Guild Treats!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Crazy, super busy with all of my commitments and adult responsibilities right now but it was Quilt Guild Meeting tonight.  That meant I had to go since I volunteered to be on the Membership Committee and have been occupied at other events and not in attendance for the two meetings now.  It also meant that since I have set the precedent of always having some kind of hand/home made treat I needed an idea.

Here is what I came up with since Mother's Day is just around the corner:

Thankfully another Quilt Guild member recognized the amount of things I have to do right now and over the next few weeks and volunteered to help with stamping, punching and assembly of these.  

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

My Grandma Sadie used this expression about her life all the time.  The older I get though I am not truly sure she understood the concept of it in the manner that I do.

This morning my son and I started the day off by getting up and getting to Santa's Breakfast for 0900 hours.  We made it, although we had to eat at the preschoolers table by the time we got our food!  My son thought it was hilarious that his mom could fit at the preschoolers table ☺

Then we waited in line to meet Santa.  Santa was awesome.  My son has not got a list this year as to what he wants for Christmas so when asked by Santa what he wants he replied "stuff".  Santa was awesome and let him know that Santa has "stuff".  ☺

After that we headed off to try and get my son a hair cut.  Thankfully we were out and about early enough in the morning that his favorite hair stylist was able to squeeze him in.

Afterwards we stopped at Bulk Barn and picked up some random goodies which included these sprinkles that I put on our hot chocolate this evening after walking the dog:

Then it was back to Millennium Place for skating lessons:

After skating  headed off to his Christmas piano recital of which he played his own composition of Deck the Halls.  He was very proud of himself for accomplishing this as was I.

Then it was finally time for lunch.  We used a Groupon for poutine at My Fries.  Yummy as always.

Next up we stopped by Sweet Convenience to buy candy with (you guessed it) another Groupon I had!!!

Lastly we stopped by River City Yarns and picked up some wonderful woolly goodies.

Coming home I decided that maybe I should do something with all of the craft chaos that I have going on right now.  "Sew" here is what I accomplished:

I sewed the buttons onto my Fingerless Mittens (still a silly concept I think) that was one set of mittens from my October box of Yarn Crush.  I did have to make these mittens a little smaller than the pattern not because my hands are small but because although I knit to gauge there was not enough yarn to complete both of them as long as they were supposed to be.  Now I have 4 left over buttons for another project I guess.

Now it's off to bed as skiing starts tomorrow, and there is laundry and baking for lunches this week and groceries and house cleaning and ......................................

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Great Big Fat Day of NOTHING!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I hope your day was as non exciting as mine.

The morning started off with my son annoying the cat:

Hello Kitty sat on the couch for quite a while before he decided to venture out in the house with his decorations.  Eventually he did lose them somewhere. ☺

For lunch I made Salmon Quiche and Caesar Salad:

There is no recipe to go along with this as it is made up as I went.  Somehow the cream froze in the back of the fridge.  Some mouse (you know who you are) ate the last of the Swiss Cheese, and all but one mushroom was gone!

After lunch my son and I walked over to Be A Bella for random amounts of candy.  We stopped at the park to play on the way since the day was beautiful.

When we returned home I sewed the binding on one of my quilts that I finished maybe last summer (maybe earlier) but had not yet put the binding on.  I sewed on the binding and then after dinner this evening hand stitched the binding to the backing.  I wanted to complete it today so that I can take it to the Fifth Wheel tomorrow when I go out to the acreage to plant the garden ☺:

TAH DAH!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Hello Out There.....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Had a super and productive day today.  After lunch my son and I headed out for groceries, but before we went grocery shopping we stopped for candy (yes, ironically I LOVE a good candy) at Be-a-Bella.  It is this really cute little shop that we drive by every day and the big jars of candy from the street look so lovely!  We got several small bags of various wonderful candies and yes there are still some left, and no my insulin pump did not run dry.

After grocery shopping and making dinner and getting a few loads of laundry done I decided to wind my latest skein of yarn:

As you may remember, earlier this year I knitted a pair of socks for my brother in Edmonton Oiler inspired yarn.  These socks have apparently been the hit of the Oil Patch this winter and my brother reports he holds on to them tightly as he is afraid that they will go "missing".  

Meanwhile, my husband wanted to know where his socks were.  Hmmmmmm.  Well, at that time there was no other colorway, but recently other colors arrived including Vancouver Canucks yarn.  

Tonight seemed to be the perfect time to wind this skein while I watched Hockey Night in Canada and as usual the Oiler's lost !

