Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas!!!
Have a wonderful holiday everyone. Stay safe and be good!!!!(not too good!)

Friday, December 18, 2009

Friday's Weigh in results

2 lbs lost!!! yea... I finally did more than 1 stinkin' pound and during the stressful holiday time too.. Yippie! Today was our final weigh in, bummer.... My total results of learning through Funky Weigh Down is -15 even. Not bad if I do say so myself. I will def. take -15 pounds. I am not giving up. I am going to take what I have learned in class and keep on keepin on. I am glad I ended on such a good note... Now to survive 2 back to back Funky Fusion and Funky Body Blast classes next Tues and Wed. I am going to give it a go!

Now for my photo of my card I made for Christmas:
Front of card: I distressed and stamped the tag and used 2 types of paper. This is my prototype, on the real ones I sewed around the whole card and distressed the red card stock. I used a brad to secure the tag.
On the inside I made a notch on the left with a circle punch to insert a photo and this is the saying on the card that I stamped. Lots of work to make 35 cards. But they are out and done...
Now to tackle the wrapping....

Merry, Merry!



Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Result's from Friday's weigh in

I did gain a pound and 1/2 over Thanksgiving week that would not budge.. But I am happy to say it is off and so is another pound. I am down -13.5 total. I am not losing as fast as I want but I did lose during the holiday's so far. So I'll take it.

I haven't posted in a while but I have busy with Christmas and there doesn't seem to be a moment to spare. I haven't even started wrapping presents yet!! I will post a picture of the Christmas card I handmade this year. I was busy making 35 of them!! whew.. don't know if I'll do that next year. I also made the corresponding envelopes. I want to wait until most of my recipients have gotten them before I post.

Well, dog has an ear infection off to take her to the vet this afternoon...

Happy Holidays!!!

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Thanksgiving place cards


This Thanksgiving Emillie and I had the assigned tasks of making place cards for the table. I wanted to find something cute. I scraplifted these awesome Turkeys off someone's blog (sorry I can't remember which one.) I did put my own spin on them though. I cut them out using SCAL; if anyone wants the file let me know.


I also took some photos of the beautiful table my Mom set this year. Looks to pretty to eat at.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Friday's Weigh in results

So I am down -12.2 lbs...Ugh! I keep waiting for the -2 or -3 or even -4 but it never happens. I guess the extra couple of glasses of wine didn't help this past week or the sweet treats at my Pampered Chef party. So all in all I have to be HAPPY that I still lost. It just isn't fair that I work so hard for a pound. Now I have to be extra good on Thanksgiving!!!! I have to remember I don't want to LOOK like the stuffed Turkey.

Have a good one and good luck to all the deer hunters this weekend. Stay Safe... and get a Monster down.

:o) Me

Friday, November 13, 2009

Friday's Weigh in results

So almost a pound!! I am at -11.5!!! Not too bad. Been busy this week; I am having a Pampered Chef Party tomorrow so I have been cleaning my house up getting ready. Now to keep it clean until tomorrow or through tomorrow at least... We'll SEE!!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Friday's Weigh in results

I lost .8 lbs!; not bad but it was enough to get me to the OVER 10 lbs lost mark!!! On week 9 not to shabby if I do say so myself. That being said I seem to be an every other week biggest loser so.. Next week; Watch...Out...
Total weight loss so far is 10.6 lbs

Have a good weekend everyone and remember only eat if you are TRULY hungry.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Create Memories

I scrapped today. I did a layout which I haven't done in awhile. Need to get my butt in gear. Anyway I was in a fall mood so I did this picture of Em and Joe. Too Cute. I cut out the border with SCAL and I found the geese die cuts at a store. The bracket frame was cut with my Cricut using SCAL also. Simple and neat. I like how it turned out.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween Photos

Here is my Zombie Bride and SpongeBob showing off their loot!

My Zombie Bride
My Ninja
My SpongeBob Square Pants
Here are all 3.
It was really cold and windy on Halloween!!! I thought I'd share a few pictures with you.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Friday's Weigh in results

3 LBS!!! I lost 3 POUNDS!!!! WooHoo!!! That brings my total weight loss to 9.8 LBS in 8 weeks. I am pumped... Now with Halloween tomorrow I gotta stay strong and only eat if I am HUNGRY!!!! Halloween isn't about FOOD it is about having fun and being with the people you LOVE and maybe getting spooked! ha...

