Chocolate Orange Muffins

MMM-MMmm Good!

Chocolate Orange Muffins

2 cup flour

1 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup of granulated sugar

1 TBSP. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 large egg

1 tsp. grated orange peel

The process:

Preheat oven to 400. Mix together flour, chocolate chips, sugar, baking soda & salt. mix together orange juice, milk, oil, egg & orange peel. Make a well in the center of flour mixture. Add milk mixture all at once to well, tossing with a fork until dry ingredients are just moistened (do not over-mix). Spoon batter4 into prepared muffin cups. Bake until tops are firm & golden - 18 to 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

ENJOY!

A new family favorite here!

It's Wednesday, right?

Wow, does time ever go by in a blink! We were down in Nanaimo for the {partial} week and although it was a "working holiday" it was great. SO wonderful to see David's folks - love my in laws!! Miss them terribly & I'm thrilled to hear them already chatting about plans to visit us down in Arizona this November - waaaahooooo! We got lots of what needed to be done - done. This is good. We're back in Vernon now, David is back in Fort Mac and now the plans of when to leave and how to go are in full swing. Life is good!
Here's another page in the album I did. The house that they stayed in looks FABULOUS! Check out that pool - amazing. She had a ton of photos of the wedding. I simply asked her to go through and put them into groupings for me as to which ones she'd like to see on each layout spread. I told her I couldn't make any promises as they were all 4x6 and many were difficult to trim down, so that helped immensely in deciding what photos to use. Here again SIMPLE was the key. I used the fabulous THICKERS, love those, on this page for the main title. I used black vinyl. The 'together' was just script print stickers I used to form a word. I'm going to be looking for creative ways to use up letters - watch for it! LOL. A couple chipboard expressions on page on, a rub on flower on page two....simple, simple.

Hope to get some cards stamped up this week as well - a few to get out in the mail so perhaps you'll see some cards slipped in here & there amongst the scrapbook pages. How's your summer going thus far? Enjoying the heat?! :)

.j.

Summer Fun.

While poor hubby has been commuting back & forth we have sure been enjoying the Okanagan weather. The salt water pool is such a bonus!!!

.j.

Beer Tasting.

No, not me. :) One of the days they all went & tasted different beers....great that she was able to bring back a coaster (actually two) that I was able to encorporate into this page. I used my slit punch to create the scalloped edge on page two and used my circle nestibilites to create the rings. Simple. Simple. Doing a whole album in basically a WEEK I had to go simple! I matted nearly all the photos in black (using one of my all-time favorite scrapbooking tools - Perfect Layers!!) to keep it uniform through-out. This was a "rats I already put the pages IN the album and I'm too lazy to take them back out to take the photo!" HA. So, picture has a bit of a blah layer on it, this is why :) I thought too if the bride wanted to, she could journal under or around a couple of these photos to personalize them and add some of her own thoughts... would be cool.
.j.

Snorkeling Fun

I don't normally use the pre-made embellies, but the lady who had me do this album for her had a few items she hoped could be included. These were some of them (hard to tell with the poor photo quality -- sorry!), but there's a little snorkel mask and wave on the first page and a little outfit & swimming turtle with bubbles on the other. It stretched me and that is a good thing! :) You can't tell (again the photo!) but on the first page there's a picture that looks all blue. It actually says ALOHA. They found that written in rocks under the water - very cool!

On this page I also used my flexible ruler from Bo-Bunny...Great gadget for making wavy borders!!

Well we're on the road today - back to the island for a final trip to finish up house stuff. THEN IT WILL BE SOLD! Ahhhhh.....that will feel lovely! So it'll be a lot of sweat & man-hours at the house, but it'll also be great to see family again.

enjoy your day,

.j.

New Week.

Hope you all had a great weekend. WOW was it hot!! LOVE it.

Crazy busy week for us as we head back to the island to clean up the hard and let go of the house! The sale is finalized on the 31st - waaahooooooooo! So I'll pre-post a couple while we're away and show you more of the album.

