Mmmmm.........muffins........

We have a client that is an older lady and she likes to shell pecans when they're in season. So at Christmas time she told her kids that she wanted pecans to shell. Well, they came through with about 300 pounds of pecans for her. Then, she also knows another man that owns and orchard and dropped by out of the blue one day and brought her another 300 pounds!! So, she's been giving pecans to everyone that she can.

I just happened to stop by to pick up her paperwork in the midst of all of this and was the happy recipient of a couple of bags of shelled pecans. And they're really good too.

So, I've been making goodies with pecans in them. We don't generally like pecans in our breads or cookies so I've been looking for things that revolve around the pecans. I came across this recipe for Pecan Pie Muffins at The Girl Who Ate Everything.

They were really good!! To be honest, I don't really care much for pecan pie (I know! I know! My mother wonders how I can be both a southern girl and her daughter.) but I really liked these. They're gooey and decadent and just all around good.

My how time flies!

Wow! It seems that another bunch of time has passed since I was on here last. I haven't really had time to work anything new. I've got a couple of recipes that I'll share soon but that's been about the whole of it.

It was a crazy busy tax season at the office and with quarterly reports now due it hasn't really slowed down much.

We've also been busy dealing with the crappy stuff that life sometimes throws at us all.

Two weeks ago one of our dogs was poisoned with anti-freeze. What a horrible thing to do to an animal. It's an awful way to die. And the daughter that this dog belonged to was very attached and involved with her dog and she loved him so very much. It's been heartbreaking to see her go through the hurt of his death and how awful it was.

Not long before this happened, she painted this picture of him:

Not bad for a 14 year old girl that's taking art at school for the first time this year......if I do say so myself. lol

She is coping with it by drawing and painting and I'm glad she has that outlet.

Another daughter was in a pageant yesterday and when we got home I found that our refrigerator isn't cooling. *sigh* I am completely grateful that we have another refrigerator in the garage that doesn't usually have much in it so that I at least had somewhere to put the food until we can get a repair man out to the house.

But somewhere in the meantime, I'll try to get back to doing things that I like.....

Look at me.....farming......

Wow! I had no idea!!!

I saw (of course on Pinterest) that you can put the end of romaine lettuce in water and it will regrow. So of course I tried it.


And it works!!!


I've currently got two going.

As you can see, it grows pretty fast. I'm going to plant the bigger one in dirt pretty soon. I figure to actually keep it going we'll have to do this several more times so that there are always different stages of them. I'm going to try to keep them all in a big pot in the house so that all the wild critters don't get into them.

So far I'm thinking this is pretty neat. What do you think? Does this count as recycling?

What a great pot holder!

Last month at sewing club during show and tell, one of the other ladies there had a pot holder that was pure genius. I heard her tell someone else that she used a pattern that she had bought somewhere else. So, the next day I got online and found it at Whistlepig Creek Productions. You can purchase either a print version to be mailed to you or you can download a pdf file.

Anyway, I think these are genius. And the reason is because these pot holders are made in bowl form to be used in the microwave. You put the bowl in the potholder, THEN you put it in the microwave. That way, when you take it out you don't have to life something hot to get it onto your hot pad. Genius, right?!

 I'm going to be making many of them.

This is my first attempt:

 

It didn't turn out quite as bowl shaped as I wanted it, but that is totally my fault. I cut the places where the darts go (which is what makes it curl up into the bowl shape) and then trimmed my pieces. After that I didn't go back and re-cut my darts so they're smaller than they're supposed to be.

 

Oh well, it still works. I've already used it several times. I'm going to make more as soon as I have some time to sit and sew for me. I'm pretty sure these will be gifts for quite a few people this year.

Easter Wreath

I saw a picture on pinterest of a cute Easter Bunny wreath so decided I needed to make one.

Here's my finished wreath....

Here's how I made mine:

I started with a pool noodle. (Note: this is one that I picked up off the side of the road to use for something else last year and then changed my mind.)

I cut about 10 inches of it off  so that I could make a smaller circle with it. I used duct tape to hold my circle together.

 

 

Then I wrapped my boas around until it was covered. Because I used a green noodle it took me 5 boas to cover it and probably could have used another but I didn't want to wait to finish it until I made it back to the store. :0)

I used the ears from an Easter headband.

I cut them off of the head band and glued them onto my wreath. The boas have little loops at each end of them and I left one of them loose to hang the wreath with.

So here's the finished wreath.

So.....I still think it's cute, but I made my circle a little too big because I think it looks kind of like a cat. HA! And Dax says he's not sure which end of the bunny he's looking at here. (He's a sick, sick man. lol)

Anyway, today I clicked through on Pinterest and read the original post on how to she made hers -- because who would want to read the instructions first? -- and hers is a lot easier than what I did. Go figure! You can check out Mrs. B's Hive's post here, and trust me, her directions are a lot easier.

I have a finish!!

Oh my! I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted. Where has the time gone?

I have been busy, but doing orders for people (which I am grateful for) so I haven't done as many new things to show here.

I did, however, make a new purse for myself.

 

I used my new sewing machine to embroider the initial on the front of the bag (woohoo!) and to sew the bag together. I also included two large pockets in the center of the bag.

 

For the outer fabric, I used a cotton tablecloth that I bought at Target on clearance and used some red ticking from my stash to line the inside and make my pockets. I didn't have a pattern, so I was just winging it.

I'm happy with how the bag turned out, but it's rather big. Well, bigger than my other big purses. lol My husband said that he wasn't going to be seen with me if I was carrying that suitcase. But, he lies because he's already been out in public with me. Ha!

But, in his defense (and he'll probably never let me forget it) when I was at the grocery store the other day, the cashier thought it was my own shopping bag to put the groceries in (poor guy, awkward silence followed after I told him it was my purse.)

Life changing sewing tip!

Okay, I know it's been forever since I've posted something new here. I guess I'm not doing so well with the 'now' resolution as far as blogging goes......but maybe not.


I've had these pictures for some time but can't find my finished project to show. I finally decided to quit waiting for that and go ahead and post this tip 'now'. See? See how I did that? I turned things so that it looks like I really am keeping my resolution. It's one of my lesser known but highly developed talents. LOL


Anyway, I've seen it other places on the internet (which is how I found out about it) but haven't really seen it in that many places.


And I swear, it's one of the best sewing tips I've ever happened across!


I started with this ribbon (about 3 inches wide)

 

 

Now set your stitch length to the longest possible and your tension to the tightest possible and just sew down your ribbon (or fabric). That's it! (I have a video but can't seem to get it to load....grrr!)

Anyway, you'll end up with this:

Amazing, isn't it?

I used this technique for the ruffle on the comforter for Kirsten. This makes gathering so easy that I don't mind doing it at all anymore.


Let me know if you try it and if you think it's as life changing as I do!