Something to share...

The weather is turning cooler...finally! Fall is my favorite time of year, and it always starts me making things....banana bread, apple crisps and warm drinks. One of my favorite drinks (that I discovered only a few years ago) is Chai Tea. Sure, they sell it at Starbucks, but why pay $3+ for a cup of it when you can make it yourself! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Starbucks. But I did find this killer recipe so I can make up a big batch of mix and have it every morning if I want! Made a couple of these jars up to share with friends too....using my new Papertrey set, of course! Might as well share the recipe here too!

Chai Tea Mix

INGREDIENTS
1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
1 cup French vanilla flavored powdered non-dairy creamer
2 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, combine milk powder, non-dairy creamer, vanilla flavored creamer, sugar and instant tea. Stir in ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. In a blender or food processor, blend 1 cup at a time, until mixture is the consistency of fine powder.
To serve: Stir 2 heaping tablespoons Chai tea mixture into a mug of hot water.

Bring on the cool weather!

-M

ETA: This recipe is supposed to make 36 servings. Also, I usually go ahead and double the recipe when I am making it so I have plenty to share and some to keep for myself!

Just some quick ones...

Cards, that is. Whipped up a few yesterday that I needed. I am totally digging this Basic Grey paper right now. Who couldn't love these the little trees...huh? Feels so fallish. Loving it!

On another note, just thinking of something Braden said yesterday that I needed to get down before I forgot it. We were coming home from school and he says"Mom, are we gonna have a garage sale soon?"

"Uh, I wasn't planning on it, why?"

"Because I need to sell some stuff"

"Honey, I don't think we have anything to sell right now"

Silence from the back seat for a minute and then...

"I think we need to go out buy something I don't like so I can sell it!"

This kid totally cracks me up sometimes!

-M

And now, for your crafting pleasure.....

My first 2 design team projects!
And of course, they are for Halloween.
I actually like altering things as much as scrapbooking, so this was fun for me!



Yes, I decoupaged a pumpkin! Well, it's not a real pumpkin...just a foam one I got from Hobby Lobby.
Notice how the sentiment from Spooky Sweets fits perfectly in the empty space of the pattern. Been dying to use this new set so this was my perfect chance! Hopefully more to come soon!

-M

And the winner is...........

ME!

I got the official word last night that I won the design team contest for my scrapbook store! And here are the layouts I submitted:

Now I will be designing 2-6 pages each month to be on display at the store. SO fun to have my stuff hanging all around in there! And besides that, I'll be getting some free and discounted product.....and I need that because I spend way too much money in there! LOL!

This makes me giddy!

It's my newly placed expression from Uppercase Living! This stuff and scrapbooking go hand in hand in my opinion. Super cool words for your wall. All of them are fabulous and I loved it so much that I'm hosting an open house this Friday night! Can't wait to get more! To see the catalog, go to the customer login and type in id#832718 and token:cheerio

Just a little plug for my friend, Susan. ;-)

Also a little peek at some of my most recent pages. I have to give props to Nicole for inspiring me on the lower right one. Your stuff is amazing and constantly inspires me! In other news, I'm hoping to hear from my local scrapbook store in a few days with news about my submissions for the design team. Maybe I will post those layouts if I make it!

Sometimes you've just gotta....

...play in the rain!

It's been a VERY long time since it's rained around here. So when I picked Braden up from school yesterday he asked if he could play outside and splash in the puddles. And I thought...you know what? Why not? They had an absolute blast! And that's what being a kid is all about, right? ;-)

I can't believe I got to....

hold him while he was sleeping! And boy is it hard to take a picture of it yourself! LOL! This was the highlight of my day yesterday. Bryson is such a busy boy that I can't even remember the last time I got to do this, so you'd better believe I was loving every minute of it!

