I really really really wanted to make cupcakes for Valentines day (in LARGE part to the cupcake obsession running rampant on Scrap Freak) but Paul said he would rather have muffins. Blueberry muffins.

So I went to my tried and true source allrecipes.com. The trick with that site is to sort by rating and then pick the one with the most reviews AND A high rating. So when I found this 4.5 star recipe with 2000+ ratings I was hopeful.

BEST.MUFFINS.EVER

Better than anything I have had from a bakery or restaurant or coffee shop. The recipe was super easy to make, baked up beautifully, and had just the perfect consistency.



Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup white sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/3 cup vegetable oil 1 egg

1/3 cup milk 1 cup fresh blueberries 1/2 cup white sugar 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup butter, cubed 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2.	Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3.	To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4.	Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Here is the card i made my DH. Super simple but hes not one for ribbons and girly stuff. He actually loved the distressing so I guess it was perfect for him.

Ok so somehow this years Valentines day turned into a 3 day celebration which was really nice.

Friday My DH totally shocked me by having roses delivered. Ive never gotten flowers at work and the sentiment inside was from one of my favorite ee cummings poems.

Then we went out to dinner. Nothing fancy just TGIFridays but the food was super good and the service amazing.

Saturday we exchanged cards and I made peach cobbler for desert. Not perfect but very tasty none the less. Oh and we totally upgraded several components on my PC. I got an extra gig of memory and a brand new video card. I can't believe what a difference it made!

And sunday we grilled steaks and lounged about and watched TV together. It was just the perfect weekend. Here are some pics of the flowers I got

Lesson 6 - Favorite movie, book...

Pick out your favorite movie, book, character, song, quote, art work---anything that was created by someone else, and explain why it is so important to you. Explain why this particular work speaks to you. More often than not we answer these questions with superficial answers such as, "well I can listen to it over and over again" or "it's just really pretty or fun to watch". What we're looking for today is to dig a little bit deeper into what has created this bond for you? Here are a couple questions to get you started on looking for that bond.

My favorite book of all time is the Lord of The Ring trilogy. I know I know how uber dorky. BUT I really do think it stands as one of the greatest works of literature of all time. I mean the detail work in these books is just mind boggling. I read and re-read them all the time. They live on my headboard and serve as the perfect bedtime reading.

My beloved P introduced me to them. His copies are totally battered from their 20= years of use and I was sick as a dog one day and he read to me. I was immediately transported to a world so familiar I could picture every stone and tree in my head. I was hooked.

And so here is my layout (which looks sooo much prettier in real life)

Supplies: Basic Grey chipboard alphas, Mellow patterned paper and back ground paper- which was sprayed with home made glimmer mist. Grunge board flowers, Hambly transparency, 7 Gypsies Gaffer tape and the photo is a famous Tolkien's artists interpritation of Lothlorien.

Ok so I know I don't strike most people as a doll person. Im not. Never played with barbies, though I did have every stuffed animal known to man (and still sleep with my 2 bears). I always prefered GI Joe dolls and Transformers to anything remotley girly.

But


I.NEED.A.BLYTHE.DOLL

A red head specifically. Cause red heads rock.

How can you not love these dolls. And look what stunning photos I could learn to take. That's it. I need one as a tool to further my art!

I love love love secret sister type swaps. It combines my favorite pastimes of shopping and giving gifts :) I had a chance to participate in one hosted at Scrap Freak. I received such absolutley cool stuff. I am soooo excited!

I got a whole mess of clear dollar stamps. A fantastic Family printed word album from SEI, a ton of gorgeous Prima embellishments (birds, butterflies, flowers and trim!), a really cool mailbox to alter and a beautiful hand made card. Not to mention chocolate, coffee and cocoa!

Thank you so much ScrapnNess! You totally made my week!

Lesson 5 Use a Series of Photos

"Often you can tell a story with photos. This week, I want you to tell a story, any story, using 3 or more photos. You can tell a more traditional story - using pictures to capture the events of a day, or a more conceptual story, using photos to represent various aspects of your story. Be creative. But must importantly, focus on a story worth telling - from silly to serious, your choice."

For my layout I chose to do a story about my absurdly elaborate Christmas village display. I am a total Christmas NUT. Most years I go super over the top and even have a different decorating theme every year.

My DH LOVES our Christmas village, and I take days to arrange all the little figurines into little vignettes so each one tells a story. Crazy I know.


Supplies: Bazzill Cardstock, BG, Paper Studio and Daisy D's PP
Heidi Swapp Blue plastic letters, Red vinyl thickers, jenni bowlin journaling spot cut in half, MAMBI glitter snowflake rubons.

Lesson 4 - Story Behind the Photo

"Too often I see pages with no journaling. Don't get me wrong, I believe there are NO rules in creating. You don't want to journal, fine. But at the same time, there are often things we can not learn from that photo. The details, the context, the emotions. This week, I want you to tell the story behind a photo. It can even be a photo you have scrapped before. Dig deeper. Ideas to get you going"


Since this lesson was all about the journaling I kept my layout super simple. This is a layout mounted on a 12x12 piece of cardstock that has been folded in half like a giant card resulting in a 6x12 page. This way you open it up and have tons of room for journaling.

This layout Ak Eglite Ak Eglite is the story of how during Christmas our family has a tradition of getting our real tree and holding on to the tie downs on the drive home and singing Ak Eglite (Oh Christmas Tree in LAtvian). The photo is of my nephew Kristoper right before his first Christmas holding the rope Aleks used to tie down the Christmas tree. It was a super special moment as my dad had just passed away (I was actually in NJ for the funeral) to continue a tradition he started.


Supplies: The paper is super super old imagination project paper called Sweater Weather (and looked very latvian to me). Some gray bazzill, some stickles and pearls are all I used. Thickers are American Crafts Dolce.

They really mean it :( I have really bad knees and have gotten into a horrible habit of lifting with my back. DH is always warning me that it's going to come back to haunt me and it totally did.

Last Wednesday I really really hurt my lower back. So much so that I haven't done a single non essential thing since then. DH has been an absolute angel, doing the dishes, making sure I don't do anything stupid like carry laundry etc.

I did go scrap Sat with the usual gang and as always I had a really good time. I was working on a new mini album and its really far out of my comfort zone so I bitched a good portion of the time that I wasn't feeling it. (thanks to all of the gals for putting up with my whining!)

But now I am really liking the way it's coming along. Here is a total rough unfinished look at the cover so far.

I also have 3 Get Meaningful lessons to post. So hopefully I will be all caught up by the end of this week. God I hate being incapacitated!

My mom just had a birthday and slacker that I am haven't mailed out her present yet. But I did make her this fabulous card.


Supplies: Stampin Up background script and flower. Doodlebug ribbon. DCWV cardstock and gold stickles in the center of the flower. The leaves were colored in with Copics and the white flower part is also colored in with a clear glitter marker. It doesn't show up but the petals are nice and sparkly.

It's that time of year again! Where we get free stuff!!!

Our Sale-A-Bration promotion gives reason for everyone to celebrate!

Customers: Receive a free Sale-A-Bration product for every $50 purchase.

Hostesses: Receive a free Sale-A-Bration product with a $300 or more workshop, in addition to the normal hostess benefits.

Recruits: Choose any retail stamp set (a value up to $47.95) from the current catalog when signing up during the promotion. Plus, get 15% off the regular $199 price of the Starter Kit--that's $335 worth of products for only $169!