snowflake bracelet

I couldn't stand it. I bought a pin from Wal-mart with 3 of these gold and white snowflakes on it and cut them off (3 snowflakes for $2.00). You can see the pretty silver and rhinestone snowflake that used to be a necklace (I wore it for 2 days and the tiny, fine silver chain was killing me!). The snowflake on the far left is one of 2 that I cut off earrings. Some of the crystals are from the crystals I put in my daughter's wedding bouquets. I put some empty rings to hold future snowflakes but I like it! I spent about an hour and a half putting it together while the boys were getting ready for school. Now I need to go put a blue shirt on so I can wear my new bracelet.

I'm decorated so I need to go do something to decorate my house.....

(Today is the last day of the month. I posted all but one day but I made up for that by posting more than once a day other days ;)...I don't think I'll continue this posting everyday throughout December, but I've really enjoyed talking to you each day.)

povitica bread

The giant slug up-dated. If you recall I made a loaf of Povitica, a Polish bread, right before Thanksgiving and blogged about it here. I figured I needed to use up the rest of the filling so made another batch of the bread. This time I just used a sweet bread recipe, I think any will do, mine used 4 cups of flour. I added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to the bread dough, which adds to the cinnamon punch. Then after it raised once I rolled it verry thin and spooned the filling on. What a difference having the filling cold made! It didn't goosh all over and stayed where I put it. Wonderful. I rolled the bread up like cinnamon rolls then folded it into the bread pan. Let it raise, then baked it. Yummy. (No picture since it is already sliced and frozen so we won't be pigs and eat it all. It also wasn't as pretty as the one's pictured in the bakery so go droll there.) So my recommendation if you try the link to the recipe is to half everything and chill the filling, and add cinnamon to the dough. If you don't want to bake the thing at all go order yourself one of them here!

snowflakes bracelet

I have an idea... I have a Christmas bracelet that I love that is red and green.. I wear it alot but..... I really NEED a holiday bracelet that is blue. Sooo using the green and red one as a pattern I went to hobby lobby and bought some silver beads and clear ones. But couldn't find any snowflakes.

Wal-Mart had this beauty (Yeah! it has crystals, or rhinestones, or diamonds? anyway it sparkles.) I could only get one. My friends suggested I mention to my kids and that would give them an idea for Christmas... so there's an idea for y'all, any snowflake; silver. (Have you ever tried to take a photo of your own neck? With a close-up lens I got my chin, my hand, half of the snowflake, so had to wait until ds10 got home.)

hawaiian quilt

I know this is not a great picture. This is a wedding quilt made for a friends nephew. The nephew is half Hawaiian, so this is his 'Hawaiian' quilt. a bit easier than the traditional. This is on a twin bed, but it is a BIG quilt. I've also made my friend's son a twin size for his graduation from high school. Now I am working on one for her daughter's graduation from high school. I'm destined to make more of these. My friend, Becky has 6 kids and I don't know how many nieces and nephews. We trade. She fixes my hair; perms, cuts, dyes and cleans some for my sewing. I use the 'Cut No Squares' method and it really goes pretty fast. This one is going fast since we had strips cut from the last 2. We have strips cut for the next one too. Notice that this is a blue quilt. You didn't notice that? (Every other square is blue.) The current one is a 'cool' quilt, every other square is blue or green, but the alternate is 'warm,' pink, yellow, or red.

I used the same method I used in making Liz's green quilt that I blogged about here. Okay, you twisted my arm, I'm including another picture of it.

large mittens

I know that y'all have been waiting for the unveiling of the new edition mittens! These are supposed to fit a small adult hand. In this picture they may fit an elephant. I got brave and washed 1 by itself.

Here it is with one before washing and one after.

WFMW

My sons are struggling to learn cursive writing. So I got myself a little notebook and declared a 'write to mom day'. The rules were simple; if you wanted anything of mother you had to write them down in cursive, and she answered in cursive AND it had to be in 2 sentences. For example, 'Mom, I'm bored. May I please have a popsicle?' I tried to answer in the affirmative ridiculous, for example, 'I love to have you write to me my most noble son. Certainly you may have a grape juice popsicle.' (It required a well stocked pantry /freezer also.) I would correct any letters they had trouble with but didn't insist they copy it over, I figured the next time they wanted a cookie or lunch or such it would be in front of them to copy. We had fun with it and although it never lasted a whole day they got some practise in reading and writing cursive.
Be sure and look at Rocks in my Dryer blog for more Works for me Wednesday.

mosaics

Lynn sent me pictures of her new mosaics. I couldn't get them into Etsy because the pictures have to be square. So she has to take the pictures again.

pink velour pillow

I finally got this pillow finished. I decide that none of the pink ball fringe in ANY (and I visited a great many) of the fabric stores in the Houston area matched the pink well enough to use. It is a very pale pink. So here it is with white. It has a 12" pillow form (also difficult to find!) but is a bit smaller than 12 inches. If all of the velour pillows take this long I won't be making very many. The fabric is difficult to sew. I LIKE COTTON! But I LOVE the way this feels. I keep picturing this on a young girls bed, (with the bed made!) and a child leaning against the pillows reading and stroking this pillow. By the way this pillow is for sale in my etsy shop.

wedding jacket

Saturday, I posted about this jacket. I didn't realize there was a picture until I loaded the picts this afternoon.
I love the sleeve...mainly cause it was the easiest sleeve I've ever sewn.

