~Recipe Monday – Pumpkin Flax Quickbread

Instead of pumpkin pie why not change it up and make some pumpkin bread?  Why not try this healthy flax quickbread from Allrecipes?  I bet this not only tastes delicious but also smells wonderful while baking. 

Pumpkin Flax Quickbread

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 1 hr 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons flax seed meal
• 6 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease one 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. Whisk together flax seed meal and water. Mix in sugar, pumpkin and apple sauce.
3. In a large bowl, stir together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, nutmeg, and cloves. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture; stir until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 65 to 70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.

~Make Your Own Snowflake Holiday Gift Card Holder~

I came across this great project idea on Michael’s website.  These gift card holders are a perfect way to personalize your gift rather than put it in a store bought holder.  I’ve included directions below on how to make the Snowflake Gift Card Holder.   

Materials Used:

• Eazy Felt Stiffened Felt: Purple, Light Blue, White
• Holiday Trim It-Up Blue, Light Blue & White with Silver Edge Ribbon
• 'Tis The Season Silver Dot on White Grosgrain Ribbon
• Sparkling Glitter Glue, Lilac
• Scissors

• Ruler or Straight Edge
• Craft Knife or X-Act® Knife
• Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
• 1/8-inch Hole Punch

Cost of each project will vary depending on materials used.

Directions:

Cut two circles with a diameter of 4½-inches from the purple Eazy-Felt.

Use the hole punch to make holes in the purple felt circles about every ¼-inch around the entire circumference. Lay the second piece on top and punch through both pieces to ensure the holes line up. Cut a 25-inch piece of white narrow ribbon with silver edge. Lace this through the holes. Leave a 3-inch opening on one side of the circle, lacing only to one side and not through to the other circle. Do the same to the other side of the 3-inch opening. This will give the illusion that it is completely laced all the way around. Glue down each end inside the circle so it cannot be seen.

Use a snowflake template from the computer or freehand draw one onto paper. Use a copier or printer to reduce the size of the snowflake, just make sure the snowflake fits within the purple felt circles, including the lacing. Print three sizes in smaller succession. Place the largest snowflake over the light blue felt and cut out entire flake with the craft knife. Take the smallest snowflake template and only cut the center of the flake out of the light blue felt. Take the medium sized snowflake and cut the flake completely out of the white felt. Layer and glue the snowflakes together as shown.

Glue the light blue felt snowflake down in the center of the circle. Lay the white snowflake on top and glue down. Glue the light blue center of the snowflake down in the center of the white snowflake.

Cut a 6-inch piece of silver dots on white grosgrain ribbon. Fold in half, glue ends together. Glue the raw end to the inside of the tag but only the front or the gift card holder will get glued shut.

Use the glitter glue to accent the snowflake. Place glitter glue in center of snowflake over the blue felt and just at the tips of the other parts of the snowflake.

Tip:

Use photo as a guide and follow manufacturer’s instructions for all products used.

The felt and ribbon colors could easily be changed to suit any particular theme or color scheme. Please experiment within the idea.

If you are interested in seeing the project sheet on Michael’s website click HERE to be re-directed.  Happy Crafting!

~Recipe Monday – Oven Pot Roast~

With the fall season here and in full force I love roasting a  delicious cut of meat in the oven.  Nothing is better then smelling it roast in the oven.  It is such an easy dinner to prepare and allows me extra time to make greeting cards, gotta love that!  Recently I found this recipe on Allrecipes and am dying to try it out.  All I have to do is defrost my roast! 

Oven Pot Roast 

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours (depending on how big your roast is)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• ground black pepper to taste
• 3 1/2 pounds rump roast
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1/2 cup dry vermouth

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and black pepper to taste. Dredge the rump roast in the flour and cover evenly. Shake off excess.
3. In a large pot over medium/high heat, melt the butter and brown the roast on all sides. Place in a 4 quart casserole dish with lid.
4. In a small bowl, combine the soup mix, mushroom soup, and vermouth or white wine; pour over roast.
5. Cover and bake in preheated oven for 3 hours or until desired doneness.

Roast some potatoes and carrots in the oven and viola…You have a superb fall meal!  Happy Roasting!

~Autumn Cats on Artfire~

Since it is Autumn and my cats are my favorite animal I decided to search Artfire shops for handmade items that include autumn and cats. 

