Something About Nothing

This is my latest quilt for the 12x12 group I belong to. I made the frog using some fabrics I dyed and a portrait method I learned about on Quilting Arts TV . And I feel like my machine quilting has improved greatly since I took a class from my friend Lisa Brothman.

These are a couple of my favorite pictures of my Mom and my girls. I wish I had taken more pictures that day. It was Christmas Eve-Eve in 2000. We were making Fried Apple Pies. One of the best things my Grandmother made were her Fried Apple Pies and we loved carrying on the tradition with my Mom. We need to make some Fried Pies again soon. The really amazing thing about these pictures is that my oldest daughter was only 10 in these photos. The twins were 3. Where did all those years go?

This morning as my college-graduate-son got ready for work he asked the question I have been asking myself, "What are you going to do now?" He also proceeded to tell me how old I am as my children are all so grown up. Babies in junior high apparently makes me "very old." I don't feel old mentally, physically is another matter. I informed my son that I was going to quilt. His eyes said "And. . ." And maybe I'll clean the house and spend my time praying that I don't need to get a "real" job yet. My job of raising babies may be done for 7 hours/5 days a week right now but once everyone hits the front door there is no rest for this Mama.

Last week when my friend and I and our darling children tie dyed shirts, my friend mentioned seeing a little girl with a tie dyed shirt she loved. She had asked the mother about the shirt and found that the shirt had been created using Sharpie Markers . The instructions were on Sharpie's website. We decided we had to give this new-to-us craft a try and so we squeezed in one last summer craft this morning. Here is Little Man after he drew some of his designs with the Sharpies. The shirt has been stretched over three plastic cups so that it was easier to draw on and then when the rubbing alcohol was administered with the dropper the excess alcohol had a place to go. Not as dramatic as actual dyes but very nice just the same. We found that some colors seem to spread better than others, and it may have been the amount of ink available in the marker, or how much was applied that made the difference. While we played with Sharpies, Little Bubba watered my weeds for me. It's ...

Need I say More?

A few summers ago I had grandiose plans of doing crafts with the kids everyday - or at least every other day. This tie dye kit has been pining away in the cupboard ever since. I brought it out into the sunshine the other day and the children rejoiced. The kit came complete with dye in these sweet bottles (which I will definitely refill with my own dyes), a bunch of gummy rubber bands, some thin gloves and some very sparse instructions. The kids twisted and banded and banded and twisted. . . And then they dyed! died? dyed? OH NO NOT THE DYE! Oh how I love this little face! I could just squeeze his cheeks off every time I see him! The cheeks on his brother here were once just as sweet. It is only recently that he has outgrown them and it is a good thing because he was getting tired of me pinching them! Look at what a wonderful job he is doing putting the colors on his shirt. His shirt was one of the best ones actually. Too bad I don't have an after picture of it - yet. Ah m...

Baked Fudge. Deliciousness. Same thing. I read the recipe for Baked Fudge on The Pioneer Woman's blog almost six months ago and I have been drooling ever since. Yes, I know you've been wondering why I have been carrying this tissue around all that time, and now you know. I didnt' make it right away because I didn't have ramekins to make it in. The recipe says you can use an 8 x 8 dish but I think I just needed a good excuse to buy ramekins. When I went to Sistah's in July I found these cute ramekins for just 99 cents each at Chef's Warehouse . Score! After the fudge bakes for almost an hour you plop on some freshly whipped cream and. . . prepare to go straight to heaven. It's kind of gooey and rich and chocolatey and creamy and delicious. So worth the wait! I think I need to make it again right now.

Five things I love about this photo: 1. The wood carvings with orange fabric background on the wall are from Thailand. I wish they were completely in the photo because I'm not sure if we have any other photos with them in it. My Mom's brother gave them to her and seeing them on the wall brings back wonderful memories. 2. A couch covered in hot, sticky plastic. Ah, the good ol' days - if I ever talk about covering my couches in plastic, please slap me. 3. An Orange Ash Tray. I love the color. It matches the orange on the wood carvings. No wonder I love bright colors. However, I don't love that it was actually used to put out cigarettes, my poor little lungs. 4. Look at how beautiful those wood floors are. 5. I was 4 years old here. Wasn't I cute? This pose reminds me of one of my daughters. I have a photo floating around somewhere of her in the same pose.

