The Best of Volleyball and Soccer

Both Madelyn and Grace played fall sports this year so this kept me very busy driving to and fro from all the games. Madelyn played volleyball. She has developed a nice overhand serve this year. She is turning to be a rather sporty girl. 

Grace came out of her shell this year and played soccer - she really liked it...I really do not like soccer, but I do like how tired she is after playing. She has enough energy for 5 children, so this is really the sport for her!

She is #65

The photo below is from the Volleyball dinner. Madelyn and her silly friends. Left to Right - Cami, Jessica, Marisa, Olivia and Madelyn.

Halloween

I got some photos of my camera - finally :) and I wanted to share a few from Trick or Treating. I also hope to get some from our Halloween party - the kids did have a great time this year!

Grace (Cleopatra) Rachael (cowgirl) Olivia (Justin Bieber) Madelyn (Spongebabe) Dakota (purple crayon) and Brooke (pink crayon)

Madelyn, Rachael, Teigan and Olivia

Hayden, Grace and Kayden

Dakota and Brooke

Dakota sitting and playing cards with the others trick or treaters :)

Canning already!!

A couple weeks ago I took some of the strawberries that I had purchased and made strawberry syrup with them. If my research is true this was a lot like boiling down maple syrup. It did take a little while but it smelled yummy!

This would be great to drizzle on a plate with some cheesecake or to top your pancakes or waffles.

I half the original recipe because I did not see the need at this point to have 12 jars of this especially if no one but me uses it on my pancakes.

Strawberry Syrup

5 cups crushed strawberries
11/2 cups water (divided)
1 strip of lemon peel
11/2 cups sugar
11/2 cups corn syrup
1 tbsp lemon juice

Combine strawberries, half of the water, and lemon peel. Heat to boiling and boil for 5 minutes.

Pour into a jelly strainer and let drip for 2 hours.

Combine the sugar and the remaining water and cook to 230°F. Add the strawberry juice and the corn syrup. Bring to boiling and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Fill hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Add lids and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

Here are a few photos of the twins riding the powerwheels a few weeks ago - on one of our nice spring days.

Tie Dye Cupcakes!!

These were a HUGE hit at my house this past weekend.

It is really a very simple recipe. Take a standard cake mix and make according to directions. Then divide the batter into 6 bowls (about 1 cup each) and mix to your desired colors. I used Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue and Purple gel dye. Then you layer by the teaspoonful. I just dolloped the spoonfuls in rainbow order. I then Baked these for about 15 minutes until a clean toothpick inserted came out clean. While cooling, I mixed 2 tubs of white frosting with 3 different colors of dye - Red, Yellow and blue. In a pastry bag I put the frosting inside by the spoonful alternating colors until I got all of the frosting in the tube. Starting at 12 oclock I piped the frosting onto the cupcakes.

Here is where you can see the rainbow effect of the frosting on the cupcakes.

I love how vibrant the colors on the inside of the cupcakes came out!! I will definatly make these again.

I am thinking I will make some in badger colors for the girls...Purple and gold. The frosting I could do in Purple yellow and white to make sure the colors do not get too muddy.

This is one of my walmart clearance shopping trip. This order before coupons about about $70 and I walked spending about $10 it was a really great trip!

This was my Giant Eagle Stock up trip. Aprox $130 in items, my total out of pockets was $28 after coupons and sale items.

Lastly, These are the newest memebers of our chicken coop. We wanted a rooster and we got a hen along with him :) He is very 'Rooster-y' and doesn't seem to like me coming into the coop to collect eggs. I am trying to get him to see that I am not scared of him...but I am a little...my shin hurts from where he tried to get me out of the coop!

I am sure there will be more to post very soon, some birthday invites that I am doing for a friend of Madelyns, Madelyn's diorama, spring cleaning, more planting, hopefully the start of the green house...ahh the joys of a busy life! Until next time!

