Saturday, March 31, 2012

Poor Baby! He Never Gets Any Attention! (Pink Saturday)

Ya'll might guess that I spend a good amount of time on my little pink computer...It has become part of my downtime...I don't just sit in the living room with the TV on...I always have something else with me, whether it be the laptop, kindle, or tablet, there is always something else going on...I do not just stare at the TV during commercials, or give a sporting event my entire attention...

The culprits! (above)

(Here Bailey is sleeping sitting up between my daughter and I on the couch)

However, there is someone in this house that becomes very impatient with that...That little guy above seems to think that everyone here should be paying attention to him...All.The.Time.

This is what happens when he thinks that I have had enough time on the laptop...

or this...

funny, huh...

He has been known to climb right up into my lap and proceed to start pawing keys and typing and sending things! I have no idea sometimes what he has done! I will move him and he is right back! He will not give up. He paws me, and then the keys, until I put the LT down and pay attention to him...Once in a while, if I get angry and keep going he will give up...Then I feel guilty and later make up for it...sigh...I guess you can see who is really in charge around here...He's the baby...Gotta love him...
lol
Anyway...do any of you have a persistent pet?





Linking
for Pink Saturday
and
Poofy Cheeks

A Merry Cas-ual Song!!

I have planned all week to get to this week's Merry Monday Challenge but didn't have any great ideas until the CAS-ual Friday Challenge was to be inspired by a song!


Have a holly, jolly Christmas...It's the best time of the year...!!!



It did me good to use a snowman.  We are likely to set a heat record today - mid-80s - and March is supposed to be our snowiest month.  I love snow.  I hate heat.  So playing with a snowman today started my day off right!

I'll be off for a couple of days - just hauled home a carpet cleaner, so all of my "toys" need to be tucked away while the carpets and cleaned and dried!

  • Stamps: Hero Arts Let It Snow, Stampin' Up Christmas Punch
  • Paper: Stampin' Up Lucky Limeade, Poppy Parade, silver glimmer
  • Ink: Stampin' Up Lucky Limeade, Memento Black, copics
  • Accessories: Cuttlebug embossing folder, Stampin' Up Scallop Punch and Label Punch, Silver Stickles (above hat), red gems

The winner is...and some hexi love

Thank you everyone and I am sorry I did not have time to respond to all the warm wonderful congratulations and really good suggestions. I will be working on those this week after some more painting. With guests coming next week, I am on a MISSION to have some things done before the arrival of the Lou Who clan and Katie is trekking out to my neck of the woods so we can all have a little sewing day!!!! How excited am I !?!?!!! VERY!!!!!! 

Not to mention that I have found the hexi LOVE! For {FREE} templates check out this fab site *Snippets and Blabbery*

Here is some of what I have made so far. Perfect project for taking along somewhere when you have to wait! I am becoming a convert of the hand sewers *gasp* These are pretty dang easy and cool :o)


Back to the winner. Sorry, I am easily distracted today *giggle* 

Again, thank you and HUGE HUGS to everyone for being so lovely and supportive this past year!!!! You are all AWESOME!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS CATIE!!!!

I will be sending you an email to get all your info so I can send this little package off to you this week!




Cathy said...




Hi there
I am a follower :)
Cheers
Catie


Friday, March 30, 2012

A Tessa Kiros Favorites Roundup

Over at I Heart Cooking Clubs, we have spent a very delicious six months with Tessa Kiros.  Tessa is definitely not as well-known as other chefs and cooks, but she deserves to be.  Her cookbooks are a work of art, abounding with recipes and stories.  Normally when I spend six months cooking and baking up a chef's or a cook's recipes I usually come across a few duds.  Not with Tessa.  This time around I can honestly say everything I tried was great.

