I am a Honey Bee

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Healthy Pumpkin Pie Milkshakes

After when we went Zorbing, Pricer, Emily and I went to Sonic for some dinner (because we are horrible influences on Em). I am addicted to their limeades. Addicted. But getting to the point, in the end we got a pumpkin pie milkshake to split. Unfortunately, it was not really good. The shakes was SO thick that it was more of a chore to drink than anything. It was topped with a whipped cream that was super sweet and dense. It was too much for the 3 of us to conquer- that’s saying something! In the end it worked out since I decided to create some lighter milkshakes at home.

 

Making my own pumpkin pie milkshake allowed me to control the calorie count, density, and flavors. This shake is perfect for fall since it takes the flavors of pumpkin pie and delivers it to your all in your glass. Plus it’s on the healthy side since it uses unsweetened pumpkin puree, a small amount of ice cream*, low-fat/skim milk, and no whipped topping. Sure you can add the whipped topping but does it actually contribute to the milkshake? No! it’s just on top. Save the calories & fat for a cookie, I know there will be plenty of them around during the holiday season.

 

Healthy Pumpkin Pie Milkshakes

-serves 4-

Ingredients

  • 1/2 can of pumpkin puree
  • 1 small scoops of ice cream, or frozen yogurt (non tart)
  • 1 heaping tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs
  • 2 cups of low-fat or skim milk

Process

  1. Add all the ingredients to a blender, blend until combined and completely smooth. 
  2. Serve!
*When I make ice cream that I will use in a recipe, such as a milkshake, I make it with low fat milk to reduce the calories and fat in the ice cream. Yes, it does not have the same texture as a full milk ice cream, but you are blending it into the milkshake so the texture becomes a non issue.

Spark The Event: Day 2 Recap (and Giveaway!)

Our first day of Spark was jam packed of fun classes but it did not stop there since we have a whole other day of more classes, a blogger panel, and another musical performance.

 

We had missed the Dear Lizzie boutique set up at Spark the first day so we stopped by first thing the in the morning. I picked up some gifts there. 🙂

Margie gave a run down of the day’s events for us during the Welcome session. She is so hilarious that she everyone cracking up. But she is best at inspiring everyone and connecting super talented women to create a great event.

 

Our morning class that we attended was the first Mixed Media class with Donna Downey. For the “From the Heart” class, we used pan pastels on canvases to create a mixed media piece layers the pastels with stamps and tags.  I had never worked with pan pastels so i had a lot of fun using a new medium. Did you know you have to create a porous surface for it to stick to? how do you do that on canvas? Well, adhere a piece of tissue paper to it of course!

Here Donna is showing my mom and other Spark women how to create shadows on our hearts by flicking with the applicator.

We had a free hour in the morning which allowed me to catch up on my reverse applique shirt. Brioche, my traveling gnome bun, chilled out as I documented his travels.

 

There was a group of the sweetest women who came all the way from JAPAN. Yes, they came from JAPAN! They had met Margie when she went over there to teach some classes so they all stayed in touch and then came over for Spark. They took photos of everyone using Instax cameras and added our pics to mini books so we could right msgs right there.

During the process of my mom making her shirt, a little pull was created on the patterned fabric part. Instead of my mom having to redo the entire thing Amy just showed my mom how to fix it by adding a little fabric flower. Lemons… lemonade!

After lunch there was a blogging panel. April was the moderator for hour as we got to ask the 4 panelist (Allison Czarnecki, C. Jane Kendrick, April Atwater, Brittany Egbert) questions about blogging. Of course I ask the boring technical/legal questions. Whatever.. that interests me instead of asking about what to do with negative comments. (ignore them- duh!)

 

Group A headed back up after the blogger panel for the 2nd mixed media class. Christy Tomlinson taught this class which was a take off form her She Art class that she offers online. We used paints, paper, inks, rub-ons, on canvas to create a unique piece of artwork. Ofrouse I decided that I did not want to have a girl on it so I put a big heart that I stitched together with rub-ons. Different but fun. Still a work in progress at this point.

I don’t think I could get tired of that view…

Our last class of the day, and of Spark(!), was about felting. Emily Falconbridge, hails from Australia, but now resides in NH- so need to hang with her in New England!- and she is a fibers maven. She taught us how to felt soap using some wool, soup, water, a felting needing, and our hands. It my seem weird to cover soap with wool but wool is naturally anti-bacterial so it is a great soap cover.

Our closing dinner was fantastic but shall also be known as the cupcake incident… you had to be there.

