Scrappin' without Scraps

Last Recipes of 2007

Last recipe cards for this year.  Of course there will be more coming soon!

This months issue of Digital Scrapbooking Magazine has a nice little recipe box which you can make yourself.  It would make a wonderful place to keep all these cards. 

Have you missed some cards?  Or you aren't sure and just want to check?  Click on the Recipe Rounds category in the right side and then you can scan through all my posts.  Feel free to download and print any cards you like and of course, you are always welcome to send your friends here too!

Sorrel and Potato Gratin

Credits: recipe card template by Corina Neilsen in Recipe Project CD; My Kitchen by Coreen Silke at ScrapDish; fonts are Tempus and unknown font

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Curried Lamb with Rice

a family favorite for using up lamb and good with leftover chicken too!

Credits: Bountiful Harvest by Roberta D'Achille of Rendered Memories; card, tag and labels from My Kitchen by Corren Silke at ScrapDish; font is Augie and Tempus; recipe card template by Corina Neilsen in Recipe Project CD

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Beef Vegetable Soup

Great for a snowy day!

Credits: recipe card template by Corina Neilsen in Recipe Project CD; My Kitchen by Coreen Silke at ScrapDish; font is Augie

Lord of the Rings Night

Last night was the annual Lord of the Rings Night at our house whereby a group of LOR groupies sleep over and watch all three extended versions back to back.  Something like 12+ hours of viewing bliss for the trilogy obsessed - they can tell you exactly how many hours and mintues ( and probably seconds).  And it occurs every Christmas break without fail (so far).  Of course the night would not be complete without appropiate food - Eye of Sauron Pizza anyone?  How about Lembas Cookies and (Root) Beer?

A lot of trial and error went into the recipe for Lembas Cookies and Teen #1 wants to be sure you know that she created this recipe herself. And I can certainly attest to the multiple attempts at coming up with something edible - LOL! She has graciously let me scrap it but it is hers and actually quite good.  The cookies taste best warm and dipped in a bit of honey.  Enjoy!

Lembas Cookies

Click on the title for a download of the full sized version.

Credits: Art Bin Papers by Kim Hill at CG Essentials; Bent Frames by Khristy Schmidt; leaves from DSD Freebie by Scraphead; binder by Corina Nielsen at Funky Playground; pins by Catine H of CatScrap.  Fonts are Tempus, Augie and Beyond Wonderland.

Art and Love

Art and love are the same thing: It’s the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you.  It’s understanding the unreasonable. 

                                                              ~ Chuck Klosterman

The one above comes from Chuck Klosterman's book Killing Yourself to Live which I just finished.  Sort of a narcissistic travelogue about a cross country road trip in search of dead rock stars. In fact what he seems to be in search of is dead relationships as the book seems to be more about ex-girl friends than anything else.  But he is a writer for Spin magazine and there certainly is a lot of interesting information about rock and roll so it's worth the time if you like music.

I've started a new category today - Quotes.  For some reason I've always collected quotes - ever since at least high school and maybe even earlier.  In fact I did a Studio Friday post about my quote book, complete with photos. Oh and I did a neat mini ablum with quotes too - Paper Bag Quote Album - there are photos plus instructions.

Typepad Storefront Widget

Recently Typepad announced a new widget for bloggers who use Typepad - one that allows you to set up your own storefront, complete with a shopping cart and secure payment via PayPal. And all from your sidebar in a matter of minutes.

So since digital scrapbookers are a group of avid bloggers, will this change digital scrapbooking?  Hmmm I wonder....

Since I started digrscrapping, it has gone through a lot of changes. In the beginning (like maybe 3 years ago - LOL!), there were few digital designers and few digital sites.  Prices for kits were a bit higher than they are now but still quite reasonable considering how much use you can get out of one kit.  As more people started scrapping digitally, the number of sites grew and so did the number of designers.  Becoming a digital designer was possible with a computer, talent, time and a high speed connection plus it was easy to do it from home or as a extra business.

