WiP...With a Doozy of a Headache!

I am posting quickly because I volunteer at the school library on Wednesday mornings so I've got to go get ready! I started posting it last night but had a horrible headache and ended up on the bed with pillows on my head until I got rid of it. Then I had to wait for the nausea to go away cause it hurt so bad it made me feel sick. Oh joy. So glad that's over with!
If you're looking for my #notgoingtosewingsummit giveaway, check it out here. Otherwise, here goes the weekly progress!

I got my next Carpenter Wheel layout on the carpet. It just needs to be sewn up.

I also am working on the charm layout for the bottom half of my Yule Pop which can be seen here, and I now have 9 gray, aqua, and yellow granny squares which can also be seen here. I know a lot of you went to Sewing Summit. I can't wait to hear more about those trips. What's up at your sewing pad?

#notgoingtosewingsummit

Don't forget to check out my quilt pin giveaway here. It's in honor of those of us #notgoingtosewingsummit, but if you went, that's okay too. Just make sure you let me in on any great information you learned while you were there!

So what am I working on this weekend? Well, let's see!
First, I had sewn together half of the charms for my Yule Pop quilt, so I draped it over the back of my design board with one strip showing so I could figure out placement for the other half of the blocks. I haven't gotten very far with that yet.

I also got the next set of HST's for another Carpenter Wheel block sewn up, trimmed, and ready to go. I just need to put them in place and start sewing.

And then there's my gray, aqua, and yellow Granny Squares. I finished up a few more and now I'm up to 9. Woohoo! 

I really need to get some more light down in the basement where my sewing room is; my pictures always look so bad!

I'm also baking. I had a banana that was very over ripe so I picked up another at the store & made banana bread. I have made it plenty of times before but this time was in muffin form.

I don't know if I've mentioned this recipe on my blog before, but it really is the best banana bread I've ever had. It was from an old issue of Cooking Light and uses plain yogurt which makes it moist. I usually use vanilla yogurt because it adds a little more flavor but I already had plain I was using to make smoothies for the kids so I used that. I would also add walnuts if it were up to me but my son doesn't like them, so...

I'm also contemplating making some of these. That Bakerella rocks, doesn't she? This recipe actually came from a cookbook called Flour by Joanne Chang. As if there aren't enough yummy goodies in that cookbook, she is coming out with Flour, Too in May of 2013. Yum.

Homemade oreos? Are you freaking kidding me? If they are even close, I'm in heaven. Hubby is an oreo freak and it would be nice to be able to make them since they are getting to where they cost SO MUCH in the stores.
Headed over to AmyLouWho's to link up!

(A Giveaway) When You Wish Upon a Star...

...sometimes it still doesn't get you to the Sewing Summit! So if you're stuck at home blessed to be at home like me, then there's an alternative pity party get together happening over at amylouwho's bloggy pad!  She's having a linky party that amounts to a "virtual sewing room" for those of us who are #notgoingtosewingsummit. For those of us who are slaving away in our home sewing rooms rather than the sewing summit classes, this offers us a place to check in and report what we've been working on this weekend. I'm not going to link yet because I don't have pictures, but I have actually made some progress. The last Mystery Round Robin block I had to work on has been sent out (though my completely completed one is still here), and I started on another Carpenter Wheel last night.

Also under the heading of #notgoingtosewingsummit, I decided to hold a GIVEAWAY in honor of all the sewists who did NOT get to go to Sewing Summit! Sort of a last minute thing but I wanted it to be good since some of us didn't get to go and we need a little pick me up. I went by my LQS the other day and came across these lovely charms. I was so taken with them that I went back and picked up a few for you guys. I figured a rotary cutter and a sewing machine resulted in a block so that's what I ended up with.

The blade on the rotary cutter is all silver; that's just a shadow (of me) on the right edge. If you want a good closeup of what they look like or if you're interested in more, they are put out by pinpeddlers. Isn't it adorable all put together? Interested in winning it?
1.  Just leave a comment below for a chance to win. Aw, what the heck...
2. if you're a follower leave a second comment for another chance to win.
3. If you tweet, blog, or FB it, you can leave another comment. Have I exhausted everything? Gosh, I hope so!
OOPS! Forgot to add, make sure you are not a NO-REPLY BLOGGER or I can't get in touch with you. If you are or think you are, make sure you leave your email address in the comment so I can reach you!

I'll leave it open until 10/18, and I will pick a winner Friday morning so I can send it to it's new home. This is open internationally! It's light enough that it ought not be too expensive to send. Good luck!
This giveaway is closed!

Sew Little Sewing, Sew Little Time

Well, I have actually done the tiniest bit of sewing this week. With funerals and BIL getting his first chemo treatment today, it's been another busy week. And on top of everything else, I'm going to be in another play. I know, I know; what was I thinking? How can I possibly get things done? I don't know, but a friend is directing it and they didn't have enough adults show for the audition so I told her I'd help. It's Madeline's Christmas and I will be playing the cook, Mrs. Murphy. It's actually a cute little part so it ought to be fun.

What sewing have I done? Well, like I said, not much at all.

Basically I've sewn half of my Yule Pop blocks together. It won't take much to do the other half. Then I have to decide what color to do the 'bubbles' in. Any ideas? I can't decide. I almost wish there wasn't a white fabric in the line, but I'll figure it out.

I am trying to get motivated to get some things finished but I also now have Halloween costumes on the brain as they have finally chosen what they want to be. Luckily they aren't too complicated. My son wants to be Diddy Kong; for those unfamiliar, as I was, he is Donkey Kong's son. Red cap, red tshirt with yellow stars and you're done...almost. He wants a jetpack. Uh, yeah.