My first find is this Calico Cat Fairy Cats Fall Pumpkin Autumn Fantasy Art 8x10 Print from Carrie shop owner of TigerPixie.  I am so amazed by the items Carrie has in her shop!  Prices are great and shipping is very reasonable and the artwork is simply awesome!  Check out the rest of Carrie’s shop for other items and designs.

The next item that caught my eye while searching is this Fall Painted Ginger Pumpkin Jar Candle with Gingerbread from Painted Kreations shop.  This candle is perfect for your Autumn home decor and can easily be displayed until those Christmas decorations make their debut.  The best part about this candle is after the wax has been burned you have a great hand painted jar to use year after year.

Looking for a great decorative plate to hang on the wall or to display on your table?  Look no further, this Cute Scarecrow Handpainted Square Wood Plate from A Stroke of Jeanne-uis’s shop.  This plate is a unique and one of a kind decoration.  Buy for yourself, a friend, family member, or for the cat lover in your life.

With the fall weather, the wind, rain, and sometime even thunder and lightning  wouldn’t it be nice to snuggle up on the couch with a book, blanket, and a nice pillow?  Check out this adorable Primitive Pillows Black Cat and Pumpkin from Thunder Mountain’s shop.  What a great pillow to decorate and cozy up with.   

Happy Autumn Everyone!  Hope you have enjoyed looking at my Autumn Cat finds.  Remember, shop handmade for the holidays!

~Happy Anniversary Artfire, Celebrate With Free Shipping @ Cards By Jenna~

It’s official Artfire just reached their one year anniversary!  To celebrate read the message below that I received from Artfire.

Happy Anniversary ArtFire!

ArtFire officially turns one year old in November, and what a year it has been. We’ve seen amazing growth in traffic, page views, member sales, and products listed each month, ArtFire has become the second largest artisan marketplace on the internet. We are proud to report our expected one year member sales at $1.5 million dollars.  We saw a 30% increase in sales in October over September, along with 20million page views and almost 700,000 active products.

Part of ArtFire’s success has been our commitment to service and innovation.  In just 12 months we have developed industry leading selling tools such as a one button sale mode, the rapid cart remote checkout widget, the ArtFire Facebook Kiosk, coupon codes, the global product editor and more!  We are committed to providing you the best: the best service, the best platform, the best tools, and the best price. We also want to thank all of the amazing artisans in our community who have helped make ArtFire  into the venue it is today.

To celebrate our anniversary we’re happy to announce a 2010 pre-pay opportunity for our members with The ArtFire Pro 500.  In the past, many members have expressed interest in billing periods other than per month which our previous payment systems wouldn’t allow.  As we grow and upgrade our infrastructure we are happy to extend  a 2010 pre-pay offer to 500 of our artisans.  While this offer lasts, you can pay for a yearlong Pro(Verified) ArtFire.com membership for just 100$; that’s over 30% off the normal $12/mo rate.  If you’re a $7/mo charter artisan you have the option pre-pay for 2010 at your normal rate knowing that you already have the best deal we can offer.

We have more exciting features planned for year two.  You will see some of those in just the next few days.   While this first year has been many long hours and hard work for everyone here, it is all worth it to see those sales numbers and know that we are building such a strong and successful artisan community together.

Thank you for helping make the ArtFire community that it is today.

Sincerely,

 

My Artfire Anniversary is also coming up.  I opened my Cards By Jenna shop on Artfire exactly a year ago November 14, 2008.  I can’t believe it’s already been a year.  Not only that but I’ve only had 2 sales!  In order to celebrate both anniversary dates I will be offering free shipping on all orders to the USA and Canada.  Stock up on cards now before this free shipping offer is over.  Offer ends November 30th.  Thanks for stopping by!

~”Scent”sational Kanani~

For those of you that are already holiday shopping and have candle goodies on your list of things to purchase check out Kanani’s website:

http://www.partylite.biz/sites/scentsationalkanani

I have to admit that I am somewhat biased because Kanani is my friend however she is the only one I know who is a PartyLite Consultant! If you are interested in purchasing PartyLite products go to her website and click on “Shop” or click HERE to  be taken to the online catalogue.  Don’t have money to spend on candle goodies?  If you live in the Seattle and surrounding areas book a party through Kanani and Host a Show.  For more details visit the website.  In the meantime happy shopping!