Lilac Barries

Finding the words

2012-02-08T22:22:00.000-08:00

This was my Facebook status tonight:

My heart is full of joy and thankfulness tonight. For all God is doing in my life even when I'm not paying attention, for the people He's placed in my life that help me along the way and the opportunity to serve Him even when I don't feel equipped.(after all, that's just a feeling)

There's so much going on in my life right now,I don't even know where to begin. And really that status isn't going to make much sense to most people, barely makes sense to me. Words don't come as easy to me as some.

Sure, I can write a 20 page paper on Youth Development Programs, but when it comes to expressing how i feel, that's a whole 'nother story.

I've mentioned a couple of times that I'm starting up a new Awana program at my church. Somehow the time has flown and it officially starts next week. I've been a nervous wreck but I keep praying and keep remembering that God is in control. It's so true. I got 15 families signed up tonight and I am so happy about this. It may sound like a small number to some but even if it was just 1 child, I would be just as excited. That is one child that will have fun and learn the love of God.

I've been on a journey with God the last couple years and I pray that I will continue this journey for the rest of my life. He has done so much in my life and I am so thankful for every last one.

A Giveaway!

2012-02-06T18:16:00.000-08:00

Want to win these cards? Go over to Sewn With Grace for her giveaway along with some quilting goodies to have a chance to win these!

Eye Candy

2012-02-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here's some eye candy I stumbled upon on the addiction that is Pinterest. I thought I would share.

I want this dining room, actually I want the whole house.if only i could transplant the house and the price to SF

I Heart Buttons and the dish is just pretty.

a nice reminder

I love tea cups/pots. I want this picture in my dining room

This and That

2012-01-31T08:00:00.000-08:00

the fabric is Make Life Colorful by Sweetwater, kona solids and a dot print that is escaping my brain

Here's the quilt top I made at the retreat. I'm adding a large yellow ric rac along the edge of the red inner border and then it will be done. It will be backed in a yellow flannel I have in my stash. I can't remember how much of it I have but I think there's enough of it to be able to only use the one piece. This is a baby quilt for some family that lives in Sweden.They will be in the states for a few months so I need to get it done post haste.

I'm joining Renee over at Sewn With Grace in her challenge to only use what fabric I have on hand this year and not buy more. I had been really good for a couple of years about not buying fabric and I've started up again and it's starting to get out of control. Not only financially but just with space. I only live in a one bedroom apartment so space is at a very high premium.

I'm really starting to enjoy the color Red. This is quite odd because it's been the color I like the least since probably elementary school. Has there every been something you've taken a second, third or even fourth look at before you decided you liked it?

Meal Plan Monday

2012-01-30T19:30:00.000-08:00

Meal Plan W/E 2/5/12

Last week was a wash. It started out ok but starting Thursday my whole house was sick and it was all i could do to eat saltines. So there's a couple of carry overs. oh and because of some possible health stuff of the hubbies I have to cook bland foods. Not that I'm cooking spicy food everynight but I don't know how to do bland.

Monday: Pot Pie

Tuesday: Stuffed peppers, with spinach and lentils? or something

Wednesday: some version of pasta.

Thursday: Frittata with corn and spinach

Friday: I want to make bbq chickpea burritos with leftover spanish rice,but I don't know if it will happen. But I really need to use up the tortillas I have in the fridge. hhmm.

Saturday and Sunday are up for grabs. so far I've planned without going to the store. I love that I have five nights worth of dinner without going to the store.

oh and I need to tell everyone about my recent discovery on Pinterest.

My Fridge Food is a great website where you check off what you currently have in your fridge/pantry and it comes up with recipes based on what you have. How brilliant is that? the hubby and I have been talking about needing some sort of data base like this and look theres a website!

Meal Plan Monday

2012-01-23T19:26:00.000-08:00

Meal Plan Monday W/E 1/29/12

Monday: Breakfast for dinner (I heart my hubby)

Tuesday: Tortilla and black bean pie that never got made last week

Wednesday: Frittata with mixed veggies

Thursday: Red Curry and veggies

Friday: TBD I need to make something to take over to a friends

Saturday: Veggie Pot Pie

Sunday: I can't remember. I came up with a plan while in Trader Joes, and I currently can't remember what that plan is

This week...

2012-01-20T21:56:00.000-08:00

This week I have...

Done no sewing. My machine is in the shop being cleaned and serviced.(not that I would have time if I did have it)

(please ignore my messy, messy sewing table)

Realized how small my "little" machine really is. As opposed to my "big" machine

Cooked some yummy dinner

Written way too many emails. All for a really good reason. I'm super excited about starting this at my church. I keep getting overwhelmed and feel like I can't do it. But I keep remembering something I heard once-God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called.

I can do all things things through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13

Oh and I joined the San Francisco Quilters Guild! I went to my first meeting on Tuesday and I'm super excited. Of course I was the youngest in the room by at least 10 years but I'm used to it by now. It will be nice to be part of a community of quilters again.

And have been hit with bolts of inspiration left and right, I should probably get these ideas down on paper before I forget.

Meal Plan Monday

2012-01-16T06:43:00.000-08:00

Week 1 W/E 1/22/12

First meal plan of the new year! I'm happy to be getting back to normal. the first couple weeks of the new year have been busy and seem to be staying that way. If I don't do my meal plan though I have found I end up with no plan at the store, which breaks the budget.

Monday: Lavash wraps with hummus, micro greens, avocado, tomato and green onions

Tuesday: Burrito Bowls: Cilantro lime rice and black beans with fajita peppers and veggies

Wednesday: Pesto and Pepper Sandwiches with spinach and mozzarella

cheese and baked sweet potato fries

Thursday: Veggie pot pie

Friday: Tortilla and Black Bean Pie

Saturday: Homemade pizza with whatever veggies we have leftover

Sunday: Leftovers

Being held hostage

2012-01-14T16:21:00.000-08:00

So my husband and I have this thing we say when something is taking way too long:We're being held hostage.

It started one night when we went to Denny's for dessert and coffee. Something that shouldn't take that long. I think it took something around 20 minutes for a waitress to bring us water, and forget about trying to get our check. I think that took like 30 or 40. for a couple of pieces of pie and coffee. We were being held hostage by Denny's.

Now the phrase has stuck. It's funny and kinda not because the particular denny's where it started actually got held up once by a man with a gun.(we weren't there but a waitress we knew was, she's fine). We didn't go back after that happened.

So when we spent 20 minutes alone on the sales floor and lens crafters? we were being held hostage.

Today I got held hostage by not 1 but 3 different places. First the east bay. I had to take my sewing machine in to be serviced and the closest place is in walnut creek. (blegh) On my way back I realized I had no toll money. So I decided to stop at the bank. it took me 45 minutes just to get to the shopping center I needed. Granted I stopped at Verizon because my phone is being stupid (why is it always my phone?). But still, shouldn't take that long.

Second I got held hostage by North Beach. I needed to drop off my scissors to be sharpened and I was stupid enough to go there on the weekend of Chinese New Year. (North beach is right next to China Town).

Finally got all my errands done and just wanted to go home. Then I got held hostage by my street. There was a tow truck blocking the whole intersection and I had to go all the way around just to get home.

Finally I'm Here.

Do you ever get "held hostage" by places or have funny sayings in your family that makes no sense to anyone but you?

And lately I can't seem to have short post. hmm.

This and That

2012-01-12T20:08:00.000-08:00

I have the bestest husband. He's cooked dinner twice this week without even being asked, just because he know's I'm tired. He also bought us tickets to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D. I could care less about the 3D part but love the old(er) Disney movies and anytime they come back to theaters I have to see them. Anyone else go see the little mermaid when it was theaters a while back? (That one is my favorite Disney movie of all time)

I love my job, I really do. But a nearly 2 year old who cries all.the.time. just because she doesn't get her way gets old real quick. I think it's because of the holidays and being on vacation but little miss sassy pants has been particularly sassy this week and I already wish it were Friday at 5:01.

Here are my new shoes. They make me beyond happy. A little girl at church has them and I just had to find them. They're Tom's and the most comfortable shoes I've bought in a long time. I wore them today with my new polka dot sweater my MIL gave me. The combo made smile , if it weren't for those, and the beautiful weather we're having I probably would have been a lot crankier today.

ok this is long enough. Good Night.

I hate making phone calls/leaving voice mail/recruiting. I've recently taken on something that involves both. the particular project I've taken on involves ALOT more than just that but I'm totally fine with all of it, but those three things. I just need to build a bridge and get over it.

By the numbers

2012-01-09T06:30:00.001-08:00

609 miles driven

38 yards of trim purchased

24 yards of fabric purchased

23 woman in one room

23 sewing machines
7 yards of fabric cut
$7 the most amount I paid per yard of fabric

5 the most amount of times I went to the fabric store next door in a 30 minute period

4 projects brought to work on

3 days of uninterrupted sewing time

2 projects actually worked on

1 quilt top started and finished

1 quilt basted and nearly finished quilting

.99 cents-amount per yard I paid for 22 of the 24 yards of fabric
0 the amount of pictures I took (there goes one of the items on my list. Any pictures here are recycled from last here)

I had a lot of fun this weekend at the quilt retreat. My 3rd year going, second in a row. I can't wait for next year, I hope I get to go. Now it's time to go get ready for work. Hope everyone has a happy Monday.

Little Birds

2012-01-02T08:52:00.000-08:00

Here is the finished quilt top for my cousin's baby girl who was born in November.

Before I started it I asked her if there were any colors or themes she was wanted/liked and all she gave me was she liked birds. She calls her children her little birds with their names, it's quite cute.

I was having a hard time coming up with something when I remembered this charm pack I had with a few fat quarters that I had been saving for something. This was the perfect something.

Now all I have to is piece the back and I'll probably save it to quilt at the retreat this weekend. I'm quite proud of myself- I challenged myself to only use what I had on hand for this quilt and so far I have. I haven't checked the batting situation but I'm pretty sure I have a piece big enough for it.

Christmas 2011-Recieved

2012-01-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

My family is amazing and I got some pretty good gifts for Christmas this year. My Favorite has got to be the purse my husband made me. He rocks.

It's purple on the inside and even has a cell phone pocket.oh and a sparkly button! I was and still am totally impressed.

