A Hot Cocoa Kind of Day!

This weekend I’m having some fun at home working on some layouts with a very cute fun new collection that I was so excited to buy! It is called Winter Wonderland by Pebbles. No I do not have my holidays mixed up, I just couldn’t wait to use this collection so I jumped right into it last night and today.  I think the mittens and hot chocolates and little travel mugs of hot coffee are the sweetest. I picked it up last weekend at My Stamping Studio in Windsor. I had been down there at her shop’s scrapbooking and card making weekend. Here I am with my scrappy girlfriends, who I have become very good friends with, and here’s a shot of our cropping space.

Here is the double page layout I created with this fun line of papers. I didn’t buy the stickers that came with it because they were very girlie and juvenile and therefore did not appeal to me. As it is I’ll probably have a bit of trouble finding photos to go on these pages! I’ll have to specifically take some of me enjoying hot yummy beverages in fuzzy socks with girlfriends or Maria and Emma…………….. or something! But these colours and patterns so spoke to me, I just loved them, so I got them and had fun creating pages with them. They’re all ready just waiting for photos, and I may embellish them a bit more with snowflake brads or buttons, both of which I’m out of right now.

I had a lot of fun layering all these sweet patterned papers, and using coordinating cardstock. All edges are inked in brown, although a nice navy ink would have been nice on the edges too although I didn’t have any. A few brads and enamel dots were used as well.

Well thanks for looking, in Nova Scotia there’s no escaping the forth coming cold weather, so might as well make a pretty layout about it? Right? That’s my thinking anyways!  Now go enjoy your Halloween! Boo!

Mom’s 65th Birthday Celebration

This morning on the blog I’m stopping by to share a pretty layout I recently completed using the Flutter collection from Fancy Pants Designs. I’ve told you before in a previous post that I just love this collection, I love the colours….so I was determined to do another layout using it. Maybe another one yet too! I picked up this layout at my favourite LSS, My Stamping Studio in Windsor, NS. I’m heading down there this week for my birthday road trip actually! Look out Kelly, here I come!!

For this layout I decided to highlight a single photograph which I really cherish. It’s all the women, except for Grammie (90) and my SIL Jin who’s in Ottawa, on Mom’s side of the family. We aren’t often all together anymore it seems, as lives are very busy, but on this night we were and we were all dressed up so it was a great photo opp. We got together to go out to the dinner theatre and celebrate my Mom’s 65th birthday.

Here’s what I came up with, I really like the flower in the lower right hand corner. :

Aside from the papers and embellishments provided in the package by Fancy pants Designs, I used a pink ribbon from my stash, buttons and a cream doily also from my stash, foam dots, coordinating cardstock and inspiration from my friend Tracy McLennon, scrapbooker extraordinaire. You can see all her crafty greatness by checking her out on Pinterest as Scrappy Chick or on her blog here.

Thanks for looking and have a great afternoon!

Cinnamon Rhubarb Muffins

Today I spent some time in my kitchen baking with a seasonal favorite of mine, rhubarb! I made a sour cream rhubarb coffee cake, and I made cinnamon rhubarb muffins. Today I’ll share the recipe for the muffins with you. The idea for these muffins came across my Facebook newsfeed to be honest.

Here are the ingredients needed:

3/4 c white sugar

2 large eggs

8 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 c all purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 c light sour cream

1 1/2 c 1/4 inch thick chopped rhubarb, fresh or frozen would work too

Topping: 3 tbsp. white sugar mixed with 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Method: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. First cream butter, sugar, eggs, sour cream and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Next mix all dry ingredients together and mix with a spoon in a separate bowl; then gradually add dry ingredients to this wet mixture……. and mix just until combined. Fold in diced rhubarb. Batter will be thick. Spoon into 12 muffin cups, lined with a paper liner or sprayed with cooking spray. Batter should be rounded up higher than the sides of the muffin cups. Next, make the topping in a small bowl or measuring cup and spoon evenly over the muffins before baking. Bake muffins until they are golden brown, about 18-20 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack when cool enough to handle. Makes 12 muffins. Delicious and best served warm.   Above: Ready to go into the oven!

 

Above: All baked and ready to eat! They rounded up nicely.

Have a great day!

