It's Baseball Time!

Well technically it's been baseball time for awhile but as for scrapbooking it is just now baseball time :-) I was able to get in and get some scrapbooking done and I of course had a great time! This time instead of my Storyteller Club layouts I did one from scratch :-)

I scrapbooked the A's v Giant's game that Chuck and I went to last year! It was a gorgeous day and we got some gorgeous pictures!!

Check out the "die cuts" below. I made those using the awesome Cricut Baseball Cartridge!! It was so easy to put those together!

I just LOVE the scoreboard I was able to create. Thanks again to the Cricut Baseball cartridge! And that Athletics embellishment came from Boxer scrapbooks! I was able to score that at the convention two years ago!! It is actually really hard to find our local teams stuff in embellishments or stickers!

This layout was so much fun to do!! I am starting to get caught up on my layouts! Just yesterday I counted up and I only have 6 (or 8) layouts left to finish my 2008 album! It will be AMAZING to finish another album!

Best Crop Ever

Don't get me wrong - I love our Scrap Again Crops, but the absolute BEST CROP EVER has to be the one put on annually at John Reed School! Mom and I have been going since the very first one (minus one for me :-( cause I was putting new floors in the house) And every year we are dying to go, it's almost like Christmas!! This year the crop was cut short cause my Seester got engaged and of course I was too excited to do anything but be around her :-) Nonetheless we had a great time and now we are just keeping our fingers crossed they don't schedule the one next year on my wedding date!! I'm not going to lie I probably wouldn't have picked an April date had I remembered the crop :-)

Anywho - last year we had an absolute blasty blast at the crop and we were joined by my Mom's two friends Marie and Sally! Last night I was super excited to scrapbook this crop! I had another great layout from Storyteller's! I even got super crafty cause I only had 3 pattern papers for a double 2-page layout (yup 4 Pages for one crop).

The bag held some fun goodies we all got and that wrapper down at the bottom is ADORABLE. It was made by the hosts and we all got a candy bar with it! Yup such a super cute candy bar wrapper!

I got to use some more of my scrapbooking themed stickers YAY!

And the second part of the layouts!

Isn't that little Scrapbooker so cute? I actually took it from the Swap Table at the crop this year (my Mom had actually put it here) and I was super excited to get to put her together. I thought about changing her clothes to match mine exactly but she was just so much cuter this way!

These crops are Pure Bliss and I cannot wait for next years!

I think the next Scrapbooking Themed layout I'll be doing is from the Weekend Crop my Mom and I went to a few years back, it was an entire weekend and we had a great time! Stay tuned!

Comments are BACK!

Just an FYI for any of you that were also having problems. I found the solution to my issue with blogger so I am now free to comment my little heart away! And boy have I missed being able to comment!!

If you are still having troubles when you go to sign into blogger make sure that the "keep me signed in" box is unchecked. The minute I unchecked that I was able to comment and suprise - it still kept me logged in :-)

Nature Calls!

I have discovered that I LOVE scrapbooking our camping pictures! I think cause it's still new to my scrapbooking so I get to use all the super cute stickers I've bought, but it's just so fun! Granted I am super anxious to get out there and camp this year but I have to be patient and wait until July.

My albums are filling up quickly this year which is so nice to see and I am still enjoying every single minute I get to spend scrapbooking, YAY for  2011 Goals!!

Here it is folks - my layout for our 2010 camping trip to the Petaluma KOA!

We just LOVE the KOA Kamping Kabins, they are perfect Home Away from Home's!

I was really excited when this Storyteller's Layout came in the mail cause the colors and embellishments are adorable!

I can practically smell the fire now! Sigh - I wanna go camping!!

My New Home Girl!

Natalie P. McNeal is so cool! She managed to turn being Frugal into a super cool trend! Don't get me wrong people have been frugal for a long long time but this chick turned it into something that was inspiring and FUN! If you want to be a Frugalista then you have to read this book - The Frugalista Files by Natalie McNeal!! And check out her blog - I'm not a subscriber :-)

Source

This book is in blogging format, because she started this out as a blog!!! I know that I'm biased and love almost any books about Journalists who make it in the big bad world of writing but that's only because as a kid I always wanted to work for a newspaper or magazine. Unfortunately that industry is extremely challenging and I never felt that my efforts would pay off, but thats okay cause now I can read about those people who can make it and I love it!

