2011 CTMH Calendar January and February Pages

Hey, I have finally made 2 pages of my 2011 Calendar!

This was a blank 12x12 calendar from Close To My Heart. I am slowly turning the blank pages into my own calendar pages. :) I use last years pictures so I can reflect back on what happened the previous year. I had made one last year too, but did not post a lot of pictures of it.

This calendar makes a great gift too, so if you are smart you can already start working on your 2012 calendar. :) Just a thought....

So this is my January page. Not a great picture of it but hey, it is here ! Simple, not a lot of work put into it but I did not want to make it to fancy. I wanted the pictures to be the focus not the embelsihmennts. Last year in January we went to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. I used CTMH stamps and ink for the month.

My February page: My son turned one. I also wanted to incorporate Valentine's Day and Love in the layout so I used some simple rub on flowers and red hearts and Jillibeans Alphas to write February.

I can not wait to take my old calendar off the wall and hang the new one up!

Take care, and thanks for stopping by.
Tunde

Christmas is almost here!

Hi,

Phew, I am so excited to say that my Beigli turned out great! I was baking all day even my hubby helped a bit - he was grinding the poppy seeds for me. I made walnut and poppy-seed beigli. This is always such a dreaded task to do at Christmas. AND how cool that the pastry did not crack either on the top! :)

Beigli, sometimes spelled bejgli is a Hungarian pastry consisting of a roll of sweet yeast bread with a dense, rich, bittersweet filling. The filling is a paste of either walnuts or poppy seeds. It is a popular cuisine in other parts of Central Europe, Eastern Europe and in Israel as well. Beigli is commonly eaten at Christmas and Easter time.

Hungarian Christmas sweets and pastries served at Christmas time are not numerous. In general no other pastries are served, and the traditional candy szaloncukor, large amounts of wrapped decorative fondant candies hung on the Christmas tree as a decoration, also consumed during the Christmas holidays. All Hungarian families serve both the walnut and the poppy seed rolls.

My favourite is the walnut roll - dios bejgli. :)
Here is a picture of my bejgli I made today.

Szaloncukor (literally: "parlour candy") is a type of sweets traditionally associated with Christmas in Hungary. It is usually made of fondant, covered by chocolate and wrapped in shiny coloured foil, then hung on the Christmas tree as decoration.

The tradition of hanging these candies on the Christmas tree started in the 19th century. It was named szaloncukor because the tree usually stood in the parlour (szalon in Hungarian). (Cukor means "sugar" or "candy").

The name comes from the German-Austrian Salonzuckerl, this is why the original name was szalonczukkedli.

Fondant candies originally came in a few flavours (vanilla and strawberry for example), but now there is a wide variety of different kinds of candies, including jelly, coconut, hazelnut and lots of other flavours. It is usually hung on the tree with strings or small metal hooks.

And finally here is one more picture of our Christmas tree with szaloncukor on it. :) Can you find them!?

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend.

Tunde

ps: I have 2 of my Calendar pages ready for 2011, hopefully I can post them this week!

The Perfect Man

It is Friday night, I am not feeling that great, so we decided to go out for dinner instead of me cooking something. Great! :) As I am getting ready I hear Chloe reading a book....The Perfect Man. I could not help myyself but laugh. You go girl, it is never too early to search for the perfect man!

It is created by Dean and Merril Buckhorn. Very cute little book, really it is little, probabli 3x3 inches. You can find your perfect man in this book for sure, one of the pages has your perfect man.

"Just when you thought he did not exist, the perfect man emerges. Here at last, is undeniable proof that male perfection is all around you: the Gingerbread man, who is quite and sweet and does not mind if you bite his head off, the snow man who actually knows how to use a broom."

They are all perfect. They are all male.And unlike most guys, they are right here when you need them. The Perfect Man is a complete guide.

Get the book to find your perfect man!

T.

I am smarter than a GR 1 student

This really made my day. On Thursday I got to go and help out in my daughter's class. Did some "work" for the teacher and also helped reading with some kids. It was an awesome opportunity to do something different and observe my Gr 1 daughter in class. She is a sweetheart. :)

Anyway, I take this little girl out of the class room and she directs me to head to the computer room, which is next door. Noisy, but we get to sit on chairs which is a bonus ( yay I get to sit down for 7 minutes and 32 seconds ) and we start reading. A bunch of GR 3 students are staring at us occasionally, but we just focus on reading. This book is about flooding that this little girl is reading - lets call her "A"....We come to a scene in the book where the pictures show a man in a motor boat, and a family standing on their balcony of their house, the roads are flooded. "A" stops reading and looks at me wondering: "Why do they need a boat? " Hmmm...good question...So I start explaining...well, the roads are flooded, the water is deep, they might not know how to swim, they need to go to a safe place...bla bla bla....so when I am done explaining she say to me with a serious but happy voice: " You are very smart".

I guess I am smarter than Gr 1 student. :)

The only thing I kept thinking of that day was this sweet comment....It really made me smile and made my day.

Bicycle Double Page Layout

Hello my fellow scrapbookers!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. I am not doing much at all today just laying low, feeling very tired. Pretty much a lazy couch kinda day. Trust me it is a bliss, since I do not get to lay on the couch a lot and do nothing with with 2 kids around, but we are visiting at grandma's so she was busy with the grand kids today.

Here is a double page layout I made for my daughter. She was getting ready to go out for the frst time on her two - wheeler. All summer long she kept asking us to take off her trainig wheels which daddy was not keen on - worries too much. :) So he just kept adjusting the training wheels so it felt like Chloe was riding a two - wheeler once she was in balance. So to our excitement just before school started this fall we took her training wheels off and she took off no problem! She was very proud, and we were too. :)

Bye for now,

T. :)

Easy Chicken Broccoli Divan With Fusilli

What a beautiful day! I am enjoying the sun shine through the huge glass doors up north in grandmas living room.I tried to take a nap in the arm chair, but grandma and toddler boy was too noisy playing with bells and listening to videos recorded on grandmas phone. Oh well, I got some rest anyway. Everybody is busy outside so I took the opportunity to write this post while it is peaceful in here. :)

So here is the recipe of this divan I fed, well try to fed my family last night. :)


Ingredients:

3 cups hot cooked broccoli florets
2 cups cubed,cooked,skinless chicken breast
1 can cream of broccoli soup or mushroom soup
1/3 cup 1% milk
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 tbsp dry bread crumbs
` tsp margarine or butter, melted
3 cups of uncooked tri-coloured fusilli

1. Arrange broccoli and chicken in 1.5 qt ( 1.5 L ) baking dish. Pour in mixture of soup and milk. Sprinkle with cheese. Top with mixture of bread crumbs and margarine.
2.bake at 425 F ( 220C ) until heated through - about 25 minutes.
3. Cook fusilli according to package directions,omitting salt, and serve immediately with divan.

Bon Apetite!


here is the tofu version.....just cubed up some tofu and fried it until golden brown.
Here is a picture of the chicken version.

I used an organ can of Amy's cream of mushroom soup....lol...it was a mistake. Next time I will try this recipe with cream of broccoli since my daughter hated this dish. I liked it. My toddler dude had a good amount for dinner. The husband picked out all the mushroom pieces into a small dish...So over all since my family is not a mushroom lover unlike me this dish was not a hit. As I said next time it is going to be made with cream of broccoli. Other than that it is a great weeknight dish.

Have a great weekend!I am off to join the family outside now. :)

T.

Remembrance Day

Please take a moment and remember.

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Poppy Facts

•During the Napoleonic Wars, the poppy drew attention as the mysterious flower that bloomed over the graves of fallen soldiers.
•In the 20th Century, the poppy again was widely noticed after soils in France and Belgium became rich in lime from rubble during the First World War. The little red flowers flourished around the graves of the war dead as they had 100 years earlier.
•In 1915, Guelph, Ontario native John McCrae, a doctor serving with the Canadian Forces Artillery, recorded this phenomenon in his famous poem In Flanders Fields.
•Two days before the Armistice, Moina Michael, an American woman from Athens, Georgia, read the McCrae poem and was inspired to wear a poppy year-round in memory of the war dead.
•In 1920, Madame E. Guérin of France visited the United States and happened to meet Miss Michael at the YMCA at Columbia University, where the latter was a volunteer. Madame Guérin then resolved to sell handmade poppies around Armistice Day to raise money for poor children in the war-torn areas of Europe.
•In 1921, Field-Marshall Earl Haig, the former Commander-in-Chief of the British Armies in France and Belgium and the principal founder of the British Legion, was sold on Madame Guérin's fundraising idea and approved organization of the British Poppy Day Appeal by the Legion to raise money for poor and disabled veterans.
•The same year, Madame Guérin visited Canada, and convinced the Great War Veterans Association (predecessor to the Royal Canadian Legion) to similarly adopt the poppy as a symbol of remembrance in aid of fundraising.
•Today, the Poppy Campaign is one of the Royal Canadian Legion's most important programs. The money raised from poppy sales provides direct assistance for ex-service people in financial distress, as well as funding for medical appliances and research, home services, care facilities, and numerous other purposes.

T.

PS: My Father in law just mentioned that he had 3 uncles who fought in the war and has some paper and medals from them I will take pictures on the weekend and share it with you.

Random Photo Post

I was thinking about photography all day...... I am certainly NOT a photographer, I am a wanna be...but hey, I have kids, and I love taking pictures, so I thought I will post some random ones for you to enjoy.


My DD having fun while waiting on her picture day.

My little pumkin.

I just L.O.V.E. this shot!

My DD was excited to finally get her recital costume.

Up at the farm...by her tree she loves to climb.

Out on a bike ride up north.

Daddy's little helper.

Pretty...

No, you are not strong enough to pick that huge pumpkin up.
Peek-a-boo.

Fall stroll....

Can you say: messy????

Have an awsome day and take lots of pictures!

T.

Thankful Layout for Sandy's Workshop

YAY! I am so happy, finally a scrapbook related post! A layout! A double page layout!
Do not ask, I have no idea what products I used, I will get back to you on it once I visit The Workshop again, hopefully next week. I really wanted to get some proof up hereof my weekend away.
But anyway, here is a double layout for your eyes...

I love the photos, they are one of my fave fall pics of my kids. We were up north at one of the local pumpkin patches. They had fun playing peek-a-boo.







Hope you like the layouts, let me know. :)

T.

Mommy's Little Helper - Boy's pants with pink line

So I was away for the weekend, as you know I scrapbook, and I enjoyed every minute of the retreat. Thanks to my darling husband who looked after our kids all weekend, keeping them busy with play dates, going to the indoor play park, visiting with friends etc...God Bless him, he even helped me doing laundry! I guess somebody washed the dark clothes with some red clothes, well, I can just assume since I did not even ask him...I guess Ishould just go now and mention it to him just to get an idea as to what happened. Never mind, it is just a pair of pants and I was away, who cares right?!

So here is my little man's pants with the white lines turned pink. :)

I appreciate everything my husband does for our family!

Have a good night!
T.

Scrapbooking weekend away - Strattford

So I am back from an awesome scrapbooking weekend thanks to Sandy's Workshop and my 3 room mates .

Friday morning

My friend "A" picked me up Friday morning and after unloading all her stuff from my truck and loading all our scrapbooking stuff into my truck we were all set to go. We were followed by our friends "I" and "N" to Strattford. The drive took a little more than 2 hours but listen to this! My new scrapbooking friend "k" drove ALL the way from OTTAWA! Seriously! 6 hour drive! :)

"A", "N" and I had a tasty lunch at the local Williams Coffee Shop! OMG! Yummy french onion soup with grilled vegetable goat cheese pannini and a delicious cappuccino was my lunch.Pictures to follow soon! Come on ladies I need my pics e-mailed to me! :)

After we settled in we started to create layouts after layouts. Look at me! Heheheee...pictures were sticking everywhere! Later I will post some pictures of the layouts I made.


What a crazy day! Saturday afternoon all of a sudden the hotel's fire alarm went off ! The alarm was deafening. The only thing I was worried about was what happens if the sprinkler system kicks in!!! All I could think of is where do I hide my paper and pictures and all my beloved scrapbooking supplies. So after 5 minutes of alarm noise "N" and I decided to get out of the Hotel...Guess what, I ended up at Williams Coffee shop again.

So the firemen came, found nothing, alarms were turned off by the time we got back. Funny, or not I guess, It made us nervous, we smelled electrical burning smell just around the corner where our room was. See the firemen checking and testing...Yeah, I know, I had to take pictures.

Us crazy ladies on Saturday night! We had a great time did not we??? We laughed so hard our stomach were in pain, and tears were rolling down our cheeks.I can not wait to scrapbook the pictures we took this weekend especially that infamous long note "A" wrote.

