Creating Kris ~ a young mom blogs…

KITK: Trying Heart tarts

I’ve been trying to do baking with the kids as a new “just for us” special activity these days. It fills the void somewhat since there are so many things that I can no longer do with them due to my severe chronic pain, and fills the time as well! It suits our schedule and my limitations very well: we can spend a half hour in the kitchen then have a rest while our creation is baking. The results are enjoyable but also practical; they can often be popped into the kids’ lunch bags for a special snack at school.

As we continue to bake together, I’ll share our results and recipes sources here. I’ve started a new category for these posts: “Kids in the Kitchen”, and I’ll also go back and add the category tag to a couple previous posts about baking with kids, like when we experimented with the Strawberry Roll Cake recipe! Looks like I’ll also have to go back and fix some picture links as well…

So one recipe we tried recently (around Valentine’s Day) was the raspberry-pear heart tarts in the February edition of Martha Stewart Living magazine. They turned out much messier than pictured, but were still very delicious…

before going in the oven

the kids enjoy their treat creations

My overall rating of the recipe was that it was pretty yummy but kind of difficult. Which I kind of expected given the source, but even though they were as hard to make as expected, they weren’t as “deliciously worth it” as expected.

Stay tuned for the results of our next baking adventure… I only wish that I could somehow pass along free samples! Keep an eye out for the category tag Kids in the Kitchen and please pass along any good recipes you recommend!

new blinkies: St. Patty’s Day!

The trend of rounded-corner blinkies continues with this year’s batch of updated St. Patty’s Day blinkies! Of course there are always last year’s traditional-style 150×40 big blinkies, but why not try something new in your siggies this year?

There are a half-dozen in shades of green…

… and another half-dozen with an added punch of orange.

To check out the whole set and copy the codes, click below:

If you’re more a fan of the regular size blinkies (150×20 pixels), that collection of St. Patrick’s Day blinkies is still available as well.

I hope you have a Happy St. Patty’s Day this year with your friends and family!

We don’t have any big plans this year but always try to do a little something. Last year I made a small batch of cupcakes with sprinkles as a bare minimum celebration but in previous years we’ve had fun parties with cupcake decorating, etc. My son and I look best in green with our auburn hair (hinting at our Irish roots!) so I hope we can find things that fit!

enjoying a green-sprinkled cupcake ~ 03/17/2009

Digital Scrapbooking layouts: January & February ‘09

So I have been trying to get back into digital scrapbooking lately, especially as my ability to do traditional scrapbooking has diminished greatly over the past 2 years with my new disabilities. I’m much cozier curled up on the couch with a laptop on a little fold-out table than I am sitting up for hours on end like I used to do.

And this means I’ve also finally made a decision about my 2009 photos. Instead of continuing the Family albums I’ve been doing for about a decade, I’ll be switching over to doing digital layouts. I intend to keep the same format (chronological layouts; 1-2 for each month), but they’ll be done on the laptop and then maybe printed out later to go in an album. Maybe.

So to start off 2009 pics, here are the first two months and first two layouts. There really weren’t a lot of pics in those months (really, we were just hibernating and playing with new toys from Christmas and fall birthdays; everyone else in the family except me celebrates their bdays in November or December), so I’ll just have the 1-page layout for each month.

January:

February:

I’ve also finished the first layout for March as well but I’m working on a second layout for that month since there are more pictures. Then I’ll be caught up to 1 year ago! Not too shabby… the rest of ‘09 should go relatively quickly at this rate, especially since so many pics taken during that year were pics of the new house (which already has it’s own “Construction” album, now complete, and may also have a 2nd “Decorating” album as soon as we find out for sure we can stay here).

Even as I start scrapbooking family photos in digital format, there are a few themed albums on the go that will continue to need some tangible content. Both kids have their own birthday album and “School Days” album up to a certain point. So hopefully that means all those supplies I invested in won’t need to start gathering dust just yet!! My DD’s albums are almost full but since my DS is 6 years behind her, I have at least that many years before I could ever really say I was “done” scrapbooking for good… and really, even then I’m not sure if I’d ever be done forever!

happy scrapping!