Breakfast Gondolas

My husband has always done the cooking for Sunday morning breakfast.

 

So today I'm in my sewing room working on my Nature's Chorus snowball quillow, watching Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable in The Misfits, and I can hear Bill in the kitchen just puttering away - wonderful smells wafting down the hall!

 

 

 

After a while he calls me to come and eat my Breakfast Gondola.....huh???

I get to the dining room and he has the table set with these elaborate creations he calls Breakfast Gondolas.

 

 

 

He said he's been seeing Burger King's commercials for breakfast bowls and decided that's what he would make for this Sunday's fare, only he went all out!  He found that he had way too many ingredients for a small bowl so he pulled down my manicotti dishes (I don't know what they're really called) and filled them up!!

 

These were his ingredients:

 

• smoked turkey sausage
• scrambled eggs
• peppers
• onions
• mushrooms
• potatoes
• swiss cheese
• cheddar cheese
• sausage gravy

 

There must have been a jillion calories in each one, but we were good and only ate half and wrapped the rest up to eat during the week.  They were so tasty!!!  You go, Bill!!  I was more than happy to do the dishes for him after that breakfast (egads, he made a mess, though!)

 

So, my belly is full and I'm headed back to my nook, happy as a fat clam!!!

 

 

 

Feelin' Blue

 

Sometimes depression and anxiety threatens at the corners of my heart and mind. Nothing major, just a bunch of little things that cause me to just feel ‘down’. But, I’m not one that enjoys that feeling and I know, without a doubt, that I am SO blessed. Therefore, I decided that I needed to cheer myself up, starting with  reminding myself of the good things I have in my life that far outweigh all those little ‘bad’ things…I keep a journal and I made a long list of those good things....this ALWAYS helps restore my perspective.

I also found some comfort in a much-loved book:

“How long will I store up anxious concerns within me, agony in my mind every day?...But I have trusted in Your faithful love; my heart will rejoice in Your deliverance. I will sing to the LORD because He has treated me generously.”

~ Psalm 13:2a, 5-6

And finally, I did some sewing!

Holding to my 'blue' theme for the day, I accepted amylouwho's Amy Butler challenge and made this cute toddler jumper

I now know why her fabrics are so captivating and addictive!

I used Morning Glory for the outside and a matching polka dot from the Lotus line for the lining and decided to go with covered buttons to give it a little personality.

So cute!  Wishing I had a little niece to dress up!

Lately, I've been wanting to try my hand at hourglass blocks and even commissioned my husband to make me a triangle template from plexiglass we got from Lowe's.  But, what fabrics to use....hmmm....

When my daughters were home a few weeks back, sitting around with nothing to do, I offered a task that they could do while they waited and would allow them to chat with me while I sewed.

Daughter #1 accepted so I gave her my nifty cardboard template and set her to work folding my fabrics!

She did a fabulous job and got most of the blue fabrics folded.

Now, I'll just have to convince her to come back and work on the other colors!!

So, I decided to use the blues for my hourglass blocks and made enough for a quillow.

It really is an easy pattern to put together.  Now, the decision as to which block is worthy to be on the pillow portion of the quillow!!!

So, what do YOU do when you're feeling blue?

Have a great weekend and make sure to stop by Amy's blog to see all the other Amy Butler items!!

 

I'm GELLIN' !!!

 

 

I had a nice time with daughter #2 yesterday....my husband asked what I had for lunch and I replied:

 

"twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesonionsonasesameseedbun"

 

OR, if you heard this little joke when you were a kid (that's when I heard it)

 

"Two obese Pattys, special Ross, Lester Sheets, Picking Bunions on the Sesame Street Bus"

 

Have you heard that one?  If you haven't, then don't ask me to tell you - I'm NOT a good joke teller!!  :)  I found a few versions online....here's the one that best describes how I heard it as a kid.  Here's another.

 

This morning I pieced together my scrappy blocks and chose a backing and have put it aside to quilt at a later time.

 

 

Now, that I've allowed myself to 'play' a bit, it's time to get back to work....we have several craft shows planned for this Fall and I need to start making things for that and working on custom orders.  Bill spent some time working on marshmallow shooters last night for craft shows - they are our best seller by far!!!

 

Thanks SO MUCH to everyone who gave me tips and suggestions on my foot problem.  Especially to my friend Mrs. P as she helped lead me to a diagnosis of sorts....turns out all the symptomps are descriptive of Plantar Fasciitis...you can read more about it here and here.  Anyway, I decided the last thing I wanted was to damage the tissue even more, or even tear it, so one suggestion I got online that seemed to help most people afflicted with this was to try gel heel cups.

 

 

So, for $8.24,  I am " gellin' " and so far, the pain has definitely lessened!  Praise God!!!!

Naturally, to my dislike, I have to wear shoes around the house with these, but I have compromised and placed them in my moccasins.

