Oatmeal Spice Granola

So I love granola. Plain and simple. It's such a tasty food and I love to mix it in my yogurt. So when I was playing around with the perfect recipe for granola, I of course had to tweak it to make it my own. And I just love the end result which tastes like an oatmeal cookie. It's perfect over some organic french vanilla yogurt or even ice cream! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.


Oatmeal Spice Granola

2 cups steel cut oats (or rolled oats, NOT quick ones!)
1 cup rice cereal (like rice krispies)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp sea salt
3 Tbsp and 1 tsp oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup raisins

Set your oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, toss the oats and rice cereal with the cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt.

In another bowl, mix the brown sugar, honey, vanilla, and oil together until combined. Pour over the oat and rice cereal mixture. Spread out on parchment and bake 10 minutes. Mix and add almonds. Bake another 15 minutes, mixing every 5 minutes. Allow to cool. Mix in raisins. ENJOY!!!

I Heart Faces

So I know... I've been a bad blogger.I am promising to do better from now on....starting with this lovely post of my darling niece for a photo contest on I Heart Faces blog (www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com).


This weeks challenge was all about "Excited" and I knew this pic I just took of her all dressed up for her very first Halloween was just perfect for it. She's so stinkin cute that I just had to share!

Jinkies Batman! It's been FOREVA!!!

Ok, well I know I've been neglecting my blog just to keep afloat with my life lately, but I am pleased to announce that my life seems to be much smoother. No more busy schedules, soccer games, college courses, family issues, etc.

So I took some time to sit back and scrap once again. I made this cute acyrlic album and had such a blast with it! I can't wait to jump back into scrapping!

Create your Own Album

.... and it's not a scrappy album. This one is crazy cool!!! I found it on Emilie Ahern's blog and had to give it a try. :)






Follow these instructions:

1 - BAND NAME Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random article”or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - ALBUM TITLE Go to "Random quotations"or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - COVER ART Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar software to put it all together.

Tryin' Out!

So it's been awhile. I've been kinda quiet on the scrappy scene lately...but I've been keeping myself busy for sure! And I finally decided to come out of my scrappy hidey hole and give a DT call a try. I'm not holding my breath on having a chance, but it felt good to get out there and just try out.

Here's a little sneaky peeky of one of my creations for the call. :)

Rediscovering my Scrappy Mojo

It's been a long hard road for me to rediscover my scrappy mojo as of late. First, I had a taste of just how mean the scrapping industry can be. It made me not even want to walk into my scrapping area and took away the love of scrapping that I have had since I discovered it a few years back. I forced myself to try to get past it, but it never seemed to work.

Then I lost my sister in law. Before the cancer, she was a stamping addict. She sold me all of her stamps, inks and such when she lost use of her arm. After her death, it made it even harder to get into the groove.

But I knew I had to push past it. For her. So today I created my first page in honor of Jana. Even though I'm not a huge stamp fan, I used her stamps in several places on this page. And check out that paper from The Paper Element. It's part of their newest line, Blue Flannel. :)

It felt good. :)

Long Time No Blog.............

OK... I left you all with the hopes and wishes that things would calm. The direct opposite happened.

We lost our sister in law to cancer last week. It's left me so sad. She was a wonderful person... so determined and full of life. I am going to miss her so very much. So this is why I've been a bit MIA for a bit... I needed a break to sit back and regroup.

But life goes on. So I am determined to plug past this and get things smoothed out. I started Christmas shopping and getting back into the groove of life.

Emily's band concert was on Wednesday evening and she did a great job. She even had a trio with her two great buddies Mackenzie and Sarah. Here's a peek of her playing Jingle Bells.

And today brought us the first real snowfall of the season! Everything is under a thick blanket of white! Emily played most of the afternoon outside with the neighbor boys. She even tried snowboarding down the hill by the barn! She came in for dinner cold, wet and exhausted. Joshua got too cold too quickly and decided a cozy spot by the fire was much more to his liking.

Joshie lost another tooth yesterday. He thinks this toothfairy thing is pretty cool!