Just as market economics would predict, the digital world now has lots of designers - probably more than are needed.  Prices have dropped, freebies now appear on such a regular basis that many consumers feel they don't need to buy kits with all the free ones available. In an effort to cope, designers have begun offering more and more sales. But when it takes hours and hours to create a kit that sells for < $5 is it worth it? Digital store sites and designers seem to come and go - this year has seen many designers leave the business. Those designers still left seem to move frequently from one site to another, probably in search of more sales. Without a rise in paying customers or in kit prices, it would seem that we will continue to lose designers in 2008.

So now that Typepad will help you set up a store, will designers just decide to sell from their own blogs? For one, it cuts out the fee designers pay for being part of a store. It certainly seems easier than setting up and maintaining a store site - less hassle, less marketing and if you've had a blog for awhile you have a built in customer base. Plus you don't have to pay for a domain name and hosting. But so far I haven't seem anyone jumping to set up a store.  Maybe we're all still wrestling with the holidays and too busy to think about it.  Or maybe it is harder than it looks - I haven't tried it yet.  Or maybe 2008 will the year of the store-blog?  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.....

A College Gift

As DD would say..."Whew, so I AM going to college!"  Finally she heard from two schools which have rolling admissions and she is so thrilled!  How cool to open two letters and hear you are accepted to both schools.  And even better, one of the letters came with a very nice merit scholarship - a great gift to a parent of a high school senior at this time of year!

DD couldn't decide on one school that she loved and so didn't apply early decision anywhere.  But some of her friends did and so have heard by now.  Some dissappointments and she was surprised that some of them didn't get in to the schools they wanted - she thought that they would with their grades and all.  But, of course, there is no predicting what colleges are looking for and so many students with good grades and sports and activities.  It seems much like rolling the dice, at least from this end.  And DD was beginning to think she'd never get into anywhere. So these came along at just the right time!  Of the two, Roanoke and Elon, she likes Elon better but I think we'll just wait and see what the next few months bring.  Hopefully more good news!

Holiday Recipes

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

For me the holidays or just being home means making some special recipes.  These are three of my favorites.  Braised Chicken Thighs was modified from a recipe in the Wall Street Journal - their weekend section always has some interesting ones.  The Pot Roast is actually a wonderful one for the crock pot - it goes all day and you've got veggies and meat together.  And the Sue's Pecan Pie is a recipe from my wonderful medical assistant whose name was also Sue (and her DH was named Steve which sometimes made things a bit confusing).  She's an amazing cook and this is one pecan pie recipe that's never failed for me.

Click on the title and you'll get a full sized recipe card you can download, print and add to your recipe box!

Braised Chicken Thighs

Credits: La Creamerie Fraise by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals, recipe card template by Corina Nielsen from Recipe Project CD; fonts are Pertpetua and MA Sexy

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Pecan Pie

Credits: Autumn Celebration by Scraphead; font is Augie

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Pot Roast

Credits: Awakening by Corina Nielsen at Funky Playground Designs; fonts are Perpetua and Off Shore Banking Business.

Not One, but Two

S managed to sprain not one but both her ankles.  I can't believe it! 

The first she did in gym class.  A little ice and elevation and she was limping about.  Then limping downstairs she fell and did the other one this time so badly she couldn't put any weight on it.  DH went to get her a school and had to carry her literally but fortunately ERs have wheelchairs.  And fortunately the one that looked mighty suspicious for a fracture wasn't fractured.  Yeah! 

So now she's hobbling about.  Yesterday she could actually walk a bit with an air cast and today hopefully more.  At least she wasn't crawling like the day before.  If it didn't hurt so much it would be wicked funny! She's only 13 so it should heal pretty fast but not fast enough to go skiing.  So we canceled but  Sugarloaf was so sweet (pun intended) and let us move our reservations to another time.  Given the snow we've had I am sure they will have no trouble finding someone who wants the room for the holiday!