knitting boy

Is this an itty bitty scarf? A pet snake? A noose? Remember the mittens I knit for my grandson? This will be the cord that links them together inside the sleeves of his coat, so they don't end up lost like the mitten in the Jan Brett's book; The Mitten.
My boys both worked on it; it became a contest, 'you knit 10 inches so I'm going to knit 14!' How long will it be when we stop? Only Angela know for sure!

mad scientist

Who are the masked scientists? Science Fair deadline is coming...have I told you how much I love science fair? This may be a valuable experience for a child but it is guaranteed to drive a mother mad! The subject is; What effect does the acidity (vinegar) of the liquid(milk) have on the growth of bacteria(yogurt)? Sounds intriguing? Stay tuned we'll have the answer in.... days. Each step takes 24 hours, so we are waiting with bated breath to see the growth on those wonderful petri dishes sitting in the incubator (oven with light on).

the month is almost over!

This blogging every day (okay I missed one) is getting old. You are probably getting tired of my blabbing.
The great mystery of the missing meatball is solved.
Last night I got in line at the wedding we went to. While in line I got some food.(duh that's what you do at receptions) I bumped my plate and my meatball disappeared! I looked all over the floor, sure the light was dim but not that dark, and I didn't want to have some kid step on it. But I couldn't find it.
This morning in the parking lot at church I was putting on my make-up, yeah we were running late, and there it was, in my purse, yuk.

wedding jacket

I got a call last night from my friend, Becky, the local wedding guru, she does a lot of brides hair and does a great job. The bride called her last night to help her with her hair and she found out about the dress' problems. So guess who got to rescue it. We got home from the fabric store at 2 p.m.. I had 3 hours to make a jacket to cover the top's problem. I finished in 2 hours and 26 minutes! I actually had time to put on a dress and makeup and get there in time to put the bride's jacket on her before the ceremony. I'm ready for a nap....Oh but wait, there's sewing mess in 3 rooms! I guess it will still be there tomorrow.

9-patch Thanksgiving

Here we are at about 2 p.m. before the green beans were found (hiding in the oven). Notice the mashed potatoes close to my elbow. A new recipe and very good, I made them the day before. One thing I love about Thanksgiving...I don't have to cook for a week! The turkey was on the table in the photo but then moved back to the kitchen to be carved, to difficult and messy at the table. I love the turkey platter that my Mother bought for me years ago. Ooops we almost forgot the cranberry sauce, another new recipe. The cranberries were so easy I can't believe I ever opened a can. 1 bag cranberries, 1/2 cup apple cider, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 can mandarin oranges, zest of 2 oranges, cooked together, then mashed. I have a great zester from The Pampered Chef that makes zesting a breeze. (I justified buying it last year when I was doing a great deal of cooking for a wedding.) This is a doll quilt I made for Liz. Her initials are quilted in the white squares and her doll's name, Amy, is in the neighboring ones. The squares are 1".
This is one I made just because I saw one in Little Quilts that I loved. I hosted an exchange of these in blue and red and made a gazillion of them. They are 3/4".
This is another exchange. The top is fabulous in person. The squares are 1-1/2". The blocks were done by November 1991. My plan is to make a 'coin' back for it.

My oldest daughter is thinking about making a quilt; a 9-patch so when I saw this one I had to show it to her. I love 9-patches and have even made a few. There is a twin top, a double 9-patch, that I couldn't find. The blue 9-patch doll quilt is made from it's leftovers. Looking through my notebook I found a few more 9-patches, I'll have to post about them again.

The last 9-patch is about 50 years old. My grandmother made this for me, for Christmas I think. I played with dolls a lot and this got a work-out. It's tied with red yarn. (I thought she made 5 of these, but I just talked to my little sister and she doesn't remember one. I know there was more than one but how many? and there were some left overs in her scrap bag when she died.)

Since posting this I spoke with 'the sister that generally remembers EVERYTHING' and she agreed with me that there were indeed 5 of these. I remember that the sashings were each different (and I suspect they were from flour sacks) and I found out from examining the 9-patches in her scraps, she very carefully pressed each seam open. I recognize some of the patches as being scraps from square dance dresses that my older sisters had.

awake

None of my insomnia techniques are working. I finally took a pain pill and am now waiting for it to work; I don't think I'll get up in 2 1/2 hours to get a new monitor.
I thought I'd list some of the things I'll look for for next Thanksgiving. A white gravy boat. Here's a fun one from Amazon! Larger fancy glasses, the one's we have are for wine and since we don't drink wine we fill them with water; again and again and again. A nice dish that can go from the oven to the table for the sweet potatoes, probably white since my china is white with blue and silver. Another Pyrex pie pan since I usually bake more than one pie and the metal ones I have don't work as well as the clear glass. One more large serving spoon. I also need attractive (not worn-out and stained) potholders for the hot dishes to sit on, or a pad for the whole table. I have a great pumpkin serving bowl that I didn't use this year since I cut out the soup for just the 4 of us. Now I have a reason to go to Tuesday morning again!
Goodnight again.

thanksgiving

Technically I missed posting another day, but I haven't gone to bed yet so it still counts as Thursday. Our dinner was great, I had a great helper in Andrew (10). Roger and Jeffrey were working on a science fair project a good deal of the day, but helped at the end. Then I took a nap and the 'boys' did a fabulous job on the clean-up. Really, the kitchen is cleaner than it has been in months! We did not go overboard calorie wise either. One piece of pie with nonfat topping. My crust was the best! Actually I usually cheat and buy my crust, this time I didn't. I probably won't buy my crust again...well, at least for 20 years.

