hello sasha.

I realized that I hadn't shared this SIMPLE little album that I made for a sweet friend and her daughter.  Sasha is adopted--she just turned 4.  I was SO happy for my friend and their sweet little addition.  I made this album with some leftover older American Craft products.

A few weeks after I gave this to my friend, she and her Sasha showed up with a handmade thank you card.  AND the album with her "special--most FAVORITE" pictures.  It sure made my heart happy to see that she LOVED this album and keeps it where she can look at it often.

Thanks SO much for visiting today--sure hope your day is WONDERFUL!!

smarty pants.

Today up on the Scrapbook Circle blog this page is featured:

I had the opportunity to "lift" Wendi's layout (for her layout inspiration see the SBC BLOG).  I had fun mixing papers up!
My favorites of this page are:
* the ink splatters.
* Pictures of course!
* the strips of papers on the top to "top off" the page

If you want to be possibly featured or lifted at the Scrapbook Circle blog please share your pages with us on the Scrapbook Circle Facebook page!

Thanks for stopping by--off to do some EXCITING laundry! ;)

pinterest food find. pb chocolate smoothie.

This was a HIT in my house--I used almond milk instead of regular milk....

credit: Happy Money Saver

Peanut Butter Chocolate Smoothie

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup Greek Goddess Honey Yogurt (or vanilla greek yogurt)
• 1 cup fat free half n half or 1% milk
• 8 Tbsp. Creamy Peanut butter
• 8 tsp Cocoa Powder (my low calorie blend) or 1 scoop Chocolate Protein Powder (after workout)
• 3 Ripe banana (optional)
• 12 pieces of ice

This serves 2.

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients to your blender and blend away.

currently reading.

I SO enjoy reading--I especially like it when I find something enjoyable to read that isn't to filled with stuff I don't want to read.  Not to mushy--lovey-dovey, not to ADULT, not to full of swear WORDS, with that list I usually end up reading from the Teen section in the library... So it surprised me when I found SOMETHING in the Adult section of the library that fit my guidelines.  I think it was a suggestion of one of my friends on Goodreads.

I am currently reading the third installment of Whispers on the Moors by Sarah E. Ladd,:

 A Lady at Willowgrove Hall

If you click on the link above it will give you more of a description.  Without giving to much away...it's a historical romance. It's engaging without getting lost in the details.  The story of course has it's little twists and turns so you need to pay attention, but I like that.  I am really enjoying it!

Book #1:

The Heiress of Winterwood

Book #2:

The Headmistress of Rosemere

-if you want something fun but not to heavy these books are GREAT!   Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day!

ella. hello gorgeous

Have you seen the Bella Rouge line by Pink Paislee?  I was lucky enough to get one of the large paper pads--the weight of the paper is nice, I am used to a little heavier and decided I needed to layer the sheets up:

the Hello Gorgeous card is what inspired this WHOLE page--I knew I had this funny picture of our dog Ella (she is a Vizsla)--she is a CLOWN; she really loves the crown on her head AND getting her picture taken. (this was on her 4th birthday).   She is my buddy (along with her other hairy side kick Dakota--the miniature schnauzer--who we call grumpy grandma, she's 13-she's earned it).  She likes to be in what ever room I am in, if I haven't paid enough attention to her in about a half an hour or so she will come over and look at me, curious what I am doing.  I've never had a dog like this one--she cracks me up!

As you can tell I am a dog person, always have been.  In fact when I was little, when we weren't allowed to have a dog, I would check out books about dogs from the library and study them to see what kind of dog would be the best breed.  Every once in a while I would approach my dad with ideas...Until one day I was gifted a puppy--he wasn't too excited about it.  But he is a BIG softy we caught him a week later feeding her candy cane!  She was one of the BEST dogs we ever had and she was a mixed breed...

I'm off and running--AGAIN!  Thanks so much for the visit!

1*2*3*4*5 play

So my week has been SUPER busy--yesterday was especially packed full of things like dentist appointment, soccer games (where I am the booster photographer), lacrosse practice, physical therapy, canning chicken, fixing dinner.  I PACKED all of this in, somehow...anyway, today is a QUIET day--THANK goodness!  So today I decided to just sit down and create--play:

(supplies are from Pink Paislee--Atlas, Bella Rouge and Merry & Bright lines)

closeup (love these numbers!):

I LOVE these action packed pictures of my boy--I had too many to choose from--I had to settle on just four, these are from his field day last year.

Fun little side note, I wanted a fun title using the arsenal white font, but I didn't like how the P looked so I just added an A and layered it on top in the Silhouette studio and welded them together so it became a solid P.  LOVE that I can create my own titles with my silhouette!

