Cookies take three

So I tried cookies again, this time with the Nestle Toll House Recipe. This one is by far the best. I have a few recommendations as to what to change. Someone said I should use salted butter, another said to use crisco instead of butter. I might have to experiment some more... but not this week.. I'm on cookie overload! Have you noticed how much I love my fire engine red Kitchen Aid? I LOVE IT! My husband said he never knew anyone who had one in their house growing up and thought it was a bit excessive at first and then he realized how much I use it. :) Like.. every other week! I'm always finding excuses to bake things or mix things. Plus I love red kitchen things, don't you?



I'm not exactly sure what is different about this recipe than all the other ones that made it taste so good. It tasted way better and it stayed softer longer. I do know that at one point I was trying to half the recipe and I added two sticks of butter and thought.. oh shoot. I can't undo that. So I had to go back and fix what I messed up, at least it was before I added the dry ingredients.


I love how soft and silky it looks. This is making me want to make cookies again. I love to eat cookie dough but doesn't everyone? There is something that just looks so good about all of these pictures to me.



Here's my favorite part. This is the part that I get to eat :) While the rest of the dough cools. And yes I let it cool this time :)


Such cute little drops of cookie dough!


And the end result? Flat. Flat flat flat. But they tasted good and they were chewy which I like. What am I doing wrong to make them flat every time? Anyone have any guesses?

ROLL TIDE

Through marriage I have become an Alabama fan. Don't you worry though, this process has taken years. I was that kid in high school who never stood up and cheered at pep rallies. I was that kid who didn't own a single piece of our high school colors. Heck at my last high school we really didn't even have sports.. I don't even know if we had a mascot. Either way, football was something that was not important to me. I still think that football players are pretty dumb and because of that they aren't the kind of people I would like to associate myself with. I mean, come on, do you want to hang out with the dumb kids? If you are a football player understand that this is just my opinion, I'm sure someone somewhere thinks you are wonderful and you hung the moon, I'm just not that person. You know, I once had a gym teacher actually explain to me that athletes are not as smart because all the blood in their body is used to maintain their awesome muscles instead of their brain functions. I guess that's why my brother was a track star AND graduated from Yale and Harvard. Nice try gym teacher. Way to go bro, I'm proud of you.



I went to a university that had a football team but I never went to a game. No wait, I went once but it was just to hear the band and then I left. Still to this day have never been to a football game. Ahh but here I am in the wonderful state of Alabama and you know what? This whole football thing gets really intoxicating. I noticed on Saturday as I was driving down the street that there were cars EVERYWHERE with Alabama logos on them. Flags waving from windows. People had T Shirts on. Yeah, I know it was homecoming, but this is what it's like on game day every time it's game day. So I've come accustomed to the crimson colors. I married into football. My father in law will boast until the day he dies that he has a letter written and signed by Bear Byrant. This is actually true (unlike some of the stories he tells... either way Jaime and I love to hear his stories, as long as they don't end in him trying to witness to us in a restaurant or tell us what to name our children. Herman Barzella.... really?). H.R. used to hire the Alabama football players during the summer to work construction for him to keep them in shape and out of trouble and for this he received a letter and a signature that some people would pay money for. You can read from this that I have a connection here. I know someone who knows someone. You follow?
I remember buying H.R. an Alabama windbreaker for Christmas one time. It brought him to tears. The next year I went out on a limb and decided that since I was forced to watch the Iron Bowl (the first time I watched an entire football game) I deserved an Alabama shirt. I love that shirt. Plus my team won so I was proud.


This year Jaime and I decided to really become fans. To not only watch as many of the games as possible but to drink a beer while watching the game. Every game day I put on my Alabama sweatpants and my Alabama shirt. We sit down to Baker's Pizza (your pizza is amazing by the way) and some beer. I almost always fall asleep during the fourth quarter you can ask Jaime, but it doesn't mean that I'm not excited. We're undefeated did I mention that?

