Waiting for tonight...

I get to open a present tonight. I signed up for a stocking swap with the ladies on the HGTV board.

Mine has been here for almost a week and I want to open it NOW. The scheduled opening time is 8pm tonight. (I think I should check to see if that is Eastern time or Centeral? hum....)

John is on the Mend

And he has a shadow....

I Want THESE Cookies

Susanne McMinn has one of the best Blogs! Check out her life on her little piece of heaven.
Now back to these cookies - Drunken Rum Cookie Logs Click the link or the picture for the recipe along with special holiday baking instructions.

You can find this and so much more on her fourm.

Stuffed Shells - the end of a busy day

John had knee surgery yesterday. And as a result I have been cooking. I like to cook, but I want to get some things done for Christmas.

I did put in a bit of effort on tonight's dinner but I also had help.

While I mixed up some marinara sauce, Tony cooked the shells and stuffed them with meat that John had mixed and froze a few weeks ago.
I however can NOT leave things alone. I added a chunck of fresh motz and some sharp cheader on top.

Live is just better with cheese. So it follows that life is More Better with More CHEESE. hee hee
And while I had the kitchen trashed making candy, cookies and bagles I whipped up some FRESH Bread to go with the pasta.
We should have had a salad with this. Maybe tomorrow. I'm tired.

Tomorrow: Wrap presents, clean out woodstove, make shopping list for holiday meals and maybe get a quilt bound?

Gail's Pecan Sandies - YUM

This was cooking Saturday - Bagels, Bread, Stuffed Sells, Candy, Cookies and cookie dough for tomorrow.

Here are the Saturday Cookies -

Note to self - a pretty pweeny batch, make 2 if this is all your cooking. But with everything else - more than enough.

Mix the dough and roll into small balls - after cooking these cookies should NOT be browned.

Once the cookies are completely cool - roll each in powdered sugar. They are REALLY good.Pecan Sandies
1 cup soften Butter

1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

1 t vanilla

2 1/4 cup flour

1/4 t salt

3/4 cup finely chopped nuts

-Beat butter, sugar and vanilla

-Add flour and nuts

-Mix well (use the warmth of your hands to mix if the dough is dry)

-Bake 8 to 10 min, bottoms will begain to brown

- cool on rake completely and roll in powder sugar

This ones for Carol

This is the easiest Christmas Candy EVER! Make 1/2 a batch if your not sure. Or if you tend to eat all the sweets in the house until they are gone.

Start with a sleeve of crackers on greased foil in a jelly roll pan.
(A cookie sheet will do, if its big enough. Just bend up the edges of the foil to avoid a mess!)

Melt 2 sticks of butter (NOT Margine) and then add 1 cup packed brown sugar.

Bring to a boil and stir 3 min. The goo will start to firm up as it cooks.

I Missed a pic. Pour the goo over the crackers and bake at 375 for 10 min.

-- missing picture --


Sprinkle on 12 oz of chips and bake for 1 additional min. Take out and spread the chocolate. Then freeze.

Here in IL in December - I just place the pan on the workbench in the garage for an hour or so...

When the choclate and toffee are set. Bring the batch back into the house, peal off the foil and break into random pieces. (try not to eat too much right away....)

This is sooooo good. I found it on a blog last year, made notes on a scrap of paper. I just found the reciepe in a kitchen draw. I am making a card for my file now.

EASY Christmas Toffee
1 sleeve of saltine crackers
2 sticks of butter (not margine)
1 cup packed brown sugar
12 oz shoclate chips (nuts to sprinkle - optional)

-preheat oven 375 degrees
-layer jelly roll with foil, grease foil
-arrange crackers on foil
-melt butter, add brown sugar / boil for 3 min, stiring
-pour over crackers / bake for 10 min
-sprinkle with chips and return to oven for 1 min
-spread soften chips, sprinkle with nuts if desired
-harden in freezer
-break into radom shapes, enjoy!

the stocking is done

And I dont like it!! That shape is just wrong!

I hope my swap partner likes the contents.

