{week in the life} thursday | 2014

Thursday was a fairly productive and yummy day.  I mostly finished up my laundry which always feels great, and so I'm ready for a fun Halloween weekend.  Ryan and I have some plans that we are really looking forward to.  Also, I didn't snap a photo of it, but made a delicious grilled cheese sandwich for dinner with fresh sliced avocado and pepper jack cheese sandwiched in the middle of two slices of cheese (and gluten free bread) and it was super tasty.  I'm going to have to remember this one. XO

Some thoughts on my Thursday:

1. This is my favorite candle scent right now.  I'm a big fan of almond scents (and flavors), and this reminds me of almonds, apples and cinnamon!  It makes my house smell amazing!!
2. Ryan surprised me with a coconut bubble tea.  It's our go-to flavor right now.  It was the perfect treat!
3. I put the finishing touches on my layout from Wednesday.  Really loving those die cut leaves from Studio Calico.
4. Ran a few errands, and it was so nice to check things off my list.  There were so many colorful trees in the parking lots of all the shops.  I had to stop and snap a pic of the pink ones ; )
5. Ryan finished his camo project the night before and I woke up to a bunch of parts drying on our kitchen table.
6. The last of my left over German pancake with apples and cinnamon for lunch.  SO good.
7. Rainy day selfie.
8. Raindrops all day today.

{week in the life} wednesday | 2014

Wednesday is easily one of my favorite days of the week....it's date night! I love that there's a block of time during the weekday where Ryan and I get to focus on "us". We have so much fun together it's the best!!! For our date this week we went out to dinner at one of our favorite burger spots. We walked in the door.  Sat at the bar.  Found out it was "ladies night".  Received two tickets for our ice tea and soda.  Started eating our burgers.  Had one of our tickets called.  I spun a wheel.  I won a $25 gift certificate to a local salon! Such a fun surprise. XO

Some thoughts on my Wednesday:

1. Had a wonderful Skype date with a crafty friend, and we challenged ourselves to create a layout using leaves.  I cut mine out of wood and printed my photo onto transparency.  It turned out really great.
2. There are like 5 different types of mushrooms growing in our backyard right now.  Crazy.
3. Date night selfie.
4. My laptop (named Maple) requires a headset for Skypeing.  Side note: my friends layout from our leaf challenge turned out awesome!
5. My Japanese maple in the backyard (a katsura) is turning the prettiest shades of yellow and red.
6. Walking to the car.
7. Tonight's sunset was lovely.
8. 30 weeks.

{week in the life] tuesday | 2014

Welcome to my Tuesday! I had a really laid back day but managed to take a few photos for Week In the Life. What about you? Anyone else enjoying this challenge? XO

Some thoughts on my photos from today:

1. I like to use the mandolin for slicing up the granny smith apples for my German pancakes.
2. Using the kitchen more lately, and really love that my Caphalon dishes can go in the oven.
3. Steam rising from my lunch (German pancake with apples and cinnamon).
4. The puppies wear sweaters outside when it rains so cleaning and drying them off is easier.  Still think this skull sweater is too cute!
5. More from the kitchen.  Putting some of my Pyrex to good use.
6. Watching "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" while sorting my laundry.  Charlie Brown forever!
7. Ryan enjoying taco salad with homemade ranch dressing for dinner again tonight.
8. Some sweet delicate raindrops.  The sun came out in the early afternoon and then it rained a lot.

{week in the life} monday | 2014

I decided to follow along with Ali Edwards in documenting my Week In The Life and took a few photos of my Monday. In general it wasn't my favorite day ever, but I got through it and am hoping for a better tomorrow. I didn't get as many photos as I'd like, so I'll probably tell a couple stories that are only journaling and I'm okay with that too. I do really love the photos I did end up taking though. XO

Some thoughts from my day:

1. Trying something new for breakfast.  Gluten free granola with unsweetened vanilla almond and coconut milk.  It was good.  Right now I like to watch House Hunters International on the DVR while I eat my first meal of the day.
2. My poor attempt at having myself be in a photo.
3. Ponyo standing at his watchdog perch with a piece of grass sticking out of his mouth.
4. Trader Joes (pumpkins) for groceries to make a taco salad for dinner.  Also my first attempt at homemade ranch dressing.  Yum.
5. Baby doctor appointment.  It took longer than normal but went well.
6. There are still a few bright yellow leaves left on the trees outside the doctor's office.  They are still lovely.
7. Another pumpkin photo from Trader Joes.  I didn't put up any fall decorations this year, so seeing this bit of autumn is so cheerful.
8. Gatsby finding the sunshine that still shows up during these bright autumn afternoons.

{batch card making} halloween 2014

Hello Everybody! So today I finally get to share my Halloween cards for this year!! I used the beautiful FREE Studio Calico Fall Printable Poster on the inside of my cards, and you can download yours HERE.

Below is the process video for my cards:

 

I did slightly alter the free printable by shrinking it down and re-coloring it in Photoshop. One design is more pinks to match the pink neon ghosts, and the other is more blues and green to match the blue and green neon ghosts : )

I designed the BOO! die cut in Photoshop and cut it out using my Silhouette Cameo. Since I was able to cut out 6 die cuts per 12x12 sheet of paper, it helped a lot with my batch card making. Also, the whole idea of making a bunch of the same cards at once usually starts with a cute pack of embellishments (like the ghosts I used for these). Having multiples of the same embellishment is great, but depending on what it is I tend to only need one or two.  Having extra is usually what inspires the urge to use up my stash and make a bunch of cards all at once ; )

Plus, I am a sucker for anything cute!  And the Studio Calico printable is beyond perfect for adding the perfect feeling of autumn!!  Hope you enjoy!  XO

{autumn recipe} german pancake with apples & cinnamon

APPLE CINNAMON GERMAN PANCAKE

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:

• 2 granny smith apples, cut into slices (I left the skin)
• 1/4 cup turbinado raw cane sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (GF: use brown rice flour)
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons salted butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400° F. Make sure the oven rack is in the middle of your oven.
2. In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon.
3. In a medium bowl, combine eggs, salt, flour, milk, and vanilla extract and beat until batter is smooth.
4. In a 10" ovensafe pan (I used Calphalon) or a cast-iron skillet melt butter over medium heat, tilting pan to cover sides. 
5. Add apples and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixture. Stir and then remove from heat (if you let the apples cook too long they will become very soft/mushy in the oven).
6. Pour prepared batter over the apples into the baking pan. 
7. Place pan in preheated oven and bake approximately 20 minutes or until puffed up and lightly browned and knife comes out fairly clean (it may puff irregularly in the center); remove from oven (the pancake will begin to deflate).
8. Serve warm, cut into quarters.

To Make This Gluten Free:  I replaced the all purpose flour with the same amount of Bob's Red Mill Brown Rice Flour.  It didn't puff up quite as much as regular flour, but was still really yummy.  I've made it a few times now and Ryan always comments on how delicious it is!

Notes:  I left the skin on the apples and liked it a lot.  However, traditionally you'd peel the skin off.  I've also tried this recipe with a little more of the cinnamon sugar mixture for when I have a sweet tooth, but another option is just adding powered sugar on top. Most of the time it's plenty sweet without anything extra though.

I also like to add whole milk ricotta cheese (a 1/2 cup or so) and just add a little less milk. It makes this dish a little more rich and filling. 

Hope you enjoy this lovely autumn treat! I'm using apples or pumpkin something in almost all my recipes the last couple weeks and it feels so festive!!  I also have been loving all the colorful leaves and crisp air around here so I snapped a couple pics of my front yard.  Happy autumn days to you!! XO

*The graphics added to my pics (other than the first one) are from Studio Calico's Underground Digital Scrapbook Kit Stamps and Underground Background Cut File by Paige Evans.

{art + design class} harper rain walks | layout 4

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!  Ryan and I were lucky enough to get away and spend a couple days over on the Peninsula with my family.  It was so relaxing.  Of course I didn't have time to scrapbook while I was there, so I'm itching to get back at it today and start on my Week 2 layouts from Wilna's Art + Design class : )

This page is my most recent layout from her workshop where we used diamonds in grid form from Week 1.  I was finally able to use some of the photos from when my niece had first started to walk, and jot down my thoughts and memories from what she was like back then.  It was also my first time using gouache paints!  Fun, fun!!

A couple fun items of note:

• I layered a photo under the largest diamond to add a little more texture and pop to my page.
• I created my journaling in Photoshop in the shape of a diamond and ran it through my printer.
• All the embellishments and patterened papers are from the Basic Grey Grand Bazaar collection.  Love that fox!
• The cut files are from the Art + Design workshop, but Wilna has lots of other amazing cut files in her online shop if you're in the mood to use your die cutting machine. XO

{art + design class} summer snapshots | layout 3

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. How about you guys? Well, if you're in the mood for scrapbooking the weekend away I have more crafty inspiration for you!  This is my third layout from Wilna's Art + Design online workshop. We are still working with grids, and I used some of the Crate Paper frames paired with Wilna's summer cut file to create my page. The embellishments are from Basic Grey's Grand Bazaar collection, and the background paper is from Pink Paislee Pen Pal's collection.  The off-white background is watercolor paper, and this is my first time using gelatos!  It added just a hint of pink and I love the result!!  Below are some details shots.  I have one more layout that I'll share soon from the first week of class.  Happy weekend to you! XO