Tomorrow is black Friday and I NEVER go shopping then. I'm thinking of changing my ways and venture out to Best Buy for a flat screen monitor. I REALLY want more desk space.

One of my adult mittens is finished. Remember the book; The Mitten? My mitten is like that one after all the animals leave. It is huge! Can't wait to finish the partner and then felt them.
Goodnight.

free hands

I have noticed a side effect of some of my hobbies. Reading-you have a hand free to move food to your mouth. Cleaning house (actually can't call this a hobby) but your walk through the house and pass food, that goes into your mouth. Piecing quilts-you often stop and change activities, an ideal time to grab at least a handful of m&m's. Scrapbooking-again since you stop and start you have the opportunity to eat. Blogging-not so much; it takes me 2 hands to type. Knitting- again with the 2 hands and it interrupts the flow to put your yarn down and you might get your hands dirty! So if I keep up the knitting and the blogging I'm bound to loose a few ounces over the next few months.
Thanksgiving is here. I am queen of the last minute. I planned a bit this year, actually started thinking about it Sunday. We have rarely been able to have family over for Thanksgiving and I get a little sad about it. But my husband has a good job and I'm able to stay home with my kids. For years we had good friends that we took turns at each others houses' for Thanksgiving. When we moved away 12 years ago Thanksgiving was our saddest holiday because we had been consistent in that tradition. Now most of our kids have left home and are not in a position to make the trek here. This year it is just us four. I didn't even invite anyone and I usually do... I just kept putting it off.
I think tomorrow will be easier to finish the dinner than other years. The mushrooms for the relish tray are ready. I have a dressing kit in the fridge, it only needs the eggs and bread. The sweet potatoes are ready for the oven. The mashed potatoes are ready for the oven. The rolls are ready for the oven. So I have chestnuts to roast for the dressing, 1 pumpkin pie to make while the turkey cooks, green beans to fix, and a fruit salad to throw together. The boys will set the table and fix the relish tray and make the lemonade. We'll be done early and then we can get the 2 small feather trees out of the attic and decorate for Christmas!
Hope everyone takes the time to think about their blessings. Their country; their ancestors, family and friends. We all have much to be thankful for.

chores

done:
get/teach 2 boys to peel potatoes
mashed potato casserole-new recipe from 'Cook's Country' magazine involved eggs and garlic
pear dessert
mushrooms washed and cooking for marinated s
new salt and pepper shakers filled (cute birds that I saw here.)

that really doesn't look like a mornings work..but wait I had 2 boys' help that took longer and I took them to Target with me. What a headache! One does not stop asking questions. Anyone care to tell me how diamond prices compare to gold prices? 12 year old minds want to know.

To do;
pumpkin pie
sweet potato casserole
fruit salad

the giant slug

Somehow I found a bakery that makes povitica Polish Holiday Bread on line. It looked so good that I had to find a recipe for it or discover a long lost Polish ancestor. I found one on http://www.recipezaar.com/38043 and made it today. Mine looks like a giant slug. but it tastes terrific. Trouble was that I was already tired by the time I started rolling it out and I decided I didn't need to roll it out very thin (I rolled it to the limit of my clean counter). Then I tried to put all the filling in (then scooped half of it back out) then I had to find the coldest part of my kitchen (under the air-conditioning vent) to let it raise in since my homemade 'brown and serve' rolls were in line for the oven first. It raised a bit more than ideal and then it spilled onto the oven floor. Unfortunately I still need to fix dinner. (Thanksgiving isn't too much to handle if the family didn't think they should eat the 3 days prior to it. )

The turkey is brineing.

The rolls are made.

The sweet potatoes are baking.

The kitchen floor is waiting to get mopped from when I spilled a good portion of the apple cider brine on the floor!

The Christmas craft is getting finished tonight so we can set the table tomorrow morning.

And the boys and I dehydrated a bunch of yellow delicious apples for our loooong trip in December.

hamburger

Stump the Mom! 'Why do we call hamburger's hamburgers when there is no ham in them?' If anyone can answer that question they're better than the historians. I mumbled something about Hamburg, Germany but I pictured a long ago fast food place serving something that resembled our current day hamburger. Like a primitive Burger King for Knights as they head off to joust. Or the local witch putting up a 'lemonade type' stand at the edge of the jousting field and selling burgers. So I knew something but not very much.

chalkboard paint

Looking around blog land I learned something that I didn't even know I wanted to learn! I have seen and admired blackboard walls but could NOT see painting any wall black. You don't have to. Several people have come up with easy formulas for making any color paint into black board paint. Here's where I learned of it.
Here is a cool recipe for Lasagna . It gets fixed the night before with no boiling of regular noodles. It sits in the refrigerator overnight and is cooked the next day. I'm eager to try it.
Here is a cute i-pod cover that Melissa will want to make.
Here is an idea for all those pie bakers out there.
For those of you with out enough to do out there take your old t-shirts and while watching television cut, starting at the hem (cut the hem off) 1 long continuous 1/2-1 inch wide strip. Then crotchet that strip into a rug for your bathroom. I already hunt at thrift stores for great cheap 100% cotton plaid shirts, for use in the quilt of the future. Then I love shell buttons so I buy them. Then I collect wool for the braided rug I'm going to make... next decade. So do I need to add t-shirts? No!

quilt inspiration

I had a good thought but I'm not sure I can get it to work. I have a few quilts that were inspired by a picture. I thought I'd post the picture and the quilt. Unfortunately these have to be scanned and although I would think it would be possible to scan a picture and get it in here so far it hasn't worked. If anyone has an idea about how to do it let me know. I have a notebook I've kept with notes about the quilts I work on but most of the pictures are pre-digital and would need to be scanned. (The scanner wasn't working for months but DS12 plugged it in and lo and behold it worked!)

scraps or scrapbookers?

