Where did the week go?

Wow - it was a long hectic week. I didn't get any scrapping done. But I do have this adorable page to show you that I made last weekend. I am getting some more scrapping done today.

The title of this page is: Grandpa Makes the Best Playmate. And yes, I know I have a typo on the page - it will get fixed. These are pictures of my Dad playing with my brother Joe's girls when we were up in Michigan in March. Grandpa just played and played and never seemed to get tired. He's a great Grandpa.

I Made Cookies!

The other day I saw an article about Michelle Obama's and Cindy McCain's cookie recipes in Women's Day. They both look delicious, so I have decided to try them. I started with Michelle Obama's Shortbread cookies. Tim has a big 12-hour race today and since he loves shortbread cookies, I made these for him. Hopefully these freeze well since I have most of them in the freezer right now.

I'm not going to the race. It's just too long for me to be outside in the heat. I'm spending the afternoon and evening scrapping at today's Virtual Scrapbook Night on Splitcoaststampers.com. Which means I'll have a bunch more pages to show.

Michelle Obama's Shortbread Cookies

1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1-1/2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons sugar

2 egg yolks

2 Tablespoons Amaretto (I used 1 tsp. almond extract and a little water)

1 teaspoon each orange and lemon zest

3 cups cake flour (not self-rising)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 beaten egg white

chopped nuts or dried fruit (optional)

1. Heat oven to 325 degree F. Line a 17x12x1 inch pan with non stick foil. In a large bowl, cream together butter and 1-1/3 cups of the sugar.

2. Slowly add egg yolks, and beat well until smooth. Beat in Amaretto and zest.

3. Stir in flour and salt until combined.

4. Spread dough evenly into prepared pan, flattening as smoothly as possible.

5. Brush top of dough with egg white; sprinkle with nuts or fruit (if using) and with remaining 2 Tablespoons sugar.

6. Bake at 325 degree F for 25 minutes or until brown, turn off oven and allow cookies to sit in oven (with door ajar) for 15 minutes. Cut while slightly warm. Makes 6dozen 2x3-inch cookies.

Trick or Treat

Here's a layout I did for my nieces. I made two pages almost identical - one for each of their albums. The girls are bigger now since these pictures are from 2006 (correct me if I'm wrong Kirsten). I had some Cars paper that I cut the emblem and Lightning McQueen out of to use as embellishments. I also had some stickers so I used those to flank the title. I ran a wheel stamp across the page in a couple of places - that has been a versatile stamp and I use it a lot. It's a simple page with bright colors - so saffron, real red, brocade blue and black. I hope you like it girls.

Celebrating the Seasons

I got a bunch of pages scrapped this weekend. But I'll share this one with you first since I just finished it last night - and I love how it turned out.

The pictures are from Easter when I was in Minnesota. My Uncle Gerry and Aunt Sandy had the Holles family over for Easter dinner. The siblings also exchanged their Christmas gifts. I got to see my cousin Elly and spend some time with her. The group picture is Uncle Gerry, Aunt Jean, Aunt Julie and Dad. The other picture on the left page is my Dad and Uncle Gerry relaxing and visiting. On the right side is a picture of my cousin Elly helping my Mom with her cell phone, a nice picture of Aunt Jean and Uncle David, and then a picture of all the women sitting at the table visiting.

Every week on Splicoaststampers.com there are challenges to get people stamping and scrapping. So for this layout I used the sketch challenge and the variety challenge which was to use pattern paper from three different manufacturers. That was really hard for me, but I did it - and it worked. I used a red pattern paper from Stampin' Up and a tone on tone paper from Basic Grey and the black pattern paper is unknown. I put everything on a vanilla background. The title and journaling were done with a SU font. And the simple embellishments are black painted chipboard.

The Prize

Here is the page I made to show off the Blue Plunger Award that Dylan won for his psychology project. Dylan wrote out the journaling part for me that explains what his project was. Stamping Up has a cool punch that makes it look like the paper was torn from a notebook. I bought the papers on my last shopping trip because I knew the blues would work well with the very blue plunger and then I could use browns to tone it all down.

Summer Hair Cut

An interesting Southern tradition is that every year after school's out young boys get their hair buzzed for the summer. Tim decided he would try it this year since he has so much hair and it grows so fast. Turns out, we both really like it.

For this layout I used a sketch my friend Sally made for me, SBSC143. I used Not Quite Navy for the background and some new pattern papers by Paper Studio that I bought on my last shopping trip with Judi. And I used a little ribbon for accent. The other pages I made this weekend are a secret until the next Virtual Scrapbooking Night on Splitcoast - but they turned out darling.

Mojo!

My mojo's back! I'm creating today, so I'll have some scrapbook pages to share with you this week. Stay tuned.

Creative Cooking

At least I'm being creative in the kitchen if I can't be creative at the scrap table. Tonight I made Mexican Egg Rolls. I got the idea from an appetizer at Chilis. I didn't have any corn in the house, so these aren't very colorful. But they were yummy.

