CTMH Boo Crew, Pumpkin Spice & Slimline Celebration

September 23, 2021September 23, 2021 Charlene Becker

Hello stamping and scrapbooking friends! I’m so excited about some super cute new products by Close to My heart! Now that the holidays and cooler weather are nearing, I was thrilled to see CTMH come out with their new collection called Pumpkin Spice and the Halloween line called Boo Crew. They also have a new Slimline Celebration collection to celebrate National Stamping Month (NSM) in October. I’ll share each of the collections, some links and photos! Be sure to pop on back to my site to see some adorable projects and cards using these products.

First up is Boo Crew. So cute for scrapbook pages, mini albums, or treat bags! Speaking of treat bags, I am working on some cute smarties candy treat holders that are adorable…video coming soon! You can also join in on the workshop once you purchase your kit. Just go to the event page on CTMH’s Facebook page HERE. This event will be on October 12th.

Boo Crew Paper Packet & Sticker Sheet

Check out these cute ghost sequins that match!

Of course we have cardstock to match in Nectarine, Ballerina, Black, and Wild Berry. This cardstock is perfect for greetings cards and scrapbook pages. Remember, it has a lighter side, and a dark side!

Here is the CTMH video of the entire Boo Crew collection:

Next up is Pumpkin Spice! I don’t know about you, but we had a long summer here in Colorado, so I’m ready for boots, sweaters, firepits, hot chocolate, and pumpkin spice everything! 😉 You can join in to watch the Facebook live event using either the Cardmaking or the Scrapbooking kit, or both! The cardmaking one is on October 19th, and the scrapbooking one is on October 26th. These are free, live events, and there are usually giveaways!

The matching stamps and thin cuts are also adorable!

Pumpkin Spice Scrapbooking Stamp & Thin Cuts

Here is the CTMH walkthrough video of the Pumpkin Spice collection:

Lastly, there is the whole Slimline collection! I’m in love with all of these and I just ordered the Fishy Greetings and the Circle Cluster Thin Cuts. As soon as I get my products I’ll create and post some creations with them!

Check out the CTMH video with the entire Slimline collection:

You can get the entire Slimline collection on sale now! Save 20% when you purchase the whole set in either the Slimline Celebration Product Bundle or the Slimline Celebration Workshop kit! The workshop kit also includes cardstock, sparkles, and cards and envelopes to give you supplies for creating a set of 12 slimline cards featuring these fun stamps and die-cuts. Complete the workshop together with us during a FREE virtual event that will be held on the Close To My Heart Facebook page on Friday, September 24. Anyone can join in, it’s free, and there will be a replay available!

Sorry this post was long, but I haven’t been on in a while and there’s so many new holiday products! Stay tuned for new cards and new videos soon using all of these new products! Be sure to follow my page so you don’t miss any posts!

Happy stamping and scrapbooking!

Charlene ❤

food, Gluten Free, Meal Planning

MEAL PLAN WEEK #3 – GLUTEN FREE!

September 22, 2021 Charlene Becker

CHICKEN VERDE SOUP

EGG ROLL IN A BOWL

SOUTHWEST STUFFED SWEET POTATOES

ORANGE-GINGER TOFU STIR-FRY

CHICKEN PHO

ONE-PAN TURKEY HASH

MEXICAN QUINOA BOWL

I am hoping you will enjoy these healthy, quick meals.

Happy cooking,

Charlene

Cards, CTMH, Love, Valentine's Day

New Year, New Plan

January 28, 2021 Charlene Becker

My goal this year is to blog/post more! Everything I stamp, make, craft! I hope to stick with this plan, gain more followers and build my community of crafting friends. I’d love to grow my team within Close to My Heart. ❤

So today I’m sharing a cute Valentine’s card I made using a Petite Perk stamp, I like you a waffle lot. These are stamps demonstrators use as giveaways or incentives. I stamped it twice, then stamped the words. I used a past Mix-In design paper that has the same yellow as the cardstock (Canary I think). I also used the acrylic hearts, which are still available! CTMH also has pink hearts, stars, beach theme, arrows, and Disney “theme” acrylic shapes.