Then there's my daughter who wants to be Katniss from Hunger Games. Our neighbor's kids are being Arwen and Galadriel, elves from The Lord of the Rings. When my daughter found out there really weren't any more girl characters, I suggested Katniss. She was thrilled since she just started reading the books. I'm pretty sure she has pants, but we'll need some form of everything else. Luckily, it's mostly just clothes she can wear again so we're fine. I may try to make her up an orange backpack instead of buying one unless I can find one cheap.

Another Loss

My aunt (my father's sister) just passed away yesterday afternoon. She had been quite sick for a while with cancer and congestive heart failure. She had reached a point where she had trouble breathing, and it had just become too difficult for her. When I was a child, my grandmother and my aunt babysat us after school: "us" would include my sister and myself, as well as several of my cousins. It was a sort of familial form of daycare, and if it takes a village to raise a child, she was most definitely a part of the village that raised "us". She was a good cook and we always ate well there. I can picture waiting impatiently for apple fritters to cool before we were allowed to snack away on them.

My grandmother had 3 girls and 4 boys. All the boys married but the girls lived at home. Even after both their parents died, they chose to continue as roommates and are all still together now. As is done in the south sometimes, she was called Sister by everyone who knew her. I have this memory of not knowing her real name was Elizabeth until I was about 9 years old. I also remember my other aunts saying that they had called her Sister for so long that even the guys she dated in school sometimes called her that!

She and my other aunts worked at the local drive in as well as the movie theater selling tickets as well as cleaning up the theater. Occasionally they would allow one of us to "spend the night" and go with them to clean up the movie theater after a show. We were allowed to keep any money we found so we thought we were rich with our dimes and quarters.

As a child, my aunt suffered from polio, and walked with a limp. She had a wicked sense of humor, but could also laugh at herself. Her hearing had not been the best for many years now and it had gotten to be a bit of a joke if she staked a claim to a comment even when someone else had just said it a minute before; she just hadn't heard it. She also tickled us when she incorrectly used some words, such as when she chose to cook with "canine pepper." Though she could sometimes appear small and fragile, she was a firecracker and kept everyone as straight as she possibly could. Though I am glad she will endure no more suffering and pain, she will be dearly missed and our love for her will not be diminished.

It's Gettin' Hot In Here!

I was asked about where I got some of my freezer recipes so I thought I would post about it. I used some websites and a cookbook, so I tried to mark them accordingly. I used the 30 Day Gourmet's Big Book of Freezer Cooking, purchased for my Nook. Those recipes are marked with a pound sign (*).
So far:
*Chicken and Broccoli Lo Mein
Chicken and Wild Rice
*Cheesy Chicken Penne and Vegetables (this only called for spinach but I added some frozen peppers I had to clean out some veggie bags from the freezer)
Layered Enchilada Casserole

• Beef w/onions, peppers, and carrots for spaghetti, sloppy joes, etc.
• Beef for Mexican food (modified: I browned 2 pounds of ground beef, about 1 cup of Pioneer Woman salsa, and about 2-3 T. of taco seasoning from this recipe) 
• Stuffed potatoes
• Teriyaki marinade: used for chicken breasts and pork chops (we already tried these...yum!)
• Mojo marinade (Publix brand): used for chicken breasts and pork chops
• 4 bags of shredded chicken and 4 of chicken broth cubes 

Joyful Mama also has a few more recipes here if you are interested.

I'm going to use some of my shredded chicken to make this yummy looking crock pot cream cheese chicken chile. I'm going to do everything the same except not raw chicken. I'll just put my shredded chicken in with the rest of the ingredients in a regular pot and heat through. Last night I used it to make this Buffalo Chicken Pizza Roll. YUM! I made a half recipe and wished I'd added just a tad bit more buffalo sauce.

I should also admit that we have an extra fridge in the basement. When we bought our side by side about 12 or so years ago, the old one still worked fine so we put it in the basement for outside drinks and overflow. That's why the pics of the top freezer didn't look so full. The picture of the chicken broth cubes were taken in my side by side and I had to maneuver some things around so I could place all those ice cube trays in there to freeze.
Happy cooking!

WiP With a Whole Lotta Life Going On...

What a week it has been. There's been a lot going on in our lives lately what with finding out my BIL's cancer and all. They went in yesterday for a liver scan and biopsy. He said he saw way more spots on his scans in the liver area than he had thought there would be (he was an X-ray tech for years). We are still praying every day and hoping for good news regarding prognosis.

To talk about something happier, I did keep myself somewhat busy this week. I finished up some freezer cooking (that sounds contradictory!) and filled it up with goodies. I'll post about those and the recipes I used tomorrow but here's a peek at my freezer.

That's 8 meals, about 6 bags of prepped beef for various meals, 4 bags of shredded chicken and about 7 bags of various marinaded meats. I also had what ended up being 4 quart size bags of ice cube chicken broth I made when prepping the shredded chicken. I used some of the chicken last night in chicken and dumplings and I'm planning on making this Buffalo Chicken Pizza Rolls recipe later in the week.

I also received the buttons I won from Incomparable Buttons the other day. So sweet!

I also finished a gift. I won't elaborate, but let's just say it's going in the mail today.

The front...

the back...

and inside. I used Amber's tutorial over at One Shabby Chick on how to put it together but just used some fabrics I was already working with on my Carpenter Wheels as my starting point.

I also finished one Mystery Round Robin Mini and got the other one. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do to it yet but I can't post it anyway since it's a surprise. Stay tuned for the reveal on those on November 19th!