A. Russ Original

I am really enjoying my Cricut. This year I’ve made all kinds of cool things with it, cards, banners, tags, stencils, snowflakes… But my favorite thing so far has to be a gift I made for my sister for Christmas this year! My sister is quite the baker and takes her treats all over town, to others to enjoy, whether its the girls meeting or a family dinner, she likes to share her confections with everyone. I had come across a Pin that showed the etched bottom of a glass 9x13 pan and thought that would be cute to make for her… But the more I thought about it the more I talked myself out of making it. The 9x13 would limit her to using it for brownies or dump cakes (which she does bake these) but I wanted to do something special for her cakes and cupcakes … Then, Inspiration hit while enjoying a leisurely stroll through my local Michael's Craft store… I came across a display of Wilton cake carriers and then it hit me… why not use the Cricut to personalize it with Beth’s name using th

  The traditional Russ Christmas tree takes me days to put up. (In my defense, when I was younger I could decorate the whole house for the holidays in one day… not it takes at least a week!) We have a 9.5’ tree that is more than a few years old, I’m in search of a taller, slim tree for the house we currently live in… We got the Christmas boxes out of the shop out back in under an hour, it was a huge help to have Mike help with that task this year! Once all the boxes make it to the correct rooms (yes ROOMS… they are all labeled!) I start by ‘fluffing’ the tree. I’m allergic to evergreens for we have a artificial tree… or as some folks have started calling them ‘forever trees’ (what a hoot!) Now, fluffing a tree can take a couple of hours… and for some reason always seems to produce a pile of fake needles on the floor! (not so forever after all!) Then I add the white lights to the interior of the tree. I read somewhere years ago that it was supposed to make your small tree look bigger