Progress on the Scrapbooking Room

or maybe I should call it a studio,lol.

Scraped the old wallpaper off!



Painted it Bird's Egg Blue and Chocolate Brown. You can see from this pic that another coat of brown is needed. And the blue looks washed out, I'll get a better picture tomorrow as I'll be loading up some of my shelves.

My Favourite Lettuce Mix

Yep, this is my favourite lettuce mix with my new favourite salad dressing. Top with some toasted pecans, bluberries and feta cheese, almost heavenly!

Muffins That Taste Like Doughnuts

Really, they do taste like doughnuts!

Brianne, my baker, decided to whip up a batch of muffins the other night. I suggested she make these ones with the recipe from a book I was given almost 20 years ago called Muffin Mania.

And they were just as yummy as ever!

Muffins That Taste Like Doughnuts

1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup while sugar(first amount)
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup melted butter
3/4 cup white sugar(second amount)
1 tsp cinnamon

In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt ,nutmeg and cinnamon.

In another bowl combine thoroughly oil, sugar, egg and milk.

Add liquid ingredients to dry and stir only to combine.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes

Shake muffins out immediately and while hot, dip in melted butter, then sugar and cinnamon.

Get Your Argyle On

and welcome fall!



Ok, so most of us aren't ready to let summer go yet but I decided to enter this week's challenge at Random Chaos. Random Chaos is a great blog with random scrapbooking challenges and this week's is:

do a CARD---but a card with a sentiment that is not of the norm.
like no holidays, hi, hello, thank yous. something out of the
ordinary! have fun! heheh! ;)

And its a special week at Random Chaos, people who play along have a chance to win a guest designer spot, how fun is that!



So I thought for awhile and decided I would do something along a fall theme. Then it occurred to me that Fall is when our sweaters come back out and what pattern is often on a sweater? Argyle!!! And I have an argyle embossing envelope that worked perfectly! I used coredinations and Pink Paisley papers along with a bit of twine, buttons and rhinestones. I like the contrast of the rhinestones against the distressed paper and twine.

I completed the card with the sentiment in Tiny Ledger stickers by Making Memories.



And I've quite impressed myself, I think the card turned out even better than I expected.

The Start of Another Week

and that means another sketch at 2 Sketches 4 You . This week's sketch is by Laura. Check out their blog and prepare to be inspired by the Design Team cards!




I decided to use some papers I received in a RAK, my new Fiskars lace punch, gave the sketch a turn and created a gift card holder.

A Beauty of a Salad

I'm a regular reader of the Smitten Kitchen blog, love the recipes, the pictures(salad photo above is from SK), her stories and the inspiration.

This weekend I tried out one of her recipes, Napa Cabbage Salad:

Napa Cabbage Salad with Buttermilk Dressing
Gourmet, November 2007

The dressing is a simple blend of buttermilk, apple cider vinegar, a touch of mayo, shallots, sugar, salt and pepper but the flavor is anything but. This is my new go-to creamy dressing. I am sure it would equally delicious with some crumbled blue cheese mixed in, if you’re into that kind of thing.

The dressing would be really great on an iceberg wedge or romaine hearts salad, or any kind of everything-but-the-kitchen-sink mega mixed bowl. Like your lunch tomorrow.

1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons minced shallot
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons finely chopped chives
1 pound Napa cabbage, cored and thinly sliced crosswise (4 cups)
6 radishes, diced
2 celery ribs, thinly sliced diagonally

Whisk together buttermilk, mayonnaise, vinegar, shallot, sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl until sugar has dissolved, then whisk in chives.

Toss cabbage, radishes, and celery with dressing.

She described it as a beauty and it is! I'll be making it again and again. And I'm going to try the dressing on some other salad greens too! I'll let you know how they taste but I'll bet they will be good.

My Scrapbooking Room

In the basement I have a little area that I have always called my craft room. Quite often it ends up being a dumping ground for all kinds of stuff or my scrapbooking stuff gets strewn all over it.

With our basement upgrades, I've decided to redo my little room and call it my Scrapbooking room. So I'm on a mission to get my supplies better organized and decorate it so its more inspiring.



