Yummy Brussels Sprouts

Yes, you read that title correctly. I've finally discovered a truly delicious way to make Brussels sprouts and it doesn't involve any sugar to make them more palatable, which is what I've traditionally tried. In my experience, sugar just coats the bitterness a bit but doesn't really mask the taste. Tonight I made a savory concoction that I tried a few months ago and forgot about. It was absolutely delish. Basically, you make a kind of hash with the sprouts and onion and paprika, then put it on top of bread with melted cheese. Mmm-mmm good. I should have taken a photograph before we devoured the whole thing! Here's the recipe in case you want it:

From Food and Wine Magazine:

1# Brussels sprouts (about 20 walnut size ones, or 50 chickpea size ones), sliced thinly
1 large onion, diced finely
2 T. olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tsp. paprika
4 thin slices cheddar cheese
4 small whole wheat dinner rolls or crusty bread

Add your sprouts to a pot with salted boiling water and boil until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside. Saute the onion and salt and pepper to taste in olive oil in a skillet until just softened, about 5 minutes. Add paprika and allow to carmelize, about 10 minutes. Add a little water (1-2T.) if onions run dry. Add cooked Brussels sprouts and mix well to coat everything evenly in the oil and juices and everything is warmed through. In a toaster oven or in a 350 degree oven, toast the bread with the cheese until the cheese is nicely melted. Arrange on a platter and top with sprout hash. Serves 4 (in theory--in our house, it served the two of us!)


This week I've been experimenting a little with one layer cards. I borrowed Studio Sketches from another Philly Inker and this set seems to lend itself to super-simple, yet elegant cards. I made a few thank you note sets and am considering some other designs before returning it. The top card I stamped in Early Espresso and colored with colored pencils. The bottom one is also stamped in Early Espresso, and the pears are colored with a Certainly Celery marker. A pack of cards like these would make a quick and easy gift--and so elegant!

Finally!

Looking for the Pansy Cart Tutorial? Click HERE.

I think I've mentioned before my son's fascination with women's shoes. Well, yesterday, we went to the mall because I wanted to get something at Old Navy and look for a pair of shoes at Payless. I popped the baby in the stroller and Piglet walked alongside, sometimes pushing the stroller and sometimes telling me to push it and was generally good all morning, considering he was on a shopping excursion with me. We ended our morning at Payless, and my goodness, was that kid in heaven. Rows and rows of women's shoes for him to try on! He pulled his own shoes off within about 30 seconds of entering the store and was pulling out this and that the whole time we were there. He was particularly enamoured of these shoes and wore them around the store a good chunk of the time we were there. It must be said, the kid is good in pumps. I'm not sure yet whether to be worried. At least it kept him occupied while I browsed for shoes. He did point out a couple of pairs I would have missed--my little fashionista is a big help to me! :)

And now for the main event:

I've been holding on to this post since January. Seriously. I entered this card into a contest held by my upline's upline, "Aunt" Karen Barber, and have been waiting for the results of the contest to post the card. I finally heard from her today and I won! I'm pretty flattered since la Zindorf is in her downline and I figured I didn't have a snowflake's chance in...you know where to win. I had a lot of fun making this card--I love the misty background behind the trees and the reflection in the water. I did use one of Michelle Z's excellent tutorials to produce this card. I think I used Sahara Sand in place of Going Gray ink, which made the card a little more cool than Michelle's original, but I like it very much!

A Matter of Moments

Just a quick note today--the baby has been screaming inexplicably for the past hour, the house is freezing, my husband just brought my sobbing toddler back from the playground, and I need to get supper started, so nothing wonderful to impart today. I made this quick fall card a few weeks ago for my last Operation Write Home box. I think I made about 8 of them. The color was a bit more rich than it looks on the photo.

Supplies:

Autumn Splender, Because I care stamp sets, More Mustard, Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla cs, Christmas Cocoa dp (retired), Soft Suede, RRH, More Mustard ink

Onesies on the Line

Looking for the Pansy Cart Tutorial? Click HERE.

Want to order Christmas cards? Click HERE.

I'm having a slow day today--I had the luxury of sleeping in for once ('til 9:30!) and then spent the morning puttering around, and walking to Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck) to get groceries. I came home around noon and starting cooking. I made beef stew and pumpkin bread for tomorrow's dinner, since apparently both have to sit overnight before they are edible.

Tonight will be leftovers for the boys because I'm going to DIVA NIGHT! I'm so excited because I will probably never, ever make Diva Night again. Diva Night is a little incentive that Claire offers every quarter to her downline--sell a certain amount in the quarter, better your best, or recruit someone, and you get to go to an evening of dinner and special stamping projects. I recruited my sister last quarter (wa-hoo!) and so I get to go this time! It's a bit deal for me. Stephanos said to me one day last week, "You've been so run down and busy lately--are you sure you have time to go to Claire's on Monday?" I looked at him with some incredulity and said, "Are you kidding me? Wild horses couldn't keep me away from Diva Night!" He held up his hands in mock surrender (and bewilderment--he doesn't understand all the crafty stuff) and shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "Okay, crazy lady."

I know I've been a bit sporadic in posting lately--sorry! I've been a bit busy. Two weeks ago, I made a baby brag book for a client. Last week, I finished 40 birth announcements and started work on 150 wedding invitations for our priest's daughter. Next up, Christmas cards! I made the baby card (top) to accompany the brag book because I wanted it to match the theme of the book (I'm silly like that). What do you think of the birth announcements (above)? Cutie patootie, huh? I really like the color combination and the way they came out. I got the layout idea from the big catalog this year--I'm always surprised by what inspires me in there. I made a girl version just for a sample (below) and I like that one very much too!

RAKs and PPA bling

Looking for the Pansy Cart Tutorial? Click HERE.

Has anyone besides me ever noticed that children sleep badly when one of the parents is away? At least mine usually do. I find when I'm single parenting, either my toddler has nightmares, wets the bed, wakes up ridiculously early, or naps badly (or some combination of all four). And the baby usually decides it is a great time to start getting up four-five times per night. So when my husband left yesterday morning for a quick overnight business trip, it was with fear and trembling that I bid him good bye. True to form, the toddler took a lousy nap and the baby was fussy all day, but then miraculously, by 8:00, all was quiet. And stayed quiet. The toddler went to bed on time at 7:00 and went to sleep right away. The baby fussed and nursed a bit until 8:00 and then he went to bed, and I didn't hear a peep out of either of them until this morning! I even had to wake the baby up at 7:30 to nurse because I was fit to burst! The toddler slept until almost 9:00! Thank God for small mercies, is what I say.


I'm on a few different listservs for stamping-related matters, and in the last week a few stampers have requested RAKs (Random Act of Kindess) cards for friends in distress or recovering from surgery. I'm always happy to contribute to these requests because I think it is fun to receive cards from random people when you are in a bad way, and also because I think very few people respond to these requests, so it is nice for the asker when someone does. Not that I'm strumming my own guitar or anything. I only mention it as the reason I made these two cards last night. As I was finishing them, I thought they needed a little bling-bling, and then remembered the PPA challenge for this week was to add bling to a card. Perfect! I pulled out my brand-spanking new Rhinestones and a bit of bling here, a bit of bling there and voila, the cards were complete! And sparkly!

I also consider this first one to be a limited supply challenge. I really wanted to use the color combo of River Rock, Marina Mist and Cherry Cobbler, but had exactly one tiny scrap of Marina Mist that measured 3" by 1 1/4". I used the ink on the medallion, but decided that wasn't enough blue, so I got creative with that scrap. I trimmed it lengthwise and overlapped it with a creative faux ribbon treatment on the one end and there you have it! I even remembered to stamp my sentiment on something other than Whisper White for something different!

The second card is a color inspiration from a blog I read that has nothing to do with stamping. A few weeks ago she posted a picture of a quilt she is making and I was instantly in love with the colors--More Mustard, Whisper White and just a pop of Cherry Cobbler. If you visit the link, the photos of the quilt are quite far down in the (longish) post--just scroll down. It's a little hard to see in the photo, but the sentiment (on Whisper White, I know--I just couldn't do it twice in a row) has the En Francais stamp faintly in the background. I wanted just a hint of texture there and using the background stamped off once was perfect. The only thing I wish I had done differently was to sponge the edges of the Whisper White panel with More Mustard. Oh well.

Toddler Obsessions

Toddler obsessions are strange creatures. My son goes through phases of being obsessed with this thing or that thing, and then after a period of extreme intensity, he's done with it. His latest obsession is with naptime and bedtime. He wants me to put him to bed for naps (instead of his babysitter), and his papa to put him to bed at night. Usually we don't deviate from this, but sometimes it doesn't work out, and then it is hard for him to understand the change. He begins his days by asking, "Mama put you to bed?" [for the afternoon nap], asks at regular intervals all morning, lists all the things that he has to have done before he can go to sleep (turn on the noise machine, close the curtains, turn on the nightlight, clip the paci, hold Mr. Floppy and the green blanket, snuggle with Raggedy Andy, cover up with the quilt...you get the idea). When I get him up from his naps, the first words out of his mouth are usually, "Papa put you to bed?" And thus it begins all over again until bed time. Tied to this latest obsession is a somewhat unhealthy interest in pajamas. Until now he has cared very little what we put on him to sleep. Suddenly it matters and since the footie pajamas from his cousin don't fit, the red pajama pants are the only thing that will do lately. I indulge him in this particular obsession because it seems fairly harmless to me. It *is* annoying to have to discuss it endlessly every day, but on the other hand, it seems to comfort him, and since he is a child who is difficult to comfort, I'll take what I can get.

Today's card is inspired by an architectural interest piece that I saw in a Hyatt Place that we stayed at recently. (I should add that we got the room at a bargain through hotwire.com). Our room had this interesting dividing wall that separated the "living room" from the "bedroom" and I immediately thought that the colors and textures were begging to be made into a card. You can see a photograph by clicking HERE.

So my card is based on that wall. I thought the window panes (which are textured like linen when you see them up close) were the color of River Rock, and that deep brown wood was like Early Espresso, with Very Vanilla on the walls. I started with my new Day of Gratitude stamp set, plus my Sanded background stamp and set to work on a window card! I love the clean Oriental simplicity of this card. I already mailed it as part of a mail swap of which I am a part.

Supplies:
Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, River Rock cs
Afterthoughts, Day of Gratitude, Sanded stamps
River rock, Versamark, Early Espresso inks
Square punches, bone folder for score lines
post it notes for masking
dimensionals
paper snips

Pansy Cart Tutorial

My first tutorial by popular request! Please click on the paypal button below to purchase. Once I receive payment from you, I will e-mail you the pdf, which is 27 pages long and includes over 80 full-color photographs. Please be sure to include your e-mail address when you check out.

$5