Free-For-All Friday: Baby Elf Hat

I'm totally making this.  It's ridiculously adorable.  I've been in search of some really cute baby hat patterns lately, trying to find something to make for my co-workers baby.  I'm thinking this one will do just the trick!

I found this pattern here, and I'm excited to not only make it, but leave her a little blog love if it comes out 1/2 as cute as this photo shows!

I'm off to find some yarn to whip this up, see you all on Monday!

Scraptastic Wednesdays: Birthday Boy

Finn turned 2 in March, and we had a wonderful (small) Curious George birthday party for him.  In April, I found some great Imaginence birthday papers at CKC-Manchester, that were perfect for these photos.  I can't believe he's already 2 (almost 2 1/2 by the time I got around to scrapping his birthday!) but it was so much fun creating these layouts!

The overall, 2-pager

Some red rick-rack screams birthday to me.  I also loved using this "bling string" but made it into a curly-Q. 

How awesome are these name filmstrips?!  I bought a set (came with 4) at CKC on a Friday, and was so nervous I would be too scared to use them, so I bought a second set of 4 on Saturday :)

"Memories" was a purchased title I found at Michaels, "birthday" was made with some red foam Thickers.

The only single-page layouts I ever do are the front and back covers of every album.  This was the last page of Finn's 1 year old album.  Another thing I rarely do is use patterned paper as the background, but hey, I get a little crazy when doing single-page layouts :)  I used some journaling cards I got from Boxer Scrapbooks, rick-rack, fun dollar bin ribbon and Thickers to finish this layout off.  I just love my little Birthday Boy!

Yummy Monday: Crepes

I have no pictures.  It was such a busy evening, that by the time I got home and got these a cookin', I could hear the grumbling tummies of both the Y Chromosomes in my house.  In the spirit of keeping a happy husband & toddler, I chose to forgo the photos and feed the hungry men.  Anyone out there with husbands and/or sons, I'm sure you'll understand.

My best friend from college was Eastern European, and she used to make the most WONDERFUL crepes.  It didn't matter if we filled them with sweet or savory, they were amazing.   I got this recipe from Allrecipes and it's as close as I've ever tasted to her own. 

1 cup flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp melted butter

For sweet crepes, add a tsp of vanilla and a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon

Mix the flour and eggs together until well blended, then add in the milk and water.  Add the salt and butter and beat until smooth.  

Heat a small skillet over medium high heat and lightly oil.  Pour in 1/4 cup of batter and swirl it around the pan until it's coated thoroughly.  Cook for no more than 2 minutes, loosen the edges and flip.  Cook another 1 minute, and enjoy! 

Topping Suggestions:

Ham & cheese

Cream cheese

Scrambled eggs

Nutella

Fresh fruit (bananas, strawberries, mangos)

Whipped cream

Peanut butter

Free-For-All Friday: Just For You Card

"Just for you"  The perfect sentiment for a plethora of occasions. 

"Just for you" because you're sick or have been feeling down
"Just for you" because of no reason whatsoever
"Just for you" because it's your birthday, so it's all about you
"Just for you" because it's Mother's or Father's Day

I could go on.  Without further ado, a couple of quick photos of a simple card made with all the scraps from the one of the July Bigger Than A Breadbox kits from Apron Strings.

Studio Calico mist on the pail, covered with Crackle Accents, Stickles & some Salt Air embellishments. 

Just For You :)

Scraptastic Wednesdays: Christmases (In July)

I was majorly productive this past weekend.  And by majorly productive, I mean I got a whole bunch of scrapbooking done.  Prepping meals for the week?  Nope.  Laundry?  Not so much.  I did however get 6 or 7 great layouts done, which for me (the double-page layout scrapbooker) was huge. 

I could bombard you with all of them tonight, however, I like having a bunch in my back pocket for those busy summer weeks where I just run out of time to create something, but still need stuff to post on those Wednesdays. 

The popular vote (meaning the vote from my 1 friend) was to do Christmas in July, so here are the 2 Christmas layouts I got done this weekend:

This one is Christmas morning.  We open presents under the "Kid's Tree" in our loft, essentially the fun Christmas tree that has all the colorful, mismatched, meaningful ornaments on it. The papers are Fancy Pants Tradition.

I used one of the patterns and just cut the tree part out of it.  The "Believe" is actually printed on the paper, I just used my Glossy Accents over the printing to make it look like they were epoxy stickers.  I am loving that stuff.

These photos are from Chrismas Eve at our family tradition:  The Red Lion Inn.  30 years and counting, we've never missed a Christmas Eve brunch there, so it's a wonderful tradition to keep going!  I used the "scraps" from the same Fancy Pants line as the other layout, so that there was some consistancy between the 4 pages.

Close(r) up of the title area.  I used my new(ish) I-Rock tool for all the little cream-colored dots around the circle. 

I kind of like this Christmas in July stuff.  It's fun to look back on all of the festivities, the cool winter photos, the beautiful holiday clothes, without actually re-living the stress of the holidays :)

I will be back on Friday with a pretty rare thing for me:  A card.  Yup, you heard it here first folks. 

 

Yummy Monday: Oatmeal Banana Cranberry Bars

Another set of old bananas has found me in need of a a recipe that was NOT plain old banana bread.  An thus I found one here.  My modifications of this are below though:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup of applesauce

1 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

1 cup dried cranberries

Mix up the dry ingredients, save the oats and cranberries.  Set aside and mix together applesauce, sugar, egg, vanilla & bananas.  Stir in dry ingredients, after thoroughly mixed, add in oats and cranberries. 

Mix well.  Double points if your mixer is this cute :)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Grease 9x13 pan and add mixture.  Bake for 20-22 minutes, until top is golden brown. 

This is healthy enough to justify eating for breakfast, although it'll be good just about any time of day.  Enjoy!

Free-For-All Friday: Anchor Applique

I'm in search of a crochet applique pattern for an anchor.  A co-worker of mine divulged yesterday that they were expecting a gender-to-remain-unknown bundle of joy next winter, so I wanted to whip up an adorable crocheted baby hat for them, with a little anchor on it, since the anchor is, well, let's say it's kind of their thing. 

In my stumbling around to find a pattern, I did come across this site, Monster Crochet that had the most adorable crochet bag that I could see making and gifting to one of my fellow Cape Cod loving relatives.  So during this brief lunch hour (I'm at work on a Friday, which I haven't done since Finn was born *insert super whine-y face and worlds smallest violin, etc. etc. etc) I have been re-bitten (pretty sure that's not even a word) by the yarn bug, and even though I'm neck-deep in scrapbooking & paper crafting projects, I have a feeling I may be busting out the crochet hooks in the near future and whipping something soft and snuggly. 

I've got a productive scrappy weekend ahead of me, I'm going to a crop tonight and all day tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have some fun things to post next week to share!