Thanks ever so much and a Card Giveaway!

PP269 Let us Give Thanks Fall Theme Card

How did it get to be November already?!  (And as hubby reminded me yesterday, only a little over seven weeks until Christmas!)

I do enjoy this time of year with all of the holidays and preparations and family time.

November reminds me to be thankful, and our theme for this week’s Paper Players Challenge seems so fitting:  Let Us Give Thanks – Fall Thank You Cards (PP269).

So on this first day of November, I want to say Thank YOU ever so much my “lifeinbetweener” friends.  I so enjoy sharing this journey with you and appreciate your comments and kind words whether in the form of a like or comment here, on Facebook, Twitter, an email or card, or in person.  Thank you for sharing lifeinbetween.me with your family and friends.  I am always amazed when someones comes up to me and says something like, “My friend told me about your blog, and I read it every day,”  And then I love when they tell me what they like best – whether it’s the recipes or stories or photos or DIY cards or watercolor art or crafts or chuckles with Charlie – all the stuff I love to do “in between.”

I would like to send this card to one of you to use to send to someone you want to thank.  Simply leave a comment –  a simple hello or anything that is on your mind, and I will do a random drawing on Friday to choose someone to send this too.  I may even add another bonus card or two!

PP269 Let us Give Thanks Fall Theme Card flat

For my stamping and papercrafting friends, here is how I made this card:

  • I masked off an oval in the center of a piece of very vanilla card stock and stamped it with the Penny Black Script Letter Background stamp in Memento Black ink.
  • I then randomly stamped on top of the edges with the Inkadinkado Maple Leaf stamp.
  • This was followed by sponging the edges in three layers of color beginning with StampinUp Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, and finally Cajun Craze inks.
  • I cut out two ovals with StampinUp Oval Framelits using #2 and #3 from the smallest – #2 in very vanilla and #3 in black.
  • Same sponging was done on the small oval as the larger piece, and then I stamped the Thanks ever so much Sentiment on using the Paper Smooches Pretty Phrases stamp set.
  • To put it all together, I matted with another piece of black onto a Crushed Curry Base.
  • Embellishments to finish it off included some dark brown candy dots, a bow of linen thread, and a ribbon of burlap.

Be sure to check out the other design inspiration cards by our amazing design team at The Paper Players and play along with us.

Thanks again friends, and be sure to leave a comment for the drawing!  I can’t wait to share this with someone.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Autumn Bucket List

Autumn tree loose watercolor

  • Enjoy long walks kicking crunchy leaves and smashing acorns
  • Deeply inhale the crisp Fall air
  • Snuggle under blankets by a warm crackling fire
  • Sip warm spiked apple cider
  • Gobble up honey-sweetened candy corn
  • Buy Halloween candy for Trick or Treaters (that never come) – and eat it all
  • Bake apple cakes and apple crisps and apple pies
  • Wear hoodies and flannel shirts and yoga pants
  • Break out the fuzzy slippers
  • Watch football games and eat salsa and guacamole
  • Cook chili and stew all day long in a crockpot
  • Bake pumpkin EVERYthing
  • Roast salted pumpkin seeds
  • Burn cinnamon-scented candles
  • Sip dark, dry red wine
  • Jump in a pile of leaves
  • Learn a new soup recipe
  • Curl up with a good book
  • Write a long letter to a friend
  • Paint with red and yellow and orange
  • Hug the people you love

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Autumn Weekend Wandering

mcconnells mills 101715

McConnells Mill State Park, Lawrence County, PA – 101715

Rocky trails,
a rushing creek,
earthy smells of Autumn pines.

A churning mill,
a covered bridge,
sunshine, clouds, a slushy sleet surprise.

Laughter and love,
reminiscing and remembering,
moments to cherish always.

An Autumn weekend afternoon
wandering with
one of the besties of bestie friends.

Nothing is ordinary
nature is EXTRAordinary
when we cherish life in between.

mcconnells mills 101715 1

McConnells Mills State Park, Lawrence County, PA 101715

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Broken can be Beautiful

broken down barn autumn

Broken can be beautiful…

… in people too ❤

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Extraordinary – Nothing is Ordinary

Annual Krautfest Time

pumpkins

For our gang, one of the best things about Autumn is the Annual Brugnoli Friends and Family Krautfest (maybe you remember last year’s), and this past weekend delivered beautiful weather for our festivities!

We started with a crisp, foggy morning that included a beautiful breakfast buffet at Sandy and Bill’s, where most of the gang hung out to watch the annual Conneaut Lake Fall Festival Parade (and the rest of us served as candy passer-outers and parade marchers for our Boro Council candidate, dear “Oh Rob” Brugnoli.

parade 1

parade 2

kf rob boro council

parade 3

After the parade, we hurried home to prepare for the Kraut-making festivities.  Halupkis and Pierogies and Brauts and Dogs in Kraut simmering, while we set up stations to make 800 pounds worth of cabbage into the world’s best homemade saurkraut in the warm Autumn sunshine.

Stations were set up… and then began…

the cutting…

kf cutters 4

and the slicing and shredding…

kf shredders

then measuring and weighing…

kf louis and louise

kf measuring

(…and always time for a mother-daughter pose)…

kf cindy louise
kf dumping 2kf scooping

then finally stomping and pounding.

kf pounding

and laughing…

kf all betsy carl stomping laughing

and composting.
kf compostkf cutters 2

 

 

 

 

Older generations taught younger generations…

kf roddy mason

kf cutting more

kf nikole shreddingkf cuttersand friends taught friends.

kf holly slices

kf holly

More laughs…
kf joyce holly

kf rob and al

kf joyce holly laughs

lots of hugs… and giving thanks.

kf rob hug

kf rob speech

 

 

 

Pumpkins were painted…

kf painting pumpkins

 

kf painting pumpkins 3

kf painting pumpkins 2

 

&
kf kids painting pumpkins

Swings were swung…

kf kids swing

and laughter filled the air.
kf kids swing 2

Treasures were searched for…
kf kids hay

and discovered.

kf ella treasure skeleton

kf kids hay skeleton find

Lots of delicious food was eaten…

kf pretzels

kf food 1

and YES – these cookies consist of three amazing layers: chocolate chip cookie topped with Oreo cookie topped with brownie!

kf brownies

Delicious, intoxicating beverages were enjoyed.

kf bourbon apple cide

kf joyce linda
Hot peppers were sauteed and served on fresh crusty bread by friendly “witches” and warlocks.

kf doreen peppers

Families were celebrated.

kf jenna rob noah

 

kf noah

kf ed grandaughter 2

 

kf michael beer 2

We even brewed beer!

kf michael beer

 

 

 

 

 

and BOWLED!

krautfest bowling

It was a day full of memories… and moments…

krautfest greenhouse

and people… and music…

kf bango

and love… to be cherished.

kf view of lake
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Maple Leaf Birthday Card

PP266

It’s a color challenge at The Paper Players this week, and the colors are “cucumber crush” green, “crushed curry” gold, and “real red.”

I took a bit of a different twist with them for my Design Team inspiration card this week.

For my card, I took sponge daubers and dotted a sheet of very vanilla card stock with all three colors to pretty much completely cover it.  I then heat embossed maple leaves in white over top it, allowing the colors to seep through like Autumn leaves.  I then sponged Memento black ink over the entire thing, and rubbed it off the embossed parts with a baby wipe to give this dramatic masculine effect.

PP266 2

I layered this on top of real red and crushed curry card stock to frame it.

On a strip of vellum, I heat embossed Happy Birthday in black, wrapped it around and glued underneath, adhered to a very vanilla base, and added three black candy dot embellishments.  Oh – and a Wink of Stella 😉 to give it a bit of sparkle that you cannot see in the photo, but adds just a nice shimmer and festive spirit to the card.

PP166 inside

I added another green maple leaf on the inside, and this is a birthday card for my dear oldest son, Jake, who turns 28 this week!   Where did the time go?!  Seems like yesterday I held you in my arms for the first time.  One of the best days of my life!  Love you Jake!  More than you could possibly know!

Hope my stamping and paper crafting friends will join us at The Paper Players this week and you were inspired to create something from my post.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Stamp Sets Used:

  • StampinUp Big Day Stamp Set for Happy Birthday sentiment
  • Inkadinkadoo Maple Leaf Stamp

Apple Fritter Cake

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.

apple fritter cake 4

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.

apple fritter cake 3

Who doesn’t love an apple fritter?!  And made into a yummy cake to share?? …. Well – that sounded heavenly.

apple fritter cake 2

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:apple fritter cake 3

  • 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 watercolor leaf card 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

To every thing there is a season… or is there?

white iris

They say to every thing there is a season,

a time,

and a purpose.

So why is this amazing Spring white iris blooming in my Fall garden right now?

Makes me wonder….

I was talking to my dad on the phone yesterday morning (like I do every weekday at 7:05am) and walking around the yard with Charlie checking out the beautiful Autumn day it was going to be.  All of the sudden, I caught glimpse of a bunch of white irises blooming in my front garden up against the house.  IRISES blooming amidst the browning leaves and dying off summer flower baskets!  Irises are one of the early Spring blooming flowers here in Mars.  What an unexpected, yet pleasant little gift.   Life is so full of surprises.  

Cherish the moments.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

PS  Dad said, “I guess I’ll be seeing this  on lifeinbetween.  You were right, Dad!  xo

Autumn Trees – to doodle or not to doodle

autumn trees watercolor doodle card

Happy First Day of Fall!

The other day – as I continue to convince myself how much I love Fall (and it really is happening!) I dabbled with a couple abstract watercolors of Autumn trees.  One I “doodled” up and the other I didn’t.

autumn trees watercolor card

Interesting what a different effect it gives.  And more interesting – I kind of like both.  (what do you think of that Charlie O and Laura!?!?)

So I asked my guys that evening, “Which do you like better?”

Hubby picked one… and my son, Nick, picked the other.

I knew that was going to happen!

Which one do you pick?

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi