Happy Monday!

Hello all!

I had a very fun and relaxing weekend. Thanks to all who were praying for me and my hectic schedule. Since we are going to be away for Thanksgiving and because I normally decorate the house for Christmas the day after I decided to get a jump start! So on Sunday I took down the fall decor and put up the tree (we use a fake tree) and all the decorations. Greg even let me put on a Christmas CD which is normally strictly forbidden before Thanksgiving (he also loaded my ipod with all 7 of my holiday CDs!! Yippie!). The only thing I didn't do was put on the ornaments which I will save for when we return and can do it together. I am thinking of photographing some of them for a mini-book class I am going to take at www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com

This site is run by Stacey Julian the founder of Simple Scrapbooks and is basically an on-line scrapbooking class. This class is 4 weeks long and only costs a few bucks so I thought I would give it a try. A lot of my ornaments have special meaning so I think it will be fun to have a place to record my memories of them.

Ok, back to work. I have a HUGE list of things to do before the end of the day so I had better get back to it!

Post 5 Food!

I had to post about food! Remember the veggies I mentioned earlier? Well I did use up the spinach (among other things) in an eggless quiche and it turned out really well.

I thought I would share the recipe!

Tofu Quiche with Spinach

1 ready made pie crust baked according to pkg

1 medium onion finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic minced

1 lb. of chopped spinach cooked till just done

1 lb. extra firm tofu, drained

1/2c. soymilk

2 T. soy parmesan or nutritional yeast

1/4 t. dijon mustard

3/4 t. salt

1/4 t. ground nutmeg

1/2 t. ground red pepper

1. Cook spinach until bright green and just soft.

2. Cook onion and garlic until golden and then add spinach to heat through.

3. In a blender or food processor puree tofu, soymilk, mustard, salt, soy cheese or NY, and seasonings until smooth (I added a tablespoon of arrowroot to help thicken it!).

4. Add pureed mixture to the veggies and stir to combine.

5. Pour into the pre-cooked shell and bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until quiche is set (half way through cooking brush with olive oil to give a nice golden brown top).

6. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before cutting. Serves 6.

Post 4 Knitting

Here is a self portrait if you couldn't tell! I have only managed to finish one of my 3 hats. It turned out a little too bulky for my liking but it is done and it matches the scarf I knit. I have 2 more hats to go and hope to be working on them while flying out to Seattle.

Post 3 Scrapbook Update

I haven't done much scrapbooking lately. Instead I have been working on my Christma cards a little at a time.

Here is the next step waiting for action. I need to glue these 100 inserts into my 50 cards. I probably won't get to this until after my trip home. The top one will be the sentiment and has a place for me to write a note. The hidden card is the Christmas newsletter. I only do a newsletter every other year (our lives aren't that exciting) and it is really short and sweet.

I did get a new scrapbook kit from Jenny Bowlin Studios though. This is the November kit. Cute papers, some rub-ons, foam letter stickers (I am really excited about these), ribbon, felt flowers, journalling cards, chipboard shapes, and my favorite part a little 4x4 chipboard book. The best thing about this month is that on the Jenny Bowlin design suggestions she has some really great ideas. Most months I don't get much out of her suggestions because her style is radically different than mine but this month her guest designers are more in line with what i like. I can't wait to get to using this kit. Again, it will probably wait until I get home in December.

One photo related thing I did work on was this. I got this little pendant years ago and it had a really outdated photo of Greg and I so one day before work I swapped in a more recent picture. I have gotten a lot of "oh, that is cute" comments from people.

Post 2 Haircut

I ran out at lunch today for some color and a cut. My hairdresser, Chie, used this new product on me that makes your hair smooth and shiny after blow drying. I really like it so I ran out and bought a bottle around the corner. I keep touching my super soft hair!

Gotta look good for the Cruikshank family reunion!

Post 1 Party Time!

As promised some pics from the party 2 weekends ago:

The birthday girl blowing out her candle. Alice made an awesome chocolate cake a few hours before the party. I was fantastic!

Remember this kid? Yes, little William likes to work the party circuit entertaining guests with his adorableness wherever he goes! He especially loves 30th birthday parties!

And here is one of Greg and I (yes, my eyes are almost closed but hey). Is is Christmas? What is with the red and green?

See Shelly, 30 isn't so bad!

For the parting shot I give you the requisite long table picture. The bane of waitresses everywhere!

The dam is breaking!

I know I have been a bad blogger and have left you all high and dry but get ready. Today I am going to flood you with posts. All the things I have wanted to post but couldn't because of my work load right now. I am less than 7 days away from a vacation and have some very serious deadlines looming so I have been working like a mad woman (till 10pm last night) and that has kept me from posting. But no more! Get ready for posts throughout the day!