This book will convince ANYONE that living frugal is the cool thing to do and of course that it really pays off in your savings account, or in Miss Natalie's case, her debt! She's even inspired me to do a No Spend Month. Now I know it will be difficult because I feel like no month is a good month because we constantly have birthdays or events but this year I don't care. I chose August cause it's pretty low key, we have no vacation planned, no birthday gifts to buy (just cards) and the only shopping I'll be doing is Wedding Dress shopping so I think August will be good! Plus if I don't do it in August I won't do it this year and I really wanna give this thing a shot!! Anyone else daring enough to do it with me???

Natalie McNeal you get a BIG HUGE A+ cause I just loved this book and found myself anxious to read it! Maybe it was the blog format that made it easy to read but I think it was that Natalie's personality is so fun and you are rooting for to succeed!! Thank goodness that Amazon had this free otherwise I may have never come across it. 

Thanks for the inspiration - now to get on my Frugal Way :-)

P.S. I still can't comment so all the blogs I follow (that also follow me and are reading this) I am hoping they fix this soon! I miss being able to comment on all your awesome posts! Blogger may eventually lose me to Wordpress if they keep this up!

Comments

Anyone else as irritated as me when it comes to blogger right now??? I just wanted to let everyone know, for those that I usually comment on, I am still unable to post comments.

Come on Blogger get your shit together, I am having serious commenting withdrawals!!

For those of you who have still been able to post comments on my blog, are you using blogger? Did you find a work around to this issue???

HELP!!!

Fall Has Fallen?

Another Holiday Layout!!! I have just been on a roll with my scrapbooking lately and it feels AWESOME!! I am so happy with the way all of my layouts are turning out, part in thanks to Storytellers and part in thanks to my creative genes :-)

I finished up our Turkey Day from 2009 and it's ------------ yup you guessed it - it's so cute!! I didn't have a lot of pictures from this Turkey Day which is kind of nice cause it made it easier to get everything to fit on 2 pages :-)

I was so happy Mom posed for a picture for me cause normally she's too busy cooking or she prefers to not be photographed - crazy I know!! Who doesn't want their picture taken? Regardless she was a trooper and smiled pretty for me :-)

Of course Paps is just goofing off again - but now I know where I get my camera love and goofiness from :-) And of course my Seester Mandy Jo - who also prefers to not be photographed - but being the younger sister I am I take as many pictures of her as possible :) This is her "I'm pretending to be annoyed" or I think she's pretending :-)

Can you believe that I've got no more Turkey Day pictures to scrap?? I know I can't either, in fact I think I need to double check that fact before I can fully commit to it :-)

Shredded BBQ Beef

Another recipe out of my Guilt Free Cookbook!! Don't worry I haven't forgotten about my Hungry Girl recipes either but I have been wanting food with leftovers and Hungry Girl just doesn't seem to make those. And I am a LOVER of leftovers, don't get me wrong a good PB&J with some chips is always enjoyable but I like being able to just grab a tupperware container full of yummy goodness 3 days out of the week :-)

Back to the recipe - Super easy and if you own a crock pot you are set. Just gather up - Ketchup, Top Sirloin, Canola Oil, Worcestershire Sauce, Dijon (or Honey) Mustard, Cider Vinegar, Water, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Chili Pepper, Salta, Pepper, Lemon juice, and Brown Sugar.

First steps first - brown you sirloin on your stove top. Make sure to put some oil in the pan before you slap your meat in there.

Next combine ALL OF YOUR OTHER INGREDIENTS!! Gross looking!!

Take your browned sirloin and throw it in your crockpot.

Pour that gross looking mixture over the top!

Cover and set to low for 8-10 hours! After 8 hours take a fork and tear about that beef, unless it's already fallen a part on it's on

Carefully toast your rolls/buns in the oven, cause almost everything is better toasted :-) Give yourself a heaping of BBQ Beef and take a big ol' bite!

Then enjoy some of these for dessert :-)

Let's just say we were SO HAPPY to have those delish chocolate chip cookies because the shredded beef lacked major taste. It wasn't bad, but to make it better I would have dumped some BBQ sauce in the crock pot for about 4 hours but I was following the recipe! We probably won't be trying this recipe again because I love lots of flavor in my foods!! I guess you can't win them all!

Exceptionally Well Written - Kudo's to Jamie Ford!!

