Oh, Lolly lolly lolly...

Yeah, weekly lollipop pic my patootie! The summer is winding down and I'm feeling like I've got more time to post on a regular basis...but please, all 9 of you...don't hold me to it!

So, here's a lollipop pic for August. I thought they were sort of early fall-ish from a color standpoint. These are Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops. They are allergen-free, casein-free, soy-free, dairy-free, kosher, pesticide-free, nut-free, organic-certified...yada yada yada. But do they taste good? Here's a great write up from thenibble.com where you can read up on the certain flavors. The ones pictured are cleverly named Orange Squeeze, Cheeky Lemon and Pomegranate Pucker. I guess they are less sweet than most l-pops because they use cane juice and are pretty tart. Other flavors such as watermelon and raspberry still need some work. Wonder if they have a sensory panel helping them with the flavor profiles {wink}. Available at Whole Foods and other fine food stores and health food stores. Let me know what you think of them.

P.S. I have not tried these nor do I endorse them, but I think the photo is cute!

Later!

Stephanie

Wow! It's been a while...

I can't believe how long it has been since my last post! So much for "lollipop pic of the week" too! I decided to scratch the "week" part of that and just post a new L-pop pic every month instead.

My dad had knee replacement surgery 2 weeks ago and I've been helping my mom out w/ the cooking, shopping, babysitting, etc. Whew! Talk about a 2-week crash course into what it will be like to take care of a family!! All in all everything went well. Grammie, with her dementia, has been a bit hard to manage and the little nephew and cousins are having one crazy summer! In addition to this, I've been working on the 20-year HS reunion which is coming up in 3 weeks. Gulp! I can't believe it has been that long...and I can't believe how behind we are in the planning!!!

Surprisingly, during all of this, I've managed to get some scrapbooking done. I just completed pages 6 & 7 of my very first scrapbook endeavor. I am working on a book of my Jamaica trip from 8 years ago. It has been fun and I'm really getting into using different techniques and styles to support the images taken during the trip. I plan to post my pages soon. In the meantime, I'll just post another card that I did a while back. This one was for my cousin's birthday. I used the Four Dolls clear stamps from Hero Arts again. I just think they are so adorable, so I try to use them a lot!

For this card I also used the new Die Cuts With A View "Summer Dream" paper (purple floral) and solid textured cardstock in coordinating lavender and purple. The "celebrate your day" stamp was from My Sentiments Exactly! Cupcake B-Day clear stamp set. The glitter flower brads are Oriental Trading company. Hope you like it!

Stephanie

LOLLIPOP PIC OF THE WEEK...week 4

Two of my favorite things...lollipops and cookies! Genius to combine them! These are Swirly Sparkly Cookie Pops designed by Meaghan Mountford as seen on her blog {the decorated cookie}. This girl is basically living my dream! She's a professional cookie decorator who has her own book, sells cookie kits, and has an extremely informative blog with awesome cookie photos of her own work (such as this one). I have her book "Cookie Sensations: Creative Design for Every Occasion" on my wish list! You can never have too many cookie books. NEVER.

LOLLIPOP PIC OF THE WEEK...week 3

Eek! This is a day late! So sorry! This past weekend was not only ridiculously humid, but also very busy. I'll go into that in a sec. First things first...these cute l-pops. They are bright and summery and totally cute. Sometimes it boggles my mind how creative people are. I wish I knew how to make lollipops like this. I need to go through my cookbooks to see if there's a recipe or something.

Okay...speaking of cookbooks...holy mama! I HAVE TOO MANY COOKBOOKS. I know I have a bit of an unnatural obsession with them but it really became clear this weekend how crazy my obsession is. So, as I mentioned, this weekend was very humid. I recently moved back to this state and have all of my "stuff" in a 23-foot storage unit--okay...two 23-foot storage units. I have been worried about leaving certain items in storage all summer long knowing that it is awfully sticky here. I was particularly concerned about my photos. My mother and I went to get them out and discovered that a lot of boxes looked like they were caving in and sort of "soggy". The majority of these boxes were filled with books, books, and many, many more books. I opened a few and saw that some (my yearbooks!) were getting soggy! So, in panic mode, I packed up 3 carloads of heavy book boxes back home. I was sweating my patootie off! I loved it! Not. Anyway, I now have about 30 book boxes sitting in my living room. Cookbooks, novels, textbooks, yearbooks, magazines...sheesh! I would have to read for every second of the rest of my life and I still wouldn't make it through them all. So, why, why, why do I keep them? I have a sickness...a disease...it is so bad that yesterday I told a friend at work about the book fiasco and mentioned that I have a collection of cookbooks that I rescued and she said, "Oh! I have some set aside for donation. I'll bring them to you." Instead of declining them I said "YES!" All night I kept wondering which ones she had...I obviously didn't need them, but I was THRILLED to get them today. One was the reproduction edition of the Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book originally published in 1950. Little did she know that I collect vintage Betty Crocker cookbooks and have been wanting this one! SCORE! I know I didn't need it, but I wanted it!! I'm sick!

Just for fun, here are some pictures of my Betty Crocker cookbooks. They are so cute! The photos inside the books are so old fashioned and poor quality, but I love that about them. The cute red & white one in the top right is from my friend. Thanks Ann!

The one below is my favorite. The Betty Crocker's Cooky Book, Copyright 1963, First Edition, spiral bound.

LOLLIPOP PIC OF THE WEEK...week 2

Cute little lollipops all in a row. I love the bright, refreshing colors! These look like Dum Dum Pops to me...not sure of the flavors. But, yum! I love Dum Dums, especially when you get the "Mystery Flavor". I read that the Mystery Flavor is the resulting combined flavor when the production line switches from one flavor to another. For more info about Dum Dums (I know you are all interested) go to their site. You can take a DDP trivia quiz for fun! http://www.dumdumpops.com/DDPGames/trivia.php

LOLLIPOP PIC OF THE WEEK...week 1

Thanks so much to my first few followers...you're what we call "early adopters" in the marketing world. Really, you're just cool friends! Those who know me well know that I am not much of a phone talker. This blog lets me to "talk" to my friends in a way that not many other outlets do. Facebook is cool for quick hellos and comments, I still don't get the Twitter thing and texting hurts my thumbs!

I have a lot of plans for the blog...I hope I will be able to stick to them. I'll be posting pictures of family, talking about my hobbies, posting recipes I've made and some I'd like to make, discussing movies and music, reminiscing about old times, good times, bad times, crazy times. Comments are always welcome! And of course, I'll always be recruiting more followers.

For this second post, I am introducing the LOLLIPOP PIC OF THE WEEK. I love food, especially anything sweet. I love food photography, especially of anything sweet. I think lollipops are adorable--so they've become my theme. Every week I'll pick a new l-pop.

This is a RAINBOW Lollipop in the popular and super cute layered swirl pattern. This could be my favorite type...I say that now and it's only week 1! We'll see...

Sweet dreams everyone!
Stephanie