Autograph Books

Quilty sewing has haulted as I am currently on a Disney kick.  But do no despair (ok I know nobody is dispairing over my lack of quilting) as Bonnie Hunter is visiting my quilt guild in June and I will surely rekindle the obsession very soon!  That and quilt guild is tonight so when I see everybody's quilts I'm sure to want to run right home and sew.  :)

Lookeee what I made!!!  A couple of autograph books for the girlies, and Minnie lanyards!!!  I am so proud of those silly little books.  I went through a bunch of old scrapbooking stuff I had in my crafty stash from years ago when I was on a big scrapbooking kick.  It's all heavy weight album paper and cardboard scraps I kept for just the right project...I went through and cut each piece by hand and hole bunched each piece by hand!  Lol*  All 150 pages of them!!!  Found the keyrings at Walmart...they have colored ones for $4 in assorted sizes and hooks come with them.  Then I just glued ribbon until I couldn't stand to look at ribbon or jewels any longer.  I used Disney Princess plates from the party section for the princesses!  Ohmygosh this was so much fun!  I was a little nervous the girls wouldn't be that into them, but I knew I had done alright when my middle child told me that she wanted to sleep with hers because it was her favorite thing.  **Mush**

We ordered pins to trade at the parks for the lanyards that should be here towards the end of the week.  Woot!  What fun!  :)

More Kitchen Adventures and Working in the Garden

More cooking going on here.  My parents gave me a cast iron skillet that they don't use because I had been wanting one.  I was so thrilled not only to receive something that could be handed down to my children, but a skillet that had already been "broken in" and had a bit of seasoning to it!  I am discovering the very interesting and fun world of cast iron cooking...I have used my wonderful skillet nearly every day upon receiving it.  Here is a little picture of yesterday's experiment...

Corn bread!!!  Lol*  I am so fascinated by the fact that you can bake RIGHT in the skillet.  Lol*  The cornbread came out good but not sweet enough for my liking, so I will have to add a little more sugar next time.

In other happenings I've been spending most of my time outdoors.  Usually in this area we are still getting regular snow in March, so the temperatures of 75 and 80 we've been having are such a treat.  I've been spending every moment I can getting a head start on some of the outdoor spring cleanup.  Lots of painting and moving of brush...nothing exciting!  But keeping me busy! 

Here's a few random pictures, as I like ot add those.  The first bloom for the year in my garden...hyacinths...they are much more blue in real life.  Usually the daffodils flower first...what a wierd spring!!!

Tulips well on their way...these are one of my favorite flowers.  I cannot wait to see them bloom...

Irises would probably be my all time favorites...I have bunches of them all through the garden but these ones were the first to be planted when I started gardening.  This year I layered thick newspaper and mulch around them to see if we can't get those weeds under control.

More pictures soon...the baby calls!

A Secret Project and Rambles

I can't show what I'm working on but I'll show you just a lil' snippet to prove that I am sewing!  Had the most wonderful birthday the day before yesterday and still recovering a bit from it!  I am officially 31!!!  Lol*  I was going to say I don't feel like it...but, I'm a tired Mommy of three...so truthfully I feel older than 31!  :)  I'm still sort of juvenile about my birthday where even though I know I'm too old for a lot of nonsense, I still sort of want a lot of nonsense.  Lol*  Last year sorta stunk because we had a close family member pass away the day before.  So the day of we spent with family making plans and preperations for a funeral and that was just so sad.  I am happy this year nothing too terrible happened...though my middle daughter did smoosh her fingers in the door at McDonald's and I ended up spending a few hours in the emergency department with her.  Nothing broke thank goodness but her heart and mine!  My little angel is much better now, though enjoying a bit of extra attention, and my Husband went out of his way to make a little "fuss" for me.  :)  That was so sweet and, you know, sometimes you just need to feel important and thought of! 

So the birthday is all over but we are planning a trip to Disney soon so I have something new to look forward to!  I see lots of mouse ears and minnie dresses in my future...  ;)

I'm a Lucky Birthday Girl :)

Thank you my Handsome Husband :)

I love my birthday wheelbarrow!  :)

Cooking, Eating, Sewing...

I'll admit, I am not the greatest cook, but I am really working on it.  I've got two or three things down - I make a mean semi-home made stromboli, to die for BBQ pulled pork, spicey and creamy pumpkin roll, and I rock out a few great holiday cookies that gets the family talking and munching each year.  The only problem...I can't feed my family stromboli and pumpkin roll 365 days out of the year.  Lol*  So I yesterday I finally mustered up some courage and tried something new...something that didn't even end in "helper".  :)  I made fried chicken!!!

Now some of you pro's at cooking are probably rolling your eyes thinking, "really?", but this is a recipe I have always been afraid to try!  I am always quite nervous about not cooking the meat long enough and poisoning my family!  I've never really done much cooking with anything other than boneless skinless chicken breast or ground beef/turkey/pork so I'm awfully proud.  I made glazed carrots for the Husband and served cauliflower, carrots and ranch dip to lighten it up a little for me and the kids (who opted out of the dip).  The very best part?  EVERYONE ate it!  Lol*  It was so good, and I'm feeling very confident now!  :)  I won't be making it often due to the nearly 800 calories in each piece, lol*, but it will be a great once in a while addition to our menu.  

Tonight's experiment?  Baked BBQ chicken wings...wish me luck!

Garden Walk, Garden Junk

Working out the dimensions of a quilt design for most of the day.  What a great day to be sewing.  It was cool and rainy, but still warmer than it should be this time of year.  I had the doors open a crack so I could smell the fresh spring air while I worked...and the rain.  :)  Got the police scanner app working on my tablet...oh joy to me is a cup of coffee, a fresh rotary blade, stack of precuts, and silence intertwined with the criminal happenings of all the county.  Lol*  It was a good day.

I think I may have enjoyed too much coffee though as I can't get to sleep!  I'm keeping the husband awake too with my tap tap tapping on the keyboard, but I'll try and get a few pictures in before he grumbles at me to quit...just some garden junk and random garden pictures.  Everything is still pretty sleepy this early in the year.  Not much coming up other than tulips and hyacinths.

This is a vintage gas can my Dad gave me...ironically the vast majority of garden junk in my garden is from my Dad!

My hydrangea...in it's fourth year?  Fourth or fifth I can't remember...

Tulips I planted in this bucket last year and forgot about...

More garden junk...these weren't from Dad...yard sales, thrift shops...

A sleeping garden bed in need of some grooming...

Mean old black eyed susans gobbling up it's neighbors...

...a foxglove baby hiding beneath the debris...

Another bed in need of love...lots of last years strawberry vines and that big brown bush you can barely make out are my hot pink Knock Out Roses.  They are GORGEOUS in the summer.

I guess that's it.  I'm tired now too.  ;)  My weekly walking buddy has canceled on me for tomorrow morning so, back to sewing in the morning.

Spring Table Runner Finish and I've Got Garden Fever!

It's supposed to be 60 today!  Woooheeee!  After taking the girls to the bus stop this morning I'm confident it will actually reach 60 as the weather man predicted...I'm thinking maybe I could divide up and transplant some perennials today...is it too early?  Waiting to hear from my trusty gardening buddies at Garden Web...if nothing else I think I'll definitely  be taking pictures and working on cleaning out some of the leaves...I saw a few plants peeking out from the dirt getting ready for spring!  Yay!

Oh yes, and sewing sewing...lol*  I finished another runner for my Etsy Shop...I am trying to get it filled up again, Hubby's birthday is coming up in just a few short months and I promised him a new addition to his Vintage Star Wars collection...lol*  I have two memory quilts in the works and prospects for a few more so looks like I will be a busy girl the next few weeks.  :)

I tried something different with the quilting on this one, vining leaves...I think it looks pretty good!  I SO need a long arm!!!  :)  I'm getting to the point where I move faster than my machine stitches...

Another St. Patty's Day Finish :)

Well I finished the wallhanging for my front door...I have been so immersed in my cookbook and thoughts of gardening that I didn't know if I'd get to it!  Yesterday I decided I better buckle down.  I have Etsy projects to be working on too but it's looking so plain out front I really wanted to get this up.

Here's a closeup of the front...it's very "Bonnie Hunter" inspired isn't it?  Well...I don't remember if I posted about it, but she's coming to my quilt guild in June and I'm SO EXCITED!  I signed up for her workshop the last time she visited about two years ago, but was in nursing school at the time and had a test that I couldn't get out of.  BUMMER!!!  So I'm very very excited to be free enough to go this time.  I guess it was sort of on my mind when I started cutting scraps for this...

Here it is on my front door.  We used to have a full glass panel front door and I am missing it for sure now that I see this hung up.  We now have one of those half glass, half screen doors and I HATE it.  Ugh.  Cuts right through my pretty wall hanging.  Looks pretty here in the pictures though...

 I really need to get some more free motion practice in.  I have been quilting with polyesters and I'm really in love with it, but sometimes I just want the look of cotton.  I used 50 wt. cotton from Connecting Threads here, in my favorite shade, Honey.  I am almost out of that color too and am debating on reordering from them.  I had a bad experience last time I ordered from them and haven't decided if I want to go back or not.  I love their products, and for the most part the customer service has been great, but when I had a complaint their attitude was pretty much, get packing and don't let the door hit ya on the way out.  Anyhow here's a little of the back...I love the look of quilting on a pretty cream backing like this, but you can really see how goofy my stitching got!  :)

Quilting Practice and Random Happenings

I haven't sewn in a few days.  I've been reorganizing the house, doing a bit of spring cleaning.  I have another St. Patty's day project waiting for me at the sewing table but I just can't get going on it because on Friday...

 ...the newest issue of Country Gardens arrived in my mailbox!  I have been so busy lately that when this came I realized I hadn't even opened the last issue that came, so I thought I ought to catch up.  Mother nature has been teasing us with the warm and mild winter we've had this year...and I am READY!  Temperatures didn't consistently stay below 32 degrees for long this winter so I didn't get any wintersown plants out.  NOT ONE!  This is the first year since I discovered wintersowing that I haven't done any seeds.  Even last winter, big bellied and pregnant I trudged my way through the weedy garden.  I put out seeds and even dug up a bed just weeks before the baby was born.  I suppose since I would be putting out perennials they would be fine, but not knowing what winter had yet in store I was afraid to risk it.  It's now March and I don't like to start my annuals just yet, so I think I'll get a late start and do some "spring" sowing.  I have lots of plants this year that need dividing and transplanting after a couple seasons of neglect.  My two big goals this year are to tidy up the front gardens and get to gardening the back of the house.

I was able to swipe two of these little violet house plants at a benefit I went to recently...they are so pretty and cheery!  I'm thinking I need to repot them...teapots?  Yes?  I think yes!  :)

Another thing I've been interested in is cooking.  I'm not a huge cook.  Usually around the holidays I get a bug up my patoot and I want to cook nonstop...and eat too.  :)  But the rest of the year I'm usually so busy with my family and my hobbies that I forget about cooking.  Taste of Home is my FAVORITE cooking magazine, ever.  There are always real recipes in there...what I mean by that is recipes that are from food we normally keep around the house.  I just hate when you get a cooking book where all of the recipes are ingredients you will only use for that one thing, and you have to go out and spend a fortune on things you don't normally keep.  I have made lots of recipes from the magazines and really enjoyed them...the family too.  So my Mom gave me this as an early birthday gift because she knows how much I love the magazines.  I am thrilled!  I cannot wait to start making some of the yummies in here...

...it's just a wee bit large...so I have LOTS of cooking to do now!

Oh yes and I promised some quilting practice...this is an adaption from one of the M' Liss quilting designs in EQ6...I had originally practiced it with the intention of using it on my log cabin wallhanging but even though I marked them all over the quilt I still just went in and did feathers!!!

I used a Clover water erasable marking pen that I purchased after going to the Lake Farmpark Quilt Show with my Mom a few weeks ago.  I have another water eraseable marking pen but I really like Clover brand.  They just seem to be very consistent with their products, I have had great luck with everything Clover that I've purchased.  I also have their mini-iron, my Mother gave that to me also as a birthday gift!  I use it for applique and it gets wonderfully HOT!  But much more convenient than using the big clunky iron.  I also have one of those cheapie craft irons but they just don't get hot enough.  Also the clover iron is small, and has a pointy tip for precision.  I love that.

Alrighty well I'm off to do something.  Sewing, gardening, cooking...one of my infinite hobbies!  Maybe I'll paint my nails!  ;)  Cleaning is what I should be doing but, eh, it will all still be there waiting to be done tomorrow.