Got 5 minutes? Make a cake!!

Cake in a mug that is! Such an easy recipe that our Makayla helped make it! I found this over at Life Preserver's and just knew I had to try it.

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (optional) and vanilla extract. Mix again.

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, and rise it does!! Look here:




But it does settle back down before its thru baking.



And finally, my critics had to make sure it was good enough to eat! Looks like it got the nod of approval:


There is definitely plenty for two per mug and, when served warm with whipped topping, made for an EXCELLENT quick dessert idea! Go ahead, be brave, but remember, its not calorie free! But then again, a substitution for the sugar and low fat topping would help. Just trying to help my girlfriends out here!

ENJOY!

Our recent port of call

This week Life Preserver's Cruise Around The World In 8 Layouts port of call was Acropolis Hill in Athens, Greece. The kit club's owner, Von, loves the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, hence the location this week. She's a clever one I tell ya!!

Anyways, we were to do a layout on our favorite movie. Since I'm a sucker for the prince coming in to save the damzel in distress, I chose Snow White. With all the snow we've had this winter, I wanted to scrap this photo in a layout and this challenge was just the ticket. Here's my submission for this week:



I love this Bo Bunny Winter Whisper kit from the month of January!! Did I mention Von has great taste in papers, too!!

Sad day......

I made it official today, I cancelled my subscription to The ScrapRoom. I feel so sad. I could sit here and have a pity party for myself, but what good would that do? So instead, let me tell ya a little bit about them......

Tammy's kits have always been the best bang for the buck. I may not have cared for every kit, but that's where my creativity came in. If I didn't like them for a layout, a card or project usually came to mind. I have missed my monthly kits since November, and only felt it was fair to give her a heads up and just cancel altogether.

If any of you are interested, she has some fabulous choices for the upcoming months that I'm sure you'd enjoy! And her customer service has always been topnotch and I always appreciated her prompt replies to my concerns. Check her out, you'll be glad you did!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

So what do you and your sweetheart have planned? Butch is now on his way home! We did celebrate on tuesday cause we didn't think he'd be home, so I guess we get to do repeats. Don't get to do that too often!!

So, while waiting for him, I decided to list some things in my Etsy store BJ's Boutique. So far there's only two notecards on there, but I plan on adding new stuff this next week. I'm so excited because I already see two hits on the one card, and its only been listed for less than 30 minutes! =)

I would have listed more, but this darn sinus headache is doing me in and the screen looks blurry. So I think its time for another round of hotpacks on my face to relieve the pressure.

Godspeed.....

Whosh!!

And another month has passed me by!! Things have just been hairy around here and just trying to deal with the economic situation of today's world is enough to make a person want to run away from it all. Believe me, if Butch & I knew for sure that we could handle being away from our kids and that adorable Makayla, we'd be living in a tent somewhere on one of the Hawaiian Islands by now! Some days we just want to sell all this "stuff" and just RUN!!!

Okay, now that I've gotten that out.......

I've been on a crusie of sorts with the gals at Life Preservers and having a blast! It's called Cruise Around The World In 8 Layouts, whereas you have to solve the clue for the week and then scrap a layout based on the clues. Week one's clue was the tourist symbol for the state of Virginia. Do ya know what it is? See if you can figure it out in my layout:


And week two, was based on a clue about Errol Barrow, a national hero of this Carribean country. Once we guessed which country, we were given the clue to base our layout on. Can you guess which country they are referring to?? And again, my layout based on the clue which had to do with the colors of a photo:



I promise to keep you posted with the remaining six ports of call when they come. =) I figure any distraction from reality right now, is a very good thing!!

My entry!

A neat sketch site I visit weekly is 52 Sketches...52 weeks and this week I actually have time to sit down and make a layout the week its posted! So here it is, little Makayla, our "snow angel":


I used MME Be Merry, Bazzill cardstock, Heidi Swap ghost snowflake, handmade snowflake from CraftydsCreations.etsy.com, Making Memories tiny alphas, American Craft felt thickers, and buttons from my stash. TFL!

