Monday, April 29, 2013

Administrative Assistants ROCK!

Last week was Administrative Assistants Week/Day where I work and I felt the need to write/share a post about it this week. I have a school based job and I see three to four Administrative Assistants on a weekly, if not daily basis.  These people amaze me every day with their roles.  They are right up there with the job of 'Mother' in my opinion, because each day they multi task, manage, and care for the students and staff within the schools they work for.  They have to be organized, creative, flexible, and empathetic of a variety of situations.  Kudos to all these talented gems that we work with!

As soon as I found out that it was Administrative Assistants week with the official Day being Wednesday, April 24th..my creative brain started to percolate.  I wanted to do something to thank these special people for all the great things they do, especially considering all they do to help me function in my role and really, I feel like they do a lot!  So I went home and logged on to my Pinterest account for inspiration and along with a healthy dose of yummy goodness from the Betty Crocker Website, this is what I came up with.






These cute little purse/treat bags and this lemon whoopie pie recipe.  The only thing I changed to the recipe was that I added in about a teaspoon of Lemon Chiffon Dip Mix (from Epicure) to the icing mixture.

Beautiful and delicious treats for some truly awesome women that I know, it was truly my pleasure to give these to the ladies that I work with because I really do appreciate everything they do in their jobs and especially when they help me in mine :)

How do you appreciate your co-workers? Please share!

Cheers!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

A Pumpkin, a pin, and an Elephant?!!

Greetings and salutations from Northern Alberta where we are finally getting hints of Spring!  It almost seems like we forego Spring though and jump right into summer, because as soon as that warm weather hits I see people wearing shorts, shedding their winter coats for light sweaters, and puddle jumping!  All this while it's still -5 out and there is more snow than water on the ground..but hey after our long hard winters, we need the sunshine and warmth, so I'll take it!

I haven't been doing too much crafting since my last post.  I think I needed a crafting break or rather one of my other hobbies was calling to me instead.  Over the past few weeks I've been itching to get my baking supplies, not my paper supplies, out and in use.  I was off work for the Easter Break and I spent most of my time baking up a storm for the kids and company.  Here are a couple of things that I made.

My cousin has been bugging me and bugging me, for the past month, to make her Elephant Ears!  I only make them once in a while because the recipe I had called for a long rise time with the dough...but then I found this new recipe that rises in half the time and tastes way better.  Anyhoo..I did promise I would make her some, so here they are.  I had a few other cousins over that day, so suffice to say they didn't last long!  Here is the link to the  Elephant Ears Recipe


As you all know by now, I LOVE Pinterest!  I get inspired daily by the Pins on this site.  Now I have a standby Spinach and Artichoke Dip recipe that absolutely love, not only for it's flavour but also because it is a Clean recipe so it's a lot healthier than your typical Spinach dip.  If you look for me on Pinterest, you'll find the recipe as 'Caramelized Onion, Spinach, & Artichoke dip'  under my 'Healthier Me?!' board.  You really must try this recipe, it is amazing!! As great as the recipe is (and yes I did pin it!)  the real Pinspiration came from the display of the dip.  I saw this great picture on how to make individual bread cups to hold my dip and another pin on displaying your veggies oh so prettily, so I combined the two ideas for two different ways to serve veggies and spinach dip!  The final presentation was not only beautiful but practical too..no more double dipping and it's portion controlled..AWESOME!!

Now I mentioned a Pumpkin in my post title today, yes I did..because I got to hang out with some wonderful ladies for our first "Ladies Night out with Paper Pumpkin!" at the beginning of the month.  It wasn't a full out Crop or craft night or anything like that, it was just a quiet evening with friends to do a short half hour project that will hopefully (fingers crossed) promote further connections with friends (I want to send out my cards to friends that I don't get to touch base with very often..who says snail mail is dead!).  Here are a couple of photos of the very first Paper Pumpkin project.  I really enjoyed this project from Stampin' Up!'s newest product line.  It was short, sweet, and since it required no effort at all, actually seemed to enhance the socializing part of the fun as well. 

 
 
Paper Pumpkin is a monthly kit that you get in the mail from Stampin' Up!  It's such a neat product that it has it's own website, you can look here for more info.  www.mypaperpumpkin.com   Whether you are new to scrapbooking or have been at it for a while, want to do it on your own or share an evening with friends, Paper Pumpkin is a sweet paper treat for everyone!
 
That's all I have to share for now, but there's always more fun and creative stuff to share next time!
 
 
Cheers!