Thank you, Pearl, for my uber-cute bligityblog!

The other day, I received the most exciting email E.V.E.R.

Actually, there were two. Apparently, the king of Bhutan has passed away and has chosen little ol' me to collect a rather hefty lump sum. I shan't be sharing the amount, as I hear that when you're rich, people start coming out of the woodwork. I don't want my long-lost cousin Ernesto showing up at my doorstep with a business proposition for me.

Let's just say, I may soon be living large.

But, even more exciting, I won a runner-up prize from Pearl over at Pearl's Paperfections for a custom blog header!

I can't even describe how excited I was. (Cliff probably can. He was giving me strange looks all night.)

I recently discovered Pearl's blog when Jennifer, my buddy over at Scrapping Daze proclaimed her uber-fan status. Pearl is a phenomenal scrapbooker, and definitely deserves a huge following! Her use of colour, texture, and layering is incredible!

Check out Pearl's gorgeous header-work above. Whaddaya think?

I was so freakin' excited to get this posted to my blog today - I feel like I've been given the most awesome gift (and I don't even have to send my credit card info to Bhutan to collect it!)

Of course, when Pearl asked me if I thought she should do more giveaways for custom blog headers, I told her that people would be beating down her door for them! Please pop by Pearl's blog and let her know what you think!

Enjoy your weekend, y'all!

Good rhyme...good rhyme...good rhyme...

Maybe it's just because I'm an English teacher, but this is probably the funniest Sesame Street clip EVER.

Watch it without laughing. I dare you.



Rhyming and sarcasm and incorrect use of personal pronouns. This is comedy at its finest, my friends. Enjoy - and wish me well at parent-teacher interviews tomorrow night! :)

Bananas in pyjamas

So, I've been seeing peeps post their super-yummy-looking banana bread recipes all over the web, and I thought I should throw in what I think is the easiest (and most forgiving) banana bread recipe of all time.

That's right. I've compared them all. Ask anyone.

My recipe originally came from Evelyn Raab's Clueless in the Kitchen. 'Nuff said 'bout my mad kitchen skills, yo. This book was actually a godsend when I first moved out on my own and didn't really know how to do simple things, like cook rice or a soft-boiled egg. (This book is a great gift idea for those with kids about to fly the coop...or, leave the nest...or...something. Is that first one a euphemism for "going crazy"?)

Anyhow, over the years, I have perfected this recipe, I do believe, and have tried a dozen or so variations that have all turned out fabulously except when I've forgotten to set the timer and the bottom has burned to a blackened crisp every time.

So, here's how she goes, a la my adaptations:

Mix together:

• 1 1/4c flour (feel free to use white, whole wheat, or any combo of the two - other flours are on my list to try!)
• 1 c sugar (this can easily be reduced up to half and any sugar will do. A full cup makes it pretty sweet)
  
• 1 tsp baking soda

In a separate bowl, use a potato masher or electric mixer (or just use your blender) and smoosh together:

• 3 overripe brown bananas (or thawed ones from your freezer)
  
• 2 eggs
• 1/2c veg oil (this can easily be subbed in part or in whole for applesauce. Tastes great and better for you. Butter will also work.)

Now, mix the wet stuff into the dry stuff.

Pour into a well-greased loaf-pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour. Muffins take about 30 min. Or, if you happen to have found some mini-loaf pans on sale at Michael's after Christmas for $0.15 apiece (score!), those will work too. These take an hour too, for some reason.

Some yummy add-ins: a handful of chocolate chips, chopped nuts, blueberries, raisins, chopped apples, etc. This recipe is so forgiving that you can try it any-which way.

This recipe freezes well, doubles well, and makes for a super-yummy breakfast, lunch, snack, supper when Cliff isn't home accompaniment to the well-balanced and nutritious supper one cooks when eating alone, or any other possible meal.

By the way, I thought Cliff was off his rocker when he suggested it would be good with cheddar cheese...but holy moley, that's some good eats!

Let me know if you try this one out!

Linkin' it up to some sweet parties...


Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Tuesdays at the Table
Tasty Tuesday

Here's some insight for ya.

I like to call this one, "Portrait of the Artist in her Natural State of Crazy".

But I thought that might turn some people off, so formally, it's known as "It's kind of fun to ride the super roll-y carts at IKEA."


I used the SOS sketch (love it!) over at the Paper Poppy Kit Co., and incorporated random and assorted altered alphas in keeping with their alpha challenge.

I'm a sketch-noob, but apparently, I love it and have been seriously missing out! (Maybe that's because I'm so "sketchy"! Ha! ...Stop groaning, Cliff. I know you're at work, but I can hear you all the way across town.)

And now, I am off to prepare a novel study on To Kill a Mockingbird. On a Sunday. While the sun is shining. And the birds are singing and the blue sky is taunting me through my window.

(It's a great book. But seriously - why couldn't today be rainy?)

If there was any doubt as to the source of my questionable sanity, we may have just found it, my friends.

At least "crazy" makes for good scrapping-fodder.

