Love These Socks!

Very proud of my first pair of socks! They were not that difficult to make and they fit great. This is the first and definitely NOT the last pair I will make -- just love 'em!

Ahh--- Outside Play!!

Taking advantage of a rare warm day -- oh so wonderful!

Breakfast Recipe swap

I do not have a photo of this -- but trust me, it is yummy! It is a family favorite and it travels and freezes well. Since the recipe makes two, if we are not having a large family gathering, we will eat one and freeze the other for another time.

Aunt Jean’s Coffee Cake

1 cup margarine
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 cups flour

Mix together (like a pie crust, or you could probably use a food processor) until crumbly. Take out one cup of mixture and add to it:

3 Tbsp. brown sugar
3 tsp. cinnamon
Reserve this for the topping.

To the rest of the mixture, add:
1 egg – well beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. soda
Pinch salt
Beat well with mixer. Pour into 2 well greased and floured pans. Sprinkle half of the topping evenly over each pan of batter. (I use either 8” or 9” round pans)

Bake at 350⁰ for 40 minutes.

For more yummy breakfast treats, go to Life As Mom -- they have some great swap recipes there!

The Return of Yellow Week

Wanted to do something to document my photos from last week, so here is the simple layout I created (well created might be a strong word -- started from a CM digital template). Anyway, there they are -- all 5 days together. Not as spectacular as some of the photos I saw on flickr, but a reflection of my life for me. Again, should be cleaning, not creating -- oh well.

Digital Day

I am procrastinating cleaning my craft room, so since I cannot create there, created digitally here. This is from a new free kit from Shabby Princess and layout sketch is from Creating Keepsakes -- they have 40 sketches you can currently download.

Also -- another Walgreens photo special -- 10 cent prints when you buy 50 -- coupon code is FIVE.

Scrapping Frenzy!

Went to a mega crop this weekend -- 1200 croppers there! That is crazy! I was super productive in the time we were there -- made 13 pages and still had time to chat, eat chocolate, view the many examples hanging all over the walls, attend a class and take a nice, long, break for a relaxing dinner with friends (where I did not have to cut up anyone's food but my own!).

Yellow #5 and Weekend Plans

This yummy thing entered my kitchen this week -- tastes like sunshine! Which, but the way, we have here today --- the calm before the storm! Supposed to snow tomorrow and I am off to a huge crop (I guess there will be hundreds of croppers there) with some neighborhood friends. Looking forward to getting some pages completed and visiting with my friends.

Yellow - Day 4 and Masks

Yellow for today -- a part of our life Monday through Friday.

And thank you to Skip to My Lou for this fun little project. The girls had so much fun making them.

Yellow - Day 3

Go Bananas!

52 Sketches...-- Sketch #7

Did not get to this last week, but did complete a little 8x8 this week. You can see all the sketch entries at 52 sketches...52 Weeks.

Yellow Week - Day 2

Made this Egg Custard Pie for dinner last night. It was a nice afternoon activity with my 5 year old daughter -- she just loves to play with the leftover pie dough! Anyway, my yellow for today!

Yellow week!

House on Hill Road is having a Yellow Week -- I could use a little sunshine! Hopefully this will help lift the winter, dull moods! Love this little ducky sweater -- my mom made it for my oldest and now my youngest wears it. So cute!

Not every layout magazine worthy...

I struggle with this -- I want my pages to just be dynamite, but let's face it, they can't all be that way -- or at least mine cannot. Some are just simple -- some are just using what I have (something I am really trying to stick to this year!) and some are just for my kids and I know they will love them no matter what. This one is an example of that --- it is OK to be ordinary -- sometimes! (One element I LOVE on this page is my new journaling stamp -- treated myself to a set of 4 and I love using them!)

