Rain, Rain Go Away

Well it rained all day and so I stayed in the scrap room ALL DAY!  Here are the cards that resulted...

Front

Inside

Father's Day was the next venture, this is another scraplift...

And finally, for my niece's birthday, which is coming up next month...

And for my father...

It has been a long day, so I am planning to play a little on the gypsy while watching a movie...  Hopefully the creative juices will continue to flow.

OKay, oops, one last really quick one.  Darren is out of town this weekend helping his mother get their house packed up to move next month.  Thought I'd whip out a real quick one to let him know I missed him.  Pretty shotty, but its the thought that counts!

I am on my 10-day off stretch which is allowing for lots of ME time.  I have been ultra busy in my craft room this week.  Here are a few of the products of that time...  

Just received word from a friend that he had a baby boy, so this is the card I whipped up today. It is not great, but it will work.

A couple more Jeannie look-alikes...

 A few cards I thought would be good to have on hand...  Kind of generic.

Welcome June

Well, I am still on a baking hiatus....  looking forward to once again having the desire to bake, but for now, content with scrapping and sewing.  Father's day and dad birthdays are quickly approaching, so I took this opportunity to make a few cards, as always, inspired by others.

These (above) are Jeannie Phillips files, that are simply magnificent.  She is by far my favorite blog to follow!!  This was a cut file she made available, I just upsized it to a larger format.  She is genius and many of my cards are directly inspired (copied) from hers!!

These are the two cards for the dads.  I have really made a lot lately, and just figured out the scanner in my craft room, so I'll get on that and upload a few more. In the meantime, happy June and will keep on crafting!

What a month this has turned out to be

Well it is May 21st already.  Finally things are beginning to settle down.  Darren's latest "flip house" is sold and paid for!  Yeah!  Most of my baking commitments are done for the month, and today, I am off, and plan to stay rooted in my pjs doing absolutely anything that comes to mind.  I am baked out and have turned my attentions this morning to papercrafts.  Yippee.  Nice change.

So, the birthday bash was a success.  Here are the desserts I made for the extravaganza...

This was the final dessert table, almost overflowing.  had to put the finger size portion goodies on another table.  Following are the close-ups. Except for the rum cake and blueberry cheesecake, which weren't really worth a close-up.

This was called a chocolate cannoli cake.  It is a 3-layer sponge cake with a chocolate and orange zest ricotta cheese filling and chocolate ganache glaze.  I added the piroulines for dramatic effect.

The top tier is filled with baklava cups, the second tier has almond bark balls, chocolate nut triangles and chocolate cups I made and filled with white chocolate mousse and a slice of strawberry and kiwi.

This is a triple chocoate cake.  I debated about bringing it because it looked so sloppy, but so did the photo I copied it from.  So, it is a super rich chocolate cake layered with chocolate mousse.  Really quite decadent, and I'm not that much of a chocolate lover.

This is a favorite that I have made before.  It is the lemon cake layered with raspberry puree, lemon curd cream and covered in marshmallow frosting toasted with a creme brulee torch.  I think this ranks as one of my favorites.

These were cream puffs with a lemon cream filling and drizzled with yellow tinted chocolate.  Unfortunately they were on the table with other non-desserts so people thought they were drizzled with cheese or mustard and they were a surprise when they took a bite.  

So there you have it...  I am at my fill of baking for a little while, but I will post the creations  of paper that come to life today.

Crazy May Weather

Here are a few pics Darren took from the back window, looking out into the preserve that lies directly behind us.  These pics are untouched, those are the real colors!!

May, Where 'O Where have you gone

Well May is flying right by...  can't believe it's almost my birthday weekend.  I could use a few more weeks to prepare.  Been very busy with a little of this and a lot of that.  Here's the latest Dessert of the month, a chocolate cannoli cake.  It was scrumptious!  Made one for work to try first.

Then, my friend who loves turtles had  a birthday.  So, I found these little cuties online and obliged! Aren't they adorable!?!  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!  It was the most beautiful dough, too.  Made great PB&J sandwiches, just slightly sweet.  I also did cookies and a small chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting.  Yummy.

Then here is the card I made to go with them.

My father in law was in town for the weekend a few weeks ago.  The boys went out shooting and so I made them an almond coffee cake to start their morning.  This was it, was okay, but I would have liked to see it rise a little more.  Not sure if I kneaded it enough?  Still experimenting with yeast breads.  Seems like the science is alluding me.  Was delicious, but a little dense.

Umm... well, not really a dessert, but that same friend has a dear daughter, who, bless her heart called me for some help.  She wrote a poem at school for Mother's day and wanted me to scrap a 12x12 layout for her to put her poem on to present to mom on mother's day.  I tried to arrange a time when we could do this together, but with the kids activities, it could not be arranged, so I whipped up this little baby...

Not so photo worthy, I made and froze three batches of cookie dough for Darren's dad for Father's day.  He was telling us when he was here that he tried buying a few brands so he could just bake a few at at time and they just weren't very good.  So I made a batch of cowboy cookies, lemon blueberry white chocolate cookies and a batch of cinnamon chip cookies for him.  I  didn't take a photo yet, but this morning I made a card for my "birthday twin" that turned out kinda cute.

Now, I just finished frosting a carrot cake to take to Darren's Aunt's house for Mother's day and I picked up this plate at the ceramic shop, that I made for Darren's mom...  Kind of child like, but it's the thought that counts.

HMMM.... so that's where April and May have gone...  Well, gotta get a list made, we are expecting in excess of 80 people at our birthday party and so I have to vamp up the dessert list.  It'll be a hum dinger of a week getting ready for that.  Will post pics though.  Funny how I entertain myself.  hmmm...

April desserts successful and delivered

So, no pictures today, but I will say I made some blueberry, lemon and white chocolate cookies to go with the lemon cakes and wow, were they good.  It was off a newish website, or at least  one I only recently found...  Mixingbowl.com.  Wonderful little online cooking community!

This morning, the hubby took off to go shooting with his dad, I am hoping they were able to enjoy the day, since it has been raining and drizzling nonstop here.  I busied myself in the kitchen as usual, and came out with an almond ring for breakfast tomorrow, turtle shaped rolls for a friend's birthday, a small chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting, blueberry sauce for the cheesecake I made yesterday and two tubs of homemade ice cream.  I'd say it was another fun baking day.  Well, it's not over actually, two of those are still rising.  Will post pics tomorrow.
 
I am thinking now that I will head up to the sewing room and work on two jackets that have been ordered for quite some time.  Better late than never.