A Very Bad Day

I have a poor me story to tell you today. But don't read this if ...

1. you have no sense of humor
2. or you are sensitive to arguments

My son, who has a great sense of humor and is usually so easy to get along with, had an argument with me on Christmas eve. I was still going through an emotional time and this silly argument, about olives, made me cry. He left mad and I went to my room angry and hurt, ready to call Christmas off. After I regained some of my composer, I continued with Holiday baking and such. About an hour later, I received an e-mail that sent me right back to my room, crying like a baby. Throwing myself on my bed, in a childish tantrum, I felt a wet spot. Apparently while I was feeling sorry for myself, my little princess PugsLee, peed on my bed. Guess what, I cried even harder. Several hours later, still soft and tender, I re-entered family life. My daughter and I spent some time looking at awkwardfamilyphotos.com. Some of these pictures were quite strange and helped me get out of my funk.
We all had dinner together and I started to get back to my usual optimistic self. After dinner we opened our 1 present. This has always been PJs so that Christmas morning the kids were in festive PJs for pictures. This year was no different. I found red long johns for my son. I knew he would like them, I just hoped he'd keep that back flap shut. My daughter and I mentioned this to him, as he was stripping naked to put them on. He was in another room as he did this, don't worry. He wanted a picture for his girlfriend and thought it would look good in his PJs. So he laid out on the couch, doing the Burt Reynolds pose. Dad was taking pics, while Bridgette and I were cooking pies. I made a detour to the living room for something. So as I entered the room I was looking at William posing and I started to say "your buttons are undone and your belly is hanging out". As I was saying this, I realized that that wasn't his belly and screamed and ran from the room, laughing the whole way.
Apparently, Dad was taking his own awkward photos. William as usual, laughed it all off and doesn't seem to be fazed by it one bit. Me on the other hand was and am traumatized. But after that horrible day, I have a funny story to tell.
Thank you for reading this, I told you all as a bit of therapy. I'm laughing now and I hope you are too. I also hope I'm not the only emotional female out there. I need to grow a thicker skin and not to let such silly little things bother me.
Take care, Brandie

Swiss and Provolone on toast

As you can see I've been working on Lori's doll quilt. As I explained yesterday, I didn't have any "cheddar", so I've used swiss and provolone. I would like to double the size and turn it into a baby quilt. Now my only question is will I have enough scraps of each color. This is why I haven't sewn the blocks together. That and I'm hoping I have the blocks correctly lined up. It has been fun putting this little quilt together. And there's a bonus, using up scraps. When I say scraps, I mean left over pieces, 2 inches or more. I didn't use to keep scraps, but my friend E always uses scraps and her quilts are beautiful. E has a real eye for color, instead of her quilts looking busy, they blend beautifully. So I'm learning from her, all scraps have a place and should be loved and used.
Take care, Brandie

Weekend Fun

I had a great weekend, how about you? Has anyone else seen "Its Complicated"?
Without giving away too much, I'll say it was very entertaining, but maybe that was because of the cousins. Do you watch movies and put friends and family members in those rolls? Well we did and that made it funnier. There were a few surprises that they didn't show in the previews, so that was nice. Meryl Streep's character had a wonderful bakery shop that I would love to run, just a little dream of mine. And her house was beautiful as well. So if you like movies and you have fun girlfriends, I suggest you all go together.

Also this week end I did get a little sewing done.

I think I'm done with the layout of the Dresdens. As you'll notice I did add a strip to separate the lights and darks. This isn't a masterpiece, but I'm happy with it. The original layout, just didn't work, so I rearranged till I saw something I liked. I still need to buy a backing, so I will set it aside, only for a moment, and work on something else.

Have you all looked at Lori's doll quilt "Cheddar Cheese and Crackers"? Well I started to cut out the scraps to do this small quilt. I had a couple of small piles going when I thought, "These are too big". So I went back to look and sure enough I had cut my square too big. Lori asked for 1 1/2 squares. Really Lori? I really need to wear my glasses for this quilt.
I didn't have any "Cheddar" so I'm going with a swiss and a provlone. Maybe I make it bigger and turn it into a baby quilt for my niece. But I'll have to actually put a block together to see if I might be biting off more than I can "sew".

Have a great Monday, Brandie

Do you remember the little pic I teased you with? This is the finished project. I made 2 exactly the same, but have only seen one model. I had bought this fleece years ago and had just enough for to make jackets for the younger girls.
I really need grandchildren. Next I will be make clothes for complete strangers children. Maybe I should start making clothes for my future grandchildren, I've already bought clothes for them, this wouldn't be much different, right?
Tonight is girls night with the cousins. We are going to see "It's Complicated". I'm hoping that the preview haven't shown all the good parts.
Have a great weekend, Brandie

A Special Girls B-Day

This is my niece, who was luck enough to be born on New Years Day. Today we will be celebrating with her.
Last night Nichole and I made homemade cannelloni. We brought in the New Year with pasta. We made 2 different kinds. One with a meat filling and tomato sauce and one with ricotta and seafood.
It is very exciting to see the noodle come out of the machine.
This was my first time to make a filled pasta. I'm not an expert, so I made up my own way to do this.
The meat filled, after baking. I was so impressed with the way they looked after being cooked.
The ricotta filled, after baking. Again, isn't it pretty?
Plated, with scallops and shrimp on top. YUMMY! I will definitely be doing this again. Nichole and I thought the seafood cannelloni was the best.
Even with cleanup, I was bed by 10:30.
What do you all do last night? Let me know if you had a big party or were you like me and home in bed before midnight.
Take care and Happy 2010, Brandie

Dresdens and Bananas

Yesterday I fooled around with the Dresden placement. I tried it this way and that. Remember that all this was all to be done with jelly rolls and layer cakes cuts. Placement 1. I didn't like this as much. So after moving the squares around, and forgetting to take a picture, I ended up with .....
Placement 3. This I liked better, but there is still something missing. I love almost all the fabrics, there are 2 I don't care for with the rest. So I think I will stop by the fabric store today and see what I can find. My thought is to see if I can find a dark piece that will be my centers and maybe a sashing between the light and dark fabrics. We will see if I can find anything that has this soft faded look. In reality the colors blend together, in the pictures the colors look fabulous.
Last night I stitched down almost all the plates. Today while I run my Mother on her errands, I will sewn down the last one. While I was sewing, I took a break to make the house smell good.
What do you get from all these ingredients?
Some of the best banana bread ever. Can't you just smell it? Nice soft middle and crisp crust. I'm a crust girl, I don't care what kind of bread it is, I always eat the crust first and sometimes only. This is a recipe I got off the box of brown sugar years ago. I've always used it and have always been happy with the results.

1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of soft butter
2 eggs
3 to 4 very ripe bananas, the riper the better
2 cups flour
3 ts. baking powder
1/2 salt
1/2 chopped walnuts
Mix together, pour it pan, bake at 350 for about 60 minute or until toothpick comes out clean.

So find some ugly old bananas and have a go, you won't be disappointed.
Take care, Brandie

More Dresdens

I have been slowly working on my Dresdens. A little bit each day. A couple of arches each day. I still haven't decided on a layout. If I have enough time today I will try some and take pictures. They have been so much fun to make that I want to finish it all in one day. But then I get a backache, nothing else gets done and PugsLee gets needy. So I will keep on with a little each day.
Have I been working on anything else? Not really, just a few stitches in the red work.

Don't these look fun? If you're looking for a new project, might I suggest Dresden's?

Take care, Brandie