I finished Breaking Dawn in the Twilight series. Much better than the last 2 in my humble opinion. I've still not been to see the movie... I know I am going to be disappointed so I've decided to hold out for it to hit Redbox.

I've been playing around with the camera trying to get better at using it. Here's a shot of the tree in a dark room... not too bad! :)

And that's about it!!! :) Going to go shovel some snow!

Lotsa fun Stuff!!!!!

Whew! Was last week such a BUSY week!!! I've done so much in one week I don't even think I know where to begin!

Monday saw me registering to go back to college. I am going to take 3 college courses from Northampton to get my Director's Credential Certifcate for the STARS program our preschool is enrolling in. I can't believe that I am going back to college! Thankfully, this will all be offered online so that it will fit into my hectic lifestyle!

Tuesday found me presenting our new preschool plan to the church ad council. Things went smoothly! WOO HOO!!!

Wednesday was a blur with a trip to the podiatrist who says that nasty wart on my foot will need surgery to remedy. Yuck!!! Emily's Girl Scout troop had their Christmas party that night as well! It was a fun time!!

Thursday brought the arrival of Miss Addison!!! She's gorgeous and I can't wait to see her in person! Until this cold leaves me, I'm stuck drooling on photos!! She SOO needs a scrappy baby album! I am still waiting to get the OK so share her pics with the world, but as soon as I get it, I'll share! :)

Friday was the end of the week and the worst day ever for this stinky cold/flu. Yucky stuff!!!

Saturday we finally got the tree and set it up in the house. We didn't decorate it though because we weren't sure what jack would do it it, but so far, so good!

Sunday marked a HUGE milestone for Joshie... he lost his very first baby tooth!!!! Woo HOO!!!!

Hopefully this week will be a bit calmer........................ :)

Waiting......................

I got the call last night at 11PM..... my little sister is headed to the hospital to have her precious little baby girl!!! The poor thing is almost 2 weeks overdue and was just plain miserable!!!

I am so thrilled for her and can't wait to meet the newest addition to the family! She will be my first blood related niece, so I am doubly thrilled!!!

I'll update everyone more as I find out more!!! :)

Chere is my HERO!

OK... I have this super cool, able to do it all camera... and I am camera illiterate. Enter Chere, my Nikon guru, who has helped me attain the unthinkable... a super cool, ultra trendy awesomely awesome photo!!!!

I've wanted to capture the feel of a professional portrait as seen on Amber Ulmer's photography blog, but had NO inkling of an idea on how to get started. Chere walked me through it and armed me with a free trial of Adobe Lightroom (which ROX my sox!!!) and a after a few hours of playing and trial and error... I made this!!!

Behold the original:



And my super cool trendy version:




Thanks Chere!!! You've created a monster now!!! :)

Having Fun with The Paper Element!

Well... it took awhile, but I jumped back into my scrappy room with some help from my buddy Vel (thanks sweetie!!) and of couse the boatload of goodies from The Paper Element. I worked on them in the freezing cold basement for limited amounts of time.... I lent out my portable heater to a friend who's furnace was on the fritz. Once it gets warmed up down there, I'll create some more! Loving that wonderfully yummy paper!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

What a wonderful day! We finally had a day as a family to sit back and relax and enjoy being together! Life has been hectic lately, so we decided we needed a day for just us as a family. We hunkered down in the house feasting on turkey and homemade pumpkin pie and then strolled outside on the cold to play with the camera where Jack was nice enough to pose for a couple of photos.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Playing around....

Sunday our camera FINALLY arrived... told ya I was all about the bad luck! Anyhow, I did some playing around and didn't have too much luck getting the style photo I wanted, but after some help from my friend Chere, I should be on the right path shortly. Thanks Chere!!! I would love to give the tutorial she sent me a try, but Tom stole the camera to show it off at work!!! :)

Anyhow, I took this one of Jack while he was trying to sleep on the couch... he wasn't a very happy subject. I'll post more after I get my camera back, LOL!

Lightly Falling Snow and other Stuff

This snow is falling! It's only lightly laying on the trees and shrubs right now, but boy does it ever put me in the mood for Christmas already! How wonderful! I'm not a big fan of snow, but it's beautiful to watch fall gently to the ground!

