little lady

On friday night we celebrated the life of one of my good friend's mothers. She passed away suddenly last week. There was a small gathering at a local beach where she loved to spend time with her children and grandchildren. It was sad and beautiful.

We really appreciated the rest of our long weekend. The baby and I spent time together on saturday while my husband got together with friends. I went to my LSS and got a few things...a bit of paper, adhesive, nothing too major. The baby can only tolerate so long of me looking around at things she can't grab! That night I did a layout using some Authentique papers and stickers I bought a few months ago. I love them! The photos are from last 4th of July....

I included some journaling written to baby girl. I had some thoughts in my head I wanted to write down for her...

I will post some other layouts I worked on recently later this week. Hoping to catch up on blogs while the baby is sleeping. I have class tonight...first class of summer session two. This will be the last class (hopefully) I need for my counseling license. Ugh. This has been a long hall. Not really excited about going but I plan on making the most of my day at home before class!

Happy Monday!

happy day after the 4th

waiting for the fireworks

We ended up having a really good 4th. At first it seemed like it would be almost non-existent. Cary had to switch shifts on the 3rd because we needed childcare. In our town the fireworks and parade are on the 3rd. But Ellie and I went to the parade...(I forgot my camera...gasp!)...and he had to work all day on the 4th. But when he got home we went out for fried seafood and found some fireworks in another town. It was so fun! The watching area was in a big farm field. Beautiful. Ellie had fun running around but when we needed her to sit with us just before the fireworks started she had a fun tantrum for herself. We both had visions of having to leave just as the fireworks began! But she held off and actually was really fascinated by the lights and fireworks. It was so nice! Maybe a new tradition? I haven't had a chance to upload photos from my camera from that adventure yet. This one is just from my phone when she sat still long enough to photograph!

 But here are a few layouts I worked on a few weeks ago. They go into two different albums I have going on. One of my childhood and the other is just a non-chronological album from this year and last. Yesterday I finished up a pile of layouts by adding dates and journaling. Even got one done with my new June Cocoa Daisy kit. Hope to post those in a few days... Here they are! Thanks for looking...

1st Skating Show: Here is another layout from a stack I did when I challenged myself to just use some new papers, etc. I had just gotten. This goes in my childhood album. I figure skated for 10+ years beginning when I was 8...with this annual skating show. It was to the music Macho Duck! So funny....but that was how it began!

Home: Another from the stack I challenged myself to do with the same pp. This layout is about our first home we bought last July. It is a little end-unit condo in my hometown. I never thought I would be able to buy a home close to where I grew up. We still want to have a regular house in the future, with a yard, etc. But this is just perfect for now.

The Story of a Girl: For this layout I forced myself to use two patterned papers I got in a grab bag years ago at my LSS. It was bright and colorful for my girl. I mixed in some much older embellishments and some newer. Over all it is a very basic layout...which actually tend to be the ones my eyes are drawn to most. Simple.

Happy Friday! Enjoy the weekend...

a new year

Ebelskiver - Danish round pancakes

So we enter a New Year! Last year marked a year of extreme ups and downs. More than any other year for me and my family. But this year is starting out a wonderfully exciting note. We are getting ready around here to welcome Baby Ellie.

Yesterday Cary and I celebrated our first married New Year quietly. Relaxing, cleaning, watching the Lion King, and enjoying a quiet day at home. My mom gave us an Ebelskiver pan from Williams & Sonoma for Christmas. They are little round pancakes. We filled ours with blueberries, rasberries, blackberries. We used defrosted frozen berries from Trader Joes and the Ebelskiver mix from Williams & Sonoma. They were heavenly! I would like to get the cookbook to get some more ideas. They were suprisingly easy to make...no harder than regular pancakes. I actually found them easier since I am not good at making normal sized pancakes that don't fall apart when I flip them!

