Jan 31, 2011

Nikon You are my frienemy.

I really wish I knew how to use my camera better. Maybe Nikon should come out with a genius bar like apple, so you can make an appointment at your local Nikon store to go learn how to use your device. I would pay for that service.

In the every user mode? Nt sure what it is called

in the every user mode with a flash.

more advanced mode

more advanced mode with the flash. Love the color of them here.
Instead I'm going to bore you with pictures I took of my afternoon snack. Yes, those are olives. Yes, olives are a snack to me. I probably should be sewing since I am sitting at my machine but my ADD struck.

Jan 30, 2011

Mexican Lasagna


I was looking for things to make for dinner the other day and other people from work were gathered around my desk. As I spoke out the name everyone went that is so yummy. I thought to myself surely that can't be that good, but It was so much better than I thought it would be so I'm sharing.

I didn't follow the recipe but used the same ingredients.

3 chicken breasts
1 can rotell. I used mild
1 can diced tomatoes
1 onion cut up. I cut in rings again cause I'm lazy and so my hubby could easily pick them out
2 green peppers cut up. I did strips
1 can diced green chilies
 1/2 cup water.
1 box lasagna noodles. I like bertolli flat no cook ones. Use what u gt. Follow directions on box as to cook or not first. I used the water above for extra liquid since I use the no cook first noodles.
1 package shredded cheese. On hand I had Colby Jack so that's what I used

Cause I'm lazy I put everything but the noodles and cheese in to the crock pot and cooked on high for 5 hours. When it's done I use 2 forks and shred up the chicken.

Pre heat oven to 350

Get a 9 x 11 baking dish and spray the pan with non stick spray put some of you mixture in the bottom
but just a little. Then put your fist layer of noodles. Add more mixture then add the cheese. repeat till you have n meat mixture left. If you cooked your noodles first then all you have to do is put in over till it's hot and cheese is melted. If you used no cook noodles. cover with foil and place in oven for 45 Min's, take foil off and bake for another 15 minutes.

Top with whatever you want. We ate it plain.

Jan 29, 2011

With apprehension in my heart

My baby brother is leaving for war.

The Army sees a man.
I see a boy.
The Army sees a man who can fight
I see a boy who likes to play dinosaurs.
The Army sees a man who can fight for his country
I see a boy who likes to play dinosaurs and not share with others.
The Army sees a man who can fight for his country and protect other peoples freedom.
picture from behind cause he'd be mad at a face picture.

And I see my brother as a eight year old boy who cried when he fell down and scuffed his knees, I see my brother who use to play on the "wings" of the house and pretend he was Godzilla. I see my brother who doesn't think things trough and climbs trees to high and breaks both feet. I see my brother who use to be a dork and wear his socks pulled up his knees.

Be safe baby brother.
I love you and I hope you come home safe and sound!

Jan 27, 2011

Baby quilt anyone?

Last night I started a new bible study and as I was sitting there waiting for the ladies to arrive, one woman walked in and I heard God's voice saying to me make her a quilt. I was like why God? Well off comes her coat and she's pregnant. So I guess I got some work to do. I won't go back until next Wednesday and I'm not sure what she is having? What are good colors to use for a baby when your not sure what the sex will be? I suppose I could ask her but I want it to be a surprise.


Who knows...maybe If I do a little of what God wants he can throw me a bone and get spring in here a little early. I can't wait to see this picture again in real life. I'm missing sitting on my patio with good friends and a beautiful blooming magnolia above.

Jan 26, 2011

Mug Rug Swap and WIP 2

I signed up for a mug rug swap at Quilting Gallery. We are to make our partner two mug rugs. I've been stalking my partner. She didn't specify any certain colors or fabrics she like so I took to liberty to go off what she had on her blog. It seems to be safe to assume she likes bright colors. I was thinking that with these mug rugs I would try out some stuff that I want to do but not sure if I have the time commitment to make large quilts at this time. I was thinking of making double hour glasses with these 2 fabrics. Do you think white will be an OK pairing with them or should I go with a different color? Or do these two fabrics even go together?


