Summer Afternoon

It's been a crazy long week, but it's finally Saturday and the weather is pretty nice.

This is a picture from a tea party I had when I

was hosting a small group in my home this spring. I love my polka dot tea pot, it's just soo me.

I love spring and summer, everything is cheery. colors, gardens, the weather.

I'm starting to look forward to fall. I was looking at the garland I have hanging in my dining and living room and started thinking about how I'm going to have to switch it out for my fall garland here soon. I'll miss the cheery colors but I love autumn too. it means the season of my favorite pie and hosting Thanksgiving.

Here is another sight of spring. Here are some cherry blossoms I made using this tutorial. It was super easy and I love the way they turned out.

Today is relaxing, I have some stuff I should probably be doing but after the week I've had I just need to relax. We're going over to some friends house for dinner tonight and I think that's about as much as I can handle socially. I do think I will make some cupcakes to take over. I have a box mix just waiting to be doctored up.

Anyone have any great plans for the weekend?

P.S. I am so sick of typing up a blog and having it look all pretty and then when I publish it, it's all grey and blah

The Farmers Wife Sampler Quilt (Wish List Wednesday)

I haven't done one of these in a while and this is a WLW and and fulfilled all in one.

So word around the quilting blog world is that everyone is doing the Farmers Wife Sampler quilt. all 111 blocks. I think that's slightly crazy and totally commendable.

I've been ooohing and aawwing over the progress some have done and have been wanting the book. Still not certain if I'll join the band wagon but I love the idea of it and the stories that go with each block.

Well last week I decided to purge some books. I'm on this simplifying kick. It started with my random plan for the month of moving to Boston. Well I took a bunch of books to the cute little used book store in my neighborhood and got a bunch of credit. I left not knowing what I was going to do with and a couple days later it hit me, the Farmers Wife!

They ordered it and I picked it up last night. I'm going on an unexpected trip tomorrow and will be flying and since the book is surprisingly smaller than I expected I think I may be popping it in my bag.

Now I haven't read any of the directions but from flipping through it looks like all the blocks are paper pieced. I've never done paper piecing. So I have a question for anyone who's doing it or done paper piecing before, how is it?

Tortilla Soup

So there's alot that's happened in the last 24 hours and obviously I'm slow going on getting back on the blogging horse. Right now though I have a new recipe I made up this week that was a total win.

I usually have 2 goals when I'm cooking. Healthy and cheap or. My husband and I have a renewed determination to get debt paid down so I've been trying to make groceries last as long as possible and make as many pantry meals as possible. Also Wednesdays are crock pot days because I either don't make it home before church or have 30 minutes to inhale some dinner before heading out. So here I got

Tortilla Soup

1 bag frozen corn

1 medium onion diced

juice of 1 lime

~2 tsp fresh cilantro

1 can of garbanzo beans

1 jar of salsa (I had Trader Joe's tomatillo salsa)

1 32 ounce container vegetable broth

1 can diced chili's

half a package taco seasoning (again Trader Joe's-a little spicier than other brands I've used)

4-5 corn tortillas

Combine everything in your crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. at the end slice the tortillas in strips and season with a little salt and cayenne pepper and place on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven till crispy (about 10-15 minutes). dish up the soup, garnish with the tortilla strips and enjoy!

This had just the right amount of spice and had a good amount of broth, not too thick. my husband loved it, he even had some for leftovers and that doesn't always happen.

Pantry meal for the win!