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Friday, December 28, 2012

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is having a very wonderful holiday season.  We've been enjoying each day and spending time where cell service is nonexistant, much less internet so blogging and instagramming went out the window!  But lots of family time was happening instead, so I hope you'll understand.  :)

We spent almost a week at my Grandparents' home in Illinois for Christmas and I was busy preparing before that.  After arriving home last night, I'm really ready to wrap up Christmas as great as it was and get busy on finishing up some old projects and cracking into some new ones.  Does anyone else feel like the New Year is the perfect time to clear out old clutter and make progress on new?

So...here's what's on my plate:

Old Projects that need to be finished:
--d.Gs blocks for Heather.--It's Heather's month to choose our block and quilt and she picked this super rad quilt
Boy's Nonsense

in these super rad colors
ColorWorn610

I didn't start on it until now because I was a little stumped on the values.  Heather wants this to be a value quilt and I wasn't sure where to go with these colors.  So, basically I was waiting until a few other girls in the circle made some blocks to see what they did and now I'll go from there....

--Carrie's quilt--So, I promised my sister a quilt for Christmas last year. Usually I make one quilt for Christmas for someone in the family.  Well...I'm yet to finish her quilt so I didn't make one this year either.  Truth is, the top is completely done and the back is one step from being done, but JoAnn's has been out of the solid I started with and I've put it off while I ruminate on this.  This quilt will be done ASAP.

--Clothing mending--It's the boring part of sewing, but I've got a pile of shirts and pants that are missing buttons, have small snags, etc in my sewing room that I want out.  They are taking up space both physically and mentally weighing on me when I see them, so I'm going to take one afternoon and get them outta here.


New Projects to start:
--Oren's star quilt--When Emma turned 5, I promised her a quilt so when Oren turned 5 I promised him one as well.  The quilt theme matched their party theme and since he's turning 7 in March, I thought I better get on that.  Fortunately it took me that long to make Emma's as well I believe, so at least he's not waiting on me to finish it...  He had a Star Wars theme that year, so we agreed on wonky stars (one of my most favorite blocks ever) in a black, blue, silver and white color scheme.  I've got all of the fabrics ready so this one is a get busy and get done kind of project.

--Em's stargazing quilt--For my Modern Blocks Bee, I sent out Weekends fabric and directions on the Stargazing block from the book for my bee members to make for me in November.  I've received 3 blocks so far (I know, I was sad to be last to go, get every block back on time or early and then ahve to email the bee members to check on my blocks...) and am waiting on 5 more that I know are coming in eventually.  That leaves a lot of blocks for me to make...  But, this is for Emma's full-size bed, so I'm using it as an opportunity to try out a more modern arrangement instead of just the same blocks in rows...This will be an ongoing project.  Here's what I've got so far...  There will be the Kona Ash filled in the open spots between different-sized blocks as well as some bigger stars and little ones too thrown in for good measure.

--dgs quilt--I'm still waiting on 4 blocks and I've got to make mine (I waited to see what I felt the quilt needed), but then I'm going to row-up these babies and add some borders to get this quilt finished and sent out.  No more long-standing WIPs when not necessary (I hope!)

I apologize for the phone camera instagram shots, but my real camera is still packed from our trip and I didn't want to procrastinate this blog post any more.  ;)


So, that's what I'll be working on over the next week or so. What are you up to during this break as one year comes to an end and a new one begins?

Monday, December 17, 2012

Life is worth living

As a former kindergarten teacher, I spent many days loving students as if they were my own children.  And in fact, I thought of them as mine.  For 6 hours a day, they were.  I was responsible for their education, social interaction and safety during those hours each day.  99.9% of teachers at any level will tell you they feel the same way about their students.

Once I even went through a Lock-Down where there was an intruder on campus and all teachers locked our doors, turned off our lights and kept our children safely away from doors and windows, etc until the all-safe sign was given.  In our case, it was a precautionary action that was over within 15 minutes, but the fear and anxiety were very real.

With that said, I know that my experiences cannot begin to relate to what the teachers and students of CT suffered through on Friday, and I have to admit that while heartbroken for them, I am thankful to have never lived through their pain.  It is with a heavy heart that I even think about what happened on Friday.  I have watched no news coverage of it and only heard what friends and family have told me.  I have no desire to know more because I only see the faces of my former students mingled with the faces of my own two children and that is too much for my heart to bear.

