Cookin' with Gas

I'm cooking with propane gas! Like my stove uses. Sheesh! What were you thinking?

I'm gearing up for a fun Thanksgiving with my folks tomorrow by putting together some casseroles and baking some pumpkin bread saving just the food items that aren't as good prepared ahead like mashed potatoes and cranberry challah bread.

I realized that I did not have my sweet potato casserole recipe in my holiday planning notebook. So, since I had to type it up, I figured I would do it cute. I used a few things from my days as a digital scrapbook kit designer. Even though I did this fairly quick, I think it is pretty fun.

I decided that I would share this as a little freebie to anyone who is interested. You can download a PDF version of this here.

I am off to finish my cooking and do a spot of cleaning, too. I hope everyone enjoys their holiday of celebrating and giving thanks for our many blessings.

Happy International Chocolate Day

Did you realize that there even was an "International Chocolate Day"?


I was searching around the web trying to find the history behind this special holiday and discovered that there are a whole bunch of chocolate related holidays.
Here is a list from Extreme Chocolate:



May 12th: National Nutty Fudge Day

• May 15th: National Chocolate Chip Day



• June 16th: Fudge Day (in fact, all of June is considered the official "candy month")

July 7th: Chocolate Day

• July 28th: National Milk Chocolate Day


• August 10th: S'mores Day



• Sept. 13th: International Chocolate Day -- that's right, a worldwide celebration



• Sept. 22nd: National White Chocolate Day



• Oct. 28th: National Chocolate Day (How is this different from chocolate day on July 7th? Beats me! Celebrate them both anyway, though).



• Nov. 7th: National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day (yes, you read that right).



• Dec. 16th: National Chocolate Covered Anything Day



• Dec. 28th: National Chocolate Day (again)



• Dec. 29th: National Chocolate Day (again)

How fun! I am all for celebrating chocolate. The curious thing is that I cannot find any information on the origins of International Chocolate Day. I am not about to worry too much about such details when a holiday about chocolate is concerned.


So enjoy your chocolate, just make sure it is an international variety!





In honor of the day, I am giving away a freebie! This will have special appeal to all of you scrapbookers out there, but it has some really fun chocolate graphics that anyone would love for their creative projects. The little chocolate thoughts never fail to make me smile!



You can download the freebie Chocolate kit here.

Gratuitous Giftie - Fall Quickpage

It's beginning to feel like Fall around here. We have had those cool, crisp nights and clear sunny days. The leaves are just beginning to turn. I love this season!

I figured it was time to share another freebie with you all. This is actually a quickpage that I created last Fall. I had been playing with some fun backgrounds including this leaf one and decided it would be fun to put them together like quilts. This is a pattern for a quilt square called Liberty. It leaves a perfect spot for a photo.

I hope you have fun with this! It can be downloaded here.

Gratuitous Giftie: Old-Fashioned Calling Cards

I thought I would have some fun this morning and pass along another gratuitous giftie for all y'all. These little cards have an antique flavor and remind me of the little calling or visiting cards that were used during the Victorian era. One would leave one with their name imprinted on it at a home where they had visited. Instead, I think these would make great little journaling cards on your scrapbook layouts.

The cards may be downloaded here.

Enjoy!

Gratuitous Giftie

Well, it's official. I am no longer a Scrap Outside the Box designer. I'm retired. But just because I am retired from there, doesn't mean I am completely retiring from designing. It is in my blood. I don't think I can stop my creating any more than I can stop my breathing. So, I am planning on using this blog as an outlet for that creativity by sharing little gifts from time to time. I have one today that includes a September 2007 calendar in PNG form along with a coordinating digital background. Hope you enjoy it. Download it here.