 

 

After the dinner we settled in for closing announcements where Margie thanked everyone involved who helped pull off such a great event. Of course tears were shed, esp when Margie thanked her daughter Megan for all her help.

 

Ending out Spark, we enjoyed a performance from Sarah Sample. I had beenlistening to her music at work since I heard that she would be at Spark. It was so great getting to have such a fantastic, intimate performance. Best was that we sat with Sarah on Friday during lunch and got to chat with her about her music, recent move, and family. She is so sweet, funny, and talented.

Said bye to Amy!

 

Mom and I headed to Dear Lizzie for the after party. We hung around there for a bit, got lost going back to the hotel because of a detour, then had a ‘midnight’ snack at Sonic!’

Check out a quick video I did from the performances we had in the main hall. This brought back memories, as well as reminded me to record much more! I think I was just lost in taking it all in!

And last but not least… A Giveaway!!!

Well I have 2 giveaways in fact!

Between my mom and me, we sorted out some great goodies to part with since we have SOOOO much stuff. We have some scrapbooking paper, chipboard pieces, a mini book, rub-ons, and other embellishments to giveaway. Since there are 2 giveaways and we did not exactly have 2 over everything to spare, there will be some differences in the kit. But this is the general idea of it. Plus I’m sure I’ll be able to sort through my person stash some more and add to it prior to shipping.

 

To win…

1) Leave a comment telling me how you are creative, how you keep you spark lit.

2) Tweet “I’d love to stay creative by winning some great @sparktheevent swag from @iamahoneybee http://wp.me/pzEAP-1BB” about the giveaway. And come back and leave a separate comment!

Contest Ends midnight on Friday 10/4/11

UPDATE: 

winners are Jamie and Sierra!

 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

These Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars have a nutty crust, creamy pumpkin cheesecake, and a yummy streusel topping. This recipe is perfect for fall baking.

Post Contains Affiliate Links. Read my full disclosure HERE

It doesn’t even matter if it is still hot out, or if the calendar reads ‘August’, people get fall baking on their mind once school starts up again. And, most of the time, people are craving pumpkin treats. Cracking open that can of pumpkin puree is a sure signal that fall is here (or fast arriving). It’s exactly why people enjoy their PSL’s and start to whip up pumpkin treats with pure abandon. Be sure to make these Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars because they are a great fall treat.

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Spark the Event: Day 1 Recap

I had the pleasure of attending Spark : The Event this year. This was the 3rd Spark, so I will often affectionately refer to it as Spark #3. Every since I learned about Spark from Liz Kartchner’s blog from the first event I knew that I would have to make it out to Utah and get to get my creative juices flowing and have a lot of fun.

I will save you all the horrendice details about my trip to Utah. In summary it involved  a cab ride, tears, lots of photo calls, texting (which I hate), stress, running, and 2 plane rides. We arrived in Salt Lake City 3.30 east coast time so my mom and I were very tired but VERY relieved to be there. We were able to enjoy our Thursday in SLC, Park City, and to have a great photo session with the super talented (and funny) Collin Kartchner– to be shared later.

So that brings up to Friday- the first day of Spark….

Registration started at 8 but we were up bright and early!

Noah’s Event Center was the facility that housed Spark. Margie and Team did a lot of hard work decorating entire building. Out first glimpse at Noah’s was this entry with the book paper lights and vintage luggage.

 

Welcoming decor greeting all the attendants.

The Main Hall was  elaboratly decorated with ribbons, yarn, pom poms. fabric wrapped hoops, and sewn paper garlands.

Margie explained how all the decor has been reused from her own stash or old from second hand stores. She also said that when they break down the event the pieces will get a new life when it is transformed for another Spark.

Each table had a center piece, which had been used and transformed previously! Giving something old a new life makes that piece so much more special. Each setting had a box and note book for us to use during and after attending Spark.

 

After checking out the Main Hall, we went back to the 2 vendor halls to check out the shopping we could do. Each vendor was special in their own way from specializing in handmade shirts, vintage clothes, baked goods, an

 

At one of the tables I found this amazing vintage pink metal cake carrier. Such an amazing find for jsut $12!!!

And then we began! Margie came up and talked to us about what Spark really means and how we get to become Spark Sisters from the event. We get to make special connections with other creative women who each bring a different skill and perspective to the table.

Mindy Gledhill took us on an activity that had us writing down goals, people we admire, and things that make us happy in our new Spark journals. She also serenaded us with some songs. I really love her music so you should check it out too! Love the song Anchor.

