Book Page ATC with Butterfly

Once again, it was a dark and rainy day, so I started digging through my craft supplies and tried to get creative. I have noticed its harder to come up with some thing creative if you haven't done it for a while. For this swap you could do any type of butterfly as long as the background on the ATC is an actual book page. So, I headed to my local library and picked up a 50 cent book and found some fabric in my stash that had butterflies on it. The butterflies are fabric and scrapbook paper. I've seen 3D paper punches and liked the effect, however, I don't happen to own any at the moment, so I had to improvise. I don't think they turned out to bad! They will be flat going through the mail, but will have enough memory from being folded to stick up again once she opens it. Any way, I hope this has some wow factor and adds some thing unusual to their collection of ATC cards.

Time for Prom

Dalton & Ashleigh
Aww, they look so pretty I couldn't resist posting a couple pictures!

Mail Art Swap

Mail Art Envie

Back of Envie

US Postage Stamps

I always see the mail art swaps posted, but I can't draw or paint to save my life. So, even though they looked like a lot of fun, I've always skipped them. Not this time though! The theme was hearts, which is one of my favorite subjects...I just couldn't pass this one up. You had the option to use any medium or mixed media.
I made the main envie (envelope) out of black and white scrapbook paper and then embellished with inks, stamps and lots of different size punched hearts. Now, I just have to figure out what to put in it! I bought the heart postage stamps just a couple of weeks before I found this swap. Lucky hu? I just love these!
My biggest concern is getting it through the mail machines in one piece.  My post office always seems to have a problem with regular envies, so I'm not sure what might happen with this one. I thought about stamping the mail art envie and having them post mark it, then putting it in a larger envie to actually send. Not quite sure what I'm gonna do yet, I'll have to see when I get there. Either way its sent, I hope my assigned partner will be pleasantly surprised!

Spring Fever

At the end of March, beginning of April my family ended up with the flu for the second time this year. Needless to say I pretty much missed Easter this year since it was so early. Every one is feeling much better now, but the weather doesn't seem to be co-operating with my spring fever. It has once again turned cold, and  we are getting all the spring rains and flooding now. Clean up has started , but I usually don't start planting until at least Mother's Day. We always get late freezes! I've picked up some seeds and started looking through some of my gardening journals from previous years.
I started these journals when I was new to gardening, and have to say they were a huge help. I kept records of what I planted, their care , plant names, tips from magazines, and if they survived in the area they were planted... You get the idea.
For the most part I think I have more garden clean up than planting to do this year .
Since I can't actually get out and start my gardening quite yet, I joined a couple seed swaps in anticipation. It's an international swap, so maybe I'll get some thing uncommon for my area.

I found a photo taking gardening tip in" Better Homes and Gardens" (July 2007),so of coarse, I had to experiment...the tip was to take a picture of your flowers at dusk instead of bright sun light for better color.
The photo on the left was taken during the day, and the photo on the right was taken at dusk! Wow!! What a big difference.The photo on the left was not photo shopped at all...in fact this is a photo of the original photos side by side in my photo album. ( Guardian Blue Delphinium Perennial .)

I love these stepping stones...we spent a day painting them at this really cool ceramic shop.Once you paint them they fire them and you go back and pick them up. It was really fun to see the dull colors you painted with turn into these bright works of art.
The photos on the bottom of the page are of May Night Salvia when I planted them...

Ok this blurry picture is of the same Salvia , but this photo was taken the following summer. You can see a huge  difference and how large they grew in one year. Stunning, lots of compliments from the neighbors.

Seed Swap

My neighbor let me borrow her "Chicken Soup for the Gardeners Soul" book, and I loved the heart warming stories. When I borrowed it, I couldn't image what sort of stories they would have about gardening, but I was pleasantly surprised! I'm thinking to copy and include one to send along with the flower seeds. The best advise I've gotten on gardening so far has always been from other gardeners.

We celebrated my husband's birthday tonight. Kelsey made a wonderful birthday supper for dad ....seasoned and grilled steaks, crab legs, salad , loaded potato rounds... and she decorated with streamers, he loved it! He is definitely a meat and potatos guy. It never ceases to amaze me how good of a cook she is...I'm so proud!
Since she made supper, I baked his birthday cake. We tried a new recipe.... Cookies and cream brownie cake. It turned out great, easy to make, but very rich! The only problem I had was the spring form pan I used didn't spring . Go figure, we tried every thing to get it out of the pan. We finally gave up, but it tasted good all the same. My son likes to help me cook some times and he had never heard of a spring form pan, so when I was trying to open it he was standing there waiting with his hands out.....hahaha he thought the cake would pop-up and out of the pan. Mom and I got a good laugh out of that one!!
Happy Birthday Dad!

