Food Friday–Perfect Stew

On the days when I’m busy or really tired, I like to fix one pot meals for my family.  They aren’t always the favorites, but this pot of stew was a big hit.  I think I have finally perfected my recipe, so I wanted to blog about it while it’s fresh on my mind. Because then I know the recipe will always be in a safe place, one I can’t “forget”.

Perfect Stew

2 lbs cubed steak (I used a rib steak, any beef cut would work great)  Cube to whatever size you prefer, my family likes small pieces, about 1/2”

Salt steak with 1 tsp salt and dash of pepper.  In dutch oven, brown cubed steak in 1 tbsp oil

Add 2 diced medium onions, cook until beginning to be translucent

Add 2 cans tomato sauce

1 quart stock (chicken, beef or vegetable)

1 pint (or 1 can) water

3 peeled & cut on the bias carrots

5 crushed cloves garlic

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp chili powder

Cook about 30 minutes (if you like really soft carrots, cook additional 15 to 30 minutes before adding potatoes)

Cube 5 medium red potatoes, add to pot

Cook about another 20 to 30 minutes (or until potatoes are fork tender). 

If needed, add more salt and pepper (I make my own stock and it’s often low salt, so I usually add more salt now, however, if you are using commercially canned stock, it may not be needed.  Be sure to taste before adding more salt.  Add in 1/4 tsp increments until you like it).

Serve with dollop of sour cream.

You Are Charming

You know those moments, when you’re not doing anything special, just going through your normal day and your kids flash you that smile.  You know that smile…the one that is accompanied by the magical twinkle in their eye.  Yeah, I know you know what I mean.  The ones you say “stop, Don’t move…” as you reach for your camera…..to catch the moment before it disappears……
Yeah, that’s the moment that inspired this page.  I just love this picture.  Sometimes, I think the picture and a simple title tells the whole store, and here it did.  You Are Charming.

Supplies:  Echo Park (paper, stickers), American Crafts (cardstock), Studio Calico (veneer chips)
Design Tip:  Outline embellishments to make them standout  I adhered these alphas directly to the page.  They felt lost.  I took a fine tip black pen and outlined then which created an anchor and made them bolder, feeling like they were supposed to be there instead of just a mishap.
Price Per Page:  $$ ($2-$3 MSRP)

Beautiful Wood

I have a great attraction to old things.  I love things that are old, from yesteryear, when things were built well.  And if it’s wood, well, that is all the better!  I think wood is one of the most beautiful things in creation, God’s artistic hand at work in something He allows us to craft into something using our artistic hand.  It’s just the perfect blending of God’s art and man’s art.  And it makes my heart warm.   My favor is more than just admiring someone else’s wood, but our own home is full of wood.  We have wood floors throughout the house, our doors and trim is wood.  A good part of our wall space is covered in wood cabinetry (because of our very open floorplan).  I just love wood.  And when we’re out, I love capturing the character of wood with my camera. 

This page is for two challenges, first the May Sketch Challenge on Club CK hosted by Ashley, and second the Thinking Through Design challenge to use handstitching.  Yup, I like to combine challenges when I stumble upon one(s ) that inspire me.

Supplies:  Coredinations (cardstock), My Minds Eye (6x6 paper, chipboard), Papertrey Ink (larger butterfly die), Spellbinders (small butterfly die), Making Memories (chipboard alphas), Cosmo Cricket (small alpha), Tim Holtz (kraft paper), misc (bling & floss – stitching pattern freehanded).

Design Tip: Using lines to create movement  The photo of the crates on the right are the same crates as the middle photo.  However, I took the photo at an angle which created movement.  When I placed the photos on the page, I made sure to put the photo on the right so it looked as if the crates were “leaning into” the page.  Had I put them on the left side, they would have looked to lead the eye off the page and created a distraction.  But by making the movement go into the page, it keeps your attention on the page and avoids chaos.

Price Per Page:  $ (Under $2 per page)  The hand stitching allowed me to add a lot of interest to the page while costing only a few pennies.  This helped keep the cost of the page very minimal.

We Are Family

As a scrapbooker, I know one of my favorite things is keeping watch out for the new releases by companies, especially my favorite!  Echo Park is a company who is constantly releasing new products it seems.  It seems they have more new releases than others.  For example, I received for my Craft Warehouse design team assignment this Echo Park Note To Self.  But the funny thing, even though this assignment was only due on Friday, there have still been several more new releases since this product line.  Wowzers, how is a girl to stay on budget? 

The simplicity and clean lines of this line really appeal to me.  It fits my style well.  As well as the prevalence of brown.  If I could change one thing, I would swap out some of the blue for more red.  But regardless, it was a fun product line to work with.  Today I’m going to share a page I created.  The focus of this page had to be the view master paper.  Not wanting to use the paper as a whole, I decided to make my embellishments out of it.  I cut four of the view master flowers (I used punches and my Creative Memories circle cutters), folded each piece into quarters and layered them into a flower.