So I'm looking around the web and find a new address. It seems to be for scrap quilters but no it's for scrapbookers! Still it has some fun Christmas cards which I haven't even thought about yet. Here's the link; http://www.scrapscene.com/ I know I've seen some blogs with scrap in their name that referred to quilts like;http://www.scrapscene.com/ http://scrapsfromsheryl.blogspot.com/ http://scraphappyquilter.blogspot.com/ http://scrappyangelquilts.blogspot.com/
http://scrapsandthreadtales.blogspot.com/
okay I think I'm wrong here; on 21 pages of blogger search for scrap-quilts these were the only ones with scraps in their name. only 9,000 + entries. they keep adding pages into google that I quit but I still think scrap quilts had the name first, although blogworld has more in scrapbooking.Well, maybe we should share the word.

food plan

It's time to think about Thanksgiving dinner. I found this in my cookbook;
THANKSGIVING MENU 2005
Chestnut soup
Turkey
Old-fashioned stuffing
Sweet potatoes
Corn on the cob
Green beans
Cauliflower with hazelnuts
Mashed potatoes
Cranberry sauce
Vegetable plate with; Celery, Marinated mushrooms, Carrots, Olives
Aunt Avis’s fruit salad
Dessert
Pumpkin pie
Pecan pie
Chocolate pie
Pumpkin cookies
I want to try a mashed potato recipe I saw 3 weeks ago that fixes the potatoes and puts them in a casserole the day before with eggs+ so that is one less thing to do the day of. The sweet potato casserole is definitely out but maybe a plain sweet potato since Roger likes that. Maybe the corn on the cob but not cauliflower. (We can have the cauliflower a couple days later.) I'll cut out all but the pumpkin pie for the desserts since everyone here this year likes pumpkin.
My Mother will be happy to hear that the Halloween got packed up and the kitchen cleaned. A friend came over and we made some of the things left in the dining room. The living room is almost clean and the laundry is washed. My car is fixed. Tomorrow is the Christmas home tour that I go on every year (unless I'm getting ready for a wedding).

creative mess

I had a great visit with my folks for the last 2 weeks. We started out their visit with a day at Quilt Festival, but that seems so long ago; like it was a dream. What DID I see there? What DID I buy there?
For awhile we cleaned a little bit each day and my house stated looking better... THEN we started the projects... The dining room became the focus for one project and then, without cleaning the dining room (of course) we worked at the kitchen table for another. Remember the cookies? They destroyed the kitchen itself. Oh, and the sewing room where I made the luggage tags and attempted a velour pillow. Then the living room was where we rested when we were too tired to do anything else.
I had actually cleaned off the coffee table and kept it cleaned off for 3 days! My coffee table is large and it has BIG drawers and I decided to clean out the drawers and use them for actual current stuff (like yarn for knitting instead of the Baltimore album blocks I was working on 4 years ago). Well, I was too tired to walk the piles to a new place so they are just sitting on top, with more piled on top of that! (I was a GOOD MAMA last night and helped my 10 year old organize his backpack- he was carrying around papers from the first day of school.) So today I am going to get one room under control and it'll have to be the kitchen/breakfast room since eating around glitter is not the safest. (I love that tiny silver, gold and iridescent glitter we used, but it is now scattered all through the house but still mostly concentrated in the kitchen.)
Which leads me to my hint of the day about what we have been up to. Here's a list of what we used; flour, thread, wire, wire cutters, salt, glitter, paint, gold and silver marker, starch, pins, beads, sequins, ribbon, hook, rolling pin, and cookie cutter.
Luckily :( my car is in the shop so I can't decide that the most important thing right now is shopping for MORE velour, or ball fringe, or glitter!

wedding shower

Everyone was much more creative than I with the movie related gifts. The game was guessing which movie the gift represented. The refreshments were movie candy and popcorn. Fun and easy. Maid in Manhattan-all kinds of cleaning supplies AND a sexy french maid Halloween costume.
Le Chocolate-an apron and chocolate.
Psycho-shower curtain, gel
101 Dalmatians-a soft furry throw (not Dalmatian spotted however)
Here is the gift; see if you can guess the movie.
3 Ken dolls

shower idea

I learned of a wedding shower theme today and it has caused me to think. (Unusual, I know.) the invitation says to think of a favorite movie and bring a gift that goes with the movie. (Don't actually bring the movie.) And popcorn and bowl is a cop-out ;). So I came up with;
Return to Me-popcorn, dog food? coupons for pizza?
Sleepless in Seattle-apple parer, radio,
While you Were Sleeping-sheets, pillow, Christmas decorations, globe
Basically I don't think I see enough movies and am not very good at this creative gift giving.
What are your ideas?

luggage tags

I made these tags for my parents this morning. Fun little project to add a distinctive touch to their luggage. We got all ready to leave for the airport and my car wouldn't start. Luckily we had planned plenty of time. I found a friend, Tricia, to come get us, then I made some sandwiches for us since we had planned on stopping a Arby's on the way. :( Now I get to get the bikes out so we can ride to Jeffrey's piano lesson. So happy that we have more than one set of wheels!

gray cookies

About 2 years ago Jeffrey asked me to make some cookies. He was very specific; he wanted 'those gray cookies I used to make.' I was sure he was wrong. 'I have never made gray cookies; who has ever heard of such a thing?' We kept talking about it and every time I made cookies he'd ask me why I didn't make the 'gray cookies?'

