Thanks Kelly!

Whew!.. I am finally done with my training. It has been a crazy and intense past 2 weeks- but I am now officially certified in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention [for Residential Child Care]. Wooohoo! Along the way I got to renew my CPR & First Aid through the Red Cross too. Easy peesy, but glad it is done. Now I have 2 weeks off until the school year starts! Time to catch up on all of your lovely blogs and some of my own crafting. Im actually waiting right now for Matthew to get home- he is at his fantasy football draft- so we can get a pizza and spend some quality time together tonight since the past month or so has been beyond busy. And, I must admit, Ive been a brat the past week with my memorization and such for my TCI exam yesterday. Opps! At least he is understanding!

Also, I wanted to say a big THANKS to Kelly for handing me two awesome awards this past week!

This first one is called the Wylde Woman Award. Its meaning and purpose is to "send love and acknowledgement to women who brighten your day, teach you new things, and live their lives fully with generosity and joy". I must say, this is a very very appreciated award- the meaning behind it is so beautiful and poetic!

Rules:

1. You may give it to 1 or 100 people; just link to their site in your post

2. Link back to Tammy Vitale's blog so she can visit all the recipients blogs

4. And always remember the meaning and purpose of the award!

The second award is the "I Love Your Blog" banner award. This one is for all those people whose blogs you cannot wait to read!

Rules:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog

2. Link the person you received your award from

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4. Put links of those blogs on yours

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you’ve nominated

Thanks again Kelly! You're a wonderful chicka!! Just so everyone knows... I will be catching up with all your blogs this week and to be on the lookout for these awards- I have soooo many of you in mind for each!! Have a fabulous night!

xoxoxo

Training & Italian Life!

Hello! It has been a while... but for once, I cannot say I am sorry- I have been away because I have been training all day for my new job! I am going to be working at The Childrens Home. It is a non-profit organization that works with children who have been removed from their homes because of the Department of Social Services or because public school has "rejected" them and kicked them out of the school system. We have long term and day schooling programs. The long term are the students who live on campus, and the day treatment are students who are bused in from their respective districts. I will be working with the long term students. It is a great job to help these kids. The website is www.chowc.org if you're interested in what they do. There aren't many of these institutions that are very highly thought of, so I am proud to say that this one is and known as one of the best in New York. It is going to be a very interesting experience for sure! I have training to rest of this week in crisis intervention and conflict resolution etc., and then I get 2 weeks off while school is on their summer end break. So, soon enough I will have a few more things to add! I have to make Alison a lanyard for her badge at work, so I'll post that and maybe a few new projects if I get a chance.

Also, I had a wedding on Saturday and a 'cousin cookout' Italian family gathering. The wedding was beautiful- I will post pictures soon. It was my close friend, Colleen who got married- to her high school sweetheart, Mike. It was so memorable- I've known Colleen since before she was even dating Mike in highschool... in fact, the summer they started dating was when we went to Mexico for vacation and to two of us battled for the phone card to call our boyfriends back home! And now, those sweethearts are married! I cannot be happier for them. Love love love! And as for Sunday- we had our annual party. My father, his sister, and their cousins get together every year at our house for a big Italian family ridiculous crazy food eating pool party extravaganza. Seriously, we're a crazy bunch of Italians. This year, we had to eat inside because it was storming later in the evening- although we were able to get a bunch of water volleyball games in before the storm hit. And, just so ya know- this is typical in my house: too much pasta, too much wine, and always a lot of people for Sunday dinner! The only one not in the photo is my dad, who was taking it from the head of the table... but the rest- thats my crazy family. I do love them, even if they are loud and nuts! {they gave that loudness gene to me.} I got this photo via email, so I may have to upload some of mine to really demonstrate the wonderful craziness of my large, loving family.

Hope everyone is enjoying the end of their summer!

Birthday gift

Hola! Today I have a quick altered item and a card... My mothers birthday is coming up, so I made her this card and tin basket to hold her gift.
The image is composed of two stamps- the bird and the balloons. I painted both with watercolors and put ModPodge over the image, focusing the glitter ModPodge on the balloons.
The tin was from the dollar deals at Michaels- I took of the original label and replaced it with this stamped and painted image. Inside the tin is the gift I made for my mom. She works at a school district where they wear name badges every day. They are always looking for cool ways to hang them instead of the lanyards with the school logo. I beaded three strands and attached them to one end of a toggle hook. The toggle hooks are perfect for both clicking the badge to, and hooking eyeglasses through when not in use!
I did a multi color strand, a clear strand, and a brown/golden strand. They match her clothes- she wears lots of black and brown.

