Aunty Flo's Cookies

A couple of my Aunt's cookie recipes from years ago - Journaling reads:

For years, when Aunty Flo still lived in Alhambra she loved baking Christmas Cookies. One year she sent me all her recipes, not to have but to copy. Back then, before days of instant e-mail and photo copiers things were copied word for word by hand or typed. I feel so lucky to have these little pieces of her. Yummy cookies that still delights the tummies of many today.
And, just as a side note, this bowl you see Aunty Flo using, she had a whole set of this, Hall China, it was given to me when my Uncle passed away, another wonderful reminder of sunny days of childhood filled with the love of sharing good food.

All supplies from Cottage Arts, check out my gallery to get links to the kits.

Recipes if you'd like them:
Jam Ties
10 oz jar strawberry preserves
1 cup soft margarine
1 3 oz. pkg cream cheese
3 cups sifted flour
Whip cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.
Gradually beat in flour.
Divide dough in half, wrap and chill overnight

Heat oven to 375
Take half of the dough from fridge and let stand at room temp at least 5 minutes
On a well floured surface roll dough 1/8" thick.
Cut in 1"x5" strips.
Place on lightly greased (or Pam strayed) cookie sheet
Put small dab jam in the center of each strip, cross ends.
Bake 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

Swedish Crescents
1 cup soft butter
2 teas. vanilla
1 3/4 cup each chopped almonds, pecans, filberts
1/4 teas. salt
1/2 cup sugar
Cream butter vanilla sugar
Mix dry ingredients, gradually add to sugar/butter mixture
Fold in nuts

Chill dough several hours or overnight
Shape in crescents using 1/2 Tablespoon for each
Bake at 300 for 18-20
While still slightly warm shake in bag of sifted powdered sugar.
Add more powdered sugar before serving if desired

OMSI

Zoie got to pick where she wanted to go with her Aunt and Uncle for her Christmas present. She chose OMSI. Love the photo of her and her Uncle Bryan engrossed in whatever that is.

I used bunches of supplies from Cottage Arts, if you check my page out in their gallery the links to the supplies are there.

I used brushes, textures, blends and masking, again trying to get a little more comfortable with these effects.

Journaling reads:
For my Christmas present Aunty Amber and Uncle Bryan
gave me a gift, my choice of of a day with them.
I chose OMSI in Portland. It was super fun!
Afterwards we went to Red Robin and had lunch and then to
Michaels where I got to pick out a craft to do.
I had so much fun with them, I can’t wait until next Christmas.
I asked Aunty Amber if we could go have our nails done for my Birthday present.
It’s so fun hanging out just with them by myself!

Sultry Siren

This is my Aunty Flo many years ago. Silvia Romeo came out with this beautiful kit called Bohemienne and it was just perfect for my photo.

The journaling reads:
Sultry Siren, I wonder if my Aunty would laugh at that description of her? But here she is a young Miss with her whole life before her. Did she dream of far away places or long for love and home? She grew to be a woman I respected and admired, someone to share my own girlish dreams with. So pretty with her long curls and stylish hat. Such a dramatic change from the pulled back knot of silver wisps she had in the late years of her life. Daddy and Uncle Willy always called her Dolly and somehow it fit she certainly was just that a lovely dolly, maybe more so than a Sultry Siren.

Dino Boy

Eddie at the Dinosaur exhibit at the Portland Zoo last summer. It's not hard to see I altered his photo just a tad using Joyce de Jonge's - Easter Eggztractions kit at Digitals.

In The Leaves

OK this is another work at trying to learn the techniques of blending/masking and brushwork! (I'm so bad at not using brushes and I think I'm missing out on a whole new world, I used lots of them on this page, placing each on it's own layer so I could adjust or delete as the page evolved, I have to use them more often!!!) It was a process of trial and error, doing and redoing but I'm happy with the final effect. I guess the secret is to just do do do it again and again until it becomes second nature. I did use a multitude of kits from Cottage Arts, check out my gallery there to see which ones.

This is Pyper in the leaves last fall. Loved the photo and really like the way it turned out. I was especially happy to see how the addition of the little butterfly on her should blended in so well it almost looks like a part of her dress!

