Snooze-Tastic!

Well Ladies and Gents I've finished another book, our book club book this month was Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates.

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This book was ---> insert long pause here<----- interesting.

Considering I was the one to suggest we read this book to my book club I must also take responsibility for it being such a dud. Had we not that awful book The Thief Taker then I'd say this one takes the cake for the most boring book yet!

You must not be fooled by any summary you have or will read regarding this book (especially Amazon's description) because this book isn't what it was supposed to be. You are teased with thoughts of an exciting thriller based on a murder in a small town. Yes there was a murder in a small town but excitement and thrill were highly missed. Two characters Krista and Aaron are dealing with this murder at young ages. Krista's father is one man highly suspected but never given a trial and was set free, and Aaron's mother was the woman murdered.

The book was slow, dragged out, way too much detail, and lacked any chance of me emotional connecting to this book. It did keep me interested somewhat because of course I wanted to know who the murderer was...yet when I got to the end and the story wrapped up I was left with a "What the Hell??" attitude.

Read at your own risk. Overall grade - F.

Since I've been super sick since last friday, missed easter completely, have been in bed since last friday, and I will miss out on watching the Royal Wedding live with my friend, I have not had a chance to pick up another book. I'm feeling quite a bit better now, thus why you are reading this blog post, but I'm a little unmotivated to read right now. I didn't meet my April deadline and after this book I want a really great book to read...

Perhaps it's time for some animal related reading?? The Art of Racing in the Rain will have to be my next pick :-)

Sew-Tastic!

Another layout done YAY!! I had so much FUN working on this layout because it was soooo girlie and it was the first time I've seriously worked with buttons on a scrapbook page!! Thank you Storyteller's for including them in that month's kit :-)

Here it is folks - my Sew Easy layout!!

Chuck thought my title was so clever, I didn't want to tell him that I'm sure I saw it somewhere else and "Stole" the title :-) This page is actually of Mom coming up and teaching me how to make a valence for my scrapbook room!!

I was so ecstatic with the embellishments for this one because I was able to fill that whole top space with just cutesy flowers!!

Here's the second 2-page layout! Check out the buttons!!!

I was so grateful my Mom took pictures of me sewing cause it made this page so much more fun! Without those it would have been one 2-page layout with a before and after I'm sure! But nope I've got plenty of us working away!

Yes Mom did all the ironing that day! I can now say I iron everything but when Mom's around why not let her do it right? Yup I'm spoiled :-)

I was so happy with how these turned out and it was so much fun to work on! And I am no longer a button virgin YAY!! I can gurantee I'll be using buttons more and more....

Happy Birthday To You!!

I finished up another layout and this one was challenging! I'm not sure if it's cause it was an "All Boy" layout or if I just wasn't feeling the birthday zone but nonetheless it's finito!

I scrapbooked Chuck's 29th birthday party and while it was a challenge for me to finish the layout I am pretty pleased with how it turned out!

Here's the first 2-page layout :-)

I love my goofy fiancee and his "special"ness :)

 

That's his best friend on the right, you can totally see just from these pictures why they are friends!!

Oh YUCK!! You must excuse the horrible flash mark as I didn't see it when I first took this picture!! This is the second 2-page layout!

Yikes! Another horrible flash mark, at least you can see Chuckles in this one, since this page is all about him!!

And finally - I of course had to scrapbook our beer pong game! Naturally Jenny (Chuck's Sister) and I SLAUGHTERED Chuck and Nick!! Yes I am very PROUD that we won at beer pong! In case you don't know Chuck and I can get competitive with games!

These pages definitely capture the crazyness and fun-ness (new word start using it)  of that night and the most important part - Chuck really liked it :-)

Suprise!!

I'm sure all of you have heard about Starbuck's Mini Treats and like me I'm sure you've been wanting to try (or perhaps you have tried them). I'm so excited to say I've finally tried one YAY!! My honey brought me coffee and this little treat to work last Monday as a cute little suprise!

Isn't he sweet?!? Yeah I think so too :-)

Now what treat did I get you may ask?

He brought me the Peanut Butter Cupcake treat!!