Well the point is this. I've gradually become an Alabama fan. It's taken about three years but I think I'm there. I still don't really want to understand what's happening. I don't want to know what the players names are or what their major is because let's face it. It's all pretend so that they can have an excuse to play football and I think it's shameless. But I'll watch the game. It's not even about the act of football, it's about being in a group of people. It's about being a part of one of the biggest fan bases in America. It's about going somewhere and saying Roll Tide and knowing that someone near you knows exactly what you mean. It's like being in a club. Kind of like a sorority but better because this time you have MILLIONS of friends. Instant friends.



Instant friends you ask? I have never experienced anything like this in my life but here's how it went down. Saturday Jaime and I were shopping before the game started. I was wearing my beloved Alabama shirt and we were walking into Best Buy (to replace an xBox360 controller that Huxley ruined... horrible story) I pass by a guy in an Alabama hat. He looks me square in the eyes and says "Roll Tide!" I smiled and said "Roll Tide!" back to him thinking to myself... holy crap I'm in the 'in' crowd'... he turns as we pass him and says, "I'm headed to the game right now!" I think I said something like "Awesome, have a great time!". Jaime looked at me and said "Who was that?" and I was like "I have no freaking clue but that was really cool.. that was my first Roll Tide". That man talked to me like we were friends our whole lives. He was so excited about Alabama football that the fact that I was wearing paraphernalia gave him a reason to let his true feelings out about Alabama. Amazing. I've never felt like I belonged to some big thing before this.. I mean, this is big! This is Alabama Football ya'll. Alabama football means you can talk to complete strangers and they'll eat it up. I mean.. I'm blogging about it.

Cookies take two!

This time I did the Otis Spunkmeyer recipe that Rennai left on the previous blog entry. I followed the directions, even the crisco part.. that part I had issues with but I did it. Yeah, that's butter and crisco.. makes you feel a little bit sick when you think that you are actually eating that. I mean.. whatever. You wonder what makes food taste so amazing and then you feel like you're going to throw up when you find out. Kind of a catch twenty two isn't it? Maybe I should stick with the stuff that's already made in the grocery. Ignorance is bliss when it comes to saturated fats.


So I made some cookies! Here they are in prep looking as the recipe said they might, a bit oily. Strange description. The Pillsbury cookies were supposed to look fluffy but these are supposed to look oily? Pretty slick looking to me.
And oh my goodness do you have to even ask if I ate the dough? Of course I did. I immediately felt guilty and gross but not quite enough to entirely stop eating it. What?! It's cookie dough for crying out loud.


Here we go go go, into the oven. At this point they look very much like the pictures on the website. I had high high hopes (like I always do when making cookies). I know that these are going to be the cookies that make history. These are the cookies I'm going to make for my future children when they come home from school. I'll be in my homemade apron (doesn't everyone have one?) and they will run up to the doorstep and I'll have a plate in my hands and hand them... wait. These look just like the cookies I just made. These don't look light and fluffy and they certainly haven't "kept their shape" like the recipe promised. I had high hopes Otis Spunkmeyer, I had really high hopes and you dashed them.

That's right. These cookies although soft (they did stay soft longer than the Pillsbury - I'm assuming it's the crisco *cringe*) tasted like bread. COOKIES SHOULD NOT TASTE LIKE BREAD.

My next question to you faithful readers is this. Should I be using unsalted butter? I thought that you always used unsalted butter in baking since the recipes always call for salt separately and if you add in the salted butter it's like adding in salt twice right? Is this where I'm going wrong?
I've got a friend who's going to give me her recipe. I might be able to try this again.

Someone had a baby!

