Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year



We are celebrating New Years with a Dutch tradition. My mom and dad usually make these but this year we have taken on the challenge and will bring them tomorrow. Here is the recipe.



Oliebollen

Ollie-bollen, or (Oliebollen) is a dutch pastry similar to a doughnut. It typically is a deep fried pastry filled with raisins and dusted with powdered sugar. Some modern variations serve them topped with berry filling, but this is a traditional recipe. Oliebollen are a traditional treat on New Year's"


Ingredients
1 (0.6 ounce) cake compressed fresh yeast
1 cup lukewarm milk
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 egg
3/4 cup dried currants
3/4 cup raisins
1 Granny Smith apple - peeled, cored and finely chopped
1 quart vegetable oil for deep-frying
1 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting
Directions
Break up the compressed yeast, and stir into the warm milk. Let stand for a few minutes to dissolve. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Stir the yeast mixture and egg into the flour and mix into a smooth batter. Stir in the currants, raisins and apple. Cover the bowl, and leave the batter in a warm place to rise until double in size. This will take about 1 hour.
Heat the oil in a deep-fryer, or heavy deep pan to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Use 2 metal spoons to shape scoops of dough into balls, and drop them carefully into the hot oil.
Fry the balls until golden brown, about 8 minutes. The doughnuts should be soft and not greasy. If the oil is not hot enough, the outside will be tough and the insides greasy. Drain finished doughnuts on paper towels and dust with confectioners' sugar. Serve them piled on a dish with more confectioners' sugar dusted over them. Eat them hot if possible.



Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas Day lunch



Since Dad was not able to be home for Christmas we brought a little Christmas to the hospital.







A couple more pages from the Rietdyk Christmas

Christmas 2011







Did a couple of digital layouts while sitting by my dad's hospital bed overnight.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Merry Christmas to one and all



Where ever you are, how ever you spend

the time, remember the ones you love because we never know what life has in store for us.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Friday, December 16, 2011

Family scrapbook

Jenna and I just went through our scrapbooks and took photos of over 90 pages. Over 18 years of family history.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Working on a digital recipe book

This is not a Christmas gift but I thought it would be fun to do a Favourite Holiday Recipe book.
I used a free download at http://www.shabbyprincess.com/downloads/holidayrecipe/holidayrecipe... and added it as a photo box. Then added ingredients and directions.
xg.addOnRequire(function() { xg.photo.photo.show.incrementViewCount('6293347:Photo:283874'); });







Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends



Chocolate chip cookies



Jenna decided to make Chocolate Chip Cookies. All she needs me for these days is to crack the eggs. They taste yummy Jenna. She asked why I took a picture. I told her it is for our Favourite Recipes Book. Next time we'll make a double batch and hide them for Christmas

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Summer 2011






















based on a sketch from www.pagemaps.com

Summer 2011 digital pages























2 more based on pages done by Heather Summers were based ones done by Heather Summers http://stampwithheather.typepad.com/stamp_with_heather

Friday, November 18, 2011

More digital pages











































I always thought I would not like digital scrapbooking. While I am not ready to give up the traditional paper, chipboard, ribbon and buttons, I am having fun using my computer for the digital versions. I think the greatest advantage is you can change the size and crop of your photos so easily.


The Sailing layouts were based ones done by Heather Summers http://stampwithheather.typepad.com/stamp_with_heather/ using Stampin Up's My Digital Studio. Heather often shares digital projects as well as stamped projects on her blog. I visit it every day and am amazed at how she can always come up with new ideas.


The free digital kits were downloaded from http://www.computerscrapbook.com/.


I used Raging Seas, and Sea Swept.




Friday, November 11, 2011

A couple of digital pages




































Working on more pages for Eleanor's baby album. Will have them printed for Christmas presents.

Playing with My Digital Studio





















Its fun having a new baby in the family to scrapbook. Have been playing with Stampin Up's Digital Studio. I must admit though that I did not use their images. I downloaded a number of free digital backgrounds, and elements. Unfortunuately I do not know where I got them

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Kally has claimed her scarf



I've been knitting ruffle scarves using Red Heart Sashay yarn for Christmas gifts. I just finished this teal one and my kitty layed down on the couch beside me and claimed the scarf.

Daylight savings time ends

Don't forget to turn your clocks back an hour tonight
or you will be getting everywhere early!

Thanksgiving layouts






These 2 layouts are a kit by Ninabrook Designs and can be seen at http://www.ninabrookdesigns.com/store.php?categoryID=4


Saturday, November 5, 2011

Halloween




This layout is a Ninabrook Designs discontinued Halloween layout. Current ones can be seen at http://www.ninabrookdesigns.com/store.php?categoryID=4




Friday, November 4, 2011

Footprints on my heart- Life's quiet moments




This is another of Karan Gerber's layout kits. Footprints on my heart. I chose some of my special guys' quiet moments. Arthur gazing out at the water at the end of Navy Pier in Chicago,
Aaron taking his dad out sailing after 2 weeks of lessons at Sarnia Yacht Club and Aaron resting in the grass at a park in Chicago. Check out Karan's other kits here http://karangerberdesigns.com/store/. They are currently 20%off

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Sweet Baby




On September 4, 2011, a new baby was born into our family. My nephew and his girlfriend had a precious baby girl. I used photos of 3 generations of Rietdyk's on this layout of our sweet baby, Eleanor. Layout is one of Karan Gerber's gorgeous kits. They are currently 20% off.






Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Paton's Piroeutte


Patons has a yarn very similar to the Red Heart Sashay. It is almost double the price of the Sashay yarn though. I don't know if it will be easier to find than the other but I have used every colour in theRed Heart collection so would like to try Paton's colours. .
Here is a link for more info http://patonsyarns.com/product.php?LGC=pirouette

Thursday, October 20, 2011

New Christmas project


A friend recently returned from visiting family in Holland and came back with these cool scarves. Found similar yarn at Walmart and knit a scarf (one ball of yarn) in about and hour and a half. The yarn looks like ribbon and is so much fun to use.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Summer's end is here









Labour day weekend always leaves me feeling a little sad because Summer officially ends and I never feel we have had the time to pack as much as I would like into Summers.






Anyway, in order to help me get through the rest of the seasons, I am going to really try and get back to scrapbooking and card making and possibly try some new creative outlets.






My nephew's girlfriend is expecting a little girl in October so these are a couple of layouts from a baby shower we had this summer. I will give them to her when Ellie is born.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Search engines

In planning our summer vacation this year I did go to the Go Chicago Card website more than a few times. Now the add shows up in all kinds of places like my Google reader,
digital photography forums, even in Kijiji. Don't think they don't do targeting marketing using search engines. They do.


Thursday, June 9, 2011

Happy 16th Anniversary Arthur and 15th birthday Aaron

Just wanted to let the 2 most special guys in my life know I love them both very much. Aaron was born on our first wedding anniversary so he is the best gift I've ever received. I can't believe how the time has gone and if I had it to do over again I would in a heart beat.
Aaron, I'm so proud of you. Arthur I love you more now than when I married you. I'm so fortunate to have you both in my life. Love you always

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day



Happy Mother's Day to the most important woman in my life.

Thanks for everything.













Wednesday, April 27, 2011

No more Cricut Cartridges




I missed the boat with wanting to purchase Making the Cut software to use with my Cricut Personal Electric Cutter but was able to download Sure Cuts a Lot version 2 to use with Cricut. for the same price (don't purchase version 3 because it will not work.)and have my Cricut machine cutting designs I have created or downloaded just like I can using Funtime with my old blue Wishblade. I can cut out any true type font without having to buy font cartridges and there are tons of free .svg files you can import into Sure Cuts a Lot. I just figured out how to separate colours in svg files to cut. You just have to ungroup the objects and pull up the layers menu. Click on the colours you do not want to cut. Insert your paper into the Cricut machine and then cut. I'm having lots of fun just playing.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Working on page titles

I've spent the morning playing with my Funtime Scrapbooking software and cutting titles for pages I haven't done yet on my Wishblade. When I have the pages completed I will make the files available for free download.
So far I have Happy Easter with eggs and a mat
and Rock and Roll with a record, guitar and mat.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Productive Day

Today is the first day since my surgery a little over 3 weeks ago that I was feeling the least little bit creative. I used my Wishblade to cut a title for a page in my Cuba album and scraplifted a card to make some Thank you cards. But first in order to get to my stamp sets and ink pads I had to empty 3 bins and put the contents away. My craft table is still buried but now it is buried in new stuff. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to finish putting that stuff away so I can get down to some serious crafting,
Will post pictures when the cards have been put together.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Lovely long weekend


Had a lovely long weekend with friends and family. Ended with the first barbeque of the season. Looking forward to more

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Strathroy Skating Carnival.

skating to Rolling Stones Can't get no satisfaction


And Barry Manilow's Copacabana

Just got home from Jenna's skating carnival. Enjoyed the show but forgot how cold an arena can get.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Recuperating at home

I'm recuperating at home from surgery. Somedays I feel really good and others I think I have done too much the day before. Will take it a day at a time and feel better really soon.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Monday, February 21, 2011

Oh my! I said I'd never go Digital




Oh my! I said I would never go digital. First with my camera and now with my scrapbooking. Here is a 2 page layo9ut of the highlight of our Cuba trip using another Shabby Princess digital layout.



Playing with My Digital Studio

I had an opportunity to purchase Stampin Up's My Digital Studio and took a class last week from Heather Summers last week to learn the basics.

Here are a couple of pages I was playing with. For the second one I used some digital downloads from Shabby Princess.








Saturday, February 12, 2011

Some Cuba Layouts


I've been remiss and not posted since before we went to Cuba.
That was over a month ago. Just didn't get to creating anything
until last night when I joined a couple of friends at
Memories on Main in Lambeth, Sue had some kits that would work
perfectly for our recent vacation. Still need to add some glossy accents
or stickles but here is the "undressed" version.



Wednesday, January 5, 2011

5 more sleeps


We'll be leaving on a jet plane on Monday and heading to sunny and warm Cuba. Jenna has a small suitcase almost packed and thinks she'll need to use a bigger one instead. No problem.
We have lots of volunteers who would like to come in our suitcases but I think we'll only have room for summer clothes.