Spring in here!! LOL - at least it is in my Kitchen. I bought an indoor green house and planted all of my bulbs that I failed to get planted last fall. They are doing great - except the flowers are dying off...either way it gives me something to get planted as soon as I can get in the dirt...maybe even get another flower or two :) Dougnuts!! These were really easy to make and I will for sure make them again!! I have been searching for the 'best' recipe. So after reading many and taking all the comments into consideration etc I put together a recipe that I thought would work....it did!! The key here is the cake mix - this is where you can easily change up your doughnut flavors and its easier then trying to guess how much to use. For these doughnuts I used a French Vanilla cake mix. I am sure I could use any flavor for this. Strawberry, lemon, spice, chocolate etc. I would use a good quality mix. These tend to be full of flavor. I mean quality as in Duncan Hines or Pilsbury. Recipe: 2 (1/4 ounce) packages yeast 1/4 cup water (105-115) 1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk (scalded, then cooled) 1/2 cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt 2 eggs 1/3 cup shortening 2.5 cups all purpose flour 2.5 cups your favorite cake mix, or yellow would be fine. canola oil Creamy Glaze 1/3 cup butter 2 cups powdered sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 6 tablespoons hot water 1. Dissolve yeast in warm water in 2.5 quart bowl 2. Add milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortenng and 2 cups flour 3. Beat on low for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. 4. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally 5. Stir in remaining flour until smooth 6. Cover and let rise until double, 50-60 minutes 7. (dough is ready when indentation remails when when touched) Turn dough onto floured surface; roll around lightly to coat with flour 8. gently roll dough 1/2 in thick with floured rolling pin 9. cut with floured doughnut cutter 10. cover and let rise until double, 30-40 minutes 11. Heat vegetable oil in deep fryer/skillet to 350 degrees 12. slide doughnuts into hot oil with wide spatula 13. turn doughnuts as they rise to the surface 14. fry until golden brown, about 1 minute on each side 15. remove carefully from oil (do not prick surface) drain 16. dip the doughnuts into creamy glaze set on rack to cool. Enjoy!!

Happy Birthday Dakota and Brooke (2.28.11)

I am a little late in posting this but I wanted to share a recipe and pics of the twins birthday cakes I made for them! I have a few cake books laying around and the girls were very intrigued with the possibility of eating a cake that looked like scooby doo. I gave the girls a few options of something I thought I could make and they chose Spongebob!

To save time I took a french vanilla cake mix and split it between a round and square cake pan (Two cakes would be too much around here). After baking and cooling I used one of those Wiltons wire cake trimmer things...sorry for not having its correct name - but its a metal handle with a thin piece of wire that is adjustable...this allows you to split cake layers and to also trim off that hump you get when the cake bakes.

I used some store bought ButterCream frosting and frosted the middle, top and sides keeping it as smooth as possible and let the frosting set.

Then I made the fondant - its really easy and I will share the recipe below. Two reasons - store bought fondant is expensive and it tastes like cardboard. So the recipe that I use is a marshmellow fondant.

The tweaks or differences I made: I did use the Kraft jetpuffed mini marshmellows but I used the walmart brand powdered sugar. I also made a half a batch at a time: adding water, food color then marshmellows to the bowl before micowaving - the fondant was very easy to color this way :)

Recipe from here:

16 ounces white mini-marshmallows(use a good quality brand)

2 to 5 tablespoons water

2 pounds icing sugar (please use C&H Cane Powdered Sugar for the best results)

1/2 cup Crisco shortening (you will be digging into it so place in a very easily accessed bowl)

Directions:

NOTE: Please be careful, this first stage can get hot.

Melt marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave or double boiler. To microwave, place the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, open microwave and stir, back in microwave for 30 seconds more, open microwave and stir again, and continue doing this until melted. It usually takes about 2 1/2 minutes total.

Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar on the top of the melted marshmallow mix.

Now grease your hands GENEROUSLY (palms, backs, and in between fingers), then heavily grease the counter you will be using and dump the bowl of marshmallow/sugar mixture in the middle. (By the way, this recipe is also good for your hands. When I’m done, they are baby soft.)

Start kneading like you would bread dough. You will immediately see why you have greased your hands. If you have children in the room they will either laugh at you or look at you with a questioning expression. You might even hear a muttered, “What are you doing?”

