Stuff.

A lot has been going on here.  We took Logan to the doctor last week to get an EEG.  Found out yesterday that it was completely normal!   Yay :)  So, we have to take him tomorrow morning to consult his doctor and start weaning him from his phenobarb.  It's one of those meds you can't just stop taking.  That was a huge weight off our shoulders and thanks to everyone who was praying for him.

This week we are getting ready to go to Illinois to visit Chad's parents before the craziness of fire season starts.  So, it'll be a busy week.  I'm still working on several things, just trying to find time to do it.  My kiddos never sleep! Although Logan is actually napping right now and Caeden is allowing me to type this, that's not the usual case.  And, Caeden will let me do some things, but not in my scrap room at all.

Also, some of you scrapping people may be able to give me some advice on a couple of things.  I've been looking at kits.  Trying to talk my hubby into a 6-month sub for me.  I've looked at several in terms of value and the quality of items--I looked at every kit in the list over at Willow Traders!  Anyway, I got down to the following list that I am now going to go back through:  Freehand Scraps, Kenner Road, Scarlet Lime, Studio Calico, My Creative Scrapbook, Noel Mignon, Scrapbook Doodle, Scrapbook Sussies, Scraptacular, The Scrap Room, Transparent Touches...Does anyone have any experiences to share about any of those?  Good or bad?  Any suggestions?

Also, I'm looking for some challenge sites for inspiration, if anyone has any challenge sites to suggest.

And, because I just have to include a picture, here is one of us from Christmas...just realized that I don't think I ever shared it.

And, speaking of Christmas, here is a layout that I did for SNR's Fancy Pants feature a couple months ago.  It was also featured in the November issue of the magazine in the sketch article, using a sketch by Carey Bridges.  I just loved the design of the sketch.

Snow Cream!

For those of you who are still getting lots of fun (or not so fun) snow, here is a fun recipe.  You'll see that mine is a little melted in the picture.  That's because I hadn't intended to take a picture of this.  In my mind, everyone makes snow cream.  I never realized it might be a regional thing until people started requesting the recipe.  So, here is my half-eaten, a little melty snow cream :)

If you're me, you throw in some snow, add in about a teaspoon of vanilla, and some sweetened condensed milk, followed by some chocolate for added flavor.  But since that isn't very precise, I found a similar recipe for you guys.  So, if you're Paula Deen, you would use:

Ingredients:

8 cups snow (or shaved ice she says)

1 can sweetened condensed milk;

1 tsp vanilla.

Mix it all up and enjoy.  You have to really stir it to get everything to mix well with the snow. But, seriously this is some good stuff. My mid-west born hubby had never had it before and he was surprised at how good it was. I think he doubted me.  Also, feel free to substitute as necessary.  When we were growing up, my mom always used evaporated milk and sugar rather than the sweetened condensed milk, but when I made this I didn't have either of those things (yes, I ran out of SUGAR!  can you believe it?  I couldn't either).  So, I used the sweetened condensed milk because that's what I had on hand.  Just make it work for you and enjoy it for the yumminess that it is :)

And as a bonus here is a pic of Caeden enjoying some last weekend.  Yes, he randomly took his shirt off in the winter, but I assure you our house was warm :)  And, as I look at this pic, he may have been eating just plain snow at this point, because he kept saying, "more flakes, more flakes" It was cute.

Use your Stash Friday (winner included)

Lots of things going on today.  First of all, I'm working on a bit of a redesign on my blog,
oving over to Wordpress.  I'm hoping for no blog disasters and that I won't regret the move.  I'm  hoping the new blog will be ready by Monday, but that might be a bit optimistic.  We'll see.

In the meantime I have a couple of layouts to share with you.  Some of you may remember that I purchased a student edition of CS4 for a class I'm taking this semester.  It is totally kicking my butt.  I do so much better in my simpler, free programs that I am used to using.  Any tips for learning photoshop for editing would be much appreciated.  I'm determined to "get it" but it's proving to be very frustrating.

Anyway, you may remember THIS POST about my stash challenge to myself.  Here is the kit that I ended up making for myself.  I pretty much just went through all my stuff and dug out any and everything that I thought would go along with this kit.  My purpose wasn't necessarily to limit myself, but to use my stash.  I ended up with a huge kit, including many things that I had nearly forgotten I even had.

Here are the first couple of layouts that I have created using the stack.

And, I randomly chose a winner to receive one each of the 17 patterned papers. 

The 16th comment was from Carissa, but she didn't leave me any way of contacting her.

Anonymous said...

I have the big collection of MME I got from Costco that could really use some whittling down. Also ancient brown/blue and brown/pink Cosmopolitan collections from Making Memories (I think). Love the colors of the MME you bought!
Carissa 
January 25, 2010 8:54 PM

So, Carissa, if you are reading this, please contact me w/ your info and I will send these out to you.  If I don't hear from her then I will choose another winner.

{More} Winter Wishes.

A couple months ago, I was fortunate enough to be able to work with some Copic markers through Scrapbook News and Review online magazine.  I had never tried them before (which is exactly the staffers they wanted), and was thrilled.  Here is one of the cards I created using the earth set of Copics.  I'm not much of a stamper, cardmaker, and am not used to coloring images, but I was pretty pleased with the result.

