Monday, Monday

So glad it's a new week.......this is a photo heavy post as I don't have much to say.Plus I've had really intermittent Internet connection all weekend so I hope I don't get cut off. A while ago I learnt about the 'post options' button so I've also written Wednesdays post too.It's all set and ready to go even if I have no connection :)

We all spent the best part of Saturday in the garden,the boys both had friends over so they spent all day outside too.
I weeded all my flower beds,all 8 of them and Stuart found a robins egg in the grass.

Which is a shame,obviously she got spooked off her nest or didn't have it ready in time.

Oliver made this cute ladybird for the garden at school for Mothers day.......

So I let him decide where he wanted to put it and it's got pride of place on the front steps !

I took quite a few photo's around the garden,I think they should look better clicked bigger......

The tulips are out and blooming and so are the leaves.....


This one is the same tree as in my header after just 3 days........

I can't believe how much everything has grown,it makes me very happy to see all that green and bits of colour out there.
No scrapping time though,unfortunately but hopefully this week in between getting outside and working on the garden some more.

Ramblings and layouts

Another week coming to an end and it looks like being a rainy one this weekend. I'd planned a few outdoors things to do,Oh well I can hope they are wrong.So whats on the agenda for us this weekend ?

• Registration for the pool......hope it's not the 3 hour disaster it was last year !
• Some yard work
• A walk
• Maybe some scrapping ?
• Good bottle of wine..................it is Mothers day this weekend after all !
• BBQing...the rain never stops us doing that !

I'm sitting here and the 2 chipmunks we have,who live on either side of the garden are having a really vicious scrapping session and not the paper and scissors kind..............it's getting ugly !

OK onto scrap stuff.
In April I created 10 pages including 1 older photo's page so that brings my total this year to 34.

When Patti and I did our photo a day challenge we also agreed to make a layout from it within the following week......Patti made her page last weekend and I'm a day late but it's here now......

I based it along the lines of my October and December pages except I printed the photo's a little bigger than I would have liked and it's purple circle under my yellow chipboard flower.

This one I made last weekend......

The photo's are from last fall,Voyager provincial park just over the border in Ontario.For the last 3 years we've been taking a walk here in the Autumn,we were a bit late this year but it was still pretty.

Thats all I have,back next week :)

A layout

As I mentioned yesterday I was taken by the challenge this week on the American Crafts blog which was to create a layout from your favourite ad....set to work and whipped this one up pretty quick....for me anyway !
I have a pile of ads I've ripped out over the years,hard to choose a favourite one so I went with the top one,which was this ......

and created this layout,using the top part as inspiration,the top pictures/colour blocks with words............
American Crafts products.......
Paper:Travel( Reservation),Kids(Red Rover),Play (?)
Thickers: Subway
Mini Mark Rub-ons: Laurel.
Other supplies.....Cardstock...Bazzill.

Another page with older photo's,hence the poor quality of the pictures (this one definitely looks better in real life) but at least Ad's younger years album is beginning to fill up. This one tells about when we first moved here we found a Loblaws on Jean Talon and every week when we'd go and get groceries Adam would get something painted on his face.........without fail !

New Week,New Month

That was my chant this morning.
I have got to get back on and keep to my fitness plan.So as soon as the boys were on the bus I went out aiming to run and I felt good,it was warm....a little too warm,should have put shorts on ! and my legs felt good, my lungs didn't feel like exploding but my shoulder let me down.............I use my arms quite heavily when I run ............in a sort of propel me forward and make this over faster sort of way ! So at 3 km I stopped and walked it, briskly.....damn.Looks like being a couple of looooong walks this week,or maybe I'll try cycling see how that feels....I will not give up :)

Anyway despite that,what a beautiful start to the week not a cloud in the sky and what a fun weekend.This is what my dining room normally looks like..........

This is what it looked like Sunday morning (sorry had to make do with my p&s camera for this one)......... after a full days scrapping on Saturday !

Yes my boys left and my girlfriends came,bright and early.
We scrapped,talked,ate,drank,laughed and even managed a walk....and we were all fairly productive.I set myself a fairly low tally of being happy with 2,ecstatic at 3 and actually produced 4 with a fifth one started....not bad at all.My shoulder felt great so obviously scrapping must help so I think that's what I should pop off now and do..........I just saw that the AC blog challenge this week is an ad challenge,always something fun to do so I think I might try that.