Mexican Egg Rolls

1 lb ground beef, browned with onions and garlic

1 can black beans, drained

1 can green chilies

1 cup frozen corn

taco seasoning and/or lots of cumin and chili powder

2 cups grated cheese

I used 2 won ton wrappers for each egg roll and about 2 good spoonsful of filling. Makes 12. Spray with Pam and bake at 400 for 15 min. Serve with sour cream and salsa.

Who cares about scrapping when I can eat?

I made a new recipe for dinner last night. You can find the instructions here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/08/spicy_shrimp_yu/ . Oh man, it was so tasty. We just had shrimp and bread. But the shrimp would be good with some rice to soak up all the sauce. I think any leftovers would be great in some sort of cold salad. This was so simple and easy to make that I think it will become a staple at our house anytime shrimp goes on sale. I have also made the Pioneer Woman's bacon wrapped cracker appetizers and they were very good also. Be sure to check out all of her recipes and the rest of her blog.

Will I ever stamp or scrap again?

Seems like the forces of the world are against me ever getting anything creative done. This long holiday weekend when Tim was supposed to be riding in the mountains and I was supposed to be getting lots of scrapping done - we ended up making an unscheduled trip to KY. Tim's Mom is in the hospital with some heart problems. She got a pacemaker late last week and spent several days in CCU. She's in a regular room now and doing so much better.

We did take some time Sunday afternoon to drive up to Owensboro to see the kid. And, of course, I took more pictures that seem like they'll never get scrapped. Dylan did a project for psychology class using his dogs to test biocommunication. The teacher handed out awards for the projects. Dylan got a Blue Plunger for the best topic award. He's very proud of his blue plunger. He has one more week of school and is planning on working at Burger King this summer.

I guess this week I'll work on catching up on housework and laundry. Then this weekend I am going to scrap! Because my nieces have dance recital this weekend which means more pictures to scrap.

Mother's Day Cards

As usual, I was late getting my Mother's Day cards made and mailed. But they did finally get done. Everyone should have received theirs by now, so I'll share them with everyone else. A couple of weeks ago, my friend Judi and I went to a new stamp store in Matthews. I bought my first official unmounted stamp set. Unmounted stamps don't come on wood blocks, when you want to use one you mount it on a reusable acrylic block. The stamps are stored in a CD sized case. Which means they don't take up as much room so you can have more stamps. The set I bought is called Jolies Fleurs by Lizzie Anne Designs. They have been very easy to work with, so I think I see more unmounted stamp sets in the future.

I love the color of these cards - celery, coral and pink. I used a half circle punch to make the scallops and did some paper piercing along the bottom by the ribbon for interest. The large scallop circle is a punch my friend Donna has. I used the small hole punch in the scallops to make it lacy. A little ribbon finishes it off. And inside is stamped with Happy Mother's Day.

The New Bathroom

The bathroom is almost done. Tim is working on replacing the old weights in the windows. When he finished with that then he'll paint the window and door frames. The wainscoting and woodwork is a soft white and the top part of the wall is Koi Pond green. It turned out exactly like I pictured. Now that we have a new couch, we can move on to the living room and dinning room - maybe in the fall. This weekend we are going to take a break from working on the house and yard and head to the mountains and do some camping, hiking (me) and bike riding (Tim).

Home Improvement Day

Today we are busy working on the house. Tim is busy putting in base moulding in the bathroom. The house was built in 1930, so the walls are a little wavy. But he is doing a beautiful job. We ran out to Sherwin Williams this morning and bought paint for the top part of the wall. It is a soft green color called Koi Pond. It's a different shade of green than the towels we have so I might need new towels.

While we were out, we stopped by the local furniture store to look at sofas. We found one that we liked - and it was on sale! I'm sitting on it now. It's not as big as our old one - a little shorter and not as wide. It is a sleeper sofa to give us a little more room for guests. And it was made right here in North Carolina. Fitzie and Riley have checked it out already. The old futon we carried to the curb and the neighbors hauled it off pretty quickly.

The garden we put in last weekend is doing pretty well. No corn or beans have sprouted yet, and the watermelon and cantaloupes don't look too good. But everything else looks great. We also planted a lilac and hydrangea. We've had some good rain this week which has been nice. I still need to get some impatients to plant in the pot on the front porch.

After all this hard work, I'm sure we'll sleep well tonight. I did go to a crop last night so have a few more scrapbook pages to show you next week.

My Mojo is Back

On Tuesday morning I finished up the page that had been on my table for three or four weeks. These pictures are from when I was up in Michigan and had a chance to sit down and scrap with my nieces. I'm going to end up making three different pages with these photos - one page for me, One for Sarah's book and one for Sydney's book. When I started working on this page I picked some papers that matched the purplish color of Sydney's dress so the papers ended up being too dark and drab to enhance the story. I switch over to some lighter colors that would coordinate with the other colors in the photos. But I was using punch star shapes as an accent. When I went to look for some pattern papers to use, I only found paper with flowers. Then I realized I really needed to use punched flowers instead of stars. So after three weeks of changing colors and embellishments, I was finally loving it.

