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ahhh… we have a bit of respite before we celebrate the next and last big holiday for a while…. some downtime ’til New Year’s Eve- an evening with friends and cosmos! Immediately followed by New Year’s Day and football and Hot Wings! I think i’ll just not eat until next Tuesday….
I hope you all had a fun fun holiday filled with lots and lots of yummy food and nice gift surprises and friends and family or furry family surrounding you. Joey Dangerbutt managed to finish off our Cherry Pie (sorry Carol!) while we weren’t looking… but maybe that’s a blessing in disguise- a dog with an few extra pounds is much better than me and Keith sporting them!
Keith surprised me with an Epson 1400 wide format printer and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0! I made a quickie layout just to test out the printer and WOW! I’m soo excited (and surprised- he already thinks i’m on the computer too much!). So here’s that layout….
He got surprised with a Pearl Izumi Commuter backpack (for cycling) and a portable home stereo for his ipod nano. He spent a good deal of yesterday morning uploading cd’s and downloading songs to change out his music and mentioned he was running out of space on the nano. He mentioned he may need to upgrade to a full size ipod. Hmm. Too bad his birthday is over 9 months away… heh hehe.
We are leaving for a road trip tomorrow- Yosemite! We were going back and forth for a while between Portland or Seattle and eventually settled on just a small, relaxing road trip. Keith has never been to Yosemite and I went once when I was a wee lass, which doesn’t count. The only thing I remember about that trip was that I taught myself how to french braid my hair on the drive home (sheer boredom coupled with sore arms). We made our decision a couple of weeks ago and the very next day, we saw Sunset magazine with an article on Yosemite. Apparently it’s the time to go because of the majestic beauty and lack of crowds…. and bears. So we’re pulling out our snow gear and will hopefully snow-shoe and hike. I highly doubt Keith will look too kindly on me hauling my laptop with me, so in case you don’t hear from me, I’ll be back next week!
In the meantime, HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE!
These are my Christmas cards to my non-stamping friends and family. They are probably receiving these now, and they don’t know about my blog, so it’s safe.
I needed to create a simple, flat-ish card that was easy to mass produce (i made about 50 of these!) and this is what I came up with. I am pretty sure that Papertrey’s Take A Bough is my favorite stamp set – i’m not even going to qualify it as my favorite Non-SU stamp set because i really think it’s numero uno out of my entire inventory. I think if my craft room was on fire, and i could only save one set… uh…
nevermind. Can’t even THINK about that scenario.
Card details: the aforementioned stamp set, Take a Bough, Kraft paper, Pomegranate cs, Old Olive textured card stock and Shimmer White cs. Ink colors are Close to Cocoa, Old Olive, Purely Pomegranate and Encore silver. Then, Memory Makers epoxy circles finish off the ornament.I haven’t posted any of my papercrafting only because…. IT’S ALL GIFT RELATED right now and i can’t spill them yet. I promise next Wednesday, after all the gifts have been opened, all the cards have been received and all the biscotti and truffles have been consumed. Actually- the truffles will be on the blog hopefully this weekend. I need to take some purty pics for the next volume of Random Recipe (so sit tight Estivalia!).
For some cool papercraft projects you may or may not have seen yet… check out Debbie Olson’s Papertrey Release projects… that little lamb is ADORABLE!
For super cute Sneak Peek of Stampin’ Up’s new papers and birdie set, check out Danielle’s blog here and Sara’s blog here!
And in other news…
I re-did the Tortilla Soup Recipe book layout. It seems too, that I need to keep the pages separate for the template at Shutterfly, so my layouts are 8×8 instead of 8×16. Thought I could save a step by doing both pages together (and maybe it’s not a biggie) but it’s probably better to stick with the template for my first attempt.
The digi kits are Bella Mini by Thao Cosgrove at ScrapGirls and the decorative embellishments are PEAchy Keen by Rhonna Farrer from twopeasinabucket.
Hope everyone’s setting aside some time between all the rushing around to stop and enjoy the Christmas Spirit!
Today was Bake Day at my house. My holiday specialty is Biscotti- Gingered White Chocolate and Chocolate Hazelnut. Espresso truffles are also on the list for tomorrow (after i finish my Christmas cards!). I’m also going to package up the biscotti & truffles in various tins and glassine bags – and those i’ll show you later this week! But for now – one of my recipes! Biscotti is actually quite simple. And… it’s not terribly bad for you- in fact, I found this recipe in Cooking Light magazine! Be sure to check out the recipe book pages I made for this recipe as well below- click on the thumbnails!
Hope you enjoy this one!
2 c all purpose flour 2/3 c sugar 2 tbs crystallized ginger 1 tsp baking soda ½ tsp salt 4 oz white chocolate chips 1 tsp vanilla 2 eggs 1 egg white Vegetable cooking sprayCombine sugar, white chocolate chips and crystallized ginger in a food processor fitted with a blade, until coarsely textured. Add flour, baking soda and salt and pulse until blended.
In a large bowl (or standing mixer), beat the eggs and vanilla until combined. Add the flour/chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat until combined. Dough will be dry.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly 7 or 8 times. Shape into a 16” long roll. Transfer to a baking sheet lightly coated in cooking spray. Flatten roll to 1” thickness. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Remove from baking sheet and let cool 10 min on a wire rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Cut roll diagonally into 24 1/2” slices. Place back on the baking sheet, cut side down and bake for another 10 min. Turn slices over and bake for a final 10 min. Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely.
Page 1 (left side)
Page 2 (right side)
