Heartfeltgreetings

Monday, July 06, 2009

A Card and Some Cheesecake

Afternoon! Hope everyone had a great 4th of July holiday weekend. We sure did. We got to see a movie (Proposal--SOOOO funny), play bean bags and munch on grilled pizza with friends (hi Deb!), celebrate my husband's birthday (on the 4th) with special friends and family (and eat ribs, chicken and shrimp, yum), watch fireworks, and then spend all of Sunday recovering from the fun we had. Seriously, what wasn't to love about our weekend?

Many of you expressed an interest in the dessert I made for my hubby's birthday, Keylime Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce. So, today, I'm going to share the recipe with you! I'll put the recipe at the end of today's post, ok? Honestly, it's the best cheesecake ever. Especially for the summertime. If you make it, be sure and let me know how it turns out for you!

So, ya'all know I'm into quick and easy these days right. Forget the layers, forget the sewing (for the most part, although I love to sew on my cards and am trying to add it more again), forget about seeing anything over the top here like I used to do. Today's card is the epitomy of that. One little layer and that's it. But, for some reason, I love how it turned out! Maybe what I really love is the paper????? It's from Cosmo Cricket (Snorkle line). And I've had that little ladybug in my embellishment collection for a long time and thought I'd just throw it on the card too, just because. The sentiment and lady bug have no connection whatsoever, I just liked it and wanted to use it;0)!

Ok, so it's time for the recipe....here you go! Have a great day and we'll see you Saturday here for another round of Scrap Stash Saturday!

Key Lime Cheesecake w/Raspberry Sauce

For Crust:

1 cup cookie crumbs

(I used Nilla Wafers)

2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Combine cookie crumbs with butter and press into a 9" springform pan.

For Filling:

1 3/4 lb cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 limes to extract 1 tbsp zest and 1/4 cup juice

(I used a whole bag of key limes this time, which delivered exactly 1/4 juice--they don't come in a very big bag!!!)

10 oz. frozen raspberries, thawed

1 tbsp cornstarch

1/3 cup red raspberry or current jelly

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat cheese in a bowl until smooth. Beat in sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time until smooth. Add juice and zest from lime. Pour mixture into crust. Bake 55-65 minutes or until edges are somewhat firm and center jiggles slightly when pan is moved. Turn off oven and let cheesecake stand in oven for 30 minutes with door open. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes. Remove sides of pan and cool to room temp. on wire rack. Refrigerate overnight.

For Sauce:

Drain raspberries, reserving syrup. Add water to syrup to make 3/4 cup. Combine syrup mixture and cornstarch in saucepan and mix well. Add jelly and simmer over medium heat 4-5 minutes, stirring until thickened and clear. Stir in raspberries (I threw in some fresh raspberries too!).

Cut cheesecake into individual servings and top with raspberry sauce.

Enjoy!

Hugs,

Amy

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Scrap Stash Saturday Returns!

Happy 4th of July! God Bless the USA.....

Hope all of you stateside have a glorious day of celebration. It's two-fold for us; the birthday of our country and the birthday of my hubby! Unfortunately, the sun isn't shining today. Isn't it always supposed to shine on the 4th of July????!!!!! I am hoping that by this afternoon the cloud cover will have blown over.

Yesterday, we went out with our friends to see the movie Proposal. Have you seen it yet???? I thought it was hysterical....I love Sandra Bullock. And whoever her "guy" was, he was adorable too;0)! After the movie, we went over to Deb & Matt's for some delicious grilled pizzas and a few rousing games of bean bags!

Today, we are having our great friends over, Sue & Mike, as well as Doug's Dad. We always celebrate the 4th with them. This year the festivities are at our house. We're having ribs (hubby's favorite), shrimp, and some chicken for those who don't like ribs or shrimp. Some grilled potatoes, fruit salad will round out the menu. For dessert, I am making my famous Key Lime Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce. Mmm, mmmm, good. Throughout Doug's growing up years, his mom always made him Key Lime Pie for his "birthday cake". Unfortunately, more times than not, the hot, humid weather ruined the meringue on the pie (it would separate). To try to keep the tradition alive, I found this amazing recipe for Key Lime Cheesecake, and decided to make that instead. I got the cheesecake finished a few hours ago and it looks divine!

As promised, it's the re-birth of my Scrap Stash Saturday feature as well today, one which many of you pleaded that I start again. I thought it was a perfect way to get me back into stamping again, so here goes! With one caveat though....I only used three different papers. Using four sounded too overwhelming to me:)

.....so, here are the three papers I pulled out of my scrap drawer (remember, I close my eyes when I pull the papers out). I kid you not....I pulled a 4th of July paper out!!!! Ha! The stamping gods were looking out for me yesterday! Unfortunately, I also pulled out a Christmas paper (turnaround is fair play I guess), and a Basic Grey quilt type pattern. None of them are what you would consider "coordinating", are they?

Well, I knew that with the papers I pulled I needed to put together a 4th of July card for my hubby....and so here's what I came up with...what do you think? Since I haven't been able to make anything much of substance lately, I was pleased with how this turned out! I forgot how much fun this sort of challenge really is!

First off, I used the BG paper to mat the Christmas paper, and then I matted the 4th of July paper with some Riding Hood Red cardstock. The star is punched out of the BG paper, and I matted the star with the Christmas paper as well. The botton and thread gives the card a completed look.

Such fun to be back creating again. I owe it all to you guys!

Big hugs coming out to you. Have a wonderful 4th!

Hugs,
Amy

Friday, July 03, 2009

A Quick Recap of June!

Warning: LONG POST WITH TONS OF PICTURES!

Happy Friday! Happy 3rd of July!

First of all, a BIG HUMONGOUS hug to all of you for such sweet comments about my last post. Seriously, I was thrilled to see that you were all still hanging around even though my blog has been pretty quiet over the past months. You'll be happy to know that because of YOU GUYS, I've been inspired to start up again....with SCRAP STASH Saturdays! Many of you mentioned how that feature used to be one of your favorites here at Heartfelt Greetings, and I thought that it was a great way for me to get back into the swing of things making cards and blogging again! So, be sure and stop back again tomorrow for my first Scrap Stash Saturday card in a very, very long time! I actually got it made this morning, and it's a perfect one to kick off the July 4th celebrations tomorrow....

Until then, I thought you might like to see what I've spent my time doing the whole month of June, starting with our son's Graduation Open House, which was the very first weekend of June....

First of all, let me tell you that it turned out to be the stinkiest, coldest, ugliest weekend! Up until our party, it had been pretty nice....no rain, sun, warmth. But on Saturday of that weekend, it was rainy and freezing! It poured and poured and poured, and it was under 50 degrees! I felt terrible for all the open houses (not to mention weddings) that were scheduled for that day. We went to one open house that I literally froze my patootie off standing in the garage socializing!

The good news was, it didn't keep the people away, but it sure made for a miserable afternoon! Thank heavens our open house was the next day. And while it wasn't nice for our party, it wasn't raining and it was a tish warmer than the day before. Here are a few pictures. I was planning on having our party in the backyard, but because of the rain, that made it impossible. And since I don't live in a McMansion, we opted for the garage, and then set up the tent over the driveway directly in front of the garage.

You just do what you gotta do, right? By that point, I didn't care anymore. All in all, the day was a success. We had a taco bar with all the fixin's, mixed fruit, nacho cheese and chips (A HUGE HIT!!!), and cookies with "Eric '09" written on them. Oh, and a keg of rootbeer! Delish! I highly recommend a menu like this...it's so popular with everyone!

Oh, and I made some really fun water bottle labels for Eric that guests could take with them as a little favor! They turned out so cool! I had my little digital frame set up so everyone could see pictures from Eric's graduation ceremony too!

The next weekend, we had my niece's graduation party, and right after that, we headed up to C.O.P!!!! Yep, we had the whole truck packed before we went to Jessica's party and from there, we high-tailed it to Lutsen, MN for Family Work Week. Woo-hoo!

We were all desperate to see the pearly gates of this place, Cathedral of The Pines. Even the kids were exhausted from all the hubbub of graduation and needed the peace we've come to know when we drive through this gate for the first time each summer.

