WOOHOO! Look what Sharon painted at Monday Tuesday Wednesday? She is such an amazing artist, and she PAINTED a stack of my honey oatmeal raisin cookies! Aren’t they gorgeous! THANK YOU Sharon! I love it!! Check out her other amazing artwork too! She posts every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday – and I think you will be blown away!
Beyond the Boundaries
sometimes you have to break them.
Like yesterday…
Hubby and I went on a Sunday drive to Franklin, PA to the Annual Franklin AppleFest.
It was lovely…. crowded… lots of arts and crafts, food, antique and classic cars…
But the real treat of the day was on our ride home.
The road said, “No Outlet – Turn Around Here.”
Hubby knew better…
and we drove on…
beyond the boundaries.
And we came upon scenes like this.
Sometimes you have to break the boundaries.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Spooky, Screamy, Happy Halloweeny
This week’s theme for The Paper Players Challenge (PP265) is Halloween.
I decided to break out the FlowerSoft for this week’s Design Team Inspiration card. It makes such a fun textured Fall tree with lots of Halloweeny colors.
Here is the fun sentiment on the inside.
My card isn’t very spooky or screamy, but hopefully it is happy halloweeny!
I gave a quick swoosh of green for the grass and blue for the sky in watercolor paint, then stamped the rest.
Here are the “ingredients” I used to make this card:
- StampinUp (SU) Sheltering Tree Stamp Set
- SU Holiday Home Stamp Set (Pumpkins and Ghosts and outside sentiment)
- SU Mingle All the Way Stamp Set (Inside sentiment)
- Inks: SU Early Esperesso, Pumpkin, and Stazon Black
- FlowerSoft Autumn Mix adhered with Tombow Mono Multi Glue
- Early Espresso and Pumpkin SU Card Stock
Hope you are getting ready for a spooky, screamy, happy Halloweeny, and hope my paper crafting friends will join our challenge this week at The Paper Players!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Apple Fritter Cake
It’s the beginning of apple harvesting season in our little corner of the world and today is actually the annual Mars Applefest.
With apples and cinnamon on the brain this week, I wanted to make something special for dessert when my friend, Janet, was coming over for dinner. I’m getting sad that she will soon be heading south for the winter, so trying to enjoy the few weeks we have left.
I found a recipe for Apple Fritter Bundt Cake from Crumbs in My Mustachio that was just what I was looking for.
Who doesn’t love an apple fritter?! And made into a yummy cake to share?? …. Well – that sounded heavenly.
Oh – and was it ever!!! We all LOVED it! I know I will make this one again! Here is the recipe as I slightly adapted.
Apple Fritter Cake
Ingredients:
- 4 large apples, peeled and chopped (I used golden delicious)
- 2/3 cup + 3 Tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp milk
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease and flour bundt cake pan.
- In medium bowl, mix together peeled, chopped apples, 3 Tbsp sugar, and 1 tsp cinnamon. Set aside to let sugar and cinnamon liquefy with apple juice.
- In a small bowl, blend together 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon. Set aside.
- With electric mixer, cream together 2/3 cup sugar and 1/2 cup butter. Add eggs, on at a time, blending well, then add vanilla. When well creamed together, add 2 tsp baking powder and 1 1/2 cups flour. When well blended, add milk slowly until all incorporated.
- Add half of apple mixture to prepared bundt pan. Top with half of brown sugar/cinnamon mixture. Top that with half of the batter. Repeat with other halves.
- Bake for approximately 40 minutes until done.
- Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto plate to continue cooling.
- Make glaze by mixing powdered sugar with 1-2 Tbsp milk, until you achieve desired consistency. Drizzle on top of warm cake.
This cake is AMAZING warm and cold. I refrigerated leftovers and loved it cold from the fridge.
ENJOY!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Nothing is Ordinary
Celebrate Today…. and EVERYday!
Happy Friday my LifeinBetween Friends!
Last night, Hubby and I went to John’s Bar for our usual Thursday night date. We had a couple drinks and dinner and were home in time to watch the Steelers football game. After playing a little fetch with Mr. Charlie outside, I realized I didn’t have a post for today. Of course I was looking forward to today being Friday (though this week sure did fly!), and I wondered what I wanted to say for a Happy Friday message…
While in the office for some meetings this morning, I noticed some beautiful new watercolor prints that were hanging on the wall that were added during a recent remodel, and I fell in love with them. They were extremely simple, yet so mesmerizing and delicate and impactful.
I thought to myself, “I could do that!”
Well – it wasn’t as easy as I thought…..
As many of my fellow watercolor artist friends out there know, restraint is key, yet often oh-so-hard to achieve – especially for us beginners.
But I literally only spent about 10 minutes start to finish on this card, and I kinda like how it turned out. I free formed the leaf with watercolor and brush, splattered a few fall-colored splashes, and then stamped the sentiment on top.
Nothing is ordinary.
Every leaf…
every watercolor painting…
every day….
every person….
has something special about it.
Embrace it, friends.
Cherish the moments!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Paper Smooches Pretty Phrases Stamp & Stazon Ink
M Graham Watercolors in Sap Green, Quinacridone Red, Nickel Quinacridone Gold
Arches 140lb Coldpress Watercolor Paper
StampinUp Very Vanilla Cardstock
Thursday Chuckle with Charlie: I’m a Morning Dog
Hi Friends!
It’s your buddy Charlie checking in.
Mom needed a break, so she said I could write another post.
Lucky you guys – right?!
Let’s talk about Mornings.
I’m a Morning Dog.
It’s the greatest time of the day! Don’t you agree?
Here are the TOP 10 things I LOVE to do in the morning:
- Leap into bed with Mom and Dad as soon as I see just one of their eyes begin to flutter open. When I notice that from my bed across the room, I bounce into their bed with them and jump back and forth between them and off and on the bed and lick their faces to tell them, “It’s Morning, It’s Morning! It’s another wonderful day! Let’s get up and play!” My mom thinks it’s great to wake up laughing every morning…
- Eat breakfast. Breakfast is one of my favorite meals of the day – closely followed by dinner (which is my only other meal of the day – unless I can snag some snacks).
- Go for a walk – preferably before Mom has time to even think about a cup of coffee!
- Dig holes in the flower garden – especially after it rains for two days solid keeping me cooped up in the house – and only when my Mom is preoccupied with work to notice. (Otherwise I get – “NO! Charlie!”) I hate that word No…
- Zoomies. After digging holes for a while, it is a BLAST to come flying through my doggy door, before Mom can catch me and ZOOM around every room of the house – circling the furniture until I can hardly breathe any more. Do you ever get the “zoomies?” Sometimes I just have to run like the wind, and then I feel so much better. You should try it when you have lots of stress or pent up energy. It’s a great feeling. And besides – what’s a little mud on the carpet matter? It just dries and turns to dirt, and then Mom can easily clean it up with the vacuum….. Right?! It gives her something to do…
- Pull all the stuffing out of my stuffed toys. Isn’t that fun?! Yesterday morning I polished off my Dog Equis (It’s the doggy, stuffed version of a Dos Equis). It was delish!
- Chew bones. I could gnaw on bones all day long, but I especially love them in the morning! I also like to throw them around and drop them on the hardwood floor. When my Mom is on one of those things she calls a “conference call,” she sometimes gives me dirty looks or tells me to “shush!” I pretend like I don’t know what she means, because then she will put some peanut butter in my bone, which she apparently thinks is a good quiet activity. BONUS for me!!!
- Play tug. Was there ever a greater game invented? I bring a rope toy to my Mom, which I hang on to, but I pretend I want to give it to her. When she reaches down to take it, I pull back. If she lets go, I put it in front of her face again. It’s so fun to tease her with this and show her how tough I can be hanging on when she tries to pull it. Sometimes we growl at each other, but only in a fun-loving tug-of-war competition kind of way. GRRRR!!!!
- Play fetch. Sometimes Mom says I have to “drop it” when we are playing tug. (Sigh!) Okay lady – if it makes you happy… I will give it to you. You can then throw it so I can run across the room to bring it back, and then…. hopefully…. you will let me play tug with it the next time….
- Ear scratches and tummy rubs. My mom works on her computer A LOT! I know she thoroughly enjoys when I give her the opportunity to take a break by resting my chin on her knee so she can scratch my ears and tell me what a good boy I am. If she is too busy to notice this tactic (which I do strictly for her benefit as I recognize she is working much too hard!), I will resort to laying down at her feet and rolling over on my back to allow her to rub my belly. I know it makes her feel much better…..
Afternoons are for napping. Right?
Because then, you can get rested up enough to start the whole “morning” routine all over again when the rest of the family arrives home at the end of the day!
How do you like to spend your mornings?
Woofs & Wags,
Charlie
Homemade Margherita Pizza with Roasted Tomatoes
The other day, our sweet friend and master gardener, Jack, gave us a generous box full of his amazingly beautiful heirloom tomatoes freshly picked from his garden.
Not only are they practically works of art how beautiful they are, but there is nothing like the taste of these gems! (I do believe I would trade an entire box of chocolate covered salted caramels for one of these super sweet garden goodies!)