Ready to be knit into socks!

Of course you can't watch hockey without singing The Hockey Song ☺

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!  : )

Easter Basket Bowl

A few weeks ago my son and I went to Crock a Doodle in Spruce Grove.

This is what I made.  A quick trip to Bulk Barn for Easter Jelly Beans, and we have an awesome bowl full of candy!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Cookie Day

Today my son and I made cookies for his lunch this week.

We used the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, but changed out 1 cup of chocolate chips for M & M's of which I had a bag lying around taking up space!

They are delicious!

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

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

Mmmmmmm, Candy

When I saw this fabric a few weeks back at a quilt shop in the Edmonton area I new I had to get some it.  The shop will remain nameless, because every time I go in there the staff annoy me.  Of course the obvious solution would be to stop going there, but they have the best selection of flannel in the greater Edmonton area, so, alas I do go in there (sad face here).

I made  a pillow case with the fabric.  At this time of year I sew a lot of pillowcases, because not only are they awesome gifts, they can also be used to gift wrap presents.  Therefore I feel that I am cutting down on the amount of paper that is making its way into garbage bins on Christmas morning

Now, off to to find some kind of chocolate munchie.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!

I made these little treat packs for my sons class.  The number I needed to make kept going up and so by the time I was done two of his closest friends had to get their loot in plastic Halloween bags (sad face).

To make these I used orange 12 x 12 card stock, the stamped images from the Workshops On The Go Spellbound Cricut Kit, and the dimensions and ideas from this kit along with the Cricut Artiste Collection Cartridge to make the boxes and faces.  The paper is all from my stash; paper not cookie.  

Inside we filled food safe plastic bags with candy from you guessed it:  Bulk Barn!

Now off to trick or treat across the city in the snow and see friends.

Now, don't worry it's not that awful outside it's only -7 degrees Celsius and with the windchill -13 (which correlates to about 19 degrees Fahrenheit and with windchill about 9 degrees), and my dear friend made us hot chocolate before we headed out to the next stop.

 Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Halloween Treat

On Saturday evening we went as a family to see Hotel Transylvania.  We all enjoyed it, even though we had to wait 45 minutes in line after we got our tickets to get into the theater!  I think everyone wanted to see it...

When we got home, I decided to make this popcorn treat I had seen on Pinterest, but apparently did not save the link to it.  So, I made it from memory.....

2 batches of popcorn from the popcorn popper

1 block of Bernard Callebaut white chocolate - melted over double boiler

2 handfuls of candy corn (Bulk Barn)

1 handful of purple/green/black sprinkles (Bulk Barn)

- mix together and spread out over a large piece of parchment paper

Enjoy!  This stuff is really tasty...

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Candy Card

It's still summer vacation for my son and myself so today we decided to make more candy cards!

This is the one I made, just noticed that the butterflies are upside down (oooppps).

These card/treat holders are from Close to My Heart, and are quite fun once you figure out how to put them together. 

Now off to the park with water guns and a bag of candy!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Candy Surprise

Yesterday was my son's and my first day at home of my second half of summer vacation.

So, what could be more fun, than getting up at 1000 and getting to make your own candy treat card with gummy butterflies even before breakfast?

I got these card kits from Close to My Heart a while back, and they have been sitting on my craft room desk, so yesterday was time to start using them. I had picked up the mini butterflies on Saturday at Bulk Barn, and thought these would be perfect for the card.  After he assembled this and was eating breakfast, he asked a very important question "How am I supposed to get out the candy without wreaking the card"?

A good question.  So far neither of us has got that far, so the candy sits.  Waiting......

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Sweet Surprises Card Kit

Last week I got the opportunity to pick my son up from school on time, so he did not have to go to Out of School Care.  On these kind of days, I always like to put a little something in his car seat to make it an extra special day.

I bought the kit for these Sweet Surprise Card Kits from Close to My Heart a few weeks ago and decided that this card filled with left over Easter candy (yes, there is some extra candy in my house) would be his treat of the day.

I opened up the kit all eager to get started, however, the directions included do not make sense unless you actually know what the finished product is supposed to look like!  That, or maybe I'm a little slow.  Anyways, a quick trip to my favorite reference source - You Tube and found this video that shows at about 1:33 of the video briefly what the card is supposed to look like using the stickers and the chipboard pieces.  Now I got it!

Assembled very quickly and easily after that and was in the car seat for little boy when I got to school that day.

He loved it!  

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy