Sunday Message

A man (who happens to be LDS) created this for his daughters but I love the beautiful message and the song. Have a beatiful Sunday and give God the praise today!

New Project - Around the World Afghan

I know... I know... I should not start a new project, I already have more than one in progress and I have several others in mind but when I saw this pattern, I just fell in love with it.

For several years and I mean SEVERAL, I've wanted to make a crochet blanket that had the look of a quilt, I just loved all the colors and the patchwork design of the Around the World Quilt.
So...I now I had to pick out the yarn, but didn't want to buy it unless I could find EVERY color I wanted to use. My first choice was Dark Horse Fantasy. I love this yarn, it is super soft and washes well. But the skeins are about 3 oz each (and I need 8 oz of each color) so I would have to buy 3 skeins of each color. While the price per skein is reasonable, I'd spend about $10-12 on each color I needed.

So... I then decided to check out my 2nd yarn choice.I decided to use Vanna's Choice (Note: Usually I can get this on sale for $2.50 a skein, normal price $2.99 at stores where I shop) I often found 2 shades of each color, but I needed 3 shades of each color. I went to several stores, the last being Hobby Lobby and I was surprised at how little Vanna's Choice they had.

Well...my friend Susan (who is not a crafter at all!) happened to be with me and said does it have to be that brand? I said No, but I the other one I wanted would make my blanket too expensive, and I really loved Vanna's Choice and now I didn't know what brand to seek out (I didn't want to use Red Heart because, although I love Red Heart, it just wasn't the texture and colors I was going for).

Susan went to Hobby Lobby's own brand called "I Love This Yarn" and helped me pick out the colors I was seeking. It was the same price as Vanna's Choice and was just as soft, if not softer. Much to my surprise, we found every single color combo I wanted. I hadn't planned on buying all the yarn I needed but since all the colors were there and I only needed one skein of each color (besides black), I got them all - the total $41 - not bad for an ENTIRE Queen size blanket.

So I got home and couldn't wait to start the first and center square. So the picture above is the starting point - Square 1...only 1,072 more to go (ay, ya, ya!)

They're Always After Me Lucky Cupcakes

I love St. Patrick's Day! I was trying to think of something to take to work as a treat today and came up with this idea. I didn't have time to do anything from "scratch" but these are "home-made". To me, the two are different - from scratch means you used butter, milk, eggs, flour and make a cake - homemade means you may have used a cake mix. While all things you make from scratch are home-made. Not all things home-made are made from scratch. But I digress...

I came up with the idea to make "They're Always After Me Lucky Cupcakes"

I used a white cakemix and baked them in paper shamrock cupcake holders - then poked holes in it after letting them cool. Mixed green jello with 1 cup boiling water and 1/2 cup cold water and pour through the holes in the cupcakes. I then frosted them with canned icing (yes, canned icing which I seldom use, but I did say I needed to make them quick). I added a bit of the dry green jello and some green food coloring. Topped with a bit of green sugar and then some Lucky Charms!

I think they came out Magically Delicious ! Hope my co-workers enjoy them.

Osmond Brothers !!!

Lynn and I got tickets many, many months ago to go see Merrill Osmond who was going to do a show back in November, but sadly for health reasons he had to cancel.

But...luckily he, Wayne and Jay all came to the Anderson Theater this yesterday and gave a wonderful show... They started with "Down By The Lazy River" and ended with an encore of "Are You Up There/I Believe"

Afterwards, they did a little meet and greet and we got to meet them and talk to them for a while and they signed a photo for us (my scanner isn't working so I can't post it yet). But you know how Lynn and I are - we stay until they make us leave just about it. So we hung around and took a few more pictures (which I will post later). Well before they left, I heard Merrill say "Are we going to do some group shots?" and heck, Lynn and I jumped at that !! So here we are.

I wish they could play here every night !

Here is the picture of us when they played here March 21 2008 (almost exactly 2 years ago) when Jimmy, Jay and Wayne were here (not very good quality since it was taken with my camera phone)

Two New Recipes

I love to try new recipes. This week I found a couple that looked super easy and super good and I was right on both cases.

First up: Tex-Mex Shells & Cheese from Kraft.com

Great Texas horny-toads - this was good. It was just the right amount of spice with the right amount of cheese - it made plenty too - I had leftovers for lunch and for dinner the next day!

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 pkg. (12 oz.) VELVEETA Shells & Cheese Dinner
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) Mexican-style diced tomatoes, undrained
1-1/4 cups water
1 cup KRAFT Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions:

1) Brown meat in nonstick skillet; drain.
2) Stir in shells, tomatoes and water. Bring to boil; cover. Simmer on medium-low heat 15 min.
3) Add Cheese Sauce; stir until blended. Top with shredded cheese

How simple is that? Give it a try - sometimes simple recipes are the best !

