Dreaming of Spring

Since it is actually above freezing today (46 degrees and sunny!), I'm in the mood for spring. Heck, who am I kidding? I was in the mood for spring once November hit! Anyway, thought I'd share a layout that I did last spring.

Happy "Winter can't be THAT much longer, can it?" day!

I Love My Google Reader!

Since becoming addicted to reading blogs, I've discovered Google Reader and it makes following blogs so easy (and fun!). What it does is monitors your favorite blogs for new posts, so all that you have to do is go to the Google Reader & it will show you which blogs have new posts and puts the posts on the page for you. Simple! Here's a little 2 minute video from the site that explains how to sign up, etc.

Oh, boy, this is my first attempt at adding a video to a post - hope it works. It's a big day for me!

A Spot of Color on a Winter Day

It snowed AGAIN overnight and this morning. I decided that I needed to see flowers and a bit of color instead of the white and grey that we've seen continually, so here's a 4x6 layout that I did awhile ago. The picture is a flower from a pot on our deck last summer. Seems hard to remember that there was something other than snow on our deck at some point. Flowers and color make me happy!

Credits: AMC Creative Expressions, SBA Action Stacked Photos, KSC Expressive, ABR Day to Day Life all found at www.scrapgirls.com

Science

I have to agree with this quote - could be that I'm a science person at heart!

Mr. President

On election day, I saw this photo on Ali Edward's blog and really liked what it had to say. With the inauguration yesterday, thought it was an appropriate time to post it. Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch the festivities since I was at work.

Pink

I thought I'd post a layout that I did recently. This picture was taken at the downtown Farmer's Market just before Christmas. The winter market is inside, but a few people were set up near the entrance. It was a blustery cold day with quite a bit a snow falling, so when Kin saw this pink hat, it was hard to say no. Guess they are all the rage in college - according to the one that wanted us to purchase it for her anyway! The layout is a scraplift from Amanda Sok found here. It was one of those layouts that the minute I saw it, I KNEW that I needed to do that layout for a certain girl that always chooses pink!



Credits: ASO Glittered Kraft, USC Assemblage, SNU Delightful, CherieMask_pinkoctober frame, TCS Dreamer, CK Ali's Writing

Global Warming????

On my way home from a drug dinner - ok, that didn’t sound good - let’s try that again. I went to a dinner & lecture sponsored by a pharmaceutical company on subcutaneous rehydration using recombinant hyaluronidase in pediatric patients. There, that sounds better! The dinner was at the Latin King and was delicious. Anyway, on my way home, I swung by the bank to take a quick picture of the temperature, since it was so unbelievably cold that all of the metro schools were closed for the day. Yes, I stayed in the car to take the picture - it was so cold that it hurt to be outside. The bank sign said -1 degrees, but when I got home, it was actually -17 degrees (not counting wind chill). I’m guessing that perhaps the sign didn’t have room for 2 negative digits. So much for global warming!

My least favorite 4 letter word.....snow!

Winter in Iowa. Enough said.

Bread and Water

OK, I didn't take a picture of water, but here's the bread part! This is my first attempt at making bread using the dough hook on my new Kitchen Aid mixer. Didn’t raise as much as I would have liked but it still tasted yummy!

Parking Lot

Here’s the view from the parking lot when I work at Subacute in Mercy Capitol. The hospital is right next to the Iowa State Capitol. Many times I’m frantically trying to get to work on time & my mind is going many different directions of all that needs to be done at work and home and then I see the Capitol. I’m struck by how beautiful it is, how lucky we are to live here and it starts my day off right.

Snowman Soup

Mimi & Papa sent Jamo this cute bag full of hot chocolate mix. They know how much he loves his hot chocolate!
And yes, I totally ran outside without a coat the other day to take this picture and froze my tush off. All for the sake of a picture!

Chocolate, Part 2

I made the most incredibly awesome good chocolate cake today from the Pioneer Woman website. She calls it the Best Chocolate Sheet Cake ever. Have to agree there, especially straight out of the oven. Even the teenage boys that are here now said this is unbelievably good without any arm twisting on my part. Are you seeing the chocolate theme going on here this week?

Chocolate Heaven

We actually made this chocolate fondue with our New Year's Eve supper, but it was so incredibly, unbelievably chocolate-y good, that I decided it needed a post of it's own. We're still eating it because, in our infinite wisdom, we decided that we needed to make a double batch. Could have gone with a single batch, but one can never have enough chocolate, right? I found this easy recipe on A Year of Crockpotting site that I just love!

Here's what we dipped into the luscious goodness:


And the chocolate in a cute little crockpot:


Now, I'm craving chocolate for some unknown reason!

New Year's Eve

Since we are such big party-ers (NOT!) and I had to work at 5 AM on New Year’s Day, we had a quiet evening at home. Our supper was all appetizers - yum! Bacon wrapped scallops from Sam’s, a Parmeson Pesto cheese ball from a mix that we got at the Farmer’s Market that Kin took great pride in forming into the most beautiful ball, these little smokie appetizers that were positively addicting and cheese sticks. Not the most healthy of meals, but oh, so worth it! That diet can start in the new year, right?

Our Crafty Endeavor

Once in awhile, I get the urge to do a crafty project together as a family. The kiddies used to love it when they were little. Now, not so much (many eye rolls, sighs and why do we have to do this protests). I held my ground though, determined to make these glass ornaments that I had seen in the newspaper. The ornaments were easy to make. First, we diluted glue with water & poured it inside the ornaments & let dry for awhile. Then, we took straws and put tiny bits of this yummy pearly pigment paint powder inside & shook it around. Supposed to use little scoops, but straws were the best that I could come up with. Added different colors of paint with lots of shaking. Buddy boy stopped complaining within a few seconds of starting the first ornament - totally loved making them. In fact, I only ended up making 1 ornament out of the dozen - kids were having so much fun making them that they just kept going. We purposely left the tree up a few more days so that we could admire our beautiful artwork. Might have to turn into a yearly tradition!