It is sad when the extraordinary moments in your life include when you figured out which foot, out of the menagerie of feet your sewing machine came with, is your zipper foot.

Hey look!  I found it!

Said find resulted in my first zipper ever!  Look – it opens!

And it closes!

*Sigh* It’s the little moments in life that bring the best joy. 

Now, Superhero says I shouldn’t add a handle, as I had planned to do.  I think I agree with him.  But, I may go to the bank and get a gold or silver dollar and put it inside – since there is nothing else inside.  I hope the person receiving this likes it – now off to make the other two!

I am so excited that Sew Mama Sew has gotten into charity crafting. In fact, I had to hold back my excitement and keep from taking on more than I could handle.

If you haven’t stopped by Sew Mama Sew to check out their Quilting for Peace Team, you’re missing out on an opportunity to do some good and maybe challenge yourself a little bit.  I was good, I didn’t sign up for both current projects, but Wrap Them In Love really stuck to me.

So I headed off looking for inspiration – and found it where I started.  In a block along on Sew Mama Sew they mention the Irish Chain.  I’ll admit – it is a very basic beautiful quilt and I have never seen it before!

I went a flickring to see what I could find for inspiration and found this beautiful quilt from Bloom & Blossom.

So, that’s my inspiration.  Of course, mine will be much smaller.  Let’s be honest here, it needs to be done by January. 

I think I want to do a black background with very bright colors for the chain.  My goal is to map it out at some point during work tomorrow.  Unfortunately, between being busy and sick, I am not sure how much mapping out I’ll get done.  Any downtime I may just use to recouperate.

Speaking of recouperation – I’m going to sleep now.  Goodnight!

I have noticed in the blogs that I read people never make mistakes. Or at least they don’t share their mistakes. Ahhh…the illusion of perfection.

NOT HERE! Haha!

I made a mistake. On Monday, I made vegetable soup.

Preface: A couple of weeks ago, I made vegetable soup using frozen veggies, a can of beef broth, a can of sliced potatoes, and a soup bone.  The only down fall was that the frozen veggies I had happened to be stir fry veggies and water chestnuts taste really strange in vegetable soup – it’s a consistency issue.  So this week, I planned to make vegetable soup again, but had purchased a bag of regular frozen veggies (corn, peas, carrots, green beans, and lima beans).  The soup bone was a little meatier this time around too.

After sitting all day in the crockpot (oh how I love my crockpot!), we served up for dinner.  Superhero was the first to taste as I was still feeding Baby J her dinner.  He added some salt and tasted again.  Let’s just say the look on his face did not say, “mmmmmm”.  He gave me some to taste – feet!  It tasted like feet!

I don’t know what went wrong – the last time it was perfect!  So great that Superhero drained the broth and left me with the veggies for lunch because the broth was so yummy.  This time, it tasted like feet.  Now I’ll give my Superhero some credit – he did try to make it work.  He added enough salt to make the Dead Sea look like a fresh body of water.  But the end result was just salty feet.  Oh what to do!

We poured it down the drain and had condensed soup.  I am sad.  Next time around I will try a California blend with broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots.

Well, it has been a while longer than I particularly would have liked. Part of my absence can be attributed to the holiday, but the other part was attributed to stinky computer issues. Fortunately, I have the best neighbors ever!

You see, I thought I had come across my share of blue screens of death – but this past week we have dealt with the official blue screen of death. However, since my neighbor is so savvy with computers (and power tools – you should see the chicken coop and gate) the blue screen of death is gone and I am back. Just in time to say it’s officially Christmas!

That’s right – the Nutcrackers have come out – it is officially Christmas!  I put them out today.  It was so exciting to see Baby J looking at them.  It’s amazing how much she has grown in the past year.  She has always been very aware – but disinterested, until just recently.  Now she is interested in everything – including the Nutcrackers.  And why not?

My Aunt Karyn feels that everyone should collect something.  She actually started me on a bear collection that didn’t really go far (although I did inherit all of her bride & groom bears when I got married).  This collection took off.  I think part of the reason was my infatuation with anything that had to do with ballet when I was little, most importantly The Nutcracker.  We saw the play every year when I was little.  I sure would like to go see it again.

Anyways, the collection grew from my Aunt contributing to everyone contributing.  You see the big guy with the fuzzy hat – that one is from Superhero for our first Christmas together.

