Cheeri-eeri-o's!

We loves us some cheeri-eeri-o's (and yes, that is their official name at our house)! Here's Henry after just "emptying the well" (the one on the stroller tray!) of cereal at today's Choraliers picnic. Life is infinitely easier now that he has learned to feed himself. I'm still not letting him do messy stuff by himself, but that will come with time. He does his own cereal, fruit puffs, fruit (which in some ways is messy enough!), veggies, hot dogs, etc. Pretty much anything that doesn't turn to mush when you touch it or require a spoon.

Have you ever seen the Blue Man Group? You know that little bit they do with the Captain Crunch cereal? Henry pulled a similar stunt with his cheerios at the picnic. Even if you haven't seen the concert, you can still enjoy our version by clicking HERE. :)

Primavera Pasta Salad

The salad was a hit at the Choraliers Summer Picnic! I have looked long and hard for a good pasta salad recipe that was easy to make and tasty too, and I think I finally found one!

Here is the recipe:

1 pkg pasta rings (I used Creamette)

1/2 lb provolone or mozerella cheese, cubed (I used moz.)

1 medium green pepper, chopped

1 medium red pepper, chopped

1 c. sliced black olives

1/2 to 3/4 c. chopped green onion

1 8 oz bottle of Italian dressing

1 tsp. Italian Seasoning

Cook pasta according to package directions. Rinse with cold water to cool quickly; drain well. In a large bowl, combine pasta with remaining ingredients; mix well. Cover; chill thoroughly (I made it the night before). Stir before serving.

If I had it to do over I think I'd use the one green pepper and then dice up one large tomato instead of the red pepper just for a little more flavor variety. Either way it's delicious!

We are pooped!

I can't believe it has been over a week since I've posted. I have been running like a mad woman, but couldn't even tell you what it is I've been doing. I had my first Stampin' Up! workshop last Wednesday, and that went well. I'm expecting the box to arrive Monday the 30th and can't wait to play with my new goodies! I was the hostess of my own show and therefore ended up getting a free stamp set plus I think it was $40 worth of merchandise for free as well! It's good to be the hostess! :)

This week has been crazy. Monday (I think it was Monday - maybe it was Tuesday?) my friend Julie and I took our first roadtrip with our two boys (Henry, as you know, is 13 mos and her son Caden is going on seven mos) to Green Bay for a little shopping at lunch at... guess... yeah, the Olive Garden (duh!). All things considered, it went well. But those boys sure do play off one another when it comes to crying. Either they were both crying or they were both content. When one started in the other would out of sympathy! ;) It was a good time.

Yesterday, Henry and I drove to Milwaukee to attend the funeral visitation for the Mom of another dear friend (Greg, my former employer). I had never met her but still was incredibly touched and saddened by the event. Since we were going to Milw, I also made plans to have lunch with Jenn before hand. It's always good to see old friends.

Today, Grandma and I cooked a special lunch for my Mom (BLT's and sweet corn - a few of her favorites!). She has been super busy and stressed working double shifts every day this week for EAA (http://www.eaa.org/ for those who are not familiar - a.k.a. the week that 700,000 tourists invade my town of 60,000).

As I said, we've kept busy! This weekend we have two picnics - one for Choraliers (http://www.oshkoshchoraliers.org/, the community choir where I sing, dance, and serve on the board of directors - look for me on the photo's page!) on Saturday and then our annual Kromm Family Reunion on Sunday. I'm planning on making a new recipe for some sort of Pasta Primavera (cold) pasta salad for Saturday - I'll share the recipe here if it's any good. Sunday's dish is still up in the air.

I'm hoping I'll have more time for stamping and scrapping soon and will be able to get more projects posted. Stay tuned!

My First Workshop/Mini-camp!

Well, I've FINALLY finished preparing for my first workshop, which is less than 24-hours away! We are doing three make and take cards. Admittedly ambitious, but it will all work out in the end. I'm hosting the show myself, and am glad to be doing it here at home so I don't have to lug all of this stuff somewhere for my first go around! I'm sure that will come soon enough though, and when it does I'll be ready!

The three cards include two new sets (Pick a Petal, Baroque Motifs) and two old (but still current) sets (well, one set and one background). Here is the information (below) for my Summer by the Sea card. It is hard to see in the photo, but the Canvas background stamp is used on the Creamy Caramel paper behind the main image.