With all the scrapbooking talk I'll leave you with a page,it's not from this weekend,I still have to photograph those.This is an old one from last September based on this sketch.....I don't think I ever posted it online.

Regular blog posts will be back..........

...hopefully next week !

I'm still limiting my computer time regarding my arm/shoulder,so nothing to show or say really,except I haven't scrapped for nearly 2 weeks so hopefully I will get a page or 2 or 3 done this weekend.....in celebration of National Scrapbooking Day on Saturday (yes really there is such a day !) and it will probably flow into Sunday too............the boys are away for the weekend.

This weeks been a wash out regarding fitness..........I did so well last week,2 days of running and 1 class and this week couldn't do anything.So I will (fingers crossed) get back on it next week and stick to it.Hopefully the path markers will be put up soon and I can run my favourite route because it's amazing what difference they make to the cars whizzing past.

No page today but I'll leave you with all 30 images from my photo a day challenge I did this month with Patti.........better images can be seen on my other blog here. As making them all square cuts off some of the image it should click bigger !


Hopefully we'll do it again in June with some changes :)

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!

Back with a layout.....

Two posts in one day !
As promised below here's a layout........

It's another layout for the Friday challenges on the American Crafts blog.I don't really need an excuse to scrap with AC products but a challenge is as good a place as any to start a layout from.This week it was use the Craft Fair collection for a non girlie themed page........

Supplies are American Crafts....... Craft Fair Papers(Elenore Battington,Myrtle O'Seam,Pearl Bobbinhauser),Thickers(Eggnog),Rub-on Letters(Kate,minimarks) and Journaling Sticker.Cardstock,Bazzill and Heart sticker,October Afternoon.

Whipped this simple one up Friday afternoon before the boys came home from school.Oliver and the class mascot Harmonie.He was so excited to bring that bunny home,luckily it was Thanksgiving so we had plenty to write about on the page we had to do for the class book.
I wrote a little more journaling on the back explaining how I spent the weekend calling the bunny "Harmony" and Ol correcting me every time with "No Mummy it's 'am-mon-nee' remember you don't pronounce the H" !

OK well lots of little things going on this week,hoping the rain stops and we see some sun soon.

Here again..........

Monday morning.
It's dull and raining so no problem in getting started on cleaning the house today,bathrooms done,beds changed,laundry underway,house vacuumed.....so time to grab a coffee and catch up here.

The weekend .............

• Took a road trip......just because !
  
• By the time we hit Ontario there was no snow !
  
• Saw thousands of geese(Canada and snow)
  
• 10 Wild Turkeys
  
• 1 Porcupine.......up a tree!
  
• 17 degrees and sunny on Saturday.......gorgeous
  
• Even if the GPS seems to be taking you to hillbilly hell it will get you out :)


• But don't rely on it to find the closest gas station......but when you do.....


• 74 cents......fill it up !!
  
• Didn't take 1 photograph
  
• Saw Monsters Versus Aliens 3D........great effects,boys loved it.
  
• Came home,in the rain to dirty snowy garden.

So that was the weekend in a nutshell !

Going back to the movie,it was fun,Bob was our favourite character,not hard to work out how it was going to end but the effects made up for it.For me one of the best bits about going to actually see a movie is the trailers !!
Lots of 3D movies coming out one that everyone thought sounded good except me "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" "Up" looks interesting and "Ice Age 3" we all liked the look of that one !
Non 3D :)"Harry Potter" everyone wants to see that one except Ol and nobody except me thought "Where the Wild Things are" looks amazing.

Since I took no photo's this weekend I'll be back later with a layout........

A couple more layouts

It's Friday.......it's been a busy but pretty unproductive week,hate that.

A short and sweet post today as there's not much to report, so I'll get on with just posting a couple of layouts and be done !

I finished this one last week,not loving it I think I should have left it how I had it in the beginning but it's done !

There's no journaling,which I don't like to do but the title and photo say it all,love that photo of the boys from last summer.
I think I've used that Grafton line by Scenic Route for most of my layouts from last summers cottage photo's !! It just goes so well,I pull other stuff out but always come back to that one.

I didn't use it here though ;) I made this one back in January,super simple double page........

Photo's from our holiday at our friends cottage last July.Roll on summer !
Which leads me nicely into saying a lot of these photo's made it into my favourites for July over here :) where you can see them better,if you want that is ! Since this has come out rather small.

Hopefully later today I'll have time to upload favourite(s) #8 over there too.

Busy weekend ahead but a good type of busy !

