This morning I recieved an email from someone telling me that WeScrap (www.wescrap.com) was mentioned on a Tv show. After doing a search for the Mike and Juliet show and finding my way to their website, I was able to watch a video of today’s show. Sure enough, we were mentioned during their segment on “Working from Home” - they flashed our website across the screen and they also have a link to it on their site. So cool!! 

http://www.mandjshow.com/videos/working-from-home/ 

I hope everyone is having a Fantastic Friday! It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada so I have come back to my hometown, Victoria, to spend the weekend with my parents. I have been looking forward to this for weeks, to be able to come and actually have some time to relax and hang out with my parents. Unfortunetly, my cold has just escalated and today is the worst so far. I barely even have a voice right now. I just hope I get my appetite back (and my taste buds!) in time for our big Thanksgiving dinner Sunday night

 Oh! Take a look at this fun Halloween canvas I made for Tilano (www.tilano.net) for one of their projects of the month. Love their products! So much fun!! 

it can be seen here:  http://www.tilano.net/products_details.aspx?page_name=Products/product_details&restricted=&catalog_item_id=1096
and the directions are here: http://www.tilano.net/GreenKiteClient/GreenCatalog/catalog_item/att_document/2346_document.pdf Â

Ranger U was awesome!!!! Such a fantastic experience.  Tim, Claudine and Suze were fabulous instructors, and they were a ton of fun too

 

We learned over 75 techniques in 3 days - I feel so inspired now and just want to play around with all these cool prodcuts - some that I have used before and some that were completely new to me.

   

Thursday was spent mostly traveling. I arrived at Newark airport around 6:30 and I met up with Colleen MacDonald at the rental car area. Her plane arrived just before mine did, so we previously planned to meet up so we could drive together to Tinton Falls, we were also rooming together. Coincidentally we were the only 2 Canadians at Ranger U. (Colleen is originally from Australia but has lived in Alberta for several years. I just love her accent!). We picked up the rental car and headed on our way - thank goodness for Colleen bringing her GPS with her! So funny cause it was Austin Powers voice telling us which way to go! The toll booths really confused us and we ended up going through the wrong lane the first ones we went through. We were in the EZ pass lane and we couldn’t get over to the cash only lane cause so many cars were whizzing by and honking at us. I will now be expecting a ticket in the mail….We found our way to the hotel quite easily though and Ranger was literally next door.

We were up early the next morning and met up with several more ranger attendees in the restaurant while we ate breakfast, everyone was so friendly and so excited!We spent the first part of the day with Suze Weinberg learning all about melt art - which I LOVED!! I am embarrassed to say that I have owned a melting pot for about 5 years and its still brand new. However now I know how to use it and how many cool things I can do with it! We also got a tour of the Ranger facility - a real working factory. The stickles machine was my favorite - they produce thousands and thousands of stickles per day. We each got to take one of the stickles off the conveyor belt and take it with us

The last half of the day Claudine Hellmuth taught us all about her new line: “Claudine Hellmuth Studio” - awesome stuff!! I love using paints and these ones are different than the acrylics I’m used to working with. They can be thick for lots of color or you can thin them out and they can be almost translucent  for a completely different look. I love them! 

Saturday and Sunday we spent with Tim - he taught us 51 techniques!  Such cool stuff, I am so excited to incorporate these techniques into my projects. It was sad when it was all over - the 24 of us had spent 3 solid days together and it really was an awesome group of people.

We were seated in groups of 4, at my table there was Janet Hopkins ( Education Coordinator for the Heidi Swapp line), Jayne Irving (Owns a Scrapbooking store in Cape Code), and Jenn Shurkus (manages Jayne’s store and also teaches for A muse art stamps). We called our table the “J” table since all our names began with J. hehe

These girls were so much fun, I had a blast sitting with them.

