Happy Mother's Day

Lentil Soup

We love Progresso's Lentil soup but one day we were all out of it. I knew I had lentils in the cupboard so I pulled out The Sonoma Diet book and found a recipe for Ham and Lentil Soup. Surprisingly enough I had all the ingredients I needed to make the soup. I am not a fan of chicken bouillon granules so I substituted Trader Joe's low sodium fat free chicken broth. It was different than Progresso's of course but we really liked it.

HAM AND LENTIL SOUP

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry brown or French lentils
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 5 cups low sodium fat free chicken broth
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (1 teaspoon minced)
• 1/2 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 cup cubed cooked ham (about 5 ounces)
• 2 cups chopped fresh spinach

Instructions

1. Rinse and drain lentils; set aside.
2. In a large saucepan cook onion, celery, and carrots in hot oil about 10 minutes or until tender. Add lentils, the chicken broth, garlic, lemon peel, and pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Add ham; simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes more. Stir in spinach. If too thick add a bit more chicken broth. Serve immediately.

Weight Watchers Italian-Inspired Zero POINTS-Value Soup

Even though it is spring we were still having some cold spells and I got in the mood for soup. I decide to make Weight Watchers Italian-Inspired Zero POINTS-Value Soup. It turns out so yummy. We eat it for days. We eat it as is one time, add left over meat to it another time. We eat it for dinner one night and lunch another day. It is such a versatile soup. Below is the "official" recipe. I think I used just one can of vegetable broth and filled the rest with Trader Joe's Low Sodium Fat Free Chicken broth. I also added some beans to it, which totally ruined the whole zero point concept, but it sure did taste good. Beans are not in the photo because it was a last minute idea.

Ingredients

• 2 cup escarole, chopped
• 2 medium garlic clove(s), minced
• 1 cup onion(s), chopped
• 2 cup spinach, baby leaves
• 2 small zucchini, cubed
• 1 medium sweet red pepper(s), chopped
• 1 medium fennel bulb(s), thinly sliced
• 6 cup vegetable broth
• 28 oz canned diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 tsp thyme, fresh, finely chopped
• 1 tsp fresh oregano, finely chopped
• 3/4 tsp table salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 cup parsley, fresh, chopped
• 1/4 cup basil, fresh, leaves

Instructions

• Put escarole, garlic, onions, spinach, zucchini, red pepper, fennel, vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, red pepper flakes, thyme and oregano into a large soup pot. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, partly covered, for about 10 minutes.
  
  
• Stir in salt, black pepper, parsley and basil. Serve. Yields about 1 cup per serving.

Art of Kathleen Francour...

Digital Scrapbook Place is having a challenge in April to do layouts based on the art of Kathleen Francour. Her gallery is here: www.kfrancour.com/newsite/gallery.html

Credits:
Fantaisie D'Aile freebie by Kim Liddiard
Bud Beauties papers freebie by Kim Liddiard
Sparkle Butterfly freebie by Lauren
Flower photo from stock.xchng
Lace border mask by Obsidian Dawn

Credits:
Bow from Meryl Bartho's Feminine Denim kit
Lavendar paper by alla
Floral paper by patchheart
Overlay from Seasons of the Heart kit
Scalloped template mat by digiscrap.ch
Yellow flower by Heidi Kuester
Purple flower by Kim Hill
Pink jewel flower by Nowan

Give your worries to God...

One of our bible studies was on trusting God and not worrying. Shortly after that this Ziggy cartoon was in the paper. I took the liberty to modify it a little and create this layout.

Mandy...

Isn't Mandy just the cutest thing. If you have a little dog you would like to showcase, just click on the photo to download the frame in png file.

**Sorry Link will expire 6/30/09**

High Key Photos in FotoFusion

Trying to create a high key photo in FotoFusion. Click on the thumbnail to see full size.

DSAG April Notebook...

I am having so much fun with this month's notebook. There is an article about free style layouts and another one about black and white layouts with a hint of color. Here are two layouts that I have made based on the articles and using this months Guild kit.

The first layout was also part of a challenge to use the word begin. The word begin reminded me of this sunrise picture I was fortunate to take. I say fortunate because I am not a morning person so I don't generally get the thrill of seeing such a spectacular site.