Look at how cute and tiny that box is!! I wanted to save it but really what would I use it for?

Another shot before I took my first bite....

Sadly I really didn't like this :-( I ended up taking two small bites and throwing the rest out. It was pretty blase :-( I'm not ready to give up on Starbucks Mini Treats though so other than the Red Velvet Whoopie Pie that I am determined to try does anyone else recommend any of their mini treats?? I know I'll try the cake pops at some point but which one??

A Little More Lemon in My Life

I'm sure you've been waiting on Pins & Needles for my recipe using Lemons & Blackberries so here it is :-)

Friday night I decided to make some Lemon Blackberry Muffins!! I chose to use this recipe which calls for:

Salt, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Flour, Sugar, Butter, Blackberries, Lemon, Eggs, Vanilla Extract, and Milk.

Pretty gross looking huh? I'm not sure what's up with these recipes but you need to combine the milk and lemon juice, then add the lemon zest and vanilla.

Then you plop in the egg and whisk!

Again bad blogger here and I was so into my recipe I forgot to take more pictures of the dough so you will need combine the rest of your ingredients together and divide the batter up into the muffin pans! You are only supposed to fill up 6 muffin cups about half way.

I filled up as many as possibly just to see if I could get more than 6 muffins but no go. Plus you need the extra dough for the next step!

You need to top the muffins with the blackberries and then put some dough over the top of the blackberries! I got 7 YAY!!

Then pop those suckas in the oven at 400 degrees for 25 minutes?? I think NOT! I only baked these babies for 15 minutes and they were.............

........Baked to perfection!!!! I definitely would have burned them had I set the timer for 25 minutes. The only reason I knew to cook them for less time is cause I read the wonderful reviews on the recipe and one review mentioned that 25 minutes was too long :)

These were UUUUHHHHH-MAZING!! I of course tasted one right out of the oven and YUUMMMMMYYYY!! I was so stoked that they turned out as good as I was hoping and they solved my craving!!

I even had some left to take a couple to my parents the next day!! I don't think Chuck got one muffin cause I devoured 2 on friday night and then picked on them the rest of the weekend!! This is another MUST try recipe!!

"Black Friday" Dinner

Another Storyteller's layout for you! This time I scrapped our "Black Friday" Dinner from 2009!

Such pretty colors in the background and embellishments!

Working on this page made me want a big turkey sandwich! :-)

Isn't my honey so cute? He's so patient with me when I'm taking pictures lol!! I am pretty sure he just wanted to carve into this turkey but I made him carve slow and pose haha!!

 I think I need to stop working on Holiday Layouts cause now I want Thanksgiving and Christmas to get here! HAHA!! I love Holidays!!

Jenga Master

Since I shared our Yahtzee game (and yes I'm still kicking Chuck's ass) I have to share our amazing Jenga game!! This was the very first time Chuck and I have played together and OMG was it AMAZING!

Check out our tower!!

Yup that's 30 levels and we began the 31st level! Unfortunately I knocked it over with my next move :-( It was so sad but we had a blast! I couldn't believe we got it this tall considering it was the first time we both had played in over 4 years!!

After this game, which was so STRESSFUL!!, we played Life and then Yahtzee. It was an awesome date night that my Honey planned for us complete with apps and dessert YAY!! And just to let you all know (cause I am sure you are dying to know) and of course cause I want to brag our wins/losses

- Chuck won at Jenga (He was so happy to win a game)

- I won at Yahtzee (Duh!) (For the record Chuck wanted to play I didn't force him)

- I kicked ASS at Life, 1.7 million dollars baby :) Yup I retired at Millionaire Estates!

I am loving our weekly game nights and it just might become a regular thing!!

Chocolate Tasting = Delish Layout

Back in 2010 I suprised Chuck one sunday with a fun Chocolate Eating Activity :-)

We went to a Chocolate & Wine Tasting and it was pretty neat! I've gotta say I had more fun scrapbooking the layout than I did at the actual event HAHA!  Another Storyteller's layout...isn't it so fun and cute?

