Tuesday Giveaway from:

Canvas Prints

Every now and then I receive an email of an opportunity for a product giveaway and when Megan from Easy Canvas Prints wrote to me about the beautiful gallery wrapped canvases they create, I knew it would be a spectacular product worthy of sharing with everyone! The canvases are stunning and when paired with perfectly styled rooms, a custom photo canvas could be the ultimate center piece for the favorite room in your own home!

Easy Canvas Prints is giving away an 8x10" custom photo/print canvas to one lucky winner!

How do you enter this giveaway?

1. Click here to "Like" Easy Canvas Prints on Facebook

2. Leave a comment, with your name & email address, at the end of this post.

Easy-peasy right? This contest will end on Friday the 19th, and I'll post a winner that same evening.

Good luck! xo~ Tara

8 things I love- Saturday

Birthday Bash by taraanderson featuring cropped jeans

1. Aviator sun glasses
2. large printed tote bags (big enough for extra kid toys & snacks but still cute for mom!)
3. Sequined top in an earth-tone
4. drape-y cropped cardigan
5. cuffed denim
6. wood grain platform wedges
7. vintage inspired jewel rings
8. barely there nail polish

they say it's your birthday,

So, I was thinking about this a couple of weeks ago. It's a birthday coincidence. Every one of my birthday's that have ended with a zero, I've lived in a different state. Here's the list so far!

1st birthday - born in Washington
10th birthday - lived in California
20th birthday - lived in Hawaii
30th - in Arizona

at this rate, I'm going to need to decide on the next state to live in for the next big birthday! haha. No really, after this summer (which we still have about another 2 more months of) Peter and I are really questioning how long we can continue living in the desert. I'm thinking maybe New Mexico or Oregon. We'll see in 10 years from now where life takes us!

What could possibly be a more perfect birthday present than flowers and a tea tray? Alaina gave me this elephant tea pot as a b-day gift! She wanted to have a mommy/daughter tea party this weekend and we do love tea and cookies in this home. :)

Peter and I have a sushi date planned for tonight ~ yay for date nights and a great babysitter! Happy Friday everyone!

fabric friendship bracelets *tutorial*

While I was in Oregon I found this really colorful woven fabric rug (kind of hippy-ish but so cool!) and decided I'd have to find somewhere in the house where it would be useful. Well it lasted for 4 whole days in front of the patio door before our 3 yr. old Lab chewed the corner of it. Oh well - it was a cute rug.... for 4 days. Rather than toss it in the trash, I started to think of projects where I could repurpose the fabric. After dismantling, cleaning and drying all of the fabric strips I remembered an old summer favorite - braided friendship bracelets!



To get started you'll want to use long strips of fabric (about 2ft.+ long), preferably cotton as it's easy to work with and I like that it frays on the edges a little.



Choose 3 fabric strips and use a clip to hold the fabric in place. Of course, if you have an extra set of hands available, ask for help in holding the fabric. To keep tension on my fabric I put a heavy book on top of the clip.



Loosely braid the fabric. When you get close to the end of your fabric, take a moment to measure the bracelet to your wrist. Since this is a slip on bracelet, you'll want to make sure you have enough room to wiggle the bracelet over your hand.


(I bribed Alaina to be my little hand model :))

Once you have made the bracelet to fit your hand (and because we're using cotton you can stretch the fabric a little too) remove the clip and hold both ends together. I would measure one last time before we sew the ends together! Measure twice and sew once!



Lay your bracelet flat, with both ends pushed together. Then using a straight stitch, sew the ends together, going forward and backward to ensure that all of the fabric has been sewn together and is secure.



Remove the bracelet from the sewing machine, trim off strings and cut fabric to just above where you sewed.



To cover up the sewed edges, cut or tear a piece of fabric about 2 inches wide and about 8 inches long. Slip the fabric into the bracelet where you sewed the ends and tie a single knot. Trim off the extra fabric from your knot.



