New Year's Eve 2014

Today I really accomplished nothing.  For the first time in a long time, I have actually relaxed on a vacation, and feel rested.  Of course I still took a nap this afternoon, but other than that my son and I played some video games, and online games, ate cookies, had PB&J sandwiches for lunch, and eventually got showered and dressed just before my husband got home from work : )

Here is what I did manage to accomplish late last night though:

Eight of the Block 2 A from the Downton Abbey Mystery Quilt Along.

I love the colors of fabrics and I have even learned how to use the EDeN system for cutting and making these blocks.  

At the beginning of this project I had found an online "Amazing" retailer that was selling the die cutter system for a terrific Black Friday price.  Twice I have ordered this cutter and twice the Upstanding 

 courier has lost my order!!!  I am just about finished this quilt and have learned how to use the system for rotary cutting so am thinking that this is Karma's way of telling me I don't need this "toy".

Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's Eve, please drive safe and wishing you ALL THE BEST FOR 2014!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

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

So, it's Monday, and that means I only have 4 more days of vacation before I fall back into the hectic work routine, oh bother....

I am starting to get tired of turkey as no doubt some of you are, and tonight I really did not feel like making dinner.  It is super cold outside, and I'm not up for eating out yet as the hives have started to settle, but it appears that some portions of my skin are "burnt" from this allergic reaction.  Lots of aloe....

Looking into the refrigerator I decided to make a Shepard's Pie sort of thing with all the left overs, and wow, did this become a leftovers dish:

In the base of the casserole dish I placed:

-chopped up left over turkey (lots)

-all the left over cooked vegetables and since this was not really enough all of the small amounts of left over frozen vegetables I find in the freezer that are never enough for dinner

-1 can mushroom soup spread over top of this

-topped with mashed potatoes

-sprinkled with the last of the french fried onions 

 Bake this delight at 350F for about an hour, and it really is quite good!  Everyone had seconds!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

 

Kathy

Snow Day = Sew Day

Oh, the weather outside is terrible!!! I think it has been snowing non stop for a week, well, maybe three days..., but it got really cold after being nice, and now the snow is blowing and falling everywhere and it is just AWFUL outside.  

Thank goodness there is still no school this week and I am still on vacation : )

Since the weather was awful, and I am under the influence of Benadryl (the "mystery" spice  I am allergic to showed up in my food somewhere in the past couple of days, I think it was in the pizza we ordered for a break from turkey, but now I have hives everywhere), my day started somewhere around noonish, and so far for today I have accomplished:

 Today I completed the last 42 of these little (3 1/2" square) blocks for my PQM Cracked Pots Mystery Quilt!  There is a 112 of these little blocks in this pile.  I was running out of my light coloring very early on into this project, so as you can see, I had to start supplementing from my "stash" (fabric - not cookie).

Now, off to tackle some of those "other" projects on the go!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Playdate!

Today my son had his twin friends from school over for a play date.  Three nine year old boys in the house at once!!! It was great fun, they are all really well behaved kids.  They played until they were bored, ate most of the left over cookies that I had baked for Santa the other night, and then decided that they needed more.

So, together we made:

Now, there is a lot of thought and compromise in these cookies.  Three different boys with three different ideas as to what kind of chocolate chip cookies should be made, white chocolate, semi sweet chocolate and milk chocolate.  We agreed to a bag of each of these kind of chocolate.  The recipe called for 4 cups of chocolate chips, I think we were closer to 6 cups.  They sure are good though!

If you are wondering which recipe we used it is: Buttery Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

p.s. this is all that is left of the 6+ dozen cookies we made.....

Friday Feature Card

I am on vacation this week and making the best of it!!

So far I have worked on catching up on two of my mystery quilt projects, hopefully be caught up by Sunday, and while cleaning up in my craft room (it's a BIG disaster right now), decided to make a card for Friday for Krafting Crew.

This is what I made, for no particular reason:

Perhaps I will mail it out to someone who is now deprived of mail since the holiday season is done : )

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Holiday Chocolate Treats!

A colleague of my used to make and bring these to work every year at Christmas, and as always, they were well received.  Every year now when I start making my holiday treat platter for sending to family and friends and for the dinner table this becomes a staple to those platters.

