Sunday, March 28, 2010

Busy busy day

So this is just a darling little pic of my hubby's cousins babies.  Lyra and Jax.  This layout was for a challenge today on scrapbook star using a tag on a lo.  Jax looks so upset and her face is just priceless laughing at him!!  So on the layered tag I put "I'm so not laughing Lyra"!!  The flowers are actually cut from a patterened my minds eye paper and layered with dark brown cardstock behind.  I love the blue seam binding on this it brings it all together since there is blue in the polka dots under the title.  Love this sheet of pp too, it is MY MINDS EYE of cource!! LOVE all their papers. 
I got almost 1/2 of the raking around the greenhouse and farmstand done today and got my first callous"s of the year today too!! Corn huskers lotion here i come!!  If yall need something on callous or dry skin this stuff is the bomb!! hubby introd me to it when we were first dating , I would come home from working at the ranch all day cinchin up the saddles and have callous on my hands well being the loving caring guy he is he bought me a bottle of this amazing stuff and oh my goodness::: can u say relief!! it feels great and really does work super!! try it!
I am about ready to get planting in the greenhouse too, got my sugar snap peas, lettuce, spinach and some flower seeds that surely can go in.  Even if it does get a bit cool a 100 watt bulb will keep them warm enough and they will be ready to go outside when it warms up and the ground is ready for the season!!
My hubby did a trash to treasure project today for himself, dang not for me!LOL , he is one creative guy!! no wonder we fit together like pbandj's LOL
I will share that with you when he finishes it up tonight.  So very proud of him!!
The boys are playin and it is about time for Buster and mommy to go out and do evenin chores so hope yall have  a peaceful realaxin night!! I am gonna after chores, and hauling in some wood for furnace and supper and finish up laundry!! makes me tired thinkin bout it all!!
HUGS~~
Darlene
~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Friday, March 26, 2010

Scraplifted Layout

I seen this lo on one of my scrapping forums and knew I had to do this scraplift!!  The papers are new from HOBBY LOBBY and are by THE PAPER STUDIO.  I made the little flowers out of old sheetmusic that has been cut with decor scissors and glued together.  Of cource I had to to a bit of distressing using TIM HOLTZ distressin ink.  I went thru my scrap stash and found the butterflies which were black and white on a sheet so I cut them out and chalked them for color.  The flourishes are stamped on using liquid chalk and the saying on the bottom is
A baby's laugh is the sweetest sound on earth.

AND I MADE HOMEMADE TOMALES TODAY FOR HUB!!
I love this Mesa instant corn mix, just added a couple of simple ingredients and I saved the juice in the crock pot from the pork loin and roast I cooked yesterday.  They are actually quite good!!  Had to have a sample to see if they were good enough to give him for supper tonight ya know!!  LOL
Tomales are quite time consuming but so worth it in the end!! If you have time you should really make some they are yummy!!
Have a blessed evening!!
HUGS YALL!!

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

More cards today

Using my PAPERTREY INK stamps for mothers day I made a couple of new cards.  AND since I LOVE pink and polka dots what a great combo to do.
This pink daisy paper caught my eye at Hobby Lobby so had to have that and then I spotted all the great polka dotted papers. They had green, blue, purple, red, pink, yellow and brown and pink and oh what fun papers.  Had to buy a few of each so here is the green on these cards.  The flowers I actually purchased at Michaels and took the bunches apart to use on here too.
Love the bakers twine too and seam binding from SUGAR SUGAR who by the way is an excellent etsy seller!! she has some awesome ribbon and fiber packs made up in her store for sale u must check her out!!

So I am off to work in my studio it is almost april and I have a challenge due on my design team on the first. Will show ya some of it this weekend. 
Enjoy your friday!!
~HUGS~
Darlene
~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Monday, March 22, 2010

Flower layout


I just had to share this page with yall!!!  This was for a challenge using flowers on a layout.  LOVE these pink flowers.  They were on a bunch I bought at Hobby Lobby so I decided to take them apart and use them on this.  A couple of tags stamped with smile and adorable and this page is done!
Have a great night!!
Darlene
~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Sunny monday!!

