august STUD

i can't believe august is over. where did the summer go? i completed my second STUD swap and just love the mini i recieved. thanks meg!

and look at the cute little extra goodies!

and this is what i sent to meg. it is a bird's eye view of a neighborhood (swimming pools, trees, fences, flower gardens, etc...)

i'm going to sit out for september because we'll be gone or busy for most of the month but i'm hoping to jump back in for october.

what's cookin'?

new toys for my kitchen!


really it's a toy. found this miniature cook set at target. wow, big stores do amaze me sometimes, only sometimes. it was only $10 and so cute i couldn't resist it. see, it fits inside of my real kitchen toy.


why did i buy this toy when i don't even have any kids to play with it? well, so i could play with it, duh. i think my favorite piece is this collander.



or this spaghetti fork.

or this thing. what is this thing anyway? i don't even have one of these in my real kitchen.

it even came with a camoflaged pot holder! see it?

it's all so cute and miniature; and really good quality. bring your kids on over and i'll play kitchen with them.

animal alphabet N

the urban cow

not these ladies....

there she is, grazing on her grass

everyday so she can fill up her 9 stomachs...

that she thinks she has

because she thinks she's a cow,

until she gets distracted by the birds and remembers she's a birddog.

'til next time ladies...

animal alphabet M

from the kitchen [laura's cookies]

a.k.a. whole wheat-peanut butter-oatmeal-chocolate chip-dried cranberry cookies.

that red and white gingam, better homes and gardens cookbook has never let me down. just use the peanut butter-oatmeal cookie recipe and substitute whole wheat flour. then add 1/2 cup each chocolate chips and dried cranberries.

Mmmm!

i'm still here

been feeling a bit derailed lately and that horrible zuchinni cake was the straw that broke the camel's back. not to mention that i wasn't too happy with that lemur i drew for the animal alphabet. and on top of all of it i'm suffering with allergies this year.

never before have i ever been allergic to anything in my life (except mosquitos - yeah really - the bites get huge and swollen, i mean, really swollen). so now, i'm sitting around having violent sneeze attacks and itchy eyes. not fun. but only 2 more weeks in allergy-land and then a vacation to clean-air-ville and by the time we get back the ragweed should be nearly complete. i hope.

i haven't been doing nothing, just nothing worth blogging about. i did read a few books. and i have to say that confessions of a shopaholic was nothing that i thought it would be. after waiting nearly 6 months for it to appear back on the library shelf i snagged it last week. instead of being a story about a cute, savy, trendy, fashion-minded girl suffering from the addiction on buying fabulous clothes, shoes, and bags it was a story about a whiney, irresponsible journalist who couldn't keep her spending habbit in-check. needless to say by the time i got to page 210 and realized i had just read two-hundred-ten pages of annoyingness, i felt i had to finish the book because it probably couldn't get much worse. well, it didn't, really, but i probably wouldn't recommend the book. and now i'm confussed as to what the movie is actually about.

of course i'm reading up on what to cook for my backpacking vacation - including dehydrated spagetti sauce. every ounce counts people. i'll save all that backcountry cooking stuff for another day though. and skinny *B* has been recommended as a food makeover for quite sometime. i'm only on the first chapter but i'd like to say that so far i'm on the right track - no smoking, no soda, and no alcohol (or not much anyway). so other than the bit of rude language and the fact that i will never give up meat i think the book will be pretty interesting.

i did find (by recommondation from my sister) a website/blog that i am engrossed in. i do not know why it's not a book, or several books! i would certainly read it. http://thepioneerwoman.com/ it is fantastic! and i've only spent half a day trolling around it.

well, i've got some blog-worthy things to be getting to, so, see you 'round.

from the kitchen [chocolate zuchinni cake]

....don't say yum. at least until you've heard the whole story....

so, we grew a zuchinni plant in our tiny 6'x3' garden this summer. obviously it took over the entire thing. so, after not having much success with it and getting about 4 fruits out of it i ripped it out and put in some filler flowers. i had 2 zuchinnis sitting in the bowl on the counter that i was dreading making more bread out of. we had already had 3 double batches this summer.

so i turned to the trusty ol' internet to find a recipe for zuchinni cake (mmm, cake is always better than bread). after carefully selecting a recipe that had only recieved rave reviews i headed for the kitchen. and it wasn't just cake, it was chocolate cake! i mixed all the ingredients as instructed, poured it into my pretty new bundt pan, and stuck it in the oven.

