Groove is in the Heart

That Last Post was Funny

2011-12-22T18:45:00.000-06:00

So, I kept up with Dec Daily approximately one day after my last post. I haven't given up yet though! My system for keeping up has become sticky note messages on each page of my album and a pile of stuff on my desk I want to include. I feel good that it will still be meaningful, but I may not have as much play by play journaling. I'm still going with the idea that it's ok to share a story everyday, rather than a detailed account of what happened that day.

Hope to get some done so I can share soon!

Keeping up

2011-12-05T21:47:00.000-06:00

It's a Christmas miracle!! I've kept up with Dec Daily so far. That may be the only thing I've kept up with lately (the pile of laundry on my bed can attest to that), but I feel pretty good about it :)

I've posted the photos of my progress on Flickr if you want to check it out.

December Daily

2011-12-02T22:26:00.000-06:00

I'm trying my hand at documenting each day in December, a process widely known as December Daily, a concept started by Ali Edwards several years ago. I've always wanted to participate, but am usually so behind with life, I never get around to it. I figured now is as good a time as any to jump in since time in the day does not seem to be increasing and the years are flying by!

I managed to complete the foundation pages, which is set up pretty much just like Ali's. The digital overlays from Designer Digitals make it pretty easy to design. I may need to remove some of the extra elements as I go because the album is already overflowing and I haven't started adding anything yet!

I used a We R Memory Keepers 5.5 x 8.5 leather album that I had on hand. In fact, I did not purchase anything new for this album other than the overlays. That may or may not be an indication that I have way to many supplies laying around.

So, without further ado, here is my December 1st spread...

One thing that has really helped me feel like this is a do-able project during this busy season is Ali's suggestion to pick one story each day and tell it. It helps to narrow down all of the life stuff to focus on any holiday activities we may have done such as Advent calendars. Little gems come along like the sweet card M made for me which I added by just punching holes in it.

Hopefully I will be able to keep up and post my progress, but I'd better not make any promises :)

2011-11-22T19:27:00.000-06:00

A couple of recent layouts I created made with Studio Calico kits.

Recipe ~ Pumpkin Crunch

2011-11-05T23:48:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorite fall desserts, it is very quick and easy to make. Even if you aren't a fan of pumpkin (like me, I wouldn't eat a slice of pumpkin pie if it were the last pie on earth) you should try it out. This is especially good to take to a gathering if you wind up in charge of dessert.

Pumpkin Crunch

1 box yellow cake mix

1 15 oz can solid pack pumpkin

1 12 oz can evaporated milk

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar (I have used splenda for this and it works great)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 c chopped pecans (optional, it tastes great with or without)

1 cup butter, melted

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom of 9x13 pan.

*Combine pumpkin evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Pour into prepared pan.

*Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture. Top with pecans.

*Drizzle melted butter over top.

*Bake at 350 for 50-55 mins or until golden brown.

*Cool...serve chilled. Top with cinnamon whipped cream or cool whip.

Cinnamon Whipped Cream

2 cups whipping cream

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

*Whip all ingredients to desired consistency...it will take 5 or more minutes with a mixer, so be patient.

***Tip: Chill the bowl for your mixer before you add ingredients and it won't take as long to whip up:)

Check this out

2011-11-01T14:15:00.001-05:00

Here's a great giveaway on Elizabeth Kartchner's blog...check out theDecember Dailykit offered by Studio Calico and Ali Edwards. I would love to win one of these!!

December Daily Kit Giveaway

Be sure to check it out!

2011-10-26T08:08:00.001-05:00

Made this last week. I love this picture of the kids taken with Instagram. The patterned paper (Sassafrass Lass) made it so easy to add a couple of embellishments and journaling. I was done in about 20 minutes! Which is saying a lot because I can wind up spending hours agonizing on where to place everything.

Hope to have some time to get some scrapbooking in this weekend. I'm still working on a big basement painting project that has been going on for months, so I should probably finish that first:)

Crafty Clearance

2011-10-19T11:55:00.001-05:00

I'm cleaning house people! I will be listing all remaining stock of HeartGrooves Papercrafting on Etsy over the next few days at rock bottom prices! Do I sound like a used car salesman yet? :)

Seriously, I am really wanting to clear this out and move on with my life. I may or may not rekindle the HeartGrooves flame someday, but right now, I have to focus on other things. I will still take custom orders as time allows.

Here is a preview of items to be listed:

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I'm planning some great recipe posts, so stay tuned :)

2011-10-17T07:00:00.002-05:00

Thought I would keep this posting thing going by sharing some recent layouts. I went through a great creative spurt a few weeks ago and got lots done. These were a couple of my favorites.

I am in love with the iphone instagram app used to capture this great photo of M on the diving board...to bad I don't have an iphone and have to steal Bill's when I want to use it!

Hope you have a great Monday!

Honesty is the Best Policy

2011-10-15T11:39:00.000-05:00

Upon my triumphant return to the blogosphere, I have decided to put myself out there warts and all. So, when I tell you about M's bday party, I'm not going to just show you the picture of perfectly cute cupcakes and talk about what a fantastic time everyone had.

I'm going to go a little deeper and tell you what a pain in my butt these cupcakes were to make. Hopefully my lessons will help you along the way should you ever decide to make similar cupcakes.

The first thing you should know, if you are making ice cream cone cupcakes, never overfill the cones with cake batter. They will explode. I guaruntee it.

And then, once your realize you have 9 kids coming to you home expecting cupakes, don't try to just trim off the exploded cake parts then go ahead and dip them in the frosting. Unless you want cake/frosting casserole. Lastly, marshmallows make terrible clouds when the rainbows are a very flexible candy that will be sadly listing by the time you eat them.

Then, once you come to terms with the fact that you are not Martha Stewart and that kids will gladly eat cake/frosting casserole any day and will just eat the rainbow candy off the tops before anyone even realizes your cupcakes aren't perfect...you can have fun at the dance party!

All in all it was a great party, we blasted some Justin Bieber and danced the night away :)

A great party for a great 6 year old!

A Few Months Later...

2011-10-14T09:06:00.000-05:00

I thought since I joined Twitter, I should be a better blogger. As history reveals this may or may not work out for me :)

Anyway, in case you were wondering what I've been up to all these months here are a few highlights:

We spent lots of time at the pool this summer.

Bill and I went to see U2 in concert...it was pretty awesome!

Molly had her dance recital...always a yearly highlight.

Emily celebrated her 8th birthday which I still can't wrap my mind around!

Parker started middle school. Again, blows my mind.

Molly started kindergarten and Emily started 3rd grade...everyone got to experience new schools this year which has been really good.

Oh, and it was the hottest summer I can remember...this was in my van at 10 am in August. Yikes! Our AC will never be the same.

So, there you have it. All very good reasons (read:excuses) for not blogging :) If you want to follow me on Twitter, I may have something to say! @bethcrd

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T20:56:00.000-05:00

I hope you had a wonderful day!

Recipe Thursday: Chicken Lettuce Wraps

2011-04-21T11:00:00.000-05:00

I found this recipe on my favorite recipe website Tasty Kitchen. It is from sweetpeachef (I used her photo) and let me tell you, this is a good one. It takes longer to eat than it does to make and my kids love it so much I have to double it for our family of 5!

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

10 leaves Bibb, Iceberg Or Romaine Lettuce
1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
1 pound Ground Chicken Breast
1 whole White Onion, Chopped
3 cloves Garlic, Minced
2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Hoisin Sauce
2 teaspoons Fresh Ginger, Minced
2 teaspoons Rice Wine Vinegar
½ teaspoons Red Pepper Flakes
8 ounces, weight (1 Can) Water Chestnuts, Chopped
3 whole Green Onions, Chopped

Wash lettuce leaves, drain and set aside. Leave them whole. You may cut out the spine if you prefer, though this is not necessary. If you have little ones eating this, the lettuce can be difficult to manage, so try it on flour tortillas, it is really good as well.
Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes, breaking up the meat into small pieces. Add the onion, garlic, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ginger, vinegar and red pepper flakes. Cook until the meat is well browned and the onions are translucent.
Add water chestnuts and green onions and cook for 1 minute longer, just until well mixed.
Spoon meat mixture onto lettuce leaves and enjoy!

