Grandma's Christmas Salad

Let's face it. We were in Iowa and when we say salad in Iowa, more times than not it means jello. This was actually very tasty and easy to make. Pineapple and strawberries.

Grandma's Deviled Ham Spread

This did NOT go over well on Christmas Eve. I guess it's dated? Not every recipe from Grandma's collection is going to be a hit.

Grandma's Holiday Fudge

I made this recipe for a dinner party I hosted, then took some to work. It was an easy stovetop recipe and the guests enjoyed the fudge!

December 20 Digiscrap

When asked what I feel incredibly fortunate or grateful for, of course I chose my family!

December 19 Digiscrap

A night out!

December 18 Digiscrap

For today I just took some photos around the house of things to remember.

December 17 Digiscrap: Santa

Today's topic was Santa. Wow, the size of gifts sure do go up as he gets older!

December 16 Digiscrap: Gifts

Gifts Gifts Gifts!

Another day of noticing and appreciating the little moments of Christmas.

December 15 digiscrap: Hope

Our conversation about hope and what it means to us sure did make for a good dinner discussion. We talked about Jesus and Ethan asked us to explain how Jesus could be considered God and wonderful and then later in life people were so mean to him...good question, and one we also can ask when thinking about Martin Luther King, Jr., Ghandi, and so many others.

December 14 Digiscrap

Church holiday pageant.

December 13 Digiscrap

I just love our Christmas tree. And I really love the person who invented pre-lit trees.

Favorite Christmas Movies

What I learned from this page theme is that we sure don't have many Christmas movies. But our DVR is FULL of taped Christmas specials we tape and watch every year.

December 7th digiscrap

We had a family discussion of what we consider special Christmas foods. Complete consensus: COOKIES!

Frozen Fruit Salad

From Grandma Schroeder's recipe box: Frozen Fruit Salad. I made it last night to celebrate my coworker Teresa's birthday at work today.

Our favorite Christmas books

We have so many Christmas-themed books...and scrapbooks and photo albums!

Journey to Bethlehem

An annual tradition for my family, now preserved on a scrapbook page!

Raspberry Parfait Pie

This week we're saying goodbye to our secretary Dawn as she takes a new position. So, I dug into my grandma's recipe cards and made this raspberry parfait pie. Yet another photo for the cookbook.

December 10

Our assignment for this day was to think about favorite childhood holiday sights. Lots of memories to choose from, but here were the ones we are sharing for this page.

December 8

This calendar is one of my most treasured possessions. I'm so happy that Jessica Sprague gave me the opportunity to take the Holidays in Hand class. Otherwise, I'd never have thought to scrapbook this really important part of my Christmases.

December 6 Digiscrap

We have different favorite symbols, but light was the common trait of all the things our family members like about the holidays.

December 5th Digiscrap

We had quite a discussion about a favorite Christmas song, and we just couldn't agree, so I listed each of our favorite songs (for the moment, not all-time favorites).

December 4th Digiscrap

Here's our December 4th page. For our activity, we went through all of the school and other charity projects and made a list of things to buy people who are less fortunate.

Ginger Molasses Cookies

Back to the Cookbook project...these cookies are my Grandma's recipe. My church had a cookie exchange yesterday, so I dug into my grandma's recipe box.

They turned out very well. One of the church ladies gave it a try and said they were wonderful. She asked about the spices, which are cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves. She said the cloves make the cookie unique. Pretty tasty.

December 3: Joy

Today we cuddled by the fire and talked about Joy. Ethan's job was to photograph something joyful in our home, and he chose our two snow globes. I've never been a snow globe fan...but he loves them, so we display them prominently in our living room.

December 2

Here's the December 2nd page of Holidays in Hand. At dinner we talked about favorite memories of cooking with family, and our photo assignment was to photograph things that are warm.

I am LOVING digital scrapbooking.

December 1

I'm participating in a Holidays in Hand scrapbooking session with Jessica Sprague. Here's my page for December 1, where we were encouraged to welcome December.

Donate Tiny Purses

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My friend Kelly has coordinated this great purse drive to provide students at Lanphier High School in Springfield with purses that are small enough for them to carry in school (school rule is size of a sheet of paper).

A week in October

Just a random week in the life of my family.

