Friday Morning

FIRST OF ALL: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY HUBBY!!!!!!! I LOVE THAT GUY! :O)

Around the farmhouse this morning:

Guard Frog # 3:



As more of them bloom, I've discovered that the Four O'Clocks are also yellow:



Ten 9-patch blocks for the Summer one a day 9-patch challenge:



Three more ready to sew tonight



Scraps to put together into more blocks:



Hooray! Its Friday!

A Frugal Summer Meal

Its that time of summer when squash are abundant! We love them cooked several ways. Here are some squash being cooked in preparation for a squash casserole. I had checked the pantry before grocery shopping this week and noticed I had all the ingredients needed for the squash casserole and my mother gives me bags of squash regularly.



Saturday morning's Food Lion grocery trip yielded a package of these three boneless beef ribs for $4. I brought them straight home from the store and browned them on each side in a little oil,



put them in a small baking dish with some bbq sauce bought on sale for 99 cents on them, covered it with foil and slow cooked them in the oven on a very low temperature for a couple of hours.



This meal of bbq beef ribs, squash casserole and leftover beans was very good and very low cost.



I plan to cook more meals using what's already in my pantry this week as well. There's no point in stocking up on sale items bought with coupons if I'm not going to put them to use!

By the way, don't forget to check my other blog, ANGELSCRAPS QUILTING. I have been posting some quilty things over there this week!

The Art of "Just Being"

Here I am sitting on the front porch wearing my fake $6.00 rainbow flip flops with a cup of coffee, watching the world go by early Saturday morning.



You may remember my mentioning in an older post that my doctor always gives me a checklist at my annual checkup with things on it like: use sunscreen, take calcium, etc. One item on the checklist that always surprises me is the one that says learn to "just be".

I have to think about what this means sometimes. I know it means to let the stress of the day (or week or year!) go. To take some time every day to sit and just do nothing. To take a mini-vacation in the midst of the usual busyness of the day.

I see a trend of "just being" this summer on some blogs. There are lots of blog breaks going on and folks just naturally slow down in the summer time anyway. My blogger friend, Lyn is joining me on the quest to "just be" this summer. Won't you join us?

And if the doctor orders it, I need to do it, right?! So, I hope to do some posts this summer on different ways to "just be".

Today's tip: Stop and watch the world go by. Do you have a porch, deck or other spot where you can just sit and be? I know it will be hard for you to just sit somewhere and not do something else at the same time. Trust me, the stuff that's been taking up your time will still be there after your little mini-vacation. Grab a cup of coffee or glass of iced tea, and "just be" today.

The view from my porch where I can "just be" this summer:

Turn around and you're a grown woman with babies of your own....

Somehow this happened while I wasn't looking. My girl is turning 30 on Sunday. Happy birthday to my friend, my daughter, my girl....

An Early Morning Delight!

The farmhouse Four O'clocks surprised me yesterday morning with their first bloom. I thought Four O'clocks were supposed to open at 4 or 5 O'clock in the afternoon, not at 4 A.M.!

The story behind these plants:

I have been on a quest to have lots of old fashioned plants in the yard and I remembered my paternal grandmother had a large four O'clock bush. I remember exactly where it was and that I collected seeds from it. So I bought some seeds and have started my own plants.

Meanwhile, in the front porch flower bed, a mysterious plant was growing. I wasn't sure if it was a weed or a plant, so I left it alone and watered it. I actually almost pulled it up last week because I had decided it must be a weed.

Well, as you've probably figured out by now the mystery plant is a Four O'clock, so now I should have plenty of them, in all stages of growth!

Little Boy Blue

After a long break from sewing while getting moved into the farmhouse and settled in somewhat, here is a quilting FINISH:



To read more about my recent quilting go to my quilting blog, ANGEL SCRAPS QUILTING.

Farm House Garden Magic

Today is OUTDOOR WEDNESDAY at a Southern Daydreamer.

To me the yard at our farmhouse is a magical place. I wanted to share some of that with you.

A blue and white marble found early one misty Saturday morning after an overnight rain shower. From my estimations, it has been many years since a child lived here. Do boys even play with marbles any more?



The shade/woodland/magical garden:



The miniature rose I received for Mother's Day a few years ago:



Gerbera Daisies bought on clearance at Lowes:



Caladiums, pansies, impatiens, mint and more. Do you see the silver spoon laying on the rock? That was uncovered in this garden while weeding.



The garden Angel:



Roadside Daylillies growing in the front flower bed:



A pot of herbs with a "guard frog" sitting on the edge of the pot:



A side view of the fields early in the morning:



An old rusty, bent enamelware dishpan filled with herbs and other flowers. The overnight rain shower splashed dirt on the side:



Another "Guard Frog":



Coming in the driveway:



The Rudbeckia that I transplanted from my prior home:



I hope you enjoyed a little bit of magic today.

Tuesday Morning

Happy June and Tuesday Morning!

It was a very nice Memorial Day Weekend in many ways. Its always good to remember those who gave their lives for our country and I am blessed that I have lost no one in any wars. My family members have served in several wars, but all survived. My brother is a Viet Nam veteran and my father is a World War II veteran, who will be 90 this year.

