Trying new crafts

I tried my hand at some Christmas postcards. I've not done postcards before, and enjoyed the process, but found it a little more time consuming than I thought it would be! Brayden and I worked together on the "fancy stitches" Christmas ornaments, and came out nicer than anticipated (don't you love when that happens?). I'm using them for name tags (below) as well as Christmas ornaments for the tree. In both projects I used a product called "Stiffy" that I found at the Long Creek Mills web site. It's far less expensive than TimTex or Fast2Fuse, at $1.79 a yard vs $15 and $5 a yard (on sale it's $1.29 a yard! even better!) It has a nice firmness to it that was perfect for both projects, yet it's thin and lightweight so it doesn't add bulk to the postcards. Sorry about the dates on the photos -- I changed my camera battery last night!!

Who's that shady character?

I mentioned in a previous post that I won a blog giveaway a few weeks ago, and the "My First Shades" sunglasses for Brayden arrived in the mail. My daughter took one look at them and said, "You are never going to get him to wear those." Oh contraire. A grandmother's powers are magical. My conversation with Brayden went like this. Me: I have a present for you. B: What is it (pronounced Whad eez it?) Me: Well, you know how we got you a helmet to wear when you ride your bike (aka tricycle) because you ride so fast? B: Uh-huh. Me: Well look at this. A friend of mine sent you some very special sunglasses -- just like the race car drivers wear! I bet Kevin Harvick has a pair just like this. B: (Face lighting up.) (Interested look.) Me: Would you like to try them on? B: Yes. Me: OK, but you know my job is to keep you safe, so when you put them on and ride your bike, you have to promise not to go TOO fast, OK? B: Can I go fast as a race car? Me: Yes, but no faster -- deal? B: Can I go fast as Kevin Harvick? Me: Yes, but no faster -- deal? B: Deal! Result? He wore them for about two hours -- IN the house because it was too cold to go out and ride his bike. (By the way, if you want to see how fast he rides his tricycle, you can see a quick little video on Brayden's blog). Besides the fact that Brayden will actually WEAR these sunglasses, there are several things that I really like about them. First, is the soft adjustable strap. Once you adjust that strap, the glasses fit perfectly. Tight enough to stay on, not so tight they pinch or press on the eye area. Secondly, again because of the strap, they don't fall off -- not even with jumps, twirls, or spinning like a whirling dervish. Trust me on that one. Of course, I like the fact they offer those precious little eyes 100% UVB and UVA protection. You can certainly buy less expensive sunglasses, but having cheap dark glasses on the child doesn't mean their eyes are getting the protection they need. The frames and the lenses are shatterproof and impact resistant. That, combined with that great flexible strap, means these glasses are going to last far longer than the standard sunglasses. How many times have you seen a child pull off sunglasses by the frame stem or grab the glasses by the ear stems and bend them as wide as they will go -- only to have them snap where the ear stem meets the eye frame? That's not going to happen with these glasses! I'm loving them! Honestly, I normally would not have considered paying this much for sunglasses, because I know from past experiences how quickly children break sunglasses. But when I think of how many $3 sunglasses my children went through in less than a day, these sunglasses are actually a real bargain! Although you can be sure I'll report back if anything different happens, I believe these sunglasses will last as long as they fit Mr. Brayden's head! Oh, and the glasses come in a great range of "cool" colors for boys and girls. Now the second best thing about these sunglasses... was the package they came in. Brayden loved the little vinyl bag with a neck drawstring. He immediately asked for money (amazing how early they learn that!), and put change in the little pouch. How much money is in there? "Sixty dollars!" is always his answer! Big thanks to My First Shades (the manufacturer of the glasses) and My Precious Peas blog for offering this great giveaway!