Money saving idea

With my trips to the LSS not as frequent, and having to cut back on my kit club buying, I've decided to become more and more frugal with my supplies. Sure, I would use up smaller papers to make cards, or alter an item in the past, but just recently I've become SERIOUS about stretching my scrapbooking dollars!

A few months ago, I would have thrown out these small strips of paper, but since I'm such a user of scallops, I put my trusty Fiskars Threading Water Punch to work! You may think some of these pieces are just too small, but once you find yourself grabbing for them time and time again, you'll look at them in a whole new light.



I keep them in Ziploc storage bags by size, i.e., 1" to 6" in one bag and everything above in another. Hope this little tidbit can help you make your scrapping dollars go farther!

Has it REALLY been a month?!?

I can't believe the Holidays came and went and I didn't post here! I promise to catch up before heading back to work on thursday, after my vacation. First, I want to show off my newest reorganizing I've done in my scrap area! I will say, I'm pretty fond of it and, although its not quite complete, its so much nicer than what I was using for the past two years!
The before:

And now with my new desk:

......storage cubes:

......and my drawers that pretty much house my embellies, stamps, and finished cards. Oh, and the bottom one, that's for Makayla's treasures!

Thank you IKEA for the wonderful products to make this space possible!! So what do ya think? =)

It's complete!

Our tree just isn't finished until Makayla and Papa get the star on the top! NOW we can bring on the Christmas festivities!



Happy Holidays to All!!

I am finished!

With making the Holiday cards that is. Decided to mix it up a bit this year and go half with Holiday photo greeting card and the other half handmade. Actually, my real reason is I'm just flat running out of time and if we don't get them mailed next week, some may not get to their final destinations in time. Now the next not so small feat, is to gather up all those addresses and make sure no one has moved and if they have, to make sure I actually have the correct one.

I am so in the cookie making mood today! All those calories are gonna sneak up on me pronto and before I know it, that pair of jeans I bought a month ago may not fit the same way. EGADS! The thought!! So, I must refrain from going overboard, at least that's what I keep telling myself. =)

Got the house all festive now and with the help of my Little Elf, Makayla, we managed to decorate the tree as well. She is just too cute this year! I think she finally gets it, and the activities of the season are so fun to see thru a child's eyes. Here she is last week when we picked out the tree for us. Love the look of excitement on her face!

I WON!

After a long day at the salt mines, I came home, started checking out some of my favorite scrappin' message boards and was I plesantly surprised!! Over at Life Preservers they randomly passed out Pink Tickets in the November kit and I was one of the lucky ones. But to actually have MY number drawn was FABULOUS!! Here is my prize and I just can't wait to receive it. =)

> December Featured Mega & December exclusive stamps <

Can you see me doing the Happy Dance?!?

CupCards {to go}

Oh my goodness! This is a new kit club just for cards and it is WONDERFUL!! CupCards {to go} has created the most adorable kits for the cardmaker in all of us. The December kit is only the second month and I like it even better than the first. Do yourself a favor and check 'em out. I think the New Year will be bringing me a new kit!

Quick gift

Thought I'd share a quick gift idea with you. This is something I found at Sheetload the other day. Very inexpensive and quick to assemble. I'm sure someone on your Christmas list would love to receive this!

A great sunny morning to you!

YES!! We have sunshine for two whole days in a row! Excited doesn't even start to describe how I feel! I think Maggie deserves a walk in the fresh air today. =)

Yesterday, I felt I was doing a scrappin' marathon and managed to get lots done. Christmas cards, a couple for Thanksgiving, and then polished off the pics from the pumpkin patch. Well, almost, I have one set left, but haven't quite figured out how I want it look just yet. So, here's what I did get assembled:




And aren't these just the cutest?! Makayla wanted to do a "project" this past week and we made these placecards for our Thanksgiving dinner table. She helped glue the bases together and since I decorated the front, she did the backs. Love that look on her face! =)



Thanks for allowing me to share tidbits of my life with you. Godspeed.