He also got me 3 pounds, yes pounds of buttons.

oh and this totally made me happy. We got 2 of these as wedding gift in 2003. A green one and a blue one. The blue one broke within a year. The green one though is my favorite mug, just the right size and it's the one I use for my morning coffee. Well a couple of months ago I manage to break part of the handle. My wonderful husband fixed as best he could considering it was the inside of the handle I broke, it still looked a little like the mug Cliff Huxtable fixed on The Cosby Show, someone please know what I'm talking about? For Christmas He found a replacement on Ebay, it made my heart happy and I used it right then and there.

The last two are from my in-laws. It's awesome that my MIL is a quilter, she knows all the good things to get.I'm super excited about the mat carrier. It fits both my large mat and my 6X24 ruler. I'll get to use both next week when I go on a quilt retreat. It's the same one I went to last year

Did you get any quilting goodies for Christmas?

out with the old, in with the new

2011-12-31T08:40:00.000-08:00

All the year end review posts are up all over the blog-o-sphere and I'm trying to get one last post up myself before New Years.

2011 hasn't been a bad year by any means, just a little bit of a struggle for me personally.A lot of sorrow for what I don't have (namely a baby of my own) and learning to except where I am and what I do have. (mainly and awesome God and a great husband, nothing to turn my nose up at)

Creatively I've gotten out of my I don't have enough time mentality and started doing more.I've carved out time and space, quite literally to do what I love to do. I finally started up my Etsy after overcoming a big mental, I can't do this.

So here are some goals for my little blog and the foundation that is my little business:

Blog at least twice a week
Do at least one street fair/craft show
Finish at least 2 new quilts (not just the tops)
Remember to take more pictures
Write at least one tutorial
Sketch More
Finish 2 UFO's
Keep my sewing table/stash organized

I think that's all the big ones. Now off to straiten up my apartment. I have a very good friend coming over to hang out as well as a new-quickly becoming good friend who is coming over to quilt. Great way to spend new years eve day if I say so myself. Not sure what we're doing tonight,if anything. I'd be perfectly happy quilting in the new year.

UFO's

2011-12-31T08:24:00.000-08:00

First Published 2/2/10

Updated 1/23/11

I've decided that 2010 will be the year for finishing projects. The only new projects I will start are smaller ones for birthday presents etc.

and I reserve the right to end the year with one UFO. I know what it will be already. Its a king size quilt that I started in a class in 2004 or 2005. The top is finished, the back is finished it just needs to be quilted. despite my my new, larger pretty machine I am not comfortable quilting it myself.

So my list of UFO's includes:

~~Coffee quilt for my mom. Needs a border and I need to find backing fabric. I've been on the hunt for newspaper fabric.~~Completed 1/8/11

Christmas quilt: Top is finished, backing is cut? I need to piece it together. I think I have enough batting for this as well

Thanksgiving quilt: Top finished, back pieced and I have batting. probably the next project to tackle

unnamed purple and green: started it at a quilt retreat I went to in January of last year. I think i may have 10 blocks finished our of a gazillion.(well maybe not that many but since its been well over a year since I worked on it, I cant remember anything other than its colors)

~~Housewarming runner: table runner and napkins for some friends that bought their first house last summer. I started it then.~~ completed 2/1/2010

Love Notes wall hanging: its about 11X14 and looks something like this:

I have the foundation for the applique and embroidery finished but have been daunted by the hand work because I don't know how to do anything but a running stitch by hand

lazy day

2011-12-29T15:58:00.000-08:00

Today is my first day of vacation and so far it's been pretty nice.

woke up with a near migraine but it's gotten much better. Mini Doctor Who marathon, couch nap and made some yummy puff pastry goodies.

goat cheese and fig jam=delicious

now off to a new fabric store to spend some Christmas money that's burning a hole in my pocket.

Tomorrow will be slight more productive, time to finally unpack our luggage from Christmas and break out the quilt top to the baby quilt I've been working on.

It's quite nice to have some down time with nothing really important pressing.

I also need to get some of my 2012 goals down on paper, they've been rumbling around my head and I need to solidify them before Sunday.

Christmas 2011-Giving

2011-12-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

I had a fabulous Christmas. Got to enjoy some quality time with my family as well as my husband. It was relaxing and cozy, everything I ever want Christmas to be.

Now that Christmas is over I can show you some of the things I made for Christmas.

Doctor Who travel mugs. These I was actually willing to buy but I couldn't find any that weren't ridiculously expensive. These are for my in-laws (hubby's sister and her husband) I paired these with a jar of peppermint hot cocoa that we made.

As I've said before Doctor Who is very popular in my family. Also my brother-in-law is a truck driver so I wanted to make sure we gave him something he could actually use. This is what we came up with. I directed this one and my hubby used his photo shop skills to make it happen. We wanted to keep these.

Another embellished T-shirt. This time for my 4 year old cousin. He loves all things Thomas the Train and his initial happens to be T.

These onesies are for his little sister. She was born November 16th and is adorable.

There's a few other things that may get pictures taken of but I'll leave it at this for now.

I have another post to write on the awesome quilting related gifts I got as well as the purse my husband made me! yes made, all by himself. It's beautiful.

Hope everyone had a great holiday.

Home Made Christmas

2011-12-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

There's not a lot I can show about this year's home made gifts but I can talk about my reasons for doing so.

It started out as financial. There's been more than a few Christmas's where the hubby and I were either poor starving college students or just flat out broke. I love Christmas though so this isn't going to deter me. Plus as a quilter I have built up quite the stash of fabric and other crafting supplies. So really I just need to get innovative.

Here are some of the gifts I have made in the past:

Felted wool TARDIS picture I made for my father-in-law (Doctor Who is a big favorite in our family, I really wish I had a picture of this one. I'll have to try when we're back for Christmas. He has it hanging in his office.)

Sunflower pillow for my sister-in-law

No sew Wreath from V and Co

Lavender and Flax seed eye pillows (links to the pattern I use as a rough guide, I don't mess around with interfacing but I did make both the pillow and the carrying case)

Personalized Note cards

Knitted beanie's

There's quite a few other things I've made but these are just a few.

So Our financial situation has changed quite a bit. We're by no means rolling in money but both being gainfully employed helps in that department.

This however has not stopped us from continue to try and make most of our gifts. I had a conversation with the hubby last Christmas about as we move forward financially I still want to continue to make gifts.

To me it's just so personal in this day and age of disposable consumerism. Things are getting more and more expensive and less and less durable. I love being able to make things in specific colors or patterns or reference favorite things in pop culture that I may not be able to find otherwise.

Sure it takes extra time and a lot of thinking outside the box but to me it's well worth it.

Do you make Christmas gifts? If you do/have what are some of your favorite things you have made? I would love to hear-I'm always looking for new ideas

Tutorial?

2011-12-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

This is safe to talk about amd show since it's already been recieved

Or alternately titled why I currently fail at writing tutorials.

So I was going to try and write a tutorial for this advent calender I made for some dear friends in Georgia. This is one of two pictures I took, they were nearly identical. Not only did I forget to keep taking pictures I didn't even take a picture of the finished product. DOH!

I had fun making it though. Most of the pockets have little activities for them to do as a family like decorate the tree, make a Christmas craft, take a family photo etc. Those that didn't activities have mini candy canes for the kiddos. I've written myself a set of the cards and eventually want to make one for myself, so maybe next time I'll remember to take more pictures. or rather pictures at all.

Major props to those crafting and quilting bloggers that write tutorials on a regular basis, it ain't easy.

Meal Plan Monday (Thursday Edition)

2011-12-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

Week ? 9? 10? W/E 12/18/11

I've had a plan just haven't been able to sit down and write it down. Last week was full of junk. This is what happens when no plan is written and I never made it to the grocery store. This week's plan is trying to put some good stuff back in our bodies.

Monday- My Birthday my wonderful husband cooked me dinner. Spinach ravioli with garlic cheesy bread and a super yummy salad

(Taco)Tuesday- BBQ chickpea tacos with guacamole and home made spanish rice. I made a salad of sorts out of this with the leftovers and include pea shoots. I gave some to the toddler I take care of and she gobbled it up yesterday, it was a good moment.

Wednesday: Was supposed to be lavash wraps but we ended up Christmas shopping so we got Chipotle instead. oh well.

Thursday: Lavash wraps or yellow curry and vegetables

Friday: Whatever I didn't have Thursday

Saturday: We're going to the nutcracker with my in-laws for my birthday so dinner out will probably be involved. I was thinking of making a pork tenderloin if I decide to cook. I use this really good balsamic vinegar and garlic recipe that's super easy and always comes out amazing.

Sunday: Lavash Pizza with green onions, olives and bell peppers

From here on out the meal plans will probably be few and far between. I have one of my BFF's who lives in Boston coming next week, plus Christmas and trying to finish gifts. after that will be the fast my church does at the beginning of each year and although it's not a complete fast very little actual cooking is done during this time.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

2011-12-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving I made a pumpkin cheesecake. I'm pretty traditionalist when it comes to the holidays and I always make pumpkin pie but I thought I would try something different. I'm soo glad I did.

I originally found this recipe and was all excited to do it. Until I got to the part where it said submerge spring form pan in water. That just sounded like way too much work. But I loved the idea of a ginger snap crust and the caramel praline topping. So I kept those and used Paula Deen's pumpkin cheesecake recipe.

The Results:

Overall I would totally do this again. There's a couple of things I would tweak. I would probably cook the caramel a little longer, it didn't thicken up as much as I would like. Also the crust. I don't know if I used too many cookies or it was the fact that for some reason my spring form pan was leaking but it turned out sooo hard and it was pretty thick. Everyone else said it was fine. I'm not sure if they were just being nice or if it really was fine. The whole thing ended up getting eaten so I guess it wasn't that bad. I didn't have my food processor with me so I may be able to get the cookies more finely crushed that way then with a mallet.

The cheesecake itself was delicious, just the right amount of pumpkin flavor. I would totally try other Paula recipes, they're easier to follow than Alton Brown and his weighted measurements. I don't care if weighing ingredients is supposed to make me a better baker.:-P

Has anyone else tried any new recipes this holiday season with good results? or bad?

8-12-11

2011-12-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

My Grandmother passed away this morning. I didn't even know she was sick, it apparently was very quick.

She would have been 85 this December, I think. maybe 86? I'm named after her. she spelled it Joscelin and when my parents decided to name me after he she asked they swap the i out for a y.

Both our birthdays are in December. One year when i was 10 or 11 she took me to see the nutcracker ballet for my birthday when I was at my grandparents house over christmas break.