Two good hearty winter recipes

I'm a "little of this, little of that" kind of cook, and the joke around our house is "Wow, I really liked that dinner -- too bad we'll never have it again!" because I never seem to make the same thing the same way twice. Lately I've been trying to write down recipes when we have a meal that gets raves -- just to show them we actually CAN have the same meal twice! So here are two recipes I came up with this week that got raves. HEARTY CROCKPOT LENTIL SOUP 1 ham hock 1 lb bag dried lentils 1 cup chopped onions 1 cup chopped celery 1 cup chopped carrots 6 cups beef broth (can make it with beef bouillion) 1 can 14 oz tomato sauce 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste) 1 tsp black pepper ( or to taste -- I like black pepper!) 1 tsp oregano 1 can creamed corn Wash and sort dried lentils according to package. Put all ingredients except creamed corn in crockpot, stir slightly, cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours. Add water if lentils absorb too much liquid. Remove ham hock. Use potato masher to mash up some of the lentils (not all, because you still want some texture, but some as it will thicken the soup). Remove bits of ham meat from cooled ham hock and return to soup. Add creamed corn, stir and reheat on high for 15 minutes. (If you happen to have any ham diced up in your freezer like I often do, throw in a cup of diced ham about half way through the cooking time, or at the end when you add the corn.) I had accidently opened the can of creamed corn the night before, so threw it into the pot at the last minute just to use it up -- and it added a great flavor and a bit of creamy texture to the soup. Really was good! Serve with buttered corn bread or hearty pumpernickle bread. Leftover Turkey Faux Pot Pie 2-3 cups leftover cooked turkey 1 cup frozen peas 1 cup boiled onions (OR 1 cup frozen pearl onions OR 1 half cup chopped onions) 1 can whole potatoes, cut into bite size pieces 3-4 cups turkey broth 1 can cream of onion soup 1 tsp Poultry Seasoning (or Sage) Salt, pepper to taste 1 tube of Pillsbury Biscuits 2 tablespoons corn starch 1/2 cup cold water Place turkey broth in pan and bring to an almost-boil, add Cream of Onion soup and stir until sauce is smooth. Mix corn starch and cold water thoroughly, then pour into sauce mixture. Stir on medium high heat until thickened to good gravy consistency. Add salt, pepper and Poultry Seasoning. Add boiled onions (or frozen pearl onions) Remove from heat. In Pam-sprayed casserole dish, place turkey, frozen peas and sliced potatoes. Gently pour gravy / onion mixture over. Open tube of biscuits and split each biscuit in half (side to side) so you get two biscuit circles from each biscuit. Place biscuits around the top of the gravy mixture, overlapping biscuits slightly. Bake in 375 oven until biscuits are nicely browned -- about 15 to 20 minutes.

What Would June Cleaver Do?

So you sat down at the computer at 8:00 AM right after your husband left for work this morning, and thought you'd read a few blogs, write a bit on your own - you know - catch up. You sip your coffee, get up and make a sandwich, knowing full well in just a minute you'll get up from the computer and get going on your housework and things you need to get done that day. You casually look up at the clock and GASP! it's 4:45! Your husband is due home from work in 15 minutes! He's going to see the messy house, the unmade bed, the piles on the counter, the dirty laundry and ohmygawd, he's going to know -- he's going to know you did nothing all day - he's going to think you're addicted to the computer -- he's going to think you're (gasp!) a terrible housewife! Oh, he might not say it -- but you know he's going to think it. You can practically hear the gavel of the Divorce Court judge banging on the desk! What would June Cleaver do? Nothing -- June Cleaver had a full time housekeeper. But that's OK - Relaaaxxxxx... piece 'o cake. I'm here to rescue you. Here's the blogging housewife's fast method of doing housework. 1. Calmly let go of your mouse -- flex your fingers a few times to get feeling back in them. 2. R-U-N (not walk - RUN) up the stairs to your master bedroom. Throw all bed pillows on the floor, yank up the sheets, yank up the blanket, yank up the quilt, smooth them all down, put the pillows back on. 3. Grab a laundry basket, run to the hamper (you're not walking are you?!), pull out one small load of clothes (enough so the hamper shuts). Put the basket by the door. 4. Go to your master bathroom, grab the wet washcloth, wipe down the sink surround. Then lift the toilet seat and give that a wipe. We're talking fast here - one swish - it gets what it gets. 5. Bringing the washcloth with you (ewwwwww - did you think I was going to leave it in the bathroom to be used again?), return to the laundry basket, bring it to the laundry. Put last week's half-wet wash in the dryer with two dryer sheets (maybe that musty smell will go away), turn on the dryer. Put the new load your brought downstairs in the washer and turn it on. Water temp, load size, detergent -- none of that matters -- you just want the washer and dryer going when your husband walks in the door. 5a. If you're real lucky today (and you could use some today!), there will be a load of dry clothes in the dryer that should have been folded three days ago. Grab an armload of the dry cloths and place them on the family room (or whatever room he watches TV in) couch. When the laundry basket is empty from step 5, put these clothes in the laundry basket -- and return it to the couch. 6. Go to your kitchen. Fill up your sink with about 2 inches of hot water. Dump in some lysol or equally strong smelling cleaner. Grab your kitchen dishrag and wipe down open spots on the counter and stove top. 7. Dirty dishes fast into the dishwasher if you can. Doesn't matter if there's clean dishes in there, they won't shrink if you wash them again. If you can't fit it all in, go for storage under the sink. Men never look under the sink. 8. Run into the family room, plump the cushions, grab whatever is obviously out of place and put it somewhere... cabinets are good, drawers are good, a broom closet works in a pinch. Put the remote control next to "his chair". 9. Back to the kitchen. Grab cans of food, a bag of flour, eggs and some kind of meat out of the refrigerator. Put it on the counter where you normally prepare food. It doesn't matter if that's what you're going to make for dinner -- it will look like you've got dinner thought out and ready to start cooking. 10. If you've yet to hear the car pull into the driveway, put on a pot of coffee. Put two store bought Chocolate Chip cookies on a plate and nuke them for 10 seconds as soon as you hear that car. Place them next to the coffee -- with a paper napkin. Still time left? 11. Grab a hairbrush and brush. So what have we accomplished in under 15 minutes?

