April 19th

April 19th . . .

Twenty years ago on this date, we became a family of 3.

Caitlyn Alexandra joined us and until then, I never knew that I could love someone so much.

I remember just rocking her & crying, crying, crying cuz she was my world.

Then there were the times that I just cried, cried, cried cuz she was a colicky baby & wouldn't stop screaming for hours on end . . .

These were some of my first scrapbook pages ever & I don't think they turned out too bad . . .

(Please ignore the fugly, I-just-spent-20-hours-in-labor-without-any-drugs hair I had back then. And, yes . . . I must have been on drugs to NOT want them!)

Well, here she is now . . .all grown up, but still my little girl.

I used some new "On the Dot" papers and tags for this page . . . .

Her most favorite cake of all time is a "Chocolate Cake Roll" and requests it every year for her birthday.

Keep on reading if you would like the recipe to try for yourself!

And since I had leftover papers from this "Pink Lemonade" collection, I also made a page for my niece, Nadia, back home in Wisconsin . . .

So here ya go, Cake Lovers . . . Try this one out.

(My favorite part is the filling . . . yum-yum-yum!)

Chocolate Cake Roll

3/4 c. flour

1/4 c. baking cocoa

1 t. baking pwd

1/4 t. salt

3 lrg. eggs - separated

1 c. sugar

5T. water

1 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350* and line a jellyroll pan w/ was paper. Grease & flour entire pan.

Beat egg whites until frothy & add 1/4 c. sugar. Beat until stiff.

In another bowl, beat egg yolks until light-colored and add 3/4 c. sugar. Continue beating this until it's thick & creamy. Add water & vanilla.

Fold yolk mixture into the whites, and add dry ingredients.

Spread in pan and bake 20 mins.

Remove from oven & immediately invert cake onto a dish towel sprinkled heavily with powdered sugar. Roll cake into the towel while warm & let cool.

Cake Filling

1/2c. four

1/2 c. shortening

1/2 c. butter

3/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. milk

Beat all ingredients except milk until smooth. Gradually add milk and continue beating for approx. 10 mins.

Spread onto cooled cake and reroll.

*NOTE* . . .the longer you beat the filling, the fluffier it becomes.

Hope you all enjoy this as much as we do!

My Fave Antiques

Today I thought I'd share some of my fave oldie-but-goodie things that I've collected over the years.

I've always loved really dated, old, rusty, antique-y stuff.

Some things jump out at me more than others & if I can afford to, I treat myself here & there. That doesn't happen too often tho' cuz with 4 kid-lettes there's always milk, cereal, & bread to buy. 6 gallons, 6 boxes, & 6 loves per week add up fast!

So since this blog is suppose be sharing some of my treasures along with the paper pretties, I decided it was time to show you all some of my stuff. . . . just not all at 1 time.

For today, I'm gonna let you peek at my basement . . . well not the whole thing - just when you get to the bottom of the stairs.

There's a little alcove thingie which is perfect for the table I found about 10 yrs ago. I had plans to refinish it, but I've decided I like it just how it is. . . all ratty, beat up, & cracked.

It's home to a basket of wooden thread spools, some crocheted lace gloves, an old hand mirror / perfume bottle, & some vintage photos we had taken at Olan Mills.

I love this one of the boys . . . We chopped down some bamboo from our yard, stripped the leaves, & took the poles along with us.

Olan Mills even asked permission to keep this print on display for awhile in their studio!

On the wall above, I framed 2 copies of McCall's magazines that are dated 1906 & 1908 . . .I just love those!

Underneath is a basket of old iron horseshoes, a few of my teddy bears, my collection of Victoria magazines (is that even still in publication?) & another album that I keep old magazine pages of the Onieda Silverware ads in.

On the side wall, is one of those expandable, cheap cup rack things on which I hung vintage hats with the lace netting & feathers, and old purse, & another pair of gloves

And I'm also gonna show you 2 things from my laundry room that I love dearly . . .

My basket of red-handled vintage kitchen tools ( the old beaters was my great-grandmother's) and 4 wooden blocks whose initials I hunted for for a L-O-N-G time. They stand for my babies ~ Caitlyn, Samantha, Alexander, & Zachary.

That's it for now . . .I've got soooo much more to share so check back!

Thanx for reading!

Yummy Stuff!

Today I'm sharing a little secret that I found.

I love to bake . . .I like cooking too, but really love baking more. I guess it's cuz of the sweet stuff involved.

Last year, hubby & I stopped at Lanes Peach Packing here in Georgia after a trip to a car show in Macon.

We took a little tour and bought some peaches & other good stuff.

Among that good stuff was a package of Cobbler Mix.

Husband absolutely love, love, loved it with the fresh peaches so I've been on the hunt for some good, easy recipes.

Found some OK make-from-scratch ones . . . but nothing like the mix was.

Well, who would have thought that while shopping at Wally World I would find one!

And for cheap!

It was tucked in with the breading, fishy-hushpuppy stuff (note on the label ~ it says fish fry products). . . .but I found it!

So here it is . . . in all it's yummy-ness!

And you gotta have some good vanilla ice cream with it when it's warm . . .that's a requirement!

Now we've only done peaches so far but I'm dying to make a cherry one! I'll let ya know how that one turns out!

Quick Mini-Mini Album

Today I decided to share an really, really, quick, quick, mini-mini album that ANYONE could throw together in about 10 minutes.

Now, these handy, dandy embellishment thingies I used as my pages are called Page Coasters from Cloud 9. They've been around for quite awhile but someone may not know exactly how to use them.

They have alot of different themes, with 3 cards in a package . . . .here's just a couple that they offer:

Now, I'm no expert, but this is what I did with the Family set. . .

I punched 3 holes with my Crop-a-dile, added some ribbon scraps, and an "S" charm (for Stoddard) to the front cover.

Super Simple! And a cute gift for someone, to boot!

Secret Sister Gift

With Spring here and Easter on it's way very quickly, I decided it was time to get something together for my Secret Scrappin' Sister.

And this is what I'm giving her . . . .

Scrap Goodies in a cutesie gift bag are all right, but this is much more fun!

Instead of plant stakes, I purchased some inexpensive forks at Wally World & bent them apart a little bit so the packages would stand straight up . . .

Hope she likes it!