Another Tree

I pulled out my AWH this past weekend and decided to start the dreaded tree. I knew the blue would be fast so I thought why not spend Fri-Sun working on the tree and leave the blue for last...that would go much quicker than this dreaded tree.

I got out of my rotation this summer so I am trying to get back into a stitching rotation. I am making one minor change though...I want to stitch a small project in between my larger ones. Right now I am on my Mill Hill kick and have several Halloween kits I want to stitch up. I just love halloween patterns!!

I did get some excitment today!!! I went into my local Grocery Store, Allens, and couldn't believe what I found!!! Just some background, I live in a retirement village just turned into a city. This grocery still carries out your groceries and puts them in your car. They keep the small dum dum suckers in their pouches to give to the kids. I found the Halloween issue of JCS!!!!! I was so excited!!!! I immediately called my friend Debbie and asked if she wanted one too!!!

I know I have some people who read my blog, I was wondering what you were currently reading? I am reading Peppermint Twisted by Sammi Carter. This is the 3rd book in her Candy shop mystery series. Would anyone be interested in doing a Book Challenge? There 18 weeks left in the year and maybe we could set a personal goal to read 10 books before the end of the year. Leave me a comment if you would be interested. I thought it sounds like fun...it could be any book you choose. Let me know what you are thinking!!

Celestial Chocolate French Toast

Several people have e-mailed for this recipe, however I can't take credit for it. I got this from Sammi Carters - Chocolate Dipped Death, the 2nd book in her Candy Shop Mystery books, which I highly recommend. There are several more GREAT recipes in each of her books!!!

What you need for 6 servings

3 1.55 oz milk chocolate candy bars (no nuts)

3 eggs

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

1/4 teaspon salt

12 slices of day -old bread ( I just plain old white bread

2 tablespoons real butterpowdered sugar (for dusting at the end)

How to:

Break each candy bar in half, the short way. Grate just a little chocolate (no more than 1/2 teaspoon off of each piece) and save in a small bowl for later.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with milk, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Pour half of this mixture into a large (13 x 9) ungreased baking dish.

Layer six slices of break horizontally over the egg mixture. Place one piece of candy bar in the center of each piece of bread. Top each slice with remaining pieces of bread like sandwiches. Pour the remaining egg mixture over the bread. Let this stand for at least 5 minutes so the bread can absorb the egg mixture.

On a griddle or in a large skillet, meth teh butter over medium heat. Fry sandwiches until golden brown on both sides. Add an additional 2 teaspoons of butter midway, if cooking in batches.

To serve, cut each sandwhich diagonally. Dust with confectioners' sugar and sprinkle with chocolate shavings.

Weekend Stash-finish-Cherokee Child

Today was a GREAT shopping day for me!!! I went to my LNS for our monthly Boo Club and I found some new patterns. I bought the two of the Brittercup monthly designs series. I also got two new mill hill Halloween kits. I have fallen in love with stitching Mill Hill Halloween designs. They turn out so cute when finished!!!

Then I walked over to the Rabbits Lair and bought 3 yards of fabric. After that it was off to Dollar Saver where I purchased 4 yards of marbled fabric and then 4 yards of Black marble fabric for the back. I am making a quilt for our friend Buckly. He requested I make him something so I decided to make him a quilt. Of course this means I will be calling Kim in a panic because I will need help!!!! That is usually what happens!!!

I have completed 67% of Cherokee Child...she is just so precious!! I hope to have her finished by the end of this year.

DH went to play cards so it was me and the dogs. We stitched on our HAED - A wintery Heirloom and watched our Charmed DVD's. It was a charming evening!!

Cherokee Child & Chocolate French toast

I pulled out Cherokee Child yesterday and it was very long stitching process. I LOVE to park and carry my threads. Since this was a brand new page I had to start off each thread to carry so it took me all day yesterday to get the first row of 10 x 10 blocks completed. I love how she is turning out...her face is just so precious!!

