November's reindeer

This month's theme over at YOE is reindeer. My partner was Sherry. I went a little cutesie this month. I crocheted a couple ornaments. Then I found the bead snowmen ornament kit and thought they would be nice ornaments so I made a couple of them. I also found the reindeer bag as a kit and thought it would be sweet to hold everything. Sherry has some younger kids and grandkids so I thought the reindeer craft kits would be fun. Next month is elves. I already have one ornament done.


Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for the stocking give away!!

Mu Rug Swap **Spoiler Alert **

Aunt Pitty Pat is hosting a Mug Rug Swap over on her blog. When Aunt Pitty Pat holds swaps there are always a few people who are from Facebook or who don't have a blog. I think my partner is one of those people.

We were to make a mug rug 6" X 10" or somewhere around there. I chose to use one of my English Paper pieced hexagons on the red background. It looks like Christmas but can be left out longer if my partner likes. We also needed to include a favorite recipe (chocolate chip cookies), a candy cane (cherry) to stir with, coffee/tea/cocoa, and a mug. My mug has cocoa in it plus I included 3 packs of coffee. I also included a gingerbread house clay ornament I bought.

I used this fun Santa fabric for the back. I love the peppermint binding fabric.

These mug rugs are fun to make. I actually have 3 or 4 more waiting to be finished.

Raw Cookie Dough Balls

This is what I was making after Thanksgiving Dinner. I already spent most of the day in the kitchen so I figured I may as well spend some more lol. I made the balls a week or so ago and they were in the freezer. All I needed to do was dip them in the chocolate.

I found the recipe here.  I used these candy wafers to cover the cookie dough balls. I love how easy it is to use these wafers. Just melt them in the microwave and you're ready to go. I bought these at A.C.Moore last year around Christmas I believe. I kept them in a dark cabinet away from the heat and they are still fine. My guys say they taste like Andes Mints. I also bought a bunch of other colors/flavors but we used them making Oreo Balls earlier this year.

New addition to the family

Jane had a sale recently in her shop. Looks like it's still going on. If you love 30's repro fabrics now is the time to stock up. I ordered 30 fat quarters. Jane said in her listing if you order 30 you will get one of each with no duplicates. There are some adorable prints in this stack. I'm almost tempted to order another bundle.

I'm thinking about making a Dresden Plate quilt with these. I just need to decide on a background color. Do you think solid pastels would work?

Or maybe butterflies or wonky stars :)

Mish Mash

I have wanted an immersion blender for some time now. I recently became a happy owner and tested it out. That orange glop you see is actually some delicious butternut squash soup. It's just a bit thick but still yummy. I didn't have a recipe. I just winged it like I usually do. I sweated some onions, carrots, celery and garlic until the onions were soft. I added in 3 white potatoes and a medium size butternut squash. Both were pealed and cut into 1" cubes. I covered them with chicken broth and brought it to a boil. Once it came to a boil I turned the heat down to a simmer and let it go until the potatoes were soft. It took about 45 minutes. Then I took the immersion blender to it and made it smooth. I had a bowl for lunch and put the rest in the freezer. It will be great for quick dinners at work with a piece of hearty bread.

I also made faux banana ice cream and faux mango ice cream. For the fake ice cream you chopped up your fruit and place it in the freezer. After it is frozen you use the immersion blender to chop up the fruit until smooth. It comes out cold and creamy just like ice cream. It's great for me because of my milk allergy plus it's healthier than ice cream.

I also received this little package in the mail this week. Val  sent these out to all the participants in the YOE. The card says not to open until Christmas. I'm trying to be good and wait but I don't know if I will make it.

I also finished the main portion of the cupcake scarf. It just needs the embellishments. Plus, I am waiting on customer approval of the colors.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This is the first year that our Daughter won't be with us for Thanksgiving. She will be at Fort Jackson, SC with the rest of her Platoon.

If she can't have Momma's turkey she is thinking about having Burger King lol. Actually the Soldiers will all be served a delicious Thanksgiving Dinner by the higher ranking officers I believe. When she comes home for Christmas we will have a big dinner and celebrate all the Holidays.

I saw this image and thought it was cute. I've seen similar ones with pumpkins but never a turkey.

This is what Rob will be doing most of the day. I plan on doing a little crafting in between snacking. I'm sure Robbie will be playing video games. 

I would like to wish each and everyone of you a Happy Thanksgiving!! If you don't celebrate Thanksgiving then I want to wish you a wonderful Thursday.

Christmas strings

I wasn't going to join anymore swaps this year but I felt drawn to this one.  This swap is being hosted over at Quilting Around The World. I whipped these up on Saturday. It was a nice relaxing way to spend the afternoon. I was determined to make all 24 in one day and I didn't stop until there were all sewn. I planned subs for dinner so I didn't have to worry about feeding anyone.  I like sewing days like that.

Scarves....DONE!

I finished all 6 of the scarves from my to do list.  I was going to give them as Christmas gifts but now I'm not sure. I'm not sure if the crew that I was making these for wants/needs/uses scarves. I might put them in the shop and stop worrying about it.

I also went out and bought some things for my Stocking. The first is coming soon and I want to be prepared.   I found some great deals and it isn't even Black Friday yet.

We've lost Santa

http://find-santa.blogspot.com/

WIN a shopping spree in Santa's Handmade workshop !

Artfire is a site where artisans from all over our planet get together and sell their beautiful handmade items. 
We are now running a contest so you can go do some serious Holiday shopping FOR FREE !
Help us find Santa and win some great prizes !

Golf club covers

I have been making Viking Hats  for a couple years now. I have one customer that has ordered many baby hats from me over the last year or so. She has a company and I believe she purchases these hats for the new babies of the employees and customers. Recently she asked me if I could make some golf club covers using the Viking hat design. These are what I came up with.

I think they came out fun. They are definitely a novelty item. All I see when I look at them is a cactus though. I keep picturing them in green lol.

I love the challenge of working a bit out of my norm. Another item crossed off my to do list. See, it wasn't too bad of a list, right?

Happy Halloween

I know Thanksgiving is next week but here I am still enjoying Halloween. I joined the Halloween block swap over at Aunt Pitty Pat's again this year. These are the blocks I received this year. I made the candy corn one. I think everyone did a wonderful job!

In the mail

I was very lucky and one a copy of the new 100 blocks book over at Antler Quilt Design. I bought the first volume and while there are 100 wonderful blocks not many of them called out to me. With volume 2 I found more than half of the blocks were ones that I wanted to make. This is a wonderful book to pick up if you have the opportunity.

I won this book on Sunday. Sent Doug my address on Monday. Received my book on Wednesday. Amazing!! It came right from QuiltMaker.

I also received this book last week. I ordered it from Amazon after seeing it on someone's blog. There are lots of fun and quick projects in this book. I really enjoy hand sewing and working with felt. I saw several patterns in here that I want to make. 

Thrift Shopping

After the doctor's on Monday I rewarded myself with a trip to the thrift store. I knew I wanted to pick up a couple golf clubs so I can test out my golf club cover pattern. The golf clubs were only $1 so I grabbed a wood and a putter. Good thing they were marked because I know almost nothing about golf. At this thrift store if you want to use a credit/debit card you need to purchase a minimum of $10. I did have some cash in my wallet but of course I wanted to wander around and see what else they had since I hadn't been there in awhile.

I like to browse the pillow case section. They call it pillowcase but what they put there are the covers you use to make throw pillows. I found the one realistic duck pillow case and then the 6 country duck covers in the lower left. The country duck covers are all double so there is 2 ducks on each. That gives me 12 ducks to make a quilt with.

I also picked up some fabric and a cute wooden reindeer. I found a knit stocking (commercially made because I can see where they cut off the tag inside) that I liked. I might use this as my stocking for the Stocking give away next month.

See those two scary pillows in the back? I think they are the kind that come with those scary looking couches from back in  my childhood. They look like they are in pretty good shape. I squeezed them and they felt new inside. What I plan on doing is removing the covers and make new fun, funky and bright covers for them. I have been wanting throw pillows for the couch but I always forget to look at pillow forms when I am out.

I bought all this for just over $15 I believe. Not too bad.

Lighthouse at Sea

This is Hetty's Row Robin quilt so far. It needs one more row and it will be done. I made the lighthouse row on the top.

*Another thing crossed off the to do list.

Couple Scarves

This rainbow scarf is a toddler length. I bought one skein of this yarn a couple years back because I love the colors. It sat in the yarn stash for a long time. I found it again recently and decided to whip up a quick scarf.

I found this yarn the other day at Walmart. I've always liked blue and yellow together. I crocheted this one sideways so the colors wouldn't line up exactly like they do when you crochet side to side.

That's 2 of the 6 scarves I'm hoping to get done.

A bit of crochet

This is the afghan I am working on for Robbie. I made one for Rob a couple years ago when he was in the hospital and Robbie loves to snuggle up in it in our bed. I took him to A.C.Moore and let him choose the colors. I love the two blues he chose but he also chose a forest green. I was a bit concerned about how they would work together but decided that if Robbie wants them then they look great together. Now that it is getting bigger I find that it is OK. Of course I would have chosen black instead of green but at least it is a dark green so it works fine. This is a great project to work on at night while watching TV.

October Owls Received

My partner for October over at YOE was Niki. Niki sent this cute little bag full of treats.

First, this adorable card.

There is a sweet paper butterfly on the inside of the card. Niki also sent some goodies from Stitchin' Heaven. Niki takes care of their blog. There is a hand sanitizer pen, a regular pen, and a pen light. Hey, I just noticed a theme there lol.

Her daughters helped her make these sweet fabric owls. I love the eyes on these guys. When I receive swap packages in the mail I always show Hubby what's inside. He was crazy about these little owls. I can never tell what is going to interest him.

Niki also added some fabric. You can never go wrong with fabric. Love the clocks.  Thanks Niki!!

Stocking Give Away Update and To Do List

The little guy over there on the right is telling me there are only 42 days left until Christmas. Yikes! Are you ready? Have you finished making all the gifts on your list?  I'm not stressing....yet. This year I decided to have some back up ideas in case I didn't finish (or start) the gifts on my list.

