Green Tea Poundcake~

How would you like to eat your tea? Green tea powder can easily be used in cookie and cake recipes~ You can also steep your favorite tea in any liquid the recipe calls for such as milk, cream, wine or water. Just make sure the milk or cream is not boiled, but just warmed, before adding the tea. Then let the tea steep until mixture cools, remove tea bags or leaves, then finish preparing the recipe. Most fruit, spice, almond, mint, lemon or cinnamon stick flavored teas work well in baking. We like making Martha Stewart's Green Tea Cookies for teatime.

photo from Martha Stewart website

When the world is all at odds
And the mind is all at sea
Then cease the useless tedium
And brew a cup of tea.
There is magic in its fragrance,
There is solace in its taste;
And the laden moments vanish
Somehow into space.
The world becomes a lovely thing!
There’s beauty as you’ll see;
All because you briefly stopped
To brew a cup of tea~

anonymous

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Whatever You Want Wednesday

Feed Regularly~

Clothes are fun. I especially like jackets, purses and scarves. A great jacket can be worn with wardrobe basics and voila! Suddenly you look put together. I have this thing about quality versus quantity, too. Most times, I prefer to purchase something that will last, look good and function well as opposed to a lot of stuff that falls apart after a few uses/washes. I am patient, so I will wait for a sale or clearance also. But ultimately, I know what is 'on the outside' is a small matter to what is 'on the inside'. Since high school one of my favorite quotes has been from R.W. Emerson~

          What lies behind you,
        and what lies before you,
       Are tiny matters compared to
          What lies within you.

Character cannot be bought. Manners, courtesy, compassion, patience and graciousness are not for sale. They must be nurtured and tended. Like a garden, left unwatered, unweeded, and uncared for it yields little and may eventually become barren. I planted bulbs last year in our backyard. We watered and weeded, we fertilized and tended. When we looked outside this morning we spotted something beautiful for our efforts.....

At the base of our large Bay Tree bloomed a Daffodil~

I thought you might enjoy this story shared with me by a dear friend of mine. It sums up my philosophy quite well!

One evening an old man told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. 

"One is Evil -  It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego..

"The other is Good -  It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"
                

The old man simply replied, "The one you feed."

 

 

The Birthday Teacup~

At our home the 'birthday' person gets to use the Royal Doulton Brambly Hedge Birthday set when celebrating their birthday. Starting with breakfast, and ending the day with a slice of cake, whoever is adding another candle to their celebration has the honor of using these charming dishes. I have the matching teacup and saucer, naturally!  Most recently it was my turn to see little Wilfred learning to play his new birthday whistle, pictured on the cup and plate.

The images are by artist Jill Barklem who also wrote and illustrated several children's books with her wonderful world of mice living in Brambly Hedge~

The mice surprised Wilfred with a little picnic and some fun toys.

Everyone shared a big pink cake made by Mrs. Crustybread~

After the feasting, the grown-ups took a nap~

My daughter baked up some Oatmeal Flaxseed Cookies for our own little picnic~

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/oatmeal-flax-chocolate-chip-cookies-recipe/index.html

Flaxseed are small brown seeds that you can easily grind in a blender. We tried using the food processor and they just flew around! They are nutrional powerhouses. You can add them to many baked items.

I am sharing this post with~
Martha's Favorites
Artful Affirmations
Uncommonly Yours

ScrapbookPal.com Design Team entry~

You are my Cup of Tea

Valentine's Day is fast approaching. Didn't we just celebrate the holidays?! Well, I couldn't wait to create some special cards for some special people, so I got out a stamp I think is perfect for sending heartfelt wishes...a teacup!

I also got out my Distress Inks and Cutter Bee scissors, along with a vintage book page. I like to stamp with waterproof ink then color the image with Distress Inks and my Zig H2O pen.

I removed a page from the book, tore the edges, then inked them with an ink blending tool. Keep one side of the sponge applicator lifted (shown) as you use small circular motions to apply ink to all sides of your paper or page.

Here is the result~ I mounted the book page to graphic 45 houndstooth cardstock, then stamped random hearts on it.

I stamped Inkadinkadoo's Alice In Wonderland White Rabbit twice: once on white cardstock and once on Tim Holtz grungepaper.

I want the rabbit to have a nice white head and legs (he IS the White Rabbit, afterall!) so I will fussy cut the head and legs from the cardstock and adhere them to the painted grungepaper Rabbit. When I finished painting the Rabbit's clothing, I put some Stickles on his neck ruff.

I stamped the words 'Je Taime' and 'Amour' on a narrow strip of white cardstock, then placed it under a length of sheer white ribbon that I placed horizontally across the houndstooth card front.

I wanted to use a chipboard heart that coordinated with the card colors, so I used Broken China Distress Ink and misted  water to dye the piece.

Just smear Distress ink on a craft mat (or wax paper), mist it with water, then rub the chipboard around in the mixture~

I made a narrow slit in the teacup edge in which to slide the Rabbit. A Fiskars craft knife works well for this job.