She took me ice skating for the first time too. I begged and begged for a couple of years if she would take me and finally she gave in. She was so suprised when she could see that I could do it.

so many bits and pieces of memories are jumbled in my head. It's been so long since i've seen her some memories are harder to remember then others.

some that stand out:

swimming in the ocean at redondo beach and her wrapping her weddings rings with medical tape so she wouldn't loose them (I found out at the funeral that they were married 63 years and she never took them off)

calling root beer floats brown cows

her calling me sweet girl

Shopping, lots of shopping,

her blue eyes

her white hair that she would sit and curl in the mornings

how very well dressed she always was

her love for rose print

the list goes on

I have a stack of fabrics I've been stashing away that reminded me of her. I was planning on making her a quilt once I had enough and knew what pattern. Now I don't know.

This was written right after I found out. Now that it's December and the holidays/her birthday month I'm really missing her. I can only imagine how my 91 year old grandfather is doing. I need to call and check in this week. His birthday is a week after mine, I need to get his card in the mail.

This holiday season I'm missing both my grandmothers. Is there anyone you think of especially at Christmas time?

Merry Birthday to me

2011-12-12T07:11:00.000-08:00

my Birthday breakfast and a little bit of the quilt top I made 4 years ago and have yet to make a back for.

Today I am 29.

I'm not sure how I feel about that. I have a friend who's Birthday is the 14th and she's freaking out. I think I'm indifferent.

I had a little tea party yesterday after the Christmas musical at church. Tea,Red Velvet cake and this amazing turkey cheese ball. With a few of my friends. It was just what I wanted. We also played Deluxe Pit. Has anyone heard of it? I hadn't till last week when I got it as a white elephant gift. It's like playing the stock market, you get to trade commodities. It's really fun and goes pretty quick.

Almost every year on my birthday I think when my mom was my age she had a _____. The answer this year is she had a 9 almost 10 year old and a 2 and a half year old. This is the first year that that seems kinda crazy to me.

Today I work. Friday my in-laws are coming and Saturday we're going to see the Nutcracker then the birthday festivities will be over.

making progress

2011-12-09T21:36:00.000-08:00

Finally starting to do a little decorating. I fought with the glue gun on this one because I couldn't find the wire I know we have. Oh well it's on there well enough to make it through the holiday. I think. I hope.

Deck the halls

2011-12-03T09:41:00.000-08:00

I very much want to deck my halls. I have fall garland and decorations up everywhere.

It's been a crazy busy week and I've hardly been home.

Today isn't any different. I have quilt class later and I need to clean my apartment before I break out the big box of decorations or drag a tree in. I have no idea where the tree is going this year. We've rearranged a little and the spot I used last year isn't open.

I don't know where any of this is going. I'm sitting here enjoying a cup of coffee in my favorite mug my hubby graciously fixed for me after I managed to break off a huge chunk on the inside of the handle. Basically I'm just stalling having to do anything productive.

I have a half day at work next Friday, I'm thinking any sort of decorating will have to wait till then. That makes me sad. Oh well that means I just get to keep everything up a little bit longer *grin*

Have you decorated yet?

December!

2011-12-01T07:31:00.000-08:00

My tree from last year, no I'm not that together

It's December!!!

My favoritisit month (that's a word, shh!)

My Birthday is in 12 days, christmas in 25. The world is sparkly and pretty and makes my heart happy.

I had 2-4 year old duty at church last. I read them the nativity story. It warmed my heart to see them sitting there and answering questions about why we celebrate christmas. They really trully knew, I didn't hear a single santa as an answer.

I took sunshine the little girl I take care of to the Ferry Building yesterday. It's all decorated and instead of christmas she says HOHOHO. it's adorable. everytime we would see a new set of decorations I would hear HOHOHO.

YAY CHRISTMAS!!!

Cyber Monday

2011-11-28T11:00:00.000-08:00

Today is Cyber Monday.

I usually don't buy into all the hype. I've never once gone to Black Friday. My wonderful hubby did do it one year for me to get me a laptop. That made my day.

And I try to make my gifts as much as possible. My Baby brother who is now 21 is almost always an exception, I never know what to make him. I did see him at Thanksgiving and he asked where his quilt was. So maybe I should get on that. His Birthday is in May, maybe if I start now I can maybe get one made by 2013 for his 23rd birthday. ha!

I don't even think I knew what Cyber Monday was last year.

However in honor of Cyber Monday I've created a coupon.

Use

Christmas11

at checkout for 25% percent off your total purchase. That's a dollar off a card!

So Hurry over to Lilac Barries on Etsy and find a Chritmas card for yourself or a special gift for someone else.

Remember all sales are going to help build classrooms in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Meal Plan Monday

2011-11-28T09:00:00.001-08:00

Week 9 W/E 12/4/11

December, yay!!!

Didn't do much cooking last week. Thanksgiving was fabulous. We had it at my in-laws and my mom and brother joined. It was nice to have everyone together for a change and not have to house hop. The pumpkin Prailine Cheesecake turned out fabulous. I took pictures so look back later this week for a review of the recipes I used.

We got back yesterday and decided to stop at the store before we even got back to our apartment. I had planned on only getting dinner makings for last night but I figured I was there so I might as well do some shopping. I didn't have a plan so I only ended up with 4 meals. Better than nothing

Monday: Spinach Pie (still haven't made this, thank goodness the spinach is frozen)

Tuesday: Chickpea and veggie yellow curry

Wednesday:Pasta

Thursday: Sweet Potato and black bean enchiladas. I FINALLY found the roasted red pepper soup I've been looking for to make this recipe. Trader Joe's is carrying it. It must be a seasonal item.

Friday: Leftovers- I'm babysitting for Sassafras and Snicklefritz. Which reminds me I need to finish the headbands I started for her birthday.

Saturday: Not sure yet,I bought frozen veggies and corn that I already had at home so something that uses those.

Sunday: Something in the crock pot, choir practice again. I recently fell in love with broccoli and cheddar soup at Panera and have been wanting to try making a version at home, maybe I'll try it
in the crock pot.

Meal Plan Monday

2011-11-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

Week 8 W/E 11/27/11

Lets not talk about how last week went, lets just leave it at it basically didn't happen and move on.

This week we're going out of town for Thanksgiving so it's a pretty short list. Basically I'm trying to A)clean out my fridge so there's stuff not sitting and B)not really buy any groceries because we wont be home.

Monday: Some sort of Frittata, veggies will probably be involved.

Tuesday: La La La Pantry Meal? I'm on vacation mode, can you tell?

Wednesday-Saturday: We're out of town. Turkey will be involved. I'm making a Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Pecan Praline topping. This is the only thing I'm really excited about cooking this week.

Sunday: No clue. we haven't decided when we're driving back yet, this will determine what does or doesn't get cooked and whether or not we make it to the grocery store before Monday.

This is pretty pointless. I don't know why I even bothered.You have any good or new recipes you're making for Thanksgiving? What easy meals do you make the week of Thanksgiving to save yourself from cooking before the big day?

Sunday Productivity

2011-11-20T19:54:00.000-08:00

Image found on Pinterest

It never ceases to amaze me how much I can get done once I just start. This goes for quilting, card making and especially cleaning my apartment.

I've been dragging my feet over the last few weeks in the cleaning/organizing department. Because I have no sooner do I make some progress, then I start another project and my apartment goes BOOM! and stuff explodes everywhere.

Well Today I said enough is enough. I came home from choir practice and said I'm just going to start and go till at least the living room/sewing room/office area was how I wanted it.

Well I'm not completely done but it's about 90% there and the dining room is rearranged and the dining room table is cleared. Oh what is it about flat surfaces that always just gather stuff?

It makes me feel so better. Next project: the bedroom/laundry. Oh how I hate laundry. Someday I will have a washer and dryer in my home and it will solve so many of my clothing problems.

What did you do this weekend? Were you productive? Or do something fun?

Cozy Weekend

2011-11-19T17:02:00.000-08:00

My Table from Thanksgiving last year

The last 3 year's I've hosted Thanksgiving at my house and my in-laws have come to San Francisco. This year my Father-in-law is unable to leave home because he's on call for work so we're going there.

I was a little disappointed at first. I really love cooking and decorating my apartment. However now that we're less than a week away I'm really enjoying not having to do company cleaning, finding space in my teeny tiny fridge for all the extra food, shopping in the crowds or the general stress of it all. Don't get me wrong it's totally worth it in the end but it's nice just being able to putz around with my husband, go to the movies and leisurely clean.

It's been intermittently raining all weekend and the temperature has dropped just enough that it's nice and cozy under a quilt.

Have you seen my nifty little widget up in the corner? You can see my most recent card creations I've posted on Etsy. All sales through the new year go to Latin American Childcare in Guayaquil, Ecuador. My church is sending a group of about a 100 people to build classrooms for some very needy children. You can read all about the missions trip, Ecuador and Latin American Child Care Right Here

So my cards are pretty (if I say so my self) and are being sold not so I can make money but to help children receive some basic necessities.

Meal Plan Wednesday

2011-11-16T13:28:00.000-08:00

Week 7 W/E 11/20/11

Last week was another busy one, I'm chalking it up to that time of year.This week is shaping up to be another one of those days. Today I'm home from work with an epic Migraine. I really don't even know how I'm timing this but I'm so sick of laying down/sleeping and the thought of watching anything makes my brain hurt.

Monday: we ordered pizza

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday. Chickpea tacos with guacamole

Wednesday: Spinach Pie from last week

Thursday: Crock pot vegetable barley soup (what did we eat last week? half my meals are being carried over)

Friday: Yellow chickpea curry and vegetables

Saturday: Leaving this open, we have a free Saturday night so the hubby and I may actually get to go out on a date. If not I'll pick up something at the store easy to throw together. I still haven't been to the store this week

Sunday: Quesadillas

Meal Plan?

2011-11-15T07:36:00.000-08:00

San Francisco City Hall all lit up for Christmas last year

I missed meal plan Monday. Look back later today for a Meal Plan Tuesday (really doesn' t have the same ring)

Today is my Wednesday or something. I work today, tomorrow, and a couple hours in the morning Thursday which I really don't count then I'm off till the 28th. I'm very excited.

