Yummolicious

Breakfast is one of my favorite meals of the day...when made right...and if it consists of eggs.

I've been wanting to try to make bread pudding for a while now.  We often have stale bread in the refrigerator.  Maybe it's because we like carbs, maybe it's because we don't.  Somehow we're always left with a slice of toast here, and a piece of dinner roll there.  And for the last few days, there was a bag of cubed, stale sandwich bread sitting on the side door of the refrigerator, waiting to participate in the next baking adventure.

So this morning, I decided to go for it.  Heck, just start experimenting. It's always amazing to transform simple ingredients to something grander than the sum.

The thing about bread pudding is that I haven't tasted one for a long time.  Somehow photos of bread pudding are always enticing.  They appear soft, but has a nice crust on the top.  Umm...  So, how am I supposed to know what it tastes like or how the consistency should be?  Well, off I went.  I looked through several recipes online and decided that I would make my own version.  I know, what am I thinking?  Baking is an exact science, and it doesn't allow much freedom adjusting quantities of ingredient.

This was what I settled for:

- 8 cups of cubed stale sandwich buns
- 8 eggs
- 2/3 cups of milk
- 1 1/2 cups of water
- 7 packets of honey
- 2 4oz peach yogurt
- 1 cubed banana
- 1/2 cup of raisins
- Dash of cinnamon

I mixed the wet ingredients first.  Then poured that over the glass tray of bread cubes.  Soak for 10 minutes.  Mixed the mush around a couple of times.  Then baked at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Pulled out the tray with a wonderful smell of cinnamon bread.  I let it cool for a few minutes before digging in.  It was awesome!  I loved the consistency it had.  Not too mushy, not too hard.  It could  use more honey, or even brown sugar.  More banana, raisins, and cinnamon would have been awesome.  And since it wasn't so sweet, it would be great with vanilla ice cream!

So the recipes needed some tweaking, but it was a success!

Peeking out from hibernation

Hi everyone! I've been MIA for a few years on this blog now. Trying to get back to crafting more. One of the resolutions I had prior was to have a card a week. Well, realistically, that's not hard to do. But I'm going to aim for a craft project (or two) a month for now. Keeping a blog disciplines me in this area. I always have loved to make things, but it's usually a spur of the moment occurence.

Just a note for all you readers out there that's not in Southern California. This winter has been amazing. An unusual winter, I must say, as we have been getting much rain. Now the hills are green. And some hills are even white from the soft sprinkling of the snow. The view is simply gorgeous. Our God is such an artist!

So to honor that, today I'd like to start with a friendship card, that's fitting for this time of the year.

Inspiration from a box

Have you seen the new Kleenex boxes? The design is more modern, yet not too abstract. It has these floral outlines with various sizes of spots.

There could be many uses of these cardboard pretties. I could make some mini album covers. And also some mail dividers. Pencil holders.

So here's my challenge to you: showcase your creations with these boxes. Have fun!

And to go along with the crop-a-dile...

...Eyelets! Yep, never owned an eyelet before this. Got some today. Various colors. So I shall try to make a card or two.

New tool!

Yay, I got my crop-a-dile yesterday! A new toy to play with now. I heard about this one a lot. Since I don't have any similar tools as a beginner scrapper/stamper, I justified the purchase of this multi-task toy. Works really well. The only downside is that I can't use this anywhere on a scrap page. I'd have to work on a smaller piece and then attach it to the base of the scrapbook page. It's a great space saver and I don't need a mat underneath the project.

As I browsed through (yet again) the aisles of my LSS, new and interesting items caught my eyes. More things to add on my wish list! Few days ago I had reorganized my craft space, and I encountered a few things that I haven't seen/used for months. They're just sitting there in a box craving attention. So here are my resolutions related to arts and crafts:

- Try/start one new craft project a month
- Design one card a week (re-stating one of my previous posts) ...and try to post them :)
- Use my current growing collections of tidbits, instead of hoarding them!
- Sell more cards
- Take more artistic pictures and keep up with organizing them

As is usually the case, I aim high with resolutions :) We'll see how well I'm going to keep up :)

Olive Green Golden Leaf

Love these color combos! Does it make you want to get a cup of hot cocoa and snuggle at the couch? The borders are from Provo Craft Deckle? craft scissors. I'm debating whether or not to outline the leaf veins in gold glitter as well.

Oh, and I know I said that I'd make a card each Wed. I have a few to upload, including the ones I "owe" you for the past two weeks. My camera's temperamental...LOL!

Weekly projects

Here's the official announcement. I shall try to make a new card or paper project every Wednesday. After months of hoarding papers, inks, stamps, ribbons, etc, it's high time to get some projects done! This would be just from the inspiration on the top of my head. Sometimes I may get ideas from SCS or blogs to get started. So stay tuned!

Snowman sending wishes

Here's my debut to online gallery. I did this around 1 am, after seeing the sketch challenge at the Gina K release party. Now I know what an addict feels like!

CS: The Paper Company

Stamp: Snowman from Michael's $1 bin, sentiment from clear stamps of Studio G

Accessories: Marvy Uchida mega circle punch, Cuttlebug embossing folder snowflakes, scalloped scissors, glitter glue, color pencils

I'll definitely jazz this up for future versions. This is how it's going to be at 1 am. Maybe this will be one of my friends and family cards for this Christmas.