All that is left to do is glue everything down~ I stamped a sentiment and wrapped a bit of bakery string around the edges. I also put a coat of Glossy Accents on the chipboard heart, then placed it on the saucer.

The teacup is mounted on foam to give it a bit of dimension.

    All ready for February 14! I think I will make another one :)

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sharing this post~ uncommon designs online

ScrapbookPal.com Design Team entry~

I have been having fun making cards with layered stamping and decided to use my Cricut and the Summer In Paris cartridge along with my inks and stamps. Instead of using my Cricut to cut out an image, I used it to draw one on the card front!

I replaced the blade with the Cricut Fashion Color Marker in pink to draw the Eiffel Tower.

I used light to medium pressure to draw the image, otherwise the pen presses too firmly onto the cardstock and the lines are heavier.

Voila! I love the swirly interior design. I had the machine draw a second image which I fussy cut with Cutter Bee scissors. I planned to use foam adhesive to mount the fussy cut Tower above the flat image later. I used a Stampendous Music Score stamp and Tattered Rose Distress Ink to stamp the sheet music over the Tower.

I also stamped 'Paris', a fleur de lis and a compass using Distress Inks. The next step was to add small red brads on either side of 'Paris' and distress the edges, then mount the piece to a small houndstooth print.

I like adding the fussy cut Eiffel Tower to give the card front added dimension~

I aligned a ruler along the edge of the blank card after I glued a vintage book page to it~ this allowed me to tear the excess off and give the card a deckle edge. I could not use a traditional method to distress the edges of the book page because it was old and fragile.

The finishing touch was to adhere a small red rose to the Eiffel Tower and stamp an inside sentiment~

I like the combo of various pinks and browns~

Candy and cards~

The Scrap Cake is having a giveaway through January 31. Such sweet, soft colors perfect for your paper creations~

Speaking of paper creations, I made a couple of cards using layered stamping. I like using several stamps in inks of similiar value, then overlapping the images. On this one I stamped music notes, then a compass, a fleur de lis and the Eiffel Tower.

 

• Liquid Pearls, platinum
• Cuttlebug embossing folder, clockworks
• Quick Quotes Pink Cheeks ink, Ranger Distress Ink
• graphic 45 houndstooth cardstock

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I did some layered stamping on this card too! I could not wait to use my new IndigoBlu Pomp and Pageantry set.

 

 

 First I masked some clouds on the background. Next, I stamped some writing. I used Ranger Iced Spruce Distress Ink to stamp the Union Jack design behind the man. Then I stamped the title and Big Ben, and finished it with a British postage stamp.

      
                

• IndigoBlu stamps
• Distress Ink & blending tool
• Cutter Bee scissors to fussy cut man
• foam adhesive to mount man to card

 

 

 

Water Can so Easily Become Tea~

I like the sentiment 'Bread and water can so easily become tea and toast'. Just heat some water, add some good tea and have a tea party for one...or 20! Did you know that hard water affects the quality and taste of your afternoon cuppa?  Soft water can also affect the taste.

According to Water for Tea Brewing by L. Goodwin, the best water to prepare tea with is quality spring water with a neutral pH of 7.

"Aside from fresh mountain stream water and good-quality bottled spring water, filtered tap water is generally the best option for brewing tea. Some neutral-tasting tap water may not even need to be filtered".

Yorkshire Tea actually sells tea for those of you with hard water!

Please visit Sweetly Scrapped for wonderful free printables! It is the perfect time to make a Valentine or two~

The Mission Inn~

The Mission Inn in Riverside, California decorates with hundreds of lights during the holiday season. This year the dates for the Festival Of Lights were extended until January 8, which gave us the chance to visit close to my birthday! I'd been wanting to see the lights in person for several years.

this photo from Mission Inn website

We arrived in the late afternoon, parked, and walked around the pedestrian plaza lined with shops and businesses. We were surprised to find an outdoor ice skating rink open to visitors.

I liked having the chance to see everything by daylight~ I took a few photos before dusk for the contrast. There is a gift shop called Mrs. TiggyWinkles that I had been in almost 18 years ago, and it is still there. It is chock full of pretty home decor pieces, gift and novelty items.

There were food vendors selling mini donuts, almonds, kettle corn, cotton candy and gingerbread~

We had dinner alfresco at Las Campanas~ It was warm enough to sit under the palm trees without jackets.

While we were having dinner the moon rose and the sky grew darker. Suddenly the lights came on all over the Mission Inn!

Everything was aglow...it was magical!

Twilight gave way to inky night and the lights blazed~

We finished dining and strolled around the Mission Inn and even stopped in the Museum store to buy a few postcards.

There were also moving figures, or animatronics.

There were carriage rides, and the horses had lights in their manes!

Here are a few other photos I took~

We visited Casey's Cupcakes for desert~

I bought the dark chocolate cupcake and my husband got the milk chocolate. They were the best cupcakes I have ever purchased!

What a wonderful evening, and a great way to spread out my birthday celebration!