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Jamaica Scrapbook Off to a Good Start

2008-07-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

This weekend I managed to complete a cover page and 6 spreads in my vacation album. I think that is a record for me...lol. I really like how they turned out, considering it has been a while since I sat down to scrapbook. I guess the new Jamaica pictures provided some motivation. :o)

Here are all the pages I have completed so far. I love how they turned out.

Check out my Slide Show!

2008-04-11T07:25:00.001-07:00

I was bored, so I thought I would play dress up with my blog and add some cool new accessories to dress it up a bit. The first is my slide show you see above. I also added all the links to the tasty food blogs I frequent. I also created a widget for my blog which feeds all new posts and added some buttons as well. My blog is pretty boring...I know...so this is a small attempt to liven it up a bit.

I've also added this cool slideshow to the bottom of my blog, but I don't think everyone always scrolls down to the bottom so I thought I'd post about my new blog accessories. Enjoy and let me know what you think. Have a reat weekend!

A Scrapping Weekend

2008-04-07T05:30:00.000-07:00

I was able to complete two spreads this weekend and I am pretty happy with how they both turned out. The "Eggs to Dye for" spread took longer than I had hoped because I originally had completely different paper picked out. I just kept starring at it trying to figure out how I would lay everything out. It just wasn't working with the patterned paper I had so I changed to a solid color and all of a sudden things started working out. For the eggs on this spread I actually used MS Word's clip art to print out those easter eggs onto picture paper since I didn't have any easter egg stickers or embelishments.

I love how the "Sunday Brunch" spread turned out. I think the wood paper works well with these photos especially because of the wood burning fire place at this very small place. I also think I sort of captured the feel of sunday brunch on this spread with the polka dot paper and the swirly ribbon. It sort of reminds me of old tablecloth or something.

Book Meme

2008-03-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by Deborah with a meme.

Here are the rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 or more pages. The New Optimum Nutrition Bible.

2. Open the book to page 123 and find the 5th sentence. "Mercury is very toxic indeed and small anounts reach us from contaminated foods and from tooth fillings."

3. Post the next 3 sentences. "Of particular concern is fish caught in contaminated waters. "Mercury is used in a number of chemical processes, and accidents and illegal dumping have led to increases mercury levels in some areas, including the seashores and lakes of the U.S. Fish, especially larger species like tuna, store the mecury, which we then ingest.

4. Then tag 4 people. I really don't have 4 people to tag and I don't want to tag people that have already been tagged.

Happy Easter...Mmmm Banana Cake

2008-03-24T06:04:00.000-07:00

This Easter I went over to my sisters for Easter dinner and some Easter fun with the kids. I had alot of fun with my neices and nephews dying the easter eggs. Here we are showing off their works of art.

We also had a scavenger hunt. My sister and I carefully hid the plastic eggs with hersheys kissess and other treats contained inside the eggs all around the house. The kids had so much fun finding the eggs and the winner was jordan who was able to find 25 eggs...he won $5 bucks.

The hunt is On! Find as many eggs as you can...

Jason finds some in a bush...

Alicia jumps up to reach the egg on the window sil...

Mia finds one...

Jason gets to one before Jordan...

Everyone Count your Eggs!

Mia 15 Eggs

Alicia Finds 22 eggs

Jason 15 eggs

The winner...Jordan with 25 Eggs

For Easter dinner my sister asked me to make a cake for dessert. I asked her what kind and she said she didn't care, it was up to me. First I thought of making carrot cake, it seemed appropriate for the easter bunnies. Then while speaking to my boyfriend about it he gave me the idea for banana cake. I haven't had banana cake in such a long time and I do have fond memories of the banana cake I made while in camp years ago. I remember having to triple the recipie and do all the math to figure out the correct measurements. So banana cake with cream cheese frosting it was. This cake came out so good. It was extremely moist and oh so delicious. Tastes really good with coffee, tea or a cold glass of milk.

My sister decided to do what I usually do and take pictures of me making the banana cake. I got to use this Kitchen-Aid mixer we borrowed from my sisters neighbor downstairs. I loved using this mixer it made my job much easier. I have wanted one of these mixers since I was a little girl. One day I will get one.

Saturday I went over to Deborah's so she could help me with my Odessa hat problem. Weeks ago I put down this hat because I did something wrong...I don't know what I did but I didn't want to mess it up further so I put it down and had not touched it. Deborah was able to get me back on track and hopefully I will finish this hat soon and post updated pictures. I also started a fingerless glove with Koigu yarn. This is my first glove and I find it a bit difficult working with double pointed needles but otherwise so for so good.

The First Spreads in My 2008 Scrapbook Album

2008-03-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

Here are the first entries into my 2008 scrapbook album completed this weekend. The first titled "Snow Day" includes the pictures I took the day we got the first real accumulation of snow in the city. Unfortunately, it was a work day so I took these pictures on my walk into work.