So, inquiring minds want to know:

1. Do you use sketches? Are you a sketch-noob like me, or are you a seasoned vet?
2. Have you ever ridden the super-roll-y carts at IKEA? And if so...how far do you think one could travel in an open space, if given a good push? I am interested in your hypotheses for purely scientific reasons. (Unless, of course, you have access to a super-roll-y cart and an open space. In which case, please contact me ASAP.)

***Editor's note: Sorry for the re-post, but I realized that I forgot to give credit to Kayla Aimee at Only Slightly Neurotic for the free printable circle embellies! Love them! Thanks, KA!

Hallelujah! I can see my craft table!

Because I spent last night and this morning making my scrap space look like this:

***Editor's note: Notice Cliff's old dresser on the left? Full of scrappity goodness! That said - how is it that I added more furniture, but the room feels bigger? Either I'm spatially-challenged, or I'm about to hear the "Twilight Zone" theme music any minute now. Will keep you updated about said music.

...and because I went to Rona and had new shelves cut for my bookshelf so that I'd have space for all my boxes of scrapcrap, like so:...I had the energy (and tidy space!) to create these thank-you cards for my mom using Frances' great card sketches over at the Paper Poppy Co.:


And because I knew where everything was, I was able to make them out of bits and pieces from my stash!
Life is so very good when you can see the top of your scrap table.

Is it wrong that I like this?

Ok, here's something weird about me: I love to put together IKEA furniture.

Now, I have been so very inspired by the fab furniture makeovers that creative peeps have been posting all over the web, but when we decided to bite the bullet and get some new dressers, I knew that I wanted to go to IKEA for a matching pair.

Go ahead. Judge me. But there's just something about following the pictorial directions and putting together all of the oddly-shaped and tightly-packed pieces that satisfies something deepdown inside me that loves logic and order and rules. (Normally I shut that part up with cake for breakfast and spontaneous song and dance, but once in a while, I indulge.) It makes me feel very capable and independent.
In short, PVR'd Law and Order: SVU + IKEA furniture + a big ol' plate of yam fries = a happy Teri on Spring Break. Mess in the living room be damned.


In addition to the aforementioned furniture-assembly-induced-bliss, these new dressers are a massive upgrade from our old ones. Mine was the same one I had when I was 5, and the particle-board drawers had been re-built multiple times. (We laid the bottom drawer to rest over 5 years ago. Sadly, there has been a large, gaping, ever-present hole in our lives since then. Please see said hole below.)


Cliff's wasn't much better. It was once a child's dresser that I bought for $10 (hey, big spender!) at a yard sale when I was in college and we were broke as a joke. It hold approximately 1.36 mens' t-shirts side-by-side.

I did what I could at the time by painting them both black (gloss - I had no clue) and adding super-cheap matching hardware to make them look alright, but clearly, these things gots ta go.

And now, we are the proud new owners of adequate drawer-space. Behold!

Enough space for Cliff's t-shirts x umpteen future laundry days = happy Teri x 10⁴

Plus, that old dresser of Cliff's will make a perfect addition to my craft room. More to come on my attempts to clean up that abomination pretty up that space soon! :) Then, I can finally get to scrapping.

Last week, I was feeling so exhausted and unmotivated...but I'm back, baby! :)

{Thanks so much for your advice and commiseration last week, ladies!}

Title Goes Here. But I'm too tired to think of one.

Have you ever been so tired that, at the end of the day, all you can think about is food (anything edible) and the sweet, sweet relief of not having to make any more decisions? I mean, the kind of tired where you could literally watch the paint peel for hours because blinking is just so exhausting?

That's where I've been for the past week. The wheel's still turning, but the hamster's dead.

I don't really know why. Maybe because it's February, and as the daylight's coming back, I can't deal with the extra hours in my day. Maybe it's because I know that spring break starts next week, and my brain has gone on holiday early. Maybe it's because of that family of nocturnal screech owls we adopted last week. I knew putting that cage in our room wasn't a good idea.

I don't know. But seriously - I have to get a grip!

I seriously need to get crafting! It feels like it's been for.ev.er. But nothing sucks my creativity like exhaustion. And I can't take it anymore!

***Editor's note: Some of those sentence fragments were unintentional. Too tired to fix. Hard to think over the screech owls.

So, in order to get me pumped, here's a page I made a few months ago with some rah-rah spirit:

When Cliff was in broadcasting school, he was given the opportunity to broadcast live from the BC Lion's CFL pre-season opener. It was such a wicked opportunity for him as an up-and-comer!

This page is in an album where I've included some 6-photo-slot 12x12 pages so that I can include more photos from this awesome event. Since there's no room for journalling on this page, I'll include a 4x6 journalling card in one of the slots.

I also need to find a way to include the media package (an 8x10 booklet) in my album. I just love these photos - I can still feel just how excited we both were for him. Ok. Feeling a little better already. :)

So, what about you? What do you do when you're tapped out of energy and creativity? And what are your solutions for oddly-sized memorabilia that you want to include with your albums?

Oh. And if you have any solutions for a craft-room that looks like the drawers threw up all over it, I'd love to hear those too. No reason. I'm, uhhhh, just wondering.