Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Christmas quilts received....
Enjoy....
Happy New Years Eve,
Nancy
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
The Rock Star and the Telemarketer.....
Phone rings ................
RS - Hello
Telemarketer - I am calling to do a survey on Movies. Is there a male in the house?
RS - No
Telemarketer - Oh, do you go to the movies?
RS - No, I make movies
Telemarketer - Oh, what kind of movies do you make?
RS - mostly independent films
Telemarketer - Oh, would I have heard of any of them?
RS - have you heard of E.T.?
Telemarketer - yes, I have. Is that your film?
RS - Yea.
Telemarketer - um....what's your name?
RS - Steven Spielberg
Telemarketer - Oh, well...goodbye.
FYI - I am NOT Steven Spielbergs mother, but I will let the Rock Star continue to answer the phone....
Happy Christmas Eve,
Nancy
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
My Holiday Planning list....
December 1
Blanch carcass from Thanksgiving turkey. Spray paint gold, turn upside down and use as a sleigh to hold Christmas Cards.
December 2
Have Mormon Tabernacle Choir record outgoing Christmas message for answering machine.
December 3
Using candlewick and hand gilded miniature pine cones, fashion cat-o-nine-tails. Flog Gardener.
December 4
Repaint Sistine Chapel ceiling ecru, with mocha trim.
December 5
Get new eyeglasses. Grind lenses myself.
December 6
Fax family Christmas newsletter to Pulitzer committee for consideration.
December 7
Debug WindowsNT.
December 10
Align carpets to adjust for curvature of Earth.
December 11
Lay Faberge egg.
December 12
Take Dog apart. Disinfect. Reassemble.
December 13
Collect Dentures. They make excellent pastry cutters, particularly for decorative pie crusts.
December 14
Install plumbing in gingerbread house.
December 15
Replace air in mini-van tires with Glade "holiday scents" in case tires are shot out at mall.
December 17
Child proof the Christmas tree with garland of razor wire.
December 19
Adjust legs of chairs so each Christmas dinner guest will be same height when sitting at his or her assigned seat.
December 20
Dip sheep and cows in egg whites and roll in confectioner's sugar to add a festive sparkle to the pasture.
December 21
Drain city reservoir; refill with mulled cider, orange slices and cinnamon sticks.
December 22
Float votive candles in toilet tank.
December 23
Seed clouds for white Christmas. I am totally doing this today....
December 24
Do my annual good deed. Go to several stores. Be seen engaged in last minute Christmas shopping, thus making many people feel less inadequate than they really are.
December 25
Bear son. Swaddle. Lay in color coordinated manger scented with homemade potpourri.
December 26
Organize spice racks by genus and phylum.
December 27
Build snowman in exact likeness of God.
December 31
New Year's Eve! Give staff their resolutions. Call a friend in each time zone of the world as the clock strikes midnight in that country
Ok, really it's Martha Stewarts, but maybe next year???
Happy Holidays,
Nancy
Saturday, December 20, 2008
ok. just one more....
This is my sister's (not the sister that occasionally hi-jacks my blog, it's the other one, the one that doesn't cook very often)...
Orange Sherbet Jello (I bet she named this herself, because she is clever that way)
1 large pkg orange jello
Dissolve in 2 cups hot water
add 1 pint orange sherbet to hot jello mixture to dissolve
add 2 small cans drained mandarin orange sections and some sliced bananas.
Put into bowl/casserole dish/Tupperware, whatever you have and let set.....
You can use sugar-free jello and is there a sugar free orange sherbet? I don't know, but maybe that's ok? since there is fruit in it?
I have all the kids and grandkids gifts wrapped. Now I just need to do some Santa and DH and miscellaneous ones. Oh, and I think I have to send some cookies to Virginia!!
Of course, I don't have an address, but if someone is reading this and sends me her address, I have to go to the post office Monday and could possibly put some in the mail to her??
LMK,
Nancy
The last Christmas post....and cookie recipe
ding ding.....update - Here are your pictures, Pat. I couldn't bear to cover Santa's face..lol
This will be my last post until after Christmas....I am overwhelmed right now. There are lists to be made, food to be shopped for, presents to be wrapped and maybe some more shopping.
Of course that means that I totally spent today baking cookies. I was looking for a traditional macaroon cookie recipe and stopped when I read this one. It is NOT the traditional macaroon recipe. This one is AWESOME!! I love coconut and I love oatmeal cookies. I love a crisp cookie and this one fits all three criteria....
They are called Button Macaroons ... I am guess they are called this because you only use 1/2 tsp dough per cookie and they turn out about the size of a button...who knew??
1 egg separated
1/3 c sugar, remove 3 tbl for egg whites
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla
3/4 c quick oats
1/2 c coconut
1 tbl butter, melted
Beat egg white until foamy white and double in volume in a small bowl with electric mixer at high speed; beat in 3 tbl of the sugar, 1 tbl at a time until firm peaks form. Set aside
Beat egg yolk well in a medium size bowl, beat in remainder of the sugar until fluffy-light. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Fold in beaten egg white.
Drop by half teaspoonfuls 1 inch apart on well greased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 for 12-15 minutes. Cookies will spread. I got better luck spraying the cookie sheet with Pam than when I used a silpat sheet.
Cool on wire racks, store in airtight container. Yield 3 dozen (although I only got 2 dozen plus 4 cookies....)
I had good luck doubling this recipe and got a about 4 dozen cookies. Of course I counted them after sampling them. So maybe it did make 6 dozen and I ate 2 dozen? No, couldn't be!!
I wish you all a Happy Holiday Season...
See ya next year...
Nancy
Friday, December 19, 2008
another quick Christmas gift idea....
I think there are some people on my list that would love some Hot Chocolate for those cold wintery nights.... I found this recipe on line and wish I could remember where so I could give kudo's. It is the best hot chocolate mix I have ever tasted. Great to put under the tree for last minute "uh oh, they brought us a gift and we didn't know it" times...
For this you will need the following -
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup non-dairy coffee creamer
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 (4 oz) pkg instant chocolate fudge pudding (I couldn't find the fudge kind, so I used plain chocolate pudding)
Mix all together in a large bowl. I used a rubbermaid container with a lid and shook it all up.
This recipe will fill 2 quart canning jars. Add a ribbon, bow and instructions.... You could also package it in reusable plastic containers with a nice mug on the side.
To make add 1/4 cup mix to 8 oz hot water. The Rock Star loved it, but wants to try it with hot milk next time...
Wah Lah....another quick gift ready to deliver. Yes, there are only 3 jars here. We have the other jar almost empty. We are drinking a lot of hot chocolate in this cold weather.
Happy Holidays,
Nancy
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Is it illegal......or just thrifty?
I decided to make you all accessories to my possible illegal dealings so I am going to share with you the Easiest Christmas Fudge of all time....
You will need the following....
1- 14 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1-12 oz pkg Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
4 tbl butter, cut into small pieces
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
Put Sweetened Condensed Milk, Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels and butter into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minute 30 seconds. It will look like this....YUK!
Add 1 tsp vanilla and the walnuts. Stir til glossy. Pour into greased 8x8 pan and refrigerate for 2 hours. Turn out and cut... Are you there Santa? 'cause I could sure use a new cutting board...Mine broke in two pieces cutting pizza a couple of weeks ago..
TA DA!! All ready for the fridge....This batch goes with DH to work tomorrow for a Christmas all day eat as much as you can food feast lunch...
Tomorrow I will share a quick, easy gift for everyone on your list.
Happy Holidays,
Nancy
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Quick Christmas Gifts.............
Ok, lets tell the back story...
A couple of years ago, I made my Mom a heavy muslin laundry bag. I used my embroidery machine and put a little clothesline and a couple of little baskets of overflowing underwear on the front. Fast forward a couple of months. My Aunt comes to visit my Mom and admires said laundry bag. My Mom GIVES it to her...whatever, and then asks me to make her another one. Once again I haul out the embroidery machine and embroider the little clothesline and little baskets overflowing with underwear. Mom is pleased because it matches the other one she gave away.
Fast forward to last Sept and they traveled together to parts unknown. My Aunt proceeds to not only take HER laundry bag home, but Mom's also. We know this because my aunt washed my Mom's undies and mailed them back to her in a ziplock. If she didn't have mom's laundry bag she wouldn't have had her dirty undies...
ENOUGH SAID....
So Mom asked me to make her yet another laundry bag and put her name on it. I didn't want to haul out the embroidery machine (I really want to sell it, anybody want to buy one?? Babylock Esante Ese2 capable of 5x7 designs with all the accessories???) so I made her a blue/white ticking one. She loved it. My niece also loved it...and asked me to make her one...
So this year, every lady in my family will be getting a laundry bag for Christmas.
Easy Peasy and not expensive....
11 yards of fabric, 16 1/2 yards of cording and a few days later I have 11 laundry bags waiting to be wrapped.
