Tuesday Tea and a New Drink

Today I'm drinking coffee, but I wanted to share a drink that I had last night before going to bed...

I am certainly not a milk drinker but, I was given a sample of this lovely milk drink last fall and fell in love with it.  My dear Daughter-in-law gave me some packages for Christmas and I treasure them!  Actually, I hoard them  :)

These little white squares are a licorice flavour, which is so delish when you add it to hot almond milk!  Directions say to add two cubes to a cup, but I find one is sufficient.  It was found, with much difficulty, in a delicatessen. 

Nothing new today, I'm off to read about all the others and what they are doing this beautiful, last day of January~Already!  If you check my last post, that's what I've been up to  :)  Thanks for stopping by!  

Check out the Tuesday Tea drinkers at  Kimmies 

    

Pink and Sparkly

That's the theme at  Crafts and Me Challenges.  And this is my card with a Sara Burrier digi image called Twilight Lily Fae.  I love the gentle image she presents and pink seems a perfect colour for her  :)

I've used Copics to colour her and Distress ink around the edges.  The cardstock is SU, the printed paper is Washi paper and I used my SU punch on the edges.  For some sparklies, I've used Stickles on her wings, the gems and pearls are Prima.

And up close to show you all the sparkles on her wings.

I've been doing a bit of work on my Heart  Journal as well.  This project can be found here.  

The Journal will take the year to complete with prompts each month I believe. 

I've gone ahead and done some work on mine--not sure if I'm going to continue with the year-long project.  So I've cut out all my hearts, amongst which are, 3 water colour paper hearts, 3 canvas paper hearts and 3 poster board weight and one corrugated heart which is now glued to one of the poster paper hearts.  As you can see, poster board ones are curled a bit from coating with Gesso, they'll straighten out when done  :) 

Below, you can see I've added gold acylic to the corrugated heart, but before I did that, I ripped the paper a bit and put some music paper down first.  You can see the music paper just a bit.  The heart at the top of the picture has paper that I ripped and glued down with modge podge.  I've punched holes in some~~I think I want to bind it with rings  :)     

So that's what I was up to this weekend~~other than shovelling a lot of snow  :)  

Tissue Roll Mini Book

The finished book, my first one, made from 5 tissue rolls plus the front and back covers which are from a paper towel roll.  I used cardstock and printed paper and a couple of paper embellies from CTMH, odds and ends of lace, ribbon, pearls, SU rub-ons and a couple of metal embellishments from my stash, the front and back have beautiful velvet paper.

The front and back covers are adhered together at the top, but the 5 rolls are open to hold the tags. 

A view of a few pages.

I wanted to show this view from the top so you can maybe see how I did the binding.  The cardstock from CTMH is not very thick so I doubled it, putting strong adhesive tape in the half inch fold where the rings go, then tucked (and taped) rolls into the wedge created from folding.  Hopefully the photo shows it better than I can explain  :)

Thanks for coming to look  :)  this is the first tissue roll book I've made and it was going to have inspirational quotes on the tags, but I changed my mind and thought someone could do what 'they' liked with it.

The Heart Journal is coming along and may even be done on the weekend  :)

A Bit of This and That....

I'm not really stuck in the house, but it sure isn't pleasant going outside (I did brave the weather on Tuesday).  There's plenty I should be doing.....but crafting is so much more fun than ironing  :)

I thought I'd share some of the things I'm working on.  I can't possibly start only one thing either!  Hope you have your coffee or tea.....long post  :)

This is where I sit to colour in the beautiful light.  Don't let the sun shining in deceive you, it's still -34!  And where I like to knit....should have had this done ages ago, could be using it now  :)

I think I had better quit colouring (with Copics) and get these onto cards  :)

I saw a heart journal on Patty's sight,  http://bitze.wordpress.com/ and thought I'd do one......or this might end up being a hanger or maybe two cards....depends which way the spirit moves me  :)  

I've traced this heart shaped box and painted the chipboard with gesso, stamped and embossed with clear ep, coloured with distressed inks and then a layer of clear, matt gel into which I put strips of crinkled, white wrapping tissue---the colour shows through nicely. Then I started adding some do-dads and some Iridescent Bronze acrylic all around the edges plus I painted some on the top and the 'creases'.  It's not finished yet....I'll be finished in a few days and show you the results  :)    

And of course, while paint dries on one project, I always start another (or two).  My first tissue roll mini book.  I used paper towel roll for the cover pieces, covered them all with printed paper--this is from CTMH.  Made tags to go in the five 'pages', the cover pieces I stuck together--not using them with pockets.    A couple more days to finish this one off too....

And of course, I have to bake when it's cold outside  :)
This is a sweet sticky rice, thai dessert. I did it the easy way, adding coconut milk right to the rice (and next time, I will only add 1/2 to 3/4 of a can) then, when I dished it up (warm), I added some lovely mango. 
I am trying to lose a bit of weight, what part of that includes dessert, lol.
If you only have 1/2 cup of this, it's about 125 calories. I would use 1/2 or 3/4 of a can of coconut milk with 3 cups cooked rice---just enough to make it hold it's shape if you were to put it in a roll, then add mango--I used frozen mango this time, it has a wee bit of juice when thawed.  This was enough for 7, 1/2 cup servings.
 

Then I made some good, healthy bread!  I tell you, it's delish!  I mean, what bread isn't???   This is a   recipe I use quite often, but instead of nine grain cereal, I used Red River cereal--it is so nice and full of grains, love it!  

Don't know and don't want to know, what the calories are in this  :)  Just have one slice at a time with a lovely bowl of soup and you'll keep warm  :)

If you stayed with me through this long post....Thank you  :)  and please check back in a few days, I'll have my projects finished!!

New Cupboards

Just before Christmas I had some cupboards moved from above my computer area into my craft room, thinking it would help tidy up stuff. 

Who, in there right mind, does that during the month before Christmas  :)   well, apparently I do!  All the decorations, containers, wrapping stuff, went into that room, plus my Grandson was sleeping in there for a few nights.

I've been working on my 'accomplish' word this past week--every day  :)   This is how it looks now.  The cupboards aren't quite full--but close.  I put up the punch rack today--a bit droopy, may have to put a bracket in the center.  This room used to be a bedroom and this is where the closet was.

Going around the room, the counter has a little space for me to do stuff  :)

 



I can see the table again.....

and to the left of the table, on the wall, are some more of those stick on things, like my tree, from Stampin Up.

So, that's why no crafts this first week of the New Year.  The last wall I didn't show you because it is still a disaster  :)   maybe done in a couple of days.

Thanks for taking the time in your busy day to stop by  :)

The New Year has begun....

....but I'm still relaxing and bringing it in slowly  :)  Christmas was wonderful and the decorations are still up.  The families have all gone home, as of today.   So, I'm going to use this week to get back to normal and start wearing off some of the goodies!

I have picked a word for this year.  Something that rates right up there with resolutions with me--not something I normally do, although I admire people who do.
A word suits me better maybe.  My word is ACCOMPLISH, a very positive word--almost gives one the feeling they've already done something, lol.  I'll let you know how it works for me as time passes.

Anyway, this was the beautiful sunrise this morning as it wrapped itself almost all the way around me  :)



Kim asked to see my magazine card holder when it had cards, so here it is.  I decided to put the cards in it, all facing the same way.  It wasn't the easiest thing to keep tidy because people had to take them out to look at them  :)  but everyone loved it.
 

I hope Christmas was everything you hoped it would be and you're ready for a wonderful New Year!

Thanks for coming by  :)