Special Delivery Veggies

I will post pictures from last weekends party tomorrow. I thought I had moved the photos onto my computer but apparently they are still on the memory stick which I left at home this morning.



Today we are going to talk about vegetables! In an effort to eat better (yes, even vegans can consume only junk food!) I signed us up for Urban Organics. It is a home delivery service that brings farm fresh organic produce right to your doorstep. We get a delivery every Thursday and the photo shows what was in the box last Thursday:
Lettuce, Spinach, Red Chard, Broccoli, Potatoes, Spaghetti Squash, Carrots, Zucchini, Onions, 2 kinds of Apples, Oranges, Plums, Bananas, and Kiwis (a surprise not on the posted list!). This seems like a lot of fruits and vegetables for 2 people to eat in a week but if we were actually eating 5 fruits and veggies a day like we are supposed to than it shouldn't be a problem right. So that has been the challenge, to eat all this yummy produce (and it really is good quality) in 7 days. I especially love the challenge to eat all the greens since I am so bad about eating greens and they are so good for the body. We have only been doing this for 3 weeks but we are slowly improving and have to toss less and less unused produce each week (usually the lettuce because I hate salads in the winter).

This week we are getting pretty much the same spread but cauliflower instead of broccoli, a different squash, garlic and some green beans. So I planned to make the following this week:

Potato burritos-These are one of Greg's favorite things. They remind him of Casa Que Pasa in Bellingham. Will use lettuce and potatoes.

Spinach Tofu Quiche - Greg HATES eggs with a passion but will eat a tofu Quiche. Will use onions, garlic, and all the spinach

Chickpea and Chard Cassolet-Will use all the chard from last week and the chard coming this week.

Squash stuffed with sausage rosemary stuffing and green beans-Will use up a squash (we actually have 2 already so I may also make soup out of one!) and the green beans.

The rest we eat during the week at other meals. Most of the recipes above came from www.vegweb.com where you can search by ingredient. Alice also tipped me to www.epicurious.com which allows for the same thing but doesn't specialize in vegetarian foods like the other one does.

Mom-I need your applesauce recipe. I want to try it out with all my apples.
Kate-I need your Brussels sprout recipe. You promised it would make me love Brussels! We'll see!

Scrapbook Update

Last Saturday I attended a surprise party for my friend Shelly. Alice, Suzan, and I went to great lengths to make sure that Shelly would always remember her 30th Birthday and it worked. She was really surprised! It was a really great party all around and people have been talking about it all week.

My job for the party planning was to solicit Shelly's friends and family for funny "Shelly" memories and photos. If you know her you know that crazy things happen to this girl all the time. People sent me really great stories and I fashioned them into this memory album. I really only had 1 day to physically make it because the supplies I ordered online took a little longer to reach me than I thought but I am still very happy with how it turned out. Suzan was kind enough to photograph the pages for me (since I was so sleep deprived I forgot!) so that I can show you just a few of the pages here.
I broke up all the memories into 30 Shelly characteristics. Then I tried to include photos that went with the theme.

Now for the scrapbook details: I found this really cute Bazzill Basics album that was 6 x 12 inches. It ended up being the perfect size. Just enough room for a 4x6 photo, journalling, and embellishments. I had originally wanted to do a 6x6 but couldn't find the album I wanted. Now that I think about it I would have been really limited on space if I had done that.

The patterned paper is all American Crafts and it is so yummy, I love it. I used 3 fonts throughout the book to make the different memories on each page distinct (one was 2peas little lady bug, thanks Kate!). Each page had an embossed circle with a number (punched with my Quikutz). I also punched photo corners with my Quikutz (thanks mom!). Each characteristic was a tag held on by a brad and then there were a few extra embellishments. Mostly flowers and rhinestones.

I love scrapbooking and making theme albums especially. I also love making books for other people but it is so hard to let them go sometimes. This was one of those books and it wasn't even about me! But I loved it and hope Shelly loved it too.

This weekend I also finalized my Christmas card and wrote the little newsletter for this year. Now I just need the photo and I am done. I love being ahead of schedule!

Are we related?

I found this photo of my sister and brother-in-law on their my space page and had to share it. I am laughing so hard! They dressed as Britney and k-fed for halloween. Gotta love it!

Friday and I'm wired

Sorry I have been MIA. Things have been CRAZY in the Cruikshank house. Greg had a quiz last week at school and then yesterday a mid-term (he thinks he did fairly well) so he has been studying like a madman. I caught this photo of him this morning on his way to work. He stopped to pull in the garbage cans.

As for me, in addition to my job and BSF responsibilities I have been up to my eyeballs in projects. I worked on my Christmas cards a little more. I am also WAY behind on my knitting commitment for Hope For New York. I still own them 3 hats for the homeless so I started knitting 1 a couple days ago.

Then a last minute jumbo project came up. Suzan and Alice have been helping me on it but it will probably entail a late night tonight to finish up for Saturday. The photo is of my planning sheets! More on that later.