I think all of them will be able to put these to good use. Now I need to make one for myself....
Happy Holidays,
Nancy
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Because that's what Grandma's do....
That's what I did Friday. I left home at 9:30am to stand in line at the school to be paraded into the gym to watch my grandkids sing 3 songs each with their class and then I drove home.....2 hours.... Because that is what we Grandma's do. And the smile on their faces when I showed up was priceless. I won't bore you with 20 minutes of video...(mostly because I can't get it to upload). But oh my...it was spectacular. The oldest granddaughter's class sang "The Three Little Kittens" which I have never heard sung before....it was all jazzy with shoulders flapping up and down and hand signs and everything. So dang cute...I can't tell you.
Then the grandson's class came out and were adorable. Imagine 60 odd 5 year old's attempting to sing all the words in the right place. LOL One little boy in the front row spent the entire 10 minutes pounding on his neighbors foot. One little boy started crying. One little girl yelled "HI HANK" as loud as she could. Absolutely priceless. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
No sewing today...I did get the rest of the fabric and cording to finish some Christmas Presents. Made some banana bread. I am trying another new banana bread recipe. I can't seem to find one I like. This one was forwarded from someone at my redwork club, so hope it's good. We decided to have dinner instead of lunch, so dinner will be quick, maybe pancakes and bacon. Need to wrap some gifts. Need to finish some Christmas shopping. Busy week ahead for me I guess.
We are supposed to have a huge storm coming into the Midwest tonight. School will probably be closed tomorrow if we get the ice we are reported to be getting. Maybe I can sew tomorrow. And iron some dress shirts.
So, hope your weekend was much more productive. I keep bringing up the video's of the grandkids singing and laughing...
Happy Holidays,
Nancy
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Quilt Alert....
Now to find something for my step-father. I don't have time to make another quilt...
Merry Christmas,
Nancy
PS. Pattern is called Bit's and Pieces. I will hunt up the designer if anyone wants to know...
Sewing day.....
Yesterday was a sewing day at Annes. Of course we all brought Christmas presents...
This is what I got -
Anne is from Australia and is in the states for 3 years with her family while her DH works with Boeing. Her Mom and Dad recently came for a visit and was nice enough to not only shop for us in Australia, but bring the patterns to us. Miss Nancy and I each got a Red Brolly pattern. So exciting....
Then Miss Nancy made us each a cell phone carrier (I am forever losing my cell phone in my purse!), a stitchery pocket she made from a pattern in a magazine (Maybe she can leave the name/issue number in the comments), a Christmas notepad and a snowflake. Weren't we lucky??
Then I made them each a tote bag....
Don't they look like famous models?? LOL If you click on the photo you can see that the fabric has little tape measure on it...I made one of these in blue for my secret Santa gift for Quilt Guild. Patches has it in Red/White and I think I need some of that too... You can't have too many totes....
I finished the binding on my Mom's quilt yesterday. If the sun comes out I will take a photo and update this page....it turned out really pretty I think...
And I will leave you with a photo of Oliver the dog....
This is where he sleeps when "daddy" is gone...(this is "daddy's spot"...
Merry Christmas,
Nancy
Monday, December 8, 2008
The Big Surprise.....
and made some other appetizers that were eaten so fast I couldn't get a photo of them...LOL
At Noon, I took off in my little VW bug with a truck traveling behind (driven by DH with son)loaded down with cake plates, platters, cranberry sauce, crystal pitchers, meatballs, cupcakes, toothpicks and so much more....
J.(younger sister) and I met and swooped into the birthday girls condo. Oh, did I forget to tell that little detail. Since neither J or I wanted to clean our own homes, we decided to throw the party at the birthday girls house.. Lucky for us she keeps it clean, so all we had to do was take over the kitchen and set up the food.
So the plan was set...Birthday girls daughter takes her to get a mani/pedi and they return close to 2pm... Oh, slight snag in the plan. Birthday girl "is starving" wah wah....lets go to lunch after the mani/pedi...Uh NO!!! Appt is at 12:30pm, they are never on time. Going to lunch after is not gonna work. Frantic call from daughter to Aunt Nancy.. "what do I do?"....we discuss it and daughter decides she can "fake" having to "poo", "really bad" and make them have to come home...."um...whatever", I say...
It works... daughter comes running into the condo about 1:30pm and says "Mom is right behind me!!". Birthday girl opens up the door, we yell "SURPRISE" and she slams the door again. HA HA HA We got her!!! She kept saying over and over "you took over my house", "oh, there is food", "who else is coming"...we decide not to tell her.
We surprised her by getting in contact with some old High School friends, her boss, people she works with, old neighbors and family...
Here are some pics.....
From the left is J, Me and the Birthday Girl..
some of the food
high school friends
general friends, family and such... that's the daughter on the way left, oh no, it isn't the daughter it's a niece...Sorry about that.
So here is the Birthday Girl with my present...I forgot to snatch a photo of the label and her camera and my software don't get along and the photo she sent is too big so I will just have to tell you what the label said...
Of course it has her name and date, my name and then I named the the quilt....
The name you ask?
Thanks to Pat who was nice enough to resize the photo here is a pic of the label....
Ha ha, isn't that funny...(well, I thought it was!)
So now the party is over (we left the house as clean as we found it, thank you very much) and life goes on...
Oh, side note to Birthday Girl...I heard Mom ask your boss to guess her age!! ROTFLMAO....
Off to make Christmas pressies....I think I am going to attempt a tutorial for the simple little gifts I am making if anyone is interested. Fabric in the dryer awaiting me...
Happy Sewing,
Nancy
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Until then, I leave you with this....
In the meantime, please go visit Carrie at LaVieEnRosie. More than a label, make a birth ceritificate for all of your quilts. She tells you why and how....
Happy Sewing,
Nancy
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Do you do Redwork??
Happy Sewing,
Nancy
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
M.I.A.
I picked up the last Christmas quilt yesterday. I thought I was done, but then realized I have never made my Mom a quilt and she will turn 79 in January (but she doesn't look a day over 50! does she big sis??) little inside joke there....
My Mom will strike up a conversation with ANYONE and eventually the conversation will be turned (by her!) into...."How old do you think I am?"...DRIVES US CRAZY...I am sorry, but she looks her age. You guys out there are just too nice to tell her..LOL
I got all the Christmas decorations up except for the front door wreath. For some reason the door won't shut with the hanger over the top. I think a hammer will have to be used to pound it into submission, So just wait til your father gets home!!
Our Quilt Guild had it's annual Christmas Party on Monday. I recieved a lovely handmade apron from Louise... such a cute idea... I am afraid my daughters are going to fight over it at Christmas.
There are other things going on behind the scenes, but nothing very exciting...trying to buy online Christmas presents for DH. He was kind enough to send links to tools... Wrapping some Christmas presents and adding labels to all of those Christmas quilts....
BUT WAIT!! Something really nice happened.... I was given an award by Pat of A Little of This and a Little of Pat... Is that not the cutest, cleverest blog title of all... Pat is a new blogger, so head over there, read and leave her a comment. We bloggers love us some comments...lol
You can see the award over there on the right sidebar. Thanks Pat....the rules are I have to pick 5 blogs to honor and since I have 205 blogs in my google reader (and yes, I read them everyday which is why I still have my pj's on!!) I will award it to all of you ... You inspire me!!
Happy Sewing,
Nancy
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Shopping is DONE..
Oh, I just glanced over at him and he has his laptop on and is making a wish list on Rockler...good for him! Point, click and buy...the best kind of shopping there is..LOL
I have two Christmas parties this week, and maybe some of you are starting the rounds and need a quick, different punch idea?? My sister-in-law made this for Thanksgiving and we really liked it....
Bubbly Cranberry Punch
2 cans (16 oz) jellied cranberry sauce
1 1/2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 (1 liter each) ginger ale, chilled.
In a large pitcher or punch bowl, whisk cranberry sauce until smooth. Whisk in juices. Just before serving, stir in ginger ale. Add ice cubes. Yield: 3 1/2 quarts.
Enjoy!!
Nancy
Friday, November 28, 2008
We weren't going to.....
This year the Rock Star WORKED Black Friday. He works at Circuit City and is their number two top seasonal seller. This is the perfect job for him. He is a tech junkie and loves talking to people about cell phones and video games and lap tops and other stuff I don't understand.
He went to bed last night at 7pm so he could get up at 2am, to leave by 3am, to be at the store by 4pm for the store to open at 5am. (He worked Wednesday night until midnight putting stock out for today) He was actually looking forward to today. I roused at 2am to make him a hot breakfast before he left (fried egg sandwich). He got off at 1pm and he is now sound asleep... His band plays tonight at 8pm so he is gonna be tired tomorrow.... and he works at 7am....poor kid!!
I checked all the ads yesterday and decided there wasn't anything I needed, so of course by 8:30am hubby and I were on our way to Wal-Mart LOL.... We didn't get anything though. Just like the ads, nothing was really needed.