It was really hard to narrow down my top Tessa recipes, but here are my favorites.  (Click on the recipe title to be directed to the original post).
First up is Tessa's Garides Saganaki (or simply Shrimp with Feta and Tomatoes) from her Food From Many Greek Kitchens cookbook.  This dish is a must make, stays on your mind, fall in love type dish. I keep shrimp in my freezer and feta in my cheese drawer so that I can make it whenever I like.  I can tell you for sure that this recipe will make my top ten favorites list for the year.
 Second on the list are Tessa's Fried Risotto Balls (otherwise known as Arancini) from her Apples for Jam cookbook.  These puppies should come with a warning.  My goodness are they addictive. Crunchy, gooey, cheesy, with lots of garlic and tomato flavor.  These little fried balls are phenomenal. 
The next recipe on the list is Tessa's Risotto with Artichokes and Sausage.  I altered this recipe to suit our tastes simply by keeping both the artichokes and sausage out of the risotto until the very last minute (Tessa's recipe cooks them along in the risotto).  The result was easily my all-time favorite risotto recipe.  The risotto was nice and creamy, the sausage slightly crispy and caramelized, and the artichokes lent a brightness to an otherwise rich dish.  We gobbled it up!
Also making the cut are Tessa's Chicken Croquettes, along with her chicken broth and Pasta in Chicken Broth, all from her Apples For Jam cookbook.  It makes for such an amazing, comforting, family-pleasing meal.  If you're in the mood for some kitchen therapy, make these three recipes.  You won't be sorry.  You'll be rewarded with so many things.  Homemade chicken broth, crunchy and wildly flavorful chicken croquettes, and a comforting soup of pasta in chicken broth. Soul satisfying in more ways than one.
We are partial to pot roasts in my house.  It's one of our all-time favorites.  So, I may be a bit biased when I say that Tessa's Kokkinisto (otherwise known as Reddened) was one of our favorite dishes.  This pot roast is called reddened because it calls for red wine, red onion, and tomatoes.  The end result is so flavorful.  The tomatoes get all jammy and delicious and it's just wonderful served with pasta on the side.
Lastly is the best-looking most delicious tasting banana bread I've ever had.  Seriously now.  I made Tessa's banana bread and really didn't think I would post it, but it blew our minds with it's tender texture, it's spicy fragrance, and it's ultimate banana flavor.  This is THE banana bread recipe.

Tessa has six cookbooks:  Apples for Jam: A Colorful Cookbook; Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes; Venezia: Food and Dreams; Twelve: A Tuscan Cookbook; Piri Piri Starfish: Portugal Found; and Food From Many Greek Kitchens
I have four of Tessa's cookbooks:  Twelve, Falling Cloudberries, Apples for Jam, and Food From Many Greek Kitchens.  I recommend all of them, but Apples for Jam was easily my favorite of the six.  I loved how the recipes were organized by color and also the fact that the recipes were so approachable.  My second favorite was Tessa's Food From Many Greek KitchensFood From Many Greek Kitchens is such a stunning book full of gorgeous pictures and loads of Greek recipes.  Buy one, buy them all...you won't be sorry.

 The new chef for the next round of IHCC is Rick Bayless.

My first Bee blocks




I had been curious about Bees for  about six months. I was not sure how they worked or how you found them or if they just found you. I mentioned to Amy that I was interested and being the CAN DO gal that she is, she told me about one the very next day.

I was accepted to join the Bee a {modern} Swapper  group of  hives! The first thing was the pincushion swap {super fun} and now it is actual blocks! I got caught up  in the courthouse steps quilt and then painting and the blocks are due to be mailed before Sat!!!! Eeeek!!!!  I really did not intend to wait so long to start but I did finish in time :o)

My Queen Bee asked for trees and I found this tutorial on Cluck Cluck Sew. It has been bookmarked forever as one of those I must try someday projects. It was fun to go through the scraps and play with the size of the leaves and the colors. I decided on the light blue background. It is from Harmony Arts and is my favorite go to fabric, this color goes with everything!

I used wonder under and then zig zagged the leaves down and on the trunks I used a blanket stitch.  I hope my Queen likes them!!!!  Katy is in love with them so it looks like I will be making some more in the near future :o)




I finished off the day by laying in the hammock just looking up...


Linked up to 



Thursday, March 29, 2012

Heaven Knows You're Special

I realized this morning that I have been very bad at sending cards to a very special family.  Amongst a lot of other stuff, the sweet little seven-year-old is going through chemo for the fourth time in her young life.  My card today is actually for her big sister - when I send cards to the family, I never want to forget her.

I find her very difficult to make cards for - she is only in 4th grade but has seen so much already.  Cutesy just doesn't seem right, yet she is still very young.  I had earmarked the colors at this week's colourQ challenge as being the perfect bright and cheerful colors for her.  I also stumbled on a Stampin' Up set that I had never used that had the perfect sentiment.  Then I pulled out some simple tulips to finish it off.



When I was trying to figure out what to do - I realized that I hadn't played along with the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge in a long time and it is one of my favorites!


  • Stamps: Papertrey Ink Flower Fusion 11 (for the tulip) and various stems from other Flower Fusion sets, Stampin' Up Blessings from Heaven
  • Paper: Stampin' Up Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise
  • Ink:  Stampin' Up Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery
  • Accessories: Stampin' Up Word Window Punch and Celery Grosgrain, Martha Stewart butterfly punch. gems colored with Copics

Sunbursts...

I am so excited about the newest release due April 1st( no Joke LOL ) from Greatest View. Sunbursts are so popular at the moment and when Gail sent me a pack of the newest buttons I couldn't wait to use one.


On my layout you can see I have layered a sunburst over a punched piece of pattern paper, I like how the black contrasts so vividly with the lime green of the button. I have then layered this over another favourite new product this fabulous chevron little baggie..these are to die for!


Here I have gathered a bunch of embellishments and laid them so they are poking out of the top of the bag...a great way to add an extra bit of fun to your project.