Source: cafemom.com via Kelli on Pinterest

I typically choose to live life knowing that tomorrow is never promised and that yesterday is already done.  Regrets and wishing for tomorrow will only hamper today.  Holding on to the past, both good and bad, will only cloud the joy we could have right now.  Waiting for the future to bring us better times will only make us miss out on the small joys we could find today.  Yes, we all have bad days in life, and sometimes those bad days are weeks, months, years for some of us, but each day we choose how we view our life, our world and  each other.  I am far from perfect, believe me--I know it only too well, but I know that I am in charge of how I feel and how I treat others each day.


I pray that while the community of Newtown heals, the rest of us will look into our own hearts, our own lives, and strive to become better each day.  May we look on others with love in our hearts.  May we find ways to serve our God by serving others each day.  May we forgive ourselves of our past mistakes as we forgive others for theirs.  I pray that we can become the people we all hope to be and hopefully, in that change make this world a better place to live.

Source: indulgy.com via Kelli on Pinterest
I know that there are many people organizing ways to help those in Newtown right now with pillowcase drives, quilt donations, etc.  And I applaud their efforts and encourage you to share if you are inclined.  But as you're giving to these poor families that will never again be the same, don't forget about those in your own community who could use some extra love too.  With this being the holiday season, there are plenty who could use a meal, a few presents for their children, a hug, even a card.  Sometimes we may not know that someone is hurting but a smile and hello may make all the difference in their day.

Source: tumblr.com via Kelli on Pinterest

I'll leave you with Oren's class motto from last year which just happens to be a bible verse, but is applicable whatever your beliefs:

  Be ye kind, one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another.
Ephesians 4:32a

And I'll tell you that hearing 18 kindergartners reciting that together every day is enough to give you hope.  Let's make that hope a reality.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Celebrate Giving

Hey y'all!  I'm surviving in the Santa Shop this week though these kids are about to do me in...  7 hours of constant cash registering in a portable with no air conditioning, 20-40 kids at a time and a cartoon blaring in the background...it can be hard for a girl to keep up her Christmas spirit!  haha  And yes, the no ac has been a beast because until about 2 this afternoon it's been in the mid 70s with about 150% humidity.  Then the rain brought the temp down like 20 degrees in an hour.  HALLELUJAH!

BUT, I do Santa Shop because I think it's so important to help kids learn the joy of giving.  Yes, getting gifts is great, not gonna lie.  But giving the perfect gift to someone and seeing their joy is just as good and sometimes even better, don't you think?  And it gives me real joy to see those (little ones especially) kids come in with their money and their list and shop for their Mama and Daddy and Nanny and Papa and sissy and bubba and even quite a few pets--it just makes my old sweaty Grinch heart melt.  ;)

And speaking of giving...Rachel the founder of do. Good Stitches decided to celebrate the joy of giving and celebrate how much good this group does.  She has more info on her blog (find it here) about this group of ladies (maybe some men..not sure on that one) around the world who work together to make quilts for charities all over each month.  It's a wonderful organization, and if you're even considering it, SIGN UP!  The friendships and creativity you'll find are icing on the cake to the joy of giving to others.

But now I have a favor to ask of you.  Rachel asked each circle (group of 10 who work together) to pick their favorite quilt made in 2012 by that circle and enter it in a little contest.  The winning quilt's circle receives a prize!!   The {Rad} Empower Circle (that's us) chose Heather's Square Pants quilt that we made blocks for in June.  This quilt is such a beauty and was my choice for top quilt from our group.  Absolutely amazing.

do. Good Stitches Square Pants Quilt
Square Pants Quilted by Heather.  Blocks made my the Empower circle of do. Good Stitches

So, I'm asking that you head over and vote.  If you'd like to vote for us, we'd surely appreciate it, but vote for whichever one speaks to you.  Only one thing--voting ends tomorrow (12/13) @ midnight!  So, vote early and vote often as I always say...  ;)

One other thing, Rachel has set up contests for all individual quilts for the entire group and one for anyone who's made charity quilts in 2012.  So, if you're not involved with d.Gs (yet), but you do share your quilts, please enter, maybe you'll win.

We can all do more for others.  We can all find time to share with others.  Maybe quilting's not your thing and that is fine.  Maybe you just don't have time to commit to something like this right now--that's fine too.  But we can all find time to share a smile, buy someone lunch, pick up something someone has dropped for them, give up a seat on a bus/train/bench, etc.

Even when you don't feel like it, share.  Give.  Bless others.  In the long run, you'll bless yourself.  :)

Sunday, December 9, 2012

And the winner is.....

Hi everyone! I hope you're all having a good weekend. Sorry to be late with the giveaway winner but we went out of town for the weekend and I didn't have time to post the results.

