I'm so behind.

As I was uploading new pictures, I came across some old pictures just now. And I realized that I don't think I've printed pictures in a LONG time. I printed one batch of pictures back in October, but only Halloween ones, and one batch in January, but only sledding ones. Other than that, I think it's been almost a year since I've printed any. I haven't printed any pictures of Ellie's first birthday, or of Christmas, or of when my parents were here last July. It was one of the July pictures that I just came across. There are some good ones! So why haven't I printed them??

I'm so behind.

I won! I won! I won!

What did I win, you ask?? I won one of the BEST prizes on the Bloggy Carnival Giveaway, from Char at digiscrapchat.com. I am SO excited to say that I won... The new Donna Downey book!!


Susan Beth just recently got back from the Inspired Artist Workshop with Donna Downey and I have since been LOVING Donna's style! I am so excited to see her new book!

And the Bloggy Carnival Giveaway winner is....

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

55

Timestamp: 2008-04-27 00:05:19 UTC

Comment #55 (counting the subscribers twice in a row) is... CINDY!

Cindy said...

I've would love, love, love to get handmade cards! I read your blog daily through Google Reader

Congratulations, Cindy! Send me your mailing address and I'll get your cards in the mail! Thanks so much for playing, everyone!

Low Fat Spinach Lasagna Recipe...

Tonight I made a new variation of our traditional lasagna. We dropped the meat from the lasagna a couple years ago, but tonight I did a few other things differently, too. It was definitely different from our usual cheese-laden dish, but it was really good! Here's the recipe...

Ingredients:
2 C. Cottage Cheese (pureed to get all the curds smooth)
2 C. Shredded Parmesan Cheese
2 C. Fresh Spinach
3 Egg Whites
------------------------------
2 C. Diced Tomatoes
4 C. Tomato Sauce
1 T. Fiber Powder
Season to taste
------------------------------
6 Lasagna Noodles

Directions:
Combine cheeses, eggs, and spinach together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine tomatoes, tomato sauce, and fiber powder.

In a glass 9x13 baking dish, place a layer of sauce, then a layer (3) of DRY noodles, then a layer (1/2) of the cheese mixture. Repeat, then finish the top with a layer of sauce.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 1 hour. Uncover and sprinkle with additional cheese (parmesan or mozzarella, according to your liking) and bake uncovered for 15 minutes more.

Let cool for about 15 minutes before serving. Makes 8 servings.

The best part about this lasagna is that it's only 5 ww points for a pretty generous serving. AND it only has 275 calories, 7 g. fat, 4 g. fiber, and 22 g. protein! Very filling!

Graduation Accordion Album

This is the class I'm teaching on Saturday. It's an accordion album in a tin, with a pocket in the lid for a gift card. I made the sample forever ago, it's strange to think that I'm finally getting around to teaching this class. And come to think of it, I know a few graduates myself, so maybe I'll just have to make a few of these to give to them, too. Graduation isn't too far away, you know...

Enjoy the Journey

It's been a while since I've made a paper bag album, but when I was trying to think of a project for June's Mom and Me class I decided a PBA might just be the way to go. So, with the open house on Saturday, I settled in at the scrapbooking store on Friday to start the project.


One of the things I love about PBA's is just how quickly they go. The whole project took less than two hours, from the time I walked in the door, two paper bags in hand, to the time I walked out with a finished book, including the photos. I hadn't chosen the paper, photos, or even the scheme until I got there, and it all just came together nicely.



It's supposed to be a Summer / Travel themed PBA, and I used the travel strip paper from Scenic Route. You know how much I love these strip papers for cards? Well I love them for PBA's, too. There's just so much variety on one sheet of paper, it's hard not to love what you can do with it! I paired it with a black and white number paper from another Scenic Route line. I think they go nicely together.

I didn't really have any good summer or travel pictures I wanted to use in the album, but I DID have the pictures I took in June 2006 of my favorite shops in downtown Bozeman. I love going downtown in the summer and looking at all the fun shops, with all their textures and colors and inspiration. I love settling in to a coffee shop to sit and read or just enjoy a drink. I don't get to do that very often now that I have a toddler, but when I want to get away, that is what I do.

So this is my book about places in Bozeman I love to travel to, discover new ideas, and enjoy the journey that I am on. I figure if you want to see the world, you might as well start at home.

Spring Cards!

I don't know about the rest of you out there, but I am tired of snow. I'm ready for it to be SPRING! And yet... we're supposed to get snow every day this entire week. *sigh* I know it means we will have a better August because there won't be as many forest fires, but still... can't we have a little bit of warmth and sunshine? Just a tad?

Well, I guess I was really in the mood for Spring when I made these cards, because they were SUPPOSED to be "shabby chic." They look more like spring chic to me! Oh well. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, though, especially since my creative mojo seems to be on vacation the last few weeks. These four cards comprise one of the classes I'll be teaching this quarter at Keepsakes. We seem to have very few card classes on the schedule this time around, so hopefully the card classes we do have will fill up quickly!

