Celebrate

Found this picture when I was going through a few things. I think at one point I must have wanted to scrap it, but obviously through a cleanup phase it was put away.

This seems to be a theme with me lately, I clean up and then can't find things or I forget I had things in the works. Does that ever happen to you?

Decided to use the pink accent from the rose buttonaires and keep the rest black and white.

Star Wars

Star Wars, the museum. Well technically not a museum but an exhibit nonetheless at our local Tech Museum.

I took my oldest grandson with me to check it out and we really enjoyed ourselves, just wished it was larger. So much cool stuff and we were impressed they had activities for little kids. They kept the crowds a minimum buy giving you a set entry time and then they only admitted in those people whose scheduled time was currently available.

I took lots of photos and it's hard to limit yourself to just a few for a scrapbook page, so I decided to only do a layout with pictures of items that were in the first movie (which is now episode 4,  A New Hope) since for me, that was what hooked me from the begining when I was just a wee lass and have been a fan ever since.

I think I might do a small project life album for my grandson though.

Always Happy

Here is another picture I wanted to redo. And compared with how this picture had been scrapped before without even as much as some journaling, I am much happier with this version. Although I am not all that fond of it and have to ask myself if I will be redoing this page again in 5 years.

I started with one concept, stepping out of my comfort zone and then it went a whole other direction and I just kind of kept adding stuff trying to make it all work, in the end I am not sure that it all did. I think it's just too messy for me.  We are our own worse critics, aren't we?!?

And it just happens to be this little guy's birthday today, he is 22 years old. My how time flies.

Vanilla Bean Cake with Strawberry Frosting and Filling

It's been awhile since I shared a cake recipe so thought today might be a good day. I had my grandkids over for a post birthday celebration for two of them. And since the 3 year old won't care as much as the 14 year old over the cake flavor, I let the oldest decide. To my sruprise he asked for Strawberry.

I originally was going to make it all Strawberry but then decided it might be a bit much. I then opted for this Vanilla Bean cake, home made strawberry filling and frosted with a Strawberry Buttercream.

Recipes follow



Yield: 2 9” Cake Rounds

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 vanilla bean

3 1/3 cups cake flour, not self-rising

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

3 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup full-fat sour cream

1/3 cup canola oil or vegetable oil

1 1/2 Tablespoon pure (not imitation) vanilla extract

1 cup (whole milk

Preheat oven to 350

Grease and Flour pans

In a small bowl, combine sugar and seeds from the vanilla bean. (Using the back of a spoon, move around the bowl and apply pressure to break up any clumps of seeds and to better infuse the vanilla flavor into the sugar. Set aside.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add the vanilla bean sugar and mix until well combined.

Add butter and mix on medium-low speed for three minutes.  Because there is so little butter, you'll end up with a very fine crumb texture.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth.

Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.

Slowly add milk and mix on low speed until just combined.  The batter will be liquid. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes and then test to see if they are done. They are done when a toothpick comes out clean. 

Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon Strawberry extract
2-3 tablespoons Strawberry Puree (from the filling below)

Directions-
In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter (on medium speed) until completely smooth (30 seconds to a minute).

 Add salt (if needed).
 One cup at time, add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating after each addition.
 Add strawberry flavoring
 Add about 1 tablespoon of puree, and continue beating.
 Add the remaining 2 cups powdered sugar, one at a time.
 Add an additional 1-2 tablespoons puree until desired consistency is reached.  Let mixer beat the frosting for a good 5 minutes after the final puree.

Filling

3 C Chopped Strawberries

½ C Sugar

2 ½ Tablespoons cornstarch

Puree the strawberries and reserve ¼ Cup for the frosting

Bring all the ingredients to a boil in heavy saucepan, stirring constantly.

Boil for 2-4 minutes to thicken, stirring constantly

Remove from heat and pour into a bowl to cool

Assembling the cake

Split the cake layers and add filling between each layer, frost with butter cream frosting. Enjoy!

Redoing a page

I think it's the first cardinal rule of scrapbooking, thou shall not redo. Well sorry to say I have grown so much from those first days about 15 years ago, I just couldn't let this photo sit in the manner it had been scrapped..and sadly ladies this is not the first time I've redone it. How sad is that..but I swear this is the last time, I promise. I really like how it turned out.

So confess have you ever redone a page before or am I the lone sinner?

Cards for Mother and Daughter

Or rather Aunt and Cousin. Basically the first card is for my mother's Aunt who will be turning 100 in a few months. I wanted to make something special for her. Something cheerful and colorful.

The other card I previously made for a contest and thought it would be great to send to my cousin (once removed or second cousin as they say).

Any hoo, unfortunately she had a bit of stroke and I wanted to send her a get well card. Thankfully she is doing well and it was just a small one but I wanted to let her know we were thinking of her.



Paris, France - Bridges

I needed to get back to finishing up my Europe trip from last year. Have a few more pages left and then France will be done and I want to move on to London. Secretly I am hoping I could do Project Life but have to wonder how odd it would be to have half the album regular layouts and the other have Project Life.

Any hoo I loved all the architecture in Paris and thought the bridges on the Seine offered a good sampling of the different styles through the years.

I loved that 3D Paris sign. You see those at the expos all the time and figured what they hey..I could use that.