Stories At Hand

Before I forget, I'm take this class by Jessica Sprague and is it ever fabulous! It was free and free is a wonderful price in today's economy, so I figured, why not. It has tons of prompts to get you journaling about you and your family members. She has it neatly formatted in pdf files for you to download and print off to make this darling notebook for yourself to refer back when journaling on layouts, or just because. I thought I would use my Bind It All, but can't seem to locate the 2" coils, so I guess I'm off to find me some jumprings. Where there's a will, there's a way!


Once I get it all done, I'll post again, just in case you feel you need one!

Finally, we see the sun again!

We have had some of the nastiest rains and winds the past few days and I'm so excited to see the sun peering in my window beside me! Normally I don't mind the fall and winter months here, but come on already! I think we deserve a bit of relief now and again.

I'm day number five into a horrible cold. My nose hurts, my head hurts, I'm so sleepy, but I still keep plugging along. I usually get one pretty good one and safe for the rest of the winter. Let's just hope thats the case again for this year. It wouldn't get to me as much, but this is my VACATION and I'm sick!!!!! Okay, I'm done with the tantrum......

I have felt better today, so I'm catching up on my photos and getting some layouts and cards done. When do we stop taking oodles and oodles of photos of the grandbabies? I can't believe how many cute ones we have of Makayla at the pumpkin patch! And of course, her obcessive Granny has to scrap the majority of them! And it didn't help that we were there for FIVE hours! Oh, well, the family appreciates them and thats what counts, right?! So, here are a few more layouts I've created. Enjoy!





Thanks for taking a peek! Godspeed.

Election Day 2008

I feel so overwhelmed by all the talk from the media over this election and although I should care, I just want normalcy back into our lives. I'm tired of the candidates bashing each other on the national, as well as the local levels. These people are adults for crying out loud, they need to act like adults! I honestly feel whoever wins, its gonna be a mess for some time and I just wish them luck in undoing the damage that has been done to us here in the United States and how people abroad feel about us. Okay, I'm off my soapbox.........

So in order to keep my sanity, I've scrapped!! Here is a layout from the pumpkin patch at BiZi Farms. They have a pumpkin launch that is just a hoot. I only wish I would have thought to get close ups of their faces!


Hope everyone is having a pleasant evening. Godspeed.

November 1st

My goodness, where has the year gone? It's so very true that the older you get, the faster the years go by. Oh, when I hear someone say I wish it was.... or I wish it were...I just cringe at the notion they are wishing their life away. If only I could get back just five years of my life, it would be amazing the things I would get done! Ya know, all that 'stuff' you've been putting off for tomorrow......well, my tomorrow has came and went and I'm still putting it off! =)

Yep, its a cool rainy November day here in the Pacific NW and the leaves are changing colors and falling from the trees. The other day Makayla asked why the leaves do that. We explained to her that its time for them to take a nap so they can get their energy built back up. And in the springtime when the blossoms come, it means they are waking back up to grow more leaves. Her reply, "I'm glad I don't grow leaves. That's a long time to take a nap!" Out of the mouths of babes. =)

Tonight we move our clocks back an hour and gain that hour of sleep. I, for one, could use that extra hour!! Have a good day all. Godspeed.

Trick or Treat!!

Our very first visitor of the night, and of course, the cutest goblin in the land! Makayla was a Princess Witch cause, as she says, "it has sparklies on it!" We did a bit of treat or treating with our neighbors before she headed out the door to gather her goodies. I can't get over how big she has gotten and that this is her fourth Halloween already. Time flies!!


Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween!

Just the cutest!

Since I'm starting my weight loss journey, I wanted to find something just darling to help make me want to write it all down like the experts suggest. I went looking at all the journals in the stores recently to see if anything would strike my fancy to recreate with my endless supply of papers and such. Well, nothing popped out at me, until last night.

