I have been working on a few things for myself as well as go to a workshop with Donna Downey for my birthday, start English Saddle horse lessons and we also started an eating challenge that I spend a lot of time cooking for! On top of that I've been taking care of my vegetable and flower gardens (which are look amazing -- I ate the first cucumber last night and noticed I have baby tomatoes too, yahoo) and trying out a new ARt Journaling group -- which I totally love! 
Now that spring is finally here (well -- I'm questioning that as it was 47 degrees this morning) and I've cleaned up a good part of my of my to-do list; I've been spending time doing things that I love -- like gardening, a little junking -- and a little cooking as well.
Yesterday after spending the better part of the day shoveling dirt and mulch, pulling weeds, raking and planting all the plants I bought at the Library Plant Sale I made a batch of granola. I don't usually share my recipes -- but thought you would enjoy it.
I try to feed my family with as many healthy foods as I can, but when a box of cereal is $5.25 I seriously question whether I should just pick up the sugary goodness that I know they will love. Then my brain kicks in and I decide to make my own granola, and you can too because it's easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Though it has about 350 calories per serving, its also only about $5.50 per batch, and each batch is more than double what you get in a box for $5.50 -- and it has NO high fructose corn syrup or preservatives!
Here's my recipe for Maple Craisin Flax Granola:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together in a large bowl:
Add the above ingrediants to liquid mixture and mix together until everything is completely coated. Add 7 cups of old fashioned oatmeal and mix until the oatmeal is completely coated.
Spread out the mixture on large jelly roll pan and put in the hot oven. If you have two pans split the mixture between the two pans and the cooking time should decrease! Set the timer for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off mix the ingrediants around on the pan -- moving the granola on the top to the bottom. Set the timer for 15 more minutes. Keep cooking and mixing until the granola is crunchy -- about an hour or so. My oven is a little off.
Remove the granola and put it in a large clean bowl. Add to the cooked mixture 1 cup of craisins or raisins and 1/2 cup ground flax seeds and mix together completely. Let cool before storing in an air tight container. You want to make sure the granola is completely cool before storing! -- or pre-measure into 3/4 cup servings and store in small baggies for a quick and easy breakfast. That's it -- not only is it DELICIOUS but it's economical and your family will love it. For me -- I know what goes into the granola -- no TSP or other artificial ingrediants. I have a child with a lot of allergies and try to limit the amount of preservatives and chemicals he eats. TSP is often used in cereals as an emulsifier -- but it's also used as a cleaning agent. I found this paragraph about it:
A nonsudsing powdered TSP compound formulated for heavy duty cleaning. Preferred by painting and cleaning professionals for removing heavy deposits of grime, smoke, soot, and chalked paint. Kills mildew when mixed with bleach.Do you really want to eat cereal with THAT in it?? ewww. Anyway, enjoy the recipe! Thanks for stopping by, now that my to-do list is pretty free I will be posting more creative projects! Enjoy your day.
I know, you've seen this card done a million times, but my Mother saw it in a card magazine and absolutely loved it -- so I had to make it for her.
But, I had to make it and add my own spin to it. The templates I've seen around make a card with a flower pot that's about 4" tall and the overall card is pretty tiny. This card is too big to fit in the largest envelope I have -- it's at least 8" tall or taller ;-) I also embossed the body of the flower pot with a Cuttlebug Embossing folder, stitched up the sides, used pre-made flowers and the flower pot edge.
I know that she'll love it -- no matter how many times it's been done! Anyway, for all my friends that are Mother's -- HAPPY Mother's Day! Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!
Along time ago I was blog hopping and saw the most beautiful card -- and upon reading discovered that it was created by squashing pansies in a flower press (or something like that) on top of watercolor paper. Sadly -- I don't remember where I saw it or the name of the artist. Her card was beautiful though, and I think she had something to do with Stampin' Up.
Anyway, since I don't have the patience to wait for a flower press to do the job, I ran this orange pansy through my big shot on top of a quote that I had created and printed on cardstock. The flower turned into a squishy mess, but once I had wiped away all the debris, I thought it looked amazing! I was surprised that the purple detail was in the center. I think I'll be stopping by the Greenhouse to pick up a flat of pansies when I get a minute or two to breath.
Well, even though I've got twenty million things going on, I couldn't leave this beauty sitting on my desk. So I rifled through my scrap bin and came up with this quick card. It really only took me about 15 minutes -- though that's 15 minutes that could have been spent writing instructions, LOL -- or 15 minutes more sleep. Well, sleep is over rated anyway. I'll just stay up 15 minutes later than I planned.
This was a fun creation, and exactly the creative respit I needed to be able to spend the rest of the night on the computer writing instructions!
Thanks for stopping by, hope you are having a fabulous week so far!
I've been busier than busy the last week or so -- but wanted to share a sneak peak of Lesson 1 from Spellbinders Card Workshop that I'm teaching at My Creative Classroom. It started on Friday but there's still time to register - but you might want to hurry because it's almost full. If you mss out, it'll be running again in the Fall Semester!
Hope you have a great weekend, thanks for stopping by!
Doesn't the root coming down from the right look like a skeleton hand? Creepy.
Playing with the depth of field on my camera. I always forget what settings to use until I start using them again.
And on the way home, we HAD to stop at the Big Chicken Barn. It's literally in a HUGE chicken barn -- though this time they didn't have anything I couldn't live without!
Thanks for stopping by, it's Wednesday - halfway to the weekend! Enjoy the rest of your week!
Well, you look through your supplies until you find something you LOVE (like the Cherry Blossom Vellum stickers shown here) and make a card. I will say I spent more time LOOKING at my supplies than making this card, LOL.
And a close-up of the tag. Lately I've really been into making little tags for cards and things.
If you want to make a card like this, or see how I did it, check out the detailed Tutorial over on the Spotted Canary blog that I write for.
Really, that kraft gift bag needed dressing up -- I just couldn't give that special gift with no tag, ribbon or button. It looked awful and like something I brought home from the grocery store!
Anyway, the tag (and the gifts) were a hit. I made a bird feeder from a tea cup (google diy tea cup bird feeder for instructions, that's what I did) and I also gave her one of the pretty wax collages I made a few weeks ago. Moral of the story -- choose to spend 10 minutes making something special instead of buying something premade and probably printed somewhere else! Crafting a gift for someone you know will appreciate it is so much better than a gift card or a gift from Macy's makes you feel so good.....not that shopping at Macy's doesn't make me feel good, LoL.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by, hope you have a great rest of your day!
I woke up this morning determined to use a small pile of scraps that had been left on my desk from several other projects I worked on this week. I find that I don't use as many of these "scraps" as I should, so I'm trying to do better.
I'm pretty happy with this little tag, love the sequin butterflies, wish I could find the punchinella that made these, LOL. I'm also happy that I used up some of the scraps from the week!
We had a great family night playing cards last night, but I lost most of my (I mean my husband's) money. Looking forward to a chance to win it back soon, though I may have to use my own cash next time.
thanks for stopping by -- hope you have a great day. It's a torrential downpoor today so I think we are headed off to the flea market. I've got some projects in the works that I need a few things for.
To read the rest of this article, and find out how you can win a $50. stamping prize package, go to the Expert Blog on the Spotted Canary for more info!
Thanks for stopping by, hope you are having a great week! My finger is starting to heal, typing and crafting doesn't feel so bad today! I'm thankful it wasn't worse than it was! Ta Ta for now!
I had big plans for this weekend. My guys went on a boys only fishing trip in upstate New York early early on Friday Morning and I had the weekend to myself. After a facial, some junk shopping and a movie on Friday and Saturday morning I settled in for some crafting projects and Red Box Movies. I wanted to make some stamped projects for my Expert Blog post, and I also wanted to make a card using this sweet stamp from Inkadinkado. I've had it for several weeks and couldn't stop thinking of what I want to do with it.
Well, that was about all I could handle for the weekend. I went home and put all the crafting things away and had a rest on the couch. I did manage to change the bandage to someting a little more reasonable this morning, so I think I'll live.
That's all for my drama, thanks for stopping by, hope you had a safe weekend and stayed out of the ER!
Note to self: when you think you need wire nippers -- get up off your lazy butt and get them instead of trying to make do with scissors.