You can purchase these products on my site at http://Sweetpiecesbyme.closetomyheart.com

Birthday, Cards, Celebration, Crafting, CTMH, Flowers, Scrapbooking

Blue Skies Kit – Close to My Heart

June 6, 2020June 6, 2020 Charlene Becker

Number 1 – Have you seen the Blue Skies paper collection from Close to My Heart?

Number 2 – If you have, have you purchased it?

Number 3 – If you haven’t, WHY NOT?! 😜

This paper collection is bright, summery, fun and full of happiness! I purchased several of these, # CC5207, CC5205, CC5212 and made so many layouts and cards! Here are some that I made:

And here are a couple of cards using my scraps!

I hope you decide to get this beautiful paper! There are also stamp sets to match! CC5201 and CC5202.

You can purchase any of these at http://sweetpiecesbyme.closetomyheart.com

ENJOY PAPERCRAFTING & STAY SAFE! 🥰

Dinners, food, Recipes, soup, Uncategorized

30 Minute Amazing Pozole…Delicious!

April 15, 2020April 16, 2020 Charlene Becker

People. You need to try this soup. The cold weather hasn’t left us completely so I must strongly encourage you to make this because you won’t regret it! I found a recipe on Pinterest and tweaked it to make a quick, delicious Pozole that tastes like it was simmering for hours. Please try it, and use up your leftover carnitas! (Or shredded chicken!) 20200404_134401

Isn’t it gorgeous? Okay, enough chatting, here is the recipe:

30 Minute Amazing Pozole

2 T canola or vegetable oil

2 T flour

1/2 small yellow onion, chopped small dice

1/2 T Chili powder (more if you like it spicy)

1/2 can tomato paste (if you don’t have it, sub in marinara or tomato sauce!)

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp cayenne powder (if you really like heat, I did not use it)

1 tsp salt

2 cups water

3 cups chicken broth (I use water and chicken bouillon)

15 oz can hominy

2 cups leftover carnitas (shredded pork or use shredded chicken)

1 lime

Handful of cilantro

Cacique queso fresca or Cotija cheese

Directions:

In a soup pot, heat oil over medium high heat and add your diced onions. Sauté until soft and translucent. Add a pinch of salt. Add the flour with the chili powder and saute for a couple more minutes continuously stirring.

Add the 2 cups of water, tomato paste, garlic powder, cumin, and salt. Stir to combine. I also squeezed in 1 lime wedge, just because! Let mixture thicken slightly, then add the chicken broth, shredded meat and hominy (drained). Cook for another 10 minutes or so until heated through.

Serve topped with rough chopped cilantro and a sprinkle of queso fresca.

*if you like heat or spice, you can add more chili powder, cayenne or diced chiles.

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Hope you give it a try! Let me know if you do and what you think!

