My swap from NEBRASKA!

A group of wonderful ladies got together to participate in a swap hosted by Crystal at littlebitfunky (thanks, Crystal!). My swap buddy was Amanda from Nebraska. This is what arrived today.



Thank you so much, Amanda, for my state of Nebraska box!!!! It is so full of yummy goodies (my daughter has already claimed the box of chocolates!) and right up my alley with all those great looking sauces, spices and jams! In my past life, I had gone to culinary school and worked for a catering company so all these food goodies will be put to great and delicious use! We can't wait to try popping the corn-on-the-cob popcorn! How cool will that be?! Thanks again, Amanda! Someone is bugging me now to open the box of chocolates....

Coffee cans, new cards at Dizzy Broad, gorgeous notepad and clown cards

What do you do with these?






These continue to stack up as we LOVE coffee! They are made out of cardboard and come with a plastic lid. Certainly don't want to take up room in the trash for these and I don't think they can go in the paper recycling. Any ideas? (Yep, they're from Trader Joe's!)

Here are some fun, new notecards in the shop right now! This is from SU! fruit stamp set (I think it may be retired?). I went nuts making the matching handmade envelopes using retired SU! colored paper.



And...I'm still dolling up the GIVEAWAY so photo is still on it's way!!








Lookee here! Isn't this an adorable notepad? Sending this to hadesigns for inspiration for my Dizzy Broad banner. The butterfly is die cut from vellum then I used a glitter pen to add sparkle.










Paper is from SEI Chocolat. Notepad holder opens up to reveal the notepad in the center. Can't take credit for the design though :-) Found it on SCS but I may change the design so when the notepad is all used up, you can just remove it and put a new one in (currently this design has the notepad glued to the folder so you'll have to discard the entire thing when done). If you'd like the link to the directions to make this, leave me a comment here and I'll go dig it up.






Kids and I made these clown cards (from Basic Grey's Build a Clown clear stamps) as thank you cards for all the Sunshine Clowns we met in Florida. Becca and Grant handcolored the individual clown body parts then I assembled them with brads and dimensional tape. The legs and arms actually move!










Background stamp behind the clown is from SU! - it's a jumbo roller wheel. Finally had a reason and occasion to use it!




Have a great Friday!

Blog Candy GIVEAWAY is still on! Peanut Butter Banana Muffins and Poor Annie!

Happy Tuesday! Well....not sure where today went....! I was supposed to take a photo of the Blog Candy Giveaway but didn't finish getting it all prettied up! Let's try again tomorrow :-) Remember, no need to guess correctly what these

are in oder to win. I will be picking the winner randomly. Giveaway contest will remain open for another week or so!

Like peanut butter? Here is a photo of the really yummy PB muffins we made today for snack: These have bananas, wheat germ, honey and very little oil (no butter!). Next time we make these - and we will because we have more overripe bananas - we'll put our homemade strawberry jam in the center so it would be like PBJ muffins! LOL!



Oh! I remember now what we got busy doing today! Becca got this American-style Doll from Lala (Grandma) and she has been carrying her all over the place since we got home. She came with 2 outfits that my Mom made so Becca naturally has to change "Annie's" clothes everyday, just like she has to change her clothes everyday. In addition to changing her clothes, she has also been "styling" Annie's hair and pretending to braid it (more like twisting it into a tangled mess). As we were heading out the door this morning to do errands, Becca hands me Annie so I can put up her hair. I was so shocked to see this poor doll with frizzled hair, matted beyond recognition! I immediately dropped everything and had us both go back upstairs to put on some hair detangler on the doll and I worked on that poor doll's hair for 25 minutes trying to get the knots out and trying to restore the lustre and sheen on her hair. If my Mom saw the doll, she'd probably wince! Should have taken a before and after shot of Annie...I'm sure Becca will style her hair again so I'm sure there will be a before and after post of Poor Annie's hair in the very near future!

We're Back! Plus more clowns and rhubarb recipes

Aaahhh - fresh from a relaxing to trip to Florida! My parents spoiled us all so now I'm suffering from having to go back doing the cooking, kid watching, cleaning and shopping by myself! We loved swimming everyday (most of the time, first thing in the morning and before breakfast!) so we can avoid the thuderstorms and rain. THe kids even let Grandma paint their faces and dress them up like clowns! (OK, so am still trying to decide if I'll ever posts full-on photos of us on this blog...as my philosophy has always been "want to me rich and not famous" LOL! However, I'm so proud of my kids and think they are beautiful and adorable so you may eventually see what they look like in future postings! DH says to go ahead and sees nothing wrong with it). They were also spoiled with lots of treats that we don't have in OUR house (like potato chips, real ice cream and Dunkin' Donuts - we need one of these on the West Coast!!!).

Both kids cried as we took off on the airplane - as they were already missing their grandparents and were wishing all morning that our trip home would be cancelled because of the storms. Grant kept telling me that he wished that all his relatives lived on the same street and that there would be tunnels that connected them so all he had to do was go down the tunnels to visit his grandparents. Makes you long for the days when everyone lived within close proximity to each other. Now we all live on different coasts. We'll see where the next job takes us!

Here's a photo of the strawberry-rhubarb crisp I made for my parents. We used FROZEN rhubarb and it turned out fine! For the recipe, click HERE. We also made rhubarb bread. It was delicious!! Here is the recipe (ok to use frozen too if you can't find fresh):



RHUBARB BREAD

Combine
1 1/2 c. (12 oz) brown sugar
2/3 c. vegetable oil
1 c. low-fat buttermilk
1 lg. egg (or egg substitute)
1 tsp. vanilla extract

In a separate bowl, combine
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour (10 oz)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
- add dry mixture to the buttermilk mixture and combine just until incorporated

Stir in
1 1/2 c. finely chopped fresh (or frozen) rhubarb
1/2 c. toasted, chopped nuts (optional)

Pour into greased/floured 2 loaf pans 8x4x2".

Sprinkle some sugar over the tops, about 1 Tablespoon.

Bake at 350 degree oven, 1 hr, or until golden brown on top (for glass pan, 325 degrees).

Tomorrow, will post the photo of Blog GIVEAWAY!!