MORE SNOW!

My older children got on the school bus this morning... then it began to snow! It snowed enough (as you can see from the picture- it doesn't take much!) that they canceled afternoon Kindergarten and kept the morning Kindergartners at school all day instead of half day. David was not disappointed for another snow day! It all melted by the afternoon when the bus came home.

Beth made an AWESOME kit AND she asked me if I'd be on her CT!!!!

Beth Long is the one that got me interested in Digi Scrapping. I’ve been paper scrapping for over 15 years and when Beth started I said “I’ll never digi scrapbook. I like paper too much and I don’t like sitting at the computer”. Well- never say never!!! I am hooked! (I won't be giving up paper scrapbook anytime soon though!!!)

Well- Beth has designed some high quality, beautiful kits. She gave me her Autumn Splendor kit to create with and this is what I came up with:

Credits: Autumn Splendor by Beth Long, Title font Sidewalk

Credits: Autumn Splendor by Beth Long, Title letters (re colored) By Lori Cameron

I really loved the colors and the textures. And the glitter splotches were fun to use! She made the photo corners just for me!!! I love them- especially the cute stitching!! I've never used leaves before, so that was a fun challenge.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of your beautiful kits Beth!!

My life is like a Cinnamon Roll and other bits of Tribal Knowledge

A couple weeks ago Robin taught a great lesson in Relief Society at church. She had lots of great things to share. Amy posted about some.

For me, the thing I liked best that she shared is that my life is like a cinnamon roll. (She even brought cinnamon rolls for everyone! Maybe that's why I liked this part. LOL!) A cinnamon roll is made of lots of ingredients. Flour, sugar, salt, butter, cinnamon and so on- pretty ordinary ingredients... but the end result is fabulous. Each ingredient isn't always all that great- especially alone. Even the sugar alone wouldn't be tasty for more than one spoonful!  Just like in my life- I have LOTS of things to do, and some of them APPEAR to be ordinary or even yucky. But, if I can find joy in each ingredient in my life- then it will roll up into something great. I do believe that. I think I can find joy in everything I need to do- not just the ones I want to do when all the work is done. (Is it ever done anyway??) These last couple weeks have been better as I've tried to think of everything I do as important and meaningful and contributing to something great!

She also shared some random thoughts- she called them "Tribal Knowledge".  Things that should be common knowledge and passed to each other. Here's are some of my favorites:

"Fake it till you make it"

"You have no more right to steal someone's sunshine than you do to steal someone's silver"

"This too will pass"

"Have a sunshine day even if it's raining!"

"Good habits are hard to form and easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to form and hard to live with."

"Memories are made today."

"God never gives you more than you can handle."

 

Edited- I've been wanting cinnamon rolls ever since this lesson... I finally made them Feb 3rd and took a picture... Yum!

Magic Middles

My friend Heidi emailed me a new recipe a couple days ago. I made it for after school snack today. It's a chocolate cookie with a Peanut Butter middle. YUMMY!

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter

DIRECTIONS:

1. In small bowl blend flour, cocoa and baking soda. Mix until well blended.
2. In large bowl beat sugar, butter or margarine and 1/4 cup peanut butter, until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg, beat. Stir in flour mixture until blended. Set aside.
3. To make Filling: Combine confectioner's sugar and 3/4 cup peanut butter. Blend well.
4. Roll filling into 30 - 1 inch balls. For each cookie, with floured hands, shape about 1 Tablespoon of dough around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with glass dipped in sugar.
5. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 7-9 minutes. When cookies are done, they should be set and slightly cracked.

 

We all liked it, though some of my family prefers the cookie dough.

I have 2 cookie tips-

I learned this tip from my mother in law (an excellent baker!!)- whip the wet ingredients (shortening, sugars, eggs, and vanilla) together for a long time (5 minutes is not too long!). Her cookies always turn out light and tender.

Another tip I came up with is for the day after you make cookies. I really like cookies fresh out of the oven, so if you microwave your cookie for 8 seconds it tastes almost as good.

2009 Calendar

My friend makes a calendar each year. She collects pictures from each of her siblings and has a completed calendar printed for each of them and her grandma. This year I made the calendar for her.

Here's how it turned out:

Supplies: Patterned paper and frame- Beth Long bethbydesign.blogspot.com 

 

Supplies: Star embellishment-Heidi Larsen of littledreamdesigns.com Glitter Star Overlay- Janel Scraps

Supplies: Turkey and patterned paper- kimscrapping.blogspot.com 

I made a basic template to use for each page. I modified it sightly depending on how many pictures were on each page. It made it to drop photos in quick and resize them all to fit.

If you have a use for the template- you can download it here:

http://www.4shared.com/file/79546083/1f517da2/JA_calendar_template.html

It is a psd file sized 10X7.5

I printed the calendar at www.artscow.com I've never used them before. I was happy with the paper's quality, but some of the colors were printed a little wrong. But the price was amazing- only $6.99 and free shipping (from Hong Kong! so it took awhile!). I was wanting to make a photobook from them because the price is unbelievable, but not if the colors come out wrong. Has anyone else used Artscow?

 

NOTE: I originally made the template to use for a calendar from Staples.com It is sized to fit that calendar exactly. Artscow was cheaper, so I used it there instead. I just zoomed in and it fit.  Also- I used Artscow's calendar template for the actual calendar part.

Happy New Year!

My family made it through the snow to visit after Christmas, so we were able to celebrate the New Year together.