Feedback Friday - on Saturday

I like the thought of reviewing how my week went -- the good, the bad, the thrifty and the not so thrifty.

The pattern

I've spent a great deal of time this week working on a new quilt. Given our gorgeous Fall weather this week, I probably should have been outside cleaning up the vegetable garden and even putting up Christmas lights, but the quilt bug hit and I'm not one to fight it. I found this photo on the web, and fell in love with it (except I don't care for the four red blocks). I'm too cheap frugal to buy the pattern, but it was easy enough to figure out. Basically it's a 9-patch, believe it or not. I chose muted greens, blues and oranges (honest, it's prettier than it sounds) for the colors. I have completed 23 of 56 blocks. I have no idea where I saw this pattern, so unfortunately, I can't provide a link.

Still making progress on my hand-sewn Cathedral Window quilt. The more I complete, the more I love it. I find the hand work so soothing and relaxing. Yeah, I know.

I had a cooking adventure this week. I purchased a very nice pasta rolling machine at a yard sale a few weeks ago, and decided to try making homemade ravioli. The dough recipe I used was very, very dry, so I had to overcome that problem before actually rolling out the dough. I made a filling of ground beef, cream cheese, oregano and garlic (actually, that was good all by itself! I'll have to look for another way to use that filling). Long and short of it - the ravioli fell apart in the boiling water. D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R. Apparently there's a method to adhering the two pieces of pasta together besides just moistening the edges with water. Not sure if I'll try that again.

The leftover dough got made into nice 1/4 inch wide noodles and we ate those the next night - I cooked boneless chicken breasts, then added cream of chicken soup, sage and frozen mixed veggies, and served them over the noodles - and they were delicious. I normally buy Dreamfield's pasta at $2.49 a box. These homemade noodles probably cost me under .50 to make. Obviously, it's all about the time it takes to make them.

Thanks to a suggestion from someone on my local Free Cycle, I also used the pasta roller to make homemade tortillas. All I can say is YUM. Totally worth the time it takes to make them, and again, just a fraction of the cost to buy them in the store, and without the preservatives.

After last week's stock-up grocery shopping, I will not go grocery shopping this week, per se. I do have to pick up orange juice and laundry soap, but that's all that's on the "must get" list at the moment. I am planning my menues for the week on what I already have on hand.

Mr. B's first "class photo" came in this week. Be still my heart.

My grandson, Mr. B.

I just finished reading Julie Glass's new book, The Widower's Tale and absolutely loved it. She is also the author of Three Junes which was in my Top 10 for a long time. I highly recommend either, both.

I finished Mr. B's Christmas shopping -- took advantage of free shipping at Toys R 'Us web site. I kept it under $100, which I'm pleased about. He will also get a few of the toys I received to review for Amazon. I don't think he'll care!

It was my son's 31st birthday this week. I do wish he lived closer so we could at least get together for holidays and birthdays, etc. We plan on going to visit him in Colorado in the Spring - but that seems so far away.

I am helping my daughter (Mr. B's mom) with some time management and budget issues she's having. She wants me to create the card system I used when she was growing up, from the old Side Tracked Home Executives book from the 1970's (which is what Flylady.net is based on). That book was my bible when I worked fulltime and had two small children and a husband in school fulltime and who also working fulltime. It was the only time management system I ever found that worked for me. Today much of what I do automatically is because of using that system for several years, thus installing better time management/housework habits.

 Jeff had a day off Friday, so we took Mr. B. to the Newport Aquarium and had a wonderful time. That little boy is so well behaved and only once did I have to remind him to stay with us. By the end of our visit, he was absolutely worn out. He made it through lunch at Johnny Rockets (very expensive and not all that good), but fell asleep immediately once we got in the car.

Does anyone else think it's ironic that "Mitchell's Fish Market" is located next to the Aquarium?

I'm not sure yet what this week will entail. I'll make up my menus and week's To Do List on Monday.

All in all, it was a good productive week, and those are my absolute favorite kind of weeks to have!