Well, this is the calm before the storm I'm sure!  I know this boy wants to go get his "snacks" for his campout this weekend--he told me he wanted to GO with me! ;)

Thanks for the visit today--have a good one!

pinterest food finds. chicken casserole.

only thing I have to say about this recipe is that I would double the sauce, I like it to be a little more covered:

credit: Examiner.com

Ingredients :

• 2 cups cooked chicken, cut in small bite-sized pieces
• 4 cups pasta, cooked and drained, approximately 2 cups uncooked (penne, cavatappi, rigatoni all work well)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons flour
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 cup milk
• 3 cups cheese, grated (cheddar, cojack, Swiss or a combination) – save just a little bit for sprinkling on the top
• ½ tsp. red pepper flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions for making Paula Deen’s Chicken Casserole:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease the inside of a 9 x 13 baking dish.

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat and cook the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent (about 5 minutes) stirring occasionally. Add the flour and whisk together for about 1 minute (this will allow the flour to cook just a little before adding the other ingredients). Add the sour cream and milk, and continue whisking until the mixture has thickened. Remove from heat and add all but ½ cup of the cheese. Add the red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir together, then layer evenly in the bottom of the prepared baking dish.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese evenly over the top of the casserole and bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese on top is melted and the sauce is bubbly. Remove the casserole and let it sit for about 15 minutes prior to serving.

january sketch challenge scrapbook circle.

I LOVE working with sketches especially Diana Fisher's sketches--she is just so darn TALENTED, here is the sketch for the month of January:

Here is my take with a couple closeups:

 yep that's me!  Grew my hair out a bit and I'm liking it--my kids snapped this for me right before heading to church one Sunday, (that seems to be the only day I really fix my hair!)
Anyway, if you participate in the challenge there is a chance for a SWEET prize!  Please check out the BLOG for more information!  Thanks SO much for the visit!!

hello 2015.

I made this layout as a challenge for Scrapbook Circle--how did we ring in the new year.  The plan was to just hand out at home.  Then the day before my hubby got a text from one of his California cousins that they were in town with all of their siblings and wanted to know if we wanted to come hang out?  of course! 

this picture was pretty much taken at midnight--we really had fun playing Telestrations--seriously laughed until I cried and my sides hurt.  I had never heard of it until the kids got it for me for Christmas--seriously LOVE the game.  It's like the telephone game and dictionary together, LOVE it!
Anyway, I created the background and as a fun New Year's gift I have a link to where you can download it for FREE.  So if you would like this fun background (saved in a png. file) go HERE.
Thanks SO much for the visit today--sure hope you have a WONDERFUL day!

adventure trip. case grande national monument.

adventure trip: a sort of planned day outing with family.  which means we have snacks, water, plenty of gas in the car and a general direction of what we are doing but not the time it will take to do it.


I make up things all the time, call things weird names. I do--if I have a tense muscle in my back--which it seems I have all the time, I call it a herman.  I have no idea...really i don't I just call it that....Okay so back to the adventure trip.  A couple of weeks ago we talked about going to a National Monument to help my youngest earn one of his Merit Badges for Scouts.  We talked about several places then I remembered Casa Grande National Monument:

These ruins are about 45 minutes from my house.  You can tell by the people that it's a fairly large structure--4 stories to be exact.  I think the thing that most surprised is that in that it had several compounds--they believed 2,000 people lived in the area--CRAZY!
 hands on experience:

 here are some closeups:

 

it looks smooth from far away but this is what it looks like on the outside walls:

Even though there are stairs inside the ruins--it has been blocked off for years due to vandalism from passing travelers.  

 according to the signage above the current roof was placed there in 1932.  No noticeable changes have happened since the original repairs in 1891--pretty impressive.

 

  what they thought it might look like:

 these water original water bowl was found in tact as they were excavating the site--it's quite large...

my youngest and I in a family selfie in a reflective mirrored door:

 ball court, my hubby really wanted to see this, it's by the parking lot away from the main building, it was thought that they played a ball game in it:

 Me and hubby with a photobombed behind the sign:

it cost us $15 to go, TOTALLY worth it!  You can spend as little or as long as you want, they have an interesting movie and an hour long tour with a tour guide to explore the area.  We opted for the self guided tour, afterward we treated ourselves with large/tall ice cream cones from McDonalds (the ONLY thing that I will eat there!)  I loved our adventure trip and look forward to looking at more ruins in AZ:
we have visited several but want to visit as many as we can!
I have a couple of layouts planned for the pictures I took and the rest will go into my project life.
Thanks for the educational visit today, thought I would share something different!