You must check this blog by Ali Edwards. This is the most darling journal I've seen in my search and just what I'm looking for!! Now wouldn't you want to just snatch that thing up every night and journal your feelings for the day!! I'm wanting to start on November 1, so I have a few days to get my act together. And, yes, I will share it here as I go.

Ever want to say enough is enough and really mean it?

Well, I have! I'm tired of being this weight and I'm ready to make that lifestyle change once and for all. My goal is to focus on me. Sound selfish? Probably! For too long I've focused on everyone else in my life, except moi, now its my turn to be the focus! Here are my goals and this time, it will happen!

I WILL go buy that Wii and Wii Fit balance board and enjoy my exercise in the process. If I can't enjoy it, I won't do it.

I WILL buy serving size portions of meats, fish, and poultry. No more buying bulk items that have five or six breasts to a package and thinking one of them is a serving. I have discovered serving size meats that when its all said and done cost the same or cheaper that buying bulk and having too large a portion size.

I WILL trade my dinner plate in for a salad plate as to not go overboard for those family get-togethers and holiday meals.

I WILL eat more complex carbs that keep me full and energized from one meal to the next.

I WILL trade 'fake' foods (aka, processed foods) for organic or I don't need them.

I WILL journal my feelings everyday and why I ate what I did to see where changes in eating habits may be affected.

I WON'T let the Barbie Dolls of the world dictate how I'm suppose to feel about myself, just because I don't wear a size nothing.

I WON'T defeat myself by putting me in the 'danger zone' at holiday gatherings. I'll make sure I have a decent meal before heading out the door.

I WON'T let stress dictate my eating. I'll scrap instead.

I WON'T be disappointed and binge if my monthly goals are not met. I will re-evaluate my journal and see where I need improvement.

But, I WIIL REWARD myself with a massage for every 10 pounds I shed!

HELP!!!

Have you seen !! Cosmo Cricket's blog lately? They have some fabulous papers and I'd love to share the pics with you! And honestly, I'd love you to help me win some as well - wink, wink!! All you do is follow this link and post in the comments "I came on behalf of Barbara." That's it! TIA!!

But since you're already there, check out their blog and make sure you take a gander at their fabulous fabrics they now have available. Cute stuff. =)

Layouts!

Now did you really think I'd post in here and not show you a layout or ten?!? Okay, maybe not ten, but I do have some favorite ones I'd like to share. In no particular order (I watch way too much Dancing With The Stars!!) here they are:






The leaves are starting to turn here and the weather is definitely fall-like. I think I actually appreciate this time of year more due to the beautiful colors that comes with it. I love the reds, oranges, and yellows of the leaves, and different shades of brown from the barron trees. And soon, we'll have those jack-o-lanterns decorating our doorsteps for those little trick or treaters.

Boy, Oh Boy! Have I been a slacker!!

I can't believe its been almost TWO full months since I shared anything over here! Life has been a bit hectic and now that the night's are getting longer, I find myself indoors much more often. Now I'll just go overboard and bore you with the tiniest of details!! Just kidding, I'll be good. =)

I've been taking this class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking on mini albums and am having a blast! If you've never made one or wanted to learn the tricks of the trade, Lisa D. is a fabulous teacher and her classes are well written and full of wonderful tips and tricks to get you going. Find out more on her class by visiting the website. While there, you might find something else that strikes your fancy!

This past weekend over at The ScrapRoom we had a crop and I posted a few mini album make & takes for the ladies. This is the accordion album made with one sheet of cardstock, recycled cardboard backing from a notepad, a few scraps of paper, and ribbon. So, so simple and just adorable!


And this other was from recycled toilet paper rolls, scraps of paper, and ribbons. Makes a great mini album for Mom's or Granny's, such as myself, for those darling pics to take with you to show off the kiddies!

