snack saturday

making this for a dinner party tomorrow night. hope it turns out as nicely as this picture!


1 pkg. (2-layer size) chocolate cake mix
1 cup cold milk
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Vanilla Instant Pudding
1/2 cup KRAFT Smooth Peanut Butter
1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts
2 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted
1-1/2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping(i've used real whip cream instead)

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Prepare and bake cake mix as directed on package in two greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans. Cool 10 min.; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks. Meanwhile, pour milk into medium bowl. Add dry pudding mix. Beat 2 min. or until well blended. Add peanut butter; beat well. Refrigerate until ready to use.
MIX peanuts and melted chocolate; stir until evenly coated. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper-covered baking sheet. Refrigerate 10 min. or until firm.
PLACE one of the cake layers on cake platter; spread with 1 cup of the pudding mixture. Cover with remaining cake layer. Gently stir whipped topping into remaining pudding mixture. Spread over top and side of cake. Decorate with chocolate peanut clusters. Store leftover cake in refrigerator.

edited to say that this was fantastic! and its all gone lol!

card friday

had a great day. worked out, went for a pedicure and than a quick trip to Urban Trends. found these yummy papers and some gel a tin stamps-flourishes like i have been searching for! was a wonderful day.

limp noodle

that is how i feel after working out two days in a row. wonder how i'll feel after going tomorrow? lol

stay tuned for Card Friday later on. have some running around to do today(and i get to get a pedicure after lunch. yippee!) and i'll post something tonight.

enjoy your Friday!

great mail week

received my blog candy wins. these goodies courtesy of Vicki



and these goodies from Laura.


thanx again ladies!


i also got my SU swap cards in the mail. received some beautiful cards!

blasted out of my slump today

remember this quilt? spent 6 hours custom quilting it today. quilting isn't perfect(don't look too closely at those pictures lol!) but *I* did it and i'm thrilled with how it turned out. the piano keys in the blue border, i eye-balled them. tomorrow i'll get the binding started(i hope Hamels still has the fabric i want!) and get all the loose threads sunk

Thursday 13

Thirteen Places i Have Vacationed

1. New York City
2. Toronto
3. Calgary
4. Las Vegas
5. Mexico City
6. San Fran(and yes i've left my heart there :p)
7. Seattle
8. Portland
9. LA
10. Sacramento(lived there briefly too)
11. Ottawa
12. Vancouver Island(i looooooooooove Saratoga Beach)
13. Quebec City

ramblings

congrats to Beth from Australia for winning Tempting Tuesday. Beth please email me your mailing address and which card you would like.

an apology to my faithful readers for the lack of postings this week. i have been feeling very uninspired/non creative the past few days. i have been working on some quilting(the evil evil Buggy Barn Quilt). i'm almost ready to start sewing the blocks together(woo hoo) and will post some pictures soon. don't give up on me just yet :)

eta this picture was taken on the highway near our town. it's a few years old now, flowers are just starting to bloom there

tempting tuesday!!

leave a comment on this post and tonight after the hockey game(go Bruins!!) i'll have A pick a number for the winner. winner gets their choice of any card i've posted for the month of March


sorry for the lack of posts the past few days. M has gotten another ear infection and has been very demanding. antibiotics are finally kicking in though

quilt monday

tweaked cards

Friday night stamping

here's a few of the cards i made. need to do a few last minute tweaks to the other cards i finished before taking pictures of them.

hope you are enjoying the sun that has finally made an appearance!

i've been tagged again

3 Things.....

Kai has tagged me with a '3 things' meme.....


Three Things That Scare Me:
1.lightening
2. being alone at night
3. spiders

Three People Who Make Me Laugh:
1. my boys
2. my brother
3. my friend Lisa

Three Things I Love:
1. chocolate
2. shopping
3. silence

Three Things I Hate:
1. jealousy
2. racism
3. coffee

Three Things I Don't Understand:
1. why it keeps raining
2. video games
3. golf

Three Things On My Desk:
1. sewing machine
2. My camera
3. empty bottle of wine

Three Things I'm Doing Right Now:
1. blogging
2. hiding from the rest of the family
3. debating if i should head back to bed lol

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
1. skydive
2. go to Vietnam
3. lose more weight

Three Things I Can Do:
1. bake
2. quilt
3. i'm double jointed lol

Three Things I Can't Do:
1. knit
2. cheer for Calgary
3. Roll my rrrrrrr's(good on Kai! neither can i!)

Three Things I Think You Should Listen To:
1. Your mother
2. Your inner voice
3. The wind

Three Things You Should Never Listen To:
1. your mother in law
2. Gossip
3. The voice that says you're not good enough - whether it's your own voice or someone else's.

Three Things I'd Like To Learn:
1. A second language
2. how to draw(i do a mean stick figure!)
3. ice skate

Three Favourite Foods:
1. chocolate
2. Italian
3. delivery

Three Shows I Watched As A Kid:
1. the ATeam
2. Knight Rider
3. Fraggle Rock

Three Wonderful People to Inflict My Meme On:
1. Crunchy
2. Amy
3. Barb

music tag

Here are the rules: list seven songs you are into right now. No matter what they are. They must be songs you are presently enjoying. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

1. Fly Away-Tim McGraw
2. High Maintenance Woman-Toby Keith(my new theme song lol!!)
3. Barb Wire and Roses-Pin Monkey
4. literally anything by Nickelback
5. Long Trip Alone-Dirks Bentley
6. Ladies Love Country Boys-Trace Atkins
7. Walk Away-Kelly Clarkson

and i'm going to tag Barb, Crystal, Claire, Gene and Kai

card friday

i'm off to stamp tonight. picked up a few new stamps at Classic yesterday and can't wait to play with them

spring giveaway winner

is Leigh! please email me your mailing address and i'll get the bobbins off to you right away

long and tall

i am loving this size of card!
and don't forget, Tempting Tuesday is coming up next week!

cookies anyone?

friend of mine just dropped this box off FULL of gingerbread men! the boys(and Jim lol) are in their glory lol! they smell soooooo yummy!

Thursday 13

Thirteen Reasons to LOVE SPRING

1. warmer
2. more sun(except for BC lol!!)
3. longer days
4. spring break
5. Easter(mmmm chocolate bunnies!)
6. baby ducks
7. new life in my garden
8. garden stores open!!
9. its sandal time
10. yard work
11. school's almost over
12. bye bye sweaters
13. puddle jumping

spring giveaway!!

sewers and quilters, this one is for you! just reply to this post and i'll award the winner a few prewound bobbins(shown in the picture is tan, grey and black. i may throw in a few more colors) these bobbins are fantastic, 100% cotton and work in a regular sewing machine(i have a Pfaff) or in a longarm. will pick the winner on Friday(march 23)


planning another giveaway on April 1st but need YOUR help! if i hit 5000hits by the first, i'll give away TWO sets of goodies. will announce all the details on next week

wordless wednesday

happy last day of winter

nice eh? lol

my first customer quilt

pattern used is Autumn Leaves by Sue Schmeiden


and a warm-up quilt. hated the polyester batting. that stuff should be outlawed!

Bella time

i finally inked up one of my Bella stamps. i won't embarrass myself and tell you how long i've had them lol!

i am thinking she needs a different color of ribbon. guess i have to stop at the stamping store tomorrow!

quilt monday

A made this quilt for me while staying over at my parent's. he did all the sewing and cut out the applique(mom did the rotary cutting and did the quilting). i love this quilt-it is just too cute. sadly, one of the hearts ran when it was washed. first time we've had that happen. mom and i treat all our *bleedable* colors right away when we buy them



might be a bit slow with the postings this week. kids are out on spring break-yippee!

i won some blog candy!

woo hoo! thanx to Laura at Let's Get Scrappy for offering such fantastic blog candy

snack saturday

in honor of StPaddy's Day

Irish Soda Bread

3 cups flour

3 tbsp sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/3 cups buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients. Add buttermilk and mix. Knead a few times and form into a ball. Put on an ungreased baking sheet and bake 45 minutes at 375F.

Serve warm with butter and jam.

coolest blog of the week

is ME! i'm thrilled! even with me complaining on Crunchy Carpets how i had a very boring blog week, Gene awarded me with the coolest blog of the Coolest Blog of the Week Award

thanx so much Gene and to all my faithful readers!

almost finished

was hoping to have all the borders on today but i did some quilting at mom's today. did a small lap quilt as practice than, my first customer quilt!! i forgot to bring my camera so will have to get pictures of it next week. did a fairly good job-except for the 3/4s of a row i had to frog stitch(rip it lol)-that took just over 2 hours!! it was a flannel quilt and when i rolled it, the batting bunched and i quilted it until the quilt *duh*

mom is thrilled i've come far enough to do some customer quilts(she is booked into May already!!) and i love using the machine. i plan on getting the borders on this wall hanging tomorrow and quilting it on Tuesday

card friday

grandpa's funeral today

please think of us. Jim and A are taking this very hard

wordless wednesday

applique part 3

now the fun begins-machine stitching your appliqued pieces. i use a buttonhole stitch. you can use which ever fancy stitch your machine does. even a small narrow zigzag would be fine. you can see with just changing the stitch length how it changes the look for the buttonhole stitch

i like to use sulky thread-it has a bit of a sheen to it. if your fabric is thin, you may want to use a stabilizer behind on the reverse side. a piece of tracing or typing paper works fine and just tear it away when you are finished

i have all 4 squares done(took about 45minutes/square to do). i just might have a chance to start stitching them together tonight after the hockey game

found!

spent the weekend tearing the house apart looking for Nemo(see post below). Jim was our room checker-he even went under our bed with a flashlight.

well, B just came screaming downstairs. he was under the bed trying to get out his cat and guess who he found?? NEMO!!!!!


guess we have a spare now lol!!

how's my font sizes?

anyone have problem reading? noticed on Jim's computer that my font looked too small but on my computer(bigger monitor) the font looks huge. let me know!

missing

1 TY Beanie Baby Nemo bought at Disneyland in 2003. have one very brokenhearted 6 yr old. thank goodness for Ebay

paper bag album

found these while looking at old pictures on Jim's computer. made this a few years ago in a class and gave it to one of my cousins. closest i have come to scrapbooking yet!

quilt monday

i love this little quilt-i made quite a few of them. its a trapunto quilt-that is basically making an area of the quilt raised through quilting.

applique continued

after i got the shapes all traced out, i picked the fabrics i wanted to use and ironed the heatnbonded shapes to the correct fabric


than i cut out all the shapes

lots of leftover bits



for most appliqued blocks, you need to fold the block into quarters so you get your pieces on straight. than when you have it laid out like you like(tip, do this on the ironing board. its almost impossible to move a large block to your board without shifting your pieces lol) than iron them down

that's as far as i'm going to get today. i've gotten a cold and the thought of sewing just isn't appealing today