I was up early today, well more like on time. Since the time change I haven't been able to get my booty out of bed when the alarm goes off. I was up early to clean. In anticipation of a possible house guest and so my apartment is ready to deocorate for Christmas! I love Christmas. My birthday is in December and when I was little I hated it for obvious reasons. Now I joke that the whole world decorates for my birthday.*grin*

My hubby and I after The Nutcracker last year. He surprised me for birthday :-)

Ok I should go finish getting ready for work and check the bus schedule for the millionth time. I keep having issues. mainly I get there early and the bus I'm supposed to take is invisible or something because it's never there when it's supposed to be and then I can't take one because it's always full beyond capacity. Or the one day I'm late or just on time it's early.

Ok enough early morning ramblings

Snicklefritz

2011-11-12T14:07:00.000-08:00

For the last year I took care of two 2 year olds from two different families. My nick names for them were Snicklefritz and Sassafras. They would respond to it if I said it to try and get their attention and they would say it if you asked them what their name was. It was adorable and made me smile.

Snicklefritz's birthday is the 14th of this month and Sassafras is the 23rd. Yes they are only 9 days apart, yes it was kinda crazy at times but I love those kids.

For their 3rd birthdays I decided to make them gifts. Here's what I came up with for Snicklefritz, he loves all things Dr. Seuss. His mom took him to see Seussical the musical over the summer and it made his obsession all the worse.

Front

Back

(forgive the cruddy cell phone pics, I'm impatient. My battery is dead on my camera and getting photos off the hubby's camera sometimes takes to long to actually happen)

I love embellishing plain t-shirts its quick, inexpensive, personal and just so dang cute.

It's raining, its pouring

2011-11-11T18:35:00.000-08:00

It's Friday night and I'm cozied up at home. It's been a long week. The little girl I take care of has been sick all week, so we've been cooped up inside. I did get some good cuddles though, that was nice.

I'm fighting a cold that I really can't afford to have. I'm babysitting tomorrow for my old families, two 3 year old's and a 4 month old. fortunately it's not till evening.

The Hubby is off filming a wedding and I have an evening to myself. I really want to work on cards or finish the baby quilt I'm working on but I think I may just snuggle up under a quilt and watch tv. Right now Gold Rush Alaska is on in the background. Does anyone watch it? we've watched it from the beginning and a new season it starting up. Oh reality t.V.

Tomorrow the quilt class from church is having a field trip to Beverly's to pick out fabric. Some people need fabric for setting squares and there's a couple new people who just need fabric to start a project. I'm going to get some Dr. Seuss fabric to make another applique shirt. This one is for the little boy I used to take care of, he turns 3 on Monday. I also need to pick up yarn. My good friend Lulu is making me a cowl, she's crazy talented with a pair or knitting needles. She has a knit wear business but mainly her calling is to serve God. She's an intern at my church. Boy oh boy the interns work hard, they amaze me.

Ok, I think this is long enough and I have leftover Chinese food calling my name. Hope everyone is having a cozy evening and isn't sick.

Meal Plan Monday

2011-11-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

Week 6 W/E 11/13/11

Week 5 was crazy. Everything got switched around and 2 meals flat out didn't get made so they're being carried forward. I do have to say coming home to my tortilla soup yesterday was just what I needed. It was cold and rainy yesterday and it hit the spot. I added soyrizo to it this time and it changed the flavor a little bit and thickened it up. Still good, just a little different.

Monday: Sweet Potato Enchiladas. These are in the oven as I type this. I'm a little frustrated though, I was all excited to make this enchilada sauce and I can't find the roasted red pepper tomato soup to save my life! I know I've seen it, just don't know where. oh well, I fortunately had a bottle of my normal sauce in my pantry.

Tuesday: Lentil stuffed peppers, must make these or something else with the peppers before they go bad.

Wednesday: Pumpkin ravioli with Alfredo sauce. I froze a bunch of the ravioli's when I made them a couple of weeks ago and I think I'll be safe using Alfredo sauce from a jar, no garlic to burn.

Thursday: Spinach pie. I have a hunch this is another frittata posing as something else but I'm ok with that, I like spinach.and frittatas. This is a recipe from a free kindle cookbook I found on amazon. I think it's more like a booklet, it has a week of dinner recipes

and some desserts. There is only one or two recipes that sounded good to me, we'll see how this turns out.

Friday: Leftovers. The hubby will be filming a wedding that day and I have no idea when he is going to be home or what I'm doing. We were originally going to our friends house but I think that has to be rescheduled.

Saturday: Chick pea tacos with fresh guacamole. I never actually got around to making these last month and I don't know why, they're always good.

Sunday: Crock pot barley bean vegetable soup. It's soup season, and choir practice season so to the crock pot I go. I'm kinda sorta use this recipe. Gotta love google, found this from googling vegetarian crock pot recipes.

Nap Time

2011-11-07T14:53:00.000-08:00

Its nap time (i'm a nanny) and im writting from my kindle. not sure how this will work but i'm board with reading for the moment. i'm currently reading the Chronicles of Narnia books I never read them as a child. I love the Magican's Nephew and am now onto The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I'e found that I have a hard time gettig into them but once i'm a little ways in im hooked.

Ok this is painfully slow. I shall end this with a question:

Have you read the Narnia books? If so which is your favorite?

Just Another Manic Monday

2011-11-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

Meal Plan Monday will be up later. My brain wasn't quite ready to think about the week ahead this morning. Instead I cleaned a little because I've been working on cards all weekend and my apartment has exploded.Also I smashed my finger and realized I had no hair brush, just one of those mornings where I wish I could stay in bed.

My wonderful hubby has offered to drive me to work after he gets off so I have a few extra minutes to blog.

I spent a good portion of Saturday evening and yesterday evening working on cards. I even have a new one designed and half done, haven't decided how I like it yet.

Here's another Christmas one I came up with.

You can find all my cards on My Etsy. All sales through December are going to Latin American Childcare in Guayaquil, Ecuador where my church Glad Tidings will be going next summer to build classrooms. So even if you can't buy one tell your friends, it supports a great cause!

Christmas!

2011-11-05T19:34:00.000-07:00

These will be available on my Etsy Tomorrow by 9:00 P.M PST

It's my favorite time of year!

It's finally starting to feel like fall around here, the temperature has dropped and it's even raining today.

This has all put me in the mood to be crafty. I worked on the baby quilt this morning and now I'm working on cards. Here's a little sneak peek of Christmas cards. I love these! I have a couple of other designs I'll be doing but I love these little wreaths so much I could do 50 and be perfectly happy. Maybe I'll make these for my personal Christmas Cards.

Meal Plan Monday

2011-10-31T07:15:00.000-07:00

Week 5 W/E 11/6/11

Finally a new month and I can kick that stupid idea of no duplicates to the curb. It was a good personal challenge and I did try a lot of new recipes but I'm over it. Still going to try and keep it interesting but it's not the end of the world if I go back to my once a week curry.

As far as the no meat thing is concerned, we're going to keep it up. We're not going to be militant about it if we happen to get served meat product but we're not going to buy it to cook or order it when out.

Monday: Sweet Potato enchiladas last day of the month,Halloween and something new. This may not happen because frankly I'm wiped from this weekend and I still need to go to the store.I'm using a combo of recipes. this one for the filling and this one for the sauce. The sauce I found out about from Mama. You should check her blog out, she's starting Meal Plan Mondays too.

Tuesday: Lavash wraps. They're easy, the hubby has been asking for them since we made them last and maybe I'll get a picture this time.

Wednesday: Lavash pizza. Because it's quick and I need to use up the rest of the lavash.

Thursday: This one I'm going to leave up in the air, I'm going to see Footloose with a friend and we haven't decided on a time yet.

Friday: Leftover night. I have a meeting at my church for Awanas. I get to learn all about it because I agreed to being the Commander-not entirely sure what I agreed to. I will find out what that entails Friday.

Saturday:Pasta, it's easy. Noticing a theme yet? The last couple of weeks have been busy and with the holidays quickly approaching life is getting busier and busier. I need easy to stay sane

Sunday:Tortilla Soup. It's going to be a long day at church with choir practice starting so to the crock pot I go!

Meal Plan Monday

2011-10-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

Week 4 W/E 10/30/11

Week 3 went ok-ish. The cheesy corn loaf I was all excited about? totally disappointing. It was a frittata, I don't care what the cook book says. It tasted perfectly fine, but just way too much work for a frittata.The Black bean and Corn tortilla pie turned out scrumptious and the Oreo truffles were amazing. super easy and I would totally recommend the recipe. We also ended up eating meat at the couples retreat, it was a case of just needing to eat what we were served. I'm not beating myself up about it.I've just got to say it's getting more and more difficult with my personal challenge of trying not to do any repeats. I'm glad the month is almost over.

Monday: Quesadilla's with black beans

Tuesday: Veggie Pot Pie, I'll be making 2 of these. A friend of mine just had a baby and a bunch of us signed up to take meals over and tomorrow is my day. I may or may not buy some chicken to throw into theirs.

Wednesday: Yellow curry with chickpeas and veggies

Thursday: Pumpkin ravioli with brown butter sauce. I'm using this recipe for reference, she uses won ton wrappers for the ravioli and I thought it sounded easy enough. I'm not sure if I'll put sage in the sauce, the hubby isn't a huge fan and I really don't like buying fresh stuff I only have a single use for.

Friday: I'll be in Sacramento at Priscilla Shirer's Going Beyond conference with the ladies from my church. So the hubby gets to fend for himself.

Saturday: Burritos-I have no idea whats going in them, I'm grasping at straws. there's plenty other things I could make but I'm going for quick and easy here since I'll be gone most of the day. plus I'm going to have leftover tortillas from the quesadillas.

Sunday:Lentil Stuffed Peppers

Lovely in Lavender

2011-10-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

This lovely quilt was found at Goodwill for a pittance by my mother-in-law. It's a lavender whole cloth quilt that even has a sleeve. oh and can you see the scalloped edges? I don't know how anyone could get rid of it. Their loss, my gain. It's just the right size to cover my ottoman that has some bad wear spots.Here's a close up of the quilting, so pretty.

My MIL found this for me some months ago. She showed it to me a couple trips ago. I just now got it though because their cat Jerome aka romey decided it was the perfect napping quilt. He claimed it as his bed for quite some time. She had to wait until he was done with it.He has moved onto the clothes hamper, so I guess I can have it! We went to visit them last month and she let me take it home. Oh how happy it makes me, it's just so cozy. Makes me want to make a whole cloth quilt. if only my quilting skills were a bit better.