I dont have a badge to hook to it, but this is what it looks like around your neck!

Hope you enjoy, and have a great day!

xoxo

Mini album

Happy Monday afternoon! I hope this day finds you all feeling snazzy and wonderful. I am just getting back into the swing of things... I did a bit of scrapbooking with the few photos I have actually printed out. I made a mini album.

The cover is just cardboard (it was all I had laying around) with patterned paper glued on. On top of the paper, I covered it with ModPodge and brown ink, green glitter, and some glaze. I punched a hole in the top corner to do a messy album and tied it all together with some hemp. I need to make the title to go on the cover though- "Vino Bella". I wanted to go minimalist, so I just used ribbon and sharpie. I doodled on my photos for something different and fun. Hope you enjoy it!

ps: I got a Bind It All from Matt for our anniversary! He knows the way to my heart is trhough crafty stuff, not jewels!! Hehehe.. Now I just need to buy the binding (he didn't buy me the kit because he knows I hate being trapped into using stuff I may never want). Sooooo, soon I should have some fun new projects up! YaY!!

Fruit Leather

Hello! Once again, summer is the busy season so I am falling behind on my crafting and blogging. However, I have been being a good foodie lately. Lots of fresh veggies and fruits are popping up in Ellen's garden, so I have many opportunities to try new things. Today, it is storming hardcore here so with the rain cooling it down, I am bearing the heat of the oven to make some fruit leather! We have way too many wild blackcaps (black raspberries) that were picked last weekend. I have been eating the very best breakfast thanks to these little guys- talk about FRESH fruit on your cereal, YUM-o!! As you can see from the photo- we still have a lot left. So I took out 2c to make a fruit leather.

Okay- so here is the recipe (super super easy!)

1. Clean fresh fruit (pit, stone, stem, wash, etc). Grease a cookie pan (pan MUST have an edged lip) or lay down foil and give a quick spray of Pam.

2. Puree 2 cups fresh fruit.* If fruit is tangy (raspberries etc.) add sugar to taste; if fruit is sweet (strawberries etc.) add lemon juice to tase.

* note: if puree is too thick, water it down by adding 1/8c at a time

3. Pour puree onto pan- tilt the pan to spread (do NOT spread with knife, spatula etc.)- puree

should form a thin layer of fruit on top of pan; make sure there are no holes in the spread puree

4. Bake in the oven at lowest setting (150F) with the door ajar 1-6in. for around 4 to 6 hours. You will know the leather is done when it is dry and slightly tacky- not sticky.

5. Cut into strips to lay on wax paper and roll up into "fruit roll-ups".
Fruit leather will last about a month at room temp/a few months in the fridge/practically forever in the freezer.

This is a great way to get the kids away from the sugar filled (and pricey) store bought versions. Just keep in mind that fruits like raspberries, strawberries, etc. will be a bumpier leather from the seeds. If you really want the taste but not the seeds, you can drain the puree through cheesecloth, but be prepared to stain your hands and use some muscle!!

Have a wonderful day!

xoxo

Jenna

Howdy

Well... I have been gone for quite some time! I must say- this is very rare for me to not blog and blog stalk- and also not craft. Ive been crazy busy at work lately and Im running a bit low on the extra spending money, so I havent done much crafting. I also was in the Aidrondaks for 5 days camping last week/weekend. It is so stunning there- we had a wonderful time and I have the most beautiful photographs to share. I also journaled while I was up there (Im trying to get back to my morning yoga/night meditation/daily journaling routine). I'll show some of that too- there are a few funky pages. I will post photos soon- my stuff is not here, I left it at my parents. I have been painting their fence for them and brought my stuff for them to view. Oh, and also... I just won $100 for a contest with a photograph of the eclipse!! I am super excited about that. I think it is in another post- but just for good measure.... it was a contest for novetly use. This is the image that I enhanced the old fashioned way (NOT with adobe). I put my camera on a tripod and midway through my long exposure, I changed the zoom level. Anyhow... with that money I will be printing all my pictures from the Aidrondaks and making a cool mini album to share with you all. Im also crossing my fingers for a Bind It All from Matt... we'll see if I can really go mini album crazy soon!!!! Hope you're all doing well and hope to hear from you soon!

Vibrant Beads

Good afternoon fellow bloggers! Last night during the so-called 'storm' (see my pictures in my earlier post today) I decided to make a new necklace for myself. I had a ton of leftover beads from a previous project, so I made a SUPER long strand to be wrapped up. Literally, the strand when hung alone is probably 7' long. What can I say, I had a lot of beads and wire. I love
wrapping anyways! I can wrap it in a 5 tight (right) or a 4 loose (left)... I can also do a lot with it when I wrap it in various other intervals.. I can do a super tight choker style with 6 strands... or a long mid-chest hang with 3 strands. I can also do the "hippie knot" as I like to call it.. I like it best with 2 strands and 1 really large knot. Also, in the hippie knot picture, you can see how I made the necklace- I was out of jumprings to attach my lobster claw hook to, so I just used two lobster claw hooks instead. They hook nicely on one another! I also use crimping beads at each end to attach the hooks and the wire- they work really well and last foreverrrr.
In general, I wear these types of necklaces a lot... I am kind of a 'hippie-flower' girl (according to my mother when she sees my jewels and clothes.) I also just love to have things that are hand made.. whether I made it or I bought it from someone or I got it as a gift... I think it is much cooler when things are handcrafted. Especially when it is recycled materials. I can't say these are recycled beads... but I did use them for a lesson with my 6th graders 2 years ago... so they were originally put to really good use!! Also, here are two close ups of the necklace.. just piled in my hand so you can see how many beads there are and how pretty! The other one is so you can see the vibrant colors of some of my favorite beads on the necklace. I love the big pink one in the center of my hand.. and the clear one with brown spots (on the strand hanging from the right side of my fingers). I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!! Have a beautiful day!

xoxox

Night Storm

Hello hello! Last night we had a storm brewing, so I went outside with my camera to get some shots before the rain came... here are two of my favorites from the shoot. It was around 9:00pm when I took these pictures. Oh, and go figure that it never really did 'storm'.. it just rained a little!

Mini 2-up

Well, today was another disgusting day outside.. so I decided to do a little mini {and quick!} scrapbook. So, I brewed myself some delicious black chai tea and sat down. This book was a 2-up 4x6 album with an open photo view on the front. For that, I added some Tim Holzt grungeboard {"Oneo", flourishes, heart} and colored them with my pastels. Since this was a quick, fun album for some of my favorite random photos from Oneonta, I wanted to keep it really simple. So, for the inside, I added pictures and some textured cardstock under some of those with a bit of handwritten journaling. For this spread I wanted to show how I did the real simple bits- just a quick journaling blurb with a photo. I did add a few extras to some of the pages, like the Christmas photo. Overall, I mainly used only adhesive and sharpie. Like I said- this has a lot of random pictures from 4 years of college.. and many of them that are in this album include drunken shenanigans of college kids... therefore I decided not to dedicate a lot of material, and just let the photos do the talking {forcing anyone to laugh after really looking through it!!} Hehehe. Also, sorry for the poor quality photos... my good camera was charging and my point & shoot was almost dead too, so I only had a minute to snap these! I do hope you enjoy. I promise {hope} to get my inspiration back asap... I have some ideas floating around in my head that need to come out!

For my Daddy-o

A little late at posting this, but this was one of the items I did for my Daddy-o for fathers day. I forgot to take pictures of everything else because like I said before- I was feeling uninspired. Anyways, he LOVES pepper cookies, so I took a batch and put them in a zip top baggie and used textured cardstock to cover the top. I simplely stapled it onto the baggie and stamped grass on the base (it matched the card I had made) and added the tag I made.

Stuck!

Boy, am I stuck in a rut. I feel so uninspired lately. Having more time on my hands does NOTHING for my inspiration. My fathers day card and gift were lack-luster in my opinion... blah. I did just get a HUGE stack of photos from my photoworks site yesterday. I have 4 things to scrapbook right now.. 1. The College Years (Im doing a regular 2-up photo album with embelishments & journaling), 2. New Years Eve (We went to Radio City Music Hall to see Moe.), 3. The Wine Tour (from last October!), and 4. Camping (from Labor Day last year). Clearly I'm playing catch-up... which tends to be uninspiring.. not to mention Im totally and utterly BROKE thanks to having to fix the car the other day. So, sorry for a lack of posts and papercrafting. Its a gross day out today, so Im going to go start work on one of the above mentioned scrapbooks.

Cross your fingers for my rut to pass!

xoxox