I found all of your color loves and dislikes/lack of stash very interesting and tallied all of the results which I'll share as soon as I get a chance.

But as for the winner....out of 486 (WOW!!!) comments, Random.org is #352....


Congratulations Julie.  I've emailed you and will get you your $25 gift card to the Knotted Thread Etsy Shop as soon as I hear back.

Thank you so much to each and everyone of you who stopped by, commented and especially those that became a follower.  To know that I'm not on this journey alone--to know there are people reading my ramblings and commenting really makes my day.

I'll be back tonight or tomorrow with the results of my impromptu survey on color choices...

Friday, December 7, 2012

Friday Finish

So, I have a finish this week.  Just one since I've been eating, breathing and sleeping Santa Shop for school next week.  But one is better than I thought I'd have.

I finished up Em's new dress that I made to test Jenny's latest pattern.  This one is the Com-PLEAT-ly Perfect Peasant Dress and it's a quick and easy sew.

I made the size 7/8 for Emma in her favorite shade...purple...uggghhhh.  Seriously, I looked through all of the girly patterns I've tested for Jenny and 3 of the 5 for Emma were in light  purple.  Seriously...


This dress calls for pleated sections to be added to the sleeves and hemline.  I didn't have a lot of solids to match this plaid, so we went with pink on the sleeves and just continued the plaid along the hemline.  Oh, and I'm just going to add--my plaids all matched up along the seamlines--booyah!

The only change I made to the pattern was to lessen the number of pleats along the bottom.  I did my hemline just like my sleeves and only after I was finished pinning did I realize Jenny called for twice that many pleats.  But, I liked how it looked and thought it might make the dress a little more "grown-up: with less pleats, so I left it.  Plus, I didn't have to fix it.  ;)

Emma loves the dress and was happy to model it.  I think the fabric she chose lends itself slightly to looking like a nightgown in this style dress, but the boots helped dress it up quite a bit.  A belt would be cute with it too.

I definitely recommend this dress if you're looking for a simple dress for your daughter Size 10 and under.  Jenny's patterns are easy to follow and use common sense to construct unlike many of the commercial patterns.

I'm linking up with Amanda Jean since I've actually accomplished something.  ;)

p.s.  I am in no way monetarily compensated when I test sew patterns.  I do receive the pattern for free to test it for errors, ease in sewing, instructions, etc, but all of my opinions are completely my own.

p.p.s  PLEASE someone tell me what I can do to make my pictures not appear blurry when inserted into blogger.  These are saved at a normal web size and sometimes appear fine and other times, blogger pixelates them weird.  Any advice??





Wednesday, December 5, 2012

WIP Wednesday

This will be quick today because I'm now busy ripping out my mistake before I finish up today's project and head to town to run errands and prepare for Santa Shop next week...  Oh the joys of PTO co-chair behind-the-scenes goodness.

Today I'm making a new dress for Emma.  My friend Jenny is at it again with a new pattern.  This time she's come up with a pleated peasant dress.  The sleeve and dress hemlines have pleats to add to the cuteness.

I let Em go through the stash over the weekend and she picked this purple plaid.  I never would have guessed...

So, I've got the pleated edges added to the sleeves and body section.  I've got the sleeves sewn to the front of the body.  I had the sleeves sewn to the back of the body only to realize I'd sewn the body inside out!  DOH!


So, I'm spending a little time with my seam ripper before I sew the back back on and sew up the side seams.  Then I've just got to finish the neckline and DONE!

I'll try to get some pictures this afternoon to show off tomorrow...

And since I'm actually in-progress with something, I'm linking up.  Head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is up to this week.


Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Mini Photo Shoot

WOW!!!  I am amazed at the turnout so far for the SMS Giveaway (you can still enter here).  Thank you so much to all of you who've stopped by, commented and especially all of the new followers!  I hate that I haven't had time to respond to each comment, but know that I am reading every one and I hate not starting up a conversation with each of you.

Whew, I've said it a million times, but this blogging community blows me away.  So many people getting together to give and share with each other.  It's rad (haha--that's for my dGs circle girls) to say the least.

Now...I don't have any sewing content for you today, so feel free to head to your next blog and come back tomorrow when I promise my sewing machine and it's work will be back to the regularly scheduled programming.  BUT...remember how I said Chris bought me a new lens for my birthday?  Well, I took it out this afternoon and snapped a few pics of the kiddos for our Christmas cards.  Yep, haven't even thought about those yet.

I am thrilled with what I got back.  I was planning on black-and-whiting (I just made that word up you know) whatever photo I liked best for our cards so I didn't worry about their color matching at all.  Plus, we've done the "everyone matching" look before.  This year I thought I'd just take a real (staged) picture of the kids and use it.  You know--who we really are, only with our faces clean, hair brushed and smiling politely.

These are some of what I got.  I'm in love!






I don't know why these last two are fuzzy...darn you blogger!

And I saved a few I didn't show you yet.  So, now I've got to decide if I want to B&W one of them, or go with it in color or take more tomorrow in colors that at least semi-go together.  Oh, and fix Oren's belt since it's all kind of twisted and his shirt's only tucked in in the front.  But, whatever--that's how he rolls.

I hope y'all are having a terrific Tuesday and I'll see ya tomorrow!!

Monday, December 3, 2012

GIVEAWAY DAY!!

Who doesn’t love a giveaway?  Not this girl.  Y’all know I love to share.  Well, some things….  So, let’s get right down to it.  I know everyone participating in Sew, Mama, Sew’s Giveaway Day (and if you’re not, you really should) has a bunch of places to visit today and throughout the week, so I’m not going to take a lot of your time or make you jump through hoops.  I know what Giveaway Day is like on a dial-up connection, okay?!?

Giveaway Day

So…I am giving away a $25 gift certificate to the Knotted Thread Etsy shopJennifer, the owner, is a great girl.  She recently moved to Hawaii (I know, let’s all hate her just for a minute…okay) and decided that change brings more change and she’d open up the fabric shop she’d been dreaming about.



She’s building up more and more inventory each month, including

NOTTING HILL by Joel Dewberry
SIMPLY COLOR by Vanessa Christenson
Simply Color Charm Pack


SMALL DOTS and CHEVRONS from Riley Blake
1/2 yard Bundle Riley Blake Small Dots - Complete Line

Fat Quarter Bundle Riley Blake Medium Chevrons

There's also some Terrain, Ruby (by Bonnie and Camille) flannel, and some pre-made items like coasters, makeup rolls and even a quilt or two.  

So, how can you win $25 to spend in Jennifer’s shop?  Just tell me your favorite color of fabric to buy.  I find that I have a TON of yellows, blues (especially aquas) and reds.  But not as much oranges or purples.  And I have an on-again, off-again love with greens, blacks and browns…

So, tell me your favorite color(s) to buy and you’re entered to win.  I love me some followers (so I’m not just talking/typing to myself), so if you’re a follower (new or old), let me know and you get another entry too.  J

The contest will be open till Friday, Dec 7 at 8 p.m. and then I’ll use Mr. Random.org to pick a winner.  Winners will be notified through email so make sure I can get a hold of you if you’re a no-reply blogger.  Otherwise I’ll have to choose another winner.

Good luck on all your goodie-winning adventures this week!  

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Vintage Style

Hi everyone!  I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  :)  We did!  We celebrated Thanksgiving in our usual, casual style beginning the day with a Turkey Trot.  It was just 8 of us running up and down my road, but a fun 5K and a great way to start the day.  Emma was determined to win (she's a little competitive, don't know where she gets it...) and blew us all away with a time of 34 minutes.  Chris didn't run because he didn't want to was smoking turkeys for lunch so he kept time for us and he didn't believe Em when she came back alone saying she was done.  Homegirl put it on us.

About halfway through I could see Oren was starting to tire out, so I let Em go ahead and did the rest with him.  He had said he didn't want to do the race at all, and when I told him he could walk it with Grammy but he would be doing it he left before the rest of us and got a big headstart!  Come to find out, he was afraid not only his sister would beat him, but everyone would, so after some encouragement from me and some running, some walking and a few stops, he and I finished hand-in-hand and with big smiles and a 2nd place finish!

The rest of the family came in soon after.  It was my Mom's goal to finish a 5K by her birthday (next week!) and she and Dad did great.  My brother is so busy with school he hadn't run in a month and my sister ran some, went back and walked with Mom and Dad some and then waited on her husband who went the extra mile (literally) and ran 5 miles instead of 3.

Seriously--check out Oren's face in both pics he's in--hilarious!!!!

Afterward, we had a big lunch, some napping and some talking and a great day all around.

Since then, we've packed up all the vibrant fall colors around the house and begun to prepare for Christmas! Our trees are up (yep, we get 2 trees each year) and most of the decorations are out.  The kids and I have made some little trees for our Christmas forest and I'm planning more projects.  I try to do something small with them each day to make it special for them.