There’s this Boy….

Good morning! I’m stopping by the blog today to share a layout I created on the weekend at the cottage. Life has gotten much busier for me over the past five months, since I started my new career as a Travel Agent, in addition to looking after children in my home full time, and being a fulltime Mom and wife to my own family. It has been great, but I’m finding it harder and harder to find time to do some of my leisure activities/hobbies, such as scrapbooking! So when we decided to head to the cottage for the weekend this past weekend, but Saturday’s forecast was saying rain, I thought, “Aha!” I’ll take my scrapbooking stuff and work on some pages!”. Which is what I did.

So here is one page that I did. I was anxious to work with this new paper pack I received in the mail, it was called Jack and Jill designed by Lori Whitlock for Echo Park, a fave of mine. This is the Jack collection, which as you would guess, is for boys. I just took a photo of Dylan that I liked and went with it. I love the orange and blue colour combo.

In addition to the papers and stickers in the Jack collection, I used a few enamel dots from my stash, a paper frame from Michael’s, some coordinating cardstock, buttons from my stash and foam dots to raise up the picture. Here’s a little closer look at some of the elements of the page.

 Thanks for stopping by the blog today and looking! Today is my 20th wedding Anniversary actually….20 years married to the man of my dreams, the perfect fit for me, my soul mate….don’t know what I’d do without him. We are going out for supper tonight to celebrate. Looking forward to it. Have yourself a great day!

Hangin’ Out in the Woods

Tonight I am home alone, having some fun playing with my scrapbooking supplies. I decided to do some older lake photos, photos that may not seem like they’re of a big exciting occasion at a glance, well that’s because they’re not. But all of these photos make me smile when I look at them, because they bring back such fond memories. I love the time we spend at the lake very summer. This is Chris’ family’s cottage and we are so fortunate to have full use of it all summer long.

These are snapshots of us just hanging out at the lake with our friends, and their kids. Relaxed, comfortable, just being ourselves….carefree, no schedule, no worries, just fun, sun, laughter, and good times. That’s what I like about the lake. Life is simple. It’s full of the good stuff. Campfires, roasting wieners and marshmallows, swimming, sun bathing, book reading, laughing with friends, skipping rocks, frog catching, sand castle building, boating, water skiing, cook outs, bike rides, canoe trips, loons waking you in the morning, walks and sun rises and sun sets. It’s the best things in life….all back in the woods on a lake!

So I pulled a few pictures together from my pile tonight, and I made this traditional, nothing fancy about it, multi photo layout using the collection from 2013 that I just love called Happy Camper by Echo Park. I also used a few sheets of cardstock, a few enamel dots, and a piece of ribbon. Thanks for stopping by the blog and looking!

p.s. – The pics are a little yellow tonight because I took them in the dark in my dining room, but I felt like blogging tonight so I just used them anyways.

Flutter Layout – You & Me

I scrapbooked again, I scrapbooked again!! I took some time out of my busy schedule and I went in to my friend Renee’s two Saturdays ago and spent the day with her and our friend Tina scrapbooking in her living room. It was great fun. I managed to get three one page layouts done that day. This is one of them. I just LOVE the colours in this paper pack I used, Flutter by Fancy Pants Designs. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. I picked it up at My Stamping Studio in Windsor, Nova Scotia, a wonderful little paper craft shop if you ever get the chance to go.

For inspiration, I totally used this (below) wonderful layout by my friend and fabulous scrapbooker Tracy McLennon. You can check out all her scrappy creations here. The blog post that features this layout and others can be found here: http://scrappychick101.blogspot.ca/2015/05/my-creative-scrapbook-may-reveal-day-2.html. Believe me you’ll be glad you looked her up. She’s amazing, and often a source of inspiration for me. Here’s her layout:

In addition to the elements in the Flutter pack I bought, I used coordinating cardstock, a green doily from Michael’s (LOVE doilies right now), some enamel dots, some tickets (also LOVE them right now!!) , a strip of pink ribbon and some foam dots to pop up the title, all from my stash. Here’s how it looks:

  I had fun scrapping these fun, bright summer pics from last summer. Maria and I were at Dollar Lake hanging out on a summer’s day with friends. What we do best!! Thanks for looking and have a great spring day!!

