New Person Quilt

I am currently assembling this quilt for a baby of one of my colleagues.  I try to make quilts for family and friends new babies, to welcome them into the world with the best hug possible!  A new cozy quilt made just for them.

This quilt is for a little girl, and she is going to be a fortunate little girl, as her parents are so excited about her soon arrival.

The fabric was picked up at my most unfavorite quilt shop in the Edmonton area.  The quilt shop is in a suburb just north of Edmonton, and everytime I go in there the owner and staff do something to annoy me, it always happens.

But, alas I digress.  I made this little cutie quilt up last evening, and was able to find flannel at The Sugar Pine

quilt shop that completes this quilt perfectly for a little girl who will be loved lots.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Candy Quilt

No, this is not the candy quilt, but isn't it pretty?  This was one of the many pictures I took on Highway 93 yesterday through Kootenay National Park.  After seeing some of the sites I did, I think I better understand why people from all over the world come to see what I have in my back yard : ).

Alright, now back to the point of this blog; my crafts.

I took my sewing machine with us on this vacation, because sometimes the eyes need a break from knitting, right?

One of the projects I brought along was this kit that I purchased through Sew Sisters Quilt Shop during their days of Christmas sale in early December.  The backing was included, but I decided that a candy quilt needed to have a flannel backing that was cozy and I was sure that The Sugar Pine quilt shop in Canmore would have something that was perfect, and it did!

This is the quilt top on the resort bed, so it looks rather small.  I will put a photo of the complete with flannel on soon.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Left Overs Day ???? +1

Okay, so by this evening, I really have a left overs festival for you.  We leave back for Canmore tomorrow, and I still have left over turkey etc., in the refrigerator.  Now, if you know me, you will know I believe in the "waste not" principle.
This "casserole" for lack of a better word uses some more of the left over turkey, the rest of the mashed potatoes, and veggies, cut up celery, onions, an instant package of rice, the remainder of the sour cream in the refrigerator, the last of the ranch flavor salad dressing, and the remainder of the cheese.  Stir this all together and spread out in a casserole dish.  But Wait!  There are three flavors of potato chips in different bags around the villa, so I crushed them up and poured over top.
Bake at 350 F until the food reaches 75 degrees C, (my food thermometer only measures in C) and serve with a fresh green salad.  Not bad really, give it a try with your leftovers and see!

|Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Left Overs Day ????

Okay, so I know most of you including myself are sick of looking at that turkey from Tuesday sitting in the fridge....

So, when I asked the family if they were ready for left overs yet again this evening when we got back from skiining Fairmont, the looks that I got were hilarious to say the least.

Hmmmm, what to do?

I made a salad out of the left over cranberries (from Santa's cookies), most of the left over fresh veggies in the refrigerator, and of course the formidable turkey!

Served with some garlic toast straight out of the oven, it was a nice break from left over potatoes, stuffing, boiled veggies and turkey.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Candy Corn Rice Krispie Squares

With our being away from our pantry at home this Christmas season, my son and I have been limited in what kind of holiday treats we could make.  This evening after skiing at Kimberley we made Rice Krispie squares!  Now, of course I could not leave a classic alone, so I added Christmas Candy Corn (yes, Lisa, I found it at Bulk Barn).

Tastes YUMMY.  Might have to try this for other seasons as well.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Brunch

For the past few years (I don't know exactly how many) my son has asked for the same thing for Christmas Brunch: Peach French Toast.

This year because we were going to be away from home for Christmas I brought all of the fixin's with me, so that it would not be the mad scramble it was last year at the resort trying to find all the ingredients.

The recipe for this Christmas favorite is:

Baked Peach French Toast

1 loaf French bread sliced into 1" slices

1 brick cream cheese

- spread cream cheese on both sides of bread and place in buttered baking pan

1 can sliced peaches (drained)

- layer the peach slices on top of the bread

1 cup pecans or walnuts (your choice)

- sprinkle walnuts over bread and peaches

3 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

- mix together and pour over the bread

- just prior to putting in the oven I sprinkle the top with my Maple Sugar Grinder

- bake at 350 F for about 30 minutes, and enjoy!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...



Kathy

Merry Christmas Deer Friends!

