24 Olive Street

apples, pumpkins & pony rides...oh my!

Saturday we headed up to Green Bluff to do some apple & pumpkin pickin'.

I love it up there. Love.

So first we went to Walter's Fruit Ranch do some apple pickin'. I had ulterior motives for this as I knew they would also have pumpkin donuts ;)

And Addie got to take her first pony ride...she loved every minute!

We picked red & golden delicious and granny smith apples. About 60 pounds worth!

After that we headed over to Eleven Acres to go pumpkin pickin'. We go there every year because they have a huge pumpkin patch. But in hindsight we probably should have just stayed at Walters since a lot of the pumpkins were already picked over & many were rotted. I guess that's what we get for waiting til the weekend before Halloween!

But there were still some good pumpkins to be had & we found some great ones. And now I have lots (and lots!) of apples to skin, core & package in bags for the freezer along with some freezer apple pies.

And tonight I think we'll carve up those pumpkins!

beautiful fall

Project Life 2013 // week 23 (june 3-9)

Most of my Project Life layouts are the typical 2 page layouts. I may switch up what pocket pages I use from time to time but for the most part I stick to just 2 pages. If I have too many photos for a week I will usually edit them into a 4x6 photo collage (like mentioned in this post).

But then there's a few weeks out of the year that just need more than a 2 page layout. This week was one of those weeks...baseball playoffs, soccer games and a certain little girl's 2nd birthday. So in this instance I actually added 2 extra pages into my album for that week.

Left side is design A and on the right (I know it's hard to tell from a photo) but I've added in design G & design H pocket pages as well.

The design G pocket page allowed me to add more photos of my son's baseball playoffs. The design H page I used to hold my daughter's 2nd birthday photos along with one of the folding journal cards.

You can also see how I used design F pocket page to hold birthday photos in my daughter's album in this post.

Above - design H on the left, design G on the right. You can also see the full sized pages peaking through.

And the last layout of the week - design G on the left, design A on the right.

Like I said, I usually like to keep each week to just a 2 page spread but every once in a while you just have more to share :) But since I still do traditional scrapbook layouts of big events I like to keep my PL album fairly simple & embellishments to a minimum (esp the bulky ones) so that I can keep it to 1 album per year.

retrievers

Retrievers.

The love to....well, retrieve!

Anything and everything.

Toys. Hats. Clothing. Food. Bags. Keys. Shoes. Stuffed Animals (my dogs' favorite thing to retrieve for sure!)

I'm serious...Tucker recently fetched Addie's corn popper...I laughed so hard I couldn't get a picture that wasn't blurry! That big thing sticking out of his mouth was hiliarious for sure!!

They're goofy. And loveable. And love to snuggle. And sometimes always forget they're not lap dogs :)

Life with a retriever is never dull. It isn't uncommon for them to walk out of a room & walk back in with their mouth full of something!

I've had 2 retrievers who had to greet you at the door with something in their mouth. Kind of a like a "hey, I'm so glad you're home! Let's play!!!"

They love to be where you are. Always. And if you're in the middle of a project they will come over & lay right in the middle of whatever you're doing. Just to be near you.

They're the best. Can you tell I'm a bit partial to retrievers?! Yes, there are other breeds that are awesome. But I have a soft spot in my heart for retrievers :)

scrapbook retreat & catching up on project life

Last weekend I headed up to Colville for a scrapbook retreat hosted by Forget Me Not. But before I could even get there my daughter's guinea pig Bugsy decided that his time with us was coming to an end.

One of my favorite layouts of Olivia & Bugsy I did back in 2010 :)

Poor guy. I had really hoped that when this day came it would happen in the night. But no, my daughter had to watch for hours while he took his last breaths. {sigh} Life with animals, right?!

So after dealing with that I headed up to the retreat. The drive up there is always so pretty.

Mountains. Pretty trees turning colors. Cows. Horses. Goats. Farms. Beautiful :)

I keep saying I need to bring my good camera on a drive up there & just stop along the way & capture the scenery. One day...

I went by myself & ended up sitting next to 2 great people who I got to know & chatted with all weekend (and managed to get an awesome cinnamon roll recipe, too!). I didn't get to spend as much time there as I'd hoped (between Bugsy & the govt shutdown my weekend was doomed from the start!). But next retreat you can bet I'm going & spending every second there that I can!

My main goal was to catch up on my 2013 Project Life album. I wasn't too far behind...caught up through June. Although, there were many pages that I needed to fill in some journaling.

And I'm happy to say that it is now almost up to date! And the only reason that's it's not is because I ran out of printer ink (and in typical "Michelle" fashion, didn't order prints in time for the retreat). So the few weeks that are missing will be finished up in no time.

I can't tell you what it feels like to look at my album & see this:

And my kids have already looked through it multiple times :)

Here's a few of my favorite pages...

A few notes:

For this album I'm using the Seafoam core kit along with other kits from Studio Calico & Noel Mignon.

I like to add journaling directly on my photos in Photoshop. I mostly do this to save time. And quite frankly, most of my photos don't need much of an explanation. I find it's much easier to just jot a few things down directly on the photos and that way I can just slip it into the page protector and bam, the journaling's done!

I also include photos from my iphone (usually edited in the Rhonna Farrer app). Again, I print those with the journaling on them to save time. And I like how they look in my album.

I use 4x6 Photo Collages No.1 by the Lilypad (in Photoshop). They're great when you have multiple photos of an event/etc but don't want to bulk up your album by adding extra photos or pocket pages. I use them all the time. I also use them when I want 2-3x4 photos to put in the smaller journal pockets. I use these spaces more often for photos than journaling cards.

I also sometimes use different page protectors based on my photos & layout. The last 2 layouts are for just 1 week (so 4 pages total). I normally don't have that may photos for a week but that week I did and wanted to include all of them. So I used design A pocket pages along with design G.

pumpkin cookies & other stuff

I love pumpkin.

I use it all year long.

Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins are a staple in this house :)

But when fall rolls around...the pumpkin recipes definitely increase!

I found this recipe (on Pinterest of course!).

Pumpkin sugar cookes? Yes please!

They definitely delivered. The only thing I would change next time is to cream the butter before adding the other ingredients. I also used milk instead of water for the frosting (why water??).

Oh, and don't forget to flatten the cookies before baking. I may or may not have done that to one batch & they definitely don't look the same since they don't spread while baking. Kinda looked funny!

This has been a very stressful 10 days. I have been sick since Sunday and my husband is one of the federal employees who is not getting paycheck until this shutdown is over. The media talks a lot about the people who were sent home but funny how none of them mention all of the people are still going to work everyday with no paycheck.

No sick time. No vacation. No unemployment check. No benefits that have already been earned. Nothing til this is over.

I'm angry. I'm disgusted at how the current administration has been using bully tactics to make the American people 'hurt' in order to get their way. No matter what side of the fence you are are, clearly this is wrong. This affect everyone, whether in the pocketbook or not. It goes much deeper.

I usually steer clear of politics on my blog but this is the everyday I'm dealing with right now. The 'good' part of this is that it will end. Eventually. It's just a matter of wading through the crap til it does. We're certainly not the first family to have to deal with this and we won't be the last.

As a side note, I'm busy getting pictures together to go to a retreat this weekend hosted by Forget Me Not. Had I known all this crap with the govt was going to happen I would not be going. But since it's already paid for I'm going to make the best of it and enjoy some (hopefully) new friendships (since I'm going by myself & only know 1 or 2 people that will be there).

And I need a break :)

fall cooking

The fall weather is here & I am loving it. Fall is my absolute favorite season of the year!

We quickly went from this:

To this:

Lots of bundling up for practices & games!

Cold & windy (& sometimes rainy) weather which is proving difficult for me to get any furniture painted. I'm trying to figure out a good way to set up my garage so that I can get some stuff done!

And with the fall weather comes some of my favorite cooking...soups, stews, roasts, good 'ol fashioned stick to your ribs good food :)

Last night I made tomato tortellini soup (recipe here). Oh man, so good. Everyone in my family loved it. The kids asked if they could take it to school for their lunches this morning, that's how good it was!

It was simple, served with some french bread & my son had something warm in his tummy before heading off to baseball practice.

I couldn't find any sun dried tomato paste so I just used the regular stuff & it turned out just fine. Next time I want to try making it with the tomatoes from my garden & see how that goes. Usually when I try a new recipe I don't 'tweak' it til I've made it once & see how the original goes (unless it's in desperate need of immediate tweaking. ha!). Then I decide what I want to try different the next time.

And here's a time saving tip: Whenever I make soups like this I always make a double batch so I can freeze half of it for later. I figure, why not make more if I'm already dirtying the dishes for one batch! That way I can use the leftovers for a future dinner or even for the kids' lunches.

I love these Ball freezer containers that I picked up in the canning section (you could also buy them online). They're perfect for soups, sauces, etc. I just pour the soup in the container & let it cool to almost room temp, then put the lid on, label it & stick it in the freezer (don't put food in the freezer hot). When I'm ready to use it I put the container in the fridge the day before to thaw (or if I'm needing it last minute I'll defrost in the microwave for a couple minutes).

Side note: I froze the soup without the tortellini. I figure it tastes good on it's own & if I decide to add some to the soup when I reheat it I can easily add it then.

And tonight, since we have soccer practice right smack in the middle of dinner prep time, I'll have the crock pots going. One will have chicken ranch tacos (another favorite in this house!) and the other willl have refried beans. And I'm going to try making some whole wheat tortillas.

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go have some leftover soup for lunch :)

So what's on your menu for dinner tonight??

Updated: The crock pot refried beans and whole wheat tortillas turned out great! I didn't have all of the extra ingredients for the refried beans (jalapeno pepper, cumin, etc) so I just made it with 2 big cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, beans & water. I didn't have 8hrs or overnight so I cooked them on high for about 6 or 7 hrs and they were perfect. They were so good and I couldn't believe how easy it was to make. I even enlisted the help of my oldest daughter who was happy to mash them for me while I was making the tortillas :) And just like I did with the soup, I threw some in a freezer jar for later.

As for the whole wheat tortillas, I was shocked at how easy these were to make as well. I was a little skeptical at first cause I don't like whole wheat pasta or rice (just too chewy). But these were really good! Even my kids gobbled 'em up! Next time I'm gonna tinker with adding some spices for added flavor.

The best part about making both of these is that you know exactly what's going into them...no yucky chemicals or added junk that you don't need to be eating int he first place. And I haven't done the cost breakdown but I know for sure the beans are cheaper homemade for sure.

Happy cooking everyone!