I got quite a bit of things made this weekend.  Scrapperie had their online crop and I did manage to make a quick card up using stamps.  You had to use 2 ink colors and then layer.  So I used a flower stamp I bought at HOBBY LOBBY , stamped it in purple and in green, then stamped it on matching paper and cut it out.  The center is attached with pop dots for dimension and the outer flower it cut out and attached to one of the stamped images.  I love rick rack so that had to be added.



This baby is a friend of mines grandson.  he is so stinkin adorable!!   I just used some cardstock as the backround then layered pp and solid colors for matts under the pics.
Blue Jean Baby is the title and I found some blue jean paper, the hearts are perfect.  I did find some cool embossed felt which is the brown heart on the page.  Hobby Lobby has everything!! have you ever just walked up and down all the aisles!!?? such cool stuff !!
Family was the next lo I did up for a challenge, to use your stash, the pic is one of my favos from our reception!! My fil is such a clown, love ya pops!!  Here i used up some letter stickers I bought long ago, added a flourish I cut with my zip e mate cutter, and some fun pp.
I did distress the edges with white paint for a softer feel.
This ol rusty fork made a perfect little something for a friend of mine.  I added some dried sweet annie and stamped a litle message on a piece of paper and matted it on cardstock.
A fabric hanger and it is complet.
Now to the altered egg! this bunny started out as a plain ol pape mache egg, I painted and distressed it, painted some fabric for the ears and attached her to a rusty ol bedspring.  The coffee stained tag has the word spring stamped on it along with some flowers.  She turned out pretty neat.The bunny went out last week for a swap I had joined and will be a perfect decoration in time for easter.  So today is beautiful out, the sun is shining and the "girls" are so busy running around and scratching every bit of dirt up since all the snow is finally gone!!  I love listening to them chat with each other and watch them run around.  They are very comical, so are the geese and ducks they hang in their little click together and always are close to each other.  Maybe I should start filling their pool they would love that!  So have a wonderful day and enjoy this weather!!
Talk soon!!
~~HUGS~~
Darlene
~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Saturday, March 20, 2010

***Snowy Weekend**

HEY EVERYONE~~I tried a new cake recipe and it actually was good and went great at markets this week.  A super moist butter walnut cake roll that was filled with a cream cheese filling and then I added a layer of some of my homemade jams.  The walnut cakes had my strawberry apricot jam and then I made a lemon cake roll with cream cheese filling and added my red raspberry jam.  I had to keep a couple of slices for quality assurance!! and they were good!!
These logs are the cakes cooling.


A finished roll sliced.  I do have to mabye adjust this recipe a bit as the cake was really too moist.
these cookie are my loaded oatmeal NO FLOUR cookies, they had chopped walnuts, peanut butter, organic oats, choc chunks and for fun some pastel m & m candies!! perfect for spring!! which by the way this being the official first day of spring and to NO surprise to us michiganders IT IS SNOWING!! the trees are so danged pretty all white but it is suppossed to get up in the 40s tomorrow and it will be gone quick!!
These are a new coffee cake.  I dug thru some of my grandmothers old cookbooks that I have and found Aunt Lil's struesel filled coffee cake recipe.  This is a really moist and buttery cake, filled with chopped walnuts and brown sugar and cinnamon.  YOU all know I had to add my "farmgirl bling" to them.  A cinnamon glaze tops them off.   I will be anxious to hear the responses from market as they all sold yesterday.  Love trying out new recipes, making up new recipes and then doing the tried and true old recipes from our grandparents.
I am off to maybe work on some new scrappy things and finish up a couple of challenge pieces I am working on.  Hope yall enjoy your day!!!  HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND~!~
~HUGS~
Darlene
~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~

Sunday, March 14, 2010

New Cookies

Cookie of the week has started!! LOL  My goal this year for markets is to bring one new cookie creation each week for COOKIE OF THE WEEK!!  Since I sell so many cookies i thought this would be a fun challenge for me.  So this is the first week! I came up with a recipe for a similar cookie to the girlscouts Samoa.   A shortbread base is what I chose to have and cut them with a fluted round biscuit cutter.
  I then made a batch of homemade carmel sauce, added  some toasted coconut and topped each cooled shortbread cookie with this mixture.  It was super sticky and messy too!!


So after the carmel set a bit I melted some milk chocolate disks and drizzeled each little top with chocolate.
So here is the finished cookie!!

The are pretty close to the samoas but mine will be called  "chicken scratch carmel shortbread delights" I think.

Not much time today for scrappin and this week I have 3 markets so need to reallly get product made. Dangit!  Oh well baking comes first right now, maybe if I get up at 3 instead of 5 I will get my quiet scrappy time.  Once the weather gets nicer I LOVE to be outside before the sun comes up and work in the gardens but I do have some time before that all starts.
I hope yall are havin a blessed Sunday.  I am off to spend the rest of this day with my wonderful hubby and the "boys".  WE are gonna take them for a ride to get some ice cream later.

HUGS!!
Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~



Saturday, March 13, 2010

It;s the weekend~~

Buster was disgusted with us the other night, while we were eating he kept throwing and I mean throwing his old bowl around the floor.  He would pick it up and pitch it across the floor!!!  Crazy boy, then he flipped he upside down and couldnt get it over so got mad!  I had to take pics of him laying with it.  Guess he was tellin us he wanted his supper too!! LOL

A lump of sticky dough and some great grains, rice, oats, seeds, polenta and what do u get??
Some awesome multi grain bread I made at the kitchen the other day.
This is my friends recipe that she makes to keep in freezer for their own use, she gave me some last year and oh my goodness IT IS THE BEST!! we love it and were almost out of it so it was time to replenish the stock!!
~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~
So I did get at least one page made up of my niece Carissa.  I usually dont use patterned paper for the backround but thought this looked great!!  OF cource love flower anything!!  I added a big safety pin with the little letter bead from hobby lobby, thought they added a nice touch.
and just cant have a lo without flourishes!!  Love my JUST RITE STAMPS which I used for my girl, a bit of ribbon and some teeny tiny rick rack. 

Hope yall enjoy your weekend!! I am gonna play with my pasta maker today!!
Yesterday just went too quick and my mom, brother and I covered alot of territory, we checkout out a few local thrift stores, got some groceries, went to Hobby Lobby and Michaels and also out for breakfast, yepper we started our day at 8am and didnt get home til 5pm last nght.  LOL but it sure was fun!! Thanks guys for a wonderful friday!!  LOVE YA LOTS!!
~~HUGS~~
Darlene

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Scrappy Monday

Here's a couple of new layouts I did yesterday while just playin in my studio!!   The baby who I think is absolutely one of  cutest ever is my hubbys cousins baby Jax.  Look at that pic with his bear Vincent!! That pic was just screaming at me to make a page!!  I used some great My Minds Eye baby papers and cut a few coordinating hearts out and added a couple of bears cut from a sheet of pp.
Here's another one of Jax.   I love the x and os in the background of this valentines pic.  I did 2 versions of this and it is on a 8x8 in page not the tradtional 12x12.  A dollar store flower taken apart and put back together and a few black hearts made this oen quick and easy page to create.
In this one you can see I added some ticketsalong the bottom a red bracket off to the side and then some asst heart cutouts.
So all in all it was a productive scrappy day for me.  I also did a few new cards up for a set to offer on etsy.
Just simple cards one I used a stamp on that says follow your dreams, another is a  thank you card and lastly one that says cheers.  All are blank inside to write your message on.  I am headed off  to the kitchen this am to start on a batch of mulit grain bread and make some cookie dough up for next week.  Have a blessed tuesday!!
HUGS!~~
Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~