Merry Christmas Deer Friends!!!  I was once given "constructive feedback" that quilts suddenly just appear on my blog and that is not realistic.  Well, this quilt will prove that the quilts that just appear on my blog actually have a long journey until they arrive here.  This quilt panel was purchased at a Christmas in July 2011 sale at Lori's Country Cottage, the pattern book and some of the fabrics for this quilt were eventually purchased at Sew Divine, and the remaining fabric was ordered online through Quilting By the Bay.  This quilt was actually finished in it's entirety in the evening of Christmas Day, 2011.   I just had enough posts at that time and thought I would save this greeting quilt for today.  Merry Christmas and Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Eve

I LOVE Christmas and Christmas Eve.  It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

This evening, before church, we went to the Parade of Lights and Fireworks at the Fairmont Ski Resort, here is one of the pictures I took during this event:

After church when we got home we found that the "elves" had already been through to deliver the special Christmas pajamas, and in addition my son's reindeer treat bowl!  I have to thank the Alyssa elf for this, because when my son painted the bowl for the reindeer a few weeks ago at Crock A Doodle I did not have time to go back and get it.  Thankfully, Alyssa elf saved the day and got it picked up and delivered to him in time for Christmas Eve.  Thank You Alyssa!

We filled the bowl with popcorn, because of course reindeer don't eat cookies!

Merry Christmas to All, and to all a Good Night!  I wish everyone a Very Merry and Creative Christmas!

Kathy

Cookies for Santa

For the second Christmas in row we are spending Christmas in the Rocky Mountains.  I really do recommend that everyone should try this once, it really does make Christmas magical!

My son of course was worried how we would leave Santa cookies if we were not at home to bake and apparently the bought ones left out last year, simply were not good enough for Santa (so he thought).

So, this year I came prepared:  I measured out all the ingredients into plastic bags before we left home, and simply had to add non hydrogenated margarine, vanilla and eggs today to bake the cookies. I know I am simply GENIUS!

The end result:

Hope Santa likes them!

The recipe for these is:

White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookies

3/4 cup non hydrogenated margarine

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tsps vanilla

2 tsps cornstarch

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup white chocolate chips (I use Bernard Callebaut)

1 cup dried cranberries

Mix ingredients together.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 - 10 minutes.  Let cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.  Enjoy!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Knitting in the Toyota (again)...

I finished knitting my sock on the five and a half hour drive from Edmonton to Invermere.

Tried it on and it is super cozy!  I love the fun colors of it too!

Now, to get started on the other one....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Stampin' Up Rescue

My son always gives his classmates treats for holiday occasions. Over the past couple of months I have collected things such as flavored hot chocolate packets, Lindt Teddies, and of course a Christmas pencil.

Now, with all this preparation one would think I would have this all organized....NOT.  

Another Red Eye Craft, as I was putting these bags together near midnight last night.  Not sure at that hour how I was going to make these "Top Drawer" until I remembered that I had the Snow Festival Designer Series Printed Tags from the Stampin Up Holiday Mini Catalogue.  

A bit of last years (OMG another use for old product) Cherry Cobbler Quilted Satin Ribbon, and we have treat bags for the Grade3/4 class!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

 

Kathy

Oh Christmas Tree, how little and wee...

When I was a kid, I think every old lady that I knew of had one of these trees.  Well, now that I am almost an old lady I decided I had better have me a ceramic Christmas tree.

Thanks to Crock a Doodle in Spruce Grove, Alberta, I now have one of these 14" wonders.

I painted the bisque with one of their "Simplicity" glazes and LOVE how it turned out.  Makes the house feel a bit more festivy (not really a word), since I have not really done any decorating this year!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Mint Chocolate Nanaimo Bars

I love mint!  There I said it. Even at the free ice cream lunch at work today, one of my scoops was mint chocolate chip.  I purchased a bag of Mint Chipits a while back, for some reason, and noticed the recipe on the back for the Mint Chocolate Nanaimo Bars.  They looked delicious!

So, for the past three evenings, I have been layering them one layer at a time to ensure that no layer melts into the next, and TAH DAH!

Early this morning, I cut the bar into pieces and placed in the cute little house boxes in the background and took them in to work with me.  Hope everyone likes the taste and .....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Gingerbread People

Last evening my son and I took out the gingerbread cookie dough from the refrigerator and baked these Gingerbread Men.  After the cookies were cool, we iced them with left over butter cream icing.

