Blog Hop with Gossamer Blue

So, an idea was presented at Gossamer Blue last month, where the entire design team would do a mid-month blog-hop sharing something that we made from this month's October kits. Since most of you know me and my love of tiny paperish things (and photos), I planned my post around a small collection of handmade Fall gift tags! Plus, this blog-hop idea also gave me an excuse play around out in the desert with some fun props.  Kind of the best of both worlds for me!

~ Fall is in the air! ~ 

I used remnants of the Main Kit as well as some things from my own collection; rhinestones, tags, fabric. I think the process of collecting little things to add to the tags is maybe the best part! 

I've made about 10 of these stuffed pumpkins, they are so much fun to make! I knew last year that I really wanted to make a few of them and so I saved all of the stems off of our pumpkins. Just leave them out to air-dry and then store them in a safe place for making some of your own pumpkins! 

Thank you for popping into here today! To check out what everyone else is up to, follow these links!

Gossamer Blue
Anabelle O'Malley
Beshka Kueser
Brenda Weaver
Cindy Liebel
Danielle Flanders
Diane Payne
Emily Spahn
Erin Taylor
Eunyoung Lee
Evgenia Petzer
Heather Leopard
Jill Cornell
Jill Keller
Joy Taylor

Katie Ehmann
Keisha Campbell
Laura Crosby
Maria Lacuesta
Mel Blackburn
Michelle Wooderson
Rebecca Luminarias
Sabrina Alery
Tara Anderson (that's me!)

Vanessa Perry
Yana Smakula

Vintage Inspired Halloween Award Ribbons ~ Gossamer Blue Tutorial

It must be said: October is one of my favorite months! 

For this month's blog post over at Gossamer Blue I knew I wanted to do something Halloween themed. The problem was just deciding what I was going to make. :)  I played with a few ideas but kept coming back to crepe paper rosettes, and the idea of making them into vintage inspired award ribbons just seemed like the right fit! Plus I would get to pull out all of my decorations and set up the front entry table! (It's so exciting to see all of your stuff again after being packed away for 11 months!) 

Since Alaina is now in 5th grade, she's no longed able to participate in the Halloween parade at school, but as I suspect, she'll still want to wear something special for the Holiday.  We have plans to pin a very large award ribbon to her for the day, and I whipped up a few extras for friends. She chose the largest one of course, the Wicked Witch! 

I posted a tutorial for how to create the rosettes on the Gossamer Blue blog. It's really simple and the rest of the award ribbon will come together quickly using things that are probably already in your stash of scrapbook supplies! I made my rosettes from crepe paper, book pages and clothing pattern tissue. The tutorial is super basic and hopefully easy to follow and once you've made one you're going to want to make more! 

I made Peter drop me off at the Dollar Store so I could run in a pick up a few crows for my table. At only a $1 each, they are the perfect little starting point for a Halloween DIY! I made tiny fringed party hats (made with the left over book paper from the rosettes) and then added a little rhinestone necklace and flower. I think a whole group of dressed up crows would be super cute especially if they were perched in some cut tree branches! 

Have you started to decorate for Halloween? I know Chase and Alaina are ready, we're just waiting for the rain to let up and then we'll set out to create a pretty Halloween porch! 

xo~ Tara

10 & September ~ Gossamer Blue

Alaina celebrated her 10th birthday this past month and I wanted to make her, her own little album to hold some of the birthday photos we took. I used Gossamer Blue's main kit for October, which was perfect, with the neutral black and white papers mixed with some handmade embellishments - for a chic girls mini book! 
   

This silver sequin paper is still a favorite of mine! It's so sparkly and just perfect for a background paper.

Thanks for stopping by today! I have plans to spend the rest of the afternoon in the garage building a photo back ground. Wood is already cut and now I get to paint! Enjoy your day!  

xo ~Tara

Green Breakfast Smoothie + Menu Plan

Back in July I got into juicing and making my own smoothies. I think I have tried just about every combination of fruit and veggies imaginable! Some I really like, some the kids will tolerate and others were a "well obviously these fruits don't mix well with these vegetables." It's truly been a trial and error all summer! 