Second Up: Cream Cheese Danish

Now, the other recipe, a dessert, I have been wanting to try for months. During Thanksgiving, I was browsing through my mom's cookbook and there was a handwritten one in there from my Aunt Wanda - who I think is an excellent cook and one of the best bakers I know! It was for a Cream Cheese Danish. I copied it down and after I got home, got busy with the holidays and totally forgot about it, until... I stumbled upon Gourmet Mom-on-the-Go's very similar recipe. The only difference... she added cinnamon (which I only thought would improve my aunt's version)

Ingredients:

2 cans Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
¾ c. white sugar
2 (8 oz. each) packages cream cheese
1 tsp. vanilla

Topping (if desired):
¼ c. white sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

1) Unroll and press 1 crescent roll package on bottom of greased 9 x 13 cake pan.
2) Mix together 2 packages cream cheese, ¾ c. sugar, and 1 tsp. vanilla and spread on top of crescent roll.
3) Unroll and place 2nd crescent roll package on top of mixture (sealing pieces together).
4) Mix ¼ c. sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon and sprinkle on top.
5) Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Cool and enjoy !

CD Coasters

While over at my house one evening, my sister was venting about how she couldn't find a coaster that didn't stick to the bottom of her glass when she picked it up or one that didn't fill up with water as your ice melted. I told her that I could make her one using an old CD and if she liked it, then I'd make her a whole set.

So... I made her a "prototype" using this pattern. This is a great pattern, well written and works up really fast. It took about an hour to make, at the most and she took it home that night - then took it to work the next day to try out. She loved it. She wanted a whole set (with different colors to match her home decor). I got busy with the holidays and such but finally got around to making her a set. Now one of her co-workers wants a set of her own.

I used Lily's Sugar n' Cream cotton yarn in Softly Taupe and Landscape and and some old bank CDs that I got from a previous job (they were duplicate CDs and we didn't need them so I decided to put them to good use and just as a safety precaution I put a long stratch in each one the day I took I was given permission to take them home)

I was really happy with how they turned out - my mom even asked if I'd make her a set for mother's day and my mom (in general) doesn't usually ask me to crochet her anything, so you know she loved them!

Scrapbook Sketches

I have a ga-billion hobbies. I first learned crochet at the tender age of 9, I started drawing around that time too (although kind of stopped that around the age of 15). In the past I did needlepoint, crewel, embroidery, macrame (yes, macrame!), string art (remember those), hook rugs, punch needle, plastic canvas (never too fond of that look), paint (mostly by numbers). I still like to cross stitch, though haven't done that in a while, currently I crochet, knit and SCRAPBOOK!!

I don't have as much time (or more importantly enough space) to scrapbook as much as I'd like to. I have about 20 + sets of photos I want to scrap.

I am not a fancy scrapper, I fall into the group of scrappers called "simple scrappers" - I like my pages fairly clean and straight lined - not too many embellishments or fru-fru stuff. I like people who can do those kind of more intricate pages and think they are beautiful. I just don't have the time and plus they aren't really "me" - I've always been a plain-kind of girl - like things simple yet elegant (vanilla is my favorite flavor of ice cream so that gives you some insight to who I am)

Well...several years ago I found someone whose style was very close to mine - the very talented Becky Higgins. She then started having sketches of her layouts in Creating Keepsakes magazine and I loved using them. You don't really do the sketch exactly - you take the sketch as a base and build your own idea around them.

You can imagine how excited I was when she came out with her first sketchbook, then later another one. She also has a best of..book (of course I have them all). I use these magazines/books quite often! I also have a binder of many of the sketches from Creating Keepsakes website (most of which are Becky's) and Simple Scrapbooks website (which is now gone - boo hoo - that was my favorite magazine)

Now that Becky H. has left CK and isn't releasing new sketches, I find most of my sketch resources on various Internet websites.

I have been wanting, for quite some time now, to compile the ones I like in one place so I have all the links in one place but I hope other scrapbookers might find this and find it useful also.

I tend to scrap mostly 2-page layouts and in 12 x 12 format so those are the sketches I seek out the most but I can adapt pretty much any layout to fit my needs.

Here are some great ones:

4 x 6 photo sketches (I almost always use 4x6 photos)

8 x 8 sketches

52 Sketches-52 Weeks (1-page)

63 2-Page Sketches

Alison Davis' Blog

Creative Scrappers

Google Images (not a website, per se, but lots of great sketches none-the-less)

Got Sketch? (notice on side bar - have 4x6 photo sketches)

Becky Higgins (75 sketches from her 1st book-posted on 2peas)

Jane Eubank's Sketches

Leisha's Page Plans

Page Maps

Pencil Lines (most are 1-page)

The Scrappiest (mostly 1-page; 1-photo)

Sketch Savvy (great Disney LOs & several 4 x 6 LOs)

Scrapburbia

Simple Schemes (use to be in Simple Scrapbooks-posted on 2peas)

Sketches by Suzy (mostly 2-pages)

Stamping101 WebShot

Stickers N' Fun

I am sure this list will continue to grow. If you know of any other great sketch sites - please leave a comment with the site listed. I always love checking them out.