Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: Sorta-Subway® Series & Homemaking Link-Up Weekend

It's the weekend!!  What's your favorite part about the weekend?  I love weekends most because that's when my husband is off work and we can have family time~~Yay!

One of our family's favorite places to eat out is Subway®.  We love it that we can always find something fresh and healthy there!  I've come up with a few "Sorta-Subway®" recipes that I thought I'd share with you all in a series.

The first in the series is my recipe for Sorta-Subway® Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.  These are crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside and SUPER yummy!

Sorta-Subway® Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 cup butter          1 cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar           1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs                   1 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. salt              1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon    3 c. oats

1 1/2 c. raisins

Cream together butter and sugars until fluffy.  Add vanilla and eggs and beat well.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Refrigerate about 15 minutes.  Drop by tablespoons onto greased baking sheet.  Bake on 350 for 10 minutes or until middle is done.  Yum!

Linking with:
Project Party Weekend@BNC 
Show and Tell Friday@My Romantic Home
Tater Tots and Jello 

Easel Card Tutorial, Lemon Muffins recipe, and Homemaking Link Up Weekend

   
Who loves a great card tutorial?  I do!  I've recently really been getting back into card making more as I'm anticipating an upcoming scrapbooking retreat! This Easel Card is so easy and fun to make---I'm trying to find a good reason to make a whole bunch more!

Start by cutting a 12x12 piece of card stock into thirds so you have 3 pieces that are 4x12.  You will only be using one strip for the card so one piece of 12x12 will make 3 cards!  Score the paper at 4", 6" and 8".  I use the track of my cutter as a guide and use this bone folder from Martha Stewart to score my lines.

Fold the paper at the score lines and adhere one 2" piece to it's nearest 4" piece on the inside.

Stand up the glued piece to look like an easel.

Decorate the face of the card in your own creative way.

You can use anything you'd like to act as a "stopper" for the standing piece.  Buttons and foam-backed embellishments work great.  I used this cute typewriter key egg embellishment and was reminded of the Cadbury commercial where the bunny lays the Creme Egg!  I loved that commercial as a kid!!

   
When you've finished your card, why not send it to a friend and invite her over for tea and muffins? 

Lemon Muffins  (makes 12-18)

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup sour cream or yogurt 

2 large eggs
5 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon extract

Mix the dry ingredients together and then make a well for the remaining ingredients.  Mix until combined and spoon into muffin pans.  Bake at 375°F for 15-20 min. or until the muffins are light brown on top and done inside.  Let cool in pan for 5 minutes or so and then turn out onto a wire rack.  Yum!

Linking up with:
Bubbly Nature Creations Project Party Weekend 
Beverly's Pink Saturday 
Whimsical Wednesdays at AudraSilva.com

Golden Tone Effect Challenge

My friend Rachel from Bubbly Nature Creations has been flexing her photo-recreating muscles today and has come up with a fun challenge!  She found an AWESOME site called, PicMonkey, where users can do all kinds of funky adjustments to photos for FREE!  She's even offered a tutorial to add a subtle (or not so subtle in my case) golden-tone to your photos using the site.  

Jamie took the photo on the top the day before yesterday when I was wanting a new profile pic for my various online communities.  This was one that could have been ok, but I wasn't totally thrilled with it.  But, now that I've messed around with it on PicMonkey, I think it's sorta groovy.  In fact, one time I went to visit my grandma and she had a picture of her mother, my great-grandma, on a table in her living room.  When she left the room, I quickly snapped a picture of it so I'd always know what she looked like.  It was taken the in early 70s but was really faded out so it had the same coloring as the one I just adjusted there on the bottom.  So...yeah, that was random ---but it's kinda cool in my mind.  

Anyway, I said all that to say this:  Go visit Rachel and check out her "Golden Tone" Effect Challenge and let me know how much you LOVE the PicMonkey site!