Tuesday, July 29, 2008

A ton of stars!

This is what I am currently working on know. It is called "Little Stars." I have not sewen the top all together, they are just layed out on the carpet for a better idea of what it looks like. Once it is all completed, I will take a pic and post it.
This is the page where I got my idea. At first, I was going to change it up a bit and not do the colors that they have here. BUT I am working on a quilt top (from Amanda Jean's Star Quilt along) that is in different shades of pink and white, I needed a change. Blue is another favorite color so I just went along with what they have here.


This is the book that I got the pattern from. Have you seen this book before? There are so many great patterns in this book. You might be wondering what are all those bright colored pieces of paper on the side of the book....well, those are future projects of course!! Can't buy a book and just do one thing. Well, I can't.

Thanks for stopping by!

Melody

Monday, July 28, 2008

More Thrift Finds!!

A few days ago, my family and I were out getting some books for my girls for summer reading. I am giving them $1.00 for each book they read and give a short summary on (to make sure they are reading it). I will give $2.00 or more for the bigger books. While they shopped for books, DH and I shopped for treasures. Not too many great finds but I did manage to get a few things.

The milk glass vase 50 cents and the cup I just had to have. On the bottom it says "Furnival, Limited, England." It reminded me of dishware that my mom told me that she saw a lot of when her and my dad where visiting Denmark and she fell in love with it. It is so cute. I am now on the look out for more like it.....wish me luck!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Melody

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Thrifty Finds!!


Who loves finding awesome treasures at a GREAT price? Well most everyone I know and probably you since you are reading this blog :)

My youngest DD, Sara and I went to a Rummage Sale at a local church here in town. They had lots and lots of tables with the usual stuff (drinking glasses, wine glasses, coffee cups, books). But, as I looked under the tables (as I learned from going to this blog) I found this item Nordicware cake pan for $3.00.

It still had some cake batter( they couldn't even clean it before they donated it) which maybe scared some people off. Who knows. Anyway, after a good washing (or two) it was perfect, espcially for $3.00!!!

Anybody else have any luck this weekend? Let me know what you found. I always love raeding about great thrift stories. It is almot like reading about finding buried treasure!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Melody

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Staycationing with the Family

What do you do when it is 102+ outside, gas is up to $4.50 a gallon and you have two kids, a husband and 1 dog?

You take a Staycation!


My family and I took a drive away from "the furnace of Contra Costa County" aka Antioch and went to a town that seemed to have their AC blowing outside. It was 20+ degrees cooler and a breeze!! I have not felt a breeze, or maybe I should say a cool breeze, for that matter in quite some time.

In the above picture is the DH, next to him is DD Sara and next to her is DD Jessica. In the middle is our fury son and their brother, Murphy.

We only stayed in Benicia for a couple of hours, had lunch at Kinders (YUM!) and checked out some of the antique shops. Not really exciting BUT it was nice to get out, enjoy the cool weather and see the sights. Unfortunately, the shops were closed because it was Monday but no big deal.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Melody

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Leapin' Lizards! Did you see my pizza?

Did you think, by my title that it was a Lizard Pizza?

Nope, no lizard pizza in this house!

BUT....this is a lizard.One warm afternoon, I was out in the backyard watering the plants below and I saw something move. I looked a little closer..not sure if I should run for the hills or maybe stay and see what was moving. Well the moving thingie was this little blue-belly lizard. I yelled for my family and told them about the lizard. It was just too darn cute for them to miss. Anyway, Warren (the resident DH) picked it up for us to take a closer look. That is his thumb. I told he would be famous and everyone in the world would see his thumb. I asked him if he will still want to know me when he makes the big time with his famous thumb. All I got back from him was a look. I am sure you know what kind of look!


Now about the pizza....this is the pizza.

It has been a little warm and I was not really into cooking dinner. I get a bit lazy and a little grumpy so I wanted to make something cool, quick and tasty for dinner. This is called "California Appetizer Pizza"

1 pkg (8 ounces) Ref. Crescent Rolls
2 ripe avacados, peeled and mashed
2 Tbsp onion, finely chopped
1 lemon
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp salt
4 ounces grated Montery Jack Cheese
4 ounces imitation crabmeat, chopped
2 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
2 tbsp gresh cilantro or parsley, snipped

Preheat oven to 350. Unroll crescent roll dough, seperate into 8 triangles. On a 13 inch round baking stone (or pizza pan that is sprayed with oil), arrange triangles in a circle with points in the center and wide ends toward the outside. Using a roller, roll out dough into a 12-inch circle pressing seams together. Bake for 12-15 mins.