It's Bloggy Carnival Giveaway Time!

Commenting has been closed for this giveaway and the winner is...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

55

Timestamp: 2008-04-27 00:05:19 UTC

Comment #55 (counting the subscribers twice in a row) is... CINDY!

Cindy said...

I've would love, love, love to get handmade cards! I read your blog daily through Google Reader

Congratulations, Cindy! Send me your mailing address and I'll get your cards in the mail! Thanks so much for playing, everyone!

Here's what I'm offering...

A set of 10 handmade cards, made by me! They will be an assorted set, for various occasions.

Here's how you get it...

1. Leave a comment on this blog post. Please leave your email address or blog address so I can contact you if you win.
2. For an extra entry, subscribe to my blog and let me know how in your comment. If you're already a subscriber, just let me know how you read it (bloglines, google reader, feedblitz, etc.)

The fine print...

• Only one comment per person, please.
• Open to US entrants only
• Open to bloggers and non-bloggers alike
• Winner will be chosen by random.org
• Winner will be chosen on Saturday, April 26th and announced here.

I got to play in my craft room!

Yesterday afternoon I got to go down and play in my craft room, just play, just for me! It was a much needed break from doing things for other people or not doing anything at all.

I've been inspired lately by this blog and her incredible brayer use. I've had a brayer for a long time, but I didn't use it very much. So one of my goals in playing was to try out some of the techniques I've been seeing on her blog.





In addition to the brayering, I wanted to use my new 7 Gypsies ATC punch. I don't do ATCs, but I thought the punch was too cool to pass up, and I had a 15% off coupon at Keepsakes.


I also used my alcohol inks yesterday. I've had them for months, but I'd never used them. So I gave it a whirl. I need to work on new techniques and figure out all the cool things I can do with them, but it was fun. I like them. I used them to dye the notebook paper in the card above, and I used them on this card, too. I used my HS butterfly masks and then applied alcohol inks over the masks. I outlined them with my Krylon pen, then applied the masks to acetate and cut out the wings. After the wings were cut out, I colored them with the alcohol inks (same colors as the card front) and bent them, then adhered them to the masked butterflies on the card. The picture really doesn't do it justice. This is my favorite card from yesterday.


So I'm excited. I got to play! It's not scrapbooking, but it is something, and I did learn some new techniques. And I got to play with some of my newest Inkadinkado sets! I love this circle and butterfly that I got a while back. This weekend I got these cool words (which I love because they remind me of a Technique Tuesday set I can't get at our LSS any more and managed to miss while they were in stock!), this beautiful sentiment set by Brenda Walton, and these great birds. I also got a Cloud 9 quote set this weekend. It's what I used on most of the cards above, except for the birthday one. I just think these are the most beautiful quotes and great for both card making and scrapbooking. I'm seeing lots of use in the future with these...

So there you have it. THAT'S what I was up to yesterday. I'll post more of my classes in the next few days, so stay tuned. I know I've been absent lately, but I'm back now. =D

Theresa Collins Mini Album

I have to admit that I LOVE Theresa Collins' work. I love her papers, especially the Journal-It line. So when I saw this little album on her website, I had to give it a try. There are obviously more pages than this in the album, but here are just a few to give you an idea of what it is. This is one of the classes I'm teaching this Spring at Keepsakes, and I'm really excited about it. It will be a different sort of class than I've ever taught before, so it will be freeing and challenging at the same time, but I'm looking forward to it!

Our Family

I believe in crafting with your kids. I believe in sharing your passions with them, and I believe in spending time with them. I think too often our hobbies are just that, OUR hobbies, and not something we share with the ones we love. So to encourage scrapbooking moms to share their hobby with their kids, I started teaching "Mom and Me" classes at Keepsakes. The first class was a hit, so I'll be teaching two more this time around. This layout is part of the first one. It's simple, but should be fun for even the littlest crafter. I decorated my tree with flowers, but we will have other punches available for the class, too, like leaves and hearts. I want the kids to feel free to put as many or as few embellishments on the tree as they like. You really can't go wrong with this one, so I want the kids to just play and have fun! Along with this layout we'll make two Father's Day cards as well. The Open House at Keepsakes is tomorrow, so we'll see how many people are interested in the class this time around. I, personally, cannot WAIT until Ellie is old enough to scrapbook with me.

Wonder what I've been up to?

Sadly, not much scrapping. I'm sort of getting tired of doing projects for other people and other things, and I just miss scrapping my own memories. I miss doing little girl pages. I miss the freedom and therapy that comes with just playing to have fun. I just want to scrap for myself again, but I don't know when that will happen. So for now I'll show you what scrapping I HAVE been up to lately...

