Quote Sunday



“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.”

~ Jack Handey ~

Saturday Gardening Incident; A Little Watermelon Card and a Couple of More Tags...

Happy Saturday! I spent my morning working out in my flower beds and had a little accident...caught my left index finger in the loppers as I was trimming some hedges and cut it pretty bad  - owie! The loppers cut through my finger nail, down into the nail bed, so I immediately ran into the house, washed my bloody finger good with soap and then applied peroxide, antibiotic cream and a bandaid. Good grief! It's my own stupid fault, though, for not putting on my gardening gloves - geesh! Oh, well...after I determined that the tip of my throbbing finger was still attached, I bandaged it up, put my gardening gloves on and went back to work in my flower beds, which by the way, look really, really nice!!

Enough drama for one day! I thought I'd share with you a few quick things that I made...

First is a cute little watermelon thank you card:

Next is a fun frog tag:

And last, but not least, is an elegant floral tag:

Enjoy your Saturday and be safe!! (Meaning wear garden gloves when using loppers - ha! ha!)

Recipe of the Week...Beef and Bean Taco Casserole

Layers of spicy, yummy goodness...that's what this recipe is all about! And, even better, it's a kid pleasin' meal that's super simple to put together!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 1 can low fat refried beans
• 1 package dry taco seasoning
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 cups crushed corn tortilla chips
• Shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• Lettuce leaves, torn into bite sized pieces
• 1 large tomato, finely chopped
• Toppings such as sour cream, black olives, chopped onions and salsa, if desired

Method:
Brown hamburger meat in a large skillet, drain off fat. Add refried beans, taco seasoning and 1 cup warm water to meat and cook until thoroughly warmed. Spray 8" x 8" casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Line bottom of prepared casserole dish with crushed corn tortilla chips. Pour meat and bean mixture over chips. Top with shredded cheddar cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. Remove from oven and top with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes and additional shredded cheddar cheese. If desired you may also add salsa, black olives, chopped onions, sour cream, etc. before serving.

Enjoy!

Tag Creations

Tags are one of my favorite things to make! They are a fun way to use up scraps of paper, stickers, stamped images, ribbon, etc. Here are 3 tags that I recently made:

I created this tag to attach to a wedding gift for a friend's daughter that recently got married:

The hugging couple image came from an old book, "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstine, that I rescued from the trash. I punched the image out using a 1 7/8" circle punch, and then matted the images on slightly larger circles that I cut from black cardstock and pink/white polka-dot cardstock. I attached the tag to a lime green gift bag, which matched the lime green ribbon on the tag.

I made the next tag to attach to a gift for my friend, Tracy S., using images that I cut out of "recycled", store-bought cards and scraps of lace and ribbon:

Next is a tag that I created as a proto-type. My friend, Tracy, needed personalized tags to attach to gift bags she was preparing for her daughter's soccer team tournament, so here's the design that I came up with for her:

The final tags that I ended up making for her used a blue accent at the top, rather than a red one, since her daughter's soccer team uniform color is blue. (Sorry, but I didn't take a picture of the final tags!) The soccer ball is an image that I found online and resized so that I could use my 1 1/2" circle punch to punch them out. I attached the soccer balls to the tags with 3-D dots.

Wishing you a fantastic day!

Quote Sunday

There's a place that I travel 
When I want to roam,
And nobody knows it but me.
The roads don't go there
And the signs stay home,
And nobody knows it but me.
It's far, far away
And way, way afar,
Over the moon and the sea.
And wherever you're going,
That's wherever you are,
And nobody knows it but me.


~Old Chevrolet Advertisement...Author Unknown

Recipe of the Week..."Spicy Ranch Snack Crackers"

My friend and co-worker, Lesda, shared the recipe with me for these incredible and VERY addictive snack crackers. They really hit the spot when you need something salty/spicy/crunchy to snack on and they are really quick and inexpensive to make too!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
• 2 Tablespoons dried red pepper flakes
• 1 package dry Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix
• 1 package, (4 sleeves), wheat saltine crackers

Method:
Combine vegetable oil, pepper flakes and dressing mix in a large glass measuring cup and whisk until blended. Unwrap crackers and place them in a large baking pan. Pour oil mixture over crackers and gently stir every 15 minutes for about an hour until crackers are thoroughly coated and there is no more oily mixture in the bottom of the pan. Store in an airtight container. DELICIOUS!! (P.S. - Warning! You won't be able to eat just one of these crackers - hee! hee!)

Wishing you a happy day,

Yippee!! Blog Candy for Me!

What a fun surprise it was to find out that I'd won some terrific, crafty blog candy from my blog buddy, Stacie!! (Check out her wonderful blog HERE). I received all of the goodies shown above in the mail last Friday...it was a fantastic way to end the week!! Thanks, Stacie for your generosity...you're a peach!

Also, I found out today that I'd won the fabulous patriotic blog candy shown below from Kimberly at Scrap It Girl...click HERE to check out her awesome blog. Thanks, Kimberly - you made my day!

Blessings,

A Little Pocket "Get Well Soon" Card and Bookmark...

My friend and co-worker, Sherri L., recently had knee surgery and has been home recuperating for the past couple of weeks. (If you remember, Sherri gave me the recipe for the Miraculous Moisturizing Cream...click HERE for the recipe if you missed it). Anyhoo, I made a cute little card and bookmark for Sherri to cheer her up while she's home recuperating. I used the following Close to My Heart products for this card:

• Rustic Alphabet Stamp Set #E1002
• Playful Flourishes Stamp Set (discontinued, but the Cherished Flourishes Stamp Set #D1413 could be used instead)
• Card Chatter Sympathy Stamp Set #D1476
• Wings Level II Paper Packet #X7135B
• Buttercup Yellow Cardstock #1271
• Garden Green Cardstock #1244
• White Daisy Cardstock #1385
• Black Cardstock #1386
• Sweet Leaf Stamp Pad #Z2153
• Juniper Stamp Pad #Z2165
• Black Stamp Pad #Z2105

Non-CTMH products used:

• Burgandy grosgrain ribbon
• Green satin ribbon
• Fiskars paper crimper
• 1 7/8" scallop circle paper punch

Here's a picture of the card with the bookmark inside the front pocket:

Here's the inside of the card:

And here's a close-up photo of the bookmark:

Thanks for looking...have a great day!

Quote Sunday

"...patience is better than pride". ~ Ecc. 7:8

Recipe of the Week...Gram's Hummingbird Nectar

As a little girl growing up in the country and living next door to my grandparents, I have fond memories of my grandma making hummingbird nectar to feed the hummingbirds that would flock to her feeders. She, my granddaddy and I would sit outside in metal lawn chairs under one of their huge oak trees and watch the hummingbirds feed and dive-bomb each other in rivalry over the sweet nectar that she would make. (Gosh, I miss my grandparents so much!) Since the temperature here is now warm enough to hang a feeder on my patio, I thought I would share my grandmother's recipe with you for hummingbird nectar:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups white granulated sugar
• 8 cups water
• 12 drops red food coloring (optional)

Method
In a large pot bring sugar and water to a rolling boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add red food coloring to mixture if desired. Allow nectar to cool and then pour into hummingbird feeder. Store any leftover nectar in the refrigerator.

Enjoy the day!