Vegan Baking Cheat Sheet

Baking gluten-free and vegan translates to one simple truth that is hard to teach. Because it can only be learned by experience. This one simple truth?

Unlearn everything you think you know- or thought you understood- about baking.

All those mandatory Home Economics classes about kneading bread dough for ten minutes to improve elasticity or leavening a cake with beaten egg whites won't help your inner Betty Crocker to bloom if you're gluten-free and vegan. In fact, clinging to old notions about what works- and what doesn't- might lead you down a rather prickly circuitous path to ruin. Not to mention, your personal Culinary Museum of Failure. But don't let this bare bones truth inhibit you.

In fact, let it free you.

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Soccer Snacks

It was our week to bring snacks to soccer. You'll never guess what we brought...


Let me just say...I HATE DRAWING PENTAGONS!!! Ugh!



These cookies were probably the most difficult ones I've made in a while....I am apparently polygon-challenged. They're not my favorite, either, but the kids liked them. I think everyone enjoys seeing their name on something, don't you?


Looking for more sports-related cookies? Try these:

• Baseball Season
• Bowl Me Over
• Forty-LOVE ♥ (tennis cookies)
  

♛ AWARD

my 7th award from Ditty, makasi yah.


RULES :

1. Post the award asap
2. Tag the award to people as many as you like
3. Mention 5 of your fav blogs with the reason
4. Mention the person who gives you this award

2. i want to tagg..
Tada
Little miss day dream
Affy
Shida Aruya
Lia
Dwi Amtisari


3. my fav blog..
ahh semuanya favorite kokk. i can't choose to top 5, they're all the cutest xD


4. Ditty, yah si dityymizzlizzy my new friend from bloggers that kind enough to tag me awards.
& she's a beatlemania. xD


love.love ♥♥

Shaped card with flower power Tilda - Three Clovers Designs challenge

Boy am I ever showing my age with that title, huh?? LOL! Isn't she cute? First, before I forget, I've got to give a big shout out to my design team sista Suzy! Suzy has been making these adorable cards with her Nesties. Now I read somewhere a while back that making cards with your nesties was easy. But I had never tried it. But with lots of fabulous inspiration from Suzy, I came home tonight after work and did one. OMG, I love it! Sooooo quick and easy, and I'm a fiend for shaped cards anyway! I will be making lots more of these. I'll tell you that right now! LOL! But for now, this is what I came up with for Three Clovers Thursday Challenge by Kerry over at Three Clover Designs. Her challenge for you this week is to make a shaped card. Any kind of shape as long as it's not a square or rectangle. LOVE that kind of challenge.

I used this adorable Tilda with garland in her hair. I just LOVE her! I know...I know...I love them all...but I really do LOVE her! LOL! I also used the cute butterfly background stamp that is from the Chasing Butterflies collection. So cute! The stamps are colored with my Copic markers (pic below). All of this is available at Magnolia-licious!

Also did a quick faux chipboard word of "hi" with my Sesame Street Font cartridge with my Cricut Expression. Did a very simple decoration for the inside of the card too. This little cutie will be up for sale in my etsy shop if you're interested.

That's it for this one. Very quick and easy! Whatcha think?? Be sure and visit Three Clovers Designs to check out the challenge and the wonderful examples from the awesome Inspiration Team. Thanks lots for stopping by to see me tonight, and I sure hope to see you again soon! Have a fabulous weekend!!!! Big hugs!

"The Boys" & the Best Mom in the World

E and I haven't seen our dogs, Itchy and Moose, since Christmas, and it feels like ages. I've said it before, but they really are like our kids. We are "those" people. We look at their photos and sometimes watch videos of them, but nothing suffices for actually having them with us.

And this week has seemed harder than normal. While the photos and videos usually bring comfort along with a longing to see the "boys," this week they seemed to just bring a bit of heartache.

Melanie Acevedo

But that heartache will be remedied for at least a few days-- enter the "Best Mom in the World." After I expressed how terribly much we've been missing them, my super sweet mom decided to drive "the boys" down to our house over the weekend. The drive is not a short one for her; it can take upwards of 10 hours, especially when traveling with the pups in tow.

I know how very lucky I am to have the mom I do.

I can't tell you how very excited and happy E and I are right now! I can't wait to get on the road. Whatever your weekend holds, I hope, like mine, it will be filled with love and joy.

Honeymoon snaps! Katie and Steve in Hawaii...