Ok--now that we're all caught up, I really wanted to tell you about a book I checked out from the library last week.  My small-town library is tiny and not the most current...  So I was surprised to find Vintage Cakes on the New Releases Nonfiction shelf last week.  I'd read a review by Amy Karol not long ago and she raved about the recipes in this book.  So, of course I snatched it up and honestly, I don't want to take it back.  I will definitely get a copy of this to keep.
Vintage Cakes: Timeless Recipes for Cupcakes, Flips, Rolls, Layer, Angel, Bundt, Chiffon, and Icebox Cakes for Today's Sweet Tooth
via Amazon
Written by Julie Richardson, this book is a collection of all sorts of vintage cakes given a modern twist.  There are easy weeknight style cakes, icebox cakes, a section on cupcakes, layer cakes, flips and rolls, etc...

For Thanksgiving, I decided to make the Maple Pecan Chiffon Cake with Brown Butter Icing.  And it was delicious.  I will say it wasn't near as beautiful as Julie's cake, because I have to admit that my icing was less than spectacular looking.  My brown butter began to burn before getting too brown and the icing separated to look like a bechemel sauce or gravy gone wrong before I frosted the cake.  BUT after some time in the fridge, it hardened back and up and was DELICIOUS!!

For this vintage cake picture I broke out one of my vintage saucers from my Great Grandma.  She left a specific one for each grandkid--this one has mums on it since my birthday is in November.  


So, I encourage you to check this book out--maybe put it on your Christmas list.  It's going on mine!

Linked up with Debbie for the last time this month!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

A-corny snack for Thanksgiving

See how I did that there...a-corny snack and my snack is little acorns.  I know, I'm incredibly witty...

For such a bad joke, I gave y'all a bad picture of me...how's that for fair?!?

I told Oren's teacher last week that I'd seen a really cute snack online that I thought would be cute for Thanksgiving--little acorns.  We've all seen the Oreo turkeys, the marshmallow pilgrim hats, etc and those are super cute and I've made them in the past.  But I thought these acorn snacks were cute and different.  She agreed, so I went in today to share them with his class.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me just mention that I am totally ripping off the girls from Our Best Bites here as they featured both of these acorns a couple of weeks ago.  So, I'm not going to give you the recipe or tutorial, because Sara did such a great job already.  

This is our assembly line in action

The kids and I made the little acorns last night so they icing would have time to set up and they'd be more solid for snack time.  Oren unwrapped all of the kisses for me (we used dark--yum!) and Emma put all the kisses on the Nutter Butter Bites after I dotted a little icing on there.  Actually-Sara mentions using chocolate frosting or some melted chocolate chips for this step, but I had some black glitter decorating icing in a tube and I used that.  It worked great and I didn't have to buy anything extra or get another bowl dirty.  :)  We did it assembly line, meaning we attached all of the kisses, waited an hour or so and then I came back and added all of the mini chocolate chips with a tiny dot of icing as well.

I think this new lens is helping--I almost look like a food blogger!  ;)

But, I saved the donut hole acorns to make with Oren's class.  I made a few at home to practice and I changed 2 things to Sara's directions--I used Nutella instead of melted chocolate because I knew I'd be at school and that would save me time and headache and I didn't cut an end off to make it flat.  I found this made it harder to spread the Nutella because the donut kept breaking off.  I spread the Nutella and then let the kids choose from a few toppings to make the acorn their own--we had toasted coconut, chopped pecan pieces, chocolate sprinkles and some leftover Halloween sprinkles.  Who am I to curb their creativity with realism??


The kids loved their fall snack and I'm sure their parents loved it too since we ate them about 15 minutes before they headed home for Thanksgiving break--chocolate, sugary donuts and more chocolate--yes!

This is a super easy project to do with kids and makes a great gift or centerpiece idea.  We bagged up a few for the teachers and sent them to school with a fall-inspired paper folded over the top of the bag and tied.  I wish I'd gotten a picture of that, but I figured a picture wasn't worth a tardy slip, you know?

I'm linking these up with Debbie for Tuesday at the Table.  Go see what other great ideas are there for Thanksgiving (if you're American) and fall in general (for everyone else!).

Friday, November 16, 2012

One Random Friday

Hey y'all!  I know everyone has been doing random Thursday posts and linking to Really Random Thursdays, but I just couldn't swing it yesterday.  So--you get a whole bunch of randomness on Friday instead.

1.  I FINALLY joined instagram.  I don't know why I held out so long other than "all the cool kids were doing it."  Then the day after I signed up I saw this post from Deborah at Whipstitch and straight up laughed because it is exactly how I felt.  Really, if you don't already follow Deborah you should.  She was one of the first people I "met" when finding my way into the world of blogging/blogs/fabric-minded people on the internet and I've followed her ever since.   So--I'm Kelliw6 if you want to watch me figure out instagram and post way more about my life than anyone probably cares about but why not since everyone else is doing it...