It was absolutely stunning each day we were there, which, if you know anything about the North Shore of Lake Superior, know that warm, sunny weather is at a premium this time of year. God truely was shining his light on C.O.P. that week.

As usual, we worshipped down on the shore one night, always a favorite event for us. I think I like that night most of all because it's so fun to take pictures with the view of Lake Superior in the background.

These handsome dudes are Doug (my hubby), Tom, Mike and Jimmy.

Here are all the kids who have been coming with their families to FWW for years! My youngest is in the red sweatshirt in the front row, and my oldest is in the back row next to Lindsey who's wearing the yellow sweatshirt! I adore all of these kids!

And chapel night on the shore isn't complete without a rousing round of camp songs, lead by the wonderful CS Men and JS Women.

Our trip up to camp wouldn't be complete without a drive further north into Grand Marais, another one of our favorite places to be.

We skipped rocks with the Nelson's (some family friends), shopped at the Trading Post and Ben Franklin,

and took the requisite family photo on the pier. Nice shot, uh?

Best brothers...

In the afternoon, after we're done working, there are some wild games of softball going on. Usually it's the Old Guys vs. Young Guys, and I'm happy to say, I think the Old Guys won this year!

Here's my Young Guy (Eric), heading for home....he's a gazelle!

One night during Family Work Week, there's a family dance that all the kids raid the costume closet for.....

That's Scottie on the right....

And that's Eric second from the right with the bird hat...

And I can't resist snapping a few shots of all my boys. Aren't they a handsome bunch?

Well, I think it's time for me to close this post out, but be warned, I'm not done documenting all of June yet. I took nearly a 1000 shots of my nephew's wedding last weekend! I'll share some of those tomorrow!

Thanks for sticking with me.

Hugs,

Amy

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Don't Give Up on Me....

Crap. I just can't seem to get it together enough to stamp or blog!

Just thought I'd post a little something to let all of you who care about me know that I wasn't dead or incapcitated in any way, but that I'm so overwhelmed trying to get everything done in my life that needs to be done. Stamping needs to be done, but no one seems to care about that, so it's not getting the respect it deserves;0)!

I am seriously wondering if I have any readers anymore....I don't even want to look at my feed counter because I know it's seriously hurting...readers are unsubscribing by the day! Can't say I blame them...there's nothing going on here for them to read. I really do want to get going on this again....it's really bugging me that I can't get my you-know-what together to stamp and blog.

Seriously, it's on the top of my list of things to do. I'm just not sure it's on the top of anyone else's list of things for me to do.....alas, therein lies the problem. Here's hoping I get to stamp tonight!

Hugs,
Amy

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Life

Now that Eldest Son has graduated and his graduation open house is OVER, I want to get back to blogging on a regular basis. I mean, I still work 5 days a week, so I will never blog as much as I used to, but I think I can manage to get at least 3 cards made a week to share here. Since there's no time like the present to get started doing something you love, I managed to get three posts written up for this week while my family is away on "vacation" (I say "vacation" because it is really a "working" vacation, not a lay on the beach all day kind of vacation). It feels so good to get back to doing what feels good! I have so missed you guys.

For a while, I was stuck on this really easy layout to whip some much needed cards out for my customers. And of course, true to style, I dug into my scrap drawer exclusively for this one. It's very rare anymore that I cut up a new sheet of paper. I am very focused on "trying" to use up what I have. Tuesday I'll show you another card using this same layout. Could it be any simpler? And isn't that black checked ribbon simply luscious? Oh, how I wish I had a bunch of that. But unfortunately, I only have about three yards, so I've been hording it for a while. This is the first time I've ever used it.

As you can tell, there really isn't any need to give you detailed directions. how to whip this card up for yourself, but I will tell you that the stamp set is from Paper Trey Ink and was designed by Lisa Johnson. It's called Life. It has the most amazing sentiments in it but I find that I don't use it as much as I should. I think once I start getting into the studio a little more, I'll be using it again and again.

Well, it's time to say "ta-ta" for now. Hope you have a great day!

Hugs,

Amy