I LOVED the colors of this layout!!

I was happy to get to use almost all of our pictures on this single 2-page layout! Don't those lollipops remind you of Willy Wonka?

Lemony Delight!

I have got lemons on the brain!! I'm not sure what prompted my lemon cravings but last week I made sure to pick up a couple lemons (and blackberries - stayed tuned for that recipe) and got my booty in the kitchen!! I'm sure some of you have noticed my lack of new recipes lately (oh you mean ALL YEAR lol) but I've really begun to miss cooking and baking! So my goal is start working on recipes again!

First up from the awesome cookbook Guilt-Free Cooking, I've made a Lemon Chiffon Cake!

You need - Vegetable Oil, Baking Powder, Flour, Salt, Sugar, Reduced Fat Sour Cream, Eggs, Lemon, Fat Free Evaporated Milk, Lemon Extract, Lemon Juice, and Powdered Sugar. (Oh yeah you also need Vanilla and Cream of Tartar but I was out)

This part actually looked pretty disgusting - Put the evaporatedmilk, sour cream, lemon juice, vegetable oil, lemon peel, and lemon extract in a mixing bowl.

Yup so I was a horrible blogger and didn't take enough pictures. But essentially you next mix your dry ingredients and blend into the above gross mixture. Then in a separate bowl you want to whisk your egg whites (no yolk) until you get "stiff peaks", then gently fold into the mixture.

Pour your batter into an UNGREASED bundt cake pan.

Bake for 45-55 minutes at 325 degrees. Immediatly after you remove from the oven "invert" your pan onto a platter or as I have done onto some cooling racks.

I highly recommend ignoring the part in the directions where you leave your pan ungreased. I struggled with this beauty for about 10 minutes trying to get it out of the pan without it falling apart. My mission was a total success but next time I'll be lightly greasing my pan! 

The hardest part is letting your cake cool completely! I was so anxious to finish it up and take a big ol' slice but I waited about 2 hours!

For the frosting just put in some lemon juice and powdered sugar and whisk away!! You know frostings good when it slowly drips off the whisk! YUMMMMMM!!!

The picture in the recipe book shows the entire cake top covered in frosting but I prefer the drizzle, not just for looks but also cause this frosting is SUPER LEMONY!!

Isn't she beautiful??

I told you I was going to take a big ol' slice and you better believe I devoured this piece!!

Even though I was concerned about the frosting being too much lemon it balanced out with the cake perfectly! Really this cake wouldn't be as good without the frosting! I have to say for all you lemon lovers you have to make this recipe! I brought it to work and by noon we only had 3 slices left...Yes I do believe this is a keeper :-)

Books and Bon Bons!!

My 3 books a week has ended people, but I've finally finished another book, about a week later but it's finished. I just wrapped up reading Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bon's by Lorna Landvik on friday night.

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This book reminded me a lot of the women in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. They were quirky, had a little too much sauce, but were dedicated to their friendships! The book is focused on the friendships of Slip, Kari, Merit, Faith, and Audrey and their lives during the 60s, 70s, 80s, and yes even the 90s. They all live on the same street (or perhaps it was a cul de sac I can't remember) and decide to start a book club! Throughout the book the narrator is determined by who was hosting the book club that month and that year.

The author doesn't include every single month as the book seriously takes you from the 60s through to the 90s so imagine the novel it'd be if she did in fact do every single month. I wouldn't be able to make it through the book.

This book is simply about the womans lives and the changing times. I'll admit it was hard to get through at first, I wasn't able to connect with any of the woman, but about halfway through I began enjoying my reading. I wasn't "hooked" but I was more interested in getting up to read instead of snoozing away. But by Friday I just wanted to be done with it. I really hate just wanting to be "done" with a book so I will say this - it's a cute story, could have been written better, and the ending sucked. I'm not sure what I would have changed with the ending but it didn't sit well with me.

On top of not liking the ending I then proceeded to read the interview with the author and I know I can't tell a lot by a person when I'm reading their interview instead of hearing it but.......... I really didn't like the author. Not sure why but she "rubbed me the wrong way" and it left that bad taste in my mouth.

Overall grade = B-. Once I connected with the characters I liked them but it took too long to get there and the ending left me unsatsified. I'd only recommend to those who have had those close life long friends or those of you in book clubs.

Next up Little Bird of Heaven for book club this month :)

Christmas 2008

This is the layout I was working on when I had my Scrap Buddy :-) My goal is to finish scrapbooking all of my 2008 pictures this year (and if I'm really dedicated all of my 2009)!!

This was our first Christmas in the new house YAY!! I used another Storyteller's layout because they really have the cutest stuff!!

It was actually really nice to work on a 1 2-page layout, but I didn't get to use as many embellishments as I would like to! I strongly feel the more the merrier when it comes to embellishments, but you can over do it!

I love love love that tree tag! I was going to save it and use it on tree hunting/trimming pictures but I have to get out of that mindset of saving so plop it went on the page!!

Working on this page made me miss Christmas *sigh* I guess I'll just have to curl up on the couch and watch a christmas movie :-) Yup I'll do it too!!

Buster-Roo Scrapbooking Buddy

When I was scrapping the other night I was not alone! Sure Chuck hangs out in his Mancave when I'm home so he's just on the other side of the wall but this new friend of mine was right at my feet!

My Buster-Roo decided he wanted to hang out in the girls room for the night! I usually have a couple cats hanging out while I'm in there but it was so cute to have my baby boy there, plus he was keeping my feet warm!!

Check out my super messy scrapbook table LOL!! Although do check out the new pencil holder (the green thing). I scored this at Office Depot and it is the perfect green match to my sewing desk!

And one more shot of my Buster cause he's so damn cute! He's such a good boy when he's in there too, he watches the door for my "protection" from the cats, yup he's a herder and everytime one of the cats came in he had to "round them up".

Anyone else have furry friends that hang out while they get creative??

Yahtzee Party Foul

The other night Chuck and I sat down to play a riveting game of YAHTZEE!!

We were sitting at the dining room table sipping on some...............

And of course enjoying some yummy appetizers when Chuck committed a party foul! How could we not see it coming???

Yup homeboy rolled the dice and one of those little suckers jumped out and landed right in the middle of our dipping sauce!! HAHA :-)

I of course had to take a picture! We love playing games together and recently we've been having many rounds of Yahtzee. Needless to say I've been dominating the tournaments! I got 4 Yahtzee's in one game!! Yes in 1 game!! And poor Chuck can't catch a break even on the rare occasion he would roll a Yahtzee I would roll one as well and he was never able to get a decent lead on me. Unfortunately for Chuck he's never won a full match. He has a few individual games but he has never won a "tournament", so we are taking a break from Yahtzee...

We have not figured out our next game to play......anyone have any good 2 player games suggestions???

KOA Kamping Kabin Adventures

Last year Chuck and I were lucky to have been able to go camping twice!! Both times we were able to stay at local KOA's which was so nice and SO FUN!! I was so excited to scrap one of our trips the other night and I had a blast using up some cute camping stickers I had :-)

Here's the first 2 page layout (I had a total of 3 2-page layouts for this trip)

I used my Cricut to cut out the title, and in case you were wondering I did not misspell "K"abin! The KOA calls them Kamping Kabins :)

I highly recommend anyone going and staying a the KOA Kabins cause they are really nice! I of course took pictures and I had to include them!

The 2nd 2-page layout! This one was to showcase the beautiful scenery and of course the yummy food!! Our Chef for the week was Chuck and everything was DELISH!!

I just love "The Great Outdoors" sticker! Our kabin was in a prime location. We were hidden by some trees but we had a beautiful view of the pond from our front porch :-)

YUM!!!

And the final 2-page spread is some random pics (of course I had to document the books I read) and then the infamous campfire and smores..you can't do a camping layout without those pictures :)

Just a random fun page!

YUMMY Smores!!!

Working on this layout made me want to go camping so bad!!!!!! I told Chuck we need to pick our dates and put in requests cause I cannot wait to get on to our next camping adventure!!

Anyone else getting excited for camping this summer?