We played with fabric combinations all afternoon, mixing and matching contrasting colors with patterns. I forgot how fun making simple bracelets could be and I'll bet if you try this tutorial, you'll end up making more than one! I think Alaina and I made 6 bracelets on Sunday. (4 for us and 2 for her friends.) :)



Happy crafting! xo~ Tara

Coffee Frosting recipe

Instead of posting a weekly menu, which wasn't terribly exciting this week - lots of salads, I thought I would share a recipe I made over the weekend. Sunday was the husbands birthday and as a tradition he got to choose a cake. This birthday a Coffee Cake with Coffee Frosting was requested. Peter told me that they use to have a similar cake when he was young, so I was a little extra determined to create a really good cake for the b-day boy!

For the cake part, just the basics were used; flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder, salt, milk, vanilla and butter. Now for the frosting it took 2 tries in order to get it right. My mistake on the first run? Butter. I don't use it so I tried, unsuccessfully, using a spread which was a total waste of time. After a quick trip to the grocery store I was ready for a round 2. Here's the recipe!

Coffee Frosting

ingredients
1/2 tsp. of instant coffee grounds, crushed to a powder
pinch of salt
1/8 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar/ confectioners sugar * you can add a little more or less depending on how sweet you like your frosting to be*
1/2 tsp. vanilla

directions
Mix coffee powder, salt, and butter in a medium sized bowl with an electric mixer, and beat until butter is smooth. Add half of the powdered sugar and milk into the butter mixture, and mix to incorporate. Add the remaining sugar and milk and mix at low speed to incorporate. Beat frosting at a med-high speed until desired consistency is reached. *I mixed my frosting on a high speed for about 6-8 minutes.*

This frosting was a whipped, buttery, sweet topping that was a perfect match to the dense coffee cake and Peter agreed! Success!

a question for you

As I sit here on the couch tonight, not scrapbooking, a thought popped into my head. If you had to choose a scrapbook challenge to contribute to, what type of challenge would you be more apt to play along with? Of course I know your first choice would be my Color Challenge with Crate paper, ;) so what would be your 2nd choice?

{ I did however make 2 more garlands today.... at least something creative was accomplished!!}

LakeBay ~ Crate

**eta** I know that the new product collections for Crate haven't shipped yet, so if you're asking yourself about that Denim color I chose for this color combo, here's my idea to remedy this conundrum. The Denim, is only a shade, don't worry about the teture! For this challenge I'll allow any shade of Denim that you'd like to use. Check out this color chart for lot's of denimy (is that even a word?) blue shades!


If you have time to scrapbook this next week, I posted my Color Challenge on the Crate Paper blog yesterday. Have I mentioned that the winner from this challenge gets to choose a any Crate collection as a prize? Not too shabby right? If I were to win, at my own challenge, it would be a toss up between the new Random Collection (which is so totally me!) or the Portrait
Collection. :)




This month's color combo is called "The Lakebay House." This actually wasn't my first choice for a color combo for the month, I had a different combo picked out and my finicky taste changed at the last moment and I went with Lakebay instead. Turns out though, this was the much better choice! I hope everyone likes it as much as I did!!!






I also had time to make a mini of little Chase! Just like this mini I chose a subject and took a series of photos to use. It's a simple idea for an album! The fabric pages are fabric swatches, (I scored an entire book of swatches from a local upholstery fabric store!) and the fabric tabs at the top of each page are from Home Depot.












Do you any crafty plans for the weekend? I'm going to try and spend a little time scrapbooking this afternoon and I'll be trying out a new coffee cake recipe sometime today. I don't think there could be a better way to spend a Saturday!! Happy creating!

one summer photo

anyone up for a photo challenge? If you could describe summer by only using a photo, what would that photo be of? How do you see summer? I still view summer as wild flower laced fields near grandmas house in Grass Valley. Summer afternoons spent playing in the creek and evening horse back rides. Fishing down at the pond with Grandpa and crafty summer art projects. Every summer held so many possibilities and every day was a new adventure to be had. My color combo for tomorrow is very reminiscent of summer-time! If you post a summer photo, let me know where so I can see too!

a week's worth of work

yep. 1 week, 4 layouts, 2 little books, a custom order and a bunch of lists for the next 5 months of challenges and I think I'm ready to wrap everything up! I should be getting back to a normal schedule soon. I do love my craft time though, staying up until 2am every night sewing and painting is about as adventurous as it gets for me..... the life of being a mommy is quite simple. :)

Here's a little detail of a layout for Crate Paper. I'll be posting on their blog this Friday. It's Crate's Color Challenge time again! It's a different color combo for me, and definitely one that wasn't as common and yet it's quickly become one of my favorites. Can't wait for everyone to see it!



I think I'll do a photo post tomorrow. I've been collecting some pretty photos and have yet to post them anywhere. I'm calling it an early night, I need to have a super productive day tomorrow. Good night all!

Food talk: 7-26

Funny how Monday's seem to fly by. It's likely because our Mondays are most peoples Sunday, it's our family/errands/laundry day. So, while I would like to keep my menu's on track for posting every Monday.... it rarely happens. Tuesday is fast becoming the new Monday. :)

Menu Outline for 7-25 by TaraAnderson on Polyvore.com

Weekly Menu

Monday:
Chicken Linguine w/ Pesto
Watermelon
Garden Salad

Tuesday:
BLT Cobb Salad (w/ turkey bacon)
Grilled Naan Bread
melons with strawberry's & mint

Wednesday:
Lemon & Herb Fish Cakes
Romaine Leafs with Salad Shrimp & Avocado
Couscous
Honeydew melons

Thursday:
Grilled Strip Steak
Spinach Salad w/ strawberries, red onion, feta cheese and pan roasted sourdough croutons - poppy seed dressing
Roasted Baby Potatoes w/ herb spread

Friday:
BBQ Chicken Salad (tomato, roasted corn, avocado, black beans, grilled chicken)
Watermelon
Berry Lemonade

I haven't thought of anything yet for Saturday's dinner. Sometimes when it gets this hot out, it's hard to be interested in food and we end up eating alot of salads and sandwiches. Things that are easy and light... and generally simple. While I was in Oregon, I found some of my grandmother's & great grandmother's hand written recipes that had been saved all these years. My grandmothers family is German, so a few of the recipes were for things like Sauerkraut Cake and lots of Sourdough recipes. I'm determined to find and recreate at least one of the recipes this week. :) Wish me luck and happy start to a good week!

it's Friday!

I'm home. Back to my tiny casa in the desert. We arrived home on Monday and I was just telling a friend today that I always go through a readjustment phase when I return home. I've cleaned, dusted, mopped, purchased a new vacuum cleaner, rearranged the furniture a couple of times, hung new/old artwork and reorganized my stuff again & again just for the sake of needing to get reacquainted with my space. Does anyone else do this?

While we were at my grandparents house I found a couple of milk glass dishes. I adore milk glass, I cluster different shapes and sizes together to organize my collections. The small dish type bowls are my fav, oh and the pedestal bowls too! I have a tray on my dresser for jewelry and another tray full in my craft room.

(I'll take some more detialed photos of my craft space as soon as I have some better lighting!)

I made my sister take me to one of her favorite antique stores in Florence where we came across someone's vintage bird collection as well as some nifty cameras. I walked away with 2 phesants, a vintage Kodak Brownie and this vinatge Revere movie camera. Cute isn't it! It still makes the noise of the old films when you turn the dial. :) It's the little things in life that make everday special and interesting!

scenes from the beach #2

I just discovered that the Safeway's in Florence has wifi. Woo-hoo! and a Starbucks, double woo-hoo! A few more photos of our trips to the beach. The kids are in love with sea shell searching and sea-gull chasing and making sand angels. Yep, those are my children. :) Just a few more days on the Oregon coast and we're home bound for Phoenix. Oh, and I have been taking videos of our vaca but trying to figure out how to upload them has proven a tad bit tricky. I knew I should have read the manual pre-trip! Have a splendid weekend!