Octopus

2011-10-19T10:00:00.000-07:00

Here's what I made for my friends son who just turned 2. The card is made of fabric I have no idea why I have, it's just soooo not something I would normally buy. It has kites all over it, and I made a quilt with applique kites on it so maybe I was originally wanting to incorporate into that? who know's? I liked it for the B-day card because it says make a wish on it, I very carefully fussy cut it so it would say it on the 2.

I had alot of fun doing the shirt. The dad loves Octopuses and the mom loves sea horses. I actually thought of this shirt right after I made this one for his first birthday last year and have been holding on to the template for the octopus this whole time. the sea horse fabric is leftover from a nursing cover I made the mom when she had him.

Meal Plan Monday

2011-10-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

Week 3 W/E 10/23

Week 2 went well with the no meat and we haven't broken down and eaten out. The polenta casserole needs some tweaking but it was decent and I didn't end up using the same recipe for the zucchini sticks but they turned out all right. We did skip the black bean burgers again (finally making them tonight) and the tortilla pie didn't get made but that's being moved to tomorrow.

Monday: Tortilla and Black Bean Pie

Tuesday: Couscous salad with tomatoes, Persian cucumbers, and green onions

Wednesday(crock pot): Cheesy corn loaf. This is a recipe from a cookbook I've had and haven't used a whole lot called Saving Dinner the Vegetarian way: Healthy Menus, Recipes and Shopping lists to Keep everyone happy at the table. I've made a few recipes from here and have enjoyed them, I bought this because none of the recipes were crazy complicated, it's organized by season and, it has weekly meals plans and for each meal plan there's a shopping list. Basically it's laid out in a way my brain works.

Thursday: Pesto and Pepper sandwiches with spinach and mozzarella cheese with a side of Brown and wild rice with quinoa. This is a microwavable package that I picked up at Safeway to try, we'll see out it is.

Friday: We'll be at a couples retreat at our church and dinner will be served there so I wont have to cook. I'm just hoping it's vegetarian friendly

Saturday: Leftover night. I wont actually be home. I'll be at a ladies get together with Devi Titus, she's the author of the Home Experience and it's her and her husband that are coming to speak at the couples retreat. So my husband will be on his own for dinner. Everyone is bringing finger foods and I've decided to make Oreo Truffles, another fabulous recipe I found on Pinterest.

Sunday: Spinach and zucchini lasagna with garlic bread.

Progress

2011-10-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

Making Progress on the baby quilt. I was originally going to add borders but I ended up on a 5X5 grid instead of 4X5 so I think borders will make it a little bigger then I want it. I'll see once I have it all pieced with the setting squares. I love my design wall. This is really the first time I'm using it to it's full potential. I pinned the blocks to it the other day and pulled it up and it worked like a charm. It makes me smile.

This is the last block I made and it's the best block of any type I've made in quite some time, if ever. See how pretty the points match up and everything came out the same size. It makes me happy that I'm actually making progress on my precision. It's been a long hard road for me, rotary cutting and I don't always see eye to eye.

That's about all for now. It's been a pretty busy weekend and I may be going to PIQF tomorrow after all so I better get to bed.

I do occasionally quilt

2011-10-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

So I write on here aabout cooking, card making, and alot about other random stuff. One of the original reasons I started this blog was to document my quilting. So far that hasn't happened too much, mostly because I haven't been doing a whole lot of quilting this year.

That is in the process of changing. starting with this:

(sorry for the crappy cell phone pic, too lazy to get my actual camera)

This is the start of a baby quilt I'm making for my cousin. She's having a little girl next month. Hooray for me starting a baby quilt before the baby is born!

I'm doing this out of a Celebrate Spring! by Sandy Gervais charm pack I've had forever. I loved it so much I bought a few fat quarters from the line. I'm getting 9 pinwheels out of it. I'm kinda stuck not because that's not enough for either size or the pattern I wanted to do. i have 4 fat quarters but they're all light and don't have a high enough contrast with each other. I'm glad this week is busy with work and people coming to visit, because it gives me time to figure out what I want to do. I'm trying very hard to only use what I have and I know this is possible but I'm just trying to reconcile what was in my head with what is actually possible. What is especially frustrating is at one point I had 2 charm packs of this and I can only find one. I've recently organized all my fabric so I know it's not anywhere else. GGRR!! Oh well, it will work out.

Meal Plan Monday

2011-10-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

Week 2 of Meal Plan Monday.

Week 1 went well, really well. A couple of things got morphed into each other and rearranged and I decided to do baked potatoes last night but for the most part we stuck to the plan. Best new thing we tried had to be the lavash wraps, I love micro greens. Oh and Avacado (already knew that one).

This week I'm trying a couple of new recipies and my BFF and her husband are coming for a couple of days so I need to make pretty food. Not that food normally isn't pretty. you know something special because company is coming? You know you do it too!

Monday: Red beans and Rice

Tuesday: Black bean burgers with homemade french fries and coleslaw

Wednesdays: Large mixed green salad with a mixture of beans and crunchy tortilla strips

Thursday: Polenta Casserole with Baked zucchini sticks. This is a new one. I saw the zucchini sticks on Pinterest a few weeks ago and have been meaning to try them.I may or may not make the dipping sauce The polenta casserole I found a recipe on allrecipes.com but I'm adapting it to use what I have.

Friday: Tortilla and black bean pie with spanish rice, chips and guacamole. This is very similar to the enchiladas I was originally planning on making but it looks prettier.

Saturday: Baked mac n cheese with mushrooms and spinach. I may be doubling this. or not doing it at all. My bff and her husband are leaving that night so I don't know if I'm cooking or we'll be going out for an early dinner. Also my mom and brother are stopping in San Francisco this day on their way back from Oregon.(this is hilarious to me because bff and husband are flying home to Portland that night, they're totally swapping.) So I may be having dinner for 6. Time will tell.

Sunday: Lentil loaf with mashed potatoes. I may change my mind on this one. I was having a hard time decidng for Sunday's dish.

Need ideas? here's some more Meal Plans

Kona Cottons

2011-10-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

(I found this blog unpublished, yet complete. I wrote it on January 4th of this year.I have no idea why. Do you like quilting with solid colors? they seem to be more popular these days)

All over quilting blogs I see and read about Kona Cottons. I've seen Kona Cottons, all the pretty colors. At the time the quilt shop I was at had a ton of them and I was both inspired and overwhelmed by the array of colors.

There was just too many to choose from. Fast forward to now and I still don't quite know what I would do with them. I like patterns and solids seem so boring to me. However after perusing blog land I am inspired. I would love to try and do something with a grey or maybe a green.

The problem arrises in that despite the fact I live in one of the largest cities in the united states theres a huge shortage on quilt shops. Most fabric stores are geared towards fashion design students. Which I guess makes sense.

Britex probably has them,and is charging an arm and leg for them. There's quite a few nice quilt shops in Berkeley and Oakland but I don't get over there all too often.

However I found something close when I was at Beverly's the other day. Fabric from Gee's Bend by Windham. Now Beverly's only had about 6 bolts but they felt wonderful and they had just the right shade of grey.

It's been peculating in the back of my brai

n ever since and I think I know what I would want to use it with. Remember these fabrics?

Well they morphed into double this and despite having more I still don't know what I want to do with them, and yet I'm still totally in love.

So I want to get some of the grey and do what with? I keep going back to this pattern from Jaybird quilts.I think a nice grey would make all the other colors really stand out and unlike a lot of the other patterns I've been considering it wont force me to cut the large prints so small that you can't even tell what they once worse.

I'm excited, I love a plan. I just need to finish up some ufo's before I start something else.

*****Since writing this post at the beginning of the year I have gone through 3 more patterns that I like for the above fabric and decided again great and bought a nice olive green instead for a pattern my MIL had from a magazine. I have since changed my mind yet again and currently have settled on this pattern from Moda Bake Shop which goes back to my original grey idea, I just dont know!*****

Meal Plan Monday

2011-10-03T19:38:00.000-07:00

The Hubby and I have a few goals for the new month. 2 of which are no meat for the month of October and really and truly sticking to our budget. So in an attempt to keep myself accountable I will be doing a weekly post of meal plan Monday. My weekly plan goes Monday-Sunday. I usually try to plan a meal for every night. That doesn't mean I cook every night (Some days get busy or I get home late and we'll either eat leftovers or pull something easy together.) If I plan for every night though I know what I have on hand and what I can make out of it.

Meal Plan W/E 10/9/11

Monday: Lavash wraps with hummus, tomatoes, green onions, avacado, and micro greens

Tuesday: Green curry and rice

Wednesday: Crock pot Tortilla Soup

Thursday: Lavash pizza with bbq sauce, green onions, and corn

Friday: Chickpea tacos with tomatoes,micro greens, cheese, and avacado. Served with spanish rice

Saturday*: Nachos with black bean dip and guacamole

Sunday: Pasta with homemade sourdough garlic bread

That is the full and complete list. If anyone reading this has any favorite vegetarian recipes that I must try this month I would love any and all suggestions.

*I'm babysitting that night so this will more than likely be a hubby fend for yourself night.

Great Week

2011-10-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a good week, well actually a great passed 24 hours

Best for my household-I was offered a nanny position yesterday. 19 month old girl. It's a funny story- I showed up for the interview Monday and the mom and I both realized that I had interviewed for that same exact position last year. I had a trial day yesterday and they offered me the position at the end of the day. One of the great things is the neighborhood they live in has zero parking so there is no expectation of me driving. So we finally can sell the car, which we've been talking about for like 2 or 3 months now.
My BFF that lives in Portland found out yesterday that she's passed everything she needs to in order to be a certified nutrition and wellness consultant. Very proud of her for persuing her dreams and starting her own business.
One of my BFF's that live here in San Francisco has been faithfully following the path God has for her and patiently waiting on God. I just found out she's in a relationship with a really great guy. oh new love how it makes my heart happy. (I'm a hopeless romantic, what can I say?)
The last one coupled with a wedding I'm going to next week coupled with everything else makes me really really happy
The phone I dropped in water a couple of weeks ago and thought was a gonner is in fact functioning which means I haven't lost all my pictures or my dads phone number.
I'm on track to have a shop update by tomorrow night. I'm a little behind since I realized I need to make a Joann's run for thread but I should be good since all the cards are done other than the last step.

