What's For Dinner???

Along with the chicken the other night, I found this delightful recipe on the Kraft Foods website for Roasted Red Potatoes With Bacon & Cheese.

I substituted the bacon for simulated bacon bits, and did not have any ranch dressing, so used Caesar.

Worked out just fine, and everyone loved these.  Will make these again.

 Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

What's For Dinner????

The past few days I have been at home, and been able to actually sort of plan a dinner.

Last night we had Easy Garlic Chicken for which I found the recipe while playing with Google, along with a potato side dish.

Here is the chicken, and it was delicious!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

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

It has been years since I have worked shift work, so last night when I got home, I was not ready to go to sleep, so I worked on my Plenty of Fish Facebook Mystery Quilt.

Finished Step # 10 of Quilt # 2.

Here is what I completed:

 Hopefully, this does not induce a seizure!  Remember this quilt was made entirely of fabric scraps from my scrap basket!  No new fabric was harmed in the making of this ?disaster....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

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

Trying madly to get caught up on my Plenty of Fish Facebook Mystery Quilt.

Here is my second set of Step # 9.  Now to get Step # 10 done as Step # 11 was just released!!!

Off to sew, and then off to work.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Purple Socks

I realized as I folded laundry this morning that I had not put these socks on my blog since I finished them.

So, I present:

Purple Finished Socks!

I picked up the yarn for these I believe at Knit and Caboodle on one of my many trips through Canmore.  I don't know who manufactured this yarn as the label was taken off by the cat on one of this many attempts to steal this yarn for his hiding spot.  Silly cat....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Friday Feature!

I am on my way today to meet a couple of really good friends of mine for lunch at Duchess Bake Shop.

 I LOVE this place.

Anyways, since these friends of mine are so awesome, we seem to always be getting each other through the sideways turns life throws at us, I decided my Friday Feature project would be a card for each of them.

Here is what I made:

Now, I am out to lunch!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Shopping in Kathy's Closet

I don't have enough things to do in life (hahahahahahaha), so I decided to join in on the Cracked Pots Mystery Quilt Group.

Today I decided I would make a trip to The Quilt Rack in Vegreville because the 50% off sale is still going on there, and I should get some fabric for my new project.

Before I set out on my road trip though, I decided to go shop in my closet and see what I had for fabric that might work for this quilt and coordinate with what I already had.

Here is what I found:

Well, needless to say, I did not go shopping today.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Snack Time!

I made muffins last night for snack time today.

Chocolate Chip Muffins are never a miss so that is what I made.  Of course my son and I each sampled one when they came out of the oven last night:

Yummy!

 Chocolate Chip Muffins:

1/2 cup canola oil

1 cup sugar

- beat together then add:

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup milk

- add dry ingredients:

3 cups flour

4 tsps baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

- mix until all ingredients blended

- fold in 1 cup chocolate chips

Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes and ENJOY!

 

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

 

Kathy

 

What's For Dinner???

Week nights are always hectic around our house.  By the time my son and I get home from work, school, and various extracurricular activities, it is dinner time.

Sometimes, I am organized and have a casserole left over from the weekend, or the slow cooker going, but sometimes, it is a fly by the seat of our pants ordeal.

I stumbled across this idea recently, however, since I did not have most of the ingredients (gourmet), this is my version of it:

Plus, I get to use my FANTASTIC, Made in Canada 28 cm Paderno Nature Trust Fry Pan.  I LOVE this fry pan!!

Okay, so what's in there:

1/2 Smoked Turkey Sausage

1/2 tbsp olive oil

- fry til sausage is brown, I added in some onions, mushrooms, and red pepper as well (what was in the crisper)

then add:

1 - 8 oz can tomato sauce, or diced tomatos (what ever you have)

2 cups water

1 cup dry pasta (I had macaroni)

- heat to boiling, and allow liquid to cook out,

- add to mixture 1/2 cup cheese and stir through, and then since I LOVE cheese, I add another 1/2 cup or so on top just before serving.

While this is cooking I make a green salad to go with it, and all food groups are accounted for in about 15 minutes!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

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

I'm almost caught up, well maybe on my Plenty of Fish Facebook Mystery Quilt.

This is Step # 9 of Quilt 1 done:

Now I just have to get Step # 9 of Quilt 2 done, and then can start on Step # 10 for both of these, and if I can get that done by the end of the month I will be caught up!

Can I do it?

Only time will tell...

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

 

Kathy

Nutri Grain Bread

When I got up this morning, I decided to make bread.  It seemed like the kind of day to do this, and my son and I need lunches all of this week.

I recently came across this Nutri Blend flour and decided today was the perfect day to try it out.

Here is the end result...DELICIOUS!!!!

Only two of my loaf pans are the same size, so some of these loaves look a little creative....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

p.s. Yes the bowl is almost as old as me, but my mom used to use it for making bread, so now I do too!

Welcome to the world "William".....

A colleague of mine who also happens to have Juvenile Diabetes welcomed her little boy into the world last week on July 11th.  

I will call this little boy "William", although he does have a first name and I will try to abide by that to not confuse the poor little tyke, but there is a story behind my calling him "William".

A long time ago I actually found out that I have a INFJ personality and with that comes some form of "intuition" that sometimes is scary because I just "know" things without any concrete evidence.

Very early on in my colleagues pregnancy I "knew" it was a boy and that his name would be "William".  Unbeknownst to me, many of her relatives have that name as their middle name, and so in keeping with a family tradition her baby would have to carry that name.  So, for the rest of her pregnancy we called the baby to be "William".

Here is what I made for "William" and took to the hospital on the 12th:

And of course I threw in a package of the BEST diaper cream ever, I used it for my son who was cloth diapered (of course), and never had a case of diaper rash.  The cream smells awesome, and works!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Friday Feature !!

I actually started this project earlier in the week with the intent of having it ready for Friday Feature on the Krafting Krew Facebook page, but I got busy......

SOOOOO, in true Red Eye fashion I have just finished completing this project!

Now, you may ponder why I did not finish this project earlier this evening, and the VERY good reason for that is I just got home from the Gord Bamford and Reba McEntire concert!!!

It was awesome.  It was country music the way it should be, and I totally LOVED it!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

What's in Your Lunch????

This week has marked the back to routine for both my son and I.  I went back to work he started summer camp at his most favorite place on this planet, and so now we need to have healthy things for lunch.

I made these blueberry muffins last night from a cookbook called Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More that I found at the St. Albert Public Library (I LOVE that place in case you did not already know that).

I omitted the streusel topping because in my cupboard I had some Cinna-Cream Sprinkles that I figured would do likely the same thing (and also justify why they are taking up space in my cupboard).

The end result:

Delicious!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Stamp of the Month Club

I have some how been so busy I forgot to post this month's version of Stamp of the Month Club.  This is a club that Karina offers.  Each month you get a stamp set along with three hand crafted cards to give you ideas as to how to use the stamp set.

For July club participants got:

In addition to the Six Sided Sampler Stamp set I also got the hexagon punch!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Road Trip Snacks

If you know me, and or follow my blog ramblings, you will know that I tend to be a little on the frugal side, as well as not a big fan of commercially produced products.

For our road trip last week my son and I made these little snacks to take with us.  I don't like buying convenience foods because of the lack of nutrition (not that these are particularly healthy), but also because of who knows what has gone into the processing and preserving of these products.

These snacks are called Special K Cookies, and the only extra thing I did was add a couple of heaping tablespoons of flax seed and a cup of chocolate chips to the recipe.

Trust me, these were delicious!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

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

I have come to realize my s"crap" collection, has a lot of weird stuff in it...., for the first part of the Plenty of Fish Facebook Mystery Quilt I was doing not too bad only using scraps for both of my quilts.  The first quilt is more traditional, a little bit country, a little bit reproduction print, and the second is all of the bright fabrics that at some time have gone into one of my "happy" projects.  

Well, this is what I have for Step 8 of my second quilt:

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Road Trip Stop # 2

After leaving Snow Goose Quilting on Thursday, my son and I headed out across the prairie towards Vegreville in our trusty GO-GO-GO Toyota as we call it (I have managed to put over a 125,000 miles [yes miles, not kilometes] on this car in just over 4.5 years).  

 In Vegreville of course we stopped to see:

 

And normally, I think graffiti is bad, but I did think this was sort of funny on the picnic bench by the giant pysanka:

 Of course we stopped at The Quilt Rack while there and this is what I came home with:

I could simply not leave all these goodies behind, everything was 50% OFF!!

I LOVE small towns.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Road Trip Stop # 1

On Thursday my son and I ventured about an hour outside of Edmonton to see what kind of Small Town Quilt Shops, Small Town Parks, and Small Town Bakeries we could find.  

Our first stop was Snow Goose Quilting in the metropolis of Tofield.

Here is what I had to come home with:

We will be going back here another time.  As I continue on my quilting journey (physically), I find that every quilter is just a friend you have not met, and this is certainly the case with this local quilt store!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Friday Feature

I stayed up late last night (nothing new), to make my Friday Feature project.  I am calling it the Friday Feature Project because Karina started a Krafting Krew Facebook page for her friends to post their projects and tips on once a week on Friday.

Here is what I made last night:

I did manage to use all Stampin' Up product, although the buttons are retired (sshhhhhh, some people get REAL cranky 'bout that).

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Look What Arrived!!!

I was very excited to get home today and find on my doorstep this big box of FUN from The Quilt Patch!!!

The book and fabric kit I had ordered when I was at the Heritage Park Festival of Quilts, and the quilt kit I ordered from the Edmonton Festival of Quilts.

