Recent Projects

I thought I'd share some recent projects I've done since my disappearing a few months ago.  I did sew during that time I was gone, I promise!  First up is a bag I made my mother for her birthday.  It is from a pattern I bought a long time ago and I don't have it handy right now to tell you the name of it.  It had two sizes of bag patterns inside and I made the larger one, thinking she may use it to take to her once-a-month sew day with her friends or on vacation.  She liked it.  After I finished it, I wished I would've paid more attention to how the squares on the pocket were going to end up because, as you can probably see, I had two of the same print together, but live and learn.  I love making bags and this was a fun one to make, but a little time-consuming.  It's ok - she's worth it.  I'd make it again.

Next is a set of coasters that I made for us with our initials on the tabs.  Cort actually got the green one with the star button so we wouldn't get it confused with Cidney's.  He knows his is the one with the star. 

And then there's this little picture plaque I made for the mothers and grandmothers for Mother's Day.  They were from this tutorial on Little Birdie Secrets.  I think I made 5 of these and still need to make one for us to have at home.  I also made some dish towels that were inspired from this picture on flickr.com.  Forgot to take pictures of them. 

Here are some little cosmetic bags I made for the mothers at church for Mother's Day.  I love making little things like this and I love doing things in an assembly line, so these really didn't take that long to finish. 

And, last but not least, something I did not make, but that my mother did.  It's a stuffed scottie dog made out of squares (5"?)  It was for her nephew, my 2nd cousin, Ethan for his 1st bday. 

Here he is and here it is, held by my sweet nephew, Drake.  (How many cute kids can one family have, I ask you?)

Ok, I better go get dinner started.  I should've done that 45 minutes ago.  Now Brad got called out to work and won't get to eat it until late tonight.  Cidney's in the kitchen making peanut butter blossoms (yum) so we'll have to fight for cooking space.  Tomorrow, I will show you the I Spy quilt that Conner's memaw made him for his first birthday.  See you then!

Popcorn for Breakfast

So, I saw on Brown Eyed Baker a recipe (if you can call it that) for Homemade Popcorn.  I bought some popcorn kernels and popcorn salt the other day and we have made popcorn every day since.  In fact, yesterday, Cidney and I had popcorn for breakfast.  She said, 'Mom, will you make popcorn?'  I said, 'No.'  She said, 'Please?'  I said, 'No.'  And so on and so on until I finally gave in.  And then we had popcorn again last night while Cort watched tv and the rest of us read or played on our iPods.  It is really so much better than microwave popcorn and just takes a tad bit longer, but it is very worth the wait.  Here's the link if you want to try it, although the recipe on the side of the popcorn kernel jar is exactly the same - How to Make Perfect Homemade Popcorn.  And if you look on her home page, you'll find her Salted Chocolate Shortbread cookie recipe that looks so delicious.  I think we may try that this weekend.

I want to share this video of a great singing family that visited our church a few weeks ago.  They were a blessing to us on our Old-Fashioned Western Sunday and we are so happy to have met them.  Very talented family.  This is my favorite song that they sang, although all of them were so good.  Rochester Family - Ephesians Chapter 1.

See y'all tomorrow.

Poof!

Did you like my little disappearing act?  And how I reappeared, almost 4 months to the day from when I disappeared?  Pretty cool, eh? 

So, really, very sorry for disappearing for so long.  Things got busy (still are, actually), but my lovely daughter says I should start blogging again.  And I know I should.  So, I'm gonna. 

Right now I'm working on two things:  a bunch of projects and nothing at all.  Some days are many-project days.  Some days are a little laundry and not much else days.  Weekends are full of church, which I love.  Pretty soon we'll have days filled with homeschooling (our first year!).  But for now, I am just going to find something to blog every day.  I promise.  Even if it is some silly thing I found on the internet or a Bible verse I read that helped me.  Just some little thing.  Hope you'll come back and see me again soon.  I won't leave you hanging this time.  :)

Baby in a Backpack and Other Random-ness

Long time, no blog, eh?  Busy times around here, but that's the way I like it.  I got a couple of things made last week, so I'll share one of them with you today.  The other is waiting to be delivered and was a birthday gift to my mom, so it will have to wait until she gets it. 

But first, I have to show you a cute picture of Cid and Conner that I took before Cidney went to school the other day. 

She was ready to cart him off to school with her.  I love the way he's looking at her.  'Uh, sissy, are you sure this will be ok with mama?'

Ok, now that we've got those cutie-patooties out of the way, here are three little bunnies I made to go in the kids' Easter bags.  The tutorial came from Chubby Hobby's blog.  They were easy little things - probably took me about 2 hours total including stuffing. 

The only thing I did differently from the tutorial was that I machine stitched the arms on the body instead of embroidering them.  It was a little bit of a time-saver.

And, before I forget, I have to give a big shout out to my hubby.  He has lost 17 pounds in our church's weight-loss challenge.  He's shrinking by the minute.  So proud of you, honey.  Me, I'm only at 6 pounds, but I haven't really been trying hard.  I've cut down on eating and we're eating more veggies and less casseroles and pastas, but I need to jump on the train here.  6 pounds in 4 weeks ain't much.  Maybe I can make it 10 total by the next weigh-in.

I'm going to go and finish working on a project my mom and I are doing long-distance.  We're exchanging two Dresden plates (plates only, no backgrounds yet) every month.  I haven't even finished my March ones, so I'm doing that now.  Actually, this is what I'm doing now:

Sewing about 300 million trillion hundred thousand billion Dresden block wedges.  Then I will have to flip and press these little lovelies, which will take about 3 days.  Or 9. 

I also need to sit and plan what I'm cooking for our dinner Friday night.  It's our 4 year anniversary.  I'm thinking Pioneer Woman's Steak with Burgundy-Mushroom Sauce.  Mandy tried it and raved about it.  I think I make at least one of PW's recipes a week.  Seriously, if you haven't made anything of hers, go and look on her blog and find something you can make soon.  Everything I've tried of hers is wonderful.  She's my new best friend.   Tomorrow night I'm making her Spaghetti and Meatballs and tonight, maybe her favorite sandwich.  That is, if I can get my hiney in gear and go to Wal-Mart to get the ingredients. 

I Just Had to Do It

It's all Mandy's fault.  She posted on Facebook that she made sugar cookies and, well, I just had to bake some.  I don't know what recipe she used, but I had one in mind that I wanted to make.  I haven't baked in a long time.  It wasn't that I was craving the cookies, it was that I needed to bake.  So I gave in.  And I know I'm trying to lose weight.  And I only had 1/2 cookie and a spoonful of dough.  But I shared an apple with Cort and promise I'll eat well the rest of the day.  And I'll exercise extra. 

Go make some of these now.  They are fast, big, and delicious.  Joy the Baker sure knows her stuff, huh?

Giant Vanilla Sugar Cookies

The recipe made about 18 cookies (19, I guess if I hadn't eaten a spoonful of dough).  I made them really big - 4 or 5 inches.  I thought about rolling the dough into a ball and then rolling the ball in sugar, but I just got a big dollop in the spoon and plopped it on the cookie sheet, flattened it with my fingers, and sprinkled some sugar on top.  Soooo yummy.

Oh Fransson quilt

I am back from Spring Break in Texas and am ready to get sewing!  My mom always does that - motivates me to get busy when she shows me all of her latest projects.  We didn't have time this go-around to actually do any crafting, but we did get to make tamales (a success!) and plan Brad's Harley t-shirt quilt.  I also borrowed a few patterns from her for future makings.  For now, though, I want to show you the fabric I chose to make Oh Fransson's latest project, the New Wave Quilt.  I've been wanting to do something with black and lime green, so this will be it.  I know it will be lovely.

If you haven't explored her site, go look when you get time.  She has so many helpful tips and beautiful quilts.  I love that her blocks are very traditional, but in modern fabrics and colors.  And that girl cranks out a quilt almost every day, it seems.  She must not have any short people in her life.  Oh, well, I wouldn't trade mine for anything, so I will just get done what I can get done. 

I'll be back in a couple of days with some progress on this and other projects, Lord willing.  I have to keep chanting, Harley quilt, Harley quilt, Harley quilt.  Maybe I'm not motivated to work on it since it's not pretty colors - just black and grey.  But I will get it done for my honey - and soon.

Things I Really Want to Eat -- or -- How I Came to Look the Way I Do

At least I can laugh about it, right?