At the beginning of summer I posted about my goals for summer, and now summer is almost over and man what a summer it has been. Amazingly we've almost done everything on my list. I've blogged about a lot of those adventures along the way, but here are a few fun activities I missed blogging about. We toured the Oquirrh Mountain Temple - Visited with friends we knew while we lived in Jamaica - Took my Mother-In-Law to Fisherman's Wharf - This video clip of visiting the Sea Lions at Fisherman's Wharf makes me laugh. Met my Sistah's new doggie, Wes - And had some fun with Wrigley, Elliot, Wes and Dexter (not pictured) Went to the Farmers Market on a chilly San Francisco Day - Played in the ocean - Ate some funnel cake (excuse me while I wipe the drool off my computer) - And rode some fun rides. This picture is my absolute favorite of the summer: Bright colors, blue skies and happy children.

Before we went off on vacation I finally rinsed out the fabrics I dyed at my quilt guild's dye party. Aren't they pretty? The bright blue up front is a piece of silk organza and the rest are 100% cotton. I love the way the silk takes the color. Actually I think one of the greens in the back is also silk organza. I'm looking forward to playing with these new pieces. After having so much fun with batiking and dying this summer, I decided to take a side trip while I was on vacation to Dhrama Trading in San Rafael. My friends and I have ordered from their catalog (I bought the silk from them) but until last year none of us realized they had a stone and morter store as well. It's amazing how excited a person can be about something so simple (and let me tell you I was not the only one getting excited.) I just had to go and experience everything I had seen in the catalog and online. The store was simple and amazing. It contains practically everything the catalog does. ...

I remember going to the Forest Preserves in the Chicago area when I was little. We seemed to always have a picnic for Memorial Day, Independance Day and Labor Day as well as any other occassion we could think of inbetween. This tradition was obviously started long before I was born because here is a picture of Mom when she was sweet 16 at a family picnic. (She is up front on the left) I say "Family Picnic" loosely because I don't recognize ANY of the other people! The woman standing could be my cousin MaryJo, but it's difficult to tell. Now that I look a little closer it's possible that the man on the right is my Grandmother's second husband, John. Perhaps this is mostly his family and that is why I don't recognize anyone. Despite really only knowing one person in the photo I love this photo. I love the sense of place that is preserved: the beautiful trees, the 1950's cars in the background, the people at the other tables, and the light and s...

I'm not much of an amusement park person anymore. I get incredibly dizzy when I go on rides and feel very sick afterwards. In fact, I can get sick to my stomach just watching the rides, so when we went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk a week ago I did not even think twice about not buying a ride pass for myself. Sistah and I watched the girls ride and talked about all the times Mom had taken us to amusement parks when we were children. We wondered how many times we actually went to each amusement park because in our memories we always went to amusement parks all the time . As we watched the girls laugh and shout on the rides we knew we were creating memories for them. We hoped that when they are grown they will think they always went to amusement parks too. When Sistah and I saw the Tilt-a-Whirl we laughed and both said that it had always been one of our favorite rides with Mom. Suddenly Sistah decided that despite my nausea issues we should use a few tickets to ride the Tilt-a-whi...

My Sistah lives in a city that loves to recycle. They are very environmentally conscience. She has four, or maybe it is five, separate garbage bins to separate her trash into for pick up. It only makes sense then that she would want to recycle her couch and chair rather than buy new when she became tired of the look. Not to mention, the cushions are very comfortable because they are comprised of down and if it weren't for the time my son collapsed into the couch it would also be very structurally sound. (Sorry about that Sistah .) A few months ago we devised a plan that I would come visit her and make some new slipcovers for her couch. I've done a lot of sewing in past years and I have made slipcovers for a few simple upright chairs but I've never taken on such a big project as this. I was a bit nervous. Especially with all the zippers. Zippers are not my favorite. But after taking a deep breath (and watching this entire tutorial a couple of times) I dove in. I work...