Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Little Red Wagon #74 - Create with Fabric

It's Wednesday already! I had a terrific weekend away and am now getting caught up on all the household stuff. And it's time for another Little Red Wagon challenge. This week Regan is asking us to get creative with fabric. So I took an idea I've seen on various blogs and created a fabric flower then added it to a card:



And I used my much neglected embossing folders too!

So why don't you find those fabric pieces at the bottom of your wagon and play along with us this week? We love to see what you create!

Thanks so much for stopping by!


Sunday, March 27, 2011

Thrifting Again!

So I've popped into my local thrift store a couple of times lately and found these treasures.

Portmeirion napkins, brand new with my favoruite flowers, sweet peas and lilacs:



A two cup pyrex measuring cup:



Cute little Corning casseroles that I think actually may have been part of child's play set:



And lastly a unique Dominion glass that I plan to use as a paper weight:



Do you know what it was originally was?


Friday, March 25, 2011

Mojo!

I'm off early Friday morning for a weekend of scrapbooking and shopping with friends.

I sure hope my scrapping 'mojo' doesn't desert me.

But just in case, I created these little jars full of goodies(aka mini-eggs) sure to get that 'mojo' going again!





I think they'll do the trick!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Little Red Wagon Challenge #73 -Butterflies!

Hey all, time for another Little Red Wagon challenge!

This week Avril challenged us to use butterflies on our creation.

So I sewed three butterflies together and added them to this card:



The sentiment is from Papertrey and I think matches this paper by Prima wonderfully. I also cut the doily out using a PTI die as are the butterflies. I also added a bit of Stickles to the flowers for a bit of sparkle.

If you can please join us at Little Red Wagon with your butterfly creation!

Thanks for stopping by!


Monday, March 21, 2011

Crafty Ladies!

After a busy weekend of scrapbook crop hosting, sewing, playing cards and all the other regular weekend chores, I'm sharing a layout I created a little while back.

These are some of the ladies who joined in a Valentine Swap I hosted recently.



This layout features a real mix of materials and manufacturers that I think all work together!

I'm off to watch Dancing With The Stars, thanks for stopping by!


Friday, March 18, 2011

YOU!

Happy Friday!

I had a chance to create a card for Bellarific Friday over at Stamping Bella using this fun Mo Manning image:



It comes with this great sentiment that I'll stamp inside the card:

"today you are YOU,
that is truer than true.
There is no one alive who is
'youER' than YOU"
Dr.Seuss

How will you be YOU today?


Thursday, March 17, 2011

St.Patrick's Day Humour

I was sent this today and just had to share!



Gotta love Maxine!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

We don't celebrate really but I did find a couple of fun things to do.

At Eighteen25 I found some downloadable tags that I embellished and added to some chocolate coins:



I will be giving these to my daughters.

Then on Simply Recipes I found a recipe to make Soda Bread Biscuits:



These were very easy to make and tasty too.



Here's the recipe, I added currants instead of caraway and raisins.

3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of sugar (depending on how sweet you want them)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons caraway seeds*
1/2 to 1 cup of raisins*
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
*These add-ins are entirely optional. You could just do plain biscuits, or add in a teaspoon of orange zest, lemon zest, or a couple tablespoons of chopped candied ginger, or a teaspoon of minced rosemary.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Butter a standard muffin pan.
In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
Cut the butter into tablespoon sized pieces into the bowl of flour. Using your fingers, work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. If you are using raisins, caraway seeds, or any other add-ins, mix them into the mixture now.
Make a well in the center of the flour. Pour the buttermilk into the center of the well. Use a wooden spoon to gently mix the flour into the buttermilk until the flour is moistened with the buttermilk. Then use your hands to form the mixture into a loose, shaggy, slightly sticky ball of dough. The dough should be a little sticky, if it's too dry, add a tablespoon more of buttermilk. If it's just too wet to handle, add a sprinkling more of flour. Do not over-mix. And at this point work quickly. As soon as the acidic buttermilk interacts with the alkaline baking soda, bubbles will form and leavening will start.
Break off 12-equal portions of the dough and place them in the wells of the muffin tin. Put in the oven and bake for 12-13 minutes, until the tops are nicely browned. Remove from the oven and let cool for a couple minutes in the pan. Remove the biscuits from the muffin tin to a rack to cool for a few minutes more.