I serve this with rice and steamed sugar snap peas and we never have leftovers :)

2 in 2...it's a record!

2011-04-20T11:49:00.001-05:00

I have gotten 2 layouts done in the last 2 days, and am posting about them 2 days in a row!!! If I get nothing else done this week, I can call it productive :) This layout is based on sketch #2 from KP's class mentioned in the last post.

Plus I made a card based on the sketch. I love this Cosmo Cricket paper...the one that looks like handwriting lessons.

Look for a new Recipe Thursday post tomorrow! I think posting 3 days in a row is some kind of record for me :)

2011-04-19T13:26:00.001-05:00

I'm taking an online class called Sketchbook 3 taught by Kelly Purkey. This is based on the first sketch which came out a week and a half ago! These pics were a valentines day photo shoot gone awry...but turned out pretty fun :) Hope I can get lots more done, working from a sketch makes the scrapbooking process much faster for me.

All supplies are from the latest Studio Calico kit, Singin' in the Rain. I have subscribed to this kit for a couple of years and haven't had a month I didn't like yet! I've been enjoying focusing more on scrapbooking for fun rather than items to sell. I've put so much pressure on myself to make a success of the Etsy shop and art/craft fairs that I lost sight of why I started all of this in the first place....a creative home for my pictures that records my family's story in an interesting and beautiful way. I only hope my kids don't want to burn the scrapbooks when I'm gone since they always say "Mom's scrapbooking, AGAIN!" :)

Recipe Thursday: Chicken Pot Pie

2011-04-14T09:44:00.001-05:00

This is a favorite go-to recipe for me. My kids and hubby all love it and in general I keep all of the ingredients on hand in my pantry. It can also be made a day or two ahead of time and kept in the fridge until ready to bake.

Chicken Pot Pie
2-3 cooked, shredded chicken breasts (you can mix it up and save money by using a combo of breasts and boneless thighs, just remove any skin before cooking)
1 16 oz bag frozen mixed veggies (I use Hyvee brand)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup Bisquick (I use the heart healthy variety)
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

*Cook chicken(boiling works well for this) and shred into fairly small chunks. Mix together with veggies and soup. I like to steam my veggies before mixing, but you don't have to. Put into 9x9 casserole dish prepared with cooking spray.

*Mix together bisquick, milk and egg. Pour over chicken mixture. At this point it will look like not enough breading will result from the amount of bisquick mix you have, but trust me, it will cook up nice and fluffy :)

*Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown on top, usually about 20-30 mins.

I serve this with a green salad. Leftovers of this are great. I have never tried to freeze this baked or unbaked before, so if some brave soul wants to try that, let me know how it turns out :)

Yeah. I'm still here :)

2011-04-13T14:39:00.003-05:00

It's been a long winter folks. Very long. I'm thinking my 8 faithful followers are getting pretty sick of checking to see if I've posted anything since Thanksgiving 2010 :) Why haven't I posted since then you ask? I'm not sure, but mainly I just haven't had much to say, I guess. We have had a very snowy winter here in mid-MO and the kids were off of school so much I spent a lot of time entertaining them. I heard we had more than 55 inches of snow this winter and that was before it snowed 2 more times!

So, I think I'm back on track...I've spent some time thinking about what purpose I want this blog to serve, and I guess I'm still not too sure about that, but I know I love to share recipes, crafts/scrapbooks and photos. So, that is likely what you'll be getting! I have a great go-to dinner recipe to share tomorrow....

What are you having for dinner tonight?

Cranberry Casserole

2010-11-25T06:00:00.002-06:00

Here is the recipe as promised :)

3 cups tart apples, peeled and chopped
2 cups fresh whole cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups quick oats
1/2 cup butter melted
1/4 c chopped walnuts

*Heat oven to 325 degrees.
* Mix together cranberries, apples, sugar and lemon juice together. I do this step right in the 9x13 pan I bake it in.
*Mix together butter, brown sugar, quick oats and walnuts. Sprinkle over cranberry mixture.
*Bake for 60-70 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

I often make this in 2 8x8 pans to take to 2 separate dinners. It is so sweet it could even be classified as dessert!

Thanksgiving=cooking yummy stuff

2010-11-24T15:32:00.001-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! Today is my cooking day :) I'm in charge of chocolate desserts and cranberry sides this year...thought I would share.

Peanut Butter Pie

Help me Rhonda! Licking the spoon was pure bliss on this one. Recipe here.

Speaking of Rhonda...she's the one who gave me the recipe for Cranberry Casserole...

A very nice alternative to cranberry sauce. I'll share the recipe in a separate post.

I'm on a peanut butter kick today...this is a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. Recipe here. Whoever decided it was a good idea to mix cream cheese with peanut butter is an absolute genius.

Hope you all have a very happy Turkey Day!

Yummy Muffins

2010-11-18T06:00:00.001-06:00

Don't let the lack of sugar in these muffins fool you...they are really good! I tweaked a recipe from Tasty Kitchen (my favorite place online to find recipes) and came up with these little yummies...

Yummy Muffins
1 1/2-2 sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
2-3 mashed bananas
1 c plain or vanilla yogurt
1/4 c maple syrup (optional, I usually don't add it)
1 whole egg
2 c flour (I use 1 c white and 1 c whole wheat)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
chocolate chips or nuts for topping

*Mix together moist ingredients.
*Mix together dry ingredients
*Combine the mixtures and stir until just moistened***.
*Fill muffin tins to 3/4 full, you can use paper liners if desired.
*Top with chocolate chips or nuts.
*Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Makes 12-16 muffins depending on amount of sweet potatoes and bananas used.

***Tip: when making any type of quick bread or pancakes (bread/bread products made without yeast for leavening) stir together wet and dry ingredients just until barely moist. If you stir/wisk until all of the lumps are gone, your result will be very tough and hard. This is a bummer for everyone :)

Updating Etsy

2010-11-15T14:20:00.005-06:00

This week I have the opportunity to have a booth full of goodies at our local Curves. Each week they have product out for folks to "shop" while they work out...genius! I set up the table before hand to try it out. I just finished the window frame display. It turned out pretty cute, don't you think?

I always worry about things looking too "busy". I guess that is the nature of having a variety of items.

I'm also taking some time to update my etsy shop in time for Christmas shopping. Stop by and take a look, I will be adding items daily all week. Here is what I added today...

Since I've been on a pretty good roll with posting, I'm going to try to start a routine recipe post...how does "Recipe Thursdays" sound?

Harry Potter anyone?

2010-11-12T22:07:00.010-06:00

Looking forward to this next week...

It's always so exciting to see the story played out on the big screen. I've always been fairly skeptical of movies based on books, but the Harry Potter movies have really been fairly true to the books, other than leaving parts of the story line completely out, which had to be done seeing how long the books are. Such a well written series...I have read them a few times :) I may have to dive in to #7 before the big premiere.

Fun Recipe

2010-11-11T08:08:00.004-06:00

I am a big fan of snack mixes...my kids love them. When they want a snack, they ask for "a mix" which ususally consists of whatever crackers, cereal, dried fruit and chocolate chips we have on hand. Occasionally I'll make a big batch from a recipe I find, like this one...
Nutter Butter Snack Mix

5 cups crispex cereal (I used corn chex here)
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 c creamy peanut butter
1 cup mini nutter butters (I used the whole bag)
1 cup banana chips (I used the whole bag)
1/2 cup resees peices (I used more like 1 cup)

*Melt butter and peanut butter in saucepan over med low heat until melted and creamy. Add cereal to 9x13" baking dish, pour peanut butter mixture over cereal and mix together. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool completely on waxed paper.
*Combine all other ingredients in large container, add cooled cereal and mix well. Enjoy!