So here is just a sneak peak of some of the newest goodies from Greatest View that will be available 7pm April 1st Brisbane time, aren't they just delish!!!!!!




Wednesday, March 28, 2012

To God be the GLORY!

A morning glory set...and one of the sentiments is "To God be the GLORY!"...how totally perfect!!


As I looked at photos of morning glories, I saw that the inner section absolutely glows.  I wasn't quite sure how to capture this.  I tried pink and yellow glitter pens and really like the way it turned out.


I used today's sketch challenge at Splitcoast Stampers:


  • Stamps:  Sweet 'n Sassy Morning Glory
  • Paper: Stampin' Up Concord Crush CS and dsp, Lucky Limeade CS
  • Ink: Memento black and copics
  • Accessories: Martha Stewart border punch, Stampin' Up Oval and Scalloped Oval punches, The Twinery Honeydew Twine
FYI: If you downloaded my Copic charts with matches to Stampin' Up
and Papertrey (see the sidebar), be sure you have the most recent copy,
dated February 2012.  It adds the great matches from the new Copic release.

Little changes

I have not been sewing as much as I normally do this week. I usually grab my coffee, go to my various online drooling points and then head to my machine. I did do this little bit of sewing with the Cosmic Burst. Stars seems fitting :o) I will be finishing that project up this week.


On Monday, my vacuum started making a funny smell, YUCK!
Like something was burning so I stopped using it and went into the garage to look for my tool bag to take it apart to look for the issue.  I saw something I had forgotten about...a can of $5 Lowe's mystery paint! There has been much debate on the actual color of the paint. It is either gray, blue or purple. Whatever it is, we like it!

The vacuuming was quickly forgotten and I jumped right into the new project!


This is  laundry room that is just inside my side door, it is the room that everyone sees first when entering my home and it looks AWFUL!!!!! Blah...boring and may as well be the garage...

So for the past two days I have cleaned, rolled sprayed and this is how it turned out...

This is a side view from the little window. I made a chalkboard using a $7 clearance frame from Marshall's and Krylon chalkboard paint on the glass. The poppy prints were Target clearance for $12!

I sprayed the handles and hinges that were awful  to bring them up to date.



The finished {almost finished, I need a new sink and light fixture} laundry room!!!


Now that this is done or close enough to being done, I can go back to showing my Bernina some love!!!!!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Take 2 on Balloons

I made and posted a card earlier today that I loved in every way except for the colors.  It was pink and purple as per today's Splitcoast color challenge - and I really don't like pink and purple (or I simply don't know how to use them!)  It has bugged me all day - and I finally sat down and remade the card in my style!!


Better??


  • Stamps: Papertrey Heart-2-Heart #2
  • Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Poppy Parade, Pool Party, Peach Parfait dsp
  • Ink: Stampin' Up Poppy Parade, Pool Party, Peach Parfait
  • Accesories: Papertrey die, Cuttlebug embossing folder, various punches

Pink and Purple for the Tweens

I am sorry that I haven't been here in so long.  The crud escalated into a sinus/ear infection.  Besides not wanting to move my head, my poor body was exhausted from fighting!  I have been lucky to get the family fed and a few clothes washed!

I'm feeling SO much better today so decided to play along with today's Splitcoast Color Challenge.  It is WAY out of my comfort zone - Eggplant Grape Melons - pinks and purples.  But I did think it might work for a tween girl card...


ETA: I LOVE this layout...I LOVE the balloons...I still don't like pink and purple (or maybe I just don't know how to use them well!)  So I remade this card and included it in the next post!

I used this week's sketch at retrosketches:



Speaking of strange tweens...


That's my Erik...yes, those are wings and a tutu to coordinate with the dinosaur helmet.  Lacrosse is a strange and unusual sport...or perhaps it's just this team that's strange and unusual!

  • Stamps: Papertrey Ink Heart-2-Heart #2
  • Paper: Stampin' Up Melon Mambo CS and dsp, Eggplant dsp, Concord Crush dsp
  • Ink: Stampin' Up Melon Mambo, Eggplant, Concord
  • Accessories: Papertrey Ink Heart-2-Heart #2 die, misc circle and scalloped circle punches, American Crafts glitter brads, The Twinery Pink Sorbet

Monday, March 26, 2012

A layout and a Winner

I have another project from this months Elle's Studio inspiration gallery to share today.
A milestone layout for my youngest....Oh and as you may have noticed I have a bit of a sequins obsession at the moment lol!

 I added my journalling to an Elle's Studio card then slipped it into a glassine bag and layered over a definition button  from Greatest View .


 and before I go the Winner of my $20 gift voucher from Elle's Studio is

Leah said...
amazing LO...now I have to go and staple some sequins! thanks for the chance to win!

Leah please email me (address is on my sidebar) so I can forward your address to Elle! CONGRATS!