Tip:  If you want to create the illusion of having colored a white image, simply outline it with a light grey or light blue (depending on the look you're going for).  For these snowmen, I chose to outline them with a soft blue, and it adds the perfect touch to the images.

As a sidenote, does anyone use wordpress?  If so, what do you like/dislike about it?

Winter Wonderland

It has been a winter wonderland around here.  Even with the warmer temps and rain we still have some snow that is hanging out.  I like it.  And, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to share some wintery layouts.  I made these for Scrapbook News and Review online magazine using SEI's Wintersong line.  I've never been a huge SEI fan, but this line is just gorgeous!

I hope you're all having a great week!  And, I haven't forgotten about the paper giveaway.  I will be posting my first couple of layouts along w/ the winner of that RAK drawing sometime this week.  In the meantime, feel free to head back to that entry and leave me your suggestions :)

Meal Planning

I decided to start sharing these on my blog as well.  If you've never really heard/thought about meal planning before, here is a blog with some great info and ideas about it: MenuPlanning Monday.  Basically, I make our family a little menu.  I do it twice a month, because that's when Chad gets paid.  Here are some of the reasons I make meal plans:

1.  Save money because (1.) You can plan your menus based around sales if you want to and (2.) you won't over buy as much and you'll have a specific purpose for everything that you purchase.

2. Save time because you can plan better.  Remember to prep meals that need a bit of prep, but save time in the long run (like crock pot meals...they are simple, and don't require a lot of prep, but not a last minute meal, you have to plan for it).

3. Save stress because you don't have those 5:00 "What's for dinner" moments that happen daily in my house otherwise.  I love sitting down to plan my meals all at once and then not having to think about it as much afterwards.  It's also great for trying out new recipes, you can just add those into your menu.  You can also plan your menu to account for busy times.  Sundays at lunch time are always hard for us because we get home from church at around 12:30-1:00.  So, on those days I either plan a crockpot meal that can cook all morning while we're gone, or I plan something on Saturday that will make good leftovers (pork roast turned into stew or bbq, etc.) 

And, with just a little bit of prep, you can freeze meals so that you can have no prep, healthy meals available to your family.  And, if something comes up and your plans change now and then, it's no biggie.

Another tip I learned the hard way is to account for leftovers.  For one of my menus, Chad looked at it and laughed at me for scheduling "leftovers" from the previous day.  But, you have to eat them sometime! lol. In my first menus I got a little overzealous and planned a complete new meal for lunch and supper every day.  That didn't work out very well because we ended up with a ton of leftovers and some things that were ruined/wasted, etc.  So, account for leftovers, even if you do something different with them.

We're pretty simple around here, but I thought I'd go ahead and share my upcoming menu anyway. Look for some recipes after I get pics to go with them. I usually try out a new recipe at least once a week.  Mommyhood is calling me, so I just got through the first week.

Monday: 
Lunch--Chicken Noodle Casserole (I'm making this from leftover Cornish Game Hens that we had on Saturday)
Supper--I have night class, so it will be a leftover night for Chad and Caeden.  Either chicken noodle casserole or lasagna.

Tuesday:
Lunch: Chicken Parmesan Garlic Bread w/ Salad (this is a simple new recipe I've been wanting to try);
Supper: Pork Roast w/ potatoes & carrots, green beans.

Wednesday:
Lunch: Beef pot pie (this is a quick meal b/c I'm using beef roast leftovers that I froze w/ some broth)
Supper: Pork Stew or pork BBQ sandwiches (using leftover pork roast from Tuesday)

Thursday:
Lunch: BBQ ribs, baked potato, broccoli
Supper: meatloaf w/ green beans & potatoes, mac & cheese casserole. (I have a night class on Thursday as well, so I froze some meatloaf the last time I made it for a quick and easy meal).  I can prepare the mac & cheese casserole and then Chad can heat up the rest of it.

Friday:
Lunch:  Stir-fry
Supper: Date Night for Chad and me, leftovers for Caeden.

Saturday:
Lunch: Angel hair pasta w/ chicken, broccoli, tomatoes
Supper: Cheeseburgers, homemade french fries, baked beans

Sunday:
Lunch: Spaghetti, salad and garlic bread
Supper: Small Group (appetizers--homemade salsa w/ chips and strawberry cream horn dessert)

A lot of people only plan for supper/dinner, but Chad comes home for an hour lunch nearly every day so I plan for both. 

Caramel Corn

Love this stuff!  It's way easier than I thought it would be and a lot better than the kind you buy in stores...always a good combination!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup honey

1 tbsp molasses

1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

10 cups popped popcorn

1 cup peanuts

Directions. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  In a small saucepan on low heat, melt butter.  Add honey, molasses, vanilla, salt.  Turn to high heat and bring to a boil.  Boil for approx. 30 seconds.  Pour mixture over prepared 10 cups of popcorn and mix until popcorn is coated.  Spread covered popcorn onto rimmed cookie sheets and bake at 300 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

For a fun gift, buy some cone shaped icing bags.  Fill each bag with approximately 1.5-2 cups of popcorn, and secure with a ribbon.  Enjoy :)