February Swap Card

Let's keep it going....
I always get asked for Sympathy cards and I just love the monochromatic tones of this card. Very classy!

I used the MFT stitched blooms that I just LOVE. I didn't have the right size sentiment so guess what? I did it on my computer. I have no knowledge of how to download fonts etc, I just choose one in word that looked pretty good and it worked out great.

Keri used a stamp set from Simon Says Stamp... I just can't get over how cute that little puppy is in the bicycle basket and the rainbow clouds. Stunning!

And the inside...

We have so much fun every month revealing our cards and its a good reason to get together and catch up.

March Goals and Habits

Before we get to the March goals, lets see how February played out...


1. Send one card. (I actually sent 4 cards; 1 Sympathy, 1 Thinking of You, 2 Valentine

2. 15 minutes of stretching or yoga or strength training (Hard FAIL!) I think I did this twice although I did locate my weights and bands, I'll keep trying this one.

3. Spend 15 minutes cleaning up computer (emails, photos etc) I regularly try and delete emails but I need to spend a little more time cleaning up this old computer

I also did pretty well, keeping up with my Jan Goals; keeping sink clean, Reading( 3 books in Feb) and blog posts (only 6 so short by 2 but not too bad)

March Goals
1. Go the the Gym once a week. After keeping my gym on hold for over 3 years, I needed to make a decision. I'm committing to once a week, likely Aquasize but we will see how it goes.

2. Do 5 Donation requests for Loonies for Lindor (I'm a little early with this but it's very time consuming so I wanted to get a start. Plus you have to approach a large number to have any success.

3. Find a Retail store(s) to sell some of my cards. I finally got around to organizing my cards and I found that I have over 500. So I pitched my product to one store and was successful. More on that once I sign the contract and have gathered a sampling together to pitch to another store. Well I don't expect to make a ton of money, it's fun to see if someone will buy your product and I really need to make room for more.

January Swap Card

We are getting caught up. FUN FACT! Keri and I started this exchange in August 2016. We've fallen behind but we've never missed a month. I think that's pretty good. Surprisingly we both did Lawn Fawn cards.
Keri used the Skating Mice that she actually won in an on-line give away. So cute...

Here's the stamp and die set she used..

I used the Taco Birthday set. I found my card a little basic but I added some stickles to the party hat and some sparkly enamel dots and I thought it ramped it up a bit...

Here's the stamp set that I used....

I'd better get posting. I'm falling behind in my biweekly post goals. Where does the time go?

Where did February go?

The winter months are when I usually get caught up on some of the household organization and chore list but they are flying by and I'm not sure where the time is going so I decided to take a quick look back and see what is filling up my days.

First off there is lots of this...

Lots of getting together and catching up with friends and family.

I'm attending Planner classes at Two Scrapbook Friends and I'm completely addicted. I want to work on this ALL THE TIME!

I've been busy volunteering and doing a little contract work for my favourite charity; Autism Dog Services.

I've been collecting a lot of items for my Annual Charity drive for Waterford Church. They will be so pleased once I manage to get it all down to them.

I had a fun cookie decorating session with my little peeps for Valentine's Day.

My weekly puppy classes, this one was at Waterloo Regional Airport.

Watching this guy play his last high school game of Basketball. Bronze medal finish in WOSSA.
SO that's just a quick glimpse into my month. I ran out of blog topics so I thought this would work. Trying to meet my goal of 2 a week and we haven't swapped our cards yet for the last 2 months.
Well, I'm off to shovel.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I've been working on my Planner, trying to get the year completed so my cards have taken a back burner (for now).
I needed to make something chocolate for a Family celebration and I don't usually make chocolate frosting but I decided that double chocolate was the way to go for these light and airy cupcakes...

So much tastier then the canned frosting and takes no time to whip up.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1 cup butter, soft
3 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 Tbsp heavy cream

Whip butter, add vanilla, alternate cream with dry ingredients. Makes enough for 24 cupcakes.

Orange Streusel Loaves

I love looking for products in the States that we can't seem to find here so when I spied these Orange cake mixes I snapped one, er three up in a hurry. Then I had to search for a recipe to try. This one fit the bill. Makes two moist delicious loaves and freezes well. WIN. WIN!

The Streusel topping looks kind of weird but it was a nice addition....

Don't fret if you are not making a run to the States, anytime soon. I also found a knockoff recipe that I'm going to try out as well. This is a bad photo but you get the idea of the finished cake...

Orange Streusel Loaves
1 package of cake mix, Reserving 2 Tbsp for topping
1 pkg vanilla instant pudding
1 cup of sour cream
1/3 cup oil
4 large eggs

Streusel:
2 Tbsp reserved cake mix
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans (whoops I missed that step)

Glaze (if desired)
1 cup icing sugar
1-2 tbsp milk or orange juice

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour 2 9x5x3 cake pans.

Combine first ingredients in mixer for 3 minutes. Pour into prepared loaf pans.
Sprinkle on Streusel topping

Bake 45-50 minutes. 

December Swap Card

We are sticking with it! Almost caught up now.
I needed more Thinking of you cards to go with my February Goals (sending more cards) and I wanted to use my Stitched Blooms set that I purchased when I was in Florida. I've already used it a few times (borrowed from a friend) but it was a must for me to own as well.

Here's the card I made...

I was going to use it for Sympathy but I thought it was a little too chipper, I changed the flower colour and I think it works...

I also added a little impression? along the top of the blue paper using another set from MFT. I think it finished off the edge.

Keri used the fun YETI set from MFT. Funny, that we both chose MFT sets this month....

She paper pieced those cute Yeti's and used paper from her favourite company; Doodlebug. The best is Yeti to come. I love the sentiment, you could use it for so many occasions.

We are both really happy that we didn't give up on our monthly Swap. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be making cards right now since I'm lately obsessed with working on my Planner.