A Land of Color

I want to live in a land of color.

Adorable Paper House

Is this not the most adorable house ever? I found this when I was browsing around for some inspiration. If you want to read more about it click this link: http://g45papers.typepad.com/graphic45/2011/01/a-house-to-dream-in-enchanting-fairy-house-by-jenny-svensson.html.

Totally love this card and will be making a couple this weekend. Valentine's Day is just around the corner.

Spicy Bloody Mary

We made these last night for our appetizers before a dinner of Prime Rib and Roasted Veggies. So delicious and perfect for an appetizer and cocktail.

Spicy Bloody Mary

Ingredients

1 large lime wedge
Coarse salt, for garnish
1 1/2 ounces high quality vodka
4 ounces tomato juice or premium bloody mary mix
Dash celery salt
Dash freshly ground cracked pepper
8 good shakes Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon horseradish
1 to 2 good dashes good hot sauce
Pimento stuffed green olive, for garnish

Directions
Take a glass and run the lime wedge around the rim to dampen. Dip top of the rim into coarse salt to completely go around the rim. Add first 7 ingredients together in the glass, squeeze the lime wedge into the glass and mix all together. Add the green olive on a toothpick for garnish. Enjoy~

Baby, it's cold outside!

It's so windy and cold outside and I have a hankering for soup. I got this recipe for this Algerian vegan soup from a new cookbook I got called The Soup Peddler. The soup calls for two bunches of cilantro, my favorite! The most surprising thing about this soup is the gorgeous orange color and the lemon juice that just makes it sing. Serve with a baguette of crusty french bread for dipping.

Here is the recipe verbatim.

Bouktouf
Serves 6-8

1 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 onions, chopped
2 potatoes, peeled and diced (I used Idaho potatoes)
3 large zucchini, diced
1/4 cup tomato paste
Juice of 4 lemons, or to taste
2 bunches cilantro, coarsely chopped, stems included
Salt (I used 1 tsp kosher salt)

Heat the oil in the bottom (where else?) of your soup pot over medium-high heat. The oil should form a deep puddle. Add the onions and sauté them slowly, longingly, until they are limpid, about 15 minutes.

Add the potatoes, zucchini, and tomato paste. Just barely cover with water, turn the heat to high, and cover. Once brought to a strong simmer, turn the heat down to medium-low.

When the potatoes are very soft and the zucchini has given itself to the soup, about 20 minutes, turn off the heat. Add the lemon juice and cilantro, and season to taste with salt. Using an immersion blender, purée the soup to a smooth consistency; alternatively, working in batches, pureé in a regular blender until smooth. The soup should shimmer in the ambient light. Serve hot or cold.

Halloween Cards

It's that time of year again. The leaves are turning to beautiful pallettes of color, the weather is crisp and Halloween is just around the corner. These are some of the cards that I made for Halloween.

You Devil

My newest cards are Halloween cards and I wanted to share some of my favorites. The first one I plan to replicate and do my own version, but it's one of my favorites and I wanted to share it with you. The other one I did myself and I found the stamp for the devil's tucked away from last year. I never used it. I am bad that way. I buy stamps and let them sit pretty for decoration. The other day I was at A.C. Moore to buy yet another punch and stumbled across the inside for the card. I think they go perfectly together. It's almost like a fine wine that sits and you forget about until the right time. When you pull it out it's like Christmas with good cheer in the air.

Tree Pictures

I made these for my bathroom recently. I love trees.

Birthday Owl Cards

These were so much fun to make. I love the colors and the way they all pull together. I used leftover paper from Meredith's bday card and had so much fun. Did I mention these were fun to make???? Am I repeating myself?

More Cards

Look at this beautiful black embossed medallion card that one of the stampin up demonstrator's made. The medallion is my "go to" stamp. I can use it for everything and with my stampin pastels, I can make it any color I want it to be.

Strawberry Tart

Easy peasy! Prepared pie crust, 2 cups fresh berries, 1/4 cup of sugar, bake about 40 minutes until golden brown. Enough said!

Potato Salad with Corn, Cilantro and Poblano Peppers

Steven and I went to the Farmer's Market on Sunday and came back with lots of fresh veggies and fruits. I love this time of year, because there are so many wonderful choices out there. I saw our first red tomato the other day in our garden, so pretty soon I'll be posting tomato recipes and pictures of our abundance.

This is my favorite version of potato salad because it has fresh corn and cilantro in it. I also cut down the use of mayo and add a lite sour cream to pull it together. Serve this with roasted chicken, grilled scallions and fresh green beans. Meow!

Ingredients

2 pounds baby red or new potatoes, cut into 1/2 to 1-inch pieces
3 ears fresh corn, husks and silks removed
2 poblano chiles, charred, peeled, stemmed, seeded, and chopped (see Cook's Note)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Put the potatoes in a large pot and add salted water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until tender when pierced with a knife, about 20 to 30 minutes. Drain the potatoes and let cool slightly.

Meanwhile, preheat a grill or grill pan to medium-high heat. Add the corn to the grill and cook, turning occasionally, until evenly browned on all sides, about 10 minutes.

Put the potatoes in a large serving bowl. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut the kernels off the cobs and add them to the bowl. Add the poblano chiles, scallions, sour cream, mayonnaise, and cilantro, and fold together. Season the potato salad, to taste, with salt and pepper and serve.

Give a Hoot!

I am the luckiest woman in the world because I am blessed to have a lovely group of creative friends that share their creativity with me. This is a card I did that is replicated from my from friend Linda's card. I love the fun in this card. Each little picture was colored and cut out individually. It was so much fun to do and took my mind off pressing issues. If I could be surrounded by paper, markers, stamps, ribbons and glue all day I would be the happiest woman in the world. Hope you enjoy.

Mother's Day Cards

These two cards are what I created for Mom's Day this year. My friend at work wanted a card for her mom, so I asked her what colors she liked and she said, candy apple red, brown and green. I thought it was going to be hard to pull all the colors together, but I think it came out nicely. The flowerpot card is for my mom and that was a lot of fun to make. If you want to make one for your mom here is a link to a tutorial on how to make the flowerpot card:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir-nDyJoGvE

Happy early Mother's Day!

Joy Fold

No pun intended, but this card was a joy to make. Basically the card is two different sized cards put together. Very easy to make. The hardest part I found was combining colors together to make it flow. I wish my camera took better pictures to show the true colors, but you get the idea. The instructions are as follows:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/joy_fold_card/

Waterfall Cards

I am hoping when you look at these cards that you will catch the waterfall fever like I did. This form of card is so wonderful and fun and the combinations are endless. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending one of Jeannette Swain's classes at Crops Plus that was held at the Holiday Inn in Chantilly. All I have to say is this woman's creations wowed me. The colors and designs are so colorful and fun. The class was a lot of fun and I was so surprised how easy making these cards really is! Here is a link for her upcoming classes, which I highly recommend.

http://www.stampsnwhatnot.com/my_weblog/april-may-2010-events.html

Butterfly Card

I made this card the other day for my coworker's bday. Over the weekend my friends and I got together with our punches and stamps and traded them off to use. I was obssessed by the butterfly punches in all different sizes, so I ended up with a whole bag of butterflies. I was inspired to make this card from the new 6x6 collection at Memory Box called Enchanted. The paper is so perfect to embellish with butterflies or birds. Two of my favorite things. I think overall it pulled together very nicely.

I haven't had much time for blogging or cardmaking or cooking either! I love my new job but work seems to take all of my energy and requires a lot of my time. And you know the story, if you aren't working then you are always trying to catch up on laundry and so on and so on. I am going to put aside some time this weekend to make cards and cook, so hopefully I'll have some more posts soon. On Sunday I am taking a class on "fun folds." I looked at the month of April and I only had 1 post so far. How embarassing!

Meredith's 13th Birthday Card

Love the paper for this card. Cute owls in different colors and cupcakes galore. Add some stickles and a bow and it's ready to go. Happy Birthday Mer!!

Vellum Windows

It's almost like an illuminary candle but it's a card. Perhaps a led light behind it would be fun? When I put this in front of the window it lit up. Pretty cool.

Here are a few pics of my new creations. Steven bought me a new camera but my pictures are not as crisp as the other blogsites I've visited. Last weekend a bunch of us got together and made cards together. I didn't realize when I started this that it would open up a whole new world for me. I've made so many great friends along the way who share the same passion I do. I recently started selling my cards and have a nice little client base. Also, I've been selling my cards in a store in Leesburg since February. Soon I will open an account with Esty and will start selling my cards there. If you see any cards on my website that you like and would like to purchase one, let me know. I can make a card with any theme, color, sentiment.