However for the past 9 weeks now, I get up every morning, grab some coffee and get to work making this smoothie. It's a good start to the morning and depending on how ripe your fruit is, it can be rather sour (which may help to wake you up!) or it can be really sweet. In the case that it's too sweet, I either cut back on the over-ripe fruit or I'll add grapefruit juice to mine. I've also recently become a big fan of flavored green tea, so I'll add a glass of it to each smoothie or juice that I make. I love Lipton's Green Tea Superfruit brands, the Dragon Fruit Melon and Blackberry Pomegranate are my two favorites! 

Pineapple Orange Spinach smoothie 

makes 2 large servings

- 2 handfuls of spinach or about 2 1/2 cups 

- 1 handful of kale or about 1 1/4 cups

- 2 oranges, juiced (set juice aside) 

- 1 cup pineapple chunks

- 1 small mango peeled or 1/2 of a large mango (peeled) 

- 2 sprigs of mint leaves

- 1/4 of a carton of wheat grass or about a 1/4 cup

- 12 oz. of cold green tea or water

- grapefruit juice (optional) *** make sure that grapefruit won't interact with any medications you are taking beforehand ***

Directions

Add all ingredients into the blender, leaving out the orange juice. I have a smoothie setting on my blender, but you'll just want to blend everything until it is smooth. Once your smoothie is... smooth (no chunks left behind!) pour in the orange juice (and grapefruit juice if using) and stir to blend. I pour mine over ice in a very large glass add a straw and enjoy! 

I've made a few variations of this smoothie like using a 1/2 head of romaine lettuce to replace the kale and spinach, or replacing the pineapple with peeled guavas. You could also add ground flax seeds or ground chia seeds to this smoothie too! This is now Peter's favorite drink in the morning, it grows on you after awhile. :) 

Here's what I have planned so far for dinner this week! I love making these menus,  I've always found that it's helpful to plan out everything I want to make for the week, and I'm nosy and like to check out what other people are eating too! :) 

Monday
Minestrone Soup, wheat rolls

Tuesday
Pulled Pork tacos with shredded cabbage and mango-avocado salsa, Honeydew

Wednesday
Honey Sesame Chicken Thighs (slow-cooked) coconut brown rice, sauteed green peas and green beans (grilled tofu for me) 

Thursday 
Grilled garlic butter Salmon, Pinenut Couscous, Roasted Strawberry Spinach salad 

Friday
Broccoli Cheddar Carrot Soup, Grilled Ham and Swiss cheese on Wheat Rolls

Saturday
Southwest bbq salad with grilled shrimp (tomato, avocado, black beans, corn, cilantro, green onion, red onion, with a Bbq ranch yogurt dressing) watermelon 

Sunday 
Grandma's Sopes (and lots of leftovers!) 

Breakfast ideas
pumpkin butter (for lattes and oatmeal) 
pumpkin pie oatmeal 
zucchini-carrot-wheat coffee cake muffins
Turkey mushroom breakfast burritos 
Pineapple Orange Spinach smoothie 


Hope your week gets off to a wonderful start! 
xo ~ Tara

the Embellished Box

 Wouldn't that be a spectacular name for a series of posts! The Embellished Box ~ simple and elegant at the same time. I was sitting in my craft room this past weekend finishing up a birthday album for Alaina using the kit from Gossamer Blue when I realized how much extra stuff I had left over. Just little bits and pieces, snips of paper and random left-over stickers, extra diecut shapes. Now, I'm not one to throw out even the smallest scrap, so the idea of embellishing tiny gift boxes sounds like the perfect end-of-the-month project! 

Hope you enjoy the photos! 

I went with the perfect combination of pretty birthday colors! Lots of pinks and corals with a bit of shimmery gold, orchid and teal. 

I have more projects to share, it was a busy month for me over at Gossamer Blue! Stay tuned! 

xo ~ Tara