These layouts are for a heritage pages class I'm teaching this summer. I think I'm still going to add a little journaling to the Boy Scout page, but I haven't decided what I want to say yet, so it's not there yet. The first layout is about my mom and uncle. The picture was taken when my mom was a year old. It amazes me how much my little girl at one year looks so much like my mom did at that point. The second layout picture is one of my grandfather's boy scout troops. He was a boy scout leader for years, and I used to love going down to the cellar at his house and looking at all the old boy scout pictures on display. This is one of the few pictures I have of him and the only one I have of his boy scout years, so I love it.

Ooooh.... Digital....

I stumbled across all the web challenge digital freebies from Designer Digitals the other day and I've been downloading like a fiend since! I don't know why it makes me so happy, but it does.

Someday I will actually transfer all my digital files to the computer downstairs so I can digiscrap in my scraproom. What a novel idea!

I am not a gardener...

... but deep down I have the desire to make things grow. So every year I try to plan what it is that I want to plant. Most years I'm a little too ambitious in my ideas and I end up disappointed by the results. Because the truth is that I'm not a gardener.

But today I worked in the garden some, so we'll see what comes of it! My irises (which I've managed not to kill in 5 years so far!) are starting to come up, so I weeded out the dead growth from last year (I know I should have done it in the fall, but I'm not a gardener - remember?). I also planted some butterfly friendly wildflower seeds in the perennial garden and in the iris/tulip bed. We'll see if they sprout and attract butterflies, but I hope they do! I just think that would be neat. Ellie and I also did a little gardening this morning together. We stood by the sink and planted some seeds in little starter pots. It was fun for her to fill up the tiny pots with soil and we counted out five seeds for each pot. They're in the window sill now, so we'll see if they grow. If they do, we should have starters for daisies, tomatoes, basil, and oregano! The rest of the seeds I sowed in the big pots I have on the deck. One for tomatoes, one for daisies, and one for oregano and basil. Again, we'll see if anything happens, but I'll be okay if nothing does.

I usually have very bad luck container gardening. Moreso than bed gardening! I don't actually have a space set aside for a vegetable garden, so right now I just plant a couple things in my perennial garden (which is actually going on it's 3rd year and doing well!). Last year I tried onions, peppers, and tomatoes in the pots on the deck. The only thing that made it at all was the onions. I was surprised, because when I plant tomatoes in the garden they grow fine! So I will put another tomato plant in the garden this year, provided I can find a good spot for a tomato bush. I am also going to try to plant some onions (they were so good last year!) and garlic, too. I think I'll pass on the peppers this year for lack of space, but maybe revisit that idea in the future.

Basically I am learning something about gardening in Montana. Short season crops are good. Like tomatoes... they do fairly well. If they need a longer growing season, they'd better grow under the ground, like onions, garlic, carrots, and potatoes! Someday I'd like to grow some potatoes. That would be fun. Maybe I'll stick one of the potatoes that's sprouting eyes in my pantry into the ground and see what it does! I don't know the first thing about growing potatoes, but it would be fun to try someday, and I know they do well here. And I can use all the help I can get when it comes to growing things. Because try as I might, I am NOT a gardener.

No Craft Night for me

But Leif is going to take me out to dinner. That will be nice. And my kitchen and dining room are almost clean, so that makes me less stressed out. So no crafting, but sanity. I'll take it.

I am alive

though at this particular moment I sort of wish that weren't the best I could say.

Good news: I have made progress in my craft room and have actually been able to do a couple projects down there.

Bad news: None of the projects have been for myself.

Good news: I've got most of my projects for Keepsakes done, so that is no longer hanging over my head.

Bad news: I've been keeping up with their blog about as well as I've been keeping up with this one.

Good news: I've been losing weight and keeping up with my calorie counting.

Bad news: Today has been a bad, bad day and I really want to eat the rest of the ice cream we have in the freezer.

Good news: Craft night tonight!

Bad news: If I feel in a few hours like I feel right now, I'm not going.

Good news: I got new Copic markers today!

Bad news: I may never get to play with them the way my week is going.

That's about it. Too many things, too little time. Too much stress. MIM gets the back burner for now. Hopefully it will all slow down soon and I'll have some new things to post for your viewing enjoyment. And as far as the MIM challenges go, we're just going to pretend that the month of April doesn't even exist.

busy busy busy

Whew! I have been busy, busy, busy the last couple weeks, most recently I have spent two days at Taylor's house helping her with the new twins. That has kept me away from the computer. So you might have noticed there was no Variations on a Sketch posted yesterday. I thought about coming up with one quick and posting it today, but decided not to stress about it and just let it go this week. My to-do list has been growing and I don't need to add one more thing to it. Friday I am going to scrap and I need to use that day to make all my class samples for the next schedule at KBD. Until I get that done I can't do any other scrapping. That is first priority right now. Hopefully I can get it all done on Friday so I can continue with the regularly scheduled programming. Thank you.