One thing that you'll notice is *missing* is journalling. I knew that was not something I could put in after a little tea time with the mother about their trip. Too personal, and I didn't know them. So, if they wanted to, they could go and write in afterwards..not sure where though? so I tried my best to let the photos tell the story....I thought it was so cool how they formed their initials with shells on the beach !!

Have a great week!

The wedding Album

So I have never made an album for anyone. Honestly, didn't do much scrapbooking myself, but for a few years ago, and even then, not much. I love it, and this has me TOTALLY inspired to get going on my own pages. I've been having fun. I've shown you the few pages I've done for myself {finally}, but now I will show you the pages from this wedding album I worked on. The hardest thing for me was that I had NO idea who these people were and ALL the photos were printed 4x6. Challenging! I typically like to use my printer and print a bunch of different sizes....cropping I find, at times, loses the scenery - which is needed {especially when your wedding is in Hawaii!!). So I'll share with you today my "title page". I was stumped. It was a tiny wedding (group of 11 of them - family & 3 friends), no wedding invitations, and nothing to necessarily document/save. So I took a collection of photos (at random) that I thought were cute and scenic and made a collage of sorts for the title....need to state too that I just used my point & shoot little camera to take these photos, so they won't be fantastic, but hopefully give you an idea of what I did :)

I used some stickers on the photos (top corners), a rub on at the bottom and the Hawaii & congratulations are stickers (that I do love!!) and a couple SU punched out flowers with white brads in the center....

K, it was 34 yesterday and we lived in the pool so today it's suppose to be about 31 so we're hitting the beach after lunch. Hoping to get this album DONE today...we'll see!

Enjoy your weekend!

.j.

Got Game?

We took the kids to play tennis for the first time. What fun! Lots of running to fetch balls over the fence, lots of laughter & lots of memories. The makings of a perfect day!

Here's the full layout....

This little close up shows a lot of embellishment & detail (I had fun playing & adding this & that, here & there) -- I added a polka dot rub on (SU) to the pink layer, rub on (SU) to another {cheap} metal tag -- and a little doodle of the dots by hand, below is a sticker on the photo 'treasure', and a few silver star eyelets. too busy?

Here are those yummy vinyl Thickers again. Behind I used SU's rub-ons (stars) to dress up the background a big.

Fun time,

.j.

Photo Card

What do you do when you have no time to stamp a card? Well... have you tried just grabbing a photo? K, my photo OF the photo isn't great... but you can still visualize the idea, right? Matted photo on some design paper. Eyelets, taffeta ribbon (Stampin Up! love that ribbon!!)... done. :)

Been a very busy few days.... still working on this wedding scrapbook (I'll get those photos uploaded here soon).... so just popping in quick with a VERY quick card!! And no, my {older} brother doesn't typically walk around with a bottle of rum around his neck, my Dad's 60th birthday party was pirate themed (you can see how well me and my younger brother participated in that! LOL) Hope your week is going fabulously! Drop me a line.

.j.

Pecan Bars

OK - these are amazing. Seriously, candy! My daughter loves baking and she's terrific! She made these and the pan was nearly CLEANED OUT by the end of the night!

Pecan Bars

1-1/2 cups flour

1-1/2 cup brown sugar, packed & divided

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup pecans

2/3 cup butter

1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup butter - beat 2-3 minutes.

Pat into ungreased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle with nuts.

In a saucepan, combine 2/3 cup butter & remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar. Cook until bubbly & stir one more minute.

Pour over crust & spread.

Bake 18-20 minutes until surface is bubbly.

Remove from oven & spread with chocolate chips. Let stand 2-3 minutes & then spread. Cook & cut. With the heat, we ended up putting the pan in the fridge to firm up the chocolate :)

ENJOY!

.j.

