I love to Dream, live to Create and hope to Inspire!

Emotional Monday ~
Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy - it's quite a long post today!

Whew, I just put my boys on the bus and sat down and had a good cry. I cannot believe the summer holiday is over and they are starting another year of school.
We had a wonderful weekend, busy but fun. Look at this beautiful sky ~ I took these on Friday and the clouds and sun behind the trees was just breathtaking ~ the pictures really don't do it justice. It was the kind of beauty that makes you stop and pray! The appreciation for light and beautiful things like the trees, flowers, and soft whispy clouds.



EDIT: so I was just looking at this photo when I was going through my pictures on my computer and it almost jumped off the picture~ Do you see the creature/cat/lion/straffordshire dog? in the upper left of the picture? Click on it to make it bigger and tell me what you think it looks like!




















Yesterday was our last TAX FREE day so I decided that I needed to purchase a new printer. My friend Terry's mom told me about this new printer she got that could print slides, negatives, etc. and that the prints were beautiful. We'll, I broke my all-in-one printer and this one seemed like the perfect printer for me. My hubby went to Staples yesterday after lunch and got the printer. He took it out of the box, put it on the livingroom floor (see ink on carpet below), and was fuming mad. We thought the printer was a floor model or something, no ink included, no instruction booklet, no stryofoam on one side of the printer like it would be if packaged NEW. Well, he got back in the car drove there, told the story (I told him to include the nice new ink stain I have on my carpet and he did) and they opened the box to find out that the printer in the box wasn't the printer model we thought we were purchasing. We didn't even notice that the printer DH took out of the box wasn't the same as the picture on the box - we were so frustrated when we felt we had gotten a floor model. The store soon discovered that someone returned a printer in a box of a new printer they had purchased. HOW could someone live with themselves for doing something so dishonest? The printer that was in the box was at least $150.00 less in price then the one we purchased. My husband asked if they check the boxes when the item is returned and the manager told him no, if it's taped like this one was then it looks like it was never opened. I'm sure their policy changed as of yesterday.


Any tips/clue how to get ink out of carpet?












Anyway, we got another box and this one was the printer we wanted. It's an HP C7180. It is awesome. Prints beautifully!
It will also print from slides and negatives which I am really excited about.


















Remember a couple of days ago I mentioned there was a frog in my backyard?


Well, he decided to show up again last night when I took the puppies outside - scared me to death!


I had to run inside and get my camera so I could take picture of it without the dogs noticing it ~ didn't want pictures of that meeting. He blended in so much that I almost stepped on him-yuk!

Here are the puppies - growing bigger and longer ever day. Sweet as can be!





















One of my boys favorite things are the homemade crescent rolls that I make. I have to admit that I got the recipe from my MIL.





I hope you'll make these ~ they are absolutely yummy and I've included a couple of variations that I do with the dough!
We had a nice dinner last night and they were so surprised and pleased that I made them! They ate them for breakfast this morning as well.



















They have to rise for 4 (yes, four) hours! They make the house smell absolutely yummy!





My middle son gets really angry when I make them and give them away. I know some of you have witnessed this! He is really funny and will ask, are all of these for us are you giving them to your friends? hehehe.























CRESCENT ROLLS
1 cup water
2/3 cup shortening
(place in microwave for about 3 mins. - stir until melted - set aside until cooled)



DO THIS FIRST!
Dissolve 1 pkg. yeast (or 3tsp from jar) in 1 cup very warm water. Let sit to dissolve and then stir.
Add to mixture of water and shortening.
Add:
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup sugar

Add:
6 cups of flour, 2 cups at a time
mix with heavy duty spoon or your hands until completely mixed together.
Divide into four pieces. Roll each into a circle about 1/4 inch thick
cut each circle into 12 wedges. Roll up, beginning at wide edge.
Place on greased baking sheets. Cover with dish towel
Rise 4 hours (Yes, 4 hours!)
Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Okay, the original recipe calls for adding the yeast to cold water. Also, refrigerating overnight but I'm too impatient for that so I've motified it so that I can make the immediately. If you make them with adding the yeast to cold water and refrigerating them overnight you can actually leave the dough in the fridge for up to a week.

My variations:
1. Roll out dough and spread with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up like a jelly roll (long tube like) and slice. Place into a greased pan and let rise for 4 hours. These make the best cinnamon rolls! Top with cream cheese frosting. YUM! 400 degrees til golden brown.
2. Roll out dough and spread Nutella (hazlenut chocolate spread) and sliced bananas. Roll up jelly roll style and slice. Let rise for 4 hours and cook. 400 degrees til golden brown.
3. If I make too much dough (I usually do a double batch every time I make them) I put the extra dough in a loaf pan and bake again on 400 til golden brown. You want the loaf pan to be just over half way full of dough. It is yummy sliced up and served with butter and honey!YUM!

Here are some of the projects that I finished this weekend.
The card is the thing that popped into my head the other day when driving home. I painted it and then printed it on the front of a card - will change the city and send these as my Christmas cards this year as well as put them in the shop I was telling you about a couple of days ago. What cha think?




We are painting orchids in one of our classes this month so I decided to paint some Moth Orchids.




















Well, we're expecting 100 degrees today with a heat index of 110. YIKES! Thankfully I'm staying inside all day ~ painting and playing with the puppies. Have a wonderful MONDAY!