❤Charlene

Uncategorized

Letter to my 45 year old self…

August 12, 2019August 12, 2019 Charlene Becker

Hello everyone!!I’ve been hearing a lot lately about people writing letters to themselves. You can open it up a year from now or 5 years from now or even 10 years from now. The letter should be something uplifting for your older self. Something you think you might need to hear at that time. I wish I could write a letter to my younger self and have my younger self read it and learn from my older self, but I just haven’t found a way to do that yet. 😉 So until then, this will have to do. I think I know what my older self will need to hear in a year so I’ll try for something like this…Dear Charlene,Read this when you are 45.So here you are, 45 years old and you’re wondering where the time has gone. Please don’t sell yourself short. You have accomplished so much in your lifetime more than you know even though it doesn’t seem like you have. You have lived in 5 states, been married 3 X, divorced twice,have a beautiful 8 year old and a beautiful 6 year old. By now you probably have your real estate license, and you’re helping your husband run a business. It might be starting out slow or you could already be very successful, but what you need to realize is that you are already successful. Having and caring for your children is a success. Providing for them is a success. Taking care of your husband and your family is a success. People need to realize that we need to celebrate the small successes and realize that is what matters in this life. You might also be working a full-time job and that could be taking away from the family. Just remember it’s temporary. Nothing lasts forever. You might be missing your family as well. Just know that they are always thinking of you, and always pulling for you and in your corner. Even though it might not seem like it at times. Be strong.Hopefully the business is booming, and you are looking for your forever home. As soon as you get this forever home I think you should get a puppy. Or even a kitty. Animals fill a void nothing else can. I know there is an empty spot in your heart that Hunny has left. She was the best dog ever. I know you are skeptical if you will find a pet that is as special as she was, but I know you will because most dogs and cats are pretty special. God will be looking out for you and he will match you with one that needs a home just as much as you want to give one to him or her.I’m pretty sure you also went back to school, most likely for general education. Keep your eye on the prize and realize that this is something you were always meant to do. Teaching others, guiding them, inspiring them to do their very best and becoming who they need to be. This is how you will make a difference in the world.Be the change you want to see.I have to go now spend time with your 7 year son and your 5 year daughter. I think some Play-Doh is on the agenda. Remember they are only little for a little while. Enjoy them and their sweetness and innocence.Love your 44 year old self!CharleneI encourage you all to write letters to your future self encourage them, and congratulate them. This life is pretty tough but we should be easy on ourselves, always. Xoxo

cooking, Dinners, food, Recipes

Macaroni Grill Copycat Pasta Pomodoro Yummmm

August 1, 2019August 2, 2019 Charlene Becker

Here is how I made this awesome, beautiful copycat version of Macaroni Grill’s Pasta Pomodoro. This dish only has 5 ingredients! It would be amazing and very impressive for a date night. Pair this with a simple salad like a Cesar and some crusty french bread and you just can’t top it. A nice Chianti or red wine would pair nicely with this rich, red sauce. It’s my go to pasta dish when I want something quick and semi healthy! 😉

So here we go:

Pasta Pomodoro

Ingredients:

4-6 fresh tomatoes, chopped (I used 4 small campari tomatoes and 1 heirloom)

2 Tablespoons of fresh garlic, chopped (or less if you’re not a fan)

1 small bunch of fresh basil, chiffonade

1/4 cup of your favorite marinara or tomato sauce

1/2 – 1 pound Angel Hair Pasta

Other pantry ingredients: good olive oil, kosher salt or any sea salt

Start a pot of boiling water for the pasta and while that’s going, start on your sauce.

Start with your pan on medium heat and add about 2 Tablespoons of the olive oil. Also add the garlic at this time and WATCH it. Stir often and watch it soften for just about a minute or less. You do NOT want to brown it. Browned garlic is bitter and not good.

The garlic will infuse the oil and it will make this dish YUM! After about 30 seconds to 1 minute swirling the garlic around, add the tomatoes. You can stir occasionally. We are just trying to infuse the tomatoes with the garlic oil and break them down a little so they are soft and flavorful.

After about 5 -8 minutes you can add the marinara/tomato sauce. This helps the sauce to have a richer flavor. If the tomatoes look like they are drying quickly, turn your heat down and add the sauce sooner. I personally LOVE the Victoria Trading Company Marinara Sauce Old World Style. This is an AMAZING sauce! If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it! Here’s a picture:

After adding the sauce, you can add 1/2 of the basil so those flavors can meld together. Add the pasta to your boiling water and after about 7 minutes it should be al dente. Use tongs to add the pasta to your sauce and toss. Also at this point you can taste your sauce to see if it needs any salt. Top and mix with the rest of the fresh basil. (Optional: add some fresh grated Parmesan or pass it at the table) – I don’t think it needs it, but hey, if you like it that way, go for it!

Serve with your side of salad and a warm french bread! This is also a terrific side dish for Chicken Marsala or Chicken Piccata.

This takes me back to when my sister and I would go to the Macaroni Grill for lunches and get the 1/2 and 1/2. I think my recipe is pretty darn close to the real thing!