And someone is making a dedication gown for him. I'm always behind on the times. Is it a dedication gown, a christening gown, or a baby baptism gown? I'm pretty sure that it's a dedication gown... It's a gown for a baby to wear for that special day at church. Whatever, it's a cute gown that's all that matters. And one of my very good friends is his mother so that matters too :)



I was so excited about this project and I wanted to update pictures of it but I also wanted Lindsey to see it first. This is my first baby gown that I've made. I've made a baby cape with a hood but that was way easier. I had no idea that this gown would be so hard! I think that the only reason it was hard was because the instructions were so bad. Why do they write instructions that don't make any sense? They should have a simplified version for people like me because I was totally able to do it but kept running into problems because the directions wouldn't specify things. I hate that. You sewers out there are probably agreeing with me right? I'm not the only one that feels pretty hated upon and pretty dumb after reading through pattern directions not marked "easy". I feel like that kid in middle school. Maybe that's just a bad flash back ;)



I was also very excited to bring it to Lindsey's and have Isaiah try it on. He wasn't too thrilled to be in a dress but hey what little man would? I was able to get one semi good picture of him in it. I'm so glad that it fit. Now all I have to do is put the buttons on! And trust me, I don't need directions for that.


Churchill, the first-born, was very respectful of the sewing project. He always is. He loves to be near what's going on but he never touches. He's very curious but extremely cautious.


Huxley unfortunately was not so he didn't get to be near it :) I think he's just too young still, or maybe he's just kinda dumb. Jaime and I think he might be just a little bit stupid. He's awfully cute though.

Cookies round one!

So to fix the cookie delima I took two different pieces of advice. 1. I used a different recipe, thanks Lindsey. Instead of using the Joy of Cooking I used a Pillsbury recipe. 2. Like many people said, I chilled the dough for about 20 minutes before cooking.




I followed the directions exactly, besides this is the scientific method after all right? It said to mix the butter, sugar, and all that non floury stuff until it was light and fluffy. So I did.




I guess it's light and fluffy. I don't know how light and fluffy you can make a stick and a half of butter (and yes this recipe was halved.. if I didn't I'd be feeding the whole neighborhood chocolate chip cookies about now). That's one thing that I noticed. Joy of Cooking has much smaller servings, the entire dough was less than half of what Pillsbury ended up with. Maybe that has to do with our 'larger' culture. You know, how McDonald's small drink's were the original cup size? Anyway, cookies.




I thought that the dough turned out looking much harder than the previous cookie experience. maybe it was because the butter was still cold? But I swear the butter was still cold this weekend when I did it. Oh well, let the past be the past. I was really pleased with the dough, I mean, THIS looks like cookie dough. Maybe not as tasty dough though... this weekends failure dough was pretty darn tasty.


I chilled them before putting them on the rack. Look how cute they are all ready to be baked and all. Oh dear.. look how dirty my oven is.. maybe you shouldn't look at how dirty the oven is. I was very impressed with these cookies. They actually came out looking normal this time! So changing the recipe and chilling works wonders. Good to know. Now what I need to work on is taste. These are alright.. like almost an 8 out of 10 but not quite a 10.. I don't know how to change taste, how do I make it taste more like a cookie and less like bread? Did I inherit this?

Cookies

Last night we had friends over for dinner. I kinda feel like we belong in a sit-com since we live right next to our college friends.. kinda like Friends, but way cooler. Anyway, they came over for my pot roast extravaganza last night. The pot roast was really good, I was actually impressed that I could make something that tasted good. Sometimes I really fail in that department.
Our friends brought a corn casserole which my husband had a spiritual experience to and some brownie cookie bite things. Here's the delima. My cookies are always a massive failure. Always! But these cookie bites were fantastic, I ate like 15 of them. They were fluffy enough but moist and dense enough, they had chocolate chips in them. I was baffled. I have figured out that either 1. my neighbor/friend is the best cookie maker in the universe (which could quite possibly be true) or 2. she lied and used a box. Ok so either way I'm still a fan of the cookies and Sarah, don't you tell me if you made them from a box or from scratch, I would rather look up to you in the cookie department :)
So this is what my cookies always ALWAYS look like:


This past weekend I attempted to make cookies. I followed the recipe from Joy of Cooking to the letter. (except I added m&m's instead of chocolate chips but I don't think that matters) I let Jaime taste the dough and he was like 'woah, this is the best dough ever, these are going to be awesome cookies' or something like that. But when I baked them they looked like this:


So my question is this. What the heck am I doing wrong? Someone told me that I should use Crisco instead of butter. I just don't know if I could do that though. Sarah the next door neighbor friend asked if I used real eggs not the egg beaters... please. I'm not THAT healthy... wait, how did she know that I had bought egg beaters last week? No, honestly I didn't put them in the cookies, I did the cookies exactly how the recipe asked.
What am I doing wrong people?