Keep kneading, this stuff is sticky at this stage! Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Re-grease your hands and counter when the fondant starts sticking. If the mix is tearing easily, it is to dry, so add water (about 1/2 tablespoon at a time and then knead it in). It usually takes me about 8 minutes to get a firm smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake.

It is best if you can let it sit, double wrapped, overnight (but you can use it right away if there are no tiny bits of dry powdered sugar). If you do see them, you will need to knead and maybe add a few more drops of water.

Prepare the fondant icing for storing by coating it with a good layer of Crisco shortening, wrap in a plastic-type wrap product and then put it in a re-sealable or Ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible.

MM Fondant icing will hold very well in the refrigerator for weeks. If I know that I have a cake to decorate, I usually make two (2) batches on a free night during the week so it is ready when I need it. Take advantage of the fact that this fondant icing can be prepared well in advance.

I wanted to take some time to tell what you I have been up to:

SICK- is the word in this house - for several weeks. We started with the sniffles, then strep, then the flu, then some more sniffles and now we are on strep again. Madelyn relapsed so if she gets these inflamed tonsils again she will require more testing - but she has tested negative for mono!! Thank goodness.

So in between doing loads of laundry and walking around the house with my lysol I have squeezed in some cupcakes, cookies, chocolate cover strawberries and grapes, a few shopping trips and I made a card!!
Wanna make some of your own? It's Easy!!

Wash and dry your grapes and strawberries. Melt Chocolate in a double boiler, I add about a teaspoon-ish of crisco to the mix to help smooth out the chocolate. Then I dip away...berries are much easier because you hold on to the enitre stem. The grapes - I just dropped them in and spooned them out - bringing them to the side of the pan so excess chocolate comes off. Then I took some white chocolate and melted it and add some food dye gel to get the colors - found out that it was very hard to make red chocolate - but the pink is super pretty. I then poured the colored chocolate into my wiltons piping back with a writing tip and drizzled away. Another sucessful Target Trip
8 boxes of Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Pasta 1.13 ea = .63 ea after Q
Glade Candle 2.99 = .99 after Q
2 Rimmel Eye Shadows 2.49 ea = .49 ea after Q
Maalox $3.79 = free with Q plus 1.21 overage ea
Ky 14.99 = 7.99 after Q
Card 2.99 = free w/ purchase of Ky
Garnier Facial Moisturizer 4.99 = .99 after Q

Total order $47.56 after Qs 15.99 minus overage 2.42 = 13.57 plus tax of 2.02 = 15.59 minus the $5 Gift card I earned with purchase of KY

Total for all: 10.59 a 78.5% savings

Cupcakes and Cookies!!

I made a lemon supreme cupcake and sugar cookies with a poured fondant frosting. I decorated the cupcakes by dipping them in yellow fondant allowing to set then I piped the pics/designs in green. For the cookies I spooned the frosting on the cookies allowing to set. Then I piped on the white hearts and Madelyn added all the fun sprinkles we had.

I also took a set of 12 cookies and used the wiltons cookies frosting and wrote I LOVE YOU in 12 different languages for Matt for valentines day. I also made a steak, crablegs, baked potatoes, green beans and salad for our Valentines Day dinner.

Lastly, I made Matt his Valentines day card:

This is a Gina K design's stamp set that I used to make this little card for Matt. I try not to get to frilly with his but it was Valentines Day - so Pink and Red it is!! You are not able to see in the pic but I used a clear irridecent gel pen around all the black edges on the card to give it a little sparkle.

He found the card after I set the following up: He had to follow a train of hershey kisses to the shower to where he found his cookies and the card hanging with a Rose from the shower nozzle. On the inside of the card it said - Now that I have kissed the ground you walked on, Showered you from Roses...Will you be My Valentine? He did say that was cute :)

Thanks for stopping by! Please wish for the germs to leave my house!!

Your Invited

My oldest, Madelyn turned 10 this month. She had asked to have a sleep over with a few friends. This is the invite we came up with. I used Gina K's lava lamp stamp which is something that Madelyn is really into now. So she was very excited - along with her friends. This is really a very simple card of layers of paper. The only really time consuming part was the detail on the lava lamp.

In the close up you will be able to see a little on the detail - I took Eucalyptus stickles and filled in the 'lava' and then after coloring the 'liquid' with a Prismacolor True Blue maker and the stickles dried I covered the 'lamp' with 3-d Crystal Lacquer to give it a glass look.

Images: GinaK - Heartily Yours (lava lamp); TAC - You're invited (inside the card) Cardstock/Paper: Colorbok Pearlescent - blue; TAC - Brighten My Day printed paper, white and lime CS Ink: SUInk - black, Tria Pantone Markers: 368T, cool gray 1 and Prismacolor markers: True blue Accessories: eucalyptus stickles, 3d crystal lacquer, ribbon (walmart), Tombo Mono Aqua Glue Techinques: layering, detail coloring, faux glass

Below are some photos from Madelyn's birthday party!

Sewing is another hobby of mine. Back when I was in high school I made two of my prom dresses. One was a hunter green velvet fitted dress. It was lined with rhinestones and had a slit up the left leg. The other dress was royal blue, spaghetti straps, empire waist. It had little white roses hand sewn into the trim.

For Christmas I made all 4 girls jammy pants. I also made the older two peace sign t-shirt. Then I made hubby his own pj set. The twins pants are so big (It is better that they grow into them as they have a ton of pjs already) that I do not have pics of theirs yet. I wanted to share a few pics with you...they are not the best as they were taken in the hustle and bustle of Christmas morning.

Here is another picture that I wanted to share - Matt and the girls made me a poster and then the photos were taken so that when I opened my new camera - Its a Nikon Coolpixs L110 - One that Ashton Kutcher advertises on TV (Whoo Hoo - LOL) - It was a very sweet thing for Matt to do for me!

If you are still coming here - Thank you! I have revamped the blog - to Leona's Many Projects. I wanted a place where I could talking about my many things I do rather than just stamping. If you know me - you know I am a woman of MANY talents and I also want to share those stories with you. Changing the name of the blog will allow me to keep you up to date with me and keep up with my crazyness!! I hope to share my recipes, cooking/baking, sewing/quilting along with all of my paper crafting and anything else I do. Including photography. Matt bought me a new camera for Christmas and it is one of my goals to take better photos and learn to use my Adobe photo editing software.

More posts coming soon - I promise!!

Hello to anyone out there that is still checking out my blog. It has been awhile since I have posted or even thought about it. I have not been posting to either of my blogs, stamping, scrapbooking, sewing - nothing for months. Between work, the kids, the house and all of the projects that seems to need done around the house the more enjoyable stuff that I like to do has taken a back burner. I have cut some squares for Madelyn's quilt and I have clean up the art room (seeing as it has been the 'catchall' room) so that I can start prepping to take things with me on vacation/weekend camping trips. I think once our camper is ready to camp in and our yardsale has happened - I may have some time to get back to ejoying my time....it will still happen at nap or bedtime for the babies as otherwise they are all hands in my projects :) One would think that the first yr of life with twins would be hard - I am thinking its year two! They are all over the place wether it is climbing, crawling, walking and even a fast almost run!

Again thank you if you are a follower and check in regularly - I appreciate it. I hope to again keep up with this blog and keep this promise to myself. My other blog - http://leonasdayzerochallenge.blogspot.com/ has a goal for me to post so many times to my blog in 1000 days. So - I really need to do this - for many reason....but mainly to keep up with things that I start and see it to the finish!! Come back soon! I hope to have something for you!

I just wanted to quickly post updated photos of my Lovies!! They are growing so fast!!!

One year ago today - I got the biggest shock of my life - I found out I was not only pregnant, but pregnant with TWINS!! To read that story click here. Now, having 4 children I am crazy busy but I wouldn't change it for anything - even on the bad days!! I have made huge decisions over the past year all because of my kids - reflecting on those decisions I am very happy that I a made them. It is a huge challenge to work at home but I do no miss those milestones with my girls. I love my girls and I love being their mom! Thank you for all of your support of the last year - I am so glad to have all of you in my life!!

