Fun Times

Boy have I been bad!  Well not so much bad as just sick and when I thought I was getting over it I would get sick again -Yuk!  I finally did shake it and I am feeling so much better!  In fact I was feeling so much better that when my DH's parents came for a visit with a few of there friends from Oregon I hosted a dinner for the group Sunday night and joined in on a few of the planned activities.   We spent time Saturday and Sunday together and we all had a great time.
BIG Thanks to Susan, Bruce, Jodi, Paul, Diane, Bill, Brenda, Ron, Sue and Kenny!  


Saturday
The group met at a local place for dinner on Saturday - not just any old dinner but a BBQ with a little bit of gold panning thrown in.  What fun we had!  The group had signed up with a local place called The Roaring Camp Mining Co.  click on the link and click on Saturday BBQ for some fun details.


We drove down to Roaring Camp after signing in and then loaded up on a huge pick up truck with bench seats for the drive down to camp.

Did I mention there were 12 of us!  We almost filled the truck up!

This is no little dinner it's a five hour treat starting with the drive down to camp, a tour of the camp, a little gold panning, entertainment and dinner.

See the beautiful river, the picnic tables and the entertainment stage.  You can see a few people hanging around waiting for the dinner bell to ring!

This is where you pan for gold.  You get a shovel full of dirt in your pan and swirl the pan in the water and hopefully find gold in that there pan!  :(  I was not lucky enough to have any gold but two of our group had a good hunk in their pan's.  Yee Haw!

This is after the dinner and since it was cold outside we all were invited inside for a little bit of Brandy, Coffee and story telling by our host.  We had loads of fun and a good time was had by all. 

We did have to load back up on the pick up and with music playing we headed back up top for an end to the evening.  

More fun to come so check in tomorrow and read about the wine tasting tours!

Mojo Monday 138

Well since I have not had a chance to participate in any challenge over the past week I decided I would make time for the Mojo Monday challenge even if it is Thursday! Ha! You can check out all the goodness over at Mojo Monday at the link above.

This sketch is by Julee Tilman

Here is my take on this sketch - we've have had a few days of sunshine which I was needing very badly!  I've had a terrible head cold for the last few days and finally today am feeling somewhat normal!  Yay!  No more vertigo!

I think this is so bright and cheery!  I love these colors together!

{You are my sunshine - supplies}


Paper: DCWV/Brights, Citrus & PTI Cream
card stock

Stamps: PTI sentiment from the Frames 3 set


Ink: Orange Zest from PTI


Other: Flowers cut from Cricut/Plantin cartridge, pop ups

Cinco de Mayo and Friends

Well I have not had a chance to get any challenge play in of late.  But I did have a Cinco de Mayo party to attend this past weekend!  We had lots of fun and I would estimate about 40+ people showed up.  A good time was had by all!  This is a yearly event put on by a couple who announced last year they had gotten married!  Surprise! for sure.  So this being their one year anniversary I figured I should come up with a card to give them.  I wanted something elegant and not related to Cinco de Mayo and I think I accomplished that.  

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SANDY & LARRY!

Color Challenge Photo's

Kristina Werner is asking for photo posts for a color challenge.  When I saw this challenge I immediately thought of a couple of photo's I have always liked.  Of course - when you start to look for that one photo you end up looking at lot's of photo's.  So I ended up with a couple of choices to pick from.  I thought I would post the two photo's then make my choice.  So here are my photo's below.

So I thought once I posted the two photo's I would be able to choose one really quickly - Ug!  Not happening I really love both of these!  These photo's are a trip to Disney Land we took a few years ago.  In the first photo - Teacups!  I love the teacups they are just so colorful and pretty.  The second photo with the Sunburst and the Mickey Mouse outline and the reflection on the water I thought was fabulous.  To find out which one I chose to submit head on over to Kristina's blog and check it out.

French Bread Recipe "Easy"

A few weeks back I posted a yummy corn chowder recipe!  Very tasty and easy!  I also had made a loaf of french bread which I said I would post the recipe here.  Very easy!  Very Yummy!  I love the smell of bread baking.  Love warm bread with butter spread all over.  Oh my!

So you will need the following to make this bread.  Active Dry Yeast (not rapid rise), sugar, salt, flour, olive oil, and hot water (at least 110 not over 125 degrees).

