gotta fun recipe!

okay, you all know I am cheap, but I also enjoy cooking! This is a kinda hand me down recipe from my dad (the cheap part) and ponderations of additional ingredients from Jim Larry (in Alamogordo).
The cheap part....the marked down french bread from WalMart...if you don't have a WalMart, any day old marked down french bread will do...DO NOT PAY FULL PRICE, that breaks the recipe, well if you do, don't tell me, it kinks me and I don't need any extra kinking!
Then gather your ingredients:
eggs (8-10)
milk (about 2 glugs, thinking 1/2 cup)
vanilla (two or three capfuls)
creamer (another glug, 1/3 cup?) I used vanilla carmel and it was super fantastical

This is from the ponderations of Jim Larry who is a french toast and waffle conesiour! He once told me to use egg nog for french toast. See I was listening not just flappin' my lips! hee hee

Wisk the ingrediants and then cut the bread, I use an electric knife...cheap even brand new, but like a buck at a thrift store!
Get one!

Drop 8 pieces in egg
and then put in hot skillet with melted butter! ummm, mm good!
Cook til brown, flip, serve with cold milk,
thick syrup











and for the sweet toothed ones sprinkle some powdered sugar...uhm sprinkle Abby, not bathe in it!
Pray for us! I have a true recipe for carnitas, oh it is so fabulous...when I get some time this week I will post it!

Chance to Win $10, $20 up to $50

Yep, I am giving out up to 5 Gift certificates next Sunday!
You can win it!
Gift Certificates where? To this remarkable store:
Creative Victorian
I am honored to be a the Quick Page Artist for Netta; the talent behind these kits!
I am in awe every time I open one of these kits.
The quality and quantity is remarkable!
I want others to get to know Creative Victorian!
Here are a few things I have been able to create with some of the kits so far:

I mean I love to do completely different things with these designs.

I push myself because they are just so different and I want you folks to give it a whirl.

Go window shopping at Creative Victorian!
You are gonna be amazed!
So how do you get the Gift Certificates, comments of course!
For every 10 comments I get I will give a $10 gift certificate, up to 5 separate certificates!
But I am asking you too please click on one of my GOOGLE ads
and help me get my adsense check!
yep, thats the catch,
we are on the honor system,
but your click and comments
can be a chance to win one of 5, $10 gift certificate from Creative Victorian !

So go click a
click a GOOGLE ad, and leave a comment,
I will take each name and put in a bowl,
my kids will pull up to 5 names next Sunday, the 7th of June!
If your comment doesn't take me to your blog or email, I will post here Thursday evening and you can contact me.

Thanks in advance for the clicks!

Right now I am at $39.82,
keep an eye on the sidebar comments for updates
as the amount goes up on my adsense account!

Fantasy is Fun

okay, I'm an old school scrapper! I started digital 7 years ago,using power point...oh ugly layouts, but the memories and journalling is my favorite! I would fill and 8 1/2 by 11 page with tons of square little pictures and journaling boxes! no elements, no clusters and no shadows!
I was scrapping for memories!
As life and digital scrapping has evolved, I saw the fantasy layouts, tried to put wings on my kids and float them around, and it just wasn't me. I read the opinions it was more art than saving memories for those that made them. I figured well, I was never an artist, so I don't get that.
Well, all that said...Jenni over at Enchanted Scrapbook Studios RAK (random Act of Kindness) with this kit called Peggy's Magical Rainforest! It is pure fantasy...I opened it and fell in love! I played and played til I could get Abby's face right with the glows and stars and I felt rather artsy with it...I so hope you like it!I have to ponder printing this, but just kept staring at my daughter whose joyful qualities are like magic to me sometimes when I am in a mood...her joy is such a blessing to me. aaaaaah, I better stop! lol

My mum got bite by a dog---gross picture

Tuesday morning, my mumbly was walking (she is an avid walker and looks so good) and a German Shepherd ran up behind her and bit her arm, I mean took a chunk out of it! I got the email picture before the story, and my heart sank. She is doing fine, the dog had done this at least two times before...I wanted to fly up to Oregon and punch the man and hug my mom. She was really scared.
I made it kinda small, cause it is rather gross, but here is a picture of my beautiful mom! I talked with her again today and she is sore and a feeling a bit better! She had 10 stitches in her arm!


Just a bit of drama, and thought I would let the world know! I jokingly called her Kibbles and Bits...my family has a real warped sense of humor!

Some fun layouts!

Wowza! I am out of the box of comfort and I think I like it! Doris Castle threw out this marvelous collab coming from ScrapBook Graphics June 1st. She said it is Impressions of Whimsy, so do something whimsical! I pushed myself and oh did I have a blast with this! We went to the south bay area last week and a bit further to the ocean of Santa Cruz. My kids loved it, and I sat and clicked pictures like a mad woman! I was so excited to catch them in this shot!
This is the most colorful and wild layout I have ever done! The label of Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is from a pic I took on the street! so so fun!

