Here's my daughter with her two cousins - a blonde, redhead and brunette. The blonde one is my Lily. They are all wearing their "nerd glasses" after seeing Gnomeo and Juliet in 3D and a dinner at Red Robin.
Fast forward to Tuesday - I was laying out fabrics that I'm thinking about using for an upcoming class quilt, Route 44 (Nicole blogged about it a couple of days ago). DD came into my sewing room and I ask what she thinks of the fabrics on the right hand side that I am considering for the accent color to go with these vintage Amy Butler fabrics. She goes on to describe in thoughtful detail why she thinks the one on the bottom (my pick - a Kaffe Fassett shot cotton that does not show it's true beauty in this photo) was the best choice and what was wrong with the other 3 choices.
And folks, she was RIGHT ON. So unbelieveably insightful for a 10 year old that "hates" fabric! I believe I have a future quilter with a terrific eye for color on my hands!
Apparently Kylie asked my DH if she might have a minkee quilt of her own for her birthday at the end of September. Cousin Lily (my DD) said it had to be green, as that has always been Kylie's favorite color. So I dug through my stash and found some wonderful greens, added a few more from the shop where I work (I love the "toast frogs") and using another of Elizabeth Hartman's fabulous patterns, I made this 9-patch lattice quilt for Kylie. I have some white minkee for the back, and I think the birthday girl will love it!
I'm going to mail the quilt ahead of me so it won't take up room in my suitcase. How does a gal from Seattle pack for HOTlanta? Plus, I may need some extra room in my suitcase, as I've been promised a shopping trip to Little Quilts to spend my birthday gift certificate!
And now - I'm sure more than one of you is waiting anxiously to learn the winners of my blog contest. I want to thank each and every one of you for stopping by and wishing me a happy blog anniversary.
I used the Random Number Generator to select 3 names. The winners are:
2 Eva charm packs: #119 - Valerie - who posted at 8:17 a.m. on April 2
1 Lumiere de Noel layer cake: #30 - Norine - who posted at 8:30 a.m. on March 29
2 Rouenneries layer cakes: #84 - Amy - who posted at 6:06 a.m. on March 30
Congratulations, ladies. Will the 3 lucky winners please send your mailing addresses to me at 07fireball@clearwire.net? I will get your prizes out to you later this week. Thanks again to all of you for helping me celebrate!
Here we are, pre-plunge - that's me on the left and my friend and instigator behind us doing this stunt, Cecilia on the right.
And of course, the whole reason we did this - for the cute patch! What a fun and invigorating way to ring in the new year! We hope to make this an annual event!
Tis the season for a million errands - I finally had a free weekend and we took the kids to see Santa, baked cookies, finished most of the shopping and decorated. We bought a new refrigerator that will be delivered on Wednesday, so we won't put the main tree up until that happens or it will be in the way of the delivery men.
My Opening Day quilt using Roman Holiday fabrics is newly displayed in the living room because it is the closest thing I have to a Christmas quilt. I hope by the time next year rolls around, I will have completed more quilts that I can display during the holidays.
I've been working on cutting out a new Christmas quilt - Miss Rosie's Toulouse, made of the fabulous Maison de Noel line from 3 Sisters for Moda. Oh how I wish I had been a fabric hoarder back when these fabrics came out - I would have bought gobs more of this wonderful stuff!
This year, like most years, we are going to my oldest brother's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Every so often, our hosts have the audacity to make other plans for Thanksgiving, and I am left to my own devices for dinner. About 11 years ago, they went to visit relatives in California and so I hosted my very first Thanksgiving dinner. Having never done it before, I searched the Internet to find some interesting recipes.
I found this salad recipe on Allrecipes.com and it's definitely a keeper. I have made it for Thanksgiving, Christmas and potlucks in between, countless times since 1998. It's always a huge hit. It's official name is Winter Fruit Salad With Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing, but my family calls it "Lisa's Salad," and I would like to share the recipe with you.
I use only about half of the prepared dressing - the whole recipe is way too much for the salad. I hope you will try it and that you like it as much as my family does!
How about some cute kid pictures to distract you? My boys started 7th grade yesterday - MIDDLE SCHOOL! How did that happen? And my daughter started 4th grade - she is very excited to be at elementary school without her brothers, so now she has her own little kingdom!
So how about I distract you with pictures of my adorable daughter? She had her first basketball practice last night. She did very well for never having played before - about half the girls on the team haven't, so she is not alone, but she seemed to be having fun and even made a few baskets. If nothing else, she is the cutest player ever (not that Mom is biased or anything)!
We did finally get 2 quilts hung in our entryway before our Christmas party - they certainly add some fun color to the plain, white walls!
Best of all, the snow has finally melted and I can finally leave the house and get back into my regular routine. I went to work! I went to the chiropractor! Oh, the little things... I now hope that UPS will get to delivering their backlog of packages that got stuck in the distribution center because of our weather. I have a package from the Fat Quarter Shop that's been sitting there since December 22. Don't they know I want my fabric???
Sadly, the weather interfered with Marketplace and instead of having 2 days to pitch and sell their products, my boys only had one day due to snow closing school the last 3 days before winter break. They didn't sell as many as we had hoped, sadly. But they looked awfully cute while doing it. Here are my 2 boys (yes, they really are twins!) and you can see our handmade soaps hanging from the tree and on the table.
Looks like everyone I know will be getting soap for Christmas! VBG.
While we had a truly marvelous family Thanksgiving dinner, it was not at my house and I missed out on any leftovers. So Sunday morning I threw my Mexican Beef Stew in the crockpot and drove my family crazy with the amazing smell all day while I went to work at the quilt shop. But then I was able to come home to this delicious meal!
My MIL and I have talked for years about creating a family cookbook of all our favorite recipes. I have a pile of loose recipes and I'm constantly digging through them, searching for this one or that one. I went searching online and found several websites that help you create and publish your own cookbook, so I'm trying Tastebook to create a recipe book for my family and perhaps a couple more for gifts.
If you are interested in seeing my family recipes, comment here and I will send you a Tastebook invite. It's free to join and allows you to share recipes with friends and family. You can also order a published cookbook, but that's entirely up to you, no obligation! I hope you don't feel like I'm promoting this website - I really have no personal stake in it at all, I just thought it would be a fun thing to do and I would love to hear any of your family favorites - I am always on the lookout for yummy new foods to try!
