Fantasyland Layout {Echo Park}

It's been a few weeks since I shared a scrapbook layout. This is one that I did for our Disney album from our trip last summer. 

Fantasyland was one of our favourite parts of the whole Disneyland park. It was our very first stop on our very first morning.

Chewy Ginger Cookies

Does anyone else love the cookbooks that are collections of recipes from a church, business, or organization? Aren't they the best? They're always chock full of treasures that quickly become family favourites.

The recipe I have to share with you today is from one such cookbook. It's from the cookbook that my high school put out back when I was still in school... way back when. :)

My mom bought me a copy of the cookbook at the time to have for when I "grew up & moved out". 

When my husband & I got married & set up house, I was suddenly plunged into the duties of cook & baker. My mom had taught me some, but I learned mostly from experience.

In that first year of marriage, I tried so many new recipes - searching for our own family favourites. This recipe was one of those & has been a favourite ever since. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

DIY Pennant Gift Bag

Today I'm showing you an easy way to dress up a plain gift bag.

Pennants/bunting/banners are all the rage right now & this is such a simple little project you can do in such a short time.

Here's what you need:

Insta Friday #5

Another week has come & gone. Wow! This week felt so short. 

Probably because the kids didn't have school on Monday or Tuesday.

While they were off, I got a few hours to do some crafty things, one of which I'll be posting later today. 

Stay tuned. :)

Even though we're still in the freezer temperature-wise, the kids enjoyed some snow time on their days off...

Beef & Barley Soup

I'm sure looking forward to spring. Are you with me? From some of the photos I've been seeing, there are those of you who are seeing sprouts of green in your gardens & are feeling the sun on your faces. We are sure seeing the sun here in Saskatchewan, but our gardens are still buried under 2 feet of snow. No tulips will be seen for awhile...

For the time being, we are hunkering down, staying warm, & trying not to envy the people who are holidaying or living in warmer climates. My parents are in Mexico right now... sigh. (I choose to be happy, I choose to be happy.)

Anyway, how was your long weekend? Ours was good. My husband is now in his last week of school. Soon he'll be a journeyman plumber! (I'm so proud!) He did a lot of studying on the weekend, so the kids & I hung out together, but we went swimming as a family on Saturday. On Monday afternoon, I fired up my iTunes podcast library (my fav thing to do while I'm cooking or baking is listen to preaching podcasts. I learn a lot & am encouraged in the process) as well as the oven. I made a chocolate cake, chewy ginger cookies, biscuits, & a big pot of this yummy Beef & Barley Soup...

Only one change. I used venison this time. It's delicious with either kind of meat. After it simmers together for an hour & a half, you can't even taste the difference.

Insta Friday #4

Another week has come & gone. I fell off the posting wagon this week a bit. Sorry about that. We have a long weekend this weekend & I'm planning some creative time with some projects to share with you this coming week.

This week, my family took a little trip down memory lane & I posted a few favourite photos from a couple of our past Mexico trips.

And because we couldn't be in Mexico, I lifted my spirits by doing one of my other favourite things... some baking! :) Raspberry muffins with vanilla glaze were a yummy weekend treat.

8 Gift Wrap Ideas

With Valentine's Day coming up this week, 

you may be looking for some ideas for wrapping that gift you bought for your special someone. 

Why not give one of these a try?

How To Make Tissue Paper Flowers

Rolled Paper Flowers

Owl Valentine Bag

Doily Gift Bag

Felt Pinwheels on Brown Paper

Map Covered Gift Box

Butterfly Gift Bag

Map Pinwheel Gift Bag

I hope you're feeling inspired to get crafty with your wrapping!

Thanks for reading. If you like what you see here on Silver Boxes, I'd love it if you would become a follower on Google Friend Connect, subscribe by email (sign up on the right sidebar), 

or follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or Twitter. 

And please leave a comment when you do so I know who my new friends are! :)

Enjoy your day!

Check out the great parties I link up to!

Insta Friday #3

This week's wrap up...

Valentine's Day is well on it's way, along with the kids admiring all the love day goodies in the stores.

This is Audrey's "Can I have it, Mom? Can I pleeeeeease have it?" face.

Last weekend I went scrapbooking with some dear friends. We consumed large quantities of Starbucks & chocolate while we were at it. What could be better? Wait, we thought of something better... being on a cruise, scrapbooking with friends, & having Starbucks & chocolate! Don't you agree??

 (And yes, the weekend was Epic. "We ARE the focus group." Haha, you had to be there!)

Pretty As A Princess {Echo Park}

Last weekend, I spent a wonderful time with some friends at a scrapbooking retreat. I'm still plugging away at our Disney album so that's what I worked on the whole time.

I was excited to scrapbook these photos from the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Disneyland because I could pull out my girly stash & make something pretty. I guess I was tired of all the yellow & red Mickey Mouse products I had been working with. :)

As you can see, my journalling isn't done. I'm leaving it all to the end & will do it all at once... hopefully.

Like I did with the wedding card I recently made, I cut up some jewel flourishes I had to make them stretch & work with my layout.

Products used:

• Cardstock - American Crafts
• Patterned Paper - Echo Park
• Scalloped border sticker - Echo Park
• Journalling sticker - Echo Park
• Silver letter stickers - Making Memories
• Paper flowers - Michael's
• Jewel flourish - Dollarama
• Single jewels - Michael's

Thanks for reading. If you like what you see here on Silver Boxes, I'd love it if you would become a follower on Google Friend Connect, subscribe by email (sign up on the right sidebar), 

or follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or Twitter. 

And please leave a comment when you do so I know who my new friends are! :)

Enjoy your day!

Check out the great parties I link up to!

Peanut Butter S'more Cookies

Having baking on hand is a two edged sword, right? It's great for the kid's lunches & snacks, but it's also around to temp me. I really like to try new baking recipes, so finding new recipes to add to my favourites that the whole family enjoys is a great thing (although an exercise in self control for me).

This week, I did some digging in my Pinterest boards to get some baking inspiration. When I was looking through my C is for Cookie board, I found this recipe. I baked up a batch & we loved them! It has since been moved to my We Tried Them & We Liked Them board. :)

Peanut Butter S’more Cookies  adapted from The Three Little Piglets
Makes about 3 dozen

½ c. shortening
¾ c. creamy peanut butter
⅓ c. granulated sugar
⅓ c. light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbs. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. all purpose flour
½ c. graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 c. mini marshmallows
4 – 1.55 oz. Hershey bars, broken into chunks (I didn't have these on hand so I used 1/2 cup chocolate chips mixed into the dough.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, beat shortening, peanut butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; beat well. Mix in flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda, and salt until well combined, but do not over mix. This is where I mixed in the chocolate chips.

Shape dough into 1” balls. Place on ungreased cookies sheets. Flatten slightly with the palm of your hand or the bottom of a glass.

Bake 6 minutes or until slightly set. Remove from the oven and add three mini marshmallows and three small chunks of Hershey Bar to each cookie. Return to the oven 3-4 more minutes until lightly browned.

Cool 1-2 minutes and then remove to wire racks and cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Don't they look yummy? Trust me, they are! A little taste of heaven. The toasted marshmallows are the best!

For more marshmallow love, try some of these recipes!

Chocolate Marshmallow Bars

Chocolate Marshmallow Fudge

Thanks for reading. If you like what you see here on Silver Boxes, I'd love it if you would become a follower on Google Friend Connect, subscribe by email (sign up on the right sidebar), 

or follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or Twitter. 

And please leave a comment when you do so I know who my new friends are! :)

Enjoy your day!

Check out the great parties I link up to!

as well as the Weekend Potluck

Valentine Vignette

Happy Monday, friends! How was your weekend? Mine was great. I spent Friday night & all day Saturday at a scrapbooking retreat with some great friends. I'm still working on our Disney trip album from this past summer's trip. I'd say I'm at least half done & the end is in sight. I'll have some layouts to show you in the next few weeks.

~~~~~

Last week I was able to finish up our Valentine decorating. With my hubby in school for another few weeks, things are tight, so I didn't want to spend anything on my decorating. Because of this, my budget for this vignette was $0.

Here's how I pulled it together...

I reused many of last year's decorations...

...including the paper hearts & the button art I made & displayed in an embroidery hoop.

I just took the paper hearts off of the string they were on & piled them in a couple of vases.

I also used the pink rag wreath I made last spring. I had an empty picture frame that I looped the wreath to to display it.

I also used my snowy owls (since they're just too cute) along with the Valentine vase I showed you a bit ago.

There you have it! Everything was reused & found from around the house. It's amazing what you can come up with when you have a little imagination!

Thanks for reading. If you like what you see here on Silver Boxes, I'd love it if you would become a follower on Google Friend Connect, subscribe by email (sign up on the right sidebar), 

or follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or Twitter. 

And please leave a comment when you do so I know who my new friends are! :)

Enjoy your day!

Check out the great parties I link up to!

Insta Friday #2

Another week has come & gone as well as another month! 2013 is already flying by!

Last week ended by me organizing photos for this weekend's scrapbooking retreat. 

And no weekend is complete for us without watching some basketball! Our son is in a mini league with games on Saturdays. A few of his team mates were sick last week, so there were only 5 of them playing. They rocked the game & won even with the extra players missing. :)