Frittata Friday

I think that sounds like a good idea - some sort of frittata on Friday evenings.  They are easy to make and you can use up leftovers or odds and ends of veggies that need to be eaten.  Tonight it was a zucchini, tomato and onion frittata.

I had thawed some freezer meal steaks to grill on the George Foreman (don't do the outside grill any more) and cooked up some apples with cinnamon and sugar to go with the meal.

I used this recipe  with just a few minor changes.  You can see my version here.  DH doesn't really care for zucchini but he said this was good.  The tomato, zucchini, onions, eggs and apples were all from the produce Co-Op  If you live in the St Louis area, you really should check it out. 

Well, off to look for more zucchini recipes.  I have a few more to eat up.  :-) .

30 years - and random musings

This year marks my 30th year of employment at Memorial Hospital. The anniversary date is actually 1/4 but the hospital honors employees for the 5 year increments during National Hospital Week which was last week. Tom got his 20 year pin and I got my 30 year pin - plus a gift -

a watch with the Memorial logo on the face. It is a nice watch and even though I have not worn a watch in years (don't like the tan line and I had to put on my readers to tell the time ) I will probably wear this one for a while at least. Probably long enough to get a tan line :-)
I was excited about the wrapping also ....

It was wrapped and tied with at least a yard of bright orange satin ribbon - which of course, I saved and put in my craft room. I doubt the person who prepared the packages realized what a treasure they were giving me.

And speaking of ribbon- I am doing a ribbon share for the 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon that is all retiring June 1. I am using the last of my Real Red for the club cards this weekend and need to get some more before it is gone so am going to share all the colors with my customers. You just let me know what colors you want and we will split the rolls accordingly. Cost is $0.35 per yard.
Colors available at this time:

Bashful Blue

Basic Black

Certainly Celery

Daffodil Delight

Early Espresso

Garden Green

Marina Mist

Night Of Navy

Old Olive

Pretty in Pink

Pumpkin Pie

Real Red

Rich Razzleberry

Rose Red

Tempting Turquoise

Very Vanilla

Whisper White

This is the 1/4 inch grosgrain. There will be a similar ribbon in the new catalog but it has a white stitching down the center.

The card is one I found on another demo's website from last year. It is a simple fold but looks impressive. The Celebrate stamp is from a retired set but there are many current stamp sets that could be used to stamp Congratulations or Celebrate on the card.

The inside is lined and I did the ovals because when I stamped the 'enjoy' stamp I smeared it a little. The red oval around the sentiment looks better than just the sentiment stamped on the white card stock. Wish I had found this card before my daughter's college graduation last weekend.

Here is our happy family with the summa cum laude graduate. So proud of her for all her hard work.

And here she is with her hubby. They are hard working adults now - they have supported themselves the past 2 years while full time students.

And totally random here - this is a potato in the bag I got tonight. What an odd shape. We thought it looked like ALF, the alien. Any other ideas? 

New Technique - Open House

I have found the new technique that I will teach at my open house on June 1.  It is called waxed paper resist and is so easy, no special tools and versatile.  (sorry I won't tell you how until June 1).
This is the card we will make at the open house.  The scalloped circle is the piece that was done with the technique.

 The stamp set is Language of Friendship and I got mine free during Sale-a-bration.  The stamp coordinates with the Bird and Boho Blossom punches.

 Here is a close look at the sentiment and you can see more detail of the scallop circle in the lower right hand corner. 

 I tried to get a  closeup of the scallop circle but it is not that good.  Hard to take photos of glossy paper :-)

 These are samples of the waxed paper technique using the new IN colors,  From Left to Right:
Gumball Green
Midnight Muse
Summer Starfruit
Raspberry Ripple
Primrose Petals

 Each time you do the waxed paper technique, your result is unique.  The design on this sheet is different than .....

the design on this sheet.  It will be so much fun to see all the different 'patterns' on June 1 - won't you join us?   Refreshments, a take-home card that you made, and attendance prizes - and it's free :-) Anyone who RSVP's will get a double chance at the attendance prizes.
You can find all the details about my open house on my Calendar Blog.

New IN Colors Preview

Here are a few cards made with some items from the new annual catalog from Stampin Up.  These items (and many more new products) will be available June 1.   Come to my open house on June 1 to see them all 'in person'. 



 I used the new hostess stamp set, Summer Afternoon, on all of these cards.  Also the new IN color card stock and inks,  Gumball Green,  Summer Starfruit, Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ice, and Midnight Muse. Don't you love those names?
The ribbon is also available in all those 5 IN colors. 

 Here I added some of the crochet lace ribbon.  The sentiments is from the On Your Birthday set which is retiring.

 Isn't that a cute little puppy?  This is a paper-pieced card.  I stamped the image on the Primrose Petals and also on Whisper White.  I colored the puppy on the white and cut it out to layer on the Primrose Petals.  It makes a cute vocal point. 
The sentiment is from On Your Birthday.  The banner is cut using some new framelits.

And the third image in the Summer Afternoon stamp set.  This reminds me of a my brother and sister-in-law's wedding celebration.  They had a big party at her parents' house in the country and there was a swing like this in the yard.  At least six of the young cousins - maybe more - all crammed together in the swing and did the Ee-Ahhh for the camera. 

The background paper on this card is some of the new Designer Series Paper. 

And one more.  Can't wait to see what other demos do with these colors and products. 



Clearing out more paper

After the busy day in the kitchen I decided I definitely needed some craft time.  Since my pre-order of the new IN colors and products did not arrive yesterday :-(  I grabbed some scrapbook papers I had purchased and some that were from a scrapbook calender I got for Christmas a couple years ago.  I have lots of that non-SU paper to use up (I will have to live to about 150 if I am going to use it all up).

