Haven of Creativity

 

I spend a lot of time with Karlie, my delightful, four-year-old granddaughter. She loves when we do crafts together, so I thought I would share a recent craft. Last weekend she wanted to paint, so we cut out Easter egg shapes out of heavy watercolor paper. Then we used watercolors and watercolor markers and decorated them. We added buttons and little 3D flower stickers to them when we were finished coloring. I glued a folded ribbon on the back of each one and they are ready to hang. You can cut forsythia branches (or any branches you can find!) and put them in water. They will bloom indoors and make a perfect tree to hang your decorations. Have fun!

Blessings,
Susan

Here is a recipe for Empty Tomb Rolls to make with your children as you share the Easter story. 1 (10 ounce) package jumbo refrigerated crescent rolls 1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 1/4 cup butter, melted 8 large marshmallows
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare muffin pan (preferably jumbo muffin pan) with non-stick cooking stray.
Separate rolls into eight triangles and set aside. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Dip each marshmallow into butter, then roll in cinnamon-sugar and place on a triangle dough. Pinch dough around marshmallow, sealing all edges. Make sure to seal well or all the marshmallow will escape.
Dip tops of dough into the remaining butter and then into the cinnamon-sugar. Place roll with the sugar side up into prepared muffin cups.
Bake at 375 degrees for 13 – 15 minutes. Eat warm.
The marshmallow represents Jesus. After Jesus died on the cross he was wrapped in linen— roll in butter and cinnamon. Jesus was put into the tomb — place on crescent roll dough and seal edges. On the third day Jesus has risen, no longer in the tomb — open baked roll to find no marshmallow.

Well, it’s March 14th and we are having the first (and hopefully only) major snow of the winter. It is 1 week from the first day of spring, so to say I am less than thrilled to see snow would be more than accurate. I have been planning on starting plants in my greenhouse, which is now surrounded by a foot+ of snow. I guess I will start plants in my sun room and then take them out to the greenhouse when I can get there easily.

It is nice to have a day off work, my son has off school and I’m enjoy writing, crafting, cooking and just being home. We are hoping that tomorrow we will be home as well, but as of now, there is a two-hour delay. The church I work at goes by the school schedule, so that takes the guessing out of what to do.

We will see what tomorrow brings. For now, I’m going to go and look at my seed catalogs and continue planning my herbs, flowers and vegetable gardens!

Susan

I was looking at my herb garden this morning and deciding that I really need to thin out the thyme that is creeping out of it’s own territory.  We will soon see last year’s fallen seeds emerging and the time will come to decide what to move and what to plant.

I plant an abundance of basil each year, turning the tender leaves into pesto as soon as I have enough to make a batch.  Pesto is so good with pasta, on toasted pita bread, on vegetables, or as a pesto pizza with cheese.  I freeze my homemade pesto in ice cube trays and when they are frozen I transfer them to a ziplock freezer bag and toss into the freezer.  They are ready to use for a quick meal.

I also grow cilantro, not so much for the cilantro leaves, but more for the coriander seeds.  I love to put them into my homemade salsa.  They add a sweet, unique flavor that is very unlike the flowers of the same plant.

Lemon verbena is a wonderful burst of lemon scent.  It is more lemony than any other lemon scented herb.  I use this herb in potpourri and sachets.  I love to just pinch a leaf off and smell it for an instant mood lifter.  It will die after frost, but if you plant it in pots, you can bring it indoors.  It will look like it’s dead by February or March, but it isn’t!   I love this herb!

I love the look of this herb bed (pictured)–easy access and containment!  Maybe I’ll try it!

This is just a sampling of what I am planting and have already planted.  Check back for more herbal info!

Until next time,

Susan

Thank you for finding my blog, or coming across it by accident and deciding to stay awhile.  Creativity has always been the center of my being and I have found that sharing what I create is as rewarding to me as it is to the recipient.

Some, but not all, of the things I enjoy are writing, sewing, gardening, herbal crafts, creating spa items, paper crafts, jewelry making, mixed media, re-purposing, painting, cooking, entertaining, and on and on.  This blog has been a long time coming!  I have so many notebooks, scraps of paper, pictures and articles torn from magazines all waiting to be organized, written and shared. We all have a story.  I will share bits of mine along the way after a brief overview and then proceed onto some fun projects, musings, discoveries and paths waiting to be traveled.  I think (like most things worth doing) the hardest part is getting started!

My name is Susan and I live in a small town in Lancaster County, PA. It’s the town I was born and raised in and when I found myself single again after almost 19 years of marriage, I moved back in 2011. I only lived 15 minutes away, but it’s so good to be back!  I had the wonderful opportunity to purchase my parents home where I grew up and make it home once again.  I have 4 children, 3 are now adults (2 are married) and my youngest is almost 16 years old.   I have also been blessed with two granddaughters who light up my life.   I will share more about my family, as you will soon find out.

Among all of life’s twists and turns that I’ve experience, fighting breast cancer falls in there too.  I was diagnosed in January 2012 with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, stage 2b.  I had a mastectomy, 8 rounds of dose-dense chemotherapy over 16 weeks, and 33 radiation treatments.  I now take Tamoxifen to hopefully insure that it will not return.  I will write more about that experience later, as I have much to share and most is good!  It’s not a death sentence, and while I thought it would have been a good idea to put me into an induced coma to be treated, (waking up and having it all be over sounded good to me at the time!) my oncologist frowned up it so I pressed on.  I would have missed a lot of things, so I’m grateful that while I “fought like a girl” I also continued to enjoy my life.  I was bald and tired, but none-the-less, I rocked it!

I hope you stick around, come back often and enjoy what is shared here!  I have some things to learn about links and things here, but I’ll get it–just hang in there with me!

Susan