that wraps around a little bit on one. I saw this done and figured it would be easy to do on my own - not so much. I couldn't find pre-cut labels anywhere that were the perfect size.

Finally, I saw a product in Michaels that can easily add adhesive to the back of basically any paper! It's called the Xryon 150 and was only $12.95 (well, just under $8 with my 40% off coupon). The Xyron 150 comes with 20' of permanent adhesive and is very easy to use. Check out their special Breast Cancer Awareness line for October:

It feels so good to have an idea in my head and make it a reality. Ready to start using my Xyron!

Officially a Published Crafter!

Earlier today my Halloween projects were posted on the PSA Stamp Camp blog, making me a published crafter! Check it out:

PSA Stamp Camp: Halloween Decorating Time

Thanksgiving Design: Acorn Ornaments

I'm working on some Thanksgiving table decorations for the PSA Essentials design team project that I've been assigned. After brainstorming some ideas, I decided to continue with my "tree" theme (see Halloween Tree post below) and create a tree that can be a centerpiece at your Thanksgiving Dinner. The color scheme is glittery gold, deep purple, a little bit of red and a little bit of orange. For the first part of the tree I created some acorn ornaments. I'm very happy with how these came out! I'll post more images as the tree comes along.

Thanks to Judy and her man Steve for gathering the acorns!

Diaper Cake

This is by far the best diaper cake I've ever made. These make great centerpieces (and conversation pieces) at baby showers. You can customize them for boys or girls and even gender neutral. This specific one was for an elegant baby shower.

I had some extra material leftover so I decorated the back of the cake too:

Party Banner

How cute is this party banner? It can be used for a birthday party, holiday decoration or even a girls night!