In other news, cute things about my piano students. Yesterday a four year old student was showing me all the work he did in his Notespeller 'quiz' book. I praised him very much for doing a whole page! Then he said "yes, I was really trying to make you happy". His mother and I exchanged looks, it was adorable.
Next student comes in with a pinkie finger that had been slammed in a door. He did a very successful job of using his ring finger instead during the lesson. Half way through the lesson he reached over very quietly and poked me in the leg with the finger-that-was-about-to-lose-it's-nail-and-was-slammed-in-the-car-door. Gross. Little boys. Ew.
NEXT student comes in with blood pouring out of her mouth! I guess it was my day. Her mother said that it must have been a lose tooth but I've never seen a loose tooth be so bloody. (and on another note, am I going to have to deal with things like this when I have children? :) I checked back in on them in the bathroom almost five minutes later and it's still bleeding, bless her little heart. Apparently an orthodontist put a bracket on the baby tooth that came out so it wouldn't really come out all the way. How crazy! I felt so badly! They got a make up lesson for that one and got to run off to the orthodontist for some emergency care.
Thankfully the rest of my evening was much less eventful. And the dinner with friends was lovely.

What did I do wrong with the cookies?

Gosh I love to eat!

Here's my grocery list and it's on time! What a novel idea.
Before we get to that I would like to update that as of late our dogs have been going absolutely bonkers crazy. They normally run around every four or five hours to get some energy out after sleeping all day and that's fine with us. This past weekend, however, they have been little devils and not in the cute sense of the word. Three different times when we left them alone this weekend (remember we're practicing letting Huxley roam free instead of being in his crate) they trashed the place. I almost took a picture of it but then figured... that might be overkill for the blog. Every little bit of paper they could find! The first time it was the pattern that I used for Lindsey's baby baptism gown (I have got to take pictures of that, it's absolutely to die for!). When I was finished cutting out the material I stacked the left over pattern pieces, like tissue paper, near my sewing station. How they got it I do not know, but they took it downstairs and ripped it to shreds. It covered our living room, under furniture, on top of things, inside of things. I'm still finding little bits of pattern. Everywhere.
Time number two included the scraps from said baby gown. Apparently someone has found out how to get on to our coffee table. Not only were there little scraps of fabric everywhere but Jaime stepped on a needle and half a spool of thread is missing. I didn't see Huxley use the bathroom this morning... I don't think I need to explain any further.
Third time was my left over napkins and cup from Dairy Queen. We went last night and got Blizzards (I love Blizzards) and I guess I should have put my cup in the trash. The funny thing about all three of these events is that the things that were ripped up were not in places that would invite someone to rip them up. The cup was on a coaster on a table by the couch. Which means the dogs had to think ahead, get on the couch, lean over to the table and take the cup off. I also found, all three times, our front door mat (the one on the inside of the house) had been dragged halfway across the living room. It's a big door mat. My dogs are tiny. I'm not sure what's been into them except that because of the rain I can't walk them very far.