I'm sure I'm forgetting things but that's all I can think of for now. I've been putting off a bunch of stuff thinking I have all kinds of time since I'm not working but since I start bright and early Monday morning I need to now go get my act together and get my apartment clean and organized.(wow thats a really long run on sentence but I'm too lazy to fix it right now) I also have a birthday party and a going away party to go to this weekend so I need to get a move on.

TV Sitcoms

2011-09-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Some days I feel like my life is a sitcom. Or maybe there are moments that if my life were a sitcom would be really funny. Today I had one of those moments. I had an interview with a mom who has a 19 month old girl. A year ago I had an interview with that same exact mom and a then 7 month old baby. If this were my hometown it wouldn’t be so crazy. My hometown although growing only has like 16,000 people not 700,000 so running into someone isn’t abnormal. I’m going Friday for a test day to see how I do with the little girl. It’s a full time position and the mom didn’t give me a crazy look when I said I preferred to be paid over the table. Seriously 7/10 families I interview with look at me like I have a third eye when I say that. I don’t get it.

I’ve given myself a deadline for a shop update. I will have it stocked by October 1^st so stay tuned. That should give me plenty of time to make more cards since I depleted my stock at the craft boutique and I need to finish some order’s . So excited to finally being doing this.

Bridal Shower

2011-09-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

I went to a bridal shower last week and keeping up with my goal of making all gifts, here's what I came up with. A little wedding cake card and a kitchen set with hot pads and dish towels. I had a lot of fun making them.

Happy Cheery Flowers

2011-09-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm out of town this weekend. My husband realized he had a ton of vacation hours saved up and me being unemployed makes leaving town easy

I do have 2 interviews lined up for Monday, that makes me feel a little better. One for 10 month old twins, that's kinds of exciting and nerve racking all at once.

When I was babysitting as a teenager I had 3 regular families with twins I babysat for. My cousin has twins and was part of a mother of multiples club, she gave my number out. The hard part wasn't necessarily the twins, it was the fact that they all had at least one other child. So I was always babysitting for at least 3 or 4 kids. At the time though it seemed like no big deal, looking back on it , it's something crazy only my 16 year old self would do. Fun times.

The crazy thing now is my cousin's twins are now 15 and I think they were younger than the other twins I watched which means those kids are now all 16-18 years old.

This weekend is my 10 year high school reunion. We're just happening to be in our hometown at the same time. I have 0 desire to go to the actual reunion but I'm going to try and see some of the people that will be in town for it.

Ok I think that's enough rambling.

Purple Hedge Hog

2011-09-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

Almost all of my prototypes for cards are done in purple. I figure if I'm not happy with the result or if no one else particularly likes it, I will. Or if it turns out really cute it's already done in my favorite color :-)

Success

2011-09-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

The craft boutique was a success. I'm so glad I did it. I sold a bunch of cards and all my headbands. On top of that I got 2 orders for napkins and an order for a set of owl cards

Here's my half of a table I shared with a friend. I'm thankful I didn't have a whole table to myself or I'm sure it would have looked empty.

Now I just need to fill the orders and keep up the momentum.

By the numbers

2011-09-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

Items for tomorrows craft boutique

31 Cards-

5 tea cups

5 Elephant

5 Owls

5 Crosses

5 Christmas

6 easter eggs I had left over

4 headbands

1 alligator clip

16 napkins-4 sets of 4

and

1 very,very messy apartment

Insecurities

2011-09-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

I've been dragging my feet for months. On many things.

The big one though? Lilac Barries.My dreams.

All because of insecurities.

Last week I was alerted to an opportunity to be part of a craft boutique at my church. This just the opportunity I need to get my act together. Coupled with the fact that I'm currently unemployed I have the time and the motivation to go through with it.

So I've been diligently working this week. My apartment looks like a fabric tornado went through it. Everything is almost done. I just have a few more stitches to do, gather everything together and figure out how I'm going to display.

The old fears are coming back. It's not even about how much money I will or will not make. It's whether or not anyone will like what I create. Each thing I make has a little bit of me in it and I've said this before but it's scary putting yourself out there.

So tomorrow 11:00, craft boutique and an awesome speaker. Hopefully it goes ok.

Elephant Parade

2011-09-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

Tea Time

2011-09-14T09:48:00.001-07:00

on a roll

2011-09-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

on a card making roll, 2 more to do then I'm on to other things for the boutique

Hoo Hoo

2011-09-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

A little sneak peek of some cards I making for a craft boutique I'm participating in on Saturday

Harvest Time

2011-09-05T17:03:00.001-07:00

I'm in the mood for fall.

I took down my summer-ish decorations yesterday and put up my fall decorations.

It made me happy, makes me feel like it's almost Thanksgiving, which I love.

I like how the book shelf turned out but I'm thinking I need to iron the lace collar I got for a buck at the dollar a yard store I was at when I went on the quilt retreat at the beginning of the year.

The shelf needs some help, its looking sad. I have blue poster mount putty stuck on my walls from when I had the tea cups and saucers up there. It's not coming off as easy as it's supposed to. maybe I just stick some fake leaves I have on them and call it good?

We went to our neighborhood farmers market yesterday towards the end of the day and one of the vendors whats packing up mixed bags of produce for $5. We had gotten a couple of other veggies but we said why not?

Here's the bag we got

This is how much it weighs w/o the bell pepper. with it,it was just too much for our 11lb kitchen scale.

Here's everything we got. in the back there if you can't tell there's a handful of brussel sprouts and in front of the cabbage are cucumbers. We also have 4 more zuchinni and 2 more cucumbers we had already bought along with some baby spinach left over from last week.

I now have no idea what to do with it all besides soup, which is just boring. I'm especially stumped by the peppers as I don't generally cook with them a whole lot. I made guacamole with one of them last night and not even the whole thing. I'll use rest of it in the tortilla soup that I'll probably make tonight or tomorrow.

Anyone have any ideas?

I really would love to use all of them. I don't even think we got this much or this much a variety when we were getting boxes delivered from our local CSA.

Summer Afternoon

2011-08-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-08-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

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!

La La La

2011-07-30T11:01:00.000-07:00

Hello Blog world. I've missed you

I've been working alot, sick alot, and doing close to 0 sewing and quilting. So I've been avoiding the blog, because I haven't had anything to say

But a couple of things have inspired me to get back on the proverbial horse.

1) I got my monthly newsletter from a local quilt shop and it was talking about a new book it's selling. Organizing Solutions for every quilter by Carolyn Woods. It got be dreaming of having a whole complete space for my all my stuff. We're in a one bedroom. apartment My sewing machine is on a tiny desk in the living-room, and everything else is in drawers in the bedroom. I'm not complaining, I make it work but it would be so wonderful to have an actual space. Well my husband last night said that maybe he'll get rid of his desk. His desk is ginormous. Then the idea hit, get rid of my desk and I take over his. I'm so excited and now the wheels are turning. I'll be able to cut and sew in the same spot. no more cutting on the dining room table. And I'll be able to store some of my supplies under the desk. So it will be a little more consolidated. I even have an idea for being able to set up a little ironing board on the top of one my carts so I can iron at my sewing machine. Soooo excited!

2) I've been wanting to learn how to embroider for eons. I have close to no hand sewing skills but I've always wanted to learn to embroider, it's up there with wanting to learn to quilt. Which I've done. I've read books. I have guides. Heck I've even watched videos on youtube. They still don't make sense to me. I was inspired yet again when I was reading the House on Hill Road blog. She was working on this lovely sampler that made me yet again want to learn. Well I found a class a while ago that teaches embroidery. I've been looking for a class for a really long time and haven't been able to find one. I finally found one and it's an hour away in San Jose (ha that rhymes!). It's also on Sundays and I have church on Sundays so it just didn't seem feasible. Well I went and looked at again and sure enough they're still offering it. It's once a month from noon to 4. I've decided to go for it. I'm soo excited.

So there's my sewing life in a nutshell right now. Nothing actually getting done but at least now I have new inspiration to get my booty in gear. What do you do when you haven't sewn or blogged in a while? how do you get back on the horse?

MIA

2011-05-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm still here, just busy with life. Blogging isn't getting done and sewing either. Le sigh.

I'm still having fun(obsessed) pinning things on pinterest , and more often than here I tweet things, so if you want to keep up with me go here.

One of the things keeping me busy right now is I'm co-leading a small women’s bible study in my home called The Home Experience, I really need to write a whole blog on this alone, it's life changing. One of the fun things we do though is serve food to our ladies. It's fun to set the table all pretty like. Here's a picture from the first session

For the second session that we just had last Sunday we did a breakfast buffet. I made

French toast kebabs, they were delicious and looked great. I forgot to take pictures and they all got eaten. So you'll have to take my word for it. I got the idea off of pinterest.

That’s about all I have for now, well so much more but don't want my first post in a month to be a novel.

weekend

2011-04-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

I've been working on finishing up some projects I started when I went on my spring cleaning/decoration spree. Here's the status of my plate wall I started. I don't know where my camera or sd card are right now so you get cell phone pics.

The plate wall still has 2 more plates I need to add but we ran out of the right size holders. that will have to wait probably till next weekend.

Here is a pic of my design wall down. The blocks are from my block swap adventure partners, I love how nice they all look together.

Fear and Easter

2011-04-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

I'm a chicken, I admit it. I let fear stop me from doing alot of things. Usually it's fear of failure. That and I'm a procrastinator, it's a bad combo.

My dream is to have my own (small) business and one day be able to be a stay at home mama.

So I've taken the first step towards achieving that, actually doing.

I'm here to announce the Grand Opening of my Etsy shop Lilac Barries!

It's scary creating something and hoping someone will buy it. It's putting a little piece of yourself out there and hoping people like you, I mean it.

But, I can no longer let fear rule my life. Really, thats not what Easter is all about

So here's the first few cards I've made for Easter. Simple little Easter Eggs in cheerful colors. They make me happy, and I hope they make someone else happy too!

See all the cards I currently sell here

Before and after

2011-03-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

All in all I like how everything turned out. The green lamps are my favorite. I’m not totally sold on the stars. They’re looking more emerald green than teal. I think I need to go back to my original plan and do a solid coat of the teal and sand parts off to reveal the green. We’ll see how long it takes for it to bug me enough to change it.

homey

2011-03-20T19:17:00.000-07:00

I had a burst of inspiration last week on how I wanted my apartment to look. It's something I've struggled with since I got married basically.

