Goodness Gracious GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!!

After such a long hiatus from my blog, I needed an eye-catching title for this post, right? :)

I'm so sorry for my absence, fellow crafters. I have been so sad not to be creating and sharing with you all. I MISS SUMMER!!! Oh how I long for the carefree nights without volleyball games, homework, etc.! My schedule has been especially grueling lately. I've still checked your blogs, got excited about the inspiration, but commented little and just haven't had the time and/or energy to get crafty myself.

This week, however, I was approached by a manager at my work to make a special gift presentation. He knew I enjoyed making things, and since I had been gone from my passion for what felt like an eternity, I decided that this was a good push to get crafty again.

Let me give you a little background for my gift presentation. The gift recipient is Dick Bales, who authored a book a few years back called "The Great Chicago Fire and The Myth of Mrs. O'Leary's Cow." Using our company's very old title records, he did some extensive research that actually admonishes Mrs. O'Leary's cow from being the cause of the Great Chicago Fire! And since a local theater is doing a play on this subject, my manager thought a gift certificate to the theater would be a nice early 60th birthday present for Dick.

Here is the presentation of that gift certificate:

One of the biggest benefits to crafting is making things personalized, don't you think? LOVE IT!

I used 2 Cricut cartridges for this candy bouquet: Birthday Bash (cow and numbers), and Campin' Critters for the flames. The candy, of course, was in the theme: Cow Tales, Atomic Fireballs, and Black Cow bars (the giant chocolate caramel versions of Slow Pokes - yum!). I also copied Dick's book cover to add in. If you need more details, please email me. I so need to go to sleep, though! I'll be dragging tomorrow, but at least I'll feel good about getting a post up, right? Not to mention it's FRIDAY!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend, my fellow bloggy friends!