Tour de Wales

We interrupt this craft blog to give you some images from my recent 10 day trip to Wales. I think a lot of people are unfamiliar with Wales so I'm hoping that you will enjoy a little cultural geography from me. First stop: St. David's. The cathedral is named after the patron saint of Wales. It lies in the adorable city of St. David's. The city lies within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.All of those windows are beautiful stained glass. The inside is so much more beautiful than the exterior.It is still at active church. They are having a Handel's Messiah Christmas concert next month. I bet that will be amazing. Back up. On the way to St. David's, we passed a sign that read, YMCA Camp 1 1/2k. I had to check it out. And, I happened to be wearing my YMCA thermal. This Y was awesome. They go kayaking, surfing, rock climbing. I almost applied for a job there.

Here I am with the huge ropes coarse/rock climbing wall in the background. Super fun. Next stop: Castle Carreg Cennan. This is my view out the window as we drive to Castle Carreg Cennan. The castle lies along the Black Hills on the border of the Bracon Beacons National Park. Before going to the castle, you have to stop at the farmhouse. We had a traditional Welsh soup called Cawl served with buttered bread and a slice of Welsh cheese. Our version was vegetarian. I tried to take a really cool foodie picture but the cloudy scenery out the window wasn't cooperating. There is a hike up to the castle with lots of sheep along the way. I'm goofing off in this thingy. Here's the view from the castle. Underneath the castle there is a long, natural cave. I explored it alone. Spooky. Next stop: Tenby.

Tenby is an old seaside village in south Wales along the Pembrokeshire Coast. On the way we made a detour in the town of New Hedge to shop at a county market. I took this picture of the Heather they were selling for 1 pound 99. I also had the yummiest almond croissant of my life and bought two loaves of bara brith.

This is the harbor at Tenby. Tenby has beautiful beaches, great shops, lots of B & Bs, and restaurants. The homes and shops are very colorful. The whole town is surrounded by a stone wall.

Here I am standing against a wall, overlooking the beach and a couple of islands. Another view of the beach at Tenby. I don't know what this is called but I thought it was pretty. I did some shopping in Tenby at the 1 pound store (think 99 cent store.) I stocked up on silicone baking things. I also found a Cancer Research thrift store. I love a bargain.

This is Tesco, a place I where I spend a lot of my time in Wales. It's like Target Greatland. I think I went there 5 times while I was over there. I stocked up on the Welsh version of Airborne.

One can't do Britain without a little culture. We saw a ballet/modern dance at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff (the Welsh capital.) During intermissions, the Welsh eat ice-cream. Welsh ice-cream is very creamy and thick. Mmmm.

So, needless to say, I came home with some extra pounds and I'm not just talking about currency. Wales is a beautiful country. The people are very friendly. The food is yummy. I love it.

Thanks for letting me share. Have you been to Wales?

Under the Sea Party

We do parties pretty big at the Grow house. This last week was my niece's 8th birthday. Most of the stuff we did ourselves but the cake was from Baskin Robbins. We added the sea life candles from Oriental Trading. Let's hit the food table first.No Grow party is complete without Krispie Pops. This year I did an aquarium and clownfish. I made a chex mix with goldfish and oyster crackers.

Fruit plate with cute fish toothpicks.My sister saw these clam cookies somewhere and recreated them. The pearls/eyes are yogurt raisins.Silly games are always part of our festivities. My sister painted a dog cone to look like a shark. The game is called "feeding frenzy. The kids have to throw shark bait at the shark. One party goer loved the shark cone so much that she ate her cake with it on. We also had an obstacle course that was completed wearing goggles and flippers. The kids collected "pearls" in their bucket along the course.In a kiddie pool, the kids did a dolphin ring toss and a fishing game. . Now, some decor pics. Here are 3 partygoers on a beach towel in front of the kiddie pool and very large banner that my sister made using poster paper and fish cut outs. My niece pulled out all of her ocean books and stuffies to decorate my piano.

The patio was decorated like an aquarium with hanging fish, balloons and metallic streamers.

Lastly, this is the front of the invitation. My sister designs and makes them herself every year. Not pictured: the dolphin pinata, goodie bags and my niece in her mermaid costume. Also, the swedish fish and gummie sharks were gone before I could take a picture of them.

The Grow Garden 2009

This is our garden this year.

These are going to be yellow pear-shaped cherry tomatoes. I planted 4 other kinds of tomatoes too.
These are chili peppers we planted last year that grew back. There are 3 plants with different kinds of peppers (one is called chocolate pepper.)
We planted green onions outside of the garden to keep the critters away.
These are eggplants from the plant we planted last year. They also survived.
Here is a small cuke. I planted one cucumber plant and it has gone crazy along with the 4 zucchini plants.

This time last year I had a major critter problem in my garden. So far we've been lucky (knock on wood.) I buy most of my plants from Rogers Gardens in Corona Del Mar, Newport Beach. They sell lots of heirloom plants that do well by the beach. And, if you love gardens, gourmet food and art you should visit this place. It's amazing, especially at Christmastime.

Magnetic Board

A couple weeks ago we had a ladies craft night at church. Well, I mostly socialized so I didn't finish any of my 3 projects that night. I just now finished this one. It's a magnetic board to hold pictures, postcards, invitations, cards, whatever. I was supposed to use ribbon to tie on the metal hanger but I cut some fabric off of my bedskirt instead.

I'm making some custom magnets to go with it. When I finish I'll post them with my board hanging in my room.

Blue Ribbon Granola

This year I was honored to win a blue ribbon for my granola at the OC Fair. I've had several requests for my "winning recipe" so here is my attempt to share it with you. I make granola for my family once a week and it is different every time I make it. The award winner was Orange Cherry Pecan.

First up:
Orange Dried Cherries (They are good on their own but are a wonderful addition to granola.)

*Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

2- 10 oz. bags of frozen cherries
1/2 to 1 cup (enough to cover the cherries) Orange juice (I used orange mango)
1/4 cup honey
secret ingredient-a little orange zest

In a medium saucepan on medium heat, bring all ingredients to a boil. Turn heat to low and allow mixture to simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated and the juice is thick. Don't stir. If you really want to stir it, just swirl the pot around. Remove from heat. Using a slotted spoon, remove cherries and place them in a single layer on a silicone pad lined cookie sheet (or parchment paper or non-stick cookie sheet.) Dry in preheated oven
for about 2 hours, checking every 20-30 minutes. You want them to be chewy. If you have a dehydrator, cool. Use it.

Orange Cherry Pecan Granola

* Preheat oven to 275 degrees

4 cups grains (I use a mixture of oatmeal, wheat flakes, barley flakes, and rye flakes)

2 cups nuts (the winning recipe used blanched almonds and pecans)

1/2 cup flax seeds

1/2-3/4 cups honey (depending on how sweet you want it)

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

sprinklings of sea salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg

secret ingredient-2 Tbs. orange juice

Orange zest

Orange Dried Cherries
Combine all ingredients except zest and cherries in a medium-sized bowl. Spread mixture onto a non-stick or foil-lined cookie sheet. Bake in oven for 30 minutes to an hour. Stir every 10-15 minutes after 30 minutes. You want the granola a golden brown. You are stirring so the sides don't get too brown. Remove granola from the oven and sprinkle with orange zest. Allow granola to cool before adding dried cherries and packaging.

It's great on yogurt or with milk as a cereal. Other flavoring options: add a teaspoon of vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, coconut or almond extract. You could also add peanut butter and replace the honey with maple syrup or agave necter.

Other fruits: dehydrated or freeze-dried strawberries, peaches, raisins, currents, flaked coconut, blueberries, apples, banana chips, etc.

Other nuts and seeds: slivered almonds (just be careful that they don't get too brown too quickly), peanuts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds (they are in the picture above but I didn't use them in my award winning recipe), sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, etc.

Enjoy! Let me know if you try it.

Home-made English Muffins

Yes, you heard that right. I made my own English muffins. They are as easy to make as pancakes only so much cooler. I found the recipe on Baking Bites blog. I substituted white flour with whole wheat pastry flour and they were amazing. I served them with butter and my mum's homemade sugar-free plum jam.

Happy 4th of July

To continue with my tradition of posting a tour of my home on every holiday, I present you with Independence Day. First off, a picture of my house with my flag out front.
Just inside the kitchen is the banner that I sewed using vintage and recycled fabrics and bias tape.

And, as promised, on the living room coffee table lies the coordinating table runner. It's reversable. It has the red bandana/centinial fabric on one side and colorful flip flops on the other.

I didn't really go all out of decorating the house this go around because I've been busy planning the church 4th of July Breakfast. We are having pancakes with fresh strawberries and whipping cream.

I also made 150 of these Mentos "firecrackers." I used up a bunch of paper and ribbon I wasn't crazy about. I will put these on the tables as the decoration.

Basic instructions: Remove paper wrapper. Replace with 2" x 3" piece of paper (I ran my adhesive runner up one side and then just rolled the Mentos over the paper). Tie knot in 3" long piece of ribbon and adhere with a small glue dot. Repeat 149 times. LOL.