Smell the Flowers

When Joyce (Joyce de Jonge) sent me an email and said she was trying out a new OOBs (Out of Bounds - meaning the photo, or part of it, pops out of the frame) I just couldn't wait to play. She has two eggs in her new Easter Eggztractions kit. Since I only had the eggs to work with I used her Sunshine kit to do the background and the overlay of the Easter Egg.

Corn Fest

Late last summer we heard about a small community about 45 minutes East of St George that hosted a Corn Fest. Fresh corn just sounded too good to pass up so we took off one morning just to see what was what. Enterprise is a very small farming community that produces some of the sweetest most flavorful corn I've had for years. They brought wagons directly from the fields and loaded bags for you as you waited. Several of the neighborhood had lunch for sale including Navajo tacos, a real treat and a first for us both. We can't wait until this August, we'll be there with mouths salivating just thinking of the sweet corn waiting for our table.

I used Alessandra Designs darling action LadyBug Action Bundle for the little red ladybugs and then two of her papers (blended) from her Four Seasons: Autumn

Little Thinker

This is my 3rd cousin Avery, isn't she a doll. I just connected with her Mommy on Facebook and as soon as I saw this photo had to have it!

I used a brand new kit Joyce de Jonge has just released at Digitals called Spring Romance.

Imagination

OK I started with Beth's new Our House and had to move on from there! These are 3 of the 4 Grandkids. The eldest, Zoie is in the tower, I used the Diffuse Glow Filter and extracted her. For the other two the little Angel with the arrow is the youngest Pyper, I superimposed the face and with the Dog is Eddie also superimposed.

I told Beth I thought this would be cool to attach to chipboard and have an easel back (leaving out some of the background and using the shapes of the buildings).

All kits are Beth Rimmer's at Digitals
Our House - ATCs Someday My Prince Will Come - Crown - Wings
The Game of Love - Angel (extracted from card and Pyper's face superimposed)
Chat Freebie - Child and Dog from a (superimposed with Eddie's face)
Pulp Fiction Embellies - Moon - Gold Flourish - Fools Rush In Embellies - Butterfly and paper 02 with paper 20 below (on this I used a gradient mask to give this effect). Check out my Digitals Gallery for the links to these other kits.

Reading with Gammy

Gammy will you read us a story?
Sure kids what would you like?
Pyper and Eddie snuggled up close and followed along with fingers on the words,
lips mimicking what Grandma was reading.
How soon you forget the simple joy of having little children.
Of having them come close to listen to your voice read from the page.
I’d forgotten this simple pleasure, it just made my heart swell,
gave me such a feeling of peace and contentment.
It’s wonderful,
reading the page and
having them so engrossed in what you are saying!

A new page with Eddie, Pyper and me taken in November. Cute little buggers aren't they? I used the same kit I did with Pyper's bowling page, Jen Maceyunas - Super-Dee-Dooper kit from Digitals.

Winter Pyper

I loved this photo of Pyper
on the left is the original and below is the finished product using the Quiet Beauty kits from Cottage Arts. Two of the papers were blended, the opacity lowered and some parts masked to achieve this look.

Bowling!

Isn't this just too cute? Love the bottom photo where Pyper is clapping because she's so excited. I can't imagine that little thing tossing a bowling ball down the lane. This kit is so super adorable, perfect for my pics. It's Jen Maceyunas's Super-Dee-Dooper from Digitals. When I spotted it I really wanted it for Eddie but I'm still hunting for pics of his to work with, I'll find something though it's just too cute to pass up.

Whoo Hooo I've Been Discovered

Hey everyone if you have a second pop on over to Scrap Street Newsletter, I'm their Digital Discovery for February, lol. It was a fun time writing up my little blip and giving them some details all about me

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But it was even more fun sharing my love of this great digi world of creating something from nothing. I love it and that love just seems to be growing and expanding. I'm doing a lot more hybrid now, expanding pages with my photography and learning more cool techniques like blending and masking. It's a fun pastime and one I'm sure glad that I discovered. I hope if you haven't started yet you'll soon do it and if you have then try to learn something new and keep expanding your creativity. Well enough about me, have a great day in the digi or real world!