bluebonnets revisited 04/24/12

I did update this to my original post, but thought I would combine the 2 & give it its own post.

I had a laptop that died a long while ago, I gave it to my techie friend to try & retrieve my pics & such, well he had my computer from like 2005- 2011. He forgot he had it & then he wasnt in my life for a few yrs. He gave  me a disc with all the files he retrieved. It also  had a disc of pics that I had created in the computer bag. Tonight I thought I would see what was on one of  the discs. I found my 1st set of bluebonnet pics which was from 2004. I know I'm bad Alex was 4 yrs old & 1st time in the bluebonnets. Drakeston was only about 2.5-3 months old. This was actually in town, across the st from where Alex had just gotten a haircut. We were headed to the mall to get easter bunny pics. 

I had really ugly hair & glasses, but was skinnier back then.

& here are some blubonnet pics from 2012

pinterest & pampered chef dinner 04/24/12

I worked locally today, & we didnt have any baseball games, just practice, that means I got to try out a pinterest recipe tonight.

http://pinterest.com/pin/100557004150030330/ bacon wrapped chicken rollups originally posted by blogchef:

http://blogchef.net/bacon-wrapped-chicken-recipe/

It was super yummy. My Dad usually doesnt like the meals that are prepared & usually just complains, but tonight he told me twice it was excellent! The boys on the other hand who are 12 & 8 didnt like the cream cheese. I expected the cream cheese to melt a lil more & be really creamy, but it kinda maintains it original texture & doesnt really melt, but it was still really yummy.

I think our oven is going out & it doesnt cook as fast as it should. I cooked mine for 40-45 mins where the recipe said 30-35 & then i only did 7 mins on the broiler, but by this time we were getting hungry & impatient & the yummy smell was infiltrating our noses. I probably could have left it on the broiler a few extra mins, not all of the bacon got crisp

A long while ago my mom & I attended a pamper chef party. We each bought a large microwave cooker & tonight was the 1st time either cooker was used. I washed the potatos,cut them up, I didnt even peel them, covered them in water, placed them in the microwave cooker, put the lid on & then microwaved for 5 mins at a time til it was done. It was my 1st time cooking potatos so I didnt know how long they should cook. Mine cooked about 15-20 mins. I then used another pampered chef tool I dont know what its called, but I think you use it to ground hamburger meat.  Its black has a nice handle & a rounded x on the bottom. I mashed it up, put the leftover cream cheese in the center & lots of butter,some paprika & some of the liquid that came off the chicken, so butter cream cheese, chicken stuff & bacon grease.

go give it a try.

thought I would blog on my new computer

In Nov, my house was broke into, they stole my laptop,camera,gps, & keys. I had to wait til tax time to replace everything. I had to shop around & see what I wanted. I have been using my family's internet & computer, so im excited to have internet again at my house even though im not at my house yet. I picked up the new computer last night, spoke with a techie friend & she said she would help me get it going & install & remove stuff today (wed). She comes over spends about an hr fixing it up for me, she leaves. I start surfing the web, then I realized it was too quiet so I opened up pandora, & there was no sound! I txt my friend who had already left & went home, she remote accesses my computer & we learned that the speakers were showing as working but not actually working. I had to go back to office depot they played with it for a few mins & said they had another in stock so they just exchanged it for me. So new computer take 2.

baseball season is keeping us busy, & I dont feel very good, so thats all for now in the blog world.

I am having a dove chocolate tasting party on 04/27/2012 @ 7:15pm-9:15pm let me know if you want more details, through comments or email or visit my site http://mydcdsite.com/jenniferfarrell

taking pics in bluebonnets, a tx tradition

Well Ive been wanting to go get some bluebonnet pics, since they 1st started blooming in mid-march. This was not the easiest of tasks this yr. I had to replace my camera that was stolen in Nov. I was trying to be thrifty & thought I was getting a good buy & saving $20 by getting it at Sam's( a wholesale club). It turns out that it was $20 less cuz it didnt have all the features. It was missing the feature I wanted. I return that camera & begin searching again for cameras. I went to best buy 3 different times, & looked online. The original time I guess I overlooked this particular model I thought I had 2 choices $150 that didnt have the zoom & the features or $300 which had everything but I wasnt sold on the price. So I went to walmart, Target, & then Sam's. After Returning the camera I go back to Best Buy. This is when I found the 3rd model which was $200, it had all the features, & zoom & was a good price. Turns out everyone wanted that camera since it was 2 days before easter. They had to order me in one instead of just taking one off the shelf. A week later the camera finally came in. I ended up with a canon  powershot sx150 is . 


On Friday I was wanting to go out since the boys have a half day of school. I ended up misplacing the batteries & the shirts I wanted the boys to wear. I finally find the missing items, but by then daylight was gone. Sat turned into a sleep day since half the family went to relay for life from6p-6a friday night. Sunday we went after morning worship service, got some shots but the the boys werent being cooperative, went back after afternoon service & got some more. 


I guess I got more shots than what I originally thought I did.


here is my slideshow of picshttp://s51.photobucket.com/albums/f354/farrellcat/?action=view&current=1f316ed5.pbw&ps=1&t=1334535876




& no I didnt just add a cute lil girl to my family, i took my friend with me the 2nd time we went out so we could get shots of the 3 of us together. Its her little girl. My friend Jennifer said she mustve been posing for you, cuz she never sits that way. I wanted to get a pic of jennifer & mariah together but Jennifer was camera shy.


Sorry the fonts changed up, I copied something from facebook & blogger wont let me change the font. I keep highlighting & selecting a font but nothing changes.

I told the boys if they would cooperate I would take them to Orange Leaf afterwards. We enjoyed some cotton candy frozen yogurt with some sour worms on top.

edited 04/24/12

I had a laptop that died a long while ago, I gave it to my techie friend to try & retrieve my pics & such, well he had my computer from like 2005- 2011. He forgot he had it & then he wasnt in my life for a few yrs. He gave  me a disc with all the files he retrieved. It also  had a disc of pics that I had created in the computer bag. Tonight I thought I would see what was on one of  the discs. I found my 1st set of bluebonnet pics which was from 2004. I know I'm bad Alex was 4 yrs old & 1st time in the bluebonnets.

I picked up my new camera yesterday, so at Alex's baseball game I was trying to learn how to use it. Just playing around & clicking I took 151 pics in a 2 hr time. I was trying to learn the feature of color popping.

this pic is regular colors

 this is just with the blue

 and now the red

 a close up of the items I was grabbing color from

 red pop

 blue pop

regular color again

a pinterest inspired creation

Ok this project started a whole lot of other projects for me. Its started me cooking. this is the pin I found on pinterest:

here is the blog link or you can find her pin in my receipe board on my pinterest page jennifer farrell.
http://clairsfairytale.blogspot.com/2012/01/ultimate-menu-board.html

Here is my version, with the colors I like. This paper is not Close To My Heart. It was just some pattern paper my mom had avalible. If I had been at my house when I created this it would have been in CTMH paper. The battery on the phone/camera was low, so I couldn't get a better light.

 ingredients: 11x14 frame. 2 12x12 papers of 1 pattern & part of another pattern piece of paper. 2 boxes the same size. (mine were a curad bandaid box, & a zyrtec allergy medicine box.) The original that I patterened mine from used 2 8ct boxes of crayons. a piece of ribbon,some glitter,paint, & a hot temp gluegun. 7 clothes pins.

receipe cards: 4 sheets of 12x12 paper for each color used. I used 7 colors, a different color for each day.

I painted my clothespins with some left over purple paint I used on a bookshelf a few yrs back. I took a scrap of each color & adhered it to the clothespin. I cut the recipe cards 2x4.5. I cut 52 of each color. That way I can have enough for the whole yr.

Cut 1 inch off the side of the 2 patterened papers that are the same, cut about 3 inches to fill in the gap of the 11x14 frame. Use the ribbon to cover the seam where you pieced the paper together. I used the cricut to cut menu.Run the letters through the xyron sticker maker, be sure you do the side that will have glitter on it 1st & glitter it then run it back through so it will have sticky on the back to stick to the paper.Use the 2nd pattern to cover the boxes.

I have 7 catergories of receipes pinned on my pinterest board: beef its what's for dinner,why did the chicken cross the road, pork the other white meat, one fish 2 fish red fish blue fish, potatoes/soups, breakfast & crockpot.

Im gonna cross label my crockpot cards with the same color of the main ingredient, so we will know what we will need for that receipe.

I also made a box to match with the leftover pattern paper that made the background of the board. it holds the receipe cards perfectly. It was a plastic container that once held hills bros cappuccino sugar free french vanilla powder mix in it.(p.s. we didnt really like the contents, but I held onto that box for a long time thinking it would be perfect for some future project. We actually threw out much of the powder cuz it never got used.)

wow, i finally could access my blog screen

There was a toolbar in my way & I finally figured out how to make it go away. I wanted to post yesterday. So here I am now.

I GOT MY DOVE CHOCLOATE DISCOVERIES BUSINESS KIT IN!!!!!! I had an extra day off yesterday , Legend & I were outside & the fedex man pulled up. I was surprised I wasnt expecting a package. He delivered my chocolate kit, opened up to a lot of goodies.

I forgot to take pics but I can when I get my new camera today.

My friend who works at American Classifieds ran me an ad for both Close To My Heart & Dove Chocolates. The ad started this week & I got a call yesterday with someone interested in what I do for Dove Chocolates. It could be something good from it. We are playing phone tag so its in limbo.

Laura Miller a close to my heart consultant who also is a Dove Chocolatier posted in our CTMH community board about 2 yrs ago, telling us about the exciting company she had joined which was Dove Chocolates. I had been thinking about it & considering it ever since. Well in March she made some more comments about the exciting stuff going on in Dove Chocolates & the big things that were coming. We had a conversation & I asked her everything I could possibly think of. I told her I would become a consultant, & that I shouldve joined her when she 1st started 2 yrs ago. Well now she is going on the 1st incentive trip with Dove Chocolates to Punta Cana all paid & includes her husband who is all paid for as well. I am setting a goal to go with her on the next incentive trip. She now has a team that has 126 chocolatiers on her team.

She told me TX was an undeveloped Dove Area & I told her I was going to do Dove Chocolates as big as TX. So heres to the start of my latest journey that I jumped into with blind faith & trust.

www.dove-chocolate-discoveries.com/sites/jenniferfarrell

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some studio J layouts that ive been working on off & on for a while, just now printed them out

Studio J is an awesome addition to Close To My Heart. It is called online scrapbooking. It is soo easy: upload pics,pick out paper pattern & design from the website, then drag & drop. It has all the colors of the CTMH color line, it has most of the paper packs that are either currently offered or offered in the past, some exclusive to members only. You can pick a design for your layout by the number of pics you want on the layout anywhere from 2-16 pictures. Then you add them to your shopping cart at scrappedwithakiss.ctmh.com approve the layouts then hit buy. Close To My Heart then prints up a 12x12 layout for you,sends it to you, gives you free page protectors for every layout purchased,then sends you 3 jpegs of each layout. a close up of each side & a webfriendly one. you can use those to share through email or facebook. I purchased these the other day.

This is an example of the left & The right large jpegs. I was able to order a copy for my self & my sisters. This way we all have the same layout & I didnt have to recreate 3 separate layouts. I found some old old pics of my grandmom when she was young. these pics were small, & the layouts look good. My Dad was born in 1941 & he is the oldest. I dont know if he was born yet when these pics were taken.

The left side:

the right side:

the complete layout:

I was sooooo thankful that I had uploaded these pics to studio J before I was able to print any pics for traditional scrapbooking my computer was stolen that had the pics on them. these are of venice beach,ca. my favorite spot on my los angeles vacation.

its an OWL-a-Bration (Celebration)

While surfing pinterest one night I saw lots of cute owl creations. I said it made me wanna throw a party so I could make all the cute owls. Well I talked my friend into letting me throw him an owl themed welcome home party from his deployment from afghanistan.

His idea of an owl party was you want everyone come dressed as owls. I said no I mean owl decorations,& food & such.

You can see all my owl pins at pinterest.com jennifer farrell. Some of my creations didnt come out as cute as my inspiration, but im still pretty proud of most of the stuff. Some of it I would make up on my free time in my days off, & then all the food items I made the day before & the day of the party. I had to buy the groceries there & that took some time. I started cooking on sat at 6:30pm with my mom helping. We cooked til about 10:30pm Then on Sunday morning I had to go back to the store at 6:15am,starting cooking about 7am,cooked til 8:30am took a break to get ready for worship & attend worship. Then I cooked from 11am-3pm. Ive never cooked so much in my life. The following day my bro "asked me what was for dinner?" & I said "what im supposed to cook for us after 2 days of cooking for others." I ended up cooking us pizza rollups from pinterest that night.

Well here are some of the pics: There are more pics on my facebook & I havent figured out yet how to pin my own stuff to pinterest