Thursday, August 21, 2008

Keeping Busy

You may have noticed that my blog has been a wee bit short of posts lately. I've been sitting here typing excuses and erasing them the moment I do. As soon as I write a sentence, I notice the lameness and immediately backspace over it. So I guess the best thing to do is to move on.

Besides working and watching, playing with and trying to teach our little girl, I've been creating a few things of my own. In the evenings, I hop onto AllRecipes.com, which is a fantastic place to find any sort of recipe to you want - simple, different, easy, international, homecooking, desserts. You can also sign up (for free) for an account and get a digital recipe box. It's wonderful! My sister-in-law introduced me to the recipe box, and I can't get enough of it.

I love to find and try new recipes. In the past week or so, we've tried Bacon Wrapped Chicken, Chicken Pot Pie, Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup, and Turkey Shepherd's Pie for dinner. Each turned out great and were put in the "Definitely Will Eat Again" category. Dinner is something I have to make (at least several times a week) so it's imperative to make it fun.

I also like to try new "just for fun" recipes - those that you don't have to make every day. Things like desserts, breads, and appetizers fall into that category for me. With zucchini in abundance and cheap these days, I've been craving zucchini bread. After searching AllRecipes, I found two promising recipes. I tried the first and didn't even glance at the second. The best part about it is it's relatively healthy. The recipe calls for brown sugar and honey rather than white sugar and uses some whole wheat flour. Yummy and healthy?! Awesome! And the recipe was huge, making enough to put in the freezer and give away!



Another recent craving necessitated a recipe search - lemon bars. The first ones I made - no good. They had WAY too much lemon in them. I like the kind of lemon bars that just barely have a lemony hint. So I searched again, this time striking gold. Another fantastic recipe!

Cooking hasn't been my only creative outlet. I've also been painting quite a bit, making new card designs and building up my stash. I don't like to be out of note cards - I never know when I may need one. Here's what I've been up to:

These are the "classic" cards that I've been making for years.

For this one, I used a brown paper sack to paint on and attached it to the white card stock with a bit of ribbon.

This is my new bouquet design, in a variety of colors.


I also tried a single flower; I'd love to know what you think about these!


All in all, I'm having fun trying new things while I take care of our little family and home!

4 comments:

Amy said...

I made Chocolate Zucchini cupcakes earlier this week - not quite as healthy as your bread but still very yummy! I love all the cards; the single flower I think looks best with the colored paper - or maybe you could write something next to it (thank you, congratulations, etc.)?

Keenan said...

LOVE the single flower design. simple, elegant, awesome. also really like the new background color ideas and the bouquets.
two suggestions/things i think would look good:
-try painting on other types of paper (linen, metallic, gloss, etc) for different effects.
-i'd love to see a "wildflower" bouquet ... just a bunch of different flowers all together.

love ya sis!

Kendra said...

i like the single flowers and the bouquets! i agree with keenan that the single flower is simple elegant and awesome! and it suits you well i think because you like simple things! ;)

Emily said...

Gorgeous! I remember getting one of these cards from you years ago!