Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Little Red Wagon Challenge # 48 - Handmade Embellishment

Hello!

Time for another Little Red Wagon challenge!

This week Avril challenged us to use a handmade embellishment on our creation.

So it was the perfect opportunity to use some zippers I bought at the thrift store and create flowers. I was inspired to make them by Dee and Heidi, click on their names to see their zipper flowers!

But first check out my zipper flowers on the card below:




Aren't they fun!

And I followed Card Patterns Sketch #83 in the creation of this card too!

Please join us over at Little Red Wagon this week and show us your handmade embellishments.We love to see what you create! Be sure to stop by and see all the other terrific creations too!



Monday, September 27, 2010

Brunch Recipes

Last weekend we had a brunch for brianne's birthday and I tried a couple of new recipes, both so easy and both so good.

First is Mixed Berry French Toast Bake.

I like how this is partially prepared the night before. And the berries look so nice on top:



Here's the recipe(from Taste of Home):

Ingredients
1 loaf (1 pound) French bread, cubed
6 egg whites
3 eggs
1-3/4 cups fat-free milk
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 package (12 ounces) frozen unsweetened mixed berries
2 tablespoons cold butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar

Directions
Place bread cubes in a 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish coated with cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine the egg whites, eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and salt; pour over bread. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
Thirty minutes before baking, remove the berries from the freezer and set aside, and remove the baking dish from the refrigerator. Bake, covered, at 350° for 30 minutes.
In a small bowl, cut butter into brown sugar until crumbly. Sprinkle berries and brown sugar mixture over French toast. Bake, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Yield: 8 servings.

Next up are Baked Egg Cups. They are so easy and make a really nice presentation.



You can make as many of these as you like at a time!

Simply line a greased muffin cup with a slice of ham, crack an egg into the ham-lined cup. Then sprinkle with toppings of your choice, I used red pepper, grated cheese and a bit of dill. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.

And as you can see, once removed from the muffin pan, they do retain their shape.



And finally, as an alternative to the Mimosa, I served Bellinis. Simply puree a few peeled peaches, add a few tablespoons of the puree to a flute glass then top with sparkling wine, so so good!


Sunday, September 26, 2010

Mount Vernon and Monticello

Hi all, hope you've had a great weekend! Mine has been busy scrapping, stamp colouring, a bit of shopping with some household chores thrown in too! And I have tomorrow off and am going to see a taping of Steven and Chris, that should be fun!

Tonight I thought I'd share a few more vacation pics.

A couple of our favourite stops were at Mount Vernon and Monticello.

Here's Washington's Mount Vernon on the edge of the Potomac River.

Front view

River view.

And here is Jefferson's Monticello located on the outskirts of Charlottesville.



Two completely different plantations and both very much worth seeing!

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, September 24, 2010

Indoor Fall Decorating

I'm back with some of my interior fall decor.

I still like the white pumpkins I've had for a couple of years.

I created this seasonal arrangment with an urn and florals I already had as well as some new berries.



A few autumn coloured candles.

And finally a little pumpkin and berries under glass.


Do you decorate for fall?

Thanks for stopping by!

Outdoor Fall Decorating

I've recently done a bit of outdoor autumn-like decorating.

Essentially I redid my planters to remove the straggly bits and replace them with Mums in different colours.

The potato vine and coleus have continue to do well all summer and now into the fall.


In my front window box I added a small pumpkin, white squash and kale along with a white mum.



In the next pot I left the ivy and added a small pumpkin. Its simple but effective I think.


I'll be back with a bit of interior autumn decor soon.

Thanks for looking!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Cupcake Stand

Yes I'm back, two posts in one day!

I didn't want to postpone the cupcake stand post too long!

I was browsing a blog and I saw a cupcake stand used to store some small craft supplies. I decided it would be fun to use it in a similar way for candy!



Of course the stand can also be used for cupcakes!

In what unique way would you use a cupcake stand?

Little Red Wagon # 47 - Let's See Some Sparkle!

Hi all! Its time for another Little Red Wagon challenge!

This week Joanne suggested we use glitter on our creations. And did I ever! I wanted to try using spray adhesive to adhere the glitter and it worked! But I should have tapped more of the excess glitter off, it did end up everywhere and all over me too! But it sure was fun to create this card:



In keeping with the changing season I dug into some Memory Makers Autumn Splendor that I picked up on sale last year. Its faint but you can see that the pears are glittered too!

Please join us over at Little Red Wagon this week and show us how you use glitter! We love to see what you create! Be sure to stop by and see all the other terrific creations too!


Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Mums

Good morning!

On a recent trip to the market I picked up some Mums, they are such a bright part of Fall! And they make a colourful table arrangement, here's a couple I made.



Hope you're having a good Tuesday.



PS: A closer pic of the stand holding the M&M's will follow in a later post.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Birthdays This Week!

Brianne and her cousin Brock are celebrating birthdays this week!



Can you believe this little girl and boy are now 19 and 17!

Happy Birthday to them both!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

A Birthday card

A couple of weeks ago Brianne and I stopped in at Buffalo stamps and she encouraged me to buy a cute girl stamp by C.C.Designs called Cupcake Kiki.

So I thought I'd use it to create her birthday card:



This card follows the sketch at Friday Sketchers, love layering up October Afternoon Thift Shop line of papers.

Thanks for looking!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Fall Cloche Party

I have a list a mile long of things to do and thought my list might be completed a little faster if I created something pretty to look at.

So I put together this little cloche vignette and am going to link it up to the Fall Cloche Party over at A Stroll Thru Life.



Now to put on my favourite music and get busy checking things off my list!

I hope to be back soon to share more autumn decorations.

Hope your Friday is going well!

Washington National Cathedral - Part 2

Hi all! I'm back with more cathedral pics! There was a lovely garden beside the cathedral that we quite enjoyed, here's the doorway entrance:


I'm looking over the stone wall into the garden.

A lovely path.

A cute gazebo.


Me and Brittany.

Another entrance to the cathedral.

Love this direction sign topped by a little gold cathedral.


I'll be back with a few more vacation pics soon!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Little Red Wagon Challenge # 46 - Seeing Stars!

Happy Wednesday! Time for another Little Red Wagon challenge!

This weekend Deanna suggested we use stars in our creations. So I created a few stars on my Cricut then embellished them with buttons, twine and ribbon.



I envision using them as table decorations or to decorate gift bags and packages but I'm sure there are lots of other ways they could be used as well!

Please join us over at Little Red Wagon this week and show us how you've used stars! We love to see what you create! Be sure to stop by and see all the other terrific creations too!


Washington National Cathedral - Part 1

I've mentioned how fascinated I was with the architecture of the Washington Cathedral and as a result we took a great many photos!

It is a non-demonational church that welcomes people of all faiths and is the 6th largest cathedral in the world.

It was built over 83 years from 1907 through 1990. As you will see from the following photos the attention to detail is amazing.

A view of part of the cathedral from the observation level.

A view of Washington from the observation level. The Washington Monument is visible in the distance.

Hallway on the observation floor.
Some exterior details.





I love all the little carvings.





Part 2 of the cathedral to come soon!