Wednesday, April 16, 2014

A Little Pressure Making Easter Eggs

I've gone a little nuts over my new Fagor pressure cooker and I'm constantly on the look out for
new recipes to cook things in it. Honestly, I wake up in the morning and think
"What can I cook in my pressure cooker?"
Really, I do!

I saw that Food Storage Moms made hard boiled eggs in her pressure cooker. Seriously?
I had to try it of course. No need to watch the eggs? That's my kind of cooking!

Add eggs and one cup water (a must to create the needed steam.)

Set the timer for 18 minutes on high and turn the knob to Pressure.

Release the pressure and...you have hard boiled eggs! Dip them in some icy water to
stop the cooking and then lift them out with a slotted spoon.

Ahhh, but were they actually cooked inside my hubby asked.
Yep! The big plus was how easy it was to peel them.

A little Easter egg dye and now I have some pretty eggs just for us.
*Note to self. DO NOT use balsamic vinegar with the dye tablets just because that is the only vinegar you have. 
It makes orange eggs kind of brown. Luckily, the pink ones didn't require vinegar.

When telling my mother-in-law about my little egg cooking adventure, she said she thought it was just as easy to boil them on the stove. She is right, of course, just as it is easy to bake them in the oven. But, I HAD to try this and I didn't have to wait for water to boil. It was kind of fun to make these.

Sorry to those of you still covered in snow, but our weather is warm enough to start tomato plants...yay!

Don't forget about my giveaway
HERE

and the Superpower blog hop!

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Super Dooper Superpowers

Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt asked us
"What is your Superpower?"
Soooo....what is YOUR Superpower?

I had to think long and hard about what my superpower was because I don't really think of myself as being "super" at anything. Luckily, my family and Monkey Boys helped me out and came up with this idea:

I am Rescue Woman!
Thank you #1 Monkey Boy!
#1 Monkey Boy wanted me to let him know when this posted...here it is sweet boy!

I've been known to rescue animals on a few occasions and most of them end up staying for years.
I'm not sure, but I think a neon sign mysteriously appears on my house that says,
"Lost or Stray Pets Welcome Here!"

Roxy arrived at my door and when I called the owner to say I'd found her, she asked me if I wanted to keep her. I did, of course. She ate a lazy boy chair, broke out of a kennel, chewed up shoes and everything else, opened a bottle of Drano (and survived) and just about drove us over the edge with her craziness. But, she stayed with us for a long, long time and turned out to be the best ever dog!

I don't always keep the dogs I rescue. One time I ran through the streets of a nearby small town while chasing a runaway dog. My sister followed me in the car yelling at me to be careful and was prepared to pick me up if I fell down (she's been my partner in rescues several times.) I caught the dog after quite a few blocks and returned it to its owner with no long-lasting injuries to myself! 

I just learned a few weeks ago that my youngest daughter believed for years that we'd had a cat named "E.T."  According to her big brother we had it turned into a concrete cat when it died. This information was new to me, but apparently my son had her believing this story. Gotta love that older brother! This is the concrete cat, "E. T.", that we've had for about 30 years (and it was NEVER a real cat!) LOL!

Anyway...with Rescue Woman in mind I used 
Amy Bradley's Dogs & Cats pattern to create my Superpower project.
It was quite an undertaking and LOTS of sewing, but Amy's patterns are awesome!

We had more than just cats and dogs, so I had to get a little creative with my pet quilt. With the help of my kids who gave me the names of their snakes, bunnies, hedgehogs and hamsters, and the help of my #2 Monkey Boy showing me how to draw a bunny leg, I was able to create a pretty fun memory quilt of all our animals (minus the gazillion pet rats we had.) Only a few hamsters made the list because there was only so much room on my quilt.

How to draw a rabbit foot..thank you Monkey Boy #2!
Just a side note: He told me I needed to stay home to finish the quilt and not go with them on a hike.
He's pretty proud of his part in this project and wanted to make sure I finished it!

The front of the quilt has 11 dogs, 7 cats, a bunny, and an iguana all made using Dr. Seuss fabrics including the Lorax fabrics. Each name is hand embroidered on the collar of the animal using DMC thread who is the sponsor of this super, dooper blog hop.

A Lifetime of Animals

The back of the quilt has a hedgehog, snake, my superpower label, and a hamster

Amos, a Golden Retriever, showed up at our house with a tennis shoe in his mouth
and a chewed off rope around his neck. My husband told me not to feed him, but of course I did. 
No one ever claimed him so he stayed and was a wonderful addition to our home for years.

Hedgehogs are weird pets, but my son loved them. He also loved snakes.


Hamsters are not the smartest pets, but my kids loved them and we
had LOTS of them as they do tend to multiply!

Bella was an eviction dog and was obviously abused. She's definitely loved in our house!

Phoebe and her sister, Dog, were scrawny little things when we got them.
Phoebe died a couple weeks ago...sad loss for us.

Thanks to all of you who love and care for the critters in our world!

Look who else is hopping with their Superpowers:

TUESDAY APRIL 15

WEDNESDAY APRIL 16
THURSDAY APRIL 17

FRIDAY APRIL 18

MONDAY APRIL 21





Is It A Bird? A Plane? Or What?

It's....

almost time for...

Super Pauline at Quilt n Queen is the very powerful cheerleader for this hop...yay!
You can find the whole schedule over at Pauline's blog right HERE!

Monday, April 7, 2014

I've Been A Super Wife For 42 Years

Okay, so maybe I was not a super wife ALL the time, 
but being married for 42 years 
occasionally required some super powers to keep it all together.

Happy Anniversary to this guy and me!

More super powers are coming this week...watch for it!

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

I Saw A Flower! Really I Did!

I've been staying at my daughter's house this week and I'm having computer withdrawals because her internet is sketchy and is only up for short periods of time. She's promised me it will be fixed tonight...yay! It's up and running right this minute so I thought I'd better take advantage of it and show you the flower I saw in her backyard. It seems like it's been FOREVER since I've seen a flower, so hopefully this is a good sign that Spring is coming.

It's beautiful!

Only a few more days to see new flags waving in this blog hop:


Click HERE for the whole Flags on a Stick blog hop schedule.

Thanks to these sponsors for helping make this a fabulous blog hop:


I'm so glad you stopped by to visit!

Thursday, March 27, 2014

My Day To Put A Flag On A Stick

There's been some seriously cute flags blowing around this week thanks to 
Madame Samm's Flags on a Stick blog hop and cheerleader Thearica from Pigtales and Quilts!

I'm loving the heart flag pole I was so lucky to receive from
It is beautiful and thanks to them I have a place to hang my new flags.

I wasn't sure what flag to make that would "say something" about me. I came up short with ideas
at first, especially ones that I could hang outside and not cause trouble with the neighbors!

With winter hanging on FOREVER, this flag says something about me...I want warm weather!

It's Spring!
I played around with felt using my embroidery machine to make this one.

This flag (it's two-sided) says something about my younger days...
I was always hosting or being the prime suspect at a baby shower.

It's A Girl!
From Amy Bradley's "babies" patterns

It's A Boy!
From Amy Bradley's "babies" patterns

This flag says something about my favorite kind of party to host...
I love birthday parties!

It's Somebody's Birthday!
I just love this kid's face from Amy Bradley's "Peek-a-Boo" patterns

Of course, the flag that really is all about me says something about my Monkey Boys.

Beware! Monkeyboys Ahead!
This adorable monkey can be found over at Craftsy...Jungle Babies by Mad Creek Designs.

I've had so much fun thinking of flags to hang on my pole...thank you again Flag Outlet!
Check out the other flags being shown off today:



Thanks to these sponsors for helping make this a fabulous blog hop:


I'm so glad you stopped by to visit!

Sunday, March 23, 2014

The One-Eyed Bird In My Yard

That Other Lady keeps posting photos of pretty birds on her blog and though you all know I'm not competitive, I thought I'd show off a photo of one of the birds from my yard. I was able to get within inches of this little baby before it totally freaked out when it finally noticed me with its good eye. It looks like it was in a pretty bad fight to have lost that eye.


Okay, so That Other Lady wins with her pretty bird photo posts. LOL

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Six Years Of Wordiness And A Giveaway

I started my quilt blog almost six years ago (March 23, 2008) and if
you've been here since the beginning or just since yesterday...

THANK YOU!

For enduring my wordiness, I'll pick a winner on March 23rd (my blogaversary) and send him/her
SIX (one for each year) of those cute little mini charm packs by MODA and a pattern book.


The rules...
  1. Leave a comment...short and sweet works for me!
  2. It can be mailed anywhere...yes, even to the other side of the world.
  3. You don't have to be a follower to play along.
  4. Giveaway ends at 5 p.m. PST on March 23rd. Entries after 5 p.m. PST on March 23rd will not be included in the giveaway.
  5. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: If you aren't sure whether or not you are a no reply blogger, LEAVE ME AN EMAIL ADDRESS...pretty please! You can't win if I can't contact you! 

Some Days Just Call For A Swig Cookie

I went on a short outing by myself today that included a quick stop at my favorite store, Quilted Works. It's a happy place to visit and today was no exception because the conversation went from fabric to SWIG cookies. SWIG is a cookie place near me that's pretty popular for their sugar cookies. People line up just to buy their pink frosted cookies...one or dozens...and "dirty" soda drinks ("dirty" means different things added to them like coconut water, etc.)

It was too much for me to just TALK about the cookies with those Quilted Works ladies, so after a quick trip to the SWIG store right around the corner from them, we all got to enjoy a special treat...green frosted SWIG cookies! Another day to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Whoohoo and yummy!

I love that purple straw in my Dr. Pepper! Maybe that's the real reason I love that place!

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Seriously, I Missed St. Patrick's Day?

I can't believe I dressed my logo lady in green and then yesterday just slipped by without even a leprechaun or a pinch to blog about. What's with that! My Irish Gr-Gr-Gr-Great Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong would be so disappointed in me for not celebrating with some corned beef and cabbage or Irish stew. I've been a little bit distracted and busy moving my daughter, babysitting those amazing Monkey Boys, and doing a little sewing.

So...Happy St. Patrick's Day a day late!

Several weeks ago I attended a cooking class taught by Chef Brad who's like the king of grains. During the class he showed us how to pressure cook a quick dinner using a variety of grains and pasta. I ended up buying a new Fagor electric pressure cooker and I'm loving it! I use it almost every day and my brain keeps thinking up new things to cook in it. It's definitely not my mother's pressure cooker! I was terrified of her pressure cooker and knew it would blow up someday. I'm not scared of this one at all! Yesterday I made chunky applesauce in four minutes. It was so fast! Too bad I didn't add some green to it to make it look more Irish.


6 apples, peeled, cored, and cut in chunks
1/4 cup sugar (more or less to taste)
1 cup water or apple juice
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pressure cook on high for 4 minutes.
Easy!

Thursday, March 6, 2014

I'm A Little Ruffled Today


I LOVE RUFFLES!

Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt was in a ruffly kind of mood and got a lot of us thinking about what we could make with ruffles. She brought on Amy from Sew Incredibly Crazy to cheer us on and keep us all in line. Thanks to both of them this is another amazing hop just full of ruffles, ruffles, ruffles!

While thinking and looking for ruffle ideas, I saw this adorable embroidery pattern over at the Nana Company called Sleepy Time Animal Pals and just loved it...had to have it, of course. With a little pink and beige fabric strips I made it into a quilt-as-you go baby quilt with brown and beige polka dots for the binding. 

A Little Ruffled Sleep


Last year I bought a book by Helen Scott called the Bonnet Girls and it had been sitting there just waiting for me to make something out of it. This seemed like as good a time as ever, so with fabric by Red Rooster, ruffles, rhinestones, and a 22.5" x 28" frame...tada! She looks great hanging in my sewing room!

Blowing In The Wind


Look who's hopping with me today:

March 7th



I'm so glad you stopped by to visit!

Dresden Carnival In Rikstacket

C heck out the Summer 2026 R IKSTACKET quilt magazine that my friend, Britt-Inger, sent me  from Sweden. It was such a pleasure and an hono...