I will admit I did not start this month's book club meeting until the Sunday before our Thursday Meeting. I was quite nervous I wasn't going to be able to get into it, but boyw as I WRONG-O!! I was watching the clock tick by every day at work so I could get home and get absorbed back into this book!

We read "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford and this is one book I am so happy to have on my Kindle because I can promise I'll read it again!

Source

The story revolves around Henry and flip flops from his life growing up in 1942 in Seattle and his life in 1986. The only genre this story fits into is Historical Romance. Seriously, this book offers you a look into what life was like back in 1942. In case you are a like me and when someone offers a date you can't remember the history of the year - 1942 is when Japanese "Camps" were created and the War was going on.

This story is so touching and so well written. My gosh I loved this author's writing. I'm not sure if it's because I'm coming off reading Mother of the Blah - oops I mean Bride. This book just flowed so well, there wasn't an overabundance of details bogging it down, but you could easily picture the "Scenes" and the characters. Without wanting to give away too much, because seriously everyone needs to read this book, I want to at least say that if you are a true romantic at heart you will LOVE this, if you like history you will enjoy this. And if you aren't a true romantic at heart or a history buff, don't worry you will LOVE this. How do I know? you may ask - I don't remember anything about history and typically Romance is not my thing :-)

Overall grade - A+, I loved this book and will definitely be rereading it down the road :-) Next up, I will be reading the Frugalista Files, which is a blog turned book. So far I'm to Chapter 2 and I am loving the blog style writing as well as the author :-)

Turkey Lovin'

I love scrapbooking Holiday layouts! There is just something about them that makes me feel all warm and cozy inside, they also make me want to eat!!

I got to spend some time in my scrapbook room over the weekend and I worked on 2 different Thanksgiving Layouts! This is Thanksgiving at my Parents home in 2010!!

It was such a nice and relaxing Turkey Day and we were all stuffed from the amazing feast my Mom prepared!

See I told you we were all stuffed!! Both Chuck and Steve could have taken naps and fallen asleep if we had let them!! And Paps - well he's just crazy sometimes :-)

One thing I LOVE LOVE LOVE about Holiday layouts - most of the time there isn't much journaling to do! And I love/hate journaling. I love having the journaling done and the page complete but sometimes I hate having to figure out what I want to write and how to write it! Anyone else have a Love/Hate relationship with journaling?

Ho Ho Ho!

I got to have a Christmas evening in my scrapbook room cause I scrapbooked our Christmas Eve 2009 pages!!!!

If you've read my blog during Christmas time then you know I love Christmas! You should also know that I listen to Christmas Music whenever I get the hankering, whether it be Christmas season or in the dead heat of June! While it wasn't Christmas season, nor was the heat unbearable I still was needing some Holly in my life, so I scrapbooked my way through Christmas!

This is another Storyteller's layout and I love it! I just couldn't be more pleased with all the layouts I've recieved and bought from them!

If you see anything from the picture below I really hope it's the HILARIOUS picture of my Paps, there at the top, in the middle. This picture wasn't of him, it was of the table setting but what do I find once they are developed??? My Paps being a total goofball, again :-)

This layout was so fun and I got my Christmas fix that I needed :-) I know I'm not the only crazy person out there who loves Christmas so much that I have to get my "fix" every couple of weeks.......right?!?!?!

Shots! Shots! Shots!

When Mom and I were at our crop last month I started working on this page but could not come up with a title. Turns out I had also forgotten one huge factoid about this night, it was the night of the infamous 11 Starburst Shots! Let me explain - We all wanted to go out, it was summertime, and I had nothing to do the next day, so we went out :-)

I ended up doing 11 Starburst along with some other drinks, needless to say I was toasted and ended up getting sick on the drive home, this night Chuck showed his true love for me and not only cleaned out his car but also made sure I got cleaned up and to bed :-) It was a fun night, but not one worth repeating!

Without further ado - here is my layout, titled Shots at the Bar!

I will say that we got some super cute pictures out of this night!

Good friends and family!

I will brag about this, whether people think different of me afterwards is fine, but I'm a damn good chugger :-) I was able to drop my shot in and suck those drinks down before anyone else! Yup it's something I am proud of :-)

Bottom's Up Friends!

It was a lot of fun to go out and hang out with Chucks' two sisters and his Brother In Law.

These pages were so much fun to do and I was even shocked that I decided to do 2 double page layouts but there were too many great "shots" to scrapbook :-)

Creamy Broccoli Goodness

Another new recipe - I think I'm back in the groove folks! I have been wanting to try some more recipes out of my Guilt Free Cookbook from Taste of Home and what better than a dish with broccoli?? You might say a lot of foods are better than broccoli but in our house we LOVE broccoli! We actually start to crave broccoli if we don't eat enough throughout the week, we also crave Pizza but hey you gotta balance the fatty foods out with the healthy ones right??

I digress.....

Grab these items next time you are at the grocery to make the Cheesy Broccoli Rigatoni casserole!

Broccoli (duh), milk, olive oil, mozzarella cheese, butter, flour, rigatoni noodles, garlic powder (or fresh garlic), and some salt.

Chop up your broccoli, not to teeny tiny pieces, but I cut the little "bushels" in half.

Melt your garlic and butter, than slowly add in your milk. Let it get thick before removing from heat. It won't get thick like gravy but you really don't want it to be runny either, just do your best :-)

Boil your Rigatoni noodles!

My first time successfully cooking broccoli YAY! Sad as it is I always screw up broccoli, so who might you ask cooks it in our house - Chuckles of course and if he's not home I eat these amazing Green Giant single servings (pick up the broccoli AND the cauliflower - YUMMY).

Can you see the thickness? Not really, that's okay you can get the idea it's supposed to be similar to alfredo sauce!

Then you begin the layering! Put some of your cream sauce on the bottom, cover the entire bottom of your 13 x 9 casserole dish. Top with noodles, then broccoli, then cheese and REPEAT!

Bake in your 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. And voila - you will reach perfection!

We actually cut this down so it'd be a side dish in which we stupidly chose to pair this with hamburger helper. Needless to say the hamburger helped got tossed and we DEVOURED this casserole, along with some warm cornbread muffins!

I'm not joking when I say that we devoured this. It was so yummy and the garlic ratio was PERFECT! We both love garlic so when you can really taste it - oh man we were in heaven! I was lucky enough to have 2 lunches with the leftovers and it was still super delish leftover. I gurantee if you heat this up at your office people will be looking and drooling. Everyone wanted to know what it was cause the delish garlic smell that wafted out of our office kitchen! Try IT!!

Taco's & Pizza = YUM!

Any one who knows me (or has read this entire blog - in which YOU KNOW ME) knows how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Mexican food!! Seriously I could eat it EVERY SINGLE DAY!! I claim that "I got it from my Mama" cause she loves it just as much if not more than me :-)

What else do I really enjoy, PIZZA, among many other things but let's stick to the recipe at hand! I combined those two loves and whipped up this awesome recipe from Taste of Home - TACO PIZZA!! Oh yes a scrumptious and spicy TACO PIZZA!!! I was super excited to try this recipe that I even swapped two recipes in my monthly menu planning so I could eat it sooner :-)

You only need the few essentials - a 12-inch pre-baked pizza crust (I chose the awesome Boboli), Cheddar Cheese, Tortilla Chips, Taco Seasoning, Water, Ground Beef, Refried Beans, and Salsa.

I actually cut this recipe in half cause the original calls for 2 12-inch pizza crusts but with just me eating I knew I'd only have 1, maybe two slices from one pizza.

Combine your refried beans (fat free) and salsa!! YUM!! You can always dip a chip to make sure the balance is right, or at least that was my excuse :-)

Brown your hamburger, drain, then toss back in the pan on heat with your water and taco seasoning, just like your whipping up some tacos.

While your meat is "marinating" in taco seasonings, pull out your pre-baked pizza crust. I had to use an upside down cookie sheet cause we don't have a pizza pan! (hello item for our registry)

Spread your bean and salsa mixture over the entire crust!

Top with your taco meat!

Crumble your tortilla chips over the top!

Load it up with some CHEESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then pop in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, you just want your cheese to melt!

Then slice it up just like a pizza, top with some lettuce and a dallop of sour cream (I used Lite sour cream cause let's be honest this dish is not that great for you.) 

Hello Delish Slice of Taco Heaven!! This was AWESOME!! I highly recommend to anyone, especially those with kids! This is such a family friendly meal and it's so easy and quick to whip up!

Also a BONUS -  perfect leftover food. It heats up nicely and the crust is still just as good as the night you make! You must try this recipe.