I had decided on birds egg blue for three walls with one wall painted a chocolate brown. I was shopping for fabric with my Grandmother on Friday and found these blue and brown fabrics. I think they'll make a pretty window valance and are a great match to my paint choices.

I'll be sure to post future updates of my progress in creating my Scrapbooking room.

One Last Post

about my birthday( I think....lol)!



I was surprised last night by my scrapbook friends! When I arrived to scrapbook they had party hats, party favours, an awesome turtle cake and I received a gift of some awesome scrapbook supplies. Yep, the gift theme was pink and there was some cute bird stuff too! Thanks so much everyone!

And I received some more birthday cards!

This one is from Ramona of the Netherlands, it continues the pink theme!


This is from Bep, also of the Netherlands, the beads add such a nice touch!


And the last is from Melissa of New Jersey, it continues the pink theme!



I have been truly spoiled!

More Birthday Gifts

We went out with John and Dana on Saturday night and they surprised me with a birthday gift. The gift was made up of things they found on their Eastern vacation and are all things I love, raspberry liqueur, anisette balls and a yummy looking chocolate that is 5 truffle layers in one. I'll take a picture of it when I cut into it but will save it for a bit.

Then I was surprised at work by a delivery of orchids from Catherine who I work with quite closely on one of our cases despite the fact that we are in different offices.



I've never received orchids before, aren't they lovely?



And I couldn't let this blog entry go by without posting a pic of John and Dana too!

Easy Peasy Birthday Card

For the midweek dare at Daring Card Makers, I created this easy peasy card using Basic Grey's Two Scoops paper since I had it out. I added a bit of swirl detail with the cuttlebug and coredinations paper. Then a bit of ribbon, rub-ons, buttons and bling and its done!

Thank You with Two Scoops

Basic Grey's Two Scoops paper that is!

I created this card based on Kazan's Sketch 7 at 2 Sketches 4 You. I used buttons to create a scalloped edge and quite like how it turned out.

Some Birthday Presents

I was not only spoiled by birthday cards, I also received some wonderful birthday gifts. I'll probably spread them out over two posts because that's how many I received(yep, I was spoiled, lol!).

First, Kathryn brought me these flowers, then whisked me off for a great day of scrapbooking where Heather made me a wonderful lemon curd birthday cake.



Then Kathryn also gave me all these wonderful items. She knows I'm quite liking birds, blue and brown right now and I always like flowers. The glasses are gorgeous, the blue and brown apron is also gorgeous and who knew I needed flowered file folders! I'll take a pic of me modelling the apron and post it some time soon. Kathryn also gave me a few scrapbooking items with birds and I have already filed them away to use. Thanks for spoiling me Kathryn!



After scrapbooking I came home to a yummy steak dinner, complete with ballons, chocolate cake and more presents! These fun mugs and the book are from my daughters.




And Steve said he'll buy me a sewing machine for my birthday. I do want one that does some speciality stitches so that means computerized but other than that I can't decide. Anyone have a recommendation?

More Birthday Cards

I received more birthday cards!I'm feeling very spoiled by all these cards!

The first is from Henderica of the Netherlands, isn't it cute?



The next is from Gonny,also of the Netherlands, aren't the butterflies lovely?



Then from Karin, again from the Netherlands, this lovely card with extra stamped images to use on my own cards.



And finally from Anita,of Washington state,this fun card featuring a dress, shoes and purse and what girl can't use more of those?

More Birthday Wishes and a Winner

More birthday wishes arrived today, all three from the Netherlands.

This card is from Elvy, isn't the stamped girl sweet?




This one is from Ria, isn't the stitching lovely?



And the last is from Maejolijn,love the colours.




And I have a winner! The 45th person to comment on my blog this month is Auntie D. Congratulations, Auntie D, something will be in the mail to you very soon!

Celebrate

And here's another card a created this weekend based on Triple The Sketch # 20.

You may notice its very similar to the one I created below, just turned to open on the right. Both these cards were created from scraps from a layout I did(will post later this week) and show how easy it is to make a unique card even when starting with the same basic plan.