Blogging again!

Whew! Now that the intensity of the end of the year has finally passed, I am once again gazing into the possibilities of summer break.  The frantic pace of the last 5 weeks now screeches to a crawl as I am determined to relax and breath for the next few weeks.  Yes, I did stamp and sew and craft the whole month of May but, for the most part, it was to finish a project to give away the next day.  So, not many pictures were taken.  I am hoping to get the creative flow going over the summer to stock pile a few things so I'm not under the time crunch I have been these past few weeks. 

I was able to snap some quick shots of these cute little recipe books I put together for my volunteers and EA.  This adorable paper is the Mayberry kit from Close to my heart.

There is a section for favorite recipes, pictures of friends and family.  I included a couple of favorite recipes that I had made for them during the past year and additional blank recipe cards for them to add other favorites.  I added pictures of all of us from different events during the year and then pictures I had taken of their children during the year were in the book under family.  There are extra pages in each section for them to continue adding to their books.

More to come as I slow down my pace and give the creative flow a chance to recharge a bit.  Thanks for stopping by, I'll talk to you again soon.

End of April

This April has been filled with lots of praises and prayers.  It's been a tough month and I'm kinda glad it's behind us.  We are down to the last four Mondays of the school year and the crazy end-of-the-year schedule has started.  I hope your April was filled with wonderful moments and opportunities to praise and pray as well.  I'll talk to you soon!

Contrast

When I think of contrast that old Three Dog Night song comes to mind... the ink is black the page is white...
This week I've been working on a photography challenge using contrast.  I didn't want to do a traditional kind of black and white photograph but when I tried to think outside the box I had quite a bit of brain block.
Baking to the rescue! Contrast chocolate cupcake, white frosting.  What do you think?

I made these little mini's this morning. Cute, huh. They taste pretty good too.

I'm taking them to a small group dinner tonight along with the left over chocolate chip pistachio cupcakes I made yesterday.  I think I have baking out of my system for a few days anyway.
This is my other latest thing, I do this whenever I'm waiting at the Dr. office or in line somewhere or waiting for something to come out of the oven.

It's called zentangling.  Just use a square piece of paper and black pen and some basic lines and for a doodler like me it adds up to hours of zen fun.  There are several great sites on the internet that give instructions on how to do it and the philosophy behind it.  I'm thinking about starting a before school group with some of our early bird students.  Anyway, that's it for contrast today.  Have a great evening and I'll talk to you again soon.

Going Green

A green birthday that is...
My sweet husband's birthday is this month, today in fact.  So in honor of the month and because green is one of his favorite colors, I made cupcakes, chocolate chip pistachio. From scratch even.  Something I like to do but rarely have the time.

I found these cute cupcake papers in the $1 bin at Michaels.

Cupcakes baked and cooled. (slight green tinge is good)

Cupcakes in profile.

On to the White chocolate frosting.

Lots of butter (shhh, don't tell) I never said these were lo-cal did I?

Tinted a pale green then swirled on.

Little custom topper.  Too much fun! Verdict:  Yum.  What shall I bake next? It's spring break so there is no telling what I'll come up with.  Stay tuned.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Birthday Boys

The little twins across the street are celebrating their first birthday.  The card colors were inspired by the gift card I got from Target.  Their dad said it was the coolest card he'd ever seen.  I hope your weekend was great and your week is terrific.  We have school tomorrow to make up for one of the snow days last month but, if you have tomorrow off enjoy it and do something creative. I'll talk to you again soon.

Valentine treats

Lovely flowers from the beautiful bouquet my DH gave me for Valentine's Day.

A couple of little valentine treats for friends. Gotta love that crepe paper.

Hope your day was great.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Freak NM storm

 We've been out of school for two days and just got word we'll be closed again tomorrow.  It's supposed to hit 7 below tonight.  So there's really been no melt in most areas other than the main roads. Not usual NM weather at all, but kind of nice for a change.  I wouldn't want a winter like this all the time though.  There's a reason I'm a desert girl.

 I love this little red bench from the neighbor's yard.  So I braved the cold to get some pictures of it covered in snow.

 Icicles, another unfamiliar sight, usually any snow we get melts before they form.

I hope you are somewhere warm and dry tonight and I'll talk to you again soon.