Beautiful Flower Crumbs...

Good afternoon, my friends!

Hope the week is off to a great start for you all!  It's been busy here, as usual--that's good, I guess!

Just a few things to share with you today...

I made a card yesterday with this adorable storybook image from Crafty Secrets' "Childhood" Images & Journal Notes booklet...

I love this style of illustration...looks like it's from the '20's...such a beautiful time for children's books illustrations!

And it's lovely little saying..."We could never have loved the earth so well if we had no childhood in it."

After I made this, the weather cleared, and I went outside to take some photos of my gorgeous, fat roses:

Aaaahhhhh......!

...aren't they just beautiful?!  We've had lots of wind and rain lately, and there were lots of soft, colorful petals in pools under the rose bushes...

...which reminded me...

...of my mother always telling me about a day when I came into the house with my hands filled with roses petals

...and said, "Oh, Mommy!  Look at all the beautiful flower crumbs!"  Of course I don't remember this, but she's told me so many times...Now, whenever I see those beautiful rose petals on the ground, or blossoms fallen from a tree, this is what I think of...

I was about three or so at the time, which made me think of these old pictures that I love...

Our little family, with my new brother Steven...isn't my mother gorgeous?

Me and my daddy...

Not sure why this one was framed like this, but I still love it...look at that funny little guy!

And my favorite...I call this one my "Sassy" pose!

Thanks for letting me share those--that's for you, Mom! 

I finished another little card this morning...more beautiful flowers with a sassy little girl...

This is a sweet little stamp set from Crafty Secrets called "Bouquets of Joy"...one of my very favorites...

I'm not the best at the watercoloring thing, but I loved doing it!  I just used watercolor crayons for this...then sparkled it up with Dazzling Diamonds...

I'm so glad I learned at an early age to appreciate the beauties of the earth...even the sweet little flower crumbs laying on the ground...thanks, Mom...

See you soon with something new....

Ever Just Have One of Those Days...?

How is everyone today? Hope the day is going well! It's COLD here in California--central California, anyway! This morning, while taking my daughter to school, the car thermometer showed 31 degrees--WOW! That's really something for here!

It was so frosty, that it actually looked like a light dusting of snow on all the roofs and lawns...never seen such a uniform covering of frost--we just decided to say that it snowed--it looked like it!

So I had to take a photo or two of this very ironic scene...

Big, fat, luscious roses covered with ice! It's hard to see the ice crystals on the roses, but you can see it one the ground around them...

Most of the ground was much whiter than this--these were just some of my fattest roses, so I had to show them off, as I'm sure they're my last this year!

This looks like dew drops, but it was frozen! Hard to capture it just right...oh, well!

So, like the title of today's post says...it was just one of those days today! I've got lots on my plate this week, (don't we all?!) and was trying to juggle that plate with way too many things balanced on top of it--and it all just kind of fell around my feet today! Nothing horrible...just trying to finish decorating the house, getting things ready for a weekend Christmas party, cleaning, and a few projects...these things shouldn't be attempted all at once--don't try it!

I'm actually not complaining--just laughing at myself today! I had to sit down and make something just for fun, and this is what it turned into...

Just about says it all, doesn't it?!

This is from Crafty Secrets' "Domestic Goddess" Creative Scraps...was still sitting on my table from yesterday, so I thought I'd use it again! (Note to self...gotta clean table, too!) Love this chartreuse metallic rick-rack trim...definitely useful for a bright, retro-style card! Love that bright pink gingham ribbon, too!

So, come on over for lunch, okay? I'll clean off my table and get cookin'!

That's all for tonight...just wanted to check in and see if everyone else on the planet was sane today except for me! I'll be back tomorrow...calm, cool and collected with something pretty!

Just to close off, found a couple of my favorite photos of all time this week--these are of my beautiful oldest daughter, Chelsea, far away at college...I felt these truly expressed my feelings about this day...

This was at my husband's sister's wedding...need I say more? It was time for her special picture with the bride and groom, and this is all we could get out of her!

This little baby of mine will be turning 20 years old this month...my, how time flies!

Have a wonderful evening!

Compliments of the Season...and Vintage Recipes Found!

Good afternoon! Hope your day is going beautifully! Speaking of beautiful, I need to show you what autumn looks like today in my front yard...

Sorry to do that to those of you in cold and blustery places!

A couple of cards Christmas cards to share with you today. I had also done a Thanksgiving card yesterday, but I'm just really not happy with it, so I'll either redo it or scrap it--not sure which!

This first card uses a beautiful image from Crafty Secrets' new "Christmas" Creative Scraps--love this set of images!

Something scrumptious about a big, fat tartan ribbon! I bunched up some jingle bells and stitched them in place on the bow. Lots of German gold glass glitter around the image, and some Dazzling Diamonds on the flowers on the image--doesn't show up much, though!

My second card for the day uses some beautiful images from Graphic 45's new "Christmas Past" collection--such a beautiful grouping of images & designer papers! I'll be doing much more with this set! I just love the sentiment: COMPLIMENTS OF THE SEASON...no one says beautiful things like that anymore! (Hence my title--I needed a reason to use it!)

I added some beautiful creamy lace, more tartan ribbon (never too much tartan at holiday time!), buttons to mimic holly berries, glittered gold leaves, and some of my beautiful gold glass glitter again. Here's a closer look:

On to something deliciously decadent! I had a few over-ripe bananas this morning, and needed to find something besides banana bread to do with them...so I searched a bit on line, and Oh, my! Wait till you see what I found! Don't you just love finding something unexpected?!

A whole blog dedicated to vintage recipes, found in old recipe boxes, books, etc., at estate sales, flea markets, and so forth. There are some amazing recipes there, all for sharing, and some even have scanned images of the original hand-written recipe! What a find! The site is called "Recovered Recipes", and I can't wait to try more of them!

Here's what I made today--an old recipe for Banana Cake:

It looks small in this picture, but it's an 8 x 8 size cake on a large platter...

Look at all that caramelly frosting--I'll get to that in a minute!

Ahhhhhh! My daughter made very happy sounds with each bite she took (me, too!)

Here's the recipe:

BANANA CAKE

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 egg yolks

4 Tbsp. "sweet milk"***

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder, sifted

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 bananas)

Combine the two sugars, butter, egg yolks, milk and soda in bowl. Sift baking powder and flour into batter. Stir. Add mashed bananas and mix until blended. Pour into greased and floured pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

(The recipe said this would fill 2 round cake pans--it won't! I tried...not enough batter. So I just put the batter in an 8" square pan and it was perfect. I would double the recipe for the 2 pans.

***Interesting note found on the recipe site: in old recipes, you'll see the reference to "sweet milk"--this simply means fresh milk. Before we had refrigerators in our kitchens, milk was delivered every day or so, and fresh milk was "sweet", older milk was "sour", and there was buttermilk. Interesting, huh?

I decided to find yummy recipe for frosting, and immediately thought of Gooseberry Patch--they never let me down! Looked in their fabulous cookbook "Christmas All Through the House" and found the perfect frosting recipe:

Quick Caramel Frosting

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Bring first 3 ingredients to a boil in a 3 1/2 quart saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, about 2 minutes.

Stir in milk and bring to a boil; remove from heat. Add powdered sugar and vanilla, stirring with a wooden spoon until smooth. Use immediately. Makes 3 cups.

DELICIOUS!!!

Hope you enjoy this sweet, delicious discovery--I wonder what you might find there...?