Round and Round

The Challenge this week at Little Red Wagon is Round and Round. I recently completed this baby card and I used a couple circles so I decided to link up. After I put the card together and decided to make a few more, I realized I had lost the bundle die. I think it may have stuck to the paper and I discarded it with the scraps. Oh well, I figured out I could use an upside down balloon and cut out a little heart inside it.All is not lost (other then the die)

And here is my original card...

I loved paper piecing the stork which I had been referring to as a swan because I couldn't think of the name of the bird that delivered babies. I think I'll stamp Congratulations on the inside. It's always difficult to know what sentiment to use. I think I'm pretty safe with that one.

Holiday Weekend and Rhubarb Squares

I've fallen behind on my posting but that's ok, it's been beautiful weather and lots of yardwork to accomplish.
It was a fantastic Long weekend and here are a couple of the highlights...

I had to post a picture of this dinner, it was so yummy. Homemade burgers, potato salad, mixed green salad and grilled asparagus. HELLO SUMMER!
Spent some time making these to donate to the Purina Walk for Dog Guides which took place today and boy was it hot!

They were kept chilled until the last minute but it was a scorcher for May!

And I took advantage of the season for rhubarb and made these delicious squares for the second time this year for company. I went to backlink the recipe and it looks like I have never posted it. So here goes...

Rhubarb Squares
Bottom layer
 1 cup flour
1/3 cup butter (cut into dry mixture with pastry blender)
2 Tbsp brown sugar

Middle layer
2 1/4 cup rhubarb
1 cup white sugar
2 Tbsp cream
3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Topping
3 egg whites
6 Tbsp sugar

Combine bottom layer, press into 8x8 pan and bake for 20 min at 325F.
Meanwhile, get rhubarb stewing. Put middle layer ingredients in a heavy pot and cook over medium, stirring until thick. Pour over base when it comes out of oven.

Beat the egg whites until stiff, add sugar. Cover squares with meringue and brown in 325F oven. 10 - 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Maya is 9!

My sweet Doodle turned 9 years old. I thought it was yesterday but it was really today. Got a little confused by the Holiday weekend. She is doing well after knee surgery a year ago but is definitely slowing down. She is enjoying her time in the sun...

She got lots of pets on her birthday and enjoyed a long walk in the forest yesterday to admire the trilliums.

Spring Wildflowers

I was able to go down to London about a week ago and they were a little ahead of us in the spring foliage department. There is a little urban forest where I like to walk the dogs. At the start of the trail, this stump had been recently cut. Can you imagine that tree coming down on you? and worst of all, it probably wasn't even visibly rotten from the outside. I tried to get Maya to stand up beside it so you could see the scale...

The beautiful trilliums were out everywhere along the trail...

and if you looked closely, you could spot the Jack in the Pulpits, another favourite of mine....

I wonder how they fared with the weather we had on Sunday. Imagine, SNOW in May!

Crop for MS

Yesterday, I was able to attend a new Crop that I had never been to before in Woodstock. These ladies are called the Merry Striders and are a group of sisters whose mother and Aunt are afflicted with this disease. One of their fundraising efforts is to put on 2 Fundraising crops per year. Their efforts over the last few years from this endeavour plus many more has raised over $200 000 for MS research and assistance. That's pretty impressive.

There were lots of door prizes and a couple fun toonie games. They had this incredible board that was filled with images all made from the Cricut. You could buy a spot for a toonie and the 2 lucky winners got either a Creative Memories gift basket plus $100 gas card or  tickets to Drayton Entertainment (your choice). I really need one of these boards.

I should mention that the theme for this Crop was COWBOY and boy, did they go all out for the decor...
There was a full saloon setup...

And many other touches around the room....

All the hosts were dressed in costume and there was even a little skit complete with "saloon girls".
The meals followed along with the theme also... Wraps, baked beans and cole slaw for lunch and chili, veggie tray, nacho chips etc for dinner...

They even served it in a tin pie plate. Lots of thought went into this event and they did really well, raising over $4000. I had a great day spent with friends and even managed to make a card or two.

Watercolours

So I'm a little late jumping on the bandwagon but at Scrapfest, I did a make and take using the Tim Holtz water pen and I really liked the fact that you could just use your distress or water-based inks. No need to buy additional items other then hmmm let's see.. watercolour paper and the water pen and of course, various colours of ink that you might "need".
So I've gotten together with a couple friends and we actually pulled out a few different supplies and experimented with them..

So then I broke down and bought a water colour set. LOL. I think I will just be using them for colouring images. I'm not inclined to make my own paper. This technique seems to be really fast and I'm all over that.
Worth checking out.

Christmas Cactus

I received this beauty around Christmas time and it bloomed right on schedule. I've never been able to keep them going in this house due to poor window exposure but I'm happy to say that this time I got it right. As long as you don't move them, I think they are happy. Just look at the delicate pink blooms. Aren't they lovely just in time for spring?

Kraftin' Kimmie

I was able to whip together a basic card using some stamps that I picked up at Scrapfest in the Kraftin Kimmie booth. It was nice to chat with the owner of the company and I'm happy I have some interesting new stamps to add to my Sympathy collection.

I stamped in Coffee ink which is a departure for me and I really liked the large sentiment as the focus...

I'm linking up the the Wednesday ANYTHING GOES challenge. I haven't used my KK stamps for quite some time so I was happy to get stamping again.

Our "somewhat" annual golf tourament

Since the whole family likes to golf we try to get together every year around Dad's birthday to celebrate and do something that we all enjoy. We even have a trophy and if you're the lucky winner, you get your name engraved and placed on it for the year.

I was in charge of prizes and I thought I did pretty well considering the ages ranged from 12 to 85. We have prizes for the whitest legs, best hair, tallest socks and we even throw in a few legit ones like least putts in a round, longest drive etc.
Even though I thought I did not too badly for my first time out this year, this is where my ball ended up on about the 8th hole..

Definitely NOT playable!
The coolest thing was the new golf boards. We rented one and the youngest had a BLAST wheeling it around the course....

It felt very futuristic, what a great idea especially for the kids. You lean to the right or left to help steer it along.

It also provides a dry place to sit while you're waiting. I think this will catch on like gangbusters with the younger generation.

All in all, even though it could have been a little warmer, we had a fun afternoon.

Ottawa

So I was in Ottawa recently, only the 2nd time I've ever been there, partly work related combined with a little mini vacay. I was able to tour the Parliament buildings which I found very interesting and quite impressive. Also free which is a bonus.

I also toured the Museum of Science and Nature which was quite good and walked around Byward Market and saw some of the downtown sites. Lots of construction going on but the City was easy to navigate and I quite enjoyed it overall.

So when I went to type up this blogpost, I realized the only photo I took during the entire trip was of the dog Rescue station at the Westin hotel. I only took half of the space because a prospective adopter was in with the dog having a meet and greet. What a great way for an organization to support and socialize animals for adoption. His area was quite posh...

There was a 4 month old Husky male cross up for grabs. I wonder if he got adopted?