Calgary Zoo

I had so many photos I wanted to use on this layout. I had to keep Ali Edwards' words in my head - YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SCRAPBOOK EVERY SINGLE PHOTO! Do you struggle with that? My Mom had asked if I was going to just do a small album on the zoo. Now I could have, I had that many photos, but there was NO NEED. I decided I would simply print the photos and put them in a flip album so the kids could go through and see all the creatures & moments and just do a 2-page spread in my album. Here's what I came up with:

The full spread:

I reprinted my photos to wallet size so I could fit a lot on my pages.

I used chipboard from my stash, already colored, and used them for a colorful title: Calgary Zoo, creative aren't I! LOL.I used my cuttlebug die for all the circles, and the threading water punch for the scallop along the bottom. The design paper had polka dots, so I went with it! :)

I used SU's punch for highlighting a couple of the favorite creatures - prairie dog here... ...and the red panda here.

I'm looking forward to scrapbooking the adventures as they arrive....

.j.

simplicity works.

This is a *VERY* simple card. And...it works. Some sponging, some layering, a little paper piercing at the bottom - done. When I need a card quick, this is the type of card I can make in under 10 minutes -- perfect! :)
I've been very busy scrapbooking the last few days. I'm doing a scrapbook for my Mom's co-worker. She wanted to scrapbook her son's wedding (in Hawaii) to give to them next month for their Canadian wedding reception. SO... I have been offline for awhile and pumping out the pages. I will post them in the next couple of weeks. Been quickly snapping photos of the pages (so quality will be questionable!), but I do still have a few pages of my own to share with you.
How's your summer going?

Curried Rice Salad

I made this for the reunion, I loved it. Rice was a bit mushy (would use a different kind next time).... but the overall TASTE was Mmm-Mmmm-Good! ;-) I love salads in summer weather... cold dinners are delish - let me know if you have a salad to share, I'll try it out FER SURE!!! K, try this one:

Curried Rice Salad

2 cups cooked rice (best made the day before)

1/2 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped celery

1 Tablespoon vinegar

1 tsp. curry powder

2 tablespoons salad oil (I used olive oil)

2 cups frozen green peas

1 cup mayo

Mix rice, celery, onions, frozen peas, salad oil, vinegar & curry powder. Refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Add mayo. Can be pressed into a mold and when chilled turned onto a large platter (can't do this... grosses me out for some reason to have MOLDED salads.... dunno??), served on lettuce leaves or just as is (I'm an AS IS kinda girl, LOL!)

Enjoy!

.j.

Father's Day Page

We celebrated Father's Day a week early this year. It was great to scrapbook recent photos... I'm loving this *new* way of doing things! LOL.

The quote on top: "Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a Daddy!"

That big Happy Family on the bottom photo is actually a beautiful rub-on. The arrows directing the eye to follow Simply The Best are punched out using my cuttlebug and arrow plate.

Don't want to spend a fortune on metal edged tags? Check out your local Staples or Walmart. I got a package of about 25 for $2.50! Sweet deal. I just take off the metal ring on top, and replace it with lovely ribbon! And, yes... I finally added a touch of my own handwriting!!

I love Thickers, and these ones I got for Christmas, vinyl. HOW COOL IS THAT?! I used a sticker to go on top of a SU metal edged tag and loved adding a few dew drops, they're so yummy and I need, need, need more colors!!


We also went & played tennis this day so I did a page that co-ordinate with this page, but didn't treat it as a two-page spread. I'll share that page with you soon...

Enjoy your day,

.j.

Broccoli Salad

My Mom had a little family reunion last weekend and she wanted everyone to have a break and asked me to cook a ham and make some salads & deliver them to everyone on Saturday for dinner :) What fun! This is always a favorite at our house, so I thought I'd make it for the group!

Broccoli Salad

1 head broccoli

1 bunch of green onions

1`-1/2 cups chopped celery

1/2 cup crumbled bacon

1-1/2 cup green grapes

toasted slivered almonds

sunflower seeds

raisins

Dressing:

1 cup mayo or salad dressing (Miracle Whip)

1 Tablespoon Vinegar

1/3 cup sugar

Mix all together and enjoy. :)