Recipe:

Stamps: Summer by the Sea, Canvas

Paper: Creamy Caramel, Nearly Navy, VV

Ink: BB, Nearly Navy

Accessories: VV Grosgrain, Pewter Brads, 1" circle punch, Nearly Navy Marker, watercolor crayons, aquapainter, corner rounder

Technique: Watercoloring

Template: Pocket Card

Henry's 1-year Pics...

We have started a tradition of having professional pictures of Henry done twice a year - his birthday and Christmas (which is convenient because it ends up being every six months). These are his one-year pictures, and our first family picture. We tried to do a family pic at Christmas, but Henry just SCREAMED and we ended up having to make a new appt for him that Darrin couldn't get off work for so we only got shots of him for the holidays. The first family pic above is my favorite, but the second one is a better shot of Henry... Not sure which one we'll go with yet.

Puppy Chow!

...For humans, of course! ;) This is fast becoming one of my favorite treats and I finally found an AWESOME recipe so I thought I'd share it here. Some of the versions I've had have just been too (almost sickeningly) sweet. This recipe calls for a little vanilla to be added to the chocolate mixture, and I think that helps to cut the sweetness a bit. I also used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate which I'm sure makes a difference as well. It's definitely a hit!!

CHEX MIX PUPPY CHOW

9 cups Rice Chex

1 cup chocolate chips (I prefer semi-sweet)

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup butter

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cup powdered sugar

1) Pour powdered sugar into paper grocery sack.

2) Put cereal in large bowl.

3) Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
4) Pour chocolate mixture over Chex cereal, and stir to coat all cereal as much as possible.

5) Pour cereal mixture into your grocery sack (see step 1), roll the top down a few times and shake to coat.

6.) Spread mixture evenly on wax paper (I used parchment paper, which works just as well) and allow to cool (shown in picture above).

Catching Up, Part II

Another layout a few months late! I received this pre-made page set from my secret sister in the first round on Splitcoast. I loved the pages, but knew I wanted to save them for after my first baby was born (and I wasn't even pregnant when I got them!). All I had to do was add photo's and journaling. So easy! I also added a few stamped images from the old SU set called "Happy Fright Night". The sentiment with the same words, as well as the "Come over for a spell", and the candy images around the diamond shaped picture are all from that set. The pages are "Picture Ready Keepsake Kits" by Keepsake Corner.

Catching Up

I am so far behind on Henry's scrapbook! I have maybe his first two weeks scrapped and that's it... I still have almost an entire year worth of pictures to go! Ugh. It's a little overwhelming to think about. I've been trying to be better about scrapping, and got three pages done the other night. Of course, we're not in chronological order anymore... but I have a three ring scrapbook for him so I can move the pages with ease. It will all work out in the end!

Here is a page I made with pictures from last years family reunion. After making the page I realized that it gives the impression that we are the only people *at* the family reunion! lol! There were about 75-100 people there, I just didn't take pictures of all of them! :)

I'm sorry I don't remember what brand the paper is, but I can tell you the solid red is SU's Ruby Red cardstock. I found the poem on the internet.

Need a Pickup?

I received this set with my starter kit from Stampin' Up! and have really been at a loss as to what to do with it. It's not one I would have initially chosen for myself, but it's growing on me. The picture didn't turn out the best, but I am happy with the result. The image was colored with an aquapainter and inkpads (squeezed the pad to get ink on the inside of the lid and then picked it up with the aquapainter to watercolor). I added Crystal Effects to the windows, but it sort of erupted when I was applying it so the glass will look *really* thick. Oh well. It's still cute. The edges of the vanilla cardstock are frayed to look old. The background is stamped off once to so the ink is lighter than the sentiment.

Stamps: Loads of Love, Flannel Plaid background
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla, Old Olive
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Old Olive, Ruby Red, More Mustard, Going Grey
Accessories: Brads, Moss gingham ribbon, aquapainters
Technique: tearing, fraying, watercoloring

New Neighbor

The house about four doors down from us sold recently, and the new residents just moved in this weekend. They look to be about our age, so I thought it would nice (not to mention neighborly) to go down and say hello and introduce myself. I made this "welcome to the neighborhood" card to give them as well. There is a piece of WW cut to fit the inside of the card, and the bottom corner of it is stamped with the chair stamp that is shown in the picture.

Stamps: SU! Right at Home

Ink: Yoyo Yellow, Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black, Real Red, Green Galore

Paper: Whisper White, Yoyo Yellow, Tempting Turquoise

Accessories: Yoyo Yellow and Tempting Turquoise Grosgrain ribbon, B/W Gingham ribbon, staples, Aquapainter

Technique: Direct to Paper (DTP) for background, watercoloring (using ink pads and aqaupainters)