Happy HALLOWEEN!!!!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Friday's check in, and Saturday's Project

I lost .5 on Friday. A half a pound. I guess it is better than gaining. Seems every other week I am up then I am down. It was hard this week to get exercising in with the kids being sick. But a half pound is still a half pound.

On to Saturday's project. I made a Halloween little board book. I want to get better at these so I am going to keep trying. I made it with SCAL and downloaded it from the SCAL Forum. http://forums.surecutsalot.com/ Then you can do a search.







I have a few touch ups to do but for the most part it is done. Not sure what I am going to do with it since it is only 3 inches high. Just something fun!!!Happy Haunting.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The Kids are SICK!!!

Well we got it, we didn't want it, but we got it. The FLU has hit here. Lucas my 7 yr Old woke up 3 am Tuesday morning with a fever and stomach ache. The puked 2x's and has run a fever all day and all night. POOR GUY! :o(...
Emillie woke up 2 am Tuesday with an ear ache; took her to the doctor at 4:40 yesterday and she has double ear infections, POOR GIRL :o(....
Nick just seems congested and I am sure his turn is coming..

Hopefully everything will run it's course and be done... (Hopefully)


Sunday, October 18, 2009

Saturday's Project

Here are 2 pictures from my last post about inspirational sayings. I did these 2 with my Cricut cutting the chocolate vinyl. I used SCAL for the font.

Saturdays project is the Countdown to Christmas Calendar from the Splitcoast Stampers website. I love how it turned out.
I used clear embossing powder, UV, on all of the numbers and the "day's til Christmas" title. If I do it again I will not emboss all the number, way to time consuming.
I have to add the ribbon to hang yet, but that is minimal. All of the little tins open up to put treats or little prizes in. I will find something in 3's for each of the kids to have when we open it up. I will be visiting the dollar store! To get directions to make go to this address: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/advent_calendar/

Let me know what ya think!

Shell

Friday's Weigh in results

So I lost 2.8 lbs according to my calculations which brings my total weight lost to 6.2 lbs!! Not bad for 6 weeks. I wish it were more but I am happy it isn't a gain. All the little pounds add up. This week we are supposed to talk to ourselves! I am worth it. I want to be healthy. I am proud of myself.

I made some inspirational sayings around the house this week with my cricut cutting vinyl. I put up You Create the very Best You, Kindness starts with me, Live Life beautifully. I will take pictures and post soon. I scraplifted the sayings from my exercise phenom Stacy! It totally fits with this weeks homework.
Thanks for stopping by.

Shell

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Layouts from the Crop

Let me know what you think of my layouts. They were so fun to create.

:o)

Check in from Friday's Weigh In

Well things didn't go good. I gained +. 4 pounds. Yes I know it isn't much but I was really giving it my all this past week. I ate good and I exercised my butt off. I was exhausted. So needless to say I was upset to think that I gained this week. I am not going to fall off the wagon. I am going to stay positive and hope for a big loss next week. :O(

For the fun stuff:
I went to my first crop Saturday with my friend Jenny. It was so fun. It was by Creative Memories. I won 3 prizes and got a bunch of layouts done. I will photograph them and show to you soon. I have a few to finish up with my Cricut since I wasn't going to haul it. It was nice to scrap without interruptions. It was for 8 hours of scrappin fun!!

Tootles!
Ps. I made a eatbetteramerica recipe for beef stew in the slow cooker and a shrimp dish and they were delish for the weekend meals. Check out the website: eatbetteramerica.com. (courtesy of my life coach/exercise phenom Stacy Summers.)

Thursday, October 8, 2009



I made some Christmas gift tags and I decorated a chipboard box to hold them and keep them organized. I love hand made gift tags but, what do you do with them? I put some pretty Christmassy paper on this box. I cut it out after I measured it with SCAL in the corresponding shapes. I glued it all on. It was my first one so I could have glued better. (sometimes pictures don't do justice.) I sanded the sides for a distressed look on the black. I cut out the tags using my cricut Doodlecharms cart for the Santa, and Plantin Schoolbook for the tags. I used stickles for the bling.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

