First and foremost, I hope you had a really nice Mothers Day. And this isn’t a shout-out to JUST moms. To all women, I genuinely hope that you’ve enjoyed your weekend.

Next, I need to throw out another yummy idea. I made those Andes Mint cookies (see May 9th entry) for a girls get-together at my house on Thursday – which was super fun, by the way. I love my friends. I ended up making another favorite treat too. And I am seriously committing to working out every day this week, by the way. Oh MY. Thank you to my cute friend Zipporah, who told me about this several months ago.

NUTELLA ROLLS

You need:
crescent rolls
Nutella (it’s a hazelnut spread; found near the peanut butter)
optional: banana
optional: powdered sugar

Don’t knock it ’til you try it.

Spread out a crescent roll triangle, drop a dallop of Nutella in the middle, add a slice of banana if that sounds good to you, and then wrap it up. Do this with as many as you want to make and place them on a baking sheet (again, big fan of the Pampered Chef stones). Sprinkle powdered sugar on top and put them in the oven at 375 for about 15 minutes, or whenever they are golden and look baked.

On to other things …

FRIDAY

I taught a class locally on Friday and met some really neat women there. Say hi to Dina:

Cute page, eh? What a fun scrapbook style. And she’s a great photographer too. I saw some of the portraits she did for some friends that also attended. We did sort of an “All About Me” layout since most of these women really never, ever, ever get out from behind the camera and get themselves in the scrapbook.

The idea of the layout is to include just one current picture of yourself and also a large, blank block of cardstock for journaling. And then you fill that block with random tidbits about yourself, right now. Big stuff, little stuff, serious stuff, funny stuff, quirky stuff, heartfelt stuff. Whatever you want. You don’t have to write an autobiography. Just get some things about yourself in your scrapbook once in a while so your posterity will get to know you as more than just a person who put together scrapbooks.

Two of the gals that attended made their very first layout ever that night and I got to be a part of it. How cool is that? The reason it’s so cool to me is that there is potential that they will feel inspired to keep going, to get their pictures and their stories and their insights preserved. There is potential that they could unleash the artist inside of them, that their creative spirits will really come out and play and they’ll discover a whole side of them they never knew before. And there is potential that, because of their dedication to scrapbook, their kids, gradnchildren, etc. will someday have the honor and priviledge of looking through albums of wonderfully documented memories. THAT is so cool to me.

Addressing more of your questions …

CAMERA LENS

My favorite lens is the Canon 28 – 200. It’s so “all-purpose” to me, with a really nice amount of zoom for a not-too-big size.

PEPPERMINT FUDGE

Lisa noticed my “Chocolate” layout in the February issue of CK and was interested in the recipe for “the brownies with the white frosting”. That’s actually peppermint fudge and I’m delighted to share this with you. It’s sooo good.

[Fudge Layer]
3 tsp. butter, softened
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
4 c. powdered sugar
6 Tbsp. baking cocoa
1 tsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

[Peppermint Layer]
2 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. milk
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
1/4 c. crushed peppermint candy (about 18 candies)

Line the bottom and sides of a square baking dish with foil. Grease foil with butter; set aside. In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, cocoa, milk and vanilla. Spread into prepared pan. Chill for an hour until firm. For peppermint layer, beat cream cheese in a small mixing bowl. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, milk and extract. Stir in peppermint candy. Spread evenly over chocolate layer. Chill for an hour or until firm. Using foil, lift fudge from pan. Gently peel off foil and cut into squares.

Okay, you’ve had plenty to read. Be sure to compliment 3 people today – sincere compliments. And if you’re feeling rather chirpy, maybe go out of your way to introduce yourself to someone you don’t know (especially if you see them on occasion). Random challenge, but there’s potential for you to really brighten someone’s day today. So why not?

I wanted to address a few more questions/requests while I had a minute:

RSS FEED
This is now up & running and there is a link to the right if you want to subscribe.

A FEW OF MY FAVORITES
On the Creating Keepsakes’ home page, there is currently a video of me talking about & showing a few of my favorite scrapbooking tools. (Question to self: Do I always talk that fast?) You can watch Lisa Bearnson talking about a few of her favorites too. We did these segments in her home. So no – that’s not my office; that’s Lisa’s super cute room. I know I need to post pictures of my space and I promise – I *will* get to that.

SCRAPBOOK VOLUMES
This is in reference to the picture of my chronological albums (vol. 34, etc.) that I posted on April 28th. Volume 1 began in 1994 when I graduated from high school.

Oh yeah … check out the locks! That’s when I began scrapbooking, so I just started from there. Everything since then has gone in subsequent albums, in chronological order, and – like I said – I also have a bunch of theme albums and now, our kids have their own ongoing albums. In our family chronological albums, we’re currently in volume 41. Okay. That’s just crazy, I know.

The thing is, I started scrapbooking when I was young & single and it wasn’t too long after that that I began teaching scrapbooking and then working for Creating Keepsakes magazine. So needless to say, scrapbooking has been a really big part of my life and I was doing it for 8 years before we had our first child. I also am an “efficient” scrapbooker, meaning that while I totally enjoy the process and the artistic side of scrapbooking, I equally enjoy the organizational and “having it done” side of this hobby as well.

The great thing is I’m never done. Nobody is. We’re not in this to be “caught up” by any means, but it is nice to have as much of our life, and our family’s life, documented as we can. I’ve learned a lot over the years, like what I want to be sure to get in the scrapbooks, and what’s really not all that important. If I knew then what I know now, I’d probably have fewer volumes with more “important” stuff. Know what I mean?

One of my very best friends just moved in this week – 2 minutes away from us – so her 3 cute kids have been at our house a lot (maximizing her productivity at HER house). It’s been a party, the kids are having a ball together, and they were great little helpers in the kitchen. If you like chocolate and Andes mint you will love these cookies! We made a ton of this cookie dough so we have plenty of cookies for their family, some for other neighbors that just moved in (tis the season!) and even more for a girlfriends get-together I’m hosting tomorrow.

I think I’ve finally mastered these cookies, after several batches and enough taste-testing over the past several months. : ) Sometimes it takes me a few rounds of baking to finally nail the perfect time for a certain cookie in my oven. So here’s the recipe. Have a sweet tooth today? You must try this.

ANDES MINT COOKIES

3/4 c. butter (or margarine)
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
2 T. water

Melt in a saucepan over medium heat until melted and then add:

2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips, stirring until completely melted.

Cool for 10 minutes. Pour into a mixing bowl and beat in 2 eggs.

Add:
2 1/2 c. four
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix together and chill for about 45 minutes. Roll into balls (like 1 – 1 1/2 inches big), flatten slightly, and place on cookie sheet (In only use Pampered Chef baking stones). Bake at 350 for 10 minutes (for my oven, this is the perfect time, keeping my cookies soft; your oven may be slightly different).

When cookies come out of the oven, place an Andes mint on top of each cookie and allow to melt for a few minutes. Swirl the melted chocolate like icing. Allow to cool.

Oh YUM. Need to go have another cookie before I do anything else right now. : )

Happy Teacher Appreciation Day! I’m so thankful for teachers in my life and wanted to say a special hello to those of you who are teachers. Porter and I put together some cute little bags filled with chocolates and he took them to his pre-school teachers this morning. Speaking of appreciation, if any of you need an idea for a last-minute teacher gift, you could make a quick set of cards for them. Who wouldn’t love some homemade cards to have on hand?

I made these cards for Porter’s teachers last Thanksgiving. Three sets of cards in 30 minutes. I literally was in a pinch for time and just grabbed my new favorite stamp at the time (the bracket stamp from 7Gypsies), some darling Crate Paper scraps, flowers, brads, and a fine point black pen. I always have a stock of white cardstock and standard white envelopes too, so it really was a snap to put these together. So in a half-hour I had a set of cards for both of his teachers and an extra set for someone else.

Thanks for your warm messages and kind words! You guys are great. You have some questions and I want to do my best to answer them. So here we go with some random topics, based on a few of those questions:

CAMERA
I use a Canon 10D, which is a digial SLR. Our digital point-and-shoot is the Sony CyberShot. We mostly use that for short video clips (LOVE that point-and-shoot cameras do this) and it is always in my purse for “just in case” moments. To be honest, I’m not 100% happy with it, especially after playing with my brother’s camera last week. Kevin uses the Canon SD900 and it’s awesome. I think we’ll be trading ours in soon.

PRINTING
I do *not* do my own photo printing. I upload my digital images to costco.com and pick them up at my local Costco. They do a fantastic job & print with their digital processing machine, the Noritsu. I typically print glossy (for a more refined, sharp image) but sometimes I’ll do matte if the photos will be “handled”. But I do print at home once in a while if I’m in a pinch for time. In this case, the HP Photosmart 245 has been great. It’s portable too, since it just prints 4″ x 6″ prints – nothing larger. I also have an Epson PictureMate and, admittedly, haven’t tried it yet. I will report as soon as I do.

ALBUMS
Our chronological family albums are in 12″ x 12″ albums but it’s the page protector size that really matters, not the album dimensions. That said, yes – my top-loading page protectors are a true 12″ x 12″ size and fit my pages perfectly. The brand is C-Line and I’ve been using these for as long as I can remember. They’re fantastic.

Creating Keepsakes’ web site has recently posted my answers to many, many other questions. If you’re bored, you can check it out here.