Gift Bag

One gift bag down lots more to go! :)  This was really fun to make, love the PTI Front and Center Die and how it utilizes lunch sacks, so easy and cheap! The snowflake was cut with my Cricut and Winter Lace and the tag was cut using Art Philosophy (I love that cart so much!). The rest is PTI stamps. I plan on the kids and I making some Tea Scented Biscotti to fill these with as well as little rustic nativity figurines. I can't wait to show you those, so simple and I think they'll turn out super sweet. I also want to include a little bookmark with a lovely Christmas poem that celebrates the true meaning of this wonderful season. When I have a whole ensamble done I'll share. If you come and visit me I just want to say thank you and I'd love it so much if you said hi. hugs... 

Simple Thank You

I needed a thank you card and one that was easy to mail so I pulled out some new TPC Studio stamps and had this put together in 5 min. :) This one is called Butterfly Collage and I love it. So pretty and would look gorgeous in lots of different colors. The sentiment is from PTI. Hoping to get started on some Christmas gifts...how is this time of year already?!  Hugs...

Whole Wheat Bread

I love bread and have been searching high and low for a good, easy recipe for 100% whole wheat bread. That will bake well at 7,000 feet. I think I finally found a recipe that works and if you've never baked fresh bread in your home you should, nothing smells so good. I found the base recipe while surfing and didn't bookmark the source :( but I had to make some adjustments to it myself, so here is the final recipe I used to bake up this yummy loaf. Let me know if you try it!

Whole Wheat Bread (using bread machine for the dough)

*1 cup plus 4 Tablespoons water (you may not need the extra 4 Tblespns if you aren't at high elevation and aren't in a super dry climate)
*1 1/2 Tablespoons butter, softened
*2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (organic is best)
*1/8 cup sugar
*1 1/4 teaspoons salt
*4 teaspoons vital wheat gluten
*1/2 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon yeast

In a large bowl mix together all dry ingriedents except yeast. Put wet ingredients into bread machine container. Put flour mixture into bread machine on top of wet mixture adding the yeast on the top. Use your bread machine's dough setting and start. After the dough cycle, remove dough and shape. Place in buttered loaf pan. Lightly cut diagonal cuts into top of dough. Place in oven and let rise for 30 minutes. Turn oven on to 375 degrees and once oven is heated time for 20 min. and bake until when tapped it sounds hollow. Cool and enjoy!

Welcome Baby

My Walmart has been clearancing the Cricut Lite cartridges for a while now and I'd had my eye on the Sugar and Spice cartridge, so cute and well anything baby I'm kind of sunk. So after being self-controlled for a couple weeks I caved and bought it for $17.50. Not bad :) This is the cutest little giraffe and there are lots of other images that can be used for boy cards even though it's a "girl" cart.  I hope you are having a wonderful Tuesday...Makaio is 11 months today and is always on the move now. Hugs...

How Thanks Brings Change

When I am feeling wind tossed and bent low I am slowly remembering to turn my mind toward whispering thanks. Thanks for the most obvious, thanks for the unseen, thanks because without it I will blow away and scatter and be lost. It's not an easy remembering....or doing. But the scarifice of it is what makes it have value. To me and to Him.

When I do remember, when I do sacrifice, my heart softens, turns, changes. The feeling in the air shifts and I feel more that I can bend in the wind without becoming broken from discouragement. Being broken from His gentle hand is good, but through thanks He builds up again.

I have been noticing how expectations on my end bring discontent, not thanks. If the expectation is only that God will provide, He will satisfy with all I need then my hope in others fades to where it should be. To letting them be them and me giving thanks for what and who they are. This is hard thanks and I am pressed to remember it this week. I will bend, surrender and say the thanks anyway so that I will be changed.

*Rain in the night
*A dear friend visiting for the week
*New pots and pans
*The best oatmeal ever, cooked in my new sauce pan
*Legos and dolls everywhere
*Crawling baby under foot
*Faithful husband ever providing
*The gift of cooking for those I love

*Hope that never dissapoints

Baby

It's funny the things that can inspire us to get back our creativity and the more feeling part of joy. For me it came through a cookbook. One of my dear friends enjoys cooking as do I and had a cookbook out on her counter the last time I visited. The title intrigued me, so much so that I ended up doing extenstive research on it, went to my local Barnes and Noble to sit and read it for a good 1/2hr. and came to the lovely conclusion that this is going to be the best cookbook ever and promptly ordered it off Amazon. (I saved $15! ordering from amazon) 

So my mojo is finding it's way home to me :) FINALLY! It's only been missing for 3 months!!  It has felt so good to feel creative again. PTI just came out with what they call a quarter foil die and it's got a bit of steep price tag, so I went looking through my Cricut carts and lo and behold found this gem off of Paper Lace. It's soooo similar to what PTI just released and it cut with no problem at all to cover my whole card front. And there are lots more covers to choose from off the Cricut Paper Lace cartridge. I am back in the swing of making baby cards for the local shop here in town, so this one is sweet, pink and girly. Throughly enjoyed making it.

So the other thing that transpired due to finding this fabulous cookbook is my wonderful hubby bought me my very first (and last because I won't ever need new ones!) set of high performance and quality cookware. Can I just say I * LOVE* them!  We decided on the Calphalon Contemporary Stainless Steel 13 piece set and oh my! Cooking brought to a whole new level for sure. I've never cooked in pans that actually heat up evenly and stay hot! What a difference. Oh, and in case you are wondering the cookbook is titled, The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. It's also a very valuable lesson, tips and technique book as well as packed with recipes. I can't wait for mine to come and live with me :) Blessings!