 

A Fun Day

So far, today, I'm having fun....

 

I stumbled upon Fat Quarterly's quilt along recently and wanted to do it but didn't want to use any new fabrics, and since I am IN LOVE with the scrappy look, I decided to use all scraps in my quilt.

 

 

I'm stopping at 70 blocks because I don't want my quilt to be too big.  It's going to be my car quilt.  If you are like me and your husband like mine, it's almost always too cold in the car when he's driving.  He loves to have all the windows down no matter what season and if I don't particularly want my hair flying all over the place, he'll put them up and then turn the AC on full blast.  No-win situation...my solution - a car quilt.

 

I always have such fun matching up coordinating scraps.

 

 

They are just oh so pretty!!!

 

 

These are a few of my favorite blocks.

 

 

   

 

 

Now to sew them all together....I haven't decided whether to use a muslin sashing or just sew them all together...any suggestions??

 

 

Also, today, I was able to hang my puzzle as I had glued it last night.

 

 

It fits perfectly above my thread racks.  I can spy the spot for my next puzzle art, too!

 

 

The best part of this day is that I'm waiting for a phone call from my youngest daughter after she gets done with classes for the day.  I do her taxes for her every year and in exchange she has to buy me lunch.  When your kids are little and you ask them where they want to eat, they quite often choose McDonald's.  Well, at least my kids did.  Always.  Funny how my daughter, now going on 23 still loves McDonald's and since she is paying, guess where we are having lunch today?

 

 

Uh-huh!  I'm lovin' it!!!

 

She must be reminiscing lately, too, because she asked me to bring her some old Disney movies.

 

 

I'm sending with it a jar of golden scuppernong jelly that her daddy made last night.

 

 

Yes, my husband made it!  Someone gave him permission to pick all their scuppernongs and he took advantage of it.  I reallly didn't have time to do any canning right now and he didn't really ask - he just took control and said he was going to do it.  He did awesome for his first time doing any kind of canning!  I'm proud of him and it really tastes great!!

 

I hope you're having a fun day, too!!

 

Here chickie, chickie....

 

Mmmmmmmmmmm.........can you smell that?

How about now?

OK...I'll get even closer.....

NOW, can you smell it?

Well, I'll tell you it's heavenly!!!

What are YOU having tonight for supper??

 

Helping Mom, Part Two

I wanted to post more during the week but I found I was much too busy during the day and when we finally slowed down in the evenings I was much too tired and lazy to do so!

 

I mentioned that Mom lives in somewhat of a 'ghetto' and it really doesn't appear that way from some of the pictures I showed you of her little house, so I'll show you the houses directly across the street...

 

 

I admit even these pictures don't really reflect all the poverty on this street.....I'll share more about that whole story in another post...

 

Among all the little non-photoworthy things we did to help make Mom's house more of a home, we replaced this old hot water heater

 

with a new tankless heater, which mounts on the outside of the house.

 

 

 

We installed an aerial antenna on her room (that was a scary job) so she would watch a few more channels than just PBS.

 

 

 

Repaired a few leaks while we were up there

 

 

 

Insulated a room (this was worse than working in a dingy attic)

 

 

 

Covered up some vent holes in her walls (forgot to take the 'after' pictures)

 

 

 

I think these were common back when there was one heat source in the house - this allowed the hot air to flow through to all the rooms when the doors were closed.

 

 

 

And we sanded a bedroom, prepping it for paint.  Mom and I got really dirty in this job, but I had the camera so she was the one who got snapped!

 

 

I love you, Mom!  You are such a hard worker and you have passed on that trait to me - thank you!

and thanks, especially,  for all the good cooking while we stayed with you....we'll be back!!!

 

 

 

Helping Mom

We set out Monday on an adventure to go help my mother with some home repairs.  Last March she bought a house in "the ghetto" (that's what my kids refer to it as, and it really is, I guess) which she got at a real steal, but naturally was in need of much repair.  We did a lot of work on it prior to her moving in with the idea that we would return occasionally to help her with more repairs as time and money allowed.  We have a long list this trip and planned to stay for at least a week.

 

 

First day, we started cleaning out the attic as it still had a bunch of 'junk' left in it from the previous owners.

 

Among the pieces of broken furniture and an old ice cream churn, we found these

 

My husband put them all in the trash pile, but while he wasn't looking, I snagged a few to browse during the trip back home (sneaky, sneaky!)  They are all from the early seventies.

 

 

I'll post pictures of the 'goodies' on the inside another time.

 

 

So, after the attic was cleaned there needed to be some light.

 

 

I used these supplies

 

 

and did this

 

 

Hurrah!  Let there be light!!

I even installed a light switch right at the top of the stairs so it's easy for Mom to reach right away.

 

 

 

I'm starting to miss my sewing machine!