The Simple Things...

Foodie Friday: Breakfast to Go!

2011-10-14T04:00:00.000-05:00

Seems on some school mornings we are in such a rush. Noah has drumline practice 2-3 mornings a week at 7 a.m., so those days he eats breakfast in the car on the way to school. (our "breakfast in bed tray" gets a good workout in the van, ha) I always think about what we'll have for breakfast the night before since many school mornings when I have to wake up at 5:45 a.m. (seriously?) I don't want to have to think about it. Many days I'll just wrap up a bowl of oatmeal or a biscuit with sausage/eggs. Here are some of the other things that work for us for a filling Breakfast On the Go -

Bacon/Cheddar Muffins: (pictured) I made these recently and yum, they are good. They freeze well, too, so you can just pop them in the microwave. Great with a banana! As written, they aren't that spicy, so don't be afraid of the cayenne.

Breakfast Quesadillas: These are fun since you can put almost anything in them. Just throw a flour tortilla in a non-stick pan heated on medium heat. Top with a little grated cheese, scrambled eggs, a bacon slice or two, and finish with a little more cheese (helps the top tortilla "stick") and the second tortilla. Heat on both sides until the cheese melts. Other versions - peanut butter, sliced bananas and a little granola; light cream cheese, strawberries, and bananas; scrambled eggs, diced deli ham, shredded cheese. Lots of combos!

French Toast Sticks: Just make your favorite french toast, but make it with really thick bread slices. Instead of using the whole slice of bread, slice them into big sticks. Prepare as you normally would. If you want to freeze them, just flash freeze them on a cookie sheet first, then throw them all in a freezer bag together. Heat them in a microwave when you are ready to eat. Put the syrup in a dixie cup to take it with you for dipping! :)

What other things do you like to make for on the go breakfasts?
Have a wonderful weekend, blog friends!

Make it Mondays: Layered Fabric Flowers

2011-10-10T04:00:00.000-05:00

Many times when I want an embellishment for a project, I'm thinking, "how can I just make one?" I'm not much of a buyer of expensive packaged embellishments that go with paper lines. Although I love them, I have a hard time paying $6-7 for a few flowers or fancy buttons. So, today I thought I'd show you how I make some easy layered fabric flower embellishments.

For this flower, I started off with some simple fabric circles in different patterns and textures. I LOVE burlap. Love it. And linen. So including those two is always fun. I also have some fleece in there, a textured thin fabric, and a nice Heather Bailey bold print. I hand cut the circles without measuring. I'm not much of an exact measurement person, so if it makes you uncomfortable...just measure. :)
Once you have your circles cut, layer them in the order you'd like for them to be in the flower. Once stacked, take them apart again and cut them so each new circle is a little smaller than the one under it, as pictured. Totally love that the burlap starts fraying, too. ♥

You can choose a button, brooch, or any little something to go in the middle of the flower, if you like.

Now here you can see how these fabrics, just pulled from my stash, will go perfectly with the Farmhouse line by Crate Paper, which I absolutely adore. Naturals go with just about anything, so always have those on hand. Then I chose a few bold colors to pull out of the papers (orange and blue). They don't have to go perfectly, but when you match the bolds, it just works. Aren't those colors great?

But what if I want a little more dimension to my flower? Want it to stand up a bit? Or want to tone down the colors and just use one good texture? Here I show how you can cut the circle into "petals," fold every other petal inward, and now you have a flower with dimension in the middle, lots of texture, and it goes with just about anything. You would just attach the button with thread, which will also secure all of the folded petals.

Cutting all of the circles into petal strips and then layering them back together creates even more dimension.

What if I want it to be a little more grungy or vintage? That fabric is just too clean and simple for some. :)

Simply rub some ink onto the fabrics, and if you're lucky, the edges will fray a bit, adding even more "age" and texture.

But the flower lays too "flat" for you? Then just use the pinch and staple method of adding height. I simply pinch the middle of the flower into a little fold and staple it together. It doesn't lay flat anymore in the middle and actually stands up on one end a bit. That's ok, because when you layer your flowers back together, this will give it height.

The result is a really beautiful, layered flower with so many possibilities for your projects. Use them on your scrapbook pages or on a hair clip. Sew them onto a strip of fabric for napkin rings at Thanksgiving. Make 30 of them and put them together on a wreath for your holiday door. Adorn the top of a birthday gift box.

The next time you are near your local fabric store, purchase some fabrics to have in your stash - burlap, linen, and bright bold prints in your favorite colors and textures. You'll be glad to have them on hand!

Foodie Friday: Game Day Appetizers

2011-10-08T04:00:00.000-05:00

I love this time of year. Nothing better than Longhorn Football! I'd love to have a couple of game watching parties this year. If we do, we'll probably be serving something on this list...some of our favorite appetizer recipes!

Pioneer Woman's Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeños - I could eat 20 of these, seriously. Be sure to bake them on a rack so the bacon cooks all the way around. Undercooked bacon is gross.

Hot Corn Dip - I saw Trisha Yearwood with this dip (from her cookbook) on The View and thought it looked great. I made it once and it was delicious, just a little too "greasy." I'd definitely make it again, just use less mayo.

Ina's Guacamole - Mmmmm, this is the best kind of guacamole because it is chunky and has plenty of garlic and lime. (I sub lime for the lemon) A meal in itself!

Southwestern Eggrolls - Made these for New Year's Eve two years in a row and they are DEE-licious.

Sloppy Joe Sliders - Below is a recipe for homemade sloppy joes that I've been using for years. Just make a big batch and serve them in a crock pot on slider buns. Don't forget the pickles and tabasco.

Homemade Sloppy Joes

2 lbs. lean ground beef
½ 1 small onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
1 can Campbell’s tomato soup (undiluted)
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. ketchup
1 & 1/2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 Tbsp. mustard
1/2 Tbsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. garlic salt
8 hamburger buns
In a large saucepan or pot, brown the beef and onion over medium heat. Add green pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes until meat is crumbly and browned; drain on a paper towel and return to pot. Add the next 9 ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve on buns. Makes 8 large servings. (or put meat in a crockpot and keep warm on low)

Be sure to balance out your appetizers with some fresh fruit and veggies. :D
Everyone have a wonderful weekend....and HOOK 'EM HORNS! BEAT OU!!

Whatever Wednesdays: Halloween Decor

2011-10-05T04:00:00.000-05:00

Halloween and some Fall decór went up yesterday. O Happy day! I love the colors this time of year. They just make the house so warm and cozy.

I'm not one to completely cover the entire house in decorations. Instead, I have a few set places around the main living area downstairs that I always decorate and change out with the seasons/holidays. I place things together into a little area to draw attention to the grouping rather than covering a room with items. I thought I'd show you a few of the things I did yesterday in our home. Above is what I put on an antique china cabinet in the living room that holds our movies. There's an old frame, a spray of fall greenery, some chenille pumpkins, a burlap "Happy Halloween" sign and the curio cabinet project that I just taught last weekend. :) The light behind the spooky lady portrait will stay on all the time as will the battery-operated candle. It's nice when the sun goes down and the lights are glowing in the living room at night.

Here are a few things I put on the back of the piano in the entryway. Just a little more Halloween-focused since you see it right as you come in. The pumpkin light will stay on all the time as a nightlight. I love it because it flickers.
I got the "Save the Date" plaque at Marshall's last year as well as the apothecary poison bottle in the kitchen hutch photo below. Marshall's has a lot of fun Halloween decor for great prices!

This is the hutch in our breakfast room, right next to where we eat in the kitchen. I just clear it out each season and fill it up. The "Happy Halloween" is actually a felt banner. I cut it apart into two pieces and used two-sided tape to adhere it to the shelf edges. I liked it better than it hanging up.

A really fun thing to look for when you want some decor are greeting cards! This Happy Halloween card is a greeting card with a ghostly looking old couple, made to look vintage... and it has sparkly orange glitter on it.

For our mantle this year, I put an old window as the center. I've had this a really long time and had put some rub-ons on it a long time ago. (you can see them in one of the panes) On the mantle, I've draped some fall leaf garlands and some grey mesh draping (Dollar Tree). The crow is really heavy and metal. Two two black glitter tree cut-outs were only $1 each...from Dollar Tree. I love these! They also have chandeliers and candleabras. Very fun! The light up plastic pumpkin is very old and one of my favorite Halloween decorations. Reminds me of when I was little. :)

And that's it! I have a simple fall berry wreath on the front door and will probably add some pumpkins and things out there later on when the weather gets cooler. Thanks for coming by my blog! :)

Make Something Mondays: Video Tutorial

2011-10-03T21:08:00.000-05:00

Hi, friends! I have posted before on how to dye the bottle brush trees, but today I made a video so you can see the actual steps! It's very easy and fun to do. We dyed trees in my Halloween curio cabinet class on Saturday and this is exactly the process we used.

If you'd like to make the cabinet, I have listed the detailed PDF of the project on Etsy! (see my left sidebar for the link) Enjoy the video! :)

Foodie Friday: recent recipe links

2011-09-30T04:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday! I thought for today I'd share links to some new recipes I've tried and give you our honest reviews. That's one of the things I love about finding recipes online is that many of them are from sites with a review system, where readers can give their opinions on the recipe. So....here you go!

Ina Garten's Weeknight Bolognese (pictured)- This was really delicious! I'm not a huge fan of too much oregano flavor in recipes, so I put a tiny bit less than what she used. Also, I used 1/2 and 1/2 instead of heavy cream and it was just fine and didn't take away from the creaminess at all.

Grilled Chicken Sliders w/Apricot Chutney (pictured) - One of our favorite recent recipes. Just yummy. I used my grill pan to cook the chicken and the peaches (couldn't find apricots at the store). And I cooked the chicken more than 5 minutes on each side. I'm very wary of undercooked chicken, so I start off with the pan hot to give it a sear, but then cook it longer and a bit slower for the rest of the time. I wish that I had done the chutney on just a few pulses and left it a little chunkier, just because I think the texture would have added a little extra oomph to it. But the tastes in this recipe are amazing..and it's light!

Pioneer Woman's Breakfast Sandwiches - I love Ree, love her show on Food Network, and I'm sure if I had made these exactly how she made them they would have been drippy, gooey, yummy and completely unhealthy, ha. I made these one morning before school for Noah and he really liked it. David did, too, especially since his had the jalapenos on it. But we used wheat bread (I don't buy white Texas toast, although I love it!) an all-natural sausage, and very little cheese. You have to make the sausage patties BIG because they really shrink up when cooked and will look like that 80's Wendy's commercial, "where's the beef?" with that little pattie in the middle of the bun. :) So, we liked them but I think Ree's way they'd be even better.

Guittard Chocolate Chip Cookies - Ok, these aren't new to us, but I did make some last week. It's really hard to beat Guittard chocolate chips! They aren't waxy or artificial tasting, which I find unappealing about many brands of chocolate chips. Oh, and they are completely nut-free, which I know is important to many people with nut allergies. I like to add chopped pecans to them and a dash of cinnamon to the batter. If you don't want to make a whole batch, make one pan and then make a bunch of dough balls, freeze them on a sheet pan where they aren't touching each other, then when frozen you can put them all in a ziploc freezer bag to use later. Warm, fresh cookies anytime!

What new recipes have you tried lately? Have a wonderful weekend, friends. :)

Whatever Wednesdays: Music Talk

2011-09-29T08:11:00.000-05:00

Good morning!

Probably anyone who knows me knows that I love Tony Bennett, Michael Bublé, and any of the old standards singers. Tony Bennett released his Duets2 album last week and it's so wonderful. He sings The Lady Is a Tramp with Lady Gaga, and she is amazing! He recorded the duet with Amy Winehouse just four months before she died. Her voice is so unique. And of course, a duet with Michael Bublé is one of my favorites. They are all so good..I highly recommend getting this. Listen to some previews on Itunes here!

Some other music I've been previewing on Itunes. Let me know if you have purchased any of it or have any feedback:

Switchfoot: Vice Verses - Always looking for positive music for Noah to listen to that is also good music. He's joined the drumline at school so he's getting more and more into music. Switchfoot has some good, alternative-stylish stuff and this album just came out. Considering it.

Neon Indian: I think it's funny how so many bands now have that "80's techno" sound. I saw Neon Indian perform on Jimmy Fallon (video below) and thought they were fun! I don't know that I'd listen to the entire album, but I sure liked this song. They were fun to watch!

Ghostland Observatory: Codename: Rondo - Speaking of techno music...these guys are fun! I only have one of their albums, but I love it. Some good tunes on this one, too. They have a huge following in Austin and David and I want to go see them live. He went to their ACL Music Festival concert and said it was one of the best times he's ever had! They had the University of TX marching band on stage with them. HA, love it! Here's a video of that:

What music have you discovered lately or what are you favorite stand-by artists?
Go have a GREAT day!

Haunted Curio Cabinet: Kits For Sale

2011-09-19T12:16:00.002-05:00

In less than two weeks I'll be teaching my Haunted Curio Cabinet class in Waco at Crop, Paper, Scissors. If you are in the area, I'd LOVE for you to sign up and join us. The Halloween mood will definitely be in the air and we'll spend 3 hours creating this piece for your home Halloween decor. It's gonna be creepy fun! Just call the store to register.

If you aren't able to join us for class or live out of town/state, I will have some project kits for sale! Most of what you need to create the kit will be included, along with detailed instructions and photos emailed to you. I will be mailing kits the week of October 3rd, after the class in Waco is completed. If you'd like to order a kit, the details are below:

The Haunted Curio Cabinet
by Jennifer Stewart

It's Halloween, the moon is bright,

The skeletons are out tonight..
Trick or treaters all around,
Spooky creatures can be found!
Make your Halloween decor extra spooky this year with this Haunted Curio Cabinet! The 12" piece has a glass door and lots of nooks and crannies that we'll fill with plenty of creepy Halloween goodies. You'll learn lots of new techniques as well, including custom-dyed bottle brush trees, creating dimension, and even a lighted lady portrait. (yes, I do believe her eyes are glowing!)

What will you will need at home: Paper trimmer, ruler, pencil, good scissors (micro tip, if possible), strong clear-drying liquid glue, Xacto knife, brown and black inkpads (in as many shades as you like), paint brush, bleach, two bowls, rubber/disposable gloves, paper plates, sandpaper, and pliers. EVERYTHING else is provided in your kit!

KITS are $38, including shipping (U.S. only).
I will ship your kit the week of October 3rd.

Reserve your kit now!
****SOLD OUT!!*****

Organizing with divided baskets

2011-09-14T11:10:00.002-05:00

I have always loved this basket because it's flat, wide, and has divided spaces. I got it at Target a few years ago and have used it for many different things. Today I started a redo of my craft room and now this basket holds seam binding and lace, both rolls and loose pieces. The colors are inspiring and having it in view helps me use it. By the way....to get this seam binding by the roll, go to www.zipperstop.com. It's $7.50 for 100 yards! And good luck deciding which ones you want...there are so many beautiful colors!

I'll share more storage and room photos as I go!

Make-It Mondays: The Haunted Curio Cabinet

2011-09-08T12:23:00.000-05:00

I absolutely LOVE Halloween! We don't do the weird, gory, really awful stuff....just the fun with a little creepy. :) I have several Halloween decor pieces that I've made over the years and now I've created a new one that I'll be teaching as a class! (click on the photo for a larger view)

The Haunted Curio Cabinet
Saturday, October 1st 2-5pm
Crop, Paper, Scissors in Waco, TX
$35

Class Description and supplies:

It's Halloween, the moon is bright,

The skeletons are out tonight..

Trick or treaters all around,

Spooky creatures can be found!

Make your Halloween decor extra spooky this year with this Haunted Curio Cabinet! The 12" piece has a glass door and lots of nooks and crannies that we'll fill with plenty of creepy Halloween goodies. You'll learn lots of new techniques as well, including custom-dyed bottle brush trees, creating dimension, and even a lighted lady portrait. (yes, I do believe her eyes are glowing!) Come join me for an afternoon of eerie fun!

Students need to bring to class: Paper trimmer, ruler, pencil, good scissors (micro tip, if possible), strong clear-drying liquid glue, Xacto knife, brown and black inkpads (in as many shades as you like). EVERYTHING else is provided!

Come join me for this fun class! You can sign up by calling the store (http://www.croppaper.com). Hurry because space is limited!

Foodie Friday: Individual Chicken Pot Pies

2011-09-05T19:34:00.002-05:00

(sorry this post is late!) One of my favorite meals to make is chicken pot pie, the ultimate comfort food. Usually I make one large one in an oval baking dish, but recently I made 6 individual ones..and it was fun! I do have to let you know now, though...this is NOT an uncomplicated, finish in 30 minutes recipe. None of it is hard to do, but it just takes time and has a lot of steps. But a really great thing is that these freeze so well. You could make a bunch at once, freeze them, and have pot pies ready to bake that are 1000 times better than Swanson's or Marie Callender's!

The first photo at the top shows the filling items that go in the chicken pot pies. I kept everything separated because each of the individual pies had different filling choices. I made these for some picky nephews, so I let them tell me which of the fillings they'd like in their pies - a lot easier than picking out what they don't want to eat. I roasted different veggies (biased sliced carrots, potato chunks, halved mushrooms), chicken breasts, and then had bags of frozen peas and corn. After the veggies and chicken were all finished roasting, I put them in one pan together. (I did not cook them this way...you need much more room than this) I also made a recipe for a double pie crust. If you want to use store-bought, that is just fine and it will work. But homemade butter pie crust is really easy to make in a food processor and tastes so, so good. I sprayed each of the little pie tins with non-stick spray then cut out a little disk of dough to put in the bottom of the pan. You could line the entire pie pan with crust if you like, but these were small and I wanted to be able to put a lot of filling in them. Cut around the upside pan edge with a knife for the top crust. Put the disc of crust in the pan, fill with the liquid filling and filling veggies/chicken of your choice, then finish with the top crust, pressing down crust edges with your fingers or a fork. (photo shows Jack's pie...he only wanted chicken, corn and potatoes) You must have vent holes in the top of the crust so the pie doesn't explode, so you might as well make it fun with a happy face. :) You could also do initials, a heart, anything!