For my black and white layout, I used this photo of my husband with our son's new dog Mandy. We have really been enjoying Mandy and we get to babysit her when my son works 48 hour shifts. I used FotoFusion to create this layout. I converted the photo to B&W in FotoFusion and adjusted the brightness, gamma and contrast to attempt a more high key appearance. I used the April guild kit for papers and elements. The damaged canvas and the black border come with FotoFusion.

Project 366...

My photo a day is turning into more like a photo once in a while. I haven't uploaded any photos since March 24th. How do the days go so fast????? Here is what I have so far. Click on the mosaic to go to Flickr to see the pics in detail. I'll post more pictures this weekend.

Brag Books....

We are putting together a set of 4x6 ready made pages to complete a 4x6 freestyle brag book album at Digital Scrapbook Artisian Guild (DSAG). The idea is that we use the April Guild kit to build our freestyle layouts. Everyone who participates will receive the complete album. Here are three pages that I contributed to the album:

Brackets...

Brackets are everywhere these days. Here are a couple of goodies I made playing around in FotoFusion. A bracket frame and a bracket mat. These can be used as mattes in FotoFusion or as templates in Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop. To download these just click on the image, then right click and choose "save as".

Happy Scrapping!

What to do with a can of Coconut Milk...

A can of coconut milk was one of the gifts I got from the Martha Stewart show last November. It has been sitting in my pantry just waiting for me to find the perfect recipe. I found a great recipe for Thai Chicken Skewers from the Weight Watchers website. The chicken skewers were so good they did not taste like a "diet" recipe at all!

Click on the recipe to download a full size version that you can print out for your files.
Credits: Weed & Wildflowers Paisly Ivy, Welcoming Spring and SA Reverie Kits
Rusty Nail by Lauren Bavin of DSP
Chipboard Aloha by Linda Sattgast of Scrappers Guide
Stitching by Michelle Coleman and Sausan's Designs
Fonts used are LD Punch In and DJB Canay
Photo overlay by Katie Pertiet

Happy Valentine's Day

I was inspired by Ali Edwards Butterfly Project to make something up for Valentines day.
Papers from Impressions of Romance by Studiogirls

Can it really be February?

I can't believe that I last posted in November! So much to do...so little time! The holidays were jammed packed so for December I have an excuse. But what the heck happened to January? Did we have January or did I fall asleep on December 31st and wake up to February 5th? Sometimes I feel like I am constantly busy and getting nothing done!

I have been working on my 2007 scrap last month layouts. I enjoy doing these as they remind me of all that I have accomplished when I feel like I get nothing done. I am almost finished with December. Then I will print them, put them in my 8x8 Pioneer album, look at them and see all the wonderful things we did last year!

Have you heard of Project 365? A lot of people are talking about it. It seems to have started at Photojojo. I jumped in on the 20th. I suppose for this year it should be called Project 366, but the name stuck with me so I am calling it Project 365. Instead of posting my pics here on my blog I decided to use my free flickr account. It seems a nice way to keep them all in one set and see the progress through the year. If you would like to see my photos you can go to My Project 365.

I created this layout using one of my Project 365 photos. Check out the font used below the picture. That is a font created from my hand writing. How cool is that. Darcy Baldwin created the font and she did a great job, I am really please with her work.

I used Lori Barnhurst's Laughter kit. (Flower slightly recolored to match the vase)

Diary of our trip to New York...

Day 1

• Leave the house at 4:30 a.m. and head to the airport
• Arrive in New York and get settled into our hotel
  
• Walk around times square to get the lay of the land.
• Dinner at Connolly's Pub. Called Lacey and said "Hi honey, I am in New York City drinking a Harp's beer in an Irish Pub!" She got a kick out of that since we have both been to New York and Ireland together.
  

Day 2

• Breakfast at the deli next door to the hotel
  
• Ground zero, Wall Street, Battery Park, Bowling Green, Washington Monument, Trinity Church, St Paul's Church
• Drinks at Delmonico's
• Dinner at Indian Taj in Greenwich Village
• After dinner drinks at the Comedy Cellar

Day 3

• Breakfast at Connolly's pub
  
• We planned to go to Central Park and the Met. But our day was totally diverted when we ended up with passes to The Martha Stewart Show. The show included Lynn Redgrave (simple supper), gardening expert Barbara Damrosch (vegetable cold frame) Anne Kreamer, (going gray)
  
• The bus got totally gridlocked in the Halloween traffic so we hopped off and experienced the subway so we could get back in time for our play
• Appetizers and drinks at Connolly's Pub. (ok...we really like this pub!!!)
  
• See Wicked at The Gershwin Theater

Day 4

• Two hour Circle Line boat cruise
• Breakfast was a hot dog at the pier
  
• Walked from the pier to Macy's and shopped in and around Macy's
• Walked back to Times Square stopping at Connolly's Pub...again...
• Dinner at Keen's

Day 5

• Up at 5:00 am for The Today Show
• Breakfast at this little grill across the street from Rockefeller Square
  
• The cab picks us up at 9:30 am to catch our plane for Syracuse
• Check into our hotel at Syracuse and take a walk around the campus
• Meet up with Kris and have dinner at the Hotel

Day 6

• Breakfast at Cosmos
• Shopping and Imax movie at Armory Square
• Take the bus to the Carrousel Mall for a little shopping and dinner
• Back at the hotel we rent the movie "I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry"
  

Day 7

• Breakfast at Cosmos...again...
  
• After meeting Kris' parents we go back to our room to rest before the basketball game
• Rent the movie "No Reservations" while we are resting
  
• We go to the Syracuse University first Exhibition Basketball. Kris plays great and they win 80 to 71
• After the game we have a cocktail at the hotel bar
• Dinner at Ricos Restaurant

Day 8

• Up at 3:30 a.m. (did I mention that was a.m.???)
• Breakfast at the Airport
  
• We head back to California

Let's talk font organizing...

Many digi scrappers are total font freaks. I mean how many fonts does one need? Well frankly we need ALOT. And since we need a lot of fonts we need a way to organize them. For the last few years I used a free program called The Font Thing. It was a great program with a great price. But unfortunately the program hasn't been updated and it does not recognize the new Open Type of fonts. I embarked on a search to find a current program that would replace The Font Thing and I came upon Main Type by High-Logic. At first I was dismayed by the $49 cost. But in thinking it over, I realized that I spend many, many hours in my digi scrapping hobby and $49 is just a drop in the bucket in the total scheme of things. (Think $$$ for Photoshop, Actions, Kits, Classes, etc.) So I decided to purchase it and spent the whole weekend organizing my fonts. Taking Stacey's Typography class over at Digital Scrapbooking Artisian Guild certainly helped me get in the mindset of how to organize my fonts to enhance my titles and journaling of my layouts. I was in total shock as to how many "groups" I ended up having. No longer am I just separating between Serif, Sans Serif and Decorative. To give you an idea...here is a list of my font groups:

All Caps-Decorative

All Caps-San Serif

All Caps-Serif

Alpha Dings

Alpha dings-baby and children

Alpha dings-beach_summer

Alpha Dings-floral

Alpha Dings-hearts

Alpha Dings-school

Bar Codes

Brush

Caligraphy

Chunky-Decorative

Chunky-Sans Serif

Chunky-Serif

ClickArt Handwritten Fonts

Clogged

Decorative-Double Lined

Decorative-Flourish-Curlicues

Decorative-Fun

Decorative-Journaling

Decorative-Mix and Match

Dingbats

Dross

Grunge

Handwritten

Handwritten-Pea fonts

Historical-Gothic-Oldstyle

Holiday-Christmas

Holiday-Easter

Holiday-Halloween

Holiday-patriotic

Holiday-StPatricksDay

Holiday-Thanksgiving

Holiday-Winter

Keyboard

Outline fonts

Sans Serif

Sci-Fi and alien

Script

Serif

Shapes

Stencil

Stitching Fonts

Stylish-Streamlined and Elegant

Typewriter Styles

My final category is called ZZ-Foundries. In here I have copies of CK Fonts, 2 Peas Fonts, PC Fonts, Blue Vinyl Fonts, etc.

Just knowing that all my fonts are organized and easy to be found when I need them just makes me smile. I can't wait to see if this organization makes a difference in my scrapbooking!

It was 1970 something....

Last March (2007) I was walking along in San Antonio, Texas and snapped a picture of 1977 etched in the stone walkway. I was married in 1977 and this December will be my 30th anniversary. How cool is that?? My mind is already thinking of how I can use this photo in my digital scrapping.


Yesterday I made a bookmark for Week One: Celebrating Your Uniqueness at Scrapbookgraphics. I used a background paper by ON Designs and brushes that Michelle Godin shared for the week one quirky challenge. There is my photo blended into the upper corner and I listed popular movies from 1977. Some other popular movies from 1977 are:

• Rocky
• Smokey and the Bandit
• A Star is Born
• King Kong
• The Deep
• Silver Streak
• The Enforcer
• Colse Encounters of the Third Kind
• In Search of Noah's Ark

Here are some other popular things from 1977.

