Breakfast - Crumble Banana Muffins

This recipe came from allrecipes.com. I love that site! But I thought my picture looked better than theirs.....so....taa daa!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-crumb-muffins-2/detail.aspx

Scrapbooking - Guest Book with Red Roses

Recently I created a retirement party guestbook for a co-worker.  I have only dabbled in scrapbooking but, it is something that I plan to do in my free time.....WHAT free time?  I love the idea anyway.


Her party was a red rose theme.  I found the perfect paper and supplies, then began searching the internet for ideas for guestbooks.  There weren't many sources. I found clip-art of victorian pictures that I copied onto parchment like paper in black/white to give them a more etched or hand sketched look.  The borders became frames for guest signatures and notes.  The background paper was a cardstock weight, with a complimentary color to the theme of that page.  The paper I purchased at Walmart.  I think it was a pack of 50 pages for $5.00.  The company is COLORBOK, and the pattern pack is Rosewood. 

Here are a few more samples.

Paper with lines for guests to write notes, with a complimentary matte color around the paper.

These same ideas would work for a personalized wedding book, wedding shower or baby shower.

Breakfast Cheese Toast

My mother makes the best breakfasts! When I was little she would set a full table every morning. So it is no wonder she would run out of ideas for things that are different. I don't remember the first time she made this for us kids, but I do remember eating it often. And, I'm not sure if she learned this from someone else, or made it out of lack of anything else in the fridge.

All I know is, my siblings and I liked it. And now it is the favorite breakfast of one of my boys, Ryan.

Breakfast Cheese Toast

Recipe for 1 serving.

1 slice of bread
1 slice of American cheese
sugar

1. Preheat oven to 425.

2. Place bread on a cookie sheet.  Top the bread with the slice of cheese and sprinkle with sugar.

3. Bake for 5 - 6 minutes, until cheese melts, bread starts to crisp and sugar begins to harden.  Do not over cook, it will burn easily.

Cinnamon Toast

My mother makes the best cinnamon toast in the world!  And of course, she passed this secret recipe down to me.  Well cinnamon toast may not be such a secret, but the technique can set your toast apart. You choose, cinnamon flavored toast, or buttery toast topped with crackling cinnamon and sugar goodness!

Marla's Cinnamon Toast

Recipe for 1 serving

1 slice of bread; white, wheat or your favorite

4 pads of butter

cinnamon

sugar

1. Preheat oven to 425.  

2. Place bread on a cookie sheet.  Slice butter as thin or thick as you like and place on top of the bread.

3. Sprinkle cinnamon to completely cover the bread.  Use the crust as your border.....remember, stay inside the lines.

4. Sprinkle sugar liberally over the cinnamon.  It's ok to let the sugar mound up!

5. Bake 5 - 6 minutes, or until the edges of the toast is golden brown and sugar is bubbly.

Hooked on Pinterest!?!

I finally found Pinterest.  Most people I know that have found it are die-hard Pinners, or they are not.  I am one of those fair-weather Pinners.  The pictures all are so beautiful, that I thought there would be "no way" I could contribute original items.  Because, after all I would prefer to offer original ideas, as opposed to a "repinned" one.

To accomplish this, I felt it was neccessary to be more attentive to my blog.....adding new ideas, pictures, funny anecdotes...Wow! being original is way too much work!  So, I will do a little of both.  Not that it matters anyway.  I have only one follower.  Let's see if anyone is reading, Okay!

My Life is a Symphony!

After reading the following, I was inspired to add my extended version.

When The Music Stops

By: Elisabeth Elliot Copyright 1991

There are sometimes spaces in our lives which seem empty and silent. Things grind to a halt for one reason or another. Not long ago, in the span of a few days, the "music" in my life seemed to stop because of a rejection, a loss, and what seemed to me at the time, a "monumental failure". I was feeling rather desolate when I came across a paragraph written more than a hundred years ago by the painter, John Ruskin.

"A Musical Rest"

By: John Ruskin

"There is no music in a "rest", but there is making music in it. In our whole life-melody, the music is broken off here and there by "rests", and we foolishly think we have come to the end of "time". God sends a time of forced leisure, sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts, and makes a sudden "pause" in the choral hymns of our lives, and we lament that our voices must be silent, and our part missing in the music which even goes up to the ear of the Creator. How does the musician read the "rest". They are not to be slurred over, nor to be omitted, nor to destroy the melody, nor to change the keynote. If we look, God Himself will "beat time" for us. With the eye on Him, we shall strike the next note full and clear."

My Life is a Symphony

By: Phyllis Brixey

I must always watch the director....steady beat...OK! I have made it to the fermata! How long can he possibly hold this fermata? Keep watching, keep watching.. But I thought there was a repeat coming up!?! Instead it is a "second ending"....and, what's that? A BRAND NEW Melody!?! But I did so well on the other melody! Why can't we just repeat it? And now I have to sight-read a BRAND NEW Melody! What about the old one? I had practiced so hard that it went perfectly! I don't sight-read well AT ALL! You never know how it will turn out. I want the old melody!! Yikes! Keep watching! This fermata is way too long! I am running out of air!! FINALLY! A cue. What if I get lost? Keep watching!

I never know when this symphony movement will end. I will.....Keep Watching until I come to the Double bar-line and the Fine!

Fermata = to hold until the director signals to move on.

2nd ending = a repeated passage but played in a different way; do not repeat the 1st passage.

Sight-reading = when the performer has never seen the passage before.

Double bar-line = In musical notation, a bar (or measure) is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration.

Fine = The End.