Learning …

Ok, so sewing is one skill I never developed as a girl, but I’m working on it now.  I’ve used the amazing “Wonder Under” before to make the “Incredibles” Logo on C and my shirts for Halloween two years ago, and I thought, “Well, what more to applique is there than Wonder Under and sewing around the edges?”

What more indeed.

If you look too closely, this Triceratops has been mauled.  His rear legs are in a horrible state.  I’m not sure he’ll make it through the night.

And the Allosaurus might finish him off for me, if not for the fact that he has no teeth … and no claws.  Yep, the claws were way too detailed for me to handle.  And I probably should have found another pic to do, because when I look at this one now, I realize his right hip is out of place.  So the Triceratops will die a slow, agonizing death because the Allosaurus can’t help him out.

This one was easier.  The lines were straighter.  I left most of the rigging off, which I was planning on putting on … but it was proving to be more than I could manage.

(Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with all 20 squares. )

And there I stopped.  For two weeks all the fabric sat on my sewing machine in the corner, and I bemoaned the fact that it wasn’t turning out like the vision I had in my head.

Then I faced the fact that the only way left to go was forward.

And I made this one.  I was rather pleased with it. (BTW, I think this is the only animal on the whole quilt who got to be his “normal” color.)

Then I made this:

This was the square I was dreading most of all.  What if I butchered my sweet little boy’s face?!!!  Thanks to a miracle, it turned out nicely.  I even got the poky hairs on the back of his head.  I decided, if I could get this one done, I could finish the rest.

I made C help me choose the tank, because I know he knows more about them than me.  Then, when I realized my lack of skills with applique, I dashed his choice to the side and chose the one that I thought would be easiest to make.  (Did you guess a Tiger?  Good, because I had to ask C again which one I’d ended up with.)

I was very particular about the airplanes.  J has two grandpas who have been pilots, and I wanted to use planes they’d flown.  Then, as with the others, I had trouble finding silhouettes.  This is what we ended up with.

Cessna.  Easy.  Quick.  And Grandpa O teaches people to fly in them.

C-47, because Great-Grandpa M flew one in WWII.  (My propellers came out a little wonky on this one, because I decided to try making them differently than I had on other ones … and it didn’t really turn out … which is why this next one lacks propellers …

See?  No propellers.  But I think the C-130 turned out the best.

I laid the squares out on my front room carpet last night, and I think I’m pleased enough with how it turned out.  Now I just have to piece it together and take it down to my mom’s.  I’m hoping she and my Grandma will help me quilt it … or at least around the squares … then I can finish it off with a quilting hoop, once it’s tacked down.

Life goes on …

I’ve been so pleased with my rolls lately.  I have a love/hate relationship with yeast.  I love bread.  Yeast hates me.  I actually had my dad watch me put the ingredients in the bread maker once, when I was a teenager.  I did it just the way he said to, the way he always did it, but because I did it, it didn’t rise.  Even my dad looked at it and said, “That’s funny … what did we do wrong?”

BUT … I’ve had luck lately … or I’ve bribed the yeast with just the right temperature water and the right amount of honey, because this is what my rolls looked like this week:

They were a little on the crumbly side, but I knew I’d added too much flour when I was shaping them.  I’m not a pro yet, but I’m on my way.

L is doing very well.  She’s reading 83 words per minute.  The first grade goal is 53.  She passed that months ago.  And I don’t know what poor S is going to do in Kindergarten next year.  She’s already starting to read.  And J just had to get up and pretend to follow his sisters’ examples.

I went to Jo-anne’s today.  I found most everything I needed on sale … including the rotary cutting board, cutter, and rulers.  I’d planned on using my mom’s when I went down next, but at 40% off, and the fact that I don’t think this is the last time I’ll ever need it, I couldn’t resist buying my own set.  Oh, and I had a coupon for 20% off that was also good for the things on sale.  When they totaled up my receipt, I’d saved $63!!!  I’m not telling how much I spent, though …

So, now I have a plan and fabric, and all the tools I need to put together a new quilt for J (minus batting, I’ll get around to that after I’ve pieced the top).  I get so anxious in this moment: when I have the plan and the materials, but I haven’t started yet.  Remember the Snow White Dress I made for Susanna two years ago?

I had the same feeling before starting that project, when all I had was this:

I’m afraid I’ll mess up and ruin the whole thing.  Of course, I won’t, and even if I do mess up, I’ll be able to fix it.  But until I make those first cuts and get into it, I’ll have this lump in my throat. 

The nice people at the local Bernina shop are so encouraging, though.  I stopped by to pick up a satin stitch foot, because I’m going to put an applique on each of the squares, and they talked to me about it and assured me that it’s no big deal, and I’ll be able to do just what I want without any problem.  Then she cautioned me to start on a scrap piece of fabric, just to get the hang of it.  Good advice. 

Big Girl’s Birthday!

We had another birthday.  I keep threatening to put bricks on my kids’ heads, but they object …

She was thrilled to get a pencil from her teacher at school.

And she opened her cards without complaining before she went for the big present.  C meanwhile got clobbered by the other two, who felt L was getting too much attention and needed to demand some more of their own.

Then came the big moment.  I laughed at Pillow Pets and swore I would never get my kids one … but when she’s been begging for nearly a year … it is her birthday, after all.  She is now the proud owner of a Multi-colored Unicorn Pillow Pet.

Then we got down to the good stuff.  We even had lemon-strawberry ice cream to eat with the cake.

Her birthday present from her Grandma didn’t get her until the day after her birthday, but she was okay about that.  In fact, she said it was exciting to have two birthdays instead of one.

She got a Merida doll, and she loves it.  She’s even been kind enough to share the three little bears now and then with J, who adores them.

S ran off to get her Rapunzel doll, and the two couldn’t even be bothered to look up and smile for me from then on.  It was a good birthday.

The Cake

So, last year L requested a “Buttery Lemon Citrus Cake” for her birthday, and I discovered the first cake I’ve ever met that I didn’t like.  This year, she requested a chocolate cake, which is unusual for her, because she usually says she doesn’t like chocolate.  Then she casually remarked that she wanted chocolate cake because it’s mine and S’s favorite.  While I found that very sweet, I had to set her straight that her birthday cake was for her.  If she wanted chocolate, she could have it, if she wanted something else, I would make it for her.  I had her go through my cookbooks, and she settled on this:

Easy Lemon Cake from Kraft Recipes

But … I can’t ever do something easy, and this one called for a boxed lemon cake mix.  So, I got a recipe from a friend for lemon cake and lemon frosting.

This was the first time I tried out a recipe that used 7up as the rising agent.  I’d heard of people using soda in cakes, but I hadn’t done it myself.  When the cake rose up without problems, I breathed a sigh of relief.

I think I may cook my cakes a little longer than needed, but I’ve also bitten into a raw middle piece of cake, and I prefer a little over to a little under.

 

I was worried about the pudding layer on top of the cake.  The recipe from Kraft said to frost with cool whip, but I was making the frosting recipe that came with my friend’s cake recipe.  I added two extra tablespoons of cream to loosen it up, so it would spread nicely over the pudding layer.

I think it turned out well.  At least, before I wrote one it … I don’t have the best handwriting with a pen, so when I try to write with a bag of icing … well, it looks like this:

And when you cut it open, it looks like this:

Ok, so it’s not the same as the picture from the Kraft website, but I do think it turned out well, and L sat down and ate her whole piece!  If I do it again, I may add some lemon extract to the cake and the frosting.  It was enough to make you think of a lemon, but not quite bold enough for me.  Still, it was very good.

Sledding

Ever since we got home from our Christmas Vacation, we have been tromping through snow.  We’ve been below freezing most of the time, so it’s mostly still here.  We took the kids out sledding the other day.  I apparently need to find a new hill, because it wasn’t very exciting, and they ended up just playing in the snow, but we did have a good time.

The girls each wore their fuzzy hats from Christmas.  I thought they were adorable!  (My girls, not the hats … well, I like the hats, but my girls are the cutest part!)

If you don’t look close enough, it’s hard to tell the two girls apart!

I don’t know if J remembers snow from last year, but he was sure enthralled with it this year.

Both J and S ate snow on our way back to the car.

We went out on the warmest day that week, and it was still only 22 degrees Fahrenheit.  On one hand it was nice, because they didn’t really get wet.  They got snow all over themselves, but it didn’t melt.  Oh, and I went out and bought L snow boots the next day, so don’t feel too bad for her in her tennis shoes. 

Pass it on

A few days ago, I opened my email to find a surprise – my dad sent me a tutorial on how to make his homemade bread.  Now, I already use his recipe to make sweet rolls for my family, but I don’t often make his bread.  He’d been asked to put together instructions on it, and I was lucky enough to be on his email list when he finished.

I was tickled.  It’s a beautiful piece of technical writing, complete with pictures and explanations.  I loved it!

I told my kids how, growing up, Dad would often pull the bread out of the machine and leave it, for just a few minutes, to cool.  While it sat there, someone else would come in, chop off the heel, spread it with butter and honey, and make off with it.  Sometimes it was me, sometimes it was someone else.  Always, Dad would come back and exclaim, “Who stole my heel?!”  And then he would smile … because it was a compliment to his bread that we liked it so much.

So, this week I had S’s preschool group at my house.  We had the letter “R”.  In an effort to redeem myself from serving marshmallows and M&Ms for “M” day a few weeks ago, I decided to make rolls for snack.

If I had thought about it earlier, I’d have taken a picture of the whole tray, but I didn’t, so here’s what was left after dinner that first night.

First, as soon as the rolls were out of the oven, I snagged the corner roll, cut it in half, spread it with butter and honey, and took it into the living room. 

Now, the men I know, when they are sitting in front of a computer, they become oblivious to the world around them.  The house could explode, and as long as the computer and their chair remained in place, they wouldn’t notice. 

I put the roll in front of his mouth, and he took a bite.  He chewed.  Suddenly he turned his head, looked at me, and said, “Oh my goodness, that is SO good!”

Good enough to distract my husband from the computer – that’s saying something.

Then, at dinner, I’d taken a roll, cut it in half, and spread one piece of it with jam.  I got distracted by one of the girls asking for milk, and when I looked back at my plate, J had reached over and snatched my roll right off my plate!

He took a bite, then smiled at me and said, “Mine!”

Maybe one day, when my kids are grown up with families of their own, I’ll send them a tutorial on how to make bread, and their own kids will steal the heels. 

(Even as I wrote this post, I fed the kids rolls for bedtime snack.  I thought I’d get to eat the extra half of roll, but J snatched it away from me again.  )