new goals- and what I did today

For those of you that know me you know I have been trying to lose weight for what feels like forever. I want to post or journal about my journey and have been meaning too for a long time. Well today is the day. I lost around 30 pounds last year in 08' and want to continue to lose. I was at a stand still or wasn't trying hard anymore and was in a rut came spring/summer of 09'. Does anyone just get sick of tracking points or calories or running all the time to workout? I know I do. But I also know I need to. A few pounds crept back on and the workouts seemed to lack. All that work I did and I didn't want to go back. I became a member for the YMCA in Feb. of 09'. I noticed in the latest session that there was a class called Funky Weigh Down or FWD as we call it in class. It was designed to help you lose weight by teaching and talking and giving you the tools needed to succeed. You are supposed to lose around 10 lbs. in 7 weeks. So I signed up. Now I also do a class also called Funky Fusion. I feel for me it is high intensity meant to burn 600-800 calories per class that is roughly an hour long. Our wonderful teacher Stacy Summers teaches all the "Funky" classes at the Y. I just admire the shape she is in for having 4 children and her positivity she brings to her workouts and to FWD class. I also admire her shape. She also introduced me to Fava Tea which is helping with my evening snack cravings. I love to snack after my kids go to bed. It is my time to unwind and de-stress from the day. But it wasn't helping my jean size. I get the herbal and Rooibas teas. They are great. I suggest you give them a try.

We are starting week 5 and I am down 4lbs. I am working out 3 times a week for an hour and I am dripping with sweat after. That is a requirement. I feel better; although some of my joints are complaining a little. I am on the arc trainer for around 30 min and then I do my 45 min Zumba class on M & W. On Fri. I do Funky Fusion for an hour then FWD. We get weighed in every Friday at FWD. I will let you know how I do this Friday. My goal is to be down another 40-50 lbs. I know I can do it.

Check out Stacy's Blog at the right Spoonful Living.. Dig into Life for more information on Funky Fusion and Funky Weigh Down.

Today I finished up my garden tomatoes!!! Finally!!!! I canned 13 more quarts of crushed tomatoes. Yes, 13 quarts. I am NUTS. But we picked them all right before we had frost and they all turned ripe. But the tomatoes are done. Finished. I am not doing anymore. I pulled out my plants yesterday actually the whole garden is pulled out and in a big pile in the middle. I told Joe to burn it. It is actually good for the soil to have ashes in it. It provides some nutrients, I forget which ones. It was supposed to rain all day today and part of tomorrow so I wanted to get it done before it was too muddy. Also it is only supposed to be a high in the 40's by the end of the week. So we are done gardening for the year. I am a bit sad too. But now I get to sew and scrap and get ready for the holidays. Time to do something different.

Enough on my ranting.
Have a good one!
Shellie

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Uh Oh

A layout I did using my new fiskars circle/shape cutter. I cut out the photos with the oval stencil. I used plantin school book cartridge for the font, and cut it with my Cricut. I added a prima flower and made the oval frame with SCAL(sure cuts a lot) software. I added my new rain dots on the frame for a little extra bling.

Wedding Card-Scrap Post


I made a wedding card today for a wedding we are attending tonight. I think it turned out nice. I used my cricut, wild card cartridge, my cuttlebug for embossing the cake. I stamped the saying on the inside too.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Spooky---My favorite time of YEAR

I love Halloween, can you tell by my new background!!! I finally put up my Halloween decorations on Wednesday afternoon. I'll have to take a picture of it to show you. I also grew a white pumpkin this year. It was one of two that made it. I started my pumpkins from seed this year in early spring in the house. I think I planted them to early because some got frost bitten and I was busy covering my other plants and didn't worry too much about the pumpkins. But 2 survived. I will post a picture of them later. My white pumpkin is sure pretty though. Martha would be proud. (aka Martha Stewart)

My newest recipe that I must share is my Granola Bars I made from my Good Housekeeping Magazine. I made them yesterday and they were wonderful.

Here is the recipe
Granola Bars
2 C Old fashioned oats ( I used the organic extra thick)
3/4 C toasted wheat germ
3/4C chopped walnuts
3/4 C dried cranberries
2 Tbsp. packed Light brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 C honey
1/2 C canola oil
2 lg . egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray 9x13 metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line pan with foil, with ends extending 2 inches over short sides of pan; spray foil.
2. In glass pie plate, spread oats; microwave on High, in 1 minute increments, 4-5 minutes or until fragrant and golden, stirring occasionally. Cool to room temperature.
3. In large bowl, combine oats, wheat germ, walnuts, cranberries, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in honey, oil and egg whites until well mixed. Transfer to prepared pan. Using wet hand press into even layer.
4. Bake 32-35 minutes or until dark golden. Cool in pan on wire rack.
5. when cool, use foil to transfer to cutting board. Cut lengthwise int 6 strips, then cut each strip crosswise into thirds. (You should have roughly 4-1/4"x 1-1/2 bars.) store in tightly sealed container at room temperature up to 1 wee or in freezer up to 1 month.

each bar: about 190 calories, 4 g protein, 23 g carbs,10g total fat, 2 g fiber, 70mg sodium.