Today I "killed" Christmas. That is how my Dad affectionately calls the New Year tradition of De-Christmasing the house. So I took down the tree. Vacuumed. Though sitting here I still see needles on the rug. And I will probably continue to see needles in the rug until next December! I can't wait for Cary to bring back the three large Christmas totes to my parent's storage shed so we can reclaim some of our space. We are going to stay in our 1-bedroom apartment until next October likely. So we are working to streamline things as we get ready for the baby. I have taken many bags to the Salvation Army and we have cleaned closets, reorganized. We are almost ready. In a few weeks we will order our crib. Just waiting to get my Rewards credit from Babies R' Us to put toward the cost. I need to wash all the baby clothes. My mom has been so helpful and generous. She has gotten so much for us...along with our other family and friends and my shower. I need to also bring an extra tote of larger clothes back to my parent's for storage until we need it. I think we are going to be able to easily make our space work for awhile without feeling overcrowded. I am definately in full Virgo nesting mode!

So with that in mind, I better log off for now and write more later!

Happy 2012!

baking & st. patrick's day

Irish Freckle Bread

The past two nights, after work I have been baking. I enjoy baking but I have been tired this week thanks to daylight savings time. But my guy really wanted me to make his family's recipe for Whoopie Pies and I had promised him I would this weekend and never got around to it. So...it was my own fault :) They are very rich and I really can only eat a little bit of one. They are huge...and full of all kinds of bad stuff.

Tonight I made my Irish Freckle Bread in honor of my holiday - St. Patrick's Day. I am always so proud to be Irish but especially on that day. About 4 years ago I found the recipe and decided it would become my own tradition each March 17th. It's a long story but my Nana once had a recipe for Irish Freckle Bread but it wasn't handed down to my mom so I decided we would start our own. It is so good. I use cranberries instead of currants or raisins since I like them much better. I just took it out of the oven and the apartment smells so good and I can't wait to have some with my coffee in the morning. I plan on taking half the loaf to my parent's tomorrow for them to enjoy.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

valentine

Valentine's dinner at home

Today I am grateful for:

• a beautiful homemade Valentine's Day candle lit dinner last night.
• red roses
• candles
• Trader Joe's yogurt
• chocolates
• Better Homes & Garden magazine
• the Olympics and remembering dreaming about being an Olympic Figure Skater as a little girl
• time to scrap with my friend on saturday
• heart shaped sugar cookies
• the sun streaming in the window
• long weekends
• barn stars
• faith

I am having a very nice weekend. Saturday went food shopping with my mother and sister and then finally had a friend over to scrap. I'll show some of the layouts later in this post. Then Sunday I prepared a Valentine's Dinner for Cary. He had to work until later in the evening so it was a late dinner. An appetizer of scallops and ceasar salad. Then steak tips with peppers, onions and mushrooms, scalloped potatos, green beans. And three beautiful desserts from a local specialty grocery store....

We ate by candlight which we never do and I loved it! I got the two candlesticks at Michael's for $5 each marked down from $12 each! What a deal. It really made a difference for our dinner. We sat and talked for awhile about all sorts of things. It was a really nice night. I am lucky.

Here's some recent layouts...some I did this weekend with my friend and others I recently finished. Most of the supplies came from Cocoa Daisy kits with a few other supplies I had on hand thrown in. I'm typically not good of keeping track when I'm scrapping so I'll just post them without supply lists this time!

"Christmas Nest" - a page documenting some of the directions around the apartment. The tree picture is mounted on an envelope that contains more images. There is something about this layout that bothers me. It took awhile to arrange the photos and never really felt like it came together. But I'm letting it go!

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"A Night Out" - about an after Christmas get-together with old friends. Pretty simple layout using all elements from the January Cocoa Daisy kit.

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"Christmas Girl's Night" - 2 page spread of the festivities when I hosted Girl's Night just before Christmas. This layout was fun to do....

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"Christmas Eve Morning" - Played around with the scalloped paper and some non-straight lines. I feel like I get in a rut with my over-organized linear style. I wanted to try something different.

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"Christmas Eve" - need to still do the journaling on this page but I like how it turned out. Used a piece of paintable patterned paper I have been holding on to forever. Used some iridescent metallic watercolors to just highligt some of the scroll and leaf shapes. Little hard to see in this picture.