Almost a year later :)

2010-11-04T10:47:00.004-05:00

Our magical Christmas trip to Disney World was almost a year ago and I've finally found time to compile the memories into an (almost) complete album. I have had the plan in mind for this album pretty much since we were on the trip. Some of Ali Edwards' digital products caught my eye around that time and I thought a daily record keeping experience was a great way to organize it. Of course, I have plenty of finishing touches to add (like the actual journaling), but here is a preview of the first pages.

Cover:

Title page:

Page 1, day 1, Magic Kingdom:

Daily journaling will be handwritten on the long "Story of Today" journaling card...I used a regular 8.5x11 page protector and stitched a closure to a size for the card to fit right in.

I added the collected maps from each park to the back of the cards...if you've been to Disney you know how huge a part these maps play into your day :)
Day 2, Epcot

I took 668 photos while we were there, so the baseball card protectors were perfect for getting plenty of photos included. I used Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses Christmas line for papers and most embellishments...I really wanted to convey that this was our family's Christmas celebration, but not be too traditional with colors etc since this was not our traditional celebration.

I hope to share more soon, as I get journaling and finishing touches done. Hard to believe it's almost time for Christmas again! :)

Recent Faves

2010-10-15T08:29:00.004-05:00

It's been so long since I last posted, time goes by so quickly! So much has transpired I can't even think of what we've been doing all month :)

Here are my recent favorite pics of the kiddos...M's bday was yesterday, so we celebrated with manicures and a fashion show.

P is getting to be such a handsome young man...I can't believe he is already 10.
I'm headed to a scrapbooking weekend getaway next weekend. I'm so excited...I've never done anything like that before. Hopefully I'll have lots to share after that :)

Too Funny

2010-09-01T11:02:00.002-05:00

We watched this video about a million times last night and the more we watched it, the funnier it got...

Enjoy!

Sweet

2010-08-26T08:00:00.002-05:00

This girl and I were having a discussion about how much we loved each other...

She won the game with "I love you all the way to Barak Obama's house and back" :)

MiniBook tutorial

2010-08-23T08:00:00.001-05:00

So, I know this is the moment you have all been waiting for. The tutorial I promised months ago. I have had the pictures ready and loaded forever, but have not gotten around to actually posting the instructions.

I'm sorry. Really. Please keep reading my blog.

Anyway...these cardboard journals are fun, easy and inexpensive to make. The best part is you likely have most of this stuff on hand and will be able to recycle some of that courrugated cardboard you got with that recent shipment of crafty stuff you ordered online:) There is so much you can do with cardboard...it is sturdy, but can be trimmed with a trimmer, painted, glued, punched, you can even run it trough your sewing machine! The possibilities are endless.

Here is what you will need for this project:

2 pieces of currogated cardboard cut the same size. I like 6 x 6 or smaller for my books, but they can be any size you wish.

Inner pages cut to 1/4" smaller than your covers. You can use any type of paper (matching, not matching, plain, pattern). I often use scraps from my scrap bin for this.

pattern paper, fabric or paint for your cover

embellishments

glue, I use good old elmers or elmers craft bond glue stick. Glue stick works better for fabric.

scissors, trimmer, adhesive, bone folder, nail file or sand paper

heavy duty hole punch

Binder rings, you will need 2 or 3 depending on your book size. I like 1" rings, but again, you can use any size to suit your project.

First, decide how you will decorate your cover. You can make this as simple or as fancy as you want. For this journal, I went simple and didn't use ink or paint. Your first step is to glue the paper to the cardboard cover (or paint it). Spread a thin layer of elmers glue or gluestick all over the surface of the cover.

Place your paper over the cover and use a bone folder to rub any bubbles out from under the paper. Do these steps for the back cover as well. If you are going to do any sewing on your cover, now would be the time to do this.

Set these aside to dry and take a minute to watch that awesome scene in twilight where Bella tells Edward she knows he's a vampire...

Yes. I have a problem.

Once the covers are dry, take a nail file or sand paper and gently rub the edges. This gets rid of any excess paper hanging over the edge of the cardboard and gives a nice distressed look. I almost always do this to my paper edges for projects like this, it helps give it a finished look , I think.

Now, decide where you want your binder rings to go. I usually use 2 rings for a smaller journal. Use your heavy duty hole punch to punch holes for the binder rings. The use the first cover as a guide to punch the holes in your back cover. I make pen marks to approximate this.

Line up your inner pages so they are even inside the cover. Mark where your holes will be and punch...I usually punch the whole pile of inner pages at one time.

Now attach the binder rings.

At this point you can embellish your cover any way you want to. I layered a couple of flowers and a button here. I use my dry adhesive tape runner to attach the embellishments just as I would to a card.

And...

Ta da! You have made a cute little journal to give as a gift or use for yourself.

One of the best things about these journals is the binder rings allow you to add or take out papers easily, so it's great for photos, kids art or love notes.

Here is an example of a painted cardboard book that has sewing on it.

Have fun with this and feel free to leave comments with questions!

MIA

2010-08-20T13:37:00.004-05:00

Yes, I have been missing in action for a while now. Summer just took over with trips and the kids home, I have had little time for blogging or web activity of any kind. I'll have to post some catch up pictures of what we have been up to for the last couple of months :)

School started yesterday and fall activities are starting to fall into place. I had a chance to make some card sets and post on Etsy yesterday, stop by to take a look!

I love finding ways to use up all of the random wallet sized photos I end up with.

I hope to find more time to "re-stock" my HeartGrooves inventory and work on my Etsy shop. I know I've said this before, but it's time for me to fish or cut bait on this whole crafty business deal. I was talking with my friend Laura the other day about just these things and she planted a little seed about tutorials for me. I have been thinking of creating some tutorials for download in my shop ever since, but as usual am wondering how that might go...

Would any of you crafty folks be interested in something like that?

Annual Float Trip

2010-06-22T19:14:00.003-05:00

We just got back from our annual float trip that we do with a group of friends from church. Just a quick one night camp out and a 4 hour float, but our family looks forward to it every year. There is something about the tradition of it at this point that is very enjoyable for us.

I love the small town we visit while camping, they have some great retro looking signs. You might remember this one from last year.

The kids had such a great time. Who doesn't love catching crawdads in the river all day and then running around the campfire with flashlights all night? or at least until quiet hour on the campground :)

The kids got their own little tent this year...they loved that.

The float itself was great...the cool river water felt great on a 100 degree day. And my constant re-application of the sunscreen paid off...no sunburns! That's all a mom can ask for :)

School's out

2010-06-06T14:12:00.002-05:00

If you need us, we'll be at the pool :)

Thank You

2010-05-31T09:21:00.001-05:00

To those who serve and have served...Thank You for the freedom you protect for us.

Speaking of cute...

2010-05-19T20:17:00.003-05:00

Quote of the day:

Shortly after eating lunch, this little miss was rummaging around in the pantry. Upon questioning her as to why she needed a snack so soon after lunch she replied, "I'm so hungry I can't feel my legs!".

What's a mom to do with that? :)

More WITL

2010-05-11T17:27:00.002-05:00

I have been working on my WITL pages this week in my spare time (since I have so much of it..NOT!)

Ali Edwards included my Monday page in her WITL Reader Submissions post which is totally crazy and cool!! Funny that it was my first all digi scrapbooking project :) Anyway, here is Tuesday and Wednesday...