The recipe for these cookies is below:

 

Gingerbread Cookies:

1/2 cup non hydrogenated margarine
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup molasses
2 tsps white vinegar
1 egg
3 cups flour
1/2 tsps baking soda
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
2 tsp Gingerbread Spices

In a sauce pan mix together margarine, sugar molasses and vinegar.  Bring to a boil stirring constantly.  Let cool and add egg.  Add mixture to remaining ingredients.  Wrap in roll and refrigerate for 2 hours.  Roll out and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Enjoy!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Oh S"crap"! It's Monday...

What's for dinner?  Hmmmm, it's Monday and we ate last night's dinner left overs for lunch today.

A look in the refrigerator has a whole bunch of leftovers - not enough of anything, so we are having grilled cheese sandwiches with Tomato Salad.

Here's how to make it:

2 chopped tomato's

2 green onions chopped

left over green beans

1 tablespoon dill weed

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tablespoons canola oil

salt and pepper to taste

 

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

 

Kathy

Christmas Table Centerpieces

Yesterday my son and I went to Greenland Garden Centre and made these Christmas table center pieces. 

They look beautiful on the table, and make the house look very Christmasy!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Table Runner

I put this table runner out last night as I started to decorate the house for Christmas.

I made this table runner a couple of years ago.  It uses the quilt as you go technique and works up really quickly, however, the binding took me forever to get around to doing, not sure why, but it was one of those projects I just could not complete until I forced myself to.

Now, it graces my table looking seasonally appropriate.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Happy Monkey Day

It's Monkey Day today (really it is...look it up), so I decided I would make my son his monkey pillowcase in honor of today.

We picked this fabric up at Fabricland a while ago because it had monkey's on it.  My son was born in the year of the monkey, and so he thinks that anything monkey is appropriate for him (in real life he is a "monkey").

The fabric is flannel, and since I could not think of anything at the time to make out of it.....default idea....PILLOWCASE.

Have a great Monkey Day, and hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Midnight Pie

Once or twice a year I make pie crust and then roll it to approximate size of a pie on parchment paper and place in the freezer.

Then when I decide at midnight (like last night) or some other time to bake a pie, I take it out, defrost, put in the pie dish and bake.  Instant pie!

This one is a coconut cream pie, and I browned the coconut at the same time as the pie was baking, and the filling was being made.

It was YUMMY!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Chocolate Apricots

Every time I start to recover from being ill the first thing I crave after eating toast is apricots and then chocolate.  It is must be some electrolyte thing - will have to ask the food scientists I work with...

I used my bagged apricots and then dipped them in my Lindt Piccoli Couverture Chocolate Buttons that up until recently I obtained from my friend.  As of this evening I have found out that the Lindt Factory Outlet at South Edmonton Common carries these!  SCORE!!!!

It was a wonderful trip to the store.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Guest Bed Quilt

I made this quilt a few years ago.  Although it is not the prettiest quilt out there, I still like it as it is one of the first ones that I made.  I got the snowman fabric because I liked it, and then found colors that worked with it to make giant 9 patch squares.  It is a king sized quilt so it covers the guest bed nicely, and I think makes it look Christmasy!  The backing of course is a cozy snowman flannel, and makes the whole quilt super cuddly.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

What's for Breakfast???

So, apparently my son is tired of oatmeal for breakfast!  This morning he asked not to have it.  When I asked him what he wanted he reminded me of these things.

I have no idea what they are called, they are something that he ate at a restaurant in the honestly the middle of nowhere Arizona or New Mexico one day when we were on vacation down there and it was too hot to cook breakfast in the camper trailer.

They are basically two tortilla's with a layer of grated cheese between them, and a cut out for the fried egg.  

Fry in your frying pan, and serve with salsa, avocado, and a glass of milk and you have a complete breakfast!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

The Mysterious Peppermint Cupcakes....

After an entire weekend of having some kind of gastric "bug" I decided I wanted peppermint cupcakes!

This is the perfect time of year to make these.

I made a basic chocolate cupcake batter but added a teaspoon of peppermint extract.

I frosted these cupcakes with butter cream frosting, but used a few drops of peppermint extract in it also.

Crushed candy canes on top, and quite yummy to add to my diet of toast and Ginger Ale.

Here's hoping tomorrow is a better day.