So what to do?  Well, there a huge number of things that need to get done around here so that's what we will do.  We went shopping yesterday at a new meat market in town and almost bought a goose for christmas but decided on a turkey instead since I've never even had goose.  But mayble i'll shovel out the grill and do that turkey that way.  Yum! 

The guest room is in sad shape so maybe I'll get to that.  It actually gets a lot of use with my FIL who visits a lot.  He has a quilting/craft business ( see it runs on both sides of the family) and stays with us when he has craft shows in the area.  That's a pretty much gone until the spring so this will give me some time to fix wallboard and paint. 

Of course, there's always reading...and scrapping to do!

Yet Another Snow Day

You know it isn't even officially winter yet and we've easily had two feet of snow!  More last night and more today and so yet another snow day.  At this rate they'll be going to school until July.

The snow makes for some interesting photos....

Yes, that's the garden bench in the snow.  You can't even see the raised beds in front of it.

I love the perfect snow pyramid here...

Any one for a big snow doughnut? It's really our deck table....

Lots of Good News for FxFoto

It's been a banner week for FxFoto, much to my delight!  We seem to be on the Top Ten lists of a number of sites this week which is very exciting!

 

About.com posted a list of Top Digital Photo Software and listed FxFoto among their top ten picks. And Sue Chastain, who edits the Graphics Software section noted, "Several editions are available so you only need to purchase the features you want." How very true - you can upgrade your FxFoto as you learn more about digital photography.

 

Make Tech Easier posted a list of the Best 101 Free Software For Daily Use and the free Standard Edition of FxFoto made the list in the category of Photo Organizer.

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Inside Tonic, a software blog by the folks who run the Softonic site, mentioned the list from Make Tech Easier.  And you can see us above in their first paragraph! 

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Web Worker Daily made their own list - Ten Top Mini Apps Perfect for a USB Thumb Drive - ten favorite applications which are available for thumb drives/flash drives/ memory sticks.  And FxFoto is on the list - way cool! Our Portable Pictures is a version that downloads right to your U3 flashdrive.   By the way, this would make a wonderful holiday gift.  FxFoto just goes right on the drive and since it only takes up 3 MB there is plenty of room for photos.  You can take your software and photos with you when you go over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house!

These have really made all our snow and ice this week much more bearable! Even the 2 hours it took me to drive 23 miles today in the snow seems worth it!  I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

A Favorite Cookie Recipe and More

Another snowy icy Monday here in NH.  One DD is sick ( thank goodness - that relieves her of driving in this stuff) and the other has a two hour delay (thank goodness - that gives everyone a few hours to clean up the ice).  And I get to do a post before work for a change.

Snicker-doodles are a huge favorite at my house and they seem to go especially well with hot cocoa.  It must be the cinnamon sugar topping.  As do Jelly Doughnuts (Sufganiyot) which my DDs love to make.

The only trouble with doing no carbs is that it make latkes tough since most call for either potatoes or flour or both.  So  here's a recipe for Zucchini Latkes that has no carbs.  I'm afraid they do tend to fall apart a bit - squeezing out as much water as possible lessens the crumbling.  I didn't peel the zucchini before grating which gave them a wonderful green color.  By the time I thought of taking a picture of them, they were all gone!

Snickerdoodle Cookies

Credits: My Kitchen by Correen Silke at ScrapDish; recipe card template by Corina Nielsen at Funky Playground Designs and Recipes Project CD; I've forgotten the font - sorry!

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Iceberg Wedges with Buttermilk Dressing

Credits: Everything but the Kitchen Sink by Maya at Scrapgraphics; font is Times New Roman

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Sufganiyot (Jelly Doughnuts)

Credit: Hanukkah collection by Miss Mint at Peppermint Creative; font is j.d.

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Zucchini Latkes

Credits: Happy Hanukkah kit by Kim HIll at CG Essentials; recipe card template by Corina Neilsen at Funky Playground Designs and Recipe Project CD; fonts are Offshore Banking Business and j.d.

Happy Monday!