I am going to have these printed in 8.5 x 11 pages and add journaling strips and a few embellishments before I compile them into an album. I'm planning to participate in this challenge again in the future and add it to the same album. Hopefully I will take more photos next time around :)

If you wandered over from Ali's blog, leave a comment, I would love to hear from you! :)

Guacamole for your face

2010-05-03T13:36:00.004-05:00

Yep. You heard me. You use this yummy stuff on your face!

Now, I am not generally a beauty regimen kind of girl. But it seems some cruel force of nature be it hormones, environmental or the copious amounts of chocolate that I eat is causing me to have acne in my late 30's. Not cool.

I also have very sensitive skin, so if I use typical acne treatments, my problems just get worse. So, I stumbled upon this lovely recipe for a natural face mask you can make from ingredients typically found in everyone's(or at least most peoples)kitchen.

1/2 very ripe avacado (this is perfect if you have an over-ripe avacado that may not taste the best)
1 egg
2-3 tablespoons honey
Mix these all together, I use my hand blender to mix, but it can be done with just a fork. Smooth onto face avoiding the eye area. allow to dry, you will feel your skin tighten as it dries. Rinse. I usually apply and then rinse in the shower.

The avacado moisturizes your skin, the egg yolk also moisturizes while the egg white works as an astringent(if your skin is very dry just use the yolk). Honey is a natural antibacterial agent that works to get rid of acne. I was very skeptical the first time I used it because it feels a little strange to slop food onto your face, and well, I'm just a skeptic at heart. But it really smoothed my skin and got rid of the acne I had. It also reduced the size of my pores drastically. Try it. I love to find an easy, inexpensive solution to my beauty problems :)

Digital Firsts

2010-04-29T08:11:00.005-05:00

So, I decided to go digital on my WITL album. It helped that there was a digital template available for this particular project. Each day will have a 2 page spread like this...

I will get these printed and put them right into an album. Way too easy. I might have to do it again. Don't worry, my love affair with paper will never be over :)

I'll post more of the actual album when it is done. I've got some recipes I want to share here and I am almost done with a minibook tutorial for you!

More WITL

2010-04-24T11:07:00.004-05:00

I've been taking photos for Week in the Life but have failed to load to my iphoto since Tuesday :) So here is Tuesday...
Buddy will show up next to me with his rubber chicken anytime I sit/lay down on the couch/bed. I think he is trying to tempt me to play with him....

This pretty girl finally lost her front tooth this week. It has been loose forever, but she has not wanted to pull it...we worked on it for 3 days this week.

Gotta love Grammy time...

This has been an interesting project for me. I realize that I love to take photos, but really come up with excuses to not. The biggest one is carrying the camera around with me. I can't tell you how many great everyday shots I missed simply because the camera was upstairs. On the other hand, I have taken at least some photos everyday and that is fairly unusual for me. I think I have captured some good shots of what our every day is like. We'll see if it ever gets complied into an album. I am seriously considering going full digi on this one...we'll see about that. Not sure I can let go that much :)

Hope you have had a wonderful Saturday!

Comfy much?

2010-04-20T22:34:00.004-05:00

I think this is a really good excuse for not getting the laundry done, don't you?

I have been participating in Ali's Week in the Life project. It is actually quite a but harder than i thought it would be to feel comfortable taking pictures of my every day activities. For sure have not taken as many pics as i would have thought.

Here's Missy Moo coloring in the car on the way to dance...it doesn't seem to matter how short of a drive we have, the girls just have to have something to do in the car. I finally put the kabosh on packing a bag each time we had to run somewhere.

Our Robin friend built her nest in our tree again this year and we have a lovely set of blue eggs to watch again. I was thinking it was kind of late for the egg laying thing, but I don't really know... I do hope they hatch.

I'll share more about my week tomorrow :)

Beautiful People

2010-04-06T21:21:00.002-05:00

My brother and SIL...

Random

2010-03-23T09:58:00.004-05:00

Feeling a bit ADD this morning. So, I thought I'd blog.

1. Buddy seems to be settling in with our family. There have been a few doggie escapades that I thought would result in his dismissal, but I think we secretly like him too much :)

2. I have a giant pile of very dirty dishes in my sink that I am avoiding like the plague.

3. Thinking about my brother in Louisiana, wish I could be with him right now.

4. Tons of creative ideas swirling through my head right now, but conflicting emotions about whether or not to proceed with the idea that I should continue selling on Etsy or in fairs.

5. I have a problem...

My husband has expressed his concern for me and my uncharacteristic obsession.

6. Wanting to start a big kitchen painting/tile backsplash project, but that would require me to do those dishes.

7. I am happy for the nice weather outside today. Tomorrow they are calling for rain.

8. Thanks for listening!

Haircut

2010-03-14T14:33:00.003-05:00

Love to see this handsome face...

He got about 6 inches cut off today :)

An Update

2010-03-10T08:11:00.003-06:00

So, I didn't do a very good job updating the process of my big photo organization project. Here are a few preliminary shots of what the finished product is looking like...
These are the albums I put all of the older family photos into. Each of these holds 144 4x6 photos. Since most older photos are smaller than 4x6, I put a couple in each section.

This is my storage under a table I have covered with painter's canvas. The large tubs house various craft/scrapboking supplies and the small tubs are my photos.

These tubs house printed photos from basically 1989-2009. The last few years each have their own tub as this was when I started scrapbooking and taking a ridiculous amount of photos. Inside each one are the packets organized by event that year. Some of the older ones I have separated with tabs, still by event as that makes the most sense to me.

All in all I'm pretty happy with this. It feels more streamlined and I think I will be able to find what I need fairly easily. So far my system of not printing every photo I take has worked well...I've been printing some at home and I like the convenience of that. Also, if I print at home, i use the photos right away on a layout or for a project so there is no need to find a place for them until I can get to it.

Next, I'm going to get through a lot of the classes I have taken and finish those up. I hope to be sharing some soon!

Scrapbooking

2010-03-06T15:11:00.003-06:00

It's been so long since I did any scrapbooking just because I liked the pictures! I've been taking so many online scrapbooking classes recently, most work I've done has been related to those. Anyway, i thought I'd share :)

He's a keeper

2010-03-03T09:16:00.004-06:00

So, we decided to keep "Buddy". He did great over the weekend and really loves the kids. He even let the girls push him around in a doll stroller for a while.

He is very energetic...Bill took him for a 3 mile run yesterday which did not appear to tire him out at all. We think he's ~a year old or so, and he is very puppyish, but very smart and so far has picked up training quickly.

I'm sure I'll have plenty of escapades to report...hopefully more funny than not :)

Visitor

2010-02-26T20:42:00.004-06:00

We have a weekend guest...a "trial run" so to speak.

The kids have had a great time with him so far :)

More vintage Parker

2010-02-21T22:01:00.004-06:00

These are a few of my favorites that I came across during my scanning extravaganza.

Don't hate me mom, but I really love this one:)

Dede fishing.

I really like this one for some reason.

Cousins.

And I haven't even gotten to the box of Tyrer photos!

Still Strolling Down Memory Lane

2010-02-06T18:23:00.003-06:00

In the process of organizing photos I came across the motherlode...slides!! And since I took over my mom's all in one printer/scanner/copier, I can scan slides! You have no idea how exciting this is for me:) I've mentioned before, my grandpa (Papa) on my mom's side was a professional photographer, so slides were a mainstay for their photo collection. I remember having "slideshows" in the evenings while visiting my grandparents...so much fun.

Remember this post? Here is the promised proof of an igloo on the beach.

No kidding. I remember going inside this house at some point and the walls/ceiling were rounded, just like being inside a real igloo. But warmer.

This is our beach house. It's funny how I remember this so clearly when right now I barely know what day it is!

