Making Music Together~

Another recent layout that I love! One of the things that I love the most are the photos by Wonkyeye Photography.

Check out more of Christine's work!

http://www.wonkyeye.ca

What is Geocaching?

I have had so many people ask about our new family hobby that we have fallen in love with called Geocaching. So I've decided to dedicate a blog post to it to try to inform more people about the outdoor fun loving hobby.

Here's the definition from the website:
Geocaching is a free real-world outdoor treasure hunt. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using a smartphone or GPS and then can share their experiences online.

Sean likes to describe it as using million dollar satellites to find dollar store trinkets in the woods.

What we ended up doing is going out with another couple, who were able to show us the ropes. There is an etiquette to geocaching. Stealth is often required to protect the caches from being damaged by non-geocachers or "muggles". If you take anything from a cache, you are to replace it with something of equal or more value. After our first evening of caching, we came home and explored the website. This is where we got a lot more information about the logistics of logging what you have found, and finding more caches to look for.

http://www.geocaching.com/

The basic membership is free. You do not have to put your personal information out there for everyone to see, as you or your family logs everything under your geocaching name. For example our family is McHawkeye4. When we find a cache, that is what we write in the log.

This is a layout I recently created of a photo taken of our family while geocaching.

"Hello my name is McHawkeye4"

Patterned paper by Simple Stories, Fabulous collection

The girls like to find the larger caches which hold "collectables", meaning trinkets. Everything from keychains, McDonalds toys, plastic jewelry etc. What Sean and I like to find are "trackables".  These too are small trinket looking things that have dog tags attached to them, or geocoins that have tracking codes on them. When you find one of these trackables, you enter the code on them on the website and you get the items history, where it's been and where it wants to go in the future. Then you place it in another cache in your travels, hoping to meet that specific trackable's goal.

This is a geocoin that we came across called "Liquid Titanic" in honour of the ships recent anniversary. The only goal this coin had was to stay near the water. We picked it up in PEI, prior to that it had been all over Europe, starting in Germany. We dropped it in a cache located right at Peggy's Cove.

Geocaching has already taken us so many cool places that we would have never seen otherwise, and we are loving the adventure!

So like I have said to friends who have asked me about geocaching; if you like the outdoors, if you are a little adventurous, if you don't mind getting sticks caught in your hair. This could be the hobby for you!

Summer Fresh~

Most of you know already that I am a big fan of most anything by Simple Stories. Great quality patterned paper, with bright and fun colours! Their matching page embellishments, mats and overlays let you add so much more to a layout.

So from one of their great summer lines Summer Fresh, here are a couple of layouts that I have created.

Summer Fresh by Simple Stories is available at The Cutting Garden

Seeing Doubles~

I will admit that I do more single page layout than I do doubles. However, this past weekend at the Gadget Girls Crop in Truro. I completed 2 double layouts and thought I would share them.

"Time With Rick Mercer" patterned papers by Bo Bunny

"Tuba Guy" patterned papers by Moxxie

In the Halloween Mood~

I've never been one to decorate much for Halloween. However this year I made a new wreath for the front door, instead of just having a fall wreath up for the whole season. Here is what I came up with.

Take a wreath form covered with lime green feather boas from the dollar store, then add some googly eyes and a big halloween glitter bow! That's it!

Thanksgiving Treat~

Well it's official, our family has a new favourite cookie! This could be a great addition to all the turkey and stuffing you will be indulging in this weekend.

Cranberry & White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies:

3 Cups Rolled Oats

1 1/2 Cups Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Cup Butter (softened)

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

1 Cup Cranberries/White Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350

Combine flour, oats, b. soda, b. powder, cinnamon and salt. Combine remaining ingredients except the cranberries and chocolate. Mix the 2 and add your cranberries and chocolate. Roll into balls and place on parchment paper.

Bake for up to 9minutes: Until just golden around the edges.

(I found that the first batch in the oven took 9 minutes, all batches after that took 8 or even 7 minutes)

Muffin Time~

I haven't added any of my favourite recipes for some time. So, inspired by something a friend said to me here is a recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins.

My friend Scott said that these were his hands down favourite muffins! So this blog post is in honour of him!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins:

1 3/4 Cups Flour

3/4 Cup Sugar

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Egg

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

1/2 Cup Plain/Vanilla Yogurt

1 tsp Vanilla

1 Cup Mashed Bananas (2)

3/4 Cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat Oven to 350

Combine the dry ingredients. Combine the remaining ingredients except the chocolate chips. Combine both mixtures and then add the chocolate chips.

Bake for 22-25 minutes. Should yield 20 muffins.