This spread took me so long to complete for some reason, but usually the ones that take some time turn out really well. Iam very happy with the way this turned out. I originally had completely different colors picked out. The color scheme I originally had was brown and white (which I kept) with a dark pink and a light mint green patterned paper. It looked nice although I didn't have enough of the pink paper and the colors weren't really cold snowy type colors so I changed it to this ice blue colored patterned paper from my old world paper pack. All-in-all it turned out well in the end.

The second spread includes the pictures I took on my niece Mia's 3rd birthday. She is getting so big and she is very mature for her age. This is a pretty simple spread. I printed all the pictures the same size and just ran them across the page. Since the Snow Day spread took me so long, I opted for super simple on this spread.

Let it Snow...and Project Updates

2008-02-22T07:33:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to capture some pictures of the winter snow, but since mother nature decided to snow on a workday instead of the weekend, which would have been more convienient for me to trek out to Central Park to take some really nice shots of fresh snow, I decided to capture my walk to work in this morning. So here you go...

In scrapbooking news, I have been working on a 8x8 gift scrapbook album to give to Lenny, that includes pictures of some of the things we did together during our first year together. I had the chance to get about 5 spreads done this past President's weekend. I took advantage of the three day weekend. So here are some pics of the spreads I have done so far.

Here is the album itself. It opens like two doors from the middle and is secured closed by magnets.

Below are all the spreads completed thus far.

Odessa Hat Update. I haven't had much time to knit, otherwise this hat would probably already be complete by now. After finishing the one inch ribbing I began the Odessa hat pattern which is pretty simple. I had a felling I was doing something wrong after after rows. I either had to be doing the yarn over (yo) or the slip, slip, knit (ssk) wrong. I have done both of these before but obviously Im getting old because I forgot what I learned. I found a video online of someone demonstrating how to do both techniques and was able to easily fix my problem without bothering my teacher. So here is where I am so far. I have about an inch and a half to go before I have to start the decreases. Looks good so far and it is a simple pattern despite my short term memory loss...lol.

Oh and here is my valentine's day gift delivered to my job from my sweet valentine.

Mmmm.... Brownies

2008-02-11T05:48:00.000-08:00

This weekend I made some valentines day inspired brownies. These are raspberry cheesecake swirl brownies. I got the idea to make these brownies from reading one of the many food blogs I read occasionally. I can't remember which one at the moment though. In any case, Friday night I was watching the Food Network and guess what... Alton Brown was making brownies. Wow, how did he know I was thinking about making brownies? I watched him make his recipe and it seemed simple enough so I decided to use his recipe. Iam a visual person so I pick things up faster if I see someone do it first. All I did was add the raspberry creamcheese swirl to turn these brownies into valentine brownies. They came out delicious....very chocolatey.

mmm...so rich and silky smooth

Don't they look pretty?

Nice n thick...so so so goood

I know you want a piece....

In other news, I also visited a yarn shop which happens to be in my old neighborhood and since I was in the neighboorhood on Saturday at my sister's place making the brownies, I decided to check it out on my way home. Downtown Yarns is located at 45 Avenue A between 3rd and 4th Streets. It's a cute little shop and the people running the shop were very friendly and helpful.

Here are some pictures I got of the shop for your viewing pleasure. They were so nice the even

balled the koigu for me for free and gave me a free fingerless glove pattern.

I bought some Koigu for the fingerless gloves I want to make and I bought some Zara extra fine merino in a chocolate brown for the Odessa hat.

Koigu

I was able to cast on for this hat on Sunday and have completed the one inch rib so far and started the Odessa hat pattern.

Here is a picture of a completed Odessa hat from Chazari's photos. This is the picture that made me want to make this hat, so back in December, I left a comment, asking her for the pattern and she recently emailed all those who left comments, the pattern. Which is available here.

Needless to say I had a full weekend. Hope everyone also had a great weekend.

Six Hats in about Six Months

2008-02-06T05:32:00.000-08:00

Since late September early October I have completed 6 hats. The latest hat to come off my needles is the Basic Hat in Patons 100% wool in a olive green color. Basically, this hat is pretty simple; however, in me thinking this hat was so simple, I underestimated the fact that no matter how simple something is you can always mess it up. I ended up having to fix at least three times, a slipped stitch a twisted stitch or something...Im new to knitting and although I don't know what was exactly wrong when I did encounter a mistake, I was always able to at least recognize that there was something wrong. I just starred at the problem for as long as I needed to in order to be able to try and figure out how to fix the mistake. Eventually I was successful and able to move forward and complete the hat. At times though, I thought I would just have to wait and have Deborah fix it for me but I just kept trying and was able to fix the problem myself.

