Once again, hello Penny Black friends. At last, the sneak peeks and teasing are finished and the new Be Merry release is available from the Penny Black Store. I have been busy test driving the new stamps and dies and once again I have to say this release has something special for everyone. Penny Black’s unique style shines through the classic, elegant, cute and artistic styles of stamps and dies. You can make your projects as simple or complex as your muse leads you.
Today I have included two one layer cards that work well for making multiples and for sending through the mail. I’ve also indulged my love of snowmen and cute in general.
My hope is that you see something here that helps put you in the mood for making your holiday cards.
The Three Kings transparent set will give you many options for making a card expressing the true meaning of the Christmas holiday. Here I blended Distress Oxide inks to create a night sky. After thoroughly drying the ink, I stamped and heat embossed the images and the Bible verse. I used my MISTI in order to get a good layer of Versafine black ink as the base for my clear embossing powder. And those little white dots? Those are the punch outs from the Snowflake Stitch Frame that were scattered all over my desk. I picked each dot up with a tweezer and dipped it into some adhesive and applied it to the background. A little time consuming, but I am happy with the look. I am just not good at “flicking” white liquids.
This is almost a one layer card and it would be super easy to make in quantity, using the Holly Frame die. The circular piece in the middle is an ornament with its top cut off from the Joyful Ornaments die set. I experimented with various color combinations before deciding on the red and kraft color scheme. That Holly Frame is awesome no matter what color or background you place behind it. My head is swimming with ideas even as I write this.
Go big or go home, they say! This bold and beautiful snowflake is the Stitch a Snowflake die set which consists of this large snowflake and the smaller center snowflake. I chose a silver and aqua color theme here, but the possibilities are endless. The sentiment is from the Joyful Wishes sentiment set which includes seven awesome holiday wishes.
ARFID
No, ARFID is not another new word. It is an acronym for Adult Restrictive Food Intake Disorder – probably better known as “picky eater”. And that’s me!
I am beginning to believe there is a genetic component to being a picky eater. My father was a strictly meat, potatoes and vegetable person. And don’t ever mix them all together in a casserole and please limit the vegetables to peas, carrots and corn with an occasional green bean if necessary. Hold the cheese, hold the sauces, hold the garlic and any other spice. Onions were allowed. All desserts were rejected except for apple pie; no nuts other than peanuts.
As a child, there were more foods I would not eat than foods I would. The list really made no sense to most people, but maybe other picky eaters could understand.
My first requirement for any food I ate was that it be plain. Like my father, I did not want foods mixed up. I also did not eat lettuce, cheese, dinner rolls, most vegetables, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, butter, pizza, hot dogs, eggs (except hard boiled), salad dressing, creamy soups (actually, creamy anything) and milk. One of the worst days of my childhood involved succotash, served by friends of my parents at their home. Hmmm, I wonder how my Dad managed that?
When I went off to college and lived in a co-op house, I pretty much survived on the jar of peanut butter and loaf of rye bread I stashed in my desk. At the dinner table, I tried to sit furthest from the House Mother who knew about the peanut butter and had taken on the role of food police. Finally it became too embarrassing to let friends know I wouldn’t eat pizza or Chinese food so I gave them a try. Once I fell in love with pizza, I was upset with myself that I had lived in Italy for two years and had never eaten pizza. And who knew that egg rolls had nothing to do with eggs?
Over the years I discovered broccoli, Brussels sprouts, asparagus and cauliflower. Peas and lima beans, however, will never again touch my lips. Lasagna and macaroni and cheese are still way off limits for so many reasons: cheese, sauce and texture. I now enjoy bacon and eggs and a limited selection of salad dressings. That doesn’t sound like much, but has made eating out much easier.
When I researched ARFID I learned that people like me experience food differently than others. We tend to prefer bland and processed foods based on looks, smells or textures. Sometimes it is presentation, or a different type of noodle or different brand of whatever that causes us to reject a food.
I realize there are a lot worse syndromes than ARFID to deal with. You might even be saying “get over it”, “just try it”, “one bite”, “you’re just being stubborn”. I have heard all of these things and many others while people cajole or encourage me to try new foods. It just doesn’t work that way. As I child, I would sit for hours at the table after everyone else was done because I wasn’t allowed to leave until I had eaten my dinner. It was lonely staring at the food I couldn’t eat when it was warm and certainly couldn’t eat after it got cold. Eventually I learned to stuff my cheeks with the offending food to dispose of later.