The DIY (do it yourself) tip: a 12 bar box of similar ingredients is $30. The tray of the homemade of 18 costs only around $6.

Let me know if anyone tries them.
Enjoy.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Roasted Garlic Tomato Soup! SBS (Step By Step)

Here is my way of doing Roasted Garlic Tomato Soup. I peel my tomatoes first makes it easier in my opinion. I cut an X in the bottom of a Tomato.
I blanch them for a min or so until the skins are starting to come off.
Then I dump them in the sink of cold water to cool immediately. Then the skins peel right off. Core and half the tomatoes as much as will fit into your pans. Roast Garlic, Tomatoes, 2 Carrots peeled and chopped at about 1". 1 large onion peeled and quartered 1 garlic head. Brush all with olive oil. I also drizzle olive oil over garlic head. Roast in oven at 400 degrees for about an hour, until slightly black. This picture below I was doing a double batch. I had 4 9x13 pans going. The one below had all my onions and garlic and carrots on it. I snuck a few tomatoes on so you could see. The rest of my pans had all tomatoes
Put all in a large pot.
Then add your 2 cans of chicken broth to your pot. Boil for 10 min. I then used my immersion blender to make it super creamy.

Process in pint jars with 10 lbs pressure for 60 min using a pressure canner only.
To serve add cream or milk when heating to your liking. Do not add cream or milk before canning it will spoil. Let me know if anyone tries it and what they think. Enjoy!

Dill Pickles YUMMY!


Here is my Dill pickles. They did turn out great.
I pick my pickles pretty small, a few snuck by me and got a little big.
Here is the recipe: for each jar
1/8 tsp. granulated alum
1 clove of garlic
1 small hot pepper
2 heads of fresh dill
20-25 - 4 inch cukes, blossom removed, washed and soaked overnight with 1/3 C pickling or canning salt. Rinse and drain cukes and pat dry, stuff into quart jars.


for the Brine:
1 C pickling salt
12 C water
4 C vinegar
Bring to a boil.

Pour over packed Cukes. with 1/2" head space. Process 10 min in Boil Water Bath. BWB.






Let them sit a month before you eat. If you can wait that long. Happy Eating!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Squash, Peppers, & Tomatoes oh MY

just a quick post tonight. Look at all my Peppers! Yum... I want to make some Jalapeno Poppers! I never made any and want to give them a whirl. Hopefully I can make them and freeze them. Perfect for Packer Games. See the bucket of Cherry tomatoes that is how many we pick at time. Crazy..... I plan on canning and cooking tomorrow. I will let you know what I make.
































Butternut squash I have a total of 4. One seems to weigh about 5 lbs. 2 more cantaloupe too!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes


How I couldn't wait for tomatoes. Well they are here in full force. We have great tomatoes in the Midwest this year. Every person I talk to has good tomatoes. No dry rot or bugs getting to them. I have been dehydrating the cherry tomatoes like crazy by cutting them in half, sprinkling with sea salt and oregano and basil. Then dehydrate and put them in freezer bags in the freezer. They are great to pop into soups and sauces to give it more of a tomato flavor. The kids think they taste like pizza sauce. I have almost 5 quart bags full.

My hubby wanted me to try to make some tomato soup to can as well. I made some today. I got 4 pints and it smelt wonderful cooking. Here is the recipe:

Roasted Garlic Tomato Soup

12 Tomatoes
2 Carrots - cut in 1" pieces
1 Large Onion -  quartered
2 whole heads of garlic-
Olive Oil
2 cups Chicken Broth- (or 3)
1/2 C chopped fresh basil or 1 T dried

Core tomatoes and cut in half. Place cut side up on foil covered cookie sheets with carrots, onion and garlic. brush with Olive Oil.  Bake at 400F for about an hour, or until vegies are roasted and a little blackened. Place in a large sauce pan with the chicken broth and basil and simmer for about 10 min. Blend with a stick blender until almost smooth.