Of course, I forgot to take a baked pot pie photo, but they are really beautiful with a nice flaky crust. Just picture that. :) If you are going to freeze them, just wrap in tight foil and freeze the unbaked pies.

Other filling ideas - frozen green beans, roasted sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli florets (small), or any frozen veggies you like.

Enjoy...and try it with fruit pies, too! It's fun for everyone to have his/her own pie for dinner. :)

Recipe follows...

Jennifer's Chicken Pot Pie
6 Tbsp. butter
1 c. onion, chopped
8 oz. sliced fresh mushrooms (optional, but so good)
6 Tbsp. flour
2 c. chicken stock
1 c. half and half (or whole milk to make it lighter)
2 medium potatoes, skinned, chunked and roasted6-8 carrots, peeled, chunked, and roasted1 c. frozen peas
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, roasted then shredded2 Tbsp. parsley
1 recipe for a double pie crust
salt, pepper, rosemary, sage to taste

extra virgin olive oil
1 egg + 1 Tbsp. water (for eggwash)

Make your pie crusts following recipe above, making sure EVERYTHING is very cold. I even freeze the butter after I cut it into cubes and will put the flour in the freezer as well. The colder everything is, the flakier your crust will be.

Spray a couple of glass baking dishes with non-stick spray. (or use non-stick cookie sheets and don't spray them) Dish 1 - lay your chicken breasts down and sprinkle with kosher salt, cracked pepper, drizzled olive oil, and a dash of rosemary and sage. Pick up and rub the chicken breasts so that they are coated with all ingredients on both sides. Dish 2 - toss the chunked carrots and potatoes with kosher salt, cracked pepper, drizzled olive oil and a small dash of rosemary. (a little rosemary goes a long way, so don't over do it) Bake (roast) at 375-400 until chicken browns and vegetables start to brown. Set dishes aside. When the chicken is cool enough, shred it and return to dish.

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Grease a large, deep baking dish or at least 6 small pie tins. In a large saute pan, melt the butter. Add the onions and mushrooms and saute for 2 minutes, until onions are soft and mushrooms start to brown a little. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the flour with a whisk and cook for about 3-4 minutes for a blond roux. Mixture will look like a paste. Stir in the chicken stock and bring the liquid up to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the sauce starts to thicken. Stir in the half and half (or milk) and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Line the baking pan with one of the crusts or follow directions above for small pie tins/crusts. Ladle the liquid filling into the pan(s), then add the fillings of your choice (chicken, potatoes, carrots, peas, corn). Place the top crust on top of the filled pie(s). Carefully tuck the overlapping crust into the pan and crimp the edges of the crust. Poke a few vent holes in the top of each pie. Mix 1 egg with a tablespoon of water and brush the eggwash over the top of crusts. Place pie(s) on a baking sheet and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before serving. Yum!

Make Something Monday: Crepe Ruffles

2011-08-29T11:08:00.007-05:00

I recently taught a really fun Kitschy Christmas Wreath class for a Christmas in July event at Crop, Paper, Scissors. It was SO MUCH FUN. Seeing everyone make all of the little elements on the wreath and then put it all together was so inspiring! I taught the ladies how to make all of the paper elements for the wreath and then everyone worked independently to put their wreaths together. One of the things we learned how to make were the crepe ruffles, like the one you see behind the green pleated circle. I've seen these made so many different ways, but the method I used was great because there is no drying time involved, so we were able to use the ruffles immediately on the wreaths.
For the ruffles, you just need a regular stapler and some crepe paper rolls like you'd find in the party section. You know...streamers! Simply take a length of crepe paper (any length is fine since you can add to it or trim it shorter later) and follow this pattern – gather, gather, gather, staple. You'll start at one end of the crepe paper and keep folding the long end back onto the shorter end, making small gathers/pleats, holding together at the bottom with your thumb and index finger. Once you have a small section of pleats held down with your thumb (as shown), slide your stapler into the middle and staple all of the pleats together. If it doesn't hold, do another staple. You won't see the staples in the finished product since you'll be covering them up. Continue to gather and staple in a circle pattern until you get back around to the start of the crepe paper. If you have too much crepe left, just trim off the end. If you don't finish the circle and need more, simply start a new ruffle and then staple the two together into one circle. Keep all of your staples in the middle. Fluff up the outer edges and you now have a pretty crepe paper ruffle! Using a stapler for this is great because it has a strong hold and you don't have to wait for any messy glue to dry.

I recently listed some Halloween project PDF in my Etsy Shop...just $2 each! I will email you multi-page, multi-photo PDFs to print with downloadable elements, detailed instructions, and even a complete product list so you'll know what I used on my project....or use what you already have in your own stash!

Thanks for visiting my blog today! Have you ever made crepe ruffles?

Foodie Friday: Ditch the Packet

2011-08-26T08:15:00.003-05:00

We love our tacos around here! Probably once every week or two I make beef tacos on soft corn tortillas and we pile them with lettuce, tomatoes, diced avocado...all the good stuff. But they are made even BETTER by using homemade taco seasoning! You are probably thinking, "whatever, Jennifer....the stuff in the packet is so much easier." Yeah, probably, but it's more expensive than homemade and it is completely packed with too much salt. Once you try this mixture made with spices you probably already have in your pantry, you'll never go back! One recipe seasons 1 lb. of ground beef. You can also control the heat by using less crushed red pepper and control the smokiness by cutting back on the cumin. Completely your choice. Try it the original way one time, though. You'll love it. Happy Friday!

Homemade Taco Seasoning

from Allrecipes.com

1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and sprinkle over 1 lb. ground beef. Add 2/3 cup of water and stir. Simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Let Them Choose

2011-08-25T09:04:00.007-05:00

Last weekend was the final one before school started for Noah and we wanted to do something fun. So we headed for San Antonio! We spent two nights at the Embassy Suites, all day Saturday at Six Flags Fiesta Texas theme park (thank the Lord for the water park area), and Sunday at Malibu Grand Prix, riding go karts and playing mini golf and video games. We let Noah have a vote in all of the restaurants choices, he pretty much decided which ride was next at the park, and we didn't leave the fun until he said he was ready. When we got to our hotel room the first night and he saw the room service menu, he said, "can we please order something? Please, please??" We are the it's cheaper and faster to go down to the restaurant people, but that night we said, "sure!" He was thrilled to have a huge piece of Outrageous Chocolate Cake delivered to our door on a tray with a silver cover. All of these things seem so simple to us as adults, but to a tween kid, they are things he'll remember for a long time.

Splurge, do something out of the ordinary, let your kids decide for you. It was great fun. :)

Make Something Monday: Stitches and Words

2011-08-25T08:12:00.004-05:00

Sometimes it's hard to find just the right embellishment for a page or project. I love stitching and I love single words, so creating my own little page accents is super simple.

Stitching: Embroidery floss is so cheap and comes in literally hundreds of colors. Just grab your favorite color and a needle. Find where you want your embellishment to be on your page. Using the needle, poke holes thru the background paper in an evenly-spaced pattern in whatever shape you desire. Pictured here is a heart, but the possibilities are endless. You could even use a chipboard shape as a template. Or how about poking your stitching holes around some big chipboard alphabet letters? You could make a stitched title right on your page. So...thread your floss (I use all 6 strands so it's thick) and coming up from the back of the page, stitch back and forth thru the poked holes. Cut thread and tie off into a knot on the back when you are finished. And there you go...stitched embellishment in your choice of color, size, and placement!

Words: Little words placed on a photo or inside of an embellishment are nice little accents to a page. You can make your own by simply finding a font you like, typing up a page of words you want, and printing the page on heavy cardstock. (I love this site for new fonts) Cut the words apart and they are ready to use. I like to put the little words in jars for storage so I can see them....and it looks cute. :) Try using a theme for your words - Halloween, baby, love, family, etc. I'll get you started with a page of School words here. Just print and cut apart! Note: In Word (doc) format you have to have the fonts installed on your computer for them to print correctly, therefore I saved this in PDF format so the fonts would show up when you print them.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Foodie Friday: For the Love of My Grill Pan

2011-08-25T07:26:00.004-05:00

Outdoor grilling is great, but really....in the heat we've been having in TX, who wants to stand outside over a flaming grill? It's not going to be me, that's for sure.

I've been getting a lot of use out of my Calphalon Grill Pan this summer! Simply marinating our dinner meat all day in the fridge and grilling it up right before we eat sure makes dinnertime easier. (and healthier!) It's easy to find marinade recipes online and it kind of forces you to do early dinner prep. A big bonus on busy days!

Some of our favorites from this summer are Tyler's Fajitas (even better than a restaurant!), Tequila Lime Chicken, and BBQ Roasted Salmon (I grill instead of baking). You can even brush the grill with a little butter and grill up some fresh peaches or pineapple slices with some brown sugar and cinnamon for dessert. (great over vanilla bean ice cream or just by themselves!)

I hope this inspires you to grill indoors and try some new flavors!

Wednesday: Piles and Piles of Junk Mail

2011-08-17T05:00:00.003-05:00

I remember when I first moved into the dorm at University of TX and how cool I thought it was to get mail. Any mail! It was fun to see my name on the label...almost like a contest to see who would walk back to the room with the biggest stack. Now? Not so much. I detest junk mail. I'm not the world's biggest tree hugger, but when I go thru the day's mail and throw away 98% of it? Ugh. Catalogs, coupons, unsolicited advertisements, "please come back to us" pleading letters.... it's too much.

So, yesterday I sat down with a huge pile of collected junk mail with the intention of getting our name OFF of each and every one of their lists. Most of the ads and catalogs were for companies where we had purchased something one time. But that one time gets you on their forever mailing (and emailing) list. Also, if you've ever left a company for another, they will forever bombard you with letters that offer something better. (thank you, GEICO and AT&T)

If you look on the back of some of the junk mail, it will list a phone number to call to be removed from the mailing list. Those were easy enough. But some of them don't have any information, so for those I headed to their company website. Look for the Customer Service or Contact Us links. Most of the time, this is where I either found an email address, an 800-number, or a form to fill out to remove ourselves from the mailing list. Funny, the hardest one to find was for Rack Room Shoes! I bought one pair of shoes there years ago and get frequent flyers from them. There was not a contact number or email address anywhere. I ended up accidentally calling the director of copyright infringement, ha. They had his personal phone number on the website...weird. I just told him, "oh, sorry, wrong number" as I didn't think he'd be the person to ask to remove our address. :D

It took about an hour, but after I was done it felt great to know that in a few months I shouldn't be pulling piles of ads out of the mailbox. The beginning of a new school year always gets me in "clean out" mode, so this mission definitely made me happy! Have you cleared out what you receive in the mail yet? If so, have you noticed a difference?

Thanks for coming to my blog today. :)

Make Something Monday: Dyed Bottle Brush Trees

2011-08-15T02:00:00.001-05:00

I've always loved the vintage bottle brush trees that you see in antique Christmas displays. Many are dusted with shiny mica flakes or chunky silver glitter. Some even have tiny Christmas balls embedded in them. Whatever the color or style, I've always wanted some but have you seen how much some of these cost? There's no way I was going to pay such high prices for them. A while ago I saw the instructions somewhere online for custom dyeing bottle brush trees at home and told myself that I'd make them someday. When I was getting ready for my recent Kitschy Christmas Wreath class, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to try it!

Since it was the end of July, finding a package of the ugly green flocked bottle brush trees wasn't easy. However, Hobby Lobby carries them year-round in the dollhouse miniatures section - 3 trees for $1.99. Not bad! And if you get them during a week when dollhouse items are 50% off...even better!

To dye the trees you'll need the following items: bottle brush trees of any size, bleach, protective gloves (latex or dishwashing are fine), salt, dish soap, fabric dyes, paper towels, water, and a large bowl for the bleach, soap/water and each dye color.

Step 1: Wearing gloves, fill a large bowl with straight bleach. If you are uncomfortable using straight bleach, you can add some water to it. It will just take longer for the trees to bleach out. Add your bottle brush trees to the bleach and let them soak about 10 minutes. The color will immediately start to fade. With your gloved hands, rub the bleach into the trees. After the trees are completely bleached, throw them into a bowl of soap/water. Rub each tree with soap, then run under warm water, squeeze off excess water, and set aside on paper towels. Don't worry if the bristles look weird. You can reshape them later after they are dry from dyeing.

(more photos below)

Step 2: For each dye color, fill a large mixing bowl about 1/2 full with water, a tablespoon of salt (keeps the color from running) and 1/2 package of fabric dye. The dyes I used on the trees below are Rit Petal Pink and Dylon Bahama Blue, both brands available at Hobby Lobby. Holding the tree by the base, dip quickly into dye bowl, only submerging for 1-2 seconds. (wear gloves) The color takes immediately, so check the color and dip again for a darker shade. Let trees dry on paper towels overnight. Be careful not to let different color trees touch each other as the color will transfer.

Step 3: When trees are completely dry, you can leave them as is or bling them up a bit! Brush them with a light coating of mod podge and sprinkle on some fine or chunky glitter or mica flakes. You can also cover the base with glitter. Many of the students in my Christmas wreath class jazzed up their dyed trees and they were so beautiful! You can see some photos of what they did here and here. (thanks Linda and Cindy!)

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and that you'll try some of these yourself. I think I'll make some orange and black ones for Halloween!

Foodie Friday - Roasted Vegetable (or Chicken) Pizza...aka Date Night Pizza

2011-08-12T01:00:00.004-05:00

Once in a while Noah will spend the night at a friend's house, his cousin's house or with Grandma. As soon as we know we have the house to ourselves for the evening and we've decided we will stay in, we think of Date Night Pizza! Translated, that means David and I stay home, watch a really loud movie and make homemade pizza together. And drink wine.

So, here's how we make it.... get a really good frozen pizza dough that you can roll out. Central Market and Whole Foods sell their own bakery brands in the frozen pizza case. We also like Il Fornaio a lot. Hey, for $2.00 it's really good and worth the non-trouble of making your own, which is also fun, but that's like Date DAY material. Moving on....

Get several fresh veggies to roast. For the pizza pictured we used eggplant (peeled and chunked), zucchini (sliced into half circles), yellow and orange cherry tomatoes (sliced in 1/2 lengthwise), and fresh garlic (chopped). Toss all of the veggies in a big baking dish with extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, and fresh cracked pepper. Don't overdo it on the oil or your veggies will just be mushy. Bake at 400° until the veggies start to brown. The brown is what makes it goooooood. When they are done, set them aside. You can also roast some boneless chicken breasts in the same way, browning and then shredding or slicing when done.

Next, make your sauce....yes, make. It's so easy, simple and yum. Just get some really good tomato sauce. I like the Cento brand for all things canned tomato because it's all got a richer flavor than others. Yeah, it's a little pricier, but like 50 cents higher...not a big difference. So mix a small can of tomato paste with a little extra virgin olive oil, some kosher salt, fresh pepper, and about one teaspoon of dried Italian seasonings. Whisk it all together and if it's not "spreadable," add more evoo. Prepare your pizza dough, spread the sauce over the dough (use a rubber spatula), then toss your roasted veggies and/or chicken on top. I also threw on a few fresh basil leaves, but didn't roast those with the veggies. Last.....best part...... slice some fresh mozzarella cheese and lay the slices on the top, just randomly placed all over the pizza. Trust me on this...don't use the shredded bag 'o cheese. Buy that fresh ball of homemade mozzarella and slice it up. Our local grocery store makes it's own and you can find the fresh stuff in the gourmet cheese section, usually by the deli meats.

Bake the pizza according to the crust package instructions, being careful not to burn it. (because the cheese gets weird, too) Let it sit for a minute or two before cutting. Yum...and don't forget the wine. :) What do you put on your homemade pizza?

Happy Date Night!

Blogging Schedule

2011-08-11T10:16:00.002-05:00

So I'm hoping by creating a schedule for myself, I'll become more of a regular blogger. It keeps me accountable and it gives me a preset topic. Here's what I'm thinking -

Make Something Mondays: Craft projects, scrapbook pages, homemade holidays...just something related to crafts.

Whatever Wednesdays: On these days it will be random - maybe a personal story, organizational tips, reviews, etc.

Foodie Fridays: Every Friday I'll share new recipes and food stories. I think the best recipes are those that are already tried by someone else. So you can bet that I'll never share a bad recipe here!

Today I'm filling in the family calendar with fall activity dates. School, scouts, holidays, church activities, youth group, and my own classes - lots of fun coming up! Making sure to keep plenty of "blank spots" as well. That's purposeful. We can choose to fill every square on the calendar, keep our family running around 24/7, live in the minivan, eat at drive thru restaurants on the way to "somewhere"....or we can choose some blank space. Contrary to society, there doesn't have to always be something happening outside of togetherness at our own home to make life good. Do you try to do the same thing? When do you say "no?" Oh, and by the way....writing down things on a central family calendar is a great memory keeping tool. I have calendars from the past 10 years, and it's fun to look back on things like "38 week OB appointment" and "our 2nd anniversary trip." :)

I look forward to sharing more with you. As always, thanks for dropping by here!

Playdate and Strawberry Ice Cream

2011-08-10T14:41:00.003-05:00

Hello, hello blog friends!! Long time, no see! I'm so happy to be back, committed to blogging at least three times a week. Facebook is really BAD for blogging....well, for me anyway. :) I'm thinking I'll follow a M/W/F schedule to keep me on track. Some of the blogging topics I'll use will be crafting, how-tos, organization, recipes, and of course the occasional personal entries.

I gave my blog a new look and even stitched my own blog banner last night. I found a font I wanted to use (called Playdate), typed the title out in Word, then actually placed my fabric over the laptop screen and traced the title with a disappearing ink pen, ha. I stitched it last night while watching Pawn Stars (don't you love that show?), took photos of it this morning, edited it, uploaded it, and here it is. I took real photos instead of scanning because of the bulk from the buttons.

You'll also find some of my Paper Cowgirl class kits in my Etsy shop (link to the left). I had some left over so I reduced the price and listed them. Such a fun project for your home!

I'll leave you today with a yummy recipe that I love making in the summertime. The strawberry soda gives it a "bite" and it's SO easy to make. Strawberry Soda Ice Cream

I'll see you soon!

Returning soon!

2011-08-04T16:11:00.002-05:00

I'm coming back....I promise! In the next week or so I'm going to redo my blog and get on a regular schedule. Can't wait to return. :)

Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat

2011-02-15T19:21:00.003-06:00

Hi, friends!

I think I figured out what is making me such a bad blogger - Facebook. I find it so much easier just to sit and write a sentence or two rather than a few paragraphs. That is SAD. The guilt set in, so here I am, lol. :)

The photo you see here is the project I'll be teaching at Paper Cowgirl 2011 in June! So excited to be asked to be a teacher again this year. The line up of instructors and classes is AMAZING. You must go see! Registration will be starting in about a week, so keep an eye on the blog and the Facebook page. I'm so in love with my project. I love that it's vintage-style but still full of color.

Thanks for still coming by here! :)

Pendant Winner!

2010-12-12T22:46:00.002-06:00

Hi, everyone! Sorry it's so late on Sunday to be drawing a winner. :) I've been sitting here packaging up some orders that I received this weekend so I can mail them tomorrow, and the time just got away from me. I wish I could give one to everyone who entered. Thanks so much for commenting and all of the nice things you said. They mean so much!

OK....using Random Number Generator with 38 comments.......the number chosen was #8.

Courtney Walsh said...

Jen! These are awesome!! I LOVE them! :) Off to check out your etsy shop!!

12:22 PM

That's you, Courtney! :D Email me with your pendant choice from my shop and I'll get it in the mail to you.

Pendant Giveaway!

2010-12-10T11:56:00.004-06:00

Hi, friends!

I just finished uploading a bunch of new pendants to my Etsy shop. I used Swarovski crystals, braided copper, glitter, digital prints...lots of fun things. Trying to earn a little of my own money for Christmas and David's December birthday. :)

I'd like to give away one of my pendants to you, my sweet blog readers! Just leave a comment below and Sunday I will randomly choose a winner. The winner may choose any pendant that is available in my Etsy shop on Sunday and I'll mail it out to you. Perfect for a Christmas gift...or a treat for yourself! Thanks so much for coming by. :)

12.8.10

2010-12-08T18:17:00.003-06:00

Hello, friends :) Recently I was featured on Debby Lewis' Home For the Holidays blog, so I thought I'd share the photos and captions that I sent to her. I shared my love of vintage ornaments, old-fashioned Christmas tunes, and nostalgic decor that brings back childhood memories. (You can click on the photo to enlarge it, then click again to zoom in.)

1- While most of the vintage Shiny Brite balls that I collect go on our tree, I also like to gather them into glass vases and display them with glittery little Christmas houses.

2- Our tree...I love our Santa Claus fur-trimmed tree skirt!
3- Vintage red and silver foil tinsel and a favorite old Shiny Brite ornament.
4- An old pedestal bowl full of silver glitter snowflakes and a vintage Christmas postcard. (old holiday postcards are great decor!)
5- Old World glass ornaments and my favorite strand of old flower lights.
6- simple, cherished nativity that sits in our dining room.
7- Our stairs are always adorned with garland and white lights!
8- More vintage ornaments on the tree.
9- Part of a Christmas decor piece I created last year with old lace, buttons, and a snowy wreath. (the wreath is a napkin holder from Target!)
10- I like to decorate in themes, arranging "like" items together. Our mantle is Santa-themed and these are some of my old Santas collected over the years.
11- This old ceramic tree is my favorite Christmas decor. It used to sit on top of the console TV when I was little and I always loved seeing it glow when we'd sit in the living room. My mom gave it to me several years ago and I was so happy to have it in our home!
12- A fun set of old colored lights I found at a thrift shop. They blink and are in such beautiful colors!
13- Another pretty way to display Shiny Brite ornaments is gathered on a glass cake pedestal with mercury bead strands.

I recently tried a really YUMMY new dinner recipe and we all loved it. These sound strange, but if you read the ingredients, you'll see why they are delicious. (Don't forget the limes and avocado!) Tyler Florence's Mexican Pot Roast Tacos

Have a blessed week!

12.1.10

2010-12-01T18:11:00.007-06:00

David and I love bed and breakfasts. We spent a good part of our honeymoon driving thru New England and stayed at several gorgeous inns, all with delicious food, beautiful rooms and scenery, and unique owners who entertained us with their conversation. A few years ago we went to The Inn Above Onion Creek for David's birthday. It's one of my favorite places ever, even though it's very close to our home. :) I love that dinner and breakfast are included, so you completely get away and don't have to worry about leaving. (It's out in the country, so that's a good thing!) And the food is prepared and planned by a gourmet chef, so no boring food here. On the night we spent here, the woman who was cooking served us the most delicious dessert by the fireplace - a warm Apple Walnut Crisp with vanilla bean ice cream. Since there were few people there at the time, we struck up a conversation with her and I asked her for the recipe. Bless her heart, she gave it to me! That was seven years ago and I still make it, especially in the fall and winter. Soooo good with a crumbled brown sugar, oatmeal, pecan topping and lots of fresh fruit and berries. I put one in the oven just about 30 minutes ago and it made me think I should share the recipe here. I love this recipe because you can use many different fruits instead of the apples. The one I just made has granny smith apples, fresh cranberries, and fresh blackberries. And the best part? Because of the ingredients, it's perfect warmed up for breakfast the next morning. :)

Apple Walnut Crisp

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/8 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/8 cups packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups walnuts or pecans (you can lightly toast them, if you like; I just chopped some pecan halves and used them as is)
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into small cubes and set out until softened
3 cups fresh fruit, chopped into large pieces or left whole if berries (suggestions: granny smith apples, blackberries, blueberries, cranberries, peaches, pears)
1 Tbsp. white sugar
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 small lemon, juiced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a large ceramic baking dish (3-3 1/2 quarts). Cut butter into cubes and set aside so it can soften.

Stir together flour, oats, brown sugar, nuts, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. Add butter cubes and blend with your fingertips, squeezing and mixing together until mixture forms clumps.

Peel and core apples, chopping into big chunks. Wash and dry any other fruit you are using. Place all fruit into a bowl and toss with white sugar, 2 Tbsp. flour and the lemon juice. Transfer to the baking dish, spreading evenly.

Crumble oat topping evenly over apple mixture and bake until topping is golden and apples or fruit is tender, about 45 minutes. Cool slightly and serve warm.

Makes about 8 good-size servings.

11.30.10

2010-11-30T12:01:00.003-06:00

Wow, really? Over two months since my last blog post? So sorry about that. :) Life, you know!

Just got the house all decorated for Christmas. I don't cover the entire place with Christmas stuff. I don't want it to look like a store. But I have certain areas of the house where I put gatherings of items. This first photo is on top of our piano - Shiny Brite vintage ornaments in glass jars and vases surrounded by little glittered houses. Scattered around the house these wouldn't be as fun, but all gathered together like this they make much more of an impact. I do the same thing on my mantle - it's "Santa" themed with garland, lights, sparkly bead stems and all of our Santas. The hutch in the kitchen is all cream and red decor. It's a lot of fun to have specific themed areas, too, because when you see something while out shopping, you'll know exactly where it could go in your home!

I think I've finally decided on a project to submit for Paper Cowgirl 2011. I always want my project to be something "different" but with good techniques and where students will learn something new. Most of the women who attend Paper Cowgirl are vintage-lovers, so that makes it easy!

I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas season already. Keep it simple and keep some blank space on your calendar. And here is a link to my favorite Pandora Christmas music station. I created it with all of my favorite old Christmas crooners. :)

9.21.10

2010-09-21T08:08:00.005-05:00

Good morning! Fall is just two days away on the actual calendar, although the weather doesn't seem to want to cooperate. (still in the 90's...ugh!) That hasn't stopped me from getting in my Fall cleaning mode. It seems every new school year I get busy either organizing something big or cleaning out. Our neighborhood has a huge garage sale every October, so I've decided I'm going to join in this time. I've been going room by room, cleaning out closets, drawers, and just doing some general decluttering. I have a big stash now in a front room, full of things for the garage sale. I plan on using the money to buy some really nice bedding for our bedroom. It feels so great to have less.

I've already put up my Fall decor and love the way it feels in the house. The beautiful colors, the smell of pumpkin candles, the pretty leaves....it's my favorite season! The Halloween decor will soon follow, so I thought I'd share how to make some of my handmade Halloween pieces. I've created downloadable full-color PDFs with detailed instructions, printable vintage postcards, templates, everything you need to create these at home. They also include a full product list of what I used, but also suggestions for using what you already have - a less expensive alternative to purchasing a full kit, and you get to use up your stash. These photos are peeks at two of the Halloween Banner panels - lots of fun techniques and use of products. I also have a Halloween hanger with lots of layered elements and a lighted haunted house with spooky curtains and a crooked fence! The PDFs are all available in my Etsy shop here.

Beans and cornbread for dinner tonight. For the cornbread, I just use a basic mix, but I add chopped green chiles, a handful of sharp cheddar, and 1/2 can of creamed corn. Makes it goooood. Here is my recipe for the beans:

Ham and Beans
1 bag (16 oz) dried beans (I use pinto)
1/2 lb. diced, cooked ham (I buy the Boar's Head deli ham - maple glazed, sliced thick)
1 small onion, diced
1 large handful of brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste (you'll need lots of salt later)
Dash of cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp. dried parsley
water

1. Rinse and sort beans in a colander. (picking out any rocks or misshapen beans) Place beans in a large bowl, covering with 8 cups of cold water. Let stand overnight or at least 6-8 hours. Drain and rinse beans.

2. Place beans in a large stockpot (or crockpot) and add ham, onion, brown sugar, salt, pepper, cayenne and parsley. Generously cover with water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 1.5 - 2 hours until beans are tender. Add more water, if necessary during cooking time (and reseason with salt, pepper, and brown sugar to taste). If you are using a crockpot, cook on high for 4 hours or low 8 hours. About 30 minutes before serving, check to see if you need more salt or pepper. Serve with cornbread.

Yum! Have a wonderful day. :)

8.31.10

2010-08-31T10:20:00.003-05:00

Ahhhh....being in the country. This past weekend I attended a scrapbooking retreat at Rockin' R Retreat Center in Temple, TX. The center sleeps 30 in lots of different bedrooms (twin beds) and was out in the quiet countryside. I loved waking up in the morning and going out on the porch with my coffee to nothing but sunshine, cows mooing, and the occasional truck going by on the gravel road.

It was a very relaxing weekend. All of the meals were provided for us, cooked by the owner in the house's gourmet kitchen. She also has a massage therapist who had her own spa set up room in the back. One of THE best hour long massages I've had in quite a while. I set up a vendor booth and embroidered when I wasn't working. Every time I saw Rena (the owner) cooking I thought, "this would be fun to do this once!" I'd love the challenge of planning menus and pampering the 30 women with good food. Is that crazy?? I've even had thoughts of what I'd serve....
Saturday breakfast - creme brulee' french toast, local smoked sausage, seasonal berries, Starbucks coffee. Saturday lunch - fresh artisan breads for different sandwiches; homemade roasted chicken salad with diced apples, fresh egg salad with dill, smoked ham with mozzarella and field greens. Saturday snack - fresh baked cookies. Saturday dinner - a variety of homemade enchiladas (green chile/chicken, beef, or cheese) with homemade guacamole, chips, salsas. Late night dessert - warm peach crisp with vanilla ice cream. (which can also be set out with the next morning's breakfast, ha) Sunday breakfast - Green chile egg casserole, maple bacon, fruit salad, Starbucks coffee.... Anyway....just daydreaming! I've always thought it would be fun to occasionally own a bed and breakfast, but not full time. ha :) I guess trying something like this sure would be a good test run.

Once all of the baby/fertility stuff is clear...I'll think about it more. I don't want to just wonder "what if.." I want to try it just once! In the meantime it never hurts to daydream. :)

8.8.10

2010-08-08T18:46:00.008-05:00

(photo of Ina from House Beautiful)

Hi!

I've had a few people ask me to post my weekly menu plan, so I thought I'd do that here.

I love to cook....most of the time. Believe me, there are days when the LAST thing I want to do is decide what's for dinner. But that's the thing...the deciding last minute is what I hate. Actually cooking it I enjoy. (again, most of the time) :) I'm human and have lots of days where I'd be perfectly happy eating English muffins with peanut butter or a bowl of Cheerios! But there is something very satisfying to me about taking basic ingredients and turning them into something really yummy. So, to make that as enjoyable as possible during the week, I often try to plan a weekly menu. I go thru my tried and true recipes, write them on a grid calendar, then make a separate shopping list after going thru the pantry to see what I need to buy. Lately I've been bored with the same old recipes and have been wanting to try new ones, so I sat down with all of my Ina Garten cookbooks and other recipes and filled in the week on the calendar. I only grocery shop one week at a time because it's hard to buy produce in advance. Doing the meal plan makes things SO much easier for me during the week because a) I don't have to think about what we'll eat each day and b) I'm sure to have all of the ingredients. It's not about hard to make recipes. Most of these are really easy to prepare. And really....meal planning doesn't mean big elaborate meals. (as you'll see below) You can meal plan for macaroni and cheese and scrambled eggs! It's just about planning ahead. And hey....if I don't feel good one day and we get takeout, I'll just shift the days or move something to the next week. No big deal! I'm not trying to be Superwoman here. Some women scrapbook almost every day or make jewelry almost every day. For me, that's cooking.

Ok, here's our menu this week with links to the recipes. If I made any changes, I noted those:

Sunday: Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito soup (slow cooker meal)
*Changes- I cooked the onion and garlic in a little olive oil to brown them before adding to the pot. For the chicken, I rubbed three chicken breasts with olive oil, kosher salt, and ground pepper and roasted them in the oven (375) for about 40 minutes until they browned a little. Then I shredded them and added them to the soup about 30 minutes before eating. I don't like chicken that cooks in the crockpot...too rubbery and I like color on it. This soup was really good. We topped it with tortilla chips, diced avocado and lite sour cream.

Monday: BBQ Beef Sliders, Sweet Potato Fries, and raw vegetables (slow cooker meal)
*Pepperidge Farm makes small wheat slider buns.

Tuesday: Parmesan Chicken with greens and lemon vinaigrette dressing

Wednesday: Herb Marinated Pork Tenderloin, corn on the cob, Mustard-roasted potatoes

Thursday: Pasta with roasted vegetables and mozzarella
*For this, I'm just going to roast some chicken breasts and fresh veggies in the oven with kosher salt, EVOO and pepper. (zucchini, red peppers, onions, mushrooms) I'll chunk the chicken and toss everything with some whole wheat penne pasta, olive oil, and some fresh mozzarella.

Friday: BBQ Roasted Salmon, brown rice, sauteed fresh spinach with garlic

Saturday: Buffalo Chicken (breast strips) Salad
* I'll make the buffalo chicken recipe with breasts, cut into strips. Then we'll eat those over a salad tossed with lite blue cheese dressing with celery sticks on the side.

Sunday: 15-minute Tomato and Bean Soup

Dessert: I don't buy a lot of sweets except for some ice cream and the Paul Newman cookies. Noah asked me to make this recipe this week when he saw it in the cookbook, so I told him I would. :) How could I refuse? YUM. Ina's Brownie Pudding

I hope you are inspired a little to plan your own meals this week, do one shopping trip, and be able to know what's for dinner early in the morning! Do you already do meal planning? Got any good tips?

8.4.10

2010-08-04T17:39:00.005-05:00

Wow, it's been over a month since I've blogged. Sorry about that. :) Just been a busy summer and I've been taking a bit of a creative break. I did some scrapbooking to show some of the products I had at different vendor events this summer, so these layouts show some of those papers and embellishments. I'm just not "feeling" scrapbooking lately. I hate that...but it's true. I'm trying to think of a way I can do lots of journaling to tell stories using a few photos and just very minimal scrapbooking supplies. I have these tall 4x8 albums in my mind for some reason. I don't know....just more on the path of creative cooking and embroidery lately. I go in phases, but this has been a long lag of no scrapbooking. Just doing what I feel like doing right now. And SO GLAD I'm not on a design team or doing assignments, lol. I love being free from that!

How is your summer going? Noah starts school in two weeks. 5th grade. I'm excited for him....sad for me. But he's going to have lots of fun this year. :)

Layouts: First is October Afternoon's "Fly a Kite".....Second is Jenni Bowlin's "Playdate"....Third is Pink Paislee's "Queen Bee." I'll have all of these papers at the Heart of TX Scrapbook Club retreat in a few weeks. *Click on any layout to enlarge it.

Thank you for stopping by here!

6.28.10

2010-06-28T12:11:00.004-05:00

Isn't this bowl pretty? I love antique white bowls with the gold etching like this. I found it over the weekend while antiquing at in Waxahachie during the Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat. SO. MUCH. FUN. So many creative women, new friendships, lots of laughter and girl time, and beautiful creations around every corner. All of the teachers and students were incredibly talented. Cindy did a fantastic job planning every little detail of the event. And I had a blast teaching my patriotic banner class. What a great bunch of ladies! I especially enjoyed hanging out with Jana for a couple of days. Thank you so much for driving up, Jana!

I didn't take many photos this weekend. I just forgot, was busy, or ahem...forgot the battery in my suitcase the one time I did grab my camera. I'll share links to some photos from other cowgirls. Deb posted a few photos on the Paper Cowgirl blog. She was our resident photographer! In the meantime, I thought I'd share some of the things I found while shopping over the weekend. Click on any photo to enlarge it.

I collect vintage Christmas decor. I love things that remind me of my childhood. Had to have this looped Christmas garland, little Santa wreath, and red honeycomb bell. Total of about $6 here.

LOVED this beautiful necklace, made by Jennifer Babcock. I bought it at her booth on vendor night. She's a such a sweetheart and had so many gorgeous things for sale. Cindy Gilstrap was selling these precious Paper Cowgirl buttons. So fun!

Quilted boxes are wonderful for storage and for display in my vendor booth.
I found this one for $4. Love the yellow.

Thursday night's Meet and Greet was held at The Dove's Nest, a beautiful gift shop and restaurant all in one. I found this burlap hanging for our kitchen. LOVE the old spoons!

More vintage Christmas! Always on the hunt for Shiny Brite ornaments.
These were a bargain on vendor night for $3.95 for the box.

Ok, I also love vintage things for other holidays. :) I saw this pumpkin flashing from across the room on vendor night and I left my booth, ran over and grabbed it! Love how it blinks. Can't wait to put it on the mantle in October!

Angela Berger makes the most beautiful vintage jewelry. She had this for sale in her booth and said that all of the beads and the leaf are very old. I am so thrilled to have taken her class and learned how to make jewelry myself. I hope to take some time this summer to start making some of my own!

Ok, this wasn't a shopping find, but I had to show you this. Jennifer Babcock taught a domino necklace/glittered trinket box class and I bought one of her class kits. This was her kit! Isn't it cute how she packaged it? I can't wait to get started on it.

And because I've shown it in several photos, I thought I'd share my Anthropologie table runner. I bought this a while ago, but just pulled it back out recently. I love all of the colors! It's on our kitchen table.

Thanks for letting me share!

6.21.10

2010-06-21T23:27:00.003-05:00

This evening I did a set up of my vendor booth for Paper Cowgirl. It will help a lot when it comes time to set up for Vendor Night if I've already thought thru where everything will go! Here are just a few sneak peek photos of some of the fun things I'll be selling. I can't wait! I hope some of you will be there as Vendor Night is open to the public for shopping. Check out the Paper Cowgirl blog for the details!

6.15.10

2010-06-15T10:53:00.002-05:00

Good morning!

I'm working today on some fresh new soldered pendants for my vendor booth this summer. Some will have bling, some with silver rope edging, some with beads/charms. I especially like the "Thy name to praise" one, as the words were cut right out of a very old hymnal.

They are fun to create. :)

"If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise." ~Johann von Goethe

Beautiful Things

2010-06-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

Good morning! Just thought I'd do a post, sharing some beautiful things I've found lately. Disclaimer: You may be inspired, so don't blame me if it costs you money! :D

1. Canadian Cottage Blog: This blog is beautiful...and so simple. I love that she makes something pretty out of the inexpensive. I admire creativity and frugality in decorating! (and I have a similar white box as seen in her blog header....and I am SO doing that with the flowers in jars!)

2. Chocolate Caramel Cream Pie: This sure would be good on the 4th of July. Or right this second.

3. April Cornell Tea Towels: I've always loved her things. These are no exception!

4. Teresa Collins' Fabric Flowers: I love the fabrics she used for these. We are making something similar in my Paper Cowgirl class, using seam binding.

5. Rebecca's Peaches and Cream collage: I am not a fan of the 80's peach color that was overused in home decor (with accompanying baby blue), but these peach tones are oh so summery and light. So pretty!

I hope you have a beautiful Monday!

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

6.13.10

2010-06-13T09:58:00.007-05:00

Good morning!

Registration for Paper Cowgirl ends TONIGHT at midnight. If you were considering going, now is the time to sign up. Cindy has a magical weekend planned for us and I'm sooo looking forward to the girl time! And hey, even if you can't attend....you can come to VENDOR NIGHT. It's open to the public! Shoot me an email if you need more information.

In my banner class for Paper Cowgirl, I'm going to have a little background music playing. Here is the imix I made to play. Totally old-fashioned and romantic. :)

God bless your Sunday!

6.12.10

2010-06-12T22:34:00.003-05:00

Random post alert!

First, thank you all so much for the happy wishes and prayers regarding our fertility treatments. I am prayerfully optimistic and hope to have good news to share one day soon!

Hope Floats is one of my favorite movies. It's one of those feel good movies I could watch over and over, like Moonstruck. (my #1) And it doesn't hurt that Harry Connick, Jr. is one of the stars. :)

I saw Hope Floats on TV the other day and it just made me remember how much I like it. I grew up in a small town just 25 miles from the setting of this movie and where it was filmed. It was fun seeing familiar streets, old homes, just the relaxed environment and pace. Love the porch swings, the town square, everyone wearing jeans, the lace tablecloths and real teacups, and the wire fences around the houses. I think I want to watch it again just to get some summer decor ideas. The movie had such a vintage feel.

A fun story about this movie..... When it was being filmed, I was working as a consultant in a bridal salon. (The filming town, Smithville, is just 30 minutes from Austin) The costume designer came into the bridal salon one day, wanting to purchase a dress for Sandra Bullock to wear for the movie. But she wasn't filming a wedding scene. She needed a dress for her to wear in a wedding photo that would sit on her mother's dresser. They spent $850 on a wedding gown that would be in the movie about 5 seconds. Can you believe that? And I actually don't even remember seeing that photo in the movie set. I just thought that was funny. :)

Have a beautiful weekend!
(Have you seen Hope Floats?)

6.10.10

2010-06-10T16:46:00.004-05:00

Hi, everyone!

I don't have a whole lot to blog about right now. Truthfully, I haven't felt much like blogging or doing much of anything lately. I'm going thru some fertility treatments and the procedures and shots are wearing me down. I'm dizzy and tired a lot and everything is taking twice as long as it should. I'm just glad it's summertime and things are a bit slower for us.

I've slowly been getting ready for Paper Cowgirl, too. Can't believe it's just two weeks away. I'm sooooo looking forward to the girl time, vintage shopping, my class, vendor night, our haunted mansion dinner, and seeing my friend Jana and all of my new friends I've made thru the message boards and emails.

So sorry for the downer, boring post! Things are just sloooooooow and tired around here. :)
What are you doing this summer? Anything fun?

5.18.10

2010-05-18T10:27:00.004-05:00

I'm here, I'm here!
I love that so many of you have checked on me to make sure things are ok. I promise I'm fine! Thank you SO much. I've just been busy with school functions, we went on vacation to Disneyworld, and now I'm trying to get caught up on life since we got back. I would think about blogging every day, but geez...just didn't know who would want to read about errands, school events, and my hurriedness. :) So we are home...things are settling down...and I'm giddy that I have lots of crafty time coming up this summer!

To start, isn't this photo pretty? I took this at Epcot Center in Disneyworld. Right now they have the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival going on and there are thousands of flowers everywhere. They had hundreds of these roses, my absolute favorite. Just look how they are bursting with layers and layers of petals. I can't tell you how much I wanted to cut a bunch and take them back to the hotel with me. :)

School is over next week and I'm so thrilled about it. Ready for our schedule to settle down a bit. Ready to have longer periods of time to craft and create. I have three events coming up this summer - yay! First - Paper Cowgirl in Waxahachie, TX in June. I'm teaching a vintage patriotic banner class and will also have a vendor night booth set up, full of fun vintage pretties. So excited about the event! Cindy is making it first class all the way! Second - I'll be attending Kaitlyn's Crop in Houston, July 16-17th. Sweet Cheri Vallery hosts this weekend event each year to raise scholarship money for a student at her daughter's high school. Her precious Kaitlyn passed away in 2006. I'll be there as a vendor and am ordering WAY too much stuff to have at my booth. Cheri has given me all the space I need and I'm taking it, ha. I'll have 3 huge tables full of goodies from Tim Holtz, October Afternoon, Smooch, Maya Road, Melissa Frances, Jenni Bowlin....as well as fun things like glass glitter tubes and chandelier crystals. Third - the Heart of TX Scrapbook Club's end of summer retreat in Temple, TX in August. I'll have a vendor table there as well, full of fun scrapbooking supplies! So three opportunities to hang out with crafty people this summer. I can't wait!

Let me share a few recipes for things I've made in the last few weeks. I haven't cooked as much as I've liked, but will get back on the wagon now that life is settling down. :)

Chocolate Lover's Favorite Cake YUM. I made this for Noah's birthday and also for my mom's birthday. So, so good. (I used vanilla extract instead of almond)

Trisha Yearwood's Hot Corn Dip I made this as an appetizer when the family got together for Noah's birthday. I had seen her on The View and they were just raving about how good this was, so I thought we'd try it. It's great! (but filling) If you like corn, green chiles, and cheese, you'll love it.

Homemade Fruit Ice Cream with Soda I make this every year using strawberries and strawberry soda. It's SO good, easy, and has a nice little fizziness to it from the soda. There are LOTS of soda/fruit ice cream recipes on this page, including one with cream soda and bananas. I think that sounds so good!

It's good to be back on the blog. :) Stay tuned for craftiness soon and let me know if you'll be at one of these summer events!

(I love this quote)
This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. ~George Bernard Shaw

4.6.10

2010-04-06T10:45:00.003-05:00

Hi, friends. :) Thanks for still coming back to my blog, even though it's not updated as much as I'd like. I keep wanting to have these fantastic crafty, photo-filled easy reading blog posts and they just aren't coming to me! I've been making some time to embroider, though, and have really fallen in love with this hobby. You can see the sampler so far in the first photo and then a few close-ups. It's so fun for it to be freestyle...just adding little bits and pieces wherever you like. I have more spaces to fill and then will finish it off with some trim at the bottom. Not sure if I'll hang it, frame it in a no-glass frame...have to think about that. But I already can't wait to incorporate embroidery into scrapbook pages, some tiny canvases and even some soldered pendants.

I hope you are having a beautiful spring! Please keep coming back...I'm still here! :)

3.26.10

2010-03-25T11:38:00.003-05:00

Let's go, girls! Registration for Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat 2010 is now officially OPEN!

June 24-27, 2010
Waxahachie, TX

A weekend of fabulous classes, shopping, vendor night, meet and greet, food and wine, and girl time!

I'm teaching a Vintage Patriotic Banner class and will also have a table on vendor night. Cannot WAIT!

3.17.10

2010-03-17T12:36:00.002-05:00

Between laundry loads, this is what I'm doing today. Sooooo much fun. I have a new love!

It makes me very thankful for the use of my hands, for creativity, and beautiful colors.

I should watch some Cary Grant today. :)

Stitched by Hand

2010-03-13T22:40:00.006-06:00

Good morning! We have had the most incredible weather here in Austin for the past few days. I wish it would stay just like this. But alas...the Texas spring isn't long and soon we'll have the pop up thunderstorms and temperatures creeping into the 90's. But for now, you can't help but sit on the back porch and enjoy it!

I've always been attracted to samplers and hand-stitching - the imperfections, the originality, the personality of the creator that comes thru. Whenever I see something hand-stitched in an antique store or estate sale, I always think of how much time and love went into the piece and how it's sort of sad that it's sitting there for sale. Someone passed many hours stitching by hand while children played or a husband worked. I've always wanted to learn all of the stitches, but never wanted to follow a set "finished product" photo. I've been seeing lots of free-style embroidery on some of my favorite blogs lately and I'm motivated to try it! Sure, I can do a few basic stitches, but want to apply them somehow and learn new ones to create something. Teresa's new Freestyle Embroidery E-zine was just the push I needed. (isn't that adorable?) I subscribed this weekend and can't wait to get started! Pictured are all of my supplies I've gathered to put in my sewing box. (I think it's funny that I already had all of these things, ha) If you click on the photo, you can see everything in detail. I'm so looking forward to taking it with me in the car, working on the couch, or anywhere I have a few free moments. I'll share photos as I go! Anyone want to join me?

Here's a wonderful sampler that Pam Garrison just completed.
And Rebecca's stitching is always gorgeous.
Let me know if you are free-styling, too. Would love to see your handiwork.

Eeek, so excited. Registration for Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat begins Monday! Hoping that I have some sign-ups for my banner class. It's always a little scary, wondering if people will like what you created. But I've asked the Lord to provide me creative opportunities this year, and this was one of them, so at least I'm on track!

Have a beautiful Sunday!

Yeehaw, Cowgirls!

2010-03-08T07:00:00.006-06:00

Good morning!

Have you heard?? The 3rd annual Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat is coming! I've wanted to go to this ever since Cindy and Tina started hosting them. Fabulous project classes, a meet and greet, shopping in downtown Waxahachie, and a vendor show.
Doin' it all up Texas style!

Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat
Waxahachie, Texas
June 24-26, 2010
(details will be posted on the Paper Cowgirl site sometime on Monday, 3/8)

This year will be the biggest yet. There will be TWELVE classes to choose from during the retreat! I love the way the schedule is set up. You choose the classes you want to take on the schedule and you sign up and pay for those classes. You could take one, or six, or even buy all twelve kits. Your schedule is up to you! And don't worry, a lot of the teachers will have extra kits available for purchase if you can't get them all scheduled.

How do I know all of this? Well, I am completely honored to be one of the twelve teachers. :)
You know I love old things, love holidays, ...so I'm combining the two for a beautiful Fourth of July banner class! Here is a photo of the project we'll be creating:

Isn't it fun? I love the bright and bold mixed with vintage. Here is the class description:
Waving flags, popping fireworks, soldiers in uniform, yummy treats...all fond reminders of a traditional fourth of July celebration! In this class we'll create an old-fashioned patriotic banner, full of festive sparkle and that perfect touch of vintage. We'll play with chunky glitter, gorgeous papers and fabric, antique postcard prints, crepe paper, ribbons and lace, and learn several new techniques as we create. Every heart rings true for the red, white and blue with this banner in your home!

Paper Cowgirl is the baby of Cindy and Tina. Last year sweet Tina was diagnosed with cancer and she passed away in January of this year. (I hate cancer.) Cindy decided to carry on the Paper Cowgirl tradition, as they had already begun preparations for this year's event. I think Tina would be so proud.

Please check out the Paper Cowgirl blog for all of the details on classes and registration. There are some amazing teachers and projects this year! Oh...and I'm also going to be a vendor on Vendor Night. :)

Let me know if you'll be there.
I cant wait. Yeehaw!

3.1.10

2010-03-01T12:44:00.004-06:00

Well, hello March! I love this time of year - the colors, the cool weather, Easter, and lots of birthdays. I went with my mom to the 1898 store on Saturday for a couple of hours...love that place. My mom found this big jar in the kitchen junk - $1.50! I thought it was so unusual so I brought it home, cleaned it up a bit, and put these beautiful flowers inside. It's fun how the flowers are the same shape as the parsley on the front of the jar. :) This little set up is on top of the shelves in my craft room. The green is a sap bucket with pink peonies and the blue is an old chipped aqua bread box. Fun!

I also dug thru a few jewelry boxes and found some little pieces - pearl rosary beads, black rhinestone brooch, purple/pink stone butterfly pin, and this pink earring - 10 cents! (would make a fun flower centerpiece on a project) God bless the little lady who runs this shop and always has opera music playing loudly. She just makes up the prices 1/2 the time, ha. There was a big rounder of old cookie cutters and I found this bunny - great for Easter decor. The pink ruffly ribbon is soooooo pretty. That is from Hobby Lobby and is available in brown and cream, too. It's a tulle material, rough on the edges, and rolled to look like flowers. I love it.

I think I'll bake some Lemon Blueberry bread tonight for breakfast tomorrow. I love lemon anything. I want to scrapbook so badly, but am tired of event pages. I need to take some random photos so I can tell some stories. That's one thing I don't do enough is take regular photos.

Happy birthday to my daddy in heaven. He would have been 76 today!

Have a beautiful day. :)

2.25.10

2010-02-25T12:05:00.005-06:00

I love cold sunny days with a bright blue sky! That's the kind of day we are having here today and it's just wonderful. Thought I'd take a photo in the kitchen today, just a little gathering of things I have on my black hutch. Right now it's full of cream and white items. It's a nice backdrop for adding Valentine's Day and then Easter decor. When I decorate for holidays, I just do little gatherings in specific places. This hutch is a great place to add decor without it overwhelming the house. Soon there will be little bunnies, chicks, and springtime vintage postcards. I love this time of year!

Had a wonderful time at my weekend scrapbooking retreat as a vendor. I always enjoy decorating my booth and interacting with all of my crafty friends. I plan on taking my booth to more area retreats this spring and summer. If you know of some, let me know! I'm starting to look around for more to attend. Here are some photos of my booth from this past weekend-

All set up in my little corner of the Hilton ballroom. I didn't have enough plugs to do the lights with the tissue paper flower garland...bummer. But I had a lamp and some electric candles. Do you know how much I wanted to pull that permanently fixed painting off the wall? :)

Love these baskets of vintage music and ledger paper. Also had seam binding bundles,
trims and glittered berries, Jenni Bowlin products on a cake pedestal, and silver trays of
button bags. Aren't those glittered letters "FUN?" I found those at Joann's a few years ago
in the clearance aisle. Are they nuts?

I love, love, love Distress Stickles so I had them in lots of colors. (also have a little swatch key ring with each color shown on chipboard - it's hanging on the shelf) Lots of fun stickers from October Afternoon, Doodlebug, and Cosmo Cricket, too. The Japanese Masking Tape was popular - really great to put on layouts to frame photos or as journaling strips.

The alphabet wall. :) Also brought an old window and hung Melissa Frances rhinestone embellishments on it. Turned a crate sideways and displayed lots of chipboard albums and alterable items. On top are my old salt shakers with fine Martha glitter in them. Lots were sold...sniff, sniff. I miss them.

I remembered earlier that I hadn't ever shared this entire project. This is a large canvas I made for Margie's booth at CHA for her Girls' Paperie line. I adore these papers and knotted buttons so much.

Have a beautiful day!

"Art is the only way to run away without leaving home." ~Twyla Tharp

2.14.10

2010-02-14T11:56:00.004-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day, friends! Be sure to eat some chocolate today. :)

I've been hard at work preparing for a weekend retreat coming up on Friday. I'm going to be a vendor again and cannot WAIT to set up my booth. It's going to be full of really fun products and I have some really fun decor to put up. (spring banners and tissue flower garlands with lights, anyone?) I've also posted a very small preview of some of the products I'll be carrying. (click on the photo to enlarge it) Lots of new things and some favorites from Tim Holtz, Cosmo Cricket, Melissa Frances, Pink Paislee, Maya Road, Jenni Bowlin, Heidi Swapp, and Doodlbug to name just a few. I have a large collection of Thickers and colorful alphabet stickers, patterned papers and Bazzill cardstock colors as well as my favorite vintage findings - old ledger and sheet music paper, glittered berries, button packs, antique lace cards, and seam binding. I purposely carry things you can't find at Hobby Lobby or Michael's. :) If you are going to be near Temple, TX on 2/19-2/21, stop by the Hilton Garden Inn and shop!

I look forward to seeing all of my retreat friends soon! Have a beautiful Sunday.

2.9.10

2010-02-09T23:51:00.003-06:00

I said I'd do the giveaway on Tuesday night, so in my time zone I officially have 7 minutes left, ha. Sorry for the delay! HAD to watch Lost and American Idol via Tivo before bedtime. :)

Ok, on to the giveaway.... I'm so glad so many of you were excited about the E-book. I encourage you to purchase it even if you didn't win. It's only $6.99 and you get it right away, no shipping!

I had David choose a number between 1 and 31 for the winner (without looking, of course)......and he chose.....#23:

Anne-Liesse said...: What a great idea! Count me in on the giveaway.
Anne-Liesse; 1:47 PM

Anne-Liesse, you are the winner! Please email me at Jenyfer28@aol.com for the coupon code for the E-book. Thanks for entering, everyone. Have a good night!

2.7.10

2010-02-07T16:11:00.003-06:00

The other day, I was looking at my stack of photos for scrapbooking. It's full of "event" photos, many of which don't need a whole layout to themselves. So I wrote myself a note that I'd like to do some month-based scrapbooking layouts where I include all of the event photos from a given month and do them as one layout together. How funny that just a few days later I got an email from sweet Wendy Smedley, asking if I'd like to do a E-book giveaway on my blog. (yes!) And get this.....the E-book is called A Year In the Life: Scrapbook Your Year in 24 Simple Layouts. How perfect is that? :D

Here is the E-book description from their website:
Whether you’re wrapping up 2009 or getting a jump start on 2010, A Year in the Life is your must-have eBook companion. With oodles of two-page spreads and multi-photo layout ideas, you’ll have your annual photo stash tamed in no time! Brought to you by the talented designers of Write. Click. Scrapbook, this 30-page eBook includes 24 layouts—both digital and paper—and enough inspiration to see you through the year in style.

The E-book is a totally cool concept where you download the book to your computer, printing if you like, but not having to shelve anything. I love this because I can always have access to it when I am at my computer. You can go here to see a peek of A Year In the Life. Don't you want a copy now?

Please leave a comment here and you'll be entered in a drawing to win a downloadable copy of this fantastic idea book. I'll choose a winner on Tuesday evening, February 9th. Good luck!

1.30.10

2010-01-30T21:07:00.007-06:00

Hey, friends! Sorry it's been so long since I posted. Just haven't had much to talk about, I guess. I've been getting ready for a winter scrapbooking retreat that is coming up in a few weeks. I'm going again as a vendor and am really excited. I absolutely love getting my tables and shelves all set up, making everything look pretty, and hanging out with crafty friends for 3 days. If you aren't attending, you should! :) If you are in the area, stop by and peek in and shop. Would love to see you.

So, CHA is over and I've had the best time following my friends Tweet and Facebook from the show, watching recorded videos, and peeking at manufacturer's websites for sneak peek photos. I'm in love with so many new things, so I thought it would be fun to do a blog post dedicated to just a few of my favorite new releases. Here we go, in no particular order:

1. Basic Grey's BASICS line - Oh my gosh, BRILLIANT. One of my favorite "go to " papers is ledger paper. Well, Basic Grey has come out with a line called BASICS - three different shades of different ledger, graph, and grid papers. (white, cream, kraft) Smart cookies, they are.

2.Tim Holtz/Ranger new Distress Ink colors - 12 beautiful new shades. I've only seen them in video demos and swatches, but I love the Spun Sugar, Crushed Olive, and Pumice Stone already.

3. 7 Gypsies Printer's Trays and Label Holders - Loved the printer's trays already, but these little label holders are sooooo neat. There are many more beautiful new products if you follow the link above.

4. Cosmo Cricket's "Garden Variety" and "Material Girl" lines - Even the LOGOS ARE CUTE! When I saw these papers in some CHA show floor videos, I absolutely loved them.
Follow the link and look how precious these papers are - especially love the strawberries and measuring tape.

5. Lisa Pace's new book - "Delight in the Details" - I've always loved Lisa's style. She is SO detail-oriented, so it only makes sense that her book is titled this way! I'll definitely be purchasing this one.

6. The Girls' Paperie Cabbage Rose patterned paper and Eclectic Chipboard Alphas - I was fortunate enough to be able to make some sample projects for Margie's booth and when I saw this cabbage rose paper, I was afraid to cut it! It's so, so gorgeous. And look at those alphas! How fun to have so many different styles mixed in one box. Perfect!

7. Melissa Frances gold glitter chipboard alphabet and postcard mini album - I love pretty much everything in the Melissa Frances attic treasures line, but cannot WAIT to get these gold glitter letters and postcard album! I have several of the BINGO albums and sell them in my retreat vendor store, too. The postcard album is heavyweight, like the BINGO album and is sooo beautiful. I've noticed gold creeping back into style lately. Gold is good in small quantities.....like trim, glitter, and edges. (and alphas!) You can actually see these products and all of the MF line in two of Amy Coon's wonderful CHA videos. (link below)

8. Tattered Angels' Glimmer Glam - My favorite CHA video of this product was Heidi Swapp, using it on chipboard. The bottle has a dauber built into the lid and it's like a shimmery glaze with chunky glitter added to it. It is so beautiful! The link I put here is actually Liz Hicks of Tattered Angels giving an intro and demo of it.

9. October Afternoon's Thrift Shop line - Love the colors! The only photos I could find of this line were in CHA booth photos, so that's what the link is. I'm a little frustrated that OA's website is so out of date. Their papers are SO darn cute and popular...just wish they'd update their site so we can see what's coming out in high quality photos. :)

10. Maya Road - It is very difficult to pick favorites in their new releases. Everything is adorable! I especially love the strawberry mini album, canvas albums, vintage crochet and ruffled trims, and kraft scalloped envelopes. You can see Amy Coon's two part video from their booth below and the link above shows you the Maya Road blog with releases photos. Gorgeous!

Well, those are a few of my favorite new releases. If you'd like to see lots of show floor videos, check out Noell of Paperclipping.com and Amy Coon of The Paper Life.com. They did a great job of showing all of us at home what we have to look forward to in the world of scrapbooking. Thanks, Izzy, Noell, Amy, and Amy's mom! :)

It's so encouraging to me to see so many people sharing their God-given talents with others. Think of all of the brainstorming, late nights, decisions, sweat, tears, and joy that went into each and every product at that show. Each one of them represents someone who is PROUD of what he/she does. I'm so thankful for creativity!

Have a beautiful weekend. :)

1.16.10

2010-01-16T21:53:00.002-06:00

The last of my projects has been posted on the Melissa Frances blog. What fun it's been this month! My last project, the oversized 2x3 soldered decor pendant (pictured to the left) is a giveaway! Just go to the Melissa Frances blog and leave a comment to be entered to win the pendant. The winner will be chosen on Wednesday.

Also, here is a peek at another Girls' Paperie line called "On Holiday." It's FUN and colorful! Margie is also doing a giveaway on her blog. Go enter to win some of her new products!

1.13.10

2010-01-13T15:48:00.006-06:00

Just posting another quick peek at one of The Girls' Paperie new CHA releases. Finished this project today. Aren't the colors just beautiful? (Click on the photo for a larger view)

Making Teriyaki Peach Pork Tenderloin for dinner tonight...one of our favorites. (I leave off the bacon)

My heart is heavy for the people of Haiti...hard to pull myself away from the television. I'm so thankful for Facebook, Twitter, and all of the ways people can stay in touch and at least have some communication where available. Rebecca Sower has some touching stories of her recent visit to Haiti and she is also putting up art items to raise money for her new Haitian friends. You need to read her stories.

1.11.10

2010-01-11T10:48:00.007-06:00

Good morning :)

I just wanted to quickly share a few projects that I've made. This floral layout and the lighted snowy canvas (yes, lights!) are featured on the Melissa Frances blog right now. It's hard not to enjoy yourself when playing with MF products. They are so beautifully made!

Have you heard the news? Margie Romney-Aslett is coming out with a brand new paper line for Advantus at CHA Winter! The Girls' Paperie is absolutely gorgeous, done in a fresh vintage style. Margie asked me to make some projects for her booth at CHA and I've had lots of fun playing with the beautiful patterns, colors, and embellishments. Wait until you see them all! Here's a little peek at one of the projects I made. More to come!

I saw this quote today and just love it: "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." ~Harry S. Truman

1.8.10

2010-01-08T14:43:00.002-06:00

Every year after I take down the Christmas decorations, I'm ready for simple. So I always gather silver, mercury glass, and white from around the house and put it on the mantle. It's sort of a wintery look and mixes well with any Valentine's Day things I want to put up later. You'd be surprised what you can find in your cabinets or around your own home. Just choose a color and a metallic and start gathering.

A quick recipe share - I made this last night and it was yummy. I added blackberries as well. It's a great way to use a bunch of fresh fruit. Cranberry Apple Crisp with Oatmeal Streusel Topping

My month as guest designer at Melissa Frances has started! Stay tuned over the next week for the five projects that I created for MF. (plus a giveaway!)

1.6.10

2010-01-06T12:15:00.011-06:00

I just finished about 95% of my craft room decluttering and am so happy with how it looks. I am tired of "too much." I only want to have what I love, what I'll use. I'm not inspired when there is clutter around me and every surface is covered with something. Now I have space on the shelves and everything is something I will use. Here are a few photos. (you can click on any photo for an enlargement)

This is just a bowl of favorite little vintage items. Tiny photos, paper flowers, old spools, scraps of lace, chandelier crystals, brooches....fun. :)

These are the two bookshelves behind my work table. Yes, I only have that much cardstock and patterned paper. But I love every single piece of it. Who needs thousands of pieces of paper you'll never use? Under the paper is all of my label stickers and die cuts. I love labels. It's a problem. :) And seam binding.....and glitter. I'm happy that most of my storage is pretty containers, mixing my love of vintage with a purpose for being on the shelf. I do have a few more little shelves under a window that hold my Thickers/letters, soldering supplies, photos, and paint. But they are a little boring, so I don't have pretty photos of those, ha.

Let me know if you have any questions about any of my storage or supplies.

Keep warm! We are stocked up on hot cocoa and will be having chili for dinner on Thursday as we watch the Horns play for the national championship. Hook 'em Horns!

1.3.10

2010-01-04T00:36:00.008-06:00

Well, happy 2010 friends!

I always look forward to the fresh start of a new year. Everything feels like a "clean slate." I love getting all of the Christmas things put away and looking around at all of the open space in the house. I keep my daily decor items tucked inside a tub in the garage and always look forward to pulling them out again after the holidays. One of my favorite little decor items I've found while antiquing is pictured here. It's a cardboard backed, metallic gold-trimmed photo and I have it displayed in our home right now. (click on the photo to see the beautiful detailing) It reminds me that God is in control and all of my worrying, rushing, and planning does not take that control away from Him. So He can have my problems while I scrapbook and enjoy my family more this year!

To start off the new year, I am so excited about sharing my Melissa Frances guest designer creations with you very soon! The posts should begin sometime this week. :)

Last night David and I went to see Sherlock Holmes. Oh my goodness, it was WONDERFUL. One of the best movies I've seen in a while. I love movies that have unusual (good) direction. It was done so well....very entertaining. And Robert Downey, Jr. is perfect. Go see it!

12.29.09

2009-12-29T19:26:00.004-06:00

I just finished putting away all of the Christmas decor for the year and thought I'd look thru some of the Christmas photos. I love this one from Christmas morning when Noah opened his new orange Ipod. Love that bed hair. :)

Did you have a good Christmas? We did, although it was very busy. We had company from the 20th-25th, then David and Noah went to winter scout camp on the 27th...got back tonight. I was SO happy to see them walk thru the door and Noah walked in and hugged me for a whole two minutes. Nothing like that in the world.

David completely surprised me with a wonderful new point and shoot camera. It does all kinds of things I don't even know about yet, but am going to take some time this week to figure them out. I know it takes beautiful photos and shoots HD video!

While my boys were at camp, I finished all of my Melissa Frances guest designer projects. They will be revealed on the MF blog in January, so stay tuned. I love them. :)

"Winter is the season in which people try to keep the house as warm as it was in the summer, when they complained about the heat." ~Author Unknown

12.24.09

2009-12-23T23:01:00.001-06:00

I probably won't be posting much for the next week, so I wanted to wish all of you a very merry Christmas! May your Christmas be filled with love of family and friends and with the peace that only comes from Him, our greatest Christmas gift of all.

"This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ." - Frank McKibben

12.8.09

2009-12-08T10:13:00.005-06:00

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to quickly share a couple of photos of some "makeovers" around here. Our front door used to be stained light brown with bright brass fixtures/kick plate. I've always wanted to redo it, so two weekends ago my sweet husband David did it! He sanded, primed, and painted the door with a semi-gloss black paint and added brushed nickel fixtures. He also sanded and painted the kick plate with black rustoleum paint so it blends with the door. (much better than the brass!) He touched up the trim with an antique white semi-gloss paint and added a new black light fixture to match the door. I absolutely LOVE how it turned out.

And here is a project I did in about 5 hours last week. We have a small hallway off of our living room that leads to the garage door, guest room/bathroom, and laundry room. It has no windows and is small, so I wanted to add a punch of color. I chose Behr Premium Plus Autumn Gourd. The color is so warm and goes perfectly with the bright red bathroom nearby. The premium paint was pricey, but it was SO NICE to only do one coat! It's primer and paint in one, so I thought it was worth it since time is valuable! :)

Noah gets out for the Christmas holidays next week and we'll start doing a little baking together. I found a yummy bread recipe I want to try soon, too - Camp David Lemon Pecan Bread. (it's on this bed and breakfast website)

LOOK at this absolutely gorgeous necklace. You should see it in person.....it's stunning. I ordered it from Janna Wilson's new Whimsy Shoppe. She is one of my favorite creative people and recently opened this online store full of her handmade creations. You must shop from her for Christmas! I bought this as a gift, but I'm keeping it. ha! (I borrowed the photo from her site...hope she doesn't mind)

Tomorrow I go in for a small procedure at the hospital - dye test on my tubes. It HURTS. I had it done about 10 years ago. Not looking forward to it, so if you don't mind, please say a prayer for me. Thank you. :) (It's all worth it, though!)

Tomorrow I'll post some Christmas decor photos while I'm sitting on the couch.

"Keep your Christmas-heart open all the year round." ~Jessica Archmint

11.26.09

2009-11-26T00:31:00.003-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I am thankful that you read my blog, that you share your thoughts with me, and that you return, even when I don't blog very often. Thank you for coming here, supporting me, and allowing me to share a little of my life and ideas with you!

Have a beautiful Thanksgiving!

11.22.09

2009-11-22T08:22:00.004-06:00

Good morning!

We are not hosting Thanksgiving this year (soft little "yay!") so I thought I'd post a photo of our table from two years ago. Little pie pumpkins covered in Martha's ultrafine glitters with brown painted stems, red velvet table runner, berry garland, gold velvet placemats and autumnal candles. Really simple, but pretty. Oh, when I set tables ahead of time I always turn the glasses upside down. That way nothing gets in them and you don't have anyone saying, "something is floating in my drink."

We are going to my aunt and uncle's house for Thanksgiving this year and everyone is bringing something. I am taking some roasted vegetables (carrots, leeks, brussel sprouts - tossed in EVOO, kosher salt and pepper, baked until browning but crisp) and a chocolate dessert. Where are you spending Thanksgiving?

My goal of freeing more of my time, tending to my blessings, and saying "no" is sooooo hard, but it is really working. Yesterday I had time to spend a few hours in the garage, organizing, labeling, and throwing a few things out. It felt so good just to have the time to do that, knowing I didn't have a deadline looming. I think as I declutter my mind I'm also wanting to declutter my surroundings. Hoping to work in some scrapbooking soon. :)

Have a sweet day!
xoxo

11.12.09

2009-11-12T16:15:00.004-06:00

If you are like me, you have lots of recipes just stuck in a folder or in a drawer. Well, why not get them organized into something cute?

This is a recipe box project that I designed for Right at Home Scrapbooking in Massachusetts. It features the precious vintage-style Early Bird line from Cosmo Cricket plus all of the chipboard embellishments. This recipe box is huge, too - 8.5" x 5.5" x 6" and includes lots of chipboard divider cards. Right at Home is shipping the kits right to you. What a cute holiday gift this would be, especially for family members. Tuck your family recipes inside! You'll also receive a bunch of my own recipes, too. :)

Here is the kit description and a link to purchase. I believe the number available is limited since they featured this class at a weekend retreat in October.

What's Cookin' Vintage Recipe Box Kit
Want a fun way to save your family's cherished recipes? Have your favorite recipes scattered around your kitchen? This vintage-style recipe box is the perfect home for them! Using the fun new Early Bird line from Cosmo Cricket, you'll love creating this large, bright and cheery box that will look so cute in your kitchen. Includes 6 divider tabs and lots of recipe cards. Call Mom, Grandma and Aunt Martha and get those family recipes written down and into this special box. Makes a great gift, too, especially for the upcoming holiday season!

This project was designed for us by Jennifer Stewart and will include some of Jennifer's very own recipes!

$38.00
We will ship this kit out to you as well, with a full set of instructions and photos. Shipping charges apply. * Link to Purchase a Kit *

------------

On a personal note, I had a hysteroscopy this morning and had 4 cysts removed from my uterus. It was outpatient surgery so it only took a few hours, but I'm pretty sore and resting at home. I barely remember going under....that "mask" they give you is some powerful stuff. Very thankful for my husband being there with me and taking good care of me. Also thankful for a brilliant doctor and good pain medication! This should clear the road for us for another child very soon. We are excited about that. :)

Have a wonderful night!

The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth; and he that is wise will not abhor them. ~Ecclesiasticus 38:4

11.5.09

2009-11-05T09:14:00.004-06:00

Good morning!

Since I won't be able to attend *Spark - The Event* this coming weekend, (boohoo) I thought I'd share the project that I made for their auction. This is a two-sided Christmas decor piece, one side with traditional red, green, and cream and the other with sparkly silver, pink, and aqua. I had so much fun working on this and hope that someone loves it enough to bid on it. :) Lots of my own little vintage treasures were used, too - an estate sale rhinestone button cover on one of the snowflakes, old red tinsel, velvet leaves, old buttons, and some vintage trims.

If you click on the photo, you can see a much larger view.

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." ~Norman Vincent Peale

11.6.09

2009-11-05T08:47:00.011-06:00

Good morning. :) I am making gift lists and thinking about putting up the Christmas decor, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite small gift ideas from the past few years as well as some favorite new finds. These are all perfect for teachers, neighbors, or anyone who receives something small and meaningful from your family during the holidays.

1. Movie Night - I gave Noah's 1st grade teachers a Christmas tin with a new movie, a fleece blanket, two boxes of movie candy, and a bag of popcorn. I got everything at Walmart and Target, total less than $20. If you watch the sales, especially around Thanksgiving, you can get movies for $5. The blankets always go on sale, too.

2. Christmas CD - One year I gathered some of our favorite Christmas songs from Itunes and burned them onto CDs. I created the CD label using a program that came with the blank labels. Everyone loved them! Note: This is perfectly legal to do if you do it from Itunes. You have a set number of "burns" you can do of each song, so just don't go over your limit. I think each CD cost around $2.00 total. Noah drew the Christmas tree and I scanned it and added it to the CD label artwork with the label program. Also, I had him record, "Merry Christmas from the Stewart family!" via the microphone on my computer and I saved that as a sound file and put it as the first track on each CD. So sweet to hear his little voice on there now. :) I still get comments from friends and teachers that they still listen to the CD each year.

3. Coffee Cuffs - My friend Jaime has a sweet little Etsy shop and she sells these really cute coffee cuffs. I have ordered some from her to give to Noah's teachers this year. How cute and original are these?? You can customize the colors of the cuff, monster, and hearts. She also sells them with flowers and other designs on them. I am on a mission to give lots of handmade gifts this year, whether they be from my hands or someone else's. :)

4. Starbucks - Who doesn't love a Starbucks gift card? However....make it interesting. Instead of putting the card in an envelope or gift card holder, ask for an empty red cup! Put the card inside and tie a pretty, wide (wired) ribbon around the cup. (wired ribbon will keep its shape better) If you want to add some extras inside, how about a little shaker of red sugar, cocoa, or cinnamon?

What are your favorite ideas for teacher/neighbor/little gifts? Would love to hear them. :) I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

10.30.09

2009-10-30T14:51:00.002-05:00

Happy Friday, everyone!

Just spent a good part of today uploading soldered pendants to my Etsy shop. These will be the last ones I'm making for a while as the holidays approach and things get busier. I love every one of them. If you're wanting to buy handmade for the holidays, head over to Etsy and support independent crafters and artists! :) My Etsy Shop link is over there ~~>

Ugh...what kind of Halloween candy did you buy? I bought a big bag of Mounds because I hate coconut, ha. I thought it might help keep me out of the candy bowl. Can't wait until Halloween! Love seeing all of the kids running up and down the sidewalk in their costumes.

Have a lovely weekend. BOO!

10.24.09

2009-10-24T14:59:00.004-05:00

Thank you all SO much for your kind words and prayers. I appreciate them so much. It's hard to share something so personal. I'll probably be having some minor outpatient surgery done in a few weeks to remove the fibroids, so that's a good thing.

I have the house all to myself today, so I'm spending it in my pajama pants, creating the day away. It's been really nice, although I miss my guys. :) (scout outing) I'm working on a giveaway project for Margie's SPARK event. Sure would love to be there!

Here are a few peeks at the project I'm making. Traditional Christmas on one side. Pink, aqua, and silver sparkly on the other. Fun! (Shh...I even had Christmas music playing earlier. It inspired me.)

Tomorrow for lunch I'm making Ina's Real Spaghetti and Meatballs. Sure makes the house smell good and I think my outdoorsmen will appreciate it. :)

Have a good weekend. Hook 'em Horns!

"If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance." ~Andrea Boydston

10.23.09

2009-10-23T06:00:00.003-05:00

This spooky little house is something I made last year and sold as a kit in my Etsy shop. You can get the houses at Hobby Lobby. Paper is Making Memories, roof is fabric, pumpkins and fencing are doll house accessories, and roof edges and chimney are covered in black glitter. It's on my mantle right now with a tealight inside.

Here are some other bloggers/sites that have inspired me lately:

Nora Griffin's holiday planner - you are wonderful for sharing this, Nora!

Janna Wilson's gorgeous necklaces - she knows I'm just waiting for her to start selling them. Hurry UP, woman.

Linda Albrecht's Christmas projects - holy guacamole. Everything she creates is amazing.

All of the beautiful, vintage Bethany Lowe Christmas collection at Bayberry Cove. *sigh* I can't wait to see my Christmas ornaments again.

Gorgeous Posh Squash on the Olive Juice Co. website. Just so scrunchy and velvety!

Family Fun's Spooky Halloween snacks - I especially love the swamp juice!

Christmas cards and projects with Cosmo Cricket's Jolly By Golly line - WOW! I have all of this line and plan to make something out of it for my Etsy shop. It is beautiful!

That's all for now.

Oh, want a recipe?

Here's a soup I want to try as soon as it gets cold again - Guy Fieri's Quick Roasted Tomato Soup. Noah loves grilled cheese sandwiches dipped in tomato soup. We all do!

Have a wonderful weekend :)

"I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween." ~Author Unknown

10.20.09

2009-10-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

Good morning :)

I've been baking more recently. It's so nice in the fall to have fresh quick breads for breakfast or homemade cookies in the oven after school. (Note: in any quick bread recipe, you can replace the oil or butter with applesauce. Really lowers the fat and still tastes great) I pulled out the cake pedestal/cover that we got as a wedding gift 13 years ago and have been using it to hold our baked goods. Looks so much prettier and makes whatever it holds seem special. It's no more trouble than a plate or cookie jar, but makes the display a little more fun. (chocolate chip cookie bars are pictured)

Here is one of our favorite recent recipes:

Pumpkin Gingerbread

(I used the applesauce substitution)

I put some in the oven the other night after everyone was in bed, so they woke up to the smell of pumpkin and a nice breakfast treat. Try it! And bonus...you don't have to make a big breakfast the next day. :)

10.19.09

2009-10-19T16:46:00.003-05:00

You know when you feel like you have so much to say and nothing to say at the same time? I guess that's how I've been feeling lately with blogging. Lots going on in my life that is important to me, but just not sure how interesting it is in a blog post. I'm sure all bloggers have felt that way at one point.

I am making intentional choices for myself to simplify. I am not good at balance. I admit it. I throw myself completely into one thing and then other things in my life pay the price. I often look at others and think, "HOW can she be doing all of these things at the same time and doing them well?" As women we put so much pressure on ourselves to be multi-faceted, many times just to earn the approval of others. But the times when I am happiest and feel most at peace are when I'm doing a good job at "tending to my blessings." That's just the best way for me to word it. My Lord, my family and myself, our home, and then my talents. And yes, I believe that God wants us to tend to our talents. That means using them for good...and when they don't take time away from those we love.

I've been saying "no" a lot lately...and it feels good. I have a good balance in my life right now and even have a little wiggle room to allow for unexpected events. If you are SO busy that you can't imagine how you'd fit anything else into your life, then you are too busy.

I'm still scrapbooking, making pendants and kits, being creative...but it doesn't consume me. Maybe in a different phase of life it can take up more of my time, but for now it feels good the way it is. I was thrilled to get an email inviting me to be the Melissa Frances guest designer for January. Melissa Frances.....seriously? I couldn't be more excited. And I have TIME to devote to that this holiday season. It doesn't feel like a big weight of "ugh, I have to make time to get that done." I have joy in creating. And if that ever went away, I would be sad. I know so many people who are so busy with design teams and assignment work that they don't even enjoy creating anymore. Time to pull back, girls. I've been there!

Another more personal reason for my infrequent blogging is just not feeling well. I have had issues with uterine fibroids before and had to have surgery to have them removed 10 years ago. Well, they are back and are making having another child difficult. So we are pursuing treatment...possibly another surgery this fall....and still praying for another child. I can't afford the stress of putting too much on my wagon right now, so this is another reason for me finding a good balance in my life. It's actually weird for me to share that, but I hope that maybe it will lead some of you to pray for me. I'm in a little pain a lot of the time and not knowing what the future holds in this area of our lives is difficult. So again....having more "wiggle" room in my life is a good thing.

Thanks for reading. Sorry this turned into a longer post than I intended!

So............what are your kids going to be for Halloween? Noah will be Link from The Legend of Zelda. I bought him some girls' brown tights to wear. I am actually REALLY looking forward to seeing that, ha.

God bless you this week. Here's tonight's dinner!

Emeril's Chicken Pot Pie recipe

I lowered the fat by changing a few ingredients. You can use any vegetables...even a bag of frozen mixed veggies thrown in! Made a homemade pie crust, too, and only put the crust on top...not on the bottom.

10.6.09

2009-10-06T13:13:00.004-05:00

Hi, friends :) I thought I'd just quickly post some photos of some pendants I made for the retreat this weekend. (can't believe it's finally here...yahoo, girl time!) Anything that doesn't sell, I will put in my Etsy shop. (pendant photos are below)

I sure wish I was going to have time to scrapbook, but I just haven't been able to get anything together. I'm feeling the need to purge a LOT of stuff. I feel more creative when my supplies are limited. So glad I did that last spring with my patterned papers. I only have a couple of paper holders full and it's just fine with me.

Since I'm going away this weekend, I'm planning to make some food for the freezer for the boys and for me to take with me. My hotel room has a microwave and refrigerator and I'd really rather not eat fast food all weekend...just not a fan. (except for Chick-Fil-A) Here are some of the recipes I'm planning on making:

Pumpkin Muffins
King Ranch Chicken
Chili (I just use the 2-alarm chili spices mix and add red kidney beans)
Chicken Spaghetti Casserole
Pecan-Crusted Chicken Breasts (for sandwiches or salads)

Have you started on Halloween costume gathering yet? Noah wants to be Link from The Legend of Zelda and my sister is going to sew the green tunic for him. The rest of the costume we can get from Goodwill and Dad's closet. :)

9.19.09

2009-09-19T16:12:00.004-05:00

Happy Saturday, everyone :)

Busy creating a few projects and layouts to showcase some of the products for my retreat vendor store. At least it's getting me to create and scrapbook!

I hope you're having a good weekend. Since I don't have a whole lot to blog about at the moment, I thought I'd share a recipe. A couple of weeks ago I made homemade waffles and wow, these were the best ever. Really light and fluffy and crisp. They take a little longer to make but are SO WORTH IT. Make a double or triple batch and freeze the leftovers. They heat up beautifully in the toaster!

Best Waffles Ever
from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 lg. egg yolks
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled (I used Smart Balance 50/50 blend)
2 lg. egg whites

Directions:
1. In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, baking powder, and salt with a whisk (this will "sift" it). Make a well in the center.
2. In another bowl beat egg yolks slightly. Stir in milk and butter.
3. Add egg yolk mixture all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just ’til moistened (should be slightly lumpy).
4. In a small bowl beat egg whites until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight up).
5. Gently fold egg whites into flour and egg yolk mixture, leaving a few fluffs of egg white, Do not overmix.
6. Spoon waffle batter into your waffle iron, making sure not to overfill it.
7. Serve with real maple syrup and unsalted butter.

9.13.09

2009-09-13T17:38:00.003-05:00

This ultrafine glitter looks so much prettier in old salt shakers, don't you think? Love these so much and have to decide if I actually want to sell them now. :)

Note on the bottles: The glitter needs to be ultrafine or you're not shaking it thru these small holes. Do you see how some of the holes on these are actually tiny stars? So very fun.

I hope you're having a beautiful Sunday.

8.24.09

2009-08-24T10:27:00.002-05:00

Good morning!

I love Mondays - fresh start to the week. Today I've been doing more store preparation. I piled a bunch of it into this basket so I could take a photo. There definitely won't be anything in the store that I don't love! :) And anything I have left will go into my Etsy shop.

(bundled old ledger paper and sheet music, Distress Stickles, tons of seam binding colors, Distress Inks, sparkly silver glitter in old salt shakers, monochromatic bundles of ribbon with glitter berry stems, Jenni Bowlin items...)

If you'd like to attend the retreat in October, there is still room left. But seats are going fast, so hurry! Here is the link for more information.

We took Noah to see Shorts on Saturday evening at Alamo Drafthouse. (our favorite movie place) The movie was cute...not one of my favorites. Noah liked it, but I think he liked the Spy Kids movies much better. (same director) My favorite thing about it was the food we ordered...ha. At Alamo they have a full menu and you eat while you watch the movie. The food is FABULOUS. Have you seen any good movies lately?

Sorry kind of a boring blog entry. I've been focusing more on the importance of taking care of our home and family and not trying to fill my time with other things. I've said "no" to several opportunities lately and it feels really good. It's the season in my life to appreciate and care for the gifts the good Lord has given me and keep other things to a minimum and not a distraction. :)

Dinner tonight - Bowtie pasta with carmelized onions, lemon pepper chicken (shredded from a rotisserie chicken I bought yesterday), red peppers, mushrooms, asparagus, pine nuts, and grated parmesan. Love one bowl dinners like this!

Sharing a quick video that Noell from Paperclipping posted during her trip to CHA. Jenni Bowlin's new products. Sigh...my favorite. I'm going to have several of these things in my shop!

"Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week." ~Spanish Proverb

8.22.09

2009-08-22T15:59:00.002-05:00

I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to add just a touch of fall to the mantle. It's just a few flowers. :)

I got this etched vase recently while junking and the vintage glass glitter "3" is from Bayberry Cove (Wendy Addison). I think I'll add some shimmery copper/orange ribbon to the holes on top and hang it from the frame once September hits. Just tiiiiiiiired of the 100+ temps. We've had 61 days this summer over 100. I'm so ready for fall, football, pumpkin lattes, Black Friday, Halloween, sweaters, falling leaves...sigh. Summer is just such a long season here in Texas.
(although I love living here most of the time)

Want to try this recipe soon - Buffalo Chicken Salad. Yum!

We are off to the movies. Have a wonderful weekend!

"Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while." ~Kin Hubbard

8.16.09

2009-08-16T12:25:00.003-05:00

Hey, everyone :)
Warning: Photo-heavy post!

On Saturday we went over to the 1898 store in Buda and to Citywide Garage Sale. I picked up a few goodies and thought I'd post 'em here. There isn't much better than junking! You can click on any photo for a closer look...

This is a lot of what I bought this weekend. Also got the shelf...original wood/paint and it was only $12! It's really heavy, probably 18" tall. I love that it's freestanding AND hangs on the wall. I'll use it in my shop to display.

An old ledger book from a grocery store in the 1905 and a tattered piano sheet music book.

A close up of the grocery ledger. Love how they kept these records so detailed. :) I'll be bundling these papers and sheet music with pretty ribbon to sell in my Etsy shop and in my store at the retreat in October.

An old shaving mirror! The shaving cream went in the metal base. The mirror swivels to the side as well as forward and back. The mirror is broken and she had this sweet old photo tucked inside. (she let me have it) I'll have something in the cup for sale in my store...not sure what yet.

The ledger and song books, an embroidered table runner, and some candy striped vintage Christmas balls.

Old, heavy salt shakers that will be filled with glitter for my store. Love these!

More of the salt shakers.

A condiment server set that I will have glass glitter in for scooping in my shop. Also a set of lace cuffs on the right that will probably go around a jar or two.

The condiment set, salt shakers, and a china bowl I loved. You don't see the orange flowers too often.

Another close up of the bowl.

One page of the piano song book "Songs For Girls." :)

One page of the sheet music book
and the bottom of the shaving mirror.

Don't forget that registration for Inspired 2010 starts soon.
I won't be teaching this time, but Donna has lined up some really fabulous teachers for 2010.
:) Don't miss it!

When does school start for you? Noah goes back on Wednesday.
Bittersweet, but I know he's ready (me, too) for some routine and to see his friends.
School supplies, uniforms, new backpack and lunch box...ready to go!

And because I miss it so much....here's some of The Office for you.
(this is two years old, but still hilarious)

Have a beautiful week!

8.6.09

2009-08-06T15:35:00.005-05:00

Hey there!

I have nothing specific to blog about today, so it'll be pretty random...

I am having the BEST time preparing things to be in my little shop in October at the retreat. I'm already planning the displays, the vintage items I'll take to hold things, and deciding on products. To the left is just a sample of some of the things I'll have in the store. I plan to have layouts and projects displayed that use lots of these products, too. Lots of brand new CHA-goodies from October Afternoon, Jenni Bowlin, Cosmo Cricket, Bazzill, just to name a few...can't wait. (If you click on the photo you can see a larger view.) I've also been winding seam binding in about 15 colors to sell in 2-yard bundles. Still planning a trip to a few antique malls to gather some tiny salt shakers to hold glitter. Fun!

From the blogs I read often, here are some things that inspired me this week:

1. Amy's gorgeous ribbon on spools in her craft room. Her stuff just makes me smile.

2. Andrea's muffin tin meals photo. Noah wasn't feeling well the other night, asked for a snack, and I brought him one of these (6-cup) with fruit, cheese, crackers and he just thought it was so neat. And he's 9. :)

3. Pam's gorgeous camping tablecloth. What a great use for old/vintage sheets! Pam is teaching at Inspired 2010. Lucky students!

4. These precious cards made by Candice. She found the scalloped card bases in the $1 spot at Target. Gotta love that!

5. I love Nora's gift wrap station in her house. How fun to look up and see all of that beautiful ribbon.

6. Teresa's lovely Farmer's Market photos. So pretty!

7. Tim Holtz showing the new Distress Stickles colors (love these) and the Rock Candy crackle paint. Oh, mama!

8. Linda's latest projects. Hello? This girl is AMAZING.

9. Theresa's photos of Uncommon Objects, my favorite store in Austin. I could spend hours there, I tell ya. Well, I have.

10. Yay, Melissa! Was so glad she won the Next Food Network Star. She has never been to cooking school, just a stay-at-home mom with fabulous ideas. I made this the other night and it was wonderful. Here is her 4-step chicken recipe. Yum!

Have a blessed day!

7.30.09

2009-07-30T13:24:00.006-05:00

Hi, friends. :) Wow, I'm so sorry it's been so long since I blogged. The summer, especially July, has just gotten away from us and I've really been trying to slow down and enjoy each day. That has included not doing much blogging, crafting, or any heavy-duty projects. I do love summer for the lazy days and light schedule. (Sigh. not going to complain about the non-stop 100+ degree days...comes with the territory)

I'll make this a long blog post to catch up! Would love if you'd leave me a comment, too. I love to hear from my readers and to see if anyone is really out there. I'm just as guilty as the next person for not commenting and for using Google Reader (or other programs) to read blogs quickly. But it sure is nice to hear from all of you once in a while. :)

1. Noah. What a GREAT summer he has had! He took four weeks of swim lessons from our brand new YMCA. He went from being an ok swimmer with trouble treading water to diving, doing all of the strokes beautifully, and being very confident in any depth of water. I am so proud of him! He also went to a cub scout camp with his dad (was a father/son thing). They were gone for 3 nights/4 days and boy did I miss them. With him being my only one, sometimes it's hard to let him grow up. I can't even tell you how proud I was of him when David sent me this photo (above) from camp. He said, "I handed them the tent, told them to have fun, and walked off." David came back in a little while and Noah and his friends had assembled the tent all by themselves. :) He had so many new adventures during those four days. And even though it's hard to let him go, I'm also SO proud that he's learning independence and is growing into a strong, young man, just as God has planned.

2. Fall Retreat. For about 8 years I've been a member of the Heart of TX Scrapbook Club, a wonderful group of ladies who meet twice a year to scrapbook for an entire weekend. It's always so much fun! Our next retreat is coming up in October in Temple, TX. If you'd like more information on attending or would like to join our free group, please visit our website!

There are always several vendors with mini-stores set up around the hotel ballroom so we are all able to shop during the weekend while we scrapbook. This time, I decided to go as a vendor. So excited! I will have a small shop, Saturday Morning Vintage, set up at the retreat all weekend. I'll try hard to make it beautiful and will stock it with fun items - papers and embellishments from October Afternoon, Cosmo Cricket, Jenni Bowlin, Melissa Frances, Tim Holtz....tiny vintage shakers of glitter, yards of gorgeous colors of seam binding, Thickers, Distress Stickles, inkpads, and of course, several of my ready-to-go project kits from my Etsy store. I absolutely can't wait!

3. Fall Project. Since I've already started gathering and ordering items for my little mini-store in October, I decided I'm going to work on a few projects and layouts to have up at the store. I always love when I'm shopping being able to see how to use some of the products. This Give Thanks wall hanging uses lots of things I will have in the store. You know, sometimes if you use the BACK of a double-sided paper, you get a completely different look. Ok duh, yes....but some of these papers are very girly and not at ALL Fall-ish on the other side. It's fun to see what you can do with them! Here are a couple of other photos of the project: Photo 1 and 2.

(Speaking of fall...I added a few of my vintage Halloween hanger kits to my Etsy shop. Link is on the right sidebar)

4. Cooking and Crafting. I love to cook and try new food combos. I love to craft and use new products! So, coming soon.....a project that combines both loves. Here's a tiny peek:
Sorry, wish I could show more, but it's a kit for a store. More soon, I promise!

5. Simplifying. I am working hard on clearing my calendar for the fall/spring and not filling up our time. I have promised myself that I will put ME first more often. I need to do that for myself and for my family. I need to take care of myself, and always scheduling something else to do is something I do way too often. I have said no to some project and teaching opportunities and am being very selective about what I work on, just feeding my need to create but not filling every free moment. Two of my sisters have become runners and I WANT TO DO IT. I bought some great, breathable workout clothes and am going to get the shoes this week. I will do this!

How is your summer? What are you doing to enjoy it?

"The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again."
~Erma Bombeck

7.8.09

2009-07-08T20:27:00.007-05:00

Happy Summer :)

Things I'm loving right now....

1. The smell of chlorine after the pool. Noah is taking swim lessons right now, learning all of the strokes and is becoming quite a beautiful swimmer. Love seeing him go! Chlorine just smells like summer and fun.

2. Huge assortment of fresh fruit and berries in season. There's nothing better in the morning than a huge handful of fresh blueberries over a bowl of cereal.

3. A relaxed schedule. With Noah out of school right now and me not having a big line up of classes, it's been so nice to actually wonder "what will we do today?"

4. Michael Jackson music. I've always loved it and have lots of it on my Ipod already. ("Remember the Time" played several times at Inspired) :D I think my favorite MJ songs are Human Nature, Black or White, Remember the Time, and You Are Not Alone. But really....I love them all.

5. Bigelow Lemon Cream Body Wash. Goodness, I got this on clearance at Bath and Body Works and it is wonderful. Lemon anything is a favorite of mine - candles, desserts, lotions.

6. Arrested Development, Seasons 1-3. David and I watch several episodes every night and think it's one of the funniest shows ever. We didn't watch it when it was on TV, so it's fun to get to watch as many episodes as we like in a row. Jason Bateman and Will Arnett are hysterical. Highly recommended viewing!

7. Making Memories' new Vintage Findings line. Seriously gorgeous. Can't wait to use some of it! It's available at Michael's.

What are you enjoying lately?

I hope to see some of you Saturday in Waco!

7.6.09

2009-07-06T12:39:00.002-05:00

Good morning!

I'm spending part of today printing the instruction sheets for my class on Saturday. So excited! Last thing I need to do is gather supplies for the Art Table I always set up. I'll have big trays of estate sale buttons, a big bowl of German glass glitter, rolls and rolls of seam binding, and other fun things. I'll also be bringing my pink quilted box full of little door prizes as well. I'm hoping to get to town early so I can stop by Bloom and Bee Swanky and do a little shopping. Eek, I looooove that store!

Just put a few chocolate chip cookies in the oven to bake. Two weeks ago I made a big batch of dough, used a big cookie scoop and made dough balls, flash froze them on a cookie sheet, then put them all in a big freezer bag. So nice to have warm cookies anytime we want them! Here's my favorite recipe to use: Ghirardelli Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

In case you missed these back in February, I scanned in a few vintage things for you to print and use for your own personal projects. Just a little "thank you" from me to you for reading my blog. Here are the links -

Vintage Postcard (front and back)

Old Score Sheet

Vintage Black/White Bingo Card

I hope you all have a blessed week!

"Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree." ~Marian Wright Edelman

7.4.09

2009-07-04T10:15:00.004-05:00

Good morning and Happy Independence Day! :) I'm busy in the kitchen getting things ready to take over for our 4th of July gathering. We always go to my sister's in-laws' home because they have a pool and live in an area where we can have fireworks. Lots of fun, especially for all of the kids. I'm hoping to take lots of good photos this year. I love outdoor photos, especially since you don't have to mess with the lighting!

While I was cooking this morning, I took some photos of our breakfast room hutch. This table/hutch was an oak color and I painted it black. It holds some Homer Laughlin china that my mom gave to me along with some other miscellaneous pieces. Also have some other antique-white pieces, an old scale, and a cake pedestal with little salt/pepper shakers and a toothpick holder. At Christmas I take all of this down and fill it with vintage Christmas things. I love being able to have things in one place like this. When you decorate, you are *supposed* to place items in gatherings rather than scattered all over the house. Just gives your eyes a place to rest. So having this hutch is nice. (it came with the house when we bought it)

For our 4th party, I'm making Corn Pudding (recipe below), Banana Split Brownie Pizza, and rice krispie treats. Also taking a big cooler of beer, Dr. Pepper, and Orange Crush. The boys will go buy fireworks later from the little stand. :)

Have a blessed 4th!

**Only one more week until my class in Waco. If you'd like to attend, please call the store to sign up!**

Jennifer's Corn Pudding

1/2 c. onion, chopped (I like sweet yellow ones for this)
2 cans whole kernel corn, drained (or frozen, or better yet...fresh, scraped off the cob!)
3 cans creamed corn
3 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1 small can chopped green chiles (optional, but good!)
2 pkgs. cornbread mix (I like the Martha White yellow cornbread mix)
4 large eggs
1 c. oil
1/2 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

Heat a large skillet to medium heat and melt butter. Add onion and cook until onion is very soft. Add (drained) kernel corn and cook over med/hi heat until corn and onion start to brown a little. Add green chiles and continue to cook. Salt and pepper to taste. The higher the heat you can do here, the better, because the "char" on the corn, onions, and chiles will give the pudding wonderful flavor. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk eggs. Add cornbread mix, oil, creamed corn, and mix well with a whisk, making sure to get all of the lumps out of the cornbread mix. Add corn/onion/chiles mixture and mix well. Mix in 1/2 of the cheddar cheese. Pour mixture into a greased 13x9x2 pan, sprinkle remaining cheese on top, and bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until top is well-browned and knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

"My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!" ~Thomas Jefferson

6.28.09

2009-06-28T18:20:00.004-05:00

Happy Sunday, everyone :)

Just thought I'd pop in and share some of the pretty things I got yesterday. I went to New Braunfels with my friend Jana and we hit a few of the antique stores in old downtown. One of my favorite things in the WORLD to do. Sigh.

I got a red divided Pyrex ovenware bowl. If I could, I'd love to bake and serve everything in these bowls. I love how sturdy they are and how they feel so old-fashioned. Brings back a lot of memories. Also found two pairs of cute little salt/pepper shakers and a French lace doily. The button card was a steal at $1.00 for genuine pearl buttons on a decorative card that is in great shape. Love finding those! The floral painting is round and in a wonderful aging black frame. Can't wait to hang that up somewhere! And the silver spoon will be used in my upcoming class for spooning German glass glitter onto our project pieces. Gotta have it pretty, right?

Still so hot here. Everyone is excited that it's only going to be 98 on Wednesday. That's sad! I'm going to bake some cookies but am waiting until the sun starts going down. Here's the recipe I'll be using later - Award-Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Don't forget I'm teaching a lovely class on Saturday, July 11th in Waco at Crop, Paper, Scissors! Call the store to sign up. I'm going to have a fun table set up with all kinds of vintage goodies to use. :) AUSTIN, ROUND ROCK, GEORGETOWN, TEMPLE gals: If any of you signed up for my class and would like to ride to Waco with me, I've got a Honda mini van with 5 extra seats. Would love to have you come along! :)

"Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday." ~A.A. Milne

6.24.09

2009-06-24T21:56:00.002-05:00

Sorry it's so late! The evening got away from me while I got Noah to bed and did other things. :)

Thanks so much for all of the sweet comments on my classes. I really hope a lot of you are able to come to Waco to take the class on July 11th. It's going to be fun!

Alrighty....Noah chose the random number for the winner. He chose comment #16.

That belongs to....

I wish I lived closer to Texas so I could take the class. Any chance you are coming back to Massachusetts?! Would love to win the frame kit. Have a great day!

Dianne P.

Dianne, congratulations! Please email me your address so I can get your frame kit to you.
Thanks again, everyone!

Watch in the next couple of days for a sneak peek of the layouts and projects I did for The Girl's Loft. So fun working with green and pink. :)

New Class and a Giveaway!

2009-06-22T13:37:00.004-05:00

Hi, everyone :)

I'll be teaching a brand new class in Waco, TX at Crop, Paper, Scissors on Saturday, July 11th from 1-4 p.m. The class is pictured to the left and is called "Ah, Sweet Summer!" The cost is $30 and space is limited. I would love to see some of you there! If you click on Classes on the store link above, you can get the class description and student supply list of things to bring. Very fun project with lots of vintage touches and products like Distress Stickles, Tim Holtz hinge clips, German glass glitter, October Afternoon paper and embellishments. (Click on the photo to see a much larger view)

I'd also like to give away one of my Vintage Tree and Verse Frame kits. (pictured below) Just leave a comment here and I'll choose a winner on Wednesday afternoon. And don't worry...if you've already purchased one of these kits from my Etsy shop and you win the drawing, then I'll just refund your money. Thanks for stopping by my blog. :)

6.20.09

2009-06-20T12:57:00.003-05:00

Hi, everyone!

Ugh, when is fall? I am not a summer/hot weather person except that is when we have a more relaxed schedule. So, I guess as long as we have some a/c and a pool to swim in, then I'll survive. :D Summer DOES mean that fall and football season are right around the corner, right? So that's a good thing.

I just spent the morning updating my Etsy shop with two project kits and relisting some pendants and this handmade canvas. Link to the shop is over on the right. ~~>

What do you have planned for Father's Day? My husband and I both lost our dads in the past several years, so Father's Day is all about David for us. This morning I cooked a yummy breakfast of breakfast tacos and David roasted fresh coffee beans for the BEST coffee. So good! For the tacos, I had picked up some homemade corn tortillas, our new favorite, locally made. I scrambled some eggs and then made little potato pancakes from leftover mashed potatoes last night and lightly griddled those. We put them on the tacos and wow, they were good. Great way to use the leftovers, too. The boys are off doing a scout service project right now and I'm going to clean 6 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts I got on sale and freeze those individually. Glamorous!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. :)

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass." "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply. "We're raising boys." ~Harmon Killebrew

6.16.09

2009-06-16T13:24:00.003-05:00

Good afternoon :)

I had a really wonderful time teaching in Houston this weekend. Met some great ladies with lots of talent! I also got to meet Beth from Scrapbook Junkie as they were the vendors for the event. Loved her! She invited me to teach at her store in the fall, so I look forward to planning that. (Will most likely be a vintage Thanksgiving or Christmas class.)

Today is the big unveiling of THE GIRL'S LOFT kit club website! It is the baby of Margie Romney-Aslett and her two daughters. So excited for them! I got to hang out with Margie at Inspired in May and I haven't laughed that much in a long time. I miss her! They are taking names now for the debut kit. Get on the waiting list and you've got yourself a kit for July. I am so honored to be their very first Guest Designer. :) This kit is absolutely gorgeous. Lots of pink and vintage...two things I love!

I'm putting the finishing touches on my class for July at Crop, Paper, Scissors in Waco.
Here's a peek.

Summer decor with October Afternoon Cherry Hill line, German glass glitter, buttons, vintage papers....it's gonna be fun!

I'll have the leftover kits from my Houston classes up on Etsy this week. Trying to play catch up since getting home on Sunday evening. :)

Here's a recipe I've been wanting to share that I made last week. Really yummy!
Tyler Florence's Ultimate Fish Tacos. We used corn tortillas instead of flour and topped with salsa and avocado along with the cabbage and diced tomatoes.

Have a good Tuesday. :)

5.29.09

2009-05-29T10:49:00.002-05:00

Good morning!

I'm sitting over here at my sister's house, watching her little ones while she has a kid-free grocery shopping experience. Makes it so much easier. I was telling David that the other day I had Noah with me in the store and since he's 9, and impatient, and can read everything of course, he kept looking at the list going "we JUST walked by this! we already have this at home. Why do we need this? I'm not eating that. How many more things are you really going to get from this list? How much longer will this take?" ARGH! It's either they cry to get out of the basket, or they groan and grump as they walk alongside you, right? :)

Reading thru my favorite blogs this morning, I saw this little quiz on Rebecca's blog. Since I'm having a little down time, I thought I'd do it for myself. Here goes...

