Friday, October 31, 2008

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Welcome, David Matthew




Good Morning. David Matthew arrived early this A.M. at 00:53
He is 6 lb 9 oz, 21" long.
Long day and long story, but everyone is doing well. Mommy, daddy and baby are all exhausted. Me too. I am off to bed for a nap.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

A $150 Pot Holder?


I am all caught up with orders, stocked up on quilt kit fabrics and I was looking for some small projects to whip out for the craft show. I figured if I just stay home and work on some small items I can manage something to take to the show. And the pefect idea came to me when I was browsing one of my quilt books. She had this cute quilted trivet that was filled with a little bag of shmelly shtuff so when you put a hot pot on there it will fill your kitchen with the scent of apple cinnamon good shmelling shtuff.


I fell for a new Moda print that Carol just got in at Sew-Ciety and grabbed two charm packs and a couple of yards. It is called Bistro and has two colorways that I love. But before I cut into them I decided to try the potholder with something I am not so committed to, found this charm pack of "Winter" and figured I would try the depression block pattern. Just had to downsize it to an 8" block and add a border. Cut the charm squares into 2 1/2" squares. I hate to waste half of each so I decided to stitch on either side of the diagonal line and cut down the middle rather than stitch down the middle and scrap the other half triangle. And my block would be about a half inch smaller. This was pretty challenging for me and it took me all day to get the 32 little triangles together to make this one block. I didn't have any yardage to match so used this homey check and then put a pillow sham style backing so the pouch can be removed for washing. Concocting the shmelly shtuff was a whole 'nother adventure. I am on my second round of trying to find the right mix of popourri, rice and excelsior for filling. So I guess if I can sell this potholder for about $150 .... Maybe Cindy McCain needs one for each of her houses? Of course I persisted in my madness and got 7 more done on Sunday so that should cover her and leave one for the craft show.

I guess I will hold off cutting into the Bistro fabric for now. My friend Gail gave me her top secret pattern for making purse size tissue pack holders that can be done in about 5 mins, so there is still hope I can get something done for the craft show. As soon as I finish the trick or treat bags for the kids and quilt kit orders ... sigh

Friday, October 24, 2008

Call the Cardioligist Mac n Cheese

I don't eat mac n cheese because that stuff in the blue box is just disgusting. I used to buy it for the kids when they were old enough to cook it for themselves, which is to say that I never actually made it and fed it to my kids myself. Then they came up with an even more disgusting one called "easy mac" which I have tasted and it tasted exactly like slimy water to me.

So suddenly I got a craving for mac n cheese yesterday. I guess since I am still in my zone of serenity and feeling so content that mac n cheese hit me as a comfort food. My mom used to make the kind that starts with a bechemel and then you add cheese, etc. I didn't want to muck around with all that. So I looked up some recipes for the kind of mac n cheese that really is comfort food and then chucked those and made up my own recipe as usual. Here is what I came up with from ingredients I had on hand:

Melt about a 3 inch chunk of Velveeta diced with 1 cup milk and 2 Tbl butter in the microwave.
Add about 2 big handfuls of grated cheddar cheese to the hot milk mixture, let stand
When noodles are cooked (I used 8 oz. mini penne) put them in a large bowl and pour the mixture over them. Add a big spoonful of sour cream, 1 egg and more milk if needed to make it really creamy. Pour into sprayed casserole dish. Chop up two slices of bread and top the casserole, drizzle with a little melted butter or olive oil, bake at 350 for about 30 mins.

Now don't have a heart attack, this makes enough for 8-10 servings. The trick of course is to only eat one serving.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

The Economic Crisis Is Working For Me

This huge crisis is going on around us, a bazillion $$$$ are being spent to fix it. Why does everyone seem so normal, going about their daily business and happy as clams? I went to the Rockyard to get my growlers filled a couple days ago, it was packed with people enjoying happy hour as usual, laughing, drinking and generally ignoring the crisis. As for me I am in a complete zone of serenity. Maybe it is the poor working stiffs who are not feeling any panic. We don't have a dog in the hunt so life goes on. I am kind of a freak, so when Mark said his boss was coming to town last week I said, "Is he going to fire you?" He just looked at me like I was from another planet, which may be so. But he just came here to hang out for a couple of days, said "you're doing a great job" and left. We actually never figured out why he was here. I won't speculate about why he called the week before to ask Mark what the name of the hotel was where they busted all those hookers. Let's just assume it is because the rooms are cheap, huh?


So my sales have been better than they have ever been. Baby rag quilt kits are becoming a little boring but I am planning on shopping around and getting some new designs on line soon. I did a Santa and Snowman kit that I listed yesterday. Next two weeks are going to be busy trying to come up with some items for the craft show. If I don't get busy soon I will just have to sit there and watch Marly sell her cute wooly mitten ornies, and Missy selling her checkbook covers. I have a few ornies made up. Here are the Santa and Snowman. I have some of them cut out just have to get to sewin' em. Actually I started those last year, and ran out of time. Now I have all this new fabric and all these new projects that I want to do. Soooo much fabric, so little time!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Holy Pumpkin Roll Batwoman! What are your thinking?