Mr. RWS is an adventurous eater. He enjoys new foods and is able to eat most anything, even if he doesn’t care for it. This ability served him well on his trip to Ethiopia several years ago. And food was one of the reasons I didn’t make the trip.
That is the difference between a person with a normal relationship with food and those of us with ARFID. Mr. RWS may not care for a particular food, but he can and will eat it if served. If something is served to me that is not on my “will eat” list, I cannot eat it to be polite. If I can get it as far as my mouth, I certainly cannot chew it and swallow it.
All of this makes dinner invitations a bit tricky. I used to just push things around on my plate trying to make the portions seem smaller and pretending that everything was delicious. As an adult, I have learned to explain to my host or hostess that the problem is me, and I am just fine and they don’t need to worry about whether I will be hungry or not. Usually there is something at every dinner that I can eat, whether at someone’s home or at a restaurant. And if Mr. RWS is sitting next to me, it is all good. He always has room for his own dinner and the portion I don’t eat.
My brothers are 11 and 12 years younger than I and since I left home right after high school, they have no strong memories of me and my eating habits as they grew up. However, both of them have ARFID also, and a more serious case than I! Bless their wives who cook separately for them and have finally, after so many years, accepted that their husbands are not going to be expanding their food horizons. Their level of “pickiness” makes me look like an amazing eater! Additionally, my sister and I each have a picky eater among our children.
My oldest son shared a story with me one day that made me realize how my eating habits had affected my kids. On one of his first days at college he returned to his dorm and his dorm mates, raving about the amazing sauce that was on the chicken sandwich he had at the local McRestaurant. (Our small town had no such place). As he described the creamy white sauce with the amazing flavor to his friends, they began laughing in disbelief. The sauce he was describing was mayonnaise! None of my children had ever had it. Needless to say, he was embarrassed and I heard about it! Thankfully, he has since become a very adventurous cook and eater.
I am hopeful that the ARFID disorder has died out and skips the grandchildren. Their parents are wiser about dealing with food issues. There just are none. Food is served and children are free to eat or not eat. They are amazingly well nourished and eat a healthy variety of food. Their Grandma is the only problem eater when she visits.
If I had to choose a favorite card today, this would be it. I am so happy to have a Santa included in this release; but no ordinary Santa! This unique and jolly fellow is from the North Pole Treasures transparent set which includes other classic holiday images. This is a one layer card, easily made in quantity and sent through the mail.
The Trees and Hills die set is going to be perfect for creating backgrounds for your holiday images. There are two dies in the set, and here I’ve used them both to provide a wintry landscape for the snowman and pup from the Merry Delight transparent set and the matching Merry Delight Cut Out set. Is there anything cuter than a snowman with his little pup?
I had to indulge my fondness for snowmen this week. This is an image from the To All … transparent set that I fussy cut and popped up on mounting tape. I tucked a few trees from the Modern Xmas Tree die set and added a fluffy little cloud from Silver Linings. I am thrilled that this release includes this stackable die set Snowflake Stitch Frames. I believe it will be useable all year long. This is the die that donated the little white dots for my Three Kings card.
Cooper’s leg seems to be healed once again. We have cautiously increased his activity level and given him back his toys. Like dogs everywhere, he doesn’t hold a grudge.
It’s time to clean up and say good bye for now. The scissors are where they belong and I am off to check out the Penny Circle Flickr Gallery. The Be Merry release is now available in the Penny Black store. Hooray and happy shopping! Thank you for sharing time with me this week. I do hope I haven’t discouraged anyone from issuing a dinner invitation. Just, please, no lasagna.
Shop for today’s featured Penny Black supplies
Card No. 1: 30-435 Three Kings, 51-379 Adore Him
Card No. 2: 51-366 Joyful Ornaments, 51-374 Holly Frame, 51-389 Hedgy Joy, 51-389 Hedgy Joy Cut Out
Card No. 3: 30-434 Joyful Wishes, 51-376 Stitch a Snowflake
Card No. 4: 30-437 North Pole Treasures
Card No. 5: 30-448 Merry Delight, 51-387 Merry Delight Cut Out, 51-381 Trees and Hills
Card No. 6: 30-307 Holiday Snippets, 30-445 To All …, 51-033 Silver Linings, 51-375 Snowflake Stitch Frame, 51-400 Modern Xmas Tree