A layout...

and it's not even Friday :)

I finished this one on Saturday but it's taken me all week to photograph it ! I really wanted to use the new AC Backyard papers and had this one pretty much planned out and ready to go.Then I saw the challenge on the American Crafts blog to use 3 different times of thickers on a page.Well I had one picked out already so added in two more and it was done............


Everything on the page is American Crafts and the Thickers are:

GIGGLES(super) EGGNOG(soaker)and SUBWAY (date)

So,another layout completed with older photo's,Ad's early years album is slowly filling up !

Back tomorrow with a couple more layouts.......

and Monday went where ?

I have no idea.........boys had a ped day but both ended up at friends houses so I still had the house to myself but somehow got nothing really accomplished.Looks like today could well be heading the same way too.........Oh well !!

I've been doing more sorting and tidying.

Warning......Reminiscing ahead.........

I'm disappointed though because you know when you're sure you've put something somewhere and then it isn't there ? Well I was sorting through old stuff from my Art college/Uni days.I've dumped tonnes of stuff from this era,most of it before we moved overseas because I just wasn't sure I would have the room for it.Turns out I always have and I'm sorry now that so much of it is gone.
Anyway I remember being set this project about colour.Mixing the colour from the primaries in gouache and the effects of what a little or a lot of one colour or the addition of black and white and what it could do.Well it produced pages and pages of tiny colour charts in a sketch book.We then had to pick our favourite colours,re mix them,paint them up large(so we could cut them up into small pieces) and the mix and match them with each other.Bare with me I'm getting to the point :) So I had all these cool colour combo's in sets in my book and I thought it would be fun to look at them now,see if they were still inspirational...............well I can't find that book and I know it was one of the few sketchbooks I kept because I put a lot of time into that project.
Bugger !
I did find these 2 things tucked away,not sure why I kept this one,it was part of a collection at college but it never made the final cut.......

My God,could that woman be any thinner or taller !! I always drew these tall,long limbed skinny women,used to make my dad laugh.

This one too,I think this was my Tudor underwear/Sinead O'Connor phase........

I'm not at all sure why I kept this one either?

I have one other place the missing sketchbook could be but that's tucked away in the garage and I'm not tackling anything in there until our annual spring garage clean out !!

Not much else to report,it's glorious and sunny but cold,I so want to be done with my winter coat !

Off to help at the library......

It's here..........Spring !!

Yep it's officially spring today.....Woo Hoo.I am so,so,so pleased about this !
This year it really feels like it could be too ! Yes,it's a tad chilly out there this morning but the 2 week forecast is giving above average temperatures.It's also giving some rain,not too thrilled about that but at least it will wash away all the dirty,disgusting piles of snow that are still here.

So I had to quickly whip up a card for Mother's day,since it's Mothering Sunday in the UK this weekend.I had these papers left on my desk after I'd made a page,so used them to create this..............

Super simple but I think she'll like it !

What else ? Well since it's Spring and I'm all excited about plants and flowers,how about this double page that's in the current Creating Keepsakes magazine.....

The photo's ( that aren't very clear here,unfortunately,) were from Victoria day weekend last year at our friends cottage.

On the topic of my friends cottage as I've been sorting pictures for my favourites on my other blog I came across our dragonfly pictures that I've never posted,so I put those there too,just here ! in case you want to take a look !
Still flower/spring related,well sort of.....

A page from February.I don't think you can see the photo's that well but I loved them.The one in the bottom right has a dandelion seed on it and it's all covered in dew.This was one of those pages I just made because I loved the pictures.

Easy weekend ahead,weather's looking sunny so hopefully lots of fresh air and some BBQing,a little get together with some great girl friends on Saturday,should be fun :)

OK better stop wasting time on the computer and get my act together as I've got to get groceries and tulips !

Rosemary

I love rosemary,the herb that is.So here's two recipes I make fairly often that use it.
Both very different.
Sorry no photo's again,I will add them when ever I next cook these dishes.Had I been organised enough I would of had this all planned with piccies but since it was a spur of the moment thought on Monday,I don't.
That's why I don't do spur of the moment very well or very often :)

The first is a pasta one,using chicken and chorizo but I've made it with only chicken and added a good pinch of smoked paprika and with only chorizo(I just added more chorizo and reduced the stock to 100ml)Both are good.If I haven't had the lima beans(butter bean) I've used white kidney beans(cannellini)

Mediterranean Chicken

Serves 4

150g Chorizo,roughly diced
1 tbsp Olive oil (if needed,sometimes the chorizo produces enough)
4 chicken breasts or 8 chicken thighs,chopped into big bite size pieces
1 onion sliced
1 tbsp tomato paste(puree)
400g chopped tomatoes
200ml hot chicken stock
leaves from 3 sprigs of rosemary
100g pitted black Olives
400g lima beans(butter beans)

Pasta to serve,penne is best.

1. Heat a large frying/saute pan over a heat heat,add the chorizo.Cook for 2/3 minutes until lightly browned and the oil has begun to run.Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

2. Add the olive oil if needed,and add the chicken to the pan.Cook over a medium heat for 3/4 minutes,stirring occasionally.Add the onions and cook for a further 3 minutes.
Stir in the tomato paste and cook for a minute.

3. Add the tomatoes,stock and rosemary,bring to the boil,then simmer gently for 10 minutes.

4. Stir in the olives,beans and cooked chorizo.Simmer for a further 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced a little.Season to taste.

5. Serve over the pasta :)


Next one !!


This ones more wintry and don't be put off by the lentils,it's really,really good !!


Spicy sausage and lentil one pot

Serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil
6/8 spicy sausages (I use the Italian ones)
1 large onion,chopped
1 large carrot,diced
2 cloves of garlic,finely chopped
1 bay leaf
2/3 sprigs of rosemary
250g puy lentils
600ml hot vegetable or chicken stock
400g chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley(optional)

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan and fry the sausages for 8-10 minutes until beginning to brown.Remove from the pan and set aside.

2. Add the onion,carrot and garlic to the pan and fry on a medium heat for 3/4 minutes until the onions are soft and just lightly browned.

3. Return the sausages to the pan(I cut mine in to 3 to 4 big pieces first but you can keep them whole if you want)Stir.

4. Add the bay leaf,rosemary sprigs,lentils,hot stock and tomatoes.Bring it all to the boil.Then reduce the heat and simmer gently,covered for about 45 minutes,or until the lentils are tender.If you feel it needs more liquid just add a little water.

5. Remove the bay leaf and sprigs of rosemary(should only be the stalks left!) and season to taste.

6. Serve sprinkled with the parsley,if using and some steamed greens and wholewheat chunky bread.



That's it recipes done for now ! Back tomorrow with a couple of layouts and a card and unimportant ramblings !

Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding

Mmmm,this is a great dessert,it would be good for brunch too.
Quick and easy too.
As a kid I never liked bread and butter pudding because I didn't like raisins very much and I thought it was stodgy ! This is much lighter.Stuart decided to make it after seeing it in my copy of this months Canadian living.We added more bread,cooked it as a whole rather than individuals and used chocolate sauce rather than caramel.As I never seem to make anything as it states ! I do have a picture today but it's not the best.........my battery died after 2 shots obviously I was oblivious to the flashing battery symbol !

Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding

Serves 8 to 10

3 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg

2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup raisins
2 tbsp butter(melted optional,we did us it!)

8 slices of Sun-Maid Raisin Bread cut into cubes

Heat the oven to 350 F (180 C)
Combine eggs,sugar,vanilla,salt and nutmeg.
Stir in the bread cubes.
Let stand for at least 5 minutes or refrigerate over night (Really I would say it needs at ;east an hour to soak)
Pour into a,7x9inch ovenproof dish,that will fit inside a roasting pan.Add hot tap water to the baking pan until it comes half way up the sides of the dish.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

I served this warm with chocolate sauce(chocolate chips melted with a little cream)

I also have something similar with croissants and chocolate......mmm might have to try and find that one too :)

Nothing to do with Ireland !

Well it's St Paddy's day but I don't have an Irish inspired recipe,sorry.I do but it's so lovely and sunny and spring like I'm not going to post a Stew recipe !

I couldn't decide between simple,versatile Spicy Tomato sauce(which was a 3 for one deal !!) or Mushroom Quesadillas .....................

Quesadillas won !! I make these a lot in the summer served with this bean salad You don't have to use the really big mushrooms,I often buy the smaller ones.It's really one of those recipes that you can work to how you like it,use the ingredients amountsas an example.
Sorry I don't have any photo's,next time I make them I'll try and remember to put one here.


Roasted Portabella Mushroom Quesadillas

Serves 4

Allow 2 tortillas per person for a lunch,maybe 3 and a half for dinner served with a salad.

