Digi Day

I wanted to show you this gorgeous layout I just finished. This is Lesson 8 from the Digi in Deeper class. Every time I complete one of these layouts I am in awe at the amazing things I can do with my computer. I just created a treasure. I'm excited if you can't tell. Again, if you love to scrapbook, you will love digi scrapping. I can't get enough of it.

I love the photo treatment on this layout. The focal photo has been "brushed" and softened to blend into the "watercolor" paper. It looks amazing and I can't wait to see the print. Also, we used some real life scanned items. The lace was scanned in and I extracted it from it's background to put on my layout. Cool, right? The burlap was done this way too. For the scallop and the flag, I made clipping masks and clipped scanned in images of fabric to them. It's awesome because I get the fun texture from the fabrics.

If you feel like trying a new craft. Check out Jessica's website and look at all the fun products and classes. If you want to know Photoshop and learn some techniques, you can start here. I will always plug this stuff because I love it. Did you see my documented photos above?

Also, Scrapping Simply is doing a buy one get one free sell with their gallery wraps. I'm thinking Christmas?

Check out the sale here.

Have a great Tuesday!!

Menu Monday

Hi, Everyone!  Can you feel and smell Fall in the air?!  I sure can!  And I am SUPER excited about it!  It has to be my favorite season.  I love the smells, the foods, the change of colors, the weather...everything!  What is your favorite part about Fall?  I put a couple of my favorite cooler weather recipes on the menu this week.  Let's hope the weather stays the way it has been. 


Monday
Grilled hotdogs and homemade mac and cheese

Tuesday
Taco Salads

Wednesday
Ham and Cheese Bagles  *These are Justy's favorite.  She has a soccer game that night, so I thought i'd do something easy.*

Thursday
Chicken Strips and Oven Fries

Friday
Taco Soup with Fritos

Saturday
Biscuits and Gravy

Sunday
Lasagna

And there you have it! I'm hungry now, just from looking at the pictures.  :o) 

Monica's Menu

So I finally made those Chickpea Stuffed Shells. They were yummy. I'll have to share the recipe some time. This week my goal is to make my stir fry. :) Life has gotten busy again. Now that school is in full swing, all our exra curricular activities are too. We have soccer, dance, scouts, and raquetball. Busy, busy. Okay, here's the menu

Monday

Crockpot BBQ Chicken

Tuesday

Tofu Stirfry (This time for sure!!!)

Wednesday

Sloppy Joes

Thursday

Taco Casserole

Friday

Dinner Out

Saturday

Blackened Chicken w/ Fettucine Alfredo

Sunday

Chicken Rolls

Oh lovely Monday. Make the most of it. Have a great day!

Crockpot BBQ Chicken

Another great recipe in my collection of family favorite crockpot dinners.  We love this chicken.  It's so moist and perfect.  This is my kind of meal, especially this week.  My 3 year old is finally interested in potty training, my baby cut his first tooth, and my 11 year old is crazy busy with school and soccer.  It's been pretty eventful around here.  So the easier the dinner, the better. 

Crockpot BBQ Chicken

4-6 chicken breasts (I had the little tenders, so I threw in 12.  I also used frozen, but fresh works great too!)

1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce

1/4 c. white vinegar

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

1/4 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. garlic powder

In a meduim bowl mix together, bbq sauce, vinegar, red pepper flakes, brown sugar, and garlic powder.  Stir until combined.  Place your chicken in the crockpot and pour the sauce over the top of it.  Cook on low for 4-6 hours.  Stir maybe once in the middle of cooking time.

Source-Stick a Fork in it 

Hope you all had a fantastic week.  Have a fun and safe weekend.  See you Monday!!

I had an Epiphany

I told Aaron and he just rolled his eyes. Pfff, whatever. I've always struggled with papers. You know what I'm talking about, all the millions of papers that seem to stream into your home day by day. You get paper in the mail, stuck to your door, from school (so much paper!), from church, etc. etc. Right? Well, my paper gets piled into piles and every once in awhile gets "organized" into better piles and somewhat filed. Blah. It's never worked for me.

So, this is where the epiphany comes in. I realized while going through my papers that if I put all these papers in a binder with tabs and pockets pertaining to finances, school schedules, important dates, meal planning, etc., I would be better organized, find things quicker, pay bills more promptly, and not forget what color shirt Maggie is supposed to wear or when picture day is! Sounds glorious, right? No eye rolling people, that's what Aaron did.

Okay, so I realized about 2 minutes after my epiphany, that this probably isn't a brilliant idea and that there are probably other people that have already done this. Come in, Pinterest. Oh lovely Pinterest. I typed in "Family Planner" and whala, a whole page of ideas. Darn smart people out there, I'm always just a little behind in my brilliance.

My favorite link was to the I Heart Organizing blog. She did a whole challenge last March on making a Family Planner and had links to other blogs who followed along. Jackpot for me! Here are some photos of her amazing binder.


Cute and functional. I like it!!


A cleaning checklist. Nice!


I'm excited for this part. I've always wanted a better method for remembering important dates.

She goes over her whole binder and offers her printables from her Etsy shop here.

