Happy New Year!

A day late as usual. :)

I took a much needed internet break and barely checked my email for over a week. It was nice! But it took a while to catch up.

We had the most incredible (and rare) white Christmas ever! It snowed a bit on Christmas Eve a few years ago but it has NEVER actually snowed on Christmas day (here where we are north of Dallas) in the past 100 years as far as I was able to research.

We got at least 3 or 4 inches and it was gorgeous!

It was so cold and powdery that we couldn't make a snowman until late afternoon the next day when it had started to soften.

I'm back at my sewing machine now and it feels great to work on a few projects I've had set aside for a while.
Here's to a wonderful 2013 for everyone! Thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas!

On the agenda for tomorrow (Christmas Eve):

• reading
• playing games
• watching movies
• napping
• oh, and making a pot of soup for dinner

It'll be a busy day!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

'tis the season

You could say that my house has been a bit of an gift factory lately.

My Aunt commissioned this quilt from me for a gift for her husband's niece. I fell in love with this Colorbrick quilt and found it to be the perfect last-minute quilt pattern. The colors feel like a day at the spa! LOVE IT!

This, of course, is a Toddler Backpack from Made by Rae. My sister-in-law requested one for her 1-year-old daughter and I had her pick out the fabric. Even though it is a home dec weight fabric I still added some cotton twill canvas on the inside for extra support.

This technically isn't a gift. I've been wanting a nativity set but don't really have the money for a nice set (especially with Jack being in the destructive toddler stage) so I bought this pattern to make one. It was very labor intensive but I'm so happy with how it came out! I added a small handful of beans to the bottoms after stuffing for extra weight.

My sister-in-law also strongly "hinted" that she would like an infinity scarf like the one I made for myself a while back. I didn't feel like I had enough time to knit one but I immediately thought on the Figure 8 scarf tutorial Anna Maria Horner recently posted using her velveteen and voile fabrics. I have to say I'm not totally loving it but each time I try it on it grows on me. The fabrics themselves are fabulous! but it's the fact that this scarf feels GINORMOUS on. When I look down I can't see the ground! It's a very dramatic scarf. There's more story on this scarf but I'll save it for another post.And lastly, still in progress, are place mats to match the commissioned table runner I made last year.

Whew!

Things are really coming together here and I'm going to start making Christmas cookies next week. I really love the week before Christmas, our shopping is done (well, mostly) and it's time to slow down and enjoy!

what season is it anyway?

All of these pictures were taken this week. There are literally hundreds of little green cherry tomatoes on this plant. I was having fun in Picnik today.

A little holiday crafting:

Felt holly garland from Inspired Ideas.

Christmas quilts

Wow, how does time go by so quickly? One minute I think I'm ahead of the game and the next minute I realize that Thanksgiving is less than a week away! YIKES!

I've been working like a mad woman the past three days to get these mini quilts done and in the shop! 1. Christmas Tree Mini Quilt, 2. Winter Forest Mini Quilt, 3. Winter Tree Mini Quilt, 4. Christmas Star Mini Quilt

My quilt names are really original, huh?

time to think about Christmas

Or maybe it's past time. My hubby and I were talking about Christmas gift giving yesterday and we are thinking that we would really like to pare it down this year. Not only are we on a very tight budget ourselves but we'd also like to be able to give more money to those in need.


So, today, I saw Lizzy House's post on A Most Sincere Christmas. Coincidence? I think not.
Anybody else want to join in? Realisticly, I'm not going to be able to make ALL the gifts but I am definitely going to attempt to make as many as I can.

Here is some major crafty holiday inspiration! The pages loaded very slowly for me but it could just be my computer, it's been having issues lately. Totally worth the slowness though! I have quite a list going already!

keeping busy...

I'm not sure if it was a publishing problem or a Google Reader problem but for some reason I couldn't get my last post to show up in Google Reader. Well, in case anyone missed it, I was just showing off my new quilt pattern.

Anyway, I was busy this weekend with some custom little mini quilts.

Also, has it dawned on anyone else that Christmas is only two months away!?!!

I've been thinking about knitting some new Christmas stockings. I know I've already made stockings for the three of us but they are kind of plain (which is a GOOD thing sometimes) and I am in the mood for something a little more interesting and fun!

I was thinking of making a different style for each of us. I like the argyle for myself (not sure what colors yet) and the Mix-and-Match for Hubby and there is one other design that might be good for Jack. I don't know....it was just implusive thought when I saw the stockings book on my shelf. I'm going to block my cardi first and then see what I feel like working on.

Over too quickly

All that preparation and before you know it it's over. I took all our decorations down today. I like to have everything cleaned up by New Year's Day because for me it starts off the new year fresh with no mess to clean up and nothing to pack away.

I hope every one's Christmas was wonderful! Ours was. It was our first white Christmas EVER! So much fun!