I hope everyone had good times with their fathers/husbands! We had a pretty good day. I got up to make a large brunch for Matt - the girls helped me make sausage and sausage gravy, bacon, hash browns, biscuits, eggs, fresh fruit and mini cinnamon rolls. Then we had the girls outside for a while and before you knew it, it was time to finish dinner. While I did that Matt went to pick up the new fish tank. We had BBQ ribs, corn on the cob and cheesy potatoes. Then Matt got the idea that he wanted to go to some batting cages so we with to this place called the Golf Dome. Matt, Madelyn and Grace hit some baseballs then we played a round of putt putt. It was interesting to play as Matt and I each had a baby in a snuggli strapped to us. Then to top it off we got some ice-cream on the way home. It was a pretty good day!
Here is the card I made for Matt for father's day:
I love to do reflective stamping - I haven't done is in awhile so I had fun doing this again.

With this card I did not have the exact right stamp that I wanted to use. This stamp is of a man and little boy but I wanted a little girl. So, I used my impress markers to color the areas of the image that I wanted to stamp and drew in the hair of a girl to make this image work for me. I used watercolor paints to do this image. Because I used the impress marker which is waterbased I did have a lot of running but it did seem to work for this image.

Reflective stamping is a great way to get more out of your stamps. What you do is stamp the image onto wax paper and place it where the relfection needs to be on the paper ink side down. Use a bryer to rub the image onto the paper. This will be a lighter outline in some cases - it works for me. But if you want it darker go over the image with an artist pen.

Stamps Used: Seaside sketches by SU

Cardstock & Papers: Always Artichoke, white and black cardstock, designer paper from a fall stack

Ink: Palette - Noir

Accessories: brads, wax paper, watercolors, impress markers, artist pen

Techniques: reflective stamping, watercolor painting

Good Moring Everyone! I haven't posted in awhile - so I figured I would post something to catch everyone up :)

Life is as busy as always - if it wasn't it would be a problem - right? :)


To start - I finally got the twins birth announcements ordered. I hope to get them in the mail soon too - It seems every time I go to sit and start writing out the envelopes - someone needs me!

I really love how the announcements turned out - it matches their bedroom.Speaking of their bedroom - they should be moving into their bedroom with in the next month. Matt still has to paint the ceiling - it is purple from when Grace and Madelyn were in there. They are still co-sleeping. Brooke sleeps through the night - from about 8pm to 6:30 am. Dakota still wakes for a feeding. Since she nurses well I just lay her next to me and she eats what she wants and we both sleep. Speaking of nursing - Brooke is finally nursing again. So she snacks in between bid feedings - she is chubbing up too! I am impressed with myself that my breasts have not fallen off - the twins get about 30-40 oz a day to share from me and I supplement with formula. I can't belive that they will be 16 wks on Sat.

Here are some more photos of the twins - Brooke is first and third. Dakota is second and forth.



Pregnancy hormones - or coming down from them are still driving me crazy. I feel like I am 13 again going through puberty. Work is well - I think my body is finally adjusted to being back. I was lucky to not lose any pay when I took my demotion to stay home to work. I am just the 'project person' at work that they call to do things. I will also get the opportunity to go to the office when they need me.

Grace and Madelyn are doing well. Grace starts preschool in the fall - all day every day so that will be good for her. She will definatly need the practice before Kindergarden. She is doing well with the babies and always like to help with getting their binki's or diapers. Madelyn is great with the twins - she will hold one while I hold the other. I will miss her when she goes back to school in the fall.

Here are some photos of the girls:



And then the girls with the twins:


Let's see - our salt water aquarium burst and we spent the wee hours of the morning trying to save what we could. Matt is reconsidering the army rather than the marines for a career change. I am still hoping that he continues with the Fire Departments. Our pool pump has decided to kick the bucket and taxes and insurance have increased causing the mortgage to go up $400. My laundry is piled a mile high on the dining room table to fold and my studio looks like a tornado hit it. So I really need to find time to get this stuff done.

I am having a Partylite Party on Sat to help Matt's mom start her business - please come for the ice cream and candles! It will be fun to hang out!

Oh and lastly, Matt and I restarting p90x again - we stopped due to his surgery (no more babies for us) so it will be nice to get back to that. I promise to update sooner next time :)

**it took me several days just to finish this post - I started it on 6/10 and finished it on 6/17 - I need to get better at this!