Tips from my Garden and Thai Coconut Soup.

I have been wanting a garden since I don't know how long and with our backyard renovation I thought I would finally have it  and was promised the side garden out of view for it. But my DH - and rightly so- thought the air conditioning unit and the pool equipment and the water heater needed to go back there too out of sight- so my long beautiful garden became a 4x 12 feet, but hey it's still 48 sq feet I did not have before!  I planted heirloom and sun gold and sweet 100 tomatoes, zucchini, an eggplant and serrano chili peper, basil , carrots and we've been getting out a bounty.  With all the compost I used the tomatoes got over 8 feet tall.  Now the season is almost over and I get to have the last of my harvest for one of my favorite comfort food- Thai Coconut Soup. 

The recipe comes from Sunset magazine and it was a revised version for the American cooks but the flavors are spot on and easy peasy one pot recipe.

Thai Coconut soup.     serves 4.     Takes about 10 minutes to make.

1 can coconut milk (14 oz)
1 can low sodium chicken broth
6 quarter size ginger pieces
1 stalk lemon grass cut into 1" pieces
1 tablespoon each of fish sauce and lime juice (more or less)
1 teaspoon each sugar and Thai chili paste (more or less- depending on your hotness factor)

then add mushroom- any or all kinds, veggies- eggplant, zucchini works well, the original recipe calls for chicken but I like mussels (you can find cleaned and flash frozen  ones ins Asian markets) or shrimp too. Bring it all together and simmer until veggies are tender

I've added potatoes if you like that, noodle and even poured the soup over rice and let it soak like porridge.  You can garnish with basil and cilantro if you like.

I put lot of different veggies and it is delicious.  If you like Thai flavors and want an easy soup to make the ingredients are not too difficult to find.  In California we can find all of these things in a regular grocery store so we are very blessed.

I bought Lemon grass at the  grocery store- it always comes in a bundle with 4-5 and I only needed one- so I got ones that had a little more root stock (if possible) and stuck it in a pot of dirt earlier this year and watered it regularly with fertilizer and now I have multiple baby stalks that are coming out on the side and I just cut one at the base when I need it.







I also bought Thai basil when it was just a little starter pot from Home Depot and now I have a big plant that I clip when I need a little of that too.  I just planted a ginger root and hope to have a ginger plant next year some time!

I keep cans of coconut milk and chicken broth on hand and freeze ginger roots after peeling and cutting into coin size pieces wrapped in plastic a few pieces at a time and put them in freezer bags so ready to use any time.

Enjoy!

Lily of the Valley Sympathy Cards

One of my partner's daughter passed away - she was about my age and it really impacted him.  I cannot imagine what it must be like to lose a child.  I wanted to make a card for him and his daughter's family so this is what I made.

The sentiment is from Brighter Tomorrow (Stampin' Up retired) and from PTI. The Lily of the Valley die is from Memorybox and the curlycue on the ends are from Cuttlebug.

Base card is Blackberry bliss with a layer of Pear

 Pizazz.  The whisper white layer was embossed with the tulip embossing folder for the tall card on the top and bottom.  The sentiment was stamped with Blackberry bliss.  The stems and leaves were diecut using Pear Pizazz cardstock.  The Twinkle bell flowers were diecut from whisper white and I used the dauber to add a touch of Pear pizazz around the edges.

On the long card  I added a knot of whisper white 5/8" organza ribbon to the base to anchor the flower.

This is a detail of the flowers on the long version of the card. 
I hope they find it comforting.

Watercolor Winter Simply Created Card Kit Challenge: Hi Girlfriend

I signed up for a class for a simply created card kit at convention and OMG- the cards were SOOO GORGEOUS!  The pictures in the holiday catalog do not do justice!  While we were in the class we were given a challenge to use items from the Watercolor Winter set available August 28th (available in the new Holiday catalog- makes 20 most gorgeous cards with envelopes with lots of pretty things left over including all the letters for other language sentiments).   I used the left over letters popped out or silhouettes of the letter to make the "girlfriend".   Easy peasy and I still have TONS of stuff left over and so many ideas for all the supplies - can't wait to show you all the wonderful swaps and great ideas I got from convention and all the goodies. I heart Stampin' Up!
Lynda

Pictogram Punches Hello

 This is one of the project that we made at my stamping party this month that will also be one of my swaps for my group at Convention.
Basecard is Pool Party embossed with polka dots.  I took another piece of Pool Party CS  2 inches tall and stamped it with  Hardwood b ackground stamp using Soft Sky Ink.  I took a half sheet of the doily and folded it over at the top over the 2 inch piece. I then took a piece of whisper white CS stamped with the vase in Old Olive  and the Hello from Celebrate Baby set and stamped it using Strawberry Slush.  Layer that over Island Indigo and tuck that piece just under

 the piece with the doily on top.
Get a scrap piece of Whisper White and stamp the vase again in Island Indigo and cut it out- it's all straight sides so reasonably easy to cut- and mount it using dimensionals over the Old Olive vase to match so it looks like the vase is sitting on the table with the doily.  Then stamp a bunch of the flower from Pictogram Punches with Strawberry slush and punch it out.  I labeled the bottom of the stamp to match the bottom of the punch using a dot on the stamp with a permanent parker so I would always be oriented to punch it out and it makes it so much easier than trying to

figure it out after stamping it randomly.Mount some straight on, and mount other with little pieces of dimensionals and a sweet little card.
Enjoy!

Lynda

Pop Up Flower card

I made this card for a Paper Pumpkin contest using a stamp set from a prior kit.  This was a April 2014 kit. I used the Pool Party base card with Mossy Meadow cardstock cut with fringe scissors to create a "grass".

Flower from Itty Bitty Accents punch using Hello Honey cardstock and the leaves using the Bird Builder.

The sentiments are stamped with Blackberry Bliss, the butterfly with the Tangelo twist.

I love how it pops up and sits high.  I thought I may add a picture of my kids and embellish it for a card that would be on the desk for my husband.

Details of the pop up.
enjoy!  Lynda

Sea Street Sea-riously Paper Pumpkin Challenge

A quick little card I made using the sentiment from a past Paper Pumpkin kit.  I wanted it to say Sea-riously you kick booty and have a little booty of treasure box but this was more straight forward.  Card base is using the striped card from the kit that had a sea color quality to it. I stamped the octopus on the card itself but it was not opaque enough with the stripes so I re- stamped it on the whisper white CS using the Midnight Muse and  diecut with banner framelits and mounted with dimensionals.   Used Tangerine twist pad for the fishes.  The rope and the starfish was stamped with Crumbcake and added the sequins like air bubbles.

Happy Fourth!

I  used the  Paper Pumpkin set from Winter 2013 with the stars sewn together  for Christmas Noel card kit and the red striped paper used from the same set.   I seemed so patriotic!  I Stamped Wahoo using versamark then embossed with the silver EP.  Cut a piece of red stripe from the same set and real red (stamped with Happy 4th from Memorable Moments set) embossed with silver EP.  Used the Star punch from Itty Bitty Accents in the corner and added a piece of Rhinestone basic jewel in the center.  Attach a small strip of the sewn stars using dimensionals- and Voila!  a Christmas card supplies disguised as the Fourth of July card! Who would have thunk it? ( as my son would say)

A Egg-stra special thanks

 I have a girlfriend who has a little farm and gives me organic eggs from her chickens time to time.  I have been looking for a way to thank her but could not find the right stamp to do so.  Well, I found the stamp (not SU)  and I thought it was perfect.  I think it was meant for Easter but I love that it was a dozen eggs the way she gives them to me.  The base card was whisper white with a layer of Coastal Cabana embossed with the stitch folder(retired SU) .  Added some banner DSP. Stamped the image with Memento black and colored it in and used the sentiment fromn Banner Banter (love the clean tiny sayings!) mounted the image and that was all there was. Easy peasy.   I made a set of cards for her using some DSP and matching Morning Marigold cardstock (also retired SU)  as shown.  The image was corner rounded with the project life corner punch.

This is a closer up of the cards. I thought she could use it  when she gives eggs to her friends as a thank you of just because.  I hope she likes them.  I am packaging them in the Stampin' Up clamshell containers that our old stamps used to come in.  I have a whole stack of them and they are just perfect for card gift giving.....

Sea Street Hello

   Love this little Octopus.  The base card is crumbcake with a layer of whisper white stamped with images in  Hello Honey and Lost Lagoon.  The sentiment is from Just Sayin' - I cut out the inside word to use separately from the word bubble.  After you stamp all the images then run it through the Decorative Dots EF to add eht bubble like texture. 

I then punched a piece of whisper white and stamped the Octopus with Lost Laggon and sponged the edges to make it pop a bit.  Layered Soft Sky diecut with a  circle framelit to accent and mounted with dimensionals.

Added a strip of DSP from Moonlight paperpak  that looked most appropriate (you can get 6 pieces from one sheet if you cut it where the color changes.)

 I stamped the flags and used the stay put ribbon technique to tied the baker's twine in place, then threaded it through the stamped and punched scallop circle piece pierced with the paper piercer (threaded the baker's twine using a floss threader- it's tight but I like how it looks.)

Envelope punch board box CASE

 Is this not the cutest thing ever?
This was a case of a box I got from my upline Tami.   We made this at my Stampin' Party this month.  We used 2013-2015 In color DSP cut into quarters to 6x6 pieces of squares.

We used the Envelope punch board punched and scored at 2" and 4" on all 4 sides as shown and then use the scoring tool to score the flaps at 3" down to the base of the cards then fold up the sides to make the box as shown below.

 Tape or glue down the flaps if you wish.  This is what it looks like on the inside.

 The top is made using the Starburst framelit using the Silver Foil sheets and the circle i using the Strawberry Slush CS with 1 3/4 inch circle punch.  The sentiment from Num-Num stampset is inked with the Basic Gray inkpad and diecut with the Word Bubbles Framelit.  It fit perfectly!

 Added a little color with Strawberry Slush marker and a rhinestone jewel over the i and mounted with dimensionals for a sweet little treat.







This is the original box I cased for one of my projects this month- super cute!