The green guy in the middle is the addition I got last year.

The very first nutcracker I ever got is even there – on the right side with the black star on his gold hat.  He looks a little worse for wear – although there are others who are missing noses or shoes, so I guess he is doing pretty well considering how old he is.

Well, the tree is up and beautiful.  I haven’t gotten a picture of it yet, so you can’t see it.  But I will show you shortly.  For now, I am off to craft some Christmas gifts – after all, I have only 18 days to Christmas!

This is going to be a long one.  Hope you’re ready for it.

One of my favorite blogs, House on Hill Road, is doing a giveaway to coincide with Erin and her girl’s adorable Softies for Softies for Mirabel (and some great mommy daughter time).  I used her giveaway as my kick in the pants.  I have been meaning to get this going for a while and just haven’t gotten around to it.  I did try once, earlier this year, but didn’t get anywhere with it.  So, hopefully this time around is more successful.  So here it is:

I hope that, whoever you are reading this, you have never had to be in the hospital.  If you have, you know that it is a cold, dreary, unwelcoming place.  So here is my thought…

Nothing says home like a quilt.

My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2006.  Less than a month before our wedding, she underwent a full mastectomy.  When she gave me away at my wedding, she was wearing softies for shape and still had her drains in.

I had the opportunity to go with her one Saturday for, what I deemed as, my crash course in breast cancer.  We visited the local chapter of Gilda’s Club, where I had the great fortune to meet a woman who was very proud of her new boobs and wasn’t afraid to show everyone. 

We also went to Susan’s Special Needs where Susan herself greeted us.  I don’t think up until that point, what was going to happen to my mother really set in.  I remember looking at the pajamas they have that went in the freezer to help with hot flashes due to hormone treatments thinking, “What does this have to do with Cancer?”

My mother is strong – stronger than she’ll ever know.  But she is a quiet kind of strong.  She deals with the things that happen to her with a stability I could never muster.  Life has thrown some hairpin turns in her road and, somehow, she has managed to stay on the road.

I know that there is a huge support for breast cancer as it is, but because of my close connection with it, those who are battling it have a special place in my heart.  I want to do this in living memorial to her.

So for women who are going through chemotherapy or have just had a lumpectomy or mastectomy, we are going to make quilts.

“We?”  You ask.  Yes…we.  The requirements for the squares are below.  These might change as it goes along and I realize somethings might need to be changed, but so far, here they are.

• Care Quilts will be pink themed.  Somewhere in the square, there should be some pink - and not magenta colored pink.  You know the pink I’m talking about – breast cancer pink.  There can be other colors in the square, but make sure there is some pink.
• Each round will have a designated square.  The details will include style, size, etc.
• Squares must be mailed to me.  Please email me to get shipping information.  Make sure to include your name and email address with your squares so that I can send you confirmation that I received your square, pictures of the completed quilts, and anything else I might forward onto everyone who participates.

Get involved even if you aren’t the most crafty person in the world.  It’s good for you!

I am going to designate February as my month to assemble the first round of squares.  That gives people time to get through the holidays and still have plenty of time to assemble a square or two or ten.  However many you want to try is up to you! 

February will be 10 1/2 – inch pieced blocks.  However you want to piece them is fine with me, but they need to be 10 1/2 – inches unfinished so that when they are assembled in the quilt, they will be 10 inches.

Lastly, if you know someone who is going through or is about to be going through this difficult time, please feel free to nominate them to receive a quilt.  OR if you have an area hospital you would like to have Care Quilts donated to, PLEASE email me and we can definitely work out something. 

Have fun with these!  And thank you for your participation!  Please feel free to comment with any questions – someone else may have the same question and be too afraid to ask.

Thanks again, in advance.  I cannot wait to see what we all come up with together!

Look at this post time!  That’s right.  It’s about 4 in the morning.  We had an amazing night last night – everyone was in bed and all the lights were out at 8:15.  Obviously, we have no life.  But aside from that, Baby J isn’t going to the sitter this week because of the holiday and Superhero delivers papers early (he gets up and leaves by 3)  in the morning.  Once he gets home, he’ll be up all day with Baby J – thus the necessity for early bedtime.

What else made last night amazing? 

Why, Maple Apple Chicken, of course!  And you just know I’m going to share the deliciousness with you, right?

