So today, I putter...

I am off today, officially that is.  Wednesday is my real day off, but I have been home sick all week.  I almost never take time off, I have to be almost dead....and I was!  Even my kids were suggesting that I should stay home, that is just too strange!
I am feeling better today thankfully so I am puttering.  Which is also strange because I am so driven usually (to a fault!) but I seem to have no focus.  I am just reading the blog roll and realizing just how much I have to be thankful for.  Some big things, some little...

Like this little gem:  

Which makes packing bananas in lunch bags so simple!

I want to share a recipe that I am making for dinner tonight.  Nothing spectacular but yummy all the same.  It is the reason that I have the recipe that makes me smile today.  It is Mrs. Bell.  A lady I met five years ago, when I move here to take care of my parents and had to put my kids in day care.  My daughter did not do well in day care she was a stay at home Mamma's girl.  (literally kicked out of 13, yes thirteen, daycares in seven months for uncontrollable crying, aka separation anxiety!) But I really had very little choice, if I wanted to feed these little lovies, I had to work.  So to day care twice a week she went while her brother was in school.  Mrs. Bell was our saving grace.  Each time we arrived with Moo in tears, she would snuggle her up in her lap and talk to her and encourage her and say things to make her feel safe until Mamma came back.  She did this everytime.  She never got frustrated or upset with her or made her feel like she should not cry as I left.  She just held her and chatted and distracted and whatever else was needed.  She also noticed that my little Moo did not eat much.  So she took it upon herself to find something that she would eat.  Brought in her own recipe and had it passed through the day care administration hoops.  And incorporated it into the menu.  And guess what...Moo likes it!  So dear sweet Mrs. Bell gave me the recipe!
It is just a sauce that you cook on a ham that is like a glaze.  (Which surprises me because Moo doesn't eat sauce or dip of any kind...not even Ketchup!) 
So here you go:

                                      
  add your brown sugar

and then the honey

2 TBSP orange juice









and (SHHH!!) mustard

pour over ham and cook as usual!

Enjoy!

Getting Back at it!

 I guess I have been sharing the "after the season slump"  that some bloggers have been speaking of.  Not that I am in a funk or anything but this last year the ideas of what to make for whom did not come easily.  My brain hurt!  So for a week or so I have not sewn anything, which kind of makes me a little sad.  I do however want to share my favourite thing that I made last year. 

This is a journal cover that I made for one of my sisters for Christmas.  I just love how it turned out!  So much so that she almost didn't get her gift!  I used a pattern in  The New Handmade book.  I love this book and have made many items from it but this is my favourite so far.

This sheet was a thrift store find that I just had to have!  I had these exact sheets when I was little and they hold so many memories.  I really didn't like them when I was little though because the green was not my favourite colour.  I used pieces of the original sheets in a baby quilt for the sister who used to share the bed (and these sheets) with me when we were little.  Her oldest son still has that quilt!

I thought that I should show this little treasure that was given to me by Hazel as well as her stash of fabric!  It is a 1948 Singer Featherweight.  It is beautiful and it runs like a dream!  I have oiled it and cleaned it and stitched just a few lines on it.  My son loves it because the control of the foot pedal is exquisite!  When you push softly...it goes slowly, when you push harder....it goes faster!  Hopefully no more stitching through fingers for him!



In between everyone being sick through the Holidays we found a little time for comfort food! This is our favourite Monkey Bread recipe.  It goes really fast!  I had a hard time getting a picture as those tongs are in motion going in for the last few bites!                                          

Hope you have a fabulous 2011!

Some nights are just like that....

We have all been "not quite right" this week.  Some of us downright sick for days and others just under the weather. In any case there are some unsettled little peeps in my house that have needed a lot of attention.  (And one BIG peep that is a whole post unto himself!  We won't go there today!)

Yesterday morning was going fine and breakfast was baking in the oven (brown sugar cinnamon croissants) under the watchful eye of Fuzzy...Moo's baby polar bear.

Who is a little bit of a diva... Hmmm,I wonder where she gets that?!


By last night both kids were in need of some Mamma love. Now keep in mind that they are 12 and almost 10.  Bean went to sleep after a long cuddle and a chat and I thought Moo was down. But, while I was trying (unsuccessfully!) to locate a tutorial I lost somewhere in blog land, my little Moo comes out to the kitchen with Fuzzy in her arms and both of them wrapped in the last afghan my Mom ever knit and she says, "Can you rock me for a little while Mamma?"  "I'm not trying to stay up late or anything, but I just need to be rocked"  So of course who can refuse that?  Off to the rocker we went, under the lights of the Christmas tree, in the still of night, and we rocked.  When she was asleep I carried her to bed and tucked her under the afghan.  Then I was alone to think.......How precious is this time with them?  How fast will it go by until she is rocking her babies under the last quilt that I made and I am not with them?  It makes me glad to know that they will remember that I was there and took the time even at this age to sit and rock them to sleep on the nights that were tough for them.

It made me miss my Mom and Dad..... as I sometimes do at major events like Christmas and the coming of the New Year.
So tonight when she came out in the same fashion...with Mom's afghan and Fuzzy in tow, we went, to chalk up some more memories for both of us.

Take the time.....

Starting to Settle!

This is Asia, she thinks she is the best present!

Well, Christmas is all over but the clean up, but I am in no hurry to get on with that!  I am taking some time to be with my family, most of whom are sick...yep it has been one of those years!  I was supposed to be off work from the 18th of December until the 6th of January but.... a few patients were not doing well, so I made a trip in to the office for a couple days to get everyone through until January.

As I was enjoying an uninterrupted scroll through my reading list and a peek around blog land tonight I found this post which is definitely worth passing along. Home Spun Threads is offering ALL her patterns for free!!  I don't know how long this will last, but she has some really cute patterns in her shop.

Outside of all the sickies in my house I had a great Christmas!  My hubby bought me an Ipad, which wasn't even on my list but I had mentioned a while back that I would like one. (I just thought that it was entirely too expensive for us as a gift!) I am thrilled and scared all at the same time!  I am not very tech savvy so it will be a learning curve for me, but if I can figure it out it will be a great asset for work and of course a little play!  I found a great sewing app that keeps track of all your patterns and fabric yardage and projects at various stages. "Santa" was also very good to me this year!  I was asked for a list of gift ideas in early December.  I am entirely practical and don't like to have money spent on things I won't use so a list is the best idea for all of us.  My hubby is not familiar with sewing things at all and I had put on my list a pair of KAI scissors as a gift.  Well he thought scissors would be a great stocking stuffer!  He really just about choked when she said "that will be $110.00 please." Of course he was too embarrassed to say "oh sorry I must have misunderstood" or something...anything!  He explained later that the clerk had the scissors on hold for someone else and she had called the woman to ask if he could buy them as a Christmas present if she didn't need them right away!  So he felt obliged to buy them.  Poor loving man! I do admit that I am thrilled with them though.

Well I can finally post some of the gifts we made this year for presents:

Placemats with pockets and fingertip mitts for my step daughters 

These are the mitts my son made from a felted wool sweater!

Moo's painting for her Dad....it is just beautiful!! She doesn't usually look this sleepy!  

Mug Rugs for the girls in the office...my first "free motion" quilting attempt! 

 This is the sweater for Bean and night gown for Moo that I made..  Thankfully they love them!

Well there are more things to see but my monkeys need to go to bed so good night for now!

Giveaway Winner!!

What a great experience being a part of the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway!  Thank you to everyone who came by and left a comment.  It was a joy to read each of them.  I really have to figure out how to reply to posts with blogger.  If anyone knows please let me know!  I tried to reply to comments but I had to copy and paste each address into my gmail account which ended up being very time consuming so if I didn't get to every one I am very sorry, but I did read and cherish each and every comment.  As I said, my children would be picking the winner and they too spent a great deal of time reading the comments.  They were very moved by many of the replies and were very inspired by what some people do to help others.  So thank you for opening their eyes to even more giving ideas!


Now for the winner!  We put the names into our Santa hat and the little sleepy heads still in their PJ's with the help of the dog, drew the winner.

And the winner is..........

Who Said:

sweet limes said...

I love that you are connecting this to giving since that's what Christmas is all about in my eyes.

My favourite thing to do at this time of year is inviting a few people who don't have family (or family close by) for Christmas dinner and other festivities so they don't have to be alone for the holidays. So far I have a lady from my local fabric store coming, a lady and her mother down the street, and a gentleman our family has known for about a year who has no family to speak of. I do this because I have no family other than my own husband and kids, and I used to hate spending the time alone.

Charity. Love that you asked this because I love talking about the charity I do. I had a daughter who was still born at 40 weeks and the hospital gave me the most darling little gown to dress her in because it was all so unexpected and my bag with her supplies got lost in the shuffle. Turns out they have a small supply of these on hand for those sorts of situations. I make gown after gown all year round and on my daughters birthday I take them to the hospital she was born and hand them over to the nursing staff there. I want the mother's in similar situations to have something they can hold onto after their little one dies and leaves their arms empty. I know how much it meant to me and I want to offer that little bit of love and comfort to other mother's like me.

Thank you so much to everyone for all of the inspiration!  Sweet Limes, I will email you for your address and the fabric will be headed in your direction.  The kids and I have also decided to add in a few left over pieces of eyelet that Hazel made my son's baby quilt out of because we thought that it would be a nice accent to some of the fabrics for the baby gowns. 

Merry Christmas to every one!  Thanks for sharing!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED FOR COMMENTS!  THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR COMING! The winner will be posted Saturday morning.....after I wake UP!!


I am so glad you are here to visit!  I am really excited as this is my first giveaway ( I am pretty new to blog land!)  I am grateful to Sew Mama Sew for running this because I was struggling to find a way to do a giveaway and this is perfect.

There is a little history to this giveaway but I know you are busy so I will keep it short and sweet.

This is Hazel:

If you want to read back a bit in my blog you will find labels for Hazel.  Hazel is a dear friend of mine from British Columbia were I spent 12 years. She is almost 87 years old and a life long quilter. Well, she is no longer able to quilt and I have been blessed with her stash!!  There is so much that I am absolutely unable to use it all and it would be un"Hazel" like to keep it all to myself anyway.  She is a very giving lady and I wish to honour her by continuing this trend.  So for today's giveaway I am giving away some of her fabrics.  Many of the pieces that I was given are vintage and many are quite beautiful and unique. 

I am doing this giveaway not only to share what Hazel has given me in fabric but also in character. I would like to see Hazels generosity and spirit spread as far as possible outside of my community.

So here is the deal:

I am giving away these three pieces of fabric.  They are at least 2 meters each, one of them is three.  The colours are brilliant and the feel of the striped orange one is divine! The others are lovely too of course but there is just something about that one!

Here is the HOW to and the FINE print ;-) 

1). Leave me a comment on this post telling me what is your favourite thing to do, at this time of year, to show the spirit of giving?

2). If you do any type of crafting for charity of any sort (or would like to) and you are willing to share a little bit of what I send to you by making a little something for a charity or group in need in your area tell me about it in the same comment and I will include with the 3 pieces, a box full of assorted other fabrics.  Many that match the first three.  Some are large, some are scraps all are useful for something!  It doesn't matter to me if you make a pillow case, a doll dress, a snack bag, a hair band, a pin cushion, a mug rug,  a soft stuffed animal or if you trim a tea towel!  What ever it is you wish to donate, if you will share....I will share:  

So that is it...one comment either way, seems easy right?  Right!!  It is Christmas!!!  So take a minute and think about how you can share the love, then tell me all about it!  

Post your comment here by the 17th, winner will be chosen by my children (who are successful "givers in training"!)  Your parcel will be in the mail by the 20th... as long as you make sure I have a way to contact you!!  PLEASE.....If you are unsure if your email is linked, or you don't have a blog, leave it in the comment.

You are welcome to follow my blog if you like or if you wish to just visit for today, I am happy you dropped by.

Have a great day!

30th Post giveaway!

Well, this is my 30th post and as promised I am doing a give away!  I have been procrastinating about writing this post because I was struggling with how to do the giveaway and thank Goodness Sew Mama Sew has made it easy for me!  They are having a blog wide giveaway here and I decided to join that.  So, the details will be posted on the 13th but as you probably know I will be parting with some of my dear friend Hazel's fabrics!  She was a fabulous quilter and is a truly generous soul. You will have to tune in on the 13th for the details though cause true to my "procrastinator" ways... I am not ready yet!!!

I have been getting a lot of Christmas sewing done but most of it I can't show just yet because some people may be lurking to find out what they are getting!!!! Ha! I know who you are!!
I will show the apron that I made for my very first swap though. I am not sure it will get to my partner in time for Christmas given the very taxed postal system and I want her to be able to at least see it for Christmas!  It was mailed December 1st but that doesn't mean it will arrive for sure, so here it is

It is a Heather Bailey Pattern called Daily Spice.  I was trying to get my partners favourite colours; black white and red, but that combination was no where to be found in our little fabric stores here in the north!  The main fabric is black and red though so I hope it will do! It did turn out really cute and I added some fun tuck ins too.  So I hope it makes her Christmas a little merrier!

In other news, my little Bean has turned 12!  He is getting so big and I am not sure where the time went!  He had a little party on the weekend and it was a good thing because by Tuesday (his actual birthday) he had strep throat and was really sick! 


Well, there are lots of other things to chat about but it is late and I better get to bed or my sewing time tomorrow will be shortened by my need for sleep.....zzzzzz

Have a great one and if you are in the path of the blizzard headed our way....keep warm!!