i have to say...

more food

What can I say?  It's just that time of the year!

I made california mix yesterday. I love this stuff!

It's so quick and simple.  Only a few jars are made at a time, and they are kept in the fridge for a little while.  No need for boiling water baths.

There is some actual sewing going on these days and I hope to show you some of it next week.  With school starting on Tuesday I find that my time is a bit limited, but I am determined to do some crafting. 

It's relaxing!

Have a lovely day!

tons of tamales

My daughter came down this past weekend for a tamale-making fest! We made approximately 10 dozen; half were pork, and the other half were potato and black bean.  We used this wonderful recipe.  They are now snuggly resting in the freezer for quick, yummy dinners.

Tamales are time-consuming, but they are oh-so-good!  They are great served with salsa and sour cream.  Guacamole would be great too!

The recipe is detailed and contains plenty of pictures to demonstrate the steps.  I highly recommend you try it if tamales sound good to you. 

You won't be disappointed.

***For one batch I used all pork (no chicken like the recipe shows) and one batch was a mix of boiled potatoes with black beans.  Both batches have the spice mix shown in the recipe.

 

something fun

Kristie is hosting Bag Lady Week on her blog starting today! 

She is always inspirational and so creative, so I am looking forward to finding out what's in store.

Today's tutorial is for Roll-Up Market Bags, and they are simple and fun.  A perfect way to use up some of your fabric scraps!

Have a great day!

shop notes: secret garden

It's here!

The full Secret Garden line is in!

I have yardage and bundles available in each colorway: Midnight, Sunset and Tea Time Garden.

This one is so very cute. I hope to be able to get busy cutting out a quilt for my daughter with it.  Modern Crosses will be my design.

Hope to have some progress to show soon!

Have a lovely weekend!

guess what i did yesterday?

I made 75 jars of pickles. 

With a whole lot of help from my friends. 

There were 4 of us, 3 boxes of cucumbers, 3 gallons of vinegar, bunches of garlic and peppers, and a giant bundle of dill. 

Once we found the momentum, things progressed quickly.

We split them up and now we wait for them to get tasty.

2 months!

In reality, we will open one today, just to check.

And it's gonna be oh-so-good!

***Here is my recipe in case you are interested.  I don't water-bath my jars.  I simply put everything in the jar and then place it in the fridge.  This keeps the pickles crisp.  They keep for one full year.

links i like

  ***Kate @ Swim, Bike Quilt is hosting 100 Quilts for Kids!  She is getting people together make quilts for kids, and then donate them in their own communities, the organization of their choice.  Sounds good to me!

***Maybe Matilda has a great tutorial for a lined-paper t-shirt.  This is a cute back to school craft for teens.

***Cosmo Cricket has a cute Sweet Cupcakes Tutorial.  They are fat-free!

***I love Penny's Fairytake Sailboats baby quilt.  As always, she is so creative!

***Free (and cute!) back-to-school calendar.

Have a great day!

a bit more ruffle than i am used to

This is mostly because I don't do ruffles. 

It's not that I don't like ruffles, it's just that I feel like a cupcake in them.

I decided to keep this ruffle on my apron since it's small and it lines the bottom of the apron, not the top near my face.

It looks nice.

I do think, however, that for my upcoming apron class we will skip the ruffle step, only because I will be trying to get everyone done with their aprons in about 3 hours.

Ruffles also don't make it to the list of "quick" things to do.

Poor ruffles.

I think I give them a bad rap.

i am on cloud 9!

Because my girl is going to be on Cloud 9!

I managed to buy some Taylor Swift tickets for a previously sold-out concert.  My girl is a huge fan.  She even blushes a bit when Taylor comes on the radio. I  think she loves the sweet-romantic feel of her songs.  Plus she thinks Taylor is just wonderful.

This is seriously great!  I had to let her down carefully a couple of months ago when I first heard of the concert and tried to buy tickets, only to find out that they had sold out really fast.

I never thought I would be so happy to be going to see Taylor Swift.

It happens next month, and my girl is going to be crazed with anticipation.  Because of that I am going to wait a while to tell her.  She is a bit impatient,  my girl.

I think she gets that from me!

i intend to be crafty

In about a month a group of friends and I are getting together to make kitchen aprons. We will be using Jamie Christina's adorable Pretty Ditty Apron.  I thought that making mine first will be a good idea so that I can work out the kinks and make sure it's do-able.

It took me FOREVER to pick out the fabrics that I want to use.  Not sure why, but it just wasn't coming together. I have been dying to use some Heirloom prints, but it still took me a long time to figure out which ones.   I think I am set on the pile in the picture.  Don't be surprised if I change my mind though.  There are other combinations that I love too!

This weekend I will be attending the Front Range Modern Quilt Guild "Meet and Sew" and I hope to work on it there.  I figure it's OK to work on an apron at a quilting meeting, right?

Hopefully I will have something to show for my efforts next week.

What about you?  What are you working on?

 

 

life is good

Life just takes over sometimes doesn't it?  There is no time for the usual schedule, but rather running to this and then this and then this.  We have had such fun, but I am glad to be back to my normal.

(Can you see my son climbing the rock above?)

Both of my girls are situated in their new homes.  Both are within 3 hours of me. 

Yeah!

This is the way I like things.

It gives me lots of opportunity to bug them on a regular basis.

While Emily was here, she took us on a wonderful hike to "The Temple".  It was a huge rock face with a giant circle open in the middle.  We had to do a bit of rock-climbing, but we all made it up, except for Seamus the dog who stayed at the bottom and whined.  The only drawback was the 100 degree weather that almost knocked me out.  This will be a great hike to take in the fall.

My oldest daughter Danika has started her first week of vet school.  It's so fun to see her living the dream she has wanted to pursue since she was 5 years old.  My girl is gonna be a vet.  And I am feeling proud.  And I want to encourage all of you homeschoolers out there---you can do it! And your kids can get into college and be successful and pursue their dreams.

And most importantly, you can tuck away all of the wonderful moments that you spend with them over their school years and save them for a rainy day when you want to remind yourself that life is good.

Life is good, indeed.