Maple Apple Chicken

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 small-medium onion, sliced
2 red cooking apples sliced (we like Jonagolds)
1/2 cup maple pancake syrup
1/2 cup italian dressing

Preheat oven to 350-degrees.

In a skillet, over med-high heat, cook chicken 3-4 minutes on each side; just enough to brown it (I suppose this part could be done on a grill as well for some yummy variation).

Place chicken in a baking dish.  Place sliced onions and apples on top.  In a seperate container, mix together the syrup and italian dressing and pour over the contents of the chicken, apples, and onion.

Bake 20-25 minutes, or until chicken is done.

This serves up great with rice; which is what we had it with last night.  I sliced the apples real thin, which gave it a more concentrated apple flavor – at least I thought so anyways.

Hope you enjoy!  This recipe has become a standby for us – especially this time of year, when we almost always have apples in the house.

In other great news:

It’s almost here!  Am I going to be giving anything away?  No, not this time around.  Maybe next time.  But it will give me the chance to find some great new blogs to inspire me!

The other big news is that, very soon, I will be adding in details about Care Quilts to the blog.  I have changed my idea about them a little, since their origination.  Hopefully, I will have some interested takers as I would love to get this project off the ground.  Check back later for more details.

Lastly, welcome to all the new people who have been visiting.  My blog stats are growing!  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you come back soon.

Okay, back to bed for me.  Hope you are all sleeping well right now!

My mother-in-law informed me today, while we were talking turkey – more on that later, that she read somewhere you should take 10,000 steps a day. 

Where did this come from?  Well, I was on the phone with her walking back and forth between two chairs set ten feet apart.  Why, do you ask, would I be walking back and forth?  No, it is not to work off those last seven pounds of baby weight – although they do haunt me and this would have been very effective.

I went Christmas shopping today and came up with a great idea for someone on my list who is very hard to shop for – a Rapunzel scarf. 

I would go into more detail, but, on the off chance that she might read this (even though I don’t think she knows my blog exists), I can’t.  Let’s just use this as a Christmas teaser. 

This project was great!  I love the way it turned out.  I love how easy it was to put together.  I love that it cost me just a little over five dollars.  I would keep this if it wasn’t intended for someone. Darn those well thought out Christmas gifts! I hope she likes it as much as I do.

Okay, I will admit when it comes to computers, I am inept in comparison to my family members. The only person I can top is my mother – and that’s not an age thing. If my father were around, he would kick my butt computer-wise.

That being said…woo hoo! Look at my widgets! And hey to all those who can see me on Facebook!

Yup…I’m a geek!

Now that that is out of my system, what are your plans for this weekend?  I am going Christmas shopping – that’s right!

Christmas shopping!  Well, actually, most of my Christmas shopping is done.  I need the fabric for a couple projects and I am going to attempt zippers, so I need to get those too.  

Unfortunately for all of you, you’ll have to wait until after Christmas to see said projects.  I don’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone.

So, in order to get in the spirit I am curling up with my favorite version of the Christmas Carol – can you guess which one it is?

Yup!  I’m a geek!

This is a little random, but it was so stinking cute that I had to share. 

I hope this doesn’t speak to my parenting habits:

Someday, she’s going to be a great mom!  I mean, that’s why we have kids isn’t it?  To make sure we have a cushiony soft place to sit.

Maybe I should look at this as a positive – she’s sensible.  She did pick the cushy round baby and not pokey Big Bird or the too flat teething cat.  She cares about her rump.

I have a theory….

You see, I believe there are two seasons between Summer and Winter; there is Fall and then, there is Autumn.

Fall is jack-o-lanterns, Halloween, jumping in leaf piles, and the brilliant colors of the leaves that have just turned.  Fall is the smell of apples and burning pumpkins.

I collected these pictures from various websites. Outside of organization/collaging, this is not my original artwork.

Autumn is pumpkin pie, roasted turkey, the more muted colors of the leaves that have fallen to the ground and the bare tree limbs.  Autumn is more somber while Fall is more wild.  Autumn is warm family dinners and Fall is chilly football games.

I collected these pictures from various websites. Outside of organization/collaging, this is not my original artwork.

Autumn is elegant while Fall is whimsical.  So goodbye to the whimsical fall and hello to the elegant Autumn.  Thanksgiving is right around the corner!