And, finally, every year the girls in my family (aka the growgirls) wear matching Old Navy t-shirts. This is my uniform for this year. I'll wear it with a skirt and a flag bracelet

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend. Happy 4th to all of my American friends. Thanks for stopping by.

A patriotic banner

I just love making these festive buntings. I made this one a little different. I used a lot of vintage fabrics (I love the bicentinial one) plus some fabric samples. I used red and blue vintage bias tape on the top. And, it's a bit longer than I usually do so I had to swag it. It's hanging over my kitchen widow that looks out to my flag.

I'll be back in a couple days for an Independence Day tour of my home, including the table runner I made to match the patriotic banner.

There's No Place Like Home

I haven't done much crafting lately except for plastic lollipops, silk flower bouquets and other props for our church production of the Wizard of Oz. My niece is a munchin, my sister is painting scenery, my mum is a director, and I'm the stage manager and prop master. I also get to operate the 8 foot tall Wizard who comes complete with beaming yellow eyes, smoking nose, and moving mouth.

And, I also helped design our publicity. Here is our poster:

If you are in the OC area this weekend or next, come see our show. To get tickets, send an email to: tamiwalkoz@aol.com I think the Saturdays are almost sold out so you might want to hurry.

Easter Open House

Continuing with my tradition of posting a holiday tour with pictures from around my home, here are some pictures showing Easter at my house. First up, I made hot cross buns on Good Friday. We made bunnies out of plastic grocery bags at work this week. I found the fun idea on the makeandtakes blog.

Here are a couple pictures from my front yard. The geraniums are around all year. The pink flowers come up every spring.

Now, we'll go inside my house, starting with the wreath on my front door (it's store bought.)


My niece made a whole series of wooden block decorations in Kindergarten. There's one for every holiday.

Here are a few pictures from my kitchen. We have three cupboards with glass doors. They each get decorated along with the shelf above the kitchen sink window. And, the egg garland I made this year goes above the windows that look into the front yard.

And, finally, these are the eggs my niece and I dyed today. I displayed them in a wooden egg holder I found at an estate sale.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Easter!

Egg-cellent

I've been crazy for bunting lately. After I made the heart one and hung it in my mum's kitchen, she fell in love with it and asked me to make her a banner for every big holiday. So, here is the Easter bunting.

I designed the shape and used all types of mismatched fabrics that I had. Some were scraps leftover from the baby buntings. Others were from old sheets. Most were from fabric sample cards that I bought from a flea market at the fabric store.

I made this one the same way I made the heart one. I zig zagged the front piece to a piece of white felt, used my scalloping scissors on the edge and attached all the eggs with double fold bias tape.

The next holiday banner will be for the 4th of July. I have some really great fabrics already picked out, including a vintage bicentenial fabric.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Easter.

I still make cards

Ha! It's been a while but I made some cards. For the first one I stamped the leaves and sentiment with SU Best Blossoms. The bottom is plum color paper that I punched with my new Fiskars Apron Lace border punch. The top is striped purple and white paper I've had for years. For the next card I used SU Touch of Nature colored with Prismacolor pencils. I masked the image and stamped SU French Script. I used another new Fiskars border punch for the bottom along with some ribbon and some twill that I stamped with a Hero Arts sentiment. Lastly, this is a really quick card with DCWV papers and Cornish Heritage Farms bunny and sentiment.
Thanks for coming by. Have a great day.

The Spice Girls

I had three participants in my Spice It Up Challenge. They all took a totally different and creative approach to the challenge to makeover a spice container. Here are the entries:

Jan from Far North Designs.

Christie from I Must Stamp.

Catherine from Paper Garden Projects

The judges (my very crafty mom, sister and niece) had a very tough time choosing. My niece was the tie-breaker. She chose Christie's pretty purple vase as the winner. Christie, I am sending you the Love book along with some goodies. And, because it was so close, Catherine and Jan will also be getting treats from me.

Thank you ladies for sharing your talent.

I need a vacation from my vacation

I took a few days off work and came up to Sacramento for some fun times with my friend, Suzie. A little over a week ago her son decided to get married while I was up here. My weekend was spent dipping strawberries, cookies and pretzels in white and dark chocolate, helping choose music, helping decorate the reception tables, and generally running all over town buying supplies. The good news is that everything looked (and tasted) wonderful and the bride and groom looked gorgeous. The bride and groom's son Hayden ate about 20 of the pretzels. So, today is Sunday, or the day after the wedding, and Suzie and I decided to relax and drive up to the Sacramento LDS Temple. It was really nice and quiet up there. I fly home tomorrow via Jet Blue. Can I just say that I love Jet Blue!?!