 

Supplies:  Echo Park (paper, stickers, alphas), Tim Holtz (resist kraft paper), Studio Calico (veneer shapes)

Design Tip:  Scale your embellishments to different sizes  Make the primary focal embellishment the largest and then scale the consequential ones down so there isn’t a competition of similar sized objects.  Objects scaled correctly should automatically tell their “priority” of importance as your eye scans the page.

Price Per Page:  $$$ ($3-$4 MSRP)

 

If you didn’t see this weekend, be sure to scroll down to Friday’s post to find out about my challenge for Operation Write Home!

Card Week Conclusion–Challenge & Prize

Here it is Saturday morning, I’m eating my oatmeal and drinking coffee trying to find the words to write this post.  And I have severe case of writer’s block.  Or maybe should it be blogger’s block?  (I’m not sure, but I do like the alliteration of it).  Furthermore, why can I not remember how to properly use an apostrophe in a possessive use?  Maybe I should go back to bed.  Or find a bigger cup for coffee.  Yeah, the latter is probably a better option.

Well, let’s get to it.  The reason for Card Week here on ye ol’ blog was to build suspense for a challenge I’m going to throw down!  Now, that’s a tv show I wouldn’t mind being on Throwdown with Bobby Flay.  I just need a signature dish, a restaurant and a friend to nominate me.  However, since it’s not likely to happen, I’ll get off the tangent and back to the subject at card. 

It’s Memorial Day Weekend.  Despite our more shallow interpretation of it being the unofficial beginning of summer, it’s more than just a three day weekend, hot dogs and hamburgers.  It’s a day of remembering our men and women who have died in service for our country, for our freedom.  And I am so thankful to all the men and women who serve, have served and who have lost their lives.  It is because of their service that I am able to have the freedom I do have.  May God Bless them all.

Because of that, I thought it would be the perfect time to kick off this little challenge.  I usually do it closer to 4th of July, but this year, I decided to start now and end the 4th of July.  This annual event started a few years ago when I wanted a patriotic project for my kids to do.  I found Operation Write Home, an organization that collects handmade cards to send to our service members so they can write home to their families.  Now I know with all the modern technology a hand written letter doesn’t have the same necessity that it used to have in years past, but I do believe we all still find it very special too have a little handwritten note in our mailbox, imagine if it was from someone serving in a dangerous place.

 

 

So, here is the challenge!!

I am encouraging you to make cards for Operation Write Home.  There are some basic rules we need to follow such as no glitter (it makes the soldiers visible under night vision).  Please read the guidelines before making your cards.

If you want to make some cards, here is what you can do:  Mail them to me – (all cards need to be stamped with the OWH logo and tucked.  I have already requested a stamp, and I’m willing to do the work to prep them and save the time of the shippers at OWH).  You can include envelopes, or not.  However, if you do include envelopes, please just send the envelopes along (not cards in them) as I’ll have to remove the cards to stamp them.

I have a prize that will be given to a random winner who sends cards to me for this challenge!  Here it is:

BUT, for every 100 cards I receive, I will add in another prize (up to 5 total). 

I will pull a winner(s ) on July 5, so if you want to be entered, I need to have received your cards by then.  For my mailing information, e-mail me at lovejoypaper (at) hughes (dot) net (remove spaces and replace the words at & dot with symbol).

Card Week–Day 5

Well, here we are on Friday!  When I started this week, I myself wasn’t even sure if I could do a card a day!  But check it out, I have.  Yay me!!  And I still have one to come tomorrow, as well as the reason I’ve done card week.  It’ll be worth checking out.

When my daughter was born, I was so excited to have a girl, and do all the shopping that went along with that.  (I could tell a story about when my son was born, but I probably shouldn’t.  Aw, why not…..when he was born by c-section, the doctors lifted him up and said “it’s a boy”.  I was so disappointed, I desperately wanted a girl I said in a not very nice tone “ugh…I knew it.”  Oops!!  But I can blame it on drugs, right??  Ah, but that little boy stole my heart the first time I saw him an hour later, and I quickly got over not having my girl.  (Of course, when I did have my girl, I was thrilled)).  Well, having a girl meant that I could buy pink, dresses and of course pink scrapbooking paper!  But I made the mistake that many new scrapbookers make and bought a lot of stuff that I knew just wasn’t my style.  I don’t know why I still bought it, aside from the fact that it was cute!  And silly me, even several years into scrapbooking I still fell for the trap!  But I was reminded that those items can easily be used on my cards, and I set to work to do so.

This card is using some remnant pieces from a My Minds Eye kit about 2 years ago.  Items I’d never use on a page, but are perfect for a little girl card!  And the letters, yeah, I never use those round little letters either (despite the fact that I *love* the rectangular ones).  It all comes together in a fast 5 minute, fabulous stash-busting assortment of cards.

Supplies:  My Minds Eye, Pink Paislee

Can’t wait to see you tomorrow, with another card, a challenge and the conclusion of why I’ve been sharing cards all week.