I need to make my stocking for the Stocking Give Away. Plus, I also need to do a little shopping to fill the stocking with goodies. The give away will run from December 1st - December 8th by popular vote.

I seem to have a long to do list that just keeps getting longer. I thought I would put my list here so I can keep myself accountable for actually checking things off. We'll see how well that works.

In no particular order:

- Make mug rug for swap  DONE
- Put back on felt Advent Calendar
- Make Hetty's row for the Row Robin DONE
- Make Barb's row for the Row Robin
- Make 3 crocheted Viking Hat golf club covers DONE
- Decide on a pattern and make blocks for 3 X 6 Bee
- Make stocking for give away
- Buy things to put in stocking for give away  DONE
- Write pattern for knit version of Viking hat
- Finish quilt for Great Niece
- Make another batch of hot cocoa for gift giving  DONE
- Buy coffee mugs to go with hot cocoa
- Cut 10" foundation squares for QOV string blocks   DONE
- Finish crocheted cupcake scarf  needs embellishments 
- Start and finish Jacob's quilt
- Start and finish Nathan's quilt
- Make November ornament for YOE swap  DONE
- Make December ornament for YOE swap
- Crochet 6 scarves  DONE
- Work on Robbie's afghan
- Wedding quilt for Chris and Carrie
- Thank you tote bag

So....how many hours are in a day? LOL

Veteran's Day

A big heartfelt thank you to all of those who have served and are serving to keep our Country free.

My Grandfather served in the Navy and now our Daughter serves in the Army. I am one very proud Momma.

Family Day and Graduation Day

This is Robbie's "why are you taking my picture you crazy Momma" look. :) Looking at this picture I can tell this is when he started to get sick. Mandy had a horrible cold while we were there and she managed to pass it on to all of us. Rotten Kid!

This is Mandy's group that graduated from Army Basic Combat Training (BCT) on October 29th, 2010. There are 4 Platoons. Mandy is in 2nd Platoon which is the second group from the left. When we went out to find her after the Family Day presentation I had to wait for Robbie to spot her. Everyone looked the same and there were people everywhere looking for their kids too. 

This is the child that has always been walking away from us. She has always been trying to grow up faster than we wanted. She has always wanted to go faster and farther than everyone else. She pushes herself hard to get what she wants and gets it too. Mandy said BCT was fun even though she was sick or sore most of the time she was there. She did a great job at everything she did. I wouldn't have expected anything less from our little go getter.

Mandy was glad to get out of her dress blues and into some comfy clothes. These are the first civilian clothes she was able to wear in about 10 weeks. Of course she could only wear them in the hotel room. When we went out she had to dress up like a soldier again.

Here's Dad trying to figure out what went wrong with the camera. He taped the Family Day presentation but the disc must have been bad because it was blank when we went to look at it. Very disappointing.

Of course Mandy had to get some internet time in too. In this picture you can see how red her face is. She was running a nice temperature for the two days we were there.

The one thing Mandy wanted was to get some good food while we were there. The poor thing hardly ate because she didn't feel well.

Of course no matter how sick she is, there is always room for Skittles.  The bed in our hotel room was humongous.  It was a king size bed but it had such a thick/deep mattress. Rob was thrilled because he could just slide right into bed. For me, I had to climb up into bed because it was too high. The mattress was comfy just too high for me.

This couch pulled out for Robbie to sleep on. It was ugly but pretty comfortable.

"Really Mom, another picture?" At least this one she doesn't look too sick. Every time she took off her dress uniform she hung it up neatly on hangers in the closet. Such a good Soldier.

This is a picture of Mandy saying the Army thing....Huuup or however it's spelled lol. Other than the trash in the background that I just noticed, I like this picture. Hotels give you a place to eat but then give you a teeny tiny garbage can.

Here are all the Soldiers that graduated that day. They all had to sit there and not move or smile or talk at all. It felt like it was over an hour that they sat there like that. There were parents/family taking pictures and flashes going off all the time. I would have had a very hard time sitting still.

This is on Graduation Day. All the Soldiers were seated alphabetically. Luckily, Mandy was on the end of a row so I could snap this lovely picture. Doesn't she look miserable?

They had a great band playing while we were waiting. Of course we did choose the seats diagonally across from them. I think we lost a little more of our hearing that day lol.

Each Soldier had a moment to stand on stage and state their name and where they are from. Poor Mandy could barely speak.

Then on the way out they all sang a cadence about the Drill Sergeants.  Basically it went along the lines of Drill Sergeant why don't you leave me alone, why don't you let me go home.  Everywhere I go Drill Sergeant there you are. It was very cool.

We ordered the Graduation DVD and it will be here in the usual 6-10 weeks. If I can figure out how to get it from the DVD to my computer and online I will post it for everyone to see.

Since Mandy was sick we didn't go out very much. Mostly we stayed in the hotel so she could take some medicine and rest. Even though we all came home sick it was well worth the trip to see our Daughter graduate and become a Soldier.

Mandy will be coming home for 2 weeks during Christmas and we can spoil her then. At least then we will have more time and we won't get lost driving around town...hopefully lol.