Thought for Thursday.

honest Abe.

my focus today was on the "wood" included in the Today is the Day kit by Scrapbook Circle.  This layout was featured on the blog yesterday.

here are some closeups:

These pictures were taken last fall.  My family and I went on a trip of a life time, I NEVER thought I would be able to go back east to see such historical places.  I LOVED it, we went several places in 10 days.  This was our first stop after a red eye and no sleep; Gettysburg.

For this layout I printed both of my pictures on the same 4 x 6 sheet, I made each picture a 3 x 4 in photo shop elements.  THIS youtube video gives you a step by step on how to do it, it's really handy and super easy!

After I printed my pictures I then matted them with white then I wanted some pop of color against the wood grain so I added the blue.  To add a bit more blue to the layout I used the tiny letters as part of the title..

I got a little hybrid and printed off my journaling with Traveling Typewriter, a free font I downloaded from DaFont from HERE.  Don't ya just LOVE typewriter fonts?  When I printed and cut my strips I didn't worry to much about being even, I just trimmed them as close to the words as I could get and still be able to read the journaling...

mother's day.

closeups:

I created this page for my June idea gallery at Scrapbook Circle, I used the Now or Never kit.  (there are still a few left, click on the link to pick yourself up one!)

 
This page was a fun one for me as I was try to "embrace" the white space.  Honestly this was difficult to leave all that unused space at the bottom.  But after I finished the page I was completely happy with the result, even though the creative process made me STRETCH! ;)

I really love that I took my camera that day, I was not only able to capture my cute mommy and me, my kids and I but also my brothers with my mom.  Pictures are AWESOME, don't shy away from taking them (even if you are using your cellphone)--I look at these and am reminded of a wonderful day spent with my family.

pinterest food find. baked ravioli

who knew you could do this?!  My daughter and I went to a graduation party a couple of months ago and someone was serving these--I couldn't get enough!  They are crunchy and delicious, it's more of an appetizer but we seem to do things a bit differently in my house because we made this a meal, with a salad and veggies--it was a hit!

photo and recipe credits: My Sequined Life

Ingredients

• 1 12-oz package refrigerated ravioli
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1 1/2 tbsp dried chopped onion
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• Olive oil spray, or cooking spray
• Marinara sauce, or desired dipping sauce

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F and place an oven-safe wire rack on a baking sheet. Spray rack with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a bowl, add egg and water and whisk until egg yolk, egg white, and water are evenly combined and mixture is light.
3. In a separate bowl, add breadcrumbs, onion, basil, parsley, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes and stir or whisk until combined.
4. Dip each ravioli in the bowl with the egg mixture, and then coat ravioli with breadcrumb mixture, pressing breadcrumbs onto the ravioli to help them adhere. Place ravioli on the rack. Repeat for all ravioli. Once all on the tray, spray ravioli with olive oil or cooking spray.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until ravioli are golden brown and crisp. Remove and let ravioli cool for a minute or two before serving with warm marinara sauce (or your desired sauce).

cultural celebration.

up close:

 LOVE this picture of my boy and his friends:

I used the exclusive cut from Scrapbook Circle to create the background of this layout-then backed it with one of the pattern papers included in the kit.

The assembly was fairly simple, as after I backed the paper I sewed around the edges then added the picture title, journaling and a few embellishments.

Love candid pictures, I just turned around with my camera and this is how these silly boys posed! ;)

Friday Funny. Surviving the Attic!

oh my!

my movie/tv show currents.

In the past month I have enjoyed A LOT of indoor entertainment as it has been so STUPID hot, like 110 and above.  Here's my list:

The Secret Life of Pets.  This was a CUTE movie!  My youngest and I went to go and see this while the other three in our family went to see The Shallows.  The Shallows wasn't something I even had a desire to see, HATED Jaws-knew I wouldn't like any of that...I have an active imagination...I don't need help with scary....

Doc Martin.  This is one of my favorite TV shows!  It's on Netflix right now, it's rated TV-MA, but I'm not sure why.  He is a doctor and sometimes there are some scenes of him sewing people up.  But not anything vulgar, suggestive, or bad language.  His character is awkward, dry, and hilarious.  They just added new seasons so I was excited for it to come up, we rented the 7th season and are eagerly awaiting the 8th and final season to come out!

KC Undercover.  Classic Disney cheesiness, but it makes me laugh!  Actually our whole family sits down and watches this one, it's about a family of spies.  It's on Disney Channel.