Quilt A.D.D. Update

It's only Tuesday and the next mystery clue for Roll, Roll Cotton Boll will not be posted till Friday. So I started Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Christmas Lights sew-a-long. I have 3 gold Star Blocks to go and an ISSUE with the red Lights Blocks.

NO more red check material left. This was a large thrift store shirt. I had figured the yardage requirement and knew a large shirt would be large enough.

BUT, I did NOT check all the pieces before I started cutting and sewing and it seems I had used one of the right front panles for another project. UGH!

I'm thinking the four cornors will have a different 'red'.

On the HGTV boards I joined in a Christmas Stocking Swap. I have never made a stocking before. This is tonights project - I am going to quilt the top.


And while I'm sewing up the block above and setting the stocking, my chair was busy. lol

Another Quilt

Did I mention that I get carried away when I start piecing quilt tops.

It seems that I am not the only one that flew through the first two clues of Bonnie Hunter's 2010 Mystery, Roll Roll Cotton Boll. (you can find the posts on Bonnie's site at Quiltville.com)

I have Units 1 and 2 done, and the next clue will not be posted till Friday morning.

So what to do when my quilting A.D.D. kicks in. Start another one - of course!

Bonnie has also posted the first set of instructions for a sew-a-long for:
Christmas Lights

Lets back up a minute. I have seen this quilt many times. But it was for a publication that was out long before I had found Bonnie.

The first unit of this quilt is 52 4Patch units from 2" squares. I already have those done! I did a bunch as leader/enders.

The next group of units are hst (half square triangles). I need practice with these. And what better way to improve your skills than to practice! Soooooo

Here are the next units for this quilt.

• 40 black/neutral hsts - check!
• 48 gold/nuetral hst - I have 39???? need to go cut a few more....
• 48 mirror image green/black/neutral units - I have 19 of each, more cutting.

Baking

This morning I was up at 5:30am.

I don't know why I was awake! So I started with bagels. And leftover Cranberry sauce.

This is really Good and EASY to wipe up! You can find the receipe at Farm Bell Recipes along with so much more.


After I was done with the bagels, I realized I had not had good bread since BEFORE I left for Florida over 2 week ago.

So off to the cupboard. Here is were I keep a few recipes that I just can NOT remember.

One day I will add cork squares to the inside of this door and be able to keep more than 2 or 3, but for now this works. :)


The house is cold, except for the family room, so that is were I let the dough rise. Here it is ready for butter and into the oven.


Tonight John made wounderful stuffed shells, and there was fresh bread. Yum!

Roll, Roll Cotton Boll

Bonnie Hunter is doing another mystery quilt! You can find the posts on her blog Quiltville's Quips & Snips and her website Quiltville.com .

I was not going to do this years mystery. I tend to get carried away when I do these projects and have to work all week until the clue is done.

Then this year I was following the posts and I reallized Bonnie is taking it easy on the followers.

So with Jacki back in MN, I took the leap and moved my "stuff" to the family room.

Did I mention, my sewing room. We use to call this the den, but I have taken over. And really there is not much of the "DEN" left. But I digress......

So in order to stay warm, I picked up my Double Pinks, Greens and Browns and moved to the room with the wood burner.


Its a little cramped and I needed to break out an extension cord to reach my machine. But I have started...


Clue 01 done. Check!

172 units complete. Well really there are 180. When you strip quilt you often end up with extras. I will either make more to use for the boarders, use on the back somewhere. Or they will end up in an orphan unit stash. One day I should do something with that pile of stash.


Clue 02 done. Check!

Now I get to wait till Friday for clue 03. I guess I will go back to hand quilting.

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a GREAT meal at Grandma's house. Then John and I along with Tony, Jacki and Tim came home and had more turkey, stuffing and dessert.

I do this each year. We have our Thanksgiving Dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, but...

I LIKE LEFTOVERS! It would not be the holidays without leftovers.

Jacki provided dessert this year. We had Apple/Pumkin pie and a sheet of Pumkin squares. Here are the Pumkin Square leftovers. They were a big hit!



But before we started to eat, Jacki wanted to put up the tree. And Friday after shopping most of the gifts were wrapped.