In addition to all the other excitement I have been having some strange sensations in my chest for the past 3 weeks. I have seen a couple doctors who have assured me that my heart is happy and healthy and that I am suffering from benign arrhythmia's (which they say have never killed anyone). To be on the safe side I had an echo cardiogram and I was hooked up to a portable heart monitor yesterday to see if they could catch some of my palpitations in action. Of course once they put this thing on me the palpitations stopped! I am convinced that if you have a problem and you want to be cured, see a doctor. Not because the Dr. will diagnose and treat you but because the sheer act of seeing the doctor will scare away your problem. You will of course look like some kind of lunatic/hypochondriac but at least your problem will disappear. I am getting this heart monitor off in 3 hours and I can't wait. It was hard to sleep in and prevents me from showering! Greg of course finds it ultra sexy! Just kidding. In fact I think he is tired of me including my heart monitor in conversations like:

"Are you hungry? My heart monitor and I made soup for dinner"

"Can you get me a glass of water? Remember I am on a heart monitor"

"Me and the heart monitor are going to bed now"

"Get your cold feet away from me, my heart monitor doesn't like that!"

Have a great weekend everyone!

Scrapbook Update

I did not end up doing any real scrapbooking this weekend for a variety of reasons. The main one being that I need to wait for some photos to arrive from the developer. Instead I got a jump start on my Christmas cards. I won't show the full design just yet but it is one I picked out last year for its simplicity. Unfortunately a year later I think it is too simple so I am still adjusting it. I figured I might as well get started. Just this morning I added a new touch to my sample that will involve a paper punch so now I need to adjust the 50 cards shown above.

The next major step is to get Greg to pose for ANOTHER picture with me. He sees it as torture but I think it is fun. We are brain storming a new pose this year since Greg thinks the Christmas photos all look alike. MEN! Obviously my hair is totally different each year, can't he see that!

Weekend Plans

When my mom was out for a visit she brought me some photos of my Grandma Howard which I was able to scan yesterday. So this weekend I hope to work on a tribute to her for my 04-05 album (she died during that year). This is a funny one of us together because there was this time in my life where EVERY picture of me has this silly face (usually with my eyes open) consisting of a scrunched nose and teeth. That must have been my "say cheese" face.

This weekend I also have some major housework that needs to be done. Where does all the dust come from? Seriously!

Greg has his mid-term next week so he will be studying like a madman. This weekend is also the beginning of Angel Tree season which I am apart of each year at church. This week we start handing out angels (gift requests) to people. It is usually lots of fun!

Have a great weekend!

What to post about

I was so desperate for a topic I was prepared to blog about chocolate today. I was enjoying some dark chocolate with marzipan filling and thought, why not share it with my blog buddies. But the lab camera was gone and next thing I knew so was the chocolate (how did that happen?) and the urge to post had passed.

So there you have it, my post for today! I will try and create some interest in my life tonight to share with you tomorrow!

Scrapbooking Update - Layouts 55 & 56

I managed to complete a couple layouts this weekend. The first will be the cover page for the 2004-2005 album.

I used patterned paper and cardstock from the last kit I got in Sept. The plastic letters ("years") were from heidi swapp which I painted black (they came clear). The newspaper flower came in the last kit too but I changed out the button center from brown to black and added some waxed twine (which I curled) and hung the "4" tag off of that with a little green ribbon. Then I stapled the dates on the bottom right and whala, done. Here is a look at the detail in the corner.

The next layout features my new years resolution for 2005. I resolved to learn something new that year and taught myself to knit. The layout explains the story and shows just a few of my knitting projects. I also threw in a couple cake decorating photos since it was a craft layout and I took cake decorating classes with Alice that year too.

This layout features patterned paper and flowers from past kits. I used some buttons my mom gave me when she was visiting for the flower centers. A few letter stickers, some paint around the edges and it was done. I was really struggling with where to put the title and eventually just stuck it down (JUST DO IT!!). I think it is funny becuase the focal photo is a headless me knitting and now it looks like my head is the title block!

I took these photos outside on my deck this morning and boy do they look so much nicer than the ones I take in the house!

Fall is in the air!

I actually had so many options of things to talk about today that I couldn't decide! Today is a chilly, rainy, fall day. I actually love days like this (though I prefer to stay home and observe it out the window from my warm sofa!). I think the drizzle reminds me of fall in Seattle.

Spring was always my favorite time of year and I still love the trees in bloom but in NYC it rains a lot in the spring so my new favorite season is fall. It is still usually really warm out and we have these wonderful color changes here with all the non-pine trees. I try and bring a little of this into the house in my fall decor:

The gourds in the photo are ones that Greg grew in the garden 2 years ago, dried and cured. I love them. The leaf garlands are from Crate and Barrel last year. I usually have fresh pumpkins and gourds around the living room too but this year the garden didn't produce any and we haven't had a chance to go out and buy any yet. Maybe this weekend we will pick some up!


