Housewarming

Well, I finally finished my housewarming gift for my sister(hopefully she is not reading this) now I just have to get it in the mail to Texas. 

I made the embroidered and then quilted potholder and embroidered on two kitchen towels.  I add a few kitchen scrubbers and a welcome sign.  Hopefully they will bring cheer to her new home! 

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Happy Chinese New Year!  The year of the rat.  Ok, so I am not Chinese but I thought it would be fun in honor of the Chinese New Year to put on a Chinese dinner this evening for my family.  Wow, was that a lot of work.  I made Bok Choy with bacon, fried wontons, rice, orange chicken, green tea and fortune cookies (I know they are not really Chinese, but still fun).  It turned out delicious and the family loved it. 

And here is a picture of my wok, I received this as a wedding present over 13 years ago and this was the first time I used it!

Have a great new year! 

Buttons Anyone?

So I joined a flickr group that swaps buttons (you know the kind found on your clothing).  It should be a whole lot of fun.  So I got to thinking that our button swap needed a button (you know the kind found in the sidebar of many blogs that directs them to a place on the web). What do you think of my button for my button swap?  What a minute, this is getting confusing.  So let me refer to the button below as an html button.  Now maybe I can speak somewhat intelligently.  What do you think of the html button I created for our button swap? Do you need a button? If you need buttons, join our button swap, but if you need an html button to promote your blog or swap, let me know, I will create one for you.

Little New, Little Old!

I had seen a pattern for a purse in The Happy Hooker that I have been dying to make.  Yes, I know I have lots of other projects I should be working on, but I decided a little detour would be some good therapy for me (I was right).  So, when we got back from our Super Bowl Party it was too early to go to bed and hubby was watching basketball, I thought I would start my purse.  That way I am spending time with him and getting something done at the same time.  The purse went together so quickly and the final product is so much nicer than I thought it would be. 

I added a lining made of vintage fabric (a piece from a vintage sheet) and then I knitted up these cute little flowers for the front.  And there it is!  Not sure what I am going to do with it, should I use it, should I sell it, should I give it away?!?!?!? Decisions, decisions.

Maybe I should leave it up to you.  What do you think?

Crawfish Anyone?!

What a wonderful Super Bowl Party we had at my sister’s house.  My younger brother offered to put on a Louisiana style meal for us that one of his friends had done in the past.  Being the adventurous types we all said yes.  He had 100 pounds of fresh live crawfish flown in to LAX from Louisiana! Wow that was a lot of crawfish! Well needless to say it was excellent and we had a blast but there was too much food.

I did not craft at all yesterday, but back to it today!

Swap ~ Swap ~ Swap!

Wow, I am finally meeting so many new people online and making lots of blogging friends.  This is fun!  I got my swappers name and info for The Sassy Apron Swap and I am so excited. I will post my progress on the apron as it goes.  I have been giving it a lot of thought and need to decide what type of apron to make. 

Also, I joined my first flickr group, it is a button swap that I was invited to by Debb.  Thanks Debb! I am looking forward to sending and receiving some great buttons! I will post more on that later.  Well off to spend the evening(what is left of it) with my hubby!

WIP

So I mentioned awhile back that I was taking a quilting class.  My mother taught me to sew when I was 10.  I quickly starting making my clothes (it was that or hand me downs as I was one of 7).  There were always plenty of sewing machines around and my mother never denied me(that I remember) a new piece of fabric.  I have loved sewing ever since, but now I sew more for my own enjoyment than for necessity (unless you call a set of pillowcases for every occasion a necessity, but that is a whole other subject). Anyway, I have always wanted to quilt(something my mother did not have a great interest in). My older sister and I are taking a banner of the month quilt class and here is what I am working on:

I have finished the top and have pinned the layers together and now I am ready to quilt it.  This is the part that scares me the most as I know that it can make or break the quilt.  Well, I have put it off long enough(excuse after excuse, did not have a walking foot, did not have a free motion foot).  I now have all the right tools and tonight will be quilting! Wish me luck.

Here are some other things that I have in the works:

I also love to crochet and have recently found some Amigurumi patterns online.  Can you guess what it is going to be?

Also, putting together a housewarming gift to send to my sister who just moved from California to Texas.  I will show it as I work on it.

Well, I am off to quilt, chat tomorrow.

Headbands

My sweet daughter picked out these fabrics at our favorite quilt shop and asked that I make her some reversible headbands. 

I loved her selection and I was happy to set my other (long list) or projects aside so that I could do this.

So here are the first two:

I used a tutorial I found online at KC Quilts ~ not sure if she is still blogging, but thanks!

I also finally got a walking foot for my machine.  Now I can finish my quilt and show you what I have been working on.  I also have a secret project I am working on for my sister. I will also show that when I am done. 

I was tagged! For the very first time!!

I was tagged for the first time and I am quite willing to play along.  Thanks Cookie for tagging me.  Here are the questions that I was asked to answer.

Name four jobs I have had ~

1. Counting money at the L.A. Coliseum for all the Raiders(back when they were in L.A.) and USC football games.

2. Waitress at IHOP

3. Cashier at the Clipper Club Lounge for the L.A. Clippers

4. Technical Trainer for an Investment Firm

Four Movies watched over and over again ~

1. Pride and Prejudice (the one with Kiera Knightly)

2. Out of Africa

3. Working Girl

4. Sabrina

Four places I’ve lived ~

1. Harare, Zimbabwe Africa

2. Mexico City, Mexico

3. Diamond Bar, California

4. Orange, California

Four Shows I watch ~

1. The Amazing Race

2. Grey’s Anatomy

3. Desperate Housewives

4. Las Vegas

Four places I have been ~

1. Lisbon, Portugal

2. Paris, France

3. Cape Town, South Africa

4. Maui, Hawaii

Four people who email me ~

1. My family (too many to name) 

2. Mary

3. Embroidery Library (my favorite embroidery site)

4. Paula

Favorite things to eat ~

1. Tea (I know you don’t eat it, but it is my favorite)

2. Lyle’s Golden Syrup

3. Crunchies

4. Steak

Four places I would rather be ~

1. In Italy visiting my sister

2. At the beach

3. In my beach house(my nickname for my travel trailer) at the beach

4. At the quilt store

Four things I look forward to this year ~

1. Spending time with my soon-to-be teenage daughter

2. Sewing more

3. Traveling

4. Turning 40

Four people to tag ~

1. My daughter (trying to get her blog going)

2. Craft Apple

3. All It Took Is Just One Stitch

4. Lululollylegs

 Thanks Cookie, that was fun!

Sunday Tea Time!

So it is a pretty dreary day here in usually sunny SoCal, but A was able to snap this picture yesterday while the sun was shinning

One of the great things about living where we do is that we are less than an hour from the snow in the winter and a little over an hour away from the beach in the summer. This shot is of the local mountains covered in snow.  I dislike cold weather, I am much happier when it is warm, but I am able to appreciate my beautiful surroundings.  Because it is cold and rainy today I decided to bake, here is a shot of the Orange Blueberry loaf that I baked this morning.

It was perfect at tea time. This shot is of my wedding china (that never gets used), but it is so pretty that sometimes I indulge myself and use it.