Menu plan Monday - rabbit stew

I am not really in the mood to write much.

I had an AMAZING weekend. But, then it came crashing to a halt when a friend brought it to my attention that I really hurt her feelings...during the course of our scrapbooking weekend I offended her. I am glad she said something, I truly did not realize my comments upset her...and I feel badly about that...but now, I am upset. So, I did not sleep very well last night (couple that with staying up to watch Desperate Housewives, and then getting up for work at 3am) and my Monday did not start off too well. While driving to work at 3:30am, I hit and killed a little bunny...oh ya! I did, and I am a wreck about it...what a great start to the week!

So, without whining anymore, here is my dinner menu for this week. And, um, no, we are not having any rabbit dishes! You can find lots of other meal ideas at Menu Plan Monday entries at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Monday - Chicken drumsticks with corn peas and rice

Tuesday - Green Curry Shrimp with mixed veggies and couscous

Wednesday - Crockpot Mexican Pork - Recipe below

Thursday - Spaghetti and meatballs

Friday - Vegetable Quinoa with Tilapia

Crockpot Mexican Pork

1 pound pork boneless loin roast – cut into 1" pieces
1 20 oz jar salsa
1 4oz can chopped green chiles -- drained
1 15oz can black beans -- rinsed and drained
1 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese -- if desired

Mix pork, salsa and chiles in 3 1/2 to 4 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat setting 6 to 8 hour or until pork is tender. Stir in beans. Cover and cook about 5 minutes or until hot. Sprinkle with cheese.

1 serving = 345 calories/Fat 10g/Cholesterol 75mg/Sodium 900 mg/Carbohydrate
37g/Fiber 10g/Protein 37g
Weight Watcher's Points = 6

Fitness Friday - Prep for fun!

OK! My race is tomorrow morning at 9:15am. It is a nice route along Colonel By Drive (and Rideau Canal) from Pretoria Bridge to the Bronson Bridge and back. It is calling for a nice 3 degrees Celsius with cloudy skies. I think it will be nice running conditions.

Here are a few photos of the area where the race is being held:

I am taking it easy today. I have had a long, tiring week and need to rest up for what is for sure going to be a great weekend.

Here is a list of things I need to get organized for tomorrow morning:

- Pick up race kit

- Attach shamrocks to my running pants and coat as part of my costume (!?!?!)

- Drink lots of water

- Place out all my running gear

- Bake my shamrock cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies (2 batches of each!)

- Buy a new blade for my straight cutter

- Organize and pack all my photos

- Pack up all the ingredients to make the most fabulous scrambled egg breakfast ever!

- Get all my scrapbooking materials packed up and into the car

- Place my parent's house key on my key ring

- Pack my over night bag

- Pack my soccer gear for my game on Sunday afternoon

It is incredible all the things you need to do before running a 5k race!!!

Oh! Did I mention that, after my big race, 4 of the most wonderful ladies are meeting me at my parent's house about 45km away (away from work, hubby and the kids) for a girls' scrapbooking weekend! The funny part is growing up I NEVER disobeyed my parents and hosted a party in their absence!!! No, I think I did it right....no teenage party will ever out do a kidless, free, scrapbooking weekend away!!!!

Oh ya! No matter how I feel during or after my race, no matter my finishing time, no matter the weather, no matter what, this is going to be a great weekend!!!! (If I survive it!!!)

In honour of this bound-to-be-great weekend, I present to you birthday gift ideas # 29 and # 28:

29) I would soooo love a long sleeve running shirt that would be perfect for Ottawa spring weather. Something like this:

28) And as I move forward with my transition from strictly traditional scrapbooking to a hybrid form of mixing traditional and digital scrapbooking, I would totally appreciate a year membership to Heritage Makers. The extremely lovely Kristen from Mighty Morphin' Mama is a consultant and introduced me to her product line - it totally rocks and I think it would be a super cool addition to my scrapbooking tool set. Not only does the Heritage Makers' annual membership make my list of 40 gifts for my 40th birthday, but Oprah named it one of her favorite things too!!!! (Go check it out! Then, after you fall in love with it you can order one membership for me, and then treat yourself too!)

Wish me luck for my big debut race...Irish luck that is!!!!

Have a wonderful and great weekend...I know I will for sure!!!!

Sunday Scrappin' - Better late than never!

In 5 days Madigan will turn 2 years old. Time has flown by! This weekend at my monthly scrapbook day I finally got to Madigan's first birthday pages. Better late than never!


Two page spread for family party.

Two page spread for her friend party held in her honour!

Happy Srappin Sunday!

For more great layouts, check out Sunday Scrappin'.

Sunday Scrappin - Going to the Birds

Click HERE for more Sunday Scrappin' entries.

This is a great site to get ideas and inspiration for all your scrapbooking and paper crafts. Check it out!

Oh, I am sooooo behind in my scrapbooking - but on November 29th I am going to a all-day crop and hope to get lots done.

Since I have no scrapbooking pages to share, I would like to share the birthday party invites that I made for the boys' birthday party.

A bit of back ground info.

DJ asked to have the party at the "Chick-a-dee Park". Hmmmmm...how could that work????

I have posted before about the wonderful hiking trail located within the city limits of Ottawa. It is simply beautiful. There are two main trails that allow you to walk either 2KM or 5KM. If you bring wild bird seed, the birds will eat right out of your hand!

What a neat party idea! We are known for our unique brithday parties!

So, I called the National Capital Commission - they look after the park land in Ottawa - and found out that the building on the land is rented by a group called The Wild Bird Care Centre. I gave them a call immediately to determine what I could plan for my boys. May, the young lady who took my call, was amazing! She was almost as excited as I was about this party idea!

It is all set! On December 7, DJ and Anderson will celebrate their birthdays at the park. We will start in the centre and the kids will get a short presentation on what the centre does and how they rescue birds. We will have cake and refreshments and then head off for a hike. I think it will be so much fun! My kids LOVE this hiking trail and never get tired of the birds landing in their hands. Many of our invited guests have never done this before. What fun we will have!

I wanted to make fun and theme-related invitations. After searching the web I found a template for a great, easy to make card. It features a 3-d bird popping up and lots of details!

I am very pleased with the results - and best of all - the boys LOVE them!

I cannot wait to complete the gift bags, party decoratins and cakes, I have so many ideas!

...stay tuned!

Sunday Scrappin' Fun With Great Grandpa

Click HERE for more Sunday Scrappin' entries.

This is a great site to get ideas and inspiration for all your scrapbooking and paper crafts. Check it out!

I have a whole bunch of Ta-Das to share.

My husband's grandfather came to visit for a week. Yep. The kids' great grandfather came to hang out on the Fringe. He lives clear across the country, so we do not get to see him that often.

He is a wonderful, active, smart, fun-loving man. It was a wonderful trip. So, to make a keepsake of his visit, every night I would slip away and digitally scrapbook our day. I took pictures of us golfing, going hiking, picking pumpkins, going to the museum and even relaxing and watching a movie.

I printed each page to fit a 8.5 X 11 page at home and simply got them bond with a coil-band at Staples. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. Then, I took the entire book, re-wrote some of the journalling to be personal for each of my kids and printed off smaller 4X6 copies.


Now everyone has a special memento of the wonderful week we had.


Here are the pages I created:

Thanks for looking!

Sunday Scrappin' and Yummy Radishes!

Click HERE for more Sunday Scrappin' entries. This is a great site to get ideas and inspiration for all your scrapbooking and paper crafts. Check it out!

This week's challenge was to use an animal print or animal photos in a layout. Well, I did both! And the actual layout I used is also a Ta-da that others may want to try if they have too many photos for a 2 page spread, but not enough for a 3 page spread.

Here are the layouts I did for our trip to Windsor last June. To accommodate the fact that this trip included a variety of pit stops and the fact that I had too many photos for 2 pages, but not enough for 3 pages I did a 1/4 flip page. This is very easy to do. I cut a album page to the size I wanted and scored the one side and used double-sided tape to secure it to the main page of my layout.

On the front of the demi-page I used photos taken during the first leg of the trip and acts as a title page. When the flap is closed you can see only half of the layout about our pit stop to African Lion Safari. And when you open the flap, the short side has photos and journal space about our pit stop in Burlington. This format allowed me to divide the layout into 3 sections and use all the photos I had chosen.

If you look closely, you will see that the letters of GO WILD! are actually an animal print and the thin strips on the main page also are an animal print used to compliment the lettering and the photos we took at this unique zoo in south-western Ontario.

I am pleased with this multi-page layout, unfortunately, the photos do not do it justice.

Demi-flap is closed and you see a one-page spread. One side about our long car drive and the other side about the zoo we visited.

Here, the demi-flap is opened and you can see a demi-page about our pit stop in Burlington. I will add journalling in the red box. On the opposite page there are a few photos about our trip to the African Lion Safari. I will journal in the beige box.

Totally unrelated to scrapbooking - well, unless you count that I will probably scrapbook this event in the future!

For the first time ever we planted a veggie garden. Well, I have done most of the work, but the boys did help planting some of the seeds and they have been thrilled watching the seeds start to grow and bloom.

We planted a veggie garden that included swiss chard, spinach, 4 types of beans, 3 types of tomatoes, peas, carrots, onions, squash, zucchini and radishes.

Well, today we did our first harvest! The boys are so proud! I just had to share the photos!





Have a great week! Thanks for looking in on the Fringe!

Scrappy and Savory Sunday Past!

Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments on our teacher gifts. Many of you commented or emailed me asking for the salad dressing recipes that we used for these unique gifts.

I thought I would use this post as a Sunday Scrappin update (on a Monday) and an opportunity to share our favorite recipes!

Click HERE for more Sunday Scrappin' entries.

In terms of scrapbooking, I did not complete my main objectives this week. Oh well. Life is pretty busy.

I did complete 8 personalized digital pages that I used as thank you cards on the gifts we made for the boys' teachers and bus drivers. Each page included photos and personal messages to each teacher or bus driver. The photos featured my boys helping to make the salad claws or them helping to make the dressings. Each personalized note included the dressing recipe and a suggested salad mixture that compliments the dressing.

Here are the two layouts I did:

Each boy got to choose the type of dressing they thought their teacher or bus driver would like. We ended up with 4 different recipes of all time favorites:

Sweet and Sour Salad

1 head romaine lettuce
1 (100gm) slivered almonds
1 vidalia onion sliced paper thin
1 pkg Ramon noodles (do not use the soup base)
Saute noodles and almonds in butter
Put in a large bowl and toss with the romaine

Dressing : 1 cup oil
2 TB soya sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar

Fine Greek Feta Salad

Chunk assorted peppers, cucumber, carrots, and red onion.
Add cherry tomatoes and black olives.

Dressing: 1 part balsamic vinegar
2 parts oil
2 tbsp fresh herbs
1 sun dried tomato
crumbled feta cheese

Goat Cheese Salad

Spring mix
Thinly sliced red peppers
Handful of snow peas
Cherry tomatoes
Cut up goat cheese
Melba toast or croutons

Dressing: 1/3 c balsamic vinegar
1tbsp Dijon mustard
2 cloves finely chopped garlic
2 tbsp fresh herbs

Mix above ingredients together then gradually whisk into a jar of 1/4 cup olive oil

Baby Spinach Salad

Baby Spinach
Dried Cranberries
Toasted almonds
Sliced mushrooms
Chunks of hard boiled egg

Dressing: 1 part red wine vinegar
2 parts oil
1/2 a fresh squeezed orange or 2 table spoons of juice from frozen raspberries
Crumbled feta cheese
Fresh rosemary and mint (or any fresh herbs)


So, there you have it...my scrapbooking of savory salad mixtures!!!!

Now back to our regularly scheduled scrapbooking...fingers crossed I can accomplish this weeks challenge of incorporating an animal or animal print into a spread! Wish me luck!

Sunday Scrappin' - CHEO Layouts

Click HERE for more Sunday Scrappin' entries.

This week I only had one objective in my scrapbooking - to make a small page that I could display on-set during the CHEO Telethon.

All three of my children have benefited from the medical aid they received from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. And my dear friend Donna lost her son almost 8 years ago to leukemia. Therefore, every year we volunteer during the telethon and answer the phones taking pledges.

It is a wonderful way to give back to a wonderful hospital. You are encouraged to bring a photo and display it by your phone. The hosts will zoom in on the photos and come ask you about your experiences with the hospital.

I decided to try out my new digital software and design and few options. I was amazed at how quickly I was able to make 8 pages. All in all, it took me only 1 hour to make all the variations - it actually took longer to get consensus on which one to use!!! (I let my mother, mother-in-law and hubby decide which one I would display.)

Which one would you have chosen? It would be interesting to see what everyone thinks!

The Sunday Scrappin' challenge this week was to use paper that you were not fond of or liked - I kind of relate that to using something that is contrary to your personal style. Well, in making the 8 samples I really pushed my comfort level. Firstly, I never really thought I would like scrapbooking in a digital format - but I did. The results are a bit different than my style when scrapbooking in the traditional way. And secondly, when I scrapbook traditionally, I rarely use patterned paper behind photos -and with the digital format, I once again pushed this boundary. Plus, I really do not like that lime green paper with purple and orange in sample # 5. UGLY! Therefore, in my own way, I met this week's challenge!

My to-do's for this week include:

1) Organize photos for a special thank-you album I want to start

2) Get one page done in both my Family 2007 book and in Madigan's First Year book.

Happy Scrappin my blog-friends!