So this has been my project this week. I've just started to gather things and work on my own printables for my binder. I'm hoping to have this done in a week or two to show you. I'm picturing a more streamlined organized way to keep track of all my papers. Wish me luck! :)

German Chocolate Cupcakes

Heaven in a cupcake liner.  I made these for my Daddy's birthday yesterday.  They are his favorite.  I was worried, because last time I made something similar it didn't turn out.  But these were absolutely WONDERFUL!!!  They were pretty simple to throw together.  I got most of them done during nap time which made it 100 times easier.  My Dad had 2, complimented me a few times, and took a bunch home, so they were definitely a hit!

German Chocolate Cupcakes

Cake mix-
1 box of Devil's Food Cake Mix
3 eggs
1/2 c. oil
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 c. buttermilk (If you don't have buttermilk than you can make your own by using a little less than 1 cup milk with 1 Tbsp of distilled white vinegar)
1 c. sour cream

 German Chocolate Frosting-
1 c. evaporated milk
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c. shredded coconut
1 1/2 c. chopped pecans

Chocolate Buttercream-
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. butter, softened
2/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
3 c. powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. milk (If needed)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.  I got 24 cupcakes. 

In a large bowl combine oil, eggs, and vanilla.  Mix gently until well combined. Stir in 1/3 of the cake mix until well combined.  Add buttermilk, stir til combined.  Add another 1/3 of the cake mix, stir til combined.  Add sour cream, and last of cake mix and stir until well combined.  Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 18-22 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.

German Chocolate Frosting-In a medium saucepan on medium heat, constantly stir evaporated milk, sugar, butter, and egg yolks until it starts to boil and thicken.  About 15 minutes.  Stir in vanilla, coconut, and pecans.  Remove from heat and let it cool completely.

Buttercream-Beat cream cheese and butter for 4 minutes, scraping sides of bowl.  Add cocoa, powdered sugar, and vanilla.  Beat for another 3 minutes, scraping bowl. If it's too thick add milk.  (I didn't have to add any milk to mine.)  If it's too thin add more powdered sugar.  Put icing into a pastry bag and pipe it onto cupcakes to create a barrier to keep the german chocolate frosting in the middle.  Scoop a small amount of cooled german chocolate mixture into the middle of the cupcake.

And there you have it!  It looks a little intimidating, but it was seriously pretty simple.  My pastry bag broke, so I had to use a ziploc bag to finish the job.  Worked out great!

Source-Your Cup of Cake

Have a great Wednesday!!

Digi Day

I have two things I want to share with you today. First is Spraguefest. It is an all out scrapbooking party hosted by JessicaSprague.com. This year it is in no other than Las Vegas. There will be fun, food, shows, late nights, classes, and lots of scrapping!!!!


They have Carina Gardner, Heidi Swapp, and Jessica Sprague on the schedule to teach. What a great way to enjoy some "me" time!! I really really really (did I say really?) want to go, but alas my husbands school schedule and a little thing called money prevents me from doing so.

One more incentive, if you book your room by today Sept. 6th, you will be entered into a drawing to have your entire room paid for by jessicasprague.com. You can find all of the hotel info HERE and then can register for the fun right HERE!

Okay, I also wanted to tell you about Red River Paper.  I was lucky enough to get a sampler pack from them. I am mainly a full digital scrapper so I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do with my samples. Well, my good friend Adrianne at Captured by Adrianne took my babies newborn photos. I had these gorgeous photos that needed to be framed and displayed. Perfect. :)

I was really excited to use the 66 lb Polar Pearl Metallic Paper. Can I just say gorgeous? Have you seen photos printed on Metallic paper? Oh man. I can't stop staring at my framed picture. Gorgeous baby, gorgeous photo, gorgeous paper.

I wish you could see the metallic sheen on this photo. It's so so pretty.

I also printed some photos on the 75 lb. Arctic Polar Luster. Again, the photos are beautiful. The paper picks up the color very well and also drys quickly so no smudging. If you are looking for great photo paper check out Red River Paper. You get quality papers for a great price. Oh, they also have pre-scored greeting card ready to be printed on. I may play with those soon. :) Check them out.

Okie Dokie, have a great day!!

P.S. I didn't get paid for saying any of that, just my honest opinion. :) Did I say that metallic paper is gorgeous? Seriously.

Menu Monday

Last week was a little nuts but so fun to have my honey home. We had a good time and he is back to school tomorrow to start his 5th quarter. Wish him luck, we hear it's a real doozy. Again, you will see some repeats this week. I'm bound and determined to make those darn stuffed shells!

Monday
Chickpea Stuffed Shells (Please tell me you have menu items that get carried on for a few weeks.)

Tuesday
Tofu Stirfry

Wednesday
Cilantro Lime Shrimp Tacos (I'm excited for this one!)

Thursday
Lemon Angel Hair Pasta with Chicken

Friday
BBQ Chicken

Saturday
Pizza

Sunday
Chicken Rolls

Alrighty, there it is! Erica has a lot going on today so you just get mine. If you ever want recipes, let me know and I'll pass them on to you in exchange for one of yours! :) Have a great day!