The second one I was thinking of maybe those mini HST with gray as the solid color. I'm not sold on the use of the batiks. I also like the look of the mug rugs that use the Dresdens like tumblers. It would be fun and easy with lots of potential with the colors. I could even stick with the batiks. Any thoughts?

Wow! I am so disappointed with what the camera does to the colors of fabric. That's what I get for having such and expensive camera that I don't know how to use.

Jan 23, 2011

Sunday Dresser Story

The color doesn't do it justice. It's really not a baby blue but maybe a robins egg blue tealish color.

I did it. I said I would have something done by a certain day and I actually got it done before that date. Well minus one side but I have a very good reason for that. The paint I was using was really stinky and I wasn't feeling good to begin with. See that trim around the side. That's all I have left to finish. So last Sunday I woke up feeling so sick to my tummy. I laid around watching TV and then the feeling kinda went away and I saw the paint and thought why not. Well the why not turned out to be I forgot how bad this paint smelled and how slow it dried. I had pulled out all the fabric and so while the large drawer dried in the hallway for THREE DAYS the small drawers held the fabric in heaping piles that were about to topple over any minute. Not to mention the tripping hazard they were creating. I surely didn't think this over well. Finally the drawer was dry and the dresser was dry enough for all the drawers to go back into it. So it's over, well until this summer when it's going to get a second coat only this time it will be done in a ventilated area and not in the middle of winter.

Socks 2, Me 0

Socks by Betsey Johnson. Swollen feet  by bloody marys and spicy olives.
Lets set the scene. Two weeks ago i start the washer with a small load of misfit items that missed the major loads. I got after a reasonable amount of time and the washer is still full of water. Hubster comes home from work. Can't figure it out so he takes all clothes out of washer and shop vacs all water out to do his thing. 2 days later I'm leaving work and I get a voicemail.


Cody: Hey I wanted to let you know I fixed the washer. Ummmm your SOCK went through it and clogged up the pump.
Me: bahahahahha. Thank God I don't have to buy a new washer.


Then today, I go to vacuum our bedroom and it's not doing anything. I mean the noise is going on but the cup is not spinning and anything I suck over the dusty stuff is comig out the front of the vacuum.


Me: Babe can you come here
Cody:  OK
Me: The vacuum is broke.
Cody: Again? Really you need to stop breaking it!
Me: OK OK OK.
~so as he turns it over and checks the part where the stuff goes into the vacuum, because I am notorious for vacuuming up bobby pins. There is a freaking SOCK in the roller thing. I'm not even kidding the only thing we can do is start laughing hilariously cause where do the SOCKS keep coming  from!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jan 22, 2011

Well the inspiration hit.



I love Jason Aldean and as I was pressing those strips I showed last night I heard he was going to be at Verizon (Deer Creek) this spring. What is Verizon? It's an outdoor amplitheaher thing. We live like 6 miles from there and go to a couple shows a season. We normally sit in the lawn cause it's more comfortable for my hubby. You bring in a blanket and pick a spot and settle in. We never have anything to use when we go cause all our blankets that no one cared about went to the our dog when we got her.

So I was going through totes that we keep in our closet and I found all this fabric I bought at Walmart(GASP) like a million years ago before I ever had sewn 2 pieces of fabric together. After I realized the difference this stuff as put up and as seen the light of day one time when my daughter needed a sit-upon for girl scouts and didn't want what was offered at her meeting. I thought what the heck. I've never done anything where I have never measured before so I just started cutting. I have 3 bocks done so far and will probably make 5 more. That sound make a nice size quilt for two or three people to sit on. Best part is this stuff came from walmart so who cares if it gets dirty. This will also be nice when we have grand kid picnics at my Momma's this summer too



I'm kind curious to see what it's going to look like when it's all said and done.

Jan 21, 2011

It's a start.