8 portobello mushrooms(generally I allow one mushroom per quesadilla)
6 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper

8 large flour or whole wheat tortillas
4 cups grated cheddar Cheese (I think goats cheese would be yummy too but haven't tried that yet !)
2 cup chunky tomato salsa(I use medium heat)
1/2 cup coriander leaves chopped


1. Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).

2. Trim stems of mushrooms parallel to cap or remove completely and place in a non metallic dish.Mix the oil with the vinegar and pour over the mushrooms to cover them. Season well with salt and pepper.

3. Place on baking sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender. Thickly slice and divide each mushroom into 4 to 6 portions.

4. Lay one tortilla on counter.Sprinkle 1/4 cup cheese over half the tortilla. Lay 4/6 mushroom portions on top of cheese. Top with 1/4 cup tomato salsa, another 1/4 cup cheese and a good sprinkling of the coriander leaves. Fold tortilla over and press down.

5. Heat a non stick skillet or frying pan on medium heat. Place tortilla in skillet.(you can fit 2 at a time) Fry underside until browned, about 1 to 2 minutes. Flip over and fry second side until golden and cheese is melted, another 1 to 2 minutes. Repeat with other tortillas.

6. Let cool slightly and cut in to 3.....................eat fast before everyone else does :)

Hot and Spicy BBQ Rub

As promised back with recipes,well not strictly recipes,rubs for making stuff taste yummier !

I've used this rub on a number of things,anything with skin on works best !! My favourite is on rotisserie chicken,which I could eat every Sunday during BBQ season,which is pretty much April to October in our house :)

I can't remember if this is what we've used when making burgers? That could have been the steak one !

I have a lot of spices on hand,if you don't then yes,I suppose it works out a little expensive.But,by the time I've made all my favourite rubs up for the summer I've used pretty much everything I've had to buy.This way,like most stuff I cook at least I know exactly what's going in here.

Hot and Spicy BBQ Rub.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups and will keep for 3/6 months.I make double this in spring and it barely lasts till the end of summer !

1/2 cup sweet paprika
1/4 cup chili powder
3 tbsp salt
2 tbsp ground coriander
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp hot mustard powder
1 tbsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp cayenne pepper

Simply mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and transfer into a airtight container.
Store in a cool dry place.

Just for you Mary-Ann.........

Mediterranean Rub.

This is wonderful on roasted veggies,in fact it's the only thing I use on my veggies when we BBQ ! Also good for potato wedges,on fish,chicken pork..........

Now it does seem to include a large amount of salt...........I'm fine with that here as I barely use salt in anything else.Trust me it's worth it :)

Makes about a cup but again I make double as I use it all the time,all year round.

1/4 cup dehydrated garlic flakes
1/4 cup kosher salt
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp chili flakes
2 tbsp chicken stock powder
2 tbsp dehydrated onion flakes
1 tbsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp dried marjoram(or oregano will do)
1 tbsp coarsely ground fennel seeds
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp cayenne pepper

Simply mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and transfer into a airtight container.
Store in a cool dry place.

Lovely Monday !

I'm here enjoying a well deserved cup of coffee.Both bathrooms are shiny,house is hoovered,laundry done,windows cracked open a little,the sun is shining.....everything is good !

Spring is definitely in the air,yesterday,while we were on a little drive I saw 2 flocks of geese..........got to be a good sign.We also saw a herd of deer,about 15 in total,not the best picture as they were in a few fields over.

Out the corner of my eye just now I either just saw Chippie scramble past or else it was a big mouse or small rat.........I'll go with Chippie :)

It's been sunny and warm,all weekend and what a good weekend it was too.
Signed both boys up for their summer sports,Ol choose soccer(can't believe I actually call it soccer now!) and Adam stuck with baseball.
I got to read,finished my book and I scrapbooked.
We spent quite a bit of it seeing my wonderful pal Carine and her clan.Friday for dinner,(BBQ !)Then Sunday we went and saw Mackenzie play goalie in Hockey and then ended up having supper there again,where we brought over a rotisserie chicken.I'm mentioned this so that it flows nicely into me saying I'm going to try and post a recipe a day this week(except Friday,that's layout day !) and the first one will be the fore mentioned BBQ chicken rub recipe !

Back later with it..........

Friday the 13th (again !)

It's taken me forever to get this post,posted.
Stupid Internet or really,stupid wireless !! Nothing more frustrating than seeing you're connected with a good signal and not being able to get your email connected or pages to load.
Now it seems to be perfect,everything is fast,strange !