I really should start the cards, but right now I'm going to enjoy the tree!

A Trip to Florida

This is were my daughter's wedding was. It is a resort in Orlando FL, and growing up this is were we took our kids for vacation.

I took another trip to the resort this month with my son, his God Mother and a close family friend.

Tony will be starting school in Orlando on Jan 3, 2011. Even though he would love to, he will NOT be staying here!


But the school is 15 min from the resort, so I think there is some vacation time in my furture.


And by the time we were ready to leave, Christmas had come - there were trees, wreaths and garland throughout the lobby and meeting rooms.

They owe us all an APOLOGY!

I can NOT believe a publishing company takes pictures off the internet to use in there online and PRINT offerings! What were they thinking!!!!!!

I have been a subscriber to Countyside Publications for many years. The subscriptions are cancelled and the link removed from my favorites!

In the November/December 2010 issue of Dairy Goat Journal a photo from the blog Chickensintheroad.com was used without permission.

I WILL NOT BE A PART OF THIS ORGANIZATION OR READ ANY OF THEIR PUBLICATIONS UNTIL THIS ISSUE IS RESOLVED!!!! Not only do I think they need to make this right with the blog owner but I beleive they owe ALL their customers an apology!

At the very least they need to give her a SETTLEMENT payment for the mistake made AND promote her site with links and an apology in a letter from the editor.

Your can write to the editor at csyeditorial@tds.net to let them know how your feel.

Its My Birthday & JoAnn's is Celebrating!

20% off ALL in-store purchases - regular AND sale price items too!!! Use it as many times as you like this weekend and share it with your friends!

Heres the link: Coupon Print it off! And for you quilters - check out there Veterans Day sale that starts Sunday the 7th! Here (special Veterans Day sale pages are at the end of the flyer)

Well, maybe its not because of me, but Sunday muslin goes on sale 30% off and what better gift could I ask for?

WAIT! I have $30 left on a "thank you" gift card some ladies from work gave me last year.
Woo Hoo!!

My list of goals this weekend was to finish up the swaps I have commited to and get them ready to go out in the mail on Monday. I think a shopping trip has just been added to this list. Lets see how much I get done today ???

A GO Giveaway!

Wouldn't this be fun! Sign up today at Jane's Fabric and Quilts Good luck to all.The fun will begin Oct 1 for someone - It could be you, or ME!

Something New

A coworker became a first time Grandma, and this is what I put together. She has an entire nursery set up for the baby. Scrappy pink, and Boyds Bears!
And my first attempt at free hand fans. I see all the errors, but I really like this process. I need to get together another project to have ready for the cooler nights.

Wait, I have a queen size quilt for DD and DSIL for Christmas. I can do both. Yah, right!

The letters were from Toynas blog, she has taken them down now - but her books should be out soon. Its on my Christmas wish list aready. And it will be #1 on my Birthday List if its out by the first week of November.
Can you see the fan quilting - not a great picture. I need to work on that.

Crumbs

Hanging around on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville.com website and her "quiltville chat" yahoo group has me wanting a crumb quilt. At one point I also thought I wanted to make a mavrick star quilt. But I lost interest in about 6 squares.

So, ta da....

Unless I get another bruning desire to make more crumb blocks I think this will be another lap quilt - OR an oversized lap quilt.

Maybe a nice top row and a large boarder. I need something to tie this together.

But for now, I have packaged up the blocks and will get it out later...

Tomatoes

I love this time of the year! It is getting cooler out but there are still lots of tomatos .



Here is what the dining room floor looked like a month ago,

And here is what the floor looks like tonight. I could double these baskets up but I want to see the fruit as it ripens, I will not put these until they are a little redder.

I have canned 35 quarts and dehydrated two batches. But it looks like there will be plenty of fresh tomatos for the hamburgers this week, and a few salads of tomatos with basil and motz. yum!!

We pick before they are just right because these came from my mothers garden. This way when I come home from work, I can put up a small batch of 6-8 quarts in the evening. That way it will not be soooo much work on Saturday.