I hope you enjoy it and please give me a shoutout or comment if you try it!

Happy Cooking & Mangia!

Charlene

Breakfast/Brunch, cooking, food, Recipes

Fig, Arugula & Carmelized Onion Flatbread Recipe

August 1, 2019August 1, 2019 Charlene Becker

Hi my Lovlies!

I got these beauties at the Farmer’s Market, as you can see from my below post. If you are lucky enough to find figs, I would suggest a Fig, Caramelized Onion, Arugula & Feta Flatbread! With homemade flatbread of course! Here are the recipes that I used…and if you don’t like arugula, use spinach! If you don’t like feta, use brie! You can customize it however you like!

I stumbled upon this lovely flatbread recipe that worked great in the oven! – If you don’t have Pinterest, here is a link to her recipe on her blog.

Once I rested the dough, I floured a surface and rolled it out. I cut it into wedges as shown here and put it on my lightly oiled Pampered Chef Large Bar Pan. You can rise it again since it is a yeast dough, but I wanted it pretty flat and I knew it would puff a little in the oven. I flipped it halfway through baking. I believe I used 350 degrees for about 10 minutes a side. Times and ovens vary, so I would just experiment with it.

While my dough was cooking in the oven, I was sauteing my sliced onions in a little butter until they were very soft, then I added a pinch of salt and continued until they were nice and caramelized! At the same time I also roasted the figs. To prepare those, I sliced them at about 1/4″, lightly oiled a baking sheet, then topped with a little more olive oil, honey and a sprinkle of brown sugar.

After that I assembled the ingredients back on the flatbread and popped them back into the oven for about 10-15 minutes. Just until the cheese was melted and the ingredients melded together.

Here’s how I topped them: I brushed them with a good Lebanese olive oil, sprinkled with feta cheese, layered on the onions, then the sliced figs, fresh arugula and then more feta. I left a couple pieces of flatbread plain for the kiddos. (they LOVED it)

Here are slices of my amazing, delicious finished flatbread! I loved the savory of the onions and arugula with the sweetness of the figs. The cheese was mild and brought it all together! I shared this as kind of an appetizer with my mom friends while our kids played at our apartment complex park. They raved about this! A couple of them are borderline vegans, so it was divine for them. You could even drizzle a little truffle oil on top to be extra decadent! ❤

Hope you give this a try and love it as much as we did!!

Happy cooking!

food, Food Review, kids

Roseville Farmers Market

July 2, 2019July 2, 2019 Charlene Becker

Hi y’all!

Today I went to the farmer’s market with the kids. It’s a cute little farmers market in Roseville and they do it in the Whole Foods parking lot. I haven’t been to this particular one in probably 8 years but not much has changed.

The vendor that sells the stuffed Paratha and Chutney is still there! And it’s as good as I remember. A large piece of spinach paratha was $6 and an 8 oz container of cilantro chutney was also $6. I find this very reasonable as it is very delicious! They sell different kinds of paratha, samosas, naan and different chutneys.

The first thing that the kids saw was the kettle corn so of course we had to buy a small bag of that. It’s a decent sized bag probably about 20 oz. It’s a perfect balance of sweet and salty and was $6.

Next up we saw olives that looks pretty good, and were in a salt water brine but a little too pricey for me, one jar of Kalamata olives was $12.

The kids were thirsty at this point but they left their bottled waters in the car. If you do go to a farmers market I highly recommend you bring your own drink not many of them served water or have drinks for kids. Although next up we did see a boba tea vendor who was also selling pork buns potstickers and other Asian food items. I purchased a boba milk tea for me, the kids tried a sip but did not care for it. I thought it was very well made and was only $4, very reasonable.

The pork bun was not a BBQ pork bun which is more of a traditional dim sum, and what I was expecting. The steamed white bun was tasty however inside was a pork filling that was very similar to a potsticker filling. Not what I was expecting although it was tasty. I probably would not buy it again because my idea of a pork bun would be the traditional Chinese cha siu bao. It was also overpriced! It was $3! Normally for Chinese dim sum, it’s about $3 or $4 for 3 buns.

Next up were the cookies. I was very surprised to see that the package said they were made in a home kitchen. When I researched farmers markets before they had told me everything food- consumable had to be prepared in a commercial kitchen. I guess they made some changes in 8 years.

The cookies were from Foresthill Cookie Company, and they were $2.50 each or there was some deal if you bought about six cookies. Considering they were so big, a very large cookie I only wanted to buy two for my kids. My kids sampled them and my son decided on the birthday cake cookie. My daughter wanted the Oreo, chocolate cookie which was called the Oreo dirt clod cookie LOL. It also looked similar to that. These cookies tasted like pure sugar. Not much flavor, in fact it just tasted like a big sugar cookie to me. If I close my eyes and take a bite of each they taste pretty much the same. The owner was friendly and my kids were happy to get a cookie.

Next up where the fruits and vegetables. I usually like to buy something different or unusual at a farmers market. And the next and that I went to had figs and immediately I thought the recent Instagram Picture by Jennifer Garner where she was roasting figs with a balsamic glaze and goat cheese. It looked amazing however I’m not a big fan of anything goat related. However I am a fan of flatbreads so I am seeing a fig, caramelized onion and feta cheese flatbread in my future for dinner tonight. I saw a recipe on Pinterest so if I do make that I will come back to this and Link it for you. I have some naan in my freezer but I’m going to probably make just a simple traditional flatbread.

The ladies that were selling the figs also had some yummy looking cherries. They told me if I purchased two containers I could get the third for $2. Seemed like a good deal. My son picked out the red traditional cherries oh, and I got the figs and cucumbers. About eight mini cucumbers, half of which were a little too bendy for me and did not seem crisp. However I think if I use them right away in the next couple of days, maybe do a cucumber salad, I think they will be okay.

I would have purchased more but at this point I was at almost $50 and surprised that I spent so much money.

Lastly I picked up two small artichokes for $1.50 each. A little high-priced but I think a very nice size for me and the kids. I think I will cut them in half, use a little olive oil, salt and pepper and grill them.

I will post some pictures of my creations and links to the recipes when I’m done. I hope you return to check out what I make with our farmers market finds!

Have a great day!

Flowers, Gardening, Living, Parenting, Sophia

Apartment Patio Gardening – Planting Flowers & Herbs

June 25, 2019June 25, 2019 Charlene Becker

Sophie was my little helper this morning planting some herbs and flowers on our patio. We have a lovely shaded patio that only gets evening sun for a couple of hours. I wasn’t sure what to plant so I headed to our neighborhood Lowe’s and asked a garden representative what would work best for our shaded patio. I knew that I wanted to have a few herbs that I use quite a bit such as basil and thyme, but I wasn’t sure what else would do well.

The gentleman there didn’t seem very confident, however he pointed me in the direction of the shaded section of the nursery. He said that anything under there would grow well in the shade. I told him that it doesn’t really get much sun, maybe two to three hours in the late evening. I was worried because some of the tags said 1-3 hours morning sun and 6 hours of full sun. He assured me they would still do well.

We found a pretty plant called Coleus, a flowering plant called sunpatiens I’m assuming of the impatiens family, and another flowering plant called a red celosia. My daughter help me make a “flower bed” in each pot with the new potting soil, then we set in the plants and gently covered them with more soil.

The six plants, 1 rectangle plastic pot, one bag of potting soil and 3 pack of gloves was $43 with our military discount.

Not too bad for some quality time with Sophie, some pretty scenery, and some fresh herbs for cooking! Some of my favorite summer things to make are Caprese salad, Margherita pizza, fresh pesto, and using thyme for roasted carrots and my simple everyday vinaigrette. (Stay tuned for recipes to come!)

Sunpatiens and herbs; thyme, sweet basil and chocolate mint!: (planted the chocolate mint just for fun, I love the smell!)