    

Colleen and I left Sunday night after we got our diplomas and we said our goodbyes. We were both flying out of Newark the next day and we had booked a hotel room at one of the airport hotels, also we had to return the rental car that night. We dropped the car off and made our way through the airport to where the hotel shuttles are, waited for quite awhile for our shuttle then headed to the hotel. We hadn’t eaten yet and were starving but according to the girl at the front desk, there was no restaurants around within walking distance. She did give us a map that showed there was a ton of resturants in this area that wasn’t far from the hotel and she said she could call a cab for us. So that’s what we did, and we decided we wanted to go to a good mexican restaurant. The cab driver dropped us off in this really sketchy part of town in front of a hole in the wall looking mexican restaurant. Totally not what we had in mind. It was about an 8 minute cab ride and it cost $25!!! Also not what we had in mind!!! We hurried into the restuarant though as we didn’t want to be out on the dark street. There were 4 staff members inside, only 1 of whom could understand any English. I ordered a chalupa even though I wasn’t sure what to expect as the only chalupa I ever had was at Taco Bell. Of course, this being authentic Mexican food, it was completely different from Taco Bell, but I really enjoyed it, it was very good. During the half hour we were in the restaurant, we had 2 different girls come in trying to sell us pirated DVD’s!! 

 
Here’s my roomie Colleen

The next morning my flight left at 6:25am so I had to be up by 3:45 so I could be down in the lobby just after 4 to wait for the shuttle. I got to the airport at 4:30 and was waiting in line at the Air Canada departure. Nobody even showed up until almost 5am and when she did show up, she announced to all of us that the flight to Toronto was cancelled due to mechanical problems. um….ok….. so someone asks if they are going to put us on the next flight and she says probably not as its full. lovely. There are several of us starting to panic a bit. I had to be in Toronto to catch my connecting flight to Vancouver at 9:30. She told me if I could get to JFK airport that she could get me on a direct flight to Vancouver, but I had to find my own way there and it was over an hours drive. Then she said she could book me on a flight with Continental to Toronto but I’d still miss my connecting plane and I’d have to go check in with Air Canada in Toronto. So then I had to lug all my luggage (I had a carry on bag, my backback with my laptop (which was really heavy cause I crammed a whole lot of extra stuff into it), and my suitcase which weighed 45 pounds. ) over to a whole other terminal to check in with Continental. That meant 2 escalators over to the air tram station and more waiting. It was there that I met up with the 4 other people who I had been waiting with initially. We had all been moved to the Continental flight. We all stayed together and made our way to the Continental desk where we found out the Air Canada agent hadn’t actually booked us on the flight. So they had to book us all on it, more waiting.  Next was security and here it got even better…. Because our flight had been cancelled and we were put on another flight within an hour of it leaving (and this is good to know if you travel in the states a lot), we were automatically flagged for additional screening. It said SSSS all over our tickets, which we guessed meant Special Security Secondary Screening. Either that or Special Security Strip Search, lol. Security guards saw our tickets and were calling out “Secondary Female!!!!” “Secondary Male!!!!” the guy in front of me and I were both like “what does that mean?” feeling like criminals or something. We were told we had been flagged and they explained why. Great. So I was put into this odd pressure air blowing machine, which I’ve never seen before. It startled me a bit when the air came puffing out in my face. Next through another machine then I had to wait in a clear glass box until the searching guard was waiting for me. As I stood there I waitched a couple people in front of me in the searching station getting almost completely searched - including the all over body pat down. Then he was ready for me. He let me out of the display box and I had to go sit on a chair while he searched my bags and my laptop. He did give me my shoes, belt and sweatshirt back though and told me I could put them on. Luckily he was nice and he didn’t give me the pat down search, I got off easy compared to what the others went through. 

The flight to Toronto was full and there was no room in the overhead storage for my laptop bag. I told the flight attendant (who was not very friendly I might add) and she told me they’d have to check it and it would have to go down to baggage. I was like “my computer is in there!” and she said “too bad”. !!!!!! The guy beside me said “it will get trashed it goes down there” so the flight attendant told me I could take my laptop out and hold it. So I did. Just as my bag was about to get whisked off to baggage, another flight attendant (a nice one) came by and said “its ok, we have room for it up in first class”. So my backpack got to ride in first class, and I didn’t.Getting off the plane was awkward as I was holding my laptop (which is a very heavy one) under my arm, carrying my bag in one hand and trying to get my backpack down from the overhead bin as I was exiting the plane. ugh, it was not a good day.

 Of course, now it was time to go get my suitcase and go through customs which was just a hassel cause of the lineups. Since I was at the Continental gate area, Air Canada was at another terminal (of course) that I had to go up more escalators, to another air tram station and make my way to the ticket desk. My orginal 9:30 flight was just about to leave, so obviously I missed it. The 10 was full so they had to put me on the 11:15. *sigh* then as I was walking away I looked down at my ticket only to see that I had been put in a MIDDLE seat. Just keeps getting better.The plane was full as well so I was not able to change my seat. I was seated between 2 guys, one of whom was very large so I couldn’t even use the arm rests, I had to sit all scrunched into my seat. The only good thing about this flight was they had the little tv’s in the back of the seats so we each got our own and we could watch an assortment of movies. I watched “The Happening” and it was actually pretty good. I really detest flying now though, just on flights over 2 hours, as my legs get all crampy and I start to feel very clausterphobic.  We landed around 1:30 and waited for half an hour for my luggage.

Brent was there to pick me up and he brought the dogs with him so I was so happy to see all of them! We went home, dropped my luggage off, then I had to rush off to school. (I am taking a couple classes at college right now until December- such as Public Speaking). I couldn’t miss my class so I had to go sit through it from 3-5:30. I stopped off for groceries on the way home (Brent was working all night), and when I got home I cooked some meat loaf for the dogs for dinner. Yes I am home cooking for the dogs now. Angus has allergies and so far this seems to be working, he hasn’t been scratching like he used to. We have tried everything!! This is a lot more work, but I know exactly what goes into their food, and they love it. We go back and forth between meatloaf and baked salmon. Yes they are spoiled dogs.

 *if you want the recipe for this dog friendly meatloaf, I can pretty much guarantee your pooches will love it:Ground beef (about 2-4 pounds), 2 eggs, 1 cup of rice, and 3/4 cup pureed veggies (I mix carrots, kale, and spinach in the food processor). Bake at 375 for an hour.

Anyway, that was an incredibly long day, it took me around 14 hours to get home from New Jersey which is ridiculous. Not surprisingly, I have come down with a bad cold. Oh well, its nice to be home anyway, and I had a great time at Ranger U!?

I’m here in Tinton Falls, New Jersey for Ranger U - today was the first day and it was awesome!!!! Better then I ever imagined!

We spent over half the day learning from the fabulous Suze Weinberg - all techniques using the melting pot and I think I now have a new addiciton! (several actually, lol).  The last part of the day was learning from Claudine Hellmuth and we got to use her new line of products - so cool!!!!!

It’s such a great class too - with people from all over the world.
Suze wrote more about the class on her blog with some photos: http://suzeweinberg.typepad.com/suzeblogz/

Tomorrow we’ll be spending the whole day learning from Tim Holtz! Can’t wait

    Â

The new online class schedule is finally up! http://www.wescrap.com/scrapbooking-classes/

Starting October 19th is the all new Techniques 102 class - the perfect sequel to Techniques 101.
This time we’re brining you over 30 more all new techniques!
I will just have returned from Ranger U where I will have learned tons of fabulous techniques directly from the Ranger masters: Tim Holtz, Claudine Hellmuth and Suze Weinberg.

Course includes: Downloadable, easy to read and printable technique instructions complete with photos; weekly live chats; a private class forum; fun challenges to try the techniques in your projects. 
2 prizes will be given out (chosen randomly)at the end of the class term (Nov 30, 2008). Earn a ballot for: signing up for the class (1 ballot), Each challenge completed and uploaded to the class gallery (1 ballot each upload), attending the chat sessions (1 ballot for each session).

Each week lessons will be distributed through a downloadable PDF (printable) format. Approximately 5 techniques will be featured each week for a total of 6 weeks of instruction. 

Click here to register for Techinques 102.  

FREE Online Classes!!!Techinques 101 will be offered again - free for anyone - starting October 20, 2008.

Is there a technique you always wanted to learn how to do? Well how about learning about 20 of them? Each week we will focus on 5 different techniques. Photo instructions and handouts will be given out for each technique. We will have a private forum to discuss the techniques, work on class assignments and chat with other classmates. Live chats will also be scheduled for those who want to participate.
 This is the first set of classes in a Technique series - a more advanced class with all new techniques is offered as Techniques 102.

1 prize will be given out at the end of the class term (Nov 10, 2008), chosen randomly amongst class participants. Earn a ballot for: signing up for the class (1 ballot), Each challenge completed and uploaded to the class gallery (1 ballot each upload), attending the chat sessions (1 ballot for each session).

Course includes: Downloadable, easy to read and printable technique instructions complete with photos; weekly live chats; a private class forum; fun challenges to try the techniques in your projects. 

Each week lessons will be distributed through a downloadable PDF (printable) format. Approximately 5 techniques will be featured each week for a total of 4 weeks of instruction.

 

 

Click here to register for this free class

 Â

I am happy to report that the weather here lately has been quite fantastic! The leaves are beginning to fall so its looking like Autumn is arriving, but the sun has been shining and temperatures have been warm which is so nice. Last weekend Brent and I were both home on Sunday (which is rare these days that we have the same day off together!), so we decided to do a major clean and reorganize of the house - yay!! I love it when we change things around. We ended up moving Brent’s big computer desk out of our dining room area upstairs to the spare room where the guinea pigs and rabbit are. We now have a dining room with just a table and chairs in it! Imagine that!! It looks so good downstairs now, we got rid of a lot of the clutter in our attempts to “simplify” things. Arthur was able to stay in what we call “the office” with Brent’s desk, but we had to move the piggies out, so now I have 2 liitle roomies with me in my scraproom. I had to completely re-arrange the room to fit their big cage in here, but it worked out and there is actually more room in here now cause I got rid of one of my big tables. (who needs an extra table? I end up doing most of my scrapbooking on the floor anyways! lol) 

 

Notice Zoey on her favorite spot on the couch  

It worked out great that we did such an awesome cleaning job too as everynight this week we’ve had people over! A couple nights my friend Randi came over to work on a scrapbook she’s making for her boyfriend, then one night while we were walking the dogs we ran into my friend Jodi and her daughter so they came over and we opened a bottle of wine and Brent cooked garlic prawns - we had a great time! This weekend we had a couple friends come visit us from Victoria and they stayed for the whole weekend, we had so much fun! They brought Rock Band with them so Brent and I got to play that for the first time - what a blast! 

 here are some more random pics from this weekend:
Just hanging around the water cooler
my 3 sleepy boys….

 And last, but definately not least, we had our good friend Wouter come stay with us one night last week. He had just finished some traveling around Hawaii and was on his way home to the Netherlands. We have become really good friends with him the past 5 months while he was here in Vancouver. We will always remember Wouter for his love of ketchup, Diet Coke, and Coffee! We had so many great times: Road trip to Yellowstone, Silverwood Amusement Park, Boulder Beach Water Park, Hiking the Grouse Grind, Trips to Seattle and Victoria, Mini golfing, Food shows, Sushi, playing Wii….It’s sad now that he has left but we are hoping to go to Europe in June and we’ll go visit him then. I have to say that he is one of the nicest and most wonderful guys I have ever met and I know we will be friends with him forever.  This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened”

 ?