• The house smells like you've been cleaning all day long (Lysol in the kitchen sink).
• The house smells like you've been baking (microwaved cookies).
• Your bathroom is sparkling clean (he doesn't see pee on the seat, and his coffee cup marks are gone from the sink).
• You have obviously done at least three loads of laundry -- one on the couch to fold, one in the dryer, one in the washer.
• The bed is made. If you don't normally do this, your husband is REALLY going to think you cleaned all day. If you do normally do it, he'll think all is right with the world.
• You are neat, clean and completely unfrazzled. You are neat and clean.

And if you're lucky, you still have time to come back to your computer and blog an article like this one!

Quilting, sewing, making lists

I finished another quilt top last night. Wow -- is that actually TWO in one week? That may be a record for me -- or simply the fact that I suddenly realized Christmas is a little more than two weeks away! The one I completed last night is a nap-cuddle up on the couch quilt for Brayden. Cutting and sewing the quilt only took me about six hours -- but choosing the colors -- lordy, that took me two days! Almost 3 yr old Brayden is all about propellers lately, so I'm going to quilt the spinning wheels with propeller shapes (it makes sense in my head -- not so much in words!) The Pine Tree Quilt should be completed tonight. Just have to hand sew on the binding, and I'll do that while I watch TV tonight. (The last episode of The Amazing Race is on the DVR waiting for me!) I finished the socks I wanted to get done, and those all get mailed out this week. No photos -- family reads the blog. Really all I have left to do for homemade gifts are two quick wallets to "gussy up" gift cards. Maybe three. Oh, and an Mp3 player case. Or two of those. Shoot -- I need to quit thinking. The more I think, the more gifts to make I come up with... This is a busy busy week for me, with the exception of today. Today I will spend at least an hour cleaning my quilt room. It's gotten messy from the sewing that's gone on lately, and once it gets messy, I don't want to go in it. So clean it I shall! (Can you hear that determination in my voice?) (No, I didn't think so.) The rest of the afternoon will be spent sewing. Tomorrow is hopefully my last day of shopping. I really only have stocking stuffers left, plus gifts for my daughter but if she doesn't give me some ideas soon, she's going to get a lump of coal a gift card. Wednesday and Friday, of course, I'm babysitting for Brayden. We'll be making those white felt Christmas ornaments I showed in a previous post (scroll down). Brayden will sit on a stool beside me at the sewing machine for hours IF he can help me with pushing the buttons on the sewing machine. I have a Janome 6600P computerized machine, so there are a LOT of buttons he can push for me! With this craft I will let him select the decorative stitches we use, and we should be able to knock out a whole bunch of these sweet ornaments! My husband will be on vacation Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week, so he'll be around to help with Brayden. Ha! Who am I kidding? Brayden would rather spend time glued to "Umpa" than with any other person in this world. I will hardly even see them! Hear them? Yes. See them? Not so much. I won't be able to sew unless Jeff takes Brayden out somewhere... which I will suggest. Jeff's birthday is this Sunday, and his birthday dinner choice is lasagna and garlic bread. Much of Saturday will be spent cooking, since Lasagna is always better the second day. I make a GREAT lasagna, taught to me by an elderly Italian lady more than 25 years ago. I'll write it down as I make it and post it here next week. Worth coming back for! On Sunday after the birthday dinner and opening presents, I hope we (Jeff, myself, daughter Mary and grandson Brayden) will pile into the car and head to a local park that has a wonderful drive-through, old-fashioned Christmas light display, and then get Brayden's photo taken with Santa. Hopefully, he won't scream like he did last year. Hopefully.