We headed over to Lowes to get some stain for a project he is working on and ended up buying an artificial Christmas tree. We have always had a real tree. My hubby hates artificial trees. I was ok with the real tree, but hated the fact that we paid so much for a tree and could only have it in the house for a week before it would start shedding needles and making a mess. And for the last 4 or 5 years the trees haven't smelled like trees. They have absolutely no smell at all. So now we have a huge box in the living room and Sunday we will spend the day putting up the tree, lights and decorations. I am psyched. No needles to vacuum up, no water all over the carpet, no nasty tree to try and get rid of.... and the decorations can be enjoyed longer than a few days....
Off to the sewing room...
Nancy
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Life on the internet....
Happy Sewing,
Nancy
I'm cooking.....
Hot Rolls Done!
Fried Corn Done!
Homemade Applesauce and Done!
It's all packaged ready to go and there is a HUGE NOTE on the fridge.. Hopefully we won't take off and leave it all here....LOL
I won't have leftover turkey, so I braved the grocery store today and got a bone in turkey breast. I will cook that on Saturday and since no one in this household appreciates a good hot turkey dinner (sheesh, what is with these people!) I will freeze the turkey for sandwiches.
I am off to the sewing room. I want to try and make Abbie some fabric blocks.
Happy Sewing,
Nancy
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
More quilt show....
"It's Hip to be Squared" hand pieced, hand quilted and owned by Daphne Hedges.
30's Row Quilt pieced by the 30's group for Jane Lee.
This quilt had no information listed. Click the close-up photo and look at that quilting. Whoever quilted this wrote words into the sashing along with dragonflies, butterflies and more. Very well done and I am sorry I can't give credit to the owner/quilter..
Scrappy Diamonds (she named it "Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend") owned by Julie Alesburg, I love the modern fabric...very cute.
And to finish off this quilt show, two very well done applique wall hangings.... Please double click on the photo to read the information on each quilt. For someone who doesn't do this type of applique these were amazing..
Yesterday I took off at 9am to get a haircut. I fully expected to be back home by 10am at the latest. Instead I headed down to Target. Santa, being the nice guy that he is, visits every Christmas. Oh, we don't get to see him,(he's way too busy for that!) but he drops off an extra red Santa bag filled with surprises for the great-grandkids. This year there are 6, plus 1 due next June. It's Great Grandma's (my Moms) job (her idea) to fill the bag with two gifts for each great grandchild. As I walked the toy aisles I was struck that she really needed to be doing this, although she always manages to get one of us to do her shopping and wrapping. So I called her. She met me and we went from K-Mart, to lunch (meeting up with my working sister) and back to K-Mart and then to Wal-mart and on to Target. I didn't get home until 3:30pm, but her shopping is all done. I still have to wrap it, LOL, but that's ok. I think it was good for her to get out and help pick. She seemed to enjoy it. I wonder if she was as tired last night as I was. LOL
Today I am going to work on a couple of Christmas gifts.... maybe there will be photo's tomorrow....
Happy Sewing....
Nancy
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Quilt Show.....
I was tempted to purchase some more hand embroidery patterns, but wisely decided I have enough projects going for now. I did get a couple of pieces of fabric. One a 30's print in orange and green and a white with scattered small black dots I plan to use as the background of a stitchery...
Here are some quilts I found particulary interesting...
Names and information under each quilt.....
Nine Patch owned by Sandy Moritz
Sampler owned and hand pieced by Paula Stogsdill
Friendship Quilt owned by Martha Eberhard made by members of the guild.
Rachels Reel, Adaptation of a Jo Morton pattern. Started in 1992 and put aside until 2006, finished in 2007. Hand appliqued and hand quilted by owner Margaret Heller.
My Version of Super Mario owned by Velma Dykstra
I have some amazing photos for tomorrow's post. Come back and see them...
Happy Sewing...
Nancy
Friday, November 21, 2008
Great Tutorials....
This is the greatest invention...a cell phone/camera/whatever charger basket. There is a little rectangle for the cords to go through. The tutorial is very well written with photos and everything. I followed it step by step and ended up with a Christmas Present.... YIPPEE!!!
Wouldn't this be great for a college student? a friends desk? put it on the table in the entry and keep everything there including keys, cell phone... so many ideas? I might make some more...
Tomorrow I am heading out of town with a couple of friends to a quilt show...
Hope to have lots of photos for you...
I dreamt about a quilt pattern last night and want to head upstairs to attempt my dream...
Happy Sewing..
Nancy