now the waiting game. and waiting. i cooked this cake for an hour and a half! the recipe only called for 50 min. and the waiting game again; time to cool. it looked so innocent sitting in that pan on the cooling racks. i let it cool for over an hour (sheesh, this cake is taking it's time!).

needless to say, it is not the prettiest cake i've ever made but sometimes the best tasting things are the ugliest. let me tell you - this was the most sorry, soggy excuse of a cake that i have ever eaten! it was Oowy, Goowy and not Goodness. really just ewwy and gewwy. and you probably won't believe me that the strawberries and homemade creamcheese frosting couldn't even save this cake from it's awfulness.

what did turn out successful was my little mini. see it? it's under the bowl of cake. and we are also experiencing a very nice late afternoon summer thunderstorm right now that is very relaxing. ok, here's a better one of the quilty :)

so, in conclusion, i will not be sharing this recipe with you today. and unless the hubs loves the ickyness of a lump in the fridge it will be joining the rest of the week's trash on the curb tomorrow.

from the kitchen [salsa]

Mmmm!

something pretty to look at

dahlia in the garden

dancing at a wedding

kitty in the morning sun

animal alphabet L

animal alphabet I

and on a side note: my blog is seemingly needing some more colorful photos, i'll work on that this week. plus i got a new ceiling fan in my sewing room this weekend. yay!

animal alphabet H

animal alphabet G

coasters

made another set of coasters, this time wonky log cabins.

also, getting closer and closer to my 100th post.... maybe i'll need to do a give-away? but i'll only give something away if there's at least 50 people who post on it (i know you're out there). keep your eyes open for my upcoming 100th post give-away!

animal alphabet K

my quilt

here it is :)

hot, hot, HOT!

it is hot outside. but it is making the laundry dry very quickly. i'm back from a weekend away and busy catching up on laundry and putting things away. i did have a couple weekend finishes; my quilt, and this little doll, ellen. she is much sweeter than mary because she has a full head. so i think i'm happy with the doll pattern now and just need to work on some clothes.

i was also inspired for my next quilt project, which is good because i was feeling the 'completion blues' after sewing the last of the binding onto my quilt. i'm very excited because i will be using some bird print fabrics that are so cool. i think i'm going to do a coin quilt pattern and it will be a lap quilt size. i wish i could keep this one but it will be given away as a gift.

and another cool thing about it is that most of the fabrics i already had and i just went to the store to get a few fillers to add to the bunch. yay!

p.s. i'll post pictures of my quilt when it comes out of the laundry :) i'll be getting back to my animal alphabet tonight too, so look for the next letter tonight.

from the kitchen [lemon-blueberry cake]

cake

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

shredded peel from 3 unwaxed lemons

3 Tablespoons sourcream

3 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup flour

1 cup corn meal

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 cups blueberries

bake at 350 for 25 min

frosting

16 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 cup powdered sugar

i think that because i put strawberry jam in between the layers it made this cake even better, Mmmm!

animal alphabet J

...yeah, i know, it will be out of order for a few days...

in the works

got a few projects in the works including some practice wonky blocks that i'll make into coasters, my revised doll pattern (she no longer looks like the top of her head was taken off by a granade), a 'k' bib that is nearly complete but keeps fighting with the sewing machine, my quilt (the top is finished now on to the back, quilting, and binding), and a pile of green fabrics for something secret... off to make beef enchiladas for supper! Mmmm!

animal alphabet F

my least favorite so far....

animal alphabet E

and a little action shot because hubby wanted one of his photos in the blog tonight :)

meet miss mary

mary is a fleece doll. there are things i like about mary and things i would do differently. to begin with, i love mary's face. she is so sweet and smiley that i wouldn't do it any different next time. i am not in love with mary's hair. it is stringy and makes it hard to change her clothes. i need to come up with a better hair option (plus i think her forhead is a little too short). i love her long, skinny legs. there is something quite cute about the gangly legs she has. i hate mary's dress. i liked the concept of using fleece because you can leave raw edges but it is hard to change (and dolls need to change clothes at least every 3 minutes), it is boring - blah, and it makes her shoulders look like she should be a linebacker. i need to work on a new wardrobe of patterns for mary; including britches for her naked bottom. i like her shoes but if i'm going to keep them as part of the pattern they should probably be sewn on (i'm not sure how i feel about permanent shoes....). what do you think of mary?

back to sewing

got back into the sewing room today and drew up this little doll pattern that i will sew during the week. :)

also taking a day off from the animal alphabet, look for E tomorrow!