Put your yeast into your mixer bowl along with one teaspoon of sugar.  Add hot water and proof until yeast is bubbly (about 5 minutes).  Add two and a half cups of flour, one teaspoon of salt into the yeast mixture.  With bread dough hook attached to mixer, mix the yeast and flour mixture until it starts to pull away from the mixing bowl.

Then take the dough out of the mixing bowl and dust your surface with a little bit of flour and knead until dough is no longer sticky (add flour as you go).

Place dough in a well oiled bowl and rub oil on top of dough and cover with plastic wrap.  Set in a warm place to rise (if your room is really warm it will take about 30 minutes) for approximately 45 minutes.

Punch dough down and spread out into an oblong shape - roll dough up gently and place in a french loaf pan or a cookie sheet cover with plastic wrap and let rise again for approximately 30 minutes.

Once bread has risen the second time remove plastic wrap and place bread in a pre-heated 450 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool slightly before slicing and buttering.  Enjoy! (I put melted butter on top of this loaf after it cooled slightly)

French Bread Recipe

1 packet of active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup hot water (110 - 125 degrees)

3 cups all purpose flour (I use unbleached flour)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Mix yeast, sugar with hot water until yeast becomes bubbly (proofing the yeast).  Add two and a half cups of flour and mix until dough pulls away from the bowl.  Place on lightly floured surface and knead dough until smooth and no longer sticky (use the remaining flour as needed).  Place dough in bowl with olive oil and rub top of dough with oil and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise for approximately 45 minutes.  Punch dough down and gently spread out into oblong shape, roll up into jelly roll shape and put in french loaf pan or cookie sheet.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise again for approximately 30 minutes.  Remove plastic wrap and bake in preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown.  Enjoy!

Tip:  For those who do not have a stand mixer you can still do this recipe.  Follow the directions using a hand mixer but only add a half cup of flour at a time (do not add all the flour at once).  Depending on your hand mixer after adding one to two cups you will need to turn the dough out onto the counter and knead in the rest of the flour until it becomes smooth.  This process will take longer because you are actually adding the flour by kneading it into the dough.  Follow the rest of the recipe normally.

Spring Weather

Well I don't know about everyone else, but our weather has been just wacky!  One weekend will be nice and the next we have snow and hail.  I just wasn't sure if planting flowers and my garden were going to be in the works this year.  I actually started on a project that I had found in my home file and my DH was willing to help out!

These are corner planters that my DH built from my file plans and I decided to get some spring color on the deck and painted them tangerine!   Is that the brightest orange you've ever seen.  I saw the color and thought why not!  I was thinking with some pretty flowers it would look great.  Then I thought flowers - um!

So I painted yellow flowers on the boxes to go with the orange - bright and spring like  don't ya think?  It's been weeks since these were completed and finally today I decided to plant flowers.  My only problem now is they are calling for snow all the way down to 4000 ft I'm hoping it doesn't get any lower or I'll lose what I planted today. :(   I just couldn't wait any longer and bought these flowers yesterday.  I am so ready for nice spring weather.

The Play Date Cafe Challenge PDCC #26

It's that time PDCC!  This week the sponsor is Mod Podge Rocks and the awesome host is Amy Anderson!  She is very generous and is offering up a Mod Podge Rocks "Starter Pack" for "Cup of the Week".  As Julie Ranae said this is not your mama's Mod Podge check it out at Amy's blog click the Mod Podge Rocks link above.

This week's celebrity guest designer is Jen Tapler of Jen Tapler Designs.  Jen said, "I'm really into hybrid papercrating (digi meets traditional).  Let me tell you with all her lists of other accomplishments and her addiction to all things paper - she has to be one busy gal!

So this week's Cafe Challenge is from Julie Ranae - inspired by the Sundance catalog.  Yummy eye-candy for sure!

This is PDCC's celebrity guest Jen Tapler's design!  Wonderful eye-candy as well!  Along with all the other design teams creations - well! I just had to play! 

Check out all the gorgeous creations over at PDCC.  Lot's of wonderful talent there to ogle over.

Here is my card for this challenge!  I'm always having fun playing with the Play Date Cafe Challenge. - so this card was just a bit different for me!  I used foil for the silver in my card!  Hope you like it?  The sentiment is a little light in this picture but it say's "thinking of you".