2.  I am way behind on the plank challenge that I mentioned a few weeks back because I honestly forgot about it altogether.  But I am keeping up with my miles for Pile on the Miles pretty well.  So far in November I've ran/walked 29 miles so far this month already and am doing at least 10 tomorrow.  I have skipped my sprint/speed training for the last 2 weeks because I am lazy and I hate it, so I'm 2 miles behind this week, but  whatever...  I'm still pretty happy with how I'm doing with it.

3.  My sewing machine has been in the shop which is why there's been no sewing going on.  I just got it back Wednesday, but I had planned to have me sewing room/office all cleaned up by the time it came home and I don't have that done yet.  So I am kinda punishing myself by not sewing until it gets done.  Which means it's still in it's little case as I don't trust myself not to sew if it's set up and plugged in and ready.  haha

4.  I've been knitting a little every evening on my sweater.  After doing 10-15 rows and hating it and ripping it all out and restarting 2 more times I have made significant progress (for me, not like in getting close to being done) and knitted enough that I have 2 buttonholes done.  I'm almost ready to start the lace design part which will be incredibly new to me and probably challenging since I only tend to knit at night when I'm tired and trying to watch Castle or NCIS or Duck Dynasty or something else compelling.

found via Ravelry

5.  I changed up a few things on the blog the other night.  I need to make a new header and maybe update my sidebars a little, but it's kinda intimidating, so I'm keeping it lowkey for now.  In other words, I'm not sure what to do, so I'm just going to ignore the problem for now until inspiration or a free redesign from a blog-design guru strikes.

6.  Both kiddos had their Thanksgiving lunch at school yesterday and I came to eat with them.  Oren ended up getting chicken nuggets instead of the dinner.  What?  A bunch of the kids did.  Emma got the whole shebang and ate some of it.  I ate mine.  Boy do I love a good $3.35 cafeteria style Thanksgiving dinner.  Seriously--except for I got a bunch of dark turkey meat...and they forgot to put out butter for my whole wheat roll.  But on a whole, it was my Thanksgiving warmup!  haha

7.  I am mentioning something I'm thankful for each day on facebook this month and my list includes both the big things (the people) and the little things (my compression socks and my comfy bed).  Most nights I have a hard time deciding what to be thankful for because I am so very blessed.  It's hard to just choose one thing.  So...I wanted you to know I'm thankful for each of you as well.  :)

I'll be back soon with sewing content.  I promise...

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Donuts are delicious

I mentioned last week that my friend Debbie had evilly coerced inspired me to buy some doughnut pans and give a try at baking some at home.  I've many times popped open a can of biscuits and fried them up as donuts, but I'd never baked any from scratch.

So we did that this week...3 times!  Our first attempt was for the maple cinnamon doughnuts that Debbie had mentioned last week and actually featured today.  The recipe only makes 6, so we made them two days in a row!  I will wholeheartedly agree with Debbie that while they are really tasty, the maple flavor is just not really there.  The second time I doubled the maple and while I could taste and smell it in the batter, it seemed to cook out.

Baked Maple Cinnamon Donuts
Photo via Cooking with My Kid--Ours didn't last long enough to photograph!

I would recommend these, and Emma's teachers raved to her about them (we sent most of the second batch to school to their teachers), but I will say they are good basic doughnuts, but not enough for the maple lover.

This weekend we branched out and made another of Debbie's suggestions--the dark chocolate doughnut with caramel glaze.  This recipe came Lindselicious.  It was basically cake batter cooked into doughnut shapes and then covered with caramel sauce.  I didn't use her recipe for melting caramel bits, but instead used Chris' tried and true easy caramel sauce.  I was doing 2 things at once though and didn't quite cook the sauce long enough, hence it's granular appearance.  Oh well--the taste is divine even if the appearance not so much...

A food photographer I am not--but Chris bought me a new lens for my birthday, so maybe I can improve...??

As I said--this was just cake batter, so it was a little too soft and moist for me in a doughnut, so we left them uncovered for awhile to harden up just a bit.  The taste is good, but the texture wasn't quite there for me.  But it's a great starting off point and I've had to beat the kids off with a stick to keep them away from them.  This recipe made 12 and like 6 muffins, so if the caramel had been prettier, we definitely would have sent these off to school this morning.  Next time...

