Peppermint Patty Presents

I'm scrapbooking tonight with a fun bunch of ladies and wanted to bring them each somthing small and scrapbooked for Christmas. I remembered some years ago seeing a peppermint patty covered in cardstock and closed up lke a present but couldn't find directions to make them anywhere. So I've created my own.



I had pattys left from a bag of mixed treats I used to fill the girls advent calendar. So using a patty for size I went to work measuring, scoring, inking and threading ribbon! I trimmed a couple with flowers but most with buttons and am very happy with how they turned out.



I think they would make great placesetting gifts too.

Another Altered Container

Guess what it is? Yes, its a clementine box that I covered with Basic Grey paper. My creative juices are flowing!

You could nestle clementines or candles or homemade jams in it and it would make a great hostess gift!

Here's a couple of other views.

Altered Coffee Tin

So I've had this coffee tin for awhile and finally altered it for use as a gift container. I like use of the colours in this line of paper by Daisy Bucket, Wrapped Wishes.The pink and green is very pretty.

Ross Petty's Peter Pan

Today we braved the snowstorm warnings to travel into Toronto to see Ross Petty's Peter Pan starring Kurt Browning in his theatre debut.

Every year Steve's company celebration for the kids is a matinee presentation of Ross Petty's pantomime. We've gone to about 7 or 8 of these now and they are so much fun. We just couldn't miss this year's or Kurt's theatre debut.

So Steve shovelled out the driveway, we received about 8 inches of snow, and once off of our street the roads were actually not too bad but we did see one accident in the opposite direction and a couple of cars in the ditch(drivers, slow down!).

We arrived in lots of time to see the play at the Historic Elgin Theatre.



I love how beautifully these theatres have been restored and all the gilt work.



As in prior year's 'fractured' fairy tales Ross Petty plays the villian and the audience must boo and hiss him when he's on stage. This year he was Captain Hook while Kurt Browning was Peter Pan. And true to form, Ross played Captain Hook with flair and a few references to Jack Sparrow were thrown in for good measure! Kurt did wonderfully as an 'aging' Peter Pan(yes reference was made to his hairline and a comparison made to Scott Hamilton)who of course beats Captain Hook at his own game. The story was updated with current jokes and references made throughout to Steve's company. I found this great play review here.

Kitchen Redecorating Phase 1

We've completed kitchen redecorating phase 1, stripping off two layers of wallpaper put up by previous owners then painting the ceiling and walls. We decided on a colour to match with the oak cupboards, Benjamin Moore Ginger root. It looks more golden in the actual light although in the pictures it very closely resembles the sample on the website.





This project came up rather quickly as we're looking at replacing the floor with new vinyl in a slate look pattern by Mannington. We may be able to have it in before Christmas so decided we should paint before any new flooring arrives!

Click here for a look at the flooring we've picked. It actually has more black to it than shows on the website but I noticed that the floor colours matches the palate shown on the Benjamin Moore page, so I guess we're on the right track.

So the flooring will be phase 2, then the next phases in no particular order will be new windows and plantation shutters, new countertop and sink and a new backsplash. We'll probably work on these projects throughout 2008 so I'll be sure to post the next phases as they're done.

Christmas Stockings

I spent last night scrapbooking with friends. We all worked on various Christmas projects from mini-albums to cards to gift card stockings.

I made three gift card stockings based on the instructions published by Papercrafts Magazine and designer Nancy Davies(also a contributer to the Go Scrapping message board where I've been known to hang out!).

I suspect I may make more of these but here's a look at those I've done so far.







I also made this Christmas tree card compliments of Janet who put a package together for each of us to make two cards. It was a quick one to make and I like how it turned out!



I spent today decorating the house so will post some decorating pics later this week!

The Next Cupcake Hero

Yep, I think I'm the next cupcake hero! This month's challenge by Quirky Cupcake was to make a cupcake with cranberries in it somewhere. In the cake, the icing or the filling.
So I went browsing for cupcake recipes and came across this one that uses one of my new favourite things, dulce de leche, in the icing, so I just had to make them! They do have cranberries in the cake and I had to garnish not only with toasted pecans but more dried cranberries, so yummy!



Here's the recipe:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
3/4 cup dried cranberries (3 oz), finely chopped
5 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup dulce de leche
1/2 cup pecans (2 oz), finely chopped, toasted, and cooled
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Put liners in muffin cups(I didn't use liners).

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture and milk alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing just until incorporated. Fold in cranberries.

Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake until pale golden and a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Turn cupcakes out onto a rack and cool 15 minutes. Meanwhile, beat cream cheese in a bowl with cleaned beaters until smooth, then add dulce de leche and a pinch of salt and beat until combined well. Stir in half of pecans.