Thanks to all of the well wishers who helped cheer me up at a difficult time. Things are looking up now and some of the fog has lifted. And for those of you who also frequent my Facebook... thanks as well! My SIL is doing better... she's not out of the hospital yet, but she's out of the ICU. That in itself is great news!

And in other news, we decided to make the leap and buy a new camera. Of course we've had nothing but problems in the whole purchase process.... nothing ever goes smoothly for us, so we've learned to just deal with it. But we are hoping for the arrival of the camera by Friday!! Not like I will even know how to use it, LOL! I did figure out how to turn it on in the store, so that's a huge plus!

Last but not least.... a yummy package of Paper Element goodies arrived on my snow dusted doorstep today stuffed to the gills with Christmas paper loveliness! It's just the thing to fix my scrappy mojo and I hope to be able to share some creations with you all soon!

Ever Feel Invisible?

Ever have one of those weeks? Everything you do, almost everyone you talk to.... you feel invisible? Left answering machine messages go unanswered, emailed go unreplied to? I so feel there right now.

I am up to my ears in grant work for preschool. So many steps, so many papers to file, so many questions. And every time I leave a message with a fine government office, no one returns my calls. I don't understand why these people cannot return my calls or answer my emails.

Guess I'm just grumpy. It seems life hasn't been very cooperative for the last few months and I am in a funk. And for once, I just want a day to progress effortlessly... like a Walgreen's "Perfect" ad. Wouldn't life just be grand if everything went smoothly for once?

Where'd My Mojo Go?

Whew.

Life has been once again coming at me with lightning speed. Stress and stress and more stress has been piling up all around me from all sorts of sources. In the past, my stress reliever has been to hole up in my scrappy space and create away... it's my therapy.

Lately though, scrapbooking reminds me of some of the stress I just want to forget and I just can't seem to pick up my supplies and jump in. Is it lost mojo? Is is scrappy phobia? How do I get past this and reclaim my love of all things scrap related?

I need your help. Please help me find my mojo. I've looked everywhere and it seems to be lost.

Halloween Mini

Well... I have alot on my plate right now. So I thought for today I would offer up a Halloween mini album I made for you to take a quick peek at.

I promise to be back to regularly scheduled programming soon.

Memories of Grandma

Last night we lost a great person. My grandma. Her health had been declining and she is finally with God. She was a wonderful person... a good loyal friend... the one I baked cookies with ans spent summers playing at her cabin. She was the leftie of her generation as I am in mine. Oh I miss her already. She was a great person and will be sadly missed.

Rest in peace, my beloved Grandma. We will miss you.

Outtakes from the Tulip Field

As some of you know, the tulip field was mowed down by the powers that be and that left me with some yummy goodies to share with all of you! I know some of you are left scratching your heads, but I also know others are shaking their heads. LOL... sometimes I like being vague. :)

So anyhow, without further fanfare, please enjoy some eye candy! :)



This little layout is of Joshie at a year. He was such a happy little baby and I just adored this photo of him. This envelope of photos have been sitting around collecting dust, so I had a blast scrapping them.



Miss Emily created a super fun page of drawings that I just HAD to use with this photo of Em. It completely screams Emily and her fun and funky style.



Some fun wall altered wall art of a little Joshie. This is just too cute hanging on my wall.



A layout of Em with her idol. :) Those girls are too cute together.

I'm so glad I found these unharmed in the tulip field clippings. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. My heart went into each and every one of these projects. :)

Getting Back to Business

Yikes! Sorry I've been so behind on my blog! Life has hit kinda fast lately! We got through Halloween and all of the trick or treating and classroom parties. Whew! What a whirlwind! Josh's party for Halloween was a sock hop and they celebrated with carrot fries and milk shakes. I decided to make some fake cookie cheeseburgers to have some fun! I took a pic of them but my camera REFUSED to bring them into focus correctly. Sometimes that camera can be so tempermental. So please pardon the blurry pic, but I wanted to share!

We are off to a Halloween party tonight...can't wait!