Now this picture cracks me up. At first glance it just looks like a typical chaotic Christmas morning at my grandparent's house. But upon closer examination there are several things going on here. My grandma (Dede) in the lower right corner is holding a jar full of candy(the funny thing is she still has a jar full of candy that she offers to my kids). My youngest brother and I are ready to pounce on her for it. My other brother (bottom right) is digging for gold which is apparently more important than candy :) And even still, in the background, there is somebody still trying to open gifts! Meanwhile, the whole place is completely trashed. That's what I call documenting the details. I love it!

I love this one because it is showing the beginning of my generation. My 2 older cousins are babies there and my mom is pregnant with me. Even though she is probably at the end of her pregnancy, you can hardly tell she is pregnant!

I've got plenty more where these came from. I'm guessing you all will tire of this before I will :)

Playing

2010-02-03T11:29:00.003-06:00

Trying some new textures...

A little orangeish, don't you think?

Still working on the organization project. And I plan to scan in some more oldies today, I'll share those later.

Memory Lane

2010-01-27T21:10:00.004-06:00

Is where I live now :) I have scanned in some of the older photos I have been scrapbooking/organizing. I even found a slide of the igloo beach house I blogged about here.

This one is circa 1971...Baby me with my Dede and Papa.

Gotta love the 80's! This one is the whole fam in 1984.

Me in a lovely field of flowers. Not sure about the year.

I'll share more as I get photos scanned in. I also want to update on the organization project as I progress. Since I haven't really started on it, you haven't missed a thing :)

New project

2010-01-21T19:41:00.004-06:00

I started organizing some photos yesterday. I am taking an online class called Yesterday and Today from Big Picture Scrapbooking which involves using older photos from my childhood. This isn't too hard since there is no shortage of these types of pictures as I was a first child and my grandfather was a professional photographer. It did take some digging to find some specific photos I was looking for...hence the catalyst for the major reorganization. I have gone through phases of photo storage and as a result I have a wide variety of systems in place. Photo boxes, photo albums, photo disks and over the past year a giant pile of picture packages. For a girl who took over 3000 pictures over the past 12 months this just ain't cuttin' it.

So. Now it's time to streamline the systems. I am a little nervous about the sheer volume of photos now residing on my table. This brings me to the first change I am going to make. I do not have to print every photo I upload. I upload photos in order to share with family and friends and automatically just print them. My scrapbooking mindset is that I will print them and have them ready when I have time to scrapbook. But now I'm too overwhelmed with photos to scrapbook...can you see where this is going? So starting now, the photo disk will be my friend. And I am looking into possibly moving towards printing at home as this would likely be cheaper and for sure more convenient.

The next thing I'm going to do is get some of these. I can store the picture packs I have in these according to date. I have decided to leave the photo albums that I have filled in various phases intact, even though it is an interruption in my process. Embracing this will allow me to move forward and spend less money on new storage. And besides, the kids really enjoy looking at these. I may fill a new album per year with "highlights" so we can look at these periodically.

For the older photos I have, I am looking into these. I feel this is more protective and easier to access. I will be scanning in some of these photos, so will have some saved to a disk, but in general, the copies we have are the only one with the negatives who knows where.

I think it's pretty funny that the longest non-photo post I've ever written is on the subject of photo storage :) I'll keep you updated on the progress...I'm hoping this will inspire me to scrapbook more once it's done.

Last day! Hollywood Studios

2010-01-08T14:43:00.004-06:00

Here we are! The last big Disney day. We went to Hollywood Studios which was, I think, my favorite park this time. Maybe because I got to meet Mickey :)

Getting to do everything that we wanted to was bit tricky here because a lot of the attractions were "shows" and they had specific times. So that schedule combined with the fast pass schedule was a bit rough. We did meet a lot of characters here, the lines weren't so long. One fun thing we did was take a "test" to see which Disney character we were most like. I was most like Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast. Still not sure how I feel about that one :)

Bill's character was Buzz Lightyear, Parker was Cogsworth (the clock form beauty and the Beast), Emily was Dot from Bug's Life and Molly was, are you ready for it?...Cinderella.

One of the best shows we went to was the big race car stunt show. It was really cool! Lots of crashing and exploding...

My favorite part of the day was winning fast passes to Toy Story Midway Mania. In the History of Animation there was a display of Academy Awards won by Disney. A "cast member" (a.k.a. a guy who worked there) said that 2 out of the ~15 or so in the case were actually the real statues and if we could guess which ones they were, he would give us fast passes for our whole group to the ride. And we got them right! Yay! This ride turned out to be so much fun! You get 3 D glasses and sit in a car with a "gun". When the ride starts it's like an arcade type game, so as you are riding, you shoot the targets and earn points. It was my favorite of the trip.

So, there you have it. The highlights of our Disney experience. We really had such a great time and I am glad our whole family got to go together (we missed you Al). Check out my Flickr page (link to the right) for more pictures. Thanks for tuning in :)

Christmas Day (Downtown Disney)

2010-01-07T20:11:00.007-06:00

Here I am, another few days behind in posting. I am determined to report on every single day of our trip if it takes me all year. Which it might.

Christmas morning we woke up to stockings and fairly warm weather. The kids swam, blew bubbles and played most of the morning and early afternoon.

Since we decided to relax most of the day, we decided to head to Downtown Disney for shopping and a nice dinner out. It was so crowded, we just could not believe it! No sign of a recession here. There was some fun stuff to see, the lego displays outside the lego store were amazing. We enjoyed the Pick a Brick wall...it was very satisfying eye candy for a color oriented person like me.

We did lots of shopping. The kids spent their Christmas money on fun stuff.
We ended with a nice dinner out at a mexican type place...I had a cheeseburger :)

Next up: Hollywood Studios our final day of fun!

Christmas eve at the beach

2010-01-03T15:12:00.002-06:00

Christmas Eve, we took the day off from Disney and went to the beach. We have family that lives nearby Orlando in Clearwater, and we love this particular beach called Honeymoon Island. It's a state park so it's less crowded and very clean. The kids had such a great time...even though it was only ~60 degrees and cloudy :( Molly literally never stopped running.

The seagulls are insane here. They are everywhere and are not afraid of people. And if you have food of any type, you will get ambushed!

It was a welcome change to just let the kids loose and play. At Disney, I was always so paranoid about losing track of someone that we kept everyone very close. I love just letting them go do what they want. And one benefit of the cold weather was that they steered clear of the water, so I didn't have to worry about that either.

After the beach we went to my cousins house for dinner which was really nice. We hadn't seen each other in a long time and it was fun to see everyone's kiddos and how much they've grown.

Next up: Christmas Day...Downtown Disney.

Magic Kingdom Day 4

2010-01-02T08:27:00.004-06:00

Day 4 was a big day. Bill and Chip got up early to get to Magic Kingdom right away in order to get fast passes for the big rides only to find that they could not get passes for people not checked in yet :P But they got to see the big park opening production which I'm guessing was pretty cool. So, the rest of us got there fairly early (for us). We took the ferry over instead of the monorail for something different.

This was the day we dealt with the most lines/crowds. We stood in line to get to the park and we stood in line while we were there and we stood in line to leave. It was literally wall to wall people. It took us a while to even get down the main stretch. We stopped for photo ops at the statue...

...and happened upon a parade that was actually a "street party". That was fun, dancing in the street with characters. Molly was a bit scared of the guys on stilts, but could not resist the chance to dance.

We tried to hit all of the classic rides and got to most of them. We were so impressed with Emily, she rode all of the big roller coasters and loved them. Parker loved them as well.

Molly's favorite was It's a Small World so we rode that one twice.

All in all this was a fun day. The crowds were starting to get to me at this point, but it was manageable. Emily said to me at one point "Everyone is so nice here, they all call me princess!", so I know she was having a great time :)

Tomorrow, Day 5...the beach on Christmas Eve.

Animal Kingdom day 3

2010-01-01T10:51:00.003-06:00

Happy New Year!

On with the lowdown on the Disney trip. Better late than never, right?

On day 3 we ended up going to Animal Kingdom. We got a late start and thought we would not find as much to do at Animal Kingdom. We were wrong about that! This is the biggest park at Disney and has TONS of fun stuff for everyone.

The first thing we did was meet Belu the Bear from Jungle Book. That was fun. We sang Bare Necessities and Belu did a little dance...it was funny. In general, we did not meet a lot of characters because there were such long lines to get to them and the kids were just not that interested.
We spent a lot of time in the dinosaur section...there was a place to dig in the sand for dinosaur bones which the kids loved. Colin found a spoon in the sand area and filled every stray shoe he could find with sand :) Then we went to the dinosaur carnival area where there were games and rides. We rode a roller coaster called "Primevil Spin" which was fun and the girls got their faces painted.

We missed the big safari attraction because we got there late, with the early sunset, they stop those rides early. Some of our group was brave enough to go on the big roller coaster "Expidition Everest". Bill, Parker and Chip went on it 5 times! I could only handle once. With my eyes closed :)

The big tree of life there is really spectacular with the carvings of animals. We really did not get to touch the surface of this park, I would love to go back and spend lots of time there. I posted more pictures from Animal Kingdom on my Flickr page (link on the right). Day 4 is our full day at Magic Kingdom so stay tuned!

Home Again

2009-12-29T19:44:00.003-06:00

Whew. What a whirlwind! As you can tell, I totally lost it on posting daily updates during our trip...we just were constantly going. We had such a great time...and we didn't even touch the surface of most of the parks! I'll post a little something we did from each day starting tomorrow...and pics too.

Greetings

2009-12-24T22:34:00.003-06:00

Epcot

2009-12-22T10:00:00.003-06:00

Day 2 of the Disney madness...we went to Epcot. Our plans as far as a schedule goes have not worked out as we expected. With going to bed so late at night, of course, the kids are not interested in waking up at the crack of dawn to go have fun. So, we went around noon and stayed a bit late. It was fun, not quite as much geared toward kids, but still fun. We rode the Nemo ride along with a couple of others. Molly pretty much hated every ride since it involved being in the dark for some or all of the time. Parker chose to stand in line for Test Track for a couple of hours, so he and Bill did that while the rest of us went around the world :) The last thing we all did was ride Mission:Space which was Emily's favorite.

Next stop: Another day at the Magic Kingdom.

Magic

2009-12-21T09:57:00.003-06:00

After a long day of traveling on Saturday...a 2 hour drive, a 3 hour delay and a 2 hour plane ride we made it to Orlando. Or Kissimme to be more exact. The kids finally got to be at 1:30 in the morning!! On Sunday we went grocery shopping and after a delicious grilled supper, we decided to go to the Magic Kingdom to see the lights. When we drove through the main entrance everyone cheered and Parker declared "I feel different!".

Cinderella's Castle looked magnificent with the sparkling lights. We watched the parade, rode a few rides and had a great time. We're off to Epcot today!

And We're Off...

2009-12-19T10:42:00.004-06:00

Today we head out to Florida! We will be visiting Disney World this week...Our Family's first time. It has been a shamefully long time since I've posted anything. Not because nothing is going on, but because we have been so darn busy! I'm hoping to document our fun time here over the week, but I'm not sure what kind of internet access I will have. Stay tuned!

Jelly Toast

2009-10-16T08:00:00.001-05:00

I have this crazy rush of memories whenever I eat Jelly toast. Not just any jelly toast, but lightly toasted bread with butter and grape jelly. It has to be that combo, or no memory rush.

When I was young, we lived in North Carolina. My parents owned a beach house on Surf City beach. It was a great house, yellow with a screened in porch and metal bunk beds. I remember the path from the deck steps to the ocean through the dunes. Our next door neighbors had a blue house and they had a girl about my age named Ann. I remember she was a bit older than me, a year or two that means so much when you are 6 or 7, and she had beautiful long blond hair. She wasn't always there at the same time we were there, because neither of our families lived there full time. I remember this excited feeling looking over at Ann's blue house as I was walking up the stairs to our yellow house late at night when we arrived, hoping she would be there the next day so we could play. I still remember the feeling of the stairs, the house was on stilts as most beach houses are, and our footsteps echoed in the dark and crunched in the sand with the ocean waves as background music.

So when Ann and I were lucky enough to cross paths during the summers, we played together outside. She would invite me into her house for a snack and her mom would make us jelly toast. Lightly toasted bread with butter and grape jelly. I remember Ann's mom looking like Alice from the Brady Bunch because she always wore an apron. Reality was probably much different. I think about the beach, Ann and her mom whenever I eat jelly toast like this. I wonder where they are and what they are doing today. I know the beach house has been destroyed by hurricanes over the years and as far as I know it is no longer there.

On the other side of our yellow beach house was an igloo shaped beach house. Seriously. I'm not kidding. An igloo. I'll have to see if my mom has pictures of that one:)

Four

2009-10-14T08:00:00.002-05:00

Hard to believe, my baby is 4 today.

Happy Birthday Miss Moo!

Saturday

2009-10-06T11:03:00.002-05:00

Come out this weekend to the North Village Artists market at Sven's Kafe and Gallery on Orr Street. There will be lots of art, music, kids activities and just general fun to be had. Laura, Jolene and I will be there again with our three Moms booth. We had lots of fun last time, so many artists to meet and just a really great atmosphere.

Hope to see you!

Happy

2009-10-02T00:03:00.001-05:00

I love to see people happy to be in love!

Key Lime Pound Cake

2009-09-06T17:18:00.004-05:00

I was inspired to make this cake after tasting one at a friend's birthday party...

So, so yummy. Not for the faint of heart. Seriously, if you have coronary artery disease, don't make this. Well, you can make it, just don't eat it :)

I used a basic cream cheese pound cake recipe except I replaced the lemon juice it called for with key lime juice. If you have fresh key limes available they would be great, but if you are landlocked in a midwestern climate like me, you can used the bottled kind:

Cream cheese pound cake:
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
3 sticks butter
3 cups flour
6 eggs
3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons key lime juice
1/8 teaspoon salt

Blend cheese and butter. Add sugar, salt, lime juice and vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, blending well after each one. Add flour until just mixed, pour into greased and floured pan. Bake 1.5 hours at 300 degrees.

Then I made up the icing. I wanted a cross between a glaze and a frosting and this worked pretty well:

2 cups powdered sugar
4 oz cream cheese (1/2 of a block)
~1/4 cup key lime juice
Milk if needed to thin

I basically (without measuring exactly) blended the cream cheese, powdered sugar and lime juice. Add more or less lime juice as needed. I recommend to pour the juice as you blend, because it can get too thin in a hurry. Mine was a bit thick so I added a few tablespoons of milk...the idea is to get a pourable frosting. I iced the cake while it was still very slightly warm.

Just an aside: I always use the 1/3 less fat cream cheese for anything I make. There is not really any difference taste-wise in my opinion.

I hope you are inspired to make this yummy cake...it is a great end of summer treat!!

Some Days

2009-08-27T09:47:00.002-05:00

you just need to hide under your towel...

New Class

2009-08-03T09:45:00.001-05:00

So, I entered a drawing on Shimelle's Blog and won a spot in her new class on 2Peas! I never win! I'm very excited, hopefully I can keep up with this one and will post some finished assignments here.

I was thinking about doing a tutorial to post here...would that be interesting or a waste of time? I could do a mini album, an altered letter or a card or anything that folks would like to see. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. :)

Learning about photoshop

2009-07-18T20:59:00.002-05:00

I've been learning lots of fun stuff to do with photoshop...

Adding an old fashioned "viewfinder" along with adjustment layers to give the color a vintage feel...

Adding brushes...

And my very favorite, adding texture...

I have been playing with lots of photos and am inspired to take lots more, now that I know how to make them look cool :)

My favorite photo

2009-06-20T21:57:00.003-05:00

This is my new favorite photo of all time...

Isn't he cute? :)

Since my last post...

2009-06-13T12:36:00.003-05:00

Did you wonder if I forgot that I had a blog? Well, I didn't. Since the last post it has been a whirlwind of activity and life changes.

After the 3 craft shows within a month we had soccer tournaments, baseball games, dance recitals, school field trips, end of the school year events and to top it off I went back to work part time 2 weeks ago.

Whew.

Anyway, needless to say, I have not done much crafting as of late, but I hope now that things are slowing down a bit I will have some time to spend creating. I would love to have a thing or two to share here soon.

Don't give up on me! :)

Saturday

2009-05-06T08:20:00.001-05:00

Come on out on Saturday! Three Moms will have a booth at this fair...

It should be fun!

See you there!

For all you locals...

2009-04-22T21:47:00.001-05:00

FYI...

Rain

2009-04-19T21:52:00.003-05:00

So our Earth Day Fair was postponed due to rain today...for those of you waiting with anticipation to see the lovely goodies we have made for the event, it has been rescheduled for next week. Sunday April 26, same time, same place. :)

Long Enough

2009-04-11T12:15:00.003-05:00

Well, here I am, 2 weeks later, finally posting!

Our vacation was lots of fun...skiing, hot tubbing, playing. We got stuck in Denver for an extra day since there was a blizzard... an "epic storm" they called it there. So, we got to spend an extra day with family which was a nice time. My brother and sister-in-law graciously let us trash their house and then leave. On the drive home through Ks, we caught up with the blizzard and had an accident.

A semi sideswiped us...no one was hurt thankfully, but we were scared! Unfortunately, the semi driver did not stop which just makes me mad. I'm getting over it though :)

The next few weeks will be so busy for our family...sports, school, recitals, etc. I am participating in a few craft shows/fairs which are coming up soon! My friends and I ( 3 Moms Creative Outlet ) are participating in Earth Day at Peace Park along with some other members from our Etsy street team. Then there are a couple more which I will post more info on later. When I get organized. Which may never happen. Ever.

Vacation

2009-03-23T16:07:00.002-05:00

Lovely Colorado.

This was yesterday...

Today, we have a blizzard :)

Test

2009-03-18T09:19:00.003-05:00

Apparently there is no way to leave comments here on my blog...I've made some changes to the setting to see if this will work.

***ETA: cool, now there is a place to click and leave a comment :) hint, hint :)

Spring

2009-03-10T11:31:00.006-05:00

is showing itself around here...

our trees are starting to bloom and daily storms are moving in. It is forecasted to freeze tonight, so hopefully our tree blossoms will not be short-lived.

I've been working on things for the Earth Day festival in Peace Park to take place in April. I'll share more on that soon...

Chip Chop Cookies

2009-03-05T12:46:00.007-06:00

Yum-O

These are the best cookies ever. I love them when they are about an hour out of the oven...cooled but the chocolate is still melty. The recipe makes quite a few cookies so I usually bake a dozen or so and then freeze the rest for later(tonight after the kids are in bed and I don't have to share ;)

This freezing technique works for any kind of cookies and it's great to have them on hand. I use my hand dandy Pampered Chef medium scoop.

I scoop out the dough I have left onto a cooling rack covered with waxed paper and stick this right in the freezer.

A while later(or until the next time you open your freezer because you forgot all about it) put the individually frozen cookies in a baggie and store them for up to 3 months.

Or at my house, until your cookie stealing family eats all the dough straight out of said bag.

Here's the recipe:

Chip Chop Cookies
1 c butter (2 sticks)
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 c flour
2 1/2 c oats
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 bags of any combo chips, I use baking m&ms and white chips
1/2 c walnuts or pecans if you like that sort of thing

*Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
*Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.
*Add eggs and vanilla.
*At this point you can "chop" the flour by putting it into a blender and blend until a flour like consistency. I usually don't do this, I like the texture of the oats and, well, I'm pretty lazy.
*Add dry ingredients to butter mixture and mix well.
*Add chips (and nuts if you're going to) and mix well.
*Scoop onto cookie sheet and bake ~12 minutes for golfball sized cookies.

Enjoy!

new things to share

2009-03-01T16:15:00.002-06:00

Well, sort of new. Meaning I have never shared these here before, but I really made them a long time ago. I was asked to submit some things for a fund raiser auction and these are the 3 things I'm offering...

This one is actually new, I thought it would be fun to get into the Tiger spirit, even though they lost to Kansas today :P

This is a birdhouse I altered, kind of fun for spring...

And this is a handbound scrapbook I made quite some time ago. It is bound using a Japanese technique that I took a class on.

Now I'm going to start focusing on making some fun journals and magnets from recycled items for the Earth Day festival at Peace Park...more on that later ;)

Valentines Day + Cookies + 100th post :)

2009-02-13T22:34:00.003-06:00

Happy {Heart} Day!!

We had a great time making cookies for Valentines Day...

We made a big huge mess, but the kids had a ball. It sure is hard for me to give up that "don't make a mess" instinct! Once I get past that, the cookie making fun is so worth it:)

So, this is my 100th post here on the blog. Not sure what that means exactly, but it seemed significant enough that I should acknowledge it. So, there it is.

Look for more cookie making posts in the future...I really do love making cookies.

Tricky

2009-02-10T14:25:00.005-06:00

So, here's my rant for the day (or year, I don"t rant much).

I was watching TV and saw this commercial for Chef Boyardee Ravioli. The basic plot was that there was half a serving of vegetables in each can or something like that and that the mom would stop at nothing to keep this a secret from the kid eating the said ravioli. So here's my question:

Why in the world do we feel like we have to lie to our kids and trick them into being healthy? Then we complain that the US is the most obese country in the world?

Seriously, do we have to turn ketchup blue to get kids to eat it? Has anyone ever had problems getting their kids to eat ketchup?

And this just doesn't make sense to me...

I mean, couldn't you spend the time finding fruits and/or vegetables that your kids do like instead of trying to find ways to trick them? I'm telling you, if your kids are hungry enough, they will eat an apple. I mean, who doesn't want to eat this...

Now, I will add a disclaimer here. You may have a different opinion if you have picky eaters. My kids are not picky eaters. My son's favorite food is salad. But I'm pretty sure that's because I've always put actual fruits and vegetables in front of them consistently and given them time to accept new foods.

And I don't lie about food.

Well, maybe about how much dessert I actually ate vs how much I intended to eat. But that is neither here nor there.

Not much is going to change regarding the health of America as long as we count on vegetables getting into our kids via a can with a 24 month shelf life.

Ok, I'm done ranting now. Thank you for your time :)

Etsy Update

2009-02-07T13:53:00.001-06:00

Check out my Etsy Shop. I have been updating all week and have more to come. Valentines Day is 1 week away!!!

Love is in the Air

2009-01-29T19:16:00.004-06:00

I've been in the mood to create fun things for valentines day lately...I'm looking to update my etsy shop with some fun gifts and cards in the next few days. Hopefully Monday I can do a big update to my shop :)

I have been reading The Pioneer Woman's blog lately and I gotta tell ya...she is funny. She has several sections on her blog which include cooking, photography and home&garden. I was thinking of starting to include some step by step recipe instructions with photos here on my blog...any takers on that? or would my efforts be for the general beautification of cyberspace;)?

I've also been adding layouts/projects to my gallery at 2Peas. I love looking at the member gallery there...so much good inspiration.

That's it for now...I'll keep you updated on the etsy shop!

Stuff of life

2009-01-20T20:44:00.003-06:00

So, I guess my blog banner issues are my own. According to other computers, it is right in the middle. I guess I'll just have to deal with my view of an off center header which is easier said than done for this asymmetrically challenged individual.

