a little clean-up

I know this is late for Valentine's Day, but this is too good to be true!  We (Bob and I) have been working on some cleaning up, sorting out and re-organizing.  During the excavating, we have found many gems.  This is a good one--

Such a sweet reminder of our fun days with both Brita and Dan when they were young.

And a reminder of my own childhood--

These little cookbooks were mine, and I remember them well!  Even though I thought these little books were very special, everything I really learned about cooking was from my mom.  She could write a wonderful cookbook of her own!

This doesn't look like much, but it's a wonderful sight to me!  This is a little cubbyhole closet underneath the basement steps.  When this space was created, I fully intended that it would be outfitted with some sort of shelves.  That was about 20 years ago!  It was just never at the top of the "to-do list".  Random things were thrown in there, but I sort of knew what was in there.  Mostly it was a lot of boxes of old tax records, now largely shredded and disposed of, thanks to Bob's quality time spent with the shredder!  Remember, you really only need to keep 7 years of records!  So we installed a few little shelves and I even narrowed down my collection of boxes.  It's not a horde, it's a collection!  

In some spare time, I have learned a new variation of a design for my quilting, and practiced it on a little boy quilt.  This isn't a real good depiction of it, but with a little more practice it will be fun to use in the future.  

 I have seen this done before, but had never taken the time to really see how to best do it.  I found some great videos by Angela Walters, a name known to many in the quilting world.

  You can watch this video by clicking here.

And maybe take a minute or 2 to enjoy some of her other videos, too.  It's great to have that kind of learning opportunity.

good eating

I've been doing some on-line research on the topic of once-a-month-cooking and today I have been busy in or near my kitchen all day long! This is not the norm for me! I do like to do some cooking, but what I still struggle with is thinking of what to cook. Bob is much better at that than I am. Even after raising up those kids and living the good life in the empty nest, I still can't seem to get my act together 9 times out of 10! So even though these monthly cooking binges are more aimed at younger families with kids at home, I am applying some of those principles for the 2 of us. This is what I came up with--

Oh, that's just the detritus of my day of slaving over a hot stove! The good stuff is mostly already in the freezer: 2 pans of tater tot hotdish, 3 pans of porcupine meatballs, 2 containers of chicken pot pie filling with accompanying frozen crusts, 2 pans of apple & sausage pancakes, 2 bags of bean & ham soup, and soon 2 bags of beef stew. Whew! And a roast with potatoes and carrots in the oven for supper! It has been kind of fun, except for the dirty dishes part, and this will get me off the hook for many nights to come! A wonderful autumnal day here and I found this when I went out to the mailbox--

I love the feel of that milkweed fluff, it is like nothing else on earth. Some of the plush minkee-type fabrics do come close, I think that's why I always see people fondling those bolts in the shop!

I finished up a quilt for Donna, a friend and member of the Ham Lake Piecemakers. It is a collection of blocks with a sunflower and birdhouse theme. Very cute, and now ready for binding!

Remember back in August I told you about the closet? Well, the makeover is nearly done, and this is what it's looking like now--

I think I'm ready to put the doors back on and call it done. I feel so good about the sorting and cleaning that this involved, with quite a few things heading elsewhere to new homes. I found an alarming number of bags of all shapes and sizes, that many bags can't be healthy! So 3 bags full of bags went to my mom for a church bazaar and I have one bag of bags to give to Brita, but I am still left with 4 big bags of bags! So I will be considering what to do about that. Bob did a fabulous job putting up all those shelves with good support so my heavy boxes don't make them saggy.

Sooo--that's what I've been up to lately. And finished the Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, a spellbinder to the very end. It's the end of the stories about Lisbeth Salander, and I would love to continue reading more mysteries about her, so it's bittersweet to be done. She's the grownup version of Pippi Longstocking, one of my favorite storybook characters. I wanted to be just like Pippi! But that was the 60's, and anything seemed possible! But every now and then I think I need to get in touch with my inner Pippi, don't you?

on the home front

Yesterday Bob had a hankering to indulge in some special cooking and when we saw a cooking show about grilling pork roasts, he knew he wanted to try this. Who knew that Balinese BBQ could be so good! The spices in this concoction were incredibly aromatic, especially when they got heated up. He used his handy-dandy rotisserie to do the cooking, but it could also be accomplished in a regular grill or oven. We both loved the result!

I happily finished up a big quilting project yesterday, you can read about it on the Bear Patch blog. It took me a good chunk of time to decide what to do and then to carry out the plan. I am pleased with the outcome, but I do find something like this very challenging. I know that this will be a quilt that will draw viewers who come during the Shop Hop specifically to see the quilt and get the pattern. I'm not necessarily comfortable with that kind of pressure, because even though Laurel designed and constructed the quilt, I know that the quilting that I add can really enhance what she has already done and make it something that people will like. Or, it can be so-so (or should that be sew-sew), and leave me wishing I had done something else! I guess we will all see come April 30!

I have recently prepared some new samples for my pattern, Going Sewing, and had so much fun using selvedge edges from a variety of fabrics. I'm going to offer it as a class at Bear Patch next summer as part of my series of accessories for those who sew.

We are quietly celebrating Valentine's day with Bob in the kitchen again. This is so fun! He is making risotto, scallops, and green beans. Yummo!

reaching the summit

I got a phone call this afternoon from Dan and Bob (DS and DH). They were on their way back to the campground after standing atop Long's Peak (pictured above) in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado this morning! I am so happy that they made it up and down safely and before the weather turned bad. They hit the trail at 1:15 AM and there were other hikers ahead of them. Seems a little extreme, but has proven to be the smart way to conquer this mountain. It is a strenuous climb, with some treacherous paths, and a milestone to complete. Bob has done it before, a few years ago with my dad (who must have been in his 70's at the time) and then another attempt with Brita (DD) a couple years ago. That trip resulted in turning back due to bad weather, and there's an interesting story that goes along with it. Bob and Brita had gone a major portion of the way and were resting in a little hikers' hut, taking shelter out of the cold wind. No hikers were going beyond that point, and other people that had reached the top had descended below them. There were 2 other guys in the shelter, and Bob and Brita wanted to record their own accomplishment on film for posterity, so they asked the guys to please take their picture together with the peak in the background. Imagine their surprise when they declined! Turns out they were Amish and their religion forbids taking pictures (something to do with false images, I guess). What a weird moment--the only people on the mountain to snap the picture and they couldn't!

I had totally planned to spend the day sewing and quilting, but instead have been cooking. Zucchini bread because we have a bunch from the garden but it only used up 1 zuke. Spaghetti sauce because I have a lot of basil in the garden but it only used up 1/10th of what's out there. Meatballs to go with the spaghetti. Chicken stuffing hotdish. Beef roast in the crock pot. Lots of dirty dishes! Some of this is going into the freezer, some going to friends. Since I'm home alone for a few days there's not a lot that will get eaten here. But it's fun to indulge in a cooking fest once in a while.

Now maybe I can sneak in a bit of quilting before it's too late to focus!