Last July while, visiting in Idaho, my son made homemade pasta. Homemade pasta uses egg yolks and leaves the whites to be made into a nasty cholesterol free omelet or these yummy cocoa kisses. So I did a recipe search and came up with something close to our Joy of Cooking recipe. Bingo! Jeffrey identified them as the 'gray cookies' he'd been asking for. (Our daughter, still at home then, did not like cocoa kisses so I had not made them for a loooong time.) an interesting side note is that I made the cookies to take to my niece's house for dinner. I showed them to her and they disappeared. Her kids never saw them. My kids came to me privately and asked me what happened to the cookies (they had had some before going to the dinner). I was very happy that they didn't show on the buffet since my niece has few foods she can eat due to Crones disease and evidently I found her a cookie she could handle!

This is a song my Mother sings for Halloween. I didn't teach my kids Halloween songs but here is hers;

I'm a mean old witch with a hat

and I ride on my broom with my cat

my nose is pointed and my chin is too

and if you don't watch out, I will get you! (hug) boo!

chocolate cookies

DS12 asked me to make 4 dozen cookies for the Court of Honor he's in charge of (He asked the other mother's to bring 2 dozen-guess you can tell who's cookies he likes best:o)) so I decided to double my regular batch, then grandad said jokingly to triple the batch. Guess how many cookies I got? There's 26 rows of 8 with a remainder of 5 cookies in each row. (Do YOU remember your multiplication facts?) Then since my cookie recipe used 6 egg yolks I had six egg whites so that meant I got had to make MORE cookies to use up the whites. The Joy of Cooking that I have had for 30+years has a cocoa kisses cookie that I made for the first time in 1987! That's 20 years ago. I love these cookies AND there is no FAT in them so you can EAT MORE! (6 egg whites made 74 more cookies.)

pumpkin roll

I failed! It crossed my mind about 10:30 last night that I hadn't blogged but then it quickly left due to my exhausted brain being unable to keep simple tasks in it. I went to bed. I slept and practically my first thought this morning was, 'You forgot to blog!'
I baked Libby's pumpkin roll yesterday, that cream cheese filling is great. I substituted low-fat cream cheese for the full fat version but then proceeded to put in the amount of butter it called for, so I don't think I shaved off very many calories.
I'm anxious to try these sticky buns from tartelette before my excuse (my parents) to cook really yummy food leave. Alas I probably won't get to it since they leave tomorrow and I get to bake 4 dozen cookies today for a Scout Court of Honor.
I made our favorite chicken pot pie last night. I cheated and thawed a sheet of puff pastry to put on top instead of a pie crust. I liked the chewiness of it but of course it probably added 200 calories. Roger only ate the stuff left in the frying pan than had no pastry over it :) This summer Andrew and I found recipe for a restaurant's chicken pot pie.. no wonder they claim every one loved their pie, it was made with heavy cream and butter!
My Mother has been busy making a few Christmas ornaments for my grown kids while she's been here and I've been busy helping her. It's still a secret though or I'd post pictures. If you really can't stand not knowing, you could call my sister, she knows!
I was determined to get ONE velour pillow made, but ran out of ball fringe.. I have get to go to Hobby Lobby again to get the 2 inches I need! I'm working on the pink one. The one that won't fit in any family members' home, so sad, I'll have to put it in Etsy.
I bought yarn for another pair of mittens but am not sure that a 'under 2 grandchild' has big enough hands to keep these mittens on.... so I guess I'll wait he'll still need mittens at 5. I really enjoyed making them. Maybe there is some adult out there with a NEED for WARM mittens? I think I'll make them and then decide who gets them.

silent alarms

My random bites of knowledge contributed by my children involve an alarm system the ancient Chinese used. They would put cricket cages around the house and when someone approached the crickets the crickets would suddenly be silent. The silence warned the inhabitants of approaching people and even from which direction they were coming from. (Yeah, I went looking for a picture of a cricket...gag; all ugly! so no picture here.)

forbidden gardens

I think The Forbidden Gardens is one of the greatest tourist attractions I've been to. Since I will probably never get to China this is a great place to visit. The next time you come to visit us I will be taking you there. Have you heard of Emperor Qin? The first Emperor of China had 6,000+ terra cotta soldiers, each one different, made to protect him in the afterlife. Although Qin (pronounced Chin) lived 2,000 years ago his tomb was not discovered until 1974. It is an active archaeological dig and new information is still being found. Interestingly the Gardens have people from China come to visit since the tomb in China is difficult to get to see, due to government regulations, and it is easier to come to the United States to see the replica! I've been twice, although not this weekend. I sent Roger, my parents, and Andrew and stayed home to pick Jeffrey up from his Boy Scout meeting. :(

Mel, I tried to do a slide show but couldn't figure it out...so you have to make due with my 2 snapshots.