Popular Songs

1."You Don't Have to Be a Star" ... Marilyn McCoo
and Billy Davis Jr.
2."You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" ... Leo Sayer
3."I Wish" ... Stevie Wonder
4."Car Wash" ... Rose Royce
5."Torn Between Two Lovers" ... Mary MacGregor
6."Blinded By the Light" ... Manfred Mann's Earth Band
7."New Kid in Town" ... Eagles
8."Love Theme from 'A Star is Born'" ... Barbra Streisand
9."Rich Girl" ... Daryl Hall and John Oates
10."Dancing Queen" ... ABBA

Most Popular Television Shows

1. Laverne & Shirley (ABC)
2. Happy Days (ABC)
3. Three's Company (ABC)
4. 60 Minutes (CBS)
5. Charlie's Angels (ABC)
6. All in the Family (CBS)
7. Little House on the Prairie (NBC)
8. Alice (CBS)
9. M*A*S*H (CBS)
10. One Day at a Time (CBS)

Most Popular Books

Fiction:
1. "The Silmarillion" by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. "The Thorn Birds" by Colleen McCullough
3. "Illusions" by Richard Bach
4. "The Honourable Schoolboy" by John Le Carre
5. "Oliver's Story" by Erich Segal

Nonfiction
1. "Roots" by Alex Haley
2. "Looking Out for #1" by Robert Ringer
3. "All Things Wise and Wonderful" by James Herriot
4. "Your Erroneous Zones" by Dr. Wayne Dyer
5. "The Book of Lists" by David Wallechinsky

Academy Awards

Best Picture: "Annie Hall"
Best Director: Woody Allen ... "Annie Hall""
Best Actor: Richard Dreyfuss ... "The Goodbye Girl"
Best Actress:Diane Keaton ... "Annie Hall"

Grammy Awards

Record of the Year: "Hotel California" ... The Eagles
Best Song: "You Light Up My Life" ... Joe Brooks
Best Album: "Rumours" ... Fleetwood Mac
Male Vocalist: James Taylor ... "Handy Man
Female Vocalist: Barbra Streisand ... "Love theme from 'A Star Is Born' (Evergreen)"

It has been so much fun walking down memory lane today. If you are in the mood to walk down memory lane too check out History Central.com

September is here and it is soccer season...

My kids have outgrown soccer but here is a little soccer ball I extracted from one of the photos I had. Click on the picture to download the png file.

Must have utility...

In addition to your graphic or scrapping program, what is your must have utility. Mine would be Unziplify.

From their site: "Unziplify provides an easy one-click method of extracting an entire folder full of ZIP, RAR, and ACE files. Simply right-click on a folder or drive in Windows Explorer and select 'unziplify'. Every archive found in that folder will be extracted at once. It's the most painless way to extract archives yet!"

I have to say that they are right. I use unziplify everyday. I put all my downloads in one folder. Then I right click on the folder and chose "Unziplify" and voilà everything is unzipped. Unziplify has options so you can set the default configuration to your liking. I have each zip file unzip to its own file. This does cause a file within a file situation sometimes but I just manually fix those. You can also chose to unzip to a single subfolder or to the archive folder if you want.

The BEST part of waking up is Folger's in your cup! oops...got carried away there...The BEST part of Unziplify is that it is free! Yep, you read that right. I have been using this little program for a few years and have had no problems with the download or the program. So if you are finding that unzipping your downloads is a pain, I definitely recommend Unziplify!

Reality #27

Between summer and family events I have gotten behind in the Reality challenge over at ScrapBook Graphics. It is my intention to catch up on the ones I am missing so they will probably be appearing on my blog in random order.

Jenn's challenge for #27 was:
So my challenge to you this week is to document a layout with some type of "stream of consciousness" included. It could be a series of pictures or some journaling....nothing too earth-shattering, just something that you are going through (or in my case, something my son is going through). It could even be a series of elements or papers....

Credits can be found here.

The nature of the layout came because I've been trying to put together a memory board for my dad's memorial service. I am so bummed that I don't even have a picture of our last Christmas together. This led to a stream of negative thoughts about why it is other peoples fault that I often don't have pictures. Doing the layout was therapeutic for my bad attitude!