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Random.org picked #4. Congratulations Kelly P.!!
Kelly P
You all are doing great!! It sure doesn’t seem like it’s been long enough for a hundred posts. Well done!!!
I thought this collage I found at Oopsey Daisy said it all for the Mother’s Day post.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s. And to our mom’s… we love you!
The Garden of Ideas Shop Hop was this weekend. Can you believe that this will be my 1st shop hop? Paige and I thought it might be fun to take y’all along with us. So, let’s go…
1st up, Basket Cases Unlimited. We absolutely love this tiny shop in the country. It’s one of those shops that is small but seems to have what you were looking for. Being a barn in Clare, Il, makes this shop quaint. They sell handmade baskets, soaps, and herbs downstairs, and the quilt shop is upstairs, along with a longarm. Always friendly and always a project in the works for these ladies.
Busy, busy, busy…
My purchases from Basket Cases. Some Sugar Pop and Central Park.
Tammy Tadds, Sycamore, IL. If you love bright colors and fun fabrics, Tammy’s is the place. She’s been in the Quilt Sampler Top 10 Shop Hop magazine and designs her own fabric and patterns. She has a great decorating style. Her favorite colors are pink and green, and the shop reflects that with her pink phones, pink wheelbarrow, and don’t even get me started on the pink Christmas tree. This is one stop I don’t miss at Christmas!
I’m in love with this quilt!
And this wool pillow.
Is this just about the cutest shop you’ve ever seen? I had more pics from Tammy’s, but with Mother’s Day coming up, I can’t show those:))
Great ideas from her shop are that every time you come in you get to choose a 5″ square from the jar and don’t forget your jelly beans:) It’s just a fun store!
I’m already hungry and I haven’t had my coffee. After seeing these wool cupcake pincushions at Tammy’s we went on our way to the real thing.
We had to visit Sweet Dream Desserts while we were in Sycamore. Best cupcakes ever! Besides, no one should have to shop hungry, right? They had these blue and green daisy cookies that matched our logo. They jumped in my bag along with a giant sugar cookie for Russell and carrot cake and red velvet cake cupcakes!
Prairie Shop Quilts in Batavia, IL. This is the shop that I learned to do beautiful hand applique. I had a great instructor and I took to it right away. This shop has a longarm in it that can be rented hourly and they even give lessons on it. A great way to test drive before you buy.
Look at this BOM they are doing from Blackbird Designs.
Some great modern prints.
They also do “Challenges”, where you take a theme and interpret it into mini quilt..like art. This seems very challenging to me. I need to learn to think outside the box. This would be therapy for me. Or I’d need therapy after because I’d be so stressed:) I do really like to see what creativity comes from these challenges though.
Paige and I really liked this quilt and thought it would be really cool in bright batiks. Smile Paige!
We then headed to Quilt In Joy to see what was happening there. Kathi said it was the busiest shop hop she’s had! Yay!
Here’s some cool boy’s prints that just came in from Michael Miller. Boy’s tend to get overlooked and sometimes it’s hard to make them a quilt. These would be great pillowcases too. At one of the other stores we saw Space Invaders and Pac Man!
We hope you enjoyed the ride. We had a great time. We were already planning our next trip!
I belong to a Flickr group called Tea Buddies. You’ve probably seen me mention Jeanne, our group admin. And I’m sure you’ve read some of the awesome comments left by my buddy friends on the blog. This year Jeanne had this great idea to let each one of us host a month. The hostess chooses topics for discussion, keeps us all engaged, and even gives us a little something to-do.
April was Diane’s month, some of you know her by Mimi’sdarlins. She designed this cute flower applique that can be made into a pillow or whatever you choose. I chose to machine applique the flowers, embroidery the stems and add a Pick-a-Bunch saying.
Another inspiration piece for my studio. Wouldn’t this be cute framed? Thanks Diane! This was a lot of fun:)
I’m always on the lookout for studio decor. Our SewMod logo colors are a turquoise and green and our tagline is Need To Create. So while I was in Wal-Mart yesterday picking up a prescription, I came across these tubs that are our colors. I can store stuff in them..supplies.
They even have Daisies on them! Cuteness!
Then I noticed these candles in the same prints and one of them has sayings written on them. One of the words…create! Well, I had to have these too.
I also got this white wire basket that I think is perfect to display fat quarters….$5!
I really think it’s Wal-Mart’s purpose to keep you in the store to spend money. I even called the prescription in ahead of time but it was still…”that will be another 10 minutes”. So during that 10 minutes, I managed to see all these goodies, gather Easter Basket gifts, and ink for my printer. I fell into the trap. All to the tune of 100 extra $$.
I’m telling myself that these studio goodies are my Easter Basket gifts:)
Saturday, Kelly coordinated an awesome pasta making class over at Cooking Fools in Chicago. She happens to be friends with the owner, Nick, who we were very lucky to have teach the class!
We learned how to prepare pasta dough, fill raviolis, cut pappardelle noodles and make two sauces -Vodka and a walnut Pesto —YUM YUM YUM!
There were 30 eager pasta makers in the class but Nick gave us the VIP treatment with front row work stations and refreshments -want a workout…knead pasta dough for 8-10 minutes! Those refreshments sure quenched the thirst! ;)
Here on the left – Shelley, Vicki and Andrea are manuevering their pasta sheets and Vicki’s friend Emily on the right was filling her raviolis.