We all broke up into our groups to attend the morning classes. My favorite morning class was the jewelry making class taught by Cathe Holden. We made nest necklaces. We used shimmery beads to represent eggs and wrapped around them with wire to create the nest. I used to different colored wires for an extra level of detail. Lastly, I stamped on a metal tag to complete the necklace.

Group A also took the stamp carving class in the morning taught by April Meeker. This class was a bit more difficult but still rewarding because it was something completely new for me. Knowing how the pressure of the carving tool, as well as what you carve out, allows you to create a unique handmade stamp.

 

Then all the groups broke for lunch. Mom and I grabbed our lunches and immediately headed outside to enjoy the beautiful view.

We had a post lunch update where Margie introduced Amy Tan. In addition to having her own business of designing handmade shirts, she has her own scrapbooking line with American Crafts.

I loved the 2 hour long junk journal class where we took an old book and began to transform it to create an album for a scrapbook. I had altered a book previously for a Liz Kartchner class but this was very different and fun. I love how you can start with an old book and apply various techniques to alter it to get such different effect and finished product. I am going to complete my junk journal and use it as the scrapbook for the long weekend in Utah.

After the junk journal class we had our session with Amy to make hour reverse applique shirts. I love the process and I can really see myself making more shirts for gifts and myself. I love hand sewing so the process was fun and relaxing. The best part of the class was hearing about Amy’s vast experiences as a small business owner of a fashion line called Amy Tangerine, who creates specialty reverse applique tops. She explained how she was discovered, she started the shirt alteration business with a vendor market fair in NYC and how the rest became history.

 

After dinner we particiapted in make and takes from 7-9pm. There were several stations throughout the building that had different designers and product manucturers set up having us do quick crafts. My favorite was the earring station on the roof because I liked the pace of the craft and the look of the earrings. Friskar’s set up was also really fun because we made Halloween flags. I’m so predictable and boring that I only used orange and black to design my flag. Of course mom used all the color possibilities on her flag.

And that was DAy 1 of Spark the Event #3.

Stay tuned for my Day 2 recap!

Charlotte Motor Speedway- Charlotte Vacation {3}

Price and I recently went on vacation in Charlotte, North Carolina. We had a fantastic time visiting the Queen City. I will do a series of blog posts recapping some of the fun things we did while down there. I hope you enjoy!

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While we were visiting Charlotte, we decided to head over to The Charlotte Motor Speedway. The speedway is located in Concord, NC, which is not that far from the city of Charlotte. A quick ride on I-85 and we were there to check out the track and the gift shop.

 

I was really under dressed for the day since it was a lot cooler than I anticipated. The wind was pretty strong so we only hung around on the grandstands for the bit. We watched one of the many race schools/driving experiences that are offered at the speedway.

 

After a bit of watching the racing school drivers on the track we signed up for the Speedway Tour. For just $9 a person, we had a 45 minute tour that started from the main building and took us around the track while our guide told us various things about the track. The best part of the tour is when you go out on the track to experience the feeling of the banking. Going 85 miles an hour in a van is no where near as fast as a NASCAR stock car, but it still is a lot of fun

Check out the angle in the photo!

We took a video while we were going around the track!

 

While going around the speedway and the track we learned history of the speedway, starting with when it was built in 1959 by O. Bruton Smith and Curtis Turner. From there the track has had an interesting history as it has hosted countless races at its track and been the setting for movies, including Talladega Nights.

 

The tour guide explained  how the world’s largest high definition television debuted during the May race at the track. The 32-and-a-half-ton TV is 200 foot-wide, 80 foot-tall and created by Panasonic. The face of the TV is made of 158 and is illuminated by nine million LED lamps. Pretty impressive!

One of the really cool things we learned was that there are condos at the track. People thought it was foolish for Smith to build forty condos over turn 1 in 1984. However, they were so popular that another 12 luxury ones were built in 1991. Over the years there have been families that lived there and as a result school buses would have to stop at the track to pick up the kids.

The tour took a stop at the Winner’s Circle for some photos.

 

We had a great time at the tour. It was a fun way of learning about the race track and the history behind it. And of course I had to go back and watch clips of Talladega Nights to see the track in it. ha!

If you like NASCAR and are in the Charlotte area I suggest you swing by the Charlotte Motor Speedway so you can have a quick tour of the track to learn some cool facts about the track while you take a spin around in a van. You won’t soon forget those 24 degree turns!

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Thanks for visiting. Please leave me a comment to provide some feedback. I appreciate all the comments I receive. 

‘Miss C’ LO

My niece Cara is turning 1 in a less than a week. I love her to death. She is just so adorable. It has been amazing to see her grow so much from this adorable little newborn. Over the year I have seen her every few months so I have the chance to document her growth. I took these photos at the end of August. I can’t wait to see her next week to see how much she has grown.

I am so addicted to my Studio Calico kits that arrive every month in our building vestibule every month. (Price is less excited… ‘great more stuff’) I love the kits but I really love getting to see awesome design inspiring layouts from the design team. I looked back on layouts from Stephanie Howell and Kelly Purkey for each of them for inspiration.

Andshedreams  Youarehere  Blog lucky

When I saw these layouts I knew that I wanted to keep them in mind for future inspriation. I loved the use of these butterfly chipbaord peices that Stephanie used in 2 of her layouts. Kelly used airplanes in her layout but I was looking at how they radiated from a central point on her page. Keeping the looks of all these layouts in mind, I got to work to create this page about Cara.

 

I am not a butterfly person. I actually was bummed when I first saw these since I have gotten quite a few butterfly things over the year since I have been subscribing to SC. And yet, Stephanie’s layouts sold me on actually using these Sassafras ones.

If you happen to like what is including in the Field Guide kit, including the butterflies, I suggest you hop over to Studio Calico and buy a kit, while it is still available!

Caprese Bites

I have really been struggling with coming up with any ideas. This always happens to me when we begin to transition from light summery meals to warm, heartier ones. I don’t want to slip awa from my light fresh salads and grilled chicken,  and to dive into roasted root vegetables or heavy stews just yet. So at this point I spend more time wandering around the grocery store or Haymarket, where I get the majority of my fresh vegetables. However, during one visit to Haymarket I spotted pearl tomatoes and knew exactly what I wanted to make… Caprese bites!

 

Grabbing some mozzarella balls and fresh basil this came together easily and quickly. I decided that the simplest approach would be to make the tomato the vessel for the mozzarella and the basil. Basil is really flavorful so I would not need much so just a little piece could be layered with the cheese and tomato, possibly even hidden entirely so it would surprise the person enjoying the caprese bite.

I decided to create 2 different sizes of caprese bites allowing serving to be flexible. Halving the tomatoes makes more smaller bites which could be appealing when needing to serve a large crowd. These are perfectly bite size.

I also decided to make larger bites by only slicing part of the tomato and scooping out the inside guts creating a larger cup. This would allow the entire mozzarella ball to snuggly fit inside the tomato with the basil leaf. This makes for a larger bite for someone but I think that serving these could be a bit easier as someone would just need to snag one with a toothpick.

 

Caprese Bites

*Makes 20 or 40 caprese bites, depending on preparation*

Ingredients

  • 20 Cherry Tomatoes
  • 10 or 20 Mozzarella balls
  • 10 to 20  Fresh basil leaves
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Salt and Pepper

Process to prepare 20 bites

  1. Wash tomatoes and basil leaves
  2. Cut a small portion of each cherry tomatoes at one end. Scoop out the wet flesh and seeds.
  3. Rip the basil leaves in 2 or 3 pieces, depending on size.
  4. Lay a piece of basil leaf into the tomato cup, and then carefully add the mozzarella ball.
  5. Repeat the stuffing process for the rest of the 19 tomato pieces.
  6. Slice a sliver of the tomato to make a flat bottom to prevent it from rolling around.
  7. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper prior to serving.

Process to prepare 40 bites

  1. Wash tomatoes and basil leaves
  2. Halve cherry tomatoes and clean out the wet flesh and seeds
  3. Halve the 20 mozzarella balls
  4. Rip the basil leaves in 2 or 3 pieces, depending on size.
  5. Lay a piece of basil leaf into the halved tomato, and then add the halved mozzarella ball, curved side down.
  6. Repeat the stuffing process for the rest of the 39 tomato pieces.
  7. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper prior to serving.

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Thanks for visiting. Please leave me a comment to provide some feedback. I appreciate all the comments I receive. 

Love Cousins- Studio Calico 10.2.11 Sunday Sketch

I loved the simplicity of this this sketch. The strips could be anything which I found really appealing. Strips of paper could help used up your scrap stash. Ribbons would be cute. Rows of embellishmens like buttons. I have so many little bit and pieces in bins and, as Price would point out, floating around everywhere so it’s a good way of using things up.