Next, I saw this thread over at DST, with the word Olive in it. My daughter Abby has a fixation on olives, the name and all dirivitives of it; Olivia, oli etc, so I clicked on the thread! MrsMeeks, a cute looking young lady and mother of 2 who is a CT who has begun designing. Her stuff is so fresh and original to me...I loved the previews and wanted to apply immediatly to her CT, but she wants more of the fantasy layouts...and that isn't really me...so I bought her kit (don't faint, I had a Gift Certificate...lol) at Digiridoo Scraps. The kit is called Country Summer and it is just amazing! I woke up at 1:30am and sat at the puter for 2 hours and made this layout, that just comes from my heart. I know it is so wildly different than what I normal do, but I had a blast! The sky is a picture from my back yard. The first pic is Mr. E at 4 and the others are from last summer putting up the trampoline, extracted and in my heart forever!

Wednesday Sale

Mark your calenders for Wednesdays! Charlie is serious about sales, and remember that awesome CU Garden Bits....???
Well the first one is on sale!!!
Charlie has Garden Bits on sale at ESS for $1 from Wednesday to Friday!Bargain!
Whew, bedtime for me! Long day.

some new pics and fun stories!

This past weekend, we had a Pioneering Seminar at the San Jose Church! The rally didn't start til Thursday evening, so we pulled the kids early and took off for Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk! It was a totally awesome (doesn't that sound so California) time! It was the last day of winter hours and winter prices (Mom is so cheap!) so a cheap mini vacation and time on the beach (Priceless)!


This is the scary ride, it shoots up in like 3-5 seconds then drops faster to the ground! Tony, Eric and Gabriel went on it. The girls wanted to watch the boys face first!


The look so brave here! But the girls decided immediately after the ride took off, they were NEVER going on it! Even Tony said it was a bit scary!
I love this pic, my hubby took of Abby and I coming back to the beach for the 100th time (potty break)
Tony contemplating, and hopefully relaxing. He loved Santa Cruz and had never been there before, so that was kinda cool, to show it to the family. The last time I went here I was 18-19 years old and I was a bit nervous that it was going to be all run down. It was just like 30 years ago! Bright and fun and just marvelous!

Watching my kidlets in the water is such a joy...they love it! Seeing waves crash and the sounds of seals honking by the wharf while hustle and bustle of the boardwalk surround you. This was just a super time!

I hope you enjoy this little glimpse of us in California...

so.........pink and so..........blue

Mother's Day, I cried. After years of no children and lots of tears on Mother's Day, having children and an awesome hubby, I still cry. The tears now are so joyfilled and relief and just amazement of how much I love being a mom.
I have wanted rose bushes for years! YEARS! But, the timing was never right, we were moving, gonna move or it just didn't happen.
So....this year, my husband took the kids and they each got me a rose bush! I cried. oh did I cry! Each child picked out the one they wanted to give. I wanted to do a layout with them, but everything with roses was well, to...girly for the boys.
Then Carolyn Rose Kite came out with two kits,
So....Pink; perfect for my girls and their rose bushes and
So....Blue; a blue version of the Pink kit but with a bit of a twist! The chain link heart was a great twist!
Roses for Mom! A two page spread! Wow! I love it. This kit is available now at Scrap-N-Tag

Charlie's New CU pack-Garden Bits 2

This week Charlie has another new Commercial Use product. All these png files are 100% stray free and are 300ppi.No credit required but appreciated!

That all said, I have to tell you, these leaves are fantastic! I don't design, but what I do is put them in a file called Working Drawer. This is where my CU things that add that final touch to a cluster or to a layout. I am horrible about giving credit and usually work with one kit at a time. CU items are perfect to put something on, but it is an addition, not someone else that you have to record! Yeah, I'm a bit lazy!
So pop over to ESS and pick up Garden Bits 2 cause it will be on sale for 30% off for 1 week only!

Famous Family

We went to San Jose for the Pioneer Rally! This is our highlight for the year for us to hear live preaching at us! lol! Last year we left the kids at home, but it is so kid friendly...so they got to meet people their age and fellowship too! That was just beyond fun! I have a ton of pics to add, but wanted to put this video in!
Thursday morning, we left at 7am to go past San Jose into Santa Cruz, to the boardwalk! Because it was the last day of winter rates, everything was 1/2 price and that is right in our price range, and the boardwalk is free and right on the beach! Oh it was an awesome time! The kids went on bumper cars, the boys and Tony went on this shooting up ride, and their faces scared the girls enough that they wouldn't go on it!
The water was freezing, but that doesn't stop the Pistilli kidlets! They all went in, the waves thru Gabriel down and the girls well they stayed in and swam and laughed while the boys do what boys do, dig holes!
There was a local TV crew there, and interviewing different families about going to the boardwalk during the "economic crisis" ha ha, we were there because it was cheap! So if you look at the crowds of people walking you can see all of us, (I have white shirt, the girls have yellow hats on and Eric is right next to me! I am also interviewed on camera and was on the 6pm news! Oh I so hope this works!
WELL, it didn't, but....................if you CLICK here, it will take you to the video! oh go, you will be so happy!

Its a Dily from LouCEE!

My dear friend and now a bonifide designer LouCEE was asked by a best friend if I could design a scrapbooking kit for her to give to another friend as a birthday gift. Her friend Dilys's favourite colour is green and loves her garden, it started from there! It is a striking kit filled with pretty tones of green, blue and purple. LouCee's kit is available at Digital Scrap Obsession, hurry it's on sale right now!!
I had a blast layering and making a bit of word art for this layout of my girls, whose closeness is just always astounding to me...
I am just back from a conference in San Jose, so stay tuned here on More of Us, Me and the Family for fun pictures tomorrow!

Blog Train of Freebies

Claudi has been filling her stores; Divine Digital, Faith Sisters, Inspiration Lane and Digital Freebies to the brim!
This is just one of her new kits; Moments to Remember
Her CT and QP ladies got together and did some brags from the kit to give out so you can see how beautiful Claudi's kits are! This kit really glows!

Here are my parts:

Download Freebie Link (BoxNet)

Please stop by the following ladies blogs to pick up their contributions:

Penny

jennamy82

janerae

Anne of Alamo <----you are here Click here for LINK

CrazyKiera

RoseFire

Lillipuce

and please go by dear Claudi's blog for a FREE quickpage.

Please have patience as we are all on different time zones, continents and real life duties! lol, they should all be up Saturday sometime! Enjoy and thank you for all your support for Claudi and her lovely designs!

SALE! from Charlie and the ESS Gang

Go HERE to find yourself some fabulous fairy bargains!!!!!!!! oh these are some fun kits! SeaBreeze is perfect for beach or spring shots, and Frogs and Mudcakes is just an all around fun kit, especially for those boys! Get all three for so cheap! Go, on it's fun!
I'm off to relax for the weekend, kinda! We have a Northern California Pioneer Rally (for the pastors and family to get good preaching and rejuvinated) and we are going to be so close to the beach that we are hitting Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. I used to go in my younger wilder days, so now I am going as a mom! lol...excited to show my kids yet another beautiful beach of California!
STay tuned for a brag book train coming here Saturday!!! FREE!!

Charlie's more Designer Bits and a Freebie link!

This week Charlie has a new Commercial Use product that is also PU friendly too.
All these products are 100% stray free and are 300ppi.
No credit required but appreciated!
She is so sweet, it is even on sale: Designer Bits 3
will be on sale for 30% off for 1 week only!
Charlie also has a FREEBIE for you over at her blog!
Click here or the image to bring you to her blog and please leave a little love for her!


Stay tuned later for more sales from Charlie and new and fun things in my life of scrapping!

A wild day in CTville!

I would like to say thank you for your application for my “On Call” Team. However you were unsuccessful at this time.

Wow! This is what came in my mailbox today, I am unsuccessful, well at least at this time. That was this evening, this was earlier in the day:

thanks again for applying to my creative team! unfortunately, you haven't been selected at this time

Wow! This could send a girl whirling! But not this girl! I love scrapping and figure, they don't realize what a gem they have lost! So I applied for another one tonite! but used a different tact, complete and honest humor...I am betting even if I am "unsuccessful" or unfortunately, I will at least make her laugh! Stay tuned for the response!

now to the fun stuff!

I do QPs for Netta over at Creative Victorian and she came out with this kit; Perpetual Mischief, I mean the name is fab, the preview is remarkable! so I say to her, uhm I'll do a layout with it! she said yes and had a hand clapping smilie...now you know that inspires this girl, blinkies, smilies and original staples! I had an absolute blast putting this layout together, and I show it to my son G (the star of the layout) and he says, I don't think I was getting into mischief in those pictures! ha ha...gotta love that!So go on over to Creative Victorian and pick up the kit and oh you have got to see these page clusters I did with Netta's kit Unicorn Nights: I am rather proud of them!This is so out of my realm and oh did I have a blast going to the realm I was in when I made these! Hope you can go get the kit, just look around her store, it is full of fun and so different and original things to play with! Go, go ahead, here, just click!