Senior Night

Last night was bittersweet, Kaitlyn cheered at her last high school game. They recognized all the senior boys and girls basketball players, bowling team, drill team and the cheerleaders. All the parents escorted their senior out and they announced their plans for the future. It was nice catching up with parents we haven't seen lately. Kaitlyn went to grade school with some of the kids, others she met in middle school and others she played on the same team for softball and basketball. The cheerleader sponsors bought balloons and flowers for each senior cheerleader. They also had a poster with their cheer picture on it and a collage of cheer pictures. It is hard to imagine she's a senior and will be graduating this May. We enjoyed the game but the lady in front of Amy probably did not, Amy got a hold of Kaitlyn's balloons a couple of teams and hit her in the head. The 6 senior cheerleaders performed at halftime and than the senior drill team members performed.

It looks like our camera has been dropped one too many times, the pictures aren't very good.

Today I finally got my Trashy swap mailed out it was a lot of fun working on my projects. Now on to finish a play food swap with my local parenting friends.

Prim Rag Candle Mat Tutorial

I've made quite a few of these candle mats lately, so the last time I thought I'd just share how I make them.

Get a piece of muslin,double your material, than decide how big you want your mat to be, I used my largest pan lid.When determining your size don't forget you'll be ragging an inch of your material. You also need to cut a piece of flannel or something else for the middle of your mat. Cut it about an inch and a half shorter than your muslin.



I added an inch more around my lid to make it bigger.
Cut out your material, you need a front and back out of the muslin.


Decide what you want in the middle of your mat, on this one I used a heart. I also made it a little prim by making one side shorter than the other. On the mats at the bottom I put a heart on one side and a star on the other side.

If you are only using one side pin the heart in the middle on top on the muslin, flannel, muslin sandwich. Sew about an 1/4 inch in on the heart. That part will rag too.
If you want a front and back applique than you need to sew the front on to only the muslin and the back on to the other applique. Than make your muslin sandwich.



Now you need to sew an inch in all the way around. I have scissors for rag quilting but found that using good children scissors work and you don't have to worry about cutting into your seams like with big scissors.



Washing your mat and drying in the dryer makes the ends raggedy. I also found taking sand paper and rubbing the ends helps too. (We're a little crucnhy and don't use a dryer so sand paper worked for me.)

If you want to grung your mat up -- I forgot to soak my mat in tea or coffee first and tried to grunge it up, it looked like I spilled coffee on it so than I soaked the whole thing in a tea bath. After drying I used a mixture of instant coffee, along with coffee and cinnamon and vanilla. I than baked it in the oven on 200 degrees till I liked the look.

I hope this makes sense if you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer.




This is a reversible candle mat, I made for a swap.

It's snowing in KC

It's snowing today in Kansas City! Amy and I are went to tumbling this morning and the roads were pretty clear but by the time we left the snow was really coming down. Big beautiful flakes it looked like a winter wonderland, we had plans for the afternoon but decided to stay home instead.

Yesterday I went to a local furniture store that sells new and secondhand furniture. I was looking for a pie safe or something similar to replace this ugly buffet we have in the dining room. I could paint the buffet and change the handles but I'd like to go a little smaller in the length. I didn't find anything that would work yesterday but have a few more stores I'm going to check out soon. It's frustrating when you know what you want but aren't having any luck finding one that's affordable or you like.




I'm still working on the skeleton key ornaments that I posted on a Year of Christmas Blog. I don't really like the red silky ribbon, so I'm getting rid of that, I like the one with the threes pieces of ribbon/material with the heart safety pinned.
The one with just the rusty bell is too plain. Any suggestions??




I received these cute heart bowl fillers in a swap from Barbara, that was hosted by Hayley.





I'm participating in Colleen's weekly recipe swap, check out her blog and all the other great recipes.
This recipe is one of our family favorites. I'm in a cooking club with a group of mom friends and we meet once a month to swap frozen meals. This recipe is from Don't Panic Dinner's in the Freezer book 2.


Parmesan Garlic Chicken

6 boneless chicken breasts
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 envelope Italian dressing mix (We use Simply Organic)
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 cup olive oil

6 servings

Cooking day

Mix together cheese, garlic, and Italian dressing mix. Dip chicken breasts in olive oil, then coat with cheese mixture. Wrap each chicken breast individually, than place in a freezer bag.
Freeze
Serving Day

Thaw completely. Unwrap desired number of chicken breasts and place in a greased baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes until chicken is tender and no longer pink.

Today was Melissa's third day back to school after having surgery in December. She gets to take the elevator and the teachers let her out early to get to class so she doesn't have to walk in the crowded hallways. The hallways was my biggest concern and I'm glad it is working out well for her. She was very excited to get back to school. The above picture is a copy of a x-ray showing the screws in her back.



I finally posted on A Year of Christmas. You can read about the Christmas tree skirt here and the snowman ornaments here. A group of moms on Sewing Mama started a blog to work on Christmas projects and presents throughout the year instead of starting a few months before Christmas. There are a lot of great projects shown, so check them out. February is comfort and joy so that is anything that comforts you, some ideas were quilts, pillows, pillow cases, rice bags, etc, etc. I do know I want to finish Jaime's horse quilt that I started a few years ago.


This picture might be a little better than the one posted on YOC blog.


I finished a baby sling for a cousin and it will be in the mail tomorrow. I also mailed out my primitive valentine swap that Hayley from Prim It Up hosted.



The picture above is a little dark and the picture below is the two candle mats I made one for the swap and one for me. The candle mat came out a little darker than I was going for but I posted on a prim forum and the ladies there said it looked great. I'm hoping my swap partner likes it too.

Goodies in the Mail

These came in the mail earlier this month Book 10 and 11 of the Gooseberry Patch Christmas books. I love Gooseberry Patch Christmas books and have almost all of them. All through the year I thumb through them getting ideas for Christmas. I feel like a kid when I received my newest ones in the mail. I also ordered a few other items like these cute popcorn bowls in blue,yellow,red and green.

Gooseberry Patch will no longer have a catalog they send in the mail, you can still order online. I love to get the catalog and be able to take it with me and when I have a spare moment I enjoyed looking through the pages. Goodbye catalogs I've enjoyed you for years!

We're having a heat wave!

After a week of 6-0 degree's weather, it's down right hot in Kansas City. Twenty-eight degrees feels warm. I don't mind the snow but would rather have temps in the double digits. The kids are back in school today after the Christmas break, they enjoyed their extra week off. Melissa will start her home bound work this week and should go back to school either the last week of January or first week of February.

Last week I felt like Betty Crocker baking something also every night. With no school and it being so cold you didn't want to get out I found more time for baking. I've been working on some Christmas projects and hope to finish them up soon. I also signed up for a couple swaps that I need to get started on soon.

Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful day at my in-laws for New Years day. KC Strip steak and hot boiled shrimp have become a tradition that we all look forward too. I forgot my camera to get pictures but wanted to post some random pictures recently taken.




The wonderful things a three year old adds to the tree (a Furby) and about ten ornaments in the same spot.



I've always admired Fiesta dinnerware and a friend was showing me her collection, she said she received most of hers as Christmas and birthday presents. Two Christmas ago I received Peacock and Scarlet and this Christmas Sunflower, Tangerine and Chocolate were under the tree. Don't they have a pretty harvest look all together?






Kaitlyn made this apron in her sewing class. I'm glad she gave it to me for Christmas since I had the Michael Miller Christmas material in my stash. The pattern she used was from A is for Apron.



My Christmas cards I mailed out on New Years Eve!