I know, it seems like its waaaaayyy too early to already be thinking about Christmas!!!  Especially since it was so nice weather wise (finally!!) here today and was actually beautiful, sunny and HOT out! Here is a Clear Holiday Mini Album I will be teaching  at Precious Memories (and of course, once again staring none other than the 2 lovely terriers: Angus & Zoey) (This is also due to the fact that I didn’t take many Christmas photos last year - obviously….)

 

****Online Techniques 102 class update******

 For all of you who are already registered for the upcoming Tech 102 class, we are going to postpone it until the 2nd week of October. This change has occured because I will be attending Ranger U at the beginning of October and I would like to incorporate all the cool techniques I learn while I’m there into the class  You will all be recieving an email with more details in the next few days so keep an eye out for it. If you’d like to register for this or if you have any questions, please email me.

******************************************************

Tonight I have been tending to the needs of many little furry critters. My parents 2 dachshunds are staying with us for the weekend so its been a crazy chaotic evening with animals running every which way or trying to sit on my lap. It was also grooming night for the piggies - time for them to have their nails clipped and ears cleaned. Fiesty little Ernest bit me twice - on purpose. I’ve never known a viscious guinea pig before! But this little guy has such an atttitude - he didn’t break the skin this time, but it still hurt! And I managed to clip Arthur ’s (the rabbit that refuses to be picked up or held) nails too all by myself and I didn’t get clawed to death!! This is a major accomplishment as it usually takes 2 of us to catch him, wrap him in a blanket and hold him down.

 While sorting through some photos on my computer tonight I found a couple that were taken when Oscar was just a tiny baby (a couple months ago, lol)

 

Here is one from a few nights ago: I was taking some carrots up to the rabbit and piggies and left them on the couch for a second while grabbing something else from the kitchen. When I came back, Angus had helped himself to one of the carrots and was happily knawing away on it. He was so proud of himself and he even carried the carrot all the way upstairs and into our room to take it to bed with him!

 It’s getting late so I should get to bed. All the dogs and cats are finally asleep and are spread out around me in various places. They are so sweet and innocent when they are sleeping so soundly,  (and not barking, hissing, growling, playing, etc….with one another)

Oh, here is a photo of my new glasses, hehe (it’s in black and white cause my poor very infected eyes are so red in the color pics). I haven’t gone this long without wearing my contacts for about 15 years!!!!

 

I have been such an awful blogger lately.

To be completely honest, its been rather tough around here the last couple weeks so I haven’t had much motivation to come on the computer and blog about it all. However, in a nutshell, this is what has been happening:We had some major car trouble a couple weeks ago. Brent was on his way to work very early in the morning and the car died on the highway, completely died. Brent heard a loud “pop” and then all these weird noises then it died. After getting it towed to the local automotive shop in our little town, we were told it needed a new engine.  a. new. ENGINE.  oh crap. Our car is only 5 years old and not even the oil light was on or anything, it was working fine the night before while we were out an about running errands. As we waited for various quotes to come in on how much a new engine would be and stuff, both Brent and I felt sick to our stomachs. We only have the 1 car and we both need it to go back and forth to work in. Luckily the automotive place had a curtosy car we could use so I walked down to their shop and picked it up. It was a 20 year old mazda but at least it was a working car! As luck (or bad luck) would have it, that very car died on Brent a couple days later on his way home from work - turns out it was out of oil!! What are the odds?? He got it home though and called the auto shop and they felt awful so I took it in the next morning on my way to work and they gave me a minivan instead. The minivan worked great but what a gas guzzler!! We spent $30 a DAY on gas! unreal.

So regarding our wonderful vehicle, it did get a new engine (they managed to find us a used one in really good condition with less milage then our car had) but they had to rebuild the entire thing. They also found that our clutch was on its way out so they replaced that too. After 20 hours of labor, yes 20, numerous parts, an engine, and lots of stress on our end, we got our car back - after about 8 days.  I won’t even say what the bill was, but I bet you can imagine….  I am trying to think of a way to turn this story into some way humourous but I just can’t right now. I did say to Brent several days ago “Well one day I’m sure we will find a way to laugh about this”. yeah hopefully, one day… 

Brent has been working a TON of overtime. In 7 days he worked 6 days straight and 80 hours. There was one day that he left at 5am and didn’t get home until 11pm then he had to get up the next morning and leave for work again at 6am. Crazy.