So, it's time for another installment of Honeymoon snaps! Woo- hoo! I LOVE finding out where our clients are going on their honeymoons. I LOVE to travel and so it's fun to live vicariously through my little snap buddies. Katie was particularly enthusiastic about her honeymoon... she and Steve went to The Big Island of Hawaii as well as Maui and Kauai. Apparently, Katie has been planning on a honeymoon in Hawaii since she was a little girl. How nice that she ended up with a super cute hubby to take along for her wild adventures. It looks like Katie took full advantage of her exotic location and tried just about every activity Hawaii could offer...

Here are the highlights:

Katie and Steve: thanks for sharing your photos! (You really should have cropped that nude photo before you sent it to me though... don't worry, I took care of it)... not sure if I can look at Steve the same way now though. HA HA.

Megan and Ryan's Photo Date at Castle Hill, Newport

Posted by Trish: These guys are getting married in just a few weeks, but we got the chance to meet up and do a little portrait session which I think was a great trial run before the day. Now they have their posing down and have gotten comfortable with the process and the camera staring them down. It's also fun to get to chat a bit and find out what's happening with all of the plans.

We ventured out to the lighthouse since it's a bit of a haul in a wedding dress but easy in sandals.

Too bad this location was so ugly...what!

The water view from up here is awesome. It's such a rich blue/green, I want to jump in!

Cute! poor Ryan was fighting the bright sun to keep his eyes open. He did a good job!

I think this is one of my favs from the day. What's not to like about a rustic lighthouse?!

Ok, they are loosening up here, looking very happy and cute together.

We got so lucky, Tuesday was a beautiful day and the rest of the week has been crapola!

Here's the classic Castle Hill shot with the house in the background, sweet!

And now with the lighthouse in the background...I love stuff in the background apparently. But I think everyone does, so this could work out.

We also hit the beach because they don't want to leave the reception to come down the day of the wedding. So this way we get the best of both.

More excellent posing... while being monitored by the Castle Hill 'guy'. If you are not staying there they don't really appreciate you traipsing around on the beach. But luckily we had the 'they are getting married here next month' card to use, whew.

I think that Ryan was really excited when this was over. But we had fun and it was nice to get to see them again and I look forward to seeing them yet again in June for the big day!

♥ Proses Pasang BEHEL

Alhamdulillah pemasangan behel udah dijalani.
Alhamdulillah gue gak ngerasa sakit apapunn.. prosesnya cepet.
pertama-tama gue di bersihin dulu karang giginya..
terus gigi kelinci depan gue kan ada yg patah & bengkok sedikit, yg itu di tambal ama dokternya biar rataa gigi gue.
abis itu mulai deh dipasangin kawat, tadinya gue mau yg warna baby pink cuman tipe behel gue kan yg crystal safire jadi kawatnya dasarnya bahan transparan, soo gue ganti warna yg shocking pink aja supaya 'keliatan' warnanya. hehee. xD

pokoknya gue bersyukur bgt prosesnya gak sakit sama sekali, dari awal sampai akhir aman.
sariawan juga Alhamdulillah sama sekali gak ada.
tapi proses pemasangan behel buat gigi bawah gue bisanya minggu depan karena pas dibersihin karang giginya gigi gue meradang.. darah kga berhenti2. jadi musti nunggu seminggu.
gakpapa.. dehh.

gigi gue tambah monyong nee~
mudah2an hasilnya giginya cepet masuk biar pede lagi. hehee.

love.love ♥♥

Gluten-Free Pizza Flatbread with Roasted Vegetables

An easy gluten-free pizza flatbread topped with roasted veggies.

I've been offering up picnic food recipes this week because we're eating easy picnic style here in the final countdown phase of leaving for our summer adventure in Los Angeles. Only four remaining stacks of books to box, a tilting fence of wet paintings to frame, and the all important decision of which t-shirts, pots and kitchen power tools to pack stand in the way of our coffee fueled departure early next week.

I am reminded of the opening scene of A Walk on the Moon where Pearl and Lilian Kantrowitz are cramming the family car with colanders and tablecloths and onions and potato peelers. Kitchen stuff for their summer cabin in the Catskills. Such a production this is. Planning ahead for gluten-free snacks on the road (chocolate cupcakes are a must, and popcorn) and an easy microwavable supper for the hotel in Arizona (I'm thinking I'll freeze some of my favorite Mac and Cheese). We still don't have a rental lined up. And the storms knocked out our Internet this week. I'm lucky to be on at all tonight.