At my dad’s birthday party this summer I spent most of the time taking photos of my niece and 3 nephews. At one point Cara was laying on the floor so we had the boys lay down next to her so we could get a picture if all of them. Simply distract a 10 month old with an iPhone and you can get her to stay still long enough for a photo.

I dug through my scrap box so I could get some strips of paper to work with the sketch. I decided to use the patterns since there was not adominate color in the photo. Since there was no common color I decided to just make the randomness of the patterns to make the layout work.

I had these adorable chipboard embellishments for such a long time. I just had to get them but didn’t know what to ever do with them. I pulled them out because of the colors and I figured the animals would be a cute add on for the kiddie page. Plus it would work well with the faux bois patterned paper.

IIDA NE ‘Ashion Show Videos

A follow-up to my previous post about the IIDA NE 2011 Fashion Show, I have completed 2 videos recapping the night. Check them out!

I made this using a Magic Movie feature thing with my flip software that grabs 4 seconds of each video segment  creating a mash-up. This shows our set up backstage and then the show itself. It’s a fun way of getting to see what we did for 4 hours in under 2 minutes!

When it was our turn to walk I gave my coworker my flipcam while I ran down to the end of the stage and  took photos. She accidentally turned the camera near the end so just turn your head and go with the flow… do it! Our moon man won the crowd over with his moonwalk at the end. 🙂

It was such a great night!

Apple Picking at Mack’s Apples

I love apple picking. I really do. I remember this one time when my mom took my dad brand new WHITE Acura and took us apple picking. Well it got suck in the mud. Ruh-Roh! Even with a car wash there was still evidence that car was filthy from our muddy shoes. Needless to say that my dad was less than excited when we got home. Ha!

 

Well, thankfully my recent apple picking trip did not involve any stuck cars or really messy shoes. Instead we had a great time at Mack’s Apples in Londonderry, NH. I had sent out a tweet asking for some suggestions for places to go to that is a quick drive from Boston. Rachel (Baked by Rachel) responded by telling me about the great time she just had at Mack’s Apples. Then she posted a blog post about it and I was hooked.

 

Outside of the Farm Market, they had wooden bins of pumpkins and squash, as well as pallets of autumnal flowers.

This “Know Your Apples” chart was very helpful. I took a photo of it just so that I could remember which were the best apples to get for baking pies.

 

The Farm Market is opened a bit earlier than the U-Pick fields so we wandered around the store looking at all the different books, plates, jams, fruit butters, pickles, and decorations that were available for purchase.

 

While Mack’s doesn’t make their own cider donuts WITH sugar, they have donuts on hand that they have some brought in from the Chichester Country Store. We picked up a pack of them because cider donuts without sugar are just plain old boring.

The Honeycrisp… it seems to be the ‘it’ apple in recent years. Look how big these beauties are!

 

Breakfast of champions… splitting a chocolate and a pumpkin whoopie pie that we picked up from a school fundraising table.

The directory outside the store explaining which U-Pick field had which apples directed us to U-Pick Field #3. We went there because we wanted to focus on getting baking apples and this field had a large variety of apples that suited our needs.

 

U-Pick Field #3 is really 2 fields on either side of a road. We parked on one side and headed over to the farm stand that was set up. We wandered around that field for a while with little success since most of the apples had been picked over and the remaining ones were too high, even for Price to reach. Thankfully, when I went over to ask the woman working there a question about squash blossoms I overheard her telling another family that the field across the street had JUST opened so there would be a lot of apples there. So I hurried back to Price and told him the good news.

The other field was PACKED with apples. We were able to wander around while having a lot of options at our finger tips. I really appreciated that they stagger the opening of fields so that fields are not picked clean so early in the season.

The only real criticism we had of Mack’s was that the steaks at the end of the aisles indicating the type of apples were not really labeled. There were plenty of markers but not all of them were actually labeled. We wanted only baking/pie apples so we did not want to pick anything that was more for sauce or salads so the selection was very important to us. We would have to walk to the front of the orchard to see what each aisle was labeled and then to continue back down them looking for apples. I think that if they were to improve their signage it would make for a much easier apple picking experience.

 

We sampled some of the different varieties of apples that in U-Pick field #3. All here delicious and sooo fresh. You can’t beat an apple that you just pull off the tree and then bite into.

I’m not always such a smirky jerk… the sun was in my face.

 

We highly suggest going to Mack’s if you are around Boston or the border of New Hampshire. It was a large beautiful place that was very affordable. The selection of apples allows for the opportinuty to be able to pick ones that will use your needs.

Mack’s Apples

603-434-7619

230 Mammoth Road
Londonderry, NH 03053