Follower Love

This Follower Love feature that I've been doing has been so enjoyable! I've been able to discover more about the bloggers who follow my blog! And along the way found a bunch new blogs to follow! Click on their names to check out their blogs!



Sarah @sassying it up: Mmmm! Your posts about delicious food makes my mouth water and gives me some ideas!



Kady: I always appreciate a blogger who writes honestly it really helps us readers feel like we get to know you!



Hannah: I've been enjoying the recommendations, reviews, and tutorials! I like getting new ideas!




Krystal: From reading your blog I can tell you love life, your husband, and doing/seeing things together! Your life looks like it's a lot of fun!



Janet: I love all the recipes you post about! I'm definitely going to have to try making Zucchini Enchiladas yum!


Lana: Another blog with delicious recipes! I'm going to keep this one for Yummy Pumpkin Bread in mind this fall! I also really like your "10 Free Things" that you do for different states! Something to keep in mind for the next time I'm in the US.


Shirley: A fellow shop owner like me! Your journals and cards are lovely! I'm always have a soft spot for stationary type things!


Kimberly @lushdeez: The recipes you share look delicious! And the Project 365 posts are a neat way to glimpse into your life and get to know you a bit better!


ScreamingNSpace: You write your blog very honestly and like a novel about the journey of your life. People have to keep reading to find out what happens next!


Courtney @mybrowneyedgurl: I like the way you write! It's very entertaining. Whether you're talking about mean mommies, razors, or a parenting OMGWTF moment!

Northern Lights

A few nights ago I was on twitter and one of the trending topics was #northernlights I clicked on it because I love seeing them and wanted to know where they were visible. They were visible in my area so I headed outside with my camera, two tv series box sets, my phone, a flashlight, and the dogs. I don't have a tripod so I made my own with the dvds and phone! It worked pretty good. But I'll have to get one sometime.

That's the cropped version. We have a greenhouse in the yard that has christmas lights that turn on at night. I would have gone out to turn them off-- but well, I'm scared of the dark. And bears. So I left them on. Just pretend they're not in the pictures!

 

All in all a good night! I love watching them dance and flicker across the sky! One day I'd love to go waaayyyyy up north and see them there. I hear they're incredible!
sss

Small Snapshots: Fall

Fall is officially here and you can certainly feel it in the air! Today was really sunny out which for some reason makes the dogs really hyper. I took them out this afternoon and while they chased each other and did laps under and around the deck I took my camera out and went looking for good fall pictures. I wasn't really snapping anything I was happy with so I started thinking about what makes me think of fall. I've been gathering things for the Fall Package Swap so I had a few ideas in mind.

Here's a few shots I came up with for this week's prompt:

My boots among leaves! They're a little scuffed and have seen better days but they're nice and broke in! These babies have seen many autumn seasons. I brought them out last week-end. I love flip flop season and am sad to see it go but boot season helps makes it better!

What makes you think of fall? Take a picture and link up! Or perhaps you're experiencing spring! That works too!

Next Week's Prompt: Bug's View. Interpret that how you wish!

What the Hell Wednesday: Facebook

Today I thought I'd link up with Christianna for What The Hell Wednesday

I'm an avid facebook user. I opened my account in 2007 and since then have spent many an hour on there. I've "friend"ed people, did some poking, harvested crops, and "like"ed things. The last few months I've been doing a lot of thinking about social media and how it's influenced and changed our lives, mainly relationships. I'm not always the best communicator. I write emails/messages in my head and forget to actually write and send them. I usually decide one day to respond to everything and spend a few hours answering comments, messages, emails, etc.

I came to the conclusion last week-end that facebook and other like minded social media has made me or allowed me to become a lazy communicator. (I don't lump twitter into this because I think often it encourages interaction and communication.) Instead of message/email a friend to find out how they're doing, I check their page and see what they've been up to. Why call to chat when I can read their messages between their friends. I want to make more of a conscious effort to think about a friend then send them an email, text, phone call.

If you follow me on twitter you might recall last week we had my in-laws mad about some photos we had put on facebook 5 years ago and forgot about. Also a couple of my "friends" on facebook were having angry rants about how nobody messages them on there anymore. I just got tired of the drama of it. If you really care, give someone a call, not write a status about how they won't message you. Then I got to thinking perhaps I should clean my list a bit, get rid of the people who cause the most drama and drive me nuts with their statuses. I got to looking and a bunch of people I either don't know, don't know well, or haven't talked to in 9 years. I don't invite them into my home while I'm away to look through my photo albums, read conversations between friends, or see my favorite movie collection. Why do I allow them that on facebook?

So Jon and I decided to delete our accounts. Well he did his already. But I'm still in the process. I deleted all the people I never talk to who added me just to snoop my life. And come on -- I snoop theirs. I deleted all my photos. And one day soon I'll delete everything else. I didn't want to delete everything in case I changed my mind. But I still feel the same about it. I'll keep an account so I can keep my shop facebook page for now. And who knows maybe I'll be back to having a personal page some day. But for now I need off it. I'm not knocking or judging if you "like" facebook. But this is just my thought process right now for my life.

So What the Hell Facebook? Thanks for making it too convenient to keep up with friends' lives that I've become a lazy communicator.

p.s. I keep writing "What The Hello Wednesday"! Kinda ironic.

It's The Little Quirks

I'm not always the easiest person to live with. I'll be the first to acknowledge that. I have very particular rules or methods of how things should go. I think it's part of the perfectionist/borderline germ-aphobe in me. I say borderline because I'm not paranoid and obsessed about germs I just have certain rules about certain opportunities to come in contact with germs.

For example, when I used to live in a city and took the bus all the time. I had certain pants designated for sitting on the bus... bus pants I called them. (yes, me and sheldon cooper have that in common but that's where the similarities stop). The first time I ever went "Gasp! BUS PANTS!!" when Jon sat on the bed,  I think he just about had a heart attack. Compared to me he's pretty laid back about things. He doesn't mind the 5 second rule, scrubbing the toilet, or taking out the trash. Thank goodness! I certainly love him for that!



When we first started dating there was quite a difference between how we both did every day tasks. He didn't quite get why I changed and washed my clothes after taking the trash out. Or why instead of wash them, I throw containers, food and all, away after 3 days. But I didn't understand why he did some things too. Like one day in our first year of marriage, he was at work and I went to the fridge to make myself a snack. I think it was probably nachos or something because I grabbed the cheese. I unwrapped it and there in the block was a huge chunk missing. If I was a dentist I would have been quite impressed by the massive teeth mark impressions left in the cheese. I asked him later why there was a bite mark in the cheese and he said he wanted a bite of cheese and didn't think to cut a slice. Why dirty a knife?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Quite the contrary! I love that we're different and it adds some humor to the day. I think it's probably one of my favorite things about marriage; the little quirks that make us different.

 

Follower Love

One of my favorite features to do on here is Follower Love. It's where I go through my follower list and write what I like about their blogs. I've really been enjoying getting to know the people who read my blog! It's such a great way to discover new blogs! Click on their names to head to their sites!

Kelly @loveartchild: I love your blog! You're so creative! I find it inspiring and it makes me want to create things!

Nina: I'm always so excited when I discover a blogger who enjoys photography as much as I do! I enjoy seeing the photos you take with the before and after pictures.

Lisa Jennea: Your posts often make me think even if the situation doesn't apply to me in the same way as you wrote it. I like that in blog posts!

Kaisha: I love how you use lists in your posts! I love lists! I never know what to expect to find when I read your blog. And I enjoy every post!

Ashley @loveley rambles: Your posts often entertain me. From the colored on $5 bill to the fact that you tried Sweatin to the oldies so great!

AC Quigley: I enjoy reading about and seeing the photos about your travels and adventures. I'd love to live a nomadic life!

Adriana Iris: Your photographs are amazing. I like how we can tell from them your take on life and how you live to enjoy it with the ones you love.

Kathy: I appreciate the honesty and genuine way you write. It's very refreshing to read.

Mel: I love the way you write! When you tell stories it makes you feel like you're there and cringing right along side. Like the <a href="surprise you never really appreciate

Natalia: My youngest follower! It's been great watching you grow with your photography!

Teddy Bear Picnic

If you go out in the woods (or our garden) today

You're sure of a BIG surprise



If you go out in the woods today

You better go in disguise



For every bear that ever there was

Will gather there for certain, because

Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic



And this guy's bringing the apples!

Searching My Name

Hi, my name is Carissa and I am narcissistic  like to search my own name. Come on admit it! You've done it too! I've been noticing in my etsy shop stats that weekly I get hits from people searching "carissa". I make personalized necklaces and one picture I have is of my name. So that's the result they would be finding. It got me thinking though.... what other things are labelled "carissa" on etsy? So I did a search! Here are a few of my favorite things that came up! (click on the picture to head to the shop!)

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="570" caption="via littlestboutique"][/caption]

I've really been into this color blue lately!

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="342" caption="via Carolina Samara"][/caption]

I LOVE this! Can I please have it! And somewhere to wear it to!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="570" caption="via Kathryns Custom Jewels"][/caption]

The Carissa Motion it's called. I like the sound of that!

 

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="570" caption="via Two Be Wed Jewelry"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="570" caption="via Blonde Chick"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="570" caption="via Leslies Baubles"][/caption]

Me and these earrings are destined. A couple of the stones are topaz. Which just so happens to be my birthstone!

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="342" caption="via fully hooked"][/caption]

 

So what have we learned? Carissas inspire beautiful things!?!? Or that we're easily distracted by pretty and shiny things! Ok, your turn! Go search your name! What comes up??

Butch Loves Balloons

When Butch was just a little puppy we had family over for thanksgiving. We played a game that used balloons and afterward had balloons all over the floor. He started to play with them and so began his love of balloons. He gets SO excited when he sees them! He's pretty careful with them and hardly ever pops them. When we got Kudjo aka the dog that's terrified of EVERYTHING we had to stop blowing up balloons for Butch. Kudjo would freak.out. and Butch didn't help matters either. He would chase Kudjo around the house and corner him in rooms shaking the balloon back and forth. Funny--- yet poor Kudjo.

The past couple week-ends we've had a mission to go through a few boxes that are in storage and purge what we no longer need. We came across a bag of balloons. Jon took Kudjo outside so I could play with Butch and his beloved toys. Here's a short video clip I recorded. Sorry it's not the best quality!

p.s. I know it's not safe to have him play with balloons. He is always supervised with them and we clean up the pieces as soon as they pop. So please no mean comments.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqdSjRZFigM&edit=ev&feature=uenh

Small Snapshots: Beverages

So after a brief unintentional hiatus Small Snapshots is back! I decided to nix the last photo prompt because I was super stuck and it was hard. So let's skip it for now! Last weekend I was trying to think of an idea for a prompt and I thought it should be something around the house, something common. Then I participated in the Twitter Tea Party and I thought something simple like Beverages would be fun to play around with.  So link-up if you decide to participate! I'd love to see what you come up with!

Next week's prompt is: fall/spring 
It's starting to look and feel like fall out there! What better time for a fall inspired photo theme! And for my friends who are getting into their spring season... a little spring inspired photo theme!

 

Guys Are So Hard To Buy For

It's Jon's birthday in less than a month. It also happens to be the same time as Thanksgiving week-end here in Canada. Needless to say this is his FAVORITE holiday! He usually starts talking about this magical week-end in July. It's the equivalent of Christmas for him. He plans the food, the dessert, the food, the turkey, the food, oh and the gifts he wants to buy me. I've argued with him over and over about how gifts for me on his birthday is a little ridiculous. I mean it's HIS day and mine is only a month after that. His way of thinking is it's practically a Christmas holiday and it's his special day. He should be able to do whatever he wants on it. But I digress.

Because I want his "birththanksing?" "thanksbirthing?" "birthgiveday?"  birthday-thanksgiving to be fantabulous I search every year for the perfect gift. With the creation of etsy and pinterest looking for gifts has become a lot easier. Selecting the perfect gift, however, is still a challenge. He recently started a pinterest account so I thought today I'd post about a few options I could get him from what he's mentioned he likes on etsy and pinterest. I'm not going to necessarily get him anything from this list though! **Click on the picture to go to the website it's from**

 








So those are a few things he's mentioned he likes. Put nothing is really jumping out at me as the perfect gift! They all seem a little.... weird? Any suggestions?

A Quiet Weekend At Home

Usually we spend week-ends catching up on things we need to do around the house like yard work or laundry. Or we head out somewhere like the city or geocaching. But every now and then it's nice to have a quiet week-end at home. I can't say we did anything all that exciting and spectacular but that's ok too!

 Saturday, Jon made some pies using some of the many pounds of apples we acquired. He made it look neat with a lattice top. He was pretty proud of his work.

 

 

 While he was doing all that I was working on a project of my own. I've noticed some pins on pinterest for t-shirt rugs. I couldn't get the one site to open so I looked at the picture and guessed how it was done. A lot of Big Bang Theory was watched! I spent 4 hours cutting old t-shirts, rolling it into t-shirt yarn, and braiding them into one continuous rope. Any guesses how long it turned out to be? We measured! It's exactly 44 feet!! My next step is to hand stitch it together into a round rug but somehow I have lost all my needles! How did that happen?! So I'll have to wait to finish it.