Spread frosting generously on cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with remaining pecans (and dried cranberries if desired).

Makes 1 dozen

More Cards

Well I'm on a Basic Grey roll. Here's some more Christmas cards using Basic Grey's Figgy Pudding card kit. I like all of them but my favourite is the one with the mittens.Here's some closer views:













On another note, my previous card is featured in the Basic Grey Gallery, click here to see.

Cracker Barrel Fried Apples

One of my favourite treats when we travel in the US is a stop for lunch or dinner at Cracker Barrel. And aside from their hashbrown casserole I always have a side of fried apples. As I had some apples to use up I searched the internet for a fried apple recipe and found this one:


1/4 cup bacon drippings or butter
6 tart apples sliced
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 dash nutmeg

In large skillet melt drippings or butter
Place apples evenly over skillet bottom
Sprinkle lemon juice then brown sugar then salt over apples
Cover and cook over low heat for 15 minutes untill tender and juicy
Stir in cinnamon and nutmeg
Serve
Makes:6 servings

My version turned out pretty well except the Gala apples held up better under the heat than the Granny Smith. I left the skins on as they do at Cracker Barrel and liked the contrasting colours of the cooked apples.

And they passed the ultimate test, both my daughters liked them!

Another Figgy Pudding Card

Here's another simple card I made. I like the look of layering embellishments.

Card Creation

Here's a card I created using Basic Grey's Figgy Pudding line of paper. Brianne liked how I added the snowmen to the ends of the ribbon. I've submitted it to an online contest so I'll let you know if it gets an honourable mention!

Light Snow Fall

Tonight we had a light snowfall that truly gets you in the Christmas spirit.

Here's a few pics.

Christimas Gift Tags

For the past few years Brittany and I have handmade gift tags for our Christmas gifts.

This year's were quite simple. Using marking tags from an office supply store, outline stickers, glaze pens, ink and a bit of ribbon, we created 50 unique Christmas tags in no time.

Inking the tags.


Adding the glaze.


The finished tags.

An Organized Christmas

In an attempt to organize my Christmas preparations I created this planner.



I used Figgy paper by Basic Grey, a bit of ribbon, a few brads, chipboard, rub-ons and a charm. I like how the tabs, made with cardstock, rub-ons and a corner rounder turned out. Tabbed catergories I included are: calendar, baking, shopping/gifts, cards and decorations.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

For my birthday my Grandmother gave me a Chapters gift certificate. So I held on to it for awhile thinking about what book I'd like to purchase. I finally decided on a Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. I've watched her show a few times and like the ease with which she prepares her recipes. There were a few cookbooks to choose from but I settled on Barefoot Contessa At Home. The recipes are those that can easily be prepared any day of the week. I recently broke in to this cookbook and made Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars. And they actually do look like the picture in her book.







Here's the recipe:
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups (18 ounces) creamy peanut butter (recommended: Skippy)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups (18 ounces) raspberry jam or other jam
2/3 cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch cake pan. Line it with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until all ingredients are combined.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

Spread 2/3 of the dough into the prepared cake pan and spread over the bottom with a knife or offset spatula. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Don't worry if all the jam isn't covered; it will spread in the oven. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares.

Now which recipe shall I try next? There's coconut cake, tomato feta salad, couscous with pine nuts, frozen berries with hot white chocolate.........

Back to San Antonio

Yep, back to more Texas layouts!

Autumn Layouts

Well, here I jump to another scrapbook topic, autumn layouts from our visit to the pumpkin patch and a fall fair last year!

I like the use of paint dots on these pages. They provide an additional bit of detail. But as usual I haven't added the journalling yet!

More Shopping

Yes, more shopping in the US. This time it was with my Mom, Sister and Aunt and, for me, was mostly geared to getting Christmas gifts. And I did make a good dent into my Christmas shopping! And rather than repeat what my Mom said on her blog, click here for her posting as its a great summary of our weekend. Of course she didn't get the pics of the deer(it was deer hunters widows weekend at the outlet mall!) on the way home like I did!
Check out my photos below and Mom's here!

First layout of our 2007 Cruise

Finally I broke into our cruise pics from earlier this year! I do jump around in my projects. Anyway these are from a formal night on the cruise we took with the girls in January. You'll notice there is no jounalling on my recent layouts. I have the bad habit of letting my pages requiring journalling pile up and then do a bunch of updates at once. Maybe in 2008 I'll break myself of this habit!

Gruene Layouts

Its been almost a year since we visited Texas and I'm still working on Texas layouts! Oh well, that's the way of scrapbooking and I tend to work on a few projects at a time.

These layouts are of Gruene(pronounced Green) located between Austin and San Antonio. Its the home of the oldest dance hall in Texas,highlighted on page 3 and 4.