So now I just want to finish my Christams Day layout and add in the journaling and I can close the book on 2009....literally! I did start a smaller scrapbook with just some favorite photos over time. No particular order or year. Just a place to tell stories and scap photos  feel like scrapping. And this year so far I haven't been as good at taking photos and developing them so I want to get on that. But I've never really been one to worry about being "caught up." I used to be and I let that go...too much pressure.

Well....
Today having a lazy morning so far. We'll see what the day brings!

Happy monday!

let the holiday preparations begin

Holiday preparations underway! Started my Christmas cards last week. Did buy a set of 10 so I can simplify and not get stressed out making so many homemade ones. They will all be different but based on the same design. Here are two of them...only have three made and about 30 left to go!




Today I also tried out 3 new cookie recipes...

Hazelnut Roly Polys - Dec/Jan '10 Country Living

Strawberry Jam Thumbprints - Dec/Jan '10 Country Living

Coconut Macaroons - Food Network Magazine Dec 09's 50 Holiday Cookies insert

...we'll see how they taste! Cary is expected home shortly after being away for guard this weekend. He will be my taste tester. He starts back to work tomorrow. The company he was laid off from found 40 hours/week for the month of December. That is something to be grateful for.

Yesterday spent the day shopping with my sister (complete with a shared peice of Peppermint Cheesecake from the Cheescake Factory!) and I got it all done except for 3 things I need to pick up/pay for next weekend. Feels good to have found some meaningful things for people. Still need to finish knitting one gift as well.

I have kept busy this weekend but fun busy. Looking forward to a vacation coming up in a few weeks and a Girl's Night to host the weekend before Christmas. I love this time of year!

Happy Sunday!

thanksgiving

cabled headband I made last week with gorgeous yarn

I'm heading up to Maine to spend Thanksgiving with Cary's family in a little bit. I'm excited for the holiday but a little sad too. This is the first time I won't be with my family on Thanksgiving. But he hasn't spent it with them in a long time...

So today I am grateful for:

• my good childhood


• my family


• Cary


• friends old and new


• having enough: food, money to pay the bills and a little extra


• time with my parents


• my mental health


• the courage of my clients


• my education


• healthy risks I have taken in my life


• a good cup of coffee!

Happy Thanksgiving!

simplicity

Got myself this necklace at a store near my work this week. A treat. "Simplify" was my "one little word" for 2009. Plus the idea of the dandelion fluff...making wishes...letting them go...important messages for me/us to hold on to.

Looking forward to some fun and relaxation today. This has been a very up-down, stressful work week. Fortunately I have today, "Good Friday" off. And we are celebrating Cary's birthday since he had to work on his real birthday and birthday weekend last week. Probably going to lunch and a movie.

Also hoping we can stop at Trader Joe's. I really want an Easter Lily and some tulips. Really want to brighten up the apartment. I am cautiously optimistic that we are nearing the end of our apartment nightmare. Still living with the bags but I will decorate around them!

I've also gotten a lot done on my first knitted sweater! It is going faster than I thought it would. Having such fun with it. Spent some time at my LYS Tuesday for a "free knit night" and actually got a lot done on it. I am loving going to those knit nights. Fun, laughing, learning from some talented knitters. It is an hour and a half of escape for me. I love it.

Well...later I'll try and post a picture of the gigantic Easter basket Cary put together for my family. So thoughtful! It was all his idea and he bought the stuff and put it together while I was at work yesterday. Loads of coffee, candy, teas, crackers, ...stuff for each person in my family. He was like a little kid all proud of his work!

Well...off to check out some of my favorite blogs.

Happy Friday!

2009

Happy New Year everyone! I am determined to make 2009 more positive. I rang in the New Year with a call from Cary who was at work 'til 2am. Yesterday, as of noon I am on vacation until Jan 13th. Yippee. Yesterday was not such a good day. I thought about listing why but decided to hit "backspace." No need to rehash yesterday. Last year.

So today. I started off with a nice breakfast for myself. Cary sleeps 'til noon so it's a quiet morning to start of the year by myself.


Then I boiled shrimp and made nice hot cocktail sauce for some hor'dourves I'm making later. That is something my mom always did on holidays and I want to continue. Even if it is just the two of us.