Now, the mystery.... I went for my camera to take a picture of these and when I returned....22 cupcakes not 24!  Hmmmmm, would a little boy and a husband be the culprits????

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

 

Kathy

Christmas Rag Quilt

If you follow my blog ramblings at all you will know that I love rag quilts.  It is not just because they are really easy to make, and that they are made from flannel.  I love them because they are so cozy, seem so home like and provide comfort just like a bowl of grandma's chicken soup.  I don't think you can feel bad, if you are snuggled in a rag quilt!  I found this pack of fabrics a couple of years ago at Sew Divine and of course could not leave it behind.  Once I got it home, I figured I better put it to use, otherwise it would just become more fabric in the stash (fabric - not cookie).  So, the easiest thing to do is make a rag quilt and that is what I did and this is the end result.  Thought about giving it to my grandma for Christmas, but because it was flannel and cozy my son absorbed it into the quilt pile on his bed, alas, it never made it to grandma.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Snowman Pillowcase

I have some of this fabric left over from a quilt I am working on.  What to do with it???

Make a pillowcase of course.  

I love this fabric because it is green for Christmas, has snowmen, snowflakes and musical instruments on it!  It just makes me happy.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Poinsettia Thank You Cards

Every year my son's school does an annual fund raiser selling poinsettia plants from a green house in Chilliwack, British Columbia.  These poinsettia plants leave the greenhouse very early in the morning arriving very late afternoon/evening in Edmonton, Alberta.  These plants are always beautiful and no one is ever disappointed with them.  Each year the number of them that I have to distribute grows (what a pun).

Of course, to say thank you to my friends and co-workers who go along with this annual tradition I make Thank You cards to show our appreciation for their contribution to the school.

This year I actually used all Stampin Up product on these cards.

The base is gum ball green card stock, with a layer of Be of Good Cheer Designer Series Paper.  A layer of Primrose Petals, and Very Vanilla run through the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder.

The "Poinsettias" are made cut from Raspberry Ripple card stock using the Fun Flowers Bigz Die.

The button centers are leftovers (OMG - yes I used old product again....), and of course the Raspberry Ripple Stitched Satin Ribbon.

I think that they are beautiful!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Oh S"crap"! It's Monday...

Yay!  A s"crap" card that I actually am proud of (sort of).

Today I used a piece of Baja Breeze scrap and left over scraps from my Snow Festival Designer Series Paper.

I used my Holiday Framelits, and my Ornaments Keepsakes stamp set along with foam dots to add dimension to the ornament and finally broke open the package of Stitched Satin Ribbon.

Pretty.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Snowmageddon, Santa, Snowmageddon, Grilled Cheese

What a weekend!  Every year we (and I mean usually me) take our son to Christmas In the Rockies, because unlike the imposter Santa's at the malls, the REAL Santa comes to this event as my son tells everyone.  Every year the trip is an event.

Here is a picture of Stoney Trail Northwest at 2300 hours on Friday evening:

The parade on Saturday evening was awesome, and I have attached a picture of the official Banff SUV, (okay not really, this is a joke for us Western Canadians, NOT to be taken literally):

It is the Brewster Icefield Bus, and if you ever have the chance to go on it, you MUST.

Of course while in Canmore for the weekend we did some shopping at my favorite spots: Knit and Caboodle, Sugar Pine Quilt Company, Rocky Mountain Soap Company, and before we left this morning Le fournil Bakery, for a loaf of pain prairie.

Now for the journey home:

This is the Queen Elizabeth II Highway today at about 1400 hours at the Olds, Alberta, off ramp.  If you look closely you can see the sign as well as the car in front, of which there is a semi-tractor trailer in front of it (honest)!!!!

So after almost 7 hours of driving in my Go Go Go Toyota (should be a 4 hour trip at best), but with puking kid and road conditions it took much longer, I got home.

The craft of today is our dinner:

I used the pain prairie I had picked up earlier today, cheese, and the Strawberry Balsalmic Red Pepper Jelly, I got last weekend at Chartreuse Decor.  It was delicious!

Drive safe, and Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Stamp of the Month Club

This month I chose Chock full of Cheer for my Stamp of the Month Club stamp set.

The cards shown and made by Karina are actually from the Scentsational Season stamp set (but I already had that one).  My favorite is the gingerbread cookies on the pan!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy