Stashmaster

I'm still here!

Thelma emailed me a few days ago wondering if I was ok, since I hadn't posted in so long.  I apologize to anyone who has stopped here and found nothing new since the pillowcase post.  I've been busy with a secret sewing project that I can't share right now, and with getting the kids back to school (yesterday!) and also with getting myself prepped (mentally and physically) for an unpleasant medical procedure.  I tell ya - they can put a man on the moon, so why can't they make the colonoscopy prep even the least bit palatable?  Yikes.  Oh well, kids are back to school, I made it through my test with no complications, and I'm still sewing like a mad woman.

I'm taking a little break from stunt sewing to work on my Year of Schnibbles project.  I'm nearly 2/3 finished, and waffling between "I really like this!" and "Oh my, I'm not sure these fabrics work for this pattern!"  So I hope to have that project to show you in a couple of days.  Come back, please?  I swear I won't always be this boring!

How about some cute kid pictures to distract you?  My boys started 7th grade yesterday - MIDDLE SCHOOL!   How did that happen?   And my daughter started 4th grade - she is very excited to be at elementary school without her brothers, so now she has her own little kingdom!

Million Dollar Smile!

Orthodontia Phase One is complete and my beautiful daughter got her braces off yesterday - isn't that a gorgeous smile?  Now she'll wear a retainer and her headgear for a while (I'm guessing until all her permanent teeth are done emerging) and then - well, I don't even want to think about Phase Two ($$$$$).  But seeing her teeth, it's so totally worth it!

We're Number 2!

My daughter's basketball team won just 2 of their regular season games, but they did well enough in the end of season tournament to bring home the second place trophy.  Way to go girls!

Progress all around

I'm making great strides with my Prairie Paisley quilt.  It looks rather wild with that feather print border, but the last pieced border will really help tone things down, I think.

There's also been a lot of progress where my daughter's teeth are concerned.  Here's a picture of her last August when she first got her braces on - see that big gap between her front teeth?    It was something she wanted gone.   Well, as the second picture shows, we're almost there - the gap is very small now!   Of course, now the silly girl says "I miss my gap"   You can't win, but I think she's adorable, gap or no gap.

She shoots, she scores!

I think I might win the prize for the most boring quilt blog ever!   It's not that I am not sewing, but I am working on another TOP SECRET quilt that I cannot blog about.

So how about I distract you with pictures of my adorable daughter?  She had her first basketball practice last night.   She did very well for never having played before - about half the girls on the team haven't, so she is not alone, but she seemed to be having fun and even made a few baskets.  If nothing else, she is the cutest player ever (not that Mom is biased or anything)!

How did this happen?

It seems like I blinked and the next thing I knew, my baby boys turned 12!  I remember when we brought them home from the hospital - it took their dad, my mom and me about a week before we could tell them apart - they look so different, there's not a chance of that happening now!  Happy Birthday to 2 of the sweetest boys a mom could ask for - they are smart, funny and talented as all get out, and next year they'll be TEENAGERS!   Happy Birthday Boys!

Happy Birthday!

This beautiful creature with the dimples turned 9 years old on Saturday.  Here she is just about to blow out the candles on her birthday cake.  Happy Birthday to my sweet girl - we are so lucky and blessed to have you in our lives.

Returning to normal

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas.  Ours was perfect, although I don't have photo documentation - I tend to forget to bring out the camera when there is too much going on around me!   Everyone of our dinner guests made it and dinner was divine.  The kids were all happy with their gifts and the house is at peace once again.

We did finally get 2 quilts hung in our entryway before our Christmas party - they certainly add some fun color to the plain, white walls!

Best of all, the snow has finally melted and I can finally leave the house and get back into my regular routine.  I went to work!  I went to the chiropractor!   Oh, the little things...  I now hope that UPS will get to delivering their backlog of packages that got stuck in the distribution center because of our weather.   I have a package from the Fat Quarter Shop that's been sitting there since December 22.   Don't they know I want my fabric???

Good, clean fun!

I'm sorry that my blog has been absent of anything quilt-related - our entire family has been immersed in making soap for a school project for most of November and December.  Our elementary has a Sixth Grade Marketplace every year where each student creates their own business to sell goodies to their classmates and parents to raise money for a 2-day Urban Adventure field trip in May.   We decided on handmade soap for our project, and making 116 bars of soap truly was a family effort!

Sadly, the weather interfered with Marketplace and instead of having 2 days to pitch and sell their products, my boys only had one day due to snow closing school the last 3 days before winter break.  They didn't sell as many as we had hoped, sadly.  But they looked awfully cute while doing it.  Here are my 2 boys (yes, they really are twins!) and you can see our handmade soaps hanging from the tree and on the table.

Looks like everyone I know will be getting soap for Christmas!   VBG.

My new friend

I recently replaced a vital piece of kitchen equipment - my crockpot.  The previous version had given up the ghost - it was no longer cooking properly.  A pretty inexpensive replacement, we got a new crockpot and all is well again.

While we had a truly marvelous family Thanksgiving dinner, it was not at my house and I missed out on any leftovers.  So Sunday morning I threw my Mexican Beef Stew in the crockpot and drove my family crazy with the amazing smell all day while I went to work at the quilt shop.  But then I was able to come home to this delicious meal!

My MIL and I have talked for years about creating a family cookbook of all our favorite recipes.  I have a pile of loose recipes and I'm constantly digging through them, searching for this one or that one.  I went searching online and found several websites that help you create and publish your own cookbook, so I'm trying Tastebook to create a recipe book for my family and perhaps a couple more for gifts.

If you are interested in seeing my family recipes, comment here and I will send you a Tastebook invite.  It's free to join and allows you to share recipes with friends and family.   You can also order a published cookbook, but that's entirely up to you, no obligation!   I hope you don't feel like I'm promoting this website - I really have no personal stake in it at all, I just thought it would be a fun thing to do and I would love to hear any of your family favorites - I am always on the lookout for yummy new foods to try!