Quick Christmas crafts for your sewing machine

I wish I could say I come up with great creative ideas on my own -- but I don't. I read a web site called Dollar Store Crafts and am constantly amazed at how creative people think of the things they do. Me? I'm a follower in world of craft ideas. Give me a pattern or written instructions, and I'm good to go. But don't ask me to think of them on my own! I have several blogs I go to on a regular basis just because they are THAT KIND of creative crafter -- they do the thinking and let me do the copying. Today was one of those slap-my-forehead and why-didn't-I-think-of-that days, when I saw this Christmas tree ornament (or gift tag if your sewing machine can embroider names!) on a website called Craftlog: Alright, how easy is that? In fact, I'm going to do this project with my grandson, and take advantage of his love for my sewing machine. Or how about these little Scrappy Tree ornaments (or, again, gift tags) from the afore-mentioned Dollar Store Crafts web site: I think a little jingle bell sewn to the bottom of the tree would add another degree of "cuteness" to this project! A big thank you to all you creative bloggers out there who take the time to make tutorials to go with your wonderful creations! You make the rest of us look so darn creative too!

Changes for 2009

I can hear you groaning. We're not even through the holiday season, and here I am writing about 2009 already? Yup, that's me. Procrastinating about what needs to be done today so I can think about what I want to do tomorrow! If I put words on paper (or in this case, type on my blog) it helps me define my personal goals. I've been thinking a lot about what I want the next year to bring (as in, what this year didn't bring but it could have or should have if I was more goal-oriented). I'm going to re-do my house. That's my goal for 2009. We've been here 20 years as of the 15th of this month. With few exceptions, the furniture is pretty much the same, the lay-out is pretty much the same, the "feel" of the house is pretty much the same. It's time to move on, make changes, shake things up. I've made a list (of course) of what I want to change. Before any of these changes can take place, however, I'm going to start selling things -- Craigslist, Ebay, local newspaper ads, and the mother of all yard sales in mid-May. Mad decluttering. Mad selling of furniture. I find the best way to convince my husband that we need new furniture is to get rid of the old. No kidding. Before we moved to Ohio from New Hampshire, I called GoodWill and had them pick up almost all our furniture. "Oh look, honey - no bed. Guess we need to buy a new one." It worked then, it will work again. Just watch. Then it's on to buying new furniture. I have been clipping ideas from magazines, copying ideas from the Internet. Writing down names of furniture companies whose designs I like. To the left is an example of what I want for our guest room. I love the feel of this room -- cozy, slightly sophisticated, tranquil. I love the bedding (oh yes, I need all new bedding), the lamps, the color on the walls. And I'm going to sew quilts in 2009. Full sized quilts for the guest room and master bedroom. Seasonal wall hangings for the entry way and family room. Placemats and tablerunners for the kitchen. Mantle scarves for the fireplace. Pillows for beds and sofas and chairs. Valances for the kitchen windows. And more -- lots more. I'm going to hire painters to paint every room. I did this three years ago and it was probably the best money I ever spent. It took them two days to do ceiling, trim and walls in all the downstairs rooms and the hallways. Monetarily, it seems at first like an extravagance but honestly, if you knew how much time it saved, how much bickering it saved, you'd understand that it's worth it. I'm going to hire a carpenter to come in and create built-in bookshelves and a fireplace surround. We currently have a monster of a red brick fireplace, which is actually nice, but far too big for the size of the room. I want it enclosed with a beautiful mantle and bookshelves and cupboards on each side. I want to have my kitchen cabinets resurfaced. This is a compromise. I'd actually really love to have my entire kitchen gutted and redesigned. It's a very large room with huge windows, but because of the way it's set up, there is almost no counter space and a serious lack of storage. I'll have to wait and see which direction I can take this, once I get a price on resurfacing vs new cabinets. I have (relatively) new appliances, so that at least will keep the cost a bit lower, whichever way I go with the kitchen. A local furniture store has a "day with a designer" offering. I may do that as well. While I know what I want, I'd also like to have a professional opinion on furniture placement, window coverings, floor coverings, etc. I'm probably only going to do this one more time in my lifetime, so I want it to be exactly right. I don't want regrets later. And -- I want to do this without going into debt. No credit cards. Possibly monthly payments on furniture if it's zero interest for 12 or 24 months. But no debt to do this. That's a lot of selling! But that's OK -- we have a lot of crap stuff we can get rid of. I'll be frugal as much as I can, but without sacrificing my goal. I may reupholster our family room couch and chair myself -- I've done this before with beautiful results -- or have them reupholstered, rather than buy brand new. So that's my plan for 2009. If my family is reading this, they're in shock because I believe they think I don't care if I don't have beautiful furniture or pretty accessories. They're wrong. I've just never talked about it because there was always something else that needed our money or our attention or our time. But now the time is right. I fully expect it will take the entire year to reach my goal. But reach my goal I shall. I'm headed to my sewing room right now. The Christmas wrapping can wait until tomorrow.