Author: Lois Houston

I'm a sweet tea drinkin' southern gal who loves to cook, bake, crochet, and read. Check out my blog for posts about parenting, faith, books, crafts, planning, baking, cooking, and life in general.

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Just a quick update to let you know I have been asked to contribute articles about scrapbooking on the blog "The Lady at Home."
I'm so very excited to be joining the Lady and sharing my love of scrapbooking with her readers. I will be posting a weekly column (tentatively to be posted on Sundays, I think) so check her website for my articles as well as all kinds of other great things – articles about homeschooling, recipes, etc.

Portugese Sweet Bread

 

I made some bread this weekend.  I found a recipe for Portugese Sweet Bread. It sounded too good to resist.  

I had planned to show you pictures of it after it came out of the bread machine.

There was one small problem.

My family gobbled it up. (the nerve!)

Before photos could be taken.  (next time I will take the pictures first)

But, if you like making bread at home, I would highly suggest you give this recipe a try. It rivals some of the “high end” breads at the grocery store in flavor and texture.  And the best part is, you know exactly what is in it. No chemicals, no artificial flavors or preservatives.  My kids NEVER eat my homemade bread.  They devoured this one and told everyone we saw today how good “mommy’s bread” was.

So, take it from my kids. It’s worth trying out.

Recipe can be found on AllRecipes.com


simply amazing

I was at my mom’s house a few weeks ago… it is very humid there (they live near the coast) and so all sorts of things grow in places you would never imagine.

One morning, I went outside to swing with my little girl.  She said she couldn’t sit on the swing because there were “prickly things” on her swing and she was afraid they would poke her if she sat down.

As I bent down to look at the “prickly things,” this is what I saw:

Picture 013

How cool is that?

Perfectly formed teeny, tiny mushrooms, growing on the seat of the swing.  And in a perfect spiral!simply amazing

Something so small that most of us would never have noticed.

Something so mundane that could be easily overlooked.

And yet…

A thing of beauty.

There is no reason (that I know of) for the mushrooms to grow in a perfect spiral.  They had such teeny little stems – they were smaller than a straight pin.  And the tops were perfect little cups turned upside down, balancing on the fragile stems.

How awesome.

Glorious beauty on a swing after the rain.

God’s wonder there for us to see… if only we look.

simply amazing

I was at my mom's house a few weeks ago… it is very humid there (they live near the coast) and so all sorts of things grow in places you would never imagine.
One morning, I went outside to swing with my little girl.  She said she couldn't sit on the swing because there were "prickly things" on her swing and she was afraid they would poke her if she sat down.
As I bent down to look at the "prickly things," this is what I saw:
Picture 013
How cool is that?
Perfectly formed teeny, tiny mushrooms, growing on the seat of the swing.  And in a perfect spiral!simply amazing
Something so small that most of us would never have noticed.
Something so mundane that could be easily overlooked.
And yet…
A thing of beauty.
There is no reason (that I know of) for the mushrooms to grow in a perfect spiral.  They had such teeny little stems – they were smaller than a straight pin.  And the tops were perfect little cups turned upside down, balancing on the fragile stems.
How awesome.
Glorious beauty on a swing after the rain.
God's wonder there for us to see… if only we look.

More of Me: The Abridged Version

Ok, so I found some time yesterday to do a little journaling in my Me: The Abridged Version book.  I also realized while I was working that I wanted more vibrant pages for the album.  The color scheme I had chosen was a little muted.  So, I’m amping things up a bit now.

Here’s a sample of a page I’ve completed.

MeTAV-1

I’m still considering removing the craft paper background and just doing it on white.  But I’m not sure yet.  (do you have an opinion?)

MeTAV-3

I’m finding this is actually pretty fun.  It’s an interesting change to write about myself – my thoughts, stories, etc. – as opposed to writing about my kids.  Being the centerpiece of the story instead of the background character who is chronicling the kids’ stories.  You should try it.

And, it’s interesting to me that my girls are very interested in reading the pages as I finish. And they want to know about me!  How cool is that?  As moms I think we get lost sometimes in just being “mom” and forget to be ourselves.  This project is reminding me of the need to focus on me some – focus on my story – and focus on things that make me happy. (like scrapbooking!)

MeTAV-2

I challenge you – do a page about yourself.  Pick a topic – list your five favorite movies or books, tell a story from your childhood, whatever gets your creative juices flowing.  And, remember, the picture is optional. It’s the story that counts.

More of Me: The Abridged Version

Ok, so I found some time yesterday to do a little journaling in my Me: The Abridged Version book.  I also realized while I was working that I wanted more vibrant pages for the album.  The color scheme I had chosen was a little muted.  So, I'm amping things up a bit now.
Here's a sample of a page I've completed.

MeTAV-1

I'm still considering removing the craft paper background and just doing it on white.  But I'm not sure yet.  (do you have an opinion?)