Today was an exciting day at school. So far things are going great. I love my classes. Today was my 2 English classes and one math class. One thing about my English classes is that we get to read for about 30 minutes each period. Which I just love!!! I had bus duty this afternoon which basically means I go out..watch the kids get on the bus. Should be no problem right? Wrong!! There was a fight afterschool right in front of hte buses. I am a small person so when two boys fight there is no way I am getting in the middle of it. I was trying to control the peace and make sure no one else joined in and they didn't run when the SRO (school cop) come out to settle things. Luckily no one was hurt, the SRO and principals came out to help. What an exciting way to start bus duty!!

I made Chocolate French Toast for Breakfast on Sunday morning!! It was yummy!!! Incase you are thinking that looks like regular french toast...you should know there are 3 hershey candy bars in this breakfast!!! I got the reciepe from a book I am reading: Chocolate Dipped Death by Sammi Carter This is a candy cozy mystery series...It is another one I highly recommend!!! I am right in the middle of the second book in the series and it always makes me want to eat Chocolate!!! Mark actally said it was wonderful and wants me to make it again!!!!

Everything Austen Challenge update

I am loving this challenge!! The challenge is that I must complete 6 items related to Jane Austen. They can be anything you like. I found this challenge on Stephanies Written Word blog. My list looks like this:

1) Read Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict - on my night stand
2) Stitch "The Daughters of Longbourn" by the Stitching Parlor - finished page 1 of 4
3) Re-Read Pride and Prejudice On chapter 43
4) Watch the movie Lost in Austen - COMPLETED!!!!!
5) Read: Mr. Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange - just picked up at Borders Books
6) Read: Northanger Abbey - on my bookshelf

I have until December 31st to complete this challenge. As you can see from my project uptop that the colors are just popping off this fabric.

Today, Mark was gone so I decided to pop in the DVD player Persuasion and then Pride and Prejudice, the Colin Firth version. I spent the afternoon stitching on Cherokee Child while watching Jane Austen. It was a very nice afternoon.

My Dear Granny

My dear granny passed away on August 11, 2009. She was such a fabulous granny, a grandchild couldn't ask for a better one. I was lucky because for the first 10 years of my life, I lived next door to her. I would visit her everyday and she always had time for a story, snack or to take us fishing!!! She would make my sister and I matching Christmas and Easter dress every year! After my parents divorce, we spent every Friday night at my grandparents house. My grandma would always have: Brownies made for my sister, Green Olives for my brother, and rice krispie treats for me!! On Saturday mornings, she would make us peanut butter and syrup. In case you are wondering, that is just a Giant spoonful of peanut butter and lots of syrup on a plate...mix well until really creamy..eat with bread. YUM!!!

She loved the holidays and always had to be the hostess. She was a QUEEN in the kitchen. My granny could cook....my favorite dish she made was Chicken and Dumplings!!! She had a HUGE Sunday dinner each week. Unless we were out of town, we were expected at lunch on Sundays.

She was an excellent seamstress like I said...but she also quilted and crocheted. I have a beautiful tablecloth she has crochet for me. I also have several quilts she has made. I guess this is where I get my love of needlework.

I just wanted to share a little about a fabulous lady that I am going to miss dearly.

Everything Austen Challenge

I started my Everything Austin Challenge by watching the Movie "Lost in Austen" which I LOVED!!!! It is about a modern day London girl who suddenly finds Elizabeth Bennett popping into her bathroom and carries on a conversation with her. She then proceeds to go into the door Elizabeth came through and gets stuck in Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice world. So now I only 5 things to complete before December 31st.

ON the stitching project of this challenge. I did start the design from the Stitching Parlour - Daughters of Longbourne. I picked out the fabric from picture plus titled "Sprite" and the colors just pop off this design!!!

Tiny Halloween Finish

I decided to pull out one of my small Mill Hill Tiny Treasures kits. This was my first Mill Hill kit that I have ever stitched. I have to say my fingers are a little cramped!! The stitching part was easy but beading the orange diamond outline was a harder than I thought. I had to frog it not once but twice...but it turned out ok!!! It was actually fun to stitch and finish!!

Mystic Stitch- Augusta page 3 finished!

WHO-HOO!!! I finished page 3 of Augusta the 13th hole today!!! You are looking at 15, 628 stitches which equals 22.3% complete. I put in a BBC TV mini-series today called "Berkley Square" and watched that while I finished up this page. If you love period pieces...I would definetely recommend this video. It is a about 3 early 1900's nannies, their charges and their employers. I ordered it on netflix and it is 3 DVD's. I watched the last two today. One while Mark was golfing, the other when he went to bed.

