Month: July 2013

Busy week!  Blues on the Green, swimming, and story time at the fish store.  Good times!

I love these letters from The Pier collection, but I sometimes struggle with how to use them.  Unless the background paper is pretty plain they’re very hard to read.  I decided to do a little experimenting.  First I tried painting the back of the letters.  In theory, I think this would look great.  Unfortunately, my green paint was dried up and I’m not known for my patience.  Next I tried some spray ink, but it was taking forever to dry.  The next morning it looked great so I think you’ll see it on a page in the future, just not this one.  lol.  In the end I used a regular ink pad and it gave it just enough color to be readable while still letting the background paper show a bit.  Just make sure that you put the ink on the backside of the tile.

I used several pieces from the ephemera pack in the embellishment clusters along with some washi tape, wood veneers, and some hearts I punched out with the Martha Stewart punch.

 

Here’s the whole page.  Side note: why yes, I am addicted to my underwater camera.  🙂

 

I started making my own chicken broth y’all.  I know, I know.  Even I think I’m crazy.  🙂  It’s just so darn easy and so darn tasty!

First, roast a chicken.  Our current favorite is to put some lemon slices, garlic, rosemary, and a few pats of butter under the skin of the chicken.  Add a bit of salt, some onions, carrots, and potatoes and you have some good eats!  I’ll admit that it tastes better in the oven, but it makes our whole house hot to turn on the oven so we’ve been making it in the crock pot.

After dinner, I pick off the rest of the chicken for us to eat throughout the week and then put the bones and skin back in the crockpot along with another onion, some celery, more garlic and some apple cider vinegar.  Then fill it up with water and turn it on low.  The next afternoon you have chicken stock.  Strain it and use it for all kinds of yumminess throughout the week.  I store it in glass jars (from pasta sauce) in the fridge.  If I don’t think we’ll use it right away, I freeze them in silicon muffin tins (the same ones I use for Raptor’s lunch) and then pop them into a ziplock bag.  It’s super tasty and all my hippy friends say it’s super good for you.  Cooking success!

 

 

I found these free printables from twopeas that were perfect for the 4th of July!  I loved the colors so much that I recolored the rest of the cards to match.  I left the star orange on purpose since it went with the story.

 

 

I realize that I’m a bit biased, but man oh man I am loving this page.  Everything but the twine and the Thickers are from The Pier.  I just can’t get enough of it!  I went a bit wild on this page and added tons of layers.  <3

 

The Thickers were a bit hard to read so I backed them with some paper.  I had a gap between the title and the branding strip that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with.  I ended up taking a chance and journaling directly on the paper which, thankfully, worked out.

Love this page.  I don’t usually put phone photos on my traditional pages, but these were just too cute not to!

I kind of think it needs a little something in the bottom corner, but I can’t figure out what.  Papers are October Afternoon’s Midway.

 

I skipped the title card again this week in favor of another picture.  I’m liking mixing them in like this.  I kept this one pretty simple since I’m still playing catch up.  I’m almost caught up though!

Oh, and mad props to my sister-in-law who made Raptor’s cake.  Not only was it *gorgeous* it was organic and egg/ nut free.  I highly recommend her if you’re looking for a cake in the Austin area.  🙂

 

I’m having so much fun with my papers from The Pier that I’ve resorted to editing and printing current pictures at home!  In fact, I scrapped these the same week that they were taken.  What can I say, I’m just not motivated to scrap Christmas pictures when it’s so hot outside!  🙂

I found some old paper when I was cleaning out my desk (I’m pretty sure it’s Making Memories?) and the colors were perfect so I threw them in the drawer with this collection.  I really like how it changes up the look.  I’ll be honest, I bought a ton of this stuff and I don’t want every page from this summer to look the same.  🙂

 

Working on catching up!  🙂

Still loving this project!  Also clearly loving my waterproof camera.  🙂

Do you guys like seeing my Project Life layout every week?  Would you rather see more traditional layouts?  More cooking disasters?  More crafts?  Leave me a comment and let me know what you want to see more of.  🙂