I just spent two days down in Myrtle Beach with some of my online scrapping friends. So Hopefully I can get a couple of pages scrapped to show everyone.

No Mojo

I've lost my scrapping mojo. I got lots of great pictures on my trip to Minneapolis but I haven't had time to scrap anything. I did sit down and stamp for a bit this morning to see if I could get the creative juices flowing. I have two cards in progress, so hopefully I'll have something to show you soon.
This weekend we go to Kentucky to see Dylan and Tim's family. Which means I'll come back with more photos to scrap. I got two of James Patterson's books from his Maximum Ride series at the library conference. I think Dylan will enjoy them. Maybe I can find enough mojo to make a few bookmarks for him.
It's a busy time at work. It's National Library Week, so I've been coordinating activities for that. Thursday night if Open Mic Poetry Night in celebration of National Poetry Month. Need to see if I can write something decent enough to read. Today is Library Worker Day, so please stop by your local library and say hi to the library workers there. I've got book club this morning. We will be discussing Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It is a beautifully written novel about the Nigerian - Biafra conflict of the 1960's. We should have a great discussion. I've spent some time this morning reading a few chapters and the beginning and end of the book to refresh my memory.
Other than that - the cats are well, the redone bathroom is great, and life is good.

I finally got some thank you cards made and ready to mail to my family who made my trip to Minnesota a great one. I had the best time seeing everyone. I got all my pictures printed so should get some scrapbook pages done soon.

For this card I used a color challenge on SCS to give me some inspiration - cameo coral, apricot appeal, mellow moss and creamy caramel. I used the Embrace Life stamp set and mellow moss ink for the leafy background and cameo coral ink on apricot and coral papers for the flowers. The while gel pen added a few accents. Since there are a few layers I didn't add any ribbon or hardware to make it more bulky for mailing. I'm pleased how they turned out and I think the colors are nice and soft for spring.

When I got back from Minnesota my tulips were up. Even with all the dreary rainy weather we've had, they've opened up beautifully. So this picture is for everyone who still has snow - spring is coming your way. Look quick because my tulips never last long - kids walking to and from school always manage to pick them.

I'm home!

I had a wonderful trip to Minnesota and Michigan. I got to see lots of family and had a great library conference. I came how with 23 free books! And I got to see enough snow for a lifetime - actually, the weather was very good while I was there. I flew in to Minneapolis on Good Friday and it was snowing. My Aunt Julie picked me up from the airport. I took a few pictures of the beautiful snow at her house. Most of this had melted by the time I left. I have lots of pictures to scrap from this trip. After I do laundry and go to the grocery store I can get started.

A Masculine Page

I took a challenge on SCS to make a masculine page using flowers. I started with this adorable picture of my brother Joe and his two girls, Sarah and Sydney. I printed the photo in black and white to make it more dramatic. The quote says: "There is only one way to lead a child down the right path... That is to go that way yourself". The flowers are gorgeous leather, I know you can't tell that from the photo. I used the colors ruby red, so saffron, old olive and chocolate chip. The stripped paper is from American Crafts, the leather flowers and rub ons are Making Memories - everything else is from Stampin Up!

Now I have to go pack my bags. I won't be able to take as many pair of shoes as I'd like because I have to pack sweaters and a coat so I don't freeze up in Minnesota and Michigan. I'm super excited about seeing everyone and getting more photos to scrap.

Life Takes Over...

... and you have no time to scrap. I've got a page laid out - adorable photo of my brother and his two girls holding hands. I want to use a quote on the page, but can't find what I want. I need to just give up on that idea and move on.

Things have been very hectic at work. Budget requests were due at the end of last week. I've got a bunch of fun things in my request so next year could be busy for me. We are also restructuring our technical services department in advance of searching for a new librarian. The new person will be Systems and Technical Librarian and I am no Acquisitions and Outreach Librarian. I'm excited about my new duties, but I have ALOT to learn.

I'm getting ready to leave on a trip this Friday. I got a grant to go to the Public Library Association meeting in Minneapolis. And it just so happens that I have family an friends there - how coincidental. I am so excited to get to see everyone, and the conference looks like it's going to be great to. While I'm gone Tim is going to remodel the bathroom. The new beadboard wainscotting is in the dinning room but the boxes of sink, vanity, toilet, fixtures and hardware are all in the study. He has instructions to take lots of photos so I can scrap it when I get back.

And that's life and why I have no new scrapbook pages or cards to show.

Birthday Wishes

This is my oldest niece a couple of years ago on her 6th birthday. You can't tell it from the photo, but her shirt has little blue flowers on it, which is where I got the colors for the layout - ballet blue, barely banana, and certainly celery. The title, "Birthday Wishes" is a stamp from the set For a Friend and I double mounted it to make it stand out. The ballon, present, and cake stamped images are done with Birthday Whimsy. I cut them out and mounted them on small squares to accent and ground them. I am going to do the journaling in the green strip in the middle of the page.