What Makes a Day Good

My frustration mounts and I loose my temper and patience with the kids once again. And once again I feel frustrated by my lack of self control and my choice to not choose grace. I repent to the kids and their eyes shine bright from forgiveness and they lavish me with hugs and there is no lingering of regret in them...for them all is new, wiped clean and good.  But for me, the cloud of failure hangs heavy and taints the rest of my day and pours down again and again because I have not chosen to believe that I am truly redeemed, that I am truy forgiven.

And then God speaks to me that He does not lie and that when I repent and He, in that same instant forgives, all is new. All is redeemed. I am redeemed. There is no lingering cloud.  And my heart finally gets it. The shock of light in my soul that no matter how many times I may fail, all I need do is repent and go forward knowing I am made new from that moment on. It's long been head knowledge but lives only change when the heart finally learns.  It brings joy and peace and patience.  Grasping a bit more fully of my hope gives me His fruit...all the virtues I so long to live.

I see more clearly than ever before that forgiveness is our hope. Without Christ's sacrifice and His resurrection, there would always be a cloud over us all, making each day hope void.  But every day is a day filled with His new mercies, His grace, His love. Because of His forgiveness all my days can be good.

A good day is not one empty of mistakes but one full of forgiveness.

Happy Thanksgiving

Still trying to find my crafty groove. It's slowly coming back as I have made a couple of cards in as many days. Here is one that I threw together very quickly and it needed to be mailer friendly so that helped with the quick factor. I really love this die and stamp set called Harvest Berries. So pretty and works with so many occasions.

I have been working on indexing all (well most) of my stamps in a binder. I've spent probably 8 hours on it and am almost done! I photocopied what I could and tried to avoid as much actual stamping as possible as it would have taken me weeks to finish. I indexed all my PTI stamps, Close to my Heart, Cornish Heritage Farms (even though they are gone I still love them all...and they are re-opening but as digis only) Wplus9, Flourishes and some random companies. I have one more binder full of more random companies and some wood mounted and then I'll be finished. I really think this will help me see what I have and avoid buying similar sets....or for that matter any new sets at all, as oh my! do I have a lot of stamps! I mean, there has got to be an end at some point. Organizing always helps my creativity, so hopefully I'll be back to creating more regularly. Hope you are having a great week!

Granola and a card

Hello! I made this card for my mom to lift her spirits a couple weeks ago now. I had gone into my LSS which I hadn't done in months and months and since it's locally owned always feel a bit obligated to buy something, so I found this sweet little Prima stamp and snatched it up. Isn't she sweet? I colored her with Copics and added some pretty layers and cut a rolled rose with my Cricut using the Art Philosophy cartridge. If I could only have one cartridge this may be the one, love it.

I've been experimenting with making granola. It's so much less expensive than buying good, organic granola and it's not hard and smells super yummy baking. Here is some that came out pretty yummy. It's a good basic recipe that I started with from a magazine and then tweaked to make it more tasty. In case you want to try it here is the recipe.

Almond Granola

3/4 cup cooking oil

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tspn. cinnamon

1/4 tspn. nutmeg

1 Tblspn. vanilla extract

dash of salt

4 cups rolled or old fashioned oats

1 cup slivered or roughly chopped raw almonds

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/4 cup each of rasins and cranberries

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the oil, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and salt in a very large bowl. Add the oats, almonds and sunflower seeds. Toss to coat evenly. Line a rimmed baking pan with foil and spread half the mixture on it in an even layer. Bake for 15 min. stir and bake for another 5-10 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and place hot granola in a bowl to cool. Bake the second half of the mixture the same way. Once granola has cooled add rasins and cranberries. Toss. Eat and enjoy!

The Burning Ache

It's like fire, consuming, greedy for more to burn and yet purifying at the same time. Painful, yet beautiful...harmful yet benefical.  Fire. The only way to get beauty from ashes. To get ashes you have to burn.

My burning has been going on for nearly 10 years now, though the fire is much more subdued and at times I am almost convinced, out. But, there always seems to be one little ember still alive, still fighting to blaze.

The heart issue, because isn't that what it always is, comes to control...I need to surrender control in the area of having children. It's a tangled mess of emotions this ache. And it's not even really about having more kids....or not wanting the ones I have been so graciously blessed with.

It's having absolutely no say in the matter. God has divinely intervened in the area of reproduction and child having and I am still in a battle over my will against His. It aches. A lot.

I feel the urge to defend the children I have, try to convince everyone that I am competely happy, smitten and thankful for each of them because I truly am, while I try to heal this wound in my heart that will not be well. My children and the way each of them came into our home and hearts has nothing to do with the continuing ache....it's a matter of my faith, my trust and my surrender to God. He has chosen to not give us liberty in this area of our lives. And I need to be okay with that. I want to be okay with that.

But I'm not. I struggle. I burn. I want my way. And yet...I don't.  So I will continue the fight of faith, that through the fire God is still purifying to prove my faith, to make be beautiful. And though what the world terms infertility, I will re-name and call God's mysterious grace....because through infertility I have 3 amazing blessings.

And so if I ache, I will ache giving thanks....because we all need His fire to burn away ourselves so we can one day see Him.

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