Now I want to just knit, watch TV and enjoy the sun coming in the window...over the huge drift of snow on our balcony!



And...watch my flower bloom today!


Maybe a little later I'll post about my 2009 Intentions and my One Little Word. Haven't worked on my painting since my last post but maybe tonight I will. Thanks so much for the kind compliments! It always feels like a risk to put stuff you make out there for others to see and it is nice to hear positive comments. Thank you!

Here's to 2009 and a positive attitude!

day-after-Christmas

my parent's tree

Happy day-after-Christmas to you all! I hope everyone had a quiet, wonderful Christmas. I did. This marked a year of change for me. It was the first year I wasn't there with my parents and brother and sister to open gifts first thing. Cary and I had our Christmas here and then went to my parents. He had to work Christmas Eve and night but it worked out. I was spoiled with clothes by him. He got me all sorts of sweaters and shirts and pants for work. Beautiful things that I wouldn't have gotten for myself. And truthfully I love them all! I don't want to return anything except for one that doesn't quite fit. Not bad! Yesterday afternoon we opened more gifts at my parents. My mom was about getting useful gifts this year. I got a few new pans and lots of odds and ends from my family. Always very thoughtful gifts. I think Cary had a nice day too although he is a little homesick. Hopefully next year we can make it to Maine so he can be with his family.

Today we are off to make the one exchange, go see Marley & Me (which I cannot wait to see -it is one of my favorite books I swear was written about our old dog Maddy!), and a few other things.

Merry day-after-Christmas to you all!

today

Made this little guy last week from an idea in Martha Stewart's magazine this month. He's made out of pine cones and an acorn. A little wire, glitter and red paint. He was a little labor intensive but I hope to make a few more...maybe! I am a little over ambitious sometimes!

I started my December Daily album yesterday and am off to a good start. Printed a few photos on my home printer. It isn't the greatest. The photos tend to seem a little dark but it wasn't awful. I really want to stay on top of it and be mindful each day. If I wait to print photos online I won't keep up with the "daily" part of the album!

Today I stayed home sick. I feel so much better now. I always feel guilty staying home sick but so often I rush back before I feel better and then it just lingers. I was a little off though and klutzy cooking supper....cooked some pork chops. Those came out very good if I do say so. But...

I forgot to pierce a hole in the bag of frozen spinach before microwaving it.

It exploded.

All over the inside of the microwave.

Then while cleaning the microwave I took out the glass plate that is inside the microwave. Balanced it on top of the microwave and manged to knock it onto the floor. Into a million pieces. Arrggh! How do you go about getting a new plate for the microwave without having to buy a whole new microwave??? There must be a way....

We'll see...

thanksgiving

Sending Happy Thanksgiving to all! This is my 20oth post and it is part of my Gratitude list this Thanksgiving. Through the world of blogging I have felt I have made new friends, received inspiration, been lifted during frustrating days by thoughtful messages and laughed with funny posts. I'm so glad I have found this outlet.

Other things on my Gratitude List on this day...

• A funny, warm, quirky family to spend Thanksgiving with.
• Mom's cooking.
• Cary being here with me and safe.
• Apple Pie!
• Warm, lit, heated apartment that I can afford.
• Enough food in the cabinets and fridge.
• Enough money in my account to pay the basics.
• A little extra for some scapbook supplies tomorrow at my LSS's annual sale.
• A long weekend and some much needed downtime.
• The happiness I feel during this time of year.
• Nostalgia
• My parent's health

I could go on and on today....that is lucky...

Happy Thanksgiving.

Easter memories

Peeps in a puddle. 16 Cadbury Cream Eggs. Mom's cooking: Spiral ham, baked potatos, cauliflower with cheese, asparagus, bread, chocolate cream pie. Baking more Irish Freckle Bread. Easter "baskets" in paper bags from Mom. Even one for Cary this year. Laughing with my family all home. Spending last night with my sister and brother home from school at the mall. Exchanging candy with Cary. Enough candy in this little apartment to last a year. Or until we get sick. Relaxing and watching the movie "I am Legend." Crying during the movie. Warm sun cold air. A red-orange rose. Honeysuckle Yankee Candle burning. Memories of this Easter.