Carmen stole my seat while I was up getting drinks....yes, she saw the crab  legs! Stinker!

To funny, she must be tired ....I caught her mid yawn. Awww

Birthday Boy!!

Cookies and Cream Brownie Cake

You can see we had a little trouble getting it out of the pan.....but it was still good!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I love this, it's another one of my mom's knitted afghans. She doesn't knit any more, but we still enjoy all her creations. I like the earthy shades of greens, which makes it great for St Patrick's Day. It's not a heavy afghan, but warm enough for the cool spring weather and cool summer nights.
When I was younger, I thought the colors my mom picked were ugly. It's funny how your tastes in colors and textures change over time.

I'm always finding patterns or making notes for new projects, so I thought I would try a knitting journal/notebook. We'll have to see how that works out. My journaling style is more pictures and notes rather than writing of daily events. It would be good to compile some these inspirational projects I've been finding on the net and easy to grab when I want to go yarn shopping for a project.

If you keep a journal or notebook similar to this, feel free to share what information and fun stuff you include in yours. 

With every ones busy schedules we celebrated Valentine's Day & birthday the following Saturday. My mom makes this wonderful dish that I request every year for my birthday dinner. I'm not sure where the recipe came from...she's been making it for years now, but we always look forward to having it.
I'd also had a hankering for pineapple upside-down cake, so instead of the usual red velvet cake with the cream cheese frosting she surprised me with a homemade one. It was sooooo yummy and hit the spot perfectly.

Beef Strips Oriental:

2 Lbs. Round Steak - cut into strips
3-4 carrots sliced ( into rounds)
3-4 celery ribs sliced
fresh mushrooms sliced
1 large can of water chestnuts
2-3 garlic cloves (grated or minced )
3 TBS soy sauce
( Note: you can add or take away from the above ingredients according to what you like)
* use a large pan/cooking pot

* Brown steak strips in small amount of oil ( do this step in two batches).
* Once steak strips are done, add 3 cups water to strips. Add 3 TBS soy sauce, and 3 garlic cloves grated.  * Cook covered for 45 minutes. ( check and stir contents during this step. You can eye it and if it starts cooking down to much so that it is drying out add more water.)
* Add carrots, celery, mushrooms, and water chestnuts to the pan and cook covered another 30 minutes.
* Thicken with cornstarch slurry ( a slurry is a mix of cornstarch and water. Take 2-3 TBS cornstarch and 1/4 cup water, mix together then add to the pot. This is just an approximation of the measurement since we usually eye it.)

Rice: use original white rice, following the instructions on the back of the box for servings and cook times.

Sorry it took so long to post the recipe...I had to find where I stuck it, but I can assure you it's worth the wait. My mom has made it so much she doesn't need to look at the recipe any more.
Thanks mom=)

Valentine String Art

Embroidered cards ~ I think this technique makes a very special and unique card. There are lots of different patterns out there, but so far my favorite is the heart. I always liked this embroidery stitch, and then I discovered it in string art. Perfect! A special heart for a special some one.

This is my messy generic pattern. I enlarged a free pattern I found on the net, but there is a printable version.
There were a couple of numbers that were messed up on the printable pattern (#'s 12 & 24) ,so that is why I posted the my generic one. It's pretty quick and easy as long as you have a good pattern.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

...Coffee

(Below: Yes, I have a brick fetish..I love the color and patterns of the old bricks. They just don't make them like they used too.)

Stopped by to check out a new local cafe today. Good coffee warms the heart, right? This new cafe is located in one of the beautiful historical buildings in our downtown area. We arrived a little early today, before the cafe opened, but they were kind enough to allow us to come in and look around. The staff was friendly and there is a small book store right off the cafe. It looked like a wonderful place to hang out with a cuppa joe.

While I was visiting our new local cafe, we got on the subject of coffee bean roasters....I don't think there are any in our area, but I saw this one at a cafe in Wisconsin some time ago. This was behind the counter in the cafe so you could watch how they roasted the beans. The smell was amazing!!

Its freezing outside...and is supposed to be some thing like -20 degrees tonight with wind chill. Perfect time to stay in and make a project. We dug out some of my scrapbooking stash and came up with another pretty page. Our theme was beauty. The picture matched the colors we wanted to work with & Kelsey had found a project on the net she wanted to use as an example. We got it pretty close to what she had in mind. It also doesn't hurt to have a pretty subject for the picture. ( I know she didn't inherit being photogenic from me!)

Sooooo, during this latest blast of freezing cold weather, stay in, stay creative, and stay warm!