 

Rhubarb Cake

I am so sorry that it’s been so long since I posted last….life has been busy since I started my new travel business. It feels good to get back at the blog today though. Today I am stopping by to share a seasonal favourite of mine, something my Mom made when we were growing up and now I make it too every spring when the first rhubarb of the season is ready. Although yesterday I made it with frozen rhubarb since our winter was particularly long/late this year and the rhubarb is far from ready yet.

To make the rhubarb cake/dessert, here is what you need:

1/2 c butter or margarine

1 c white sugar

1 egg

1 c milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 c all purpose white flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 1/2 c chopped rhubarb

1/4 c white sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon

whipped cream

To begin, combine margarine and sugar in a bowl till yellow and smooth. Next add egg and beat, then milk and vanilla and beat well. Next add dry ingredients in order given and beat well. Lastly add rhubarb and fold in.

                                                                  Here’s what your batter will look like.

Spoon into a greased 9×13″ pan.

Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle on top of the cake.

                                                                                Cinnamon sugar mixture.

                                                                                     All ready for the oven.

 Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm with whipped cream, a delicious spring dessert. Feeds over ten people!

                                                                                 The finished product.

Enjoy! I hope you enjoy the beautiful spring day we’re having today, the sun is shining, it’s warm finally and the birds are singing. Have a good one!

You & Me – MME Layout

Today I am stopping by the blog with a sweet little layout I did about two weeks ago now, of my Grammie and Maria, the little girl I keep, who actually became pretty close this winter as we visited my 89 year old grandmother weekly. One day when we arrived for our weekly visit Grammie had crocheted Maria a scarf, it was so sweet. This is the layout that tells that story. I used an older paper collection that I still have a fair amount of because I really liked it, Adorbs by My Mind’s Eye, circa 2013. I really like the colours of this collection. Here’s the layout…..that’s definitely one that’s near and dear to my heart. All the supplies for this layout are MME except for some pink cardstock from my stash and the pink ribbon paperclip, which is from Michael’s. Everything is inked in brown as per usual as well. Lots of layers of paper, and lots of patterned papers used, which I love.

Thanks for looking today. Remember to capture even the small everyday moments in life. “Cause someday you’ll look back and realize they were big things.

Bo Bunny Altitude Layout

Today I’m back on the blog with another wintery layout to share. This one is using the pretty collection called Altitude by Bo Bunny. I picked this collection up at The Cutting Garden on the weekend. Since purple isn’t really my boys’ thing, I had to use some pictures I took of the girls I keep for this layout. Here’s what I came up with:

In addition to the papers from Bo Bunny, I embellished this page with a silver snowflake from Michael’s, a silver snowflake from May Arts Ribbon, some gems and pearls from my stash, some purple and ice blue cardstock and a few foam dots. It was fun working with such pretty papers and elements!

Emma made a pretty nice subject don’t you think! What do you think of her pretty lipstick?? Goes nice with her snowsuit don’t you think? Thanks for looking and see you again soon!

Nessa

This past weekend I spent in Truro, NS with 89 other paper crafting enthusiasts. Many many were scrapbookers, but some were card makers, and some were working on some very elaborate altered projects. It was very inspiring to walk around  the room  and see what people were creating, there was a great deal of talent in that conference room. It was plainly obvious that these people were serious about their crafts!

Throughout the course of the weekend I completed 14 pages. At one time, I would make 30-40 pages in a weekend, but they were far less elaborate at that time. Now I do a fair amount of layering of my papers and inking, thanks Tracy McLennon, and these things are time consuming. Talking is time consuming too though I must say…….did my fair share of that too. But that’s all part of the fun!

So here is the first layout of the weekend that I’ve decided to share. It’s made using Warm and Cozy by Carat Bella, released in 2014. I picked it up at My Stamping Studio in Windsor, NS. It features a photo of my dog Nessa.  Apart from the items that came in the collection I embellished this page with some wooden snowflakes (LOVE!!), a brass snowflake, some buttons and some tickets I bought, which were from Tim Holtz.  They’re becoming very popular these days as an accent to any page. All edges are inked in brown as well. Popping some elements of the page up a bit using foam dots is something I also love to do for added interest. Thanks for looking and have a scrappy day!