In the meantime, combine the mashed avacado, onion, juice from the lemon to equal 2 tsps. Mix well. Add the sour cream to the mixture and mix well and spread evenly over the "crust" after it has had a chance to cool. Sprinkle the grated cheese evenly over top of the avacado mixture then the crab meat, tomatoes. Add the snipped cilantro.

Makes 10 servings.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Melody


Thursday, July 10, 2008

My Crafty Girls!!

My two girls have been busy this summer being crafty. I guess that is a good thing when the thermometer is showing 110 outside! Not at all my idea of a good time.

Anyhoo, this is my 14 year old, Jessica. She has really been busy making pillows for the family. This is one of her own creations. She took some fabric and sewed the pillow and then has added candy wrappers that were destined for the trash onto the front of her pillow. Can you believe she hand sewed this? She created the design in the front too.
This is the back of the pillow.
Here is a closeup to show the handstitching. I asked her how she will rest her head on it without being bugged by the constant "crinkle, crinkle" of the wrappers and she laughed. Oh well.
This is my youngest, Sara who is 10. She was also busy being a crafty girl! She was looking for something to do one day and I handed her a bunch of beads and some clear elastic wire and told her to have fun with it and call me if she needed any help. This is what she came up with:
Bracelet 1: "I (heart) Hello Kitty.

Bracelet 2: Miley...as in Miley Cyrus. OMG, what girl age 11 and below has not been bitten by the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana bug? Sara was bitten pretty bad. I guess it could be worse.


These are some more of Sara's creations. They are erasers that you form out of clay and then bake in the oven for a short time. Don't ask me if they erase. I have not seen them in action and I have a pretty good feeling that they will never see the likes of any paper. Kind of like Pampered Erasers!

Eraser 1 : Mohawk Dude (not my words!) :)

Eraser 2: Donut

Eraser 3: Hamburger

It has been fun watching them make their own creations. I will post more as they are completed.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Who turned the heater on??

YIKES!!!

According to the weatherman, we are expected to see temps today at about 105, 107 tommorrow and 105 for Thursday. We will be getting a "cooling trend" of 99 on Friday. What ever happened to those stories about cool breezes off the ocean and the palm trees swaying in the breeze?? I guess not in this neck of the woods. I am on the outskirts of the San Joaquin Valley so the only thing I may see swaying in the breeze are tumbleweeds. Lovely thought, isn't it. Oh right, oh right....enough of the belly-aching. Well here is my next project. It is called "Little Star" and it is from the book below. If it is hard to read, I will tell you that the title of the book is called "Simplicty, Simple is Beautiful" by Allison Jane Smith and Hollie Ann Milne. There are many beautiful quilts and some of them seem very "do-able"....is that a word?....well it is today :)

Sorry folks, heat gives me the "grumpies".





On my next post, I will show you all a pic of a pillow that my Jessica, who is my 14 y.o. daughter is working on. She is sewing together "Mamba candy" wrappers and then attaching them to fabric to cover the front of her pillow. I guess you could say that she is going green and repurposing things. Pretty cool! She kind of came up with the idea from looking at a friends bag made out of Capri Sun Juice bags. Who would have thought?

I will also have to show the quilt block that I have finished from following Amanda Jean.

Thanks for stopping by and stay out of the heat!!

Melody

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Another completed block!

Another completed block. Yaaaayyyy!!! This one according to Amanda Jean at "Crazy Mom Quilts" is called the "Martha Washington" Square. I thought it was very fitting for the holiday that we celebrated last Friday. I believe that this is block #9 and there is either 3 or 4 more to go after this.

Here is a family favorite recipe that I would share. SUPER simple to make and it makes alot!

Chinese Noodle Candy

1 cup chocolate chips
2 cups butterscotch chips
2 cups Spanish peanuts
2 cups Chinese Noodles aka crunchy chow mein noodles that come in a can

Melt both chocolate and butterscoth chips together then remove from heat. Stir in remaining ingredients and drop by spoonfulls onto waxed paper. Sets up in a few mins.

Let me just say that if your house is warm from the summer heat that it will take longer for the candy to set up so don't think you did something wrong. Also, for a different kind of twist, I substituted Macadamia nuts for the peanuts and my husband Warren prefered it over the peanuts.

Let me know if you try it and how you like it. I will warn you that they are addicting!!!

Thanks for stopping by!