Easter

Some of my favorites of Zoe from Easter. Hope everyone had as wonderful a time as we did!

 

 

Summer Shows

Just a couple of weekends ago, I got to have a fun day selling at my first summer show - and my first outdoor show. It was a real treat! It was a hot day, but under the tent it was nice and shady and there was a wonderful breeze. The crowds were friendly - it was a neighborhood festival in an area heavily populated by young, trendy folks, so people watching was one of the highlights of my day. The real highlight, though, was that the area's farmers' market was set up just across from my booth and they advertised their space with huge canvas carrots - how I wanted to steal one of those carrots, but I resisted!

My first summer show - in my favorite outfit, which, of course,
matches my shop colors.

You just don't know how hard it was not to take one of these carrots,
but I feel like I need to be a good role model for the baby. Though, when
it comes to carrots, I should get some latitude, right?

Happy Socks

Sometimes there's just one article of clothing that makes me happy just to look at it. A few days ago it was a pair of absolutely awesome socks. I fell in love with these in the store and love just having them in my drawer! When I get to wear them, I feel happy all day. They are definitely happy socks. I hope to one day have a week's worth of them!

Gifts of Our Hands

Just the prettiest carrot wall pocket ever!!

Michele and I both gave one another a very special Christmas gift made from our hearts and our hands. Michele's gift to me was extra, extra special because she's never actually made me anything before. She worked with our very sweet friend and brilliant potter, Sabra, to make me a ceramic carrot - that's right, I said "ceramic carrot!!" It's so very gorgeous and wonderful and beautiful and perfect!! Plus, it adds to my collection - I didn't have a ceramic carrot yet! This gift touched my heart like none other could! It's actually a wall pocket, which could hold flowers, but I think that would detract from the carrot. I think I may make little beaded carrots to live in the pocket, but we'll see. I still need to find the very perfect place to hang it.

I cannot wait to have this on the wall, but I MUST find the
perfectest most perfect place!

Now, I make Michele gifts quite often - in fact, it's rare that I give her a gift that isn't handmade. But I am particularly proud of this one. It's a simple design - nine patch squares - but I designed the kitty myself. I call it Kitty on My Quilt since it's a good bet one of our three cats will be cuddling with Michele on this quilt at any given moment. And I accidentally made it a bit too big - in my head I thought lap quilt, but it's actually twin-sized, so it's "accidentally" big enough for two! 

Isn't that an adorable kitty?

Definitely big enough to share!



A New Year

Ahh, I adore the freshness of a new year. I hope it's starting out great for all of you. I feel so hopeful that I'll:

1. Be more organized
2. Be nicer
3. Complete more
4. Have a better memory
5. Find more time 
6. And so on and so forth

I never really change year to year, but I always feel hopeful that it's possible - at least through January. By February, I've realized that I'm pretty much the same, but that's still pretty great.

I did actually complete quite a few things in December, so maybe I was most of those things already? Anyhow, I finished that baby quilt I mentioned last month. Oh, so pleased with it! But how could anyone do a bad job with such a fun feature fabric and such a great pattern. Star sashing is one of my favorite piecing patterns and it's just perfect when you want to feature a fun juvenile print like this monkey one. Plus, I was lucky enough to find the exact same print in a flannel for the backing. So cozy! I feel pretty confident that mama and baby are loving it right now!



I loved the pairing of the monkey and the polka dot fabrics.
Inspired, if I do say so myself!



A finished project is always a treat. One this cute is especially wonderful.

There's nothing cozier than a flannel-backed quilt! Ahhhh!





La-Tea-Da

Nice, wet, flaky, white stuff. A delight at 4 am!

Since Michele has been home, I have been crazily busy with the shop and she has been wonderfully supportive and helpful (she's even been put to work in the studio!). My beautiful wonderful friend, Karen (of Duncan Creative - just THE most wonderful place for hats and other crocheted items!) gifted me a Groupon for afternoon tea at La-Tea-Da Tea Salon, so I took the opportunity to treat Michele to an afternoon of undivided attention. To get that afternoon, I trucked myself off to work before the crack of dawn and found this lovely surprise on my car!

After stuffing eight hours of work in before Noon, I picked Michele up and we headed off to tea delight! It was really wonderful! It's such an eclectic place, just a feast for the eyes! And afternoon tea was amazingly DELICIOUS!! We drank way too much tea, of course, and ate way too many delicious nibblies, including their signature scones with Devonshire creme and jam! Oh wow! It was a really great afternoon and it was really great to take a break and spend some time talking about everything except work!


The have hoards of hats to wear to make you feel elegant
or just downright silly. These fit both categories.



One lump or two? It's fun to have the opportunity to say that.

 

Pretty little teapot table decor! Our actual tea was served in a

good sturdy workhorse of a teapot complete with cozy. I really

need to make myself some cozies for my workhorses at home!



Can you imagine how delicious? Look up the definition of
YUM in the dictionary and this picture will be right beside it!



Menorah, Thanksgiving, and Insanity

I'm finally taking some much-needed time out to 1. show you the completed Menorah quilt, 2. tell you about my fabulous Thanksgiving, and 3. explain about the insanely awesome happening that has been keeping me so very busy.

1. I've kept you waiting far too long to see the completed Menorah quilt! It took a bit longer than I'd planned, but that was all my fault. I decided to make the Menorah two layers and it took quite a while to cut each piece . . . twice!

Layer 1

And then layer two

Plus the candles and flames. The menorah, candles, and flames
are made by layering a top fabric, batting, and backing and then
satin stitching the edges before stitching the to pieced quilt top.
So, technically, each piece of the menorah, candles, and flames are quilts!

Finished! Hanging in my hallway for picture taking before
packing and sending to its new home!

Close-up #1

Close-up #2

 I truly loved making this special gift and hope the recipients love it as well!

2. Thanksgiving was a delight - I hope yours was as well. Michele decided that she wanted to make dinner to give me a little extra time to prepare for #3 below. I tried to insist on helping, but she would have none of it! It was just the two of us for the first time in a long time, so that was a nice treat - and it made it so that we could have whatever we want (when we have company we try to introduce folks to a traditional Thanksgiving meal, vegetarian-style). This year we had vegetarian meatloaf topped with barbecue sauce we made and canned over the summer, whipped potatoes, corn, cider glazed carrots, dinner rolls from Michele's grandmother's recipe, and pumpkin pie with real freshly whipped cream. I cannot tell you how delicious it was! WOW! Michele will be cooking a lot more often - this is a skill that she has been hiding under a bushel for the 13 years we've been together!

Dinner was SO yummy! And I enjoyed the leftover "meat"loaf
on dinner rolls for the rest of the week - little meatloaf sliders! YUM!

Pumpkin is Michele's favorite pie, but I am not usually a fan.
Boy howdy, I really loved it this year! I'm now a fan!

3. The insanity that has been keeping me so busy is that I have what Michele is calling my "one woman show" coming up on Friday! I was chosen as the featured artist at a local gallery for First Friday festivities! First Friday here in Rochester is when all the participating galleries open late and have wine and nibbles while folks browse all the gorgeous treasures. My show is called Quilted, Quaint, and Quirky: Stocking Stuffers and Fashionable Finishing Touches. I am over-the-moon excited! It's really an amazing accomplishment and I keep pinching myself that it is actually happening! You can check out my and many other artists' shows here. I'm at the Crocus Clay Works, which is the seventh gallery on the list on the left of that website. So, needless to say, I have been working like crazy to be ready for what I am referring to this amazing opportunity!

This is the bookmark that I made and handed out at the MayDay Underground show.
I think it's adorable!

Vacation: Day Six: the Scenic Route

I would like to say that on the sixth day of our vacation we rested from the hard work of apple picking and apple making, but we didn't. We got up early and made fried apples and biscuits, on which we ate apple butter. Actually, Michele sliced the apples and Mum fried them and Mum made the biscuits - I just took pictures and tasted as necessary.

Slicing apples for frying

After breakfast - which was YUMMY!!! - we decided to go to an outlet mall in Buffalo to do some shopping. My bright idea was that we take the scenic route to Buffalo and take a look at the lovely fall colors on the way. About halfway there Mum and I became like 3-year-olds with our whiny "are we there yet?" It seemed to take forever to get there! My two lovely travelling companions only reminded me ten or fifteen times that it was all my idea that we take the scenic route! It was a fun trip, regardless. And made even more fun by the 100 truffles we bought at the Lindt store in the outlet mall - heck, that alone made the "scenic" route worth it!

Are we there yet???

While at the mall, we entertained ourselves by convincing Michele to try on bright yellow high-heeled patent leather boots. Her face says it all.

The boots are cute. The jeans and flannel are cute.
The boots, jeans, and flannel are not - the face makes that completely clear.

On the way home, I entertained myself and my companions by taking pictures in the dark. I think this one was our favorite.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore!