It was bound to happen.......

...the media card in my camera went bye-bye and I lost a bunch of darling pics of my grandbaby! I didn't find out until I went to print some at work today and the computer wouldn't read my card. I just thought the darn things had gone bonkers again, so decided I'd just download them from home and pick them up in the morning. OH NO! Not so fast! My computer here won't read them either and it gives me a "card error" message when I put it in the camera. So, it looks like I've lost those......

I'm sad. =(

Group #3 finished!

In the TSR layout swap I'm in three different groups this round. I know, crazy as it may seem, I do like to do these things! Group #3 is to be generic, so I did the best I could so they could be used for any gender or ocassion. Without further ado, here is the unveiling of that set. The title will go into the upper left hand corner. Hope you like!

"Oh bother......."

Now I know how Eore feels! I didn't make the card design team. "Oh me, oh my!" (all said in my best Eore impression with my head down and tail dragging.)I knew it was a long shot, but I was still hoping it may happen. Guess I just better polish up my techniques for the next time!

Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement. It really means alot!

I did it!

I got the courage to submit some of my cards for a chance to become a Design Team Member at Sketches! {by tamara} . I'm a bit nervous about it, but I just LOVE her sketches and the current DT's fabulous creations. Here are the ones I submitted:

Dad

How we miss you! It was two years yesterday morning when you held our hands and drifted away. You looked so peaceful and we knew you hurt no longer. The Angels came and took you with them to a better place in the heavens.

I know you're still here amoung us because I hear you and feel your presence. Our walls bare your photos and we pass them by every morning and throughout the day. I especially love the one by the front door of you waving, as to say "I'll be seein' ya!" I think that one is my all time favorite! The playful smile, the happiness in your face, that is how I want to remember you:



We look at those photos of you with Makayla and see the gentleness you had within you. I only wish you could have been here longer so she could get to know her Great Grandpa and the great man that he was. You had your quirks, but who doesn't.

You were the Dad I never had. You did not judge, but encouraged. You were there for me when I was going thru some terrible times and loved me for who I was. I didn't have to prove anything to you, just be myself.

I love you, I miss you!

I did it!!

I entered my first contest ever!! It is from a Pagemaps sketch by Becky Fleck and here she is:

It was fun and now I want to do it AGAIN!!!

What a ride!

WOW!! I have had quite the past three weeks with my scrappin'. I entered this challenge over at Willow Traders called Scrapvivor and it has been non-stop ever since....well, until I got the boot this morning! Let me explain.....

We had 50 girls that were split into two teams of 25. For every challenge we had 72 hours to do as many layouts and/or cards that met that particular requirement. Whichever team had the lowest number of total points at the end of the 72 hrs., lost tribe members. I managed to stay in the middle of the pack until I had an accident at work that resulted in a puncture wound to my right hand just before challenge #6. I did my part and sat out that round in order for the stronger players to rack up points for us, knowing one of two things....I'd either be eliminated because we lost, or spared and be one of two girls who would be the sole competitors for challenge #7.

WELL! The merge happened and instead of going off of individual points as stated in the beginning, they continued off the individual totals and I knew right then, I would NEVER catch up. I didn't throw in the towel, but I did what I could in the time I had.

This whole experience was CRAZY and frustrating at times, but having done it I know I'll NEVER DO IT AGAIN!!! I did push myself to go outside my box and it has opened my eyes to different ways of scrappin. The following is a small sampling of what I did:
Challenge #1 - Monotones:

Challenge #2 - Cards:


Challenge #3 - Song/Movie Titles - Volcano by Jimmy Buffet

Challenge #4 - Use metal on your pages:

Challenge #5 - Ad Challenge:
My Ad:
My Layout:
Challenge #6 - Quotes on layouts or cards:


Challenge #7 - Ribbon on layouts/cards:


I think next time, I'll volunteer to be on the advisory panel!! Till next posting, Godspeed.