Today I'm really pumped because I'm making my very first (that's right Mom!) pot roast. It's in the crock pot right now. I'm so excited. I'm not sure how it will work, the amount of water you put in is tiny compared to how many things are in the pot. I couldn't even see the level of the water because of all the veggies. But I guess that's how it's done. I felt like such a Suzzie Homemaker when I checked myself out at the grocery store, bags of carrots, potatos, celery, onion, a big fat piece of raw meat. *Sigh!* The other day I told Jaime how much I really love cooking dinner for him. He responded with 'Really?! I thought you hated cooking, you always complain about it'. I only complained because I never have time to do fancy things. Three days out of the week I'm working so late that it's all I can do to put a pizza in the oven, much less make him lasagna or something. Something about cooking that makes me feel important, like I can take little pieces of something and put them together into something amazing. I had to tell Jaime that I hope someday to not have to work so late, to stay home more often so I can cook for him more. I think it opened his eyes just a little bit. (See, that's the problem with thinking someone can read your mind. He could have lived his whole life thinking that I hated cooking.)

Grocery List - it was a big one this week, no measley $30 grocery list this time.

Kashi Go Lean Crunch - I heard someone the other day complaining about Kashi cereal, that it was too expensive and that it was a fad. Well I would ask that person, what other cereal can you eat one cup of and get 9 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber? What other cereal can you eat like that that actually tastes good? I actually looked around the cereal section to see if I could find one comparable in calories, serving size, and protein and fiber. Couldn't find one.

2 Totinos Cheese Pizzas - Tuesday night's meal!
Gallon of 1% Milk
2 Cans of Progresso Vegetable Soup
1 Small Can of Tomato Paste - building up ingredients for Aunt Nancy's Italian Wedding Soup
2 Yoplait Non Fat Yogurt - Jaime, Boston Creme Pie, and Lemon something
Deoderant - no one likes a smelly Carrie! Besides, I had been using my husbands when mine ran out last week, don't tell, but I like smelling like him :)
1 Package of Flour Tortillas - I looked for the healthier kinds but they only had flour, that's alright.
1 Box of Mac anc Cheese
1 Package of McCormick Pot Roast Crock Pot Mix - you didn't think I did that part by scratch did you?!
Toilet Paper - We were literally down to the last roll!
Carrots!
Celery!
Bag of Onions!
One Clove of Garlic - it's amazing how this little guy makes things taste soo good and this clove only cost me like 30 cents!
Two Granny Smith Apples
Five Bananas
Bag of Potatoes
One Rump Roast!! - Can you tell I'm excited about this one?
Nature's Own Whole Wheat Bread - I don't know when my Mom started buying this stuff but I can't remember my life without it.. and I love it so much.

Ok so that's what I bought!
Total: $51.84

Not too shabby right?

You guessed it groceries!

Why not have four posts today? I mean really.

I didn't post groceries last week because my husband is on this credit card kick. It's a Best Buy card and he's OBSESSED with it. To put it lightly. So he stole off with the receipt before I could nab it and blog it. We spent around $60, on the high side for us but loaded up with frozen veggies and canned foods to last through this week too. We also bought dog food and paper towels which in my mind amount to 1/3 of the budget :)

This week, however, I'm keeping things slim. I thought I might want to make gumbo but forgot all the ingredients so I'm thinking I might save some money and go later, like, Wednesday and get it.

Nature's Own 100% Whole Wheat.. love this stuff
5 Granny Smith Apples
5 Bananas
Quaker Rice Treats - Chocolate (just for Jaime)
Rold Gold pretzels (just for me) (you guys, at least it's not candy.. seriously. But I do have dipping chocolate in the fridge...)
4 Yoplait Whips (Jaime Jaime Jaime)
2 Totinos Pizzas (but we got invited out for dinner at a friends on Tuesday.. so we might actually save these!)
1 bag of lentils (I read that they really do well to beef up meat loaf. Don't tell my husband that or he won't eat it.)
2 boxes of mac and cheese
1 sack of flour
1 sack of sugar
(after the cake making extravaganza of this weekend I ran out of both flour and sugar. What cake you might ask me? Black Forest cake with beer and sauerkraut and you betcha it was delicious.)
2 liter caffeine free coke (for Jaime)
2 liter coke zero (for me, Jaime went out with guy friends on Sunday afternoon so I bought coke and cheese dip from Hanbanero's and had myself a party at home)
2 packages of lean ground beef. (Can you believe that it's cheaper to buy two smaller packages of the stuff than one large one? Crazy. I was planning on making meat loaf with one of them and forgot what the second one was for. :) Ooops!)
2 cans of Campbells Tomato soup. Yum!
1 can of Campbells country veggie soup. Pour that over egg noodles why don'tcha?