NOTE: I wrote this post before I saw on Lain's sight a posting about the influence of scrapbooking magazines and whether or not they were too much pressure. You can read the full posting here. I responded that for me, it is the no pressure style of Simple Scrapbooks magazine that I will miss. (See more on my opinion on that here). I do have issues sometimes when I look at magazine layouts and they are one photo and a ton of embellishments. That is just not my style. I am a Creative Memories trained scrapbooker -- that was I started and that is the style that I used -- I am just starting to put dimensional elements in my books. However, I love the dimensional factors in cards and mini-books. I am rambling, but basically, yes, I did agree with the woman who complained over the overwhelming pressure to create these perfect layouts that some magazines promote -- removing the fun, removing the individual style and as you can see in my layout above some pages just happen, they just get finished, and that is OK. I am not making this for a magazine, I am making it so my kids remember the memory. It is important to get our memories recorded (words+photos), it does not have to be perfect, it has to be a reflection of you telling the story. I think Stacy Julian emphasizes this often, and I appreciate that she does. I need this coaching! I think we can all get caught up way too easily in making the perfect page and scrapbooking then is not longer fun, no longer an enjoyable hobby. I is OK to make pretty pages -- magazine worthy pages -- we all enjoy that, but we should not feel the pressure to be magazine worthy all the time. Our own individual style is just fine.

Playing In the Crib

My take on a layouts I saw in Simple Scrapbooks -- Used elements found in several layouts -- like the white page, strip of paper and picture collage. I like this simple look -- it is clean.

Happy Valentine's Day

Made my Valentines digitally this year -- thought they turned out cute.

Walgreens photo deal

Walgreens is running another photo deal -- this one is pretty good -- buy 25 4x6 prints, get 25 FREE. The coupon code is TWICE. This figures to $4.75 for 50 prints -- that is 9 cents per print and no shipping charge. Check it out at www.walgreens.com.

Valentine Gift

Made one of these for my child's teacher and also one to send to my Grandma. Got one of those cute $1 mailboxes at Target -- decorated and filled with candy and a cute note pad. The note as to who the Valentine is from is on the inside of the mailbox lid. Then made a gift bag from a piece of felt and ribbon. Just took one rectangle piece of felt, sewed it up the sides (see picture) then made ribbon handles and added a few embellishments. Very quick and easy. Also made bags for my daughters with their names on them --- to be filled with goodies and will be waiting for them Valentine's morning.

Funny Girl

Sketch #5

Sketch #5 for 52 sketches 52 weeks.

Music & Project

It is just a blah time of year for me and I try to jazz it up as much as I can -- so the music is back on -- if you do not wish to listen, just scroll to the bottom and you can click it off.

One project I did last year that I just loved was my monthly photo cards that I sent to my grandmother. She lives a couple hours away and we just do not get to see her as much as I would like and this keeps her updated on the goings on of our family. I do this mainly digitally, creating a template for each month that I just have to drag and drop the photos. Each month I print the 4x6 photo, mount it on a piece of cardstock, write a little note on the back and mail away. When my grandmother gets the photo card she then puts it on a ring with the others. By the end of the year she has a nice little photo album of our family. It is quick, easy, and helps keep family members that live far away kept up to speed on your life.

This is the title page.

Of course a lot of snow pictures for this month!

As you can see -- February is blank. Where the gray boxes are will be photos.

Digital Month by Month

Saw this layout completed traditionally at Creative Chick Headquarters and thought it would be fun to create digitally then I can just add my photos all year long and print in December. Pretty easy to do either digital or traditional.

Something is FISHY!

This page is based on a sketch I got from the Simple Scrapbooks site. I actually planned this in advance and got the photos developed the 3x2 size for the strip down the side. Looks a little bright here, but the page really did turn out very sharp.

New software

Just got some new CM digital software and was playing around and made this page. I love how when you use digital you can change the size of your picture or even the color of your picute with a click. And, don't like the white vellum?? Well, how about making it cream? Do not have that luxury with traditional. I don't think I will ever give up the traditional, but I love the digital perks!

Snow Bunny

Made this for Sktech #4 at 52 sketchs...52 weeks. It is ok -- I am not great at following sketchs -- hoping to get better.

Also -- new look today. I was getting tired of the old one!