Highdesert Stamper – Artistic Inkspirations

Aren’t all these bags cute??

All these neat bags and boxes were made by some of your local demos, wherever you may live.. Did you know if you contacted someone locally, you could attend a class and learn how to make them?  I’m saying this, to bring to every customer’s attention, that you can help support your LOCAL demo and keep them in business in this poorer economic time.  When you go out to the corporate Stampin’ UP! website and place an order, NOT through a demo, but just off the website… there are several things that happen.

First: You pay a higher price for products

Second: The commission paid out from your sale goes into a big “pool” that is divided up among all the SU demos who have online ordering websites.

That amount, comes to about 8 cents per demo each month. Not much is it… nope.. not enough even for a postage stamp.

IF you were to find a local demo ( you can search the main SU website and “FIND A DEMO NEAR YOU”), or you could “google” local demos, or even ask around. If you are a stamper, your friends probably know of a good demo.  Once you find a local demo… go to her classes and workshops. See if you like what she/he teaches!! If you don’t like the class or workshop… look around for another demo!!  Then once you find one.. find out if she has an online ordering website. If she does… use that to place your orders (or through a class or workshop she is holding).  If she doesn’t have an online ordering website, you can call her to place an order!! You’ll get a better price on products than ordering through the main website, and you may even get in on some specials she has for her classes and groups. I offer some specials to my customers. And I know a lot of other demos do also.

So go out and look for a LOCAL demo and support her!! We love to teach and we love stamping… so help us keep doing that and bringing you great ideas and classes!!

If you are in the Albuquerque , New Mexico area and looking for classes… I AM HERE!! You can contact me for classes. I do specialty classes (books, portfolios, seasonal cards, etc), and a regular monthly Sunday Stampers class.

But please.. go find a local demo and support her!! Help us keep doing what we love and love to teach!!

I know this isn’t stamping related, but I couldn’t help post my beautiful loaf of home made bread. It was SOOO easy!!

How many of you make fresh baked bread?? There’s nothing like the smell of fresh baked bread wafting through the house… Well, this week I was out of bread, and didn’t feel like going out in the cold to the store. I have a bread machine, but more times than not, the recipe somehow messes up and the bread doesn’t quite turn out how I like it. I decided to try something new. I took a basic bread recipe, mixed the dry ingred, then added all the wet, and just barely mixed it to hold together then threw the dough ball into the bread machine to let it do all the kneading and baking.. WOW did I hit on something wonderful!!! Here’s the NICE huge 1 1/2 lb loaf that came out!!

Bread loaf with 2 slices "gone"

Of course we had to taste it….. can I say YUMMO!!!

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try a loaf yourself. I am making another this today..since Amy is coming over to try some of that wonderful honey glazed ham!!

Basic white bread: I used UNBLEACHED flour

3 1/2 c. UB flour

1 Tb. salt  (mix these two in a lg bowl)

Liquid: mix the liquids plus sugar and add the yeast to bloom

1/4 c. evap milk

3/4 c warm water

2 Tb veg. oil or melted butter

1 Tb sugar

1 pkg dry yeast

After the yeast dissolves and blooms, just add to the four/salt bowl and mix together into a dougball. Toss in the bread machine and set for 1P (that was the basic setting for mine a Sunbeam) . Let it go and do all the work and take the bread out when it starts beeping it’s done!!  This is easy enough to teach a child to do!! If you don’t have a bread machine, you can always knead it by hand (til elastic), let rise, punch down, shape into a loaf and bake.  Enjoy!!

I don’t mean to be long winded, but have to tell you about a Blessing I and my daughter received today.

This time of year is supposed to be a time of getting back in touch with old friends, family, and usually.. helping others. This year has been an especially hard year for me and my daughter. She had to quit a good paying job to go back to school full time to pursue a different career.. I don’t get around quite as well as I used to, and finally committed to having my other knee replaced before the end of the year, just in case “medical coverages” change and I wouldn’t be able to get it done. I can barely walk, and have been turned down for regular jobs because of my “walking disability” or lack of the ability to walk very well.  When times were better, I would try to help others, providing food from my cupboard, clothes, blankets from my closet, or just an ear to listen to problems of others.   This year, my car broke down (again.. new computer again after only 9000 miles on the previous new one), then a tooth broke and I had to have dental surgery, … then my furnace went out (thank goodness this house has TWO or I wouldn’t have heat)…Well that’s THREE things so hopefully nothing else major will happen.

Due to all the unexpected circumstances, (not counting a cut in my income), it’s been hard to pay bills, and even put the “right kind ” of food on the table.  I am diabetic also, and am not really supposed to eat a lot of starchy foods.. but hey, what can you do when you can’t afford to buy all the green fresh vegetables and fruits, or the right proteins?  We just make do with what God provides.. Tonight… one of my very dear neighbors and friends came over and asked me if I would help her bake a ham she had in a bag. I told her sure.. it was a beautiful spiral cut ham.  I asked her where she bought it, and if she would go get me one and I would pay her… She said… she would..MERRY CHRISTMAS!! this ham is for you!!  I could have cried…But that is the kind of friends I have. Amy is a dear heart, who would help you do anything!! She has helped me move furniture in and out of my house, helped me move bookcases into my stamping room, helped me by taking out the trash bins when I couldn’t get them out… and just been there sometimes to just sit and talk and have a cup of tea and visit with a friend.  SO that is the Christmas Blessing we received this season so far… a gift from a friend.  I hope your Christmas is HAPPY, and bountiful.  Get a blessing by doing something nice for someone in your neighborhood!!

So have some fun, spread some cheer, and may your Christmas be Blessed!! I’ll end with a photo of my youngest granddaughter playing “superwoman” with one of my guatemalan cloths. She tickles me how much fun she can have with just a piece of cloth!!