Frozen Dinners

Now that I work nights, Mark is home every night making dinner for him and the boys. I wanted to make it easier on him, so I spent an entire making 21 dinners and freezing them. There's not much to write about this, except it was so fulfilling!! I cooked all the meat together, assembled the rest of the recipes while it cooled, and then added it to the bags. I labed all the bags, including a simple note as to how to cook it (crock pot, bar b que, skillet, oven), and then laid them on cookie sheets to freeze. Once they were frozen I can now stand them up in my freezer, all nice and organized. I have the complete cooking instructions stuck to the fridge, and we just pull one out of the freezer in the morning, and by the afternoon he is ready to cook it up! I managed to hit REALLY great sales when I bought all the ingredients, and it spent less than a hundred dollars on 21 meals.

STOP

Last week I turned this......
to this
My handsome little nephew has a car bed, and they are working on decorating his room in a correlating theme, and a while back I suggested road signs. Well, we had these wobbly three-legged round tables, and one of them broke on me, so I decided to take the round top and make a stop sign. It was a fun project; not too hard, but with just a hint of problem solving. The first task was to make a perfect octagon. I basically divided the circle into 8 segments, so I divided 360 degrees by 8 to get the angle of the triangle. Then, I found the radius of the circle, that would be the two equal sides of the triangle. Once I had a triangle of that size cut out, I just marked up the circle, creating an Octagon. I painted the whole thing white, then taped off the border so I could paint one side black, the other side red. Before painting the red I cut out the four letters, and used a spray adhesive to make them stick. When it was all dry, I peeled of the tape and the letters, and voila! I had to touch up the letters where the red bled under the paper, but it looks great!
It was so fun to give it to him!! He was so proud of it, and didn't want to leave it inside. He showed it to his sisters, "I got a stop sign, its a big one!" Once his mom hung it on the wall, "it's beautiful! It says, STOP, no girls allowed" That little guy.....

My Favorite

This stitchery is my favorite one I have ever done, for SO many reasons. My husband's parents served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Atlanta, Georgia. While they were gone my husband was working for an airline, so we had the opportunity to fly down to Georgia and spend a few days with them. We had lots of fun, and I LOVED seeing all the old beautiful homes in the south. They were scheduled to come home right around Christmas, and I had found the pattern for this stitchery and new it just had to be their Christmas present that year. This one was so much fun to do! It was nice and big, which I love to do a BIG stitchery. It had such a mix of detail, background, simple stitches, blended colors, and intricate back-stitching. It had a little bit of everything, which is why I loved doing it so much! Now, everytime I walk by it hanging in their home, I remember how much fun I had doing it, and how much fun we had together in Atlanta.

A Labor of Love

27 years ago my mother made a quilt for the baby in her belly, me. It was a bright orange with 12 gingham animals on it. I loved it, and used it, and left it in the wagon one spring and it is now covered in rust stains. I still have it. Well, when my best friend (who has been my best friend since my mother made that quilt) got pregnant, I decided to make her a replica of my blanket, one that she remembers as well as I do.

I, obviously, decided not to do it in orange, but picked a beautiful baby blue flannel, which I love!

I tackled MANY firsts in this quilt, which is why I have titled it a labor of love. I had never done hand-quilting before, or applique work, or embroidery. The edge work of triangles was also a first for me, and a very scary task which is now my favorite part of the quilt.
I had presented the un-finished top of the quilt to my friend at her baby shower, with the promise that I would take it home and finish it in the months to come. I had been planning on edging it with the triangles, but hadn't told her, and while I was visiting her during her shower, we happened to be wrapped in a quilt that was finished this same way. She made a big deal in pointing out what a cute finish it was, and I smiled knowing that I was already planning on finishing hers that way. I intended on keeping it a surprise until she opened it, but knowing that I wouldn't be there to get the reactions, I sent her a photograph of the quilt in a text message, and was thrilled her response! She was in fact surprised by the adorable gingham triangles, and pleasantly surprised if I might add.

There is a lot of hours in this quilt, and even more love. Amanda, I hope you love it as much as I loved making it, and call me when you get the package in about 3 days....