Newsboy Cap Complete

2008-02-04T05:23:00.000-08:00

Here I am proudly wearing my Newsboy Cap that I completed on Saturday with Deborah's guidance of course. Thanks Deb! I knitted an extra round of the stitch pattern which makes my hat a bit longer so it had room to sort of flop over a bit instead of being more fitted like Deborah's hat. I like how it turned out and I think it looks pretty good on me if I do say so myself...toot toot.

Again, this was my first time learning a few techniques. First, cabeling, which is not as intimadating as it may sound or look. I found it to be very simple once I got the feel for it. It's always a bit akward when you first try something new like this. It just takes a little time to get comfortable with the way you hold the needles. I also learned how to increase (M1) and how to pick up stitches for the brim in this case. That to me was the most challenging of all but as I kept doing it it wasn't so bad. Although, if I have to do it again for a future project Iam sure I will be calling on Deborah for a refresher...lol

I know...It's been a while

2008-01-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a while since my last post. I guess I've been a bit lazy when it comes to posting. Anyway, I don't have pictures of everything I have been working on but here is what I do have.

Here is the spread for the second annual christmas cookie bake off that Deborah and I do to give as christmas gifts to co-workers and friends. This year we didn't make snickerdoodles. We only made chocolate chip, chocolate chunk and oatmeal raisin. I told Deborah I wanted to make extra oatmeal raisin because I had more to give out this year. She hesitantly agreed. The cookies were a hit as usual and after we gave all the cookies out, Deborah said next year we need to make more because she had more people to give to then she originally thought. See...I told you! :o)

Here is the cover page of my 2007 scrapbook album, I completed on Staturday. It's simple, but appropriate. I was love struck in 2007 so this page sums up my year.

This is the second watch cap I've done. On this one though I made it shorter so it wouldn't have the fold up flap. I used a cotton yarn on this one.

I cast on for my fifth hat last night. Im knitting the Headline News Cabled Newsboy Cap that Deborah is also knitting. She will be done way before me though. This will be my first time learning how to do cables. We will see how it goes. Looking forward to learning something new!

New Year, New Beginning

2008-01-02T08:40:00.001-08:00

I guess I could say 2007 was a good year for me. One of the main reasons I say this is because I found love and happiness in 2007. I’ am looking forward to 2008 bringing continued love and happiness but also bringing success and accomplishment of my goals. I hope to be more focused and determined in realizing my goals this year. Focusing on my health and well-being, my finances and my creative outlets.

This holiday season was pretty quiet for me and I was fine with that. It gave me more time for myself. I was able to knit three hats so far. Two for my two nieces and one for one of my nephews. I have two more hats to knit for my other two nephews. Since I have already posted the pics for my neices hats here is the pic of the hat for my nephew. Unfortunately, I totally forgot to take pictures of the kids in the hats…duh! I was so upset when I realized. Anyway, the hats do fit so that’s good.

New Year's Eve this year was also quiet. I did get one spread done though and here it is. My youngest niece Mia as Tinker Bell. This was her Halloween costume this year that she decided to model for me during her sister Alicia’s birthday party.

Wishing you all happiness, success, and accomplishment of all your goals for 2008!

Christmas Baking and Knitting

2007-12-17T08:10:00.000-08:00

This weekend Deborah and I had our 2nd Annual Christmas Cookie Baking Day. This year we made Oatmeal Raisin, Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Chunk, ...mmm. They were delicious. Well, you know we had to taste test the cookies before we could give them away to our co-workers, friends and family right? We started bright and early in the morning and finished baking and packaging around 5 or 6pm. In between baking we were knitting. It was a long day, but we had fun.

Here I am in the hat I Knitted for my niece. It's not completely done. Deborah still has to help me seam it up and weave in the ends. I just pinned it in the back so I could take a picture in it. I actually adjusted this cap a bit. This cap is knitted flat so as I was knitting it, I wrapped it around my head to see how it fit. It was about 5" in length from bottom to top. The instructions said to work the 8 row pattern stitch for a total of 6 repeats until the piece measures approx. 5 1/2" . I had completed four full pattern repeats and 6 rows of the 5th repeat when I wrapped the cap around my head and it measured 5". The cap came up to almost the top of my head. I didn't want the cap to have alot of room at the top. I wanted it to fit snug and since my neice is smaller than me I made the decision (without my teacher's knowledge...sorry Deb :0)) to skip pattern repeat 5 and 6 and start the decreases. It turned out fine I think. I photoshop'ed the picture to blur out the background crap in my apt.

Weekend FO

2007-12-10T06:11:00.000-08:00

For those of you who are not knitters, FO means finished object. I just recently learned that myself. Anyway, yes I do finally have my first ever FO as you can see from the pictures below.