Serve with butter and jam.

Yield: Makes 12 biscuits.

Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Little Red Wagon Challenge #71 - Use Office Supplies

It's Wednesday already, yeah!

And it's time for another Little Red Wagon challenge.

This week Joanne challenged us to use office supplies in our creation.

I thought about it for awhile, I've used paperclips on various items before but I wanted to try something a little different this time. I finally settled on this:



It's an envelope album! Some of you guessed right from my sneak peak. I made it for our upcoming summer cruise to keep notes and stash some of the other litle bits of paper you accumulate on a vacation.



I folded each envelope in half and embellished them with My Minds Eye paper.



I then stamped each envelope flap with the date and our destination. I created a cover from two pieces of cardstock glued together for a bit more thickness then attached the envelopes by using some glittered ribbon-like twine threaded through the center. As you saw in the first photo, it ended up fairly thick so I used some stretchy lace to tie it closed.



Then using a Papertrey die and stamp set, I created cards for each pocket. I plan to use them to jot down brief thoughts of each day. I stapled(another office supply) a piece of ribbon to each to allow easy retrieval from the pocket.




I think when I get back from my vacation I may actually cut each envelope in two, sew the cut side closed to maintain a pocket then mount each on a scrapbook page.

And I definitely went way out of my box with this challenge, thanks so much Joanne!

If you can please link up your creation using office supplies over at Little Red Wagon. We love to see what you create!

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Slow Cooker Pork Tenderloin

Here's a tasty and easy way to cook pork tenderloin on a busy weeknight.



1 (2 pound) pork tenderloin
1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix
1 cup water
3/4 cup red wine
3 tablespoons minced garlic
3 tablespoons soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place pork tenderloin in a slow cooker with the contents of the soup packet. Pour water, wine, and soy sauce over the top, turning the pork to coat. Carefully spread garlic over the pork, leaving as much on top of the roast during cooking as possible. Sprinkle with pepper, cover, and cook on low setting for 4 hours. Serve with cooking liquid on the side as au jus.

Recipe is from allrecipes.com, its a great resource.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

This week....

......our Little Red Wagon challenge is to use office supplies. This is what I have so far:



Hmmmm, I wonder what it will be?

Friday, March 11, 2011

Spring Cloche Party

Well despite the fact that my view this morning is this......



......and this......



....I've decided to hurry spring along by joining in Marty's Spring Cloche Party.

I've arranged a few spring-like items on a vintage needlework tablecloth on my kitchen table:



I wish you could smell the candle, it is lightly scented with a fresh, spring-like scent. And what screams spring more than some eggs nestled just so:



A closer view of the embroidery on the tablecloth, so 'springy':



And one more look at the entire arrangement:



Are you longing for spring or is it already spring where you are?

Wishing you a 'springy' day! Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Little Red Wagon #70 - Use Green!

This week Dee challenged us to use green given that St.Patrick's Day is coming up.

I used PTI's green boutique paper and created this very clean and simple card:



The shamrock leaf is created from 3 hearts, an idea I found from Martha's site.

Please join us over at Little Red Wagon and link up your green creation, we love to see what you create!


Tuesday, March 08, 2011

More Layouts

I've been able to devote some time to scrapbooking lately so thought I'd show what I've created:











Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, March 06, 2011

Sunday Thai Dinner

Tonight we went out for Thai food for dinner. I was able to take some good photos of the food with my camera so just had to share.

Here's Brittany with a strawberry smoothie:


Crisp and hot spring rolls:


Chicken coconut soup:


I had black bean beef chow mein:


Brittany had beef chow mein:


Brianne had chicken chow mein:


Steve had pad thai:


It was all very good! The best part is that the servings were so large, we have dinner all set for tomorrow night!