Oh, just because I can.

It's Awkward Family Photo time again, people!

I have been sitting on this one for some time.

I'm sorry, but there are no apologies for doing this to you.

Just questions. Many, many questions.

Make Your Own! Apple and Pumpkin Pie Spice. . .Works For Me Wednesday

For years, when I saw a recipe calling for Apple Pie Spice or Pumpkin Pie Spice, I'd pass it over. Either that, or I'd use the 9 year old jar in the back of the cabinet. Not good.

Well, making Apple Pie Spice and Pumpkin Pie Spice at home isn't exactly rocket science, and chances are these spices are already hiding in your kitchen. No more running to the store to buy pumpkin pie spice for one recipe a year!

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice
(makes 1 teaspoon)

1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp nutmeg (freshly grated, if possible)
1/8 tsp allspice


Homemade Apple Pie Spice
(makes 1 teaspoon)

1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg (freshly grated, if possible)
1/8 tsp cardamom
1/8 tsp allspice

Making my own spice blends really works for me! More tips are over at We Are THAT Family...go check 'em out!


Related posts:

• pumpkin cream cheese
• caramel apple bars
• pumpkin spice cake truffles
  

Papertake Weekly challenge - The Dark Side

YAY! Monday is done and out of the way! And with it being Tuesday, that means it's time for another challenge from Papertake Weekly. This week, the challenge is The Dark Side sponsored by Joanna Sheen. Now how fun is that??!! Sounds pretty spooky, doesn't it! And the fabulous creations the DT came up with is going to wow your socks off! I had a LOT of fun making this card. I used, if you can believe it, five different Magnolia stamps on this card. This Tilda actually had a hand transplant. I really wanted to use this new (to me) Maggie that I received from Magnolia-licious, but I also wanted her to be carrying a treat bag. So I took the hand and pumpkin from #293, Tilda with pumpkin, and transplanted it onto #210 Winter sweater Tilda. Yep....didn't know I was a surgeon, did ya!!! I'm just FULL of surprises!! LOL! She's an older Tilda, but there is something about her that I love, and those oh so adorable pigtails are too cute! Along with those two Tilda stamps, I also used #479 bat, #498 African Sun (makes a pretty cool moon, doesn't it!!), and #442 Halloween Pumpkins.

The base of the card was cut using my Cricut Expression with the Paper Dolls Dress Up Cartridge for the castle and the ghosts. I know it looks a little funky down the right edge of the card if you're looking closely at the pic. That's because I didn't want the white sentiment box to show from the front of the card. So I simply put a hinged black cover over the journalling box, and it's popped up just a tad in the picture. That makes the right edge of the card look likes it's cut really crooked, but it's not. Had I had the forsight...I would have done it a little differently.

Cardstock is Bazzill, stamped images are on cryogen white and colored with Copic markers. That's it for me today. Please be sure and visit Papertake Weekly to see the rest of the spookalicious creations from the rest of the design team! And don't forget to join in on the fun, too! Thanks so much for visiting me today, and for all of your kind comments! You all are appreciated more than you'll ever know! Hope to see you back again soon! HUGS!

I love people - just as long as I don't have to spend Christmas with them.

A friend of mine sent me this story. It's an article from the Northern Territory News and it features this woman.

And that's all I'm going to say about it.

Oh, okay. I will just give you just the one quote. It's from Pink Hair.

"It may have looked bad when police first arrived as my girls were hanging out all over the place. I also had a $5 note wedged between my boobs so they probably just assumed I was a sex worker or something and he'd already paid me.But $5 is a bit cheap for a head job."

I'll leave it up to you to follow the link, or not.

Over and out.

The weirdness, I have it.

Over the last little while, on a few occasions - after a perfectly normal, merry old seven-eightish hour sleep -I have woken to find my clock radio not sitting on the table beside my bed, but on the floor.

Now, unless there's some rogue dwarf squatting in my wardrobe that I'm not yet aware of, the only person the finger can be pointed at is, um, myself.

I don't have any answers and I don't want to think about this too much, otherwise I will think I am crackers. So, to make me feel at home with my crazy sleepself, could someone please out-abnormal me with a better story of sleep adventures?

That would be triff, thanks.

Yours crazily,

kate

*wonders if furniture should be whitewashed and tossed in neighbour's swimming pool*

Bitten By The Bug - monster challenge

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. Mine went WAY too fast for my liking. But there's not much I can do about that. Back to work tomorrow and wait for the next one, I guess. *smiles* It's time to reveal the new challenge from Regina over at Bitten By The Bug. This week, she asked us to use this cute little monster from Paper Dolls Dress Up from Hallmark Scrapbook. Isn't it just so cute??!!! I now have tons of ideas running through my head for this cute little hairy creature. For my submission to the DT creations, I paired this cute little monster with some stamps from The Cutting Cafe', Eat, Drink, and be scary came from Halloween Labels, and the Trick or Treat frame is from Halloween Card Borders. The paper is from a pack by Recollections from Michael's. I also added some drippy goo thanks to a Martha Stewart border punch. The little flowers are from a little Marvy punch and there is an orange dew drop in the center. (they photographed as though they are black, but they are not)

After doing my DT submission, I had to throw this quick little card together with this adorable monster. And I have even so many more ideas floating around in this head! I mean...how fun is this?!! I sure hope you take the time to visit Bitten By The Bug to see the rest of the DT take on this fun challenge, and then grab your paper and glue and play along with us. Thanks for visiting me today, and see you on Tuesday with a new challenge from Papertake Weekly! HUGS!

Delusions of grandeur. I think the cat thinks he's a boxer.

I particularly like the swing at 1'09.

I knew a cat with a similar attitude. I once had to haul him off a collie after he had attacked, screaming, 'GET OFF!!YOU'RE A CAT! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE SCARED OF DOGS!'