This is my very first hat. I made it for my youngest niece Mia. Hopefully it will fit her. If not I can always make her another hat. Here is the hat when I switched to the double-sided needles. It took me a while to wrap my mind around how I was actually going to do this but, I was patient and figered it out in the end.

This weekend I visited my friend who lives upstate in Willow, NY and we went to a Christmas Tree Farm where you pick and cut your own chistmas tree. We were in the holiday spirt as we walked around to find the perfect christmas tree. We both picked the same christmas tree at the same time. It sure didn't take as long as I thought it would. Another thing that did not take as long as I thought it would was cutting that tree down with a hacksaw. I did however, have experience with a hacksaw...remember Debrorah? Anyway we cut the tree down and carried it to the area where they wrap it up for you, then we carried it all the way back to the car to tie it to the top of the car. Boy did we both wake up sore the next day...lol. Anyway I had a great weekend.

Here is Pat after we spotted the perfect tree.

Me with the Hacksaw...

Here is the tree once we set it up in her house. Unfortunately we did not have time to decorate it. We were pooped...plus I was busy knitting and she was busy making us dinner.

Some Christmas Knitting

2007-12-04T05:40:00.000-08:00

My knitting teacher, Deborah had the great idea of knitting christmas gifts for my nieces and nephews this year since money is tight. She was so kind to donate some yarn from her stash for these projects as well so all I have to do is knit, knit, knit so I can complete everything before christmas. Thank you Deb your the best! I don't know how I'm going to do it all but she seems to have faith in me. We will see how it goes. As you can see from the pictures below this is my progress so far. Iam working on a ribbed scarf for one of my nephews and a hat for my niece. I have a long way to go but with Deb's help I'm sure I will get there. We are meeting up on Thursdays after work for knitting.

Pay It Forward

2007-12-03T05:30:00.000-08:00

I read about "Pay It Forward" on Mary Beth's blog. I think this is a great idea so I signed up on her blog. So here is how it works, and I am just going to take the description from Mary Beth's blog:

“The idea of the exchange is I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on this blog post requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet, and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.”So here you are guys. An opportunity to get something homemade from me. The first 3 people to comment to this "Pay It Forward" post saying that they are participating will get an item from me. If for some reason I don't get 3 responses (because you know, I don't know alot of people who read my blog), I will randomly pick 3 people in my life to receive something from me when they least expect it and I know in my heart they will follow through with the PIF. As I fufill each PIF, I will write a post about it once that person has received their item.

Two Spreads Completed this Weekend

2007-11-19T05:47:00.000-08:00

I have been crazy busy with work lately and the weekends have not been relaxing either. This weekend though I had some time to myself to sit and do some scrapping. So here they are. The first spread is of my nephepw Jordan and my neice Alicia. One day I went with Shannon to pick them up from the Recreation Center they attend after school and took these pictures of them.

Here is the spread I did of the pictures I took when my sisters and I went to see Damon Wayans. I thought it would be a good idea to go see Damon Wayans, as part of the NY Comedy Festival, for a few reasons. First, I had always liked Damon Wayans, from his “In Living Color” days, two, My sisters and I have not gone out together in a while and three we all love comedy and laughing. The show was really funny. We had a great time. After the show, we went out for dinner. This spread is pretty simple but, but I really like how it turned out.

Fall is in the Air

2007-10-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

Fall is definately my favorite season. I love everything about fall the crisp cool air, the colors of the changing leaves, apple picking, pumpkins, hot mulled apple cider. I love it all. I haven't had time recently to do much scrapbooking but this weekend was different. I made time for myself to do the things I wanted to do. I spent time alone and was able to get two spreads done and was also able to do some knitting. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the knitting yet. Below are the pictures of the two spreads completed this weekend.

My friend and co-worker Sue decided it would be fun to go apple picking. I had never been before and always wanted to go. We tried to coordinate this with other fellow co-workers but everybody's schedules were so different that is was hard to set a time when everyone would be available. We were running out of time for the apple picking season, so we just decided to go ourselves. Fortunately, we had great weather. We had a fantastic time and I got great pictures as you can see. When I got home I even made apple crisp with the apples we picked. It came out pretty delicious if I say so myself but I think Deborah and Sue will also agree with that. :o)

Reverse Stocking Stitch Chevrons

2007-10-15T05:49:00.000-07:00

So I am glad to report that this time I really have been sticking to it and practicing my knitting. I believe it is slowly paying off. I can tell I'm getting better with every project. On Friday, I met up with Deborah for lunch and she looked at my Knit 2, Purl 1 ribbing. Deborah has been giving me small projects as practice knitting. Overall she said it was good but I still need to work on my tension. Ok not bad, so I was ready to start my next project so I picked out a knit purl pattern from a book of patterns she gave me. The pattern is called "Reverse Stocking Stitch Chevrons". I was so excited to start. It was perfect since I was going to Philly this weekend and could work on it while there. I started early Saturday morning and here is what I have so far. This is 36 rows completed.