Mark got home from a week of being gone to PA. He played a round of golf this morning and then we had Copeland's for dinner and just hung out together the rest of the day. It was nice just to hang out with him.

Augusta the 13th hole- Mystic Stitch

Yesterday I finished page 2 of my Augusta pattern...actually it is page 6 but I am doing them out of order. I can actually see a tree!!! Only 13 pages to go until I finish this design. I am going to try and get it finished by christmas for Mark. We will see if that happens or not...hopefully it will.

On Monday, we went down to OK to visit my grandma in the nursing home. The strokes have left her with the inability to speak. She started crying when she saw us...Grandpa said that is what she does when she recognizes someone. It was so hard to see her like this. Before the strokes, she was very vibrant and outspoken. She loved to argue and talk sports.

On Tuesday, I spent the day cleaning out my sewing room and working downstairs in the dungeon. I couldn't believe how much stuff I accumulated in my sewing room. It was amazing. It took most of the morning to put things away...sort things out...I found some patterns I didn't realize I had!! The dungeon was another story...I still have to work on that tomorrow. Just an FYI- the dungeon is our MIL apartment below the house. It is actually Marks office now...but when we moved into the house it help unpacked boxes. The previous owner painted the room/trim/doors GREY!! Prison GREY!! UGH!!...so we call it the dungeon...now it is a beautiful amaretto color. I will have to make a recycle run sometime this week.

The dogs and I took a nice long 3 mile walk in the park Tuesday evening. After our walk...we played in the dogpark. The boys always enjoying playing at the dogpark. There are some really pretty dogs. I did get asked why my dogs were wearing a muzzle...they weren't...only their training leads. It makes it so much easier to walk two 95 lb dogs when they wear their training leads.

Strip Tease Quilt

I finally finished this quilt!!! I was so excited to have it completely finished. As you can see Tusk LOVES his quilt. Yes, I made a quilt for my dog. He used to have one that he loved to lay on when he was a puppy...However, Brigen ate it. Yes, you read that right, he ate Tusks quilt. I actually had to take a day off work because he woke me with a VERY upset stomach and little surprises all over the carpet. Luckily, the X-Ray said he was all right.

I started this quilt last September and became frustrated very quickly. I went to the local quilt store and asked if they gave quilting lessons. The shop owner said that if I would come in the store either on Tuesday or Thursday evenings she would help me. I was so excited about this and bought all the supplies for my first quilt a Strip Tease quilt at her store. The first night she was very helpful to me. I went home all excited and started putting it together. I went back the next week and well....the store wasn't as friendly as the previous week. I put it down to her being a little busier than the previous week. She looked at my strips that I cut out..told me good job then had me iron them. Then she said I could go home and start putting them together. Which I did...well...it kinda went downhill from there. Everytime I went into the store, either the shop owner was too busy to help or the in-resident quilters would tell me "She is too busy to hlep you tonight" or my personal favorite "Tonight is not for new quilters...this is the experienced quilters night. You will have to come back later." I came in one Monday afternoon. I had a Dentist appointment and was finished around 3:00 pm so I thought..hey, this would be a great time to go and get some help. I was still piecing it together and wanted some help. There was a stitch-in going for the local quilters guild and the owner actually took me to the calendar and said..."You need to start reading the calendar on when you can come in for help. I am too busy today. Any day when there is nothing on the calendar I will help you." The calendar was completely full...something on everyday. It was at that point, I quit going.

Kim was kind enough to help via the internet and phone. I most of it finished but when I put the binding on backwards...I put it up. I was so extremely frustrated. I mean this is not how stitchers treat each other is it??? I showed the quilt to my friend Kayla and she said it looked great...who cares if it is a little lumpy or the binding is on backwards. Since I already made the big mistake just use the machine and finish the darn thing...so I did!!! Tusk is happy and I have a pretty quilt (minus all the mistakes)

I just love the colors.....I am happy with the finished product and am looking forward to making my next quilt!!!