Vacation: Day Five: Apples: Sauce, Butter, and Rings

That's right, you guessed it, this day of "vacation" was all about making stuff with all those apples we picked! It was not a very restful day - in fact we worked from dawn til beyond dusk - but it was great fun!

Stirring, stirring, stirring  . . . and smiling!

We made and canned smooth and chunky applesauce, apple butter (yum!!), and dried apple rings. Oh, my, I don't believe I've even tasted applesauce before in my life that was as good as the sauce Mum, Michele, and I made!

I seem to always can on sunny days because I always get to take a
gorgeous picture of something freshly canned glowing in the sunshine!

And the apple rings are like heaven! Now, I was a little skeptical about the apple butter - I've never liked it - but I really felt like we should make some. Total convert! I LOVE APPLE BUTTER - at least this apple butter! It's so amazing! We were exhausted after canning all day, so we ordered a pizza and each spread apple butter on the crust - that's how good it is!

The "fruit" of our labor!

Short Addendum to Vacation Day Three: Rhode Island

As I mentioned yesterday, we were pretty obsessed with finding the Rhode Island Greenings during our apple picking venture. Well, since my dad's side of the family is from Rhode Island, I feel a particular connection to that apple - though last weekend was the first time I'd ever heard of it. Though we didn't find the apple, I did find out some interesting bits about it and about RI in general:

The oh so sought after RI Greening 

• The Rhode Island Greening was the first named apple in America and is the official state fruit of Rhode Island.
• Greenings are the perfect apple to make apple slumps with - I have no idea what an apple slump is, but if we'd found some Greenings, I certainly would have made a slump or two.
• Rhode Island's official state name is The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which is the longest official name of any US State - which is very funny because Rhode Island is the smallest state!
• Rhode Island was the first of the 13 colonies to declare independence from Britian and the last to ratify the US constitution.

Vacation: Day Two: Shopping

Today we did nothing more strenuous than shopping for a lovely outfit for my mom to wear Stepping Out with her brother when she returns to Boston. We actually began the day with doctor's appointments, one each for Michele and I, and then dallied over breakfast. Mum and I then hung out in the craftroom while Michele napped. THEN we went shopping. It was a fun and laid back day and allowed us lots of rest in preparation for apple picking tomorrow. What fun!

Vacation: Day One: Introductions

The first day of my vacation wasn't exactly relaxing. I did sleep in, though I shouldn't have because I still needed to clean the house. Earlier in the week I cleaned the bedroom and the workout room - which doubles as a guest room - and of course the new bathroom is spotless - every speck of dust or dirt gets cleaned up the second I see it! So the upstairs hall, stairs, and the entire downstairs desperately needed to be cleaned - and I of course decided to leave it until today. So I worked really hard and got the house looking its best before Michele got home - she hasn't been home in nearly a month so I wanted it to look especially nice. So, I spent the morning cleaning and then Michele arrived at the truck stop and we had lunch. It was nice to spend a few hours with just her before Mum arrived. I introduced Michele to the new bathroom - she's seen it in stages and I sent pictures after Lisa finished her final tasks, but she hadn't seen it all put together with the tiling and finishing touches. Then Mum arrived and we introduced her to the bathroom - we sat in there for about half an hour chatting. It's just that kind of room. So, day one was half work and half relax and wholly wonderful because I got to be with two of the most wonderful women I know. And below is one of them using the bathroom for the first time - she wouldn't let me take a picture of her trying out the toilet, I'm not sure why. :-)

It's such a lovely space that even washing your hands is a dream!

Featured Square, Week Whatever: CORN!

One of our lovely ears of corn!

Yes, corn! We were so excited when we saw the first ear of corn pop out. We'd just had two ladies on two separate occasions tell us that we wouldn't be blessed with corn because we "didn't plant the seeds right." The said, "corn will only grow if planted three rows by three rows." They both said the exact same thing and do not know each other, so we believed it must be fact. Well, fact or not, we have about 30 ears of corn growing wonderfully in out garden! We haven't tried any yet, but there are a few ears that will be ready when Michele comes home next week and try them we will! SO EXCITED!

I love the look of corn stalks in the garden...and I
love it even more that there are ears of corn upon them!

Church Fundraising

This little beauty goes on the auction block on Sunday. I wish
I could keep it, but it's for a good cause. (And I COULD make
myself one.)

I'm on the fundraising committee at church and it is surprisingly fun! We get together and plan wonderful events that will 1. raise money, 2. attract new members, and 3. increase community within the church. I love being so involved and brainstorming with the three other folks on the committee. This Sunday we're having a silent auction and I am coordinating it - a first for me! It's fun collecting things from the congregation to auction off. I planned to contribute two items myself: a mini quilt and a prayer journal. I've been so busy with everything that I just started making them yesterday, though! I got the quilt done, but have yet to start on the journal. Hopefully I can get that done tonight (because tomorrow I need to get all the auction sheets done and Saturday I plan to make more pickles (yes, more pickles) and can some peaches (yum!)) I actually had so much fun designing and making the quilt that I am really tempted to make another one instead of the journal. Hmmm. We'll see. So, what do you think? Will it do well at auction?

Canning Addiction

Sweet pickle spears - oh yum!

Absolutely the most divine bbq sauce

Pickled tomatos - so pretty!

Salsa and hiding behind in the quart
jars is roasted roma tomatos

I've become addicted to canning. It's just so fun that I can't stop myself. Last Friday, I made sweet pickle spears, roasted roma tomatos and garlic, and salsa. Saturday morning I made pickled cherry tomatos with garlic and rosemary. And Sunday afternoon, Michele and I made barbecue sauce. I just love the whole process from planting to harvesting to preparing to cooking to canning to enjoying the fruits of my labor! This weekend I have a craft show to visit (not vending just supporting friends), our church picnic, another church event tomorrow, and I'd like to wedge some canning in there tomorrow afternoon. I don't even know what I want to can, but it will probably be variety #4/5 of pickles (I've already made bread and butter, garlic dill, sweet pickle spears, and relish (though I don't know if that counts as a pickle variety, hence the 4/5)). I plan to do either kosher dill or a zesty sweet - I'm really leaning towards a zesty sweet this week and a potential kosher dill next week if I can harvest more pickling cukes. Like I said, it's an addiction!

Zucchini Cupcakes

Zucchini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting - I'm sure my
icing piping skills will improve with practice!

I've never made cupcakes before that I can remember. I've only actually made cake a few times. So, I wanted to try making cupcakes for our church's anniversary picnic tomorrow. I also wanted to use something in my garden to make them - enter the zucchini cupcake. I just used that zucchini cake recipe I made for the Squash You Very Much dinner, but I tripled the recipe. I had no idea how many cupcakes that would make, so I ended up with 70! Oh well, they are really yummy so any not enjoyed at the picnic can be taken to church on Sunday for after-service socializing. And since I really like trying lots of new things all at once, I wanted to trying piping on the frosting (my friend Karen does that and it just looks divine!) After a bit of trial and error and a LOT of mess - i.e. icing on the floor, counters, hands, feet, and most body parts in between! - they turned out pretty good looking - and they taste just awesome! If you remember from the dinner party post, the recipe calls for raisins in the cake, but I substituted craisins. Well this time, I used half craisins and half dried apricots - oh heaven!

We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Making vanilla ice cream for the first time

I'm not sure how I keep forgetting, but since April, I have been making ice cream about once a week (I don't eat the whole quart in a week. I have about 6 in the freezer at a time so I can choose from a variety). Small batches of creamy dreamy ice cream. Oh, it's been so fun! Michele and I made vanilla together when we first got the ice cream maker - it was wonderful. We even made some the morning of my birthday brunch to have atop the blueberry stuffed french toast - so decadent!

Yummy bowls of vanilla - Michele's fave!

My favorite flavor so far is sweet potato. I know it's a bit unusual and not at all a standard flavor, but it tastes amazing! It tastes simply like sweet potato, but icy cold. It even retains its sweet potato texture. Michele does not at all enjoy the sweet potato - in fact of all the flavors we and I have made, she really only likes the vanilla.

Jack Fruit ice cream

Tied for favorite in the exotic ice cream category is Jack Fruit! I brought a bunch of Jack Fruit home with me from Georgia and used most of it to make the most amazing ice cream I've ever had. Since Jack Fruit has flavors of several other fruits, Jack Fruit ice cream has a flavor that is uncatagorizable. Michele actually conceeds that Jack Fruit ice cream is very good, but she doesn't like the aftertaste. I admit that it does indeed have an aftertaste, but to me its like getting to enjoy the deliciousness twice!

Sweet potato &
chocolate chocolate chip sweet potato

And because I am me, I am going to make carrot ice cream as soon as my carrots are ready to harvest. I've found several recipes online (I guess carrot is a popular Thai ice cream flavor), but I'm not quite happy with any of them. I think I will make up my own recipe: Carrot ice cream with crystalized ginger chunks. I imagine it will taste like ginger glazed carrots (but cold.) I'll keep you posted. And now I think I will have my after dinner bowl of ice cream - Jack Fruit tonight!