He amazes me

One morning the first week of Kindergarten, I went to school to have lunch with Braden. As I'm waiting for his class to line up, I was standing in the hallway and I noticed a row of pictures hanging on the wall. All the kids had drawn their families-- with moms, dads, sometimes a dog or cat. And then I notice Braden's.....hundreds of dots on his paper. I'm thinking to myself, "Great!! Why can't he just draw cute little people like everyone else?!" Then I notice the title..."Everyone in the world", and I'm simply blown away. How perceptive of him at just 5 years old to see everyone in the world as part of his family. From the time he was a toddler, he's always seen life differently than the rest of us. I used to see that as a problem, but you know what? Now I see it as a gift! I couldn't be prouder of this boy.

-M

Well, he did it!

Braden went to school. His first day was last Thursday. He was nervous....I was nervous. He settled in quickly with a folder game at his table.

I stood around for a while in the class with a few other parents. He continued playing his game, not even realizing I was there, so I decided to go. There was a parent reception area down the hall where we gathered and talked for a bit, consoled each other and finally, after realizing there was nothing more to do, we left.

When I came to pick him up after his first half day, he runs to the car saying "That was GREAT! I give it 89 thumbs up!" Can't beat that, I guess.

So today is his first full day and as I was driving there this morning I say "Do you want me to drop you off at the door or should I take you to your classroom?" "Nah", he says "Not unless you just WANT to." Uh....what? Not the response I wanted to hear....So I marched myself up to his class, have a short chat with his teacher, and come home. Now it's just me and Bryson. I do a little cleaning, play with Bryson. He takes a nap and here I am. ALONE. I almost feel...depressed. This isn't supposed to be happening. What happened to me doing all those things I said I was gonna do when I got some free time? What was it I wanted to do again? I can't seem to remember for thinking about Braden and wondering what he's doing every 15 minutes! Oh boy...this is going to take some getting used to!

Wow...is it August already?

I can't believe my first baby is about to start Kindergarten in 8 days. I'm sure I will laugh later about being so stressed about it, but somebody give me a sedative, would ya?? I've had him for nearly 6 years to myself. Don't get me wrong, he's totally prepared. He WANTS to go. It's Mommy that is having the problem. I keep trying to look at the positives....like being able to spend time alone with just Bryson. I know that's a good thing. He is going to a private Christian school with only 16 kids in his class. Can't beat that, right? For me, though, it's all about turning my child over to someone else. It's hard for me to think of him somewhere else and me not being able to see him or know exactly what he's doing. I'm sure I will be doing plenty of volunteering out there. But change is kind of a hard one for me and this is a BIG one!

In other news, Bryson went to the allergist last week after an 8 month struggle of us trying to figure out what he was allergic to. Turns out it's soy, eggs and corn...all of the things we were letting him have in place of the wheat we were trying to keep him off of because we thought it was that! Mealtimes are a complete nightmare around here, which I am not used to. When Braden was a baby, he would eat anything we were eating. And still to this day, if he's never tried something before, he immediately wants to try it. Bryson is as opposite as could be from that. I cannot get him to eat ANY vegetables at this point (does french fries count?), although I try daily. Between what he can't eat and what he won't eat, there's not much left. So I feel like I feed him nothing but turkey sausage and pretzels at this point! Sometimes it just drives me nutty!

My only therapy is the scrapbooking I've been doing lately. I have done 9...that's right NINE scrapbook pages in the last week! I feel like I finally have my office like I've always wanted it. For me it's all about organization, and I get totally paralyzed when things aren't in complete order. The ideas are flowing like water over here and I recently made up a new system that is really working for me. I bought cute little recipe card holder and filled it with index cards. Whenever I get an idea for a page (the journaling always comes first for me), I whip out a card, write and sketch my idea, print out the photo(s) I want to go with it and then stick it in my handy dandy Cropper Hopper 5x7 photo keeper. It's all ready to go when I get the time to do my page. Here's my proof that is so working for me...My wall-o-pages:

I like to hang them up for a bit and enjoy them before I tuck them away in my albums. Here's to getting another page done today!

-M