So other things going on with us: well I’ve been getting more eye infections so back to the optomitrist I go. My eyes have changed yet again so he gave me a prescription and told me that from now on when I get an eye infection I am NOT allowed to wear my contacts at all. He said that if the bacteria gets trapped between my contact and my cornea that my cornea can be penetrated and permanent eye damage can occur in less than 24 hours. Ok, enough said. Since I haven’t bought glasses in about a decade, he told me I need to get new ones, asap. The same day we picked our car up, we went to Lenscrafters where I picked out a new pair of glasses and they were able to have them ready in just over an hour. I was actually excited to get home to take my contacts out and try on my new glasses. Things looked odd though and I thought it was just cause my prescription changed again. But no,  the prescription in my new glasses is obviously wrong cause I can’t even read signs when I’m driving until I am right underneath them (and these are the huge green ones on the highway!). Scary!!! Now I have to go back to the optomistrist, *sigh*…And wouldn’t you know it, but I woke up with another eye infection yesteday! and a sore throat!! ugh

What a downer this entire blog post was! So sorry about that, but I guess it goes to show that not everything can be sunshine and flowers, lol. This is just real life. 

On a positive note, I am working on some new scrapping projects today for classes so I will hopefully have some new pics up here soon. I haven’t been taking any photos around here lately and I really should. Our little Oscar is growing so fast - he’s not so little anymore. I bet by Christmas he will be bigger than Gracie!

A monkey? Nope we did not get another pet, lol. (Although I have always wanted a monkey…..). Last week Brent got to do something VERY cool- he got to go spend the day working on a movie set with the ambulance (just in case someone got hurt doing stunts). It was the filming of Night at the Museum 2 (staring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson). While he was there he got to hang out with a couple monkeys that were also staring in the movie - this one capuchin monkey named Crystal has stared in many movies including the first Night at the Museum, both Dr Doolittle movies, Indian Jones and others.

Crystal talking into the ambulance mic (it’s official, even a monkey can do Brent’s job! lol! j/k)

Crystal giving Brent a kiss. I am so jealous!! I wish it was me who got to hang out with the monkey all day!!

Alright moving on….. here are a couple new classes I will be teaching at Precious Memories:

I got some awesome news today….. I will be attending Ranger U in October! Yay! My first time in New Jersey too!

Here is a quick recap of my Toronto trip last week with Nicole. We went to exhibit (Tilano) at the Toronto Gift Show. The show was ginormous - we didn’t even see a quarter of it! I think the funniest thing that happened was our elevator story. Our first day there, we were just coming back to the hotel and walking towards the elevator when I asked Nicole what time the show went until the following day. She answers me just as we enter the elevator “seven” but she said it in a tone that was like ‘ugh, seven…’ cause it meant it would be a long day. So we’re standing in there and a couple other people were there as well. As the elevator starts to go up, I was like “oh we forgot to push our button” and I reach over and press the 4. The man who was standing right beside the buttons says “oh I thought I heard you say seven so I pushed that one for you”. Nicole and I both looked at each other totally confused and when we got out of the elevator and were walking towards our room, we suddenly realized he heard Nicole answer me “seven” and thought she was telling him to push seven!! Of course we laughed hysterically but also felt really bad cause now that poor guy must think we are total snobs!!! The next morning when we got to the show - guess whose booth was right beside ours? Yep - the elevator man!!! lol!! Too funny but at least we were able to apologize to him and assure him we were not snobs! He and his wife were really cool and we got to know them quite well over the duration of the show.

