Oat Delights (aka Bear plop cookies :)

Charlotte, this is for you! That's my sister for those of you who don't know. I thought it was time to share another favorite recipe of ours. My sister and I have made these together quite a few times and can't help but giggle when we put them on the pan as they always look like bear poop (hence the name) Anyways, I like making them for a few reasons, #1 They are easy, #2 You don't need eggs or flour, #3 You don't need the oven as they aren't baked #4 the kids like them! #5 They're so chocolatey! So without further ado, here's the recipe,

Oat Delights

2 cups sugar
6 tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup butter/margarine
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup shredded coconut
3 cups rolled oats

Combine sugar, cocoa, butter, and milk in saucepan, bring to a boil. Boil for about two minutes, stirring constantly. Add vanilla. Remove from heat and stir in coconut and oats. Drop by teaspoonfuls (or tablespoons like I usually do) onto wax paper lined cookie pan; chill. Makes about 4 1/2 dozen

Enjoy!
Can't believe it's already February, can you?

From Window Frame to Picture Frame

Today I'm going to share with you a project that I did with some of our family pictures.

I've had these old window frames sitting around here for about a year. I had spotted them at our local thrift/architectural salvage store and had big plans for them, but I needed the perfect pictures for them :) So when I saw the proofs from our family photo shoot I knew exactly where I wanted some of the pictures to go.

First step was to clean up these babies and seal them. I like the shabby chicness of the roughed up/peeling white paint and wanted to leave them that way. Also, I knew I wanted to use a bunch of colour in the matting so a white frame worked for me :)

Next I decided which pictures I wanted to use and had them printed out in 5"x7" size (the window openings are 9.5"x11.5") 

As you can see I chose 1/2 going vertical and 1/2 going horizontal. (sorry for the really orangey brown background, my desk is the same colour wood as our log walls)

Next, I went through my scrapbook paper stash and selected some papers to mat the photos on. I chose one solid colour (the blue that the picture is sitting on) and four different patterned papers to coordinate with the solid.

oops! I guess I only took a picture of two different types of pattern for this part, but you can see the other two patterns I chose, further down :) I just love that paper with the birds and have been wanting to use it for soooo long!

So, then I decided to round the corners of the solid colour paper with my corner rounder. Next, I centered the photos on the solid 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper and secured it with glue dots and centered both of those on the patterned paper and secured it as well.

Ah here's where you can see the other two papers :) I decided to jazz it up a little more and added some rub-on quotes, swirls, stars and words (whatever "spoke" to me :)

Next I had to secure everything to the window picture frame. I decided to use my trusty little glue gun for that part ( I was running out of glue dots!) So I decided where I wanted each picture to go and I carefully squeezed a little blob of glue on each corner of each paper.

And Voila!! Two nice big picture frames showing off 8 family pictures :)

As you can see, the vertical frame had a little handle in one corner so I decided to jazz it up with a little help from my ribbon stash. ( sorry the picture below is so blurry)

Overall I think to total cost of the project was about $15. The frames were 5 bucks each ( if I remember correctly) and the only other cost was enlarging and printing the photos as the rest of the stuff I had on hand. Not bad for two huge personalized frames that I absolutely love! The other bonus? Hubby and kids love them too!

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Our 2011/2012 Family Photo Shoot

I'm back!!! Did you miss me? Sorry for the three week hiatus. It was very impromptu but I think I was just burnt out (that three months of Sept to Dec are a killer).   I confess I've been a bit of a hermit for the last month or so (ok maybe a lot!) and now I am ready to rejoin the world :)

So, I figured what better way to rejoin the world than to share our family pictures we had taken in the fall! I hadn't wanted to share these till after Christmas cause some of the pics were part of our Christmas card. I will warn you, there are a lot of pictures so you might want to grab a coffee or tea and a snack :) So without further ado here we go...  

These first couple are some collages that our photographer Cindy did :)

 Such a beautiful fall day :)

I just love Cady's smile in the background.

Awww, we have so very few nice pictures of Pat and I that I was thrilled to see this one :)

The above two of the girls were taken near the beginning of the shoot so their smiles are looking a little nervous still :)

And Gabe was just being his normal goofball self :)

Some of you may recognize the picture above :) And those of you who were at a certain wedding here last summer might recognize a certain little cable ferry we were on in that picture :)

More bum shots! Love how Cindy just accented Nyla's bright boots :)

LOVE this picture of Gabe! My little boy is growing up so fast!

The whole famdamily, Stella included :) And I just have to say I LOVE LOVE LOVE the next few pics...

Just the girls :)

And just my handsome guys :)

Pat and Gabe's hands. I don't know why, but I always love pictures of hands, and feet too!( just kids feet though)

Love this one!

Absolutely adore this picture of Cady :)

Kisses!

and more kisses! *snicker* I laugh at this picture every time I see it (though I confess, not too thrilled with my expression) Cindy told us to kiss each other, but I guess we need a bit more direction *snicker snicker *

Love it! all our hands together :)

Daddy and the kids off to explore :)

Awww, I adore this picture of me and my boy

 And of course I love this one of Nyla

*adore*

my handsome man :)

I love pictures on train tracks and I was so happy we could get these with all the beautiful fall colours in the background.

show me some attitude!

*sigh* oh my boy what a goof!

That's all folks!

Our family is pretty casual and just a bit rustic ( we live in a log house people!) so I wanted to keep it real and natural with jeans and fall sweaters (Nyla's sweater was handmade from my grandma! she is so talented)

All in all we lucked out completely with the weather, the timing with all the fall colours, and with our wonderful photographer and friend Cindy ( if you live in the Kootenays of British Columbia, (that's in Canada in case you're wondering) and you are interested in having a photo shoot with Cindy, just email me and I'll get the details to you.

Thanks to all of you who stuck it out through all those pics, these weren't quite all of them, but I had a really hard time just picking out just a few that I loved. And thanks again to Cindy for doing such a wonderful job and for making it fun while we did it :)

P.S Come back next week and see a little home decor project I made with some of my most favorite pics from this shoot.