Guess what!? We needed this trolley well, not me in specific, but some ladies brought an insane amount of scrappy supplies! This was the transportation device between the car and scrappy room.

I managed to make 15, well, 16 double page layouts! Pictures are coming soon! :) I promise.

That is it for now!

Have a great afternoon!

T....

Crockpot Stuffing Recipe

Here is the recipe of the stuffing I made today. Simple, basic recipe, no nuts, no fruits, perfect for my hubby... He does not like any fruity stuffed meat or stuffing.

10 cups of dry bread cubes ( I used pumpernickel and white combo )
1 1/2 cups of chopped celery
1 1/2 cups of chopped onion
2 tsp poultry seasoning
1 1/2 tbsp parsley flakes
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/3 cup butter
1 tbsp chicken bouillon
1 1/2 cups hot water

Directions:

Stir hot water, chicken bouillon and butter together in a bowl. Place bread cubes, celery, onions and seasonings in a separate large mixing bowl. Pour melted butter mixture over bread mixture and toss gently. Place into crockpot, cover; cook on low for 5-6 hours. For a moister stuffing add more hot water.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Tunde

Why we have a brain???

It is Friday night, long weekend, actually the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend. I had a glass of wine with my dinner. I really enjoyed sipping on it. I hope this one sided conversation was not the product of this glass of wine playing a trick on my brain.:)

Anyway... here comes bedtime, as always kids need a snack, try to give them a healthy snack so they do not go bouncy bouncy on me before bedtime. Chloe, my 6 year old, who is in Gr 1 asks me: " Mom, do you know why we have a brain?"Ohh....this is one of those evenings...So I just simply say, no why Chloe? She says: You know when I listen to my radio in my room when Riley is awake? And do you know the song mommy Party in the USA?" ( Yeah, when she got this CD from PAPA all we had to listen to in the car was this song, NON-STOP, of course I know this song, how can I not!? I even made a scrapbooking page for her of this song. See a previous post...:) ). I say:" Yes."

She quickly goes on stuffing her mouth with rise krispies ( not the best bed time snack ): We have a brain so we can remember things. I have this song in my head now. Oh my Gosh! I can not get it out of it now!" So she smacks her own head and continues. The brain has lines you know mommy. It has lines like a-a-a-a-a and b-b-b-b-b and c-c-c-c-c-c. And once I saw a brain on PBS kids. A REAL brain she yells out. And you know the real brain has lines too. And there was a kids who touched the brain, he was this tall! She shows something which is half of her size.

I did not get a chance to say anything to respond anymore other than nodding my head. She was fast t eat her snack and ran up to brush her teeth not waiting for a comment.

What a 6 year old girl's brain goes through every day... :)


Happy Brainstorming to all!

Tunde

Ohhh Dinnnner!

I just made steak strips in the crockpot marinated with soya sauce,teryaki sauce,olive oil, crushed garlic, fresh grated ginger. Stir fried nappa cabbage with onions and broccoli florets topped with seaseme seads with lots of soya and teryaki sauce. Teryaki tofu and Chinese noodles. YUM... Soon I will post pics of my creation! Stay tuned!

Happy Fall!
Tunde

Hit The Jackpot In June With CTMH

Would you love to hit the JACKPOT! Give it a try! :)

June Constant Campaign
Jackpot June

Hit the jackpot and win free products! Grab loaded Goodie Boxes at 50% or more off retail value! Save money on favorite scrapbooking and stamping supplies by grabbing a different deal each day in June. Deals include discounted shipping/handling, too! These special offers are available only on MyCTMH® ...websites.

Dates: June 1–30, 2010, on MyCTMH websites only

Details: New deals are posted each day at 9:00 am (MDTVisit facebook.com/closetomyheart or closetomyheart.com to see what the mystery Jackpot item was for the previous day. Offers are while supplies last.

Go to my website to HIT THE JACKPOT!

Good Luck to you all and have fun!
Tunde

Flips, chipboard and stamps....

No, I I do not even want to think of how long ago was my last post!!! GOSH too long ago. So here are 2 double pagers I created on my weekend away some time ago... :)

Here is what I used: CTMH Stamp set,Song Bird Paper Stack,Jillibeans white alphas,Craft buttons

Here is what I used: CTMH Flip Flaps, CTMH On Target Dimensional elements,Tim Holtz Dauber, Crystal Blue Cardstock CTMH.

See ya all later! Well, I hope soon!