Only Cook 3x a Week?

I was talking to a friend of mine recently who gave me a great idea for simplifying a week of meal planning and cooking. It may not work for everyone (I'm skeptical, but I'm going to try it!), but it sure sounds good!

She told me she only cooks 3 times a week! Sound too good to be true? Here's the plan. You cook a big meal on Sunday and eat leftovers on Monday. Cook again, another big meal (2nd time) on Tuesday--saving the leftovers for Thursday. Cook 3rd meal on Wednesday (again, enough for leftovers-are you getting the picture?) and eat them on Friday. Saturday: EAT OUT!! (or order pizza or whatever take-out).

Sunday-cook
Monday-Sunday's leftovers
Tuesday-cook
Wednesday-cook
Thursday-Tuesday's leftovers
Friday-Wednesday's leftovers
Saturday-eat out!













Now, this would probably work better if my husband liked leftovers!! But like I said, I'm going to give it a try. This could free up more time for making cards! :)

Halloween Card and Other Card Group

Ok, crazy I know! But I am in two card groups that meet monthly. They even happen to fall on the same week. But it is so much fun, I can't help myself. I mean, really, look at all the cute cards I am collecting!! This is from the evening "make and take" card group.

This is a Halloween card I made for the group. I used the technique of masking for the jack-o-lanterns. This is where you stamp an image. Then you stamp the same image on a sticky note, cut it out, and use it to "mask" the first image when you stamp the second (different) image to make it look like it is behind your main image. Worked for the faces as well. The inside of the card says "you make me smile"! Stamp set is from Stampin' Up.

Card Group

Here are the pictures I said I would post from our latest card group at Harley's!


What a cute group of ladies, don't you think!! They are most definitely some of my FAVORITE people (and what a collection of talent)!

World Card Making Day

Did you know that on Saturday, October 4, 2008 it is World Card Making Day! It is a time to celebrate handmade greeting cards, creativity and the bonds that paper crafting brings to those of us who do it! We are a unique group, you know! We have our own language (CASE, TFS, crop, acid free, mount, embellishments, etc.), we love to teach others what we know (especially what we have learned recently that is so COOL!), we are perfectionistic to a degree (keep on tweeking that scrapbook page or card until it is just right/has the right amount of embellishments or BLING)! So take the day off, get together with a few of your favorite crafty people and make cards to your hearts content!

This card made using Autumn Leaves "Winter Wonders" by Amy Grendell.

Card Group and Harley Davidson-what a combo!

It is my favorite time of the month again!! Card group time-12 of us meet at a local restaurant for lunch and a card swap. The cards are actually just an excuse to get together-it is a nice BONUS! We have such a great time. Today we ate at a new place called Marley's Gourmet Sliders in Lindon, Utah at the new Harley Davidson shop/restaurant. The food was so good. You choose your meat: beef burger, chicken, turkey or coney dog. Then you choose your toppings like cheese, grilled onions, avacado, bacon, cranberries, mushrooms, etc. I had 2 sliders (they are small burgers/sandwiches). One was beef with cheese, onions and spicy buffalo sauce. The other was turkey with avacado, cranberry sauce, tomatoes, lettuce and red onion. It came with a drink and fries for about $10. Everything was yummy! It is definitely a repeat! Will definitely have to take my DH as he is a burger fanatic. Will post pics of cards later!

Fun with words

Check out this site wordle.net that I just found. It allows you to enter a bunch of random or related words and make a fun word "cloud". You can then choose to print. I am going to have to play with this! I'll let you see if I come up with anything exciting. I'm thinking of printing it on a page that has a background print and using it for making cards....or as background paper for a scrapbook layout, or cover of a mini album (like the one I made with bind it all) in August (see August 6 blog). The designs are NOT copyrighted and you can go ahead and use them to make up T-shirts, scrapbooking transparencies, etc.

ATG

We have been selling ATG products since April 2008 on our website. I know that prices on everything from toilet paper to applesauce are going up (I work at Costco and have seen huge increases on food products) I guess mostly because of the cost of gasoline. But since we began selling ATG Adhesive Applicators and ATG tape refills, 3M has raised their prices TWICE! The first time, we just ate the cost because we were brand new and trying to compete with some of the big boys out there. The second time, we just couldn't, we had to raise our prices too. Luckily, so did our competitors...but, ouch! Twice in 4 months seems a little much, doesn't it? Good thing it is such a good product or we would have to kiss it good-bye! Gotta have that ATG 714! Just had to gripe a little. It doesn't change anything, but it makes me feel better to complain about it! :p

Smoothies for an after-school snack

Anyone with kids in school is familiar with the first words out of their mouths following a gruelling :) day in class....."What is there to eat? I'm starving!" This is one of my favorite afterschool snacks (and let's face it, midnight snacks, midmorning snacks, etc.). Whenever I have fruit that needs to be eaten....I pop it in the freezer, then add it to a smoothie next time the mood hits! I don't feel like I'm throwing away perfectly good food and my kids get a little more fruit in their diets than they would otherwise (not to mention calcium).

Fruit Smoothies

1- 6 oz. container of yogurt (any fruit flavor) or 1 cup

1 packet of crystal light (for individual drink bottles) the orange is really good, so is the pink lemonade

4-6 ice cubes

1 cup strawberries (frozen or not)

1 banana (preferably frozen)

1 cup milk

1 cup water

Mix up in blender and enjoy. Can add more ice depending on thickness desired and whether or not fruit was frozen. I have also added other fruit (today it was honeydew melon!).

Ikea is a haven for scrapbooking organization!

Ok, so over the long weekend (Labor Day) I decided that it was way beyond time to clean out and organize my office. Scrapbooking room is next. I did some googling because I remembered seeing the coolest bookcase that someone had used from IKEA to organize their scrapbooking supplies in. Well, I found it along with a lot of other very useful items. Here is the picture of the Expedit bookcase that I was looking for. The cubes are 13x13x15. Perfect for 12x12 storage, big totes, magazine file folders, and a multitude of other things. It comes in black-brown, white and birch. I love it! So, off I set with my list in hand to IKEA. I spent a good couple of hours there...by myself. It was grand! On my way out of the store, however, I found another bookcase in the center aisle that was the same design, only slightly smaller...only 3 cubes x 3 cubes instead of 4 x 4. I asked one of the employees about it and he told me it was a special purchase only available in birch, and that when they were gone....they were gone. I got two! They were $49 instead of the $159 that I was going to pay for the Expedit one. I saved so much money, I had to buy lots more stuff! Here are some things you may want to check out for your organizational needs. Lekman boxes fit expedit cube perfectly.

Burken jars for embellishments.

Motorp boxes (meant for dvd's) to keep stamp sets in.

Samla (1 gallon size) to keep envelopes nice and dust-free.

Antonius Unit with a work top is just the right size for a paper cutter. They have several desk top organizers to use for every day items like stamp cleaner, ruler, punches, scissors, etc.

Stripa shelving-for almost anything you could think of. Bygel rail system for hanging punches on (this is a favorite of mine!!!).

This is called a benno cd tower which can be used for stamp set storage.