In addition to the pretty fall views the thing I really love about fall is the ability to use the oven again. I love hot foods cooked in the oven (pizza, casseroles, roasted veggies, etc) and I miss those things in the summer when it is far to hot to turn on the oven. In the last few weeks we have been roasting and baking up a storm. Last night I decided to try my hand at an apple pie. We don't love apple pie so I wouldn't normally go to all the trouble but we found ourselves with 10 apples to eat. What better way to use them up than in a pie.

So here it is! The little thing in the center is a pie vent in the shape of a bird. He kind of fell to the side during baking. It is supposed to keep your pie from bubbling over and it seemed to work pretty well. We haven't tasted this pie yet since it was supposed to cool for 6 hours before eating and it came out of the oven at 10pm last night. We will have it for dessert tonight with some vanilla soy ice cream.

Lastly a little surprise from Greg. He was a sweetheart and stopped at the grocery store after class last night on his way home from school. The grocery store is not his favorite place. If you have ever visited us (or you live here) you know that NYC grocery stores are small and crowded and Fairway is especially bad. But when he came home he had picked these up for me!

What a sweet guy. I love them! Have a great weekend everyone!

Garden Update

(That's right, 4 days in a row!)

Perhaps no one will be interested in this but I wanted to produce proof that the garden is a complete disaster!

I sent Greg out to capture the mess this last weekend. As you can see everything is completely overgrown with weeds. Even the pathways which have that magic weed repelling black fabric on them are covered in weeds!

Greg pulled out the last of the tomatoe plants because they had stopped producing anything but a few rotten tomatoes. The next photo shows our last surviving plant. It is a vine which is amost completely covered in weeds now but there is one small yellow squash growing on it which you can almost see if you look closely.
There is going to be a neighborhood leaf collection pretty soon. I think we should try and sneak our weeds into the pick-up since we don't have any leaf producing trees. Do you think they would notice?

Scrapbook Update

I am trying really hard to be a good blogger this week, can you tell?

This weekend I completed a couple more layouts. You may remember this one as a work in progress. I think it turned out a little busy but I loved this patterned paper so much I had to use it! You may be wondering, "where is the journalling?"

I decided to try my hand at hidden journalling. I was able to stick quite a lot under the bottom right photo in an effort to keep the layout from being way to busy. It already has tons of photos and details.

This next layout will be the last layout in the album and it highlights our anniversary. Yep, that means I am almost done with the 2004-2005 album. In fact I started working on the title page this weekend. After that I will have a "Misc" layout and maybe a couple more single pagers and then I am done.

Sorry the lighting it kind of bad. I took this photo in the hallway under a light bulb which has given it a yellow hue. I usually take my photos in the morning but the light is coming in from the back of my house and all the windows back there have bars on them (city living!). That means I have to be creative with lighting until I someday get a scanner!

I am thinking about buying all new scrapbook albums. I was using MM brand albums but have noticed that all the page protectors are turning yellow and cloudy and most are not true 12x12 so they split when I slip my pages in. I am thinking about switching to American Crafts albums. They are really hot right now. Anyone using a brand they love?

Baby Alert!

For those who remember this announcement way back in March I wanted to give you an update. I received this cute little card in the mail last weekend letting me know that Ava has arrived. Isn't she adorable. I am told that momma and baby are doing great!

And isn't this the cutest card ever? Katie, you have to tell me what fonts you used! They look like the most perfect hand printing ever and I must know!

Congratulations on your new arrival!

Weekend Fun

I have had a migraine headache since Sunday at about 7pm (which is why I didn't call mom!) but otherwise I had a very nice weekend.

Greg convinced me to go to a concert on Saturday. It was a Rose Melburg show in SoHo. So I put on my best indie rock outfit and we headed out to the show. We ended up getting there really early and found parking really easily so to kill time we walked around the neighborhood. We went into Babycakes Bakery for some Vegan Cupcakes (they also do gluten free if you are looking for a replacement for Yum Yum Yum bakery!) which were very tasty. Then we walked over to Teany and enjoyed a pot of tea and good conversation. Teany is a tea house owned and run by Moby the musician. I have seen it advertised in magazines and even on TV a few times and have always wanted to check it out. I kind of wished I hadn't stuffed myself with vegan cupcakes because Teany had a whole menu of luscious vegan desserts including pumpkin cheesecake which I love. I guess I will have to go again for lunch or dinner and tea!

The show was fun and very low key. We met up with friends at the Cakeshop (the name of the venue), grabbed a comfy seat, and enjoyed the music.

On the way home there was an incident involving Greg and pee pee but I will spare him the embarrassment. Just know that I now have really juicy blackmail material!