I'll be linking up with Debbie in what appears to be the month of the doughnut between us at Tuesday at the Table.  Make sure to check out the links to the doughnuts we made here as well as what Debbie's got and the other linkers.  Great food to be found, that's for sure!

Monday, November 12, 2012

And the winner is...

So, last week when I planned the giveaway ending, I totally forgot that Monday (today) was our celebrated Veterans Day and the kids wouldn't be at school.  So, instead of drawing a winner when I got home from dropping them off, I drew a winner with my coffee and breakfast instead.  :)

And the winner of the $25 gift certificate to Westwood Acres is




.....Marci from Marci Girl Designs!  Congratulations and thanks so very much to each and every one of you who took the time to wish me happy birthday.  Y'all really know how to make a girl feel special!

I also want to send a special thanks to all of the brave men and women who have served or are serving in our armed forces.  The fact that you volunteer your service to our country to keep us safe and free is so amazing and we don't say thank you enough.  Whether you served in peace times or war, whether you were/are stationed at home or overseas--THANK YOU!

graphic found here

And to the families of veterans, a big thank you as well!  Sharing your loved one with us while they serve is a huge sacrifice that I cannot even begin to imagine.  Thank you for all that you do to support and love your veteran as well.  :)

We are headed to the nearby Veterans Day parade in a few minutes.  Take the time today to thank a soldier for their service.

I'll be back this afternoon (or tomorrow morning) with some cool stuff to show you...  :)

Friday, November 9, 2012

Finish It Up Friday

**Don't forget about the giveaway!  You've got till Monday morning to enter!  And thanks to all that have wished me happy birthday!!!**

I've got a finish to show y'all!  Remember my do. Good stitches quilt I've been working on?  Well, I finished it last week and just now got around to taking out the last few basting pins and photographing it.  I still have to add the awesome d.Gs labels that Michonne ordered for us, but otherwise this baby is ready to send off to comfort someone.

I plan to take some more artistic photos tomorrow and I will load those on flickr and possibly here, but at least you get to see what it looks like tonight!

Short recap:  In May I asked the lovely girls of our Empower group to make me "Framed Patchwork" blocks.  Then I hemmed and hawed over placement of the blocks and then realized I didn't have enough navy fabric to do the off-center, more modern design I'd finally settled on, so this quilt is a bit more traditional than I originally had in mind.  BUT....I really do love it!

The navy and green really offset the bright patchwork squares and bring a needed "weight" to the quilt.  Since I couldn't add as much navy as I'd wanted to, I not only quilted it diagonally (both ways) in navy, but I bound it in navy too.

On the back I used some fun polka dots that I had in enough yardage to finish the quilt quickly.  The quilting design shows a little better on the back in these pictures. 



I knew I wanted to do minimal quilting on this one because I wanted it to cuddle comfortably without the added weight of all of that quilting.  Since it's not really bed-sized, I didn't want it to stiff to cuddle up on the couch with or to wrap a sweet little one in.

I really considered going back and adding white diagonal lines on either side of the navy ones, but sometimes less is more and sometimes done is better than "still in progress."

So, after a quick label addition and a trip through the wash, this beauty will be sent off to Alternatives for Girls and will hopefully comfort someone emotionally and physically in this coming winter season.

November is actually my month again, so I have sent out my request to our great group and already have 2 blocks in my excited hands.  I'll post soon about which block I picked and show off the pretty ones Michonne sent me.  :)

I hope you have a wonderful weekend coming up!!

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Let's Celebrate!!

Today is my birthday!  Yes, Chris and I were born only 8 days apart (and some years...), so it's a special time of year for us.  :)

I have already had such rich birthday blessings showered down on me this morning that I know that my cup truly does runneth over.

So...let's celebrate!!  I want to share my blessings with y'all.  Let's have a giveaway!  I don't know why, but I just love to give stuff away.  Probably because I know how happy I am when I win something or someone does something kind for me that I just want to make someone else feel that good too.

How about a $25 gift card to go fabric shopping??  Sound good to anyone else?

And this time around, let's support Amanda at Westwood Acres.  Amanda is fun to read over at her blog A Crafty Fox and gave away all kinds of goodies after Quilt Market.  And you know how I feel about giveaways!  ;)

She's got this Lark by Amy Butler jelly roll for $21.  And there's a layer cake too!
Lark by Amy Butler COMPLETE 24 Piece Quilter's Fabric Roll

Or this Riley Bake Polka Dot FQ Bundle for $24.75
NEW Riley Blake House Designer Small Polka Dots 11 Fat Quarter Bundle

And this Bella Solids Bright Bundle for $25 just makes me smile.
NEW Bella Solids 'Brights' Bundle of 8 Half Yards from Moda's Fall 2012 Release

And Field Study by AMH Feathers.  LOVE!  This half-yard bundle is only $19!
Field Study Feathers Half Yard Bundle from Anna Maria Horner for Free Spirit


But those are just some of the bundles.  She's got yardage in Chicopee, Out To Sea, and Chevrons besides a TON of half-yard bundles, charm packs, fat quarter and fat eigth bundles, etc.

