15 minutes of quiet

I've been a mom for 13.5yrs. By now, I should know that regardless of how old your child is, if it's quiet, it isn't always a good thing lol

This is M's room. His room was clean for 1 day, not even 24hours(he and I cleaned it up last night) On the bright side, I got a flimsy finished lol

99 things about me

The latest version in blog-land of Have you ever... The bold ones are the ones I have done. See how many you have done too!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new vehicle
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

snack saturday

In honor of the Superbowl tomorrow
Game-Day Football Cake


Cake:
1 pkg. (2-layer size) chocolate cake mix
1-1/3 cups brewed strong Coffee, cooled

Cappuccino Pudding Frosting:
1/2 cup brewed strong Coffee, cooled
1/2 cup cold milk
1 pkg. (4-serving size)Vanilla Instant Pudding
3 cups thawed Whipped Topping


CAKE:
GREASE and flour 13x9-inch baking pan; set aside. Prepare cake batter and bake in prepared pan as directed on package, substituting the 1-1/3 cups coffee for the water. Cool 15 min.; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely.

TRIM corners and sides from cake to resemble football shape. Reserve trimmings for snacking or another use.

CAPPUCCINO Pudding Frosting: Pour 1/2 cup coffee and the milk into medium bowl. Add dry pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. Gently stir in whipped topping.

FROST cake with 3 cups of the Cappuccino Pudding Frosting. Store cake and leftover frosting in refrigerator.

i really must stop doing this

I go through more pins in a week now than I used to in a month lol!

And how cute is this quilt? It will be cuter once I send it back to Hamels and they add all the embellishments


Quilted with Swirl

card friday

disappearing 9 patch

I have wanted to make one of these for so long. I was working on a different quilt yesterday and I completely failed in following the directions and ended up making the quilt twice as big as I had originally wanted(from lap size to double/full lol) Good thing, I knew I could still get the fabric. Bad thing, I couldn't go when I realized I needed more fabric lol!!

So the 9 patch. I'm following the directions Wendy posted on her blog and it is so simple! I'm using a charm square pack from Benartex Cidar Mill Road. Now this charm square pack only had 37 charms so this has ended up smaller than I wanted but I'm hoping that Hamels has some of this in yardage and I'll pop a sashing into it(oh I just checked and they do. And even better, it's on sale!!!).

I'm not thrilled with my piecing. Something about me and charm squares not lining up; I don't think charm squares like me much lol.

And speaking of liking things, you can see how Gizmo loves this quilt. It is completely hopeless to lay a quilt out on the floor unless Gizmo gets locked into a room somewhere. Such a monster but we love him

and the winner is

Jennifer! Please email me your mailing info and which card you would like and I'll get that off to you

I made this card for a friend who just celebrated her 10th wedding anniversary. I stamped and embossed the word celebrate one the front but it didn't photograph well. I love making long cards and pleased with how this one turned out.

wordless wednesday

three??

That's all that entered tempting Tuesday? Come on, you know YOU want to enter too! Or maybe I'll just send a card to each that entered so far and call it done ;)

Here's another Hamels quilt for you. Quilted with Blowin' Wind

tempting tuesday!

Comment on THIS post and be entered to win any card that I made and posted for the month of January. Good luck!

quilt monday!

I bought this quilt at Moana Quilts. They are all handmade. This table runner is 7ft long and it looks fantastic on our dining room table.

did you miss me?

 

snack saturday

One-Bowl Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2 pkg. (225 g) Semi-Sweet Chocolate
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp. Magic Baking Powder
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

PARTIALLY MELT i package chocolate in microwave in large bowl on MEDIUM 3-4 minutes. Stir until chocolate is melted and smooth.

ADD butter,brown sugar,eggs, flour and baking powder, mix well.