I love love love this chalkboard paint!! And yes that is my beautiful chalk artwork on the right there, hehe

Randy and Nicole finishing the set up

Here’s Randy (founder of Tilano) - he had just met Debbie Travis and got his picture with her and her autograph

Nicole outside the hospital with this odd moose statue (…it’s a long story)

At Jack Aster’s Restaurant - such a cool place!!

Chandeliers made of Tabasco bottles

There were various pictures like this all over the restaurant - all different but pretty funny

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

My dad is awesome! I’m so happy he is in Vancouver today cause I get to go take him out for his birthday lunch

The last couple days have been busy trying to get stuff done before I head off to Toronto tomorrow morning. (going to work at the Gift Show with Nicole). I did manage to get a couple projects done that I’ve been meaning to make for weeks now - and they only took about 45 minutes each! I made a wall hanging out of CD’s for each of my nieces and now I can take them with me to Toronto to give them to them. My sister and her family are in Toronto right now visiting my brother in law’s family and they leave first thing Saturday morning to head back to Indiana. I will get to see them all Friday night after I get to Toronto - yay!!

All the paper used is by Rose Moka

We did a quick trip to Victoria on Monday just for the night and came back first thing Tuesday morning, leaving the dogs behind with my mum. They will stay there until I get back from Toronto and they are quite happy with that They love being at my parents house. I miss them so much already though, it’s so quiet around here without them. I keep thinking I have to go find them to take them out, or give them dinner, or I look for Zoey on the couch (where she is 90% of the time) - and no dogs!! Last night was especially sad and quiet around here, not only were the dogs not here, but Oscar wasn’t here either. I had to take him back to the shelter yesterday cause he is being neutered this morning. We should be able to pick him up later this afternoon and then we have to fill out the official adoption papers and he will be ours! (they won’t let us adopt him until he has been neutered, all this time we were technically just fostering him). Poor Gracie was walking around the house last night looking lost as her siblings were all missing.

One last photo to share:

this is what we had for dessert last night….mmmmmm

First of all, I just have to post this yummy cookie recipe - if you are into healthy eating but still love sweets, you might want to give these a try - I love them so so much! I actually found the recipe on the back of my Oatmeal package, but I modified it somewhat. I will write the recipe here as stated on the package and put my modifications in brackets. Enjoy!

Oat Cookies

1 cup whole wheat flour (I used Spelt flour)

1 tsp baking soda

¾ tsp salt (I omitted this altogether)

½ allspice (I didn’t have any on hand so used pumpkin spice, hehe)

2 tsp cinnamon (I added more like 4 or 5 tsp – love cinnamon!)

2 tsp ginger (only added 1 tsp – not a big ginger fan…)

2 eggs (I used egg beaters egg substitute)

1/3 cup vegetable oil (I omitted this too and added more applesauce instead)

1 ¼ cups unsweetened applesauce (I added about 1 ½ cups)

¾  cup brown sugar (I used 1 cup of splenda)

1 tbsp grated orange rind

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups porridge oats

¾ cup chopped almonds

½ cup sunflower seeds (I omitted these)

1 cup dried cranberries

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

 

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, allspice, cinnamon and ginger. Stir well and set aside.

 

Place eggs, oil, applesauce and sugar in a large bowl and beat together well. Add orange rind, vanilla, oats, almonds, and sunflower seeds. Stir until combined. Add flour mixture and stir well. Add dried cranberries and stir until combined.

 

Using about ¼ cup of cookie dough for each cookie, place on prepared cookie sheet and press down with a fork. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.

 

 

I finally got some scrappin done! I stayed up really late last night and made this little mini using a kit from Rose Moka (I am totally in love with all their paper lines!). This mini book is made from a brown Whole Foods grocery bag that I cut up and made pockets out of. They are attached together with fabric pieces and the only other things I used besides the Rose Moka stuff was: some newspaper, ink, glossy accents (of course!), buttons and the number 4 thickers sticker on the cover. This was a fun little book to make!