While some of the paper is cute and the colors are close to SU colors, the paper is not of the same quality.  It is thinner and not as easy to work with. If you adhere it to the wrong spot (even if you don't press it down to secure it) there is not way to pull it off without tearing it.  (Don't ask me how I know )

 I had a full 12 x 12 sheet of this kite paper.  Thought I better use it up while I still had Jane's Send Me Soaring stamp set. 

 Something a little different with the tag punch and the tiny tag.   I believe one of the tag punches is retiring. 



For some of the cards I did not use the stamp set but just let the paper speak for itself :-)   here I used the Lucky Limeade ribbon and brad to create a focal point.

 These young ladies were from the scrapbook calendar.  I thought they look rather "French" and had some samples of the background stamp En Francais that a fellow demo sent when she granted my 'wish'.   These really worked up quickly and thought some young lady might enjoy.

 I had a couple pieces of this graduation paper - and it IS that time of year.   None of the SU paper matched the purple but the So Saffron and Basic Black worked well.

 This is some really fun paper.  Who doesn't like pizza ?  Riding Hood Red and More Mustard matched fairly close.

 I wound up with a few pieces that were narrow.   A very simple card - sometimes that is all you need.

I used the pennant punch to go with the triangular slices of pizza.  
I was able to sit down amd make 24 cards rather quickly so I am stocked up for the all those graduation parties and those cards that I don't need will make great brithday cards.

Thanks for stopping in!

Three hours = 10 meals in the freezer

I got energetic and made up some freezer meals today.  The recipes are from Saving Dinner. I have used these before with my sister, Jane. I think one time we did about 30 meals each over a weekend.  I only did 10 today.   I purchased a subscription where I get 10 new recipes each month - this month was chicken. 

Here are most of the ingredients after I did the prep - cutting and dicing veggies.  Each recipe used about 1 1/2 pounds of chicken so I looked like I was have a big barbecue when I did my shopping yesterday - 8 packages of chicken breasts and chicken tenderloins.  Some of the recipes use the whole chicken breasts, some used strips (I used the tenderloins for those - less cutting) and some required I cut it up into 1 inch cubes.  I started with the ones that used the whole breasts because if I had miscalculated on the amount of chicken it would be easier to 'adjust' the 1 inch cubes than a whole breast :-)  As it turned out I used only 1 lb of the cubes for a couple stew recipes so I had enough chicken left to make some Thai Chicken in the crock pot for supper. 

 Some of the ingredients -  3 cups of diced onions and 1 cup chopped.  So thankful for my Pampered Chef chopper.  2 chopped jalapenos - I wore gloves but the 'fumes' about got to me - definitely opened up my sinuses.  Diced carrots, tomatoes, celery and green pepper.   Lemonade concentrate, pineapple juice, brown sugar and bittersweet chocolate.   And some peanut butter, honey, apricot preserves, sesame oil and soy sauce.  
That does not include all the spices.  Saving dinner recipes use a lot of spices and interesting ingredients like Thai Chili Paste.

And 4 hours later - meals are all in the freezer, dinner in the crock pots and kitchen is clean.   You should have seen the mess.  The worst was a cup of chicken broth spilled down the dishwasher front and on the floor.  Buddy got a treat :-)  I don't know why she has you put 8 cups of chicken broth in the bag with the stew ingredients.  It was sure hard to handle and get it air tight and zipped up.   Next time I will put a cup or two in the bag to blend with the veggies and then make a note to add the other 6 cups when I cook the stew. 
And only 1 casualty.  I dropped a couple clean Corelle saucers and one shattered all over the counter.  Thankfully there was no open food around or I would have had to toss it as the saucer shattered into slivers.   I was done with the meals and emptying the dishwasher - of course it was a clean dish that broke! 
And in the two crockpots -One has Aloo gobi (I understand it is an Indian dish - potatoes and cauliflower with a spicy tomato sauce) and Thai chicken in the other.   I 'm pretty sure I should have some pita bread or coucous or something to go with it all - but not tonight.  This lady is done cooking for the day.   And I think a blizzard is headed this way tonight  - the DQ kind. 

Soaring Away

I have been playing with the Send Me Soaring stamp set.  I do not own it but have one on loan from my sister until the end of May so thought I better get some use out of it.  This was one of the stamp sets in the Occasions Mini (sorry no longer available) and several of my customers purchased it so maybe they will try some of these.  I got the ideas for these cards from other demonstrators on the Stampin Up demonstrators website.   I also challenged myself to use only the card stock that I had in my scraps box (waiting to be sorted and put away).

 These first three were CASED (or inspired since only the first one resembles her layout)  from Brenna Anderson.  I tried to make cards that I can use for graduation or birthdays.  It's that time of year :-)

And a little variation here. 

And a little more variation here.

This one was inspired by Carol Millay.  The clouds are stamped and then cut out of Bashful Blue paper that was embossed with a retired floral impression pad.   The DSP is Nursery Nest which will retire June 1.  Get it while you can!

And a card designed by Julie Marshall inspired this one.  It was a little bit of a pain to glue down the baker's twine.  I used a little of the liquid Tombow and rubbed it on the underside of the twine in a couple spots.  That seems to be working.

There are a few more that I want to copy but that was enough today.  I also recently played with some images I received as a Wish List item from another demo.   I liked some cards I saw recently with this set and actually wound up ordering it for myself. 

The stamp set is Patterned Party and it will be around at least for another year.  When I get my set later this week I will have to post some more cards :-)  I tried some color combos from the Color Coach using Tempting Turquoise.