insomniac

Do you ever go through a time that you forget how wonderful sleep is? Last night I had one of my periodic can't sleep nights. I was cold. It was not cold. I was soo tired that I tried spooning and covering with the down comforter but could never get to sleep. I know I dozed a few times but no real rest. Finally at 4 a.m. I gave in and got in a HOT tub. Once I stopped shivering, I got warm and was able to sleep... for a whole 2 hours! Those 2 hours felt great. A deep restful sleep. Unfortunately that didn't enable me to stay awake during church or even during a phone call later from our son.
I periodically can't sleep for a multitude of reason; cold, hot, heartburn, cough, itchy feet and hands, and finally; brain too active. I just told you my solution to cold, although an electric blanket on high for a short time also works. Hot is easy, tepid bath and turn the a.c. down. Heartburn is taken care of by prevacid, a prescription I take every day. Cough; I have a chronic cough, usually an antihistamine helps although sometimes laying on my side helps, or sleeping in the recliner. The itchy feet is a strange one and my Dr. looked at me funny and had no suggestions. I googled it and discovered that other people do have this even when it is not a fungus problem. I always put lotion on my feet, night and morning, and then if they do start itching an antihistamine is the best tool I've found. The brain too active is an old one (often appears after quilt festival or a quilt guild meeting) that I have struggled with for years. My sister also has the problem and she told me that she concentrates on opening a book, in her brain, and reading a very boring book. The book only has one word repeated over and over i.e. the the the the the the the the the...see it works you're all ready going to sleep. I changed the method to my favorite activity; quilting. I only allow myself to quilt with black thread on black fabric in straight boring lines (in my head not real life). Sometimes I just concentrate on getting the needles threaded so that I can start the quilting, I can usually get to sleep this way, but not always and then I actually get up and go sew for a while.
Now you have it, altogether more information than you needed about my sleep. I am grateful that I'll sleep very well tonight!

braided rug

Technically I missed blogging on Saturday... but, really, until I go to bed it is STILL SATURDAY!


I just spent the last hour looking around this web site This unknown woman has made a huge braided rug, about 14 X 17 FEET! Another rug goes down her hallway and is only about 3.5 X 8.5 feet but she changed the color every single round in all three strands. I even liked her yo-yo's, and I've never been crazy about yo-yo quilts, but the ones were the circles are sewn to other circles in 6 places instead of 4 look great. Then she tats. I guess I need to get busy. I've been collecting wool but haven't started my rug yet. I knew I wanted a big one and had never seen a BIG one. I am still intimidated by the idea. The picture is of a rug that my Mother made for our daughter for her wedding last year.
(I know the heads are cut off, but you really don't want to see this picture; they actually look scary! I posted it originally with the whole picture, but on second thought decided that my daughter, and her husband, probably wouldn't let me visit their first born, even bearing gifts, if I left it there.)
So what am I grateful for? That there are so many talented people in the world and there's a way to get to learn about them other than going to the bookstore and hunting up books... but wait most people don't ever write a book and they still have something to offer. Blogging can do that.

can cozy

As I was opening my Gmail account this morning I was thinking that I really shouldn't bother since it was obvious I had no friends; that I wrote in a blog for my own entertainment. I was pleased and surprised that there were 2 comments! So, I am not just ranting on and on to myself. I have gotten better at leaving comments on others blogs because of it.
I actually have a goal to leave one comment every time I sit down and read any blogs.
Lately reading my blog you would wonder if I really was a quilter. So I have to write a quilty blog. I cut all my velour dresses/skirts/shirts into pillow kits (about 21 pillows). The main reason I was so anxious to get them cut up was to get the scraps to experiment with. I already made this:
but it has some obvious problems. it is too bulky, I used 2 layers of batting, the Velcro had to be attached by hand (because the batting made it too bulky) and I lined it with denim, mistake number 1. I LOVE the way it feels when I drink my slim-fast, I LOVE that my hands don't get cold. The Velcro makes it versatile enough to move it to a water bottle after breakfast. I think it would be worth while to work with and see if I can improve my design. Velour is stretchy and a pain to sew, so should I starch it before sewing?
Inquiring minds want to know.

thankful

I'm grateful that dinner is over! Why is it that I am happy to feed the missionaries but I am very glad when they leave. I have a kitchen full of dirty dishes and 2 chickens to debone and I'm sitting here typing.

I'm grateful for the internet...our telephone has not been working for 3 days and I've hardly noticed. the internet (did you know that spell check wants you to capitalize internet?)didn't work yesterday for 6 hours and I kept checking it, wondering how I was going to keep to my commitment to write everyday and kicking myself that I had not written earlier in the day. I was very happy when I decided to check just one more time before turning the computer off at 10 p.m. last night and it worked. Never did turn the machine off.

The boys have no school tomorrow; I am excited about that. They can sleep in. We can do some fun, top secret Christmas things together. Yeah! Christmas has to be ready early, about 10 days before school is out for the boys.

Soon we will be working on science fair :(

recipe

Paige left me a comment on my salt and pepper post asking for my lasagna recipe, but I don't have your e-mail address. I'd be happy to send it to you.

mittens

This is the post you've waited for ... (hey that sounds like a primary song, can't remember which one... this is the night you've waited for always a ...)

