12.31.13

TEA TIME TUESDAY

"Tempest in a teapot?" I like to think of it as a STORM in a teapot.  Well, anyway, put the kettle on, the troops are all here.

Death Star Tea Ball 
(discovered HERE)

 with Tie Fighter anchoring chain.

“That’s no moon, it’s a space station.”

If green tea you think like I, wrong you are.
 

12.30.13

Monday Mantra (words to live by)

If you have seen this here before, it is because I need to remember it and remember it.

12.29.13

Have you seen some of those Dog Shaming pictures? They gently poke fun at those horrible parents who publicly humiliate their children by making them wear signs and pose for pictures to be displayed to all their friends. Personally, I think those parents should be reported for child abuse. But Dog Shaming? I find it hilarious.

12.28.13

 Had lots of fun making gifts in the past few months. Here is one I worked on. It was a quilt panel, and I had some lovely orange to border it and make it just large enough to be a big blankey for a little girl.

Quickly machine pieced together, hours and hours of hand quilting which I really enjoyed.

I used lots of perle cotton and embroidery floss in lots of pretty colors.

12.27.13

Bluebirds were busy in our yard this week. They are such pretty little fellows.

12.26.13

Please enjoy this short video from Animated Knots by Grog where the motto is  "Better to know a knot and not need it, than need a knot and not know it."   

12.25.13

Merry Christmas from our house to yours.

12.24.13

Tea Time Tuesday

I received a CASE of my favorite tea!

12.23.13

Monday Mantra

12.21.13

Do not assume that if you CAN crochet, you should.

Horrified by the "artist's" palette and design, Gina soothed herself with a TWO carrot binge  instead of her usual half carrot mid-day meal, thus ending her modeling career forever.

Some people should never be allowed around craft tools.

12.20.13

Do not assume everyone has your taste in headwear.

12.19.13

Do not feel compelled to use up every last scrap of yarn in your project bag. If you do, do not put it on Pinterest where I cannot "unsee" it.

PLEASE do not.

12.18.13

Do not expose young animals to sexually explicit winter wear.

Do not.

12.17.13

TEA TIME TUESDAY

Add one to your virtual collection. To add one to your actual collection, go HERE.

12.16.13

 

A song remembrance for this week spent with family.

12.15.13

Do not use THE BUBONIC PLAGUE as an inspiration for clothing design.

Do not.

12.14.13

 
Do not offer me any kind of KOMBUCHA. 
Do not.

 "Although Kombucha is claimed to have several beneficial effects on health, these claims are not supported by scientific evidence. Drinking kombucha has been linked to serious side effects and deaths, and improper preparation can lead to contamination."

12.13.13

 

Do not wear a Captain Kangaroo jacket made out of your grandfather's bathrobe. Do not.

12.11.13

Today I want to talk to you about CUTE food. Have you noticed how many beautifully photographed CUTE foods are out there? It is more apparent at this time of year than at any other. 

You may remember last year I was on the hunt for a particular shape of pretzel. I live in a very small town. No, I live in between several small towns. Still, with the number of  smaller discount stores, drug stores, and grocery stores such as Dollar General, Family Dollar, CVS, and Ingles, you would have thought I could find circular pretzels. No, I could not. I had to ORDER PRETZELS from Amazon.

For what? To make a recipe that was so CUTE. 

No link--blog no longer exists. Wonder why...

IT WAS A FAILURE though some of the disaster was edible. I think even the burnt ones were eaten. 

In case you are wondering, sometimes chocolate does not melt in the oven. It turns into a brown , chalky substance. If I had had a little more patience, I might have made diamonds.

Leftover bags of pretzels that ended up costing $5 each with shipping were consumed but only after all the leftover chocolate kisses and M and Ms had disappeared.. The plan had been to make something CUTE to eat for all those little parties one simply MUST attend at this time of year. Our family joke is "Buy a bag of Cheetos and scatter them on the table". After Reindeer Noses, I was ready to consider that. 

Mrs. HappyHomemaker site

Undaunted, I tried the CUTE idea of making a platter out of candy--you know, the kind of dishes that WEEKLY READER promised we would have in the future. 

I could be a better cook with a Foodarackacycle like Jane has

Dishes made of candy that we could eat after finishing a meal. 

Well, in 1962, we believed the flying car thing, too, but I believe that has a chance. After all, it IS NOT MADE OF CUTE FOOD. 

I do not know what happened to the tray made of candy that  I made. It did NOT hold Reindeer Noses CUTEly. It was about 6 inches across, weighed about 2 pounds, and sloped down at the edges. Anything put on it was destined for the floor if the tray was moved from one surface to another. Cheetos would not have had a chance.