29 More Rows Complete

2007-10-11T05:29:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post a picture of my progress as of lastnight. Since I will be meeting up with Deborah Friday for lunch and she will be checking my knitting assignment to see how I have done. After work, I was able to complete 29 more rows. As I keep practicing, I am better able to tell when I've made a mistake or something doesn't look right. So if I keep practicing I will become more and more experienced and better able to catch mistakes and hopefully learn how to fix them.

Knit 2, Purl 2

2007-10-10T05:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, so here it finally is after many failed attempts this weekend of the ribbing assignment Deborah gave me. The instructions from Deborah were to cast on 20 stitches and knit two stitches and purl two stitches and repeat for the first row. The second row started with Purl two, then knit two. As I was doing this I knew I was doing something wrong. It just didn't look right so I kept ripping it out and starting all over again. I read a Knitting Basics book which had great pictures and I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. It's kinda hard to explain, but I emailed Deborah about my problem and asked her if I had the instructions she gave me over the phone right. She changed the amount of stitches to 22 stiches. So since I had figured out my problem, I was all set lastnight to cast on the 22 stitches and finally get somewhere with this ribbing assignment. This picture is where I was lastnight before going to bed. It's 21 rows.

Assignment Complete...Whats Next?

2007-10-04T05:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have been kinda busy and haven't been able to post this picture of my finished knitting homework. I actually finished this last week. So Deborah, I am ready for a new project. Let me know what my next course of action should be. Should I buy a solid color yarn...I only have that multi color yarn remember. You mentioned that wasn't a good yarn to learn with.

Gift Scrap Page

2007-09-27T05:42:00.001-07:00

My friend Sylvia recently sent me the second picture in this layout. It is a picture of Sylvia's daughter with her new family celebrating her daughter's first birthday. I thought is was a really nice picture and then remembered the picture that Sylvia sent to me one year ago when her daughter Flor Maria was pregnant. This picture was taken at her baby shower and she is pictured here with her younger sister Melissa. I thought these two pictures would make a great layout and would be a great gift to give to her. I worked on this lastnight after work. It didn't take too much time at all...then again it is only one page. I will buy a frame for this before I give it to her.

I love how this turned out it's pretty simple but I love that. I used my new Tootsie die-cut from Sizzix and I also used one of my new See D's stamps. I stamped a piece of white cardstock and then cut around the design and adhered it to my layout. I put a bunch of brads in the middle of the large flower. I think it looks pretty cool...I have never tried that before. Another thing I have never done is use the ribbon the way I did here. I looped a small piece of pink ribbon and added a brad to it. Then put one on the edge of each picture. I love how this layout turned out. I hope she likes it too.

Two Spreads Completed This Weekend

2007-09-24T05:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend I managed to complete two spreads. Deb and I met up early Saturday morning for a trip to A.C. Moore. Luckily we started out early because the trains were running on different tracks causing delays. We did fine though. At A.C. Moore I didn't do too much damage. I purchashed a few sheets of patterned paper and the See D's 30 color stamp pad set which includes 15 brush markers as well. So I'm all set with every color I might need to use for my stamps.

When we got back to Queens we stopped at the store to pick up the ingredients I needed to make dinner for us. I made whole wheat rigatoni with a turkey meat sauce and Zucchini. It turned out delicious. Anyway, here are the spreads I was able to complete. The first one is "Art of Observation" with the pictures I took at the Philedelphia Museum of Art. I used my new Sizzix Ellison design Tootsie die-cut. I purchased at a cool 80% off. I also purchased another Sizzix die-cut called Block Party that I used on the second spread, "Steam Pipe Explosion".

Art of Observation Journaling reads:
We had so much fun together looking at all the beautiful pieces of art. Lenny felt particularly proud of the way he gave his perspective when asked by a fellow art observer what his opinion was. He was asked, in his opinion, did he think the woman portrayed in a particular scene (not pictured) was murdered or was she simply sleeping. Lenny carefully observed that the woman did appear to be a bit pale, in which case she could be dead. On the other hand, he said, she looked so peaceful in the way she was laying that it is a possibility that she could be sleeping. Lenny was so proud of the way in which he was able to hold his own among fellow art enthusiasts. Lenny also enjoyed viewing the Arms and Armor section. Pictured here are some of what both he and I enjoyed.

Steam Pipe Explosion Journaling reads:
When the steam pipe explosion happened on July 18, 2007 during rush hour near 41st Street and Lexington Avenue, I was home. I live about 5 blocks away. I remember just having my new energy efficient air conditioner installed. I had the television on and all of a sudden the TV went off. I turned the air-conditioner off as well because I thought it was my usual electricity problems that happen every summer when people are using more energy. When I turned it off I heard this noise and something told me to look out the window. I saw crowds of people running up Lexington toward me and I was so scared because I had no idea why they were running. I called my sister and she said to go downstairs to my lobby and try to find out what was going on. What I found out from a lady who was visibly shaken was that there was an explosion at Grand Central. My first thought was obviously terrorism, but after a few more minutes I found out it was a steam pipe explosion. I live on the top floor in my building and was able to go onto the roof and get these pictures.

Practice...Practice...Practice and a Yummy Dinner

2007-09-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

So here is a picture of the progress I have made so far on the knitting homework that Deborah assigned me to do. Not perfect by any means, but I am just trying to get comfortable going back and forth between knit and purl stitch.

Deborah wrote out instructions for me to follow. It goes something like this: Long tail cast-on of 30 stitches, knit 5 rows, purl 5 rows, knit 1, purl 1, knit 1, purl 1, knit 5 rows, purl 5 rows...and so on and so forth. Then repeat until I run out of yarn.

My goal is to try and knit at least a couple of rows each day. More if I go somewhere and I have time on my hands to practice my knitting. I know this is a slow process, I mean, I can't become an internediate or an advanced knitter overnight. It definately takes lots and lots of practice to get to that point.

Something I am much better at is cooking. I love to cook and bake and try out new recipes or come up with new concoctions by taking inspirations from various sources and adding my own spin on things. For example, If I am reading something online or watching a cooking show on tv, something might catch my eye and I'd think to myself, "mmm that sounds really good and relatively simple, I think I might try that". If I don't have access to all the ingredients I will substitute somethings and add somethings and make it my own. So, I was reading Chappysmom's blog about this absorption method of cooking pasta and I thought wow that is a great idea. Especially since my apartment is so small and I don't have a stove or a full kitchen. I only have a hot plate to cook on so this one pot method was perfect for me. So, basically this absorption method is just instead of boiling the pasta you cook it as though you would cook risotto. Here is what I did. I put olive oil in a pan threw some chopped garlic in then tossed in some whole wheat pasta and coated it with the olive oil for about two minutes then poured in some Pomi brand chopped tomatoes (I love these) and water. I also put two bay leaves, salt pepper, basil, and some sugar to balance the acidity in the tomatoes. I covered the pan and let it simmer until the pasta was a little soft but still needed some more cooking. Then I tossed in some zucchini and asparagus and let in cook some more. When it was all done I tried something new and stirred in a tablespoon or two of ricotta and parmesan cheese to make it all creamy. It turned out really delicious and I got a couple of meals out of it. You could always add meat to this too, but I really like it with just veggies. You could make this dish your own by adding whatever you like. It's really simple and you only have one pot to clean.

A Creative Filled Weekend

2007-09-18T06:36:00.000-07:00

I accomplished alot this weekend. I completed three spreads and re-learned how to knit. I had previously learned how to knit a while ago, but never had the time to actually practice enough to hone this skill. My friend Deborah, is a knitter so I asked her to give me a knitting lesson this weekend. She graciously agreed. So, I went over to her place on Saturday for my lesson, some scrappin and some catching up. I learned how to do a long tail cast-on and how to knit and purl. She even wrote out definitions for everything she taught me and gave me homework. After my lesson Deborah snapped a picture and then proceeded to rip out all my work and sent me home with homework. Unfortunately, she left her camera in Long Island so I will have to post that photo another time perhaps.

So, I had to cast-on again all by myself at home. I did it though and it looks a little better than the one I did at Deborah’s place. I have a problem with tension, but as I keep practicing I’m getting better…not so tight anymore. As she says…”Practice make perfect.” So, I will keep on practicing. I will also post a photo later of my homework assignment progress.

Anyway, back to my three spreads completed this weekend. First, is the “Harbor Cruise” spread. This was actually a work event for me. I work in the Office of Student Affairs at NYU School of Medicine and this was one of the many events we organized during Orientation Week for the incoming first year medical students. Sue, Maya, Mariel and myself were just there to make sure everything ran smoothly and none of the students got out of hand. We enjoyed ourselves though as you can see from the pictures in this spread. We had a lot of fun.

For this spread, I used paper from an old world paper pack and Bazzill cardstock. The letters are Cuttlebug die-cut Olivia and the flowers are CTMH and the brads are Making Memories. I really like how this spread turned out. It took me a while to get to this point. When I first laid out these pictures, I had no idea how to place them, but it all came together in the end and I like the results. I guess creativity just takes a while sometimes.

The cutie pie in the “Cutie Pie” spread below, is my youngest niece Mia. Isn’t she adorable? She just looked so cute, just as happy as she could be with her fried chicken drumstick in hand ready to chow down. I just had to whip out my camera and take a picture. She was good this time and actually smiled nicely and I got a couple of great shots.

Only three pictures, so this is a simple spread for me. I’m used to working with more photos than this. So, I printed the close up picture bigger than the other two and put it on the first page of the spread. I used Deborah’s Sizzix die-cut (I’m not sure of the name) and cut out the letters in both black and white and layered the white over the black for a shadow effect. (hmm…I seem to be doing this a lot lately) Anyway, the date and her age are Heidi Swapp Apple pie rub-on letters.

On Sunday, I was able to complete my third spread, “A Broadway Show”. A few co-workers and I went to go see the Color Purple a Musical on Broadway. The show was really great and the set design was beautiful. I really enjoyed the show. Living in NY my whole life you would think I have seen many Broadway shows but I haven’t, so I was happy to have the opportunity to go and see this show at a discount ticket rate. I guess there are some perks to working in Student Affairs…we happen to sell these discount tickets.

Anyway, I also didn’t have many pictures to work with here. I scanned the playbill and the article in the playbill about Fantasia who unfortunately decided to take vacation during the time we went to see this show. The show was still good without her but I really wished I could have seen her play the part of Celie. So, I really like how this spread turned out. I used the same patterned paper from my old world paper pack, that I used on the Harbor Cruise spread but in purple and three different shades of purple cardstock. I used my CTMH flourish stamps and CTMH flowers that I purchased from Deborah’s sister Mary Beth, who is a CTMH consultant.

I also used my ribbon hole punch I got back from Deborah this weekend and weaved thin purple ribbon through the paper on the second page. So, I’m glad I got a lot done this weekend. I would love to hear you comments so tell me what you think. Have a great week!

Late Summer in Central Park

2007-09-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

So, this weekend I decided to walk to Central Park for three reasons. First, it was a gorgeous day, second I thought I could get some nice pictures that I could use in a spread, and lastly I could work some excercise in by walking to and around the park. After, I walked around for 3 hours snapping pictures here and there and and enjoying the beautiful weather, I decided to walk over to bloomingdales to try out this frozen yogurt I've been reading about online. Apparently, there is this cafe called 40 Carrots and they serve the most amazingly delicious frozen yogurt. At least from what I've been reading on this blog. So, since I was in the area, and needed a cool treat, I decided to try it. I got the plain vanilla frozen yogurt with fresh strawberries. It was delicious and hit the spot. Anyway, getting back to my spread you see below, titled, "Late Summer in Central Park". I kinda made a booboo on this spread and tried to fix it. Hopefully you don't think it looks as bad as I do. I am my worst critic you know. See if you can tell what the booboo was and let me know how bad you think it looks...lol

I used alot of inking on this spread. I really like how inking the edge of paper looks. I makes it have a more defined, stand out look and in this spread gives that destressed antique feel which this patterned paper had to begin with. For the Sun, I cut out the circle and then drew with a pencil the rays and then cut it out by hand.

Other than my booboo, I do like how this spread turned out. I should like it though... I spent a lot of time on this one. I don't know... for some reason, some spreads take hours and then sometimes you just breeze through a couple spreads in one day. Not this time though...this was the only spread completed this weekend. I hoped to at least do one more that I already have pictures printed for. Oh well, maybe I will have time this week to bust one out really quick, who knows.

Some Scrap Pages for My Sis

2007-09-10T05:40:00.000-07:00

My sister Shannon, asked me if I could do two scrapbook spreads for her birthday and some girls night out pictures she took of her and her girlfriends. At the time, I was glad to work on these pictures because I was running low on pictures of my own to scrap. She wanted these spreads to be framed to display in her home, so I picked up some 12x12 frames from A.C. Moore for her. While at A.C. Moore I looked for some paper specifically for this spread. She had not yet sent me the pictures but she did tell me the color dress she was wearing in the pictures. For the Girls night out pictures, which I titiled "Hot Mamas", she told me she was wearing a grey dress. I found this pretty dark grey paper with light gray flowers that I thought would work perfectly. Then I found some girls night out pink and grey sticker embellishments that matched well with the gray paper and thus picked pink as my complementary color for the grey.

I know it's hard to read the sticker, but it just a definition for the word friendship.

So, since she was wearing green in her birthday pics, I chose green for the base paper, which also had brown in the pattern of the paper so I also used brown and added red and white to make it all pop.

I used the CTMH clear rubber stamp for the word friendship on the second page of this spread but it got a little smudged and I also used some on my flourish stamps on this page but the white ink didn't show up well on the green paper. Overall, though I'am happy with how theses two spreads turned out.

Sleepless Scrapper

2007-08-30T06:02:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been having trouble sleeping. I don't know why...does this just happen as you age or do I just have too much on my mind? If anyone has any suggestions on how I can get some much needed R.E.M sleep, please let me know.

So, lastnight I was extremely tired but, I set out to pick paper and embellishments for three spreads I have printed pictures for so I could take it all with me to Philly this weekend. I already had patterned paper picked out for the "Funny Face" spread you see below, but I needed to pick coordinating colors to go with it. Brown was an obvious choice for this patterned paper, but I needed another color to make it all pop. Deborah recently completed a spread using this paper and I didn't want to use the same color combinations she used. She added brown, red, blue and white (flower embellishment).

As you can see, I didn't just pick paper I finished the whole damn spread... I know, I know...I kept telling my self as I was doing it to put everything away and go to bed...my body was begging me to go to bed, but I was on a roll and just wanted to finish.

As you can see I also picked brown and blue but added yellow for the pop effect. I also did something on this spread I never thought of doing before, but it just came to me while working on this spread. The letters are the Sizzix Funky Brush die-cut. I cut the letters out in both blue and yellow and layered the yellow over the blue for a shadow effect. I'm not sure you can tell from this picture though. Maybe I will take a close up and post it later. I know, I covered up alot of the patterned paper but the words on the paper can still be read.

The journaling reads:

These pictures show Lenny’s funny side. He’s just a BIG KID at heart. He is so cute and loveable. I took most of these photos and he took the one of himself where he is holding his hand up to cover his face from me. I really love these close up pictures of him being silly…it showcases the playful side of his personality. We compliment each other very well and we always have so much fun together, no matter what we are doing. This is just one of the many sides of Lenny I love.

This Weekend's Scrap Pages

2007-08-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went to visit Deborah to catch up on the goings on in each of our busy lives and to scrap...something we both love to to but seldom have enough time to do. I worked on the pictures I took on my Birthday weekend in Philly and she finished up on the Central Park pics that her sister Mary Beth took on her visit here to New York in April (2 spreads) and she also worked on her Central Park Zoo pics. On Sunday, she also completed yet another spread (way to go Deb!) that she entitled Downtown New York. All her spreads look great as usual. Below are the pictures of my spread entitled "The Philadelphia Museum of Art". Lenny and I took these pictures outside of the Museum. I will soon be working on a spread that will feature all the art work I found interesting inside the museum.

The Spread below, I started working on, after returning home from Deborah's on Saturday night. I must have been on a roll, because I originally sat down at my computer just to complete the journaling for the Philadelphia Museum of Art spread and ended up picking paper and then working way into the next morning on this spread entitled "Birthday Night Out". I didn't get in bed until 3am...unbelievable! Anyway, these pictures were taken at Dave and Busters, the night of my birthday. Lenny and I met up with some of his friends and their wives. Unfortunately, not everyone is pictured. Also present were, Buddy and his fiancee Nicole. The ones who are pictured are Dennis and his wife Kiz, Chuck and of course Lenny. This is not a very flattering picture...It was so dark I just snapped the picture and didn't realize that Lenny had his eyes closed and Chuck was being silly by opening his mouth which was full of food...uhh! In any case, these are the pictures I had to work with so they made it into my spread. Notice I used my favorite color which I also happen to be wearing...purple.

I know it's hard to read the journaling. This script font makes it hard and my camera doesn't always do a good job on the close up shots of journaling text.

Life is Sweet in the Passenger Seat Spread

2007-08-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

These are pictures of me that Lenny took in the car when he got hold of my camera. I thought the pictures would look good in black and white and was able to fit the log title in by utilizing a cobination of different techniques like using stamping and die-cut letters. I love how this spread came out.

Summer Love Spread

2007-08-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

This spread includes pictures of me and my sweetie Lenny in the Chestnut Hill section of PA.

Exploring Astoria Park Spread

2007-08-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

This spread includes the Pictures Deborah and I took one beautiful summer day. We walked over to Astoria Park armed with our cameras ready to shoot some pictures we could use for a scrapbook spread. I titled this spread "Exploring Astoria Park"

On The Suggestion of a Close Friend...

2007-08-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

On the suggestion of a close friend and blogger, I am setting up this blog to display anything I do that includes my creative touches (hence the name of my blog). My friend Deborah, recently created her blog and suggested I do one for my scrap pages. I thought it was a cool idea, so here I am typing my first post. Iam calling my blog, "Lisa's Creative Touches", beacause although this blog was originally thought of as a means to display and share my completed scrapbook pages, I though I could also utilize it for any other creative things I might delve into in the future. For example, I am a very creative person and have many other creative interests such as, photography, graphic design, cooking, and decorating. Who knows what my creative ideas might lead me to in the future. I have actually been asked to work on a few creative projects by some friends and family, so who knows...I might post future projects other than my scrap pages here.