The mittens are finished and have been washed twice. I think they will feel like a coat of armor on, but the fingers will be WARM! My Mother is visiting and the mittens were big on her. Now that they've been felted Andrew can barely squeeze them on. If they are too big I think Tyler could wear them and play in some hot soapy water (they need heat, soap, and agitation to shrink) and they might shrink to fit him. (Try the hot water and soap and then let them dry with the soap in them and then rinse them in cool water.)I'm so excited about them that I can't wait for Christmas. They go to Idaho as soon as I get a cord crocheted for them. I'll need the length from one wrist, up the arm, across the back and down to the next wrist. (hint, hint, Angela).

I'd like to knit another pair but I think I need to see how these fit first.

I'm so grateful that I did not have to raise the sheep, shear them, clean the wool, make the yarn, and dye the yarn. I'm amazed that anyone ever had even one dress! Made me tired just listing the jobs.

My Dad was just told me a story of when he was in the 9th grade (about 1938) and his parents made themselves a wool mattress. In Ariola, Colorado the government sponsored a welfare project of sorts. They supplied the materials and the labor was done by the individuals that wanted a mattress. Years later, when they could afford a new better mattress they sold the wool.

Mom bought some stuff today for the boy's to make something for their grown siblings for Christmas. I think everyone will like them. The boy's loved making them and I had to make them go to bed before they were ready to stop.

I started cutting my 25 pillows out yesterday! So if anyone has a preference for one for their bed let me know. Unfortunately there is no bright blue or yellow fabric.... there is a lime green that would make a pretty pillow if someone has lime green in their room;)

I made 2 kinds of cookies tonight. Drommar and chocolate wafer cookie dough. The Drommar tastes almost just like pecan sandies. Drommar has cardamom in them and the next time I make them I think I'll increase the cardamom and see if we can taste it. Cardamom is an unfamiliar spice to us and even after putting it in these cookies I'm not sure what it tastes like.

Andrew decided to play (after he did his homework and practised 30 minutes on the piano, with no complaints I might add-and I'd told him to practise 15 minutes!) with a math problem and wrote an 11 digit number down and then proceeded to multiply it by another 11 digit number! What fun! What excitement! He was humming while he worked! What a lovely kid!

salt and pepper

It's after 10 again. I was going to write earlier today. But life gets in the way. I went to my mat Pilate's class this morning; the time has moved from 10:15 to 8:30. I really like the new time. I just have time to get the boys off to school and then get ready to go.

My mittens. I can't wait to show them to you. Initially they were a little to big for Grandma. After one shrinking I could barely get them on. They are in the washer for their second wash... I took 25 pictures (refer to yesterdays post about choices and maybe 25 is too many...) of the mittens trying to find something to gauge the size against. While they washed I realized that a ruler probably would have worked just fine. duh.

So what am I grateful for today? Sunday during group time at church for the children my ds10 said he was grateful for salt and pepper. I thought that was an odd response for him. Later I read his grateful journal that he made during the lesson. It has several things that I thought were great but not what I expected of a 10 year old boy. I'll mention of few more of his entries in the coming days.

I, too, am grateful for salt and pepper. I made chicken noodle soup yesterday and served it with a great blend of vegetables, meat, noodles and broth...3 cloves of garlic was perfect. I forgot the salt and the pepper. So I served it at the table. Salt and pepper just gave it a brightness and bite that bumped the soup up from okay to great! After thinking yesterday of the great variety of choices we have available to us it is nice to have plain old salt and pepper still shine.

thankful

I'm thankful for light bulbs! Wouldn't working on the computer by the light of a candle be the pits? I had to go buy new light bulbs today. In the past you had a choice of 30 watt, 60 watt 100 watt, and 120 watt. We have about 45 different choices now. fluorescent? incandescent, spot, chandelier, long life, frosted, day light, clear, besides the different watts with in each kind. Luckily my mind has grown with the choices and I did not find the choices too overwhelming---nothing like choosing which fabric to put as the border in a quilt! When I look at antique quilts I remember that they did not have the choices that we have. their local mercantile probably did not carry 80 different brown prints. They still made stunning quilts. I try to remind myself of that when I am shopping and not stress over the 1000's of choices that we make weekly.

So maybe I'm grateful for choices, although some days it would be simpler to not have those choices. Nevertheless most of the time I love getting to choose from the variety modern life has to offer. Unfortunately (or fortunately-depending on your mood or the amount of sleep you've had lately) since I can sew my choices are even larger. I am not limited to the skirts that I can find at Wal-mart or Dillards; I can envision a garment and then make it! Sometimes this is great and sometimes it is a burden. Sewers are spoiled. We can make things that fit. Fit our pocketbook. Fit our vision. Fit our bodies. Fit our living rooms. But not always fit the time available. (Although after shopping for a skirt with a friend and going to EVERY store at the mall and trying on EVERY skirt available it would have been faster to make one!) Choices we love them!

thankful

This is ds10. My parents are visiting from Denver and they were wondering what I meant when I wrote ds10 on my blog. After explaining we discussed other acronyms I could use for ds10. bb10 is for bright boy 10 years old. bhhb10 is for bushy head hair boy10. bs10 is for bright son10. this picture is 2 years old and he is a statue in a wax museum at the school. He had a biography memorized that he would say if you pushed his button. He chose Daniel Boone because he is an ancestor; like 8 greats uncle. Here I think you could call him ps8; pretty son 8. This is all leading up to me saying that I am grateful for our youngest son. Some may wonder why we didn't stop at just 5 kids, but we had Andrew, a little bit of a surprise but one of the greatest joys to have around. When he was 3 months old his older brother (Brian 15) was diagnosed with cancer. This baby and our toddler brought so much laughter and craziness to our busy world. But we laughed! Every time the little boys got into trouble we grabbed the camera and laughed. After Brian died there were many mornings when I lay in bed thinking about never getting up, and a tiny body would climb into bed and cuddle. I remember thinking that if I didn't get up the 2 year old that would probably kill himself. (We had more calls to poison control with the last 2 than the other 4 combined, he taught himself and his older brother how to open the child safety locks.) We had a pool and stairs and a 4 year old which meant mom could not safely ignore anything. I think it helped. And we kept laughing and loving the other children so much that we managed to cope. (I was going to say recover but I don't think that's the right word. You don't really recover from a death, it becomes a part of you and your life experiences and I hope it helps to made me a stronger more faithful person.)