To Can: Process in a pressure canner at 10 lbs pressure  60 min for pints and 70 min for quarts. 1" head space.

**cream may be added to taste when the soup is served**

Makes 1-1/2 to 2 quarts or around 4 pints

(i used 2  9x13 pans to roast my veggies or I would have had a mess from the tomatoes.)

enjoy!!
(recipe courtsey of gardenweb.com, recipe by Katie posted by Joannaw)

I plan on making a bigger batch soon!!! 

Saturday, September 19, 2009

I'm Baaaack

Whew!!!! I am back to blogging... Yea... I have been out for about 3 weeks due to our computer malfunctioning.  I have a Mac (iMac G5) and it seemed to be acting a bit funny for about a month or so. I never performed any back up whatsoever, so when it was acting funny I started thinking hmmm, maybe I should make sure my stuff is "safe"incase anything my happen to my Mac.  My Brother Matt the wonderful techie that he is told me to get an external hard drive and back up my files. I thought ok, just like everything I'll get to Best Buy and get one and put that on my never ending "to do" list.  WELLL... you can almost feel what is coming. My hard drive blew out before I had a chance to back it up. There was some sensor in the fan that cools the HD that malfunctioned and it wasn't cooling and that is why it was acting funny. The fan would run really loud even after we checked email. I did think that was weird but then again I thought it was just doing it's job. After all our Mac is from 2005.  Well I took it in to a computer shop and it took them 2 weeks to get to it and then they couldn't recover any of my data. I am crushed. I had tons of photos of family, my hubby's taxidermy work and just documents, email addresses, basically our life was in there.  Funny only about 4 years ago it really wouldn't have mattered too much. We rely on on our wireless gadgets and non-wireless gadgets so much. How do you pay a  bill or talk to a friend without Internet or email.  Use the  postal service or use a gasp... PHONE.  It was a nice break for a couple of weeks actually to put it all back into perspective. I went for a walk in the evening with the family, instead of updating my blog or working online doing scrapbooking things. I found more time, now I need to make more time and not be glued to the computer. Don't get me wrong I am back but I will not rely on this as much since the betrayal of my trust. I will print my photos more often and back up my documents and most of all make sure I have stamps on hand... Just in case.  ha ha

ps. I put up 15 canned pints of pasta sauce on Friday from the TONS of tomatoes I am getting out of the garden. They are just beautiful. I will post pictures soon of my little red treasures.
 

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Back to School and a bit of Everything

Here is one more layout I did from Emillies First Birthday. I used SCAL and my Cricut for the font.
I got my first Cantaloupe and squash out of the garden. I can't wait to eat the Cantaloupe. We had some more Sweet Corn for supper on Sunday night too. It was great.

First day of school. Emillie is in 3rd grade and Lucas is in 2nd. Nick just wanted to be in the photo. Can't believe it was 39 degrees Monday morning. Yikes!! Gardening season is almost over.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

I got Sure Cuts A Lot for my Cricut!!!

Due to the borrowing of Matt and his laptop I was able up re-update my firmware on my Cricut in order for me to purchase and download Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) software. Now I shouldn't have to buy anymore font Cricut Cartridges. Yea!! or too many shape Cartridges since I can find most SVG files for FREE online. double YEA! YEA! (if you don't know or care what that is bear with me.)

I did some scrapping tonight since I feel caught up with the garden harvest for the most part. Although I think I heard the Sweet Corn calling me earlier this evening saying we need to get picked lady. At least some more of them do.. That is another day.

I have been dying to find anything wrestling for Lucas' wrestling photos. So Em and I went to Endless Creations on Saturday and found some paper and stickers and in the team colors too!

Nothing fancy just printed journaling on my PC and used matting and stickers. I think it is a good one.
This one I love too. More Stickers and I did a rub-on for the "Pin'Em" embellishment.

This is the one I use SCAL on for the First Time, pause for a moment with me..... The balloons I downloaded an svg. file and same for the font on the 1 yr. I outlined the balloons with my Prisma black pencil to try and give it more depth, (I need to get better at that.) There isn't too much on this one but it coordinates with her other 1st birthday layout. I think it turned out nice and you can shadow any font in SCAL. Cool Huh!?!
Let me know what you think.