Loved the label on this wine bottle, which by the way was a nice tasty red to start the afternoon off…the flowing design looked just like the pasta dough swirling around everywhere!
Check out Shelley’s wrist action…her pasta sheet ended up longer than her work table.
Here’s our group from left to right -Emily, Vicki, Andrea, Kelly, Paige (me), and Shelley…my sister, Wendy, was taking the picture.
Here’s Wendy, she helped Nick make the walnut pesto…first time for her using a food processor!
Once everything was prepared we dusted off the flour and headed over to the dinner tables and filled our tummies with salad, Pappardelle with Vodka sauce and the ricotta/mushroom/garlic Raviolis with walnut pesto sauce.
And to finish off the evening we heading over to Kelly’s house for more wine and make-your-own sundaes! Great party, girls! …we definitely missed you Lorrie!
If you’re looking at the time stamp for this post…yes, I was up that early writing. I only had about 45 minutes of sleep. Lots on my mind tonight, or should I say today now. Paige and I have had a rough go of it lately.
I’m sure you’ve heard the song Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield. If not the lyrics are here. To me, this seems to be the journey that Paige and I are on. Uncertain, unplanned, 2 girls trying to write a future for ourselves.
Family, friends, jobs, ex’s, tough decisions…all these thing tend to weigh heavily, especially when you try to close your eyes…ugh.
Life will try to kick you in the teeth if you let it. So, after about an hour, through the tears and pain, I came up with my short list of things that make me happy right now. Random thoughts, actually…this seems to be the way I deal lately.
1. I’m awaiting the Crapapples to bloom. The world never smells so good.
2. Listening to the Doves coo outside my windows.
3. Crack of the bat when the ball hits it. It’s almost baseball season y’all!
4. Paige talking about her mom. To me there’s a sweetness about it that lingers long after:)
5. When someone favorites our Etsy shop. Baby steps, but gratifying.
6. The way Daisy licks her lips when I’m making her dinner & when Paige’s Kitty rubs against me because I miss mine so.
7. Telling “baby” stories about when Russell was little. Some are totally inappropriate.
8. Paige’s story about how she, accidentally, gave a bunny fermented fruit and he basically passed out drunk. Don’t worry he hopped away later:) Paige don’t hate me for telling that…k. It just cracks me up every time I think of it!
9. That 70’s Show. I’m still addicted to it. And frankly, I don’t think I would have made it through my divorce without the laughter this show provided me.
10. My brother telling me he loves me every time I talk to him or text him. I don’t know why, but I always do a double take on that one. Its kinda funny that you torture each other for so long as kids but still love each other:)
11. Friends, Friends, Friends. I can’t image a day going by that I don’t talk to a friend.
Think of any random things that make you smile right now? I wanna hear it.
Ok…it’s 4:30…you think I can sneak in an hours worth of sleep before I have to get up?
Daisy May helped me out Saturday while I made some Valentine’s treats and since she’s my only sweetie this year, her’s were first.
Heart shaped doggie treats with this recipe.
Did you ever notice from any of the pics I’ve posted that she has a heart shaped patch on her side? She’s just so darn cute! Can anyone say “spoiled puppy”?
I made the “knock-off” Thin Mint Cookies. All you need is a box of Ritz Crackers and a bag of the Dark Chocolate Mint Melt-Away candies at Michaels. Melt the chocolate, dip the crackers and place on waxed paper to dry. Its a good substitute if you have a hankering for the original but it’s not Girl Scout “season”.
I also made some Cookies ‘n’ Cream and Peanut Butter ‘n’ Cocoa Truffles. Just try not to pay attention to the coca powder that’s still left in my tile grout. A tile counter top is an arch nemesis for a baker. I dream of the days when I’ll be able to replace it…sigh…but anyway… these are always a hit.
Now I’m off to make some neighbors a Happy Valentine’s Day. I hope yours is sweet too!
Lorrie and I were working hard on some projects last Sunday – the air was cold but the sun was warm and bright. It was time for lunch we planned on homemade French Onion soup but we needed something to calm the onions and quench our thirst! I made up this festive drink using Frontera Cranberry Sangria mix, a red Zinfandel by Blackstone, fresh cranberries and orange slices…YUM!!! The glass pitcher and mix are both from Crate & Barrel and they are resting upon hand crocheted placemats I picked up years ago at a resale shop -don’t they go perfectly together. What a beautiful color cranberry is!
The onion soup was fabulous too Lorrie modified Paula Dean’s recipe and it tastes like it simmered all day – it was so flavorful with the added Thyme.
Here is her revised recipe:
1 big yellow or Vidalia onion sliced
1 clove garlic minced
Drizzled with olive oil
2 TBSP flour
1-16oz. beef broth
Pinch thyme
1 bay leaf
French bread cubed
Mozzarella or Provolone
Sauté the onions and garlic till tender.
Sprinkle with flour and brown.
Add broth thyme and bay leaf.
Reduce heat and simmer 20 min.
Ladle in bowls top with french bread and cheese …place under broiler (toaster oven)
I don’t know about you but my mouth is watering!
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