The table runner was finished in time. The recipient loved it. Thank goodness!

A sweet Itty Bitty Baby Dress from Made By Rae was made for my favorite niece. Fabric is from my all time favorite online shop, Hawthorne Threads.

One of Jack's presents seemed to have the wrong contents:

And, what I'm most excited about.....my Berry and Bramble Cardigan is DONE. D.O.N.E. Done! It is almost dry from the blocking I gave it and I'm hoping to get some good pictures tonight. So, look for an FO post in the next few days.

sometimes "making do" turns into something spectacular!

So, last night, it was 5pm and I had no clue what we were going to have for dinner (anybody with me here?). It was a chilly, damp, dreary kind of day and I wanted something to warm our bones but didn't have any of the ingredients I needed for the soups I normally make. While I was looking for inspiration I stumbled upon a tomato soup with grilled cheese sammies in an older issue of Everyday Food. I didn't have the exact ingredients called for so I made some substitutions. OH. MY. YUMMMMM!

Here is my highly modified version:


1 tbs olive oil
1/2 a yellow onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
salt & pepper
1 can (14.5 oz) Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes, undrained (I used Hunt's brand)
1 can (14.5 oz) Whole Tomatoes, drained (yes, you read right, drain this can but not the other)
1/2 a can low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 tsp of dried basil leaves
1/2 cup heavy cream (or more to taste, I just eyeballed it)

In a large pot, heat oil over medium and add onion and garlic. Season LIGHTLY with salt and pepper (do not over salt. the canned tomatoes have a bit of salt in them and you can always add more later). Cook until onions are soft, about 5 or 6 minutes.

Add cans of tomatoes and basil and increase heat to medium high. Cook, stirring, for about 5 to 7 minutes or until tomatoes begin to break down a bit (use a wooden spoon to break up the whole tomatoes as you stir it).

Add broth and 1/2 cup of water. Simmer for 10 minutes. Puree in 2 batches in the blender (BE CAREFUL and don't create pressure in the blender by completely sealing with the lid...unless you want hot soup all over your kitchen (a lesson I learned several years ago) Leave the small hole on your blender lid open and lightly cover with a towel when you start to blend).

Return soup to pot and stir in cream. Turn heat back up to medium high and season to taste. When soup in warmed to desired temperature, take off heat and serve. Makes about 4 servings.

Now, let me just say, my husband does NOT like tomatoes. He will eat spaghetti sauce and salsa but plain tomatoes NO. Well, he really liked this soup and that is saying a lot!
I think his favorite part was the mini grilled cheeses we had with it (sorry, didn't get pics of these):

Loaf of Rosemary Potato Bread (from the store bakery) or any crusty bread you like
Butter
1 slice of non-smoked provolone cheese for each sandwich

I sliced the bread into 1/2 inch slices and buttered one side of each slice with a doubled over slice of cheese in between. Cook in a skillet over medium heat until each side is golden. These were soooo good with the rosemary bread!

As I was eating my soup I was thinking how good it would be to add a few slices of roasted red pepper into the soup with the tomatoes. I'm definitely going to try it! You know, if you don't have heavy cream on hand you could probably use canned Evaporated Milk.

Jack sure did enjoy "helping" set up the Christmas tree:
I was worried he would try to topple it over and pull the lights off and generally destroy it but he's actually done really well with it. Still, we put most of the ornaments on the top half of the tree.

Ah, and here is my sadly unfinished Berry and Bramble Cardigan: I really, really want to get it done soon! It's been hard to find knitting time lately because I cannot knit when Jack is around. He constantly tries to pull on the yarn or the needles and it makes it pretty much impossible. All I really have left is the shawl collar. It's going to be a booger though. I've picked up about half the stitches and already my circular needle is full. I really don't want to buy a longer circular but I may have to.
I would love to have this finished for Christmas. We'll see. It comes so fast!

And the stockings were hung...

I finished Jack's stocking this week, his is the striped one.Pattern: Rustic Lodge from the book Knit Christmas Stockings!

Yarn: bits of green, red, and brown tweeds, honestly the ball bands are long gone and I don't remember what brands they are except for the green, it is Kathmandu Aran Tweed

Needles: US #10.5 dpns

Notes: As you can see I did not have enough of the green and red that I used to make the first two so I added in some brown and made it a stipey stocking which I tought very appropriate for a little boy's stocking. I'm very happy with how it turned out!

And this is a Christmas gift that I whipped up at the last second. Unfortunately, this is the second take....the first one I made was completely destroyed by the cats.

Pattern: Knitted Mini Christmas Stockings (Rav link)

Yarn: Knit Picks Palatte in Sky and Fog

Needles: US #2 dpns

Notes: I found it very odd to knit a sock flat and then seam it but it wasn't fiddly at all!

Merry Christmas!!!