 

On Sunday I participated in a twitter tea party! It was really fun chatting with other bloggers as we sipped on our tea of choice. A bunch of these lovely ladies had some delicious things they were snacking on and were all dressed fancy like. Me... I didn't quite plan that far ahead. Plus I had just rolled out of bed, showered, and was eating breakfast!

The etsy shop was pretty busy this week-end!! Yay!! Ooo! I watched the pilot for that new show The New Girl. So great!! I can't wait to watch the rest of the season! I also read a whole book but I'll mention that in a book post perhaps?

How was your weekend? What did you do?

Fill in the Blank Friday

It's Friday!! Time for one of my favorite weekly blog memes!


Click on the button and head over to Lauren's blog and play along too!

1. You should always take time to appreciate the small things and stop and smell the roses. Sort of the same thing in some cases. 

2. The kindness of strangers  make(s) the world a happier place to be.

3. I can hardly wait for Jon's birthday in a few weeks. 

4. Saturday  is my favorite day of the week.

5. Something totally dumb and ridiculous that I love is youtubing hilarious song parody videos. Some of them are so bad they're funny! 

6. If I could, I would never live in one spot for very long and spend my life travelling around. 

7. I rather like eating cold cereal for most meals. breakfast. lunch, snack, dinner. Any time is good with me!

 

Have a great week-end everyone!!

Shop Update

It's been a little while since my last shop update so I thought it might be a good time for one. The last update I did was on some of the new photographs in the shop; today's update will feature some of the new jewelry in the past little bit. Click on the picture to head to the listing!

I posted this one yesterday but I'll show you again! It's one of my favorite new pieces.

There's a few more pieces on the shop but you'll have to head over and check them out! And in case you haven't noticed yet, I'll mention on the right hand side of this blog there is a widget for my shop that displays a few of the items in the shop. If you click on that it'll send you right there!

I have a bunch more items planned but I'm slowly adding them a few every week for the  next month or two. So make sure you check back!

p.s Want to be featured in my Shop Love feature? Send me an email!

10 Things That Make Me Happy

It's too easy some days to only focus on the negative things. So today I thought I'd write about 1o Things That Made Me Happy This Week

The generosity of Strangers: We received all these yellow apples from someone this week. They had WAY too many and didn't want them to go to waste. So we were able to go over and pick all these. I see a lot of pie and apple butter in our future!



Dinner with friends: an elderly couple that we are friends with invited us over for dinner the other night. It was delicious! It's always fun to get together with them. They might be in their 70's and 80's but they act a lot younger.

A good cup of coffee: mmmm need I say more?


New blog followers: Hi new followers!! It always makes me so happy when I see someone new on the GFC! I'll be checking out your blogs soon, if I haven't already!

Orders! Custom Orders!: The shop has been picking up the last couple weeks. I've been working on some new pieces, listing some new pieces, and I've had 3 custom orders! The below picture is one of them.

When the dogs head back to bed in the mornings: This makes me so happy when it happens! Our dogs are very strict with their self-enforced routine. They like early bedtimes and late sleep-ins. If you dare to make them get up before they're ready they'll mope around and ask to go back to bed. I love the mornings when it's all quiet in here and I go looking for them only to find them in their crates sleeping. I'm able to check my email and my shop in undisturbed peace and quiet!

Beautiful sunsets: 


Funny emails: from friends that say "Help! My facebook is set to Persian language!"

Shopping dates with the husband: a couple times a month we head to the nearby city and go shopping. Often we pick up supplies for making things to list in the shop. He's so funny in the bead stores. We have very different tastes of what would look good in jewelry. I have to admit though usually the pieces he makes sell really well.

Clean sheets still warm from the dryer

 

What kinds of things have been making you happy this week?

 

 

Fair Weather Blogging

I think I'm one of those fair weather bloggers. Ok maybe it's more like bad weather blogger. When the weather is not so nice out, I'm inspired by the rain and the wind. You'll buy that right? We had a crappy... a crappy summer. Our highest was 28 (or 82 F). Pathetic right. Well our summer is starting to get redeemed! The past 4 days have been gorgeous! The sun is so hot out! The garden is growing like crazy. And I've been gettin my tan on. Summer in September? I'll take it! So if you're finding things a bit quiet on here this week, that's why.

A giveaway started today for a necklace from my shop! Head over to MissRachelB to enter!

And if you're in a liking mood check out my shop's facebook page

A Productive Long-Weekend

I don't know about you but I had a very productive week-end. Ok, maybe it started Thursday. Jon and I spent our long weekend being productive. It makes me feel like we did a lot if I see it in list form so I'll try to remember everything:

-dug up 1/4 of the potatoes in the garden
-picked a bunch of peas, carrots, and rhubarb
-cut and freeze bags of strawberries and rhubarb
-made 4 batches of friendship bread. freeze 2 loafs worth
-made and freeze 4 lunch meals for Jon's work and 1 dinner worth of casserole
-made 8 small jars of strawberry rhubarb jam
-made strawberry rhubarb crumble
-made homemade buns
-made crab apple jelly
-cleaned the whole house top to bottom
-go through 11 boxes in storage and only keep 3.
-made a bunch of new jewelry for the shop. I might do a post about this later this week.
-exercised twice for an hour each time.
-went for a kayak
-did laundry
-oh and made some "subway art"

I feel tired just looking at all we crammed into 4-5 days.

I found a great tutorial on how to make your own subway art using picnik. So I decided to give it a try.

I like this saying so I made it to sit on our breakfast nook. My printer ink is almost gone so it didn't print out all that great. But it still adds some color to the room.

 

I saw the idea to this one on pinterest. After I printed it out I went back and made the line a little lower. But this way is still cute too. I like that we can use a dry erase marker on it and leave a surprise note for each other.

How was your long weekend? Did you get a lot done? Or enjoyed the last of summer?

p.s. Make sure you "like" my shop's facebook page! I'm going to be having a giveaway this week for friends who have liked it!

Cooking With Jon

Remember the time I interviewed Jon? Well, he had a great time and has been asking me since then if he can do more things on the blog. At first he mentioned doing another interview but I'm stumped for questions. So then he started coming up with his own topics that he could guest post about.

Some days I'd get a call from him at work "I think I'll guest post about {insert topic guys would find interesting/humorous and girls would find weird}"

"No."

Next day "How about---" "No."

The other day he mentioned he should do a post about one of his favorite recipes. I thought that was a pretty great idea. So enjoy!

p.s. today is the last day to sign up for the fall package swap! there's a great group of ladies already signed up! Click the button on the right hand side to find out more info!

****************************************************************************************** Hi Everybody! I have been hassling Carissa for quite some time now to let me do a post on her blog. Not just one where I'm being interviewed. I think Carissa was a little worried that I would ruin the rep of her blog with my manly charms. But that could never happen! This post I decided to make some delicious food. This is one of our favorite recipes to make. For some reason she likes it more when I make it but I think she makes it the best. It's called Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble aka melt in your mouth goodness. A couple years ago we got the recipe from smitten kitchen and we've tweaked it over time to this adaption.

I'll start with what you'll need for ingredients for the filling:

1 1/2 cups of rhubarb 3 cups strawberries
1/2 cup white sugar 1 tsp of vanilla
squeeze or two of lemon juice dash of cinnamon
3 tablespoons corn starch or 2 of flour

For the topping you will need:
1 1/3 cup flour 1 tsp baking powder
3 tablespoons white sugar 3 tablespoons brown sugar
squeeze or two of lemon juice 1/2 cup melted butter

 

Start by combining your strawberries and rhubarb. We had ours frozen in specific portions to make it easier for when we made this recipe. That's how much we like it. If you're using frozen fruit make sure you let it thaw before you start making.

Next add the 1/2 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla

squeeze or two of lemon juice

sprinkle of cinnamon

stir all that in

Now add your 3 tablespoons of corn starch. We ran out so I added 2 tablespoons of flour instead.

Stir that in really well till there's no clumps. It should look something like this.

Set the filling aside and start working on the topping. Put 1 1/3 cup flour in a bowl.

Look! It's magic baking powder.

Add 1 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons white sugar

3 tablespoons brown sugar

Add in a couple squeezes of lemon juice. Watch for seeds! I've learned from experience that people don't usually like having lemon seeds in their food. Or egg shells for that matter.

Now take your 1/2 cup butter and melt it down in the microwave.

pour that into your dry mixture

and give it a good stir until you end up with something that looks similar to crumbs.

take your filling and pour it into a baking dish.

top it off with your dry crumble mixture

spread it all out nice and even

this is a little trick Carissa and I learned, we like to add a little sprinkle of brown sugar on the top. It's also a good way to tell when it's done. When the brown sugar starts to turn darker.

It's time to put it in the oven at 375 degrees F  for 30-45 minutes. You'll know it's done when the fruit is bubbling up around the edges, the brown sugar turns a bit darker, and the rhubarb is soft when you poke it with a fork. Don't eat it when the rhubarb is hard, it doesn't quite taste the same that way.

This is the finished product. Well worth the wait and effort

This is the look it will bring to your face. Don't be alarmed. It's just that good.

Thanks for the time and I hope you all try it!