Surely anyone could whip these up in an afternoon.

I am stubborn about not learning a lesson, though. 


I found some more CUTE food to try this year. 


I can tell you right now, I won't be sharing the recipe I tried Sunday for soft caramels.

Cutefoodforkids.com--2 ingredients--hotdogs and cream cheese

Maybe if I just try something more in my ability range.

12.10.13

Tea Time Tuesday

I have been enjoying Bigelow's Constant Comment Tea, lately. It reminds me of my South Florida Sister-in-Law, because it is one of her favorites. What is your favorite tea?

 

12.9.13

MONDAY MANTRA

I am working on it. I am working on it. I am working on it.
I am progressing. I am progressing. I am progressing.

12.8.13

I spent all day yesterday lazing around. I slept in, took a nap, and went to bed early. The weather here went from a high in the 70s Friday to a high in the upper 30s, lower 40s today. My body thinks this is too much to cope with! 

Sunday (today) I will have to keep a hot cup of tea nearby to inspire me to forge ahead with projects. I have several in various stages, as you might guess. 

I got involved in making dog beds for the Humane Society to sell through their thrift shop. Several guild members donate fabric, and we use fabric scraps and dryer sheets to fill pillowcase shapes. I came across two yards of fabric in the dog bed stash that were repurpose-able so I will have to replace the two yards I removed. That is easy enough. I have some black and white seersucker that will hold up well as dog beds. I may have three or four yards of it!

12.7.13

Had to remove link because it annoyingly played everytime I opened the blog. Sorry.

12.6.13

Have you noticed my new graphic?

This blog hop will be going on the same time as She who Sews blog hop .

I am a STOP on a BLOG HOP. 

I have enjoyed blog hops for a couple of years now. Usually, people who share a particular enthusiasm mix in with people who design and sell supplies for an enthusiasm and over a series of days, different blogs feature something on a theme. I have won several prizes, some quite recently.

This is a quilting/sewing blog hop which will be an every-other day hop for DOOR STOPS. As far as you know, I have not been a collector of door stops but I am a sewing and quilting enthusiast. I will be creating a door stop and on my day to hostess, I will have all the exciting information about the hop and photos of my door stop and maybe I will figure out some kind of prize. This is a party I can attend without having to bring a covered dish! HOORAY! I can host without dusting and cleaning! HOORAY!

12.5.13

Don't confuse this blue with what you saw yesterday. I assure you it is not Dazzling Blue, nor is it Placid Blue nor Violet Tulip. It is plain, old, ordinary baby blue velour. It is velour because I could not find blue flannel. 

My back-up sewing machine hates it. Or loves it? I set the stitch length at 4, but it insists I must mean that it requires about 24 stitches, possibly 36 stitches per inch. It was a real tussle to get it to do free motion quilting the day before, but yesterday, trying to coax it to use its walking foot and a little restraint was impossible. It is too late to get a good picture of the front of this fabric but suffice it to say, it is indelibly imprinted on my mind. I  hand quilted it for about 12 hours yesterday, and it is intended as a DRAG-AROUND, not a work of art. Oh, well. All handmade gifts are a work of heART.

12.4.13

I think the Pantone colors for Spring 2014 slipped right past me. I know 2013 was emerald, but I was not impressed. Here is what I found out by visiting this website.

"This season, consumers are looking for a state of thoughtful, emotional and artistic equilibrium," said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. "While this need for stability is reflected in the composition of the palette, the inherent versatility of the individual colors allows for experimentation with new looks and color combinations." 

That could be said about any set of colors at any point in history. As public released statements go, no one can argue with it because it has little meaning. 

It has even less meaning when you see what the colors are. I was hoping my monitor made them insipid and lifeless, but I do not believe that to be the case. 

Refinery29 found the number one color, Dazzling Blue to be not so dazzling as a previous blue. Here is a quote from Refinery29  about the rest of the selections:

"The rest of the shades are in the same vein of slightly muted "brights" (we know this sounds like an oxymoron — but see them for yourself for evidence)."

Here they are in all their lackluster mediocrity.

 L-R: Placid Blue, Paloma, Hemlock, Sand

I pulled those four from the collection for several reasons:
1. They look like swatches for outdoor house paint
2. I think this is the basis for a line of bathroom linens for Walmart
3. I am pretty sure the first two were INVENTED by Walmart.

The last group has a little zip although I think Target designer Missioni may have demanded equal time with Walmart

These are called Violet Tulip, Fresia, Cayenne, Radiant Orchid, and Celosia Orange. Admittedly, they are a little perkier but there is still something not quite right here. At least, to my color eye.

I guess Missioni likes it, though.