For the Momma

I finished the kids hand print quilts over the weekend. So at least I did ONE thing over the summer. They gave them to her yesterday, and everyone was pleased with the result. Now, if I can just keep the juices flowing here, I might do something else besides play Scrabble on the computer and read books.




It is a stormy night here in AZ. After several days of above average heat, it is wonderful to see the rain. It is coming up from the Gulf and Julio so will be this way for a couple of days. That is OK with me, did my grocery shopping tonight and will happily stay home and watch it rain.

Still Kicking

I am still alive! I have found myself in the rather odd mood, for me anyway, of not having much to write about. Not even a rant in me lately. I am just enjoying a lazy summer here in AZ. Finished Colin's hand print quilt and working on Julia's a little at a time, reading lots of books and watching the Olympics on TV. I was worried about my lack of creative motivation for a while but lately, I am going with the flow. When the time is right, the spirit will move. That leaves boring blog posts but better than than pictures of messy closets

My great white hunter and I had a wonderful long weekend last week. We headed to the White Mountains and had a enjoyable mini vacation. Here he is trying to catch the big one.
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Here is the reason why our trip to the lake was rather short. A storm was moving in when we got there and kept on coming. It rained quite a bit that evening. We are managing to get rained on every time we head out this year. It has been a wet summer and in our dry climate, that is a real blessing.

Small Starts

Finn has been talking on her blog about losing her "MOJO". I guess that has been my problem all summer. I seem to be in a holding pattern here, but from what I read on the blogs, several others are there with us.

No big major project or progress to report but I am working on something somewhat quilt related. Hopefully, this will lead to other things and I will get back in the "groove."

When the kids were here during the day the last two weeks of July, we made things for their Momma's birthday. We used air dry clay and made pots that they painted. Nana forgot to get pictures before we wrapped them up. Another project for Momma was coloring these hand print little quilts to hang in her cubicle. I didn't get them quilted in time for the birthday though, so I am doing that now. I have not hand quilted in a while and it is taking a bit of practice to get my stitches even.

This is Julia's. I ironed the muslin onto freezer paper and drew a square, then we traced their hands. I had crayons set out for them to color and then I would heat set the wax. There were metallic markers on the counter too, and when I looked, she was doing hers with the marker. Art is art and the artist chooses their own medium so.....this is the wonderful result. Don't know that it is washable but it stands out so great.. She looked at all my fat quarters that I got at Goodwill and chose the backing and border.



Now, Nana was standing right there with Colin, so he colored his. He had a great time choosing colors from the big box of Crayola crayons. He picked out his fabric too, the new favorite color here is turquoise. He wasn't in to looking at all those fat quarters so luckily, this piece was near the top. I think they are great keepsakes. I have several things with their hand prints on them but these are big kid prints. Makes my heart ache at how fast those babies grew



The great white hunter and I are off for a long weekend. We are headed for the mountains and out of the heat for a couple of days. He is taking his fishing pole, I am taking my stitching, music and a new book I got for my birthday. Life is good.

Quilters Are the Greatest.

First off, thank you all for so many great birthday wishes. I had a good day. Went to the eye DR for my yearly diabetic eye exam. That went well and there is no sign of diabetic damage in my eyes. Then, the great white hunter took me out for lunch. A dear friend stopped by with a gift and took me out for dinner. (need I add that I over ate a little on my first day of year 61? DIET starts tomorrow) DD dropped by on the way home so Julia and Colin could give me a birthday hug and kiss. We will have a family celebration later in the month so we can blow out some candles.

Another great part of the day was the arrival of TWO packages in my mail box. One was from Kristie. A while back she had asked if I wanted some rolls of fabric strips that she had for my rag rugs. I said sure and this is what she sent. Now the cat thinks if it is on the floor it is hers, but she found out different once I had snapped the picture. Thanks Kristie for your thoughtfulness and your friendship. I will put the strips to good use.



The second box is a give away that I won on Debbie's Quilts and More blog last week. I could not believe all the goodies this box contained! It was so much fun seeing what I was going to find each time I reached in the box! There were 8 fat quarters, four of those were cat prints. I told Julia we would make something for her from them and she was thrilled.

The Clover Mini Iron and Thread Cutter Pendant are both things that were on my "buy someday list." And then there are all these fun things like lotion and lip gloss, quilting templates and CHOCOLATE and mints, little candles and a neat pair of scissors and even more. It was a wonderful give away prize and so fun that it came on my birthday. So thank you Debbie for such a generous prize. And yes, there is Princess Paris guarding what she thinks is her prize again.




Several of you mentioned having or seeing the Betty Crocker Cooky book that I mentioned in the Chocolate Crinkle post. This is my original copy. It looks OK on the outside but inside is a real mess. It has loose pages and the pages are all stained with shortening and chocolate. It is a good illustration of "use and abuse". It might be something you will find in used bookstores or antique stores. It has been reprinted though so might find it in a regular book store.

The LEGAL One

Today, according to the State of Colorado, I am 61 years old. According to my mother, who said she was THERE and should know about these things, I won't be that OLD until tomorrow. Hey, I will take a extra 24 hours of being just 60!

Confused? Here is my story, "Who Knows For Sure?"

Chocolate Crinkles

Last week Julia asked if we could make "those good cookies that you roll in that white stuff."?

These are another of my old family favorites. The recipe came from a Betty Crocker cookie cookbook that my mother bought when I was in high school. Now, Mom hated to cook so I have never been quite sure why she bought the book, except about that time, I started baking whenever she wasn't home. She would say I could make something and then just take over the job because she didn't enjoy it, wanted it done and the mess cleaned up. So, I would ask Daddy if I could bake something while she was at work. Hey, he didn't care, in fact he encouraged my efforts. The only condition was that I have the mess completely cleaned up by the time she got home. Thus started my love of cooking and baking. Also explains why when the great white hunter and I got married, I could make a great apple pie from scratch, bake any kind of cookie you might want but had NO idea how to get a dinner on the table. That took a while, a few tears and more than one dinner unfit to eat.

So, I have been making these cookies now for about forty years, because one time when we were home on leave, she gave me the cookie book saying I had used it way more than she ever had or would. It is one of my prized possessions, even has a page where my youngest sister (now 46 years old) scribbled on a page while she was watching me bake. I think she was about four.

A few years ago they reprinted the cook book and the great white hunter bought me a new copy because the old one was starting to show the lovely hours we had spent together.



Julia and Colin really helped with these. I doubled the recipe so they each had the same amount of sqs. of chocolate to unwrap, eggs to crack and cups and spoonsful to measure. Then after the dough chilled, they each had their own bowl of "white stuff" to roll them in. They did a good job testing them after they cooled also. Yummmy.


Chocolate Crinkles

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 sq. unsweetened baking chocolate (4oz.) melted

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoons salt.

1 cup "white stuff" (aka powdered sugar)

Mix oil, chocolate and granulated sugar. Blend in one egg at a time until well mixed. Stir flour, baking powder and salt into oil mixture. Chill several hours or overnight.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Drop spoonfuls of dough into powdered sugar. Shape into balls. Place about 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Do not over bake. (You can tell they are done if they look dry on top....not real dry but you won't see any moisture) Store in tightly closed container.

Enjoy!

Problems

Several of you wrote to say that it was a Sitemeter problem but there is a note on the sign in page of blogger saying that it was their problem and the blogs were marked as spam. Not sure what it was, just glad it went away without any major fuss on my part. I can use a computer, but FIX it is a whole other story. There are several very computer savy folks in my family, but glad it is fixed without me having to appeal to them for help. Thanks for all the helpful comments!



I am having some major problems with Internet Explorer not letting me open several blogs, mine included. Anyone else having this problem? Seems really odd that I can open a some but not others. Oh well, maybe it will be fixed by morning and is not my problem after all. I hope not as I have NO clue what to do to fix it.

I Want to Thank........

my mother who was always making something, my great white hunter, who encourages me more than anyone, my friend Mary Ann, who gets gifts made with my little hands that she loves, and of course, my kids and grandkids who cheer from the sidelines.


Then, I must thank Patty at Pip Stitch for awarding me this award. It made me smile and feel good, but not so sure I deserve it right now.

Having said that, I am wondering where my creative self is? I know it is floating around here somewhere in the stash of fabric, thread and notions, patterns and UFO's. (not to mention yarn, knitting needles, emboirdery thread and pattern, crochet hooks and thread plus assorted paints, brushes and what have you.) Maybe someday, it will magically reappear?

I am supposed to award this to others. I just awarded something so this one goes to all those bloggers out there who inspire me on a daily basis. I am amazed by the wonderful projects on the blogs I read. The wonderful way everyone shares their work. Their talent tells me that the wrong folks are running the world. It should be craft minded people who work with their hands and share with their hearts.

Kaleidoscopes

Pam of Passionate Purple Quilts has some gorgeous kaleidoscope blocks on her blog. Elaine at Elaine Adair Pieces has some scrappy ones on her blog also. This is a block I have always wanted to try but needed a ruler to cut the wedges. After looking at their wonderful results, I went shopping. Pam was really helpful telling me about her ruler.

This is what I bought, it is the Kaleido-ruler by Marti Mitchell. I ordered it from Joann's. com using a 50% off coupon. So that covered the shipping. How it can cost almost $7 to mail a piece of plastic drives me crazy but that is another post! I am excited to try it and hope my blocks are half as well done as theirs are. They have really set a high standard here! (so I will practice a lot before I post one!) Quilt In A Day has one also, but it was just to cut the wedges, this one is for the side blocks also.




Julia and Colin were here all last week during the day and we had a sleep over on Friday night. It was DD's birthday on Sat. plus they celebrated their wedding anniversary during the week. Kids stayed here so Mom and Dad could go out to dinner. They will be here this week, then off to school. Needless to say, we are having great fun. We have been in the pool everyday, made gifts for Momma's birthday and played. Nana, then crawls to the couch with a book after they go home and then off to bed early so she can do it again the next day. The energy that those two have is a little challenging to keep up with when you are a old lady!

Feeling Usless

The quilting slump is still here. In fact, I am not doing anything! My rag rug is sitting waiting for the next row, and I am not too into that either. Wish I could say my house was clean and my bills paid but, that is not happening either. I will blame it on the weather but, I think I need a good kick in the pants to get me going. Maybe tomorrow?

Promised more of the flowers who make a statement in the AZ heat. This one is about as loud a statement as you can find. We don't have one of these grand bushes but my neighbors do. (bet they were wondering what crazy Norma was doing taking a close up of a bush in their front yard on the way back from the mail box!) I think this is a Mexican Bird of Paradise. If any of you know different, let me know. It really draws humming birds but also draws bees and wasps in great numbers, which is why the great white hunter does not want one.....darn!




This is a Bougainvillea. They are popular plants in the Southwest because they thrive in the heat. They come in other colors also. They also have nasty thorns. I asked the great white hunter son #2 about the huge one he has in his back yard the other day and he said it was doing fine. Then he said it was "evil". It is a very messy plant when it is in full bloom..........a big, beautiful splash of color but the flower petals are paper thin and drop to the ground leaving a constant mess. I love them anyway. You can't have that much beauty without paying some price for it. Same for the bees and wasps. I just showed a few flowers because the plant is heat stressed and not covered like it will be in the Fall and Spring.