So I must have too much on my mind or spending too much time in the batcave is getting to me. I keep making goofy mistakes.


First there was the quilt quandry. I sold a lavender butterfly rag quilt set. This is the set. I had a very busy week that week and sold a couple of purses and diaper bags and lots of quilt kits too. Then I got this feedback on ebay from the lady who bought the quilt:
"I thought this was suppose to be lavender,but already sewn together."
The feedback was positive and no complaint from the buyer but I was curious what this meant. So I emailed and asked her if there was a problem. I got this response: The item was fine, just thought it was lavender, already made it for a gift.
So I emailed again and asked if she got a lavender butterfly quilt with pillow. She said "no, I got a pink quilt kit, but it was very nice so I just made it to give for a gift. " No request for a refund or anything. Now I have not heard a word from whoever got the quilt, so can I assume they are happy with it? Today I had 5 quilt kits to ship and was I ever careful to make sure I got the labels on the right packages.
Then the pumpkin roll. I was craving this and got everything to make it a couple days ago. I had some chicken and dumplings cooking and decided to mix up the cake and throw it in the oven. I had it all mixed and then checked the recipe one more time to be sure I had all the ingredients in there. That is when I noticed that the recipe called for 2/3 cup of pumpkin. NOT the whole can? Geez, I figured I could double it and make two but I had used my last 3 eggs. So I decided to just add extra flour and baking powder and make it into a cake. Forgetting that it did not have any oil in the original recipe and that cakes have oil, it turned out a bit "heavy" shall we say. I am going to make some cream cheese frosting for it and call it a pumpkin bread I guess.

The Great Grape Massacre

I tried to put my jammin' pics up last night and gave up 'cause they wouldn't stay where I wanted them. But the jam turned out very nicely and I had a very tasty PB&J toast sandwich for breakfast this morning. I have only got half of the jam made so far, my stupid electronic glass stove decided to shut down on me last night halfway through processing the third batch. I wasn't sure how long they had been in the water bath, but they popped when I took them out to cool so I guess they are sealed OK.


Anyway I got 8 pints and 8 half pints done and can hopefully get the rest done tomorrow night. That should be plenty to keep us through the year and some to share with Miss Cassidy, who loves her "doni jelly."












I think I want to get a bread maker. With all this jam we are going to need a lot of bread and I hate going to the store. I could just buy those big bags of flour at Sams and make my own. And while the bread is making I can be down in the batcave sewing instead of taking the time to drive to the store.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

From the Garden

Here is my trunk loaded with all the goodies from the garden at Marly's. We picked all these yesterday while mom was in surgery.

The grapes are just beautiful and the fragrance from them is amazing.

I came home with:

34 1/2 lbs of gorgeous ripe tomatoes

3 1/2 lbs of cherry tomatoes

19 lbs of grapes


I have never made grape jelly before and can't wait to see how it turns out.

I decided to make freezer salsa from the tomatoes. After reading all the info online about canning salsa I am not sure I want to go for that yet. You have to have the acid content just right to prevent spoiling, that's something I didn't know. I am new to canning and try to follow all the rules. Also Wally's was out of canning jars so I had to go to King Soopers for them and paid $3/box more than wally's. That sucks, but maybe next year I will plan ahead and get them when they are abundunt. Right...

Tomorrow: The Great Grape Massacre!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

I Can't Believe It

October 5 already, for goodness sake! Don't know how that is possible. Matt and Krystal's baby "Scooter" is due in 4 weeks now. Marissa had a baby shower for her yesterday. OMG, I hadn't seen Krissy in a while and could not believe how big she is. Four more weeks? I am not too sure about that. The shower was fun and I got to have fun helping her plan it and making the invitations. Andrea finished the sweater she started for Carter before he was born, it is a little too small for him now. So she gave it to Krystal and only had to finish putting the buttons on after the shower. That's just Andrea! We had to laugh when she showed up and asked if anyone had a sewing needle. Morgan thought the baby gifts were for Carter and tried to give them to him.
I guess she will understand this new baby thing soon. She says Matt and Krystal are going to have another Carter.
I really haven't been slacking off. I had a ton of quilt kits and bags sell in the past couple of weeks that kept me so busy and made me happy that things are selling again. So where do I get time for all my new projects? I started playing around with the felt bags I want to make for the craft show and really got into those, but had to put them aside to do real work. Then I made some ornaments and had to put those aside too. Made a really cute rag quilt charm square wallet pattern and got a few of those done. I have my orders from the weekend ready to ship tomorrow and will get Milena's quilt finished tomorrow. Now can I go out and play?
 
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