Happy Friday. I made it through the work week not that it was hard I really love my job. Home life this week was full of fun drama, So I was really looking forward to a night alone in my nook. I made the fam dinner and fixed me a beverage. (tomato juice...Why am I CRAVING tomato juice?) I wasn't in the mood to work on anything I have already started on so I...

Strip pieced forty-eight 2x22 in strips. One colored piece of fabric to one white piece. Well I had to cut them out first. but the picture is only of 28 cause I thought to take a picture after I had started pressing.  Then I pressed them open and cut then in to 2in segments. Again the below picture is of 20 because I kinda got bored and decided to stop to take pictures and a blog post. Ummmmmm can you say ADHD anyone?

WOW! That white is bright in the flash.

So then I cut 256 half square triangles. I'm not really sure how big of a square they would be cause I used my new Fons and Porter triangle ruler. So easy. I used three and a half inches
3.5 in HSQ
Then I cut out 128 two inch half square triangles. Again using that ruler.
2in HSQ

 I then cut out 128  2x3.5 rectangles.

What am I attempting to make? The quilt called Scrap Happy from the August edition of Love of Quilting. I'm not feeling the confidence to make anything of my own so I had a TON of scraps on hand and thought what they heck. Hope your having fun with your Friday night sewing. Hope you have a wonderful weekend?

Jan 19, 2011

Wip Wednesday 1




Ladies I need your help for my sanity and for the sake of my growing as a quilter.What erks me so badly about this quilting thing is I cut all this fabric up. Then I sew it together. I make sure I have a quarter inch seam. I bought a special foot just for this. I square my blocks up too. I sew all blocks into strips still using my special foot and then WHAM I go to sew my strips together and maybe only four blocks match up and then there anywhere from an 1/8 to and actually inch off. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? I need some tips.

Jan 17, 2011

Amazing lotion!

I love lotions. Who doesn't? You feel so soft and silky, your skin looks better after you use it. I paticuliarly love how my hands don't look so dry in the winter. Well this past year I got a little crazy and bought so much lotion form bath and body works. I somehow kept getting ten dollar off coupons and then I would get free product coupons and so now a whole shelf is stuffed full. Well this morning I was sewing and looked down and my hand were gross. They were dry and scratchy and I just couldn't take it. I go to the bathroom to find the aquaphor and just next to that was a travel size of Bath and Body's tahiti sweetie. It is lovely. It just smells so sweet and clean. Then the magic struck! Why not mix the tahiti sweetie with the aquaphor so u have the heavy creamylotion that soaks in but it smells so good. It also worked better than any plain lotion or body butter.

Jan 16, 2011

Friday Night Sew-Ins

Many weeks I leave work on Fridays and come home, make dinner and the fam and I just sit around and watch movies or just do nothing really. Since we have a younger one who isn't yet always on the go we are home Friday nights.  So I have decided tho start working on some of these UFO's I have. This past year I have been motivated to start some of these projects that I have wanted to do but I'm real good at getting the tops done and then they sit around until I feel the need to work on them again. In the mean time I'm starting another top so it's a constant backlog of getting tops done but not much actual finishing.  I'm going to blame this on not a lot of floor space to baste. Since it seems if your held accoutable you may get more things done I have decided to sign up for the Friday Night Sew-In. It's being held by Handmade by Heidi. I really like her blog and her creativity and I'm really excited to do this. Now I just have to figure out how to sign up for real. I'm so blogger dumb.

Jan 15, 2011

What I'm going to finsh this week.

I keep the bulk of my fabric in a dresser. Not a big dresser, it's relatively small, it has one large drawer and two smaller drawers. It's from the era of when my momma was a child. It's painted a cream but it had spent some time in a basement. It serves it's function but man is it ugly. It had those old brass flower drawer pulls. and the color well I hate it. Since my house it's very old and our room is what use to be the attic we don't have much height space so this dresser along with it being my fabric safe keeper also holds my hubs TV. So it is in our room and well it just doesn't make me feel serenity when I walk in here. Neither does the TV but in order to move that baby out the hubby would have to go too and I'm just not up for that. ;) I went to Lowes. Who doesn't love Lowes? I was looking at their OOPS paint and found a baby blue one. It was three dollars!!!!! Walked my happy feet over to the drawer pulls and found me six that I liked  and came straight home to paint this dresser. I just happened to be home alone that day and I realized  couldn't move the monster of the TV off the dresser. I was just going to have to be happy with painting the drawers. I got two done and waited for them to dry and I haven't come back to finish it yet. That was like three months ago. Ummm procrastination anyone? I think you have may just meet their queen. That's right it's me. I so solemnly vow to finish this dresser up by next Sunday.  This is what it looks like and I have the small drawers done. Consider this the sneak peak.

Well maybe except for the top cause that TV really is a beast. I think I know that a woman must have come up with the idea for flat panels. It's a marriage compromise. He can have a beastly TV and she can move it while he's a work and not have to hire 2 men and a truck to do it. ;) Maybe we should head over to best buy and get one of those while were at it.

Jan 14, 2011

What I did instead.

I know I had said I was going to work on my hourglass blocks but instead I met my husband at best buy. I'm such a rocker outer that I blew the front speaker in my car and since the other front on had to work so hard It's about to go also. It seems so rare that we are able to go do stuff on a weekday together that it was really nice. We went to the mall after that so I could be the first one to pre-order the IPhone. I'm going to camp out at the Verizon store....ahahahahaha just kidding or am I? Not only do I rock out in my car but I have abused the crust out of my phone so it was time to take advantage of my insurance. So we go only to find out you have to do it at home. So this is when my moment of weakness hit. I had stuck my hobo package in my car so I could get my free FQ. This is what happened......
                                                       A little bit of Hope Valley.......
                                Some Kona Aqua and a bit of Suess fabric for the Suess quilt.....
                                                                Wee Play anyone?

Maybe some Amy Butler. In my defense I know I have the stuff on the bottom but this time this is not for me.

                    Last but not least some more Prairie Paisley. I really love the reds and blues in this line. I got a couple FQ's too but they are in a different pile and my lazy rear end doesn't want to go get them.
                                                           HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

Jan 13, 2011

I have been having the best time with these.

I know I said before I didn't really like this fabric. I take it back, it's really starting to grow on me.
I have half of my hour glass blocks done and only 40 more to go. Then I can start to sew them all together, I was going to work on them after church. But my mom wanted to do a family dinner so I packed it all up and away we went. Well I got there and nothing was going right. First I was going to have to use the counter and the cord wasn't long enough for the foot thing to touch the ground, besides I'm not even use to a foot thing anymore cause my new one has button starting. LOVE IT! So I figure out what I'm going to do and then I go to start sewing remembering Grandma had said make sure you hold the strings or it will mess up and so I do that and it still jams up. At this point I.m getting very frustrated cause I also have all my bothers and their ladies there, along with additional children and lets just say it was not the peaceful room I have at home where it's just me and the dog and on occasionaly the cat. I just knew I wouldn't be happy so I packed it all back up and went and enjoyed my family.
.I will be geting these finished today after my doctors appt. though.....hopefully.

Jan 12, 2011

Finally...

Opening my honey bun of Arcadia!!!!!!!!!!
I love it, love it, love it!!!!!
I came around in the game a little late and got a good deal on it. So from that day I have just admired and it has sat on the shelf cause I really wanted to rip it open right away but I waited and finally decided to make a stripey quilt for me, myself and I (hopefully it will be mine cause a certain someone keeps eyeing it)
Since it's only a honey bun I'll have to have a large strip of that Robert Kaufman bone fabric on each side of the colored strips to make it a bit bigger but I'm so excited. I have 20 strips done and 20 more to do tomorrow before I get my final layout so I can trim the edges and start sewing all the strips together. Hey sounds like a project I could do if I sign up for my LQS quilt in at the end of the month.
What do you think?