When trying to decide what I could I make with them to give them the showcase they deserved (and eating one for breakfast while contemplating!), I decided to roast them up for fresh homemade Margherita pizza.
If EVER I wished for scratch and sniff or “smell-a-computers,” I so wish I could share how my entire house smelled while garlic and fresh basil and thyme infused with these golden and crimson chunks of lusciousness.
And I even decided to sacrifice one of them to ferment and save some seeds to see if I could master growing these in my own garden next year.
And then…..
After making some fresh dough, I rolled it out and placed a generous portion of these precious concentrated bursts of flavor atop.
I topped that with slices of fresh Mozzarella, finely grated, salty Parmesan cheese, and coarsely chopped fresh basil right from the plant in the garden.
And just for a bit of extra yumminess (and because I had some in the fridge), I topped it off with some chopped up thickly sliced smokey bacon ( O…. M….. G!!!)
This is the BEST pizza I ever ate in my life! My son Nick took what was leftover for lunch, and I had the one solitary piece that was left in the refrigerator for breakfast the next day – stone COLD – and it was even better than I remembered the night before!
It had to be those tomatoes! Thanks Jack!
Homemade Margherita Pizza with Roasted Tomatoes
Roasted Tomatoes:
- 6-8 large tomatoes
- 6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
- 1 Tbsp fresh thyme
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Cut tomatoes into quarters and spread in a baking dish. Add garlic, basil, thyme, salt and pepper. Drizzle all with olive oil. Bake in 350 degree F oven for one hour. Turn oven off and leave tomatoes in until ready to use. (I roasted in the morning and let them set all day).
Dough:
- 4 cups flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
- 2 tsp (1 envelope) active dry yeast
Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Mix water and yeast until dissolved in a measuring cup or small bowl. Combine both until well incorporated. Turn dough out onto counter and knead for several minutes. Place in oiled bowl covered with towel, and let rise until ready to use. (It really doesn’t matter whether it is an hour or several.)
Toppings:
- Roasted Tomatoes
- 1 lb Fresh Mozzarella cheese, sliced
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup fresh coarsely chopped basil
- Any other toppings you like (or not)
Punch down dough and divide into 2 balls. Stretch and roll out onto two baking stones to form thin crust.
Top with Roasted tomatoes, cheeses, basil, and anything else you like.
Bake at 425 degrees for approximately 20 minutes until crust is done and cheese is browned and bubbly.
Let set for 10 minutes before serving.
ENJOY!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Seasons of Change
Fading sunflower at daybreak – Conneaut Lake, PA
Night fades to day –
the moon retreats as the bright sun rises.
Summer beckons Autumn’s reprieve –
when green becomes yellow or orange or red.
Flowers shrivel and wilt –
creating seeds of new life before they fade.
People wrinkle and shrink and age –
transforming the definition of authentic beauty.
Eyes blur and squint and fade –
erasing the wrinkles but not the sweet memories.
Seasons of renewal,
Seasons of hope,
Seasons of growth,
Seasons of age –
All of these seasons
are seasons of change.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Autumn Leaf
One Autumn leaf inspired me to create a little painting that closely replicated it in watercolor.
But then I decided to go a little free form and make it whatever color I wanted.
And then another color.
And then a little different shape…
All from one Autumn leaf picked up on a walk back from the mailbox.
The simple, smallest things that can create such joy…
Cherish the moments!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
A Paper Players Sketch Challenge with Hugs
As a guest designer for The Paper Players, I think Sketch Challenges are my favorite. (I love a good color or theme challenge too! – – – Heck – I guess I just love a paper challenge – eh?!)
This week, Claire presented us with this sketch for PP264 that I really fell in love with, so my card is pretty true to the sketch.
I haven’t used the StampinUp “Too Kind” flower stamp in a while. I love it’s versatility and layers, so I did it in Autumn pumpkiny colors to pop off the black and (very vanilla) white background of the rest of the card.
What would you do with this sketch challenge? Join us! I’d love to see your interpretation and creative expression of this sketch.
For my card, I used the following “ingredients:”
- Stampinup (SU) Black and Very Vanilla Card Stock
- SU Typeset Specialty DSP
- SU Inks in: Pumpkin, Tangelo Twist, Tangerine Tango, Mossy Meadow
- Memento Black Ink
- SU Too Kind Stamp Set
- Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler Stamp (Hugs)
- SU metal button
- Black and White Bakers Twine
- SU Adorning Accents Edgelit
- Black Script Washi Tape
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
the creative life in between 