What is your current obsession?
Searching for new summer recipes to try, picking up clutter, Etsy, and glass glitter.

What is your weirdest obsession?
Hmm.... probably making lists and having to have hard copies of things. I was trying to do something last night only using the computer and was about to scream, wanting a pen and paper in my hand. Oh...and I can't go to bed with the kitchen dirty. And I can't get into the bed unless it's made up first.

What are you wearing today?
Ha....Old Navy dark wash jeans, Bjorn sandals, and my Office t-shirt - "Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race For the Cure."

What’s for dinner?
Thinking of making a vegetarian lasagna with fresh spinach and mushrooms.

What would you eat for your last meal?
Probably just have chocolate desserts.

What's the last thing you bought?
A bunch of pearlized berry stems from Hobby Lobby for an upcoming class. And I got them in the CHRISTMAS section. Yes, HL had one aisle of Christmas stuff up. (ribbon and stems)

What are you listening to now?
My nephew is watching Noggin, so it's Ni Hao Kai Lan.

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Anything homemade or chocolate.

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?
I love Austin, so here. But I would also love to have a summer home in New England, maybe New Hampshire or Vermont. Maybe next door to the bed and breakfast we stayed in during our honeymoon. Sugar Hill, New Hampshire. Sigh.

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Italy or France

Which language would you want to learn?
French

What's your favorite quote (for now)?
Lately I've loved silly quotes by Jack Handey. :) But for something more meaningful, I love this one - "Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier." ~Mother Teresa

What is your favorite color?
I especially love red, antique white, yellow, orange, robin's egg blue, and brown

What is your favorite time of day?
I love early mornings when it's quiet and peaceful and the coffee has just brewed.

What is your favorite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?
Jeans, pajama pants, summery cotton shirts

What is your dream job?
Exactly what I'm doing. Mom at home, taking care of my family, and creating on the side.

What's your favorite magazine?
Country Living, Somerset Studio, Victoria, and Scrapbooks, Etc.

If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on?
Fresh produce at the Farmer's Market.

Do you admire anyone's style?
I love anyone who can pull off a comfortable, classic, vintage, feminine style. :)

Describe your personal style?
Striving for the above style....not there yet.

What are you going to do after this?
Going on the hunt for 75 photo frames for an upcoming class. Also taking Noah to TaeKwonDo this afternoon.

What are your favourite movies?
Moonstruck, That Thing You Do, Chocolat, and anything and everything with Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and/or Grace Kelly

What's your favourite fruit?
Peaches, blueberries, oranges. Heck, I love ALL fruits except coconut.

This is the best time of year for fresh fruit!

What inspires you?
"Old stuff" stores, fabrics, my favorite bloggers

Do you collect something?
Silver taper candlestick holders, and small vintage items to use on projects. (teacups, postcards, button cards, broken jewelry)

If you decide to do this quiz, please let me know. Would love to read your answers.

Have a beautiful weekend!

5.22.09

2009-05-22T15:47:00.003-05:00

Happy Friday!

Today was our official first day of summer vacation. Noah and I went out for sandwiches then went swimming. I love this time of year except for the intense heat. (which is why we'll be swimming mostly in the mornings) What are you doing this long holiday weekend?

I browsed Flickr this afternoon and found some photos I love. Just a random mix, none taken by me...just admired. :)

I think I'll try to make some Strawberry Soda Ice Cream before Monday. So good.
Have a wonderful weekend!

Photo Credits:
1. Spring Road (Phillipsburg Church Road), 2. 259/365 - Latte Love, 3. hankies on the laundry line, 4. Tarnished Silver Spoons, 5. Sushi!, 6. Cool Manni, 7. happy cakes, 8. Freshly Picked, 9. HU030977

5.18.09

2009-05-18T15:16:00.004-05:00

Hi!

ETA: Debi/Mima....I don't have your email address, so if you'll use the link on the right to email me, I can email you back. Thanks! :)

I know most people won't agree, but I love Mondays. They feel like a clean slate....fresh start.....so much time ahead of me. Today began Noah's last week of 3rd grade as well. I'm happy that we'll have no routine for a while, but also a little sad that he's finishing 3rd grade. Sigh. It goes by so quickly.

Aren't these measuring spoons cute? They are very heavy pewter. I got them for my best friend for her birthday. I like little, unique gifts like this.

I've had several people email me, asking about purchasing a class kit from my Inspired Artist Workshop class. Well, guess what? They are now available for purchase on Donna's shop website. When they are gone...they are gone!

I'm very honored to be involved in a charity auction for Breast Cancer Awareness, led by Stephanie Ackerman. I met her at Inspired and she is the sweetest person ever. I wish I had more time to spend with her! She is going to have several different people create covers for fabric albums and will auction those off, donating the money for her 3-day Avon Walk. So proud to be creating in the same group with Teresa Collins, Tim Holtz, Janna Wilson, Suzy Plantamura, Ali Edwards, Melody Ross, Celine Navarro, Jenni Bowlin, Margie Romney-Aslett, Tia Bennett, Melissa Phillips, CD Muckosky, The crew at Pink Paislee, Teresa McFayden, Donna Downey, and Candice Carpenter. Wow! I'll post more info on the album auction as it progresses.

Tonight for dinner I'm doing a pasta dish. I love to do these mish-mash pasta one-bowl dinners, especially on busy days. I don't use a recipe, but I'll do my best to post it :) (Hope this makes sense!)

Chicken and Veggie Penne Pasta
1 lb. chicken breast meat, cut into small pieces
1 small yellow onion
1-2 cloves chopped garlic
olive oil
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
2 lg. handfuls fresh spinach leaves
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
3 slices bacon (optional)
grated parmesan cheese
1/4 c. half and half or whole milk
8-12 oz. penne pasta, cooked and drained

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and set aside. In a very large skillet, heat a little olive oil. Add chopped onion and bacon, cooking until onion is soft and bacon is crispy. Add garlic to pan when onion/bacon are almost done. Remove bacon and some of the onion/garlic and set aside. Add sliced chicken to pan and cook on both sides until browned; remove from pan and set aside. Add 1/2 Tbsp. butter or margarine to pan, add pine nuts to pan and stir until lightly toasted. Remove pine nuts from pan and set aside. Add 1/2 Tbsp. butter/margarine to pan, add mushrooms and spinach to pan, cooking until spinach is wilted and mushrooms are browned. (can wait to add spinach until mushrooms are almost done) Add pasta, chicken, onion/garlic, and pine nuts back into the skillet, stirring all together. (can add last 1 Tbsp. butter/margarine, too) Add cream/milk to the pan and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. Stir all together until all heated. (it's really good when the pasta starts to brown a little from the pan) Sprinkle a few bacon pieces on top, if desired, along with more parmesan cheese.

Thanks for reading....have a wonderful evening!

Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there. ~Josh Billings

5.15.09

2009-05-15T08:43:00.008-05:00

Inspired Memories.
(photo by Paolo Liloc)

It would be very difficult for me to sum up the Inspired weekend in just a few words or even a short paragraph. It is so much more than just an art retreat or a girls' weekend away. Most days at home my mind is full of little ideas - things I'd like to make, classes I'd like to teach, or just thoughts I want to jot down, hoping to turn into something creative later. Inspired is full of women who get this. Women who don't think it's weird that I'd rather make something than sleep. Women who understand the thrill of paint on your hands and glitter on your apron. Women who are there to encourage one another and who don't look twice if you don't follow directions. I always come home both exhilarated and exhausted. But I wouldn't change it for anything! Here are just some of my favorite memories from Inspired this year:

* Thursday night's dinner. The core workshop teachers ate dinner with Donna and Bill and it was so nice to have time to chat and get to know one another for a couple of hours. Paulette, Cheryl, Carol, Tejae, and Susan were all so nice. We are all separated most of the weekend, so it was good to spend time together.

* Heather Bailey. She is one of those people you just want to be around. I met her last year and was thrilled that she was going to be there again this year. She is beautiful, gracious, and good grief...so, so talented. She joined us for the Thursday dinner and I got to sit next to her and look thru her sketch book where she develops her ideas and stories for her new fabric and paper lines. Amazing. And she emailed me earlier this week just to see how my class went, since I used her fabric lines on my project. Love her. :)

* Charm Swappers. Inspired has a Yahoo group, where all of the women attending can chat and email each other all year, getting to know one another. 50+ of the women participated in a charm swap and made each of the teachers a charm necklace as well. Wow - the time and talent that went into these charms is so evident. THANK YOU to each of you for including the teachers in this gift. Carol has a photo of our necklaces here. I love mine and have it displayed in my crafting room over a jar of vintage lace.

* Donna and Bill. I'll never forget receiving that first email back in May 2007 asking me if I'd be interested in teaching if she put together an art event. :) She had a vision and has carried it thru for two years running now. She and Bill are a perfect team! Every time I'd walk by I'd hear her say, "you ok? You need anything? All good?" :)

* Heather. For years I've corresponded back and forth with Heather, yet we'd never met in person. (Living across the country from each other makes that difficult.) So knowing that I'd be in her neck of the woods for the weekend, Heather drove two hours each way to meet me for dinner and hang out at the hotel. What a precious friend she is. Heather, eating at Five Guys (yum!) and sitting and laughing with you was just wonderful. Thank you for coming to see me!

* My Classes and students. I had sooooo much fun during my classes each day. The core workshop teachers each did six 3-hour classes (18 hours) and the students were all SUCH troopers. I know that must be a lot to take in in two days! My favorite part was walking around and seeing how people were changing up the project. Love to see the creativity! Beautiful women who taught me way more than I taught them. And everyone seemed to enjoy the set up I had created. I had three tables at the front of the room covered in Heather Bailey fabrics. On the tables I had vintage wire baskets of old lace, seam binding, hymnals and books, a tray of old buttons, 5 silver trays of Martha glitter, and a table for beeswaxing with a melting pot. (messy but fun!)

* C.D. C.D. attended Inspired last year and I was so happy to see her come around the corner into my classroom as I was setting up on Thursday morning. She is precious....loves her children (and made things for them while there), is always smiling, and is just CUTE! And did you hear? She's going to be a teacher at Inspired 2010!

* Marketplace. What a feast for the eyes! An entire huge room full of shopping, browsing, and artistic eye candy. It was in here that I was able to meet Jenni Bowlin. Seriously, had to catch my breath at her booth set up. Vintage heaven! One of the supplies for my class project was a piece of vintage jewelry. Had to laugh when she said, "I was wondering why everyone was buying all of my brooches!" ha :) Way to go, girls!

* Margie, Melody, and Christy. These three made me laugh a LOT. I had never met any of them, but spent as much time as I could with them. Margie made me laugh so hard I cried a few times. My friend Teresa had told me I'd love her and she was right. She's hilarious and sarcastic and so creative. And I love that she Twitters and Facebooks everything, ha. Love you, Margie! Melody and Christy are kind, generous, and both beautiful. Two peas in a pod!

* Kelly Rae Roberts. Inspiring, funny, so darn cute. Loved sitting on the floor the last night with her, Donna, and other girls and laughing until 1:30 a.m. Her keynote speech on Saturday night was so very motivating for me.

* The Beach Scrapbooks Girls. Oh my.....what a hilarious bunch of women! Lucky me, two of them were my T.A.s most of the weekend and we had to best time. (love you Melissa and Courtney!) The group worked the registration desk with Kandi, Zanne and Rebecca and were hilarious. They have some great photos of the event on their site. (Melissa, love the waxing!)

* Paolo. Last but certainly not least....this guy is a joy to be around. I wanted to follow him around as he took photos (as our official photographer) because he has the best perspective on what to photograph. Not many guys would put up with 250 women for 4 days, but he did and captured the event in a beautiful way. He also had this brilliant idea to set up a "photo booth" in the hallway next to registration. He had props, a backdrop, and all day you could just walk up and take your own photos. HILARIOUS...and you'll see some of those photos below. :)

And finally......Paolo's Inspired Artist Workshop Slideshow!
(if it's slow to load, just pause it while it loads....then start it up; or just download it to your computer)

5.13.09

2009-05-13T10:13:00.003-05:00

Good morning!! :D

Yes, I'm still here...thank you for the emails! I got home on Sunday morning from Inspired and was completely drained for a couple of days. Had an AMAZING time with so many creative, wonderful women. I didn't even take my camera because Paolo was there as our official photographer (love him!) and is selling CDs of the event photos, so as soon as he posts his slideshow, then I'll link it here.

I'll have a better Inspired post either Thursday or Friday. Think I'll do it as a bullet "favorites" list from the weekend. :) Still catching up on things around here!

Stay tuned!

4.24.09

2009-04-24T07:37:00.005-05:00

Good morning, friends!

I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. With all that has been going on, I just haven't had the desire, you know? Things are better and I thank you so much for your prayers. My sister and her kids are hanging in there.

I've been busy getting ready for Inspired! I can't believe in two weeks I'll be teaching my first class of the day. It seems like it takes forever for the event to get here, then when it gets close I feel like I still have so much to do! :) The last three ribbons arrived via UPS yesterday...yay! So this weekend I'll be sitting and cutting ribbon, bagging 300 kits with their final items, and hopefully shipping everything to Donna on Monday or Tuesday! It's always such a relief to get those boxes out of here and know they are on their way to NC. I'm almost finished with my door sign/canvas as well. Last year I made a bunch of door prizes to give out in my classes. I just don't know if I'll have time this year. :( That makes me sad but I know everyone will understand if I don't get them done.

The photo above is of one of the projects I'll be teaching at Scrapadoodle in June. I hope you can come join me for this fun weekend retreat!

On Sunday my baby boy turns 9 years old. I can't believe it! Tonight he is having 5 boys over for a Super Mario Bros. themed sleepover. Pizza and ice cream cake, popcorn and m&m's for late night snacks, and lots of video games, light saber fights, and body sound jokes. I plan on taking lots of photos and video. :)

Thank you for reading my blog. I'm glad you are still here!

4.13.09

2009-04-14T00:01:00.007-05:00

Hi, friends and family...
On Friday morning my sister Kendra, her husband Greg, and their two kids Jane and Drew were all at home together. Greg wasn't feeling well, went into the bathroom, collapsed and died from a massive heart attack. He was only 39 years old. It has been devastating for Kendra as she makes decisions, has to make things as normal as possible for the kids, and goes on without her husband. Our family and friends are surrounding them with love and prayers as we ask the Lord for guidance and strength.

Many of our friends and close family read my blog so I'll share this here. Kendra has set up an account just for the children to help with their expenses as she prepares to become the sole provider for them. In lieu of flowers, she is asking for support for Jane and Drew. Thank you so much for all of the phone calls, emails, prayers, and words of encouragement for them. It's going to be a long road, but God is faithful. Tell those around you that you love them. Kendra and her children had their lives changed in one single minute....you just never know when your last day is here.

4.5.09

2009-04-06T15:37:00.003-05:00

Happy Monday, everyone :) (I love Mondays...that fresh start thing, I guess)

So much going on right now...I think April and May are busier than November and December in our family. I'm prepping 300 kits for Inspired, doing the scheduling for a school event involving 200 families, planning Easter, a birthday party, just went cub scout camping, and Noah has a Taekwondo belt test this week. It's nuts around here.

I took a couple of photos just so I'd have something to post today. Just two of the containers on my shelves in my crafting room. One is a metal basket full of old postcards, papers, photos, etc. The other is a silver beaded jewelry box with button cards, millinery flowers, and berry stems. Very exciting, huh? lol (You can click on the photos if you want to see larger versions.)

I hope when life slows down I'll have time to write more. Making King Ranch Chicken for dinner tonight. (recipe below) Have a good night!

Jennifer’s King Ranch Chicken

1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 med. Chopped onion
1 small chopped green pepper
1/2 tsp. chopped garlic
1 Tbsp. oil
8-10 corn tortillas
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 to 1 c. milk
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes and chiles (drain 1/2 of the liquid off)
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add the oil to a large saucepan or pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and garlic and saute’ until onions are soft.Add the chicken breasts to the pan with the onions and garlic and saute’ about 7 minutes on each side or until well-browned. Sprinkle each side of the chicken with salt, pepper and a little chili powder as you turn them over. Remove chicken from the pan, shred the meat on a cutting board, and put the meat into a bowl; set aside. KEEP the other contents of the pan set aside, also. Add a little bit more oil to the pan and saute' the tortillas in oil, just about 10 seconds on each side. Drain on a paper towel. (You just want them SOFT, not greasy. ) In a rectangular baking dish sprayed with cooking spray, layer the tortillas to cover the bottom of the pan. Add chicken on top of the tortillas. Blend remaining ingredients (except cheese) in a large bowl with the onions and garlic, stirring well. Pour over the chicken in the baking dish. Top with cheese and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly. Serves 6-8.

3.28.09

2009-03-28T15:00:00.003-05:00

This morning my mom and I had a garage sale...made about $40ish. Nothing spectacular, but it was great to get rid of some more clutter. After we closed up, we went over to the 1898 store with my sister Allison. I was just there a week ago and saw so many different things this time. It's so packed it's impossible to see everything. I got a sterling silver footed little stand (for Easter decor), some mercury beads, and three old wire letter baskets for 50 cents each. (those were a steal!) I asked my sister to take this photo with her iphone while we were shopping. One of the many gorgeous cabinets in this place! (and every drawer is full of stuff)

Back home....baking cookies....thinking about doing Easter decor today, but also wanting to take a nap. I also need to cut 8 entire bolts of fabric into 6"x6" squares for my Inspired Artist Workshop kits. I think the nap will win for now.

Have a fun Saturday!