This boy is now NINE, which makes me OLD.

And here are some layouts I promised...

I would really love to keep digging in with the scrapbooking, I just haven't had much time, or energy:) I'm starting to feel motivated to make stuff for Valentines Day though...So much cute pink and red stuff out there!

Stupid Blog Header

2009-01-16T16:42:00.002-06:00

So, I am just going to lay it out there. I'm completely clueless as to how in the heck I can get the dang blog header to be centered on the page. Does it look too far over to the right to you? Or is it just my computer and I am losing sleep over this for nothing.

Any ideas? Please, anything that would help at this point. I have wasted plenty of creative time trying to figure it out. :P

So it is just plain cold around here. I am not usually one to complain about cold. In fact, I really prefer it that way. But this is really really really cold. I want to be warm and there is not enough Starbucks in a 10 mile radius to get that done. As if I would go out to get to Starbucks.

So I'll post more later with positive things to share instead of just complaining. Just keepin' it real here.

Catching up

2009-01-07T17:56:00.002-06:00

So now, I am making all of the Christmas things that I intended to make, but never got around to before the holidays! I thought these guys were so cute...

I got the inspiration for these from Linda Albrecht. She is very inspiring with her craftiness and I highly recommend spending some time on her blog!

I'll have more to share soon!

Ready?

2008-12-29T20:15:00.004-06:00

Here comes the New Year...I can't believe it's 2009. Every year I resolve to get with it and keep up with life. I should just make it a contest and see how long it actually lasts :p

So, guess what I got for Christmas? Yep. What I have been wishing for...a shiny new Canon XSi! I took this photo today while we were out hiking(our weather was beautiful)...

What a face...I am so amazed with the clarity of the photos from this camera! (Click on the photo for a larger view) You can actually see the little hairs(and crusty nose and eyes)on her face! I am so excited about the possibilities here!

I hope to share lots of new scrapbook layouts soon as I plan to catch up with my Design Your Life classwork as a part of my get-organized-and-keep-up new year strategy.

We'll see how that goes.

What are your plans to "start fresh" in 2009?

Getting ready for Christmas

2008-12-06T21:47:00.002-06:00

Just got all of the Christmas decorations out...We are picking out a tree tomorrow! I can't wait! I made this Advent Calendar last year, just added the frame this year. I got the inspiration from Ali (of course). She got the idea from Martha.

...And speaking of Martha, I just got all of the things I need to make
this. I'll post pics when it's done :) Or when we get some Christmas cards...funny thing is the more years you don't send out Christmas cards, the fewer cards you get every year. Go figure.

My Day

2008-12-02T19:56:00.002-06:00

Any questions?

Sometimes...

2008-12-01T18:17:00.003-06:00

...it's just nice to hear.

Thanks for the reminder Al :) You're a rock star.

Lately

2008-11-06T12:48:00.003-06:00

This is what my table is looking like lately..

Some friends and I are participating in a craft fair/art show in late Nov and I am up to my ears in half done projects! Hopefully I will have plenty of good stuff to sell!

Not to mention, I am a week behind in my class. This has been so much fun to do! I'll post pics of some finished layouts very soon.

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-03T13:14:00.001-06:00

Feed my Fish

2008-10-18T21:57:00.003-05:00

------------------------------->

It's fun, and strangely relaxing...Just click on the image and the food will appear.

You can get one here if you want to :)

Seriously...

2008-09-30T22:52:00.004-05:00

it has been almost a whole month since I've posted. We have been super busy what with school, soccer, weddings, working and general life stuff...

Not that I actually have *time* for anything else, but for my birthday I got to sign up for this class and I am so excited to start! Hope to have some completed assignments to share soon!

Another fun project on my (very long) list to do is Ali's A Week in the Life album. I just love the concept of documenting Life as it happens. What a great way to heighten your awareness of where the time actually does go! I'm going to plan on doing this one soon...it may give me just the excuse I need to get one of those yummy American Crafts Corduroy Albums ;)

Messy Night

2008-09-03T21:24:00.003-05:00

Messy Night...our favorite night of the year. It signifies the close of summer and give us one last chance to let loose. Technically, this activity is for infant to 3 year olds, but I'm pretty sure there were a couple of school age kids having a ball!

Be sure to let me know if you are interested in ordering any card or journal sets for Christmas gifts...I know it's only September, but I would love to be ahead of the game this year ;)

First Day

2008-08-21T21:02:00.002-05:00

Interview

2008-08-13T20:38:00.001-05:00

2008-08-06T19:46:00.002-05:00

Remember this funny pic I "found" on my camera? Classic Molly...

Still working on my picture quality for layouts. I think eventually I'll get it figured out.

Busy Month/Toilet Paper Soup

2008-07-30T15:31:00.005-05:00

July is a busy month for us...Bill and Emmy's bdays, our anniversary(11 years this year) and to top it off, I have returned to the work force temporarily...32 hours per week!! Needless to say, we've been busy around here.

Emmy turned 5 a week ago and has been going to soccer camp this week. I just can't get enough of those pink shin guards and cleets!

Look at this angelic face...

Would you believe this one could get into any trouble? Well, I'm here to tell you...this morning she was in the bathroom and was taking a bit too long so I went to check it out. She had filled the sink with water and little bits of toilet paper (about 1/2 the roll) and was stirring it with her sister's toothbrush. I have no response for that. Really. No response.

And who knew that a skate board would be so much fun? Our neighbors moved and were getting rid of a bunch of stuff and my kids were all over the 2 skate boards. For the last 2 days they have been practicing, having tournaments and adjusting the wheels with Dad's tools and WD 40.

August is upon us and school starts soon...Emmy will start Kindergarten (sigh) and Parker will be in 3rd grade. I just can't believe it! I'll be working through October, so HeartGrooves classes will be on hold until then. Keep checking in for new Etsy items as my hope is to keep that up, especially for Christmas.

Have a great day!!

Inspiration

2008-07-15T21:59:00.003-05:00

These are a few of my favorite things lately...

Such a great movie...very inspiring visually and philosophically(is that a word?)

This is a really cool blog...lots of info about book binding. And they have a beautiful etsy shop!

Loving my new Dyson...

Really, believe the hype, it works like a dream!

And this website is wealth of photography info for us regular folks who like to take pictures. Seriously great tips for taking and editing pictures.

Have a great week!

Groove is in the Heart

That Last Post was Funny

Keeping up

December Daily

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Recipe ~ Pumpkin Crunch

Check this out

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Crafty Clearance

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Honesty is the Best Policy

A Few Months Later...

Happy Easter!

Recipe Thursday: Chicken Lettuce Wraps

2 in 2...it's a record!

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Recipe Thursday: Chicken Pot Pie

Yeah. I'm still here :)

Cranberry Casserole

Thanksgiving=cooking yummy stuff

Yummy Muffins

Updating Etsy

Harry Potter anyone?

Fun Recipe

Almost a year later :)

Recent Faves

Too Funny

Sweet

MiniBook tutorial

MIA

Annual Float Trip

School's out

Thank You

Speaking of cute...

More WITL

Guacamole for your face

Digital Firsts

More WITL

Comfy much?

Beautiful People

Random

Haircut

An Update

Scrapbooking

He's a keeper

Visitor

More vintage Parker

Still Strolling Down Memory Lane

Playing

Memory Lane

New project

Last day! Hollywood Studios

Christmas Day (Downtown Disney)

Christmas eve at the beach

Magic Kingdom Day 4

Animal Kingdom day 3

Home Again

Greetings

Epcot

Magic

And We're Off...

Jelly Toast

Four

Saturday

Happy

Key Lime Pound Cake

Some Days

New Class

Learning about photoshop

My favorite photo

Since my last post...

Saturday

For all you locals...

Rain

Long Enough

Vacation

Test

Spring

Chip Chop Cookies

new things to share