I know what I like but I didn't know how to make it come together for a whole cohesive 'look'. Well that and how to do it on a budget. Slowly but surely I've been perusing home magazine and more and more I can describe what it is I like. ( knowing myself and my tastes as I get older probably helps alot, my 20 year old self did not know herself all that well) I still couldn't tell you what particular style it is.

Homey,cozy,pretty,unfussy,cheery,bright,livable.

Whatever that equates to.

Yesterday I went to goodwill and salvation army and found some pieces I just love for my dining room. Some awesome tea cups and plates to hang on my wall.

I sorted my buttons by color and put them in some votive holders I have. it makes me smile

What about you? Have you always known what your design aesthetic is for your home or have you struggled like I have? If so what has helped you figure it out along the way?

Design wall

2011-03-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

For Christmas my husband made me a design wall. It's taken him a while to get it done but finally its up.

He modeled it after one I had seen at PIQF last year and I'm so happy with the results. It's even nicer than the one I had seen.

Here it is hanging up in my dining room, you can see a little bit of the actual design wall peaking out, its flannel attached to a vinyl privacy shade.

The empty space below it will eventually be a plate wall. The picture's that were there before wont look right. I need to figure out what I have that will look ok there in the meantime. I also need to figure out what will go on top of the shelf.

Here it is up close. Look how pretty the trim is. It makes me happy. My husband rocks

Mini Vacation

2011-03-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

My Husband and I are on a mini vacation,it's glorious.

Thursday night to kick it off we went on a proper date: Sushi and saw The Adjustment Bureau. We got done with the movie and we still wanted to do something. Seeing as it was 10:00 and we're not drinking folk our options were limited. We settled on going to the 24 hour CVS in Oakland. Come to find out it is no longer 24 hour but we did manage to get there before it closed.

I found this mug, I also got another one with a green interior and

some awesome paper goods for 75% off. I got luggage tags,blank postcards,business size cards and a great set of blank linen cards in pastels all for .50-1.00!

We're also working on some home improvement projects this weekend. Last weekend we found these 3 lamps for a great price at Goodwill. Yesterday we meandered to Lowe's and I got some spray paint to paint these babies. The tall black one will soon chocolate brown for my living room and the two smaller ones will be a nice light green for bedside lamps in our room. I also got some paint for these metal stars I've had. They're currently red and I haven't know what color I wanted them. I've settled on a light green base coat and a teal top coat. I'm then going to sand parts so the green shows through. I hope it turns out. We'll see if any of the painting gets done though since its been raining.

This was last weekends little project. I got this awesome vinyl wall art for my birthday and finally decided where to put it. It's on the over hang between my living room and dining room. I'm going to put some photos on either side but I haven't decided which ones yet.

So far a very good mini vacation. Hope everyone else is having a nice weekend.

I'm still here

2011-03-01T06:35:00.000-08:00

I've been working alot. And not getting any sewing done. Even my block for the swap is late. Fortunately my partner for February is understanding.

All of my closest friends live out of state, by hap-instance they're all in the state of California at some point in late February or March so March will also be busy.

I do have a four day weekend coming up very soon and I couldn't need it more. It's one of the weekends we don't have company so it will be very nice to just relax.

I did manage to go to my favorite quilt store in my home town and pick up some fabric as well as Amy Butler's birdy sling pattern. I've been eying it for over a year and I'm so excited. I may not even let my fear of things not quilt related get the better of me on this one

Hopefully soon I can get working on stuff I have so many ideas floating around my head right now that I want to see materialize.

Fabric envy

2011-02-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

So I love to peruse quilting blogs and get inspiration.

Lately though I've been catching myself having a serious case of fabric envy. I see so many wonderful quilters getting to use all the latest lines and I oooh and aaaww over them and I say I wish I could have some of that fabric.

Then today I saw a little mini quilt made from a scrap challenge. A woman sent in some of her scraps from her stash and Crazy Mom aka Amanda Jean made a little mini quilt and supplemented from her stash. I was reminded thats what quilting should be all about.

Heck for a very long time indeed women were making quilts from leftover clothing fabric, old clothes, flour sacks and any other bits and pieces they could hoard away.

In fact I will soon be given a quilt made by my great grandmother during the great depression. She had 7 children if I remember correctly and I'm sure she did just that. Made quilts from their old clothes and other scraps she could find.

Yes the new lines are pretty and shiny and serve for great inspiration. I'm not saying anything against these great designers, I admire alot of them for following their dreams. I just needed a little friendly reminder that I have a small by some standards stash but quite a bit of fabric in reality. I have fabric and can create beautiful and useful things with it be it quilts or items to make my apartment more homey.

my projects may not be all matchy matchy from the same line but they're just as beautiful. And I hope one day as inspiring as I find many of the bloggers out there.

my fabric is staring at me

2011-01-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

and saying quilt me! (or maybe that's the fever talking)

unfortunately that wont be happening anytime soon. I've been ridiculously sick. I take care of 2- 2 year olds and they've both had colds. They decided to share the love and give it to me. I spent all day yesterday in a fever induced haze.

I'm feeling alot better today but still pretty sick. I want to get back to normal. I want my apartment clean and work on some projects.

eh, getting healthy first is more important. I hope everyone else is having a better start to their weekend

the dollar a yard store

2011-01-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

So when I went on my quilt retreat a couple of weeks ago I had a chance to go to another town about 15 minutes away and go to this fabric store. Well that's a loose term because it's not what you would traditionally think of when you hear fabric store and they sell clothes and belts and some other random stuff.

They get the fabric donated from the manufacturers sell it for .99 cents a yard and all the profits go to Shriner's Children hospital. So it's a total win-win. I get some awesome fabric and money gets donated to a very worth cause.

The whole places is like 5 or 6 different rooms in a little shopping area. There's cottons, rayon's,homespun's, dress fabrics, upholstery fabrics,buttons, laces,zippers, patches and just a huge variety of fabrics. You have to be willing to sort through it all,but it's a total treasure hunt. Most of the fabrics are on bolts but there's a couple of rooms with just boxes of random pre-cut fabrics.

Here's the fabric I ended up buying. The fabric on the left is a pre-cut piece I found that's about a yard. I think I'm going to turn it into a couple of scarfs. The fabric on the fight is gong to be turned into a table cloth and maybe some napkins.

Morning Fog Lifter

2011-01-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

getting ready to baste, taking up my whole living room floor

There's this great coffee roasting company from near my home town and they make this great coffee bean called Morning fog lifter. My mom drinks it and turned me on to it and I think originally my grandma drank it. I have great memories of both my grandma and my mom grinding the beans, drinking their coffee and reading the morning paper.

I started collecting fabric for

a coffee themed quilt a few years ago from a now closed quilt shop here in San Francisco called black cat quilts. When I went to my first quilt retreat back in 2008 I grabbed the fabric and a pattern I got from another favorite quilt shop call Quiltin Cousins in Pismo Beach, Ca. With a few fabrics my mother-in-law let me raid from her stash I had fabric for a top.

3 years later I finally finished and gave it to my mom. Here it is:

Front

back

I love how it turned out and my mom loves it, so all in all a job well done

Memory Monday

2011-01-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

This was a Christmas present from 2009 for my Mother-in-law. I used fabric from a variety of charm packs and this tutorial from V&Co.

Quilt Retreat

2011-01-15T10:18:00.000-08:00

The room we were sewing in, there were about 22 women total

So the weekend of New Years I got a bee in my bonnet that I would like to go to the quilt retreat that my mother-in-law goes to every year. The problem(s)being that I had to work the Friday that it was starting and I had no idea if there were still any spots open.

well after asking my boss Monday if there was any way I could ge

t Friday off, I didn't find out until Wednesday that I could.I couldn't call the fabric store until late Wednesday night,after they closed. Well I found out Thursday Morning that indeed that still had a spot open. I got off at 5:30 Thursday evening, went home and frantically packed . left a little after 7:00 and got to the hotel at Midnight. I was so excited.

Other than finishing my moms quilt (I had no idea how long that would take)I had no idea what I would work on so I just grabbed a bunch of different potential projects. Well by the end of Friday I had my moms quilt quilted and the binding almost finished.

After finsihing my moms quilt Saturday I worked on my block for my swap and thats about all I got done that day. I ended up with a migraine and it took me forever to do one little block.

I ended up at the hotel for a nap to try and sleep it off. I got back in time

for dinner, a variety of soups and home made bread made by the owner of the shop. There was turkey chili,zucchini basil and my favorite baked potato. There was recipe cards for all the soups that I grabbed. I didn't think to take a picture until it was too late but I'll post the recipes another day.

Over all the retreat was amazing, the fabric shop has mostly older lines of fabric and sells everything for $6.00 a yard. I found some great pieces and even got some Kona solids. I finally figured out what to do with this fabric

We also got to a place that I guess is fabric store,everything is $1.00 a yard!!! That is a post all of its own though.

Ok this is long enough. On to the pictures...

Part of The Creation Station

Some of the fabric I got, love the one on the far right, I'm just sad that I was only able to get half a yard, the very last piece in the store.

my name tag and the cute little tote my mom gave me for my birthday

3 log cabin blocks i started for a table runner for a friend

Sneak peak for Robyn in Australia

2011-01-15T09:59:00.000-08:00

Here is a sneak peak of my January Block for Block Swap adventures. My partner asked for a Friendship scrap block and the colors to be burgundy and creams. I worked on this at the retreat and boy did I have a hard time. I had a headache that turned into a migraine and I kept having to rip out seams like 2 or 3 times, I like the final product, but I hope she likes it.

by the numbers

2011-01-10T14:00:00.000-08:00

1 Brown bag retreat

1 quilt completed and given to my mom (1 UFO off my list)

1 scrappy friendship block completed for block swap adventures

3 delicious peanut butter cookies eaten (2 more than I should of had, but so worth it)

3 days spent at this fabric shop

3 log cabin blocks started for a table runner

5 note cards finished for a friend (a very very late holiday gift)

5 family members hastily seen on my way out off town ,but i got hugs and my moms yummy food soooo worth it

18 yards of fabric bought (its alot, but there's a story)

25 women, some new and some old acquaintances

240 inches of binding sewn (oh boy was that a project)

572+ miles driven

lots of projects shared and memories made. I'll write a full post sometime this week with the full rundown. I even have recipes to share! Happy Monday

Memory Monday

2011-01-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

These are from 2009, November I believe. I had a bridal shower and a baby shower on the same day if I remember correctly.