Just in case I'll make it brief,here's my favourite page from last month.....

I used some older photo's,I made a mistake in the journaling because I wrote 11 but it's actually 12 years ago these pictures where taken,but decided to leave it(huge step for me !!) Looking at those pictures,part of me thinks it seems such a long time ago and another part thinks it seems like yesterday.......can not believe he'll be 13 and in high school so very soon.

I've been going through all my papers and if there's a line I've yet to use I've been making myself use it and that American Crafts above was one and this Basic Grey(mixed with a piece of paper I bought when I first started,that scrapworks brown/white dot) was another.........

I was so glad when that tooth fell out because Ol had been torturing me with how loose and wiggly it was for ages.I hate wiggly teeth !

All supply info I list on my flickr pages on the side there or here !

Off for supper at friends tonight,should be fun as always and then so far nothing planned for the weekend,except signing up the boys for summer sports.So we'll play it by ear,those are always the best.

All the warm/cold weather seems to have brought on the sniffles so I think I'm good for nothing other than a little scrapping this morning,plus I'm running out of pages to show !

Mid week

What a dreary day it is....yuck.
The only plus is it's rained so much there's no snow left on the driveway.............plenty everywhere else though.

Well I promised to post today but don't have much to say so I'll post a layout.
I have barely scrapped over the last couple of weeks but I'm itching to get started again and have one on my desk now.After my scrapping frenzy of January it tailed off in February and I only made 6 pages but I did manage one older layout in there.So my total for this year is 17 pages,not too bad.

So,this one's super simple and was inspired by this one .

I made it last month and thought I'd post it now as I've been loading my favourite monthly photo's on my other blog,to while a way the time over there until I start a photo a day again in April.

OK,more layouts Friday on my normal layout day :)

What,Where ?

Did the last week go ? !

I had good intentions of posting here,Wednesday and then Friday but it didn't happen.I do aim to do that this week though and since I've written it I'd better stick to it !

Most of the week was spent tidying,sorting,as started last week and it went pretty well,still a couple of little things to do in Ad's room and a whole ton of stuff to do in ours but it's nearly there.
As we had to move the computer out,it meant going wireless,as I didn't fancy paying Videotron money to come and move the incoming point.It posed a few problems but it seems to be working fine now.
ETA.....no it's not fine,stupid thing keeps throwing me off all the time,grrrr computers :)

Boys are still off today,since it's a Ped day and with that lost hour yesterday I think they needed it as today was the first day they actually manged to sleep in.

Yesterday was gorgeous,Stuart even got a little sun burnt on his face since he spent most of it sitting on the back deck !! Managed to take a photo to enable me to change the header,buds forming on the neighbours tree,I was sick of seeing the snow up there.I needed something clean and fresh,I'd been searching all my old photo files last week but had nothing I could use so very glad of the opportunity yesterday !

This was how warm it was(for my English readers,to be outside in this type of clothing in march is marvelous)even if it was just one day. We went for a walk and just soaked it up.

He's dropping an apple core into one of the holes the little red squirrel uses under the snow ! Of course it cold,dull and snowy again today.

There was/is a tag going around on Facebook and blogs,25 things about me and I had made Mary-Ann post hers on her blog and promised to do the same but after getting stuck at about 20 and reading through it I decided nobody needed to know this stuff ! So sorry mate :)

OK,better get my backside into gear for the day,be back Wednesday with something,even if I have to make it up !

The saying goes....

...Rome wasn't built in a day,well that's my chant for today.Nine o'clock this morning I started clearing out closets,making piles of stuff,by eleven after surveying the surroundings I was almost wishing I hadn't started,almost!

This room was tidy this morning.I took the picture of the least messy room,this is what is supposed to be Ad's new room by the weekend........

The house looks like a bombsite,piles of things waiting to be put in their new place.(Ikea trip with long list planned for tomorrow ) bags of clothes and toys to donate,hoping to drop that off tomorrow in town.Then I have a couple of piles of stuff set aside for friends.A huge container of the Brio railway track that I think I'll see if I can sell because Ol was never really that into it,like Ad was and it's taking up too much room.

So it's four thirty and I'm having a well earned cup of tea and thinking I've had enough for today,that is after I've taken out the 2 bags of garbage and recycling I've accumulated.

This is what will be keeping me busy all week but I'll try and come back later in the week with some pages.