$25 FREE!

Can you believe this? OpenSky is offering a $25 gift certificate (no minimum purchase, free shipping!) to all of you! Just use this coupon code: amy2509 and you'll get $25 off just like that.

The fine print...$25 off coupon, Good for any OpenSky item (not just in my shop!), No minimum purchase, Free shipping, Limit one per customer, Starts: NOW!, Expires: When they run out of coupons...it's for the first 1000 customers across all of the shops at OpenSky. Good only for US and Canada shoppers (sorry rest of the world!)

If you have any problems, email customerservice@theopenskyproject.com or call (877) 734-OPEN (6736), Monday to Friday, between 8 AM and 5 PM Eastern time.

Tell me how you spend your $25...you could get something small for free...or really splurge and save $25!

Have fun shopping!

YIKES! there's so much traffic going over to OpenSky that the servers crashed...they're on it! Try back soon if you can't get in now....

DOUBLE YIKES! They went through the 1000 codes in record time...sorry to all those who tried and weren't quick enough. Let's try again next month, shall we? This time, I'll give you a heads up!

A Thanksgiving Gift

Hello, friends. I wanted to tell you about a special promotion over at OpenSky. For a limited time you will get a coupon for $25 off a $50 purchase when you make a purchase of any value from my OpenSky store.

And check out this very cute glitter sampler...


Buy it, get the coupon via email and splurge on your next order! You'll get free shipping on both orders and $25 off the second order of $50 or more!


It would be like getting a whole jelly bean assortment of Angelina Fibers for free!

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Now we'll return to the regularly scheduled program of stirring and mixing and heating and boiling...)

Happy Thanksgiving...

The biggest turkey I've ever seen is in my oven. Rich's whole family plus my parents are here for Thanksgiving...25 of us in all. Since this bird cooks for 7 hours and we're eating in the early afternoon, I thought it best to cook it today and slice and heat tomorrow. I hope it's a good plan...we'll see.

I also made the stuffing and cranberry relish today. My mom made broccoli caserole and sweet potato pudding today. Tomorrow morning, my father will make potatoes augratin and macaroni and cheese. As soon as I wake up, I'll put the rolls out to rise. And all of Rich's family will bring a dish. So I think we're set.

I'm sure you are up to the same sort of business I just wanted to pop in to wish you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving. Count your blessings each by name and, if there's someone missing from your Thanksgiving table today, may you feel their presence in your heart.

Happy Thanksgiving!

angels, frosting, and worried looking turkeys...

These are heading out the door today...

I'm terrible at keeping secrets and I just couldn't wait to show you these paper dolls for a swap. I will show you just these two images though and will catch you up on the details later.


Meanwhile,
Thursday afternoon we had a ball decorating the cupcakes.

(Please don't study the messy kitchen in the background! We had other priorities that day)

Have you seen this stuff? It's perfect for the frosting-challenged like me. We just squeezed little puffs all over the cupcakes and threw sprinkles on them. And did you know that they make "cupcake mix" that just makes 12 cupcakes? Just our size batch.

We're still working on these turkeys...


Maybe it's just me but with their googly eyes these turkeys look really worried. "Is that an axe in your hand?!" this one seems to be saying.

(Terri, is this your paper?)

cupcakes, playdough, and crafting!

If ever a day you'll want to visit the Powers' household, it's today...

We're making cupcakes (with sprinkles) and homemade playdough (scented and dyed with kool-aid) and we're crafting like crazy.

Don't you want to come over?

Alfredo's feeling so much better and we are celebrating that with lots of fun. He's napping now but we whipped up the cupcakes before he went down (with promises of frosting fun and taste-testing when he wakes up!)



While he's napping, I'm working on a swap project and having so much fun with wallpaper Karla gifted me at Silver Bella and angelina fibers (which you can get here). The style of the swap is vintage so I decided to sew an antique lace overlay over the shimmery angelina fibers. These photos don't do them justice...I love how it turned out.




And when we're done with the cupcakes and playdough fun, we're going to make these into turkeys!

I'll show you when we're done. Don't they look like fun already? If you want to play along, it's just as easy as it looks. Trace your little one's hand and cut that shape out of patterned scrapbook paper...then grab a handful of googly eyes, little orange triangles and little red ovals and meet us back here.

it was a bella-bration!

I'm back from Silver Bella...what a party it was! It was so much fun meeting new people and reuniting with old friends.

Want to see what I made in my classes?

First up, Rosary-inspired necklace with Kaari Meng. I cannot believe that I really made this necklace. I mean, just look at how beautiful...


Next, I made this adorable little snowman in Jennifer Murphy's class...


Then I snipped feathers like crazy to fashion this bird in Denise Sharp's class...


The next day, bright and early, I learned how to make this fun mobile in Charlotte Lyon's class...


And, after a great lunch & presentation by Jo Packham, I made this sweet little birdy in another Jennifer Murphy's class.


I have so much more to show and tell but Alfredo is a bit under the weather and needs extra loving today.

Speaking of the little guy, while I was snapping these photos he said "I have a problem!"

Alarmed but amused by his choice of words I said "What's going on?!" He replied "My hippo keeps eating my other animals and I don't know how to make him stop!"

"Maybe he needs a time-out" I suggested.
"No, he's just really hungry" said Alfredo. "Give him a bowl of candy!"

silver bella here I come!

I'm packing like crazy for Silver Bella. (I'm heading out tomorrow morning) I can't wait to see all my friends and make new ones.

Before I go, I wanted to tell you about the new product just added to my Open Sky shop. I'm so excited about it!




Remember this bird? Well, I made the fabric with this fabulous crafting material.




They are called Angelina Fibers and I can't stop thinking about it, playing with it, and talking about it. I'm going to work on making a video to show you how cool it is but that will have to wait until I get back. Until then, here's a little information to get you excited too.


You can make a fabulous gossamer-like fabric and it is so easy you won't believe it. You just place a bit of the fabric on a piece of parchment paper, cover it with another piece and quickly (like 2 or 3 seconds) run your iron over it. The fibers bond with each other (and only each other!) But the most exciting part and the part that is so hard to photograph is how vibrant and sparkly these fibers are. It's like glitter fabric!


What are you going to do with it? I'm thinking it makes the most fabulous angel wings.


Click here to order some angelina fibers so you can play too!

my introduction

There's a challenge at OpenSky to create a quick introduction for others involved in the project. I thought you might like to see too.



That bump bump bump you hear in the middle is Alfredo running through the house to find me. When he did, he stood there listening quietly and at the end said "Who are you talking to, Amy?"

week in review....and something new

Alfredo's family (whom we really consider our own) arrived on Wednesday morning after flying all night. I had assumed that Wednesday would be a quiet day for them, resting and visiting.

I couldn't have been more wrong. Even though nobody was able to sleep on the plane through the night, not even 3 year old Joel, they were ready to hit the town the very moment they arrived.

If I gave you a play-by-play of the week, you'd be exhausted just reading it. Trust me. We stayed plenty busy. It's hard to believe it was just 3 days...we packed so much in there. In between all the touristy things we did, we prepared feasts of meals and talked about all sorts of things.

One thing we talked about was the idea that they would move here, to Virginia. The idea is still in the preliminary stages but it just makes so much sense to all of us. If it were to happen, Alfredo would have all of his family, including us, as part of his daily life. He'd have the structure of our daily life yet his father and family would be very much a part of his life.

There are all sorts of details and complications to work through. Unfortunately for us, if it doesn't work out, Alfredo will be bound for California in December. And we will wait as patiently as we can for the time when he would return to us in late spring. It breaks my heart to even think of it. Instead, I'm doing two things...I'm working hard to make this new plan work out, for everyone to be here. Secondly, I'm treasuring these moments with Alfredo, taking extra time to cuddle and read stories and play, and being grateful for the gift of this time with him.

Halloween night was wet and cold and our little Rhino loved trick or treating. After the 10th house, he declared that he had enough candy. We returned home and he happily shared his bounty with us as we watched television and, on occasion, handed out candy to sopping wet vampires and ghouls and Hannah Montanas.

Yesterday and today I have playing a bit with a new-to-me fabulous crafting material. I made the bird and nest in the piece pictured out of it and I'm already dreaming up new and fun ways to use it.

Best of all, I'm so excited to share it with you through my new OpenSky store, hopefully this week.