Sharing the {LOVE}

Hi everyone! A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that this Saturday, October 3rd is World Card Making Day! That is so exciting for me because I LOVE making cards! In honor of this fun little "holiday" I thought I'd Share the {love} and do a little giveaway on my blog!

First of all, let me share with you a few cards I made to celebrate.

This first one is a HAPPY BIRTHDAY card. As we all know, I love me some pink! This paper is from Basic Grey. Love the design of the paper and the pop of the bright pink ribbon! I added just a hint of glitter detail around the scalloped edges, but it's a bit hard to see in this photo.

Merry Christmas! Can you even believe that Christmas is only less than 3 short months away? I'm having a hard time getting excited about Halloween this year, so Christmas it is.

Again with the glitter - I added a fun red glitter snowflake as the focal point on this card. (And actually, the snowflake is a Christmas ornament that I picked up last year at Target).

I'm always in need of a good THANK YOU card, so I thought that would round out my cards. This paper is kind of fun - it's from a My Mind's Eye collection. I love the red and bright blue color combo.

And here's what I'm giving away! Just a random assortment of card-making supplies, including the latest copy of Paper Crafts magazine (which I LOVE and get a lot of inspiration from), a Card Pack with 8 blank white cards and envelopes, some Pebbles a.b.c. foam stamps (think: cute Monogrammed cards), some hand made embellishments by yours truly, an ink pad (to ink your card edges) in the color Coffee Bean, and a few other things that I thought would add some pizazz to your cards!

And...I'm including the 3 cards I made in honor of this fun day in the giveaway!

Just leave a comment by end of day Saturday, and I'll pick a winner (randomly, of course) on Sunday! And...if you feel like Sharing the {LOVE} with your friends, post about it on your blog, come back and leave another comment, and I'll give you two entries in the giveaway.

Thanks for stopping by...it's fun to share ideas with all of you. {And by the way, if I don't know you, it's O.K. just leave a comment anyway!}
Good Luck!

So proud of this guy...

Recognize him? You may not if you haven't seen him in a while. It's my sweet husband, Adam. He's been working really hard lately with working out (he's found a new love of running) and eating right. He's lost 54 lbs. since we got married back in 2006.

I chose to post this particular picture because the boy scout shirt he's wearing is the SAME one he had when HE was in Scouts!!! Oh how I wish I fit into something I wore back when I was a teenager!!! I think he looks so cute in it. He went camping with the Scouts in our ward this weekend - where this picture was taken - and had a great time (if you consider listening to 12 year old boys chitter chatter and goof off all night and sleeping on lumpy ground a great time).

So proud of my guy!! Love you, babe. Keep up the good work!!

Buttermilk

Ever had to buy a big ol' jug of buttermilk for a recipe and then never have a need to use the rest of it? Maybe you haven't, but I swear it happens to me every time I need buttermilk. I can't ever find it in a small container and I have very few recipes that call for buttermilk. I happen to have some hanging out in my fridge for another recipe I made last week.

Well, I've come across a recipe from Cooking Light that has solved my problem. Here's the recipe - it makes one quick loaf of delicious bread! Crusty on the outside and soft and tender on the inside. Make it. You'll thank me for not only putting that buttermilk to good use, but also having a fresh, quick, homemade loaf of bread smelling up your kitchen all yummy-like.

It's so easy. It's so good.

Buttermilk Quick Bread
Yield: 12 servings (serving size: 1 slice)
Ingredients
9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 large egg whites
Cooking spray

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine buttermilk, butter, and egg whites, stirring with a whisk. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.
3. Spread batter into an 8 x 4–inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 137 (0.0% from fat)
Fat: 4.6g (sat 2.8g,mono 1.2g,poly 0.3g)
Protein: 4.1g
Carbohydrate: 19.7g
Fiber: 0.6g
Cholesterol: 12mg
Iron: 1mg
Sodium: 266mg
Calcium: 48mg

Jean Patterson, Cooking Light, JANUARY 2009

Scrapbook Convention

I've been looking forward to today for about a week now...I went to a local scrapbook convention because I scored some free tickets off of Craigslist. Well, sadly the show itself was a bit disappointing. I'm glad I didn't actually pay for the tickets, but I'll admit it was fun to get out and meet up with an old girlfriend of mine who now lives in Phoenix (who I first met in my Atlanta Singles Ward).

It was nothing like the Creating Keepsakes convention (which I LOVE), but they did have a vendor fair and that is what I mainly went for anyway. I only walked away with a handful of things and spent less than $10 total. Can you believe that? I told my friend Shannon that I'm like a 14 year old girl stuck in a 30 year-old's body because I love all things pink and sparkly - notice all the pink in the picture. Here's what I ended up with:

I did one little make-and-take (the red/white Christmas card) and the rest I bought. The little rolled yards of ribbon were 10/$1 and you can never have too much ribbon. The grab-bags were misc. glittered letters and one was packed full of flowers as well; those were $2 each. I think I'm most excited about the glue adhesive I bought. It's called Beacon's 3-In-1 Advanced Craft Glue. It was only $3.50 and the lady totally sold me on it. I hope it's as good as she claims it is. Has anyone ever tried it? I'm always looking for good adhesive. I only bought one piece of paper. I really wanted to get some Basic Grey paper (my absolute favorite line of paper), but only one booth was selling it - they only had Halloween & Christmas designs - and I was really looking for paper for every day projects.

Even though it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, at least I got out kid-free this morning and had fun looking around! (And if it were any bigger, I probably would have spent more money, so it's probably a GOOD thing it wasn't all that...haha!).

Speaking of Scrapbooking, did you know that October 3, 2009 is World Card Making Day? Did you even know there was such a thing? I'm excited and better get to thinking what kind of card I want to make! I encourage all of you to do the same...get creative and make a card for someone! To me, there is nothing better than making and sending a card to someone to brighten their day. And stay tuned, because in honor of this fun day I think I'm going to do a giveaway that has something to do with cards when the date gets a little closer!

Footies

Nothing is cuter than a kid in footie pajammies.

Makes me think of Wintertime! (Too bad it's still H-O-T here! Next week a few days have a high of 106. Sick!).

Cafe {homemade} Rio

Yesterday on Facebook, I commented that we were having the missionaries over for dinner and that I was excited because we were having homemade Cafe Rio. (For my friends who have never heard of it...Cafe Rio is a yummy Mexican restaurant that was first in Utah and has since branched out to AZ and I've heard it's on it's way to CA as well). Anyway, after I posted that, a few of my friends asked for the recipes, so I thought I'd just post them here. And for the record, I found these somewhere on the Internet, but for the life of me can not find them now (which is a real bummer because it means I have to type them all out instead of copy and pasting. But for you, my friends, I'll do it).

Here goes...

Lime-Cilantro Rice

2 Tbsp. Oil
4 C. long grain rice (6 C. water)
1 bunch of cilantro, finely chopped
Juice of 2 limes
2 tsp. crushed garlic

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add rice, cilantro and garlic. Sauté 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add water and lime juice and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer until all the liquid is absorbed by the rice (about 20 minutes). You can also use a rice cooker if you have one.

Cafe Rio Sweet Pork

Pork Roast
1 (16 oz.) bottle of salsa
1 can of Coke
2 C. brown sugar

Place pork in crock-pot and fill it half way up with water. Cook roast on high for 5 hours. Drain off water. Cut pork in thirds. Mix together ingredients (salsa, coke, brown sugar) and put on top of pork. Cook an additional 3 hours on high. Shred pork with forks. Leave it on low until ready to serve.

Creamy Tomatillo Salad Dressing

1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch Buttermilk Dressing
1 C. buttermilk
1 C. mayo or sour cream
2-3 tomatillos (peel off outer leaf/shell)
1 tsp. crushed garlic
1 bunch of fresh cilantro
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
Juice from 1 lime (about 2 tsp.)
Salt & Pepper

Blend all ingredients in the blender. Refrigerate.

Serving Suggestions

You can either assemble burrito style or salad-style. For salad-style, lightly toast a buttered tortilla with a sprinkle of cheese to get the tortilla a bit of a crunchy texture. Place tortilla on a plate or in a large salad bowl. Then put rice, pork, chopped lettuce and the dressing. Finally, garnish your salad with shredded cheese, tomatoes, sliced avocados or whatever else you may want.

My suggestions: The dressing was a bit runny when I made it. I used the sour cream, not the mayo. Next time I make it, I may try adding less buttermilk, perhaps? If anyone has any ideas on how to make the dressing a bit thicker, please let me know. And as far as the pork is concerned, the pork roast I used was kind of small, but it did not take nearly the time this recipe calls for. I cooked mine on low the entire time and it was perfect after 4 hours or so. I guess it depends on how big your roast is.

Little Monkey

So much for putting things on a higher shelf so that Rocklin can't get to them.

This little monkey climbs on EVERYTHING these days!!

Yes, please

I've been telling Adam for a while now that {someday} when we get a house, I will need a craft/sewing room.

Notice I said need, not want.

Anyway, I found what I want. Everything in this room is perfect. Wouldn't you agree? So babe, if you're reading this, now you know. Pink walls and everything.

This particular craft room happens to belong to THIS lucky lady.

Just Do It

Last night we bought Rocklin his very first pair of Nike's. He looks like such a big boy these days. Here are a few pics of the new kicks...mostly so his Grandparents can see how BIG he's getting!

And yes, this is a picture of him putting my ipod ear buds up his nose. He's recently graduated from putting everything in his mouth, to trying to shove things up his nose and/or ears.

And this one was just cute. Watching a little Sesame Street in Mom & Dad's bed.

Cheap Frame Re-do

I have had this itch to spray paint lately. I think it's because a) I've never bought anything at a hardware store for myself b)never spray painted before and c)I've seen some super cute things on blogs here and there that have been brought back to life via a little spray paint. (i.e. THIS). I've been to local thrift stores on the hunt for a yummy frame, but haven't really found anything that suits my fancy. I was at the 99 cent store the other day and came upon this little gem:

And was thinking - YES, something I can spray paint! (And if I messed it all up, I was only out 99 cents...the best part).

So off to the hardware store I went and picked up a can of Cherry Red spray paint. And here's the result...and I kind of like it!

Now, I'm not really a dried-flower-kinda-girl, but I've had this rose I've been saving from the very first bouquet of roses Adam sent me at work when we first started dating (Cheesy, I know). I thought it may be cute framed or something one of these days. I'm not sure if I like this really, but I love the way the red turned out on the frame so for now, this will do.

I mostly liked the edging on this little cheapy frame...looks kind of fancy in all it's 99 cent glory.

And her she sits, adding some much needed color to the bookshelf.

Next up...find a much bigger frame. I want to spray paint another one (it's kind of addicting) and make a calendar (wouldn't it be cute on the calendar I found below on etsy?) or a fabric-covered bulletin board. If (I mean when) I come across a bigger frame, I'll be sure to post my before and afters here. Hopefully it will turn out just as cute as this little red one did!

Books

I love to read. At night before bed, I read while Adam watches T.V. I've been needing a good book for a while now, so I hit up the library yesterday. My favorite author is Jodi Picoult. She writes fiction novels about relationships, family, love, etc. Her books always tug at my heartstrings, and I was lucky enough to find her latest release at the library yesterday! I highly recommend her books. Anyway, has anyone read her latest? "Handle With Care." I only have seven days to read it since it's a new release I guess they want it back ASAP...which means I have a lot of reading to do this week!

The other book I checked out is called "These is My Words". (And how sad is it that I can't remember if the title of a book is supposed to be underlined, in quotations or italicized. Also, does the period go before the end quote or after? I think I need to go back to school!!). Anyway, has anyone read this book? It came highly recommend by my sister-in-law Katie and I've read some good reviews online. I'm anxious to read this one as well, but it will have to wait until after "Handle With Care." (Again with the quotes and punctuation!!).

Maybe I'll do a review post once I've finished with both books to let you know what I think of them. Meanwhile, if you have any good book suggestions (preferably ones that I can check out at the library) please leave a comment and let me know! I'm always looking for a good book to read. (And thanks to Jenn for your recent recommendations as well).