All of this delicious food for just $37.90

The crazy things going on at home.

Funny things have been happening lately. Since I procrastinated in blogging they have piled up so this is the post that contains all the funny pictures, funny, cute, strange. All that good stuff. First we'll start out with this.

Yep it's a rosary. You guys may know that I'm a contracted singer for EWTN morning mass, Tuesday and Friday mornings. I really enjoy singing there. I love the music we sing and I also love the formality of the service. I just can't bring myself to convert though. Something about the whole Mary thing and whatnot. I won't get into it right now but for your sake just know that... it's just not my thing. I did however get a rosary in the mail. Has anyone else ever gotten one of these? I understand being sent mail that belongs to someone else and you think... oh well too bad. It's usually a car insurance gimmick or some magazine that the person who lived at your house before you subscribed to. I got a rosary. It weirded me out a little bit, I'm not going to lie. And yes, I stole it from the person who lived here before us. I just can't bring myself to throw it away yet.
Can you see her name printed on that little.. charm. If you know this person let her know that I have her rosary.


The next interesting thing is that I made a pumpkin dish for lunch on Saturday, the one my husband swore he wouldn't eat. Guess what, he ate it. He also said that the quinoa tasted like floam. (he knows what floam tastes like....) I liked it and I also think it's gosh darn pretty. So I took a picture of it.

This is what being married to a scientist gets you. Maybe we'll breed more scientists and I can come home to this all day long! Huxley recently became a full fledged adult with the loss of his very last baby tooth. I saw him eating something and told him to 'drop it' which he did. It was a tooth! Jaime just wants to know what the effects will be upon this tooth when it's placed in crystal light. Awesome. He can clean that one up.

And finally two obligatory posts of my adorable puppies. First is Churchill who has been sleeping near my shoes as of late. While I watch TV with Huxley Churchill will sulk off into a corner near my shoes. I'm not sure what that's about but I am sure that he'll cut it out eventually.
This one is all Huxley and his continual look of "awe shucks". Sarah our neighbor/friend (we moved next door to some college friends of ours.. aren't we cool?) coined that phrase so I can't take credit for it but doesn't it fit? He always looks like he's a little bit down in the dumps. Is that normal for a schnauzer? It's like he's saying "Awe shucks I lost my last baby tooth and I'm all grown up now". On another note we've been letting him stay in the house, loose, with Churchill for small periods of time and it's been working out. Our furniture is intact, all our belongings are where they are supposed to be, and the carpet is still in one place. Praise the Lord!

The Chocolate Shoe

This is the story of the chocolate shoe. I'm not even kidding. A while back if you will remember, the day before my birthday, I hosted the local RAPPAS (still don't know what that means) meeting here at my place of work. My amazing boss let me use the recital hall with the most expensive pianos being played that evening. It was wonderful. People liked my food, I played well, and even my loving adoring husband came to hang out. (It should be noted that I am not nearly this huge in real life. It just so happens that everyone else in this picture is smaller than average.)

There was one couple I'll call the Jones since all I can think of when I think of them is the saying "keeping up with the Jones". They are older and super super wealthy, I'm talking about the kind of person dreams are made of wealthy. They might actually be one of the wealthiest if not the wealthiest families in Birmingham. Not that I needed to know this or anything. Well they called to RSVP and even though they hardly ever play they always attend. Except the night I hosted! I didn't think much of it. Mr. Jones seems to be ill and getting around appears a bit challenging. I figured they weren't feeling well and I wasn't worried about it at all.