Adventure

I made this last weekend - not 100% happy with it, but I did learn a few techniques.

The More Things Change

I made this layout tonight in my Type + Writer 2 class via Jessica Sprague website.

When I Dance...

I had a lot of fun putting this digital page together. The best part was interviewing Ethan, asking him a whole bunch of questions about his life and his feelings. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

Hey Little Boy

Here is another page I did in the Jessica Sprague Type + Writer class.

The Story of a Woman

I'm learning PhotoShop and LOVING it. I'm a paper scrapbooker, but this doing some of my work digitally really opens up my options, so I'm considering doing some hybrid/blended work. I'm taking a two-part online class on Type + Writing. Here is one of our projects.

Flikr Class

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Originally uploaded by lisawhelpley

I'm testing inserting a Flikr photo while taking a Flikr Class.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this book. It's written from a dog's perspective which seemed silly to me before I started it, but you get used to it and it's a pretty interesting way to tell a story, in this case anyway. Given that I cried last night at the book's end, and then I cried again this morning telling my husband just a brief outline of the story, I'd say it moved me!

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Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved, loved, loved this book. Great characters. Captivating story.

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Cookbook update

I have not given up my cookbook idea, but as I read my grandma's recipes and other extended family members' recipes, I have realized I need to scale back this project. And, the recipes are almost all desserts and salads...and a whole lot of them are dated and don't sound so good. So, I'm thinking about what to do, and in the meantime, I've given my mom the recipes to review to make sure I've tagged them with the correct contributor (making sure what I've said is a recipe from Aunt Esther is really hers, etc.).

Recipe: Raspberry Chiffon Pie

This is Grandma Schroeder's recipe.

It was difficult to make because the recipe did not list all ingredients (at least not in the ingredient list) and the instructions were very

unclear about what got mixed together.

In fact, I left out the final layer because it seemed perfect as it was, without the raw egg whites and other ingredients.

Certainly this recipe needed work and I'm not positive I'll put it in the final cookbook.

Recipe from Grandma's collection

I made this Orange Toast. I remembered it just by name. My mom remembers making it for a 4-H project, but she said that it was indeed her mother's recipe. Basically, it's frosted toast! Pretty picture, though, right?

Learning more in Photo Shop

My 14-day Photoshop tutorial is over but I had some free time today (while the boy napped for 3 hours leaning on me!). I made this using an Asian kit free from Jessica Sprague. Hope it looks nice when I get the print from Shapfish!

Photoshop class

Using textures, brushes, etc.!

Photoshop class

I'm taking a photoshop class. Here's the first project - I learned to add layers. Of course if I'd known it would say "sassy" I may have chosen a different photo!

One Dog Happy by Molly McNett

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was a GREAT book of short stories. It's not, as the cover might lead you to think, a book about dog stories. I found McNett's writing compelling, engaging, and sometimes heartbreaking. You can tell why she won the Iowa Short Fiction Award. Each story was different but each one really was "wow."


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Walter's Ice Cream

This is a photo of Walter's Ice Cream - homemade ice cream from Walter Peterson, my grandpa.

(photo: Andrea Peterson)

Advice from Cheryl Jamison

I talked to award-winning cookbook and travel writer Cheryl Jamison last night about this project. She advised me to make sure to photocopy any legible recipe cards. She emphasized the importance of capturing handwriting from family members, and wow, that was something I hadn't imagined being able to do, but of course it's possible! It will add so much to the family memories to have handwriting in there. Cheryl also advised me to store the cards in an archive-safe box to protect them from further deterioration. Great advice!

New Project - Family Cookbooks!

Last month my mom told me she has recipes from her mom, mother-in-law, and all the recipes she's collected over the years. She wanted to organize them and since I love cooking with recipes AND I love organizing, I volunteered. This is the first post about what I hope will only take 18 months to develop a cookbook for friends and family of "heritage" recipes.

My first steps:
1. Find software that will allow me to enter recipes and tag them by contributor and food type.
2. Begin making at least two recipes a week and photograph the food, to spice up the cookbooks.
3. Research "best practices" on food photography.

Well, that's enough for now. Suggestions welcome!

The Book of Bright Ideas by Sandra Kring

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I hope this is made into a movie someday. It's sad, funny and moving, and all of the characters seem so real.


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