I think I'm going to order some Madrona Road at the same time for myself.  A little birthday spoiling, maybe??  :)

So--let's get to the details--leave me a comment telling me your favorite birthday dessert.  Like I said yesterday--Chris would rather have hello dollies than cake and I'd eat just about anything!  But what's your favorite treat?

For an extra entry, let me know you're a follower, because y'all are so special to me to keep up with the ramblings I lay on you.  ;)

I'll keep the giveaway open until Monday (November 12) morning after I drop off the kids at school.  Around 8 a.m.  Then I'll randomly pick a winner.

Thanks for being here another year with me.  :)  Now I'm off to a birthday lunch with a friend.  Yay!

**This giveaway is completely organized and paid for by me.  I chose the gift because I wanted to share.**




















Wednesday, November 7, 2012

One of those easy things...

You know those secret weapons in life that are super easy but everyone assumes you must be a genius pastry chef/top-notch seamstress/professor of awesomeness because you can do it??

Well, I have one of those to share with you today.  It's my recipe for the best bar cookies in the world.

Last week was Chris' birthday and he is INCREDIBLY low-key about his birthday.  Like, if we didn't celebrate or even mention it to him, he'd probably be okay about it.

But of course we do celebrate it because we love him.  The kids and I talked and decided what to get him for gifts, what to cook for supper and what to make for dessert.  Chris isn't a really big dessert eater, so while he likes chocolate cake, he'd eat a piece or maybe two and then guess who'd eat the rest...yep, me.  :/

So...I asked the kids what we should make instead and both piped up "Hello Dollies!!"  almost simultaneously.  Hello Dollies are one of my secret weapons.  You may know them as Magic Layer Bars, but everyone in my family calls them Hello Dollies and the name always makes me laugh.  They are probably Chris' favorite dessert in the entire world and thank goodness for that.  :)

This was the only one left this afternoon and Emma snapped a photo on my phone for me before sharing it with her brother...sorry for the phone pic.  ;)

Want to know how easy they are??  Of course you do...

Gather your ingredients together:
1 stick of butter
1 1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs (I just throw a sleeve of graham crackers into my food processor and turn that baby on for a few seconds.)
1 can sweetened condensed milk  (YUM!!)
2 c. chocolate chips
1 1/3 c. coconut flakes
1 c. chopped nuts (I use pecans, but go wild with what your family likes)

Now...time to get busy...
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  While it's heating, throw the stick of butter into your 13 x 9" pan and put it in the oven to melt.

When melted, pull it out and sprinkle the graham cracker crumbs evenly over the melted butter.

Pour the milk over the crumbs and then sprinkle the remaining ingredients over the top.  Press everything down gently with a fork.

Now that your oven is fully preheated, pop the pan back in the oven for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cool and cut!

See??  Easy peasy!  But, let me get a little honest with you here--I NEVER measure anything.  And I don't usually even gather my ingredients together until my butter is melting away.

This is usually how it goes around here--get a hankering for Hello Dollies...Turn on the oven and throw a stick of butter in the pan and get it to melting.  Grab everything else out of the pantry and crush up the crumbs.  When the butter is melted I drop the crumbs in, get them fairly even and then start sprinkling.  I put a few handfuls of each ingredient in till they look good and pour the milk over the top of everything.  Yep, it doesn't even matter what order you put it all in there.  Then I gently pat it all down with a fork and throw the pan back in the oven.

I have never taken these anywhere that I had leftovers.  Which is sad because I always want to eat the leftovers myself on the way home.

You can add or substitute the ingredients for what your family loves--peanut butter chips or butterscotch, maybe even cinnamon chips or toffee bits.

Next time you need a quick and easy secret weapon, try these Hello Dollies.  Your family will thank you.  :)

Hello Dolly Bars Recipe
Photo via My Recipes--now if only I had taken a picture like this last week... But we ate them too fast!  ;)

I'm linking up with Debbie a day late, but I have to say that her post yesterday on donuts drove me to get 2 donut pans at Walmart today and I think I know what I'll be baking up tomorrow...