Until Mrs. Jones shows up at my place of work to apologize to me with... a chocolate shoe. My first thought was, you really don't have to apologize for anything, it wasn't a sit down dinner or anything. My second thought was... a chocolate shoe... who does that? I of course was honored to be the recipient of that shoe but I was baffled. I didn't even know that they made shoes like this. They make SHOES out of chocolate? I still can't get over it. I wanted to laugh out loud it was so funny to me. The funniest part was that several people who saw the shoe get delivered just ooooed and ahhhhhed over it's presence. They said things like, I couldn't bring myself to eat that, I would just have to set it out and look at it it's so beautiful. Which to me sounds like the kind of thing someone might say if they stay in a lot.




So yeah we held onto it for a while.. and then we ate it. And I do apologize for wearing the same shirt as I was on my birthday. I just love that shirt, this picture was taken at least a week later ;)

Gosh that shoe was yummy.


But really. A chocolate shoe? Do they make chocolate socks to go with them? I think this must be one of those southern things that I really just don't understand. I mean.. thanks for the shoe..?

Quilting

I'm working on several projects. One is just practice for me. Since I'm pretty good at making stuff up as I go along (something that stresses out my scientist-husband) I haven't ever really been taught how to do what I'm doing. I suppose sewing lends itself to people like me since it's really not that hard to correct most problems. It's a good thing I haven't done many large projects yet hmm? I'm so excited to have my own sewing space in our bedroom and I use it almost every day. It's a little bit cluttered but as I work I find new places for things and new ways of arranging things.




One of the projects that I'm working on, my practice project is to eventually make a jumbled up quilt of practice squares. I've been dutifully reading other quilting blogs to get ideas and inspiration and to actually find out what it is exactly I'm supposed to be doing :) One blogger was using her blocks to spell out words so I tried that the other night. Not too shabby. Since I don't really know how to make these made up blocks the same size. Actually I'm sure I could figure it out but then I would have to stop and think about it which might also halt my creativity ;) However another blogger gave me the idea of placing different sized blocks into the same quilt using graph paper. What a lovely idea! So I am combining the two. I also have several other blocks (of several different sizes) practicing different techniques that I've only seen online. One of which really intrigues me is this one. So I've been working.




The next project is much more organized and tidy. There are parts of me that just absolutely love stacks of things. Nice and neat stacks. Which is why I really love this part of quilting. I get to cut these nice neat stacks of fabric and put them all next to each other. It took me about two days to get all these cut and now that I'm done I'm so thankful. It's so easy to forget how long it takes to cut and how tedious it is when you're piecing.

Don't you just love the way these come together? I could eat these colors up. Since I'm a super beginner quilter I have a feeling that I'm pretty bad at picking out colors. I can't help but think that this one needs one more accent color to offset the blue but I just can't think what. I guess when I have several more squares done I'll look and see what seems to be missing. But right now I'm reveling in their jewel tone splendor!


Neat stacks :)


Here is a picture of something I saw someone else do on (you guessed it) a blog I read. I don't know what it's called... linking or something like that? But if you continue to sew without cutting your thread you'll actually save thread and it really works. It also cuts down on time which in this case is wonderful.


Here's a better look at my machine and the table part of the quilting area. Table given by the wonderful husband :) I absolutely love this machine. It was my grandmothers given to me after she died by my mother when she noticed I had a knack for sewing. I think this machine is the most beautiful one I've seen.. except maybe this one. It's gorgeous, but along the same lines as this one. The unfortunate thing it that this machine came with many different parts including different pedals but I have yet to find someone who can explain them to me. So for right now it's my workhorse that allows me to go forward and backward. No crazy zig-zags allowed for right now. Someday I have a dream of really learning all about it, someday when I'm not working all the time and running every other day :) Not that those are bad things.


My faithful assistant. I've found that as Huxley grows up he follows me more and more. Not in a needy way, Churchill is the definition of needy, but in an adoring sort of way. He'll follow me into the kitchen and lay down on the floor while I cook, follow me into the bedroom to sew, follow me pretty much where ever I go. Here he is posing with some work I'm ironing out. Someone needs a hair cut :)