So I am grateful to be an 'old mom'. Just last week the receptionist at school told ds10 that his grandma was here to pick him up. I do feel old when I go to the school and all the parents of the kids look like they are 21. I am so lucky to have these boys.

I am also thankful to have 2 children that can spell. It's really a small thing but not having to quiz/work with spelling is wonderful! My first 4 really struggled with spelling (it was impossible for 2 of them) and these last 2 get 100's on almost every test without studying. I did nothing different, they were born knowing how to spell! Not really but I still find it amazing. I think there must be a spelling gene, either you have it or you don't.

a cooking day

I spent my day cooking. The older scouts came over for their planning meeting and although they cooked their lunch I mixed up ground turkey with some onion, garlic, breadcrumbs and egg that turned out really tasty. (although I only ate 1 Tablespoon cooked.) Two lbs of ground turkey only made 5 teenager sized hamburgers. Then I made the fabulous pear pastry that I've blogged about before for my parents. Made a coleslaw with a vinegar and oil dressing. Then put together 2 pans of torn enchiladas (instead of wrapping the tortilla's around the filling I tore a layer for the bottom and top then added the typical sauce on top with cheese). The enchilada had a can of green enchilada sauce, 1 1/2 onion, 3 cloves of garlic (needed more), 2 cans of green chilies, a can of creamed corn (would prefer frozen but the can worked), a box of spinach, and can of black beans, cilantro and some sour cream. GOOD stuff!

ALICE WATER’S COLESLAW
Source: New York Times Magazine Story: Jason Epstein Cook: Alice Waters
Best American Recipes 2005 -2006 (I love this book!)
1 medium green cabbage (about 3 pounds), outer leaves removed
½ small red onion, cut in half through the stem, and thinly sliced
1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
1 large jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
3-4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3-4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
¼ - 1/3 cup olive oil
1 ½ teaspoons Maidon or other sea salt, plus more to taste (start with 1 teaspoon)
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
Large pinch of sugar, or more to taste
Quarter the cabbage through the core; cut out the core. Cut the quarters cross- wise in half and, using a sharp knife, finely shred. Place the shredded cabbage in a very large bowl or pot (you’ll have about 5 ½ quarts). Add the onion, cilantro, and jalapeno to the cabbage. Toss to mix. Sprinkle with the lime juice, vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, and sugar, and toss to coat.
Let the slaw sit for 1 hour, tossing occasionally. Drain. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Wait another hour before serving at room temperature.

thankful

I feel like my son did when he was asked to write about his favorite animal; ROADBLOCK! how can I choose one and offend all the other animals? So just because I chose to write about it first or not first doesn't mean I love one blessing more than another.

I am grateful for sonograms! I will be the grandmother of another baby boy in March and I LOVE knowing what color quilt to make, what kinds of things to get for this new baby. I've already collected a few baby things from the thrift store but the parents live in a one room apartment so I've been good and not mailed them. I'm grateful that they found such a cheap place to live but I'm grateful that it won't be for much longer.

I included a few pictures from 2007 Quilt Festival. I love autumn quilts so here's a good one, notice the gradations of color around the border. The other one was in fall colors, I've seen dahlia quilts that I didn't like at all but this one had some great colors and I loved it.

thankful

I just read someone's blog; live-learn-knit, She is going to write every day this month and include something she is grateful for. I thought that was a good idea so I'm pretending that she 'tagged' me and I'm going to do the same.
I could go on and on about big things I am grateful for but since I just got back from Quilt Festival I have to talk about that. I am grateful that I have been able to go to Q.F. for 28 years! The first year I was carrying an infant , my second child, who is now 28 years old! Admittedly I missed a couple of times, 4 I think, 1 for a funeral, 2 while we lived in Virginia, and 1 while my son was very ill. One year I had a broken foot and we got a wheelchair and my 2 girls pushed me around. Many years ago a new gadget was being promoted and I went back a second day to get a package deal of a rotary mat, ruler, and cutter! It was so exciting!

Today I watched while a lady showed her technique to get tiny 1/8 inch bias strips for applique. I never would have thought it was possible but she had a fairly simple method I'll have to try before I forget. I don't know what I can slip in under the HUGE BANNER in my mind that reads; DO NOT START ANY NEW PROJECTS! (Except small quilts for my unborn grandchildren and the wedding quilt I promised.) But I'll manage somehow. Since I forgot my digital camera I had to include a picture from another year.

The houses (2006) were made in a classroom with the children dyeing their own wool, doing the designing of their house and then doing the sewing too.

The fan quilt (2005) was made using old blocks and was so bright and cheerful. It had the mantra 'Use it up, Wear it out, make it do, or do without.' appliqued? around the outside edge. Isn't the rick rack fun?