Tomorrow I think my son and I will venture about an hour outside of Edmonton and hit up some of the quilt shops in the rural areas!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Road Trip Block # 12

Okay, so Block # 12 is done.  I suppose I could make a 2 x 6 block quilt and be done????

Must get a few more of these done a bit quicker.  Have now cut up and paired up all of the fabrics, so maybe that will, help, but there are so many other things to do too!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Happy 9th Birthday!!!

Today is my son's 9th Birthday!!!

We had his Birthday Party on the weekend with his little friends.  We went to Despicable Me 2 at the movie theatre.

Who would think making a cake for this theme would be so hard???  Not me.  Apparently there are no cake pans or decorations for this theme as of yet. 

So, I made my own cake after searching all over for characters from this movie I was finally able to find one plastic character at a toy store!

I present you his cake, minus the #9 candle that I forgot at home, it was supposed to be for the exit onto the off ramp, but.....

Happy Birthday Baby Trey!
Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

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

I have managed to finally get Step 8 of my Plenty of Fish Facebook Mystery Quilt done.  Now for the second set of these.

What is wrong with me???? Why did I decide to make two of these quilts?????

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Quick Treat Boxes

Today we hosted my son's 9th Birthday Party.

It's not his actually birthday, quite yet, but we had the party today.

After searching party and toy stores all over Edmonton and Central Alberta, I came up empty handed for items for the loot bags to the party.

So, late last night I got out my Tag a Bag Gift Boxes from Stampin Up, some Designer Series Paper (cut the banners with my Cricut using my Artiste Collection Cartridge.

The stamp set is called Label Love and is also from Stampin Up along with matching paper punch.

The inside of these boxes is filled with candy!  My son and I had so much fun getting and filling these boxes with candy:

I am so going to make these better for the next time, but this was a quick easy solution!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Jacob's Ladder Block of The Month June

I have finally succeeded in getting my June Block of the Month for my Jacob's Ladder Quilt done.

Only a few days late....

This is a Block of the Month that I signed up for from Woodland Quilting in Spruce Grove just because I liked the colors!

I made 26 if these blocks (I only need 24, but I had cut all the fabric and made a few extras of each small block just in case I needed to change one or two out, it gave me some options).  All of the blocks went together easily, except for block 24!  For some reason I have had to sew that one several times to get the corners right!!!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Cycle Celebration Card

So in the middle of my Quilting Marathon Vacation arrives a big box of stuff I ordered from Stampin' Up!

Well, today, I decided to play with my new stuff.

Here is what I made:

I used the new Cycle Celebration Stamp set, Pacific Point Ink, Card stock and Designer Series Paper, and some bakers twine (I'm not sure what color it is, but I thought it was pretty).

I love this stamp set, the bicycle is so much fun!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Bound for High River via Ponoka...

Many of you are likely aware of the Southern Alberta Floods that took place recently.

Of course I have donated through financially through the appropriate financial institutions and even bought a few of the Wild Rose Doughnuts (and somehow I have eaten the most of them).  

Most recently, and a little closer to my heart, I found out that one of my favorite quilt shops Prairie Points Quilt Shop in Ponoka is assisting with the Ponoka Pin Pals Quilting Bee.  This Quilting Bee is to make quilts for the children of Southern Alberta affected by the flood.

I of course will be donating some fabric today when I am in the shop, but first I sent my son "shopping" in my craft room last night for 10 - 12 fat quarters to turn into a quilt top that these ladies can finish.

Here is what he came back with:

I used my favorite quick, easy, stash busting quilt pattern (it's called Hopscotch and is available from The Quilt Patch).  The pattern and cutting dimensions are simply brilliant, there is very little wasted fabric, and when you see how simple and easy it is you will wonder why you did not think of it!!
I hope this brings some little child, some comfort during this time.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Road Trip Block # 11

Meet Block # 11!. 

I think I am going to have to pick up the pace if I am going to have this done in the next month.  Hmmmm, will that happen, probably not, but it's always good to have a dream!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Soap Day!

Today my son and I made soap.  There was only small bits of random hand soaps left in the bathroom, so rather than go buy soap, we made some.

Here is the first batch we made:

Apparently one should should color the soap prior to adding the luffa as I did, because the luffa took on the real true color of the dye, so now there are dark flecks in my soap.  

Oh well, maybe that is just more lifelike????

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!

Happy Canada Day Everyone!!!!
I LOVE Canada Day, it's right up there almost as important as Christmas for me.
I love being Canadian, and on this day it gives me, my family and my country the chance to pause and be thankful for what we have. 
In honour of this day my son and I baked cupcakes and took them with us for the Canada Day barbeque:

HAPPY CANADA DAY, and here are two of my favourite You Tube tributes to Canadians:
I Am Canadian Anthem (yes I know it's from Molson) and
God Bless You Canada.
Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy