Friday, June 29, 2012

Look what my boys and I made today!

My boys have been asking for s'mores for a while. But we just can't ever seem to make it out back to build a bonfire (mostly because our bonfire pit is covered with a very large mound of hydrilla, but that's another story all together.)

They love chocolate covered anything. Most recently we did chocolate covered pretzel rods, which they really liked. And today, we did our s'mores. But not the traditional way...


We made s'mores pops! I recently bought a mini crock pot, one meant for keeping dips warm, so I could use it for dipping chocolate.

These were made with a bag of big marshmallows, half a bag of mini chocolate chips (or whatever kind of chocolate you like to use for dipping), three crushed graham crackers, and some mini pretzel sticks.

Stick the pretzel in the marshmallow, then dip in the chocolate, coat in cracker crumbs, and put it on a lined cookie sheet in the fridge to cool. Voila! The boys (all of them, even my husband) liked them a lot, and I'm sure we'll be making them again.

Anyone that's ever been to a renaissance faire knows that everything tastes better on a stick ;)



My entry into Inspire Me Monday, sponsored by Appliances Online and their best Washer Dryers.

Fabric Giveaway!

Ok, not my own. I just entered it myself. Anina over at That Quilt is giving away some rainbow fabric scraps from her rainbow Dear Jane. And I want them! But if I don't win, I'd love it if you do :) Follow the link below and enter!

http://twiddletails.blogspot.com/2012/06/anybody-out-there.html

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Dear Jane Block B-5

Dear Jane block B-5, Hot Cross Buns. 18 blocks done, 378 pieces of fabric so far. 207 more blocks to go!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Dear Jane block B-4

Here's Dear Jane block B-4, Chris' Soccer Field. I love paper piecing a little more every time I do it!

Dear Jane blocks B-2 and B-3

I did B-2 yesterday afternoon, but my computer was being uncooperative so I couldn't post! So here's my next two.

Block B-2, Sweet Tater Pie. I very much dislike how it came out. I've already mentioned how much I stink at hand stitching, so this is appliqued (very poorly due to not enough heat n bond...bad choice!) I WILL be redoing it. As of yesterday, I was going to wait till I had learned how to do hand applique, but after doing block B-3, I've changed my mind and now know what I'll do.

And Block B-3, Mirror Image. I will be redoing block B-2 with pieced curves because this one turned out so much better. I like this one as much as I dislike the last one!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Dear Jane block B-1

Started Row B today! This is block B-1, Bachelor Buttons. I tried it with the freezer paper and the reverse applique, by hand. Twice actually. I am just NOT good at that. So here's my B-1 with plain old heat-n-bond applique, with a blanket stitch to hold it down.

I do love my plaid though!

Monday, June 25, 2012

The rest of Dear Jane Row A!

I haven't posted a block in a little bit, so I'm catching up. I completed Row A this morning! :D
Block A-8. This was my first successful attempt at paper piecing. I discovered thatquilt.blogspot.com and started following the tutorials on that site. It's really great if you're doing a Dear Jane yourself!
Block A-9. More paper piecing. I think I love it a little.


A-10. Not my favorite block. I'm not great at any kind of hand stitching, so I had to do this reverse applique with my machine. Kind of weird looking, but I don't hate it enough to do it again ;)

A-11. More paper piecing, and more of this crazy hand applique. I was trying to do the inset Y-seams but I couldn't get it to turn enough to be able to stitch it down that way. So more "applique" by machine. Hoping it's not too obvious when the whole quilt is done!
A-12. A little off but not too bad.
A-13. The tutorial I was following showed this one being appliqued all around the main star part, but I managed it all by machine. The seams weren't as hard to turn this time. And it's one of my favorites so far!
And that's the end of Row A!

Friday, June 15, 2012

My 6 Week rotating dinner menu!

I know this is completely unrelated to quilting (unless you consider that doing this might give me some peace of mind and more time to quilt LOL). But I wanted to share anyway.

I have done this before, a few years ago, but I only had 3 weeks worth of meals at the time. I guess we've tried some new things since then because I now have 6 weeks worth of meals that I make and my family likes. And we tend to not like having the same thing too often. So I decided to put together a rotating calendar with all the meals my family likes, and this way we will not have the same thing for dinner more often than once every six weeks. AND it'll make it easier to do the grocery shopping, and to get things out to thaw.

Each meal is written on 3M Post-It tape, which resembles masking tape but the adhesive is the light stuff on the back of a sticky note. That way I can rearrange or replace meals if necessary, without having to use white out, or completely start the calendar over (since it's just written on paper in markers). I also have a little piece of this movable tape marking which week we're in on the left side of the calendar!


Next thing I need to do is do a weekly starter shopping list, that will have all the items I need for each week of dinners. I can then add the other non-dinner items, or scratch out the stuff I already have in the house. That way I won't forget anything!

And guess what?? Someone liked my idea enough to feature it on her blog! Thanks for the boost! Be sure to head over and check it out :)
Unveil Your Genius Link Party #16
 
 
UPDATE: I'm now in week 6 of my calendar. I'm discovering that I need to do some rearranging! I had originally put the more time consuming meals on the weekends because I was still in the mindset of a working mom. But now that I'm home during the day, and we're doing family stuff on the weekends, I need to reverse that mentality. So after this week is over, I'll be moving some things around.
 
I have also updated the location of this calendar, it's on my refrigerator door instead of on the side of the cabinet next to it. Since it's on the door now, I can use a circle magnet to circle what's for dinner that day, and my son likes to be the one to move it to the next day. He seems to like that he can just look at the fridge and know what to expect that night!

Friday, June 8, 2012

Woo hoo!

I am no longer a full-time engineer! As of yesterday, I'm out of the working world, and will be staying home full-time with my boys. This will finally give me time to get some things done (like maybe some laundry and dishes!) so we can enjoy our weekends as a family for a change. I'm very excited, and thought I'd share!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Dear Jane Block A-7

This is Dear Jane block A-7, Dad's Plaids. It's the trickiest one so far, I'd never done curves so I had a little trouble. I think it came out ok though. Far from perfect, but better than expected!


Dear Jane Block A-6

This is Dear Jane block A-6, Uncle Homer.


Dear Jane Block A-5

This is Dear Jane block A-5, Cathie's Campfire.


Dear Jane Block A-4

This is Dear Jane Block A-4, Courtney's Stethoscope.




Monday, June 4, 2012

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Dear Jane Block A-2

Here's my Dear Jane block A-2. This one's called "One - Two Buckle My Shoe".




Dear Jane Block A-1

For some crazy reason, yesterday I sat down and started a Dear Jane quilt. If you haven't heard of it, check it out here, and pick up a copy if you're interested in doing one of your own! In short, it's 225 tiny blocks brought together into one GIANT sampler quilt. I'm doing mine in an Around the World color scheme, using the color wheel I use for picking out colors for my pinwheel swap to get the colors right. The first block took me about an hour! I decided to start going in order, but I'm sure I'll skip some here and there (especially considering I don't have enough blue-violet fabrics to do all of those blocks).

So here's Block A-1! It's called "Pinwheel Gone Awry".