Oatmeal Fudge Bars

Everyone and their neighbor was pinning these Oatmeal Fudge Bars on Pinterest this morning so I thought, "why pin when I can bake?" And bake I did.  I had to giggle just a little when I read in the comments section, "Delicious LDS Dessert Bars" as I've never know a dessert to have a religion. We're not LDS but man, I LOVE the local cooking. People here in Utah cook like I do in all it's wheat grinding, bread baking, homemade glory. I love that. Anyhow...

I thought my men-folk deserved a nice treat because they did a whole lot of shoveling this morning. This is our eight foot fence:

So yeah, they had their work cut out for them.

Oatmeal Fudge Bars

Makes 36 bars
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12-ounce) package semisweet chocolate chips
¼ cup margarine
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 × 13-inch baking pan and set aside.

Cream together butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl; add eggs and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl, and then add to creamed mixture. Mix in oats.

Combine sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, and margarine in a heavy saucepan, and heat until chocolate is just melted. Stir in vanilla and nuts.

Spread two-thirds of the dough into prepared baking pan.

 Spread with chocolate mixture.

 Drop remaining one-third of dough on top by spoonfuls.

 Bake 25 minutes.

Cool and then cut into bars.

These are really, really rich and incredibly delicious.

Highly recommended.

30 Days of Lists: List Two

Goals for this month: 

1. Do at least 14 prompts for Image Quest (one more than last month).

2. Enjoy our time in LA. Forget email, calories, gas prices, bed times etc.

3. Go to a new restaurant.

4.Keep up with my March moleskin journal. Forgive my February failings. 

(Man, I was the WORST journaler ever.)

5. By myself a new dress. Bonus points for buying new jeans and a skirt.

I thought I'd show you the opposite page so you can see my backgrounds before I cover them up. This one was done primarily with Faber Castel Big Brush markers, aquarelles, a Prima mask and my script stamp. Nothing too difficult or serious :-)

I made most of my backgrounds at triathlons, water parks and lakes all summer. Armed with a spray bottle of water and a basic mark making kit in a zip loc bag, and a few sheets of paper towel; I was able to fill up several journals. Gotta love that.

For the art in the corner and the bottom I did an packing tape image transfer of some of my collages. It's really nice reusing my projects like this. I didn't stress about what I was going to use these pages for so I just scattered the transfers throughout the book. They're attached with Mod Podge.

I have a lot of other projects, recipes and decorating on the go. Don't worry that I'll just be posting lists. 

30 Days of Lists - Day One

I'm participating in the 30 Days of Lists Challenge and the first prompt is 'Challenges to Accept'.

At first I was stressing a bit about what book to use or make for this challenge then I remembered that my art journals area absolutely full of prepared backgrounds. This is a great chance to add content to all those pages I made all summer when we were out and about.

click to see this bigger

New Book Reviews

I've bought some great arts and crafts books lately and have been meaning to share the titles with you but keep forgetting. So today, in lieu of a proper post, I thought I'd go link crazy and share them all at once. I'm using my Amazon affiliate links because I love that you can just click on the picture and be taken to the web page for the book. It's not a money making thing. I haven't even made a penny in the three years I've been an affiliate; it's an ease of use thing.

Inspiritu Jewelry:

Admittedly, this book is a little bit hokey with the whole premise being that you can do 'medicine' with objects as well as herbs and science; but somehow she makes it work. Her projects are gorgeous and I love the idea of making yourself (or someone else) something beautiful to remind you of an area in your life you're working on or need help with - like for me, my health. The author opens each project with some back story of who the jewelry was for, what was troubling them and why she chose the items she did to include in the piece.  It's a real personal way to share the content and I was completely drawn in to her world and world view - almost like you can be when reading a great novel.

The only downside with this book is it's reliance on found objects. If you don't have the time or resources to run about finding things, it can be a little bit frustrating. But that's why we've got Etsy, right? She dodges this issue a bit with very general materials lists for each project (bead, metal discs, wire... deer skin!), but in my opinion, if I went to JoAnn and picked up the needed supplies the piece wouldn't have the same worn, history-filled characteristics. 

One thing I LOVED about this book was the different creams and teas she supplies recipes for as well as the positive mantras like, 

"One step at a time, one day at a time, life can become better and better."

 As a person suffering chronic pain, I'm very interested the soothing and the positive. I first got this at the library and was so sad to part with it that I bought it. At under ten bucks it's cheaper then most magazines I read.

Creative Bloom

What can I say about Jennifer Swift's book other then she inspires me like crazy and makes the coolest things out of wire. If you recall, I made this from one of her tutorials to dip my toe in the water of wire bending:

Her book has eight chapters chock-full of projects ranging from badges to flowers and nests. My favorite is a the art journal with a wire coiled binding... or the assemblage... or the wall hangings. 

It's all very cool and colorful; complex but do-able. Jennifer's writing style imparts confidence in the reader and makes you want to drop everything and make something - with wire. 

Sewn By Hand

This was another library book that I renewed the maximum number of times (nine weeks!) and still couldn't get enough of. I've been working through the projects in it and absolutely love her quiet confidence and simple, endearing style. While I'm not entirely sold on the "sewn by hand" emphasis on hand sewing being superior to machine sewing, she makes her case well - portability is certainly a plus. I've hand-sewed her sewing kit (I'll post it soon) and was very pleased with the instructions and results but I'll probably make her gorgeous pillows on my sewing machine *gasp* and do all the decorative work by hand. In life, you need balance and for us, pillows need the toughness of machine stitching - plus I don't have unlimited crafting time. Oh, that I did! (Did anyone else just have a shudder of fear that in some Monkey's Paw-esque twist of fate something horrible is going to happen providing me with the luxury of time on my hands? That story messed with my head.)  

I took my project to Starbucks one night and sandwiched myself in amongst the sea of laptops and textures; I felt a little self-conscious that someone was going to wonder if I am Amish or a Luddite (J/K), then I realized how frantic and intense everyone seemed. I sat there, sipping and stitching and knew Susan Wasinger had won me over to the hand stitching side.

Zakka Style

Rashida Coleman-Hale's first book, I Love Patchwork: 21 Irresistible Zakka Projects to Sew is a favorite of mine and her palette pin cushion that I made is one of my most used and prized sewing items.
Wanna see:

So when her new book came out I was hitting refresh four times a day at the library website hoping to see it arrive. Well, it never did so I bought it, sight unseen, brewed myself a cup of tea and settled in to devour it thoroughly. My first reaction was shock and disappointment as the book is compiled by Rashida, the projects are not hers. Once I stopped freaking out I calmed down enough to realize that this is a GREAT book full of the sort of things you would expect this author to associate her name and reputation with. 

The projects all have an abundance of zakka style and pair natural linen with funky modern, bright fabrics. They run the gamut from coasters to quilts with a lot of interesting additions like a bread carrying bag and hand warmers. While none of the projects vary too much from things I've seen before - I read a lot of books featuring this style - I love having so many high-quality instructions in one place and I can easily image making several of the patterns this spring. For me, that's the sign of a very good book. 

Dusty Diablos

I'm a massive fan of Michael DeMeng as you can see by these projects of mine:

Winsome Bride:

Fallen Soldier:

Wedding Shrine:

But somehow, I've never bought any of his books. Huh? So when I ran across Dusty Diablos: Folklore, Iconography, Assemblage, Ole! I didn't hesitate to snatch it up. In addition to containing a GIRORMOUS amount of inspiration... on every single page... he has awesome materials lists that include things like chips, salsa, beer and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy so you can pass the time pleasantly while your bottle caps are "aging" and what not.

 I'm totally in love with this book. Seriously. At the conclusion of my first read-through I asked my husband for a blow torch. Yeah... it's good like that. My favorite thing about this books that he covers a lot of basic knowledge you need if you want to make any kind of aged, grungy, distressed assemblage. Sections include , "tricky burnt paper routine" and "Techniques to age stuff in less than five hundred years" or "mysterious frozen caveman trick" plus much more.

While there isn't a ton of stepped out projects, there is an abundance of process, teaching and story-telling that immerses you in his wonderful, strange, magical world. 

Wow! This post was a monster. If you got this far, thanks for hanging out with me. 

What good arts and crafts have you read lately?

Project Life Pages 2/6-2/13

Here are my pages for Project Life 2/6-2/13. Did you see that I used one of my quilted ATCs as a page embellishment?

I didn't journal as there really wasn't much to say. Sure, I could have typed on a cute card that we all had the flu and stayed home all week but I don't want my PL to end up as a record of the unending string of illness we've been having. That's not fun.

It was my birthday so I made a full page birthday LO. It was fun to use pink - not a lot of pink in my life. I'm still keeping this very simple. As soon as I start thinking "artsy" or " this would be really awesome if I just..." I end up setting it aside and getting behind. I like using it as a 'pretty photo album' with notes and bits of our daily life. 

And that's not stressful at all.

Do any of you include full scrapbook pages in your PL projects?

I like it, I miss scrapbooking.

Rolled roses... will these things ever go away? LOL. 

They're just so cute and easy, I couldn't help myself.

This page LO is one of my favorites. I love the eight 3x3 pics and the big 6x12 space in the middle. It just seems so full of promise and possibility.

My goal for my PL is to include more things like the books we're reading, our menus, the TV shows we're into. Now that our birthday/anniversary/birthday/birthday season is over I think I'll be able to fit it in better.

A Little Preparation Equals A Gift in Moments

I'm a huge fan of Bonita Rose's Brown Paper Packages wrapping kits and consider each one of them to be a little present for myself. This month I didn't have a lot of gift giving opportunities so I decided to take my kit and make up a batch of tags that can easily be converted into a heartfelt gift with very little time or effort.

I didn't stress too much about the size - just eyeballed a basic shape that would be large enough to dress up a gift bag and small enough to fit (more or less) on the front of a card.

Here's what I made:

It's a pillow! I thought a little stuffing went well with the "Dreamland" theme.

This morning I wanted to send some Caramel Frito Snack Mix to a friend... (great recipe, I used pecans and peanuts for the nuts and a lot more cereal and pretzels so it wasn't so sweet. Heaven!)

Doesn't it look good? Yummy!

And all I had to do to make it look special is attach one of the pre-made tags to a kraft box. Done. No stress whatsoever.

In addition to what I get in the kits, I keep on hand a selection of kraft gift bags, glassine bags, bread bags and card blanks. By staying with a simple base (I LOVE kraft) I never have to worry about matching my tags to the packaging.

Here's another gift I made with my kit contents. Including the time it took to round up my supplies, I put this together in under five minutes. And it looked like a million bucks. Monochromatic is such a simple way to make a great impression.

The paper lace is just darling when you layer it. 

For this tag, I layered the blue and manilla tags and stamped my image with Azure Staz-On. Then I popped up the blue tag from the manilla one with an adhesive foam dot. Very quick, very easy and so effective.

Hope this post gave you some ideas on how you can plan ahead and then be able to make a gift extra special with very little additional effort.