only girls.

strange title I know.  but my mom is an ONLY girl, I am an ONLY girl, and my girl is an ONLY girl--pretty unique.  Personality wise we are ALL competitive and LOVE/LOVED to play/do sports--we had a mother daughter activity a few years ago at our church and they had someone taking pictures, I don't really like the angle of my head (or my shirt for that matter--what AM I WEARING!)  but I really LOVE the other two people in the picture, I created this page using the All You Need is Love kit from Scrapbook Circle:

Thanks for letting me share a little bit about me and a creation today--have a FANTASTIC one!

4,6,8,10,12

Intrigued?  I made a layout for Scrapbook Circle using this VERY challenge:

this is my ADORABLE niece when we were in California last year.  She was feeding the ground squirrels pickle sunflower seeds.  SO glad I had my camera with me to catch these fun shots!  For the full article on my how to please see the SBC BLOG.  I used the All You Need is Love kit...
Thanks for the visit today!

run down of this past week AND CHA recap.

well thanks for hanging in there with me--your regularly scheduled scrappy post will start again tomorrow!  this past week sort of flew by--soccer games, getting ready to go to CHA (which I will feature here), more soccer game, rescheduled lacrosse tournament (both of which I missed because I was gone)--I REALLY don't like missing my kids stuff...But I did have fun while I was gone:

Friday I "saw" the Duke:

 LOVE this clock I saw in a fun boutique in New Port:

 went to Mama D's with my Posse Jennie, Heather, and Lisa (from Scrapbook Circle)--yum--we bought Hippo Cookies:

 I actually rode on it's a Small World in Disneyland, which was still dressed up for Christmas--the repetitive little children sang a combo of Jingle Bells AND it's a small world--which some how made it bearable:

 

 I saw LOTS of pretty things I was a slacker on the picture taking for some reason (oh yeah, I was WORKING by LOOKING!)  But I did manage to capture this image:

aren't they FANTASTIC?  psst...be on the lookout for a future Scrapbook Circle kit with these in there!

 who knew that string art would make a come back?  Well, it is!  I remember doing this as a child and LOVING it!  The possibilities are ENDLESS!!!

 Saw some fun friends:

UBER talented Deb Duty, and HILARIOUS Suzy Plantamura

 Lisa Spiegel, Heather Leopard

 Amy Tan

 Kimber McGray

 we went to this delicious Mexican Food place called Sabrosa's  it's located in Garden Grove, California--YUM! (guess it was featured on Food Network)

 Next day we placed orders and had a few moments for pictures with the Chickaniddy girls (Heidi Sonbul owner):
so fun to meet Meghaan Andrew (we got to hang out a little bit at Disneyland...):

 We created a cool To do list thing at Jillibean Soup:

(Jennie, Me and Lisa concentrating)

The talented Ms. Tessa Buys modeling the finished product:

 In the Silhouette booth we got to meet Lisa Bearnson--this is my FIRST time, I was SO excited!! She even signed us each an autographed bag, she is truly a SWEETHEART!  Also, got to meet the fabulously talented Jana Eubank.  We also learned some COOL things about the updated program for the cutter.

 I have like 3 of these random feet shots but at different locations--obviously I don't know how my phone works!

 Summer Fullerton--such an energetic and FUN gal!

Okay, one of the other things that truly inspired me was the Minc. by the gifted Heidi Swapp.  Her brain is fun to see process--and it goes QUICK!  We were asking her questions and you could see her wheels just spinning, and she is HONEST--seriously LOVE that!  She told us about the process it took to make this new machine.  (follow the link it describes the machine/line).  She also described conversations that she had with Amy Tan, and Elizabeth Kartchner--encouraging/challenging them to create.  Inspiring them to create new things--it was truly inspiring to see the lifting instead of the tearing down of others!  And oh, yes...I bought one... ;)

This picture just makes me smile--LOVED hanging out and making the most of the time we had!

Obligatory wing of the plane picture (Good bye CHA--til next time):

 so I hope you enjoyed my recap--it took me FOREVER! ;)  There is a lot of GREAT new product this year that we will be featuring in the upcoming Scrapbook Circle kits--seriously EXCITED again to create.  Feel like I have sort of hit a wall and just done the necessary assignments to get by--I feel rejuvenated and EXCITED to create from my heart and mind.  I know I am not the only one because others expressed the SAME sentiments!  I LOVE to create and am looking forward to sharing those creations with you!