Monday Recipe - Sour Cream Banana Bars

1 - ½ cups sugar
1 cup sour cream (not fat free. low fat is OK)
½ cup margarine or butter softened
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 3 large)
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
½ cup chopped nuts
Browned Butter Frosting (below)

Heat oven to 375. Grease and flour jelly roll pan. 15=1/2 x 10-1/2 x 1 inch. Mix sugar, sour cream, margarine and eggs in large mixer bowl on low speed, scraping bowl occasionally, 1 minute. Beat in bananas and vanilla on low speed 30 seconds. Beat in flour, salt and baking soda on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, 1 minute. Stir in nuts. Spread dough in pan. Bake until light brown, 20-25 minutes. Cool; frost with Browned Butter Frosting. Cut into bars, about 2 x 1-1/2 inches. 4 dozen cookies

Browned Butter Frosting

Heat ¼ cup margarine or butter over medium heat until delicate brown; remove from heat. Mix in 2 cups powdered sugar. Beat in 1 tsp. vanilla and 3 tbsp. milk until smooth and of spreading consistency.

Ruby Tuesday - Dinner at Pappacito's Cantina

For Ruby Tuesday

My oldest daughter and her three children visited and we had a great dinner

at Pappacitos Cantina, including tableside-prepared guacamole. Yum!

Blue Monday - Bungee Jumping in Kennesaw

For Blue Monday

My oldest daughter and her three children visited this weekend and we went to the

Big Shanty Festival in Kennesaw.  Grandson, Bobby, enjoyed bungee jumping.

Soartful Challenge - Frida Kahlo

For this week's Soartful Challenge

Friday Fill-Ins

Thank you, Electra, for bringing this to my attention. 
And thank you, Janet, for this great idea!

1. For me, it was love at first email.

2. I love it when they have food tastings at my local supermarket.

3. Behind the sound of the wind in the trees, I heard a cat’s soft meow.

4. Ice skating is something I always wanted to do.

5. When it was over, I realized it was not as bad as I thought it would be.

6. I sometimes eat alone, but I never felt alone.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to seeing my daughter and grandchildren again, tomorrow my plans include going somewhere with them and Sunday, I want to craft, craft, craft.

April Blissfull ATC Swap - Steampunk

I started with a scrap from a printing plate, cut it, and embossed it. 

Then I edged it with glass edging tape. 

I love the images of the man and the woman! 

Steampunk deals with concepts of time, so I used the hour glass.

This card is going to Jane. 

Butterfly Tag

Lynn sent me a matchbox for the March "Things With Wings" matchbox swap. 

We also exchanged tags!  This is the tag I sent to Lynn:

Monday Recipe - Fruity Pebbles Cookies

Sorry I don't have a photo of these; but take my word for it - they look really pretty with all of those fresh fruit colors.  This is not my recipe - it's all over the Internet. This is a neat cookie to make to put in Easter baskets - so colorful, and I don't know anyone who doesn't like them.  Best of all they are super easy to make! 

Fruity Pebbles Cookies

1 (18 1/4 - ounce) box yellow cake mix
(I used Betty Crocker Super Moist Butter Recipe Yellow)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1 egg
3 cups Fruity Pebbles cereal (generic store brand is just fine)

Preheat oven to 350°F
Beat cake mix, oil, water and egg in large bowl until well blended.
Add cereal; mix well.
Drop tablespoonfuls of dough, 2 inches apart, onto ungreased baking sheets.
Bake 11 minutes, or JUST until cookies begin to brown.
Cool on wire racks

Pauline Frederick - Movie Star

This is for Ginger Snap's Once in a Blue Moon Challenge - GCSP07.  I chose to work with former challenge GC21 - Movie Stars.

I created an altered coaster honoring silent screen star Pauline Frederick.  I love the way Pauline is posed in this photo.  She had a startling beauty. She was a Broadway star before she turned to films, and was already well in her thirties when Hollywood beckoned.  Her movie career expanded to include talkies and she made her last film in 1938. 

I made the celluloid out of transparencies.  I used Distress inks over top of a gessoed surface on the card.  Crystal stickles on the flowers.

Another Great Day!

I was fortunate enough to win Vintage Dragonfly's recent giveaway.  She said she would send a kitchen-sized match box crammed with goodies.  And she wasn't kidding!  Here is what she sent:

Can you believe it?  A little bit of everything - and everything wonderful!  I completely love the white china bird - he will be placed on my display shelf for all to see.  and here is the gorgeous altered matchbox:

Isn't it just perfectly beautiful? She covered the matchbox with burlap and everything is so natural looking in the bird display on top.  I just love it!  I'm so thrilled and honored to have won this!  I love her blog!

Another Favorite Necklace

The pattern is Emily Hackbarth's "African Necklace," which was available free at about.com.
This was so much fun to make! It's always a challenge to see how soon you can get the pattern in your head.  The necklace consists of 19 identical motifs, connected.  Each motif had 23 steps to completion!  I'm making it sound complicated, but it's really not!  After about 2 motifs, you have the pattern in your head and it goes much quicker.  I  finished off 2 more motifs to make matching earrings.  This rose-burgundy shade is one of my favorites.

Monday Recipe - My Meat Loaf

This meatloaf has always been a big hit with my children.  I first posted this recipe in my cooking blog in 2005, and at that time, I had been making the dish for many years.  Try it!  You'll like it!

My Meat Loaf

1 egg
1/4 cup catsup or chili sauce
1/4 cup flour, or ground bran cereal (Fiber 1)
1/4 cup fat free sour cream
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 lb. ground chuck
1 lb. lean ground turkey
Slices of bacon

Topping
1/3 cup catsup
1 tbsp. mustard
2 tbsp. brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Put egg, catsup, flour, sour cream and onion soup mix into a large bowl. Mix until well blended. Add ground chuck and ground turkey. Mix with your hands until very well mixed.

Form into a loaf and place on a rack suspended about 2 inches from the bottom of the pan. (I use small tin cans that 8 oz. pineapple comes in to suspend the rack). Shape the loaf more in a flat, rectangular shape rather than a tall football shape so that it bakes evenly and thoroughly.

Cover top of loaf with bacon slices. Place meat loaf in oven and bake for one hour.

While meat loaf is baking, make topping by combining catsup, mustard and brown sugar in a small bowl. After meatloaf has baked for one hour, brush or spoon sauce on top of meatloaf and return to oven for 10 more minutes. Remove meatloaf to platter and let rest about 5 minutes before slicing.

I have also made this meatloaf in a crockpot. If you do, be sure to raise the meatloaf a few inches from the bottom so that it does not sit in the juices. Juice cans and a small metal plate can be used for this purpose.

An alternate topping for this meatloaf is one can of beef gravy, poured over the top after the loaf has baked for one hour.

What a fabulous Monday!

Look what came in the mail for me!  It's my altered matchbox from the Things with Wings Matchbox swap.  Isn't it gorgeous?  It's so chock-full of little bits and baubles that I can't get it shut again since I've opened it!  LOL.  Lynn made this lovely box and also the tag you see here.

Lynn was assigned to send me a matchbox; but I was assigned to send my matchbox to someone else.  So Lynn suggested we exchange tags.  That way, she has an example of my art, even though she doesn't have a matchbox from me.  Isn't this a great idea?  And look at the fantastic tag she made!  Lynn, you are quite an artist and I loved getting your matchbox.  I hope I get the chance to make one for you very soon.

I will post the tag I sent to Lynn after she has received it.

Ruby Tuesday - My Cats

Here they are - reclining on my ruby red blanket on my couch and getting it all full of cat hair of all colors.

Tooky, the black cat, will edge closer and closer toFanny until she jumps off, leaving him the entire blanket to himself.  He just has to be #1.

Blue Monday - The Butterfly Effect

For Blue Monday:  THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

The butterfly effect is a beautiful project in which I am participating.

The Altered Paper's Vintage Egg Challenge

Here's my entry for The Altered Paper's Vintage Egg Challenge:

Another Beautiful Gift

Imagine my surprise when I unwrapped the ribbon that Misses Peach sent me (see earlier post) and found out that it was wound around a gorgeous ATC card called "A Season of Cats!"  This card is just too beautiful for words.  It is made with a packing tape background that is beautifully painted.

Thank you again, Misses Peach for brightening my day again with your gorgeous creation! 

Altered Coaster

Les at Harmony Road Studio inspired me to make this.

Vintage Dragonfly 'Things with Wings' Matchbox Swap

This is the first swap for this new swap group.  Our theme was 'Things With Wings."  So I chose butterflies.

I covered the top of my matchbox with matchsticks and then covered the sticks with gesso.  I wanted the top to look like a white picket fence.  On the 'fence,' I put a small silk flower, some die-cut leaves and two gorgeous blue butterflies.  I added stickles to the flower and leaves.

The drawer pull was made with a metal butterfly bead

This photo shows the little wooden legs on the box.  I covered the sides of the box with spring-green acrylic paint and stickles.

Here is what was inside the box:

Dress Challenge 2011 - April - Art Deco

The theme for Dress Challenge 2011 for the month of April is Art Deco.  Now you're talking!  Art Deco is one of my very favorite styles.  It has all of the glamour of the 20's, culminating in the 1939 World's Fair, which boasted many buildings built in the Art Deco style.  My dress design was inspired by one of the first trading cards I ever created, which was based on the 1939 World's Fair.  Here is that card:

I based the design of that card on a picture of an Art Deco mirror that I found.

And here's my dress:

I used Miyuki Delica Beads for the gown's straps and also to decorate the front of the dress. 

And the back of the dress features an Art Deco design piece, which is actually a Vintaj earring finding:

Here's my original sketch for the dress.