In bullet form......

Still trying to keep computer time down to rest my arm as I have to be fighting fit for NSD next weekend !!

• Saturday was hot,hot,hot !
• One very excited and lucky birthday boy.......lots of Lego!

• Bowling birthday party was fun,fun.fun !
• A certain newly 7 year old got to build a bear....thanks Carine :)
• BBQing all weekend
• No scrapping......I'll make up for that next weekend !
• Another scorcher today
• The garden is coming alive.......woohoo !

That's all for today,short and sweet again.

Short and Sweet

This one's going to be short and sweet because I'm supposed to be resting my arm (I've aggravated an old problem and typing/computer stuff makes it worse)but I can't not have a post on a Friday.

This week has flown by,in fact April seems to be flying by.

So a layout......
I made this one straight after making the one I showed of Ad last week.It's pretty much a straightforward lift,I couldn't resist.......I love making Fall pages,sorry it's so small but the title reads,natures best toy...hours and hours of fall fun.

I don't have another layout,I do but I'm behind on photographing them. I do have the first 16 images from my photo a day challenge I've been doing with Patti.It's been fun and can't believe it's nearly over ........

This should go bigger.I had a nature/garden theme this month and now things are beginning to grow it's becoming a little easier and hard somedays to pick one !

Busy weekend ahead as it's my baby's birthday on Saturday......he'll be 7,I can't believe it and he's super excited we've had a count down going on all month.

A layout

Later than I normally manage but here's my layout for this weeks AC blog challenge.The colours are a little off,I have a hard time photographing limey greens !

As I mentioned Monday,I've had these pictures printed and ready to use since last September,so glad I finally got round to scrapping them.Taken at our friends cottage last Labour day weekend,it was such a great weekend.


Supplies: American Crafts.....Paper,Christmas(bushels of fun),Spring&Summer(Teapot) and Backyard(Drip and Ribbit)....Thickers,Smoothie.....Rub-ons,Lauren......Journaling sticker and Chipboard stars.

Others:Cardstock....Bazzill and Making Memories letter stickers.

I think I have a severe case of rectangular right side-a-titus because my last 4 layouts have all been like this.......change is in order.

Chicken Tikka Masala

I'm here this morning with a recipe.
If I'm ordering from a restaurant I'm more of a Rogan Josh,Bhuna curry fan but at home I like to cook this.You can use an indoor grill(broiler) but I like to use the BBQ.

I've made a few changes to the original recipe.For instance it called for a whooping 7 teaspoons of salt,4 in the marinade and 3 in the sauce........I cut it down to half and half but even that was too much so I took it out the marinade and would suggest towards the end of cooking you taste the sauce and add the salt to taste.

It also suggested marinating the chicken for an hour.........I do it in the morning and leave it all day.

I also double up the amount of sauce shown here.........but that's because I'm a sauce type person !!

Chicken Tikka Masala
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

Marinade:
1 1/4 cups plain yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into big bite-size pieces
skewers (metal or wood,if wood,soak for at least 20 minutes)

Sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce (I use crushed tomatoes)
1 cup heavy cream (I use the 35% cooking cream)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional,it's mainly a garnish)

1. In a large bowl, combine yogurt, lemon juice, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, ginger. Stir in chicken, cover with cling wrap, and refrigerate for for at least 1 hour but the longer the better.

2.When you're ready to start.Thread chicken onto skewers and discard marinade. Preheat a grill for high heat.

3. Start the sauce.Melt butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic and jalapeno for 1 minute.Add the cumin, paprika and stir,cook for about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato sauce and cream. Simmer on low heat until sauce thickens, about 20 minutes.

3. As you turn the sauce to a simmer,lower the heat of the grill to medium high and grill the chicken skewers until the juices run clear about 5 minutes a side.

4. When the sauce has thickened slightly after it's 20 minutes,add the chicken pieces from the skewers,taste sauce for seasoning and simmer for a further 10 minutes.

5. Serve,sprinkled with the coriander with either rice,naan bread or both :)


I'll be back later with my AC challenge page. 2 posts in one day to make up for poor blogging this week !

Monday,Monday,Monday !

It's here again,my favourite day of the week.

So the weekend,it was supposed to rain all day Saturday so we ran some errands in the morning but by the time we were home the sun was out,so I spent it pottering around doing this,that,everything and nothing.
Sunday morning was chilly,we spent it watching try outs for baseball but again by the time we were home it was beautiful. I spent all Sunday afternoon in the garden,raking,trimming,weeding.........I love gardening at this time of year,it's not too hot and there are no nasty bugs !

My second autumn in this house my mum and I planted many,many bulbs....I picked crocuses,narcissus,daffodils, all white flowering bulbs and I planted them all over.Well not one of them ever appeared because the nasty squirrels got to them first.So I never bothered planting anymore, however much I love spring flowers because it just seemed a waste of time and money.Why I am I telling this little story .............because look at what I found while raking my front lawn........

One solitary crocus !!
Now I know that my gain is somebody else's loss here because some pesky squirrel has raided a garden and buried this in mine but it was one of those little things moments,it just made me happy.....Stuart didn't seem quite as impressed as me as I made him come and see what I'd found while grabbing my camera !!

No scrapping for me, the nearest I came to anything scrap related was my friskars garden tools !! I do want to try and do the AC blog challenge this week because I have photo's from labour day weekend that have been printed since last October but still not used,so it would be perfect. I have to finish my taxes first though :)

OK I've decided this is the week I have to get my butt kicked into gear over my fitness,especially after eating so much food on Saturday night....so much in fact it was afternoon Sunday before I even felt like eating again ! So I am about to head out for my first run this year......it's going to be hard,it's still a little chilly out there.

Later.......

Yeah,it's Friday !

It seems to have come around really quick this week but I think it's because the boys have only had 3 days of school and I've had lots of errands to run but it turned out to be lovely weather wise,that's always a plus.

Only managed to scrap 1 page this week and rather than show that or my remaining 2 Halloween layouts, I'll dedicate this Friday layout slot to Ad.
I will confess that Ad's albums are considerably thinner than Ol's.Mainly because I started to scrap when he was older and it's a pain having to go through packets and packets of older photo's.I am trying to remedy that through,slowly,very slowly ! I have managed at least 1 older page each month so far.

Anyway these 2 are newer ones......

This one I did back in January.
One of 2 pages I did after having a guilty moment about the amount of paper owed versus used.Despite the amount of paper here(for me anyway) and the tilted photo I like this one.Journaling talks about having to deal with situations you may not like but will help you grow stronger.

This one I made back in March.........

This is my favourite page I have made this year so far and my first layout with computer journaling,only because I was too scared to write on the photo for fear of messing it up ! Love that BG paper and was desperate to use it and I love those OA letter stickers too except the V looked like a U and looked like I couldn't spell,so I cut up a #7 and used that instead.

So here's hoping to a warm sunny weekend that will include......

• More raking and yard work
• Stacking wood in the garage
• A good curry
• Baseball tryouts
• Dinner with girlfriends
• Wine !
• A bit of scrapping
• Photo taking,of course
• Hoovering out the cars.....boring but has to be done !

Until Monday..........

A good weekend.

It most certainly was.
Friday and Saturday we spent most of the time outside,raking leaves,clearing garden beds(well that was my job)taking down the tempo and generally clearing up everything that said winter ! It felt good to be outside after being cooped up for all those months,I hate winter and cannot get into that whole embrace it thing,I just can't,so as a result I hibernate !

We picked the best two days too as yesterday was cold,the Easter bunny was very chilly setting out those eggs early yesterday morning.The boys came back in for hats but refused gloves,they were just thrilled to pose for me !

We took a walk on one of the trails near the house and were out about an hour and that was long enough.I didn't even take my camera as I knew I didn't want to take my gloves off even though I saw quite a few cool images.

We had what will be our last roast dinner until Thanksgiving,slow cooked shoulder of lamb and it was delicious,mmmmmm,followed by cheesecake,which the boys insisted they put mini eggs on....
Excuse the image,it was dark.Just like chocolate chip cookies everyone has their favourite cheesecake recipe but I stand by this one from an older issue of the LCBO's food and drink magazine.I've used other's but nothing beats this one in my book and I've never had a disappointed dinner guest.

I even had time to do a page,another Halloween one,that's it now they are all done from last year.I sorted and organised my paper again too.

Still keeping up and enjoying my photo a day challenge with Patti,we've decided to set each other a challenge for the weekends left in April.

The boys are still off school so today I'll tackle one of the last 2 flower beds(one's still under 3 foot of snow,the last remaining clump left) and get everyone outside for more fresh air.

I changed my banner,still using the tree next door with it's growing buds since all my bulbs are still under snow.

Good Friday Morning !

Did you like my not terribly clever play on words title !!

Just here to post a couple of layouts.
I've been working on last years Halloween layouts and have decided once and for all they are not my favourite subject to scrap along with Christmas.Which is why I have probably not got round to doing them before now.
Not overly happy with either of these,although Oliver really likes his because "it's purple like froggy"

The journaling tells how poor Ol kept being called a witch,he wasn't too pleased about that,at all !
This ones relatively simple.
I did this one of the both of them and Ad's together using practically the same papers,only I can't show you Ad's page as I have to reprint the pictures.... I messed up :)

I did at least get to use my favourite colour combo although nothing says Halloween quite as well as a big red star don't you think ;-)
I think it's safe to say I am am severely lacking in Halloween products.....well ones that go with red and purple anyway. I did at least get to use a piece of BG's black tie.......talk about digging through my stash for something that would go !

Long weekend ahead,nothing set in stone as of yet although it will probably involve all of these but probably not in this order !

• Margaritas
• Sushi
• Garden tidying up
• An egg hunt
• Chocolate :)
• Taking down the tempo
• Roast lamb
• A long walk
• Photo taking
• Cheesecake
• Scrapping
• Movie watching

I'll be back Monday.........

Not pleased........

....to wake up to this sight this morning !



I was getting used to the brown grass and huge amount of leaves left over from fall.

A layout

So as mentioned in my earlier post below here's my layout for this weeks AC blog challenge which was to use the Spring and Summer collection with the Backyard collection on a layout.

I didn't think I'd be able to participate this week, as I remember the Spring and Summer line being quite girlie and since I'd probably wouldn't get the chance to use it I restrained myself from buying any.Well seems I did buy one piece so with that one piece and 2 pieces from backyard I came up with this simple page......


Supplies are American Crafts:Paper...Spring&Summer(Teapot)Backyard(Drip and Boing),Letter Stickers..Remarks cardstock Stickers (Smokey Joes,Whistle Stop and Serendipty),Thickers...star shapes(giggles)Rub-ons...Mini Marks(Hildi)

Others:Cardstock... Bazzill,Pen...Pilot,0.1,Corner punch....EK Success

I've been waiting to scrap those pictures since last summer.I pulled my beloved cardstock stickers out for this one too and those new mini mark brown rub-ons which I've already made a huge dent in !

Weekend report !

The weekend......well Saturday was a wash out,it rained all day.The only good thing about that,it took away a lot more snow.We still have a few big patches but it's going,slowly.
Sunday,it didn't rain but it was cold,I went outside for about 20 minutes to take photo's and that was it for me !
The boys spent most of Saturday building Lego stuff,Ad's working on making a mini movie using the small digi camera,taking still shots and then running them together....it's a work in process.He got to have a sleepover at a friends Saturday and then Sunday Ol had a friend to play with all day.

So between the bad weather and the boys being occupied with friends and Lego I had lots of time to scrap........I'm on a roll again,probably because I know very soon my time is going to be spent outside in the garden.Anyway I managed 3 pages,with 2 planned out and some organization too.
When we did the kitchen reno I moved the CD player into my scrap space but I hadn't used it since Stuart bought me these for Christmas,cute dinky speakers for my ipod.So I moved it into Ad's room,much to Oliver's dismay(I think I may have to look for something cheap for his room for his upcoming birthday...since my 6 year old is more like a teenager than my 12 year old !)So all this meant I had space on my shelf........and so I had a brainwave.When buying stuff for Ad's room I bought one of these that fit into these boxes........well turns out larger rub-ons and borders fit very nicely in here too,in fact much better than Lego pieces ! This freed up some much needed space in the basket I had all this stored in along with my thickers.

Decided my Photo a day for April is going to have a nature/garden theme because that's all I've taken so far,so might as well roll with it ! It could very nearly be call a photo of chippie a day because I just can't stop myself........


Not much else,I've got the dreaded taxes to start filling out today since it's that time of the year,fun stuff like that. The boys are only at school for 3 days this week,so better get anything I need to be done before Thursday.

I'll be back later with my layout for this weeks challenge at the AC blog . I didn't think I'd be able to participate this week as I didn't think I owned any of theSpring/Summer range but I found one piece !

Friday.....already ?

ETA.......I went to edit a mistake I made and hit the draft,not publish button,so now I've lost my comments and part of the original post for some strange reason :(



This week seems to have flown by.
The snow is slowly melting,I can see bits of green and plants are beginning to come to life !

Anyway,Friday is layout day,so scrapbook talk :)
March flew by but I managed to create 7 pages,including 1 older layout so my total so far this year is up to 24,yeah me !

I'm trying to work through my pile of planned(ish)layouts.Sometimes when I think I want to scrap but then don't know quite what I want to do. I either start organising or pull out photo's,often older ones I've not got round to scrapping yet.Then I put together papers and bits and pieces I think I might like to use.More often than not they sit in the 'to be done' folder for far longer than they should because I'll find new pictures I want to use instead !
Anyway this week I pulled 2 things from the file........one is still waiting to be finished but this one,my first layout of April,I whipped up in an hour.....Only because it's pretty much a direct lift of this one here.


This has sat in that folder for over a year and of course like most things I drag out of there,I ended up changing what I had originally picked out.I love making layouts this simple but then I feel a pang of guilt with all the paper that I own !

This was done last month,it started off squarer than this,not sure what happened,it started off loosely based on this one I showed last week......

I love that photo,I've tried many times to sneak pictures like this but they always see me and it's not the same,this time I did it ! The journaling which you won't be able to read because I squeezed it in around the edge,just fitting it on.Explains how Ol will always go and lie on Ad if he finds him laying around,on the floor or sofa.Ad always says he tries to push him off but I don't think he tries very hard.....Ol just adores his brother.

Completely off topic but I just saw a marmot(groundhog) go across the back of the garden......there goes all the new growth !

So far no plans this weekend but I think it will start with one of these !!

We should start to tackle the list of jobs that need to be finished around the house.All those projects that get started and then for whatever reason,often a small one,end up not quite completed,couple of things in the bathroom and kitchen,shelves in Ad's room.

Then starts the list of things that need to be started......such as paint Ol's room,the woodwork in the living/dining room,maybe even our bedroom,since it's the one room that we've done nothing to since we moved in.



Also need to remember to take a photo for my photo a day project

This one's......

For Mary-Ann because she told me I had to do this and I didn't do the last thing she asked me to do after I said I would !

She tagged me to list 15 songs or albums which are significant to me in some way.

I've often thought about this. A lot depends on the mood you're in at the time but I also think there are just some albums or songs you just never tired of the ones you can play whenever or over and over and never grow sick of or songs that just bring memories flooding back.
This was hard,I could of listed 50,I did have to narrow it down from 20.Had to give the chop to Coldplay,Duran Duran,The Pixies,Pulp and The Wonder Stuff.I love music,you can take away my TV with pleasure but not my music ! I tried to list them in some sort of order of preference to the best of my ability but without a doubt number one is number one for sure.

Also,because I obviously have nothing better to do with my time I've linked them(either You Tube or Last FM ) as best can by their numbers.

So if about to be marooned on an island I would fill my ipod up with these for memories and just because........

#15..... Only by the night by Kings of Leon It's 15 because it's relatively new but I have played this so much and I can listen to it over and over and over.He has a very distinctive voice that I think you either love or hate........I love it,it's a just because one !

#14..... Say Hello,Wave Good bye by Soft Cell Reminds me of being in the grungy common room at Kings Lynn Tech and the best Soft Cell song, forget the over played Tainted Love !

#13 ...... Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash This and Jackson reminds me of my dad.I'd skip around the living room to this one :)

#12..... Good riddance(Time of your life) by Green Day My favourite Green Day song,this and the next track reminds me of my times with my friend Nichole.

#11........ Bullet with Butterfly Wings by Smashing Pumpkins As mentioned above I got into this band by a friend and reminds me of Sheffield.Just love the very start of this and was really surprised and pleased when it was used as the theme music for the Whale Wars series last fall. Best played very loud.

#10..... Nevermind by Nirvana Saturday nights while at University we'd go to this dive of a club and without fail they'd play something from this album and the whole dance floor(I use the term dance in it's loosest form )would ignite.I can't even remember the name of the club and that probably says something about the state I was in while there !!

#9..... Eyes Open by Snow patrol Another CD I can play repeatedly and never tire of.Worth it just for 'Set fire to the third bar' with Martha Wainwright,beautiful.

#8...... Protection by Massive Attack I'm not a big fan of dance/electro/bass stuff.That said I love massive Attack and got into them through an Ex.This track has the voice of Tracy Thorn(Everything but the girl) and for some reason reminds me more of my college friend Carol than the Ex,thank God !

#7 ..... Vs by Pearl Jam This is one of the few albums that we have 2 copies of since both Stuart and I owned it.I love Eddie Vedders voice.It was a hard choice between this and 'Ten' because I love Once and Alive but this won because I could listen to Daughter over and over again.

#6.....People by Hothouse flowers This album on vinyl got played to death.This came out at a time when I was coming out of my Goth phase into a hippy/folky phase before the Grungy phrase.So reminds me of Yarmouth Art college.

#5 ..... Running up that Hill by Placebo I love Kate Bush and I'm not a huge fan of covers but I thought this was amazing from the very first time I heard it. Mary-Ann you'll probably hate it :)

#4..... Each man Kills the Thing he Loves by Gavin Friday Hugely underrated singer/songwriter formerly of the weirdly wonderful Virgin Prunes.Played this to death on vinyl too and didn't find a CD version until I came to Montreal.

#3.....Song to the siren by This Mortal coil or music to slit your wrists too as Stuart would say.I first heard this on the Annie Nightingale Sunday evening radio show when I was about 15/16 and was just enthralled.I recently bought a few of my fave This Mortal Coils songs from itunes since all my stuff by them is on vinyl.

#2..... Skin and Bones by Foo Fighters Is it the best FF album.....NO! but it has my favourite Foo song ever (Everlong) on it and they do acoustic rather well :)

#1..... The Joshua Tree by U2 My vinyl copy of this is scratched to pieces and this was my first ever CD I bought.I loved this album,from start to finish,it's just classic stuff.It came out while I was still at high school.Bono at his hottest too :)


A quick google search brought me up the images and I think I have a new layout practically done !

I'm not going to tag anyone else but if you're stuck for a blog post this is as good a start as any and if you do,let me know here in the comments so I can check it out.

April Fools Day

April the 1st,that soon came around.I did think about making up some ludicrous story and then coming back later with a "tricked you" but I couldn't think of anything worth while !

I need a new photo for my header but it's still very snowy out my window right now :(

I nearly forgot too,that I said I would do another photo a day when April came around.I think I have my shot for today already,I'll post them all on my other blog though.

OK this was just a quickie.......back later with a mammoth post courtesy of a tag!