So yours truly has been running out of steam by cocktail hour, whipped not only by the attention-to-detail process of organizing two lives and shedding old stuff, but by the monsoon season thunderstorms growling across the Chama River in the afternoons, sending wind and rain and howling coyotes up the mesa. And knocking out our web access.

So forgive me if I have not responded to a comment or a question. I haven't been on-line much. Or participated on Twitter. I've been a total social network slacker stranded out here in the wilds. Cooking up flatbreads and Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies between rinsing out empty shampoo bottles. Thinking of you.

Hoping you're having a wonderful week!

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Edible Image Cookies

I realized when posting Terri's birthday cookies that I've never posted about her 40th birthday cookies.

Now, I hope Terri won't mind me stating her age, since she looks younger every time I see her.
{In a few years, I'll be making "29" cookies for her. I know, you'll want to hate her, but she's really nice, so you can't.}

So, I had this idea to use a drawing of Terri and have it printed on icing sheets for her cookies.

First, you need a really talented relative that you can guilt into making the drawing. (Thank you, Maura.)

Then, format the picture to the size you want it to be on the cookies. If you're lucky enough to own an icing printer (oh, how I would LOVE an icing printer!), print them off. If not, do what I did and take the file to your local bakery supply store for printing.

When you are ready to make the cookies, trim the pictures to the right size. Outline and fill the cookies as normal.

While the icing is still wet, peel off the backing of the picture and place onto the icing.

Now, here's what I learned the HARD WAY...add a day to the drying time. The icing sheet traps the moisture in the royal icing. It really needs 2 days to dry totally.

I made them the night before, started to bag them up and hop in the car to drive to the party, and OH, NO! The cookies were still wet. I cranked down the AC, turned the fans on high and prayed for the best.

Well, by the end of the evening, some of the cookie icing was stuck to the interior of the cookie bags. It's the thought that counts, right? :)

If you like these cookies, check out more cookies I made using my cousin Maura's fabulous artwork!!!
Cookies from Art

Pia and Scott's Photolounge Fun...

Melissa and the photolounge were super excited to make an appearance at Pia and Scott's wedding at Castle Hill on Sunday. As usual the lounge was a huge hit... and we may have a new record for number of loungers in the lounge at the same time...18 (actually I think the record is 27 but 18 is pretty good!) We've said it before and we'll say it again...

Photolounge+ wedding guests = guaranteed fun!

Clearly this gentleman has had too much coffee, someone cut him off!

Pia and Scott! So cute!

These guys are my favorite... genius!

Graduation word book

This was made for a friend and cohort that I work with. It's for her daughter that is graduating from High School this year. I've been working on this for a while, so I'm very relieved to finally have it finished. WHEW!!! I cut the word book with my Pazzle and word book cd which I purchased from Hallmark Scrapbook. All the DP is the FABULOUS Basic Grey Lime Rickey line. I fell in love with it and felt it would be perfect for this. I hope they agree. :) It's all put together with my Bind-it-all.

I used several Martha Stewart border punches throughout. The backgrounder stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms. I also used my Nestabilities almost all the way through it.

B was cut with my Cricut Expression. the 4 and the swirl are BG Lime Rickey chipboard.

These stamps are by Kim Hughes, colored with copics.

The ladybug and bee friends is a stamp from Stampendous colored with my Copic markers.

skull and crossbones is from Life is a Beach cartridge, rose is from Indie Art.

Stamp is a downloadable freebie from Dustin Pike colored with copics. The rain clouds are from a Magnolia stamp. Sentiment for this cute bee was computer generated.

camera and flash is from Locker Talk cartridge, the label for the little album is from Fabulous Finds, and the word fun was cut with the Sesame Street Font cartridge.

All of these cuts were from the LIfe is a Beach cartridge. The umbrella was made into faux chipboard by cutting six of them and gluing together.

The clear envies and file folders are by Rob and Bob Studio, and the family stamps are some that have nothing with them to tell me who made them. Sorry about that!

That's it! That's what I've been working on for weeks in my free time from work. I hope they enjoy it! Whatcha think?? Thanks for stopping by to visit me today, and I sure hope you come back to see me again soon! HUGS!

OH! Today is the day for a new challenge by Kerry over at Three Clovers Designs. I wasn't able to participate this week, even though I really wanted to. But please be sure and pop over there to find out what the new challenge is for this week! It's a fun one. I promise you'll love it!