I spent quite a bit of time in the sewing room and already posted a few pictures on Saturday. Here are a couple more projects I worked on:

Apple fabric clothespin bag:



Baby boy scrap quilt:



I am spending a little time preparing fabrics for sewing so that any time I have a few minutes to sit down at the sewing machine, all I have to do is go sew. If I don't do this, I don't get nearly as much done. Half the battle is knowing what you are going to do next. Having the fabric combinations and any needed trim ready to go helps me to get more sewing done in the limited amount of sewing time that I have available.

I had to finally give up my really old iron which finally totally quit working. This iron was given to me my mother-in-law about 30 years ago and I'm sure she had it for about 20 years before that. So I guess 50 years is long enough for one iron to be in service.



This is a cordless iron that my sweet hubby bought me several years ago which is wonderful for quilt making. So I got it out and it is the iron I will use for all my sewing from now on. I'm not sure why I hadn't already switched over to it, since it is very convenient to use.



Hope you have a great day!

Saturday Sewing

Its been quite a while since I posted about sewing on Saturday. Actually, the pictures shown here are projects I made yesterday afternoon. I hope to sew more today, after grocery shopping, some housework and cooking.

Fabrics and trim laid out and ready to start cutting and sewing



I used the pillowcase tutorial I posted about yesterday found on the Twiddletails Blog HERE.

This method of sewing a pillowcase is amazing! The pillow case turned out professional looking with no inside raw seams showing. Its called several names such as Magical Pillowcase and Burrito Pillowcase. Also, Rhonda commented that there is a You Tube Video showing the instructions and that it was also called the Sausage Roll.

I made this camouflage pillow case with black and green trim for my son. I will be making another one just like it, so he will have a set, as soon as I replenish my stash of black fabric. Don't you hate it when you don't have enough fabric to finish a project? AARGH!



As a side note, the camo fabric came in the 60 inch wide size. The directions in the tutorial called for 44-45 inch wide fabric, so I wasn't sure how much fabric to buy. I made a command decision that one yard would be enough for one pillowcase, at least, and that I would go from there. Luckily, one yard of the 60 inch wide fabric was just enough to make two pillowcases and only cost $5.00 per yard.

I loved how this pillowcase turned out so much that I am already planning to make more as gifts. I can see that using a variety of fabrics would make some great personalized gifts for my family. Fabrics such as college themes, or whatever that person would like, could be used.






Another clothespin bag for my Etsy Shop in "groovy flowers" fabric:



I hope today to make one more clothespin bag and to make some progress on the baby boy scrap quilt that is in progress.

Happy Dance Friday

Its Friday!!!!

I am looking forward to a long 3 day weekend and it will start today at 12:00 noon!

My yard work is slowing down some now after a few weeks of being very busy in that area. I still have lots of things I'd like to get done in the yard, but will work on them as I can. Almost daily watering will be needed, at least until some of the newer plants get established.

Now that the hot weather is upon us, I hope to spend more time in my sewing room. After work and cooking supper last night I made this clothespin bag. It seems that when I make several of these for my Etsy Shop, they sit there for a few weeks, then all of a sudden they all sell in a few days time. So I would like to make a few more of these to restock.



I have a couple of quilting projects in progress that I would like to work on. There are two baby boy scrap quilt tops in my basket that are ready to be quilted. I hope to make the quilt sandwich for these and prepare them for machine quilting. I also am soon expecting a new baby nephew and want to start a special quilt for him. Also, there is the wedding gift quilt that I planned last year that I want to work on, even though the couple was married in January!

Other sewing projects I want to work on are these great tutorials for a GOOFY DOLL, these PILLOW CASES and this TRAVEL CAR MAT.

I am also wondering if I should start this Postage Stamp Quilt Along, even though it has been going on for a few months. One can never have too many quilts in progress!

Oh well, half the joy in sewing, gardening, and homemaking.... is the dreams!

Happy Friday!

My Stove and A Week Night Feast!

Here is a picture of the stove that came with the Farm house. The smaller oven on top can be used as a toaster oven, warming oven or regular oven. Its smaller size makes it much more economical to use and it preheats very quickly. If I am cooking something that will fit in there, I use it.

Yesterday I was inspired to cook! So on the way home from work I stopped at Food Lion, bought some "real" butter, fresh eggs, flour, sour cream, a Bell Pepper ($1.19 each not on sale!) and some Breyers real vanilla ice cream (on sale for only $2.00!)

Here's what I made:

Sour Cream Pound Cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)
1/2 cup sour cream
3 eggs (at room temperature)
1 pinch baking soda
1 tsp vanilla flavoring

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x5 or 8x4 inch loaf pan.

2.In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add sour cream, eggs and vanilla.

3.Add flour and pinch of soda, mix well. Pour into loaf pan.

4.Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

This is a basic Sour Cream Pound Cake recipe, but some of the recipes say to cook the cake at 375 degrees for one hour. I baked this cake in the small oven shown above, backed my temperature down to 350 and then baked it an addition 20 minutes. You would probably need to adjust the temperature and cooking time based on how your own oven cooks.

The small size of this cake makes it perfect for a small family and also for a weeknight treat. I wish I had made two so I could freeze one for another time.

Ok, this is where the Breyers Ice Cream comes into play! Vanilla ice cream is delicious over warm pound cake!

I also made Turkey Kielbasa with peppers and onions served over rice, just like my menu plan for the week called for, rounded out with some fried corn bread.

Yum! It was all very delicious and my hubby was very pleased to have an extra special meal with desert after a hard day at work.