STIR IN second package chocolate and pecans. Drop by heaping spoonful onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350°F 12-13 minutes. Cool for 1 minute. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Store in airtight container.

card friday

second finish for 2009

Love how this looks above the TV. Ended up running out of buttons so some of the penguins have just drawn on eyes. I'll have to pick up more buttons when we get home and make them look normal lol

Quilted with Mini Starflower

a warm-up card

From when I had some friends over stamping a few weeks ago. Really like how it turned out.

wordless wednesday

pumpkins in winter

Love this little panel for Hamels. My favorite part is the log cabins.

Quilted with Lush Leaves

quilt monday

Sorry it's blurry, I've had horrible luck taking pictures lately lol

9 quilts in 7 days

I've been busy! All to make sure I didn't get behind. Why you ask? Because Jim and I are off to Hawaii early tomorrow morning-woo hoo!

This is another quilt for Hamels and quilted with Winter White. I love these penguins!

I've scheduled a bunch of posts so you shouldn't miss me(much). Hope you have a fantastic week and I'll be back next Sunday

snack saturday

White Chocolate Raspberry Love Notes


1/4 cup butter
1 pkg. (6 squares) White Chocolate, divided
2 eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup Raspberry Jam
Make It

HEAT oven to 325°F. Grease and flour 8 inch square baking pan.

MELT butter and 3 squares chocolate together over low heat or in microwave on MEDIUM for 2-3 minutes.

BEAT eggs until foamy in a large bowl. Gradually add sugar, beating at high speed until lemon coloured. Stir in melted chocolate mixture. Add flour and salt; mix at low speed until just combined. Chop remaining chocolate and stir into flour mixture.

SPREAD half of batter into prepared pan.

HEAT jam in microwave on MEDIUM for 2 minutes. Spread jam evenly over batter. Add spoonfuls of remaining batter over jam and zigzag knife through batter to marble.

BAKE for 30 - 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.

card friday

yellow brick road

I soooooooo love this quilt. I have a yellow brick road quilt of my own cut out on my sewing table right now I really must get together. Especially after seeing this beauty! I do love this fabric line by Moda as well

Quilt by Hamels and quilted with my current favorite pattern, Blowin Wind

and the winners are.....

Scroll down to the original post here to see if you are a winner. Thanx to everyone who entered and a big THANK YOU to Debi for organizing another great giveaway

how about a card?

Since I seem to be on an absolute stamping streak lol. It's a good thing though, my card stash was horribly low! I really love this pear stamp; it is one of the first images I bought when I started stamping. It seems to work well for any occasion

wordless wednesday

finally quilt monday!

I guess you could call this my own creation. I found the snowflakes in a Better Home and Gardens Quilting magazine(Winter 2007 I believe) and when I found the fabulously gorgeous snowflake background fabric, I knew I had to leave some squares blank to show it off.

Quilted with Winter White

And it's my first finish for 2009!

is it Monday?

Sorry about yesterday readers, I wasn't in the mood for *adult* conversation yesterday. Jim left early Sunday morning, he was only home 30 hours all weekend(and I know, at least he came home) but it has left me unsettled having him gone again already

So I was going to quilt monday today, and I can't get the picture off of A's camera and my camera is at work. And to think I stayed up late last night getting the binding done so I could show you the finished project lol

And than I was going to post a card, and I can't get blogger to load those pictures-I think have gremlins in the computer!

Hmmm, what to post, what to post! Ah, my Valentine's day quilt. I had to trace out 61 hearts, cutting those out is going to be fuuuuuuuuun eh? I can't wait to get going on it. And I'll be back later with the promised quilt Monday picture!

And there is still time to enter the Whirl into Winter giveaway Enter here!

snack saturday

No Bake Cheesecake

Ingredients

crust
1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup graham cracker crumbs

mix together in pie plate or 8x8 pan

cheesecake
1 package/brick spreadable softened cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup lemon juice

mix together with mixer until smooth.
pour over crust and refrigerate

pour can of cherry pie filling(or any other flavor) over top before serving.

adding to the UFO's

I've completed two quilt tops so far this year. Both have now been added to the *to be quilted pile* and hopefully they are done soon. Especially since they are both seasonal and I would like to enjoy them this winter and not next

This is one of them. Mom gave me a gorgeous quilting calendar for 2009. The best part about it is that each quilt in it comes with the pattern-how cool is that? This quilt was for the end of 2008. The pattern had it made in blues but we all know my feelings on snowmen quilts always being blue lol. So I did it in green. And I have to say, I really like how it turned out.

I should mention, the snowmen and penguins all have eyes, noses etc to add but I'm going to use buttons so will wait until after quilting. And because it will be a wallhanging, I decided not to buttonhole all the pieces down. Also so I could finish it right away lol!

And you still have time to enter the Whirl into Winter giveaway. You can enter my giveaway here and be eligible to win either the table runner in that post or the cute snowmen pattern posted here Good luck!

card friday

and the rains came

What happens when you take 61cm(sorry US readers!) of snow and add 163mm of rain(in a 24hour period)?

This was a field. Our town is now in a state of emergency.


This is the hazelnut tree farm beside the field from above. The only thing holding the water off the road is that snow. On my way to work this morning, I drove through a water covered road. The water was so deep, it actually came in the doors of the van(and yes, I am well aware that I shouldn't have driven through but there were no road closed signs and there were other vehicles in front and back of me so if I got stuck, I figured I would be okay)

Thankfully, our house isn't anywhere near where the flooding is. It would have to rain an awful lot more for us to get wet.

back to work

And yippee, inventory time lol. At least it was done quickly. Than I got to put through a quick quilt for Hamels I wonder if they have this in a kit, it is so cute! And the perfect quilt to get back into the grove


Quilted with a medium meander

confession time

Hands up, how many of you quilters cut your fabric with a double fold like this?



I used to all the time. I don't like using my long ruler so I found this way easier. Want to know what else I found? That 9 times out of 10, my fabric strips cut with a bow at the fold. See how this one bows?(sorry for the picture quality, I could have used extra hands for these lol) The ruler is laid straight, look at the fabric.



When this happened to me, I assumed that the fabric wasn't folded straight. So I would unfold it, iron it flat, refold it and cut again. And guess what? Another bow!

Want to know how to prevent those? Using a long ruler and keeping your fabric folded with 1 fold lol




And don't forget the Whirl into Winter. Giveaway Details can be found here!!

wordless wednesday

whirl into winter giveaway!!

Thanx to everyone who has entered so far. Interested in learning more? See my post here and check out the snowflake logo in my sidebar to enter all the blogs participating

Because I have had over 100 entries(THANK YOU!) I'm adding this pattern as another prize. So I will draw TWO names on January 15th; first name will be for the table runner pictured below and the second name for this pattern

If you have already entered, DO NOT enter again. Your name is in for BOTH draws. Clear as mud? lol

snow day!

First day back to school and all the schools are closed. It's not normal for us to get this much snow at once. But we love it. See how much snow we got on Sunday? Look at the well around the base of the chair-woo hoo!

quilt monday

i love saturdays

We usually start off with waffles or pancakes for breakfast. This year I got a new Belgian waffle maker and used it for the first time today. How good does this look? Sorry the picture is blurry, I wanted to eat it right away


Now I'm going to get settled in my sewing room and play with some snowflakes inside while the real thing is falling outside. Have I mentioned how much I love the snow?


And don't forget about the Whirl into Winter giveaway that I am taking part of. You can enter here and find more blogs to enter at by clicking on the snowflake on to the right

Enjoy your Saturday! I might even find some time for a people version of this,

snack saturday

Thumbprint Cookies

1 pkg. (250 g) Brick Cream Cheese, softened
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2-1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1-1/4 cups Strawberry Jam

HEAT oven to 350º F. Beat cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer until blended. Add flour, baking soda and pecans; mix well. Refrigerate 30 min.

SHAPE dough into 1-inch balls. Place, 2 inches apart, on baking sheets. Indent centres.

BAKE 10 min. Fill each cookie with about 1 tsp. jam. Bake 8 to 10 min. or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets 2 min. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

card friday