Girl meets World.  Another classic Disney, light, silly show based on Boy meets world, he is all grown up with family of his own.  I think I'm the only one in my house that really enjoys this one.  What can I say?  I remember back when Sundays was the day we got to watch the Disney movie....my whole family would sit down and watch it together.  You can see this on Netflix and on the Disney channel.

Race. I LOVED this movie!  It was based on the real life of Jesse Owens--the acting was great, even though I knew what was going to happen I truly enjoyed it.  My whole family + my parents watch this one for family night and everyone enjoyed it!

and finally:

Concussion.  WOW, this was a POWERFUL movie based on a true story.  Will Smith was AMAZING (he is one of my FAVORITES).  This one was WOW powerful!  My kids really enjoyed this one too, I was surprised that my  youngest liked it because of all talking, but it helped the viewer understand what was truly going on.  I also remember some of the men being in the news--definitely worth the watch!

friends.

my second son has some of the coolest friends around, in fact he has a TON of really cool friends.  This bunch of kiddos decided to celebrate a beloved friend who moved away to Wyoming a year ago-they took pictures and made him a little book with notes in it, very thoughtful and sweet.  They asked me to take their picture:

 closer up:

for this fun bright page I used the Now or Never kit by Scrapbook Circle, there are a few left in stock, run over and pick yourself up some. (click the link to go directly there!)

meal planning.

So hopefully I didn't lose you on that title.  With my life being a bit chaotic the past few months I wanted something to being constant, something that would help me feel grounded and a bit more organized.  Truth be told I wasn't really finding the joy or excitement of making dinner (yes, most of the time I enjoy cooking.)  But it was stressing me out and I was just TOO tired to be creative so it was the same old thing, made at the last minute so we were eating later and later.  I kept thinking on it, and yes praying about it.

And then one day, this little idea came into my mind.  I expressed what I wanted to do with my husband, which helped me to solidify what I was thinking.  I was describing what I was wanting to do, he came up with a few ideas which led me to google meal planning.  (the key to google is getting the RIGHT word connection)

Here are a few things I learned along the way:

1. People are generous, there are FREE templates on google that people just put out there!  There are several different templates that would do the job but I picked a couple-(I'll show you below)

2. Google Drive is AWESOME, my husband tried to sell me on it a few years ago.  I wasn't interested... You have 15 GB of FREE storage!  You can store documents, spreadsheets, slides, and more.  My kids all have used it for school projects.  You can create folders to organize these things, AND you can share them with other people who have the option to edit, or read only.  I know that gmail is connected to it--and it's SMART.  It saves ANY edits you have done without having to hit SAVE.  

3.  Not only can I access my documents on my computer but also on my cellphone!

So I began to see the benefits of this meal planning for my daughter who is off to college this Fall.  She is not only going to be a full time student living HOURS from home, but also an athlete.  Her life is going to be BUSY and she isn't going to have a lot of time.  

These are the two templates I decided to use, both by Vertex42:

Monthly menu planner

weekly menu planner

If you click on the link to their website they have GREAT tutorials on how to use ANY of their templates.  I liked each of these because of their clean lines, and option to customize EXACTLY how I wanted.  I picked the monthly planner for the entire family, and the weekly planner for my daughter. 

The weekly planner includes, breakfast, lunch and snacks...  Having my menu planner done for a month has helped me only buy the things I need but ALSO remember to use things that I have always forgotten about in the fridge.  So say you have something that requires an unusual ingredient, you can remember to find something else that uses it and have a plan for it!

The best way to get to know these templates is to play around with them--that's how I learned!  I have even had a friend over and showed her how to use it.  It took maybe 30 minutes (she didn't have a gmail, and wasn't familiar with google) I promise it's easy, I am not the most knowledgeable about technology, but I can get by.  And YouTube helped me out BUNCHES!  

I plan on having another post about this soon, my daughter and I created a personalized grocery list (we couldn't find one we liked), I'm not sure how to share it but I'm willing to try if anyone is interested... I also created a budget for school clothes, food/fun.  BTW, the word budget is not my favorite word. ;)

If you have ANY questions please feel free to ask, I'm excited to share what I know!  

musical play.

closeup:

 this layout brings back memories, memories of 6th grade...

these pictures were taken in circa 1985, back in the era of fluorescent colors, ray bans and BIG hair.  I remember that my mom made my groovy blue shorts--they were quite comfortable.  I also remembering feeling very cool that my mom let me use her head phones for my "part" in the play.  (I walked across the stage like I was listening to music...) And my brother letting me use his sunglasses.  Yes, I was something-- ;)

For this layout I had to cut my pictures down to trim down the heads and excess black..I think my mom did pretty good at capturing this moment with her film camera and flash!

Another fun tip, I started with a white piece of cardstock, I topped it on the top with strips of paper.  I initially just used my water colors to paint--but it was too bright.  I decided to add my piece of transparency to mute the colors a bit--it turned out perfect; the words on it adding to the interest of the page.

Thank you for taking your time to visit!

Pinterest Food Finds--homemade Bagels!

I have to admit-I LOVE Bagels!  Bummer is recently I had to change my diet to not include Soy, talk about DIFFICULT!  Don't believe me--pick up the package of whatever you are eating and look at the ingredients!  Seriously--it's in almost EVERYTHING!  ANYWAY, on my search for the best Bagel recipe I was a little worried it was going to be a difficult process--umm...NOPE!  Super easy and SUPER tasty!  I tried two different recipes and this is the one that is my favorite:

recipe from: baking bites

For step by step pictures please visit Baking Bites

Homemade Bagels

1 tbsp active dry yeast

1 tbsp sugar

1 3/4 cups water, warm (100-110F)

4 cups bread flour (not all purpose)

1 tbsp salt

1 egg, for egg wash

In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer) combine yeast, sugar and water. Let stand for 5 minutes, then stir in flour and salt. Mix dough thoroughly until it comes together in a large ball, pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Add an additional tablespoon of flour or water, if needed.
If kneading by hand, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until very smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. If using a stand mixer, knead dough with the dough hook until elastic, about 8 minutes on a low speed. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

Bring a large pot of water to a gentle boil and preheat the oven to 400F.

When dough has risen, turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces (first quarters, then thirds). Shape each piece into a tight ball as illustrated below, pinching the corners together at the bottom of the piece of dough. When all the balls are shaped, let the dough rest for 30 minutes covered with a clean dish towel.

Once dough balls have rested, the bagel shape can be formed. Using your fingers, poke a hole through the center of each dough ball. Stretch out the dough into a ring with your fingers and be sure to make the hole a little larger than you want the finished bagel to have, as it will shrink slightly while the bagel is expanding during the baking process. Let bagels rest for about 10 minutes.

Working four at a time, drop the bagels carefully into the boiling water. Boil for 2 minutes on the first side, then flip and boil for an additional minute. Using a slotted spoon or strainer, transfer bagels to a clean towel to drain for a moment, then place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat process with remaining bagels.

Brush boiled bagels with lightly beaten egg (a pastry or bbq brush is a good tool for this) and bake for 20-24 minutes, until golden brown.
Cool completely on a wire rack.
Slice and toast to serve.

Optional toppings include:
1 cup Asiago Cheese
poppy seeds
sesame seeds

For Everything Bagels:

• 2 Tablespoons poppy seeds3
• 2 Tablespoons sesame seeds3
• 1 Tablespoon dried minced onion3
• 1 Tablespoon dried garlic flakes3
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• egg wash: 1 egg white beaten with 1 Tablespoon water

you got this.

little closeup:

 My layout of my boy and the day he got his braces:

Not sure if you can tell but both of the squares with the squiggly green lines are popped up (there is a closeup at the top)  My challenge was to use the FANTASTIC paper with the words.  I used it as my matte for the back ground and also the title part "you got this".

My boy was SO nervous about getting braces, he had heard all the "scary" stories.  But since he needed them, I just sort of was his wing-mom.  He went back to get them on, and I went with him.
I remember braces days, and I can tell you my kids STILL have "cooler" braces than I had.  And they don't do head gear anymore--RIP off!  I didn't have the cool behind the neck kind, I had the "skull cap" kind.  I remember I only had to wear it THANKFULLY when I came home from school, but I got really good at taking it off if ANYONE came to the door!  GRATEFUL for straight teeth but as you can tell, it was an ADVENTURE.  So I totally didn't mind, hanging with my handsome kid! ;)

For this page I used the Now or Never kit by Scrapbook Circle, there are a few left!  Go grab one!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

love this sunset.

Today I am sharing my last layout I made for JustNick Studios:

For this layout I used the Funky Striped background, and the Script Font to create my title.  I cut the background out of cream card stock then backed it with different pattern and vellum paper.  I then took my water colors and colored just where my picture would go.  As you can see I tried to mimic the sunset.  I also painted my title with my water colors.

closeup:

there are a few things that I just love about this layout:
* the picture
* came together quickly!
* got to use up my stash.

thanks SO much for the visit today!

life is amazing.

Today I wanted to share one of my last two pages I made for Just Nick Studios.  For this layout I used two cuts: shattered Polygon, and Life is Amazing.  For the Polygon I adjusted it to fit my 8.5 x 11 page--really like how it gave interest to the background.  The title was also cut out in white card stock but I painted it with water color to get the pop of orange.
What I love about the papers on this page is that they were all from my stash.  It was fun trying to figure out what worked well together.

This picture is of my niece and her adventure feeding ground squirrels when we were in California a few years ago--so fun that I had my good camera out taking pictures!

I'm off to enjoy the day--thanks for stopping by.

Still here....

Hello...Hello...testing... yep!  The blog still works- ;)

So yes, I took the month of June off from blogging; not creating; just blogging.  I'll be sharing some of what I've been working on in the next few days.

So what have I been busy with?  Well, I honestly don't know how I held together from February to May.  Between track meets, and lacrosse, between my daughter graduating, decided where she wanted to go to college, and all the social functions.  I maybe held it together by being consistent in the things that were important to me:

*my morning daily devotionals; getting up early and reading my scriptures, praying and pondering

*daily exercise

*weekly adult religion class called Institute.

*weekly attending the Gilbert Temple.

*taking pictures with my phone to later journal about in my Project Life.

*I also found time (a minute or two here and there) to create.  To make cards and layouts.

Those things helped me keep my sanity and enjoy the crazy, busy journey of the last few months. Now that I have had time to sort of catch my breath I've been inspired to change a few things to help with my organizing.  I am still doing these things I mentioned above minus the Institute class (we have a summer break).

1. The one thing that has been MAJOR for me is meal planning.  I know it's not something new or anything, but it was new to me.  I was trying to figure out how I could make fixing dinner less of a drudgery.  I won't go into full detail here just yet, but I will be sharing what I've found.  I'm actually pretty excited about it.

2. I've been majorly cleaning stuff out.  Seriously, why is it when you intend to put something away, stuff gets piled on it and then that something becomes part of a permanent fixture?  Exhibit A:

(two broken dressers, an old warn out bed, 3 full bags of too small clothes & extra top sheets, a worn out comforter, and a bed frame.)

Some was thrown away but the majority was donated to the Goodwill.  Felt good to CLEAN OUT and CLEAN UP places that have been needing to be done for ages, I just haven't had the time or the desire to do so!  Thankfully it's summer and my kids were home to not only help me but take ownership of the cleaning-helping them to understand.  It's sort of a pain to clean up, so let's put stuff away!  They are normal kids, they still stack stuff but when I ask them to pick their stuff up--to me there seems to be less complaining...

3. Giving myself TIME.  Huh?  I decided to challenge myself, how much can I get done in 10 minutes?  I've set the timer on my phone and have been surprised at what I can get done!  Examples include: practicing the piano (I'm not that good, so don't be too impressed), unloading and partially loading the dishwasher, reading/listening to a book, organized underneath my bathroom sink: surfed instagram/twitter, sat and was still... It's crazy how much you can accomplish if you want too!  Side note: once my time is up I get up and walk away from what I was doing and do something else.  It's important to let yourself be okay with that!

4. Take time to enjoy the now.  How does that affect my organizing?!  Being okay with what gets done and doesn't get done.  Some moments you can't relive again, some moments if not enjoyed will make you fill regret (who likes how that feels? I DO NOT.)  Let me give you and example:

The tooth I named Billy Bob.  My baby boy (who is 5'8"-160 lbs.) had this last baby tooth just hanging on.  The orthodontist said the adult tooth would push the baby tooth out so not to worry. And then he put the braces on.  He said not to worry so I didn't.  Incidentally my son had been working on this tooth for a month BEFORE they put the braces on.  So almost a month later the tooth is there, I decided to give it a name, Billy Bob.  It was exhausting having to daily remind him to work on the tooth.  So instead of are you wiggling that tooth?  I would ask, "How is Billy Bob?"  He didn't want me saying that in public so he would get to work on it pushing.  Until last week, he heard a pop.  He went into the bathroom, the wire had broken and the tooth was now not only still attached but between two wires.  We went to the dentist the next day and after about 10 minutes they were able to pull the tooth which had a NARLY long root on it so it wouldn't come out!  My son and I laughed about it and he said, "I'm SO glad I don't have to worry about it anymore."  When I told the dentist and the hygienist that I named it they sort of laughed and made sure that we got a little treasure box for Billy Bob.

Alright I'm going to wrap this up now, thanks for your patience if you sat and read all of this!  Like I said I'll be posting more of my creative items in the next few days as well as some of my organizing tips in more detail.