MeTAV-3

I'm finding this is actually pretty fun.  It's an interesting change to write about myself – my thoughts, stories, etc. – as opposed to writing about my kids.  Being the centerpiece of the story instead of the background character who is chronicling the kids' stories.  You should try it.

And, it's interesting to me that my girls are very interested in reading the pages as I finish. And they want to know about me!  How cool is that?  As moms I think we get lost sometimes in just being "mom" and forget to be ourselves.  This project is reminding me of the need to focus on me some – focus on my story – and focus on things that make me happy. (like scrapbooking!)

MeTAV-2

I challenge you – do a page about yourself.  Pick a topic – list your five favorite movies or books, tell a story from your childhood, whatever gets your creative juices flowing.  And, remember, the picture is optional. It's the story that counts.

365 Days of Pictures

In the spring, I started a project I had been contemplating for several months.  “Project 365” is designed to help you capture the everyday moments in your life. Not just the big events and holidays that we usually scrapbook, but the everday minutiae that makes your life YOUR LIFE.  I think it is a really cool idea.  I often think back on my childhood and wonder “Did I do that?” when I’m watching my kids play.  How cool it would be to look back at a snapshot of my life at age 7, for example, and see what I was doing then – and even share that with my kids!

The only reason it took me 3 months to get off my duff and do the project was the thought of remembering to take a picture a day (of what, I thought?) and then actually scrapbooking all those pictures.  I finally bit the bullet in March and started snapping away.  However, I quickly realized that doing this the “traditional” scrapbooking way was going to drive me to drink.  Too much repetition and too much cutting (the template I was using was quite complicated).

So, I decided to make this a digital project.  Sooo much easier. I created the template and now I’m catching up on my album.  It’s so much easier. Just drag & drop the pictures into the placeholders and focus on the journaling and decorative aspects of the page. I’ve decided to keep the pages pretty simple. I want people to focus on the pictures and the stories, not the fancy do-dads.  Here’s a sample:

365-1

Here’s one with a little more decoration:

365-2

I’m chugging along, and actually enjoying the project, now that I am doing it digitally. I’m less overwhelmed by the thought of cutting all those little squares of paper and photos and focusing more on what pictures I want to take to capture the story of a particular day.

And, you don’t have to stick to the layout. For example, the week of Easter, I decided to focus on two things: decorating eggs and Easter morning. So, rather than having a photo for each day of the week, I just concentrated my photos on those two things to represent that week.  Here’s how it turned out:

365-3

It also gave me a chance to easily handle portrait-style pictures without a lot of cropping:365-4

Think you want to give it a try? Here’s the template (In StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 format) for you to try it out. You will notice I created it in a StoryBook (rather than page print) file.  That way, I can see the two pages side by side (I love that feature) for lining things up and gaining symmetry.  I can always print individual pages if I choose (and I will) to drop into my existing 12×12 album.

Have fun!

365 Days of Pictures

In the spring, I started a project I had been contemplating for several months. 

"Project 365" is designed to help you capture the everyday moments in your life. Not just the big events and holidays that we usually scrapbook, but the everday minutiae that makes your life YOUR LIFE.  I think it is a really cool idea. 

I often think back on my childhood and wonder "Did I do that?" when I'm watching my kids play.  How cool it would be to look back at a snapshot of my life at age 7, for example, and see what I was doing then – and even share that with my kids!

The only reason it took me 3 months to get off my duff and do the project was the thought of remembering to take a picture a day (of what, I thought?) and then actually scrapbooking all those pictures. 

I finally bit the bullet in March and started snapping away.  However, I quickly realized that doing this the "traditional" scrapbooking way was going to drive me to drink.  Too much repetition and too much cutting (the template I was using was quite complicated).

So, I decided to make this a digital project.  Sooo much easier. I created the template and now I'm catching up on my album.  It's so much easier. Just drag & drop the pictures into the placeholders and focus on the journaling and decorative aspects of the page. I've decided to keep the pages pretty simple. I want people to focus on the pictures and the stories, not the fancy do-dads. 

Here's a sample:
 365-1

Here's one with a little more decoration:

365-2

I'm chugging along, and actually enjoying the project, now that I am doing it digitally. I'm less overwhelmed by the thought of cutting all those little squares of paper and photos and focusing more on what pictures I want to take to capture the story of a particular day.
And, you don't have to stick to the layout.

For example, the week of Easter, I decided to focus on two things: decorating eggs and Easter morning. So, rather than having a photo for each day of the week, I just concentrated my photos on those two things to represent that week. 

Here's how it turned out:
365-3

It also gave me a chance to easily handle portrait-style pictures without a lot of cropping:
365-4

Think you want to give it a try? Here's the template (In StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 format) for you to try it out. You will notice I created it in a StoryBook (rather than page print) file.  That way, I can see the two pages side by side (I love that feature) for lining things up and gaining symmetry.  I can always print individual pages if I choose (and I will) to drop into my existing 12×12 album.

Have fun!