30 Days and Croptober

It's probably not widely known that I enjoy making mini albums.  I don't make them regularly, but I've made a few:  a Halloween super mini done back in '06 (my third child was so young, the 5 y.o. thinks the photos are of him - I had to ask the 5 y.o., "Do you remember dressing up as a knight?"  To which he replied, "No."  Okay then), my December Dailies, tribute albums, an album my hubby took when he traveled a lot, and a few others.

Last year I took part in a new photo project by Cathy Zielske - Thirty Days of Thankful.  I simply shot a photo of something I was thankful for on that particular day and shared it on the blog - some were "serious" and some not so much.  Looking back at last year's I feel the need for a mini album creation.  Something super simple, with pockets!  It'll be super fast, the photos just need to be printed and I have the writing done.  Boom-baby.

Cathy Zielske is hosting another round of Thirty Days of Thankful this year.  If you haven't ever done a mini or a project of this type - try this one.  You may find a new addiction.  This type of project is good for the soul and is a great reminder of the good things in life.  This year, I'm hoping to engage my children and maybe have a day or two where they snap me a photo of something they are thankful for, with their words.  I might even be able to engage hubby - though it'd be my photo and his words (hopefully.)  We've had a few rough spots this year as a family and it would be good for all of us.  Having it in a mini, out for everyone to see, would just reinforce the blessings in our lives.

After two hours with my two youngest getting their "Well Checks" at the doctor's office, and one freakin'-break-my ear-drums-piercingly-loud-blood-coming-from-my ears scream emitted from the depths of the 5 y.o.'s soul (booster shot time) I'm in need of some crafting time.  Or at the very least a hearing aid because I'm deaf in at least one ear now.

Today's Croptober challenge comes from a Pinterest search that lead me to PSA Stamp Camp.  I love the photo strip, the non-traditional colors for a Halloween layout, the tilt of the main mat and the details (the stars along the title block, the little scalloped strips, the stitching detail, the pumpkin "O."  What grabs you?  Use it to inspire your layout, card or other project for today.

Link up your creation to the comment section for a shot at the October drawing. 

Happy Tuesday,

The Week, The Food, The List and Croptober

 

We woke up to this.  The 5 y.o. had much rejoicing and plans for making tiny snowmen - he and his brother have the day off.  He's playing xBox now with said brother and the snow is melting quickly, so I think the plan has derailed.  I'm thinking what's remaining in the garden isn't gonna be much good to harvest - but once the snow is gone I'll see what's salvageable.  I don't have high hopes.

 

 

This week was about crunchy, beautiful leaves and the many shades of gold during autumn, especially noticeable around the lake.  Playing the priest. including his mic.  The deep Colorado Blue skies and snow capped peaks.  Finding a photo of my daughter in the local paper where she was cheering on former volleyball teammates during the High School's Think Pink night. Attending last night's RV Football game versus yet another cross-town rival and beating the pants off them.  The rival is hubby's alma mater.  The night was crisp.  The benches were freeze-your-butt-off-cold.  The sodas needed lids.  And the memories of attending many football games when I was in high school bombarded me.  The first football game of any kind for the younger two boys, who seemed to enjoy themselves.  It was super fun, even if it took until this morning for the warmth to return not only to my toes, but to my backside.

 

I had several recipes from my I Can Cook That board on the meal plan this week.  Because we headed to the football game last night one didn't get made, one is a repeat, one I won't make again (it was good, but I've got others to try and it wasn't knock-my-socks-off redo good)  and two are still to come - meaning tonight's meal and Sunday's meal.  I also have a Snickerdoodle Bread that I'm making later today, along with two other loaves of bread and some kind of apple dessert - I'm feeling lazy so I'll probably make a Crisp of some kind.  BUT I did make this Bacon Ranch Mac 'n Cheese on Wednesday and it was pretty good - the family polished it off.  I made my own cream of mushroom soup and added like six slices of bacon instead of one (come on, one slice of bacon!) and I used precooked chicken from a chicken I'd done in the crockpot and frozen. 

I have a list of things to do this weekend, on top of the baking I have to do today, I have some of my scaled down projects within larger projects - like finish the mantel for Halloween.  Like pull shirts and shoes out of my closet.  Like straighten one of the boys' headboards.  Like head out to a pumpkin patch.  Plus getting inventory loaded on the Apron Strings site (go check what's up there now for some good deals ;D)  Plus taking some time for creating.  We'll see what really becomes of the list.

Finally, yesterday you were asked to choose between Pumpkin and Apple for your Croptober challenge today.  If you didn't pre-select a Fall Fruit, choose one now and then use the key:

Pumpkin = Use a pumpkin - paper, embellishment, in a photo, etc.
Apple = Use an apple - paper, embellishment, in a photo, etc.

Link up your creation to the comment section for a shot at the October drawing.  REMEMBER, if you complete two or more of this week's challenges you'll get a little extra treat from me.

Happy Friday,

Drinking My Apple-a-Day and Croptober

I, in no way, consider myself a drinker.  I will have a beer now and then - had a Guinness a couple weekends ago when we were out to dinner.  In the summer I'll try a new micro brew.  Wine comes with special dinners or events.  Hubby brought home some apple beer that is really, really good.  But even with how good it is, I only have one now and then.  

A little back-story here, hubby is a self-taught connoisseur of whiskey of all kinds - the more he learns the more he loves and the more he hunts out new varieties.  His perfect vacation is the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky or heading to Scotland to tour every distillery he can find.  When these apple distilled whiskies showed up in a little brown bag, I was not surprised.  They are only those tiny little airline-sized bottles, so when he asked me to try one I said, "Sure," knowing they wouldn't be taking up space on my counter for long.  I must also point out I am not a whiskey fan - most of the ones hubby likes are way to strong for me, or taste like dirt.  I approached my shot with caution.  The Red Stag was the best of the three - like a super hard apple cider.  Actually, it made me wish he had a bigger bottle.  I could see having a sip with him while enjoying the colors from our front porch.

Today's inspiration for your Croptober challenge comes from a layout created by Jennifer Halleck using this month's Bigger than a Breadbox kit, the Pebbles Thirty-One line.  Choose what you want from it to inspire you.  Maybe you've got the kit and needed to see it "at work" to get you moving to use yours.  Or the colors - which are yes, seasonal, but these papers are double-sided which makes their uses open up.  Use her actual layout.  Select an element - the ribbon flower, the scroll or maybe the cut-outs from one of the papers (the "31" and the bat.)  Maybe you've got other floral papers to use.  Whatever it is, go.  Create.

Link up your creation to the comment section for a shot at the October drawing.  If you complete two or more of this week's challenges you'll get a little extra treat from me.

Finally, for tomorrow's challenge you'll need to pick one:

Pumpkin or Apple.  Leave your choice in the comment section, then come back tomorrow for the key.

Happy Thursday,

Croptober

From my Pinterest Color Theory board comes today's inspiration.  Use whatever you see in this:  The color pallet, the polka dot paper the pies are on, the layout itself - with the pies being photos on a layout or elements on a card, the gloss of the pies make you reach for epoxy embellishments or diamond glaze.  Whatever it is that speaks to you, use it to create today's work.

Link up your creation to the comment section for a shot at the October drawing.  If you complete two or more of this week's challenges you'll get a little extra treat from me.

Go.  Create.

Sunburst "Blessed" Card Tutorial

I'll post today's Croptober challenge separately, so we can fully focus on Wendi Robinson's great tutorial for a card she created with this month's All Year Cheer Card Kit but you can create it with any paper you have - card kit, scrapbook kit, scraps you want to use up. . .whatever.

Hello and good morning..

It's Wendi here and today I'm sharing a tutorial of a card that I made with the latest October All Year Cheer kit.

You'll need cardstock and two sheets of double-sided patterned paper.

First of all you'll need to cut your cardstock to 5 1/2 x 11" and fold in half to create a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2" card

Next cut your first patterned paper to 5 1/4 x 5 1/4" and draw a sunburst on the opposite side of the paper (the side that won't be showing when your card is complete.)

Next cut out every other ray of the sunburst.

Cut a second patterned paper to 5 1/4 x 5 1/4" and adhere it underneath the sunburst.

Then take those pieces you cut out from the sunburst earlier and cut them down to fit inside the sun rays.  The reverse side of the "sun ray" paper will be face up on your card.

Add them into the sun rays and adhere down.

Add stitching around the "sun" and then through the "orange bursts.

The card kit this month had a sheet of Simple Stories Bingo Cards, which I used to create the sentiment.  You can create the look yourself with your computer.  Then trim it down and mat it on a scrap piece of cardstock trimmed to a pennant shape.

Again, because I was using the card kit, I embellished it with flowers and buttons that are included, but you can use whatever you have on hand, or just leave it simple with the sentiment. 

and a close up of the details.

Thanks sooo much for stopping by and have a great day!!!!

Thank you so much, Wendi, for giving us a great tutorial on breaking down what is really a simple look to achieve.

Scarecrows and Croptober

It has been well documented here of my love for all things autumn.  Everything from cozy sweaters, to comfort food cooking (like yesterday where I cranked out three loaves of bread, chocolate oat bars and lasagna.)  I was reminded of yet another reason as I was heading to get the boys from school yesterday.  At the end of our block is a small park - it used to be the orchard when our neighborhood was a farm, so many of the original trees remain, as does the creek that runs through the park.  Anyway, as I drove toward the park the wind was picking up and blowing the leaves from the trees in wonderful cascade of color.  I love driving (or walking) through those shower bursts of leaves.  There's just something magical, to me, about them.  I wish I had stopped to try to snap a photo.

Our weekend was relatively quiet.  Friday night the two older kits went to the football game against a cross-town rival.  Unfortunately, the rival won.  Saturday we went to Olde Town's Scarecrow Festival where we wandered, watched the Giant Pumpkin contest, encouraged the 5 y.o. to run the "corn maze" and looked for the "best" scarecrow.  (There's a scarecrow decorating contest and the entries are spread throughout the festival.)  The scarecrows have inspired the 5 y.o. to draw them on everything; he's even made a book of just scarecrows.

Today's Croptober challenge comes from a Pinterest search for "Halloween Card" where there are so many cute ones, but I liked this one which led me to PSA Stamp Camp's blog.  I really like the mix of elements:  the pleated paper, the punched top, even the machine stitching - I'd be the one using a pen to do my stitching, though.  Instead of just using the color pallet, select one or more elements from the card and use them on your own layout, card or other project.  

Link up your creation to the comment section for a shot at the October drawing.  If you complete two or more of this week's challenges you'll get a little extra treat from me.

Happy Tuesday,

Wandering and Croptober

Ready to take a seemingly mindless, wandering, where's the point walk?  Follow along. . .

Do I talk about coffee enough?  I have several photos of cups, mugs and cardboard-sleeved coffee shots in my Project Life album.  I've also mentioned I love it "dressed up."  I've made my own creamers found on Pinterest; I think I have one or two left to test out.  They are good too and I can pronounce the ingredients.  The trick is because of the cost of sweetened condensed milk (SCM), homemade isn't always cheaper.  Probably better for you, but not always cheaper.  My main hang up is the store bought creamers are a little thicker. (I have read there's some ingredient I can add to thicken the homemade version up, just don't have a clue where to find it.)  So, for now I'm getting the mega-size creamer from Costco.  It's generally less expensive than the grocer or homemade (this could change when holiday baking season rolls around and SCM goes on sale.)  It's thicker.  It's vanilla which makes it a good base for adding other flavors - like chocolate syrup, or caramel sauce.

Now, for our anniversary my parents bought us a one-cup coffee maker (hubby is not quite on board yet) but I love the machine - it does the k-cup, the pods, hot water and ground coffee.  It took some playing with the grounds to get a good brew, but we've tackled that problem.  And now I get fresh coffee in two minutes instead of sitting-on-the-burner-all-day-sludge coffee.

And we're still walking. . .

The change in weather has made me a baking fool.  Several pumpkin recipes, cookies (these are really good: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies,) pies, bars and today will be skillet brownies.  I needed pumpkin pie spice for some recipe so I mixed some up from Pinterest.  

Finally, my destination . . .

I'm not sure where the idea came from, but I decided to try to brew my one-cup of coffee with some pumpkin pie spice, and mix with my store-bought creamer.  I could smell it while it brewed.  Good sign.  Mixed in my creamer and watched the billowing cloud of white creamer swirl in with my coffee experiment.  And guess what?  It totally worked!!  I had yummy pumpkin pie spice coffee.  Today, I did just cinnamon.  Totally yummy.  Now to just nail down the homemade creamer and I'll be a happy, happy gal! 

Yesterday I asked you, "Witch or Warlock" and had you put your answer in the comments.  Today you get your key:

• Witch - Include something Lime Green on your project
• Warlock - Include something Plum Purple on your project

If you'd like to play along today, just pick Witch or Warlock and include the appropriate item. Link up your creation to the comment section for a shot at the October drawing.

Big, big wind last night and very cool weather are in store for the next couple of days.  Friday Night Lights are on the calendar for two of the kids.  I'd like to hit our Scarecrow Festival tomorrow, but we'll see how it all plays out.

Happy Friday,