Card Week–Day 4

As I said on Monday, I think a lot of the beautiful cards out there are very technique heavy.  And I’m just not a technique girl.  Doesn’t mean I don’t know how to do stuff, just that I don’t enjoy it.  I’m not very artistic (I can’t color in the lines, really), so I rely much more on the use of my tools.  I’m not a big stamper either, mostly because a lot of stamps need colored.  (Refer to previous sentence as to why I don’t color LOL).  But I did do some stamping techniques on a card that I just loved.  I’m a little bit different than most people in that my favorite inks are the chalk inks.  I love the opacity that they have.  I used that characteristic on this card and I love the results. 

I used this card for Mother’s Day and as I remember every time I stamp, I have no sentiment stamps!  I really MUST purchase some sentiments.  Thus, I went with no sentiment.  But hey, it just goes to the simplicity side then. 

Supplies:  My Minds Eye stamps (lace is Lost & Found 2 (or Stella & Rose – can’t remember), cluster stamp is Follow Your Heart), CTMH chocolate ink, Studio G ink, Paper Trey Ink dies, My Minds Eye brad

Card Week–Day 3

My stash is full of little odds and ends, pieces that I never use the full collection of.  I often look at these unfinished sticker packs and wonder what to do.  Sometimes I give them to my kids (they think it’s special when they get something from my stash).  Sometimes I hold onto them because I feel guilty that I spent hard earned money on the items.  And then I realized, *duh* they are perfect for cards! 

Today, I have some cards using some We R Memory Keepers embossed stickers.  I didn’t use them on my pages because the embossing created poor adhesion.  But I used a few glue dots to stick them to a card, added a stamped sentiment and button and viola!  A cute but simple card made in less than 5 minutes.  I also inked the edges to give more definition.

Supplies:  Cosmo Cricket (patterned paper), WRMK (stickers), CTMH (sentiment stamp), PTI (button), The Twinery (floss)

Card Week–Day 2

13 years ago today was a very special day.  My life forever changed, in a good way.  13 years ago today, I married my husband, my best friend and companion.  I won’t even begin to say that the last 13 years have been all wonderful, far from it.  There have been many bumps along the way, but they have just brought us here, to where we are now.  Happy, content, looking forward to another 13 plus years (hopefully many many plus).

We’ve both been working so many extra hours in the shop (I usually only work a few hours a month, but I’ve been putting in a lot of hours) because of how busy we’ve been (which is really a true blessing in this economy), that we both forgot what day it was! On Sunday he asked me if it was okay if he didn’t do anything for me. I think it was a request for permission, but of course my response was “sure, since I myself forgot our anniversary was this week!” So we are going to celebrate with a romantic trip to the dump (kids in tow) and dinner. But of course, still the dump, no less! LOL

I did manage to make a card though.  And with hexagons being all the rage right now, I used my Creative Memories punch I’ve had in my stash forever.  It’s rather ironic how many times I almost gave that silly thing away but just couldn’t bring myself to it.  I never liked it, unit now!  LOL…Now that they’re popular and I can see past the boring Creative Memories old school application of the punch. 

I also managed to use up some of my leftover 6x6 paper pad from Pink Paislee Bay Berry Collection from two summers ago.  It’s fun to give old paper a new twist with the current shape trends.  The 6x6 scale of the paper is perfect for this smaller punhc and card ratio.  And of course, my very favorite Papertrey Ink alphabet dies!!

Supplies:  Pink Paislee (6x6 paper), Creative Memories hexagon punch, Papertrey Ink dies (alpha & heart)

Card Week Day 1

I’m thinking it’s time to shake things up a little bit on ye ol’ blog.  We’re going to have “Card Week” this week.  No special cards to write home about (ha, pun intended : ) ).  Simple inspiration as well as a few 5 minute cards to come later this week and a few other stash busting ideas.  But for now, let’s talk about today!

I’m not the most prolific card maker.  I’ve always struggled with that because of my crazy obsession with paper.  I realized today the reason I’m not.  Most cards I really like are very technique heavy.  I’m just not a technique girl.  I don’t like to get messy, and I don’t like to spend a lot of time on one thing.  I’m pretty straight forward with my tools and supplies, and I’m not nearly artistic enough to do the beautiful coloring many card makers do with the copic markers. 

But I do have a card (well, several) to get the week started off.  And I have a tip for the day! 

Use pretty papers!  Ha – I know, that sounds genius right?  Let me explain more.  You see, in my abundance of paper, I have many papers that I think are just beautiful.  This Basic Grey Hello Luscious has been in my stash a while taunting me with it’s beauty, but I have found it’s one of the products that I like, but not a product I use.  Might sound crazy, but think about it.  How much stuff is in your stash that you really like but have a hard time using?  That’s what I mean.  I’ve had to learn the difference between what I like and what I use.   On the flip side of that though, I’ve found that these papers I like but don’t use are often *perfect* for cards!  Yay!!

Supplies:  Basic Grey Hello Luscious, Paper Trey Ink flower die, CM circle punch, Paper Trey ink Capital Block Alpha, EK Success American Girl Heart Punch, CTMH black ink, misc cardstock

All this week I’ll be having a card (or more) and I’ll let you know why on Saturday!!

 

Don’t forget to leave a comment, the contest for one of 5 camera charm necklaces is still open! (and the new chain I’m using is way better than this one!)