The brides colors were black, white and cranberry red. I took a photo album I had laying around and found this great print in my stash, I covered the album using spray adhesive. I bought some coordinating ribbon and voila a great wedding album.

The batik is a nursing cover and I had a hard time getting a decent picture of it. She was having a boy so I was trying to find something not too girly but still something the mom would enjoy wearing. I was happy with the result

Memory Monday

2011-01-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

There's a few projects that I've finished that never made it on here that I thought I would post. Here's one of the only (if not the only) UFO projects I got completed in 2010. It was a housewarming present for some friends who bought there first house in the summer of 2009. I finished it in February of 2010

It's a table runner with a set of 4 napkins

This was a quilt as you go project and the pattern was inspired by a wonky french braid coupon clutch I had seen on Jaybird Quilts

Black Bean Dip

2011-01-01T13:12:00.000-08:00

pretend there's a picture here. I forgot when it came out of the oven and then there was none left

I make this dip for the new years pot luck my church had last night. It's a go to recipe for parties, it's easy, quick and I almost always have all the ingredients on hand.

I got it from this book. The book is amazing, the principles in it have changed my thinking on so many things about being a woman of God, a wife and my home. It's actually a small group that we do a couple of times a year through my church and I'm hoping next time we do it I can host in my home. which will just make my heart so happy for so many reasons. It's written by Devi Titus and Marilyn Weiher which I have had the pleasure of meeting. They are such amazing and inspiring women of God.

Pittsburgh-Super bowl black bean dip with gold tortillas

1/2 chipotle peppers

3 cups cooked black beans (canned are fine)

1 cup mayonnaise

3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

12 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon salt or to taste

grated cheese (Monterey jack and cheddar)

Puree chipotle peppers and half the black beans in a food processor

Combine pure with remaining ingredients except great cheese

Place in heatproof containers

Top with grated jack and chddar cheese and heat in oven or microwave till bubbly hot ( i usually do it at 350 for about 30-40 minutes)

Enjoy! this is always a crowd pleaser and there's very rarely leftovers. I sometimes use this as a base for a nacho bar and put out guacamole,lettuce, tomatoes and some ground beef mixed with taco seasoning and cheese, delicious!

2011

2010-12-31T12:20:00.000-08:00

It's New Years Eve and like many I'm reflecting on this year and pondering what the new year will bring.

My apartment is almost all ready for the new year and I'm writing out my goals for my home, my life,my health and my blog.

I'm trying not to be to far reaching with my goals for the new year. That's my downfall almost every year.

2010 has been a roller-coaster but going into the new year we're in a very different place then we were going into this year.

One of my biggest goals is to spend less time on the computer and more time sewing. I want to get focused on what it is I want to do with this

blog and not let fear stand in the way of moving forward with some dreams I've had for quite some time.

So Blog world,Happy New Year. I hope 2011 brings good things for everyone

Christmas Goodies

2010-12-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some quilting related Christmas presents my family gave me

a charm pack from Bunnyhill designs

a new rotary blade, I can never have too many of these

a great new dry iron. Great for pressing, appliqué,pattern transfers and other such stuff as it has no holes to get in the way.

Some awesome pillows my

sister-in-law made me. Love the floor pillow for extra seating!

Did anyone else get anything quilting/crafting

related for Christmas?

productivity

2010-12-28T09:56:00.000-08:00

Christmas was excellent.

I didn't finish my moms quilt, she still loves me and I'm hoping to work on it this week.

I'm off work this week, I was all geared up to clean the disaster of an apartment I left when we went out of town.

that didn't happen. My husband declared it a lazy day and that it was, it was quite enjoyable.

Maybe today?

I must be at least a little productive this week, the stuff I want to work on is fun stuff.

Panicking a little

2010-12-18T09:39:00.000-08:00

so Christmas is a week away, we're leaving in 6 days. Do I have any Christmas presents ready?

No.

well unless you count the one store bought present I have.

Hopefully I get the Christmas cards done to

day and a good amount of work done on my moms quilt. I really need to figure out how I'm doing the back. (yes, I don't even have the back completed, thats how much I have to do)

lalalala. Happy Holidays!

isn't my angel pretty? my DH got it for me for our first Christmas we were married

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

2010-12-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks for Random.org I have a winner!

because technology hates me I can't show my random.org generator, but it's number 10! Deb

Deb says "....My favorite part of Christmas is family being together, and I absolutely love it when it snows on Christmas Day and we're inside by the fire playing a new game we just opened. :)

Her favorite color is also purple :-) I love being by a fire on Christmas morning as well and I also almost always get a white Christmas, fog that is. Being in California I've never had a snowy Christmas but its always cozy.

So Deb check your email, I'll need your snail mail info so I can get these in the mail asap so you'll get to use them in time for Christmas.

Thanks everyone for participating, I know I had fun and now I'm that much more in the mood for Christmas. Even if almost none of my gifts are finished...

an anniversary and a giveaway

2010-12-11T09:56:00.000-08:00

My Blog is a year old as of the 4th of this month. I blogged on that day and didn't even notice

So Hooray for actually sticking with this for a year!

Like I said I was getting brave and starting my Etsy sellers account. My reality is I just don't have the time right now. Not that I'm chickening out, it will just be my project for the new year.

So instead I will be doing my first giveaway.

The giveaway is for this set of 5 Christmas cards.

To enter leave me a comment, lets say you tell me your favorite thing about Christmas or your best Christmas memory.

This will be open until Tuesday December 14th because I like even numbers and I will pick the winner sometime that day.

Saturday Morning Coffee

2010-12-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

I miss blogging on a quasi regular basis, I really do.

Between my new job, and the start of the holiday's I just have zero time.

I am taking pictures though of all my Christmas presents I'm working on so eventually they'll be turned into blogs. It's probably better that I don't post any pictures till after as quite a few recipients of the presents read my blog.My goal is a mostly homemade Christmas. I think I will accomplish this goal.

Today I get my tree and get to co-teach a quilting class. I'm a little nervous, the actual teacher has family in town and wont be there and asked me and a friend if we would take over for today. it's a beginning quilting class and they're doing a 9 patch so I know I can do it, as always I'm letting fear get the better of me.

Ok now off to eat yummy pancakes and eggs my hubby cooked for me

Wish List Wednesday (wish fulfilled edition)

2010-12-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

My birthday is in Decemeber. However, ever since I started hosting Thanksgiving my in-laws give me my birthday present early when they come.

This year wasn't any different. Looky Looky what I got!

Kitchenaid 7 cup food processor!

I'm so excited, I can't wait to make pesto and hummus and this super yummy butternut squash ravioli recipe I've been drooling over. ah the possibilities are nearly endless

and a super thanks to my SIL Jmnstars for tipping off my father-in-law about Wish List Wednesday,she rocks!

sneak peak

2010-11-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

I'm finally biting the bullet and starting an etsy sellers account

Here's a few cards I'm making just in time for the holidays.

They're blank inside and perfect a Christmas card or for an invitation for your holiday party.

I'm having alot of fun making them and I'll have them up in the next few days

Thankful

2010-11-24T13:33:00.000-08:00

Last year and many people this year are doing this thing on facebook. everyday leading up to Thanksgiving they say one thing they are thankful for.

I participated last year and thought about doing so this year. There are far too many things I am truly truly thankful for and it didn't seem that I would be really doing them justice by doing it on facebook.

So I blog.

This time last year I was in my own little apartment with my husband preparing for Thanksgiving, the last in my Daly City apartment. I was 3 weeks from moving into my church.

You see, both my husband and I had lost our jobs and we couldn't afford to stay where you are. Our wonderful Pastor offered to let us stay there until we got back on our feet. So we did.

For 6 month's we lived there, were there for Christmas and Easter and it was quite the experience. A trial in faith that we mad it through.

So this year I am thankful for my home, my beautiful home with my own dining room and my own things. I am thankful for my kitchen. I am oh so very thankful for mine and my husbands wonderful full time jobs.

I know not to take anything for granted.

I am oh so very thankful for my God who brought my little family of two through all of this and provided when I didn't know how.

Thankful. such a small world that means oh so very much to me

Holiday season

2010-11-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

The holidays are upon us. My busyness got worse with the start of Choir practice, but I love this time of year. Busyness and all.

I did get a little R and R before the full swings of things starts with Thanksgiving next week (next week!). I had chance to go on a Women's retreat with my church. It was at this mansion turned hotel in San Jose and it was amazing(here's a link to the website). Relaxing and the speakers were great.

We had a free afternoon Friday and what did I do with it? nap? sit by the pool or swim? read a book? Nah! Like the good fabric addict I am I went to a quilt shop that only happened to be 15 minutes away. Prairie Queens quilt shop

I had first heard about it at PIQF, they were a vendor there. Oh my goodness though it was amazing. Such a huge variety of fabrics and designers. I went there on a mission and with a new quilter. She's part of the quilt class at church and wanted to get fabric for it. She found some beautiful batiks.

I also hit the jackpot for my mission. I needed to find border fabric and backing fabric for my moms coffee quilt I started two years ago at a quilt retreat. I found just what I needed. I'm wanting to finish it for Christmas and now I'm that much closer. Best part was they were having a sale and everything was 25% off. Oh how I wish that shop wasn't an hour away.

part of the quilt top I have done

The fabric. the red is flannel for the back, the wheat kinda fabric is for the inner border and the coffee fabric is for the outer boarder

All in all it was a great weekend and I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. I just need to get my act together on that front and get my apartment ready for a house guest that will be staying with us for a week and you know actual Thanksgiving.

Ramblings

2010-11-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

pretty flower I snagged from my neighbors bush and a pretty little green Egyptian recycled glass vase I found in Boston

Last week was busy,crazy busy. An activity almost every night after working 8-10 hours everyday busy.

It's getting to be that time of year. My favorite time of year to be precise. Combining normal holiday busyness with a new job is forcing me to get super organized. I'm learning that I currently cant trust my brain to remember to get everything done, so I write lists. I'm also completing my nifty home management binder that I first heard about here. I think it will be a very good tool indeed.

Starting this week though I don't feel like I'm at the deficit I've been running on going into the past couple of weeks.

I mostly know what I'm making people for Christmas, I just need to stay organized so I actually have time to get them done.