I found this really (well I thought it was) cute platter in my Christmas stuff that I "score" after Christmas each year and one of the first things I put on was the Chocolate Treats:

I use Bernard Callebaut chocolate milk and white chocolate and dried apricots!

So yummy!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas today.

The weather here in Edmonton was simply perfect the past couple of days.  Last evening we walked to church which was a first in several years.  Afterwards, because it was so beautiful we walked around Highlands and saw some beautiful light displays:

 Just behind Concordia College,

 A view of downtown,

 the sidewalk looked pretty and the special effects of the snow falling make it look even more magical,

the candles outside of Highlands United Church.

It was a wonderful way to start Christmas.

This morning of course my son wanted Peach French Toast:

I simplified the recipe/process a little this year.  I took:

1 loaf day old french bread and cut into slices (the rest went into the turkey stuffing)

Spread cream cheese on both sides

Sprinkled cinnamon over all the bread

Topped with sliced peaches and walnuts

Poured an entire 500ml carton of Liquid Egg Whites (yes I found them at Costco) over the bread and baked in a 350F oven for 45 minutes.  Delicious!!!

Then we opened presents.  The highlight of my day was this:

For some reason I thought it was the coolest hand bag ever when I saw it this summer in a craft shop in Prince Edward Island, but I did not want to spend more money and pack another thing home, so I left it.  My husband found out where to get these silly little dogs, and now today I have my own.  I think I will have to take him for a walk at the mall tomorrow!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Or so I've heard.

Of course since Santa is coming tonight and we are some of his last deliveries, my son figured Santa needed lots of extra energy to keep him going for the last bit of his journey. 

We have been watching his progress all day long thanks to the Norad Santa Cam.

The cookies we are leaving for Santa are an old favorite from when I was a kid, and the recipe over the years has been modified, much so that my son was able to make these almost independently:

Chocolate Fudge Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Here is how to make them:

Cream together: 1/2 cup non hydrogenated margarine and 1 8oz block of cream cheese

Add: 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla

Pick: 1 box of cake mix (I chose Chocolate Fudge for these) and add to creamed ingredients.

Add: 1 cup chocolate chips or whatever you want to the cookies (raisins, coconut, nuts..... the list is endless).

Bake at 350F for 10 minutes.  Let set in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Enjoy!
Merry Christmas everyone, and
Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

I think I'm Ready...

For Christmas that is!!  

After a power shopping trip and being super organized when I departed the house on Saturday morning my shopping is done, presents are wrapped, and yesterday my brother picked up the presents to take with him to Saskatchewan.

Yesterday my son and I baked cookies, made chocolates, squares and bread so even the holiday goodie platters are ready to go, and if you were to stop in for an unexpected tea  there would be goodies for you too!

This morning when my husband left for work I got up and since I am on vacation and nothing really to do, this is what I did:

I made another Christmas Card using Mojo Monday's Sketch 325!

It was fun having nothing really to do, and just playing in my craft room, after breakfast and playing in the snow, I think I might even start on some of those block of the month quilting projects I am behind on...

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Cookies

This morning my son and I started early on our Christmas cookie baking.  

The first cookies we made were Peppermint Kiss cookies:

Some had already been "sampled" by the time I managed to get this picture.

Here's how we made these:

Peppermint Kiss Cookies

1/2 cup non hydrogenated margarine

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp peppermint extract

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups flour

Crushed candy canes

Cream margarine and sugars together, beat in egg and peppermint extract.  Gradually add in flour and baking soda.  Shape into balls and roll in crushed candy canes.  Bake at 350F for about 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and top immediately with a  Peppermint Kiss.  Leave in pan another three minutes to set before removing to cooling rack.  Enjoy!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

p.s.  while baking cookies we kept singing the : Christmas Cookies song!  : )

Mittens

Today while my son was at art class I finished knitting a mitten.

This mitten is part of the Christmas Club Biscotte from Biscotte & Cie:

Alright, one hand done, now to try and get the other one done by Christmas so that I can actually say I was done these before Christmas!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Lunch Potluck

Today was the annual Christmas Lunch Potluck for our department at work.

My son's Christmas concert was last evening, and I did not have to time to make anything exquisite for the potluck today.  So, I took my all time favorite standby Broccoli Casserole:

As usual it was a hit, and everyone wanted the recipe, so here goes:

Broccoli Casserole:

1 head of broccoli steamed til just not crunchy placed in casserole dish

- in a separate bowl mix together:

1 can mushroom soup

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup ranch or caesar or cucumber salad dressing (whatever you have on hand)

-pour over the broccoli

- top with about 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese 

- crush 1 1/2 cups cheese crackers and sprinkle over top of entire casserole

Bake at 350F for about 45 minutes.  Enjoy!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

  

Secret Santa Week!

It's Secret Santa Week this week at work. I somehow forgot to take a picture on Monday of the Christmas tin filled with Cherry Slice that I made for my Secret Santa!!  Today I have a wrapped gift (it is from The Body Shop), and my craft is the label kit that I got from Stampin' Up a while ago, but seemed too busy to get around to making the tags.

So, here is my present:

Hope she likes it!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Cardinal Christmas

I decided to play along with Mojo Monday again this week.  

Here is my version of Sketch 324:

The glitter exploded on me so I have a little extra, but maybe I just need to come to terms with lots of glitter!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Can I Do It??

As you likely know I got a new stand mixer because my prior one although I loved it dearly, (it's currently resting in peace in the basement, I could not part with it yet) could not handle the large quantities of flour I insisted on putting through it to make bread.

Today I challenged the new machine (it's still under warranty) with 12 cups of whole wheat flour and 4 cups of oatmeal, 1 cup of sunflower seeds, and 3/4 cup of chia seeds to make 4 loaves of:

The bread turned out fantastic and so far so good with the machine, there was no over heating with this amount of flour and the splatter lid came in super handy with the addition of the flour!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Another pair of Socks

Today while my son was at art class I finished another pair of socks!

Here they are:

So much to get done for the holiday season, so not sure how much more knitting I will get done before Christmas.

These socks were knit with my October ball of Yarn from the Sweet Georgia Sock Yarn Club.  Sadly I must confess I have not yet cast on November and earlier in the week December's yarn arrived, so I guess I better get knitting : )

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Party Sitter

Tonight is the Annual Christmas Party for my work.  This year my husband was actually home so I decided I would go.

However, to find a sitter for our son.  I am a rather high maintenance parent when it comes to baby sitters.  My background of course is Pediatric Intensive Care and Emergency and as such I think I have seen or heard of every possible thing that can go wrong with children and the incompetent people who were caring for these children.  I have only hired a baby sitter a couple of times in almost 10 years and these sitters have either been teachers or Registered Nurses.  

Recently a colleague of mine informed me that her daughter had recently taken (and passed) her babysitter course.  The mother seems really responsible, so I decided to take a chance on the daughter to babysit, I should also add that my son is now almost 10, and knows how to activate the emergency panels through the house, so I thought it should be alright.

Well, I have to say I am quite happy with this girl.  She brought board games to play, made popcorn while they watched a Christmas movie, and brought with her a kit to make:

  My son was thrilled!!!  He had so much fun.

So, now I am a believer in finding a babysitter that is not a full fledged licensed professional, just interview well, and hopefully you have a good network of people around you.  

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Iceberg!!

Okay, not exactly, but almost, it is snowing hard again outside and the weather and road reports are so ominous for tomorrow that I am not going on my bi monthly adventure to Drayton Valley.  

I actually look forward to this trip.  It is me, the open highway and an hour and a half drive of beautiful scenery and just a wonderful break from the rush that is my life.  The people there are always so nice as well.

So, because of the terrible weather outside, and not making the trip tomorrow I have had time this evening to work on my first block in the Downton Abbey Mystery Quilt Along, and you can guess what the first block is; TITANIC:

 I was fortunate enough to be able to order the complete fabric kit from Chicken Feed Quilts and have it shipped to me in two days, but I have been too busy to start!

I think that these four blocks (yes you only see two, the others are underneath) are so cool!

Now, to sit down and get caught up on the episodes.....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Yarn Mail!

One of my favorite things about the mail is when yarn arrives.

Today, I got my Christmas Club package from Biscotte & Cie:

The package was wrapped up to look really pretty and inside was:

My new mitten yarn, and some sparkly yarn with a few extra goodies.

After dinner I went to the library and the trees outside of the St. Albert Public Library looked so pretty that I had to take a picture:

 Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Sugar Cookies

Late last night, seriously, about 11:00 I decided I needed sugar cookies for a snack in my lunch today.  Plus I had not fired up my new mixer all weekend due to being away, so late at night, or rather early this morning, I made sugar cookies:

Now, as has been pointed out, these cookies do NOT have measles! I just decided that since I had run out of coarse sugar and no grocery store was open at that time of night, that I would use colored red sugar since it is almost Christmas!

Chewy Sugar Cookies:

1 cup non hydrogenated margarine

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

Cream margarine and sugar together.  Add in egg, vanilla and baking powder.  Add in the remaining flour, mix until all ingredients blended together.  Roll cookies into 1" balls and roll in sugar.  Bake at 350F for 10 minutes, allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.  Enjoy!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Yarn Hunting

Of course a trip to Canmore would not be complete without a trip to Knit & Caboodle.   I had a loyalty points reward for the shop (I love independent businesses), which of course I felt I simply MUST use today.  I did, and of course left with more (on my way to my next reward), so here is what I picked up:

I got new mitten needles, so that I can start on my wonderful mitten project that should be arriving later this week!!!
Here is a couple of photos from this weekend;
Cascade Mountain coming in to Banff:

 and a "fun" view from the window of the resort we stayed at this weekend:

Stay warm, and
Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Cards Fourth Edition

Today is the official start of my Christmas Festivities!

This is the fourth card that I made at Karina's Stamp a Stack:

 I thought this card was super appropriate for today, as in a couple of hours, I will be standing down town Banff for the Christmas In the Rockies Santa Claus Parade!

The drive down was uneventful last night for me, there were some cars in the ditch and several tractor trailer units broke down or froze up at the side of the road, my dashboard thermometer did let me know that at one point the outside temperature was -42C, but my GO GO GO Toyota (as we call it), had no trouble at all : )

Now, to bundle up for the parade...

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Cards Third Edition!

Here is a look at the third Christmas Card I made at Karina's Stamp a Stack:

Now, off to Canmore for the official launch of my Christmas Season; Christmas In the Rockies!

Every year we go, and it is such a magical way to start the season.  Temperatures for tonight's drive are supposed to be in the -40 C range which is ironically -40F as well.  So, no matter what thermometer you use, it is officially COLD!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Cards Second Edition

Yesterday I showed you one of the cards that I made at Karina's Stamp a Stack that I have been mailing out recently for my Christmas Cards.

Here is the second card I made at this event:

Not sure how much time I will have to make any more Christmas cards this year, so glad I made what I did.  The temperature is so cold outside right now is -24 C (-11.2 Fahrenheit), and with the wind it feels like

 -35C (-31F).  Might have to go quilting to keep warm!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Cards...

A few weeks ago I attended a card Stamp-A-Stack that my friend Karina was offering.

This is one of the cards that we made:

I made three of this design as well as three other designs so had 12 Christmas cards ready to go.  

A Christmas greeting stamped on the inside and these cards were ready to mail!

Merry Christmas.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

A Fabric Swap!

Just because I don't already have enough fabric in my craft room, I decided I would participate in a fabric swap within my PQM's Cracked Pots Facebook Mystery Quilt group.

The swap was for groups of 12, so here are the swaps I have received:

Mine of course is not included in this.  Mine is a more "fun" Christmas print, these are more traditional, but I only mailed mine yesterday, so no one knows what they are getting yet : )

Not sure what I will do with these, probably sit and hold them for a while, and then it's anybody's guess what happens to them. They will probably spend some time getting acquainted with the fabric abyss/black hole that is my craft room ; )

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

It REALLY Looks like Christmas Now!

Yes, it truly looks like Christmas outside today.  Here in Alberta we are getting to experience a winter blizzard!  Lots of snow, whiteout conditions, and the temperature is just supposed to keep dropping!

I shoveled the walk when I got home, just so there would not be as much to have to move tomorrow as there is seriously close to 24" of snow in my front yard (I live in the city, so no drifts, just straight snow).

It is very pretty:

Yes, the streaks in the picture are the snow coming down!!

My craft for today is some more cards that I made for sending out in the Christmas card swap I participated in this year.

The cards were actually part of a monthly craft subscription that Stampin Up offers called Paper Pumpkin.  To be honest, the first couple of subscriptions I got were nice, the kits were quick and easy to complete and something that you could take pride in.  Fast forward a few months and month after the month the kits get worse.  Last month's was so tacky that I went to cancel my subscription but the new one was already on it's way.

