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.