Here is a card from the kit that has redeemed itself for now:

I will see what this month brings, and if no improvement, I will be done this little adventure!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

It's Beginning to Look A lot like Christmas!

I LOVE Christmas.  Everything about it, and as soon as all Thanksgiving and Remembrance celebrations are over, I get excited!

As with other years we were planning to spend Christmas in the mountains again.  However, the flood in Canmore in June left the resort we stay at with some damage to the water supply that has still not been fixed.  On Friday we were given notice that our vacation has been cancelled : (

Oh, well, things happen, so we will be staying home for Christmas this year.

We took out the 6' artificial tree that we usually take with us and set it up in a corner of the family room, and my son decorated it this afternoon.  He thought that was pretty "Top Drawer".

I started to dig out all of the Christmas Decorations and place them around the house.

I also started to get my Christmas cards ready for mailing this week as well.

I started with this one:

It is actually a kit that I got from Stampin Up.  It's super easy and a great way to get yourself started on Christmas cards.  The kit contained 8 cards, so I am part of the way done for a card swap I agreed to be a part of!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

p.s.  Just to keep it "real" I guess I heard this song on the radio on Friday morning and cannot get it out of my head, so here's the link to it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jqmlsx-qXE  : < 0

Black Friday Shopping

Today we went Black Friday shopping even though it was really Saturday. I ended up working over time yesterday again, so was not home until after all the stores were closed.

Today while we were out seeing what was on sale we came across Cuisinart Stand Mixers with 800 W motors and 5.5 qt bowls on a super sale!

Needless to say I bought one and my husband did not look askance at me for doing so, so I think it was a good purchase. 

Took it home and fired it up by making bread, 12+ cups of whole grain flour through this appliance, with NO smoking, ominous noises or cupboard hopping!

Five loaves of bread easily out of this machine:

Yummy!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

October Block of the Month Finished!!!

Now that I am caught up on one of my Mystery Quilt projects I decided I better get caught up on some of my other projects.

Today I was able to finish my October blocks for a Block of the Month that I am doing through Woodland Quilting:

Now to start on my November installment...

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Crock Pot Turkey

It may not be Thanksgiving Day here, but it is somewhere else, and besides it's still a month til Christmas turkey!

Today, I decided I would pull out my ever favorite dinner tool; my crock pot and make Turkey for dinner in the crock pot.

There are a lot of different ways to do this I have found online, so with the ingredients I had I made:

I used one frozen Turkey breast (I got mine fresh at Costco, then froze it), 1 can of cranberry sauce, 1/2 cup water, and 1 package of onion soup mix.

Place the frozen Turkey breast in the slow cooker, mix the remaining ingredients together and pour over.  Cook on low, mine was probably cooking for close to 11 hours by the time we got home, boiled potatoes, steamed broccoli, made a salad, and gravy from a package.

Delicious.

Turkey sandwiches tomorrow!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Playdate Cookies

My son arranged with one of his class mates to go over to his house for a play date this past weekend.

To be a courteous house guest I baked cookies for my son to take along.

We made Butter Cookies.  I had wanted to try these cookies last year when I ordered the spice blend, however, my saleslady for these products delivered them to me promptly on the 28th of January after I had ordered them early November.  Needless to say, I did not make the cookies for Christmas, and I will not be ordering from her again.

The cookies turned out quite lovely:

The children all thought they were delicious, so that was a bonus! Notice by the picture a cookie monster had come and gone while I was getting the camera!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

What's For Dinner?

Anyone who knows me knows that I am what has become referred to as Saskatchewan Ukrainian cheap.

I like to think that means that I am frugal with my resources and make the best use of everything and not outsource if at all possible.

One of things that I work very hard on for my son is that he grow up with the concept that dinner is a hot meal at home at the dinner table, with healthy food, not fast or prepared food.

We have extracurricular activities most week nights as most families do, but rather than line up in the drive thru with other parents I opt to have casseroles prepared or use my slowcooker.

This morning before we left home I put ingredients in the slow cooker and when we got home dinner was ready.  My son set the table, I made a salad, and we ate:

I cut up about 6 large red potatoes, added 4 handfuls of frozen green beans, half a chopped onion, chopped green and red pepper, and a half a turkey sausage.

I was dubious if there would be enough moisture in this preparation, so I stopped by home at lunch time to check on it, and it was fine.  There was very minimal moisture in the crock pot when we got home, but apparently the frozen beans kept the potatoes from sticking.

It was quite good, needed a little salt, but other than that we have a few nights of left overs now!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Cranberry Chia Bread

Yesterday while rummaging in the refrigerator I came across a bag of cranberries that I figured I had better use up.

I ended up making Cranberry Bread:

It's delicious!

Cranberry Chia Bread:

1/4 cup canola oil

1 cup vanilla yogurt

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 tsp orange flavoring

2 tsps baking powder

1 1/2 cups flour

2 heaping tbsps chia seed

1 cup fresh cranberries

Beat oil, yogurt, sugar and eggs together, add in orange flavoring.  Add in dry ingredients and mix together.  Fold in cranberries.  Bake in a greased pan at 350F for 45 minutes.  

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

What's For Lunch?

It's Greycup Sunday and after working last night again, I have to get a move on and get prepared for the week ahead and be ready to watch the Greycup game this afternoon.
My beloved Saskatchewan Roughriders are playing in this game at Taylor Field.  I am so homesick right now just thinking about not being able to be there :....), so I decided to make bread, because nothing says Saskatchewan more than wheat and canola, and well, some flax seed too.  Plus we need something for lunches this week and to make sandwiches one requires bread.
So, I  powered up my KitchenAid and turned out another four loaves of bread:

Delicious as usual.

As many of you likely know, I have used this mixer for years to mix whole grain bread, and sometimes in extremely large quantities.  I did burn the motor out trying to run about 14 cups of whole grain flour through it last spring, but a simple replacement of the motor by husband and I am going again.

I recently looked at another brand of mixer that boasts an 800 W motor, not sure what mine is really running now. 

 At first I was excited about the new more powerful machine, but then I realized that the mixing bowl on the 800 W machine is still the same size as the one I have and not likely to handle 14 cups of whole grain flour either!

So, no new mixer in my future I will continue to mix 8 - 10 cups whole grain flour with my 15+ year old, made in the USA, with no plastic parts mixer, and here's hoping I don't blow a motor for another 15 years : )

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Caught Up!!!

I am so excited!!!

I am finally caught up!!!

I started on the Prairie Quilt Mercantile Cracked Pots Facebook Mystery Quilt two weeks late due to working extra long weeks with overtime, and all of the other things that keep me occupied.

As of today I am caught up with the other quilters in this group!  I can actually take pride in the fact that all in all I was only one week behind, despite the late start!

Here is step 5:

Aren't they cute?  They measure a whopping 2.5" square!!!

Off to finish my socks now.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Friday Feature Card

If any of you pay close attention to my blog you will have noticed that my blog posts are now done at some bizarre early hour of the day.

There is a reason for that.  Usually, I do not go to bed til somewhere after midnight.  Am awake by 0300 because after decades of waking to check my blood sugar at that time, I don't even need to set a clock, and if my husband is home, he wakes at around 0400 to get ready to leave for work at 0500 as he has about a 45 minute commute before work.  I lay in bed and stare at the walls for about 2 hours and then get up.

This week after feeling a little tired, I decided to try something new!  

If I go to bed at 2100 hours (9 p.m.) I can get to sleep until 0300, then doze until 0400, and then get up and be productive til 0600 when I get lunches and school stuff ready for the day.

Here is what I did this morning:

I think this will be another one of the cards that I make with my friends for our annual Christmas Card Making Party!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

More Nine Patch Squares!!!

Welcome to my new blogging friends from yesterday!
 I LOVE participating in the Sew Sisters Blogathon Canada event because it gives me a chance to "meet" other quilters from across Canada and find out what they are up to and what is happening in different parts of this great country.

 Yesterday I mentioned that the Nine Patch blocks for the mystery quilt were getting to be overwhelming.  I made 210 of those little squares.  To reward myself for completing them I decided to get caught up on my block of the month quilt kit offered by one of my favorite stores in the Edmonton area; Woodland Quilts in Spruce Grove.

 I opened my fabric kit and the instructions for the October installment and guess what I got to make 80 of?

More black and white nine patch squares!!!

Okay, I am done with mini nine patch squares for a while, I hope!!!
 Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy